Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Tallman on December 12, 2007, 11:47:16 AM
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Anybody ever read dis book? If so, what yuh thought about it? I try all how tuh read it, but ah cyar make ah note. De writing style is convoluted, and overall it has been a painful attempted reading experience.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51D8KZTQ1JL._AA240_.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/Jihad-Trinidad-Tobago-July-1990/dp/0595228348)
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Well de fact that he call it Jihad...I done realize is fiction arready
Who is de author?..... a newspaper journalist or a 'intellectual' deportee
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I would love to have a copy of Jihad in T&T,I remember in 1990 a few months after T&T WC Qualifiers ended there was the Shell football cup going on in Port of spain and A N R Robinson then President of the twin island republic was held hostage in Parliament with other Parliamentarians of T&T by Muslims,I remember how jamaican soldiers went into T&T via neigboring Barbados and went in to the Trinidad countriside,which cause a big outburts by T&T press which the situation was resolve internally.I remember very well that era when Mighty Sparrow had a song out called 'one goal to Italy' which if Trinidad had went to italy that song would have been sparrows best seller.Please post the iSBN # I would like to get a copy of the book.good post.
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ISBN-10: 0595228348
ISBN-13: 978-0595228348
a preview of the Book on Google Books (http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=-RVxpc1bWDwC&dq=jihad+in+trinidad+and+tobago+july+27+1990&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=b6hYGf2-sN&sig=8bzwTooiqf03GqgIo_L8w_pZfbM#PPP1,M1)
http://www.amazon.com/Jihad-Trinidad-Tobago-July-1990/dp/0595228348
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I remember how jamaican soldiers went into T&T via neigboring Barbados and went in to the Trinidad countriside,which cause a big outburts by T&T press which the situation was resolve internally
Somebody with additional insight bring it nah.
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Who is de author?..... a newspaper journalist or a 'intellectual' deportee
This is his description on the back cover of the book:
Daurius Figueira is a social researcher living in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, the land of his birth. He holds a B.A. and and MPhil from the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad. He has published two books: Cocaine and the Economy of Crime in Trinidad and Tobago (http://www.amazon.com/Cocaine-Economy-Crime-Trinidad-Tobago/dp/976815733X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197510650&sr=1-2) and A Spy in the Houses of Hate (http://www.amazon.co.uk/spy-houses-hate-colonial-Trinidad/dp/9768180293).
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Sad but this must be one of the few documented accounts of the coup....what else it have out there. I know it have NO OFFICIAL REPORTS. Not sure why :whistling:
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I would love to have a copy of Jihad in T&T,I remember in 1990 a few months after T&T WC Qualifiers ended there was the Shell football cup going on in Port of spain and A N R Robinson then President of the twin island republic was held hostage in Parliament with other Parliamentarians of T&T by Muslims,I remember how jamaican soldiers went into T&T via neigboring Barbados and went in to the Trinidad countriside,which cause a big outburts by T&T press which the situation was resolve internally.I remember very well that era when Mighty Sparrow had a song out called 'one goal to Italy' which if Trinidad had went to italy that song would have been sparrows best seller.Please post the iSBN # I would like to get a copy of the book.good post.
Robinson was the Prime Minister then.
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Sad but this must be one of the few documented accounts of the coup....what else it have out there. I know it have NO OFFICIAL REPORTS. Not sure why :whistling:
Just recently I was liming by a bar with a group of fellas and they were recounting the coup.. And the discussion went into just how much really went on behind the scenes of that coup and specifically the contributing factors, precursors and lead up to that fateful day... Under drinks, tongue get loose and talk jump out and man start to talk bout who they know was in what, and who knew about what and who was in league with who etc etc... I heard some things which cant be justified as fact, but certainly were plausible rumors/theories whatever you want to call it.. but had me thinking...
So i thought to myself i was kinda too young back then to appreciate everything else surrounding the coup other than there was a curfew. And i decided to do some research...
Nothing! As an example, you can practically find anything on youtube from the old Trinidad days, but imagine no video footage of a coup which was shown live on TTT! Other regular sources which you would expect to find something also came up short and wanting.. Check out this concise wikipedia account:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaat_al_Muslimeen_coup_attempt
And led me to think.. Imagine so many people died over those fateful days.. So much damage was done to property, but more importantly, the psyche of a nation... And not one investigation or commission of enquiry or comprehensive review to uncover the real nitty gritty behind the 1990 coup..
who knew? who didn't know? who was told beforehand? who was involved? who supported it? who brought the guns? why dem fellas walking free? why people dead for nothing? etc etc... where de answers?
Its like we as a nation decided to collectively sweep the entire thing under the carpet and turn a blind eye, as if we prefer it never even happened. Every july 27,1990 is about 5 ppl commemorating the lost ones around de savannah while everybody else go about their business as normal.. remind me of the scene on that leonard dicaprio movie, "the beach" when the shark bite the fellah but he didnt die, so they get bury him to preserve their island paradise..
but the scars remain..
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I have always wondered about the way TnT has treated their prisoners of conscience, political dissenters or conscientious objectors.
In my time I remember the students who returned to TnT from Canada who were responsible for the
protest and subsequent destruction on a Computer Lab in Sir George Williams University in Montreal on February 11, 1969 (http://archives3.concordia.ca/timeline/histories/compriot.html)
In Chapter 15, page 157, of this Book, Searching for Justice: An Autobiography, you can read more about the Sir William Incident. (http://books.google.com/books?id=ldpwWeQWUIgC&pg=PA157&dq=The+Computer+Riot&sig=Qh0c0RPTPr7gQzLvaSxSuhpgLBQ)
Then the People who were responsible for the Coup of 1970's
and now the people who were responsible for the Coup of 1990
It seems to me that TnT Judicial System has dealt with the leaders of these protests in a way to bring them into the mainstream and NOT to further alienate them by incarceration or worse.
what allya think?
Anyone can add their more eloquent writings about these situations.
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'ldinho, Look at the events of '70 and you'll find a similar dampening ... when columnists in de papers write about it or refer to it by way of example i feel dey only reaching about 20 people who understand wey dey coming from ... '70 is not a reference or information point for most Trinis
now lehwe tie dat to West Coast's valid observation about 'bringing them into the mainstream' ... blurred lines ... muddied waters and we have a preamble for more drama
where's de catharsis and national introspection? i have not seen it ...
marginalisation by amnesia or wilful forgetting will return to bite us firmly on de gluteus maximus
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where's de catharsis and national introspection? i have not seen it ...
marginalisation by amnesia or wilful forgetting will return to bite us firmly on de gluteus maximus
Aslyumseeker,
what do you feel should be done to "Get Over" or "Expound' on what has happened?
this has interested me, ever since 1969, and I personally have no answer.
and do you think that if we look at the current problems in TnT from a holistic viewpoint that indeed our eggs are now hatching?
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Sad but this must be one of the few documented accounts of the coup....what else it have out there. I know it have NO OFFICIAL REPORTS. Not sure why :whistling:
And led me to think.. Imagine so many people died over those fateful days.. So much damage was done to property, but more importantly, the psyche of a nation... And not one investigation or commission of enquiry or comprehensive review to uncover the real nitty gritty behind the 1990 coup..
who knew? who didn't know? who was told beforehand? who was involved? who supported it? who brought the guns? why dem fellas walking free? why people dead for nothing? etc etc... where de answers?
Its like we as a nation decided to collectively sweep the entire thing under the carpet and turn a blind eye, as if we prefer it never even happened. Every july 27,1990 is about 5 ppl commemorating the lost ones around de savannah while everybody else go about their business as normal.. remind me of the scene on that leonard dicaprio movie, "the beach" when the shark bite the fellah but he didnt die, so they get bury him to preserve their island paradise..
but the scars remain..
Hell of a ting eh,,look we have we own "9/11" style conspiracy issues to unravel since 1990 and somehow troo the magic of CNN repition we know more about the yankee one than our own
my old pardner lester de vignes lose his father because of Abu and he bunch ah c**ts
I eh see lester in real years, but I remember vividly how the death affect him and his siblings
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a member of my family was involved in that Computer room debacle.
he even taught at fatima at one time.
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a member of my family was involved in that Computer room debacle.
he even taught at fatima at one time.
so, give we some first hand observations nuh
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will call him and get his perspective.
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Dr. Selwyn Ryan has also written a book on the July 27th coup. If you are looking for a quality read on the subject that may be your best bet.
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where's de catharsis and national introspection? i have not seen it ...
marginalisation by amnesia or wilful forgetting will return to bite us firmly on de gluteus maximus
Aslyumseeker,
what do you feel should be done to "Get Over" or "Expound' on what has happened?
this has interested me, ever since 1969, and I personally have no answer.
and do you think that if we look at the current problems in TnT from a holistic viewpoint that indeed our eggs are now hatching?
WC, here's a partial (and partly instinctive) response.
To properly address this concern a multiple constituency response was needed. Social constituencies, not political. Ultimately a people response. Groundswell.
However, our collective understanding of self does not lead to that sort of combustion. In part we understand that answers are to be sought and we may even recognise that some action is to be taken, but in the country there is the chilling effect of operating outside of the norm ... breaking the social pact of acquiescence ... doing or taking action outside of the standard regimen.
We failed to ACCEPT that we were presented with an exigent circumstance. We knew it was. We recognised it was, but we didn't accept it at the core. Had we done so some of the crap masquerading as a transformed Trinidad would not be taking place today.
Change is a funny thing. It can either be dramatic like a coup or it can be gradual and accretive such that one day yuh wake up and yuh doh recognise whey yuh living or recognise a place yuh left only a few years ago - nah, buh doh worry is still de cascadura theory in effect. Eat it and everything go be alright back in Trini.
I place the blame for this squarely at the feet of the political class.
What we are faced with is distinct from the lack of a culture of protest present in some islands. We know how to protest (in some circumstances). What we lack almost perversely is how to express meaningful national outrage collectively and responsibly. We fail at calling for and achieving accountability. Westminster has taught us that accountability is determined on a five-year schedule (or on the Prime Minister's prerogative). This works for the political class. But it also means we expect incisive responses and decision making from the very class that is loathe to make them.
What keeps us from waking up? The paralysis of fear. Disinformation, misinformation and lack of information. The fact that most of the natural actors (those we think should/would/ought to respond) are in our society very co-opted and invested in the present architecture of the state.
Ultimately, there is a 'Government will handle it' national sentiment in place ... and this is where the crux of the problem lies ... because ...
By definition Gov't's interest is in tamping down the thing, dismissing it as manifest aberration, minimizing threat ... whatever needs to be done to return to a business as usual environment ASAP ... the fact that the death toll was not massive assisted this course of action as well ...
As Trinis we show metaphorically plenty cascadura traits: we have thick skins; we can breathe where the air is rare; we not particularly aggressive buh we resilient; we very accomodating to outsiders and difference; we are crowd-tolerant ... the problem is like the cascadura we may have poor vision in murky waters.
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Dr. Selwyn Ryan has also written a book on the July 27th coup. If you are looking for a quality read on the subject that may be your best bet.
Tha book is called The Muslimeen Grab for Power: Race, Religion, and Revolution in Trinidad and Tobago. Figueira makes references to it in his book.
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Ah went to a stag party in Chag the night before.
Was sitting down on mih car wondering if ah could get the steelband in mih head to stop playing so that ah could get to see the game in the stadium.
Had mih tv on loud an then ah here noise like chair moving an ting next ting is Bakr sitting down next Dominic Kallipersad talking about how he now take control for the country's sake. A little later he come back on with the other TV man (ah cyar remember he name for some reason but he was head of news). Behind them ah man walking around with what look like ah 1942 SLR on he shoulder like if he is ah starboy.
Anyhow things deteriorate after that, shooting , looting , curfew etc.
Mih good pardner who was living with his 2 young kids at Woodford st call mih an tell mih it have men in his driveway with guns and they tell him stay inside, next day it was soldiers and bullets zinging left an right (in fact he hold up the phone for mih to here). They eventually got out of there on the Sunday.
Ah lose a good friend in that time as a direct result of the coup.
Mih pardner spend all night in a curfew party in Cricketwicket an next morning when he was going home he fall asleep whilst driving over the Lady Young and dive of the cliff and died
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Ah see it have one by Raoul Pantin named Days of Wrath: The 1990 Coup in Trinidad and Tobago (http://www.amazon.com/Days-Wrath-1990-Trinidad-Tobago/dp/059542502X/ref=cm_lmf_tit_6_rdssss0)
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Ah see it have one by Raoul Pantin named Days of Wrath: The 1990 Coup in Trinidad and Tobago (http://www.amazon.com/Days-Wrath-1990-Trinidad-Tobago/dp/059542502X/ref=cm_lmf_tit_6_rdssss0)
look like that one was published this year. I wonder if them thing in the NALIS librarires....can't seem to access the catalogs online.
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Reading with Raoul
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=161293287
Friday, March 14th 2008
(http://www.trinidadexpress.com/shared/images/2008/03/14/op-ks.jpg)
Riveted, I was reading Raoul Pantin's recently published book, Days of Wrath, his eye-witness account of the 1990 coup attempt, when I had to put it down and stare into the distance, having just read the following:
We had watched them, over the past 24 hours, assemble in groups, taking their turns at the elaborate Muslim prayer rituals. Men on their knees in prayer one minute, wielding automatic rifles and shotguns the next.
I felt the old Imam and perhaps Bakr himself and some of his closest companions probably shared the 'faith', and took its contradictions in stride. But when I looked more closely at some of the younger gunmen around me, I saw and sensed something else.
"How old are you?" I asked one young man guarding a corridor, the huge gun in his hand almost bigger than he was. He looked up at me, quickly dropping eyes.
He smiled sheepishly and lied:
"Seventeen."
If he was 15, he was plenty. And looking at this boy, a child really, I was certainly old enough to be both his father and grandfather. I suddenly felt a great sadness overwhelm me.
I felt we, the larger society, were responsible for his generation, responsible for his anger and even his despair. We had failed him-all these little boys with guns in their hands and their faith in this cause.
It came to me that we hadn't harnessed their idealism, all that youthful energy and enthusiasm and capacity to believe in something larger and grander than themselves. But Bakr had. Like a kind of modern-day Fagan, with an AK-47 in hand, Bakr had.
For in this boy, as among other younger gunmen all around me, I saw poverty, a lack of education and skills as the root of the problem. I saw unemployed and unemployable, without the means of earning an income as the weed that choked their spirits. I saw hopelessness and disillusionment replaced by the Bakr-taught ideals of Islam. This little boy could not have been more than 15 years old.
He, so many others like him, had probably been roaming the streets, foraging for food, ducking the police, getting involved in petty crime. And then he found himself down at the mosque at No 1 Mucurapo Road being offered food, shelter, hope, a faith, a wife or four, a gun.
The gun was important.
A couple nights later, Bakr would order the gunmen to stack their guns at night, and they'd do that. They stacked all the guns together in the middle of the room, except for the guns in the hands of the men on guard duty.
But this little boy lying next to me on the floor wouldn't stack his gun; instead he lay there, cradling the gun in his arms.
"You didn't hear the man or what?" I said to him. "He wants the guns stacked up."
"Not this gun!" the little boy whispered fiercely. "This gun is my freedom!"
By the time you read this, I would have returned to Raoul's terrifying TTT experience but, at the time of this particular reading, what stopped me in my tracks was not the then, but the now-my mind reeling over how the essence of scenario the journalist had unfolded was being replayed, even as I read, so many teenagers east, west, north and south of where I sat reading, believing that the gun was their pathway to freedom.
I sat there, thinking, last Wednesday night, about exactly what Raoul's 15-year-old meant-whether he meant he would be able to use the gun to shoot his way out should the soldiers outside come blasting in? Hardly likely, since the likelihood was that the soldiers would have shot him dead possibly even before he could get a single shot off. So what was this gun freedom that boy-child was talking about?
And, then, I thought of all those gun children whose pictures we keep seeing in the papers, either killed or having killed and I thought, too, that they, too, had seen in the gun that they had bought, stolen or borrowed, a means of liberation, their contemporaries living in and around me in Laventille, feeling that mere gun-possession put them notches above everybody else.
I have this idea that I am saying this badly and that whomever is reading is reading into my writing the view that having the gun gives these young boy holders the freedom to rob and kill and, yes, there are those gunderilitos who use the guns they have to do that, but it is not just that or even mainly that. It is that having a gun, in their minds, somehow gives them a value that they didn't think they had without it.
And as I keep thinking about that, as I weave my way through the vale of tears (our tears!) that is Raoul's remarkable, head of the class, reportage, I fear I am hurrying to the conclusion that the cracks that Abu Bakr saw and used have only widened since, the papers replete with links between the failed but amnesty-freed insurrectionists of 1990 and the gangland gangrene that has set in today, and it is all I can do to prevent myself from simply giving up all as lost and dropping on my knees to pray.
Raoul, though, is sure to remind me that our lot is to watch and write, if only to help those who come after to understand what really happened here-all the outstanding money talk, jet talk and, yes, jam and wining talk, notwithstanding.
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The two most important paragraphs in my opinion....
"I have this idea that I am saying this badly and that whomever is reading is reading into my writing the view that having the gun gives these young boy holders the freedom to rob and kill and, yes, there are those gunderilitos who use the guns they have to do that, but it is not just that or even mainly that. It is that having a gun, in their minds, somehow gives them a value that they didn't think they had without it."
this is very moving indeed..and obviously, Bakr had to have realised.
"And as I keep thinking about that, as I weave my way through the vale of tears (our tears!) that is Raoul's remarkable, head of the class, reportage, I fear I am hurrying to the conclusion that the cracks that Abu Bakr saw and used have only widened since, the papers replete with links between the failed but amnesty-freed insurrectionists of 1990 and the gangland gangrene that has set in today, and it is all I can do to prevent myself from simply giving up all as lost and dropping on my knees to pray."
When will these cracks ever heal?
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He, so many others like him, had probably been roaming the streets, foraging for food, ducking the police, getting involved in petty crime. And then he found himself down at the mosque at No 1 Mucurapo Road being offered food, shelter, hope, a faith, a wife or four, a gun.
However, the supposition here isn't helpful.
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18 years to the day today.
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look at how time pass....18 years already.
all i remembered was my brother and i dressing to go to the stadium to watch a football match..(cyah remember who was playing - but we were late). My brother happened to put on dey TV for the news and saw this muslim man sitting down where Dominic Kalipersad 'suppose' to be sitting and Dominic standing next to him with arms folded.
First thing my brother said was 'ay ay like is ah new drama show coming out' sigh
i only saw one newspaper mentioned the date by an interview with Robinson.
after 18 years, do you think Trinidad and Tobago, meaning the average man and business owners recovered financially and emotionally ??
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after 18 years, do you think Trinidad and Tobago, meaning the average man and business owners recovered financially and emotionally ??
We have nothing official on the actual events or the repercussions. I believe we supposed to be commemorating (mourning) the anniversary of the event every 5 years instead of every year...so the leaders say.
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http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161356962
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look at how time pass....18 years already.
all i remembered was my brother and i dressing to go to the stadium to watch a football match..(cyah remember who was playing - but we were late). My brother happened to put on dey TV for the news and saw this muslim man sitting down where Dominic Kalipersad 'suppose' to be sitting and Dominic standing next to him with arms folded.
First thing my brother said was 'ay ay like is ah new drama show coming out' sigh
i only saw one newspaper mentioned the date by an interview with Robinson.
after 18 years, do you think Trinidad and Tobago, meaning the average man and business owners recovered financially and emotionally ??
Trinidad vs Jamaica Shell C aribbean Cup Final
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Speaker: Do not forget July 27 (http://newsday.co.tt/news/0,83359.html)
Trinidad & Tobago Newsday
Monday, July 28 2008
Former Radio 610 announcer Dennis McComie yesterday called for closure to the traumatic events of the July 27, 1990 attempted coup by the Jamaat-al Muslimeen.
“Trinidad and Tobago must settle with the after-tremors of July 27,1990, extract the lessons to be learnt and move forward decisively,” McComie said during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Red House, Port-of-Spain yesterday, the 18th anniversary of the attempted coup.
He described the event as a “psychological tear in our society’s fabric” and said he would welcome a commission of inquiry so the country could put “July 1990 behind us and move on”.
He also said citizens had to become the “guardians of our young and brittle democracy”.
Speaker Barry Sinanan, who also spoke at the brief ceremony, said public awareness about the attempted coup must be raised. He said the low attendance at the ceremony showed that people may have forgotten the event, which should not only be remembered by families who were directly affected but by the entire nation.
President George Maxwell Richards, former President Arthur NR Robinson, who was prime minister in 1990, were among those who placed wreaths at the base of the Eternal Flame monument. Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security Donna Cox also laid a wreath on behalf of Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
During the remembrance ceremony, Wendell Eversley, who was a hostage during the attempted coup, quietly protested on the opposite side of Abercromby Street where the ceremony took place.
Eversley held a national flag and was dressed in the national colours of red, white and black. Last week, Eversley said he had written to President Richards twice requesting a commission of inquiry into the events leading up to July 27, 1990.
He claimed many politicians, police officers and businessmen were involved in the staging of the 1990 attempted coup during which Robinson was shot.
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Bakr refuses to apologise
Monday 28th July, 2008
Trinidad Guardian
Leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen Yasin Abu Bakr yesterday refused to apologise to the country for the events of July 27, 1990.
Speaking on I95.5 radio, Bakr said, “I am sorry about the citizenry.”
Asked if he was apologising 18 years later for the deaths and widespread destruction of Port-of-Spain, Bakr said, “If I do that I would be telling the citizens they don’t have the right to defend themselves.”
Asked if he would do it all over again, Bakr responded, “There is a different way to do things, you have learnt from your mistakes. We made a few errors, but for security reasons, I won’t divulge that. We have had a different focus, especially on education. At least four times a week, with all our troubles, we still feed the poor.”
Bakr said Orlando-based Muslim leader Louis Haneef was just one of the sources who supplied guns to the Muslimeen for the coup. When told that Haneef was buying guns since 1989, Bakr remained quiet. He stopped short of saying who supplied the other guns. He said Haneef supplied a set of small guns.
What caused the coup?
Bakr said, “The problem with the land was eventually settled by dialogue. Why wasn’t it settled by dialogue before? They sent the police and the army on our land.
“When we went to the courts, the matter was heard and the court said the police and the army must go. They said they not moving, the Chief Justice said this was anarchy, they must follow the rule of the law.
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Bakr refuses to apologise
Monday 28th July, 2008
Trinidad Guardian
Leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen Yasin Abu Bakr yesterday refused to apologise to the country for the events of July 27, 1990.
Speaking on I95.5 radio, Bakr said, “I am sorry about the citizenry.”
Asked if he was apologising 18 years later for the deaths and widespread destruction of Port-of-Spain, Bakr said, “If I do that I would be telling the citizens they don’t have the right to defend themselves.”
Asked if he would do it all over again, Bakr responded, “There is a different way to do things, you have learnt from your mistakes. We made a few errors, but for security reasons, I won’t divulge that. We have had a different focus, especially on education. At least four times a week, with all our troubles, we still feed the poor.”
Bakr said Orlando-based Muslim leader Louis Haneef was just one of the sources who supplied guns to the Muslimeen for the coup. When told that Haneef was buying guns since 1989, Bakr remained quiet. He stopped short of saying who supplied the other guns. He said Haneef supplied a set of small guns.
What caused the coup?
Bakr said, “The problem with the land was eventually settled by dialogue. Why wasn’t it settled by dialogue before? They sent the police and the army on our land.
“When we went to the courts, the matter was heard and the court said the police and the army must go. They said they not moving, the Chief Justice said this was anarchy, they must follow the rule of the law.
Talk about an abbreviated article. No flesh, no body. Steups.
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look at how time pass....18 years already.
all i remembered was my brother and i dressing to go to the stadium to watch a football match..(cyah remember who was playing - but we were late). My brother happened to put on dey TV for the news and saw this muslim man sitting down where Dominic Kalipersad 'suppose' to be sitting and Dominic standing next to him with arms folded.
First thing my brother said was 'ay ay like is ah new drama show coming out' sigh
i only saw one newspaper mentioned the date by an interview with Robinson.
after 18 years, do you think Trinidad and Tobago, meaning the average man and business owners recovered financially and emotionally ??
Trinidad vs Jamaica Shell C aribbean Cup Final
thanks fishs.....look who doh :D
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I was 13 years old and walking to the Stadium to watch the Shell Cup Final with my uncle. (Is since den I doh miss match)
We just walked down marli street and were infront of TTT when a van pulled up and 5 men in white muslim garb rolled out with guns and they ran into the building.
My Uncle say come let us go home now something ent right and me being curious I say nah man they FLIMMIN a MOVIE...lets look and see.
I sit down on the pavement by Pat/Pie next to hot shoppe and then hear gunshots...they had a bomb a kinda explosion and then smoke started coming out from the back. I get excited and watching and happy.
My uncle start to pull me and say come boy lewwe go now...I say come nah man is movie flimmin. More cars and vans of muslims start to arrive fast fast but some jump out and some drove off.
It get serious when one come back out and start to point his gun at cars in the street trying to stop them. So Now I standing up and the gunman point the gun at me and my uncle and say ALYUH GO FROM HERE!!!....and then he try to stop another car and fire one shot in the air.
We run home...next ting I turn on the TV and is Abu Bakr...Your country has been taken over yadda yadda and jones P madeira and dominic kalipersad looking frighten in a calm way. I remember they say No looting is to take place.
Well the next few days was FUN for me.......
Living around the savannah near to the US embassy and well my father had a govnt post at that time so he had "protection" there were soldiers all around my house in the mango trees in my yard and on my roof as they coulda see tatil and TTT good.
I used to provoke the soldiers in the bush and ting says ...EHY EHY I seeing yuh...they used to cuss meh.
But my mother and sister were scared, I remember them crying...gunfire was exchanged all hours and we used to hear shells hitting the roof and thing. A soldier tell us to crawl in the house in case we get hit by a stray and I running all over and my mother shouting at the top of her lungs.
Around day 3 or so they had a kinda ease up and I take my skateboard and went by my partner on picton street. He say Touches boy is serious ting...look CNN...and we both met Charles Jeico...I see the man on tv and he was the war correspondent. We shook his hand and he said young kids what are you doing here? He then said a US ship was docked 3 miles off the coast in case there was trouble and they would "assist" if needed. He had a camera man and then they squat down and rounds the corner to Maraval road.
around day 5...my grandfather in Belmont call and say he have no food and he under pressure. My parents sacrifice me (well dats how I felt ) to go and drop off a bag of grocery for the man. Steupppsss I nearly get rob in the savannah by the paddock and coming back a man try to sell me a drakkar noir for 5$ and 2 different side of shoe 13 and 11. I was a 8 in them days.
In the night spanger used to get licks and looters used to have to do exercise in the road when the soldiers ketch them and beat them. HiLo get looted, they had a grocery on the corner of marli and woodford called QF foods that get lick up too.
Then they cut the electricity and I was bored no arse.
We also had to evacuate the day before the surrender/showdown. The soldiers told us they had a bomb and the whole newtown block within 1 mile could explode. We went to some family in Cascade...by my father say he staying. My mother argue with him all how but he say he have to stay in the house and make sure nuttin happen.
Next ting I in cascade watching lil mermaid for the umptheenth time and we see images with abu surrendering.
The radio reports were frightening and you used to hear shots from down town and see smoke right tru.
I wasnt old enough to go any coup party but I remember the curfew for weeks later Robbie and ATTACK WITH FULL FORCE Stories and remembering town burnt out.
Honestly if a coup happen now and the state of the country how it is...it will be a serious ting indeed.
Plenty people will die if one happen again as army and police promise it will not end the way it did.
it sad.....real sad...and I was hurt a few yrs ago when abu had a banner by the jammat that said long live July 27 1990...it was on the front page of a newspaper. I get vex yes.
I dont think this country recover since that time...things only got worse.
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Ah 2 days late....but say wha....
Well my experience certainly was not as interesting or exciting as the stories I've from Trinidadians over the years.....ah eh hear no gunshots or bombs going off...ah did see enough police and soldiers to last half ah lifetime but dat was bout it....
I remember listening to the radio.....for some reason the TV was off....it was sometime around 6 - 6:30 and just so, just so the radio announcer come on and say something bout a bomb and police station....I shrug it off....I say "dem dam Trinis again..wid dey crazy self"... ;D
Den when we switch on for the de 7 pm news I see Dominic Kalipersad between these two men wid some big, big guns and de man on he left (I later found out was Abu Bakr) saying something bout "doh loot", "respect the laws of the land"....he say something bout "coup"
And I watching de TV screen and ah confused, confused.....I trying to understand wha de hell "loot", and "coup" mean and why dis man on de screen telling people dey shouldn't loot.....at de time I only studying if dis thing I watching on TV going to affect my Great Race plans for the next day....well needless to say it did.... ;D
We follow the events as best we could from over in Bago....Bago was quiet, quiet....ah attend a curfew party during the time...was nice...
Ah also will never forget that when some sort of order was restored and limited broadcasting was allowed from TTT....."The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" was one of the first movies they showed...a remember cuz was the first time I saw that famous movie...
Overall, one of the reasons given for not wanting a commission of enquiry is because too much time has passed and people would have forgotten.....I beg to differ yes....I eh think it have anybody alive in T&T who live through that experience would ever forget, and innocent people dead...if only for that reason they should have one....
Ah planning to buy Raoul Pantin book too....get some piece of that time
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I was real young at the time but I remember we were coming back from tobago and reach by my grandmother in de west since my father had the car in tobago. Next ting mums crying and i seeing pple on the tv with guns to the news man head. Mums only worried cuz my father was in tobago and we had no way of contacting him cuz he was on the port trying to board the ferry with we stationwagon. Eventually he called saying he was by cousins in tobago and them having a big barbeque cuz he have real food pack in de coolers and don't want it to waste.
Luckily for me and my sis, for some reason my grandmother tv used to pick up a disney channel. So we watch that all day and went and lime by our cousins down the street.
Took it upon myself a couple years ago to go the nation archives and read all the newspaper articles etc from that time. Shud really go do it again and scan some of the articles
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That Raoul Pantin book sell out yes.
Nowhere have it. Only one store bussin a 175 for it in town have one copy remaining, but the rest of places sell out at 105 and 120 each.
Will have to keep on hunting
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Ironically? I was playing "gun shooting" when my grandfather and neighbors start spreading the news. Wasn't one of our national coaches one of the muslimeen who stormed TTT? Or was he in charge a the Red House.
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A friend of mine maintains a blog about issues in Trinidad and he produced this well written piece reflecting on the coup so I thought I'd share here:
Monday, July 28, 2008
18 years ago today...
http://keithintrinidad.blogspot.com/2008/07/18-years-ago-today.html
Eighteen years ago Monday, I was on day one of six days locked inside my parents' home in Diamond Vale.
When Yasin Abu Bakr announced on TTT the evening before that he had taken over the country, my father had closed the door and said that no-one was going outside. I can remember Emmett Hennessy on the radio. I remember, and still shudder when I think about it, The Little Mermaid being broadcast over and over and over again on TV over the course of the next five days. I remember that the video wasn't working, so all our videotapes were useless for entertainment purposes. I remember the phone lines giving trouble. I remember using precious phone uptime, much to my parents' chagrin, trying to find out whether my then girlfriend - who was on a camp somewhere in the back of oho-e-oho - was okay...
Eighteen years later, it's all very vague, very jumbled...
I remember, in the aftermath and in subsequent months and years, being patently upset that a group of men could commit treason and live. I remember the drama that it took just to get jurors to sit on the case. I wish I could remember who defended the insurrectionists in the Chaguaramas Court...
I remember feeling more than a little sick at the idea that all the looting could actually be considered a process of income re-distribution. I remember too finding it very interesting that Port of Spain rebounded as quickly as it did...
Two decades later and there are still so many things, so many unanswered questions...
Didn't somebody smell a rat when young people suddenly found it cool to be a member of the Jamaat, an organisation with ties to Muammar Gaddafi's Libya? Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but couldn't somebody tell that something was wrong when all the Jamaat's women headed off in one direction and the men headed off in another that Friday afternoon? Maybe it's nothing strange to be away from the Parliament Chamber on a Friday, but why were so many MPs away anyway? Who was responsible for letting the containers that carried the weapons into the Jamaat pass our borders? Who are the bank chicks that got caught on camera breaking shop windows to steal jewellery? How many businesses inflated their losses to get higher insurance payments? Who was the Police Officer that reputedly took off his shirt when the first bullets went off and ran out of town? Did they have anything but The Little Mermaid to show on TV? Did the Army really beat as many people mercilessly as Trinis had reported during the curfew period? Who authorised Curfew Parties? Who knew that it was coming? Who sat back and watched it play out having had advance notice? What advance notice did who have? Could anyone have done anything at all?
So many questions remain unanswered eighteen years later...
What now then? Do we engage a Commission of Inquiry to look into the 1990 Insurrection? Do we go on the hunt for an eminent jurist that everybody in the House can agree on, as well as a distinguished panel to hear testimonies and allegations of the events of the July 27th, 1990? Do we rent a location large enough and suitable, hire support staff, and engage legal counsel in order to collate information from various persons and circles to eventually compile a hardbound tome chronicling events of two decades ago? Couldn't an eminent historian or even an investigative journalist with a distinguished career do the same for less?
But what really are we looking into? Do we have a specific allegation or allegations to investigate? What will be the Commission's terms of reference? Or are they just to freewheel? Are we looking at a specific person or persons as we did in the Piarco Airport Terminal Inquiry or the coming UDECOTT Inquiry? Do we have a location to examine, and contracts and building arrangements to look into as we did with the Biche High School Inquiry?
According to someone dear to me, isn't this whole Commission of Inquiry arrangement just a placebo, something to make us feel better while doing little to nothing at all? In my opinion, it's worse than that, frankly, because in doing nothing, we're also going to be spending a lot of money to achieve little. And subsequently, we will complain about how much money was spent to engage and execute a Commission of Inquiry with little return.
When we do engage this Trinbagonian panacea, this universal miracle cure-all for all our ills, all we do is provide an expensive avenue for people to sit in camera and launch allegations which are then questioned and documented. Recommendations are then forwarded to Cabinet or President in a form that is not even necessarily actionable. And then all a body need do, per precedent set, is file for judicial review to prevent President or Cabinet from acting, pending the results of some obscure thing or other.
So eighteen years later, what's our remedy really? At the end of a six-month to year-long inquiry, after millions of dollars are spent, do we anticipate that we'll have a crime that we can successfully charge someone with other than that which the insurrectionists should have hanged for? Or will we have a document full of he-said-she-said that couldn't stand in the face of basic rules of evidence?
If someone does have something holding strong enough to support a charge, why not take it to the Police or the DPP for investigation? Is the statute of limitations on any such crime up? Why duck down behind "alleged" and "reputed"? Why hide behind veils of Parliamentary Privilege? Why toss ancient red herrings around if you still have something holding eighteen years later? Are you, herring-tosser, fooling anybody? Are we fooling ourselves? Are we feeling better by throwing blame around at no-one in particular for something that happened 20-odd years ago? Are we hoping that if we throw everything at the wall that maybe something will stick? Does someone have something that dastardly to hide? Even if a Commission were engaged, who is to say that the people who would deny any allegations made in a Court of Law would not make the same denial before the Commission?
Eighteen years later, and there are still so many questions...
POSTSCRIPT: Let it not be said that I feel no sympathy for those who died and the many who were injured during the insurrection and in its aftermath. Let it not be said that I do not empathise with the survivors. But what we do next after all this time has to make sense. Like everything else, we need to think through the hows and whys and determine incisive objectives of our next actions. Otherwise, to wax colloquiol, we're just spinning top in mud... again.
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That Raoul Pantin book sell out yes.
Nowhere have it. Only one store bussin a 175 for it in town have one copy remaining, but the rest of places sell out at 105 and 120 each.
Will have to keep on hunting
Nooooo!!....do say dat nah.... :frustrated:
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I trying to get that book since last year i think....have my name on a waiting list. might have to wait till this coup time cool down.
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That Raoul Pantin book sell out yes.
Nowhere have it. Only one store bussin a 175 for it in town have one copy remaining, but the rest of places sell out at 105 and 120 each.
Will have to keep on hunting
Ah read de Pantin book today. It was very descriptive, and it make yuh feel as doh yuh was right there in de TTT building wit dem fellas. From de tension, tuh de lil old talk, knocking card, de emotional rollercoasters, it was ah nice read. De one ting ah could fault it for is de unnecessary repetition of certain events, as well as de constant reminder dat Abu Bakr was formerly Lennox Phillip. Someting like dis should be required reading in secondary school.
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Ah read de Pantin book today. It was very descriptive, and it make yuh feel as doh yuh was right there in de TTT building wit dem fellas. From de tension, tuh de lil old talk, knocking card, de emotional rollercoasters, it was ah nice read. De one ting ah could fault it for is de unnecessary repetition of certain events, as well as de constant reminder dat Abu Bakr was formerly Lennox Phillip. Someting like dis should be required reading in secondary school.
i search all over the place for that book when i was back home a couple months ago...
the woman in RIK promise to get me a copy from the publisher and i never hear from her after that.
where you get it and is it available now?
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Ah read de Pantin book today. It was very descriptive, and it make yuh feel as doh yuh was right there in de TTT building wit dem fellas. From de tension, tuh de lil old talk, knocking card, de emotional rollercoasters, it was ah nice read. De one ting ah could fault it for is de unnecessary repetition of certain events, as well as de constant reminder dat Abu Bakr was formerly Lennox Phillip. Someting like dis should be required reading in secondary school.
i search all over the place for that book when i was back home a couple months ago...
the woman in RIK promise to get me a copy from the publisher and i never hear from her after that.
where you get it and is it available now?
I get mine from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Days-Wrath-1990-Trinidad-Tobago/dp/059542502X/ref=cm_lmf_tit_6_rdssss0)
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Ah read de Pantin book today. It was very descriptive, and it make yuh feel as doh yuh was right there in de TTT building wit dem fellas. From de tension, tuh de lil old talk, knocking card, de emotional rollercoasters, it was ah nice read. De one ting ah could fault it for is de unnecessary repetition of certain events, as well as de constant reminder dat Abu Bakr was formerly Lennox Phillip. Someting like dis should be required reading in secondary school.
i search all over the place for that book when i was back home a couple months ago...
the woman in RIK promise to get me a copy from the publisher and i never hear from her after that.
where you get it and is it available now?
I get mine from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Days-Wrath-1990-Trinidad-Tobago/dp/059542502X/ref=cm_lmf_tit_6_rdssss0)
bless..
now seeing it on barnes and noble as well.
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go here to find a library that has it to borrow
http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/172981523
the closest one to me is only in Portland Library...over 200 miles away
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That Raoul Pantin book sell out yes.
Nowhere have it. Only one store bussin a 175 for it in town have one copy remaining, but the rest of places sell out at 105 and 120 each.
Will have to keep on hunting
Ah read de Pantin book today. It was very descriptive, and it make yuh feel as doh yuh was right there in de TTT building wit dem fellas. From de tension, tuh de lil old talk, knocking card, de emotional rollercoasters, it was ah nice read. De one ting ah could fault it for is de unnecessary repetition of certain events, as well as de constant reminder dat Abu Bakr was formerly Lennox Phillip. Someting like dis should be required reading in secondary school.
I now bounce up this thread yes. I just want to echo the sentiments of the thread in that I really didn't know too much about the Coup (I was just 10 yrs at the time and was in my own world). So on the anniversary this year, I went searching for info online and bought the Raoul Pantin book same day. There is not much available anywhere else and it is a real shame. Not necessarily a great read (the writing style wasn't anything special and at times a bit repetitive), but the information was excellent.
He compared the 70's movement to the coup a little, talked about the months building up to the coup, etc. So is more the lil tidbits you picking up that giving you a piece of our history.
I agree with you Tallman, this should be made compulsory reading for students back home. But we need more resources covering this.. a lil documentary or something.
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Well July 27th 1990 ist yr from UWI Mona. So u know after 9 mths in JA u know TNT is d best place in d world. So 4 Abu 2 do what he did 2 say dat I was pissed is puttin it mildly. After livin in a place where d $ was doin d dollar wine even b4 Colin Lucas sing it.
Then 2 top it off in 92 I ready 2 come home wit meh degree u know dey free d clown. So Abu in my book is dead man walkin as a snr police officer told me when I worked there he told me he blame d soldier who drive d bus because every soldier know dey suppose 2 die 4 dey country.
D biggest obsurd was a day I in d Red House who I go c is Abu makin demands as he want 2 c d clerk as he have some marriages 2 register.
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It turn out Abu was in the TTFF Centennial Dinner....same place where our President was.
ah boy....what a place.
I go hadda check back them book stores to see if they have it. Maybe the publishers was working out distribution with them online retailers and was salting the T&T book stores? I go see how the price compare cuz it relatively cheap online...even for the hardcover.
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Well its that time again and my mind ran on this thread yesterday when Robbie visit the fella who's been holding a 3 day fast outside the Red House. Wendell Eversley's the guys name and he was a hostage. Apparently he's been calling for a Commission of Inquiry in the 19 years that's gone by.
Then I just saw an ad on TV6 that they are going to show a documentary on the whole thing. They didn't give a date only that its coming soon....would love to see that....*sigh* ah know 19 years has gone by eh but I doh think this will ever go away until we open up the wound, treat it properly and put it to rest once and for all....ah feel the powers that be just biding time till all the major players dead....memory cyar be the real reason.....who de hell going and forget this particular event..... :-\
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COMM OF ENQ has never serve any useful purpose.
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COMM OF ENQ has never serve any useful purpose.
I know but at least we'll get some answers to some of the questions that's been swirling around for the past 2 decades...
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A man tell me when he saw Abu Bakr on TTT, he thought it was Play of the Month!!!
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Well its that time again and my mind ran on this thread yesterday when Robbie visit the fella who's been holding a 3 day fast outside the Red House. Wendell Eversley's the guys name and he was a hostage. Apparently he's been calling for a Commission of Inquiry in the 19 years that's gone by.
Then I just saw an ad on TV6 that they are going to show a documentary on the whole thing. They didn't give a date only that its coming soon....would love to see that....*sigh* ah know 19 years has gone by eh but I doh think this will ever go away until we open up the wound, treat it properly and put it to rest once and for all....ah feel the powers that be just biding time till all the major players dead....memory cyar be the real reason.....who de hell going and forget this particular event..... :-\
I feel real big and important men names will call if there were to be a commission, hence they brakesin.
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A man tell me when he saw Abu Bakr on TTT, he thought it was Play of the Month!!!
Is dat man name Clive Pantin because he thought was a skit as well. Play of d month was off tv bout a decade so how could dey feel it was a play is beyond me.
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Well its that time again and my mind ran on this thread yesterday when Robbie visit the fella who's been holding a 3 day fast outside the Red House. Wendell Eversley's the guys name and he was a hostage. Apparently he's been calling for a Commission of Inquiry in the 19 years that's gone by.
Then I just saw an ad on TV6 that they are going to show a documentary on the whole thing. They didn't give a date only that its coming soon....would love to see that....*sigh* ah know 19 years has gone by eh but I doh think this will ever go away until we open up the wound, treat it properly and put it to rest once and for all....ah feel the powers that be just biding time till all the major players dead....memory cyar be the real reason.....who de hell going and forget this particular event..... :-\
I feel real big and important men names will call if there were to be a commission, hence they brakesin.
After we call dey name what go happen? NUTTENNNNNNNNNNN ZEROOOOOOOOOOO ZILTCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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Ehy TV6 advertising a trailor called 1990...a documentary but they ent saying what time or date it showing...look out for it.
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Ehy TV6 advertising a trailor called 1990...a documentary but they ent saying what time or date it showing...look out for it.
Part of the newscast for 3 nites.
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Starting when Weary...tonight?
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Last call for 1990 probe
T&T Guardian Editorial
On this date next year, two decades will have passed since the men of the Jamaat al Muslimeen launched their failed coup attempt against the elected government of Trinidad and Tobago. With a concerted effort and a determined will, today’s government could offer the people of T&T a report, delivered by a commission of enquiry that begins to offer some insight into the events of that dark week in July, 1990.
An investigation into the root causes of the event may serve to inform our understanding of the motivations and context of the incident, and guide future handling of similar issues before they ferment into socially-destructive behaviour. The determined neglect of this troubling time in the nation’s history for so long may well have come with costs we are still to tally.
So many questions related to the July 27th coup attempt remain disturbingly unresolved, and leave the nation with the kind of irritating, lingering pain one experiences from a pebble in a shoe or a splinter just out of sight in the skin. The issues surrounding the national security breaches that made it possible for the Mucurapo Road-based insurgents to arm themselves and take over the Red House and Trinidad and Tobago Television, then the lone television station in the country, after detonating explosives at Police Headquarters, remain unexplored in any satisfactory way. With so little understanding of the national security breaches that allowed this rebel group to arm itself so effortlessly, how can we hope to stem the flow of arms 20 years later?
The role of economics in providing the radical Muslim group with a contingent of eager young recruits, willing to face possible death to realise a poorly-outlined dream, remains unstudied. In 1990, it is commonly known, there was a growing number of young people facing poor prospects in the face of an imploding economy who were disenchanted with their lot and ripe for alternative views of the established methods of governance, particularly in the face of austerity measures introduced by the NAR administration. Nineteen years ago, the balance of power in T&T shifted imperceptibly, as the Police Force, once believed to be the strong right arm of justice, found itself flattened by the sudden appearance of a force with superior arms and stronger motivation.
Was that the point at which criminals realised, that with determination and force, they could change the balance of power in law enforcement in T&T and overwhelm the nation with a legacy of running failures in its national security strategies? There are questions coming out of the coup attempt that may never be fully answered, but the questions should at least be couched in greater knowledge of the incident than has been available for public consumption and comprehension, thus far. Contrast the 19 years of polite silence that has been the legacy of 1990 with the actions of the US Government, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Faced with attacks on their society by enemies targeting areas of weakness, immediate steps were taken to review the vulnerable points of access. The 9/11 Commission began its analysis of the attacks in 2002, delivering its report in 2004.
The document the 9/11 Commission produced has been the subject of both analysis and criticism, but it was a solid effort at putting into the public record everything that was known about the terrorist attacks of September, 2001. That document and the analysis of the 9/11 attack continue to inform security approaches in the US to this day. There is no comparable document available for reference on the 1990 coup attempt, and such a report is, to put it mildly, long overdue. Time is running out for a commission of enquiry. Some of the major players have passed on, and others may be facing flawed recall with advancing age.
Even if there is no clear resolution to be had from proceeding with the inquiry at this late stage, there remains value in putting into the national record the remembrances, recollections and turbulent history of a time we have been too eager to allow to recede into the past. While understanding security issues that are now 19 years old may not bring value to the needs of law enforcement today, those who suffered and those who died during that week of terror deserve to have their story told and understood. The national psyche can only benefit from an open, clear and balanced analysis of the crisis T&T faced on July 27, 1990.
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Starting when Weary...tonight?
YESSSSSSSSSS
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Even if there is no clear resolution to be had from proceeding with the inquiry at this late stage, there remains value in putting into the national record the remembrances, recollections and turbulent history of a time we have been too eager to allow to recede into the past. While understanding security issues that are now 19 years old may not bring value to the needs of law enforcement today, those who suffered and those who died during that week of terror deserve to have their story told and understood. The national psyche can only benefit from an open, clear and balanced analysis of the crisis T&T faced on July 27, 1990.
My point exactly.
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manning fraid abu bakr
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manning fraid abu bakr
so I checkin why this coup didn't work. I was 10 at the time so I didn't really study dem tings den, but the obvious reason the coup wasn't as successful like all the other coups in the world (look at honduras even) is that abu bakr didn't have political support of the people. I don't think to plan out all that and not at least approach some political figure who already have political support, to be the frontman...is jus how I observe all coups does work. so bring back the question of why certain men wasn't in the red house that day, and the truth on who was at least approached by abu bakr.
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Even if there is no clear resolution to be had from proceeding with the inquiry at this late stage, there remains value in putting into the national record the remembrances, recollections and turbulent history of a time we have been too eager to allow to recede into the past. While understanding security issues that are now 19 years old may not bring value to the needs of law enforcement today, those who suffered and those who died during that week of terror deserve to have their story told and understood. The national psyche can only benefit from an open, clear and balanced analysis of the crisis T&T faced on July 27, 1990.
My point exactly.
Open/clear/balance. Dat go b d deal breaker right there. We not matrure enuff 2 accept d findings as being clear and balance some clown go claim bias. Nutten eh preventin does affected 2 share dey story bot a C O E eh go make none ah we wiser
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Even if there is no clear resolution to be had from proceeding with the inquiry at this late stage, there remains value in putting into the national record the remembrances, recollections and turbulent history of a time we have been too eager to allow to recede into the past. While understanding security issues that are now 19 years old may not bring value to the needs of law enforcement today, those who suffered and those who died during that week of terror deserve to have their story told and understood. The national psyche can only benefit from an open, clear and balanced analysis of the crisis T&T faced on July 27, 1990.
My point exactly.
Open/clear/balance. Dat go b d deal breaker right there. We not matrure enuff 2 accept d findings as being clear and balance some clown go claim bias. Nutten eh preventin does affected 2 share dey story bot a C O E eh go make none ah we wiser
We have nutten to lose....and we better do it before ALL the key players die....in fact ah feel dais Manning strategy.... :thinking:
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Plenty cocoa in de sun.
Btw...yuh kno where Bilal Abdullah working?
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Tune into Gayelle now...they showing a documentary....like you just gone back in time in a kinda warp.
Imagine people on the street they interview saying Abu is a Hero.
Check it out
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:-[ :-\ :'( :'( :'(
This documentary real sad. It bring up some bad memories...
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18 years to the day today.
19yrs ago
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http://www.youtube.com/v/q81OFZcJnbM
http://www.youtube.com/v/Sz-lvUxwJ8E
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No purpose in coup enquiry now
By Juhel Browne (T&T Express)
Increased calls for a commission of enquiry into the 1990 attempted coup, including one from former president Arthur NR Robinson, are not forcing any change in Prime Minister Patrick Manning's previously stated position that the Government is convinced "there isn't any useful purpose to be served".
And while Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday, who served as Prime Minister from 1995 to 2001, says if the public wants an enquiry into the events of 1990, one should take place, he also does not see "what purpose that will serve now".
During the wreath-laying ceremony at the Red House, Port of Spain, in 2005 commemorating the event, Manning had said then: "It is the view of the Government that 15 years is a very long time, that a lot of the circumstances that existed 15 years ago exist only in a very hazy way in the minds of many and that we are not convinced that a commission of enquiry is the way to proceed at this time or that there is any useful purpose that will be served."
Since 2005, Manning has not announced any change in this position.
In response to a question on the matter from the Express yesterday, Paige De Leon, of the Office of the Prime Minister, said, "At this time, I am not aware that the Prime Minister's position has changed, but I am aware he has been very consistent in the past on where he stands on the issue."
Minister in the Ministry of National Security Donna Cox, who represented the Prime Minister at the wreath-laying ceremony that commemorated that 19th anniversary of the coup attempt yesterday at the Red House Cenotaph, made similar comments when asked if, as far as she knew, the Government's position remained the same as it did in 2005.
"Yes, definitely, that is the Government's position and if that's the Prime Minister's position, it's mine also," Cox said.
Contacted by the Express for comment yesterday, Panday said, "First of all, I think it is rather late in the day to have an enquiry, since most of the evidence might not be available. But if the people of Trinidad and Tobago feel that they need some closure and they need to know more about it, well then, by all means have the enquiry... I don't see what purpose it will serve now."
Panday, instead, said that having regard to what is going on in the country right now, taxpayers' money would be much better spent on "a commission of enquiry into racism and racial discrimination in the Public Service".
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SADDDD but agree wit Bas
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Even if there is no clear resolution to be had from proceeding with the inquiry at this late stage, there remains value in putting into the national record the remembrances, recollections and turbulent history of a time we have been too eager to allow to recede into the past. While understanding security issues that are now 19 years old may not bring value to the needs of law enforcement today, those who suffered and those who died during that week of terror deserve to have their story told and understood. The national psyche can only benefit from an open, clear and balanced analysis of the crisis T&T faced on July 27, 1990.
My point exactly.
And, in its glaring lucidity this statement explains a lot ... think of a Venn diagram
(http://www.amphi.com/teachers/brobeson/images/E9889D89B84B4324B0D3C35D9D8F6332.jpg)
The editorial states A ... the powers that be (deliberately singular) states B ... guess what is at the intersection of the truth and resistance to transparency.
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SADDDD but agree wit Bas
Yeah this from a man who when the country's democracy was under attack uttered "Wake me when its over..." steups.....he must be another one with cocoa in the sun....
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http://www.youtube.com/v/wlLUE6qKFyM
http://www.youtube.com/v/L6KvKQlFJuc
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good stuff dey tallman. i had not seen this footage since 1990. now, of course i see it with different eyes and with the wisdom gained thru the years. these men gett away scot free oui. trinidad sweeeeet
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http://www.youtube.com/v/YOUZ2661sCo
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Every time i see or hear bout this coup i does get pist red! >:( how the fack yuh attempt ah coup without the coopereation of the military, almost 95% of all coup had military involvement. these ppl make big asses of themselves.
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JC,
You agreed with abu motives???
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Thanks for the videos Tallman..
man, this thing really rising up some kinda emotions yes..
Father forgive I!!
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Every time i see or hear bout this coup i does get pist red! >:( how the fack yuh attempt ah coup without the coopereation of the military, almost 95% of all coup had military involvement. these ppl make big asses of themselves.
dais cause de "Coast Guard" save we arse de last time :devil:
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Thanks for the videos Tallman..
man, this thing really rising up some kinda emotions yes..
Father forgive I!!
D exact reason I eh watch nuff ting 2 ask 4 forgiveness 4 no need to ask 4 more.
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JC,
You agreed with abu motives???
It eh dat simple deeks! but i'll tell yuh what, yuh see all dem colonial minded old men, including abu, i have no respect for them! as ah matter of fact, the only old man in T&T that i have ah LITTLE respect for is the first PM and the father of our nation DR Eric eustace williams.
and that's BC he had the best intrest of the ppl, and i mean the ppl, and the nation @ heart. he was not as neglectful as his successors.
as for this abu fella yuh asking meh bout? he's like an enigma to me, not quite clear what scene he on. plus when he rose up as a public figur, i was already in foreign searching for food for the pot, so i really don't know anything about dude except what i hear from my aquantances and relatives. positive.
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JC,
You agreed with abu motives???
It eh dat simple deeks! but i'll tell yuh what, yuh see all dem colonial minded old men, including abu, i have no respect for them! as ah matter of fact, the only old man in T&T that i have ah LITTLE respect for is the first PM and the father of our nation DR Eric eustace williams.
and that's BC he had the best intrest of the ppl, and i mean the ppl, and the nation @ heart. he was not as neglectful as his successors.
as for this abu fella yuh asking meh bout? he's like an enigma to me, not quite clear what scene he on. plus when he rose up as a public figur, i was already in foreign searching for food for the pot, so i really don't know anything about dude except what i hear from my aquantances and relatives. positive.
Heard from a very good source that at first -(before coup) Abu was genuine and had a lot of support from both the african and indian community. Even the Jamaat compound was built by donations and hard work from people from different communities all over. The guy was a genuine activist. But then his movements and utterances changed and a lot of people pulled away from him.
Then coup happen.
To me he seems to be a 'community leader' for hire - is real contracts and companies them fellas(jamaat men) running .
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Trinidad Newsday
Another look at 1990 coup (http://newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,104185.html)
GEORGE ALLEYNE Wednesday, July 22 2009
Any Inquiry into the July 27, 1990 attempted coup by the Jamaat al Muslimeen should seek to find out who was behind the supplying of the then militant group with weapons and ammunition, who orchestrated the move to seize power and was the planned coup specifically designed to overthrow the leadership of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) Government.
In addition, and this is crucial, why had no action been taken to forestall the attempted coup, when there had been ample information contained in a newspaper article published several weeks before July 27 that a container of arms and ammunition had landed in Trinidad and had been allowed to be unstuffed several miles from the port of entry? Is it not possible that had the authorities moved with dispatch when the article on the arrival of the container with arms had been published, they would have discovered not only the name of the Customs and Excise officer, who authorised the unstuffing and actually supervised it, but the exact location where the unstuffing took place along with the location of the arms.
At the time, because there was not enough room at any of the nation’s ports to effectively handle the huge volume of containers arriving in Trinidad, arrangements had been made for the unstuffing of containers at authorised points, away from the port of entry. These places were usually warehouses owned by the relevant importers and Customs and Excise officials were specially assigned to direct the process. In this specific case the container of arms and ammunition had been reportedly, directed by the Customs and Excise officer to be taken and emptied at an unauthorised place. This advice was detailed in the pre-July 27, 1990 article.
The question arises as it must: How was the container allowed to be shipped to Trinidad when even a minimum check would have discovered the presence of arms and ammunition? For the record, the bulk of the weapons, reportedly, could not have been used as was subsequently found out. What has troubled many observers over the years has been why was the coup attempt not prevented? There is no valid reason why the attempted coup should have taken place and all the anguish, which followed, allowed. The action, one of the most serious in the history of Trinidad and Tobago, must take its place as one of the nation’s most frightening moments, including the so-called Black Power uprising and the revolt of the military, which it triggered.
And while the leaders of the attempted coup, known and unknown, will not be forgiven by history, nonetheless, any Inquiry should seek to question as well those, who although they resided outside of our twin-island State, actively encouraged it and participated through the supply of arms and ammunition. The July 27, 1990 coup attempt must be condemned.
The attempt to overthrow then Prime Minister, ANR Robinson, along with the manoeuvring, manipulating of people and minds somehow reminded of the carefully executed destabilisation of the Government of former Jamaican Prime Minister, the late Michael Manley, because his assumption of the role of one of the leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement had been disapproved.
Meanwhile, although several newspaper articles have been written over the years of Trinidad and Tobago being blocked by the action of Trinbagonian officials from achieving membership in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) through devious stratagems adopted, on behalf of a Third Party, yet relatively few appear to be aware of this. In turn, this country, years before the above took place, could have been one of the early members of OPEC, when it was proposed by Venezuela. This, however, was frustrated as all of the oil companies operating here at the time were foreign owned. The benefits would have been tremendous. But I have strayed.
On Monday, Trinidad and Tobago will commemorate the 19th anniversary of the attempt to overthrow the ANR Robinson-led NAR Administration. And while a full and comprehensive Inquiry should be held into the event, this will not take place because such an Inquiry would be inimical to powerful overseas interests. The questions and their answers would be too damning. For example: Who persuaded the ordering of the weapons, bullets and shells? Who had the authority to facilitate their being shipped without a thorough check of the container’s cargo? What has emerged is that there were, probably, two container shipments, with the crucial consignment being the one that, according to reports, landed at the Port of Pointe-a-Pierre!
Memories would have faded with respect to the name of the Customs and Excise officer, who arranged for the Pointe-a-Pierre landed container to be cleared of its contents. Still, any Inquiry may be able to determine which came first, the organising of the attempted coup or the decision by the arms providers to intervene in a horrific manner in the internal affairs of Trinidad and Tobago.
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Dennis Mc Comie (regarded as the voice of the nation during that traumatic time) has written a book recounting his experiences.....available at major bookstores in T&T @ $150.00. I read the book Mr. Pantin wrote and I am going to buy this one as well....
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SADDDD but agree wit Bas
Not tuh open old wounds, but didn't abu bakar confirmed about 5 yrs ago that bass was the reason for the coop, and that bass was behind the scenes orchestrating the whole thing? so it comes as no suprise tuh me that he didn't want an inquiry since he had the most to lose.
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Wait nah!
Who it was on de campaign trail promise an enquiry into de coup?
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Wait nah!
Who it was on de campaign trail promise an enquiry into de coup?
I blieve d same peeps who said 3000 pension from age 60. I maybe wrong these days I goin by Josephine sista of Joseph d great dreamer. So may have dreamt dat.
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Kamla say, Commission of Enquiry coming. This was ignored for far too long....Kamla gets 6 out of 10 for bringing this to the fore. She will get the other 4 when the enquiry actually gets up and running....
I hope it wont be too long again...I eh know how much longer Robbie will last....
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Kamla say, Commission of Enquiry coming. This was ignored for far too long....Kamla gets 6 out of 10 for bringing this to the fore. She will get the other 4 when the enquiry actually gets up and running....
I hope it wont be too long again...I eh know how much longer Robbie will last....
Like yuh eh read where she get death threats in she arse as well. i believe she should just leave these jammat ppl alone and concentrate on the corruption wid udecutt and guanapo together wid the high level of criminal activity in the country and forget what happen 20 yrs ago! after all DR williams forgot and forgave dagga and lassalle dem. move on kamla move on, yuh have bigger fish tuh fry.
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Kamla say, Commission of Enquiry coming. This was ignored for far too long....Kamla gets 6 out of 10 for bringing this to the fore. She will get the other 4 when the enquiry actually gets up and running....
I hope it wont be too long again...I eh know how much longer Robbie will last....
Like yuh eh read where she get death threats in she arse as well. i believe she should just leave these jammat ppl alone and concentrate on the corruption wid udecutt and guanapo together wid the high level of criminal activity in the country and forget what happen 20 yrs ago! after all DR williams forgot and forgave dagga and lassalle dem. move on kamla move on, yuh have bigger fish tuh fry.
While me eh really in favor of d COE reason being still waitin 4 d benefit from all from rest. But because we fraid dat clown Bakr is not a reason.
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I understand what you saying about time past and we have bigger fish to fry in this country...I just hope that this is a fact finding mission and not a witch hunt...I truly believe that we have already missed the boat on this one and Bakr is a legally freed man in this country...We probably the only country where someone like him could get off so easily, it's sad but it rounds up our Justice system..I don't think it have any files to buss with this issue..I believe he acted alone because no way in hell are you going to plan something as big as that and the first person you tip off is a politician..I still respect Robbie up to this day, say what you want about him, he's a true patriot.."Attack with full force" while having a gun stuck in your back, the man put country first..
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I understand what you saying about time past and we have bigger fish to fry in this country...I just hope that this is a fact finding mission and not a witch hunt...I truly believe that we have already missed the boat on this one and Bakr is a legally freed man in this country...We probably the only country where someone like him could get off so easily, it's sad but it rounds up our Justice system..I don't think it have any files to buss with this issue..I believe he acted alone because no way in hell are you going to plan something as big as that and the first person you tip off is a politician..I still respect Robbie up to this day, say what you want about him, he's a true patriot.."Attack with full force" while having a gun stuck in your back, the man put country first..
ENTTTTTTT
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JC what make you say that Williams forgot and forgave the insurgents?
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JC what make you say that Williams forgot and forgave the insurgents?
Didn't they all walked free?? when danjumma went back nigeria and did ah coup of his own williams never sought to re-open the case even when clark and hochoy was pressuring him to pursue further charges.
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good stuff dey tallman. i had not seen this footage since 1990. now, of course i see it with different eyes and with the wisdom gained thru the years. these men gett away scot free oui. trinidad sweeeeet
ENT............Trinidad is the only country where a man stage a coup, kill people, bun dong de city, squat on government land like iz he own..............and still walk around like a VIP.
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good stuff dey tallman. i had not seen this footage since 1990. now, of course i see it with different eyes and with the wisdom gained thru the years. these men gett away scot free oui. trinidad sweeeeet
ENT............Trinidad is the only country where a man stage a coup, kill people, bun dong de city, squat on government land like iz he own..............and still walk around like a VIP.
Yuh forget form a political party and fight a general election....ooopss sorry it wasn't him it was his son's party...... ::)
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I hear how Abu Bakr going and be on Dale and Tony Morning show on I95 tomorrow morning. Might be interesting to hear.
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20 years today people..
What is being done in rememberance of the people that were killed during the coup?
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20 years today people..
What is being done in rememberance of the people that were killed during the coup?
Service at Trinity Cathedral names of persons who died were read out.
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20 years today people..
What is being done in rememberance of the people that were killed during the coup?
Service at Trinity Cathedral names of persons who died were read out.
Hmm...
Contrast that with what the Americans would do on the 10th/20th anniversaries of 9/11 to commemorate. Ah mean to say people dead and they shoot the Prime Minister! Today is basically our 9/11 and it seems we all too willing to just forget that and bury head in the sand.
Sorry but it does leave a sour taste in my mouth, this nation never really healed from that and it is my opinion that alot of the negative elements that have since crept into our social fabric stemmed from that fateful period.
Good to see the commission of enquiry being initiated and the Jamaat lands being auctioned off.
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20 years today people..
What is being done in rememberance of the people that were killed during the coup?
Service at Trinity Cathedral names of persons who died were read out.
Hmm...
Contrast that with what the Americans would do on the 10th/20th anniversaries of 9/11 to commemorate. Ah mean to say people dead and they shoot the Prime Minister! Today is basically our 9/11 and it seems we all too willing to just forget that and bury head in the sand.
Sorry but it does leave a sour taste in my mouth, this nation never really healed from that and it is my opinion that alot of the negative elements that have since crept into our social fabric stemmed from that fateful period.
Good to see the commission of enquiry being initiated and the Jamaat lands being auctioned off.
U know we eh have a sense of history. Of couse we became super lawless after July 27th. We were always lawless but free dem fellas say u can literally get away wit muder.
As 4 d COE u tell me d PP still makinin up dey mind bout who goin and sit on it. All yuh 4 yrs sayin dey should have 1 now all yuh could make it happen yuh never gave taught about who go b on it. LOUDDDDD STEUPSSSSS
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TT coup: 20 years on (http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2010/07/100728_coup_20years_bakr.shtml)
Abu Bakr called for public support for his attempted coup d'etat
On the evening of 27 July 1990, 114 members of the islamic grouping, the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen took over the country's parliament during a sitting of the House of Representatives.
Jamaat leader Yasin Abu Bakr led some of his men and also took over the then only state TV station, Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT).
Trinidad and Tobago's security forces cordoned off the areas around the Trinidad parliament (the Red House) and TTT.
Abu Bakr broadcast several transmissions to the Trinidad and Tobago public saying he had overthrown the government and asking for public support.
In the early hours of 28 July, the armed forces cut off transmissions from TTT. A state of emergency was imposed in Trinidad and Tobago and a five-day hostage crisis then ensued.
At the Red House, one of the hostages, Prime Minister ANR Robinson announced that an amnesty had been negotiated with the Muslimeen and a series of visits by go-betweens from the country's church leaders took place.
The surrender of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen insurrectionists and the release of their hostages brought an end to six of the bloddiest days in Trinidad's history.
24 people were dead, many injured, and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage done to looted and damaged buildings and shops in the capital Port of Spain.
BBC Caribbean will be charting the personal stories of the key players in the events of 1990 and memories of those caught on the front line during the crisis.
Abu Bakr interview (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/caribbean/meta/dps/2010/07/100728_abu_bakr_iv?bgc=003399&lang=en-cb&nbram=1&nbwm=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=au). This man still makes my skin crawl to this day, so full of himself.