The Independent November 15 2017 Independent November 15 2017 | Page 4

4 The Independent. the Diaspora’s Multicultural Voice November 15 2017 Our View Editorial The real terrorists We believe the right to life supersedes all others. For some reason, though, American senators and congressmen, led by President Donald Trump, seem to think otherwise. Apparently the right to bear arms is more important. Why else would they continue to look the other way when, time after time, gunmen open fire on innocents, killing hundreds each year? Surely, in the land of the free and home of the brave, people have a right to worship at a church of their choice, or attend a concert, or walk the streets, or attend school, without facing death. Those rights, according to the gun lobby in the USA, are not as important as the rights granted by the constitution’s Second Amend- ment: the right to bear arms. Of course it does not hurt the gun lobby to have American legis- lators in their pockets, including the President. This is why in spite of screaming evidence to the contrary, they (the legislators) keep blaming everything but the easy access to guns for the gun rampages that occur in the United States more frequently than any other de- veloped country in the world. Oddly, this is the same country and the same President that are quick to brand anyone who is neither white nor home grown who carry out such atrocious acts as “terrorists”, but find other labels to pin onto the aggressors who do not fit the “racial Muslim” stereotype – such as “mentally disturbed”, according to Trump. But who really are the terrorists in America? The man who mows down six pedestrians with a vehicle in New York City, or one who kills 26 in a church in Texas, and the one who decided that there were more than 50 people who didn’t deserve to live as they watched a concert in Las Vegas? To us they are all the same. But the real terrorists in America are the ones who continue to turn a blind eye to the gun massacre of in- nocents without taking any action to control the access to guns; as well as the pro-gun lobby that fights for this right. They are terrorists because they do not value the sacred right to life, and do nothing to protect it. It’s time the American people stop supporting the terrorists in their midst, and stand up instead for the right of every man, woman and child to live their life. And the only way to do it is though the ballot. E-mail: [email protected] 416-278-9302 The Independent is a digital bi-weekly newspaper for the intelligent reader and is designed to serve minority immi- grants in the Diaspora on the basis of commonality of ex- periences and needs. Writers/Photographers: Herman Silochan, Dr Susan Gosine-Herrera (NY), Rajesh Ragbir, N.D. Robert Ranjitsingh, Tony Deyal, Raynier Maharaj The Independent prefers to be contacted via email. Please send all communications to the email address listed above. The Independent is a proud supporter of Looking at alternative climate approaches by Matt McGrath President Trump's special adviser on cli- mate says that the US is seeking ways of con- tinuing to be part of international climate discussions. George David Banks said the US was considering reviving the Major Economies Meeting (MEM). The Bush-era forum allowed the US to remain in climate discussions even when outside the formal process. The leaders of France and Germany will address the talks today amid concern over slow progress in cutting carbon. The group first met in September 2007 and featured delegations from the US, China, the EU, the UK and other countries with high levels of carbon emissions. At the time the US was outside the for- mal UN climate negotiating process, having signed but not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which limited the emissions of richer nations only. When President Obama came into office, the MEM became the M ajor Emitters Forum, which helped shape the approach of larger economies in the run up to the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009. The forum continued, in a much-re- duced form until 2015. Now, President Trump's key climate change adviser thinks it might be a way for- ward for discussions. Diamonds are forever www.tccfangels.com Dorothy Parker tells me of the last time she en- countered Playwright Clare Boothe. The two ladies were trying to get out of a doorway at the same time. Clare drew back and cracked, “Age before beauty, Miss Parker.” As Dotty swept out, she turned to the other guests and said. “Pearls before swine.” This massive putdown by the famous Ms. Parker, poet, writer, wit and wise-cracker par excellence was re- ported by celebrity gossip columnist, Sheilah Gra- ham, on October 14, 1938 in the Hartford Courant newspaper. Ms. Parker was famous for her scathing put-downs and comments like, “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.” Not for her the banality of telling someone “Go to hell”, she did it her way. When she was offended by the amount of money a producer offered her to write a script she remarked, “You can’t take it with you, and even if you did, it would probably melt.” When jilted by someone she cared for deeply, she still bravely quipped, “It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.” Mae West was called the “vamp of the high camp” and known as someone capable of finding a double meaning in every situation. In one of her stage acts, she was told, “Ten men are waiting to meet you at home.” Her response? “I’m tired. Send one of them home.” The “straight” comedian setting up the joke said sympathetically, “You must be good and tired,” and Ms. West replied, “No, just tired.” In the movie, “Night After Night”, the young lady in the coatroom gushes over Ms. West’s jewellery, “Good- ness, what lovely diamonds.” The reply was, “Good- ness had nothing to do with it.” When Mae West played “Catherine the Great” on stage, Field Marshal Potemkin brought her news of war with the Turks and she responded with a variation of her famous tag-line (Come up and see me sometime) by saying, “Come up to the royal suite later tonight- and let’s talk Turkey.” If we are bent on talking turkey even though it is still five days before US Thanksgiving, what I would like is to give thanks to the witty women of a comedic bent who are not as well known or respected as the male quipsters. Jilly Cooper, the British journalist and novelist, put together an anthology in 1980 of women’s writings and sayings with Tom Hartman. In her introduction, Ms. Cooper made the telling point, “Some time ago it occurred to us that in most anthologies and dictionaries of quotations the con- tributors have been at least ninety per cent male.” While agreeing that men dominate art and music, her view was that literature is different and it is unfair that anthologies of prose and poetry should be so male-dominated. This is the background to “Violets and Vinegar”, a book which I love dearly, tattered and torn though it is, and which remained forlorn in boxes and shelves over the past twenty-five years as I moved for pillar to posting, from Boston and Wash- ington to Barbados, Trinidad and then Belize, on to Antigua and back to Trinidad. I thought of the book when someone opened the door at an eating-place for me and remarked, “Age before beauty”. “Pearls before swine” came quickly to my head but not my lips. Ms. Parker could do it, SUBSCRIBE it’s FREE to your smart device "We are looking into the possibility of having a major economies meeting, it is being discussed," he told reporters on the sidelines of this meeting in the former Ger- man capital. "The only way you are going to have a rational discussion about climate mitigation and policy in general is if you bring in the economic and energy advisers, you are not going to have kind of conversation as long as it dominated by environment ministries." Mr Banks described the annual UN led talks here as an "echo chamber". However, the idea of reviving the Bush- era approach to tackling climate change was given short shrift by some observers here. "This notion of creating a new institution is just a dodge by the Trump clique because they are not on pace to reduce emissions," said Paul Bledsoe, from the American Uni- versity in Washington and a former Clinton White House climate adviser. "I think almost every country in the world has had enough of Donald Trump's obfuscations particularly on climate change, I don't think they are going to be fooled." High-level segment Senior ministers from dozens of coun- tries are arriving in Bonn for the high level segment of this meeting. They will hear from UN Secretary Gen- eral Antonio Guterres who will be attending his first Conference of the Parties. Mr Guterres will tell the meeting that a but not me. I muttered an unfelt “Thanks” and went inside wishing I had the combination of strength and boldness, violets and vinegar, to say what I wanted instead of meekly surrendering to my fear of offend- ing. Women have absolutely no such restriction. For example, Imogene Fey made me rethink the close re- semblance of my children to me when she observed, “A man finds out what is meant by a spitting image when he tries to feed cereal to his infant.” Fran Lebowitz, an American author and public speaker, who is more sardonic than snide, on the same subject of children, said in her inimitable style, “Children sleep either alone or with small toy animals. The wis- dom of such behaviour is unquestionable, as it frees them from the immeasurable tedium of being privy to the whispered confessions of others. I have yet to come across a teddy bear who was harbouring the se- cret desire to wear a maid’s uniform.” Whether Dorothy Parker or Mae West, Ms. Cooper herself or Fran Lebowitz, what women hu- mourists have that men can only aspire to is style. They have style to burn and often their victims are not just charred but immolated. Eliza Savage dis- played the aptness of her surname when she uttered the vain hope, “I saw Mr. Gladstone in the street last night. I waited and waited but no cab ran him over.” Diane de Poitiers, French noblewoman and courtier, as early as the Sixteenth Century observed, “The years that a woman subtracts from her age are not lost. They are added to the ages of other women.” One of Queen Mary’s courtiers, Margaret Greville, admitted with a delicious pun, “You mustn’t think I the Diaspora’s Multicultural Voice broader coalition is needed if the tempera- ture targets agreed in Paris are to be met. His climate adviser told reporters that the UN was also looking to the future, and a new generation of political leaders, perhaps including a new occupant in the White House. "By 2020 when those national decisions are being made, the group of leaders who will be making those decisions are almost en- tirely different to the leaders who agreed to the Paris agreement in 2015," Robert Orr said. "The Secretary General is very conscious of that, we need to renew and rebuild the coalition of leaders day by day with all the new leaders." Ministers from richer countries are likely get a cool reception at the high level segment of this meeting from developing countries. They are angry about the lack of carbon cut- ting action being taken by the developed world in the years before the Paris agreement comes into force in 2020. "They are shirking their responsibilities," said Mohamed Adow from Christian Aid. "They are postponing actions to post 2020 and that won't actually help deliver the kind of actions and ambitions that are needed." Matt McGrath is the Environment Corre- spondent for the BBC dislike Lady Cu- nard. I’m always telling Queen Mary that she isn’t half as bad as she’s painted.” Even though the Tony Deyal Queen dearly loved her sister Margaret, she too sometimes shows the fire beneath the ice. Speaking about Princess Margaret’s children, Her Majesty made it quite clear, “They are not royal. They just happen to have me as their aunt.” I know that while I included Imogene Fey, I did not quote anything from Tina Fey, and I have stuck with the women of a previous generation or two (or even three or more). It is not that modern women cannot be as biting, as funny or as compassionate as their predecessors, it is the combination of style, sub- stance and subtlety that women writers and hu- mourists of the past seemed to possess. The much-married Zsa Zsa Gabor was both witty and wise when she stated flatly, “I never hated a man enough to give him back his diamonds.” Obviously you can cast your pearls before swine but diamonds are forever. Tony Deyal was last seen quoting from Margaret Halsey’s “Malice Towards Some”, “Englishwomen’s shoes look as if they had been made by someone who had often heard shoes described but had never seen any.” E-mail “subscribe” to [email protected] Join the 50,000 people who get The Independent each issue