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How
Cudjoe immatures with age
By
Dr Errol Mathura
Selwyn Cudjoe, in an article in the April 21 Guardian headed
“Physician, heal thyself,” attacks the head of UWI—of
course, Mr Cudjoe’s attack has all the charms of being
savaged by a dead sheep—whose name, like Mr Cudjoe’s
motive for the rendition, was carefully concealed.
Broadly, the head of UWI referred to the ungovernerable state
of Trinidad which prompted the question: is Trinidad a failed
state? The criterion is simple and persuasive: a state’s
first duty is the protection of the life and property of its
citizens. This the Government has serially failed to do.
So appalling is this abomination, presided over by Mr Cudjoe’s
“own indefatigable, forward-looking and visionary leader,
Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning, who is destined to join that
illustrious body of freedom fighters, elders and priests”
and who has “consecrated himself to his Olowo, Patrick
Manning our senior chief and protector” (Guardian 30/7/2005),
that this nasty little initiative stinks of hem-kissing on
stilts: the arduous search for secular rewards.
Seeing the social and criminal slum which Trinidad has become
and the learned incompetence with which it is mismanaged,
the head of UWI, resorting perhaps to some hidden reserves
within the budget of his energies, to a disposition of considerable
antiquity, prayer, attracted a burst of juvenalia; a detergent
gesture from Mr Cudjoe. Bless his little heart. The silly
season has certainly arrived.
Let’s look at the current state of play, presided over
by Mr Cudjoe’s Olowo, Patrick Manning, his “visionary
leader,” to whom he has “consecrated himself.”
Such vigorous and manly lust for servility.
The abominable budget for the year to March (Guardian, March
28):
Murders: January, 38; February, 20 (it’s a shorter month);
March (27), 43. Total: 101.
T&T last recorded 101 murders on April, 2005; there were
260 murders in 204 and 384 murders in 2005.
Here is a list of 43 people murdered in March:
March 27: Sylvia Bridgemohan, age 57, Barrackpore, throat
slit. March 26: Colin Cudjoe, 31, Belmont, shot; Vonric Ali,
40, shot at home; Heston Joseph, 51, shot at community centre.
March 25: Sherwin Alexander, 27; shot in Gonzales. March 24:
Anthony Gormandy, 51, beaten and stabbed; Kurt Williams, 43,
shot near Pump Trace; Marvin Samuel, 26, shot in head. March
23: Ebony Henry, 23, shot near home.
March 22: Reynold Douglas, 19, shot near home; Richard Julius,
33, shot in shop; Brian Bowen, 22, shot in Laventille; Jerome
Clarke, 21, shot near home. March 21: Junior Heeralal, 32,
shot near home; David Edgar, 33, shot back of head; Colin
Estrada, 31, shot six times. March 20: Sean Noel, 23, shot
three times; Anton Nicholas, 22, shot 12 times; unindentified
man, bullet-ridden body, Movant.
March 17: Ricardo McKenzie, 16, shot in Laventille. March
16: Dexter Dobson, 46, shot in Sangre Grande. March 14: Antonio
Bynoe, 30, shot in Beetham Gardens; Keron Yearwood, 20, shot
on Charlotte St; Peter Jeffroy, 53, shot in head. March 13:
Richard Sookraj, 47, murdered with hammer; Matthew Perez,
49, shot in head; Ingles Gabriel, 38, shot in Quarry Street;
Keron Lewis, 23, shot in head.
March 12: Mark Smith, 26, shot East Dry River; Rasheed Ali,
25, decapitated at home; Paul Roopsingh, 55, strangled at
home. March 11: Shawn Leacock, 26, shot in head, David Romaine,
38, stabbed. March 10: Chavaughn D’Arbreu, 20, shot.
March 8: Edward Bates, 65, chopped-up; Brian Wilson, 21, shot
in Movant; Brent Joseph, 26, shot in Maraval. March 7: Grimes
and Clement Joseph, 34, shot at home. March 6: Wayne Harding,
47, shot at home; Rudolph Paria, 54, burnt at home; Joel Chase,
24, shot four times. March 5: Shernelle Codrington, 16, body
found in bushes. March 1: Timmy Celentine, 36, shot at home.
This audit of foul murders is to Mr Cudjoe “the activities
of a few misguided and perhaps deranged souls.” There
must exist somewhere, perhaps hidden under a napkin, a loose,
partial, changing, contingent consensus on the scanty culture
and minor intellectual resources expressed in this obscene
conclusion. Ex nihilo nihil fit.
Ignore the rampant kidnappings simply to avoid the necessary
disgust. Mr Cudjoe expresses the morality of the morgue, the
sensitivity of the Warfen SS, bereft of even a flash of humanity
for the bereaved relatives of those decapitated, shot through
the head or roasted alive. Astonishing moral myopia.
To this immoral and civic squalor, the head of UWI, perhaps
searching for some ethical reconstruction of the polity, a
perfectly just procedure, which might replace Mr Cudjoe’s
Olowo’s policies, which is adamant for drift, asked:
“Would Jesus be welcomed in T&T?” This primary
enquiry prompted this response from the man:
“What
has this man (still unnamed) been doing during his tenure
at his institution?
“If
there is a problem of crime...we expect a social scientist...to
apply his/her scientific knowledge to tell us how to overcome
such maladies.
“No
such luck with the head of our premier academic institution.
He tells us our society is heading towards ‘devolution
and degeneration’ and perhaps we ought to pray.”
A clear case of knowledge disavowal in order to hoard slices
of malice. There is not a single precedent of the head of
any university on the planet which has produced a solution
to “overcome the maladies;” as promiscuous murder,
rampant kidnappings, involving agents of the State: the police
and military, presided over by Mr Cudjoe’s Olowo, his
“visionary leader” to whom he has “consecrated
himself.”
It’s his refusal to confront his nurtured incapacity
that led to “consecrating himself,” not to a cause
or an idea, but to a mortal man. Such pristine grovelling
for authoritarianism.
Indeed, the growth of universities worldwide has expanded
with rising crime rates of all kinds, in every country. In
fact, university departments of sociology, psychology and
criminology have prospered and grown on the back of increased
crime. Prosperity and falling crime rates are incompatible.
Mr Cudjoe wants to shift responsibility for the moral slum
that is Trinidad onto a particular academic rather than to
where it belongs—the Government: elected to govern; given
access to tax billions; controls the coercive arms of the
state; commands the legislature and a vast civil establishment.
Is it race? If not, why mention Thomas Carlyle and Anthony
Froude; tag them as “racists” and pass on? What’s
their relevance?
A mere pretence at erudition? Mr Cudjoe’s interrogation
of his teacups has yet to yield a black racist. He has never
heard of Louis Farakhan: “Hitler should have burned more
Jews.”
Or “big mouth” Jesse Jackson’s anti-semitic
remarks about New York Jews; Idi Amin’s racist confiscations
of property and expulsion of thousands of Indians from Uganda.
Racial solidarity, eh? Of course, he did embrace that arch
racist Marx, who forbade his daughter, Tussy, to “marry
a N-----;” as a twig to spank Sir Vidia Naipaul—a
mouse trying to smite an elephant—an ephemera, best read
after sedation.
Physician, heal thyself.
Dr Errol Mathura is a lecturer in management studies in the
UK
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