T, et al

Copy this link, http://thenewtoday.gd/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Michael-Pierre-2.jpg to your browser,open it and study it.

Look beyond the “Powdered Wig” and you may find some of the answers to the questions in your post.

“Mother’s adopted children insisting on paying her back,one hunread fold” with adoptive papers in hand and to this day, we continue to be indebted to her.

I am sure the face and the colors will look familiar to you but I will have a more formal reply to your post later.

VJL

T,

I hope you had a chance to study that picture on the site I poster in my earlier response and formulate an opinion of your own. But from my point of view, what you are looking at is the continuation of an establishment that is still deeply rooted in the tenets of colonialism, where tradition seems to supersede reality and where the continuity of “class” with an ingrained desire for notoriety, overshadows the application of common sense. It is in the same manner that our educational system would remain entrenched in a belief system that would place a premium on accepting and imposing any standard of mediocrity, especially if imported from the Motherland on our people.

It seems like we continue to remain blinded in our naiveté that to recognize our own would be admitting to and accepting a second or even third class standard. In so doing, we fail to understand that we are simply victims of a carefully crafted system where even one's ignorance becomes marketable and profitable. As such, even our learned few fall victim to this because we have developed an innate desire to be accepted. In essence, we become educated but are stuck with that “gene of inferiority”; another gift from Mother, pardoning the sarcasm.
Take for example, the decision of our illustrious Doctor, “The Right and Honorable One” to collateralize our entire Treasury behind the investment initiatives of a White man who presented him with a picture of a gem. His intentions, as honorable as it may have been would not have met the same faith had the investor been Black because he would have been required to pass the “smell test”.

Why it that?

Please spare me from answering the question, because to elaborate, is to accuse me of practicing without a license which can lead to me making "ah Gaol".
But I introduced “color of skin” accentuate my point and only to emphasize the "impact of perception" and the possible devastating effects it can have on individuals and when combined with personal complexes, how it can cloud one's vision, with an encumbrance for making sound and wise decisions.
The controllers of our education system falls right into that category and will not bring to the forefront the works of any of our local folks. They will not champion it in our school system because of that gene of inferiority that disqualifies them from believing we are on par.

So when Anthony DeRiggs (aka “Tattoos”) decides to indulge us with his beautiful poems like “La Morne De Sauteurs” or “So You Want To Know”, do not expect his work to be in our schools because in their eyes, he would never be no Henry, Wadsworth Longfellow. He would always be “Miss, Georginia boi, dey”.

And when Miss. Nordica Francis, our noted Motivational Speaker can so eloquently deliver her messages of introspection to the “Tweens” of the world, reminding us that “Teenagers are Spiritual Beings” or one of Self Esteem and Confidence Building for them, don’t hold your breath on the educational powers that be, including her work in their curriculum. Some would still see her as “Claud Francis Gaul, dey”.

And last but certainly not least, your own memoir “A place Called Gouyave”, the life story of a boy, depicted in a manner that can be identified and shared with millions around the world; capturing the very essence of our town and the subtle complexities of a homogenous community; my friend, you too may have to bend and kiss their….ring before yours become required reading material.No Mark Twain status for you, Padnah because at no time did you mention “niggah” in your book as opposed to Mark’s 219 times in Huckleberry Finn.

That! my dear friend would become required reading in our Caribbean school system in order to pass CXC examination, long before yours because “you is Idora boi dey and from the L`Anse to bout.

Is the picture from the site clearer to you now?

VJL

Verne, in an earlier post, I referenced a picture that I had seen of a black man being knighted by the queen. The grotesqueness of that picture conjures up the same thoughts of your picture with the man in his robes.

You wrote >>As such, even our learned few fall victim to this because we have developed an innate desire to be accepted.<<

So very, very true. And that's exactly what the Mighty Sparrow was saying when he sang those immortal words in DAN IS THE MAN "If me head was bright, Ah woulda be a **** fool." The man was light years ahead of us!

"But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house", American King James Version.
While that does not imply that we must embrace everything Caribbean whether good or not good, there remains a tendency for we in the Caribbean to believe that foreign things are better.

I am afraid that the colonial mentality as it relates the dependence on others is still prevalent.