Beware growing national ferment
THE demonstrations in Point Fortin and Cascade have caused me to reflect on a few historical matters.
One morning in June 1905, the people of Odessa in Russia were awakened by the sound of gunfire emanating from the giant naval base on the precincts of the city. The Imperial Russian Navy was based here.
The fracas began on the battleship Potemkin, the pride of the Russian fleet. As it turned out, the sailors on the ship mutinied, the result of non-payment of wages, bad food, and cruel treatment by the officers.
Although there were years of rumbling and unrest throughout Russia, the mutiny contributed to the start of the actual Russian Revolution, the downfall of the House of Romanov, and the emergence of communism.
What has this got to do with T&T, with Carnival right around the corner?
Well, it was one small event that precipitated the end of the tsars, and I humbly bring this particular fact to the attention of the Government and people of this country, in light of the tyre-burning in Point Fortin, and more recently, the protest in St Ann’s by people who are enraged at the prospects of President’s Grounds being subsumed into the Prime Minister’s residence.
The police resorted to tear gas in Point Fortin, and more than one daily newspaper has dealt with the gravity of this incident, and its capacity to escalate into dissent and pillage in the country.
Nonsense, some will say, especially those with short memories. However, I feel that we should cast our minds back to February-April 1970, and the start of the so-called Black Power riots.
Many people are still wondering what triggered the unrest which began in February that year, but as I recall, it was a minor event which started the burning and violence in April—a planned march into the city by students at UWI, thwarted by the police. NJAC joined the fray, followed by more burning and an attempted insurrection by some regiment personnel.
As the riots started, Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams was ensconced at Crow’s Nest in Chaguaramas, mediating in a border dispute between two South American countries. Rumour has it that he was in a state of total shock, unable to accept that a Black Power revolt was occurring in a black country, on his watch, as the saying goes.
The balisier diehards and the Rienzi Complex blowhards should begin to reflect on this situation. Let us say, for the sake of argument, that Panday is finally able to excite a number of flood victims, cocaine-in-water-tank activists, and malcontents on the East-West corridor into marching on Port-of-Spain.
The overworked police will fill the air with tear gas, pepper spray (probably discharged from the blimps), and this will further aggravate the marchers, who then arrive in Port-of-Spain, molotov cocktails in hand, to be greeted by tear gas, rubber bullets, and then real ammo.
Who’s to say what will follow? For starters, the business barons will probably flee en masse to Barbados or their island homes, and the Government will move into the Hilton Trinidad, the traditional retreat when the natives become restless.
Will other groups then step in overnight to restore law and order, possibly resulting in T&T becoming an Islamic state?
The Manning administration appears unable to accept the fact that there is growing national ferment, and anger. People are becoming disgusted by the inability of their representatives to fix the roads, end flooding, improve hospital care, curb the rise in food prices, and, most important of all, reduce the rate of criminality.
The disintegration of the UNC (soon to be blessed with three leaders, it appears) continues to feed the arrogance in Whitehall.
If the coffers were empty, perhaps we would be a little more forgiving. But every time the Prime Minister speaks, he tells us of the rapidly declining unemployment rate, the massive untapped reserves of gas and oil, the number of large international conglomerates banging on his door looking for business opportunities, and the number of large buildings to be erected in an already overcrowded Port-of-Spain.
The planned $850 million stadium at Tarouba is the cause of anger and disgust. Why not yield to pressure and upgrade existing stadiums located throughout the country instead.
Patrick Manning’s delusions of grandeur grow unabated, and many regard this massive building programme as nothing more than his perceived arrogant legacy to future generations. It reminds me of China’s Great Wall. Constructed by the similarly arrogant Emperor Qin Shi Huang in 127 BC, it was not completed until 1300 AD or thereabouts.
But to return to my original treatise: it takes one minor incident to start a disaster. On June 28, 1914, Gavilro Princip, a Slav anarchist, assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajavo, Bosnia. This event triggered the start of the First World War, a fact which intrigues historians to this day.
Take note, Manning.
Monica Gopaul
Curepe
