By Makeda Mikael
Now what kinda insult is that! That our Government chose to honour first the grandson of the last colonial master who has managed once more to use the sons of Africa as ‘labourers’ to plant his weed just like they planted the sugarcane before V.C. Bird put a stop to it once, and we had hoped for all!
For those who could not wait to get recognition with the throw-back to our past I say shame on you!
Rastafari says forgive but never forget, and whereas I am still having difficulty forgiving, and even when reparations equal to our ancestors labour is on the table, counted and receipted, I know I will still be grumbling and remembering the centuries of tending the gardens of others, growing their money crop, which built their cities in England.
Racism is rife in this so-called generous presentation of the Government to the Rastafari community without even the pretense of raising the standards of their current state by making them the major shareholder with Government and the Private Sector partner.
It could even be 49% Rastafari; Private holding 49%; Government 2% which would establish the respect that the Government has for those whom they and previous administrations have disadvantaged and killed over the past fifty years for ‘weed’.
What on earth could convince the Government to endorse this privileged individual again in the position to call all the shots, and juxtaposed with the labourers openly named as Rastafari – the deal stinks.
Worse, history will record this decision made with pomp and ignorance by insensitive persons taking advantage of Rastafari gladness to be recognized at last.
All those who will regard these revelations as racist need a throw back to recognize why it is a very bad move, which establishes a continuation of a history where Rasta children will not even get a chance to forget the name.
There is a term used to explain why oppressed persons begin to fall in love with the oppressor – Stockholm syndrome. With the freeing up of ‘holy herb’ giving Rasta four trees as a bly in order to commercialize cannabis, grateful Rastafari have blanked out the past, including Sir Alexander Moody-Stuart, his heirs and successors.
Rasta pickney be aware, Sir Alexander Moody-Stuart was the last head of the Antigua Sugar Syndicate under whom the descendants of the enslaved Africans endured the last dying tremors of centuries of cruelty.
What’s more, this is the man who tried to sell the syndicate lands with the labourers for the last time to the white farmers of Kenya, defeated in pre-independence wars by the dread-locks Mau Mau.
Had V.C. Bird not rescued Antigua and Antiguans from a second round of hard labour, the heirs and successors would never be needing Rastafari to get his cannabis development program off the ground, and it may even have taken another 50 years for Antigua to be open to receive the Revelation of Rastafari.
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Can you imagine our so call black leaders taking us back to massa days ? This is so embarrassing in modern day history . And worst of all ,the Rasta community agreed to this . The same groups that always talking about been black contiousness .We are on a modern day slave ship . SMH.
Ms. Makeda marning to you and your audience.
It’s a hard road to travel, and a rough, tough way to go!
The RastafarI Community could use investors such as you.(I could be wrong, since in some ways, you may already be employing or educating those of a Pan African mindset, under which banner several of the RastafarI ideals and ideology’s are set.
Be that as it may, laws can always be amended. Not #ALL RastafarI have fallen for the government’s move, head over heals and be thankful.
What is needed right about now, presently, is for all the closet “weed” dealer, those with education from soil prep to quality control to testing to regulations need to join forces, to take control of the HEMP INDUSTRY. We cannot allow this to go the way, of the Tourism Industry.
Slavery. Shame Shame
Is all this ganja for Medicinal and Religious reasons ? U tink we stupid. There is no INDUSTRY here other than smoking. No coffee shops, no pharmacies, how is this going to work ? U plant a few hundred trees and its just smoked in their sacrificals events ? At least we know where to get it
I remember when former U.S. President, Barack Obama, made a statement at the Young Leaders of the Americas in Jamaica relating to the hemp industry especially for recreational/medicinal use and how it can stimulate economic development and an alternative opportunity for the youth thereby creating generational wealth.
His response was in essence that on paper the jobs and revenues it will create seem all good and well, but it is not a silver bullet and as it relates to the global economy, in general, if there are pockets of legal marijuana farms scattered across the Caribbean and Latin America operating independently with no synergy the likelihood of multinational companies, companies with enough capitol to buy and sell nations, disenfranchising the local producers/farmers via controlling and cornering the market, as witnessed in the Banana Republic era, will be a very likely scenario if it is not properly and seriously planned out by the local small (rasta) man.
Our own kind continuing to make slaves of us. It wasn’t bad enough they made slaves of us centuries ago and sold us to the foreigners. Here we are again.
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