Orville W. Taylor

Can you imagine, it is the shortest month of the year, the one that was finally conceded to us as Black History Month? Yet, the most newsworthy issue is the spending of the Prime Minister on travelling; which does not seem to be unusual; her characteristic unnecessary revelation of the depths of her husband's pocket and an unflattering cartoon in this newspaper.

All of this is a waste of good time as there are more serious things to do. A story was carried last week, which implied that the Prime Ministress (I have to play the gender card) flew over the budget.

Nonetheless, the reporter did not indicate whether this was inconsistent with the norm for Prime Ministers. This is a critical point. In response, Sister P was very feminine when she needed to give a prime ministerial reply. It is of no consequence to the Jamaican people that she may be maintained by her husband.

After all, maintenance is not something to be gender specific, and independent women, who are running countries or corporations should be able to subsist on their own finances even if their husband is the Minister of 'Mining'. She could have chosen to ignore it or delegate it to the People's National Party (PNP) as in other matters, because she does not have to take on every little fight.

However, having decided to address the story, she would have served herself and the nation better if she indicated that there was nothing wrong and assured us that no protocol or guidelines were breached.

However, in providing the sort of answer that she did, she again opened herself to ridicule and the cartoonist went to town on it. It was a bit harsh and perhaps in poor taste, but that is life.

Ludicrous cartoons

Thank God, she has not followed it up, but inasmuch as she is not coughing, the PNP Women's Movement is 'hysterical' and vomiting. Once again the unfair gender card is being played. Answer me this, when Phillip Paulwell is portrayed in poopy diapers, is this an insult to 'adulthood'? And when P.J. Patterson is caricatured as a hapless shepherd, what does this insult? What happened when former French President François Mitterand was typified as Kermit the Frog on 'Le Bebette Show'? Even so, what of the ludicrous cartoons of the American President?

He is often shown with ears like Dumbo the elephant and with an expression that looks like both dumb and dumber. If the most powerful person in the world can be made to look like a fool, why should the leader of a little piece of rock which is smaller than New York City be treated specially?

The right of freedom of expression and artistic creativity is something we have fought hard for, and it should not be compromised.

It is for that reason that I am extremely disappointed with the position of a leading 'journalist' who has often been accused of bending over forward in defending the Prime Minister's every faux pas. It is hypocritical to be one of the main advocates of press freedom and then to be suggesting censure by attempting to 'cow dung' the cartoonist. He should be honest and stick to the 'pen' and make an honest voice be 'herd'.

Did you know that it was on this day in 1933 that German President Von Hindenberg put limits on press freedom? This set the stage of intolerance that opened the door to Nazism and its purveyor Adolph Hitler. Millions died because of bigotry and the view that some groups of persons were more special than others.

Black freedom

Enough about that! This is a great week in the history of black freedom.

Let us celebrate the 213th anniversary of the abolition of slavery by the French National Convention. It happened on February 4, 1794. The efforts of the Jamaican slave of Dahomey extract, Boukman, in starting this Haitian Revolution is often underrecognised. He initiated the revolution that was completed by Toussaint L'Ouverture and ultimately led to the end of slavery in the French empire. This had a large part to play in the emancipation of our own peoples here three decades later.

It was on February 4, 1952, that Jackie Robinson of WNBC became the first black executive in a major television network. On the same day in 1964 Americans outlawed the poll tax. This used to effectively prevent blacks from voting because this was outside of their economic means although they had nominally earned the right to vote in 1870.

Interestingly, it is this week in 1900 that Tony Blair's British Labour Party was founded. This came 29 years after trade unions were allowed to have its members exercise the human right of 'freedom of association,' when the Trade Union Act was passed.

Ironically, it was this week in 1944 that Henry McAlpin became the first black journalist to be accredited to the White House. There were no doodles or Sandals allowed inside.

This week in 1926, the same year that Black History Month began, the teaching of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory was banned in Atlanta, Georgia, where Martin Luther King was born. Its most offensive tenet was not that the story of Genesis was a myth. Rather it was that all humans came from black ancestors in Ethiopia.

A year earlier, in 1925, that same city convicted the 'prophet' Marcus Mosiah Garvey and he began his sentence there. Also this week, F.W. DeKlerk announced in 1989 that Mandela would be free on the 11th.

We finalised our Independence agreement with Britain this week in 1962 and Joshua returned triumphantly to in a sea of orange in 1989. Let's make some more history and stop the foolishness!

Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona.