An excellent speech by Dr Rupert Roopnaraine at QC Reunion Assembly, Wednesday Oct 28th

Students of Queen’s, past and present,

It was with much trepidation that I agreed to step into the breach after our
esteemed teacher and friend to a generation of stellar historians, Bobby Moore,
did not find it possible to come. My trepidation had everything to do with
deciding on the tone and topic of today’s address.

Let me begin with the temptations I have chosen to avoid: there was first of all
the temptation of nostalgia and reminiscence, an understandably strong
temptation now that so many of us are in each other’s presence after so many
decades of separation. And perhaps for the last time, as mortality takes its toll.
But there will be time enough for old talk and reminiscence over the next few
days. Then there was the temptation of lamentation: that the QC of today is not
our QC of yesterday. Because of course it isn’t. Any more than the Guyana of
today is the Guyana of yesterday. The last temptation, and the one I was most
determined to avoid, was to use this forum for a partisan political presentation.

Instead, I have chosen to revisit that school of cherished memory and to see what
can be extracted from the traditions that nourished it and that may be of value to
the school and the country of today. In speaking of those traditions, I will not
dwell on the obvious: the cultivation of academic discipline and the striving after
excellence, the athletic prowess at the highest levels, the rich variety of cultural
and extra-curricular activities. The point has been sufficiently made, most
recently in the Stabroek News Editorial of last Friday, that we of the generation of
the 50s and 60s, were the beneficiaries of an educational legacy imbued with a
colonial ethos and harking back to the public schools and grammar schools of
England. “The bad old days of the anti-colonial creed were arguably, in many
respects, the good old days for many QC boys of that era.” I had, on a previous
occasion in this very auditorium, paid some attention to this issue. I made the
observation that though I, like many of us, might not have recognized it at the
time, I did later come to understand how much of our experience in and out of
the classroom was being shaped by the ideology of the Victorian Public School.
From early on we were instilled with the sense of responsibility to the traditions
to which we were now heirs, traditions of scholarship in the classroom, prowess
on the field of sports, and leadership within the group. The programme was
clear: as the cream of the crop, we were to be trained to take up our rightful place
in the middle and upper echelons of the colonial hierarchy. We were the last of
the colonially educated generations, the product of empire for the service of
empire. The extent to which we would be able to retain, build on and deepen the
best of the learned values while jettisoning what was oppressive and backward looking
was to be the supreme test of my own generation. Sad to say, it was not a
test that many who went on to assume positions of leadership in the society
managed to pass. On the contrary, too many were seduced by the habits of
authoritarianism and hierarchical privilege, blinkered in their lack of concern for
the poor and the powerless.

George Lamming put it this way when, in writing of Walter Rodney, he says:
“the school became the most accessible means of rescuing their offspring from
the enslavement of estate labour. But what began as a necessary strategy of self -emancipation
would become, in our time, a major obstacle to national liberation.
For the mystique of the educated one has proved to be a mystifying influence on
the Guyanese and West Indian masses throughout the process of decolonization.
It has been one of the permanent features of the imperial experiment. Education
was a means of escape from the realities of labour, a continuing flight from the
foundations of society. To grow up was to grow away. Cultural imperialism is
not an empty or evasive phrase. It is the process and effect of a tutelage that has
clung to the ex-colonial like his skin. It is the supreme distinction of Walter
Rodney that he had initiated in his personal and professional life a decisive break
with the tradition he had been trained to serve.” I argued then that what was
missing from Lamming’s insightful analysis was that along with the tradition we
were being trained to serve, or even within it, we also extracted, those of us who
were so inclined, the value and techniques and tools of contestation and critical
thinking and, in the best instances, the moral basis of private and public action.

Out of all this, I have chosen today to dwell on values not often enough
celebrated and perhaps somewhat more difficult to measure: the values of
sharing, solidarity and togetherness, values that survived and persisted in the
midst of and in spite of the colonial deformations. It has been argued, quite
persuasively I believe, that these values were rooted in our ancestral past. They
had survived slavery and indenture and the overlay of Northern and Western
value systems we were being taught to revere, with their enthronement of the
individual and their devaluation of community.

I believe that when we come together as we have done this week, these are the
unacknowledged values that bind us and draw us into communion. The turmoil
and convulsions of the 60s when Guyana exploded in an orgy of blood-letting
and communal violence were the most deadly assault on these values, achieving
in a few short years what not even slavery and indenture and the colonial
oppression had succeeded in doing. Instead of the green shoots of sharing,
solidarity and togetherness, toxic pools of malignity widening and deepening
drop by drop. And over the years the slow drip has continued, poisoning our
relations and blighting our development.

The recent unwelcome arrival of organized narcotics related crime spawned rival
armed gangs and let loose a torrent of gun violence on all sides. The welcome
respite these last few years from the surges of violence that followed the
infamous Mashramani jailbreak of 2002 is no cause for complacency. Guyana has
been deeply traumatized by the spree of killings. Families have been shattered,
communities drawn in on themselves, remembering the worst and fearing the
worst. There is little doubt that atrocities like the Lusignan massacre of January
2008 feed into the remembered history of the Indian community, reinforcing and
renewing the earlier trauma of the 60s, a collective memory that shaped their
identity over the following generations. The extra-judicial and vigilante gunning
down of scores of African young men contributed to a sense of a cycle of violence
and counter-violence, blood for blood, triggering the other collective memory
and its own trauma.

I have chosen to invoke this web of values, frail as it was, because I believe that
there is no greater nor more urgent task confronting us today in our troubled,
tormented country – and ours is not the only or even the worst of the fatally
riven places of the world -- than the overcoming of the accumulated bitterness
and fears of the past, the slow and deadly drip that if left unchecked will
continue to poison the present and the future. What we require is what John Paul
Lederach, in an inspiring book on the building of peace, The Moral Imagination,
calls “constructive social change” which he defines as the pursuit of moving
relationships from those defined by fear, mutual recrimination, and violence
toward those characterized by love, mutual respect, and proactive engagement.
“Constructive social change seeks to change the flow of human interaction in
social conflict from cycles of destructive relational violence toward cycles of
relational dignity and respectful engagement. The flows of fear destroy. The
flows of love edify. That is the challenge: how to move from that which destroys
to that which builds.” It is my belief, and I am not alone in this belief, that if we
are to create space for our citizens, within and outside our borders, to come
together and work to construct the free and open society built on the
fundamental values of liberty, equality and justice and where no citizen shall be
enslaved by poverty and ignorance, we must set our face resolutely against the
easy reflexes of suspicion, distrust, revenge and recrimination. But we must do
more. We must embrace reconciliation and aspire to a higher humanity.

In this regard no-one has been a greater inspiration for our time than the titanic
Nelson Mandela, the apostle of reconciliation. It is universally recognized that
the central fact of Mandela’s life is his extraordinary humanity. In South Africa
they call this ubuntu, a sense that one’s uniqueness on earth is the quality of
humanity one extends to others. Mandela was not the first to embrace this life
affirming principle. Born on the second day of this month of October 140 years
ago, the luminous Mahatma Gandhi, in his teachings and practice, summoned us
to the highest ideals of human behaviour. All of Gandhi's campaigns of
nonviolence were underpinned by a hunger for reconciliation, for the cultivation
of friendship with his opponent. And as we know, he was murdered for not
hating enough.

Closer home, we are meeting today in the last week of October, almost 26 years
to the day, when our Caribbean suffered its greatest trauma of modern times as
the Grenadian revolution self-destructed in a storm of violence and murder that
opened the way to the invasion by the United States armed forces. A few weeks
ago, the last of those held responsible for the murder of Prime Minister Maurice
Bishop and his colleagues were released after 26 years in prison. Their release
was not uncontroversial. More than a year before their release, on New Year’s
Day 2008, Nadia Bishop, the daughter of Maurice Bishop, issued her remarkable
call for reconciliation to the people of Grenada. Nadia Bishop’s words should be
etched in stone and committed to memory by the entire political class of the
Caribbean and particularly of Guyana.

“…pain does not justify staying in pain. I don't mean to imply that our
individual stories are invalid, or that we should diminish our personal
experience, but we have focused on our stories of loss for so long that we must
let them go if we are truly to embrace reconciliation…..

Let us from this day forward tell a new story about our people. Let us tell a story
of forgiveness, of reconciliation, of renewed purpose, of renewed faith, of
renewed hope…

We are too small a nation to continue this way.

We have focused for the past 24 years on our differences. Let us focus on the
similarities at the core of our humanity. We all say we want world peace. We
see so clearly that Israelis and Palestinians must come together in order to
achieve peace and stability. We see so clearly what needs to be done in Darfur
with warring factions, but do we see the need to speak with a Coardite if we are
a Bishop supporter? Do we see the need to speak with a Bishop supporter if we
are a former detainee?

I suggest that it is time that we see the need. We must reach out to each other.
Let us be examples of peace in the world. If we can't find common ground with
our brothers and sisters here in our own country, why do we expect peace to
exist anywhere else in the world? Let each of us individually this year BE the
change that we want to see in the world. “

Mervyn Claxton, the former head of UNESCO’s anti-apartheid programme,
reflecting on Nadia Bishop’s summons to her Grenadian sisters and brothers to a
higher humanity, has written that whether she knew it or not, Nadia’s call for
unconditional forgiveness and reconciliation “appealed to deeply-entrenched
values in at least two of our ancestral cultures.” Claxton made the point that
traditional societies in Africa and India accorded great importance to such values
which they saw as absolutely essential for maintaining social harmony and
promoting solidarity in their multicultural societies. He argued that our ancestral
values of forgiveness and reconciliation evolved within societies that were
constructed on fundamental community values of integration, solidarity, and
togetherness.

What I am suggesting, I hope not too fancifully, is that our generation at Queens
was growing to adulthood in an environment that had not completely lost touch
with those ancestral values that accorded great importance to such inclusive
values as sharing, solidarity, and togetherness. If we can learn to revive these
values and let them provide a foundation for that constructive social change, if
we embrace the idea that the quality of our life is dependent on the quality of life
of others, that “the well-being of our grand-children is directly tied to the wellbeing
of our enemy’s grand-children,” then we will have opened a space for
renewal and hope.

We can continue to let the worst of the past defeat the best of the present, or we
can let the best of the past be marshaled against the worst of the present. Let our
re-union be a celebration of the best and the healthiest of the values of the past. If
we can transmit this experience that shaped us, I believe we would have fulfilled
our generational duty to the present.

Rupert Roopnaraine
Georgetown
28 October 2009

Celebrated ‘Old Boy’ makes donation to Saints

Yesterday, Colonel Brian Chin, an old student of St Stanislaus College, donated software and computer equipment to the school.
Colonel Brian Chin, who entered Saint Stanislaus College in 1975, was recently elevated to the rank of Colonel in the US Marines. He served in Iraq and Korea, and is now working in the Pentagon.
In showing its appreciation, the College Association presented Colonel Chin with a plaque in recognition of his outstanding achievements and the honour that he brought to the college.
Present at the handing over ceremony were several of his friends who attended the school while he was there, among them Dean and Karen Whitehead from Antigua, Camille De Groot, Robin Low and local attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes.
Colonel Chin exhorted the children to enjoy their period at Saints, as it was a fine institution, and he wished he could exchange places with them.
He urged the fifth formers to provide leadership to the rest of the school, and to ensure that the school and its equipment were left intact so that another generation could benefit.
The ceremony was chaired by Nigel Hughes, President of the Saint Stanislaus College Association, and the plaque was handed over by Camille De Groot, a member of the Association’s executive.
Mr. Hughes paid tribute to the teachers for the outstanding job they had done, which led Saints to win the coveted prize of most improved secondary school in 2008.
Special tribute was also paid to Mr. Christopher Fernandes, Chairman of the Board of Governors.

 

Pilot school agriculture programme gets underway

In an effort to get youths actively involved, the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Ministry of Education yesterday launched its Pilot School Programme at the St. Stanislaus College, Brickdam, Georgetown.

The programme, being held under the theme ‘Stimulating Agriculture Production in Secondary Schools in Guyana,’ targets the various schools so that the correct information relating to agriculture can be disseminated to youths.

During the launching, Chairman of the St. Stanislaus College, Chris Fernandes, said that the agricultural farm of the school has been in existence for over 25 years and has been totally self-sufficient.

As a result of the farm, he said that the school has been able to generate funds to maintain the school premises.

Chairman of the Pesticides Toxic and Chemical Control Board (PTCCB), Leslie Monroe, reiterated the proper and safe use of pesticides in Guyana.

He noted that the Board is currently involved in activities as a means of managing the use of the chemicals in the country, and as such the pilot programme will be used to distribute the correct information on the use of pesticides in Guyana.

Monroe explained that although pesticides are poisonous, people don’t really believe that it is since the effects are not immediately felt or seen.

He noted that the Ministry has decided to target the schools because they found that children are accustomed to taking messages home to their parents, and with this there will be a more informed population about the proper use of pesticides.

The pilot programme will be effective in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten and, according to Monroe, the Agriculture Ministry intends to make it a national programme some time in the future.

He also noted that with the ‘Grow More’ drive being pushed by the Ministry, there will be the tendency by farmers to use more pesticides.

In this regard, he said that farmers must be on the alert about the proper use and effects of utilizing pesticides, since ‘wholesome’ food has to be produced, so as not to affect people’s lives.

Expressing similar sentiments as Monroe was Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, who noted that it is important that the school system prepare the youths for the world of work in the agriculture field. He explained that it is important now that the pilot programme has started from the perspective of understanding the use of pesticides and its application.

“And this is crucial because over the last several years we have reformed the management of the use of pesticides and toxic chemicals. We had to do that because when we export any agricultural produce from Guyana, we have to describe what chemicals were utilised.

“And also because we are signatory to a number of international conventions and because we want our produce to be exported, there are certain guidelines we have to follow and there are certain chemicals that we are allowed to import and use,” Minister Persaud said.

Because of the fact that Guyana cannot import or use certain chemicals, Persaud said that persons have been smuggling illegal chemicals in the country. He noted that this cannot be allowed to happen, because it can harm the country’s exports and more so, damage the people’s health.

Minister Persaud also pointed to the food crisis being experienced across the world. He revealed that close to 900 million people are unsure if the next day they will be able to get a balanced or nutritional meal.

“But in Guyana’s context, and we’re happy because we don’t feel that, we don’t experience that…we have stayed in agriculture. And when other countries right in the Caribbean Region were reducing their expenditure in agriculture, we were increasing ours,” Minister Persaud said.

Minister within the Ministry of Education, Desrey Fox, in her address noted that over the past years, schools have not been zeroing in on Agriculture Science, for some reason or the other.

She said that in recent times, due to the emphasis being placed on the issue by the government and the international crisis being experienced in terms of food production, which is pressuring the world, Guyana stands a very good chance with a small population and huge lands, and the traditional agricultural knowledge to be able to push forward as it relates to agricultural production.

“It also gives us the opportunity to be able to make some money. So at this time, the ‘Grow More’ campaign has become very important in Guyana.”
(Fareeza Haniff)

St. Stanislaus College celebrates its 100th Anniversary
St. Stanislaus College would be celebrating its 100th anniversary on its present location on Tuesday November 13. The college authorities have planned a week of activities to mark this significant milestone.
On Monday 12th there will be a Special Assembly of the College at 8.30 am

On Tuesday at 8.30 am, an Interfaith Prayer Service at Brickdam Cathedral.
A special edition of the College Magazine will also be launched on Tuesday
At 10.30 a Maths Quiz
At 12.00 Students Council Meeting
At 1.00 pm Elocution Competition
Evening, Dinner at the Georgetown Club
On Wednesday at 3.00 pm Badminton Competition
On Thursday at 4.00 pm Graduation
On Friday Cricket Girls Final
On Saturday Prom Night at Regency Hotel
On Tuesday Nov 20th Cricket: (a) Boys Final Lower and Upper
(b) Novelty Teachers vs. Students
Other activities are also in the planning stages.
St Stanislaus College began as a Roman Catholic School run by the Order of priests and brothers known as the Jesuits. According to a history of the College written by Naiomi Collins it was a Catholic School for 110 years before it was taken over by the Government in 1976.
On May 1, 1866 the Catholic Grammar School was opened with just two students in the presbytery which was opposite to where Brickdam Cathedral now stands. It was to move later to the Sacred Heart Compound, to Waterloo Street, back to the Cathedral Presbytery, to the site of the present St Mary's School then finally in 1907 to the present Brickdam site by which time the number of boys had grown to 100.

The St Stanislaus College Association was formed in 1942 with the principal aim of supporting the College. The Association has overseas chapters in Canada, the USA, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda.

The College introduced agricultural science to the curricular in 1975 and established the farm which was to provide practical training for the Agriculture Science students.

In 1976 Saints along with several other schools in Guyana became co educational.

In 1979 Father Darke, who was senior and scout master at Saints was murdered in front of the school.

In the same year the Principals of several of the top secondary schools in Guyana including St Stanislaus college were transferred to various schools. 1980 saw the last of Jesuit participation in the school after 114 years at the college.

Now 140 years old, St Stanislaus is a Senior Secondary School owned and managed by the government.

In 2005 a Board of Governors was set up to manage the College in its entirety.

The Board receives an annual subvention to cover budgeted expenses and the wages and salaries of staff however the subventions have proven inadequate.

The Board has aggressively pursued fund raising endeavours to supplement the budgetary shortfalls.

The college aims at imparting to its students superior intellectual, technical and social skills while delivering to the society responsible citizens who are imbued with reverence of God, and a spirit of love for their country.

The motto of the school “Eterna non caduca” (not for this life only but for eternity) mandates the staff and students to work individually and collectively towards the full social and academic upliftment of the college and of the country as a whole.

St Ignatius