Thursday, November 10, 2011

Letter: Dr Rowley boards a Ghost ship

In his Budget Response 0n October 15, Opposition Leader, Dr. Keith Rowley, attempted to heap scorn on the government’s decision to re-name the former Hilton Hotel, the Magdalena Grand Beach Resort.

To support his 'argument', Dr. Rowley said that his “recollection of the ‘Magdalena’ is that it was an old stinky vessel riddled with rust and infected with huge bed bugs… we had to sun our grips to try and eliminate the bugs to prevent them from getting into our homes.”

Dr. Rowley has a good bedbug memory since in the late 1950s Trinidad was infested with bedbugs.

They were everywhere. They even went to church where children spent their time following bed bugs that roamed on ladies’ hats and the clothes of parishioners including those of the children themselves. So it was Trinidad that was ‘stinky’ – good reason for secession?

Naturally, those travelling between Trinidad and Tobago took along many bed bugs and had to sun their belongings and dump their clothes in disinfected water to keep the bedbugs out of their homes.

But Dr. Rowley boarded a ghost ship. 


He claimed to have travelled on the “Magdalena when he was what? About 8 years old? 

But there was no such vessel. 

It was the Madinina that sailed between our two islands at the time. The Madinina travelled between Port of Spain and Scarborough on weekends only since she had a regular service between Trinidad and Grenada.

Dr. Rowley went further to say “I would have much preferred the refurbished hotel to be called the Blue Star.” 

Perhaps he may wish to revisit his preference since the Blue Star was unreliable and had to be pulled out of service after it ran aground in no time.

Constance McTair | Bacolet, Tobago

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Jai & Sero

Jai & Sero

Our family at home in Toronto 2008

Our family at home in Toronto 2008
Amit, Heather, Fuzz, Aj, Jiv, Shiva, Rampa, Sero, Jai