The Beckles’, The Gayles, The Dons, Caribbean Cricket, and Slavery: A Rudie Awakening

By Clairmont Chung

All of the three people, who read my blog, counting my siblings, know I have written about the strange decisions of the West Indies Cricket Board and proposed reasons. Now, one of the WICB’s directors, Sir Hilary Beckles dramatically clarified these strange decisions and the WICB’s intentions. The WICB has dropped, fired and maligned some of the best players in the world. Prof. Hilary Beckles, also the Principal at University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, recently addressed an audience in St. Kitts, at the annual Frank Worrell Memorial lecture entitled  “Frank Worrell: The Rise & Fall of West Indies Cricket”[i]. In that address, Dr. Beckles described the attitude some players, namely Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, exhibit as ‘donmanship’. He said, "Those who follow him (Gayle) and his cohort in the team do relate to him as their don and it is said that he has brought the donmanship into how things operate in the (West Indies) team. What the WICB is trying to do at the moment is uproot this donmanship culture,"[ii]  He added that the WICB is attempting to uproot that element from the culture like Jamaica attempted to uproot alleged crime boss Chris ‘Dudus’ Coke from its politics. In comparing the team’s popular former captain and IPL standout’s, Chris Gayle, position in the team to that notorious alleged gangster Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, Dr. Beckles ignored a few things.

On one hand, Dr. Beckles did not mention that some eighty (80) of its own citizens were killed as a result of the state of emergency declared by the Jamaica government to affect the capture and extradition of Mr. Coke. He neglected to mention and that Mr. Coke’s father had himself been a ‘don’ and both had had alleged ties to the crime world and the very government. On the other hand, He neglected to mention that Chris Gayle is a superstar in the Indian Professional League (IPL), loved by fellow players in all his teams and including opponents all over the world and is an activist for players’ rights. He neglected to mention that the team’s current captain, Darren Sammy, praised Gayle for his help during the recent World Cup.
  

Instead, Dr. Beckles spoke about a time of West Indies’ cricket superiority and the reasons for it as a way to explain its arrival at this ‘donmanship’ period. He lauded Frank Worrell’s activism. Worrell had refused to tour India unless he received better remuneration. But now as a WICB director, Beckles is unable to see the value of Gayle’s activism. Caribbean cricket is too important to be contextualized as a relic of some romantic past, no matter how flowery the language and anecdotes, and for us to engage in a simple discussion of the good old days, and oppose the new, is a testament of the depth of WICB’s sleep.

  

It’s time we set the record straight about the true history of our cricket. Lofty quotes of CLR. James is not enough. It’s time for a rudie awakening from this romantic past.

Now, to reduce all that was said in that hour long presentation to the ‘quotes’ above would be a disservice to the rest of what was said and to Dr. Beckles’ contribution to the study of our cricket and our history. His work on reparations is significant. Nevertheless, the statements point to a serious disconnect with the prevailing currents but more so with the regional response to those currents. There is no doubt he said it. Despite attempts to backpedal, and now an apology with an explanation, Beckles’ comments are well in line with what he has always said. Beckles asserted in his book The Development of West Indies Cricket, Volume 2, that cricket was under threat as was Caribbean culture under threat from foreign culture with basketball and rap music. He wrote, “Calypso and Reggae is West Indian. Rap is an import from the back streets of America, streets full of crime and cocaine. It’s part of an invasion.”[iii] Here we see the foundation from which he would jump from Frank Worrell the Father to Gayle the Don of our cricket. They always skip Kanhai. But Beckles is not alone. Many of the ‘educated’ commentators do not like Chris Gayle. It’s couched in all manner of ways. Beckles labels these ‘bad’ influences as foreign. This is not uncommon among the more conservative among us. Just as Worrell was a response to imperial power, so too is Gayle, rap, and dancehall. Not all of it is good. But at its core, it’s a response.

Moreover, ignoring Chutney and more recent incarnations of Calypso reflects an even more sinister disconnect with a vital part of the Caribbean: the descendants of East Indian indentured servants. What may seem minor to some in power is enormous to people traditionally ignored at the highest levels. The rights of all others should be important to anyone who fought for abolition, and inclusion and rights under a racist colonial structure and claims to fight injustice. Why this continues to elude some of the best among us is disturbing. Because it immediately reveals the falsity of whatever position one takes. Some champion the work of Walter Rodney but forego the very core of his being: human rights for all. His construct for Black Power included Indians. This was the danger he presented. Today we present no threat, unless some like the WICB view the multiracial unity exhibited by Gayle, Sarwan and Chanderpaul as such. Instead we fall in line with the structure. Perhaps this is the reason the WICB seems unable to deal with WIPA and its East Indian Chairman.
  

Dr. Beckles would not have known then that rap originated from the ‘toasters’ of the rude-boy era in Jamaica and was introduced and honed in those back streets of America by Caribbean youth: the children of Caribbean immigrants. He would not know that Caribbean youth and youth of Caribbean ancestry have dominated in the NBA: from Abdul Jabbar to Pat Ewing and Tim Duncan, Brian Shaw, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Significant percentages of the people born in the region reside outside its shores. Who is influencing who?  None of the newer versions of musical expression anywhere including Rap is alien to the Caribbean. We love music. We are ourselves an import, but we brought something that could not be taken, something that we share and that has transformed the world: ourselves.

Moreover, According to a Caribbean Media Corporation release reprinted in the Jamaica Observer, Dr. Beckles sat on a panel where, Dr. Ernest Hilaire, WICB  CEO described West Indies players as uneducated, unable to compete on the world stage effectively, mercenary, and incapable of improvement. These were quotes attributed to Hilaire by President of the players’ union
(WIPA), Dinanath Ramnarine.[iv] No record exists of Dr. Beckles challenge to these conclusions made by his CEO and someone charged with shepherding the young players. In fact Beckles has said, “The loss of skill among the younger players could be the result of a decline in the learning mentality of a generation that is not hungry to learn..” However he did express, “…great hope as the current Under 19 and Under 15 have shown a stronger mentality”[v].  This is just another example of the contempt felt for players by the WICB. Now, it has its favorites. Foremost on the favorite list are those new players used in an attempt to break the player strike of 2009.

Now they continue to seek to punish those who show discontent with time-outs and all manner of silliness like the exploitative corporations they serve. Shiv Chanderpaul, the most senior and loved, complained of having to attend meetings that would only end when the questions were answered in the way the questioneer wanted. This is an interrogation not a meeting. It is important to note that the discards are the most experienced and highest paid players: seems so typical of union busting techniques. It was good for Worrell to lead strikes for pay, but for Gayle it's mercenary donmanism. How quickly things change when you become management.   

However, there was an invasion from abroad but not the kind Dr. Beckles described. You may remember Grenada. It changed us. It was certainly not the first invasion of a Caribbean country and not the first of a Caribbean country by the US. The difference was the commander of the US Armed Forces at the time: Ronald Reagan. The desire to liberate ourselves from all forms of  oppression has always been present, forever, before World War II, and after, as a prelude to the civil rights movement and  as a prelude to the Women’s Rights and Black Power movements. Commander of the armed Forces at the end of the Black Power Movement was Reagan’s ideological father, Richard Nixon. Nixon was unceremoniously removed. Notable in that movement were several Caribbean sons and daughters: Kwame Toure in the US (Stokely Carmichael), Harry Belafonte, Shirley Chisholm, Rosie Douglas in Canada and Walter Rodney in Jamaica come to mind. This is not the nationalism that Beckles is so quick to site as the base for Caribbean cricket pride. This was a much more complex group of men and women. After all it was nationalism, the rhetoric, which ushered in the rise of Forbes Burnham, Eric Williams and Eric Gairy, Mugabe, the Duvaliers and yes even Botha. His was White nationalism but nationalism nevertheless. We fought against that too and do now.

This may confuse some, because why would a nationalist fight against a nationalist? True nationalists fight for human rights and that fight may be against a nationalist. Human rights and dignity supersedes the nation. So we moved with an aim to seize power, in Trinidad, in Guyana, Grenada was successful, Nicaragua too: these come to mind. So that the invasion of Grenada came as a backlash to that movement after some stood on the sidelines and watched as Rodney was assassinated in Guyana. We momentarily lost our soundtrack, our rhythm, when Marley died. There were earlier attempts on Marley’s life too. Bishop was executed in Grenada. Manley despite his contradictions was vilified in Jamaica. All these events appeared to originate from within the region and the gangs. But, most likely, they were not. They were the same tactics that had been used everywhere. It was supported locally by some, those who had the most ‘property’ to loose and so that they could stand next to Ronald Reagan and claim mission accomplished in Grenada. Little did they know what was to come, or maybe they did.

It was followed by the repeal of workers’ rights all over the region and seen in the example of Reagan breaking the air traffic controllers strike (PATCO) from which the labor movement in the US is yet to recover. All the rights gained by peoples’ power before and after the War were at risk. So much so that even the nationalist was using the army and private gangs to bust strikes and heads in the name of nationalism.

Many of those who may have ridden the gravy-train of regional ‘nationalism’ are some of the same ones who can’t appreciate the current struggle for better wages and treatment by our cricketers: our masses. This tells me that they were never really part of any nationalist struggle and certainly never understood it at a deeper level: human rights. It did not take any deeper understanding to refuse to tour South Africa during the period of Apartheid or lunch with Ian Smith in Rhodesia as some players did and some refused. So we should not be surprised by the chants against unionization and to see it described as and connected to some foreign invasion of rap. Perhaps Rap is banned from the Sagicor High Performance Center and ideas of Bishop and Rodney too.

We should not be surprised when calls for better pay and treatment are the reason why our players are called uneducated and mercenary duduses. We should not be surprised by the current calls for performance pay. Some otherwise sensible people see this as an advance. They would not have known anything about our labor history and things like ‘piece work’. Ask our canecutters and paddy planters. This is not an advance. It’s a return to a dark time. But it’s made clear in the light of Reaganomics and the union busting that was to follow and continues up until now.

At about the same time all of this was happening our cricket went into a tailspin, despite the presence of some of the best to have played the game. We lost the world-cup in 1983. The writing was on the wall. The resources that fed Worrell, Sobers, Kanhai and Lloyd dried up. Cricket’s rise had nothing to do with regional leaders as claimed by some. It is true Caribbean leaders had a larger world presence at the time. But this was mainly through the Non-Aligned Movement than anything occurring in the Caribbean, its nationalism, or political leadership. In the beginning of the nationalist period, which in Beckles’ book is synonymous with independence, these leaders were supportive because it suited their rhetoric.  It was because of their desire to propagate themselves that people became disenchanted, departed the region in droves for better wages and education or resolved to struggle.

Dr. Beckles spoke of, and has written about, this rise of regional nationalism and the concurrent rise of West Indies to cricket superiority. According to him, the first rising being the post- war period and the second being the nationalist movements. I believe he is wrong on both counts. I recognize the desire for historians and other academicians to date and find broader contexts for events. Our experience in the Caribbean is a global one. It was global from its inception and nothing that happened since has changed that. Quite the contrary: The meteoric rise of technology and communications systems only highlights what always was and so much so that academicians decided to label the resulting trade as globalization. But this is no recent import.

These young men and women we dehumanize know little of these events because they were never thought about it in any school in the region. The Grenada invasion, Rodney’s death, Gayle would have been born around this time 1979 and be too young to know even if he attended our best schools. I travelled throughout the Caribbean and asked thousands of questions. Our young do not know our history. But once set on path they zoom off after the knowledge. That has been my experience. I saw a used copy of Sir Hilary’s book on Amazon selling at US$68.99. That is about the monthly minimum wage in Guyana. If the goal is to maximize the value of your skills, Dr. Beckles knows about that. Now, Gayle is don of the IPL at a reputed salary of $US 600,000.US. Ten percent goes to WICB. He can afford the book. It would explain to him what he is already living: on the global stage in the IPL. He, Gayle, now stands on a stage as the most feared batsman ever and the most loved.

The rise of technology is nowhere more evident than in cricket. Technology and communications companies form a significant segment of the sponsors. Digicel is the Caribbean example. But, moreover, they provide the infrastructure for the world to view the games in real time. This was not possible 15 years ago. The recent soccer world cup held in South Africa was billed as the first African world cup, but a look at the billboards around the playfield would not reveal a single African company. Similarly cricket in the Caribbean does not reflect any Caribbean control outside of the administration: Neither political nor economic power resides in the Caribbean. The media rights to watch the team play are owned by expatriate companies. Its sponsors are expatriate companies. Even the companies with local born founders represent a mindset that might as well be foreign. Some of these companies aren’t even ‘registered’ in the Caribbean. Even the WICB is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Where in there fits nationalism? This is the economic construct in which we were founded and in which we exist.

The benefactors of our cricket are all ‘foreign’. Meanwhile the people of the region have fashioned their own cultural patterns. It’s the ruling-class culture that is foreign to us despite the length of our exposure to it, not rap.

We still don’t speak English as a first language and as evident here, we have problems writing it. The majority of us are bi-lingual at a minimum. Language is very important in the cultural identity. WICB do not see Gayle as captain and leader partly because he communicates in patois. Others are made to feel insecure about their English and intimidated by an anglicized hierarchy into remaining quiet. This is the coded language behind the need for the educated player. It is not about teaching our history. It’s about conforming and fitting in with language, appearance and a tightly shut mouth.

I’ve written elsewhere about this. So, I wouldn’t tarry. But they make their money off of us. Some may have local addresses but are not. The Boards and staff with real power is still white or near white, or as in Jamaica, brown, in 2011. In fact all the corporate power in the region is white or near white. Digicel, GT& T, Scotia Bank, Sagicor, Desnoes & Geddes, and the list goes on. Barclays Bank’s principals were known slavers[vi]. Digicel we know is Irish and the contract Dr. Beckles and the WICB signed with its sponsors Digicel is insufficient to compensate our high paid administrators and our players who receive less pay than the top administrators. And this is why the push to get rid of the Gayles, Sarwans and Chanderpauls because they command the highest salaries. And of course, Gayle and Sarwan happen to be closely tied to the union and now Chanderpaul has joined the chorus. These have to be replaced by the younger cheaper more ‘credentialed’ but less united. If Players saw Gayle as their ‘don’ why would you get rid of the one thing that united the players? This is very corporate behavior mandated by the most powerful. If the people that play the game begin to control the power within the corporation only then, would a change occur, perhaps?

There is a way to that point of return. There is a point we can all meet the WICB, Beckles and the Caribbean people. WICB needs to win the support of the people of the region and demonstrate it can do the simplest things. The WICB is not the team. We love our team. The WICB couldn’t even get the ground at Beausejour, St. Lucia properly prepared for the matches against Pakistan recently. Your boy Sammy was almost decapitated by a drive. Even Providence Stadium, Guyana was under-prepared and more suited to the spinners in the opposition than the seamers in the West Indies team which includes the captain. We won. But it was not a test-match pitch. It’s a new world record for the most LBWs. I know it’s the local board’s responsibility, but they are on your board too and you have staff designated for that purpose. I will not spend any more time on the recent hirings, firings, and droppings, and flurry of attacks and counters between the board and some players. But stop trying to play one against the other. The players know what you up to.  As a result some of our best players are in India with the IPL and what remains is another unhappy bunch. They need their Don. It’s in this mud that Dr. Beckles sought to plant a seed of discontent, or uproot one of unity. The seed requires the fertilization of a better education. Given Chanderpauls interrogations it is more likely re-education.

This notion of educated cricketers is a gross intrusion, paternalistic and condescending, to all of us. What the WICB really means is credentialed and not educated. They ought to know the difference. In his speech Beckles described his grandmother who sold provision in the local market as instilling in him pride in himself and West Indian achievement. She had no benefit of the education he speaks. In the same breath Dr. Beckles mentioned Everton Weeks the ‘finest cricketer in the world’ and who had only a primary education. My own mother who had no high school urged me to an education. She meant both credentials and life experience. The WICB seems bent on a piece of paper.

Caribbean grandson, Kobe Bryant led a Laker dynasty without a college degree. LeBron James stands to do the same somewhere. Kevin Garnett, Carmelo Anthony, the most dominant players in the NBA today either never attended or never graduated college. Does that lessen their potential to contribute to society? What’s so peculiar is that in making this point one comes across as anti-credentials. This is not the case. Accept them as they are and see the deeper meaning of their achievements against all odds.

Dr. Beckles appears as that which we feared most: the very person who sought to exclude Headley and Worrell. He is no longer recognizable to himself, but we recognize him. Come home my brother. There is time.

Today the ones that surfed the wave of black and brown consciousness into the middle class now point to the individualistic, mercenary and ignorant ways of current players. The same ones who sat by as Rodney was blasted to pieces, Bishop was crucified, Manley vilified and Reagan welcomed. Some were even in the welcome party for Reagan’s forces to liberate the US students from Grenada and to neo liberalize the Caribbean. Yes, these folks now lament our youth’s behavior. How such a complex history of the region and its cricket would be reduced to a few excisions and the introduction of more ‘educated’ cricketers. The Caribbean is not some static place taking blows from abroad. It’s a dynamic place that has given the world much and shares blows too. It’s given its blood and still does.

Sagicor is a great example of this insidious problem of a corporation peddling power without a real bond with the peoples’ history: but is itself a relic from this very history of oppression.  Yet it is positioned as some savior of Caribbean cricket. It’s Executive Chairman Steve McNamara, a citizen of both St. Lucia and Ireland, heads up the St. Lucia based law firm McNamara and Partners. This may explain the St. Lucian connection to power within the WICB. The WICB has a St. Lucian Chairman, St. Lucian CEO, and St. Lucian Captain. It was Sagicor’s ‘funds’ used to build the High Performance Center where Dr. Beckles plans to graduate the new Caribbean cricketer model. Dr. Beckles is a shareholder and also a director on the board of Sagicor, Sagicor Life Jamaica, and many of its subsidiaries, and of course WICB. WICB is, in practice a subsidiary of Digicel. Let us be clear, Sagicor High Performance Center is no gift to us. This is our money.

We know Sagicor used to be Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society, founded in 1840, in Barbados by a family from Britain named, believe or not, Beckles Galls. The Beckles Galls family came seeking fortune in the middle to late 17^th century. The brothers that registered the company were born in the Caribbean. In 1804 Henry Beckles Gall was born in Demerara, British Guyana. Records show he traveled to Barbados around 1816. But, more than likely, it was 1823 he moved permanently and the Demerara insurrection of 1823 that precipitated the move. He was present at the formation meeting of the Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society in 1840. His father, also Henry Beckles Gall, was a physician/pharmacist in Demerara and appears to have served as Surgeon to the King’s local militia. He had no known formal training in medicine. He Dr. Beckles according to the Gazette of September 10, 1810 owned 10 slaves and lived in the vicinity of Plantation Vlissingen.

Another brother, John A. Beckles served as Secretary to the Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society. We know from their wills that the family members also held captured Africans in Barbados to bequeath upon death. They owned at least one estate in Barbados, Dalkieth, in addition to several others in Grenada and St. Lucia. We know that at least one uprising in Grenada was put down by a militia formed by one of the brothers. The Beckles Gall family lost the Grenada estate, Montreuil, at the beginning of Eric Gairy’s rule but was able to recover and sell the 360 acres after the 1983 US invasion.

We also know ships that brought captured Africans to Barbados and the Caribbean were insured by Lloyds. In fact Lloyds also owned ships that transported captured Africans. Lloyds was said to have started as a coffee shop and a source point for news about slavers. But it built itself into an insurance giant on the back of the slave trade. One of its ships was in fact called Lloyd 1771. Slave Labour was the order of the day. It was the drug trade of that time and the Beckles Galls the ‘Don’ men of that time presided over a stolen legacy.

Perhaps with a little more blessing from the church then than current ‘dons’ as Dr. Hilary Beckles has often pointed out the local bishop was once the largest slave holder in Barbados. More than likely, Dr. Beckles is one of the descendants from these captured Africans held by John Beckles of Barbados. At any rate this brings us to Sagicor today.

Today, Lloyds is a partner in the European business theatre with Sagicor: Syndicate is the word. It’s in its financial reports. It is the largesse from the business of selling and overworking captured Africans that floated Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society and powered it to a major player in finance throughout the Caribbean. It is the same trade that powered Lloyds. Lloyds presided over the risk of losing ships and its human cargo, first of captured Africans and later servants from Madeira, Hong Kong and India. They insured the risk of bringing us here and continue to protect its clients’ property but from us. Sagicor now insures our risk if you can afford it.

Caribbean people continue to be the back bone of the financial system Dr. Beckles chairs and enjoys. This is what is most disturbing about the position of the WICB and its directors. Beckles knows this history because it’s his area of expertise. The Caribbean is the first experiment in capitalist expansion. Caribbean people built it for free and then, later, for near free. And now, a cursory review of Sagicor’s 2010 financial statement shows the Executive Chairman stating that, “Strong financial results from our core Caribbean operations were offset by losses  in our global property and casualty (PC) business underwritten through our Lloyds Syndicate: Sagicor at Lloyds”. This tells you that we Caribbean people continue to prop-up this capitalist system, like we did then, and all without reaping the full benefit. Mr. McNamara continues, “Sagicor Life Jamaica and its subsidiaries, Sagicor Life Cayman and PanCaribbean Financial Services had a very good year despite the low interest rate environment”. Caribbean sweat and blood supports the company when other markets are failing. Yet, when we request our full due we are called names and uprooted.

This is perverse. What happened to the radical young professor that once was? Is it that all we need to shut us up is a job and a position on a few boards? Is this what the Sagicor High Performance center plans to graduate? Is the Sagicor High Performance Center partial payment towards full reparation? Of course, we need acknowledgement of the wrong and an apology.

It appears; from Dr. Beckles comments that the WICB has declared a state of emergency with the purpose of extracting Gayle and his ‘cohort’ from Caribbean cricket. This is what lynching was intended to achieve. Africans who sought rights and property were eliminated: A high tech lynching, to steal a phrase.

And yes, Chanderpaul is African too. Our earliest ancestors migrated east into what is now India.

It’s very instructive in that Sagicor Life Jamaica is outperforming Sagicor’s interests held with Lloyds in the European markets. Perhaps, it’s the fear of Duduses that increased insurance sales opportunities in the Caribbean and that its fear that drives the insurance business and not progress. But, the dons we must fear may exist within the WICB hierarchy and similar boards.

Meanwhile, workers at Sagicor life Jamaica could not get the raise they requested last year. And they had to wait until May 2011 for a settlement, not reparations Brother Beckles, a negotiated settlement. Their union, BITU, had to invoke the powers at the Ministry of Labour to intervene before Sagicor would budge. Had we not worked hard enough? Did Sagicor’s Chairman not laud the financial performance of the Caribbean holdings and Jamaica in particular?

Moreover Sagicor’s entry into the Jamaica market came on the back of the FINSAC fiasco which is still the subject of an enquiry. The original Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society (BMLAS) opened a Jamaica branch in 1896. Incidentally, one of Beckles Gall clan had moved to Jamaica as early as 1879 and served in some clerical capacity as well as Superintendent of Police. But only in 1999 did BMLAS in its new construction as Sagicor gain its current foothold. It acquired Island Life in 1999. In 2001 BMLAS acquired Life of Jamaica. As far as we know they were not part of any of the shenanigans that led to Jamaica’s near financial collapse. But money is like water; left to itself it runs to the same pool. As part of FINSAC’s attempt to bail out Jamaica’s business sector, it contributed over J$2billion to Life of Jamaica just before Sagicor’s takeover in year 2001. Half of that was cash, hard earned Jamaica’s taxpayers’ monies and half was ‘paper’. In other words Jamaicans were on the line for J$2billion through FINSAC to Life of Jamaica. FINSAC used the ‘too big to fail’ argument to explain its actions. We can differ on the value of that but it’s not our preoccupation here. Immediately, Sagicor made an offer and beat out Colonial Life Insurance (Clico) and its partners for control of Life of Jamaica which is now Sagicor Life Jamaica.

So this money, this ill got gain, made on our backs, from slavery and indenture, which continues to thrive on our backs, presided over by Dr. Beckles, his fellow Boards’ members, the intellectual, and ideological and perhaps genetic progeny of the slavers attempt to drive a wedge into any open crease in our collective psyche. No one has written more passionately since Rodney, than Beckles about our working history. So it’s really a concern when we see these behaviors and hear these words that put us down. We may not be all we can be, but the response ought to be to engage the Gayles of this world not denigrate them. If the graduates of the Sagicor High Performance Center do not know the history of Sagicor then they do not know a significant part of their own history. SAGICOR means wise core or core of wisdom. Recent developments in Caribbean cricket reflect the absence of a Sagicor.

The wealth of our communities, its labor, is being sucked dry and exported. When we look at the economic and social issues affecting the region we need look no further than the continued foreign drain on our intellectual and earned resources. Youth don’t have the time to play cricket. They need to look to support their families. The fans cannot afford the tickets or the time to attend games. In addition to the brain drain, all our labor still goes to the colonial powers and their servants. We see the huge rates of unemployment; crime, infant mortality, and illiteracy we need look no further than our ruling class. It isn’t that we don’t work hard. We work harder than anyone else, but the benefits accrue elsewhere. Until this change, cricket and things Caribbean will be as always. This never prevented us from being creative and competitive in all fields. Look at the successes of our athletes, entertainers and administrators. We hold some of the highest offices around the world. We just don’t control the money. Caribbean people must wake up and claim the legacy of their toil.
  

Interestingly, Henry Beckles Gall is a name from the lowlands of Scotland. That is where these people came from. In fact the whole region and the people from it are referred to as Gall. They speak Gaelic (Gay-lic). In Gaelic ‘Gall means stranger or foreigner. Some are Galls and some are Gayles like Christopher Henry Gayle. Chris and Hilary could very well be related from both their European and African bloodlines. I nominate the negotiator for the Bustamante Industrial Labour Union (BITU) in the labour dispute with Sagicor, Kavon Gayle, to bring Chris and Hilary together. We have to begin from the premise that we all are a family, because our peculiar history prevents us from really knowing.

You know Dr. Beckles it isn’t that you and the rest of us are that different. We just chose, or were ushered, to sit at different levels on the grassy hill. And so, our view of our hill neighbors is from a different angle. You said your grandmother sold provisions at a local market and she introduced you to respect for Worrell and what he was trying to do.  Surely, in there was respect for self. Perhaps, it’s her contributions that led you to all the credentials you earned.  Many sit on the hill and ponder their rise to a point above and how long the wait. The grass is usually worn at the bottom. The problem is, wherever you are on the hill, whenever you ‘spit’ bad things happen and more so when the hill is steep or the winds blowing.

Email:director@rootsculturemedia.com

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[i] FrankWorrell: The Rise & Fall of West Indies Cricket

[ii] RJR News. May 10^th, 2011 Dujon against Professor Beckles’ 'donmanship' statement about Gayle

[iii] Beckles, Hilary McD. The Development of West Indies Cricket, Volume 2: The Age of Globalization, 1998 , The Press, UWI, Mona, Jamaica

[iv] http://m.jamaicaobserver.com/news June 2, 2010

[v] Sir Hilary Beckles: Regional investment will bring rewards  by Everard Gordon, Guardian News March 19th 2009

[vi] Williams, Eric, Capitalism and Slavery, 1944, The University of North Carolina Press

Other Sources

Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, Volume 27, 1889, London  Great Britain

http://carrollfamily.accessgenealogy.com/gallresources.html  Dates and facts on the Gall Family

Sagicor, Financial Reports 2010