Editorial
When The Caribbean Digicam was launched in 1990, we had some neighborhood papers in Canada that had been seen as Black.
The Caribbean Digicam carved out an area that we might occupy – Black however and not using a “race” label. That created an issue for us.
Many in Canada nonetheless don’t totally perceive the area we got here from and our tradition. Black individuals born in Trinidad and Tobago, have extra in widespread with individuals born in Jamaica or Guyana than with these Black from america.
We had a Trinidad and Tobago-born editor of South Asian descent and a few very vocal Black people thought that due to the editor’s race he couldn’t or shouldn’t be capable of converse on Black points, though he was having the identical expertise as that they had. He ought to “keep out of Black individuals enterprise,” they saved saying.
At present we’ve got related issues although to a smaller diploma than within the days when the paper was primarily accepted as a Black paper by neighborhood leaders such because the late Dudley Legal guidelines and Charlie Roach and Kingsley Gilliam together with our largely South Asian Caribbean advertisers.
The Caribbean Digicam gained prominence once we got here on the scene in 1990 as a result of it was the one paper that was in shut contact with newsmakers in Trinidad and Tobago when there was an tried coup in that nation. We had a direct line to journalists in Port of Spain and information gatherers from the CBC, CTV and different Canadian organizations camped out at our workplaces to get the newest info earlier than their reporters received all the way down to Trinidad and Tobago.
Then when Garth Drabinsky introduced “Present Boat” to a theatre in Canada and the neighborhood received up in arms about it, The Caribbean Digicam known as on the neighborhood to see the manufacturing earlier than condemning it. That was once we had been known as the voice of cause within the Black neighborhood by Laurie Goldstein, a writer from a mainstream newspaper, and we had been introduced with a proposal from a Jewish group who mentioned that they might help the paper if we’d, in flip, help the Jewish neighborhood, a proposal we rejected.
About 20 years in the past, we revealed an article concerning the Jews who got here to Trinidad as refugees from Nazi Europe in 1938. They had been among the many hundreds of refugees who got here to the Caribbean through the Second World Struggle.
Most of the Jews who settled in Trinidad began new companies within the nation and the Star of David might be seen on the uniforms of the officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Police companies.
The Jewish part of the Mucurapo cemetery in Port of Spain accommodates the graves of a number of the members of Jewish households who made Trinidad their house.
Why am I speaking about that is January 2024?
The explanation will shock those that know us. There’s a Jewish group in Canada that desires to model The Caribbean Digicam as antisemitic due to 4 articles that appeared in our paper for the reason that battle between Israel and Hamas flared up on October 7, 2023.
By the way in which, we’ve got performed the maths and right here it’s. Within the final 33 years, The Caribbean Digicam has revealed over 5 thousand commentaries and the Jewish group in query calls us antisemitic as a result of we’ve got had 4 articles in our paper that didn’t agree with their stance on the struggle.
And allow us to not neglect that the views of our columnists don’t all the time mirror the views of The Caribbean Digicam.
Sure, we mentioned that Hamas was not justified in attacking Israel final October, killing over 1200 individuals and taking on 200 individuals as hostages.
However can this justify the killing of over 25,000 individuals and the destruction of what appears like over 60 per cent of the buildings in Gaza, destroying the hospitals and having over 1,000,000 individuals on the run with nothing greater than the garments on their backs.
And once they get to the south, Israel decides that they have to now transfer to the north as a result of that’s their (Israel’s) subsequent goal space. Gaza is just not like Toronto the place you possibly can simply transfer individuals on buses, trains, automobiles and planes. Ninety per cent of the individuals there are transferring on foot and they’re hungry.
Earlier than the struggle, a whole lot of vans got here in to Gaza on daily basis with support and these had been was not sufficient to fulfill the wants of the hungry individuals there.
Our Jewish critics should perceive that as a result of we criticized the unfair behaviour of Benjamin Netanyahu with respect to the Palestinians doesn’t make us antisemitic.
They need to additionally keep in mind that there are various Jews in Israel who additionally disagree with the insurance policies of Netanyahu and absolutely, they aren’t antisemitic.
