Darcus Howe (fwd)

[jenyan1 <jenyan1@xxxxxxx>]

Darcus Howe Monday 8th October 2001


Nothing had prepared me for the state of Caribbean New Yorkers after 11
September. I had been visiting Trinidad for a conference and, at that same
time, thousands were trying to return after the Labor Day celebrations in
Brooklyn.

Over the past 30 years, migration from Trinidad to the US has multiplied
hugely. About seven or eight islanders died in the twin towers incident.
And, after the explosion, many Trinidadians decided to return home. They
were teetering on the edge of the hysterical.

They had migrated from a tiny island to the greatest power on earth. They
had done well, moving from green-card carriers to full citizens, and had
attended special education courses in order to qualify for citizenship.
For them, it was a huge reward for their hard work and social obedience.
All this came crashing down with the fall of the twin towers.

Take my old friend Emerald, who had left for America in 1970. He had done
well in New York, working at a bank in Manhattan. I had previously known
him as quiet, cool and assured. He took the first flight to Trinidad after
11 September. When he returned, he spoke several decibels above the
ordinary. He went to the beach every day, and would spend two or three
minutes there before rushing back to the city. Any talk about politics set
him screaming. I made an appointment for him to see a psychiatrist and he
threatened to kill me.

There is another dimension to the fallout in Trinidad and Tobago. More
than in any other Caribbean country, Islam has penetrated the black
population. Indian indentured serfs, so much a part of post-slavery
plantation labour, brought Islam to the island. After the rise of the oil
economy and the emergence of Opec in 1974, black people in the Caribbean
got the Islamic bug. In 1990, under the leadership of Imam Yasin Abu Bakr,
a group seized parliament and the television and radio stations, and
declared a new government. It is generally well known that some of the
insurgents were trained in Libya and financed from there. They fled after
days of battle with the army. Eventually, they were granted an amnesty.
They have since recruited heavily from among the young unemployed.

While I was in Trinidad, the imam, who had supported the US hijackers, was
stopped and questioned at Heathrow on his way to Libya. There exists a
splinter group that opposes the imam. Whispers of violent retaliation flow
thick and fast.

There certainly exists a completely new faction, influenced by the Wahhabi
sect in Saudi Arabia. They claim a connection with Osama Bin Laden. They
have declared all who live in the US as infidels, and therefore fair game.
So on that tiny island lie all the elements in the saga of Islamic
terrorism. But I am certain that there are hundreds more Trinidadians
serving in the American forces who are ready and willing to lay waste to
the Taliban.


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