Generation 62: what are you going to do?
Change starts in a moment
In order to create a future that lives up to our ideals, we must come together to have conversations that shape the direction of change. My intent here is to ignite a civic project that can shape human development possibilities. Over the next five years, as we prepare to celebrate 50 years of independence in Trinidad and Tobago, there is an opportunity for 2012 to become a moment of fundamental change.
2007 has been a year of anniversaries. Two hundred years since the end of the Atlantic slave trade. Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence and India and Pakistan wrestle with the differences in their fortunes over the last sixty years since the ending of British colonialism and partition. It’s been a fascinating time to wonder (and I confess worry) about what’s next for the Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago in particular.
I live in South Africa, far away from the twin-islands. My last visit coincided with the hosting of ICC Cricket World Cup, which apparently was a commercial success despite the organizers’ intent on squeezing every drop of Caribbean vibrancy from the event. Sir Vidia Naipaul was also in town, hosted by the University of the West Indies, which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year. It was my first trip back since the passing of Lloyd Best, attending the Economics Department conference assuaged some my sadness at having to say goodbye to one of our foremost intellectual warriors.
I have often wished that I was around in the sixties or seventies; in the heyday of New World politics, big afros and intellectual freedom. Shaking a fist at neo-colonialism and espousing black power rhetoric certainly had more of an appeal than what was our lot. I have always had the sense of belonging to an ‘in-between’ generation. We were not quite the revolutionaries and not completely the lost slacker set wandering aimlessly through life. But in 2007, that wistfulness has been replaced by a growing sense of purpose.
Although, I cut my teeth in university student politics which had all the requisite elements of support for the anti-apartheid struggle and the New Jewel experiment in Grenada, I must confess that I was never really a starry-eyed revolutionary, having once been described as a ‘vulgar pragmatist’. What I have come to realize some twenty-five years later, is that while revolutionary politics is a necessary ingredient, it is not sufficient. Living in South Africa confirms this on a daily basis as I observe the ANC government struggle with living up to the demands of transition from liberation movement politics to statehood. There are many contradictions in a ‘national project’ but it is also indispensable.
I have always been inspired by the stories of the generation of independence leaders who gathered in metropolitan London to plot and scheme to topple the colonial motherland. We were central to those events as architects of change. What has happened to our sense of creating and shaping history?
Three years ago, I attended a conference in St Lucia and came away with a profound sense of bewilderment because the Caribbean being presented in our discussions was one that I did not recognise. The attendees were arguing that our region was defined by vulnerability, US cultural domination, poverty, drug abuse, crime and family breakdown. There was almost no articulation of hope. The very survival of the region was seen as being up for grabs. This view of the Caribbean is disturbing not only because it is partial, but far more importantly because those who were most scathing did not appear to see themselves as part of the story.
My sense of the Caribbean in general and of Trinidad and Tobago in particular is that for those of us born around the time of political independence we have a duty to begin to see the successes and failures of the region as our responsibility. I am reminded by Frantz Fanon who wrote: "Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity."
This is a call to the independence generation to stand up and be counted. To “lay down your bucket” and spell out through ideas and action what kind of future we want to shape for Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and our world.
Beginning to create a future
Along the lines of the New World movement, I believe that in order to create a future that lives up to our ideals, we must come together to debate and reflect on our chosen direction of change. The ‘we’ must be inclusive and extend across all sections of society. Our process of debate and reflection need not be sterile and formal. We are a passionate people and that energy can be redirected into solving the challenges which now confront the Caribbean. I am sure that we will be invigorated by our artists, musicians, poets and writers
Having recently encountered the thinking of Theodore Zeldin, a historian and philosopher who articulates a vision of the role of conversation in shaping our world, I was encouraged to catalyse a process that is intended to be public spirited in the widest interpretation of that term . My first step will be to send this think piece out to fifty Generation 62 change agents and invite them to spread the word and to provide feedback and inputs. Walter Rodney suggested that every epoch of change had to be determined by the real conditions that change-agents encounter. Romanticism and lack of critical enquiry will not take us very far. This intervention should go beyond superficial divisions, even those that appear to be intractable such as race and class. It will require processes that do not succumb to party politics and personal ambitions. Operational issues will emerge. We will be challenged and have no guarantee of success. But in the words of Machel Montano: “ We ent giving up no matter what nobody say.”
Gillian Marcelle
generation62@worldonline.co.za
http://crossingworlds.blogspot.com/
August 31, 2007
Joburg, South Africa
In order to create a future that lives up to our ideals, we must come together to have conversations that shape the direction of change. My intent here is to ignite a civic project that can shape human development possibilities. Over the next five years, as we prepare to celebrate 50 years of independence in Trinidad and Tobago, there is an opportunity for 2012 to become a moment of fundamental change.
2007 has been a year of anniversaries. Two hundred years since the end of the Atlantic slave trade. Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence and India and Pakistan wrestle with the differences in their fortunes over the last sixty years since the ending of British colonialism and partition. It’s been a fascinating time to wonder (and I confess worry) about what’s next for the Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago in particular.
I live in South Africa, far away from the twin-islands. My last visit coincided with the hosting of ICC Cricket World Cup, which apparently was a commercial success despite the organizers’ intent on squeezing every drop of Caribbean vibrancy from the event. Sir Vidia Naipaul was also in town, hosted by the University of the West Indies, which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year. It was my first trip back since the passing of Lloyd Best, attending the Economics Department conference assuaged some my sadness at having to say goodbye to one of our foremost intellectual warriors.
I have often wished that I was around in the sixties or seventies; in the heyday of New World politics, big afros and intellectual freedom. Shaking a fist at neo-colonialism and espousing black power rhetoric certainly had more of an appeal than what was our lot. I have always had the sense of belonging to an ‘in-between’ generation. We were not quite the revolutionaries and not completely the lost slacker set wandering aimlessly through life. But in 2007, that wistfulness has been replaced by a growing sense of purpose.
Although, I cut my teeth in university student politics which had all the requisite elements of support for the anti-apartheid struggle and the New Jewel experiment in Grenada, I must confess that I was never really a starry-eyed revolutionary, having once been described as a ‘vulgar pragmatist’. What I have come to realize some twenty-five years later, is that while revolutionary politics is a necessary ingredient, it is not sufficient. Living in South Africa confirms this on a daily basis as I observe the ANC government struggle with living up to the demands of transition from liberation movement politics to statehood. There are many contradictions in a ‘national project’ but it is also indispensable.
I have always been inspired by the stories of the generation of independence leaders who gathered in metropolitan London to plot and scheme to topple the colonial motherland. We were central to those events as architects of change. What has happened to our sense of creating and shaping history?
Three years ago, I attended a conference in St Lucia and came away with a profound sense of bewilderment because the Caribbean being presented in our discussions was one that I did not recognise. The attendees were arguing that our region was defined by vulnerability, US cultural domination, poverty, drug abuse, crime and family breakdown. There was almost no articulation of hope. The very survival of the region was seen as being up for grabs. This view of the Caribbean is disturbing not only because it is partial, but far more importantly because those who were most scathing did not appear to see themselves as part of the story.
My sense of the Caribbean in general and of Trinidad and Tobago in particular is that for those of us born around the time of political independence we have a duty to begin to see the successes and failures of the region as our responsibility. I am reminded by Frantz Fanon who wrote: "Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity."
This is a call to the independence generation to stand up and be counted. To “lay down your bucket” and spell out through ideas and action what kind of future we want to shape for Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and our world.
Beginning to create a future
Along the lines of the New World movement, I believe that in order to create a future that lives up to our ideals, we must come together to debate and reflect on our chosen direction of change. The ‘we’ must be inclusive and extend across all sections of society. Our process of debate and reflection need not be sterile and formal. We are a passionate people and that energy can be redirected into solving the challenges which now confront the Caribbean. I am sure that we will be invigorated by our artists, musicians, poets and writers
Having recently encountered the thinking of Theodore Zeldin, a historian and philosopher who articulates a vision of the role of conversation in shaping our world, I was encouraged to catalyse a process that is intended to be public spirited in the widest interpretation of that term . My first step will be to send this think piece out to fifty Generation 62 change agents and invite them to spread the word and to provide feedback and inputs. Walter Rodney suggested that every epoch of change had to be determined by the real conditions that change-agents encounter. Romanticism and lack of critical enquiry will not take us very far. This intervention should go beyond superficial divisions, even those that appear to be intractable such as race and class. It will require processes that do not succumb to party politics and personal ambitions. Operational issues will emerge. We will be challenged and have no guarantee of success. But in the words of Machel Montano: “ We ent giving up no matter what nobody say.”
Gillian Marcelle
generation62@worldonline.co.za
http://crossingworlds.blogspot.com/
August 31, 2007
Joburg, South Africa
posted by Crossing Worlds | 8:11 AM
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