Archbishop Gilbert rocks TNT - Allyuh! Stop the hate!

It is my belief that Archbishop Gilbert was not accepted when he first came to Trinidad. Being an American did not help his cause. Fire fueled by an arrogant, unthinking priest who chose to publicly make issue of the American Archbishop being appointed by a European Church over a West Indian Archdiocese. What a sad embarrassment to our ONE (multi ethnic) church.

But time heals all wounds and Archbishop Gilbert has become loved by the majority of the Catholic population in his Archdiocese. We have become accustomed to "his way".

Part of his "way" is being politically correct. Well, So I believed. Well, imagine my suprise to hear his strong and chastising words to a nation contemplating racial hate in their hearts. Good Job Gilbert! Shake them. They need it.

Among those in my generation, I never saw much racism, until recently. People would intimate dislike of one race or another to me. NO! God made us all.... "yuh musn't think like that man."

This is the time of Obama. Black people didn't put him there. It was the white vote. Racism in the US before Obama was at it's lowest ebb. Now it has increased slightly, but only because Obama isn't turning around the economy like they hoped he would, and so there is a "lashing out".

We need to get it together here in Trinidad. Stop the Hate.

The Article written by Camile Bethel of the Trinidad Express Newspaper of October 24th 2011 says it all:

Gilbert said the tendency of many people within this society is still to take care of their own.

"Politicians take care of their own constituencies on the basis of race, ethnicity or politics, and one of the things we need as a country—the Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said it, the President George Maxwell Richards has said it—we need to return to values of universal nature.

"One of the things that we have to watch is the tribalism in the Middle East that is still going on in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. If people... just... take care of their own, it is not good for the country," he said.

He said a lack of values inevitably shows up in behaviour eventually, if not immediately, but especially when people have no religious tradition to fall back on.

"Which is why they can cut each other on the streets and have the drug wars and the violence.

"The way back from that is to have all the religious traditions. I am familiar with the (IRO) Inter-Religious Organisation, talking to their people and teaching them the right things, and talking to the young people about values because some of these kids have absolutely nothing; they get nothing from their families."

He said the curfew imposed under the State of Emergency had reduced the number of killings, but he would much rather see the country renewing itself in terms of values to eventually get to the point where curfews would no longer be needed; because while it was necessary to have a curfew, it was a shame that this country needed it.

"I believe the value problem is an enormous issue. It is a growing problem for the Caribbean and it is spreading everywhere," Gilbert said.