Saturday, 3 August 2019

Circular No 926







Caracas, 3 of August 2019 No. 926
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Dear Friends,
In this issue I have information on Ronald L. Nanton, an Oldboy with great writing skills.  His book is based on historical facts starting with Eric Williams.
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GEORGE MICKIEWICZ  <amickiew@att.net>
Jul 30 at 9:53 AM
Suspect that this might become the most effective and safest way to help our Venezuelan Abbey School alums-in-need. 
A person would adopt an alumus and their family; then send them directly the equivalent USA  $35-50/per year.
If it becomes a viable, simple and “safe”  option, would you be willing to help? 
Or able to receive the help in this manner versus the current approach through Trinidad?
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From:  Jan en Berthy
Sent:  Thursday, July 18, 2019 5:31 AM
Dear Nigel,
Thank you very much for considering the issue. I wrote to Don already that it is 46 years ago, it is a past thing. Only wanted to know if there might be a website like www.delpher.nl, where you can search through the pages of old Trinidadian newspapers of the '60-ies to look for this cloud and what it was.
February 1972 Thijs came from Surinam to Holland for medical aid and treatment. He had a finger thick bulge in his neck near his collarbone and had troubles with sometimes fainting and hallucinating. Now in 2019 I heard from my sister and a nieces who worked as nurses at that same hospital that time that the diagnosis was fatal but they didn't tell that straightforward to patient & family. They took tissue away and other treatment. He went back to Surinam.
He came back in august 1972 and got brainsurgery and radiation and went back to Surinam. In the last six months it developed in his abdomen which turned him into a concentration camp skeleton. He walked the hospital in Surinam in, they performed an "open close" operation as nothing could be done anymore and he died 3 days later May 8, 1973. He was 30 years, born October 20 1942.
From Father Henry I learned Brother/Father Edward had the same sort cancer on several parts of his body not organ related like leukaemia, pancreas, prostate, throat etc, the doctors could not find the source organ either. He died at Mount St. Benedict when he was 50 years. I assume he was 2 years older than Thijs, therefore born in 1940 + 50 = 1990.
Yes I first thought the cloud might be a fallout of the last atomic experiment of France in the Pacific in June 1966. But the fallout cloud seems to develop a cigar shape and spreading out. What I saw was snake like with little bit of curls and very elongated emerging from the horizon in the South bit to the right of the San Fernando hill, maybe about from the area of the pitch lake. It was a white cloud but with a clear reddish glow like the explosion part in the picture of the Challenger I sent earlier. It is either the fallout or maybe some mishap at an industrial plant in the South of Trinidad.
If an access to the old Trinidad newspapers could be found we might be able to clarify it. I was in Form III then and was not allowed to read newspapers. Some boys had a radio but that was mostly listening to sports. So I have no knowledge of the news of that time.
But thanks anyway to want to dive in it. It's too long ago to have any good purpose except history. Thijs has a son Paul born 1970 and daughter Susan born 1972. They live well in the South of Holland. Paul has two children Thijs jr. born 2000 and Manon born 2002. Thijs jr. is student at the Eindhoven University, Manon is graduating from secondary school. They are doing well. Lucy, the mother, never remarried and lives there too.
Greetings from the benches of the Carrefour supermarket in France :-), we can see the climate change here, since two years all grass turns brown in central France in July-August as far as you can see, very much draught, record low water level in lakes, hot at noon often 40 °C. It's good to get cheap big watermelons at the supermarket and some nice German beer cans, French have more wine than beer :-).
Have fun, much greetings
Jan Koenraadt
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Op do 18 jul. 2019 13:35
Hi, Jan,
Good to hear from you.
I am afraid there is no website in the Caribbean where you can visit and read ancient West Indian newspapers.  You are more likely to find them published by the Library of Congress or the British Museum.
There are several reasons that I can think of.  First, copying and publishing the back issues in little islands is not an economic proposition.  In islands with a few thousand people, maybe one in a hundred of whom are newspaper readers, there is no one who would make use of the service.  Certainly, there is no way the cost could be recouped.  Second, in these small communities news is more often shared by word of mouth (and, today, social media), gossip among friends and by the telephone (and, today, WhatsApp) than by newspapers.  Third, newsprint newspapers in our islands have a very short life span.  They are often labours of love rather than commercial enterprises.  When the founder dies, the newspaper dies with him.  There are a few exceptions, mainly in the very big islands with populations exceeding one million.
I never in my life heard of any chemical explosion in Trinidad, in the 1950s or 1960s in particular, that sent up a large cloud of smoke and gas into the higher atmosphere.  If such an incident had occurred, we would not need newspapers to make everyone in Trinidad aware of what had happened. The news would have been around the island in hours.  No such incident occurred, I assure you.
The Trade Winds that blow year-long in the West Indies blow from east to west.  It is meteorologically impossible for a cloud of gas to blow from the refinery in Point a Pierre to the Northern Range of mountains in Trinidad.  Such a cloud would have gone westwards straight to Venezuela.  Everyone in Latin America would have known about it shortly it happened.  Such an incident could never have been concealed or covered up.  It would have been international news.  No such incident occurred, I promise you.
If it was chemical poisoning, the likelihood is it would have had a local source.  For example, I would not be surprised to learn there was asbestos cladding in the roofs of the Abbey School.  
I never did understand why asbestos was used in the Caribbean.  However, I am aware that workers demolishing older buildings in Anguilla, Antigua and St Kitts, have complained about being required to work to clear up asbestos sheeting.  We must be all aware that asbestos dust is commonly the culprit in many kinds of cancer illnesses.  However, I have no record or memory of asbestos having been used at Mount.  Not that we (and probably the monks, would have known anything about asbestos use in construction.  Anyway, the monks who were exposed to the environment at Mount for longer than any of us all went on to live to ripe old ages.  For me, that rules out a local Trinidadian environmental cause for your brothers’ cancers.  Agricultural use in Suriname is another matter, of course.
Good luck in your search for answers.
Best,
Don
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Sent:  Thursday, July 18, 2019 3:52 AM
Dear George,
Thank you for the picture of the plant.
That I can add to the possibility list.
It was a snake like cloud with reddish colour emerging from the horizon where the pitchlake was.
Seems to me likely some mishap at the plant there like on your picture.
Regards Jan.
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From:  Jan en Berthy <jankoenraadt@gmail.com
Sent:  Thursday, 18 July 2019 05:41
Dear Don,
I am at a Carrefour supermarket in France now and can reply. It is 46 years ago, so it's a past thing about Thijs. But only the question remains how could he have gotten it. And after weighing a lot of possibilities, e.g working with grammoxone as he once did, or swimming in the sea near Tobago where maybe a us nuclear sub lost some light polluted waste water, I end up with this cloud. I only put up the question because I wanted to ask if there is an equivalent website in the English speaking part of the Caribbean like our Dutch  www.delpher.nl
In that website I can search in (no joke) 12 million original pages of old newspapers of Dutch origin. That includes also Surinam and Curaçao papers. And if something worth mentioning about Mount is, it does appear in the Curaçao paper. From my Carrefour bench I typed "Mount St. Benedict" and I get a lot of hits. Please try it yourself, fill in some period e.g. 01-01-1960 to 01-01-1970 and don't forget the quotes " " otherwise you get 10000 hits with "St." in it.
I pulled out the 50 year Jubileum of MSB but there is a lot more articles.  It is in Dutch language, I am having fun to read it :-).
I hope the link works.
What I mean with this, is there an equivalent website for old newspapers in the Caribbean where you can plough through all the old pages of newspapers with a search engine. Then I will try to find anything about this cloud.
The last year Thijs was at Mount he was doing the supervising on the court of the Abbey School during his spare time together with sometimes brother Edward or Robert. He left in june/july '66 so the supervising was in the year '65/'66 maybe the last term.  So, I would start searching in 1966 for the cloud.
Yes, I considered that too that the cancer runs in the family, but among about 51 nieces and nephews and family stories I did not hear about such a case.  Yes, sometimes at old age leukimia or pancreas or liver. I think only organ specific cancer can run in the family, like throat, breast, thick abdomen, gall bladder, scrotum, prostate and so on. 
I met though the circulars father Henry Theunissen, present monk at MSB when he was in Holland few years ago, and he explained to me that his nephew brother/father Edward died of the same cancer as Thijs at the age of 50, that could be around 1990. Thijs was born in 1942, I think Edward was 2 years older, (he played Blue Danube on the piano) so born 1940 + 50 = 1999. 
And the type is not organ related, it pops up here and there, Thijs had it first in his neck near his collarbone, 6 months later in his brain and the last six months in his abdomen. The doctors said they could not pinpoint the source organ. So that's why I started thinking about this strange cloud they watched all evening from the rooftop. They were with four, the two others were collared local brothers. 
There was little wind, the cloud passed by at very slow pace, Fr. Cuthbert ordered everybody to bed after supper at 19:00 hours. The next morning it was gone. Maybe it was published in the newspaper of Trinidad, but not mention worthy in the Curaçao paper?
Thanks for considering it, but I try to find a website to look for the old Trinidadian newspapers.
Much greetings Jan Koenraadt
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RONALD L. NANTON
He was a student priest, a black power activist, and an initiate into an African-based spiritual system.
Now the pastor of a non-denominational church, Ronald Nanton tells of a colourful and interesting inward journey to the place he calls Rainbow Road.
Born in Port of Spain, the capital city of the twin island state of Trinidad and Tobago in 1946,
Nanton traces an inward journey marked by the rigors of life in a Catholic seminary run by Benedictine monks on the highlands of Trinidad’s Northern Range.
Bereft of the faith he once had, he is drawn to the ideals of Black Consciousness and its incarnation in the National Joint Action Committee of which he became Cultural Officer in the heydays of the early '70s.
The journey continues into the mysterious world of the palais and mourning ground where men and spirits converge and from which he eventually emerges to walk on his present path as a Bible-believing pastor.
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I was born the 3rd child of Leo and Geraldine Nanton - nee Beausoleil - in POS, Trinidad in 1946.
Grew up on the northern outskirts of POS, in the Long Circular area.
Went to Rosary Boys Primary, Woodroffe High School, Ottawa, Canada for one year, Progressive High School in POS and completed my secondary education at the Abbey School, Mount Saint Benedict.
Did a three year philosophy course for the priesthood at the Archdiocesan Seminary, Mount Saint Benedict.
Pursued a career in primary school teaching.
Was cultural Officer of the National Joint Action Committee, the vanguard of the Black Power Movement of 1970.
Married Monica nee Cupid also in 1970.
Settled in upper Santa Cruz and fathered seven children by her.
Worked as a School Publications Officer in the School Publications Department of the Ministry of Education, Trinidad.
Retired as Supervisor, School Publications from the Ministry in 2006.
A pastor of the Local Assembly of Christian Believers Inc., for some 32 years.
The church is temporarily housed at the YWCA in St. Augustine, Trinidad, pending the construction of a church in lower Santa Cruz
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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:
48JD0001JDA,  John Darwent
03UN0001PBOGRP, Peter Boos with Brian Lara (not Mount)
18HA0012HAH, Hector Ahow and daughter
09GI0117SCOUTSBADGE, Scouts Badge by Iwaszkiewicz






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