Sunday, October 18 2009

Who knew that we were capable of doing this to the descendants of Mao Zedong? Tiny little Trinidad and Tobago, population of 1.3 million or so persons going up against the historical might of China, population 1.3 billion or so, and managing to break the will, the spirit of a people.

Remember the Long March? The Chinese workers who came to Trinidad are descendants of men who traversed freezing mountains, dangerous marshes and evil warlords to outwit and outmanoeuvre the Kuomintang that ruled China through Chiang Kai-shek at the time in the 1900s. Imagine what those men, and I assume some women, went through at that time, days and nights of trekking through dangerous territory, many falling by the wayside but many more continuing on to arrive at their final destination to regroup and fight on.

China has a strong and noble history. The wisest of wise men came from China – Confucius. There are various dynasties rich in achievements and accomplishments. Today China is on the brink of becoming the leading country in the world both through sheer numbers and through an economy that is stronger than so many other western nations.

Trinidad and Tobago also has a history, some rich, some horrific. The fact is, though, that when we think of our history it is the horrific and terrible parts that we remember, that continue to define us as we are today. We cannot escape our history of slavery and indentureship. It is writ large. To this day we battle the demons, the anger, the pain, the colour issues, the race issues, the sense of inferiority that we inherited from the brutalisation of our ancestors.

Slavery and indentureship have a lot to account for when it comes to the psyche of Trinbagonians. So you would think that we would be hyper-aware of issues of exploitation, degradation and debasement.

At least at a government and corporate level, it would seem that that is not so. Even at a personal level, it would seem that many of us could care less about the manner in which we, the children of slaves and indentured labourers, are treating Mao’s children.

From all accounts the Chinese men – I don’t know that there are any women – who are living in this country are living in squalid conditions. Stories and photos in Newsday and other media tell of poor housing, a struggle for food, latrines for toilets in this day and age, extra long working hours with little pay.

I don’t know how many of you have seen the Chinese men who hang out around the Queen’s Park Savannah. Some of them walk around the savannah, some sit on benches, slumped over, looking lost and lonely. They have only each other to talk to and no recreation available to them. They stare at the Trinis as we walk by, perhaps wondering at our lives and wishing that someone would reach out to them. But we don’t. Not just because we can’t communicate but because we are all so busy with our own lives that we have little time to wonder about these men who toil so that we can have bigger and fancier buildings that will surely begin to crumble in a few years from neglect. Upkeep is apparently not part of the 20-20 vision.

But from Government to little peewat, we have to ask ourselves: how did we come to this? How did this once exploited and enslaved nation come to be an exploiter and enslaver? Is this what First World status means? That we finally catch up with the imperialist, colonial ways of our more developed neighbours?

It seems that like the children of abuse that we all are (slavery and indentureship were rife with abuse, after all) we have not emerged a kinder, gentler people. Instead we have imbibed, instilled and assimilated the ways of the abuser and are passing it on wherever we can – like in the local work force where un-unionised workers, like those in the security industry, for example, are forced to work ten and more work hours per day with little benefits, some of them getting half hour or less for lunch break, some not even allowed to go to the toilet when they want to.

There must come a point as a society when we try to break free of the bonds of slavery and indentureship – in a real and meaningful way. If we don’t then we will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again and perpetrate ugly abuses without fully understanding why and how we came to this.