Winnie Mandele - A life of struggle, a tribute

Winnie Mandela was the leader of the international feminist movement. Her white sisters will not say it, but when they saw the strength of Winnie they became infatuated with it. They were so amazed they wanted to emulate her.

Fortunately, Winnie Mandela did not engaged in open rebellion against her husband, the principle on which modern day feminism was started on; however and contrary, she fought side by side with her husband, for the liberation of a people. She showed the world by her actions that a women's voice is just as important, just as loud and just as powerful as her male counterparts in the struggle. At the time she did not know it, but to the world at that era she being a woman her arrest and beatings was seen as a travesty against common decency. Her arrest was just as important as the men arrest were, in some case in that era, it may have been even more important than the arrest of men. For Winnie being a female; she was responsible for invoking more sympathy and compassion form the outside world than the abuse of the men in the struggle did. 

Winnie Mandela make the world ashamed; when they see that the Apartheid system, was so wicked that a dignified, educated woman had to put down her grace and become a ruffian clench her teeth and endure the abuses of a system that though it nothing to abuse women and children and hid their abuses. She took the abuse like everyone else; today we watch some of her clip that make it out of South. 

However once out of South Africa, there was no guarantee that a news producer will see the value in that clip and therefore expose to the world the evil that resides/hides behind the Lilly white smile of the wicked system of apartheid. A system that was responsible for the oppression of the majority black population in that country. 

A system Winnie Mandela spent the grater part of her life, alongside her husband, with a hammer in hand; pounding away at it. Like a strongly built wall the constant pounding seems hopeless, but they continue to hammer away each day, ignoring the lack of change in the structure they pound, ignoring the exhaustion that hopelessness brings; they pound, ignoring abuse from a government who was to rich and well organized to fall they kept pounding. Although tired, discouraged and broken they kept pounding away; until the system begin to crack give way under the constant pounding. It was the tears of the Innocent and the blood of the just that flow at the hand of the wicked that erode its foundation and saw the infallible fell. 

Winnie Mandela was there to see it. Her tears was not shed in vain, her efforts was rewarded by the fact that another generation will not have to spent their life changing a system that she could have change and was to afraid to act. She acted and she changes the system, and now she rest knowing that she was one of the people who pound at the indestructible system and she saw it fall. 

Not even the fall of the evil apartheid system, was enough to heal the pain, to restore the lost, to mend the wounds and to restore the traumatized. for the damage have already been done. But more than the destructiveness that apartheid cause, we must not fail to see the positive side of the struggle against evil. Characters have been cemented, strength have been gain and a new breath of people have been born. A breath of people who have learn what it is like and how to fight for justice, and Winnie Mandela was one of their teachers.

Winnie Mandela's work, her contribution can not be measured, a value can not be place on her efforts and neither can her contribution can be compared with or to anyone else's. for Winnie Mandela give her all to the struggle and she fought on the side of right against evil. She did it all, not just to make south Africa a better place, but to make the world a better place, a place where equal rights and Justice will always prevailed regardless of; a place where we are put to shame, if we as a community, or a people, ever sit back and helplessly or with harden heart watch the exploitation and or the oppression of even one person.  I proudly look to the future and I say: God bless and long live the memory of Winnie Mandela.

My brother, my sister, my mother, my father!

The truth is my brother. 

I have no brother but the truth, for the truth stands alone.

The truth has no friend, no acquaintance and knows no controversy;

it cannot be, tarnished, replaced, and neither can it be discredited.

The truth is what it is: it is simply the truth.

It is the truth that convicts the guilty and acquits the innocent;

It is the truth that shames kings, cause the humble to rejoice

And lends clarity to the confusion of life’s mysteries.

The truth stands alone and tall among cheap imitation of its self: lies.

The truth points the earnest seeker to freedom and abundant life,

Although the truth is hated it is of the most value,

Even though it is rejected, the truth cannot be abandon,

The truth is a light that illuminates the darkness and unveil mysteries.

I have no sister but Justice

I have no sister but Justice, for justice is blinded by her lofty ideals, 

and is consumed by her never ending task;

She does not see as men does, but she is guided by her calling.

She stands ignorant to the divisions and prejudice that society holds dear,

Justice concerns not herself with right or wrong, wins and lost,

But only if the act was justified within the context in which she adjudicates.

She knows no fear, has no sympathy, experience no love, harbors no hate and experiences no lost,

She has no relations or similarity to the system, that fraudulently bears her name.

She has perfected and with skill practices the art of dispensing awards: consequence.

She awards righteousness with rewards and gives punishments for transgressions.

Karma is her only tool; Karma is perfect in vigilance nothing escapes her view,

Or break hold of her grasp; Karma exist only to ensure that Justice is done. For justice will and must be done.

I have no mother but Righteousness!

I have no mother but righteousness, for she fearlessly walks the path of her heart.

No condition she applies but to uphold truth and justice, the seeds she nurtured.

Right doing are the pillar of her teaching, the code that governs her daily practice;

They are the foundation upon which she stands, flourishes, blooms and prospers.

She is never worried, controlled and or intimidated by hindsight, 

Her vision is fixed. As she make the future her present, which is all that matters.

Good morals, strong ethics, wholesome values, unconditional love, truth and justice;

Daily rise up and receives her feet, for she refuses to thread outside the scope of her confines.

In her righteousness is perfected but not in herself, nor is it perfected for herself.

Her opposition makes an enemy of her, but when confronted fizzles and become obsolete;

For mother righteousness stand unafraid, unblemished, uncorrupted and untarnished.

She stands alone but never lonely; and without care she stands contented.

I have no father but the Most High.

I have no father like the Most High, for he created all things;

The Most High personifies: Truth, Justice, righteousness and love.

In him his family stands perfected, it is him who ordained and perfected them.

He is the base on which his family is grounded, rooted and firmly secured.

He is all, creates all, sustains all, but controls none, a choice only for the strong.

He promotes free will and desires the no oblation, but humility,

Wants no followers but the willing, and demand no gift but virtue;

He has all power, but uses the power of his love over a magnitude of force;

His will is fixed, his actions righteous, his judgment just, his love is pure and he is eternal.

I am love

My name is love, not to be confused by that which is my imposer: lust.

I am what everyone desire, but fail to develop this precious virtue.

I am not a feeling, and neither am I an emotion, but I am a conscious commitment.

A commitment to forever be constant; when it is impossible to love you I do. 

I am committed to make better than you are, I am committed to give myself unconditionally. 

A commitment that is translated into a feelings that you special in every way, 

A commitment that make you feel cherished; a commitment that to puts upon you;

a valued that is far beyond your worth, you are and or deserved

I dwell in simplicity, not as complex as truth, Justice, and righteousness.

I am the language that everyone understands and could speak fluently, 

I am my father’s pride, my mother’s joy, and everyone best friend. 

The destruction of the Windward Island Banana - the culprit and the solution

The question no one took the time to address and find answer for is: how was the Windward Island banana industry destroyed? In order for the people of the Windward Island, to properly find the best means of reviving the Banana Industry; we must first look beyond the obvious and find out how was our banana industry destroyed. This is not a task for just anyone but in order to get meaningful answers, one must be wise and examined even those possible that most have over looked.

The only reason why the Windward Island Banana industry cannot get back on its feet is because the real reason for its destruction has not yet been discovered. Because of this the government of the Windward Islands has been trying without success to revive the banana industry. Their efforts have resulted in a waste of scares resources with no return.

I will deal with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines situation and then apply it to the entire Windward Islands. This is so for the simple fact that the umbrella bodies the Windward Island Farming and Banana Growers Associations that manages and coordinates activities between the various islands National Banana Association tries to regulate the industry among the four small island what comprised the Windward Islands. Their efforts is to try to standardize the islands ability to produce the best quality fruit and the sustainable farming operation.

For almost sixty years the Windward Islands have been practicing sustainable banana farming, which was good practice based on the market we were asked to supply: This market was the UK market. We were involved in Sucker farming which entailed that a field was replanted in a systematic manner, without affecting the quality and the quantity of fruits the farm produced. As a result the farmers were able to supply the UK with the needed supply of bananas consistently each week for the passes 60 plus years.

In the 1990s the James Michelle Administration give an ardent Banana framer by the name of Mr. Hadley, the permission to revolutionized the way we farmed bananas in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Apparently Mr. Hadley went to a Banana related conference in South America and there he was introduced to a new method of cultivating bananas, which was being used in South America Banana Farmers. This method was "Tissue Culture Banana Farming." Tissue Culture farming is a process where a particular banana plant was clone and using that one plant the scientists using the cloning procedures, mass produce thousands of Banana tissue plant cultures.




What were the benefits that were to be derived from Tissue Cultured Banana Farming?

1. The. Plants mature faster than in the old method.

2. The trees matured together.

3. The fruits matured together.

4. The cultured baby plants were cheap. But they were not free.

No one think to consider the down side to this new method, because anything that is new must be good. And all of the available research on the subject looked at the upside to this method.

However, there were some negatives to this method of farming that the technocrats failed to consider. The most important of those are, the vulnerability of the Tissue cultured plants to everyday agricultural diseases. The powers that be, took our old banana plants and their new suckers from those plants for granted; but they had some things that the new Tissue Cultured plans did not have, a high resistance to agricultural diseases.



During the course of the sixty years of Banana farming, the farmers have seen their fair share of agricultural diseases. As a result many trees were destroyed in order to preserve the banana industry. It is only those trees that survived the many attacks made it. It was there offspring that kept the industry from callapsing over the years. Each banana sucker, banana tree and the fruit, that grow in the Windward Islands were unique, apart from being a superior product to those that were produced in South America and elsewhere, the bananas plant that were grown by the Windward Islands and Jamaica farmers had a very high resistance to Agricultural disease that was second to none. This was so because the suckers inherited the robust immunity from sixty years of struggle and surviving all manner of diseases from their parent plant. It was only the strong plants that survived to that point.

Unfortunately, the replacement for these strong suckers, with entirely new plants that literally had no immunity whatsoever; was a big mistake. It is important to note that these plants (Tissue Cultured plants) were not designed or meant to develop an immunity, because unlike the old plant that reproduced it-self via suckers, the Tissue Cultured plants could not, cannot and are incapable of reproducing itself. And therefore cannot pass on the heredity of a sturdy immunity to the next generation of plants.

It will be important to note, the agricultural disease that was responsible for destroying the Banana Industry in the Windward Island; were the Moko disease and the Black Sigatoka which is also called leave spot or Yellow Spot. It is interesting that the Windward Island has experience Moko disease which is cause by a bacteria and Leave spot which is cause by a fungus in the past. We in the Windward Island have had several bout with Moko in the pass and our bananas overcame those diseases with little help from the farmers and as recent as in the 1990s, we had a bout with Black Sigcatoka AKA Yellow Spot or Leave Spot which out banana plants also over came with some help from the farmers.

Therefore, the only reason why out Banana industry was devastated by these two disease is because the Tissue Cultured plants, we had so foolishly converted to; are literally new plants that do not have any immunity to disease like the old plants that derived from a sucker had acquired from their parents. Unlike the the Tissue Cultured plants, the suckers were not entirely new plants; and because of this, they had inherited their strong immunity from the parent plant from whom or which they shoot.

This whole saga that led to the destruction of the Windward Island Bananas, was not by accident or by chance. but it was a well thought out plans, by those who wanted that which we had and took for granted: The UK market. While we thought that our market will always be there, there were others who fixed their sight on the UK market, on which for many decades, we had the monopoly. And this was so because of our recent colony status; we were given preferential treatment which we maintained even after we became independent.



However, the American owned, South American based and operated Banana companies had their greedy eyes on the UK market and wanted that market for themselves, but first they had to make inroads into that market. It mattered not that they: Dole and Chiquita had the US Market on lock down and was not going to allow any other outside company into that market. They wanted to monopolize the UK also.

Hence they lobby the US government to put the pressure on the UK government to remove the preferential treatment that took away outside competition to the UK banana market that we have been enjoying for many decades.

Even after the preferential treatment was remove, those companies could not make the type of inroads into the market they had imagined they would have, because the Windward Island had a better quality and better testing fruit than they were able to grow, and we had sustainable agriculture, which ensure that our high quality and delicious fruit was on the shelves of the supermarkets and other outlets in the UK; not giving the UK customer the opportunity to grow accustom to the competition poor quality and poor tasting fruits.

The only way the American own banana companies, could have make inroads into the UK market; was to secure the destruction of our industry all together. And that was exactly what they did; using biological warfare against the Windward Island banana farmers. In order for their plans to work, they had to get us, (the Windward Island and Jamaica) to convert to Tissue Culture Banana Farming. It is only then that the old agricultural disease can wipe out our industry completely; because those plants (Tissue Cultured plants) could not resist and over come the common banana diseases in the same manner the suckers did.

 When we (the Windward Islands and Jamaica) traded our old system of Banana farming for Tissue Culture Bananas, we did several things that reduced our ability to hold on to our UK market and customers.

1. We exchange the high quality fruit for a poor quality fruit.

2. We exchanged a superior tasting fruit and we acquired a fruit that tasted like every other fruit.

3. We traded a strong high immunity plant for a plant with no immunity to agricultural diseases.

4. We changed the health class of our banana from partially organic to inorganic

With one silly thought and one foolish decision, we literally took away the four advantages we had in the banana war. We went to the same low quality that the competition offered. Where the quality of the fruits was concerned, we were now on the same level with our competition. We lost the four advantages we had over our competition. So the UK customers no longer have a choice because our decision. The Windward Island and Jamaica are the ones who took away the customer's choice. Now it was just bananas with different brands; there is no meaningful distinguishing feature. Will the UK customer care who provides the fruits of the same quality, fruits that tastes the same? The answer to this question is resounding no!

When the Windward Islands and Jamaica introduce to Tissue Culture Banana Farming, this was the work of the South American who had no choice but to get involved in Tissue cultured Banana Farming. Because they were playing catch up and needed the fastest method to available to compete with the Windward banana who had a well-oiled machinery in our sustainable banana farming and the best fruit available in the world. So the Windward Island actually played into the hands of Dole and Chiquita, who in turn launched an attack on our banana and cause the total destruction of the industry we took for granted. 

We have been trying for the past nine years to get our banana farms back on track without the slightest success. And this is because the Windward Island Banana associations the local associations and the technocrats within the agriculture business had not fully understood what was responsible for the destruction of our bananas. And therefore are unable to solve the looming problems that still exist today.



In the St. Vincent and the Grenadines situation, the Government as well as Mr. Hadley is still trying to revive the Banana industry, with the use of Tissue cultures plants. Unfortunately for this, the fungi and the bacteria of the Leave spot and the Moko respectively are still alive and is in the soil. Therefore, each time the new Tissue cultured plants, are place in the soil the plants became infected before they can mature, this renders the plants no good. It is like spinning ones tap in the mud: a total waste of precious time.

The only practical solution to solved this problem is to source the suckers from the old Banana plants which have been rejected and begin the replanting process with those plants. This will give the farmers a good start, because these suckers have a greater opportunity of surviving because they have a strong immunity and will be better able to overcome the struggle and win the battle against the Moko and the leave spot, because they had in the pass and they are more likely to at this stage.

The tissue culture plant stands no change. Please see my video on the subject on Facebook and YouTube.