Tag Archives: 11 September 2001

11 September 2001: “Guyanese Roll Call” by Peter Jailall

08 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by in Guyana, Poetry, United States

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Caribbean immigrants remember loved ones at the 9/11 memorial on September 11, 2018
Photo Credit: News Americas

 

On September 11, we will remember all those we have lost on that ill-fated day when a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City turned the world-famous landmark into rubble.

I was living in Brazil when the tragedy occurred, sending a tsunami across the world. More than ninety other nations also lost loved ones that day, including three Brazilian-Americans and twenty-six Guyanese-Americans.

In his poem, “Guyanese Roll Call,” Guyanese-Canadian poet Peter Jailall remembers his twenty-six countrymen and women who died on that day. Their American Dream had been suddenly cut short.

Listen to our roll call
Of those who died
On that dreadful September day,
Following their American Dream: 

Patrick Adams
Leslie Arnold Austin
Rudy Bacchus
Kris Romeo Bishundauth
Pamela Boyce
Annette Datarom
Babita Guman
Nizam Hafiz
Ricknauth Jhagganauth
Charles Gregory Jolin
Bowanie Devi Kemraj
Sarab Khan
Amerdauth Luchman
Shevonne Meutis
Narendra Nath
Marcus Neblett
Hardai Parbhu
Ameena Rasool
Shiv Sankar
Sita Sewnarine
Karini Singh
Rosham Singh
Astrid Sohan
Joyce Stanton
Patricia Staton
Vanava Thompson 

These are our dedicated,
Hard-working country people,
Who travelled from South to North
To savour just a small bite
Of the Big Apple. 

We will always remember them.

Source: Poetry Collection, People of Guyana by Ian McDonald and Peter Jailall, MiddleRoad Publishers, Canada, 2018.

 

While violent anti-immigrant activism spread across America, let us remember that Guyanese and other Caribbean immigrant families also share our nation’s grief for loved ones lost on September 11, 2001.

 

Peter Jailall is a teacher, poet, and storyteller. He has published five books of poetry. In 2011, he received the Marty’s Award for Established Literary Arts in Mississauga, Ontario, where he lives. Since his retirement, Jailall has conducted workshops on Poetry Writing in schools across Guyana and Canada.

11 September 2001: United in Horror and Grief

11 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in United States

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11 September 2001 - Survivors of Attack on WTC NYPhoto Credit: Island Crisis Network

 

Around ten o’clock on 11 September 2001, on another dry, hot day in Cascavel, Ceará, Brazil, I was seated in the Meeting Room of the cut-and-sew factory of the finished cow-leather industrial complex. Chairing the meeting with the manager and division supervisors was our Italian Commercial Director. Our discussions were interrupted when his cell phone rang. This was not unusual. Rising from his seat at the head of the table, he backed us to answer the call.

After pacing the floor while he jabbered in Italian, he turned to face us. In broken Portuguese, he spurted in disbelief: “Two airplanes crash into the World Trade Center in New York.” He looked at the factory manager. “We need to watch the news.”

The meeting came to an abrupt halt while the two men went to the Administrative Building in search of a TV set. While the Brazilian staff expressed concern about relatives and friends living in New York, I thought of Guyanese relatives and friends who had left our native land over the years. Time and distance had frayed the bond between us. Not knowing how to contact them, I could only pray for their safety.

At home later that evening, as I watched the news reports and live footage of the terrorist attacks on the USA, I feared that this would be the beginning of a dreaded Third World War when we would obliterate each other with our nuclear bombs.

Twenty-five Guyanese-Americans and three Brazilian-Americans died in the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. More than ninety other nations also lost loved ones that day. Horror and grief united Americans with nations across the globe.

Ten years after Americans lost their sense of security in a violent world, let us remember the lessons that we learned that day and in the years that followed:

    • United with compassion and generosity, we can overcome;
    • Others risked and gave their lives to save our loved ones;
    • We can never be safe when hatred consumes us;
    • We are equal in death and grief;
    • Fighting evil with evil generates more evil;
    • Through our loss and grief, we can better appreciate the gifts of love and life.

I leave you with the last verse of the poem “After One Year” by Guyanese poet, Martin Carter (1927-1997):

Rude citizen! Think you I do not know
that love is stammered, hate is shouted out
in every human city in this world?
Men murder men, as men must murder men,
to build their shining governments of the damned.