Favouring racial sentiments

THE EDITOR: I too came across a copy of STAN, the newsletter of the University of the West Indies.

This is also the third that I have seen so far but unlike Dr Anil Maharaj-Persad, (1/03/03) I not only scrutinised the cover of the five beautiful people featured there, I also perused the inside of the magazine and was gratified to learn that these five represented First Class Honours students of the various faculties across the St Augustine Campus. (Congratulations people!!) So what if the only East Indian male on the cover was “obese and had a squint in his left eye”? Is intelligence attributed only to the so-called “beautiful” people? So what if the “attractive black female” wore a large hoop of a nose ring? (By the way, why the variance in your political correctness: East Indian male vs black female?) Perhaps you should purchase on-line, a copy of Judge Judy Sheindlin’s book “Beauty fades ... dumb is forever”.

I would also suggest that the good “Dr” do proper research (such as read the inside of the magazine — at least pg 3) before he makes these very public, inaccurate and quite insensitive accusations. It’s a sad day when, after being the recipient of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars to attend the UWI, the fundamental aspects of education are not employed. The author’s “bone of contention” seems to be a funny one. The University of the West Indies does not belong only to Trinidad and Tobago. One might be amazed, even shocked to learn that there are more than a few first rate scholars from the other islands who also attend this auspicious institution.

I believe it would be a fair assumption to make that apart from Guyana which has its own University, Trinidad and Tobago probably has the highest ratio of East Indian citizenry throughout the region. As a citizen of this Republic, I wonder at the references to Yale and Oxford (are you alluding to re-colonisation?) Probably the young people’s attempt to ghettorise and copy the MTV mentality is their attempt to see the “Universe” rather than the narrow images perpetuated by so-called graduates of the University of the West Indies who should have emerged from the system with something more than “book sense”.

The honour of being one of the top one percent of the Caribbean students chosen to attend and hopefully graduate from UWI should carry with it some sense of moral responsibility. As graduates and probable leaders, we should not abuse or enlightenment, as so many unethical and unpatriotic persons in our society, by favouring unfounded, racial sentiments. Perhaps, along with the proposed Ethics course, there should also be added “Anti-racism 101”.

CHERRY SMART
UWI Graduate