Those women from the Red Thread organisation have done a very, very good thing: stripping the obscene awards (which were referred to as a favour) given out as compensation by the Linden Commission of Inquiry bare, “so that the travesty of justice becomes clear…” They were smack on target in thinking that the zeroes in the number “million” are hiding the reality.
Fantastic figures of themselves mean nothing, hence the break-down so that “the insult becomes more visible.” The break-down they presented couldn’t be any simpler or more practical; the awards were stripped bare of even the rags it was clothed in so that we all get the real picture, the true colour of the commission and friends. And by the way, I was riled up by the remarks of Attorney General Mr. Nandlall in response to Regional Ten Chairman Sharma Solomon in asking who is Sharma Solomon to question those competent and well qualified Caribbean jurists?
May I ask just who the Attorney General thinks those people are? Gods, infallible. I think not, brilliant jurists yes, but human beings with human failings.
As the Commission noted, the awards “are a favour rather than a legal obligation” and as was made crystal clear, the entire unfortunate and fatal scenario was the sole fault of the organisers/protestors who deliberately breached the law and created the unrest. From the very inception – no doubt after a sound briefing – the Commission it appears was very dismissive of the witnesses/protestors, matters not who tried to inflate their cost and mislead them, there was a set game plan.
Further, they were contemptuous, callous in their dealings of them as riff-raff, a rabblement and a put-down, hence the reason why scraps were tossed at them as “a favour”, they didn’t bother to disguise it, no frills, no cosmetics, no pain to explain anything “take it and be thankful for the mercy we have shown to you for being self-destructive.” How do we explain that Somerset’s initial estate was $1 million before some form of discussion brought it to $2 million? They dealt with the entire situation from a static stand-point, a fixation, no room or anything else that could have happened in terms of their fortune were they alive today. Red Thread used a life expectancy format from the 2010 census of 66.5 years to compute the “favour”/awards and it is utterly ridiculous. As the figures showed: $421, $365 and $113 per day! Had Somerset gotten the initial $1 million then his would have been $56 per day! Which family can live on $400, $300 per day! Some places sell bread at $360 per loaf, thank God that there are corner shops that sell loose sausages and 2 ounces of cheese, but this is what the Commission called adequate compensation. So what would it be for those who are “shocked” and “dissatisfied” with the awards, when as Red Thread so accurately stated: “The lives and potential earning capacity of these three human beings were devalued to this level by men and women who were paid between $14 million and $16 million for a month’s work, that is between $480,000 and $540,000 for a six hour day”.
Never! never! would something like that ever happen to any member from the ruling/upper class. Which reminds me, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal.”
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
