Notes From a Native Son: Pensioner Poverty and the Failure of Social Policy Planning

Hal Austin

Introduction:

By the time you have read this I would have carried out a promise to address the Caribbean elders of the Pepperpot club in what we used to call Ladbroke Grove in West London, which pompous estate agents have now renamed Notting Hill.These people are warriors, pioneers, unrecognised in their countries of birth and treated with disdain in their adopted home, Britain.

These are people who came to Britain in the early post-war years to labour in Lyons tea shops, the national health service, the army, and most of all on London Transport, because they wanted a better life.They are almost all now in their late 70s and 80s, ill-treated by the local Kensington and Chelsea local authority, the wealthiest in Britain, who want to deprive them of even the opportunity to meet in their lunch club to swap anecdotes and a few laughs until the good Lord calls them home.

These are people who left the sun-drench Caribbean to get out of their beds in a snow-covered city to look after the thankless patients, sweep tube platforms while remaining invisible to passengers, make breakfast in working men’s canteens for a pittance, all the while sending money back home to their loved ones to feed and clothe them and to repay the cost of their travel to Europe. These are the pioneers that two of our prime ministers – one BLP and one DLP – are on record as saying did not make any contribution to the nation.Now, with great reluctance, it is recognised that their remittances were the backbone of the foreign reserves in the 1960s that we now talk so much about. It will be a pleasure to talk to them, to share memories of being a young man in West London, birth place of the world-famous Notting Hill Carnival, that demonstration of street theatre that the British, especially the media and police, still find so hard to accept.The invitation to talk to them from the club’s chairman, Barbados-born Rudi Brathwaite (Kizerman), one of our brilliant authors, was so much appreciated that unusual for me, it has occupied my thoughts ever since then.

Notes From a Native Son: Is There a Future for African Caribbean Enterprise in the UK

Hal Austin

Introduction:
Not so long ago, the veteran Grenada-born UK broadcaster Alex Pascall invited me to give a short address to a group of Caribbean elders reflecting on the last 60 years of our presence in the UK. This was followed shortly after by a St Vincent-born retired teacher, who was asked by the senior Methodist minister at her church whey there was a noticeable absence of African Caribbean intellectuals in British life, unlike the 1960s and 70s. It was something that concerned me privately for sometime. Although in a superficial way this has no direct connection with Barbados, in a real way it does, since the lack of dynamism in the African Caribbean community in Britain has similar echoes in the Caribbean.

British Publish Space:
The observation that the Caribbean dimension to British public discussions is missing is very astute and the minister should be complimented for his profound perception. This absence, or more properly marginalisation, is particularly observant in the press, in local and national policymaking, in the work place, and most disappointing of all, in the universities and think-tanks. Even on matters of direct interest to the Caribbean community, the debate is usually between opposing white views and, on very rare occasions with a black input by default – a David Lammy or Trevor Phillips.

The other default position is using an Asian voice to speak on behalf of black people – Yasmin Alibhai-Brown of the Independent, for example. This is also seen in book reviews, profiles of black entertainers, sportspersons, etc; black people may be the performers, but they are never invited to articulate their art or skills, on the presumption that they are not intelligent enough to theorise their performances or skills.

Notes From a Native Son – How Thatcher/Reagan Changed Liberal Democracy for a Decade

Hal Austin

Introduction:
The sudden, but not unexpected, death of Baroness Thatcher, one of the most dynamic if divisive of Britain’s post-war political leaders, and her grand ceremonial funeral have marked a staging point in the continuing story of Britain. Those who remember her elevation in to the Edward Heath cabinet as education secretary, when she gained notoriety as ‘Thatcher, Thatcher, the milk snatcher’ and then made the sudden jump to takeover of the Tory party then led it to government in May 1979, might have missed out some of the most important signals of her political drift to the right.

For me, 1979 was a time to remember: it was when Ken Livingstone carried out a post Greater London Council election coup to take control of the Labour-led authority; the exciting launch of Root magazine at Regine’s, later the Roof Garden. It was an exciting time. For Britain’s embattled black community, it was also a threatening time. Thatcher’s ideological guru, Sir Keith Joseph, then social security secretary, had developed a Social Darwinian view of single parents, the poor and those who some now call the underclass. It did not take very much imagination to figure out that the black community, no matter what, were part of this problem section of society; and, like now, the key debate was about immigration. In fact, Thatcher had given a television interview in February 1978 in which she talked about being ‘swamped’ with immigrants. Although Enoch Powell had made his well-publicised speech ten years earlier in April 1968, the debate about race and immigration had not moved from the public agenda and, to a large extent, Thatcher’s television interview set the tone for the next decade.

The Uncorrected Evils of Racism

An article by Sir Ronald Sanders submitted by Ras Jahaziel

Photo Credit: http://rastafarivisions

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Friday April 12, 2013 – In 1838, British slave owners in the English-Speaking Caribbean received £11.6 (US$17.8) billion in today’s value as compensation for the emancipation of their “property” – 655,780 human beings of African descent that they had enslaved, brutalised and exploited.  The freed slaves, by comparison, received nothing in recompense for their dehumanisation, their cruel treatment, the abuse of their labour and the plain injustice of their enslavement.

The monies paid to slaves owners have been studied and assembled by a team of Academics from University College London, including Dr Nick Draper, who spent three years pulling together 46,000 records which they have now launched as an internet database.  The website is: ucl.ac.uk/lbs.

Beware Lest Thou Violate the SANCTITY of the WHITE Person

Submitted by Ras Jahaziel

President of the BHTA, Patricia Affonso-Dass, at the Accra Beach Hotel where she proposed a special court to deal with crimes against tourists – photo credit: Sharon Harding

THE NEW COMMANDMENT OF WHORISM: All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. Therefore:

“BEWARE LEST THOU VIOLATE THE SANCTITY OF THE CAUCASIAN, for his person is holy, and he has been put by God over us to be our great benefactor. If you have to rob and  kill somebody, rob and  kill your mother your father or you brother, but not the white man. If we should fall out of favour and lose his patronage we will all starve and suffer.”

No Real Remorse in the Satan Soul

Submitted by Ras Jahaziel

Image Credit: http://www.rastafarivisions.com

If the word “Satan” is rightly defined to represent the evil actions of humans, the word would most appropriately identify:

He who displays a propensity for robbing, he who displays a habit of bombing and invading, he who builds his wealth on enslaving, he who takes delight in torturing and lynching, he who is most cunning and deceiving, and he who robs a people and then penalizes them for not adjusting to economic handcuffs and legal straitjackets.

read more

40 Years of Solitary Confinement

Submitted by Ras Jahaziel

Fathers strung up by the necks and roasted for fun

Do you remember the slave castles on the west coast of Africa?

Any people that can lock a living soul in solitary confinement for 40 years are identical in spirit to those Satans that locked away naked Africans in dark sweltering dungeons downstairs while holding prayer meetings upstairs. It is the exact same thing that they did in those dungeons of yesteryear.

Read full article

Britain’s Wealthy Owe Barbados

Wealthy families all around the UK still indirectly enjoying the proceeds of slavery.

Dr Draper added that the database’s findings may have implications for the “reparations debate”. Barbados is currently leading the way in calling for reparations from former colonial powers for the injustices suffered by slaves and their families

– The Independent

There was the revelation on the weekend that UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s slave owning ancestors were among other wealthy families who received repatriation payments in the millions of pounds when converted to today’s value.  It seems ironic that these families would have encountered no significant roadblocks to get compensation for participating in the heinous act of slavery BUT those who are descendants of slaves are ignored by Britain which to this day continues to benefit from wealth earned from slavery and we (Barbados) continue suck salt.

There are the apologists who will proffer the rebuttal that this was a time when to own slaves was not regarded as a wrong, in fact it was institutionalized. It is the same explanation which Christians offer to explain why slavery was part of a way of life described in the Bible. Some also argue that It is also explains why the French exacted millions from Haiti.

It is the height of insensitivity shown to our ancestors by a predominantly Black country that Barbados refuses to engage in a rich debate about exacting reparations from countries which engaged in slavery. The irony is that Prime Minister Cameron and others of his ilk now occupy authority positions in governments and are able to levy APD taxes etc to the detriment of Barbados. Some things never change.

Read the startling revelation on The Independent  website

Diabetes On the Rise In Barbados

Submitted by Dr Georgie Porgie (feel free to ask any questions)

Click image to view presentation on Diabetes

“Chronic diseases, including the quartet of silent killers, obesity, hypertension heart disease and diabetes, now represent the most significant health care problem and the most important cause of mortality confronting the English-speaking Caribbean. Significantly all of these conditions have the same strong lifestyle components as risk factors and demand a common approach to prevention and management. In Barbados it is estimated that 25,000 people have diabetes and if the present trend continues this figure may double by 2020. Recent figures suggest that diabetes and its related complications account for a huge burden of disease and debt much of which may be preventable.”

Go to Barbados Diabetes Website

Those who want to delve into the very technical side of the disease can view this presentation.

• Diabetes & DKA

WEEKLY CARICOM STOCK REPORT 10 December to 14 December 2012

Compiled by the Department of Management Studies, UWI, Cave Hill

Should You sell Those Shares To Finance Christmas Shopping?
In the two years we have been publishing this report, we have noticed an increase in share trading around the end of the year. This has led us to suspect that some investors may be liquidating their shares to help finance Christmas and New Year holiday expenditures. Is this a wise decision? Like so many things it all depends. In general, you should not use investment funds to finance consumption. If you are holding the shares as a means of financing some future expenditures like retirement, education and so on, then you should desist from liquidating shares to finance holiday related consumption expenditures. However, liquidating shares to help finance Christmas and New Year expenditures is generally a better financial decision than undertaking expensive hire purchases or neglecting to pay other bills. In general, I would suggest that you save over the course of the year to finance holiday expenditures, avoid debt to finance holiday expenditures, exercise moderation in holiday expenditures and if you must, then only finance holiday expenditures from the gains on your investments rather than liquidating your capital.

Full report

Zuma’s South African Police Slaughters Black Miners

Submitted by Sargeant

South African miners in pay dispute which turn bloody – photo credit: BBC

So what’s going on in South Africa?  Eighteen years after the election of a Black Government comes the news that the South African Police have killed 34 miners who were in the midst of an industrial dispute and were seeking a wage increase. These killings hearken back to the worst days of apartheid under the former white Government.

The miners worked at a platinum mine and this dispute was a relatively short one (one week) but there were ongoing clashes between rival trade unions which claimed the lives of 10 people including two policemen.

How could a demonstration provoke such a harsh response from Policemen who presumably have been trained to handle crowds given that South Africa recently hosted the World Cup?

Pan Africans Charge USA, France and NATO with War Crimes

The video makes for interesting viewing. What is sure is that mainstream media will not give this news the coverage it deserves.

Racism or Anti-immigrant Sentiment, It Is All The Same!

A few weeks ago Sir Roy Trotman set off a wild debate in the country with his ‘Egyptian Jew’ comment directed at Jacob Hassid, the CEO of Diamond International (DI). The unnecessary taut served to bring to the fore the latent racial tension which continues to seethe below the surface of Barbados society. I

n response to the comment by Sir Roy the CEO of DI raised the ‘fearing for the limb of he and family’. Bear in mind Barbados has demonstrated that it is one of the most tolerant – some say docile – countries in the world.

After watching the following videos of Jews openly and vehemently demonstrating against immigrants, particularly African, one is left to wonder.