“[…] We cannot allow a major Caribbean corporate player to perpetuate demeaning images of African People at any time—and more so on a day that is sacred to us, when we pay homage to our ancestors whose sacrifice resulted in the freedoms we celebrate on Emancipation Day. “In light of …
Read More »McIntyre: ‘Decolonisation’ means revisiting objective facts—like Columbus; what did renaming Trinity Cross cost us?
We cannot change the objective facts of history but we can re-examine those facts to better guide our perspectives. Decolonisation is the process of revisiting the objective facts and applying revised perspectives to improve policies. Up until the 1980s, it was not uncommon to find in texts words such as …
Read More »CRFP, Warao Nation ‘confident’ Dr Rowley and Parliament will agree to statue removal
“[…] In our desire to bring a quick resolution to this issue, the CRFP has already written to the Honourable Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and dispatched a petition to both the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, signed by a cross section of prominent local individuals including a descendant …
Read More »Dear Editor: Boodan guilty of ‘donkey logic’ and ‘horrible misrepresentation’ in Columbus arguments
“Q: If we remove all artefacts of our colonial past, who gets to determine what we replace it with? “A: Duh…We do! And we must make it clear that we do not venerate the protagonists of genocide, slavery, indentureship and apartheid in this land and don’t believe that any of …
Read More »‘Traitorous’ Bharath-Hernandez? CRFP claim ‘disingenuous chief only concerned with tangible benefits’
“[…] Warao Queen Donna Bermudez Bovel and Chairman of Partners for First People’s Development Roger Belix described statements [from Chief Ricardo Bharath-Hernandez of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community] as traitorous. “Tracy Assing the granddaughter of 5th SRFPC Queen Valentina Medina posted, ‘Not my Chief’ adding: ‘The powers that be …
Read More »Claude’s comments: To Javier Carbajosa, Ambassador of Spain—the mother of white supremacism
Are we truly a banana republic? Or have we gotten too accustomed to the imperial arrogance of US ambassadors? Is the government beholden to Spain to such a degree that we have to servilely kowtow to the absurdities thrown at us by Spanish Ambassador Señor Javier Carbajosa Sanchez? As other …
Read More »CRFP: ‘1797 was the last time anyone cared what the Spanish had to say here’
“[…] 1797 was the last time anyone cared what the Spanish had to say here but who could ignore the sheer arrogance and entitlement of this idolatrous ambassador to ask us to remain backward while his own country is moving forward, confronting its past to free its future…” The following …
Read More »Dear editor: Time to re-write history! The Spanish Ambassador is out of place
In response to Spanish Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago Javier Carbajosa’s statement that ‘removing the statue of Christopher Columbus in downtown Port of Spain would not right the wrongs of the past’, I, as a descendant of the First Peoples of T&T, write to challenge his view. To begin with, …
Read More »Remove monuments of hate and ‘racist barbaric adventure’, CRFP targets Columbus again
“[…] Germany […] has several statues of Adolf Hitler by the renowned British sculptor Arnold Brecker. Absolutely no one in their right mind believes that these should be put back on public display because Hitler was part of their history. “There is a clear understanding that he represents something that …
Read More »Dear editor: The issue of African hairstyles in T&T schools is neither resolved nor frivolous
“At issue is the widespread, pernicious and fundamentally racist belief that the hair and hairstyles of African people are not suitable for formal settings and are intrinsically messy, unkempt, unhygienic and even disruptive. The insidious nature of this deeply ingrained idea encapsulated in the popular phrase ‘bad hair’ guarantees that …
Read More »Claude’s Comments: The agenda behind Kamal Persad’s slander and historical distortions
I have a bit of advice for Mr Kamal Persad, coordinator of the research centre of The Indian Review: if you truly wish to defend the reputation of “the Indian-Trinidadian intelligentsia” (your description), as you claim in your latest “letter to the editor” in the Trinidad Express of 6 February, …
Read More »Claude’s Comments: Was Daaga a slave trader? The UWI Milner Hall debate twist
As The UWI settles into its second semester for the current academic year, the public may be anxious to hear from the St Augustine Campus administration what name it has chosen for the university’s oldest hall of residence, having already repudiated Viscount Milner after whom that hall has been identified …
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