Nothing had prepared me for the state of Caribbean New Yorkers after 11 September. I had been visiting Trinidad for a conference and, at that same time, thousands were trying to return after the Labor Day celebrations in Brooklyn.
Over the past 30 years, migration from Trinidad to the US has multiplied hugely. About seven or eight islanders died in the twin towers incident. And, after the explosion, many Trinidadians decided to return home. They were teetering on the edge of the hysterical.
They had migrated from a tiny island to the greatest power on earth. They had done well, moving from green-card carriers to full citizens, and had attended special education courses in order to qualify for citizenship. For them, it was a huge reward for their hard work and social obedience. All this came crashing down with the fall of the twin towers.
Take my old friend Emerald, who had left for America in 1970. He had done well in New York, working at a bank in Manhattan. I had previously known him as quiet, cool and assured. He took the first flight to Trinidad after 11 September. When he returned, he spoke several decibels above the ordinary. He went to the beach every day, and would spend two or three minutes there before rushing back to the city. Any talk about politics set him screaming. I made an appointment for him to see a psychiatrist and he threatened to kill me.
There is another dimension to the fallout in Trinidad and Tobago. More than in any other Caribbean country, Islam has penetrated the black population. Indian indentured serfs, so much a part of post-slavery plantation labour, brought Islam to the island. After the rise of the oil economy and the emergence of Opec in 1974, black people in the Caribbean got the Islamic bug. In 1990, under the leadership of Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, a group seized parliament and the television and radio stations, and declared a new government. It is generally well known that some of the insurgents were trained in Libya and financed from there. They fled after days of battle with the army. Eventually, they were granted an amnesty. They have since recruited heavily from among the young unemployed.
While I was in Trinidad, the imam, who had supported the US hijackers, was stopped and questioned at Heathrow on his way to Libya. There exists a splinter group that opposes the imam. Whispers of violent retaliation flow thick and fast.
There certainly exists a completely new faction, influenced by the Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia. They claim a connection with Osama Bin Laden. They have declared all who live in the US as infidels, and therefore fair game. So on that tiny island lie all the elements in the saga of Islamic terrorism. But I am certain that there are hundreds more Trinidadians serving in the American forces who are ready and willing to lay waste to the Taliban.
