The Missing Details: On the NDP Garifuna Conundrum – Part II

The Background: Continued and the Rejoinder – (Truth is the right we deny and the wrong we justify)

by Anatol Scott

During the course of the long awaited meeting, Mr Eustace reiterated his complete acceptance of the proposal that had been made. He confirmed that his Executive had accepted the proposal and that he intended to make it a part of the NDP policy by including it in the Party’s Manifesto. He was particularly interested in ensuring that the number of exiled Garifuna was truly representative; he added up the numbers provided by Mr Ramos and Mr Guerrero and concluded by informing us that he intended to announce, on Sunday, May 31st{{more}} that all exiled Garifuna will be eligible for ‘honorary citizenship’ should he be elected Prime Minister of SVG. After the jubilation had passed, we sat down to discuss what was meant by honorary citizenship and explored some of the difficulties that would have to be dealt with before and during the implementation process. Our meeting came to an end with the blessing of the Garifuna buyea and the taking of photographs.

Several individuals who had been hanging around outside of the building where we were meeting then entered the building and joined us. It was soon apparent that these individuals wanted to discuss something; it turned out to be the matter of bad handling of public relations efforts and messaging by the Party in SVG and in the diaspora. Doug Howard was obviously the leader in this matter and, using the mix-up of what had occurred with regard to the just completed meeting, they each brought up other incidents and the theme was soon vociferously apparent. They insisted that the party needed a better public relations officer, one who could relate better with the media in SVG and with SPOONY in particular. It soon became apparent that this was, in effect, a harsh criticism of Mr Eustace who, throughout the process, listened to the complaints, but never said a word in response.

I sensed that Mr Eustace was growing very discomfitted and I thought it best to try and bring an end to the assault. I chose to speak up in his defense, reminding all assembled that Mr Eustace is simply an ex-officio member of SPOONY and, as such, he has no right to be interfering in the business or affairs of SPOONY. I indicated that it seemed obvious that Mr Eustace had gotten their message and that he would have to decide what to do about public relations and messaging in SVG, but that, under the circumstances, it was very unfair of them to be criticizing him in the way they were doing. When I was finished, Doug Howard, who was sitting beside me, immediately and jokingly agreed with what I had said. Mr Eustace then pointed his finger directly at me and said: “I agree with you.” He rose from the table and the confrontation immediately came to an end. As we walked across the street to the site where SPOONY was holding a fund-raising BBQ, the thought that crossed my mind was that, in dealing with the unfortunate confrontation, Mr Eustace had displayed a serious lack of ability to deal with conflict management.

The next day, I returned to Alberta and threw myself back into the political movement by the Alberta NDP which, only a few weeks before on May 5, had replaced the 43-year-old conservative government with an NDP government (producing a female premier, with 45 of the 87 seats being filled by women), surely an international record. As a result of this type of involvement, It was not until two weeks later that I finally opened a package which had been given to me by Wellington Ramos when I had arrived in New York. The package consisted of two neckties and a book, written by Ramos. I read the entire book and quickly realized that, as was the usual case with Ramos, it was a badly written work, but the shocking aspect of it was that it presented what amounted to a proposed constitution for the Garifuna peoples, should they become the government of SVG at a later date. I realized that Mr Ramos had been selling this book to the people at Doug’s BBQ, that the book was an assault on the existing government of SVG and an insult to the people of SVG. I was about to raise this matter with Ramos, but news came from Joseph Guerrero that he had received an invitation from the NDP, through Vynnette Frederick for him and Ramos to visit SVG.

On receiving the invitation, Joseph had immediately responded to Vynnette, enquiring why I was not included in the invitation. An exchange of correspondence was engaged in between them, a correspondence which I insisted on staying out of, although Joseph kept me informed of all the details. Finally, Joseph copied to me his final response to Vynnette in which he stated that the ideas behind the Garifuna proposal were mine, that the proposal is a copyrighted document, that the Garifuna Nation and I were a team, and that they would not be visiting SVG if I was not included in the delegation. After a few days, the NDP response came from Vynnette; they had accepted that I would be included in the visit.

In the meantime, Mr Eustace had finally admitted publicly that the person in the diaspora who had presented him with the document he kept referring to was me. Jerry Scott, my brother, suddenly broke silence on Global Highlights, coming on air shortly after Mr Eustace to announce his support for what I had begun. Ralph Gonsalves got into full gear by launching his hyperbolic attack on the concept of honorary citizenship. The team had appeared on Luzette’s Global Highlights and had managed to cause Jomo to unleash his laughable ‘bogus statistics’ comment. National and international support for the cause, as far away as California, seemed to be the order of the day. It was as if the NDP had suddenly found an issue that had the power to propel the Party forward on all fronts. But, from my perspective, one of the great dangers inherent in success is that it is always the precursor of failure.

All messages need to be carefully massaged and controlled. I soon realized that Luzette was now ready to operate in full gear as some sort of public relations manager; every bit of bad or questionable news in the media pertaining to Mr Eustace had to be attacked by her. Almost on a daily basis, I found myself trying to block her many assays at defending Mr Eustace through us or at generating more publicity for the Garifuna cause, such as demanding a linkage of us to the most recent Carnival Queen. More and more, I observed that Joseph and Ramos especially, were siding with Luzette on almost every issue I raised. Suddenly, it was as if the entire project was being turned into a glaring, ill-advised, political affair and that, in my opinion, was not the right thing to be doing.

I insisted that our trip to SVG should be described and approached as a fact finding mission, an opportunity for Joseph and Ramos to learn more about the Garifuna population in SVG, to establish contact with them, to familiarize themselves with the people in their homes and communities. I agreed that the politics of SVG could not be entirely avoided, but that all attempts must be made to not make it the major reason, the be all and end all, of the trip. The matter of messaging suddenly came to the front as a result of inaction by the Party on booking the trip to SVG. The information had become common knowledge far and wide, but three weeks before the date of our arrival, we had not received, despite repeated requests directed to Vynnette by Joseph and myself, any information on bookings of passages and basic matters of scheduling once we arrived in SVG.

During one of our many conferences, Luzette suggested that she could step in and get the matter settled for us. Unlike Joseph and Ramos, because of our many disagreements, I was not in favour of Luzette getting involved in this, but I gave way to the majority opinion. During the next week and a half, nothing was accomplished; it seemed that with every passing day, Luzette had an excuse for nothing being done. It was either that Mr Eustace was busy with a funeral, or that he had a problem with four of his teeth and was visiting the dentist or some other excuse. During one of our exchanges, I suggested that she should stop babysitting Mr Eustace. Luzette flew into a rage, during which nothing was held back on both sides. Toward the end, Luzette made it clear that she wanted nothing more to do with me and I returned the sentiment. With just over one week left to our scheduled arrival and with Joseph and Ramos needing to settle their absence with their employers, I discussed the matter with them and they reluctantly agreed that I should start direct communication with Mr Eustace on the issue.

Contact was immediately established with Mr Eustace who seemed totally unfamiliar with what was going on. He asked me to work out passages for the three of us and to get the information to him. That evening, I assembled, through Red Tag, a complete set of tentative bookings. The plan was that I would arrive in New York, connect there with Joseph and Ramos, and travel on, as a team to SVG. The information was forwarded to Mr Eustace on the following day and copied to Luzette, Joseph and Ramos. We discovered that Joseph would have some difficulty getting a new passport, but Mr Eustace and I agreed that could be

handled separately. Three days later, we (myself and Ramos) received confirmations on our passages to SVG. But, I immediately spotted a possible problem; Ramos’ flight was through Barbados, so that he would arrive one and a half days before me. For some unknown reason, my flights went through Toronto and Trinidad. Given my concerns about Ramos that had been building over the preceding few weeks, I immediately sensed that there was danger in these bookings, but there was nothing I could do to change them.

In the meantime, other issues were developing. About two weeks before the trip, Luzette had introduced a subject on the Internet having to do with a licence plate in SVG which stressed the difference in thinking between the Caribs and the Garifuna. In support of this subject matter, she conveniently brought Dr Adrian Fraser, Clive Bishop (Bish-I), and Francois into her discussion. She made it very clear that Dr Fraser was the only historian that was acceptable to her in matters historical pertaining to the Garifuna. Every comment (there were very few) that I attempted to make on that subject was immediately criticized by Luzette as being too academic. Francois began making accusations and comments about me that were totally unfounded. At one point, Luzette ‘unfriended’ me, which meant that I could not participate in the discussion until it was finished. Amazingly, it was at this point that the advertisement announcing the rallies in Greiggs and Sandy Bay appeared, supposedly with a voice over that was Vynnette Frederick’s. In that ‘ad’ photos of the major participants, including Bish-I and Dr Adrian Fraser, were prominently displayed. My photo was conveniently missing. Joseph belaboured the point with Vynnette, but he got nowhere with trying to get the exclusion corrected.

Based on all of the above and much more, I firmly believe that the decision to do me in was made long before my arrival in SVG. I also suspect that Mr Eustace was not directly involved in any of those actions. I am appalled at the deviousness of Luzette King, at her need to control everyone’s thoughts, at her need to have everyone be beholden to her, at her duplicity and the power she seems to have over the decisions and actions of Mr Eustace. (To be continued)