Puzzling Questions!
By Al (Herbert) Powell
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| Rt.Exec.Robert Bradshaw Memorial Statue with right hand in air |
While taking a drive a few days ago, I passed through St. Pauls and stopped to look at the very imposing monument of the late and former Premier of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Rt. Excellent Sir Robert L Bradshaw. Immediately something struck me as “not right”. It took but a few minutes for reality to hit me…I had never before seen Robert Bradshaw with his right hand in the air!
I then asked myself “Why would the Labour Government commission a monument of “Papa” Bradshaw with his right fist pumped in the air and not his left?
These questions stayed with me for much of the rest of the drive until I reached home.
I was told, since childhood, that Robert Bradshaw had an accident on one of the machines while working at the St. Kitts sugar factory and that his right hand was seriously damaged. From then on he only used his left hand. At all the political meetings in Warner Park and marches on Labour Day it was always his left hand that he proudly fisted in the air with his “Power to the People” sign. He wrote with his left hand and basically did everything with his left hand.
Why then was someone trying to hide the fact that Mr. Bradshaw had a disabled right hand?
Why aren’t the youngsters in our Country being taught to understand and be proud of the fact that Robert Bradshaw, despite whatever infirmities, disabilities or special needs that he may have had, and against all odds, rose to great heights to become a role model and the first National Hero of our Country!
If he could do it, surely they too, with determination, courage and strength could also overcome all odds and become outstanding leaders in some way or other.
Surely this knowledge could be used as motivation and encouragement for our young aspiring athletes especially our Special Olympic athletes and other children with special needs. Let me here congratulate our Special Olympics Team that won all those medals recently in China. Disabilities are never to be ashamed of!
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| Prime Minister Douglas approving replica of Statue In April 2007 |
The Prime Minister viewed a replica of the statue as early as April 2007 and was fully cognizant that it was been made with the right hand in the air.
So why then did Prime Minister Douglas approve the statue in this form?
Is this yet another attempt of Denzil Douglas and the Labour party to rewrite the history of our country and our leaders?
Most persons living in St. Kitts will remember that all photographs of Ministers of the former Peoples Action Movement Government were taken down from Government Headquarters, immediately after the Labour party took office, never to be displayed as part of our history.
Teachers are banned from teaching anything in schools about the history of St. Kitts and Nevis that includes any mention of the former Prime Minister Dr. Kennedy A Simmonds now Dr. The Rt. Hon. Sir Kennedy A. Simmonds or the Peoples Action Movement.
Not once since 1995 has ZIZ TV station, the Government owned and operated TV station on the island, shown the tapes of the historic Independence ceremony that took place on the 19th September 1983!
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| Robert Bradshaw at Public Meeting in Warner Park with left fist pumped in the air |
Is it because Dr. The Rt. Hon Kennedy Simmonds was the Prime Minister at that very memorable and exciting time in our Country’s history and Labour wishes to erase that period of 1983 to 1995?
Does the Labour Party believe that by ignoring or pretending that certain things and people in our history did not exist that it will change the historical facts?
What good does it do to the young people of our society not to know our history in its entirety?
We have all traced our roots to Africa and the slave trade that has shaped our destinies. Should we not also know of the beginning of our Independence era, which undoubtedly is indelibly engraved in our Country’s rich history?
Shouldn’t the monument of the first National Hero be displayed in its true form as he was known and loved by the people of this country?
As Willa Carther once said “ The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or woman.” Perhaps some people have no hearts and therefore need no history!
