Sada roti, fry bake, salt fish, smoke herring,
tomato and bigan chokha, okro and more
Baked products: currants roll, sweet bread

Indo-Caribbeans
mark 99th year in
Canada in 2007

President of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis, has crit- icised political parties for their failure to ad- dress the pressing issues affecting the African-Guyanese community.

Two hundred years after the abolition of the slave trade, Lewis said, Africans are still struggling to be treated as equals.

Lewis made this disclosure during a con- ference, which was organised by the GTUC and included members of the African- Guyanese community and members of the political opposition.

The conference was held to explore the progress made by African-Guyanese since the abolition of the slave trade.

“We are second class citizens in a land our fore parents built with their blood, sweat and tears. We are still struggling for our rights to identity, expression, association, self determination and advancement,” Lewis lamented.

He said that Africans are being told that they are wrong to vote for the party/par- ties of their choice, that they are racist when they align with self and demand their rights to representation, equality and justice.

However, he noted that Guyana 's polit- ical history and reality are of race-based parties with each party having sprinklings of other races.

Lewis posited that the 2006 elections confirmed that there are two African- based parties- the People's National Con- gress and the Alliance for Change.

He said that the extent to which they are representing the African community con- tinues to be troubling.

KENNETH Grant Mahabir, who arrived in 1908 at Dalhousie University, Nova Sco- tia to study medicine, is the earliest known Indo-Caribbean to come to Canada, and maybe the first Indo-Trinidadian to gradu- ate as a medical doctor in Canada.

Young Kenneth, born in 1890 in San Fer- nando, came to Canada when he was 18, and was reportedly a brilliant student at Dalhousie. Soon after graduating in 1912 as a doctor, he enlisted in the army when World War 1 broke out in 1914. He served as a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps, spending time in the battlefields of Europe.

Why I left Guyana to come to Canada By Roop Misir

Chanderpaul is the new
West Indies cricket captain
Page 22

One million South Asians in Canada cel- ebrate South Asian Heritage Month this May. They mark the 110th anniversary of the coming of Indians to Canada, which happened in 1897.

Punjabi soldiers in the British Army who had gone to England for Queen Victoria’s Diamong Jubilee, passed through Canada on their way back home. They were spe- cially impressed with British Columbia and decided that some would return to begin the Indian presence in Canada.

The 200,000 Indo-Caribbeans in Canada gladly acknowledge the coming of the In- dians from India in 1897, but we have something special to celebrate too. This is the 99th year since young Kenneth Mahabir from Trinidad arrived in Halifax by boat in distant 1908. He is believed to be the first Indo-Caribbean person to become a resi- dent of Canada.

Since that time, many others have fol- lowed, from Guyana, Suriname, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent, Martinique, Guade- loupe, Jamaica, and Belize. They have spread out through every province and ter- ritory in Canada, with the biggest group of around 150,000 concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario.

With dozens of temples, churches and mosques, numerous organizations and hun- dreds of businesses behind us, Indo- Caribbeans have said we are here to stay.

Hong Kong Regiment visiting Vancouver,
enroute from London, England where they
had celebrated Queen Victoria's Diamond
Jubilee in 1897. Some stayed and others
later returned and remained in Canada.

Many of us Indo- Caribbeans in Canada have been looking at the coming elections in Trinidad with more attention than we nor-

mally pay to our own elections in Canada. We are not as worried about the Ontario elections due this year, or Canadian elections that could come any time, than we are about the Trinidad elections also due this year. We have good reasons for that.

Many people don't vote in Cana- dian elections because Canadian elections don't really change their lives. Things continue in very much this same way no matter which party is elected.

It's not the same in Trinidad. Gen- eral elections are a life and death, prosperity or misery, stay or leave the country issue for entire groups of people like the Indians and the Africans. Just look at what hap- pened to them both when the UNC left office and the PNM took over.

My interest in the 2007 elections is mostly in the fate of my Indian brothers and sisters I left behind

when I came up to Canada 18 years ago. Quite frankly, it doesn't look good for them. All the signs are there for another crushing victory by the mostly African backed ruling People's National Movement over the Indian community split between and the United National Congress and the Congress of the People.

It's all very simple mathematics. The PNM has massive support of more than 90% of the Africans and the mixed race group and can count on the votes of at least 15% of the Indians.

The UNC has a partial share, no- body knows exactly how much, of the Indian voters, and less than 5% of the Africans and the mixed race group. The Congress of the People has a partial share, probably less than the UNC, of the Indian voters, and also only a tiny slice of the Africans and the mixed-race group. If it sounds like I'm confusing poli- tics with race, it's only because pol- itics in Trinidad is all about race and nothing else.

So if things continue as they are today, the PNM will win the elec- tions with ease, and run the govern-

ment for another five years. Thou- sands of Indians will probably de- cide to run away from Trinidad because they can't stand the barely disguised racism of the PNM gov- ernment, the discrimination, and the incompetence that comes with the package. They can't take the crime, the kidnapping, the high prices, the lack of basic resources like water and affordable food.

That would be a tragedy for Indi- ans who decide to leave. They would becomes exiles like the Guyanese or Fijian Indians, forced to flee the land of their birth. They would become us, who left Trinidad because we did not see a bettter- future for ourselves in the land of our birth.

So what message can we send from Canada to the UNC, COP and the Indian community in Trinidad? It's just this. A house divided cannot stand. You have to get your act to- gether or the PNM will roll over you like an express train.

The UNC in its present condition cannot beat the PNM. Neither can the COP. Even the two of them united are not a guarantee to beat the

PNM. But together they have a chance. They owe it to the Indian community to give them that chance.

I know a dozen people will jump up to tell me why the UNC and COP can't get together to oppose the PNM. I don't want to hear it. I don't want explanations, excuses or apologies. They have got them- selves in this mess and they have to get themselves out of it.

I am not going to tell them how to do it because I don't know. I’ve been living in Canada, but I maintain a deep interest in my people in Trinidad.

Politican unity in Trinidad is not my horse to ride, but I can tell the UNC and COP that if they don't get on the horse together they are both heading for a hard fall. And they will be taking the Indian community in Trinidad with them.

So I say again, the fate of Indians in Trinidad for the next five years rests in the hands of the UNC and COP. Do what you have to do to pre- vent Indians from rotting in a PNM jail until 2012.

“ It is public knowledge the African community's disappointment with these two par-
ties in standing up and speaking forthrightly on Black issues.
In other parts of the world, like the USA and South Africa , the issues and rights of race

rights of all races,” Lewis told the gathering which included the AFC's 2006 Presidential
Candidate Raphael Trotman and PNCR Leader Robert Corbin.
“We do not ask you to ignore your other constituents. What we have been asking is that
you pay attention to the gravity of our situation,” Lewis said.
He noted that in the US , England and other developed nations, Black leaders represent
African issues from various platforms.
Lewis gave the example of William Lucy, an African who is the International Secretary

He is the highest ranking African American in the USA labour movement, founder and president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), which body represents and articulates the interests of the African community by establishing linkages with leaders at the federal, state and local levels.

“We have to represent our interests for it is naïve of us to expect other groups to initiate our programme of empowerment. But we expect them to be decent citizens and hold any government accountable for acts of destruction against its citizens.

“To do so would be a noble human rights task…We invite rights' activists and advocates to be part of the solution for we cannot develop our beautiful country with half of its pop- ulation oppressed and the majority in poverty as we keep afloat with narco-economic, narco-politics and narco-security,” Lewis stated.

On the business front, Lewis pointed out that the present regime has adopted a strategy to ignore the retooling and optimizing of any industry in the African community, prefer- ring to let that industry fail.

“Millions are found to optimise the performance of the sugar industry, on the Skeldon Sugar Project and modernizing of Enmore factory, to name a few in a predominantly In- dian-centered labour force.

“The government deliberately destroyed the bauxite industry's pension plan, the largest single pool of money ever owned by Africans in this country,” Lewis stated. Compound- ing the situation, he said that while this is done the government instructs Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) to find money to sustain the sugar industry's pension fund in order to protect the pension of a predominantly Indian work force.

“Even the little that we have is being forcefully taken from us. This is a process of eco- nomic deprivation, of subjugation, of control, of enslavement and ultimately destruction. This is economic genocide,” Lewis claimed.

He also pointed to the criminalisation and demonisation of Africans in Guyana and the incarceration of Mark Benschop who is in prison awaiting a second trial for treason. Lewis also expressed dissatisfaction that Commissioner of Police and his team cannot identify even one suspect in the execution-style murder of Ronald Waddell.

The GTUC president also called on the elected members to consult with him from time to time and anchor their presentation in parliament, based on issues that have direct ben- efits to communities. The museum, which is bound to attract visitors from across Canada and the U.S., will act as a cultural bridge, said Opposition Leader John Tory.

"I think it will address what I think
will be one of our biggest challenges that
we still have as a society namely improv-
ing our understanding of each other.

"As tourists come to visit, not only will
they enrich our economy...but they too
will learn about and join us in celebrating
the diversity we have in Ontario."

Being able to build such an edifice marks a coming of age for the Indo-Canadian community, said Patel.

"Initially as immigrants, you are focused on settling down, doing a balancing act of trying to fit in while preserving your her- itage.

"As the community has prospered and es- tablished itself, now is the time to think of our legacy. And that's what this is all about."

The museum joins a very short list of in- stitutions with exhbits on Indo-Canadians, which includes the Canadian Museum of Hindu Civilization in Richmond Hil, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Matsqui- Sumas- Abbotsford Museum Society in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

There is as yet no museum in Canada that focuses on the 200,000 Indo-Caribbeans who have a 99 year history of settlement in this country.

Farouk Hydal has been re-elected to lead the Trinidad and Tobago 50 Plus and Seniors As- sociation into their 12 year of existence. Elections took place at the Birkdale Community Centre in Scarborough. Executive members in the picture above are, seated front row, from the left, Secretary Indra Mohammed, Assistant Secretary Monica Edoo, Trustee Yolanda Russell. Back row standing, from left, are Director Shazak Ali, PRO and Founder Rasheed Sultan-Khan, Second Vice President Anthony Mohammed, Vice President Steve Khan, President Farouk Hydal, Treasurer Frank Taylor, Director Joseph Chadwick and Trustee Clyde Gill.

Slated to open this July, the $25 million 1,800-square-metre museum is designed to showcase and preserve the heritage of nearly one million Canadians who trace their roots to the Indian subcontinent.

Located on a 7-hectare site just off of Highway 427 and Finch Ave., the museum is part of the Swaminarayan complex, which includes a Hindu temple and Haveli (meeting hall).

Construction of the museum, which began in April 2005, is based on Vedic engineer- ing principles, without using steel or nails, said Naresh Roy Patel, a trustee of the com- plex.

The museum will include exhibits on the contributions of Indian civilization to the world in such areas as science, mathemat- ics, medicine, art and language.

It will also serve to chronicle the history and the migration of the Indian Diaspora to Canada via Africa, the Caribbean and Fiji.

The aim is to educate the broader Cana- dian society, as well as enhance a sense of pride in Indo-Canadians in their heritage, said Patel.

"This is the new Canada," said provincial Immigration Minister Mike Colle, one of several guests at a recent tour of the site."This is what is so special about Canada because where else in the world would you have the introduction of a civi- lization that goes back 10,000 years...that we as Canadians of all walks of life will forever be grateful for."

The museum, which is bound to attract visitors from across Canada and the U.S., will act as a cultural bridge, said Opposi- tion Leader John Tory.