Newsletter for
alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Caracas, 27 of January 2018 No. 847
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Dear Friends,
I am including an
article by Marc de Verteuil. His
short essay is interesting as it torches ideas and presents himself as a
promising author, like Brian Goddard, remember him?
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My name is Marc de Verteuil and I’m working to establish a sanctuary giving
sharks 100 per cent protection from fishing, consumption and trade.
Whenever somebody addresses me as “Mark”, if feels as if they are
addressing somebody else. The "c" in Marc throws back to my French
Creole ancestry. I think it is important to have historical markers.
I live in Goodwood Park. My parents got a divorce when I was
seven, and I moved to the Netherlands with my mother and sister, Genevieve. I
never adapted to feeling Dutch and moved back to Trinidad when I was 25. My
home has always been here.
I remember saying goodbye to my best friend. I made an excuse of
having a headache and went home. I often avoid awkward situations and
conversations. I did it at seven, I do it at 41.
I’m undecided about having a family of my own. I’m still single
at age 41, and I don’t know that will change anytime soon. My sister has three
children, Sebastian, Jordan and Zoe. I don’t think I could love my own children
any more than I love them. The world population is surging towards 9. 6 billion
people by 2050. So, aside from being single, I also struggle with the morality
of putting more children on this planet.
My grandfather on my father’s side became my surrogate father.
Both my parents are alive. Both my parents are alive. But I “lost” my dad to
mental illness a long time ago. He’s severely schizophrenic. My father saw his
whole life fall apart. He lives with that pain and the bewilderment of his
disease everyday. He misses his family. He is shunned by most people. The pain
is unimaginable. When something like that happens in a family, it’s like
throwing a bomb in a crowded room: everybody gets hurt. My grandfather had to
see his son deteriorate. My mother saw the man she loved change in to something
she could not understand, or live with. Her nurturing home was destroyed. My
sister saw her parents, home and life torn apart. My dad was my best friend. I
don't think anybody will ever fully recover.
My father lives in an old people's home, where the staff take
fantastic care of him. I wish he could live with me, but he needs constant
care. Sometimes I feel I have failed as a son. Just thinking about it, I get
tears in my eyes. But that is part of the trauma. And it is not all bad. My
sister's kids cuddle him, accepting Grandpa and loving him for who he is. So I
know there is still something good about his life.
My mother's background is Protestant, my father comes from a
Catholic family, so to avoid offending either side of the family I was never
baptized. My Catholic grandfather thought no good could come from this, so he
later admitted to secretly giving me a layman's baptism.
I'm an atheist. I have read most of the Bible and some of the
Koran. Neither reading has convinced me that there is a god, or that the god
described is just or unconditionally loving. The fact that there are many
faiths is proof that the computer we call the human mind, has made faulty
conclusions about its origin in the absence of correct data. One human mind
being broadly similar to another, it is no surprise that they all came to
similarly wrong beliefs.
There is no proof of an afterlife. It must be the grandest
arrogance a human being can have to think that he or she is eternal. If there
is an afterlife, then it is in the form of our DNA. And humans share 50% of DNA
with bananas. Humanity would do itself, and all organisms, a favour and start
to think of itself and all other living things as simply being different
manifestations of "Life".
My favourite colour is red. But I like blue shirts.
Half the time, my car radio’s tuned in to BBC World Service. The
other half, I switch from dancehall to Indie to pop to rock. Just because I use
different terms for music doesn't mean I know which style fits what name. I'm
just trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about.
If chipping down the road on Carnival Monday and Tuesday is
dancing, then I dance.
It's a bad habit to read multiple books at once but I usually
have two or three open at the same time. Two books I’d take to a deserted
island would be "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", by William L.
Shirer and "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien. I've read them
many times since my teens.
I'm a vegetarian but I'd have to admit my favourite meal would be
rib-eye steak. Rare, with garlic butter and white wine reduction. And super
thin French fries.
On a reef in Indonesia, sharks were overfished. Without
predators, the snapper population exploded. The snappers ate out the grazer
fish like parrotfish. Without parrotfish the reef became overgrown with algae
and started to die. Without sharks, the oceans will be less productive.
Sharks are apex predators and many species are hurtling towards
extinction. A billion people around the world depend on the ocean for protein
and income. So protecting sharks means protecting people.
On average, five people per year are killed by sharks. In the US
alone, about 13 people per year are killed by vending machines. Cows, cars,
bathtubs and ladders each kill more people than sharks.
There are sustainable shark-and-bake alternatives that taste just
as good: flying fish, the invasive lionfish or even cheese. Shark is also full
of mercury, making it an unhealthy choice
The best thing about establishing a shark sanctuary is that it
gives Trinidadians a chance to view ourselves as responsible, protective,
nurturing people guided by rationalism. And not our bellies, fears or general
ignorance. Personally, I enjoy throwing a pebble in to the pond of our national
self-awareness, and seeing the ripple grow into a wave. There is no bad part of
a shark sanctuary. It is all good.
When I’m away from Trinidad, I miss the mountains, the food, the
Jurassic Park North and East coast features. In a way I also miss the anarchy,
even though that is probably our biggest downfall, our "organized
chaos" keeps life interesting.
Sometimes people tell me, “Oh, you’re a rich white boy, you could
afford to care about sharks, but poor people have to eat a food”. I tell them
it’s the poor who are most vulnerable to environmental degradation. The
depletion of fish stocks hits poor local fishermen first. The rich don’t care.
They will buy farmed salmon imported from Alaska.
I once caught an intruder in my house, and I hit him repeatedly,
but only to subdue him and protect myself. I was careful to not do him any
permanent damage. I have caused damage by speaking hurtful words in anger. But
I'm trying to work on that.
A Trini is a Nobel Prize-winning author, a Trini is also somebody
implicated in a plot to bomb JFK airport. A man who uses his body to stop
highway bulldozers. An island scholarship winner, a single mother with six
children from six different fathers, a climate scientist with the
Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, a gangster, the couple trying to
make ends meet selling doubles. There is no one prototype Trini.
Trinidad & Tobago, to me, means “home” and “pride”. I have a
UK passport but I use my Trini passport whenever possible, just because it is
more part of who I am.
— with Marc Laurent de Verteuil.
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Nigel
Boos <nigelboos@gmail.com>
To:Dr.
Kenneth Ian Austin
Jan
26 at 6:33 PM
Thanks
for the update, Ken.
I didn’t know Allan, but I did know Dr. “Nobby” Blanc. Could they
have been related, perhaps?
So, another one bites the dust, as they say. Well, I can only
express my sympathy to those who were close to him. I do not know who they are,
but I’ll send this note to the few members of the Blanc family for whom I have
email addresses, to let them know of my caring and prayers for the family and
for Allan himself that he may quickly find his way into the Lord’s presence.
To all the OB’s who might have known Allan Blanc, this is just a
wee word to you to ask for your prayers for his soul. May he and all the
members of our Abbey School Old Boys community find peace forever in heaven in
the company of Our Lord and God.
God bless us all.
Nigel
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On
Jan 26, 2018, at 2:12 PM, Kenneth Austin <kentrini@aol.com> wrote:
Another
old boy from my era, 1946-1954 passed away on Jan.18,2018.
I last saw him in June 2017 when I was in TnT for funeral of my
brother-in-law.
They both lived in the same condo building.
Thanks for all the info which you circulate.
Ken
Austin
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Published:
Monday, January 15, 2018
BLANC, ALLAN “SONNY” passed away
peacefully on Thursday 11th January,2018. Husband of Helen Blanc (néeTucker).
Father of Richard, Trevor, Vicki and Gary. Father-in-law of Susan, Donna, James
and Francine. Grandfather of Jason and Logan, Jacqueline and Kimberly, Phillip,
Catherine and Richard, Mark, Jonathan and Laura. Brother of Helen Maingot
(deceased) and Rosemary Lambkin. Funeral mass for the late Allan Sonny Blanc
takes place at St. Finbars R. C.Church, Diego Martin on Monday 15th January,
2018 at 10:30 am, followed by private cremation. In lieu of flowers, a
collection will be taken up for Hope Centre.
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George Mickiewicz
12
August 12:51
No idea
12 August 12:52
Have you
shared them with Ladislao Kertesz for
future Circulars
12 August 13:19
Not
yet......need to scan them first...just found them
12 August 13:20
Muchas
gracias for your continued value adding contributions to the cause
12 August 13:22
Bon
12 August 07:35
Richard
Arrindell –
A
number of Arrindells attended our school, but Richard is not listed in our
current database.
Did
anyone know or remember him?
What
I found to be very unique about Richard is that he witnessed and lived through
a war in Vietnam.
Do
not recall reading about any other "old boy" actually living through
the hell of a living and breathing war.
3rd
division, 3rd battalion, 3rd platoon trini USA Marine
------------------------------------------
EDITED by Ladislao
Kertesz, kertesz11@yahoo.com,
if you would like to be in the circular’s mailing list or any old boy that you
would like to include.
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Photos:
87UN0008JUBILEUM p23
03DM2011DMIGMI,Don Mitchell and Gordon Mitchell
04LK0001HAHPLC, Hector Ahow
15LK1583REUNIONCARACAS, Reunion Caracas
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