Searchlight Logo
special_image

    • News
      • Front Page
      • News
      • Breaking News
      • Press Release
      • Features
      • Special Features
      • From the Courts
      • Sports
      • Regional / World
    • Opinions
      • Editorial
      • Our Readers’ Opinions
      • Bassy – Love Vine
      • Dr. Fraser- Point of View
      • R. Rose – Eye of the Needle
      • On Target
      • Dr Jozelle Miller
      • The World Around Us
      • Random Thoughts
    • Advice
      • Kitchen Corner
      • What’s on Fleek this week
      • Health Wise
      • Physician’s Weekly
      • Business Buzz
      • Hey Rosie!
      • Prime the pump
    • ePaper
    • Obituaries
      • In Memoriam / Acknowledgement
      • Tribute
    • Contact Us
      • Advertise With Us
      • Letters To The Editor
      • General Contact Information
      • Contact our Webmaster
    • About Us
      • Interactive Media Ltd
      • St. Vincent & the Grenadines
    • Subscribe
    • News
      • Front Page
      • News
      • Breaking News
      • Press Release
      • Features
      • Special Features
      • From the Courts
      • Sports
      • Regional / World
    • Opinions
      • Editorial
      • Our Readers’ Opinions
      • Bassy – Love Vine
      • Dr. Fraser- Point of View
      • R. Rose – Eye of the Needle
      • On Target
      • Dr Jozelle Miller
      • The World Around Us
      • Random Thoughts
    • Advice
      • Kitchen Corner
      • What’s on Fleek this week
      • Health Wise
      • Physician’s Weekly
      • Business Buzz
      • Hey Rosie!
      • Prime the pump
    • ePaper
    • Obituaries
      • In Memoriam / Acknowledgement
      • Tribute
    • Contact Us
      • Advertise With Us
      • Letters To The Editor
      • General Contact Information
      • Contact our Webmaster
    • About Us
      • Interactive Media Ltd
      • St. Vincent & the Grenadines
    • Subscribe
Betrayal is the  cancer that destroys national liberation
Round Table with Oscar
June 23, 2017

Betrayal is the cancer that destroys national liberation

The Portuguese dictator Caetano was a vicious ruler, both in Portugal and even more so in the African countries which were colonies of Portugal. In Guinea Bissao and the Cape Verde islands, Amilcar Cabral and the African Independence Party stood up and took on the struggle to free their people from the tyranny in a political and territorial struggle for about 15 years. They won. It is a truly remarkable observation that although he faced such a criminal opponent, Cabral declared stoutly “No matter what the enemy throws against us, the greatest battle we have to face is the battle within our movement itself”.

He made that profoundly disturbing statement in a conference in 1965 and in 1973, he amplified it. “Betrayal, (he said), is the cancer that destroys the national liberation movement.” Months later, Cabral himself was shot dead by one of his own, in Judas style, to satisfy the Portuguese!

Those of us with nation building agendas need to put this question regularly to ourselves: “Is it I, the betrayer?”

The advice from Amilcar Cabral (in the photo above) to “Never stop learning” is a warning against both mental laziness and intellectual arrogance. The colonial rulers and today’s bosses placed the people’s minds in a dustbin, a useless obstruction to their power and command. Do you notice how many ways to learn Cabral listed? Book learning is only one. In the march for nation building therefore, to stop learning in all possible ways is to start betraying the future of our nation and ourselves.

Several ways to become a traitor

“Me, my family and I.” “Me, my party and I.” “Me, my business and I.”

We need to unlearn this nation crushing teaching that is so deep in our bones. Let us examine ourselves honestly. When each family, each party, each individual and business closes its eyes to see first, second and third for its own opportunity, who will see for the nation? From top to bottom, in that order, this betrayal of St Vincent and the Grenadines is a cancer. Try not to point index fingers; let us look instead at an SVG where we love our neighbours same way we love ourselves. Cabral used to say to the privileged people: ‘Turn yourselves around and become united with the deepest yearnings of the people’. There is your identity and destiny. Betraying the nation is a part of all of us. Let us learn that and stop the cancer from metastasizing.

Our Colonial Subconscious abides within us and in many tongues we call for the comfort of a colonial mother from overseas, who as “help of the helpless, to abide with me”. We betray our own God given and ancestor delivered ability to grow and govern ourselves. Like abandoned orphans, we and our leaders seek a sick breast-sucking hold on to white, colonial, eurocentric and mammon kissing self-hate. We sell our fragile regional unity in the Caribbean for Europe’s promise of partnership. We dishonour Chatoyer, Toussaint, Garvey, Elma Francois and martyrs like Walter Rodney and Maurice Bishop. We abide in the arms of Elizabeth, Churchill, Cameron and May. We elect nation dividing Dons and Primadonnas in a hand-me-down democratic wardrobe. We refuse to tell our colonial minds to “Let my People Go”. We betray the nation within our grasp. A mental cancer is eating us out.

The Nation Building Agenda is calling for souls.

The present situation is becoming more and more a naked ulcer, a stinking sore for those with eyes to discern and noses to smell and betrayal is no longer an option. The battle is among us, to learn again what we forgot. Mandela said it. “The march to freedom is irreversible.”

  • FacebookComments
  • ALSO IN THE NEWS
    Domestic worker killed at Long Wall
    Front Page
    Domestic worker killed at Long Wall
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    FAMILY MEMBERS of a woman who was killed at Long Wall say they suspect their relative was hacked by a person they all know very well. On Tuesday, Sept...
    Front Page
    NDP never built a single house in SVG – Finance Minister
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    THE IDEA THAT HOUSING is a right, that every Vincentian has a right to safe and secure housing, and that the government has a role to play in ensuring...
    No bail for Police officer charged with attempted murder
    Front Page
    No bail for Police officer charged with attempted murder
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    A POLICE OFFICER, who allegedly stabbed his ex-girlfriend 26 times about her body was remanded even as his lawyer argued that the Royal St Vincent and...
    Front Page
    New ULP Administration will roll out AI policy
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    A NEW UNITY LABOUR PARTY ADMINISTRATION will be rolling out an Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy to embrace its positives and guard against the nega...
    Sandy Bay Secondary School marks 20th Anniversery
    Front Page
    Sandy Bay Secondary School marks 20th Anniversery
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER, 9,2025 was a memorable day for the staff and students of the Sandy Bay Secondary School, which was marking its 20th anniversary wi...
    Foundation implements community driven project in SVG
    News
    Foundation implements community driven project in SVG
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    THE ASHLEY LASHLEY Foundation, with support from the United States Government, is implementing a local-level project entitled “Community-Driven Strate...
    News
    Foundation implements community driven project in SVG
    News
    Foundation implements community driven project in SVG
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    THE ASHLEY LASHLEY Foundation, with support from the United States Government, is implementing a local-level project entitled “Community-Driven Strate...
    Skills not available locally, non-nationals have to be hired says Finance Minister
    News
    Skills not available locally, non-nationals have to be hired says Finance Minister
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    NON- NATIONALS ARE being hired to fill several jobs in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) simply because locals did not have the required skill sets....
    Montgomery Daniel squashes rumours that he’s sick
    News
    Montgomery Daniel squashes rumours that he’s sick
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER Montgomery Daniel has sought to clear around rumours that have been circulating relating to his health. Speaking on NBC radio on...
    News
    $1.3 billion in Tourism investment to yield 2,000 jobs – Camillo
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    The GOVERNMENT of St Vincent and the Grenadines is set to sign agreements for tourism investment of $1.3 billion on mainland St.Vincent. On Monday, Se...
    Bagga’ man pleads guilty to illegal gun, ammo possession
    From the Courts, News
    Bagga’ man pleads guilty to illegal gun, ammo possession
    Webmaster 
    September 12, 2025
    A BARROUALLIE MAN will be sentenced next week after pleading guilty to being in illegal possession of a firearm and eight rounds of ammunition. Demron...

    E-EDITION
    ePaper
    google_play
    app_store
    Subscribe Now
    • Interactive Media Ltd. • P.O. Box 152 • Kingstown • St. Vincent and the Grenadines • Phone: 784-456-1558 © Copyright Interactive Media Ltd.. All rights reserved.
    We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok