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AT
LAST, MAURICE AND THE AIRPORT ARE RE-UNITED
The Point Salines
International Airport was officially opened
in October 1984,just one year following the demise of the Grenada
Revolution and the brutal executions of
Maurice Bishop and others. Today, 26 years
in the wake of the bloody events of October
1983, the airport and its most
celebrated poet- Maurice Bishop- will be
re-united.
Let us remember that the idea
of naming the airport for Maurice started
with Terry Marryshow and the Maurice Bishop
Patriotic Movement (MPBM) in 1985:
Marryshow’s pioneering toil must be
acknowledged.
Naming the airport for
Maurice Bishop is not the same as turning
him into a saint; nor is it an attempt to
put him in a place beyond reproach.
Maurice was very human and
being human meant he could make mistakes;
and he did. Being human ourselves, we do
not hold up Maurice’s imperfections as a
valid reason to deny him the honour that is
truly his: we will never have human heroes
and sheroes if such honours were open only
to the unblemished.
Some of our compatriots are
opposed to the idea of naming the airport for Maurice. We
must be careful not to make light of their
dissent. We must never deny the sincerity
and the earnestness of their stated
objections.
We must remind ourselves that
much healing could happen if we remained
sensitive to opinions expressed by Lloyd
Noel, Andrew Bierzynski and others: The
musician with a keen ear makes harmony out
of dissonance.
Martin P. Felix does have a
keen ear and it is why he took the time to write a little book
around which we can celebrate what is a very
teachable moment in our history. First
published in 1998 (under the auspices of the
Grenada Forum, New York), Felix’s “Maurice
Bishop International Airport” is a sensitive contribution to
our continuing search for comity and consensus.
The ruling NDC Government
deserves our thanks for showing courage on
this issue; we believe it is a good thing
for Grenada that the opposition
NNP also backs the renaming of the airport.
Let us all look ahead to building on this
rare show of bi-partisanship.
One love,
Sue Patrice and Caldwell
Taylor |
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Martin
P. Felix wrote this little book
around which we can celebrate what
is a very teachable moment in our
history. First published in
1998, Felix's "Maurice Bishop
International Airport" is a
sensitive contribution to our
continuing search for comity and
consensus.
Caldwell Taylor
Read more at this link
http://www.bigdrumnation.org/airport
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REMEMBERING
“MARIO” GEORGE RANDOLPH EARLE BULLEN
Caldwell Taylor
His voice seemed to me the
sonic signifier of a smile. It wasn’t
a big voice: it was just a voice that
elicited attention; a voice that
illustrated the geography of a temperate
mind; a magnetic and manicured voice. |
THE
FEDON REBELLION (MARCH 2, 1795-JUNE 19,
1796)
Caldwell Taylor
That martyred place called Haiti was the
locus of the only successful overthrow by
slaves of their masters. And you know what?
Grenada’s Fedon Rebellion (MARCH 2,
1795-June 19, 1796) came closest to
replicating Haiti’s singular triumph, a
matter that has escaped the attention of the
historians. |
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CHALKDUST
WINS AND NUMBER 8
by
Caldwell Taylor
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"Chalkdust" is the Trinidad and
Tobago Calypso Monarch for . Last
night’s win was Chalkie’s eighth,
tying him with Sparrow for the most
calypso crowns in the history of
calypso king (monarch) competitions:
.Among calypso historians there is
wide agreement that the first major
calypso competition was held in
1939: that show crowned the Growling
Tiger, whose victory earned him five
dollars a bottle of white rum. |
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Congratulations
Grenada on your 35th
Anniversary of Independence |
Abolition,
Indentureship and Creoleness: Reflections on the
Indo-Grenadian predicament
by Raymond
D. Viechweg
A Meeting of cultures
The abolition of the
British slave trade in 1807 signaled the end of the
trade in African slaves and the beginning of the trade
in Indian indentures.
As such, it meant the
continuous intermixing, or creolizing, of cultures that
would eventually place the Grenadian Indian in a
position of cultural vulnerability. When Indians arrived
in Grenada in 1857, they found themselves in a position
subordinate to a dominant Anglo-African creolization.
The occasion of the abolition of the slave trade should
be commemorated neither as spectacle, nor as a mere
dramatization, but as a marker which from year to year
will chart the progress made towards mitigating the
hegemonistic tendencies within Grenadian creolization.
Hegemony is the
tendency of one group to exercise dominance over other
groups, even without the threat of force.
In hegemonies, the
espoused beliefs, values and philosophies of the
dominant group are empowered, almost to the exclusion of
others. In Grenada, Indians have functioned within and
alongside the dominant Afro-Grenadian cultural formation
for 150 years now. So, as we commemorate the abolition
of the slave trade, we must simultaneously commemorate
the addition to Grenadian culture of an indispensable
East Indian component.
Today, as we remember
the perils of the slave trade, so should we also
remember the perils of the journey from India. As we
remember the end of the slave trade, so should we also
remember the beginning of indentured labour.
Today, unfortunately, we
must lament the absence of any monuments to Indian
contributions to Grenadian nationhood and culture.
Hopefully, through the lamentation, a solution may
appear.
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