Gordon Robinson | Batroc zee leep!

After we left high school Gene Autry and I started playing bridge seriously.

We began before playing “three-handed bridge” with my grandmother using her bed as the table. Then my stepfather introduced us to tournaments. Initially, Gene was so nervous that, playing against an experienced player for the first time, his hands shook and his cards fell to the floor. Gene eventually became one of the best and represented Jamaica in the 1987 Bermuda Bowl (world championships).

The player who so unnerved Gene early on was Horace Payne. Horace was a Bajan who spent his adulthood in Jamaica. He was a highly intelligent, ardent bridge player but also a champion trash-talker who entertained us as such when we became part of a social bridge circle that met regularly outside of tournaments.

His general chattiness earned Horace a patented Gene Autry nickname “Batroc Zee Leep (Lip)” adapted from a Marvel comics character. One of Horace’s best taunts (which I’ve shamelessly plagiarised for many non-bridge conversations) came when he was about to bid spades (the highest ranked “boss” suit). Horace would reach below the table; feign taking something from his trousers; then bring his forearm up and on to the table (hard) chanting “Time for zee Big Black Thing!”

Opinionated trash-talker Karl Samuda frequently reminds me of Horace. The man who was equally comfortable in JLP then PNP (where he addressed a PNP Conference “What a way PNP sweeeet!” while snapping a JLP victory sign figurine in two) then back in JLP where he gives PNP little credit could easily be a political Batroc.

But, unlike Horace, Samuda often seems to allow his mouth to run far ahead of his brain. Take his summary dismissal of farmworkers’ claims of mistreatment in Canada. After being taken on an official “tour” of nine farms in seven locations over four days in Ontario (itself larger than France and Spain combined) he announced he observed very good relations among workers; between workers and their employers; excellent rapport between workers and government liaison officers; and no evidence of mistreatment.

ROFL! But the complaints don’t indict Jamaica. Why the hasty contradiction? As a horse racing pal often says “sump’n inna simp’n”.

On August 15 (days before Samuda’s short-shrift statement) Canadian Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, responded to the workers’ complaints:

“The mistreatment or abuse of temporary foreign workers is unacceptable. The experiences detailed in this letter are disturbing, inhumane, and in violation of the regulations of this program.” (CBC Toronto)

Canadian Laws/Regulations aren’t the problem. Enforcement is.

I’ll tell you my historic knowledge of the farm work programme. Without the farm worker programme, Jamaica probably wouldn’t have developed an indigenous music industry. World-renowned beats like Ska, Rock Steady and Reggae could’ve been stillborn. Our music industry began when pioneer sound system operators led by Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd went away as farmworkers; used wages to buy American rhythm and blues records to bring home long before they could be heard here (no internet) . They scratched off labels and played the often renamed records “exclusively” on their sound system. Soon, Coxsone, after being tossed from the programme, decided to record his own music. It began with the “Shufflebeat” (e.g. Theophilus Beckford’s Easy Snappin) inspired by those rhythm and blues recordings then evolved into Ska, Rock Steady and Reggae.

I can also tell you legendary Mayor of Mandeville Cecil Charlton’s first job was as a farmworker. Without that opportunity, you probably wouldn’t know his name. Many successful former farmworkers put their heads down, endured hardships, earned and saved for a better life back home.

So, as exploitative as this sort of programme can be, I’ll neither easily dismiss recent complaints nor condemn the programme based on those complaints. Let’s be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let’s protect the programme from abuse by outlier farmers by strict enforcement of sanctions for established mistreatment and from wolf-in-sheep-clothing “advocates” with other agendas.

Subsequent to Samuda’s facile rejection of workers’ complaints, a “fact-finding team” was commissioned to investigate Canadian working conditions. But, before the team could board a flight to Canada, Jamaica’s chief lay down (oops, sorry, liaison) officer in Canada, Kenneth Phillips, was able to categorically reject mistreatment claims as “misguided” and “unfounded”.

Which farms will the fact-finding team visit? Will visits be unannounced? Who are the investigators? Will results be published with expedition or will they join others gathering dust on a ministry’s shelf?

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.