Tobagonian fighting in Iraq, but mom against the war

From Police Station Street in Roxborough, east Tobago, to the Iraqi battlefields via the United States of America (USA). That  encapsulates life’s journey, at present, for young Quinn Picou. And it is one that does not set well with his mother Derris Daniel. The fact that he is in the communications department does little, in fact, nothing, to dispel her fears for his safety. So much so, that Daniel, who lives in Manhattan, virtually refuses to answer the doorbell; the telephone is even worse. “My life is now a living hell”, she says.

Her prayers, which was already an intrinsical part of her very existence, has now doubled. Like on March 31 when, having not heard from Quinn for a three-week period, she went to the neighbourhood church, as she normally does, but this time putting in extra prayers of supplication and lighting a candle in the hope that she would hear from her son. Later that afternoon, she would hear that familiar voice on the other end of the telephone line asking “Ma, are you okay?” Daniel recalls that she just stood there in disbelief and  kept enquiring of him whether it was really his voice or a recording. What makes the situation even worse for Daniel, is that she does not support the war in Iraq. In fact, she and her three siblings have participated in almost all the anti-war protests in the New York area, going as far as Washington DC in one instance.

Of the current “war”atmosphere in the suburban New York area, she says, “The place is in a mess; a beehive of activity with all the security, and people having to look over their shoulder at every step —- People ought not to live like this”, she reasoned. Her opposition to the war in Iraq is hardly rooted in the fact that her son is out there in the Gulf, although  that is a big reason in itself, but moreso on the abject fear of “reprisals” for the people living in the US, having experienced first-hand 9/11, living as she does in the heart of Manhattan and close to Ground Zero. Hers was a harrowing experience, Daniel recalled. Quinn, who celebrated his 24th birthday on March 23 in the Iraqi war zone, was one-year-old when he joined his mother in the US.

She tells of how she cried bitterly upon his departure for the Gulf, the agony made even worse by the fact that she could not have seen him off. Back here in Tobago, the feeling is the same with his many relatives; all fervently wishing God’s blessings on the Roxborough boy who is in the communications unit of the Sixth Battalion which forms part of the Central Command Team of the US-led Allied Forces in Iraq.