On­ly a few days ago, we cel­e­brat­ed the Hin­du re­li­gious fes­ti­val of light. And in a few weeks, we will again en­ter an­oth­er re­li­gious sea­son (Ad­vent) for the com­ing of light in­to a world of dark­ness. Some may have the ten­den­cy to look at places and peo­ples out­side the west­ern world and the non-Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty as the man­i­fes­ta­tions of dark­ness. Un­for­tu- nate­ly, many have done this with places like Africa and to some ex­tent In­dia, and even to­day, Haiti. There is the ten­den­cy to al­ways go out­side one­self and see dark­ness in the oth­er. Thus we are all in­vit­ed to as­sess and ex­am­ine our­selves and in the process "throw light" in­to our be­ings to see whether or not there is dark­ness with­in.

"Dark­ness," I sug­gest, is a way of think­ing, re­spond­ing or act­ing that de­feats peace, eq­ui­ty and true com­mu­ni­ty in any na­tion. Many in T&T are con­vinced that dark­ness is most ev­i­dent in our midst in al­leged racism and trib­al­ism. Our pre­vi­ous gov­ern­ment, led by an Afro-Trinida­di­an, has been ac­cused of "tak­ing care of its own," with a schol­ar­ship fund be­ing one of the en­try points for proof of the dark­ness. Some peo­ple be­lieve that the present Gov­ern­ment, led by an In­do-Trinida­di­an, has en­gaged the process of "In­di­an­i­sa­tion" in T&T with per­ceived ef­forts to pro­mote trib­al­ism. These may be some of the ar­eas where racist ten­den­cy may be show­ing its ug­ly head.

Thus we talk about dark­ness as pos­si­bly man­i­fest­ing it­self in T&T through racism and trib­al­ism. And cer­tain­ly, some are of the opin­ion that his­tor­i­cal­ly there has been in­equity and in­equal­i­ty due to which race held or holds po­lit­i­cal pow­er. If this is so, there should be an in­tel­li­gent and wise re­sponse lest we con­tin­ue to per­pet­u­ate this vi­cious cy­cle of dark­ness. The ma­jor re­li­gions of the world al­lude to an ac­cept­able moral and eth­i­cal be­hav­iour which we can con­clude can be­come part of our cul­ture through a care­ful­ly planned "val­ues ed­u­ca­tion" en­gage­ment. Thus it is im­por­tant to be­lieve that hu­man­i­ty has one di­vine source. And if each life is sup­posed to have pur­pose, as re­gards cre­at­ing a bet­ter world com­mu­ni­ty, we should look to each oth­er with a sense of equal­ness.

The idea of one group of peo­ple be­ing "cho­sen" is no longer ac­cept­able. In ad­di­tion, and as oth­ers have sug­gest­ed, pro­mot­ing an ac­cept­able val­ues sys­tem (in a com­mu­ni­ty blessed with dif­fer­ences) nec­es­sar­i­ly be­gins with uni­ver­sal prin­ci­ples to guide and de­ter­mine the way we live. And, through­out the ages, re­li­gions, which can play an im­por­tant part in our to­tal de­vel­op­ment, have giv­en us an en­try point for a uni­ver­sal prin­ci­ple in slight­ly dif­fer­ent ways. In Hin­duism we would read: "This is the sum of all right­eous­ness. Do noth­ing to your neigh­bour which you would not have him do to you af­ter."

In Chris­tian­i­ty The Gold­en Rule as a uni­ver­sal prin­ci­ple states: "What­ev­er you wish that men would do to you, do so to them for this is the law of the prophets." And in Is­lam it is stat­ed: "No one of you is a be­liev­er un­til he de­sires for his broth­er that which he de­sires for him­self." As we con­tin­ue to cel­e­brate the "burst of light" in­to hu­man af­fairs, shouldn't we in all hon­esty ask the ques­tions: "Am I a racist? Am I the one har­bour­ing dark­ness and re­sist­ing the di­vine light?" The light that is say­ing to­day, "We be­long to one race, the hu­man race."

Rev­erend Elvis Elahie

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