Showing posts with label Legacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legacy. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Treating with Columbus and the Colonial Legacy of Heritage Trauma

Dear Mayor, and noble and other honourable citizens of the colourless world

I see there is a call for suggestions on how to treat with the colonial legacy and monuments - which must be close to the millionth such call to which I have responded. But now aware that there will be no action along the lines that I have used, tried and tested with other similarly trauma-inflicted communities of our region, I am not even tempted to point out that most times I feel like I have been talking to stone or that we only reaping the whirlwind that will continue to gather strength as we add fury to savagery, I propose the following as a preliminary list for your immediate action to assuage the bloodthirsty masses. I am sure these would meet with nods and applause of approval from noted historians, educators, leaders, opinion leaders and the like from whom you seek counsel. This list is to exorcise the ghosts roaming Port of Spain, while I compile the much larger list for exorcism across the country, and beyond, Dear Mayor. I come, you see, Mr Mayor, to not praise, but bury Columbus, along with the colonial legacy embedded in our psyche, landscapes and institutions and monuments of memory.
More at: https://krisrampersad.com/exorcising-historical-trauma-black-white-of-monuments-memory/

Related: https://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com/2017/07/my-discoverie-columbus-lost-and-found.html









Thursday, June 13, 2019

Free to Know Loopholes in the Law of Right to Free Expressions


The Right to Know may be a natural human right but it takes laws to secure and protect it... here's why ... See link: https://krisrampersad.com/culture-of-secrecy-costs/




Find out more. Visit the MultiMedia LifeLong Learning Academy https://krisrampersad.com/portfolio/free-to-know-loops-laws-lore/

Monday, October 4, 2010

PITRI PAKSH: CEREMONY FOR THE LIVING


Every year, during the September/October period for approximately fifteen days, Hindus observe the Pitri Paksh (loosely translated as ancestors' time), by engaging in reflection, prayer and remembrance; a manifestation of gratitude to those who have paved the way and who continue to live through us. As is the case with many ancient ceremonies, misconceptions are common for the purpose and theological principles underpinning the rituals are not generally understood. All Hindu rituals are grounded in the social, psychological and meta-physical domains with a core goal of maintaining order in the family, society and country. The ritual is not the end itself but rather a means or process towards a more noble and lofty cause of remembering and acknowledging the sacrifice and contribution of those who have died.

In this regard, the rituals performed in this period are similar to remembrance ceremonies in both the secular and religious worlds. Examples of the former are Memorial Day and Remembrance Day. Gratitude is one of the stronger threads of the social weave and hence a primary aim of the period is to engender and foster this essential and critical human characteristic. It is thus for the living who perform it. The continuity of life (spirit, energy and matter) is expressed in the tenet of reincarnation and thus the prayers that are proffered are meant for the benefit of the reincarnated ancestor in his/her present life. To many, this is a difficult concept to acknowledge or grasp, particularly those whose construct of the world is assembled from inflexible dogma.



Such individuals can be found in both the secular and the religious communities who share a commonality; a one-dimensional binary world view, one that is inconsistent with the inter-related multi-dimensional complexities of the universe. Religion, like other endeavours of man, seeks to provide an understanding of the world.

The problem with dogma based belief systems is that the evolving world is constrained to conform to a model that might not represent reality. On the other hand, process based belief systems are able to accommodate changing situations and thus are more relevant as they provide a model that is aligned with existing situation. Hinduism and Buddhism are process based religions which provide the individual with the algorithms for effective decision making.

Authority, responsibility and accountability lie fully in the domain of the individual upon which the concept of karma and its corollary, reincarnation, are based. The theory of karma indicates that our present life trajectory at any point in time is the dynamic conjoint of past and present actions. Since we are accustomed to thinking that the outputs of actions are limited to a finite time scale, conceptualisation of the continuity of the effects over large distances and time periods requires effort. To give a simple example, an earthquake occurring for a few seconds near the eastern shores Pacific ocean take a few hours to be felt on the western shores; as it takes time for the waves to propagate. Now imagine, a few minutes later, a second earthquake occurs a bit west of the site of the original quake.

Waves near the western shore would be the conjoint of both waves; that is, its present characteristics is a product of both actions (quakes). Put another way the effects of the past and present are coexisting and by extension, the future is a product of the present and past; the idea behind karma. At the physical plane level, the performance of the rituals for one's ancestors is a product of a past action or consistent set of actions. By performing these rituals, the future actions of one's offspring are influenced. In other words, an action by an ancestor one generation removed will affect the actions of a successor one generation forward. Put another way; actions from the distant past impact on the present and future.

The clear conclusion, even if one did not subscribe to the reincarnation and karma, is that the worship of the ancestors impact positively on the living, over many generations. To say otherwise is to deny the fundamental characteristic of what makes us human. To criticise the ceremony as worshipping the dead is to admit one's own ingratitude to one's fellowman.
From article by Pundit Prakash Persad
Sun Oct 03 2010, Sunday Guardian

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With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to more than 10,000 years of regional pre and post colonial history and heritage. Make contact.

To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts. Or to develop your own legacy initiatives, and safeguard, preserve, multimedia museum, galleries, archives, make contact.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Legacy of Black Power is more than just dashikis

Legacy of Black Power is more than just dashikis by 20100511 Ravi Ji The Hon Prime Minister challenged Chief Servant Makandal Daga to account for an episode at a Catholic church during the Black Power days of the 1970s. He has also signaled an alarm to Catholics. Mr Manning, in my mind, reduces the entire seventies–Black Power, African identity, opportunities for all beyond colour of skin, relevant education, freedom from prejudice lingering in post-independence institutions–solely to the event at the church in which Black Power protestors draped black cloth across white statues. Mr Manning also derided Daaga for still wearing his African dashiki. I will not condone desecration to a sacred place. But was this an act of desecration? This is why we, including the Hon Prime Minister, have to be educated about the seventies. Given that 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the Black Power Revolution and 125th Anniversary of Jahajee Massacre, this is the kind of discussion, the TT Commission to Unesco could have engaged in this year of Rapproachement of Cultures. So, was it a desecration or a ritual of reclamation? Was it a dramatic ritualising by black children of Africa, staking claim to the God they had come to accept in lieu of their own demonised God, Oludumare, and re-making Him in their own black image and likeness?��This is important, since identity, self-esteem and loss of culture were critical to the Black Power movement. For Africans, black is not skin deep, but a deep prejudice and a heavy burden; listen to composer's calypso, Black. This anthropophagic phenomenon is universal and expressed in diverse ways and intensities. The Chinese look of the Indian-born Bhagwan Buddha evolved through gradual artistic ritualisation and so too has Carnival music. African slaves employed the reverse of this art of survival in masking their divinities under the guise of Catholic saints. It is also instructive that the Cathedral was not vandalised, as were, say, mandirs in T&T, on August 4, 2007 and 2008, back to back. The Prime Minister's reductionism of the seventies to the lone episode at the church is a disservice to the many leaders of Black Power and calypsonians like Stalin and others who have immortalised the seventies, like Bro Valentino who sang,"Doh matter how they try to tarnish those sacred memories, I will never forget the Roaring Seventies," and Chalkie who advocates, "Say thanks to Daaga!" The disservice extends not only to Daga, Khafra and Eintou but to all–including Indians and Catholics who sympathised and participated in the Black Power movement. With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to more than 10,000 years of regional pre and post colonial history and heritage. Make contact. To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts. Or to develop your own legacy initiatives, and safeguard, preserve, multimedia museum, galleries, archives, make contact. Political parties should discuss women issues during campaign Legacy of Black Power is more than just dashikis | The Trinidad Guardian

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Call for Papers: Placing the Archipelago « Repeating Islands

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With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to more than 10,000 years of regional pre and post colonial history and heritage. Make contact.

To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts. Or to develop your own legacy initiatives, and safeguard, preserve, multimedia museum, galleries, archives, make contact.



Call for Papers: Placing the Archipelago « Repeating Islands

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

As Cool as Gokool Haji Gokool Meah

Featured in Finding A Place by Dr Kris Rampersad

Haji Gokool Meah 

How many of us would have known that the expression “cool as Gokool” referred to Haji Gokool Meah (1847-1939) who came on an indenture ship when he was just six years old and grew to be businessman, cocoa proprietor and cinema magnate, builder of the Globe and Empire cinemas in the 1930’s? Gokool drank his cup of dhal every day, and in the face of racial prejudice conducted his business with an icy calm that became proverbial, hence “cool as Gokool”. [Extracted from Caribbean History Archives]

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Haji Gokool Meah (1847–1939) was an industrialist and philanthropist. He was born in Kashmir, in what was then British India. He was originally named Modhoo. His father died shortly before his birth and his mother remarried.

As a small child, his family left Kashmir and ended up in Calcutta where in 1852 they signed up as indentured labourers bound for the sugar cane fields of Trinidad. On January 25, 1853 they arrived in Trinidad aboard the Benares. They were indentured at the Concord Estate in Pointe-à-Pierre. After three months, his mother died of malaria and his stepfather took little interest in him. He was informally adopted by a Hindu couple who gave him the name Gokool.

Haji Gokool Meah Mosque

Once he was old enough, Gokool secured his own indentureship contract with the Concord Estate. He renewed his contract once it expired, and then went out on his own. He purchased a donkey cart and made a living hauling sugar cane to the factory at Usine Sainte Madeline, then the second largest sugar refinery in the world. After a few years of this trade, he sold his cart and established a shop in Danglade Village on the road to San Fernando (now part of the Petrotrin oil refinery at Pointe-à-Pierre).

He married Rojan Boodhoo, a Muslim in 18781, and had 17 children, 11 of whom survived. From shopkeeping he moved on to cocoa cultivation, establishing one of the early cocoa plantations in the Diego Martin valley. From cocoa he moved on the real estate, becoming one of the major landlords in Port of Spain. He also established himself as a cinema magnate, establishing the Metro cinema in collaboration with MGM. He later split with them and renamed his cinema the Globe Cinema, eventually operating a string of five cinemas in Port of Spain and San Fernando.

In 1922 he performed the Haj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca). In his will, he established the Haji Gokool Meah Trust, a trust to continue the charitable works which had earned him the title Meah (benefactor). [Extracted from Wikipedia]  In 1923 he joined Kazi Syed Abdul Aziz, Haji Ruknuddin Meah and Abdul Ghany to set up the TIA, and was a generous donor to their projects.   When he died he left $1million in a tust fund to his son Noor to administer to the poor.  Noor passed it on to an institution which established the Haji Gokool Meah Trust Fund in 1967 for the poor, needy and education in general, then valued at $1.93 million.1

The Cinema

On Thursday February 2nd 1911, Trinidadians got their first taste of the new-fangled technology of moving pictures. The London Electric Theatre was constructed at the corner of Baden Powell St. and French St. in Woodbrook. Built by Marcus and Reginal Davis, the opening was eagerly anticipated as crowds braved a rainy evening to see the first show, entitled “The World Before Your Eyes” . The matinée was a series of stills, rapidly flipped before a projector to give the illusion of motion. The rates charged for admission were for the gender and age classes, and not for house or balcony as with later cinemas.

Another pioneer in the local cinema industry was Gokool Meah. Born in 1848 in Kashmir, he came as a child to Trinidad, and was subsequently orphaned with the deaths of his parents, Caulloo and Puddoo. Adopted by a childless Hindu couple, who did not mind the waif’s Islamic heritage, he grew up in labour on Concord Estate, near Pointe-a-Pierre, then owned by Dr. J.B Phillippe, a prominent coloured medical man and well-known public figure.

By 1870 he was driving a mule cart, and later bought one of his own with which he did a thriving trade, carting canes to the refinery at Usine Ste. Madeline. His career as a carter abruptly ended when the mule kicked him, and using his savings, Gokool opened a small shop near the estate.

In 1878 he married a young Punjabi woman, Rojan, who gave him 11 surviving children. The shop prospered and in 1892, Gokool was able to purchase Diamond, Greenhill and River Estates, comprising almost the whole Diego Martin valley, which he developed as cocoa plantations. He moved there with his family and lived in a large wooden house. His children were educated in the local R.C School, with the boys going on to prestige secondary schools in POS.

By 1918, Gokool was buying up properties in POS which were going cheap in the post WWI recession. Although known as a hard commercial man, he was a charitable, pious Muslim, who fed children at his home daily and gave a piece of land to be used as an Indian cemetery in Diego Martin.

In 1922 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca with his son Noor, and became known as Haji Gokool Meah. In 1927 he built a Masjid in St. James which bears his name. In 1933, Gokool dived feet first into the cinema business, where fellow Indians, Timothy Roodal and Sarran Teelucksingh had already made a fortune. He was particularly convinced when the first movie with sound, a ‘talkie’ was shown in 1930. Gokool, supported by his son Noor (business manager of the vast empire his father owned and a QRC grad) forged an alliance with the American film producer, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, MGM. The contract was so planned that Gokool could only show films produced by MGM.

In 1933 , he constructed at the corner of St. Vincent and Park Sts. the Metro Cinema. It opened on March 19th 1933 to huge fanfare and for good reason. The ornate classical building could seat over 1,000 patrons in balcony and pit, and cost over $80,000 to construct. By comparison, almost the whole of modern-day Aranguez was for sale at the time for $22,000.00 The Globe was also the first building in Trinidad to be air-conditioned, and the largest cinema in the Caribbean. It also had a stage for live theatrical performances.

In 1938, Gokool breached his contract with MGM by showing films from rival outfits like RKO and Paramount. MGM withdrew and signed with George Rosenthal, another cinema pioneer. Gokool changed the name of his cinema to Globe, which name it still carries today. He also opened other Globe cinemas in Princes Town and Chaguanas. Not above a little bobol from time to time, Gokool tried to burn down one of his properties for insurance, sending his son Anware to do the deed… the boy was caught and fined. “Insuranburn”, as Sir V.S Naipaul called it, was a popular crooked business practice at the time.  Gokool died in 1940 aged 92. The cinema he founded is still extant in its original building and is a gem of period architecture.

The Cinema – contributed by

Angelo Bissessarsingh Siparia  adapted from 

1. Finding a Place by Kris Rampersad
2. http://www.naturetrektt.com/Trekking/25ThingsNotToMissAtAll/StJames/tabid/513/Default.aspx



Featured in Finding A Place. Help Us digitise

Grow Safeguard Preserve Create A MultiMedia Legacy


Featured in Finding A Place. Help Us digitise

Grow Safeguard Preserve Create A MultiMedia Legacy

With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to more than 10,000 years of regional pre and post colonial history and heritage. Make contact.

To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts. Or to develop your own legacy initiatives, and safeguard, preserve, multimedia museum, galleries, archives, make contact.

Haji Gokool Meah (1847 - 1939) in Caribbean Muslims 

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Political parties should discuss women issues during campaign

Grow Safeguard Preserve Create A MultiMedia Legacy

With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to more than 10,000 years of regional pre and post colonial history and heritage. Make contact.

To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts. Or to develop your own legacy initiatives, and safeguard, preserve, multimedia museum, galleries, archives, make contact.

Political parties should discuss women issues during campaign

News Article


Grow Safeguard Preserve Create A MultiMedia Legacy

With rapidly changing technologies in media, many of our knowledge resources are fast disappearing or becoming inaccessible. We are in the process of digitising our archives representing more than 30 years of contemporary Caribbean development linked to more than 10,000 years of regional pre and post colonial history and heritage. Make contact.

To support, sponsor, collaborate and partners with our digitisation efforts. Or to develop your own legacy initiatives, and safeguard, preserve, multimedia museum, galleries, archives, make contact.



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