Every so often the Guardian brings me up short. Today, for example, when “I read the following”:http://education.guardian.co.uk/racism/story/0,10795,1406216,00.html :
bq. Thirty years ago a book by a Grenadian writer about the number of black British children being sent to schools for the educationally subnormal caused outrage in the community. Here author Bernard Coard describes how the ‘ESN book’ came to be written and its relevance to today’s black children.
Now, whilst it is strictly irrelevant to the merits and demerits of his book, it seems to me to be remarkable that the Guardian fails to mention that this is the same “Bernard Coard”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Coard who led a Stalinist coup-d’etat against the Maurice Bishop, charismatic leader of the New Jewel Movement. Bishop and several other people were arrested on Coard’s orders and shot. This gave Ronald Reagan an excuse to invade the island. Coard was subsequently sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment, and Coard is still in gaol. A “Grenadian writer” ….
{ 12 comments }
David Deans 02.05.05 at 4:00 pm
They did mention this in an article published last week’s Educational Guardian. Despite the writer’s relation to various dodgy goings on in Grenada, the points he made in relation to black kids being classed educationally subnormal were entirely valid. Weird though, I’d agree.
Erwan Begoc 02.05.05 at 4:54 pm
hey, it’s The Graudian you know… can’t be too surprised here.
Peter Briffa 02.05.05 at 9:16 pm
Every so often..???
Mill 02.06.05 at 12:44 am
They should have coolly put it in the italicized bio. I’d love to have seen that in print.
_Bernard Coard led a Stalinist coup-d’etat against Maurice Bishop, which gave Ronald Reagan an excuse to invade the island. He is currently serving a life sentence in goal._
Mill 02.06.05 at 12:45 am
They should have coolly put it in the italicized bio. I’d love to have seen that in print.
_Bernard Coard led a Stalinist coup-d’etat against Maurice Bishop, which gave Ronald Reagan an excuse to invade the island. He is currently serving a life sentence in gaol._
(sorry if this turns out to be a double post, I have a sneaking suspicion..)
Mill 02.06.05 at 12:48 am
They should have coolly put it in the italicized bio. I’d love to have seen that in print.
_Bernard Coard led a Stalinist coup-d’etat against Maurice Bishop, which gave Ronald Reagan an excuse to invade the island. He is currently serving a life sentence in gaol._
(sorry if this turns out to be a double post, I have a sneaking suspicion..)
Cryptic Ned 02.06.05 at 3:55 pm
Where’s the triple post apology, mill?
Brett Bellmore 02.06.05 at 5:51 pm
“Excuse“??? Maybe even a “reason”, perchance…
John Isbell 02.06.05 at 7:22 pm
A life sentence in goal is even better.
abb1 02.06.05 at 8:14 pm
Bishop and several other people were arrested on Coard’s orders and shot.
Amnesty International is not as sure as you are. This is from October, 23 2003 article:
Chris Williams 02.07.05 at 3:51 pm
This is another ‘Charlie Brooker moment’. The paper version of the Guardian has context; the web version doesn’t. In the paper, Coard’s (very sensible) article occupied a truncated slot on two columns which are normally devoted to just one article. The rest of the slot gave a bit of context about him – although it didn’t repeat what he is actually inside for, which IIRC is ‘killing Maurice Bishop’. I could be wrong.
Coard’s point that it’s class as well as race that needs to be taken into consideration is worth repeating, whoever makes it.
Anthony 02.10.05 at 10:10 pm
I’d say that Ramsay Clark’s statement that the trial was “illegal, false in its finding of fact and a corruption of justice” creates a strong presumption of exactly the opposite.
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