In defence of Sunita Singh

THE EDITOR: Writing in her capacity as a member of several irrelevant and far removed paper associations which purport to firstly have the best interest of Trinidad and Tobago at heart and secondly, to promote intercultural education, training and research and lastly, the image of Trinidad and Tobago in Texas, Linda E Edwards criticises severely a training video prepared by Sunita Singh of the World Wide Training Corporation (Newsday, August 21, 2003 and Trinidad Express August 20, 2003). Apparently the instructional video contains a scene which depicts an ill-mannered, unrefined African interviewer denigrating the right to unprejudiced employment of an East Indian applicant via racist terms and otherwise commonplace, widely promulgated generalisations. It is important to note that Ms Edwards states that she received news of the scene via heresay and cannot state categorically that she or anyone has seen the actual video. Yet she immediately rushes to the rescue of all African employers in Trinidad and Tobago. One is left to wonder if Ms Edwards would have would have volunteered her arsenal of associations had the shoe had been on the other foot. This could easily have been challenged an exception and not necessarily the norm, but obviously Ms Edwards has a point to prove. The rest of her tirade is confined to an attack on Sunita Singh, for which the able bodied Ms Singh will surely challenge, an attempt to conceal clear and compelling evidence of Trinidad and Tobago’s worsening racial climate and list of feeble and pathetic persons and organisations set up by the political directorate of the day to play “smoke and mirrors” with political nepotism, racial discrimination and social injustice.

Indeed, some of Ms Edwards’ rather bold statements are indicative of her suspect mission, as she tries to assert that “we (Trinidad and Tobago) are not a racially divided country.” Clearly she has ignored the findings of every single opinion poll that has sought to gauge public opinion on matters of national importance in the last seven years. This ethnic polarisation has been so glaring that it has led the country’s Prime Minister to appoint a Race Relations Commit-tee to find solutions to lowering the levels of racial tension. Interestingly, this Committee includes Dr Selwyn Cudjoe, a Wellesly College educator who sports a penchant for a pro a African affirmative nation. And Ms Edwards was part of this effort, since every single letter of hers written to the media in Trinidad and Tobago flowed in a particular anti-Indian vein. You may wish to note that Ms Edwards recently ob-served that “Indian doctors (whatever that is) were not being kidnapped in the last crime spree.” This is the mindset of someone who claims to have truth, equity and balance as her watchwords, but really lives by the edict of my race first and to hell with everything else. Indeed, the problem of race relations is so strong that the country’s President, his Excellency Maxwell Richards himself appointed a Committee for National Self Discovery which is aimed at documenting a harmonious way forward for the nation’s various ethnicities. And to add to this, Ms Edwards would not like to tell the international community that GOPIO — the Global Organisation of People of Indian origin has been forced to set up shop here in order to see first hand the terrible conditions of the Indian community. Why doesn’t Ms Edwards sensitise her international counterparts that the Trinidad and Tobago Government’s solution to a failing agricultural state enterprise was to send home the entire workforce comprising 9,000 persons mainly of Indian descent.

Indeed, what Ms Edwards wishes to conceal from the international community is this flood of social injustice that has become the order of the day “since Mr Panday left office.” While Ms Edwards busies herself, the Government of the day has organised a network of party hacks into a plague of garbage collectors, all of whom are either of African descent or who hold party cards in order to pay millions of the country’s money which should otherwise have been spent on the University, on infrastructure, on health, on Police services to arrest the escalating crime levels, most prominent of which are kidnapping and murder. Yet Ms Edwards loses sleep on some silly irresponsible petty African employer who lets his imbued prejudice get the better of him. It might have been professional of Ms Edwards to provide the murder rate for the nation: some 175 after only eight months into the year, and to point out that prominent members of the business community (in particular East Indians) were being targetted for kidnap.

Ms Edwards feels particularly pained that the views of ExxonMobile executives may be tainted by Ms Singh, yet she does not wish to say that the same cultural insensitivity has caused oil giant bptt to run afoul of the nation’s vigilant Indian community as a result of a patent oversight in its Spirit of the Nation’s Award Scheme. While this oil giant seeks to promote community events, the actual selection of specific projects which it supports have caused a considerable measure of discontent and disappointment by shutting out Indian and Hindu projects, which its charitable policy does not equate with “national.” And this should be the valuable lesson taught by the alleged video scene, yet to be confirmed and viewed by Ms Edwards, prior to running hysterical in order to save a burning house with TidCo, ExxonMobil etc. The fact of the matter is that Trinidad and Tobago does have a problem with attitudes and respecting the sensibilities of our diverse peoples, a.k.a a race problem. Executives who come from the North American culture need to be sufficiently sensitised to the do’s and don’ts of our social quagmire. One of the ways is to present real situations so that newcomers would be wary. I trust that this can be published for the benefit of all concerned. Come on Linda, surely you must have better things to do. Pay attention to the message and try not to shoot the messenger. Indeed, it is you who do this nation a disservice.

WILLIAM
RAJKUMAR
Aranguez