No legal action by ‘house slaves’

THE EDITOR: I read with interest and I write to express my complete agreement with the views expressed by Mr Vishnu Bisram in regard to the Judgment of the Learned Chief Justice in regard to the defamation suit brought by Mr Ken Gordon against Mr Basdeo Panday. Mr Bisram who lives in the USA quite obviously sees the political world from a far wider perspective than some locals. As he pointed out in the USA and in the wider world politicians accused each other (and even other people) as being racist and worse but are never threatened with legal sanctions far less to actually go to Court. Here are some examples.

1) Four months ago, when Colin Powell was referring to President Saddam Hussein by every imaginable foul and negative name completely forgetting that the President has just been elected for a succeeding term by more than 10 million Iraqi citizens. Mr Harry Belafonte referred to both Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice as “House Slaves” ala Malcom X. Both officials were clearly hurt by that statement and said so publicly by denying that they were not “House Slaves” but none resorted to legal proceedings.
2) Just a few months ago before the recent Federal Elections in Germany a Junior Minister in the German Federal Government said that “President George Bush was worse than Hitler.” She was referring to the so-called US War on Terror which is nothing more than a War on Islam since all the people being referred to as terrorists are nothing more than “Islamic Fundamen-talists” or  Islamic Mili-tants.”
3) A few weeks before that, a Junior Minister in the Canadian Federal Govern-ment referred to the US President as being “Just like Hitler.”
4) During thre first vote in the last Presidential elections in France a right wing candidate came out ahead of the French Prime Minister causing a big uproar in Europe.
 That victory brought with it new support for Jacques Chirac including support from the British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair who openly referred to Mr Chirac’s opponent as a “racist” because the man had extreme views on immigration of Asians and Africans to France.
5) A few weeks later, there was the same Mr Blair refusing entry to Britain to the head of the Nation of Islam in the USA Mr Louis Farrakhan on the ground that he (Mr Farrakhan) was Anti-Semitic a fancy name for meaning “racist against Jews.”
6) Just two weeks the same Mr Blair refused entry to UK to Trinidadian Tony Martin on the same ground as he refused entry to Mr Farrakhan and Tony Martin who is not a Muslim. There has not been a whisper of protest from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.
In none of the above cases was there even a threat of legal proceedings. Here is a story known to very few people. Following the formation and establishing of the NJAC in the 1970’s its first programme was a) To rid TT of the use of the word “Negro.” (b) To encourage Afro-Trinidadians to recognise and describe themselves as such or to use the word “black.” (c)To educate Trinidadians about African History by bringing to TT teachers of African history to lecture to the people in Trinidad. As a first step to achieving the above NJAC wrote to all religious and political leaders, Members of Parliament, Ministers of Government, Local Governmment Chambers of Commerce, Trade Unions, Business Leaders, etc. asking that Afro-Trinidadians no longer be referred to as “Negores” but as Afro-Trinidadians, Africans or Black. NJAC got many favourable responses but one businessman (who shall remain nameless) replied rejecting the NJAC proposal but saying rather than “black” etc, he preferred to be referred to as “coloured.” To this day this businessman who is married to a white woman still refers to himself as “coloured.”

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