THE EDITOR: Firstly, may I hasten to congratulate The Harvard Club on their 60th anniversary and some of those members who received awards or whose names were mentioned at the recent anniversary function. However, just as hastily, I take the opportunity to express some serious concerns with the club’s criteria for nomination and subsequent presentation of the awards.

May I be bold enough to enquire from your good-selves whether or not distinguished stalwarts the likes of Carlton Dore, Oliver Camps, Andrew Clarke, Kenny Roberts and Lenny Kirton to name a few are worthy of receiving any award. While this member appreciates and understands the fact that everyone cannot receive an award, recipients such as Roland Ford, George Sebro, Winston “B” Phillips and Ken Martin have not done enough to warrant such an award in such a short period of time. Most members present were surprised and were of the opinion that these recipients were rewarding themselves as management members and their close friends.

FRANK GITTENS
Port-of-Spain

THE EDITOR: Can you kindly print this letter in Newsday? We recently celebrated Emancipation Day in Trinidad and Tobago. This holiday reminds us of the day when the colonial masters in Britain officially granted freedom to African slaves. It certainly was not for humanitarian reasons but for economic reasons.

However, today while many hypocrites claim to be “emancipated” they still slavishly imitate Western cultural patterns, and cling on to their inappropriate political and economic models. This is not true freedom but modern slavery. It seems that all the blood that was shed during the great slave rebellions in the past have all been in vain because of a craving for the decadent American lifestyle. The greatest threat to the European presence in Guyana was the 1763 Berbice slave uprising, eventually led by the African born Coffy. This marked the first steps to freedom. The rebellion lasted for ten months and sadly Coffy was betrayed by his own black comrades and eventually committed suicide. The rebellion was brutally crushed but Coffy became a martyr and an inspiration for us all.

The 1831 Slave Revolt in Jamaica in which the slaves rebelled against the white slave masters also reflects the rejection of an imperialist system we should follow. On December 27, the strike began and by January 50,000 slaves were in revolt. The revolt was crushed after many whites were killed and over four hundred slaves were left dead. They gladly sacrificed their lives for the freedom we take for granted today. The greatest black revolution was the one led by Toussaint L’Ouverture which led to the establishment of the first independent black republic. As he distributed guns he told his black forces, ‘The gun is your liberty’. He was practical enough to understand that only a revolution with weapons would lead to freedom during that period. In modern times, the Grenadian Revolution of 1979 led by Maurice Bishop is a shining example of a practical move to earnestly emancipate the Blacks in Grenada and to set an example for the rest of us in the Caribbean. Bishop was driven by the racism he encountered in Britain while studying law. Bishop rejected the hopelessly inadequate Westminster system the British had left and instead sought to build a truly democratic society. He also rejected decadent Western Capitalism and instead turned to Cuba and countries that had rejected Western imperialism.

Unfortunately, the revolution ended tragically when Coard and other hardline Marxist ideologies, dissatisfied with the pace of  reforms,  had Bishop and his comrades executed before a firing squad. The present incompetent government we have today certainly does not have the will and determination of the great Bishop to liberate Afro-Trinidadians and other races here in this country from poverty. Not long after he was freed from prison, Mandela visited Cuba to thank Castro for his support while he was in prison. On a public platform in front a large crowd the two freedom fighters stood together and Fidel sent a message to the audience we must not forget, he said “we must never return to the slave barracks.”

RAPHAEL JOHN LALL
Erin

THE EDITOR: Here are two tough questions for your readers.
Question 1: If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had eight kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?

Read the next question before looking at the answer for this one.
Question 2: It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates.
Candidate A — Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He’s had two Mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.
Candidate B — He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.
Candidate C — He is a decorated war hero. He’s a vegetarian, doesn’t smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

Which of these candidates would be your choice? Decide first, no peeking, then scroll down for the answer. Candidate A is Franklin Roosevelt Candidate B is Winston Churchill. Candidate C is Adolph Hitler. And, by the way, the answer to the abortion question: If you said yes, you just killed Beethoven. Pretty interesting isn’t it? Makes a person think before judging someone.

M A DOPWELL
Maraval

THE EDITOR: I had confidently assumed that the primary reason for Senator Chin Lee’s appointment as Minister of National Security was that he would bring quickly to the Ministry, the latest in Information Technology, which is fundamental to achieving a high level of efficiency that has been poorly lacking in this field. After all, with his background, I would think he certainly ought to know more about IT than policing.

So where are we after his two years in the job? If we are to judge by the statement from the recently retired CoP that “the criminals are better equipped than the police,” then we are at ground zero. The reality is that the software exists, the hardware exists. What does not exist is the commitment. When we should be looking to hire bright IT trained youngsters for the Police Service, we are begging retired old men to come back to walk the streets. Old talk and more old talk. 2020? The criminals will achieve 2020 status in less than ten years. In the meantime we will continue to indulge in show business, window dressing and tv ops. I keep thinking more and more of those immortal words of a great Trini philosopher, who defines our political situation as “hopeless — but not serious.”

D JOHNSON
Cascade

THE EDITOR: Permit me to voice my opinion on an issue I consider to be relevant and necessary.

In the Newsday of Thursday July 24, 2003 there was the lone voice of Lloyd Cartar crying in the wilderness and pleading with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to expose the weeping Virgin for public viewing and adoration. I too, join with Mr Cartar for this to be done. If the early Christians of our church thought it to be the best thing to withhold and not note for later publication vital works and words of Jesus, the disciples and other relevant followers, then today we would have been in the dark as to our faith and beliefs. Thank God for their wisdom as displayed through the Holy Spirit. Today we read of various countries where adoration to our “Weeping Mother” have been made a main focus and yet, in our own country, she is kept hidden. To her many devotees who understand her role in the church, we know of her reasons for weeping. In this time of urgent prayer and devotion, we have less and less public adorations. We need to take Our Mother to our streets, our homes and environs by walking and acclaiming that through her we accept her son Jesus as Lord, and that He reigns supreme in our land. I am calling on more of our devotees to voice their support with Mr Cartar and me to bring out the “weeping virgin.” We need to console her now!

GISELE DURHAM
Champs Fleurs