I fear the Venezuelan opposition will lose on Sunday.
Despite all that has happened, worse may be yet to come.
27 November 2007
19 November 2007
Conversation with Kate
I still don't know what she finds so disturbing.
Maybe it's because we are English speaking, she thinks those types of things are not supposed to happen here.
I used to think that too.
Trinis just seem to be unable to coalesce.
Too many societal divisions. And NO LEADERS.
Maybe it's because we are English speaking, she thinks those types of things are not supposed to happen here.
I used to think that too.
In this vacuum, why haven't informal media --fora, blogs, etc-- made a more active attempt to spread this sort of information?Honestly I don't know why, Barbados has.
Trinis just seem to be unable to coalesce.
Too many societal divisions. And NO LEADERS.
Are there precedents set of reprisal?Yes, it is has happened and will continue to happen.
14 November 2007
Trinidad Venezuela
My observations on reading "Something weird is going on"
PNM / Chavista - Red
COP/ Guarimba - White.
Julia is obviously assuming people can read.
30% of Trinis can't. My guess is Venezuela is similar.
But I suppose I should read the proposed reform since I can.
For some reason the social classes cannot unite.
This is why there was no Belmont posse at the St Ann's Candidate debate.
Which only Daniel attended.
Not sure if the rumours of PNM sending around a car to say no debate are true. - Wouldn't put it past them, but has not been verified to me at any rate. PNMites who I asked were at party in St James.
All things must come to El lugar de su quietud
PNM / Chavista - Red
COP/ Guarimba - White.
Julia is obviously assuming people can read.
30% of Trinis can't. My guess is Venezuela is similar.
But I suppose I should read the proposed reform since I can.
For some reason the social classes cannot unite.
This is why there was no Belmont posse at the St Ann's Candidate debate.
Which only Daniel attended.
Not sure if the rumours of PNM sending around a car to say no debate are true. - Wouldn't put it past them, but has not been verified to me at any rate. PNMites who I asked were at party in St James.
All things must come to El lugar de su quietud
06 November 2007
We do not want one of these made about Trinidad
PS: As far as I saw Repriscu El Jesus Herrara Rojas has not been found.
He has become one of our desaparecidos.
PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR
I am torn about where to post this but I have decided that it belongs here.
Fake News says that we are "not assault the public with irrelevant ads"
But the Venezuelan Prohibido Olvidar - Do not forget, ads courtesy youtube are very relevant to our current situation.
Half way through the sign says
"I want to live without fear - Quiero vivir sin miedo
and to sleep before my son comes back home -y no duermo hasta que mi hijo no llega a la casa"
The end says only in remembering the errors of the past can we better our future.
Fake News says that we are "not assault the public with irrelevant ads"
But the Venezuelan Prohibido Olvidar - Do not forget, ads courtesy youtube are very relevant to our current situation.
Half way through the sign says
"I want to live without fear - Quiero vivir sin miedo
and to sleep before my son comes back home -y no duermo hasta que mi hijo no llega a la casa"
The end says only in remembering the errors of the past can we better our future.
31 October 2007
28 October 2007
Open letter to Julia 1984
It is amazing that we live so close and yet know nothing of the other's culture.
It is particularly sad in my case since I actually have family in Venezuela.
I admit two things
1) is that I attend the free spanish classes at the Venezuelan Embassy in Port of Spain and that I until recently was more pro chavista than contra.
2) I thought a civil war would cure the ills in Trinidad until I visited Guatemala in 2006.
But I have changed.
Regarding 1- We were issued DVD's "Say the truth, based on the white book on RCTV" It is one of the most unbelievable propaganda I have ever seen.
Also when one student made the offhand comment that she did not want to study Chavista propaganda she was told when you are here He is your president.
Which brings me the to Trinidad. The current prime minister (Manning), has similar powers to the british prime minister, we were a british colony last, is proposing to change our constitution to an executive president.
Which Sir Ellis Clarke says will have all the powers of a chilean president.
Watching Chavez has made me realise I never want an executive president here.
Moreover, currently Manning does not have the power to grant a state of emergency thus giving the military shoot to kill powers etc etc.
But like Venezuela ( I noticed the increased importance of the military attache when they changed embassador recently), we are becoming more militant.
I no longer blink as I pass the soldiers on my way to work. They are part of the landscape.
This frightens me.
It is particularly sad in my case since I actually have family in Venezuela.
I admit two things
1) is that I attend the free spanish classes at the Venezuelan Embassy in Port of Spain and that I until recently was more pro chavista than contra.
2) I thought a civil war would cure the ills in Trinidad until I visited Guatemala in 2006.
But I have changed.
Regarding 1- We were issued DVD's "Say the truth, based on the white book on RCTV" It is one of the most unbelievable propaganda I have ever seen.
Also when one student made the offhand comment that she did not want to study Chavista propaganda she was told when you are here He is your president.
Which brings me the to Trinidad. The current prime minister (Manning), has similar powers to the british prime minister, we were a british colony last, is proposing to change our constitution to an executive president.
Which Sir Ellis Clarke says will have all the powers of a chilean president.
Watching Chavez has made me realise I never want an executive president here.
Moreover, currently Manning does not have the power to grant a state of emergency thus giving the military shoot to kill powers etc etc.
But like Venezuela ( I noticed the increased importance of the military attache when they changed embassador recently), we are becoming more militant.
I no longer blink as I pass the soldiers on my way to work. They are part of the landscape.
This frightens me.
21 August 2007
Strange things happen here
"We have lost our capacity for amazement."
I don't really have much to say for myself, since Luisa and Anon put my thoughts so eloquently.
I haven't decided how culpable I hold our local politicians in the importation of the violence. Actually before I visited the mainland I really did buy the line, we have to arm ourselves.
Somewhere along the journey I realised that teaching people to kill, just makes them better killers.
And since we don't produce guns ourselves, others really do help facilitate us killing ourselves and they are culpable.
Still we pull the trigger
I don't really have much to say for myself, since Luisa and Anon put my thoughts so eloquently.
I haven't decided how culpable I hold our local politicians in the importation of the violence. Actually before I visited the mainland I really did buy the line, we have to arm ourselves.
Somewhere along the journey I realised that teaching people to kill, just makes them better killers.
And since we don't produce guns ourselves, others really do help facilitate us killing ourselves and they are culpable.
Still we pull the trigger
The Place of its Quietude- Luisa Valenzuela
Not fear as expressed in other times. The fear is now behind closed doors, silent, barren, with a low vibration that emerges in fits of temper on the streets or conjugal violence at home.
Our life is quiet enough. Every once in a while a friend disappears, or a neighbour is killed, or one of our children’s schoolmates – or even our own children – falls into a trap, but that isn’t as apocalyptic as it seems; on the contrary, it’s rhymic and organic
White Fridays in Trinidad (cont'd)
May 2 1970
This was a most terrible night. The night that XX and YY annouced the arrest of – and - .
I just felt like the end. I saw a vista of nothing stretching away and away into the distance. I kept hearing the castrated Oxonian voice of YY more or less gloating that things seemed to be under control……. I kept feeling that the soldiers had been double-crossed, something I felt would happen since they started negotiations……
The scene returned to me, and other things; like the death of a colleague which had taken place soon after our accident. For some time everything seemed totally unreal, a grey nightmare filled with pain. My friend rang up one of his superiors telling him he was going to resign. We all genuinely felt it, and even today, the resolution is still in my mind… Except that I know there is no place to go… I phoned my girl and told her… She accepted with a tired sort of calm, since she at the present moment preferred me to be out of Trinidad… and I phoned another friend who thought that it was a bloody good idea and decided to leave herself. She is leaving.
All of which demonstrates one thing… My generation is not going to put up with any shit… But more important, my generation is already in a terrible state of despair, and believes that all idealism will soon come to ashes… This is dangerous, and we have to watch it least our talents be lost to the reconstruction…
This was a most terrible night. The night that XX and YY annouced the arrest of – and - .
I just felt like the end. I saw a vista of nothing stretching away and away into the distance. I kept hearing the castrated Oxonian voice of YY more or less gloating that things seemed to be under control……. I kept feeling that the soldiers had been double-crossed, something I felt would happen since they started negotiations……
The scene returned to me, and other things; like the death of a colleague which had taken place soon after our accident. For some time everything seemed totally unreal, a grey nightmare filled with pain. My friend rang up one of his superiors telling him he was going to resign. We all genuinely felt it, and even today, the resolution is still in my mind… Except that I know there is no place to go… I phoned my girl and told her… She accepted with a tired sort of calm, since she at the present moment preferred me to be out of Trinidad… and I phoned another friend who thought that it was a bloody good idea and decided to leave herself. She is leaving.
All of which demonstrates one thing… My generation is not going to put up with any shit… But more important, my generation is already in a terrible state of despair, and believes that all idealism will soon come to ashes… This is dangerous, and we have to watch it least our talents be lost to the reconstruction…
Originally published in Savacou December 1970
White Fridays in Trinidad by Anonymous
April 9 1970
In the midst of all this there was the death and funeral of Basil Davis. He had been shot by a policeman outside Woodford Square during an altercation in which he was a third party.
The story is unclear. It seems that intervened in an incident between a policeman and a brother. Police claim that he drew an ice-pick; other "eye-witnesses" deny this.
Regardless of the details, he was automatically lionized. A Power funeral. No black clothes allowed.We had been brain-washed into associating black with grief… wear red instead.
The brother was borne from Port of Spain to San Juan cemetery (4.5 miles approximately).
A procession estimated by various people as 10 000, 15 000, 50 000 people. Whatever the figure it was dramatically large. The first martyr had been made.
And so the stage was set.
Occasional arson (perpetrators not clearly identifiable as Power), police gun shot finding targets, one fatally, tear gas, marching, marching and marching; trade unions expressing support and planning to march; Bhadase rumbling; Hochoy goes on leave; labour disputes suddenly settled by Govt; big award to cane farmers; construction workers get settlements; business firms frantically giving a few Black scholarships; Christmas work at Easter; marching, marching, meeting, meeting…
And God……remains silent.
I was in that march from Port of Spain to San Juan. I marched not out of any sentimentality, but because I realised that things had reached a new and tragic phase. After weeks of strain, of being told to look out for some major act of violence, of being constantly on call in riot squads, of being allowed to arrest, rough up, and more recently shoot people without much or any explanation given, the police were now cracking under the terrific mental strain, and were now prepared to justify their violence to themselves. This was only a short stage from the step when the only Power in place would be the power of the gun.
April 9 1970
In the midst of all this there was the death and funeral of Basil Davis. He had been shot by a policeman outside Woodford Square during an altercation in which he was a third party.
The story is unclear. It seems that intervened in an incident between a policeman and a brother. Police claim that he drew an ice-pick; other "eye-witnesses" deny this.
Regardless of the details, he was automatically lionized. A Power funeral. No black clothes allowed.We had been brain-washed into associating black with grief… wear red instead.
The brother was borne from Port of Spain to San Juan cemetery (4.5 miles approximately).
A procession estimated by various people as 10 000, 15 000, 50 000 people. Whatever the figure it was dramatically large. The first martyr had been made.
And so the stage was set.
Occasional arson (perpetrators not clearly identifiable as Power), police gun shot finding targets, one fatally, tear gas, marching, marching and marching; trade unions expressing support and planning to march; Bhadase rumbling; Hochoy goes on leave; labour disputes suddenly settled by Govt; big award to cane farmers; construction workers get settlements; business firms frantically giving a few Black scholarships; Christmas work at Easter; marching, marching, meeting, meeting…
And God……remains silent.
I was in that march from Port of Spain to San Juan. I marched not out of any sentimentality, but because I realised that things had reached a new and tragic phase. After weeks of strain, of being told to look out for some major act of violence, of being constantly on call in riot squads, of being allowed to arrest, rough up, and more recently shoot people without much or any explanation given, the police were now cracking under the terrific mental strain, and were now prepared to justify their violence to themselves. This was only a short stage from the step when the only Power in place would be the power of the gun.
20 August 2007
The place of its Quietude
The escalation of violence -One dead every twenty four hours, every eighteen, every fifteen, every twelve- ought not to worry us.
More people die in other parts of the world....
More, perhaps, but nowhere so close at hand as here.
More people die in other parts of the world....
More, perhaps, but nowhere so close at hand as here.
19 August 2007
The other Open Doors
Ironically "Open Doors" is the annual Open Doors publication and website is a statistical analysis of academic mobility between the U.S. and the nations of the world. It is a comprehensive, national data and information resource on foreign students studying at U.S. institutions of higher education, foreign scholars who teach and conduct research at U.S. doctoral granting institutions.
The latest report on Trinidad Migration here states the
Stock of emigrants as percentage of population: 27.7%
Emigration rate of tertiary educated: 78.4%
Despite the statistics, like the narrator of Bedside Manners, I have returned to my homeland.
The latest report on Trinidad Migration here states the
Stock of emigrants as percentage of population: 27.7%
Emigration rate of tertiary educated: 78.4%
Despite the statistics, like the narrator of Bedside Manners, I have returned to my homeland.
Open Doors
I came across Luisa Valenzuela quite by chance. I picked up Open Doors in a second hand bookstore in Guatemala for Q30. That's less than TT$25.
I live in Trinidad and Tobago, and we are going through may turn out to be the prelude to civil war. Even as I read Bedside Manners the helicopters came buzzing pass my house with their search lights.
And so I write, with hope, - The place of its quietude
I live in Trinidad and Tobago, and we are going through may turn out to be the prelude to civil war. Even as I read Bedside Manners the helicopters came buzzing pass my house with their search lights.
And so I write, with hope, - The place of its quietude
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