IMPACT ON HISTORY

It’s A Fact

THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT OF B’DOS — ONE OF SEVEN WONDERS

By JAMES SYDNEY

The Bible’s Genesis account of what took place in the Garden of Eden mentions the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but does not name its fruit. Scholars and speculators tried to identify the fruit involved in the fall of Adam and Eve, and over time claims were made that the forbidden fruit was the apple, the grape, the fig, the tomato, the grapefruit and several others. Perhaps the most widespread belief is that the apple was the forbidden fruit. This fruit is the most commonly used illustration of the biblical story, at least in the West. However, it was with the grapefruit that Barbados came into the story, and today the Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia lists the grapefruit as the legendary Forbidden Fruit and one of the Seven Wonders of Barbados.

THE GUYANA STORY

APPOINTMENT OF THE WADDINGTON COMMISSION

The formation of the PPP in 1950 coincided with the anticipated appointment of the Constitutional Commission. On August 25, 1948 the Legislative Council had debated the question of adult suffrage. Dr. Jagan, the only member of the Political Affairs Committee in the Council, took up the cudgel of the struggle for the vote for all citizens and spoke vigorously in support of it. However, the vote was defeated and his was the only vote of support for the motion. The representatives of the privileged plus leading lights in the League of Coloured Peoples - John Carter, Dr. Gonzales, Dr. Nicholson and Rudy Kendall - all voted against. On December 16, 1948, the Governor in his address to the Legislative Council announced that a Commission would be appointed "shortly" to examine the possibility of granting greater participation of Guyanese in governing the country. Even earlier, in 1941, the Franchise Commission which visited the colony had come close to granting universal adult suffrage after it had received a number of petitions which called for the removal of all property, income and literacy qualifications for the voting population.