Gary Aboud ashamed

He said Sabga-Aboud’s remarks in Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown television show, do not accurately reflect the personality of his (Aboud) his first cousin.

While being, “ashamed and embarrassed”, by the remarks — which Sabga-Aboud has since publicly apologised for — Aboud said, “I know the man and he is not like that.”Aboud said the remarks were made by, “a community within a community”, and not the community itself that neither he nor countless citizens of Syrian-Lebanese heritage are members of.

He said nationals like panman Anise Hadeed and calypsonian Robert “De Mighty Trini” Elias have helped shape TT culture. He said Sabga- Aboud was the son of a former diplomat who rightly advised TT not to join OPEC, but reap all benefits of the Arab oil embargo (higher oil prices) without obligations of membership.

Aboud said a Syrian- Lebanese serves as a High Court judge and also serve the nation as lawyers, doctors, engineers, dentists, entrepreneurs, parliamentarians and even a Catholic priest, the late Fr Moses and a former national footballer and coach in Hannibal Najaar. He related the charity of the Syrian-Lebanese Women’s Association and the advocacy of his group, Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, which has fought governments and companies, up to the Privy Council, for human/environmental justice without personal profit.

Aboud said that to call someone “Syrian” is to question their nationality, adding, “None of us carry Syrian passports.” Our forefathers, Aboud said, came here as penniless immigrants who worked hard, saved and invested.

“So when I saw the outpouring of hatred on social media, the association of my community with drugs and guns, with being some type of ‘mafia,’ I realised something. Regardless of what arrant nonsense was said, some people naturally hate us. They have something caustic in their souls that causes them to despise us.

It has a lot to do with the commercial success of the few among my community, the cars they drive, the houses they live in, the companies they own.

“This hatred also has something to do with the suspicion that we are all involved in illegal activities. We got rich too fast for everybody’s liking. Never mind that Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Ted Turner, and Richard Branson were billionaires in their 30s — never mind that sacrifice, innovation and hard work shorten the height of every ladder to every top.” Aboud said his community has no less intermarriage than other racial groups.