Worse than slavery? Really?

THE EDITOR: It must be the times we live in but it is becoming a regular occurrence all over the world that leadership doesn’t necessarily equate with command of the senses; and that’s just for starters.

Most of us are also quite aware that election periods bring heightened emotional behaviour and the desire to win at any cost, yet one is always caught off guard because you didn’t realise that the gutter was so deep.

The recent utterance by someone seeking to be prime minister in making a veiled racist statement (what sounded like “black man”) should have set off the alarm bells. But it didn’t.

Now let’s be clear. The person being referred to is black and a man and from his demeanour quite proud of both. However, those who understand tribal language would have heard the dog whistle.

But still they might have been able to barely escape on a technicality.

However, to pretend that something else was said and thereby suggest that we are either fools, asleep or so damn broke that we can only hear the sound of polymer was a fatal calculation. While the above categories may be accurate for some, it is necessary to point out that there are several of us who proudly belong to another.

Turning it into a campaign slogan of sorts is past disrespect and contempt.

While we were catching our breath desperate for some fresh air the garbage truck seems to have overturned with a full load.

Miss lady, you right in your head? You went to school? University? You never read books? The Government’s lockdown of our borders to prevent the spread of covid19 is worse than slavery?

I wont attempt to speak on indentureship (which can by no stretch of the imagination come close to the worst example of systematic inhumanity to man in recorded history – the African holocaust) but I still feel the pain and agony of that barbaric period in our history.

We will not allow any attempts to trivialise the imprisonment, genocide, rape and torture of African people to go unaddressed.

You should know better, madam. Your speech writers should know better. Your blank caucus should know better.

It is of great concern to think that people like this are currently aspiring for the highest office in the land and that they have the potential to succeed.

What is more so an issue of graver concern is the silence of members of that party, some of whom seem to have suffered a loss of testosterone in the face of this vile attack on the African community.

The premise that certain people bring ethnic balance has to be reviewed because many of them are behaving like victims of ethnic cleansing and truly deserve the title “blank man.” The origin of the statement is now clear.

We have all seen the negative results of leaders of ill repute and unacceptable standards being allowed to occupy positions of power across the world. We here have seen and heard enough.

Such abhorrent, absurd, insensitive, misguided, uninformed, disrespectful behaviour will not be accepted.

Apologise now, Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

ATO OSEI

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