Caribbean Times 94th issue - Thursday 21st April 2016

Thursday 21st April 2016 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g 9
Where you come from?
Dorbrene E. O’Marde
Chairperson / Antigua
and Barbuda Reparations
Support Commission
It is not about the Privy
Council. It is about respect
for yourself and your children.
It is not about Lord
Neuberger who has been
its President since 2012
– something that I do not
think many people know. I
could be wrong but for four
years he did not let us know
that the Privy Council had
changed its mind and was
glad to have us.
It is not about the Observer
case or PM Gaston
Browne or the ‘Not Yet
Now!’ stupidity. It is about
respect for your race. Think
about it. All that said however,
I am going to make
this about African me, Antigua-born
Caribbean citizen.
I come from a region that
has produced Rev Philip
Potter who was the chairperson
of the World Student
Christian Federation and
who for twelve years served
as the General Secretary
of the WORLD Council of
Churches; a man considered
a leader in world religion.
I need not go to literary
and performing arts to describe
the brilliance of the
region where I was born
and live. Walcott, Naipaul,
our own Kincaid, Salkey,
Lamming, Braithwaite, Nettleford?
I need not go to
culture. I need not go to the
international entertainment
industry and talk about our
presence there.
The Olympic Games
called design artist Peter
Minshall for its opening ceremony;
the first WORLD’s
fair called our own Paul
Richards (King Obstinate)
for its music; there are few
WORLD stages and hit parades
that our Poitiers and
Holders and Marleys and
Rihannas and Sparrows and
Kassavs and Montanos have
not graced.
I come from a region that
has changed the thinking of
this world through its scholarship
– in the economics
thought of Dr. Arthur Lewis
and the history of Dr. Eric
Williams and Ivan van Sertima
and the race analysis of
Marcus Garvey and Stokely
Carmichael and the Reparations
demand of Professor
Hilary Beckles and the Caribbean
Reparations Commission.
It is not only in the arts
and humanities. The region
I come from produces more
scientific papers per 1000
population than the USA.
(1.02 vs. USA/0.99)
I shouldn’t have to mention
sports. But I wish to
remind you that it is not
just-come Usain Bolt and
Shelley-Ann Fraser and
Kirani James - but that
Olympic medalists McDonald
Bailey and Arthur Wint
and Herb McKenley and
Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie
and Donald Currie and
Veronica Campbell-Brown
and Hasely Crawford and
Pauline Davis-Thompson
and Ato Boldin were before
them.
I hope I am repeating
well known facts that Emile
Griffith and our own Maurice
Hope are internationally
titled boxers and that Tim
Duncan has followed in the
footsteps of Adonal Foyle
and Patrick Ewing in basketball;
that Dwight Yorke has
topped the soccer world and
that we (Antigua and Barbuda)
have produced a Mr.
Universe in Paddy Winter.
There are so many more to
mention - including the Jamaican
bobsled team. No, I
will not talk cricket.
Of similar collective
achievements, no other region
in the world with a population
of eight million can
so boast. None! I come from
a region of world-beaters!
But that is far from all.
My world also revolves
around the unparalled contributions
of the Haitian revolution
to democracy and
freedom, to the resilience
of the Cuban revolution led
by the fighting spirits of Fidel
and Che and Jose Marti
and its contribution to world
medicine and education and
sports and music; and the anti-French
colonial condemnation
of Aimé Césaire and
Frantz Fanon.
So why can’t we establish
and run our own independent
final court of appeal and deliver
justice that is culturally
and socio-economically fair
and relevant? Seems we can
do everything else!
YES, YES, YES to the
CCJ. It is about respect for
self. It is also about respect
for your race. It is about respect
for this Caribbean region
and its brilliance.
Who you? Where you
come from?
Editor’s Note: The opinions
expressed in this Op-ed
are those of the author and
do not necessarily reflect the
views of Caribbean Times.
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
IN THE HIGH COURT OF
JUSTICE
A. D. 2016
(PROBATE)
In the Estate of CLAUDE
EARL KING, deceased
NOTICE IS HEREBY
GIVEN that at the expiration
of fourteen (14) days from
the date of this Notice, Application
will be made to the
Probate Registry of the High
Court of Justice by GRIFFIN
KING of English Harbour,
St. Paul, Antigua and KRYS-
TAL KENDA KANDIA
KING of Bethesda, St. Paul,
Antigua for Grant of Letters
of Administration of the
Estate of CLAUDE EARL
KING , late of English Harbour
who died on the 26th
January, 2016.
Dated this 19th day of April,
2016.
HUGH C. MARSHALL
MARSHALL & CO.
Attorney for the Applicant