Circular No 732

Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 14 November 2015 No. 732

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Dear Friends,

Since soon it will be the time of Advent, I must include these real facts of our time at the Mount, so as to enter in the reconciliation mode.

Just in case you wonder what was my position on the subject,

I can only agree that I had difficult times but I managed well after I got to understand the workings of the Monk’s way of thinking.

Not only the workings of the clergy but some of my schoolmates whom I feared most because of their ganging up, especially those that knew that they could get away with “murder” because their parents had ample pockets.

Thus, I avoided most of the “torture” that was shed out and avoided the harassment of my classmates or from older boys.

Being tall and physically strong, there was little bulling from my fellow schoolmates.

Also, I managed my free time to avoid moments that would have made escape from harassment or sampat impossible.

From the dates of the emails, you can imagine that I could not make up my mind as to publishing them.

I realise that unpleasant memories must be shared, just as joyous ones, so that they may rest in peace.

In real life I have had demanding moments and, thanks to the Mount, I managed to overcome them.

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John Gioannetti <mate@tstt.net.tt>

Monday, February 4, 2008 9:21:34 AM

Don,

It looks like I have opened a can of worms............GOOD

Re the Monks and WWII

Based on what they saw and experienced, they were therefore twice as negligent in their duties and responsibilities and certainly not Christian by way of their example.

Not what I would call Holy Men.

Quite a few of the old boys are now in the legal profession. You too I believe.

These monks were given a responsibility were negligent in the charge of their duties. 

In another place and time they would have been held responsible for criminal negligence, and subjected to civil and possibly criminal prosecution.

Re the Dutch in WWII, it was not all the "Diaries of Annie Frank" the Dutch turned in more Jews to the Nazis than they tried to save, check the statistics.

Of the priest I knew, Fr Augustine who was considered the sternest, was in my opinion the fairest.

Fr Odo while an excellent math teacher, was unjust.

Azizul use to show me his Koran and explain it to me, he is another that will always have my admiration and respect as, he taught me to respect different religions, and that at their very base they were all the same. 

History is full of men of the cloth that were evil.

The Jesuits of the inquisition.

The monks and priest who tortured and enslaved the Amerindians, in the name of godly conversion. 

Because I have dyslexia, written subjects were hard for me.

I was more into Mathematics, Physics and Art.

And although I was not good at it I always enjoyed Llewin Machintosh's History classes.

I can still recall the loathing in his voice and the scorn on his face when he used one of his favourite phrases "Holy Wars".

It was from this phrase that I learned what an oxymoron was.

A former girlfriend of mine went to one of our beloved monks, for counselling and support after a bad marriage.

I know who the monk is, he taught us.

The monk was also her ex-husbands cousin.

Russel Cunah, he was more in your time than mine.

Russel and I became quite friendly and helped me through some tough times.

We had a lot in common Motorcycles, Programming, we used to camp together and he would even lend me his car to take girls out who were not allowed on a motorcycle.

He told me, Cuthbert once had to pull him off a priest that he was beating.

You and many others say it was good, it made us hard, it made us men. I too say that, I am today very much a product of MSB

But how many were destroyed and scarred for life.

Like I say u want my money for an association, put it to good use, not to glorify that institution that was evil.

This may be coming across as sour grapes, believe me it is not.

But I do believe we should not romanticise the institution.

There are many skeletons on that hill.

Any way back to my pics

God, Yahweh, Allah, bless you all

John Gioannetti

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MSB

Don Mitchell CBE QC <idmitch@anguillanet.com>

Monday, February 4, 2008 7:33:54 AM

Very eloquent, John.

And, to think I believed only I suffered there!

I have often thought that it was the WW II experiences that so many of our Monks went through that shaped their characters and behaviour while they were in Trinidad.

Pain and despair was a determining part of their lives.

One of them, I no longer recall who, once confessed to a group of us boys that he had become a Monk because of his experiences in the War. 

We learned that many of our Dutch Monks had been enslaved as young men by the Germans.

They had been taken to Germany and put to work as forced labour in the Rhur Valley factories.

They were housed in camps and forced to produce weapons and other manufactured goods for the German war effort.

They were all severely and regularly ill-treated, and many of them were killed.

They were kept for years on starvation diets and beaten regularly for insubordination or other infractions.

When some of them returned to Holland after the war, they discovered their homes destroyed and their families disappeared.

Some of them, filled with despair and religious fervour became Benedictine Monks.

Their tortured souls turned up in Trinidad to become our teachers.

I recall that on more than one occasion in the classroom, when a teacher stretched to write on the blackboard, specks of red would appear on the back of his cassock.

I always believed it was blood.

They were widely believed to flagellate their own backs with barbed wire scourges.

Some of them smelled continuously of oil and ashes, from some sort of self-imposed penance.

It was only years later that I came to realise that it was probably a boy in the class flicking red ink at the teacher.

I still think the original rumour was more vivid and revealing.

With such experiences and backgrounds, we cannot be surprised that many of the teachers joined in the bullying and teasing of the boys who were selected to be victims.

The Monks not only joined in the tormenting, but encouraged some of the more vicious practices.

The "tapping up" and "hedging" that features so large in my memories of my many years at Mount (1955-1964, if I recall) could not have continued unchecked for so many hours each day without their having allowed it.

We are all Abbey School boys survivors of Nazi slave-labour and concentration camps in one way or another.

Keep well

Don

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From: John Gioannetti

Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 3:57 AM

Subject: Re: Pics from Mount Lime Fri 01st Feb 2007

Sorry Glen,

Note that what I am saying here is in-response to (Glen Evenly, Glen McCoy and Nigel Boos) e-mails.

That BS don't sell, at least I am not buying.

The bullies of this world live in hope that people will eventually forget in the hopes of peace, Christian charity, happiness whatever.

Well now way. I did meet some great people at mount. But I am fed up of people making heroes of the scum.

Re the night of the reunion.

No one there knew.

I made sure to keep it on the quiet, not even my wife knew, until I told her in the car on the way home.

It was also why I made sure that I was the last person to leave.

I had no intention of either, stepping down or getting someone else to stand up for me.

After I left Mount I went to school in England, they were the same types there, but Mount taught me something. Stand up.

In England, some Greek boys were trying to sexually molest 2 very innocent Chinese boys, I was able to stand up for them even though one of the Greek boys was a boxer, and I don't claim to have any big fighting skills,

I was able to wop his butt despite the two others that came at me from behind.

If you think this is a Bull Shit story, feel free to confirm it with Stephen Ferriera or Valpo (Gregory Jardine)

Maybe it was payback time for 5 years of Mount BS.

At least I stopped an innocent boy from being scarred sexually.

You put a number of people in close proximity and you will get conflict.

Example Nigel Ferriera, Barry Ferriera and Wayne Chang. 

We all grew up in Valsayn.

I was fighting with those three long before I went to mount.

Today we are friends. Nigel and I talk on the telephone; Barry came to my house about 3 months ago to get some scenery photographs because he paints.

Wayne never passes me without hailing out.

No hard feelings, we were boys. I was never Mr. Popularity, Mr. Sportsman or Mr. Scholar. 

Combine that with a very outspoken attitude and there is conflict.

My wife calls me a "Mr. Shit Magnet"

But there is a major difference between school boy fights and blatant cruelty.

Pascal Barath, everyone is moaning and groaning about his death.

All I remember about him was two things.

He was Thomas Pegus lackey and with his masters support would give me shit

And the time his own master turned against him and made him hold out his hands and hold up a watermelon while he knelt on two stones.  

This incident was unknown, as it happened down stairs by the infirmary.

The two of them did not even know I saw what was going on.

I almost went to try to help him, but figured out why.

Thomas Pegus, the sorry excuse for a human being that he is.

When I got back to Trinidad, I was taking a ride one weekend.

Went up to La Lune / Marouga.

I actually went to look for him, to confront him.

I found his brother. He told me he was ill, something about his throat being damaged.

I thought why waste my time.

This is the person that hung me till my throat started to bleed internally, with the same Sing and Pascal Barath.

Hanging someone, this is not a boys fight.

Most of you now have children, some even grand children.

How much forgiving and forgetting would you do if someone hung your child or grandchild. 

Sorry but as I said this forgive and forget is pure crap.

And scum play on this so that they will not have to answer for their deeds.

You people ever stop to think that Trinidad is now the way it is because we love to forgive and forget.

Have a drink, don't worry about it. 

I lived with a Jewish woman in LA, we are still great friends, my best friend there was also a Jewish Guy. 

When I left LA to go and work in Australia, it was in a company owned and operated by South African Jews.

I was one of the few non S.A. Jews working there. Not the nicest people.

But I admired them.

I go to NY now to buy camera equipment and before that I used to go NY to buy computer equipment.

These Jews are all aggressive people, but histories bullies made them that way to survive.

To me glorifying mount is like asking a Holocaust Survivor to glorify Bergen-Belsen or Auschwitz

I will never forgive, I will never forget, I will never let it happen again to me again.

I know I am a better person than these types, I am certainly a more useful and productive member of society.

I am certainly more intelligent, I certainly experienced more good times and fantastic experiences.

Just don't ask me to waste my precious time socialising with people like that.

I leave you with the words I try to live by:

The conditions of a solitary bird are five:

The first, that it flies to the highest point;

The second, that it does not suffer for company, not even of its own kind;

The third, that it aims its beak to the skies;

The fourth, that it does not have a definite colour;

The fifth, that it sings very softly.

(This is the one that I personally find most challenging)

These are the words of San Juan de la Cruz in his "Sayings of Light and Love" and quoted in "Journey to Ixtlan" by Carlos Castaneda.

John Gioannetti

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On 2008 Feb 03 , at 09:25 PM,

gevelyn1@bellsouth.net wrote:

John,

Enjoyed the pictures.

You also reminded me of past hurtful incidents.

However, I have moved them out of the ongoing file and you should do the same.

I always considered you a great friend and recall us fighting each other just to please some unremorseful worm. 

We should have joined forces back then and opened a can of whipass on Mr Bully. 

Don't relapse.  

Recall the good Times.

Your brother

Glen

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz  Kertesz11@yahoo.com

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Photos:

Bandit p54x p55 The Early Times

13LK3235FBHHOWFE, Howard Ho and Wife

60RG0010RGAPODIUM, Richard Galt on the Podium

60TE0010TFEPODIUM, Terence Ferreira on the Podium