Some immediate lessons to be learned from the doubles plannassing video making the rounds on social media:
When pulling over to buy doubles switch off your engine nah, so yuh doh disturb the other people eating doubles right there.....
If yuh so fat that yuh can't look down and see your foot yuh doh need doubles in the first place....
If yuh iz a white man doh be calling people coolie from the gutter and not expect a reaction....
Yuh doh have to go in your van and bring out a cutlass to prove the man point, what kinda gutter coolie behavior was that?
Seriously, the man was like three times your age and at least a quarter of your weight, yuh really needed to plannass him to make your point?
Before making stupid life choices look up and around for video cameras and other possible recording devices....
Thank God the gutter coolie yuh insult was a town coolie, 'cuz a bush coolie might not have used the side of the blade............there are things that white people should not be saying to people, and anything racist and derogatory falls in that category...........
Two witness statements and a full color video is enough evidence to make an arrest.........
If you iz a guvenment Minister son, two witness statements and a full color video might not still be enough evidence to make an arrest.........
So what are they saying? That an argument could be made that were it not for the inflammatory remarks there would not have been any reason for the response in the first place and that has to be noted. That said, this boy is in clear need of psychiatric evaluation if he can be so easily prompted to commit a dangerous and illegal act which had the potential to go very wrong very fast. In this country many people of color still see white people as oppressors and while we are living in more enlightened and changing times where race relations are concerned, we are also living in highly violent times and no one should be taking liberties with anyone, especially with something as potentially volatile as race and class.
To me the ONLY sensible people in the doubles plannassing video are the ones who kept their mouths shut and walked away. Cutlass chop is not an easy thing to live with and sometimes it really does not make sense to sweat for anybody else's fever. Bigotry clashed with violence over entitlement here, and the onlookers were absolutely correct to leave them to sort their own business out. When he realized that he was dealing with an unmannerly and inconsiderate person Mr. Wight should have taken his doubles and went on his way. I am quite sure he wont make this mistake again. Regardless of the provocation I also believe that young Mr. Aleong/Gopeesingh's reaction was ridiculously extreme and needs to be charged and prosecuted so that he too may walk away from this a changed individual. The lesson for everyone else watching this video is, especially in these violent hair trigger times, if discretion is the better part of valor then it might just be better to mind our tongues and let mutual respect keep us safe from each other.
Phillip Edward Alexander,
ReplyDeleteIf you are to take your social media influence responsibly, you need to get your facts straight. Mr. Wight said to Mr. Aleong "you must be from the gutter." Race never entered into it. We, the macos on the outside, have brought race into play and you, with this entry, are doing more harm than good.
I normally do not allow anonymous posts because I don't debate people who lack the very courage they are challenging, but in this case I allow it to make a point.
DeleteI had to post this on facebook today:
I remain the most objective columnist in Trinidad & Tobago and I make no apologies for anything I write.
I wrote an article today on the plannassing video making the rounds on facebook and I am being attacked for daring to have an opinion but that's become par for the course.
I don't mind the herd reflex or the gang mentality, I have an understanding of psychology. I dont even mind the aliases who lack the courage of their convictions but want to have the biggest voices of all, what I do mind is watching the people who ought to know better jump on a bandwagon to kill the message by attacking the messenger.
I dont usually respond on comments articles like this but feel compelled to say a few things:
ReplyDelete1. I cant understand how politely asking someone to turn off their engine can be interpreted as provocation
2. I watched the video over and over again in complete disgust and disbelief without knowing any of the exchanges of words, my interpretation of the minister's son body language was that he was disrespectful towards the person(Mr Wight) who was addressing him. He turned his back to him , to me this is the most disrespectful thing you can do when someone is speaking to you
3. From what I have heard The minister's son was the person to "provoke Mr Wight by first cussing him out. Am i to understand that a simple request to turn off your car gives you the right to cuss out another person ? It is okay for someone to cuss you out and you not be offended or to react to this cuss out? Maybe what Mr wight said was not nice but maybe it was true, just sayin.
4.There is a sayin that goes something like this " evil lives when good people say or do nothing"
What would you do if this was your sister or brother? Walk away????? turn a blind eye??? not one person tried to stop this boy or even went to the aid of the old man after, no one called the police , everyone just went along their merry way as if was part of their usual way of life. Have we become so desensitived to the lack of respesct for a human being ??? I truly hope and pray not.
Having written an article today that had many scrambling over each other to be the one to let me know just how wrong I was I have come to the following conclusions.
ReplyDeleteDoubles are bad for you.
So are opinions.
As are vehicles that work on diesel.
I have also learnt that if you plannass somebody you get your doubles free, and that from now on when I am going for doubles I will be riding a bicycle......
Do you know what Straw Man Logic is? Look it up.
ReplyDeleteReaders commented that race was not involved, but you respond by attacking their anonymity.
That is not objective, and is childish.
DeleteUnderstandably people on both sides of the debacle are going to take from the article what they want to take but why so few supposedly educated, thinking people are willing to open their minds long enough to accept that what went wrong on that fateful day required the actions of two people, not one?
To hear their side all of Gregory's animation for almost a full minute of the video was still just him politely asking young Gopeesingh to turn off the van because he really likes to eat his doubles in peace and then, just so, poof like a madman, this (insert your racist derogatory expletive here ent?) hooligan went to his van and attacked poor elderly Gregory Wight out of the clear blue?
In Gregory Wight and all the witnesses own words after, the boy (while plannassing him) asked him twice to apologize.
Why?
Why apologize?
For what?
What did he want this elder statesman to apologize for?
For the word gutter as Gregory said?
For daring to breathe in his space?
For eating doubles?
Again and again and again I will agree as I sad from the start that the boy was wrong in his response and has to answer for that, but the whole version of events that is being peddled that absolves Gregory Wight from his role as chief provocateur does not add up based solely on the evidence and Gregory's own statement.
I will stop there for now and wait for the rest of you to catch up.
Watch the video again.
...just like a woman that gets beaten up by her husband for talking back was asking for it, right?
DeleteHow you come to compare the two is in your own mind.........
Deletesounds like this person who is trying over and over to absolve Mr. Wight of any provocation is either his family or one of those blind mindless political minions.
DeleteThe fact that someone is asking for an apology while planassing you is proof that something derogatory was said!!! (it could have never been said "sir, kindly switch off your engine, thou art from the gutter").
AND by the way, doubles is sold at the side of the road!!!! what about the fumes from the passing cars???
Nevertheless it does not mean that Shane was right, and he should be charged forthwit!! BUT as Phillip said it takes two to tango.
"Yuh doh have to go in your van and bring out a cutlass to prove the man point, what kinda gutter coolie behavior was that?"
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!! In the last year, I've grown more ashamed to be called a Trinbagonian or to be thought to be associated with these people.
Some may see our celebs such as Anya Ayoung-Chee, various sports personalities as t'ings to shout about.. fine. But when you look at how 'base' the country has become, losing its moral and social compass, you really have to wonder 'what the hell'.
And it grows worse by the day! Now the 'natives' have been offered temporary relief by no VAT on food - well everybody happy man! Tomorrow will be some other distraction and it seems so easy to distract them, from the core issues about where the country is going i.e. down the pan.
Over the last few weeks I've developed some kind of 'writers block' - ah mean the mess is just too much to contemplate in it's totality, or to analyse to make a coherent response. But I eh too worried, ah know the pressure building up - den ah go explode on dem!
Ayye - nice blog this one. Look, four expert bloggers like you have, including Jumbies Watch, have joined up at The Bloggers' Press (link on my ID). Join up wid we nuh. :) [Non-profit..no spam..no hassle.. fully LiveWriter compatible]