Rename Trinity Cross the Iere Award

THE EDITOR: The time has come to talk of many things. No, not of cabbages and kings, but of other things — of the many malaise which afflict our social, economic and political life. This once beautiful land of ours where in bygone days our people dwelt together in harmony, has now become a fragmented nation. Archbishop Tutu described us as a Rainbow People. He meant to be complimentary. In reality we are a people fragmented into many conflicting parts. But we are not a thing of beauty like a rainbow. Our lack of unity and harmony arise from prejudice instead of pride, from hate instead of love, from greed instead of having all things in common.

Our nation is blessed not only with an abundance of natural resources, but with men and women who are highly educated. We have those who wallow in wealth, who live in oases of comfort while their brethren survive in abject poverty. There is a dearth of those who have the courage to speak the truth. We are motivated only by self-interest. In this article I wish to speak of one problem which divides us and disfigures the harmony in which we should dwell together. It is the vexed issue of the nomenclature of the highest award bestowed by our nation upon those who are deemed deserving. I speak of the Trinity Cross Award. We are a nation of many peoples. We are the descendants of slave owners, slaves, indentured workers and the ignored remnants of the original inhabitants, whose rights and status we, like our colonising predecessors, ignore.

Our nation comprises people of African, Chinese, European, Indian and mixed races. There survive some few of the original Carib inhabitants. We are Buddhist, Bahai, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Orisha and others. We are a secular state. Why do some strive for dominance instead of equality and fraternity? Why should one section of the nation insist on the retention of the name Trinity Cross for our highest award? Clearly this is an affront to other religious groups. It is discriminatory when our National Anthem proclaims that here “every creed and race finds an equal place.” Trinity Cross conveys loudly and clearly a purely Christian identity and connotation to the exclusion of all else. It is a violation of the sacred guarantee of our national anthem.

Those in favour of its retention say it is because Columbus, when he saw the three peaks, named our fair land the Trinity. But who was Columbus that he should use his utterance as a justification to retain Trinity Cross as the name of our highest or any award? Columbus was sent by the Spanish King and Queen to look for a passage to India for the purpose of trade. He travelled West in the hope of reaching the East. When he found this land, which was then the land of the Caribs, he mistakenly named it the Indies and the inhabitants Indians. He lied to his masters about finding untold sources of gold in order to get another voyage. He butchered the native inhabitants as did the conquistadors Cortes and Pizarro in South and Central America. Columbus mutilated the native inhabitants if they could not find their quota of gold for him. The wood carvings of Bartholomeo de Las Casas bear pictorial testimony to his brutality. He was a murderer, a liar and a thief. And we seek to use this man’s utterance to justify the title Trinity Cross for our highest national award! We must strive for equality, not dominance.

Small wonder some awardees who are non-Christians express their thanks for the recognition bestowed upon them but refuse to accept the discriminatory award while it is entitled Trinity Cross. Why do we persist in maintaining a relic of religious dominance instead of a just and fair title for our highest national award in our secular state? Like our colonising masters of yesteryear, we continue to ignore and treat with disdain those to whom this land belonged originally — the Caribs. In our recent march for peace which ended at the Grand Savannah on October 17, 2004, the Caribs were present. These loving and forgiving people came dressed in all their native fineries, to grace the occasion. Why do we not bury the hate, the prejudice, the striving for dominance and show gratitude and recognition to the Caribs in whose land we all dwell? Why do we not change the Trinity Cross Award to the Iere Award as the name of our highest national award? Everybody should be happy. Even the Caribs! And we would have kept faith with the promise of our National Anthem.

BALGOBIN RAMDEEN
Attorney-at-Law
Author and former MP