Tag Archives: politics

Words

The Power of the Pen

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When in the course of human events, the oppressed find it necessary to dissolve the political and psychological bonds which have joined them to the oppressor, revolutionaries have a choice to pick up either a pen or a gun. The true revolutionaries pick up a pen because they realize that violence truly begets violence and that any solution that is brought about by bloodshed will only be temporary; the powerful will change positions and the gorillas are in charge again.

[Geoffrey Philip, “Happy Birthday Sam Selvon“, May 20 2006]

That paragraph hit me for six.

Trinidad & Tobago

Guns and Gramaxone

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Based on police records from 1991-2000, the study shows that 68.2 per cent of the homicides perpetrated in Trinididad and Tobago during that period were by Afro-Trinidadians and that 79.2 per cent of the suicides were by Indo-Trinidadians.

[Source: Trinidad Express, April 23 2006]

Ooh. Softly, softly.

The study in question was conducted by one “Dr Gerard Hutchinson of the Mt Hope Psychiatric Unit.”

This is hugely interesting and massively political.

Continue reading Guns and Gramaxone →

Trinidad & Tobago

Ambush in the Night

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Getting towards 5am. Still can’t sleep, what with the incessant coughing and the ludicrous tea drinking. Hmm. Does that mean I am drinking tea that is ludicrous, or rather, is it ludicrous that I am drinking tea? Hmm.

Think am wired. Hmm.

iTunes on shuffle. Currently Mighty Sparrow – Witch Doctor.

But it was the titular track that got me thinking.

See them fighting for power
But they know not the hour
So they bribing with
Their guns, spare-parts and money
Trying to belittle our integrity
They say what we know
Is just what they teach us
Through political strategy
They keep us hungry
When you gonna get some food
Your brother got to be your enemy

Jamaica in 1976, Trinidad in 2006.

Have we learnt nothing? Will we (n)ever?

Get up, Stand up, dammit.