Dangerous consequences!

Over the past two weeks, the Christmas season, the issues for public comment have mounted beyond my capacity to comment on all of them in a newspaper column like this. To complicate the situation, the not-unexpected US assault on Venezuela and the barefaced kidnapping of its leader and wife have complicated the situation, minimising the space we can devote to such a frightening development. But, as we say, later for that.

For the moment, though, what about focusing our attention on a development which none of us would have foreseen just a couple decades ago? I do so with pride, because we have had a public swearing-in on Tuesday of this week giving us what would have been unimaginable just years ago. When I started out my political journey in the early seventies, of course with black nationalist leanings, even this eternal optimist could not have foreseen that a half century later, my beloved country, many of whose people did not yet understand, would be welcoming what I call: A

“BLACK POWER” HEAD OF STATE!

Yes, our eighth Governor General originates from the Black nationalist stream of the seventies, derided as being Black Power. He cut a very different picture from a previous local governor, on horseback and with the colonial cork hat and feathers. Here was a home-grown patriot appearing before us as he is. (I could only imagine some snide comments to the effect that, “he coulda cut some ah dem hair on ‘e face”). CONGRATS and NUFF RESPECT, Your Excellency Stanley ‘Stalky’ John. The journey has been long and arduous, but you have reached the summit. In so doing, though the battle is not yet won, those who have commitment and long-term perspectives can share your elevation. It would have been much sweeter if we had not balked from completing the constitutional reform process which would have made you not a representative of the British monarch, but a full-fledged indigenous Head of State. I can only appeal to my compatriots who see negatives in everything to note the progress and renew the effort to throw the colonial yoke off us. I am sure the new Excellency would have felt much happier in such circumstances.

Now people set out on their chosen careers for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, success can not only be judged in personal terms, but it is also much broader than that. I consider the new GG’s elevation in the same light as I felt almost 21 years ago when we swore in a new Prime Minister. After all the negative slander, reality triumphed and we swore in: A “COMMUNIST” PRIME MINISTER!

Those are indelible triumphs on our continuing battles to end foreign domination over our country and its people. I revel in the triumphs unlike the petty self-seekers who can only appreciate progress with what they perceive to be personal triumphs. The elevation of Ralph Gonsalves and Stalky John, whatever their shortcomings, is an elevation for us all and we must teach our children that. There is much unfinished work to be done but even with waning strength, we must commit ourselves to the task before us. Yes, elections have consequences, but we must use them to advance our incomplete tasks.

THE NEW GOVERNMENT

Having shocked nearly all political pundits by the scale of its election victory on November 27,2025 the New Democratic Party government faces enormous challenges. The socio-economic challenges in a hemisphere in which the savage conquerors of the indigenous people of this hemisphere have renewed their efforts at total subjugation of the rest of the inhabitants of this part of the world, is not an easy task.

Two prominent challenges come to mind – the political inexperience of the new administration, and its ideological innocence. It is clearly not well equipped for the tasks before it, confused over the talk of western democracy. Venezuela has just demonstrated once more that total hegemony and subjugation are the aims disguised with talk of “spheres of influence”.

In such a situation the petty differences that we latch on to in perpetuating political partisanship have no place in today’s world. It is paramount that we realize that the differences between our two parties pale into insignificance when compared with the differences between us as a people, in SVG, in CARICOM and the wider Caribbean, and those who insist on global domination. The relentless pressure they exert on small Caribbean states indicate that their goal is total subjugation. No matter how Prime Minister Friday and his team “prettify” their commitment to the Citizenship by Invitation scheme, our enemies will not relent. Even those who tried appeasement are now being forced to accept persons being forcibly deported from the USA, from one of the world’s biggest countries to tiny islands.

On the other hand, we still have those who seem to revel in labels and bravado. We can stay here and call Trump and company all kinds of names, but they know that one of our biggest weaknesses, from captain to cook, is the desire for US visas. There are all kinds of valid reasons for wanting to continue this long-standing relationship, but if truth be told, if the hegemonists insist on collective punishment, our own people will blame the same governments for the situation.
It is clearly no time for the inexperienced or weak-hearted. Neither must there be room for narrow political partisanship. We have no alternative but to try to work together, while understanding our differences.

To be continued

• Renwick Rose is a Social and Political commentator.