Politics and Race

March 8 2007

A short while ago someone in the Opposition party, actually a senator appointed by the opposition, made comments suggesting that in certain areas of the country which were high in crime, the government should encourage young women to have abortions or have their "tubes tied." This created an uproar, the senator was forced to apologise and was subsequently removed from his position. A major reason for the furor I believe was because the senator was of East Indian descent and the areas of which he was speaking are overwhelmingly populated by people of African descent.

So was the senator wrong? No probably not, helping children and young women postpone or avoid pregnancies early in life is definitely not a bad thing. It could only help raise their standard of living. What people were offended about I believe was a perception that someone of one race could not be looking out for the best interest of someone of another race, especially on an issue that could swing the population ratio and "power" to the "East Indian side." Also the methodologies seemed to suggest at best an indifference to the real best interest of the people involved. I have not read what was said though so I can only guess.

Whatever one's feelings, abortion is illegal in Trinidad so it probably should not have been on the Senators lips as a real option. The tying of tubes is so permanent that it can be expected that people would become agitated. But the senator cannot really have expected that anyone would back him up making suggestions for another group. Even if he had said this about East Indians however I imagine the outcome would have been the same, though I didn't feel that way when I first envisioned writing this article.

I don't think I should be a back seat driver on the issue actually. The words must have taken moments to utter and are now stuck in stone for anyone and everyone to comment on. At the end of the day it may be that the senator's role in life, in this instance was to serve as a cautionary tale for others i.e. if you have something to say about a group to which you do not belong try to find a member of that group that agrees with you and allow that person to say it for you.

Case in point I was watching an episode of "Politically Incorrect" by Bill Maher and a foreign born guest with an accent, who may or may not have been a resident or a citizen of the US, said "When will America grow up" in response to some other comment. I think you could have cut the tension with a knife. No one was rude to her but what a gaffe. Any white person or black in America could have said the exact same thing but as a foriegn sounding person not US born it was definitely a no no.

I did some research myself into several means of contraception after reading about the senator he probably would have done better to suggest diaphrams and spermicide. They would have sounded a lot better.