By Lloyd Noel, Inside Grenada Columnist In the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties, the life and times in the Caribbean were in the process of serious discussions and pending changes – as were the Cases in South America and Africa . The Soviet Union was spreading its wings far and wide, and Fidel Castro in Cuba was the leading light in the Western Hemisphere . And as the situation happened to be unfolding – a fair number of Caribbean students from studying overseas were returning to the region, and needless to say, after some bad experiences in those Countries where they studied, they had developed very different concepts of the way they envisaged our region should be heading. And none more so than in Grenada . Sir Eric Gairy had won the Elections with his GULP in 1972, and his main focus was to obtain Independence from Britain and get out of the Associated Statehood Grenada shared with the other Small Islands . The New Jewel Movement (NJM) formed in 1973, between a group from St. David’s and another from ST. George’s – spearheaded the Opposition to Independence under Gairy and his GULP; and the business Community, the Trade Unions, the School Children, and even Church Leaders soon joined the dissenting voices – especially after the NJM six brutal beatings at Bhola’s Junction in Grenville in Nov ‘73 by Gairy’s Mongoose gang. But despite all the demonstrations, and strikes, and total darkness all over Grenada with no current – the new flag was hoisted and the Independence Constitution came into being on the 7th February, 1974 – with Grenada being the first of the now OECS Islands to attain that status. But the struggle in the Spice Isles did not quell the zeal in the other Islands – to move away from the traditional methods and concepts of Government we had all inherited from our Colonial ties with the mother-land in England . In dealing with the whole question of Justice and peace in a New Caribbean at the time – the Catholic Bishops of the Antilles , of which our own Bishop Sydney Charles was then a member thereof, wrote in a letter after one of their sessions in which they considered the issue of “Socialism and a New Society”. They wrote then. “There are clear signs in our region that an increasing number of Countries are dissatisfied with the type of social and economic structures they have inherited from a Colonial past. Some are engaged in a deliberate attempt to build a new type of socialist society. Others, perhaps less radical, are taking measures to protect themselves against a system whose excesses have given rise to so much inequality and division.” In our little Grenada, in March 1979, we went the full hog when the NJM by force of arms – took over control of the Government and people of Grenada, in the first armed Revolution in the English speaking Caribbean and south America. The Group was fully assisted by Castro and Cuba , and the Regime that came into power was based on the Cuban model – although not totally so. For the next four and a half years, after March 13th 1979, the people of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, went through an experience that many have praised for one thing or another – and just as many, who experienced the ordeal, have denounced as the worst period in our short history. The experiment with socialism, and the absence of the traditional form of Parliamentary democracy – as we were supposed to have adopted it from England with the advent of Independence – these came to an abrupt end on the 19th and the 25th October, 1983, in two very different forms of operation, but both tragically marked with the tools of violence and the outcome of loss of lives. This week – from Monday 19th to Sunday 25th October – marks the twenty-sixth anniversary of those tragic and very eventful days of October, 1983, when our little dot of a nation State was again creating history in the region. And as we go about celebrating our thanksgiving, on the national day of prayer on Sunday25th, and the public holiday on Monday 26th – those who took part in the events of March 13th, 1979, who were accused and later convicted of the atrocities that took place on Fort Rupert on the 19th October, 1983, and were arrested by the invading forces after the 25th October, 1983 – they too can celebrate in freedom street this year, after having been released (the last seven of them) on the 5th of September from Richmond Hill Prison – a few weeks short of Twenty-Six years behind bars. With that level of historical data to look back upon, and the many ups and downs and upheavals that have confronted us as a people over those many years – we should have gained some useful knowledge, and learned from the experiences and the trauma we have had to face and cope with time and time again. But the question begs itself – are there any worthwhile changes we can point to, or look back upon as having been derived from all that we have gone through over the years? And if there are such changes, have we benefitted therefrom, or are we on course to so benefit in the times and development programs that lay ahead? Some people have commented to me, since the coming into power of the NDC Government now in control – that we have the hard core of the NJM/PRG elements within the Corridors of authority, and although they derived their power from the democratic process of Elections by the people, they would still have the tendency to operate and govern with the outlook or mentality of revolutionaries. And a few have even observed – that now the rest of the comrades are back in freedom street, those in the driving seats will have more than enough advisors to satisfy or supply the missing links towards socialism. But in so saying they all have made the very significant further observation – that just as the presence of the very straight-forward, and above-reproach, and dignified personality of the Leader of the NDC, was more than highly instrumental in getting that core group where they are to-day; to the same extent, the Prime Minister to-day holds the Key to where we go from here on into the future, and who does what. So whatever the Ministers now in the driving seats maybe thinking, and however they maybe considering manipulating the system to highlight the dormant ideology of those bygone years – so long as the P.M. maintains the principles he has become associated with, and he firmly and frankly articulate those principles at all times to those around him – then the powers-that-be will remain in tact and in control for an extended period, to help bring our people and Country back to the position of trust and confidence we once enjoyed. And in ensuring that the standards of good governance are enforced at all times - in the interest and welfare of all our people, regardless of anyone’s political likes or dislikes now or in the recent past – the team in control, as a united and firmly focused body of patriots acting for and on behalf of the people, must always remember that in climbing the ladder to the heights of power, the promises made on the way up, if un-fulfilled – will be ever-present to take them back to the bottom. In looking back over those twenty-six years, since we were rescued from the mis-guided experiment that went so very much the wrong way – we cannot and must not forget that we did have the opportunities, during those years of repentance, and re-construction of our core values, and the retracing of our steps to get back to a sound foundation from which to launch our revival, and those we chose to take us there started off very well – but again along the way they went astray, and yet again our cry for change was heard, and now we are back on a different road towards recovery. Like the Israelites of ancient times, we seem in these in-significant spice isles to be always running away from pressure and oppression – in search of peace and a better way of life in the Promised Land. We arrive at some point and feel we have found what we looking for – until after a short or longer period, the picture begins to change in one way or another and we have to start all over again in search of that illusive land. The last period of over thirteen years was the very longest since Independence , and more than half of the years after our Rescue Mission in October, 1983. But here we are again – just over a year into another experiment with a political mixture that is unique in its own way. The Leader of the pack was himself a Detainee that was rescued on the 25th October, 1983, from Richmond Hill Prison – by those U.S. and Caribbean forces, through the generous courtesy of the late President Ronald Reagan at the time, and ably encouraged by the late Dame Eugenia Charles then P.M. of Dominica . And in the pack are some of the Comrades, who were part of the oppressive Regime in those days of Detention without charge or trial – but only on the say so of the Revolutionary Leader, the late Maurice Bishop. When the Revo began to destroy itself on the 19th October, 1983, there were about (113) One Hundred and Thirteen of us in Detention at Richmond Hill and Hope Vale Camp. After the massacre at Fort Rupert when Maurice and others were killed, and many other civilians had to jump off the walls of the Fort to avoid the Armoured Vehicle guns, but died nevertheless from the high jump, a few more persons were added to our number at the prison. Those of us, including the P.M. to-day, who were considered the top security risks were moved from our regular cells into the “Jonestown” underground cells of the Prison. And it was from there the likes of Leslie Pierre, Winston Whyte, Teddy Victor, myself and a few others; and the late Alister Hughes who was brought in on the 19th but kept elsewhere in the prison – were released from the cells on the 25th October, 1983, and later that day we were taken away from the prison by U.S. Forces and had to spend the night with Alister and Cynthia Hughes at their home in St. George’s, because Guns and Bombs were exploding in the city like the Vietnam battle days of the sixties. The other Detainees were rescued the next day, and the people of Grenada who were prisoners in their own homes from the 19th, were also released as the invading Forces took control. As we celebrate, and thank that Supreme Liberator for our freedom from those days of terror and horror – brought about by our very own Kith and Kin – we have to search our own thoughts and consciences to find the answers for the questions we are now facing. If we fail in that search – we could very well find our people on the move again in the not too distant future.