As I walked in to work on a specific Wednesday not way back, it appeared everybody I encountered gave me an odd look. No must surprise why. I had all of a sudden turn out to be one thing of a curiosity, because of a person I met in Barbados whereas on a media tour. He had despatched to a fellow STAR worker a recording of our most up-to-date telephone dialog—in the midst of which I had provided him with particulars of an interview I’d carried out with a high-ranking authorities official, and which I deliberate to publish, regardless of I didn’t consider a phrase of what I used to be advised.
I had additionally provided my Bajan buddy with particulars of discussions with my writer. I had complained to him about discrimination I suffered at work, about my paltry wage in comparison with what a few of my feminine co-workers had been paid. When he confirmed scant curiosity, I shifted gears. I instructed that on my subsequent go to to Barbados I’d like to fulfill him someplace much less public than a espresso store. That definitely caught his consideration. Summoning up the Delilah in my soul, I hinted that if he ever got here to Saint Lucia he ought to make certain to present me a name. It could be a easy matter to invent an excuse to slide out for a pair hours. His damning document of our telephone conversations had additionally reached my husband.
Evidently, I’d not nonetheless be employed by the STAR if any of the above had been true. However one thing near my fabricated report did occur to Senator Ubaldus Raymond, as by now lots of you studying this could know. A lot of additionally, you will have dismissed Raymond’s persistent denials, to say nothing of his claims that he was arrange by would-be blackmailers.
Earlier than introducing his visitor on final week’s episode of TALK, host Rick Wayne had his personal confession to make: “I’ve by no means invited anybody to seem on this present simply to make them look dangerous,” he mentioned.” They will do that every one by themselves. If Senator Ubaldous Raymond chooses to deceive me, that’s his bee’s wax.”
Raymond’s response: “Effectively, to begin with, let me thanks, Rick, for inviting me on this night. I’ve not come right here to debate against the law that Ubaldus has dedicated. I’m not right here to debate any violation by me of anyone’s rights. I’m not right here to speak about my violation of the Structure of Saint Lucia.” He mentioned he had completely no downside speaking in regards to the day’s hottest subject. He had accepted the host’s invitation with out hesitation as a result of he had nothing to cover. “There isn’t any disgrace, no embarrassment on my half. I do know I’ve not dedicated any crime.”
In fact, in his effort at proving his phrases, Raymond must clarify to his viewers what had transpired whereas on authorities enterprise in Trinidad, by no means thoughts the allegations that had prompted the lawyer normal’s workplace to announce an investigation. Raymond mentioned he and 9 different authorities staff had gone to Trinidad on a fact-finding mission linked with digitizing a number of of the federal government’s providers. 4 of the ten had been invited to a celebration through the weekend earlier than Trinidad’s Carnival Monday and Tuesday. As reported by this newspaper two weeks in the past, Raymond met in Trinidad the girl who could be his co-star in a number of telephone conversations, recordings of which featured on social media the place they had been rated by one and all as “ salacious and disgusting,” however worthy of sharing numerous instances.
Requested by Rick Wayne about his emotions upon realizing that what he’d thought-about non-public conversations had turn out to be irresistible Web fodder, Raymond replied: “I used to be stunned.” As for the demonstrated large curiosity in his intimate life, he mentioned he had not been retaining tabs on that. Whereas speaking on the telephone to his seductive Trinidad buddy, did he not think about the repercussions from his earlier involvement with two 18-year-old college students who had proved much less all for college work than within the discipline of extortion? He mentioned the younger ladies by no means crossed his thoughts, “as a result of I believed I used to be having a personal dialog and people have non-public conversations each day.” Which was true. Then once more, his lubricious WhatsApp interactions with the scholars two years earlier had been additionally conceivably by no means undertaken with the general public urge for food in thoughts.
A private word: I’m at all times aware of the ability of know-how when sharing the Web, even with folks I do know. (By dependable account Raymond had met his Trinidadian multi-tasker simply as soon as.) In Raymond sneakers, I feel I’d have been, after his 2017 expertise, much more cautious in my use of cell telephones. However then, straightforward for me to say after I do not know what rocks Raymond’s clock. Sure, I did say clock!
In addition to, as Raymond put it on TALK: “If we have now to go down that street, not one of many parliamentarians can stand. Not one who can stand. There are those that do their stuff and are doing their stuff, and they’re going to by no means be caught. In actual fact, a few of them have carried out felony stuff . . .” The ever-cautious host minimize him off, perhaps to keep away from potential slander fits. Since his look on TALK, some have been saying Raymond threw his celebration colleagues below the bus, a line he brushes off with one other equally suicidal: “These I referred to, know themselves!”
By no means thoughts he believes what occurred to him “may occur to any of us,” on Monday, the federal government introduced that Senator Ubaldous Raymond had handed in his resignation.
Shortly earlier than the general public announcement, in response to a reporter’s query, Senator Fortuna Belrose mentioned: “Social media does no matter it desires, the way it desires, when it desires. We’ve no laws.” For his half, Raymond publicly thanked his spouse, his church and specifically his feminine pals whom he says proceed to face by him, whilst they urge him to stay sturdy.
As for Prime Minister Allen Chastanet, he mentioned Raymond had demonstrated in workplace his dedication to his nation, had served it properly, and by no means faltered in his official tasks.” All of which sounded as if he had been addressing an award ceremony, if not a graveside eulogy.
(The previous first appeared within the STAR on Could 4, 2019)
