London Burning

London Burning

I posted this on Bee's Blog whereas really it should be here on Bee Up Front and Serious but I doubt that anyone will read it here.  Maybe no one will read it over there either but I need to get  this out of my system.

Last week was a terrible time in my homeland and although I wasn't there I followed the events on the news stations and in the British press.  I called friends to ensure they were safe but their reassurances did not calm my turmoil.   My stomach has now stopped churning and I'm a little less disturbed than I was a few days ago.  Funny how one may be away from what's going on but still be affected by it.

The entire episode has made me very, very angry. angry for many reasons but most of all, angry at the total breakdown of a society and the lawlessness which those with an ounce of integrity, should have seen coming.

I am sick to death of hearing about Human Rights. Sick to death of hearing the excuses being given for the torching, rioting and looting that went on in London, its environs and other cities last week.  There are no excuses. I don't care whether you are black, white,  pink, yellow, jobless, disenfranchised, from a one parent family, a drop out, a primary school teacher, mentally or physically challenged, a casualty of the last Labour Government or of the fifteen month old Conservative government. I am sick to death of hearing that it's a 'culture thing', of whites trying to be black, of music and television being a major influential in the lives of our young people.

Tell me, how can anyone condone the words of a 17year old girl, drinking her looted wine from a bottle, telling the BBC interviewer that they were doing this to get at the rich and to let the police know that they can do anything they want?

I have always said that discipline starts in the home. Children need boundaries and they need to be taught right from wrong.  Whilst there were some things that I would not have put my head on a block for  in favour of my children as they were growing up, I certainly would put my head on a block for both of them where the events of last week are concerned.  I know that they would never have entered into such mayhem.  How to I know? Because from very early o'clock they were taught right from wrong and that one has to be accountable for things unacceptable to society. You do the crime, you pay the time.  I am sick of hearing parents say that they are not responsible for the behaviour of their children as one woman said yesterday after her son was caught on camera and has been charged.  She now faces possible eviction from her government apartment because of a 1985 law which in a nutshell, stipulates that anyone with a history of criminality, or by association (i.e. family member) is not entitled to live in a state owned property.  I understand fully that she was not the one who looted, was caught and charged and possibly faces a prison sentence but I have a problem when she hits the national media saying that her human rights are being violated. 

Maybe now is the time to make an example of people.  Maybe now is the time for people to take back their country - from the thugs, the hooligans, from every Tom. Dick and Harry who decides to land on Britain's shores and use it as a bolt hole.  Maybe now is the time to become more discerning where social welfare is concerned and maybe now is the time to stop handing everything to people, on a plate.  Maybe now is the time to institute a system as near as dammit it to compulsory National Service, to hold parents accountable for the children's misbehaviour, to bring back Teachers Training Colleges, to put Heads instead of principals back into schools,  to put morning assemblies with prayers back into schools, to put Matrons back into hospitals, to put pride back into a country where every Briton no matter where they originated from, can live in peace and harmony knowing they are safe.

I am sharing here photos of the London Daily Mail which show the less hostile events of last week.

Photographs taken from the London Mail

Could you sleep easy knowing that your child, husband or any relative had taken part in this?  One mother who saw her daughter who had excelled at school, who held various athletic records, had modelled and was to be an Ambassador at the London Olympics 2012, on television committing the crime of looting, turned her in saying that she didn't love her any less, that it was a hard decision but it was the right one to make.


I only hope that when David Cameron said the following today, he meant it.:

'Tear up the sentencing guidelines and jail EVERY looter'

• Two thirds of 1,179 defendants remanded in custody
  

Emancipation Day 2011 Trinidad & Tobago

Emancipation Day 2011

Tomorrow, 1 August is Emancipation Day in Trinidad and Tobago.  On 1 August 1985 Trinidad and Tobago became the first country in the world to declare a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery.  I am not going to go into all the political 'hoo hah', the in-fighting and the various arguments that go on in this country whenever national events such as this one happens.  I am however going to share a little of black history for those who may be interested in what I would describe as the worst kind of exploitation that has ever taken place. I have researched various historical documents on this subject so acknowledgment is due to their authors.

Captured Slaves

The history of the New World since Columbus re-discovered it, is one of conquest, pillage, exploitation and forced migration of people.

The Triangular Trade

Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of the Europeans. However they were treated much more kindly than they would come to be treated by the Europeans. Slavery in many African societies was a temporary state, usually occurring as punishment for a crime or to pay off a debt. With the arrival of Europeans however, the face of slavery was changed forever. Slavery became an organized business. English slave ships would arrive on the West coast of Africa with a cargo of guns, alcohol, goods, beads and trinkets. These would be traded with the Africans in exchange for slaves. To assure a steady supply of slaves for the colonies, African tribes were encouraged by the Europeans to raid other tribes and capture their people. These captives would be bound in iron neck rings and linked together with chains and forced to march to the coast, where they would be housed in barracoons (holding pens) in unhealthy conditions, until a slave ship arrived. The captain of the slave ship would then choose the slaves he wanted and exchange them for the goods he had brought. Usually young, strong healthy slaves were selected, and more men than women were chosen. The slave captain would then sail with his human cargo across the Atlantic to the colonies in North America and the Caribbean. This three-step process in the slave trade – slave ships sailing from Europe to Africa and then to the Caribbean – was called the Triangular Trade. The trip from Europe to Africa was called the Outward Passage, the trip from Africa to the Americas was called the Middle Passage and the trip from the Americas to Europe in which cargoes of rum, sugar, tobacco and other produce bought with the proceeds of slave sales were shipped was called The Inward Passage.

The Middle Passage

The Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were taken to the New World as part of the  Atlantic slave trade.  The Middle Passage was a horrendous ordeal for the Africans.

 

Men were crammed below decks in handcuffs and leg irons. Women and children were not chained and were housed in separate quarters from the men. All however, were treated with brutality. Slave captains packed the ships to capacity with human cargo. The journey lasted anywhere from six weeks to three months depending on the weather and the distance to be covered. In good weather slaves were allowed on deck twice a day for exercise. Below deck living conditions were appalling.  There were no washroom  facilities and slaves had to relieve themselves were they were. Many suffered from seasickness, dysentery and small pox. By the time they reached their destination many were ill and weak, and some died on board. In addition to the appalling physical conditions, there was also the mental stress. Many Africans became despondent and threw themselves overboard. Those who were rescued were beaten for trying to escape.

For more than three centuries millions of people were forcibly transported from their homes in Africa, across the perilous Atlantic Ocean to the New World, where they were forced to labour on sugar plantations for the rest of their lives. This enslavement  of a people continued until events in Europe changed the fortunes of the West Indian and North American colonies. Humanitarians started questioning the validity of slavery, there was competition from beet sugar producers in Europe, and the advent of the Industrial Revolution spawned the rise of a new group of influential men in the British Parliament who believed that slavery was no longer economically viable.

From 1770s onward, several influential pressure groups arose in England and France calling for an end to the slave trade and slavery. They became known as abolitionists. These abolitionists were religious humanitarians (Quakers, Methodists, Evangelical Anglicans, Baptists and Moravians), intellectuals, workers and a few former slaves. They mobilised popular opinion, using mass meetings and petitions. The most notable of the abolitionists were Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce, John Wesley and Thomas Buxton. In addition to the abolitionists, an economist Adam Smith argued that free labour was cheaper than slave labour which he showed to be uneconomic.

In France and England the ideas of  the Enlightenment and the French and American Revolutions also helped to fuel the demands to end slavery.There was of course fierce opposition to the abolitionists. British planters, ship owners, merchants and bankers were in favour of continuing slavery. Their argument was that slavery was economically essential to Britain and her colonies.  


Over time the abolitionists’ campaign gained momentum. William Wilberforce made several attempts to introduce a bill in parliament outlawing the slave trade. Finally in 1807 the Abolition Act was passed abolishing the slave trade. The law became operational on 1 January 1808. The abolitionists hoped that by ending the slave trade no more slaves would be coming from Africa and therefore slavery would gradually come to an end, but this was not the case. The planters continued to use slave labour on their estates.

When it became apparent that slavery was not going to end, the abolitionists tried another strategy that was meant to make the life of the slaves less unbearable. It was called the Amelioration policy. Under this policy or law, female slaves were not to be flogged and slaves were not allowed to work on Sundays. Slaves were also to be allowed to give evidence in court as long as a Christian minister could vouch for the slave's understanding of what an oath meant. The Amerilioration laws met with a lot of opposition, and when it became obvious that they would not be enforced, the abolitionists decided to try for the abolition of slavery. It took another twenty seven years after the abolition of the slave trade, before slavery itself was abolished.

In 1833 Thomas Buxton presented The Emancipation Bill in the British Parliament. The Act was passed and came into effect on 1 August 1834. On that day, thousands of slaves in the British West Indies became free men and women.

How the declaration was published in Britain

Guardian UK 

Throughout the British dominions the sun no longer rises on the slave.  Yesterday was the day from which the emancipation of all our slave population commences: and we trust the great change by which they are elevated to the rank of freeman will be found to have passed into effect in the manner most accordant with the benevolent spirit in which it was decreed, most consistent with the  interests of those who benefit it was primarily intended, and most calculated to put an end to the apprehensions under which it was hardly to be expected that the planters could fail  to labour as the moment of its consummation approaches.  we shall await anxiously the arrivals from the West Indies that will bring advices to a date subsequent to the present time.   

It's not a very pretty picture is it? 

Lest We Forget

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Being an army brat, I have attended many, many Remembrance Sunday Parades in several countries on various camps. My father was always on parade. I am always struck by that two minute silence because no matter what or where, the traffic and throngs always come comes to a complete standstill. The eeriness, especially on a cold, English November morning, makes it always seems to me, that the entire world has stopped.

Old soldiers never die
They simply fade they say
Is that the price I ask myself
That soldiers have to pay?

Bugle notes and drum beat
Flash of sun on brass
He hears the call as comrades all
Tramp the long march past

Warriors fading quickly
Like a weak pale winter sun
Bowed and creeping slowly
Life's race is all but run

The red poppy leaves are wrinkled
One by one they fall
Soldier, can you answer still
When the bugle notes do call

Play the music gently
No harsh notes sound, I ask
For the poppy leaves are falling
Glory days now past

LONDON, UK THIS MORNING - 7 NOVEMBER 2010

In memory: The Queen lays a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday

The Cenotaph in London's Whitehall where thousands of veterans marched past the memorial

Let us never forget
and
let us educate our children so that they know never to forget

What Would Yo Do?

Everyone should see this.

Pope Visits Britain

Something else to ponder as opposed to burning of religious books, whether or not the burkah should be banned, whether or not a Muslim Recreation Centre (it's not a mosque!) should be built near Ground Zero: POPE'S UK VISIT: Benedict defends Christmas and warns religion must not be sidelined in Parliament http:// www.dailymail.co.uk

Sep 18, '10 2:18 PM by Bee for everyone

In Trinidad, "Massa Day Not Done".

The above was the front page of yesterday's Trinidad Express, one of three daily national newspapers.

On Tuesday morning, there was an almighty pile up on the highway going from south to north. The traffic is always heavy on this road so anyone leaving home in south to be at work for 8.00am should leave by 5.00am. Three hours to cover approximately thirty five miles of highway! Of course, the alternative from San Fernando to Port of Spain, is the 'water taxi' but not a great many people trust that completely as it has only been in existence since the beginning of the year and has been known to konk out mid-ocean.

Tuesday morning. Announcements being made on local radio stations that the traffic was backed up for miles and it appeared that several buses and maxi taxis were parked on the hard shoulder. Their occupants had alighted and were sitting on the grass at the side of the highway. The occupants it appeared, were Chinese nationals. It was assumed that one of the vehicles had broken down. Not so! As events unfolded and the traffic was now backed up, bumper to bumper for the best part of twenty miles, it transpired that the workers were staging a 'sit in'. Now very strange things happen in Trinidad but I don't think that there has ever been a demonstration by imported workers. Traffic had come to a stand still not because of an accident but because Trinidadians are macocious (minding other peoples' business) and were stopping to gawk.

Yesterday's newspapers revealed that about eighty five Chinese nationals haven't been paid in months, are eating "dry bread", cannot speak a word of English and would rather return to the crowded streets of Fujian Province than stay to work as labourers in Trinidad. However, they want the money that they claim is owed to them before they leave. So what better way to bring their plight to the notice of the powers-that-be? Bring traffic on a major route to a standstill. I have no problem with the silent demonstration at all because I am aware of just how these people are being treated.

Naturally police (wearing riot gear!) were called to rein them in and escort them from the highway to the administrative branch of the Immigration Department in the capital. Once at Immigration the Chinese workers adamantly refused to be sent back to work and also refused to return to where they were being housed in Central Trinidad.

Some indicated by sign language that they were hungry and patted their pockets as if to illustrate that they were empty. Others took empty water bottles onto the Immigration compound, gesticulating that they were in need of water.

While most could only speak their native language, Mandarin Chinese, the few who did know some English told the media they had come here from the Fujian Province in China about 18 months ago "to make money for family", and were ready to go back home because they had not been paid for several months. They used sign language and gestures to show they were ready to "fly" and be on "a plane to China". They also showed a handwritten letter in English, explaining their plight and asking the Government to intervene, but could not say who had written the letter for them. One of the workers said they were each owed 30,000 yuan (approx USD3,666) for two months of work.

Many citizens who gathered in front the Immigration office expressed concern and sympathy for the men, many of whom they said "looked afraid".

"They have a unique job and they work hard and fast. Unlike most of us they are productive," said one local Chinese man who was passing by. The man said he was not affiliated with the workers in any way but had observed the conditions under which they live in Trinidad at various compounds and felt they were being treated unfairly.

After several hours an official came from the local Embassy of the People's Republic of China after which Embassy officials said they could not decide who was right in the dispute but were only present to ensure that the rights of all their nationals are protected. When the media tried to find out where the men were going for the night, one could only say in broken English, "We do not have idea." However, the group maintained they were not going back to work or to the compound where they are being housed.

This morning the Chinese workers are protesting their alleged mistreatment by Beijing Liujian Construction, the company contracted to work in Trinidad.

Can you imagine people wanting to return to a country that is not known in a positive light for its stance on human rights rather than remain in a so called Democracy?? These people are being made to live in containers - yes containers, with no proper facilities. Shower rooms and toilets are scarce making hygiene non-existent, cooking facilities are makeshift, sleeping arrangements are on the floors and rats think they have died and gone to heaven. Then the government which awarded the contract to the Chinese company expect these people to work eighteen hours a day. Where's the humanity in all this?

Slave trade is alive and well in Trinidad and don't ever let anyone tell you that the words "Massa Day Done" (Public Lecture at Woodford Square, 22 March 1961) said by the very late Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Eric Williams, are true.

Give a man power and he will crucify his very own!

Money Done!

I received the letter below from a friend who is standing for the comparatively newly formed party COP (Congress of the People), this morning.

My adopted country is in a mess and I weep for our children, the poor who are getting poorer, the homeless, the lack of decent health facilities, the waste of money, the crime rate to name but a few of the many things that are very, very wrong.

In typical third world fashion, the Prime Minister wants to change the Constitution obviously with the ulterior motive of making himself Executive President for life.

We have just had a Budget.

“Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of Finance Karen Nunez-Tesheira expects this country's 11.9% inflation to increase further. While delivering her maiden National Budget speech at the Red House in Port of Spain, she also said the Ministry expects the price of oil to fall further. She reported that the government-owned Trinidad Hyatt Regency expects to turn a profit ahead of schedule in 2009. She hinted during her speech that Government wanted to collect more from non-energy businesses.” (Source: Trinidad and Tobago News Blog)

There is to be a property tax reform. One of the comments I have picked up is:

Property tax plan unfair
“This is not about reform or equity. It is simply additional taxation in deficit budgeting brought on by squandermania in a time of plenty. If you fail to pay, Government will simply seize your property.”

In the following letter you will see a reference to “hartless”. Calder Hart, a Canadian, heads UDecott (Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago which is the centre of an ‘on hold’ Commission of Enquiry because there are allegations of corruption, nepotism and the like within the company.

Dear All,

As you may be aware we have issued a National Call to Wear Black on Friday as a protest against Govt squandermania and the fact that they wish to tax the people to pay for their deficit and "hartless (or ful) projects...
I would like to invite all of the national executive and all chairmen and activists to mobilise supporters and friends to wear BLACK on Friday and to Attend a Street Talk at the San Juan Market on Saturday at 10 am sharp wearing BLACK (does not have to be a COP jersey).
This crucial ground assault will be maintained over the next few weeks, with Chaguanas market and San Fernando market following San Juan Saturday. The idea is to actively recruit members of the public and follow up with them.
This exercise is intended to be reviewed and already I have noticed great deficiencies in our ability to mass mobilise on short notice and the use of multiple avenues of communication. Luckily, I would submit a document following this exercise to the natex to consider.
I trust you would come out and bring out numbers for these events. We need to show strength on the ground at these busy public places. I make a special plea to members of the national executive to attend.
Don't forget to wear BLACK on Friday and Saturday.

Navi

Dr. Navi Muradali

The top and bottom of it? As they say here, 'Money done!’