Integration is inevitable

St Vincent Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonzalves, responded to critics of the proposed deepening of political links between Trinidad and Tobago and St Vincent and the Grenadines, by saying such a development was inevitable. He was addressing the Second Annual Emancipation Dinner of the National Association for the Empowerment of African People (NAEAP) on Thursday at the Cascadia Hotel, St Anns. Gonzalves said the political expression of the deepening of linkages in the Caribbean was as inevitable as the sun rising tomorrow, although he said the form of this integration may not be a unitary state or a federation. In light of Opposition criticisms about the relationship between the two countries, Gonzalves assured: “I’m not a PNM man. I’m an individual. I work with governments and peoples who advance a similar programme to what I have in mind.” But he added that he could not “look askance at” his friends with a mock-impartiality.

Saying that in the Caribbean the people with the best relationship with Africans were those of Madeiran Portuguese-descent like himself, Gonzalves also brought a message of African pride. “Work together in an organisation for common ends, not to work against people of other races but with them but to show solidarity among yourselves... “Among the groups that should be promoting solidarity are the very groups that are seeking to undermine...Too many people coming out of UWI do not espouse a doctrine of solidarity but of petit bourgeoism...There’s a crass individualism where dog eat dog. We should instead look within ourselves and beyond the boundaries to build a social individual.” Gonzales advised: “The problem in the Caribbean is that whatever is African has been devalued. This must stop.” NAEAP President Prof Selwyn Cudjoe urged that the University of the West Indies follow the recent American decision to make race a criteria for university admission. “80 percent of university students (in UWI) consist of one race. In the University of Michigan case a court ruled that race should be a factor in admissions. We in Trinidad and Tobago must do the same. Our Universities cannot be 90 percent East Indians and ten percent black people.” But he added individual Africans must also do their part to gain admission. Cudjoe proposed that African attire be adopted as the formal wear of Africans in Trinidad and Tobago. President George Maxwell Richards and First Lady Dr Jean Ramjohn Richards attended the event but did not speak formally.