The Spanish envoy to T&T had the unmitigated gall to say to Trinbagonians to ‘think twice’ before removing the statue of the premier embodiment of genocide over the last 500 years (rivaling Hitler, Stalin and Mao combined) —in Christopher Columbus.
The reality is that Trinbagonians all-round should be even more motivated to remove this relic of racism and oppression after such comments.
The Ambassador should spend some of his time re-thinking his nation’s history of colonialism and how best he and his European cohorts can do justice to the descendants of their former “subjects” in righting the wrongs of the past.
The removal of this Christopher Columbus statue ought to be one of the easiest considerations for our government and the wider society to make in some time.
The recent events globally have reminded us all of the history of racism and oppression which many of our societies’ implicitly accept by allowing monuments to stand in honour of blatant and unrepentant racists.
I would advocate that we replace the Columbus statue in Port -of-Spain with one that represents the Amerindians who were wiped away by the adventurer’s murderous visit to the New World.
It can be called the Nameless Amerindian—a representation of all of those Amerindian genocide victims, with clear annotation of who the perpetrators of this murderous crime were. This is not a new concept.
The Monument of the Unknown Hero stands in the south-east European capital of Belgrade as a testament to the many lives lost in WW1.
The Spanish Ambassador has very little to fear, we will remember our history but, in an honest and truthful way, commemorating those who’ve suffered throughout the past of this native land of ours.
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