Hello Mater, hello Pater, here I am in old Grenada
Trip Start
Oct 03, 1993
1
74
Trip End
Ongoing
St. George's, St. George, Grenada
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Hello mater, hello pater, here I am in Old Grenada
Sea looks warm and some folks are wading
Wait a minute they're not tourists, they're invading
I have a friend here, Hosea the waiter. We've been sharing the same bomb crater
Sea looks warm and some folks are wading
Wait a minute they're not tourists, they're invading
Take me home, United Nations
Take me home, I hate invasions
I came here to holiday, not to be blown away
Mother father, how could I doubt you?
That's the last time I go without you
Next vacation, we stick together.
By the way in Lebanon, how is the weather?
And for the benefit of those who don’t recall the early 80s, at the time The Lebanon was something of a notorious war zone.
I wasn’t very old at the time of the US invasion of Grenada, so my knowledge of the event was limited to vague recollections that Cuba was somehow involved and there’s a good chance that I only remember that because for some bizarre reason I have always remembered – almost verbatim - the above comic song which I saw once on the telly. Anyway, for my first visit to the spice island of Grenada, I was delighted to discover that the holiday company had thrown in a guided tour which would include a look back into the events leading up to the US invasion.
The tour guide was an ex-pat who had been in Grenada for some 15 or more years. A former teacher, very old school and charming and of course, well informed on the island’s history.
My recollection of the reporting at the time is that was very critical of the US – and maybe a lot of the problems wouldn’t have arisen if the US had responded positively to Grenada’s request for assistance in building their airport. But they didn’t and so, the socialist Grenadans turned to Cuba and communist money. The US liked that even less! Unfortunately, the influx of hard liners into the socialist government shifted the balance of power. Ultimately there was a bloody coup, hundreds died and the now ex-Prime Minister was placed under house arrest.
Whilst the US motivations are mixed – Reagan claimed to believe that the airport would be used as a military base for Marxist / communist states and he undoubtedly wanted to throw his weight around for Castro’s benefit – our tour guide was adamant that in the rapidly deteriorating situation that followed the coup, the US invasion – or, I should say, intervention - spared the island from much more death and destruction.
So now the airport is in place, bringing in tourists as it was always intended to do.
For those of us who do visit to tour and not invade / build airports, the island is both beautiful and inviting. The spice markets are a must of course and as is exploring the beautiful countryside. We also took the chance to dive and explore underwater. The underwater plant life is amazing, with loads of weird cup shaped plants – some rigid and some floppy, in an amazing range of colours. We also saw plenty of fish; some big ones like groupers, but my favourites are the schools of little fish – the best being the clouds of purple rain which swam around us as we investigated the Victoria L.
And Purple Rain of course, brings us right back to the 80s.
