Race Relations in TnT Feedback
Now who's being victimised
October 4, 2000
THE EDITOR: Oh my, now you've opened the way for total assault on all African men. Look at those two letters sent in last week, 'All black men have Aids, 'All black men do not mind their kids'. This just goes to show you are not that racial melting pot. I hope Mr Basdeo Panday is reading this. He seems to believe that Indians are the one being discriminated against.
The couple you interviewed, they're full of contradiction but a perfect example of a people who don't even realise they are racist. He and his wife have already planned that their kids should marry Chinese, it not someone well educated'. Yet at the same time he admits, that in the work place he has seen Indian and even himself being promoted above African men, who are given even harder tasks.
Well folks who are not or do not consider themselves black, there are many, many African men who do not have Aids, who take care of their children, do not abandon their wives at carnival. Oh yeah, "we love to bathe" and I for one consider myself hygienic. I know I am handsome, and I'm so sorry for you all. I hear Ato Boldon and other like him are taking note of those comments.
RUSSEL RODNEY
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How insensitive of you, Independent
September 27, 2000
THE EDITOR: It has to be the mark of a desperate journalist and an equally desperate weakly (pun intended) to run this intellectually bankrupt, covertly malicious feature, according full page, emotional coverage of the somewhat un-intellectual, misguided sentiments which inform the aberration of mixed marriages.
Indeed, the first salvo in the series featured in the Independent of September 13 is pathetic, and grossly insensitive. The sentiments of the feature couple: Ruth and Leonardo Ochoa cannot be applied wholesale to an entire nation of Indians, neither Africans..
Can such a theory of Indians are anymore given to abuse, be applied to tragedies such as Indrani Ramjattan, and Tara George—the wife of SRP Eric George? Let me remind the Ochoa couple that these are prime examples of Indian women who had coupled with patently adulterous, violent African men only to suffer indescribable sexual and physical abuse, eventually resulting in Eric George murdering Tara and the sentencing to hang of the extremely battered wife syndrome victim—Indrani Ramjattan.
Indeed, Mrs Ochoa's ill-advised convictions that Indian men are any more possessive, murderous and prejudiced than men of other races can be easily disproved by at least one recent multiple stabbing murder/attempted suicide in the Diego Martin district involving a Negro man and woman. What about the killing in Arima, where the jealously enraged husband killed his "outside woman" after his obeah man confirmed her infidelity?
It is worth revisiting that the evil fruits of these unhealthy, lust-oriented common law relationships which produce a new generation of "chile fadder", and "single mother" and set the stage for unstable unions. Clearly we are dealing with the overwhelming social ill of domestic violence which is no respecter of persons, and we should ascribe no indication of decency and civility on the basis of the murder rate, or the alcohol consumption rate.
Let it be known that I am an Indian man, a Hindu, happily married within the Hindu fold, and I have no desire, nor conviction to sanction inter-racial, nor inter-religious marriages. Thus it is gratifying that this feature provides an excellent forum for the highly respected Pt Ramesh Tiwari to remind the Hindu population of their duty.
Despite the unending hostility of the agnostic trio of Vernon Ramesar, Raffique Shah, Kevin Baldeosingh who pass off their fixation with the Hindu insistence on the uncompromising right of equality of religion of journalistically, balanced "Trini-ness", it is left up to such religious leaders of sufficient strength and Hindu conviction to proffer the relevant guidance. Few are less qualified and resolutely at the vanguard of Hinduism than Ramesh Tiwari.
The facts of the matter are that it is left up to the participants to decide if the social, religious displacement is worth it. We need to remind many of our young people, that when choosing a partner, they are choosing a life partner, and thus the bases which inform such decisions need to be long-term.
Notwithstanding, they are not foolproof, marriage is not strictly a continuum of lineage, but about a coming together of family, and strengthening of the family network in accordance with strict religious edicts conferring significant responsibilities on both parties.
If this were not the case, then we need to ask Kofi Anan, of the United Nations, golf hero Tiger Woods, and local Big Mike et al, why have they chosen white women over their natural black women? We need to ask of Mano Benjamin and OJ Simpson of their fixations also.
To my mind, this entire charade is a copy cat of the Vox magazine Callaloo Complex, intended to further humiliate Indians (particularly, though not exclusively Hindus) with unsubstantiated, patently biased slander. It appears aimed at sanitising the ever growing mixed population.
GOVINDA ROOPCHAND
Point Lisas
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I'll never marry...
September 20, 2000
THE EDITOR: I will never marry an African man because, chances are he has Aids, and, in most cases, is economically and intellectually impoverished.
ALANA MOHAMMED
San Fernando
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Why I love this Indian man
September 20, 2000
THE EDITOR: I have been happily married to an Indian male for the past 15 years because:
1) He is hygienic
2) His sexual fidelity renders him improbable of contracting Aids and passing it on to me.
3) Unlike African men, he will not abandon his children; he is the perfect family man.
4) He makes it his duty to ensure that his children are properly educated, [that is perhaps why Indian children get the majority of scholarships, based on A-Level Cambridge results, every year], my two children are attending Hillview and SAGHS.
5) He will not abandon me at Carnival time for another woman.
6) He does not have me renting. I have my own home, car, computer etc.
7) Three square meals are served every day.
8) All the bills are paid on time, without taking out, or re-scheduling loans.
I am a mixed woman: white and part African, "French Creole" as you may say. And, for me "Indian man" is incomparable!!!! Yet, there is another issue to Miss Bharose's obvious ethnic bias. She must now demonstrate that she is a balanced journalist by interviewing one of the many African women who can tell this country, millions of stories why they would never marry an African man.
If she cannot, she has a social and political agenda... or is it CCN? Come on Omatie Lyder, please be fair. I love my Indian husband, he is in a class by himself and no fete machine can deny this. God bless him!
OLIVIER DANIEL-SINGH
St Augustine
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How dare you, Independent
September 20, 2000
THE EDITOR: One question to the CCN/Independent editorial staff, the ones who allowed Joannah Bharose to launch an unwarranted attack on all Indian men in this country, a staff which had the sickening gall to publish a racist and empirically flawed perception of a woman who was supposedly interviewed by them, that Indian husbands are the only ones in this country who abuse their wives.
Question are Raffique Shah, Kevin Baldeosingh, Vernon Ramesar, Tony Deyal and Kamal Persad wife abusers too? Or have their affiliation with CCN automatically prevented them from assuming such roles? Does Bharose know for a fact if Shah, or any other of the Indian men working there, do not abuse their wives? Why can't Bharose write a piece on Len Boogsie Sharpe? Is he Indian?
I can assure you that this piece of journalism by the Independent will be sent all over the world [via e-mail] so that people can see, first hand, the racist agenda of a bunch of little racist boys and girls, including editor Omatie Lyder. And, I know Bharose is now so ashamed that she would never publish this response from a real Indian woman in her free Independent!
SANDRA KHAN
Tabaquite
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