Maia Eustace – A Fundamentally Superior Vincentian

by Frank E da Silva Fri, Mar 23. 2012

“Neither Class nor Commonsense can be acquired – Rich or Poor you are either born with them or without. University degrees do not mean that one has either.” Memo to a friend last Christmas.

“Some ideas are so foolish; they could only come from intellectuals.” George Orwell.{{more}}

“Do not allow anyone to piss on your head and tell you it is raining simply because they went to a university and you did not.” From a Jew with tattooed numbers on his hand.

In the February 17, 2012, edition of this paper, a letter was published on page 34, under the caption: “Can we talk race in SVG, please”. The name given for the author was Maia Eustace.

Miz Eustace, in the letter, laid a charge of racism against one of her colleagues, a lawyer. She then deprecated on those “blacks” lawyers who did not see the comments in the same light that she saw them. “This is a commentary on the banality of Black self-hatred,” she opined. She then went off into the wild blue yonder before returning to the object of her scorn – Black Vincentians.

“However, there’s something in the water in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” she stated as a fact. Someone has agreed. “Maia is fundamentally right,” he bellowed. And I wonder whether, Jules Ferdinand can spot “some masquerading as bigots who take on a ‘superior stance’ ….Sometimes we feel sorry for them knowing that they must be most miserable, ‘in their skins’.” The Vincentian, Friday, March 2.

Miz Eustace’s next move was to voters and politicians – Black versus white – premiers and prime ministers – Black versus white. And lastly, what seemed to be the real reason for the piece: The abdication of responsibility by a “friend who knows all too well the semiotic significance of comments like ‘every time Eustace stands next to Gonsalves, the PM looks like a genius’.” Of course, one is Black, the other white, and that is the only explanation. “Maia is fundamentally right.”

Miz Eustace gives the impression that she was driven to write because one of her colleagues referred to two clients “as monkeys”. Behold they were Black so that must be the only reason that he could refer to them as “monkeys”. Here was a man talking to a Black woman calling two Black men “monkeys”. Miz Eustace’s “breath escaped” her. If he is calling these two men “monkeys” simply because they are black, then, of course, to him Miz Eustace must also be a….

Is there a record any where in SVG that only black skinned people are called “monkeys”? What colour is “monkey Eric”? Indeed, white prime minister, Ralph Gonsalves, in proclaiming his climbing skills as a youth, described his ability as those of a “monkey”. Your guess as to colour is as good as mine.

All this “monkey” business must be catching. I got a news item of a letter written by a Fourth Grader to a weatherman who had just given a lesson. The child wrote: You’re more awesome than a monkey wearing a tuxedo…. I do not know the colour of the monkey. (The letter to the weather man is sent with this.)

Let us examine further some of what is “Maia fundamentally right”. Miz Eustace wrote: “Try looking for a Black doll. Better yet try finding a Vincentian child who wants a black doll. If memory serves me right, it was Searchlight Newspaper a few years ago which asked random children at Christmas what they wanted most; every Black girl interviewed said she hoped to get a white doll.” Problem is no one at Searchlight could recall such a project. But maybe we asked the wrong persons. There was a time when Dr Adrian Fraser acted as editor in the short absence of Mrs Norma Keizer.

The colour of prime ministers was next. “If you’re (bad form – you are writing not speaking) (thirty-two) 32 and Vincentian (excess verbiage) you’ve never seen a Black Vincentian prime minister.” If Obama is black then what colour is James Mitchell? Either Miz Eustace’s father is white or she could not see him. And since “in our post-modern-ethos, we enabled the emergence of local leaders who are exploiting Black self-loathing,” you must ask if Miz Eustace’s father was or is a leader in the post-modern ethos.

The fundamentally right Miz Eustace claimed that Ralph Gonsalves called Anesia Baptiste “picky head[ed]. For more than a month, I have challenged anyone to produce any recording to that effect – none has been forth-coming. Sylvia Sutherland or the other fellow of letters, is this “misrepresenting” or an outright fabrication?

Miz Eustace said that Ralph Gonsalves “asserted that only one with the face of Jesus could lead the nation”. Here is what Ralph Gonsalves said. “You do not replace someone because you see his face on TV too often. Look at the other face… If the other face is Jesus, I will give way.” I was shocked when I heard Ms Anesia Baptiste distorting that. Apparently it took root. But how many times have any of you asked the question or stated: You are not God. Were you saying that you would yield only to God?

Miz Eustace said that Ralph Gonsalves “famously claimed that George Bush would not see my father, his dark skinned Black opponent at night….” Here is what Ralph Gonsalves said: “If Arnhim and I were walking in the street at night, George Bush would ask me who is the fellow you are walking with?” Is recognition synonymous with not seeing? I asked Ralph Gonsalves about the need for the “night” inclusion. He said it was merely “a rhetorical flourish”.

Some advice for the Prime Minister: Avoid all “rhetorical flourishes” and Sir, The Bible and Ahmadinejad do not mix.

He is defending Ralph. There is nothing to defend; just setting the record straight.

Ms Sutherland, any misrepresentation?

Summation: The assumption that “monkeys equal race” could only come from a warped mind enveloped in its own bigotry.

Does Miz Eustace believe she is a superior creature, and if so from whence it came?

“Persons without university degrees should not be considered as NDP candidates,” obviously a university graduated woman at a “rendezvous”.

“I have been told bluntly by those who contribute to the school book program, ‘ah not giving any more…’ but those who say that have their car and their home (and eat three square meals” chimed in another voice). “I am not in that. I cannot subscribe to that,” stated a superior voice.

When the Prime Minister got in an accident, Mr EG Lynch called on persons to pray for the PM. Some NDP supporters called Miz Eustace’s father privately to complain. What did Father Superior do at a press conference?

I got the tape!

And if a fellow says that Miz Maia Eustace is “fundamentally right” about him, who am I to dispute it?

The real reason for Miz Eustace’s letter was not about race – that is contrived.

“He belittles instead. But the thrust of Mr Thomas’ work suggests a caricature of Mr Eustace as intellectually inferior and puerile. Mr Thomas splits hairs when he argues that he does not criticize Mr Eustace’s intelligence in general, just his political intelligence,” wrote Miz Eustace. In fact, that hurt so much she admitted to calling Mr Thomas privately.

“What (not who) is a politically unintelligent politicians? A man out of his depth?” queried Miz Eustace.

Is a man who is in the House of Assembly for fourteen (14) years “out of his depth” when he is ignorant of the timing for a No Confidence motion?

Miz Eustace’s attempt to distract us from the political incompetence her father with her race-baiting – FAILED.