[OPINION & COMMENTARY] THE GLEANER, SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2022 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com A7 Miles from nowhere I guess I’ll take my time Oh yeah, to reach there. Cat Stevens FOR A long part of my life, I was what Caribbean people, especially those from Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad, call a ‘Nowhereian’. Richard Allsop, in his ‘Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage’, says the term could apply to someone who is not connected to any church or lacks religious faith, a person who is not respectable or of no consequence, an unkempt looking ‘knockabout’, or someone of no fixed abode. When one of my Trini friends ran into me in the Bahamas, he exclaimed, “Boy, Tony, you is a real nowherian, yes!” However, before I could say “Guilty on all counts”, a Bahamian colleague, either hard of hearing or of knowledge of the Caribbean, exclaimed, “But I didn’t know you are Norwegian!” I replied, “Actually, I’m here for the skiing and right now I am miles from nowhere.” What helped is that my response got smiles from everywhere. Actually, when I worked in Antigua as the corporate secretary of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), one of the people I really liked was named ‘Miles’. He was the company’s ‘driver’, so the name was appropriate and fitted even more tightly because Miles was nowhere to be found when you needed him most. He was miles away. Almost every time I saw him, the Cat Stevens’ classic, Miles from Nowhere, came to mind from whatever nowhere it was temporarily inhabiting. Even though the song was released on March 31, 1994 (28 years ago), I still cannot resist responding to it. However, I no longer sing my favourite opening lines at the top of my lungs which, like my shoes, are extra-extra wide size 12s. I have learnt, after many “Shut ups”, threats and even obscenities, especially what to do with my “Nowhereian” rear end, to resist the temptation. The reason is that while today’s people accept the concept of a bus, train, plane or car coming out of “nowhere” to do them, their vehicles or other loved ones grievous bodily harm, to imply that they themselves have emerged from “nowhere” is considered insulting. The Trinidad calypsonian, the Mighty Dougla, in his prizewinning song about the plight of “douglas” or Afro-Indian mixtures (“I am neither one nor the other, Six of one half-a-dozen of the other ...”) sang about the little boy who, tormented by one racial group, ran to the other one for help and was asked, “Nowhereian, what you come here for?” CAT STEVENS Many years ago, miles away from Miles and high in the sky, or as high as a propeller plane can go, I was as many miles from nowhere as one could be. As I thought of my nowhereian status, I remembered what happened to Cat Stevens after 9/11. Stevens, an extremely popular pop singer, converted to the Muslim faith and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. Because of that, Stevens was on a “terrorist” watch list. When US security found his name on the passenger list of a transatlantic flight from London to Washington, they diverted the plane to a remote airfield in Maine, leaving him many, many miles from nowhere. Whilemy flight was not diverted, I had to create my own diversions. LIAT left late as usual and, as we made the tedious trip to Barbados, I felt literally miles from nowhere. Fortunately, the flight attendant, a young Guyanese lady named Sherree, made the trip comfortable for all of us. My wife Indranie, who is also Guyanese, insists that people fromGuyana are the most hospitable in the Caribbean. I agree. Even in the midst of dire poverty, there are many Guyanese who, although lacking material wealth, will still invite you to their homes and try to press a gift on you before you leave. Perhaps Sheree’s Guyanese upbringing put her miles ahead of the others but, in spite of her upbeat attitude, I continued to feel that we were all miles from nowhere. I started to ruminate on the word ‘where’. It is essentially ‘here’ with a ‘w’. ‘There’ is ‘here’ with a ‘t’. One hears of here, there and everywhere, whereabouts and wherewithal, wherefore, wherefrom and wherein, whereas and whereinto. But if there is no ‘where’, how can you come out of it, or be miles from it? In that case, where the heck are you? Many adolescents seem to know exactly where nowhere is. When my son George was a teenager and I asked himwhere he was going, he always replied, “Nowhere.” I never thought of asking him where exactly nowhere was. Now, the opportunity, having been missed, cannot be regained. I never got anywhere when I questioned him and now I am nowhere close to understanding. Even the dictionaries are never clear on exactly where nowhere is. Essentially, it seems, ‘here’, ‘there’ and ‘where’ are determined by one another. If you’re not here, where you are is there. If you are not there, where you are is here. And if you’re here today and gone tomorrow, where you’ve gone to is nowhere. NOWHERE STORY I have a nowhere story. It is an old tale full of racial, sexual and national stereotypes, and those of you who wish can skip to the end. And those I upset can take me apart on Facebook. But I was miles fromnowhere when I remembered it. Following a shipwreck, twomen and one woman from each of several nationalities were stranded on some stunning deserted islands in the middle of nowhere. One month later, they were still marooned on the same islands and the following events occurred. One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman. The two Frenchmen and the Frenchwoman were living happily together in a ménage à trois. The two German men had developed a strict weekly schedule of alternating visits with the German woman. The two Greek men were sleeping with each other and the Greek woman cleaned and cooked for them. The two Englishmen were anxiously continuing to wait for someone to introduce them to the Englishwoman. The two Bulgarian men took one long look at the endless ocean, another long look at the Bulgarian woman, and started swimming. The two Japanese men faxed Tokyo and were eagerly awaiting instructions. The two Chinese men set up a pharmacy, a liquor store, a restaurant and a laundry, and got the woman pregnant in order to supply employees for their stores. The two American men daily contemplated the virtues of suicide because the American woman complained endlessly about everything in and out of sight. The two Irish men quickly divided the island into North and South, and each set up a distillery. They never remembered if sex was in the picture because it got sort of foggy after the first few litres of coconut whisky. But they were both happy that the English were definitely not having any fun. And the two Trini men were constantly wondering whether there were Venezuelan women on any of the other islands. Tony Deyal was last seen thinking that, if Russians were there, they would first conscript the woman and then invade the other islands. Send feedback to columns@ gleanerjm.com. THE CARIBBEAN cannot escape the economic and financial consequences of the Russian Federation’s invasion of the sovereign, independent nation of Ukraine. The effects of these consequences are already being felt in higher oil prices (at the time of writing, on March 3, the global oil benchmark rose to $113.94 a barrel, the highest since June 2014), and they will intensify if the Russian action continues, forcing the world community to show its displeasure through the many sanctions that have been imposed on Russia, not only by countries but also on bodies responsible for international sport. Rightly, Caribbean countries have participated fully in expressing their disapproval of Russia’s infringement of the United Nations Charter, the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS) and of international law, by its unlawful, unjustified, and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. On February 24, all CARICOM states jointly issued a statement, making it clear that “the hostilities against Ukraine go counter to the principles of respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, noninterference in the internal affairs of another sovereign state and the prohibition on the threat or use of force, and the peaceful resolution of disputes, which are the bedrock of this Community”. On February 25, all but four CARICOM countries joined in cosponsoring an OAS Declaration by more than two-thirds of its member states, led by Antigua and Barbuda and Guatemala, that “strongly condemn(ed) the unlawful, unjustified, and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and call(ed) for the immediate withdrawal of the military presence and the cessation of any further military actions in that country”. EXERCISED VETO On that same day, the UN Security Council failed to issue its own condemnatory resolution because Russia exercised its veto, as one of five permanent members, to stop the resolution. The continued existence of a veto by any one of only five countries is a serious anomaly in today’s world. Each of these countries can halt binding UN action against their own violations, crippling the ability to censure them, as is evident from the Russian veto. After hesitation by some CARICOM countries to participate in the UN General Assembly meeting on Ukraine two days before the invasion, all of them were among the 141 nations at the Special Emergency Session, on March 2, that deplored “in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine” and demanded that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders”. It is, of course, right that CARICOM countries should adopt a strong position on any country that violates international law by invading other nations, and by seeking to alter the settled borders of countries by force. Within CARICOM, Venezuela threatens Guyana’s territorial integrity and Guatemala threatens Belize’s. In the case of Guatemala and Belize, they have both agreed to seeking a peaceful settlement through the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and Guatemala has led from the front in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, Venezuela has refused to accept the jurisdiction of the ICJ, and its president is reported to have stated his support for Russia’s unlawful actions against Ukraine. At the meeting of the OAS, where the overwhelming number of countries made a declaration condemning the Russian invasion, I stated on behalf of Antigua and Barbuda the following: “Small and military powerless states depend upon adherence and respect to the agreed and settled principles that are set out in the UN Charter and in international law. When these principles are flouted and international law is violated, small states are obliged to speak out loudly in our own interest, as much as in the interest of nations that are the actual victims of aggression.” CRUX OF THE MATTER And that is the crux of the matter. When international law is breached, the wall that safeguards the interest of small states crumbles, exposing them to the aggression of others; and that aggression can come inmany forms, not only military. In any event, the action of Russia in the Ukraine is now so vicious, so inhumane and so alarming that no right-minded society anywhere in the world can do anything but forcefully condemn it. Innocent people, including children and babies, are being killed in their homes as Russia bombards them with long-range missiles in the Russian government’s attempt to seize control of their country. Nothing could justify such brutal and cowardly behaviour. In standing up for an immediate end to the unjustified violence and slaughter in Ukraine, and for the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia, the 141 countries that voted at the UN, and the 25 that voted at the OAS, including all CARICOM states, were also standing up for the protection of themselves from the tyranny of more militarily powerful countries. They were standing up for human values of the right to life and the right to live in peace within secure borders. In every society, there are those who seek to gain frommisfortune and misery. Sadly, there is already some speculation in the Caribbean that governments should allow private companies to profit from busting sanctions against Russia by accommodating, for instance, the yachts of the Russian oligarchs who have become billionaires through their cosy relationships with the Russian government. Still others complain about the higher prices that they will have to pay for commodities, such as oil and its related uses. But such persons should be reminded that freedom and the protection of human life and dignity comes by defending what is right and by some sacrifice. Higher prices will have to be paid for a time, but it is worth the freedom and rights that all humanity deserves. To see the sacrifice for rights and freedom, we need look no further than the courage of the Ukrainian people – men, women and children – who are confronting Russian military tanks and weaponry with nothing in their hands but the flag of their besieged nation. In the Caribbean, we should remind those who advocate sanctions busting for short-termgain of the biblical admonition: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” Ronald Sanders is Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US and the OAS. He is also a senior fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and at Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are entirely his own. For responses and previous commentaries, log on to www. sirronaldsanders.com. People gather to protest against Russian’s invasion of the Ukraine, outside the European Union offices in Caracas, Venezuela, March 3. AP Ronald Sanders GUEST COLUMNIST Tony Deyal No busting of sanctions against Russia Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens performing at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Many miles from nowhere
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