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Showing posts with label Blacks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blacks. Show all posts

Friday, August 2, 2013

Did Marcus Garvey fail?

Was Marcus Garvey Preaching to The Wrong People?



BY MICHAEL A DINGWALL:


Marcus Garvey The Great


WHEN Marcus Garvey was urging us black people to take charge of our own destiny and become great, almost a century ago, some admired him, while others thought he was some sort of quack.  In this season of Emancipation and Independence, one has to ask: Was Garvey preaching to the wrong people?

At the time when he was preaching, my race, the black race, was the most insignificant on the planet.  Africa was under the control of Europe.

We blacks in the West were totally dependent on the great white powers for our very existence.  Garvey didn't think that black people should be at the bottom of the barrel — being so insignificant and dependent.  In this respect, he was one very unusual black man indeed.

I strongly suspect, though, that Garvey would have still felt the need to preach the same message today, almost a century later.  Though we blacks have made some progress, we still have a very long way to go.  While some of that progress has been had through the efforts of other peoples, other things haven't changed at all.

Take black Africa today.  While preaching, and even before, Africa was controlled by the Western powers.  Her natural resources were being maximised to the fullest to the glory of these powers.  Africans on the continent were either powerless to alter the then situation or willingly gave away these resources.

The same is true today.  These days, it is China that is maximising the resources of Africa to create a Chinese superstate.

Just as it was in the days of slavery, when we gave away our own for trinkets, we are still doing the same today.  The trinkets then were used kitchen utensils, old clothes and even cats; while today, they are cellphones, laptops and shiny new cars.  Garvey would have buried his head in shame at the way his message has been ignored.

We in the West also really didn't give two cents about his message either.  Our island nation-states in the Caribbean are too insignificant to influence any global issue, except entertainment.

Maybe Garvey meant we should be great entertainers; as that is the only area in which we seem good.  Nothing great in governance, science and technology can be truly attributed to us black people -- as we keep our exploits to ourselves, or sell them still for trinkets. Garvey would be very disappointed indeed.

We demonstrate how contrary we have been to his message by our actions.  We think our own universities are worthless.

As such, we crave for the Oxfords, Cambridges, Harvards, and MITs.  We think our music is good only when it is validated with an American Grammy.  We see our societies as totally hopeless — which explains why we fight so hard to get visas to live in the white paradise of North America and Europe.  What was that "Africa for Africans" message again?

I said before that Garvey would have been disappointed, but I sometimes wonder.  In the end, it seems, even he became a realist and realised that he may have been preaching to the wrong people after all.  When the time came for him to retire, he didn't choose his Jamaican homeland or his African would-be homeland.  No, looking at things realistically, he decided that the best place for him after all was Britain.

Maybe the reason he failed to convince us black people that we can be a great people is not only because we think he was nuts — maybe he never really believed his own message either.

July 30, 2013

Jamaica Observer

Friday, June 29, 2012

Neocolonialism and economic imperialism in the Caribbean

By D. Markie Spring
Turks and Caicos Islands


When God created man, He did so in His own likeness!

Nowhere have I known that God breathed into a ‘black man,’ ‘white man,’ or an ‘Asian,’ or any other so-called races. Neither did He make any of these humans superior to the other. However, there are people of one kind that devote their chief energies to thinking that they are superior to another.



Caribbean

Often, I refuse to use the word ‘race’ as I do not believe in ‘races.’ Conversely, I believe that there are people that happened to look differently on the outside, but on the inside the human body, regardless of differences on the outer layout of the person, our hearts, lungs, intestines and other body parts are shaped the same, located at the same dimensions of the body and have the same functions. Our blood is the same colour and it operates in the same areas of the body, transported by endless veins and arteries.

God is an omniscient Being and knew that the world would be one boring place without differences. Imagine a world filled with blacks or whites, or Asians. Visualize a world with one culture or language, or for that matter one climate. When fast forwarded in time, the world would seem like an austere, monastic, rootless ‘out-of-shape’ ball wriggling on its axis while it dances around the blazing hot sun, tormented into a monotonous brutish environment.

These facts have rejuvenated and given rise to modern day imperialism and colonialism. One would think that imperialism and colonialism have aged and that the world has rid these economic and financial, nonetheless, political exploitations – think again!

West Indians look around! The facts are surfacing and are evident like the shining stars in the night sky. Henceforth, the big regional cooperation are dominated, controlled and directed by mega metropolitan centres headquartered in the outer sphere of the Caribbean; and nonetheless, establishing and expanding settlements within the Caribbean Basin.

Furthermore, the colonizers are hiring liked-figured people, giving the impression that the regional boys and girls cannot perform certain categories of jobs, especially at management levels. West Indians are given the duties of the dirty jobs and lower end jobs when they are more experienced and qualified that the colonizers and their liked creatures; and their only experience and qualifications stems from their pale outlook.

They set up a ‘New World Order’ that is constantly and consistently merchandizing their kind into the work force; dodging all legality of the requirements, regulations and policies that directs the system. And for those of us who have made it to certain level, we ended up being paid at twice as lower than the non-West Indians on the jobs.

However, it must be noted that not all are the same, but there are the legitimate few who tend to contribute meaningfully to the regional economies and aid in lifting the standards of living for citizens.

Along this path, we cannot solely blame the imperialist-colonizers for their actions, but the local authorities, including our government, business entrepreneurs and lawmakers for solely concentrating on holding back one another especially those from neighboring islands and their constant disregard to neo-colonizers that are secretly spreading their empires.

Astoundingly, this fascist doctrine defeats the lure of economicinfrastructure, such as the ironic fate of the ‘Education Revolution’ in SVG, the surge for independence in the Turks and Caicos, or does it subjugate the strife for political and economic stability within the region?

Already, we are witnessing the aftermath of these two phenomena; impacts that are both immense and pervasive – and effects that are both instant and protracted on our societies from inequality, exploitation, enslavement, trade expansion and the creation of new literature and cultural institutions.

Our fall is subsequent to our failure in accepting our own while the rest take advantage of the vacuum within our system!

Wake up!

June 27, 2012

Caribbeannewsnow