The Manicou Report

No matter what side of an argument you’re on, you always find some people on your side that you wish were on the other side - Jascha Heifetz

I feel sorry for the people of Chatham. A large part of that pity I feel comes from the fact that they have to fight ALCOA as well as their own Government who want to place a smelter in their backyards. I wish that the powers that be would listen to the pleas of the Chathamites*, as well as the evidence that shows that an aluminium smelter will bring mass pollution to the people of the southwest peninsula. If the Government isn’t swayed by that argument, then I wish they would be swayed by the argument that clearing 1,500 acres of forest would be an ecological nightmare.

However, I also feel pity for them because with this struggle and in other struggles, sometimes you just can’t pick the people who want to struggle with you. I’ve been observing Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj’s participation in the anti-smelter protests with much interest and I can’t help but feel that RLM is making a career out of riding the backs of these poor people. It seems apparent that wherever there is a cause to be championed, there is RLM in business suit or slogan-bearing T-shirt championing the cause. Actually it’s not even every cause, but surely it’s the cause of everyone opposed to some Government initiative. The Government announces plans for the reconstruction of southeast Port of Spain, Ramesh is there fighting for the residents. The smelter is coming to Chatham, Ramesh is in Chatham.

Does RLM really believe that the smelter is a bad thing, or more importantly would he be in Chatham if there were no party politics involved? I don’t know for sure, but i have a hard time saying no. They say politics make strange bedfellows, and the people of Chatham have made a strange ally in RLM.

I can’t say I blame them. Like him or not. RLM is a powerful man with a voice. Like him or hate him, people listen to him. How can they in their right minds refuse his help? If I were in deep trouble, would I refuse Ramesh’s services pro bono? Not likely. Not at all, I should say. That doesn’t mean that I would cease to dislike him.

When I began this post, my aim was to rail on RLM for popping up wherever there was a cause to be championed. But when I began to think about it, I realized there are not many other people standing up for the residents of Chatham except for the members of the Opposition and a few other people here and there. The people of Chatham have been largely ignored by the people with voices. Where are all the Trinidadian celebrities, all the cherished athletes who can lend support to the Chathamites? Instead it’s a group of men, women and children who have been left to fend off ALCOA.

Whatever you want to believe, believe that RLM is getting something back from his participation. Whenever he makes representation on their behalf, trust that it will find its way to a UNC platform for all to behold. Whether the smelter comes or not, Ramesh would have gained something. He fortunes won’t rise and fall with those of the Chathamites. (Of course, when the smelter comes, we’ll all lose, but that’s not the way in which I mean it.) And so the Chathamites will have to accept whatever voice they get and I can’t say I blame them.

*By the way I have no idea if people from Chatham are called Chathamites, but it sounds good to me.