Anniversary of the Coup

On Friday July 27, 1990, the Jamaat al Muslimeen attempted to overthrow the government of Trinidad and Tobago. A six-day siege ensured, with the Jamaat leadership holed up in the Red House (where they held the Prime Minister and most of Parliament hostage) and in the headquarters of TTT (then the only television station in the country) and Radio Trinidad (one of two radio networks, located next to TTT).

This year the anniversary falls on a Friday. In the seventeen years that have passed, there has been no inquiry into the events. The guilty parties are free and have never been called upon to account for their actions. The two major political parties, the PNM and the UNC appear to wish that the events would just go away, but there are still open wounds in society. Carson Charles, leader of the NAR, which was the governing party during the coup attempt, has called for a probe into the events, but the government is uninterested.

“There must be some kind of investigation, some kind of impartial investigation and report of what took place. Something dispassionate, something removed from the politics with the emphasis on what lessons should be learned from what took place,” Charles said.

The government is uninterested in any inquiry into the events

Questioned yesterday on the matter, senior Cabinet member Energy Minister Dr Lenny Saith indicated there was no change to the Cabinet’s previous decision of holding no enquiry.

Some politicians though, agree that this is important

Congress of the People Chief Whip Ganga Singh, the existing Caroni East MP, who was not a member of Parliament in 1990 agreed with Charles.

Singh said that instead of a Commission of Enquiry, the country needs the local equivalent of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by the Government of South Africa.

…

“I think as a society, I think we should really confront this issue and not go into self denial as if it never really happened,” Singh said.

Seventeen years have passed, and nothing has been resolved. The memorial will be “low key” - neither the President nor the Prime Minister is attending. But these things don’t just “go away”. The memory of what happened is still burned into my memory.

At the very least the victims should be remembered.

From the Trinidad Guardian

* The 1990 Coup Attempt — Through the Eyes of a teen Born in the midst of chaos

From the Trinidad Express

* No work on July 27
* Low key ceremony at Red House today
* ‘Fireworks’ in Parliament
* Call for probe
* Death remains unsolved

From the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

* Why no coup inquiry?
* COP remembers 1990 Coup

The Assault on Reason in 90 seconds

This summarises Al Gore's new book pretty well


It's rather chilling, either in long form or in summary.

H/T Madhu at Reconciliation Ecology.

What's new

New on my wordpress blog

• If first you don’t succeed, keep smearing (there’re a lot of stupid people out there)
• Smearing Gore (yet again)
• Can organic agriculture feed the world?
• Answering the far-right
• Wind of Change
• Another take on impeachment
• Are non-Christians second-class citizens in the US?
• Right-wing backlash
• “The Old Apartment”
• “The State of Scientific Research on Intelligent Design”
• Creationist terrorism

Updates

New on my wordpress blog:

• Guayanilla Windfarm
  
• “My generation will put it right”
• Live Earth
• Tropical deforestation (II)
• Impeachment
• Comedian Dembski
• Patterns of tropical deforestation
• Go Keith!
• Straw that breaks the camel’s back?
• Disgusting

New on my fish blog

• Picky eaters
• Still there

God

While I consider myself Christian, I have an awfully difficult time with the idea of "God". Before reading Spong's Jesus for the Non-Religious the idea of God was just one of those very troubling ideas that I couldn't wrap my mind around, so I didn't. It's actually remarkably easy to just put the idea of God aside and realise that definitions aren't all that important. It's easy, but it isn't really satisfying. The question, and the fact that you don't have an answer comes up - both when you are faced with people who actively reject the idea of a God or Gods, and when you are faced with the more religious types and their questions about "do you believe in a personal God?" Actually that isn't the hardest question - it doesn't mean that you have to be able to define God. Still, the lack of a God language was problematic - I wasn't comfortable with the God language (or God ideas) that I had been given my the church, but I had no alternative. Which is one reason why I love Spong's book.

The "theistic" understanding of God as a being, external to the world, which intrudes from time to time (or doesn't, I suppose, for a deist who uses theistic language). The "Spongian" understanding of God - that you reject the supernatural, external characterisation of God - is terribly useful to me. And while it doesn't leave me with an answer to the "what is God" question, it leaves me with a set of skills that may be useful for me to formulate my own definitions. It's also nice that these definitions or understandings are just my own conception...they don't represent any sort of an objective "truth". And I find that idea remarkably comforting.

Clemency, writ large

In a general sense I am all for clemency - if a person has been given an unduly harsh sentence for their crimes, then clemency is a good thing. But if someone failed to be moved as he signed 152 death warrants, it would seem that they are strangers to ideas like compassion and clemency. If someone can send a mentally retarded man to his death, if someone can mock the pleas of a woman who turned their life around while on death row...it would seem that "clemency" is not, to them, a virtue.

So why, after all that, does Bush turn around an commute part of Scooter Libby's sentence? Was he suddenly moved to clemency? Or was he, as Joe Wilson suggested, participating in obstruction of justice? It seems far more parsimonious to suggest that Bush is merely acting to protect his administration than it is to suggest that he suddenly and coincidentally discovered that "compassion" was something more than a campaign slogan. And does this mean that Bush will engage in further acts of clemency? Is he going to spend the rest of his term in office studying the convictions of other criminals, to make sure that the sentences imposed are not "excessive"?

Blog Against Theocracy

My contribution to the Blog Against Theocracy blogswarm is here.

Other new posts at my Wordpress blog:

• Theologians Under Hitler
• Blog Against Theocracy
• Biofuels
• The “theory of intelligent design”
• Heaven and Hell
• Defunding the VP?
• What’s your theological worldview?
• Excuse me please, you’re standing in my space
• Best blog posting ever
• Homosexuality and the Christian Right
• Standards?
• Malicious design?
• Behe’s Quote Mining
• More Steeplejacking
• Steeplejacking

And at my Livejournal

• Weather
• Facebook
  

Updates

At my Wordpress site

• Up is down at UD? - more comments on the inanity at UD.
• Crack dealers for Rudy? - a comment on the indictment of Rudy Giuliani's South Carolina campaign manager.
• Is intelligent design science? - comments on some inane postings at UD
• Creationism in Canada - a look at a survey of attitudes toward evolution by Canadians.
• Terrorists celebrated - about "Paul Hill Days" in which Minnesota anti-choice activists celebrate terrorist.
• Dispersal, vicariance and press releases - Ceiba pentandra in the Neotropics and Africa (and how not to write press released).
• Jesus for the Non-Religious (part III) - the third part of my look at Spong's book.
• Fuel and economics - about biofuels and food prices for the poor.
  

Sleeping in the library

One of the strangest phenomena at OU is the way that people sleep in the library. Now, the idea of people falling asleep hunched over a book is pretty normal to me - been there, done that. It's a little bit weird to see, but part of student life. But what's really odd is the way people do it here - the lie down on the couches, put a jacket or something over them, and sleep with the abandon of people at home in their beds.

It takes a great deal of trust for total strangers - after all, when you are that deeply asleep, you're pretty much helpless. I just can't imagine doing such a thing, and even after all this time, it has never ceased to be very strange.

Benny Hinn update

I had never heard of Benny Hinn before he came to Trinidad and talked about the large number of "demons" there (which most people took as an insult directed at the Hindu population). He also went on to praise then-Opposition Leader Patrick Manning. Richard Bartholomew at Salon blogs has some choice quotes from Hinn's TV show:

..."Years ago I was in Trinidad...this man was sitting on the platform and I said... you will be the next Prime Minister and he is till now. I was in his (Manning) office a few months ago... he brought with him a very foolish woman who called herself a prophetess.

"He came to the room with this woman and said "I have a gift for you". So he looked at me, said this is the woman, she has a word for you... I was not happy and when I am not happy people will know it.

"He (Manning) said I want her to pray for you and give her the word, I take her with me everywhere he said (Manning).

"God speaks to me through her. She has been a great blessing to the Government. I'm thinking you foolish man.

"This woman reaches out to touch me and I grab her hand in mid air, 'don't touch me' I said. Shaken, I said Mr Prime Minister, I honour you but I don't know who this woman is...nobody will lay hands on me and I walked out of the room. Whether it is the Prime Minister or President, nobody lays hands on me. I don't know what spirit is in her. Don't let people touch you."

Bartholomew also managed to find some articles from the TT press - notably Sat Maharaj's comments and a Newsday story about Manning's "prophetess".

Anyway, since I was only really aware of Hinn in relation to the nonsense he did in Trinidad, it was interesting to know that he did similar nonsense in Uganda. Only there, he cast demons out of a local pastor, which have now infected a heard of pigs. Looks like people will have to call on a witch doctor to remedy Hinn's work.

The willingness of people to believe in televangelists is both shocking and sad. (H/T Ed Brayton)

On the other hand, if he called Manning a "foolish man" he can't be all bad, right? ;)

American televangelist Benny Hinn has told millions of TV viewers that he thought Prime Minister Patrick Manning to be a "foolish man", after an incident which occurred during his last visit here.

Updates

At my Wordpress site

• The effect of topography, a comment on ecological effects of canyons on vegetation in western central Oklahoma
  
• Teaching creationism, my first comment on DeWolf's Boston Globe OpEd
• Politics and evolution, about support for evolution in the major US political parties
• Holes in the big tent?, my second comment on DeWolf's Boston Globe OpEd
• DeWolf and denialism, my thirdcomment on DeWolf's Boston Globe OpEd (ok, so it was getting abt much)
• Omnivore’s Dilemma, a comment on Pollan's book and the food industry
• Dembski’c ongoing antics, which comments on Dembski's latest argument argument in favour of intelligent design creationism “your ugly, nyaa, nyaa”.

From my other blogs

At my Wordpress site

• The Edge of Evolution, a comment on review about Behe's new work of religious fiction
• Chesterfield and Dover, a comment on the latest school district to consider adding creationism to their biology syllabus
• Travel to the US, which talks about the fears of Trinis (especially Muslim Trinis) travelling to the US after the JFK plot.
• Another nail in the coffin, which talks about the discovery of post-synaptic proteins in sponges (which lack nerved).
• In which I contemplate my own comments, where I do just that.
• More hilarity at UD, which reflects on their attempt to fisk Sean Carroll's review of Behe's book.
• Continuing assault on science education, which looks at the new DI textbook Exploring Evolution.
• Small world, a sort of meta-comment on the US Senate candidacy of Rand Knight, the first ecology PhD to run for the senate.
• The destruction of our shared cultural heritage, which laments the treatments of archaeological sites in Iraq by the Americans.
• Powell's redemption?, which talks about Colin Powell's attempt to redeem himself.
• Really?, which is a comment on an alleged "inductive proof" for ID

and finally

• Jesus for the Non-Religious (part II), which talks a little about Spong's newest book, Jesus for the Non-Religious.
  

Liberal progressive Christianity in Norman, Oklahoma

As Oklahoma goes, Norman is hotbed of liberalism - between the election of Cindy Rosenthal as mayor and the passing of a recycling initiative, we are cutting edge. But as liberal progressive Christianity goes, I was only aware of St. Stephens UMC. However, googling around led me to Dr. Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, president of the Oklahoma Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and host of "Religious Talk", an AM radio talk show. In 2004 Frederick Clarkson featured him in a post entitled Blogging the Christian Left (in which he also features "Pastor Dan", who was then blogging at Faithforward (and now, primarily at Street Prophets, a site I really wish I read more).

I'm rather curious about Prescott - Clarkson reported that he had two blogs: Mainstream Baptist and Christian Democrats - the former appears to be active, the latter hasn't been updated since September 2006. I'm curious about the wider world of progressive Christianity in Norman.

Crossroads

I'm at a bit of a crossroads with respect to what to do with this blog. Somehow or other, I ended up with five separate blogs:
* this one
* my wordpress blog
* my plant news blog
* my fish blog
* and my livejournal
In every case, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but as a result of an experiment at the wordpress blog, all the archives of this blog are now present over there. That would seem like a pretty good argument in favour of shuttering this one...after all, it's pretty much inactive. So why keep it? It isn't for the hordes of loyal readers.

I started the plant news blog for just that purpose - to write about plants in the news. Although I have not updated it in a long time, it's probably the blog with the most potential. The fish blog probably generated the most concentrated posting, but I ran out of steam. The wordpress blog is good for posting about religion, science and politics. The livejournal (which I only created because Carol's blog is now private) is useful for personal stuff, journaling. So what does that leave for this blog? I'm really not sure, but hopefully over the next few weeks I will figure out a purpose for it.

Boris Yeltsin

It was something of a shock to hear that Yeltsin died today. Josh Marshall said:

[I]t's hard for me to see where he won't be one of those figures whose positive moments, even if brief and episodic, were profound enough in their importance to outweigh the longer periods of lassitude, corruption and drift.

I think that sums it up pretty well. I have no way to judge his overall contribution, I don't know whether he tried to set Russia on a good path, or whether he is the one responsible for putting the gasngsters and oligarchs on the path to power...but I can never forget the coup in 1991, I can never forget him standing up against the military. Whatever came after, my opinion of Yeltsin was formed on those actions, and whatever came after was always seen through the filter of that day.

Fish blogging

Linz got me an aquarium for my birthday, and now I am totally fish-obsessed. I kept talking to anyone who would listen (usually Carol on msnmessenger) about my fish, my plants and water chemistry...and I'm sure she's pretty sick of it, so I decided to switch to a blog. I probably won't be much better keeping it up to date than I am with this blog or the plant one, but hey, if I'm that interested, you never know, I might actually write. (And, like with the plant blog, the link is in the title of the post).

Plant News

I'm trying something new. As per Gordon's request, I am going to blog about what's new(s) in the plant world. It could be fun, but it could also be a black hole which will suck up all my time. We'll see how it goes.

A President's Legacy

I think the Express editorial captured something that got lost in all the praises of his most visible characteristics:

For the late Noor Hassanali to be remembered simply as a kind of placid president is to do an injustice to the memory of the man. It is true that he exuded a certain tranquillity but this is a man whose term of office straddled some of the most traumatic moments in the country's post-Independence history.

Among them were the first-ever defeat of the People's National Movement (PNM), the party that had guided the country since its attainment of sovereign independence, the subsequent coming into power of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) in 1986, its sudden sundering and the consequential return of the PNM and the unprecedented 17-17-2 results of the 1995 general elections.

Newsday managed to capture something that people forgot as well - the fact that the State has not been nearly as good to Noor and Zalay as they had been to the country

His presidency is remembered as a model of thriftiness, as his household bred their own tilapia in ponds and grew their own vegetables on the grounds of President’s House. Further, in accordance with his religious beliefs, no alcohol was served at President’s House, a move which surely helped the taxpayer. He is also believed to have spent his own money to repair President’s House.

President Hassanali and Mrs Hassanali served Trinidad and Tobago well. Sadly, however, it can’t always be said that Trinidad and Tobago served the Hassanalis well.

In a story, “All Presidents not equal”, Sunday Newsday on January 29, 2006, reported the hardships being faced by the Hassanalis who had to pay the cost of security, vehicle, and driver, which had otherwise been provided free by the Government for at least one other former Head of State.

One other dark cloud impacting on the Hassanalis was the incident in September 1989 when two gunmen fired three shots at the car in which Mrs Hassanali was travelling. Fortunately she was not injured, although to date no-one was ever convicted for the offence.

All in all we say President Hassanali had a good innings both in his professional and public life and served Trinidad and Tobago well.

One day the full story may be told. I look forward to the biographer who really writes a definitive work on the person I believe to be our greatest President ever.

Our best President (Noor Hassanali, 1918-2006)

Sometimes it's hard to separate one's own preconceived notions from one's ideas about what "people think". So it's always re-assuring to see at least some of them ring true. I have always said that he was the most popular president Trinidad and Tobago has ever had, and he was one of the very few truly national figures, someone who was universally admired. The news coverage of his death seems to bear that out. From the message boards at ttonline

Possibly the best Pres. T&T ever had.

Possibly? He was the best president we ever had. May he rest in peace.

There's a lot of coverage of his death in the local papers. The international press mentions race (first Indo-Trinidadian President), religion (first Muslim head of state in the Americas) and the coup. Factually true, but that misses his main achievements. He was elected President by an NAR government. He revoked Manning's appointment as Leader of the Opposition and replacing him with Panday, he was re-elected President by the PNM government. Despite being President in a turbulent time and with two different governments, he was never criticised (by any side), he never came into conflict with either administration.

It's worth remembering that he was the first Indo-Trinidadian President specifically because it was uncontroversial. In 1987 there were a lot of people who were apprehensive about what they saw as an "Indian power-grab" in the form of the NAR government. I'm sure that some people saw the appointment of an Indian President as yet another step in that direction. But if people had reservations, they quickly forgot them. He was a national figure, above politics and above race. He was, I believe, the perfect person for the Presidency. Outside of sports we have never had a national identity, so it's fitting that such an avid sportsman would be the one truly national figure in the world of politics.

Noor Hassanali (1918-2006)

Chilo was, without a doubt, the most popular president in the history of Trinidad and Tobago, and was perhaps the most well-respected national figure. As a country there's a void to be filled. But it is as an individual that I feel the loss most.

There was always something about him that set him apart - a sense of nobility, a sense of being an honourable person, a good person. He was always friendly, always made you feel important. I admired him more than anyone else I have ever met. It was more than the fact that he was family - I think I would have admired him equally if he were a stranger. I always said that being related to the President in no way reflected on me - after all, I did nothing but be born. But knowing a person who was good and honourable, knowing a person who, it seemed, saw the good in people and did his best to do what was right - that was important to me. Long before he was the President he was someone in the family to look up to.

It's been a long time since I saw him. His health has been in decline for a long time. At 88 it's likely that he was the longest-lived person in the family - ever. But while it wasn't a surprise, it was a shock. There was a comfort in knowing he existed. It's a shock to know he's gone.