Why I Wrote an Important Book About Racism in Trinidad and TobagoBy Bernard YawchingSaturday, July 17, 2021.My best-selling book, The Hidden Agenda of Race Relations in Trinidad and Tobago is written with ALL the people of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean in mind. More specifically, it is relevant to all those within both African and Indian diasporas. It seeks to present an opportunity for serious introspection and discussion among persons of the two races on such questions as human rights, equality before the law; respect and decency without regard to political persuasion, skin color or religious background and natural justice. Especially for those people of Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname, who believe they to be patriots in their respective countries, this book should present a necessary and rare opportunity to look into the mirror.The Hidden Agenda of Race Relations in Trinidad and Tobago has created quite a stir among the Indian population but is still the best-selling book by a local author in recent times. There have always been differences between the two main races – Africans and Indians which have been historically reflected in voting patterns. This publication documents well-researched sources that prove the presence of a century-old Hindu racist agenda against Africans. Africans in Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana and Suriname, have unwittingly placed themselves and their children at the mercy of Hindu nationalists, driven by a caste system ideology that they brought to the Caribbean through indentureship, one that has utilized all means available to divide and separate itself from other communities. The very religion that promotes the caste system for centuries in India, is being practiced in their mission to engineer and establish an East Indian Empire in the west.The purpose for the writing of this book is to confront the elephant in the room because there is enough evidence to indicate that Trinidad & Tobago may be on the brink of ethnic conflict. The descendants of enslaved Africans have exchanged British colonialism for Hindu nationalism, one that hates them and sees them as a pollutant based on religious teaching.It is my hope to highlight this most pressing issue among our diaspora with the intention of beginning a long overdue discussion on the need for International Black Organization and the perils in which we continue to place ourselves without it, because the social conditions and issues faced by the African remain the same, regardless of where our communities exist on the planet.For too long, the peoples in that southernmost part of the Caribbean have allowed themselves to be influenced and divided by doctrines spewed and practiced by racial and religious bigots; political despots and charlatans posing as prophets. Selfish and immoral characters possessed of a vindictiveness that has defined them and their forebears, are to be held responsible for proliferating the barbarism and the atrocities that originated with oppression.The time is therefore long overdue, for men of higher thought to give substance to that higher thought, and to seriously and uncompromisingly commit themselves to fostering and sustaining a meaningful unity amongst our peoples.Ignorance renders a people defenseless. Consequently, it is my hope that this work may serve not only as a catalyst for empowering my brothers and sisters of African descent, but will be something of an eye-opener to those persons of Indian descent who have fallen victim to the greed and self-interest of their so-called leaders, both political and religious. It is an opportunity to call out those parasites disguised as leaders whose claim to represent the well-being of their subordinates is usually inspired by personal gain. This book is aimed at exposing that coterie of adventurers for what they truly are – a mishmash of menacing mischief-makers. People who persist in preaching racial superiority over others have been proven to be very sick individuals who are conflicted by inferiority complexes and inadequacies of one kind or the other. Any man who can discriminate against his own brother based on skin color and caste, can find no love in his heart for anyone else, and is an empty vessel with a void that is difficult – if not impossible – to fill. And this is particularly relevant to the so-called East Indian leaders and their servile followers. It is only by the way of unity with purpose among citizens of all backgrounds that Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname, will rid their societies of the evils of racism and corruption in public office. The negative influences of these twin evils tend to trickle down to the very “least of us”, and to find a pathway to creating the base for a culture in which racism and corruption thrive and become self-sustaining and dangerous. Our failure as individuals to see past race and religion has been the impetus for the undermining and the eventual failure of many of the national institutions that had been established to protect our national patrimony from those who are determined to divide our societies toward their own selfish and malicious ends.These are individuals whose evil designs find sustenance both in political fanaticism and in the ignorance and disenchantment of those others who eschew participation in politics.We cannot become First-World people with Third-World minds. And that is essentially because our perceptions are anchored in the biasness of the information that has been fed to us and which was aimed at subjecting us to various gradations of servitude at the hands of those who first enslaved us, then later colonized and subjected us to their own developmental controls. We have become so attuned to regional development on other people’s terms that the lackluster approach to the establishment of a Caribbean Single Market and Economy, despite our acknowledgement of its value to our peoples, has rendered it stillborn.As Brecht warns, we are doomed to economic failure and moral bankruptcy so long as we are led – or misled – by political puppets at home whose strings are pulled one way or the other by those greedy international capitalists who are intent on determining and defining our destiny and that of our children. And so, we continue to cultivate generation after generation whose trustful members are trained to serve new economic slave masters whom they feel but never see.We continue to witness the aberration of tribal and racial voting – a curse on the land. The fact is whenever one person suffers discrimination in Trinidad and Tobago because of race, color or creed, the entire path to national unity is derailed, because any advantage thus gained can only be synthetic and fleeting. It must be noted that without equality and equity for all there can be no justice, and without justice, there will be no peace. If anyone among us is denied the comfort and peace to which our considerable resources make us entitled; if any one of us is deprived of an equal access to our resources in the interest of peace and security and if there is no equity in the dissemination of wealth to all groups among us, then the road to slavery, anarchy and war will continually be paved by those to whom we entrusted our wellbeing – those who swore to serve all the people without fear or favor, prejudice or ill- will. If the Caribbean peoples are truly serious about racial unity and equity, then it is imperative that we confront the elephant in the room. That docile animal can evolve into a roaring lion that will ultimately become uncontrollable, a lion whose ferocity is fueled by decades of hate, negative emotions, lies and inferiority complexes. And while we in our various jurisdictions continue to play foolish, selfish political games with the future of our peoples, our brothers and sisters in Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic continue to suffer at the hands of colonial oppressors, those who have lifted their oppression from the level of food deprivation on the plantation, to the specter of economic wars against national economies. Make no mistake about it; slavery was not abolished because the oppressor suddenly deemed it to be inhumane. It was placed on the side burner of man’s inhumanity to man in the interest of those who saw untold economic benefits in adopting a less thorough system of slavery called colonialism. Today, while we boast political and economic “independence”, we remain a part of their “Common Wealth”. We must be always conscious of the fact that there is no conscience within the oppressive pirate collective when the well-being and economic development of Caribbean peoples come into question. I need whatever avenue that you may have at your disposal to not only highlight the book and issues that face my country, but to also begin a conversation and take action toward the structuring of international black organization, one that is absolutely necessary if any of our issues are to be comprehensively addressed.Whenever the African refuses to unite anywhere, his people suffer everywhere!Bernard Yawching is a political and social activist based in Trinidad and Tobago. The Hidden Agenda of Race Relations in Trinidad and Tobago is his latest work, and it is available on Amazon and other online and offline retailers. `
Why I Wrote an Important Book About Racism in Trinidad and Tobago
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