By close of business today New York time, SVG will know whether we shall sit on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the next two years. I hope and pray that my nation succeeds in this, one of it most courageous, sensible, honourable, dignified and precious acts in the entire history of our practice of foreign policy, diplomacy and the conduct of intercourse at the multilateral level. Today marks a golden moment in our coming of age where we demonstrate in living physical action our creeds, “We are better than no one. But no one is better than us!” And, “We are friends of all, enemy of none.”
Today we say to the world we have no fear to stand up and be counted among the nations which believe a better world can and must be built, and we will contribute our widow’s mite to this effort. Today SVG says like Immanuel Kant we might not be able to stop “radical evil” as we have no military, financial, technological or demographic might. But we sure have moral conviction, great humanity, tremendous humility to be of service to this world, and it all comes wrapped in the conviction that “Our faith will see us through!”
On this 7th June 2019, as SVG culminates this brave Herculean effort, presenting its case to a tentative international arena, I am particularly reminded that ours is a noble civilization that has given to the world, from Hugh Mulzac and Ellsworth “Shake” Keane, to Winston Davis and Frankie ‘The Maestro’ McIntosh; and, we are ready to give more! We are again saying to the peoples of the planet look beyond our physical smallness and see the giant source of good we are to all humanity. In our quest for this seat, we are demanding that the international community and in particular the UNSC must be a place where all voices are heard regardless of size, for the moral rectitude of a nation is a reflection of its people’s sense of justice, humanity and the need for fraternity of all nations. And, these must have their place in the relations between states and peoples if we are to guarantee international peace and security.
Sadly, the historical, political, moral and noble significance of this moment is lost to many of our citizens. Further, political tribalism, unbridled political hate, backwardness and ignorance, and venom spewed at the United Nations (UN) even by high-ranking advisors of the ULP, supported, aided and abetted by the Prime Minister himself, were unnecessary obstacles we had to overcome. Here is the government campaigning for a seat on the UNSC while its de facto chief attack dog is barking from the top of his Babel’s Tower that the UN is a “cesspool.” Mindboggling!!
If we do win today, this might well be a case where the international community is more willing and ready to rally around us than some of us are prepared to do for the good of us all. Here we have a chance to gain this seat and make world history! Yet, there are those who are happy to be as Calypsonian Sulle says, “On the wrong side, on the backside of history!” I state here now, that those who for selfish reasons, who being poisoned by evil and hate for PM Gonsalves, and are so treacherously ambitious that they seek to place themselves as obstacles between SVG and this date of possible glorious historical significance, are guilty of high treason. I make no apologies!!
There must be a time and place where your personal interest, greed and wish to ride the backs of the masses for personal gain, ought to be curtailed for the benefit of all of us including you, the unpatriotic Judas. We are an already poor, weak, vulnerable, marginalized nation, that must survive in a hostile, neo-liberal, powerful-take-it-all world, and which is further encumbered by being a state of mainly black people in a world where white supremacy holds sway. We really don’t need any Sambo and Quimbo self-loathing. This is the hour that we must march like a triumphant army, our victory being that we have the fortitude to state our nationhood to the world, confident that our seat around the table tackling important questions on global governance is accepted after a mere 40 years of political independence. An amazing achievement!
So irrespective of the outcome today, Vincentians home and abroad must relish in this moment of our setting an example to the small, the weak, the poor and the powerless that we like the small honey can help pollinate the hope for lasting global peace based on justice and the rule of international law and morality. That we, suffering for centuries the ravages of colonialism, slavery and poverty, all occasioned by imperialism and white supremacy, have the will, the capacity, the courage and the nobility to play a serious role in shaping a better future for all humanity.
Yes, this is our moment of glory regardless of the outcome!
1 Comment
Bravo !! Bravo !! well said !! proud of SVG and all it’s people