Caribbean Times 42nd Issue - 23rd November 2016

2 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g
Wednesday 23rd November 2016
Local group pens letter to Prince Harry
By Everton Barnes
While a local debate rages
on the appropriateness of
lack thereof of comments
made by Prime Minister
Gaston Browne at a function
in honour of Prince Harry,
one local group wants the
visiting Royal to address
past atrocities against the
African peoples by the British
colonials.
In an open letter to Prince
Editor’s Note
Caribbean Times is printed
and published at Woods
Estate/Friars Hill Road.
The Editor is Justin Peters.
Contact: Caribbean Times,
P.O. Box W2099,
Woods Estate/Friars Hill
Road,
St. John’s,
Antigua.
Tel: (268) 562-8688,
Fax: (268) 562-8685.
Visit us online at our website:
www. caribbeantimes.ag
We ask you to send:
Pertinent news items to
news@caribbeantimes.ag.
Advertisement inquiries to
accounts@caribbeantimes.ag.
Letters to the editor to
editor@caribbeantimes.ag
Henry of Wales, commonly
called Prince Harry, the
Antigua and Barbuda Reparation
Support Commission
noted that while it does not
recognize the accession to
special privileges of anyone
simply on the nature of his
or her birth, it however welcomed
him as a representative
of the governance of the
United Kingdom.
Penned by ABRSC Chairman
Dorbrene O’Marde the
letter described Britain as ‘a
country with which we have
had a four hundred year relationships
– alas – categorized
by the enslavement
and colonial domination of
our ancestors’.
O’Marde called on the
Prince take some time to
explore with the people of
Antigua and Barbuda the
legacies of slavery and colonialism
that continue to
thwart ‘our efforts at sustainable
economic development
and the psychological and
cultural rehabilitation of our
people’.
The ABRSC chairman
noted that in January of this
year, the Prime Minister of
Barbados, acting in his role
as Chairman of the Caribbean
Community (CAR-
ICOM) Prime Ministerial
Sub-Committee on Reparations,
invited former British
Prime Minister, David Cameron
and his Government to
meet with CARICOM ‘in
order to discuss how best
we may amicably exchange
views on reparations with
the framework established
by the United Nations. That
framework called on the developed
world to ‘acknowledge
and profoundly regret
‘the untold suffering and
evils inflicted on millions of
men, women and children as
a result of slavery, the slave
trade, the transatlantic slave
trade, colonialism, apart-
Informative, reliable, enriching!
Think you have a good news story; did you witness
anything that is news-worthy; did you take that
valuable picture; things happening in your community
but there is no outlet or voice for you? You can
earn just by telling your story.
Call Caribbean Times at (268) 562 8688
Email: editor@caribbeantimes.ag
Or news@caribbeantimes.ag
Reach us now with that breaking news!
heid, genocide and past tragedies’
and further to ‘find
some way to contribute to
the restoration of the dignity
of the victims.’
O’Marde said to his dismay
Prime Minister Cameron
declined to discuss the
matter in any meaningful
way, but was however more
forthcoming with respect
to the Holocaust; declaring
there was need to preserve
its memory for generations.
“We simply ask the question
‘are African people and
their descendants in the Caribbean
not worthy of the
dignity expressed through
reparations to Israelis/Jews,
Japanese Americans, Native
American Indians, The Allies
of World War ll, Polish
slave laborers, The Canadian
Eskimos, the Australian Aborigines,
the New Zealand
Maoris and a host of others
who have been compensated
for crimes committed
against them?” he wrote.
The Antigua and Barbuda
Reparations Support
Commission (ABRSC)
highlights the fact that the
African is the only wronged
race that has not received
even an apology from those
who committed the most
brutal crimes against us. We
hold that Reparation is not
only about compensation for
lost labour. The injury to Africa
and African peoples was
the comprehensive destruction
of human lives, human
cultures and human possibilities.