In the spirit of political maturity, I will try a critique of the government of the day and before and see what happens.
The statements made by Former Chief Minister Washington Misick in Parliament is one that is in my view, xenophobic and hypocritical and must be taken in the context that it is in. A xenophobe is person who is fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or of people from different countries or cultures.
This fear has no place in a modern society and should not be motivated or promoted by modern day political figures. The parliamentary statement is even hypocritical because it does not in any way reflect the views of the party on whose platform the same minister was elected. The Progressive National Party, PNP is known for being one of the most progressive and culturally tolerant political parties in the history of the TCI and for a PNP minister to be on a national stage spewing this level of xenophobia is in my view extremely hypocritical.
The TCI Constitution protects the rights of persons to freely associate. In other words you can gather with anyone you want to gather with and celebrate whatever you want to celebrate as long as you do so within the confines of the laws. Now before I go too deeply into this, allow me to also add that the idea of the Minister implying that other nationals should be subjected to celebrating TCI culture is also primitive and actually crazy.
Very few people in the TCI celebrate what is known and sold as TCI culture. This is because culture is at best a bit of history reenactments that date back only about 40 to 50 years. The mean problem with TCI Culture as it has been presented by the Goverment in modern years, is that it plastic and appears to be fabricated. Truth is the TCI as a nation lacks the basics for the formation of the level of self-pride that is needed to build a true and lasting cultural heritage.
The TCI is one of few countries in the region that has never had to unite and overcome any obstacles as a nation. Many will lash back and quip, JAGs McCartney and the Junkanoo Club incident, the Blackpower Movement. The Blackpower Movement of the 1970’s was a remains on record as the most “half-hearted” struggle against British rule ever in the history of men. Allow me to explain why self pride could not be built on it. Basically the British record reads like this – JAGS and his friends resented the idea of the governor recruiting foreign police offices, they booed the officers and made some “rookery” the police responded by firing some shots in the air, JAGs and his boys barricaded themselves in a rum bar, and made demands, and held hostages. Happy hostages I might add, because in actuality, those hostages may not have even known they were hostages, the story is that they were given unlimited liquor during the whole ordeal and the only tough choice they faced was choosing between rum and monkey bag.
Now for the life of me, do you expect a christian society to build their self-pride on a movement fueled by rum? The only demand of the Junkanoo Club incident was that a commission be setup to investigate the Junkanoo Club incident. The whole struggle lasted a single night, and no animals were armed during the operation.
Now as we get back the the statement, everyone who knows Hon. Washington Misick knows that his in not very xenophobic, in fact I don’t think he is in the least bit xenophobic. This man has a multitude of friend from Europe and Asia and North American and primarily spends his leisure times with them. The real problem is that this government of the day so busy on the unimportance that the important issues are going unnoticed.
Since the minister is finding so much time in Parliament to bash other nations for celebrating the fruits of their struggle, I would seize this opportunity to present a few struggles that are dear to the hearts of TCIslanders that should be on his tongue in parliament: 37.5% Import duties on goods, 72.5% import duties on cars, CPF, Payroll Tax, Property Tax, $500 fee to register a Belonger child, the invisibility of elected officials, government officials frequent flyer policy, bad roads, horrible internet and on and on and on.
The bottom line is that the TCI has been built on help and assistance from other nations and if the TCI does not represent anything else it represents an opportunity for advancement and an fertile ground for ideas to take root and grow into something good. The jealousy of the crowds that other nations attract and the unity they display cannot pale the fact that this is where many people have decided to call home. The difference is that the celebrations are based on love, love for country, love for unity and love for a proud identity. No nation, pride, love nor culture can ever be built on hate.
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