The description of “African countries” and their diaspora in Haiti as “shitholes” goes way beyond the racist vulgarity of a decadent American President. It is merely a kind of sordid culmination of centuries of disparagement of Africans and Africa in the interest of western capitalism and white supremacy. But how …
Read More »Caribbean dignity unbowed; UWI vice-chancellor explains what Trump and USA really owe Haiti
“Haiti’s Caribbean vision illuminated America’s way out of its colonial darkness. This is the debt President Trump’s America owes Toussaint L’Ouverture’s Haiti. “It’s a debt of philosophical clarity and political maturity. It’s a debt of how to rise to its best human potential. It’s a debt of exposure to higher …
Read More »Baldeosingh: Calypso and chutney music are not inherently sexist; and here’s why
“The fact is that almost all the calypsoes that are deemed sexist are calypsoes which, in one way or another, express the power of women over men. Growling Tiger’s “Money is King” (1935) says: ‘If you have money and things going nice/Any woman will call you honey and spice/If you …
Read More »Master’s Voice: Eyeballing the abyss; what prospects does 2018 hold for old colonials and new societies?
Mazlow, one of my Facebook friends and occasional adversary, loves to use that phrase by Nietzsche about staring into the abyss with eventually the abyss staring back. Our abyss is in the form of not so much failing institutions but institutions that were never set up to succeed and are …
Read More »White tyrants, black struggles and Indian distortions; Dr Fergus responds to Hanomansingh
“The great Karl Marx, for example, declared the Haitian Revolution ‘the most significant victory toward the advancement of universal freedom’. Without excluding the contribution of every ethnic constituency, the fact remains that, in the 20th century, African peoples maintained that leadership role. “According to [Dool] Hanomansingh and other like-minded activists, to include …
Read More »Racist thoughts precede racist actions; why Charlottesville and Kaepernick should matter to T&T
“Class determines how they express their racism, that’s all. Poor racists are more overt, elite racists are more insidious” (Facebook comment) “[O]ur intellectual leaders have been so preoccupied with the campaigns against the hard-line white supremacists who make no compromise in their flaunting of Western civilisation that we have sometimes overlooked …
Read More »Master’s Voice: You vs Euro; the continuing emancipation battle for ownership of self
MOST OF US ARE EMANCIPATED ALREADY. UNFORTUNATELY. No, I haven’t gone completely mad. I just thought I’d try to grab your attention and so make you understand the importance of understanding the power words have. Today is Emancipation Day when we celebrate the end of the enslavement of African people. …
Read More »Hijabbing still?! Liburd looks at Baldeosingh, religion, the Guardian and the hijab
In the year of our Lord 2017, when we routinely hand money to indiscernible faces behind tinted windows—at places ranging from the gas station to a government office—spend thousands in online transactions with no personal interaction whatsoever or troubleshoot complex issues over the phone with people we will never meet; …
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