Comments for THE PM & HRH @ CHOGM at http://bcraw.com , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://bcraw.com Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:00:14 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://bcraw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=504:the-pm-a-hrh-chogm&catid=6:tgif&Itemid=8#comment-720 Shades of Monty Python and the Mighty Spoiler in that exchange there, BC. You can write either a great calyspo or a classic west indian tale a la Naipaul based on such a conversation, so if it pleases you, kindly write on! - uninspired Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:48:02 +0100 http://bcraw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=504:the-pm-a-hrh-chogm&catid=6:tgif&Itemid=8#comment-712 Pardon me for being so slow on the take here. This comment perhaps would be more in place in response to last week's TGIF piece. I've been lightly ruminating on the utility of the slave analogy. I suspect it's not as useful as it might seem - perhaps even very misleading. The problem is that in Trinidad, the descendants of slaves are very much in charge (at least officially) - not counting the descendants of the native peoples who were also enslaved. I think in the minds of too many this might very well create problems of interpretation when mention is made of house slaves and field slaves. Truth is, the analogy is not very useful because the mindset that you're attempting to put the spotlight on has expression in every culture and society and is still very much in existence wherever you care to look. The field slave, for example, would seem to have very many traits in common with the redneck. The house slave, on the other hand, would seem to share much in common with the middle class - more specifically, those bits of the middle class with the most to lose. That would be those who've scraped up to middle class and are an emergency or 2 away from being lower class again as well as those who are within spitting distance or maybe "hand-shaking distance" (would be more appropriate) - or so they reckon!- of being upper class. And these categories are color- and race-less. Of course, many of the upper class or maybe "moneyed' would be more appropriate(?) also have what might be labeled "slave mentalities" (hope no one quotes Brother Bob here - you'd hear me scream all the way over in Bim!). While elements of the field and house slave analogy are very visceral and so useful in eliciting a response from readers, I think it might be a mistake to rely on it too heavily - to love it too much. - DeBigBri Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:19:41 +0100 http://bcraw.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=504:the-pm-a-hrh-chogm&catid=6:tgif&Itemid=8#comment-707 ...'eyes,' between the 'pees' and 'emmz'??;D;D;D;D - Bacon Sempteentwothow Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:33:06 +0100