Carolyn mocked me, says Moruca woman

When Patsy Phillips was a child in Moruca she suffered an abscess and she ended up losing one of the bones in her right arm which has been disfigured ever since.

It has not stopped her living a normal life and now she is campaigning for the APNU/AFC coalition. Around the time of the 2006 elections she campaigned for the PNCR in the village and got to hear that then Minister of Amerindian Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues who is also from Moruca had joked in a private conversation that the PNCR only had “three and a half persons” campaigning for them. Phillips did not take on the comment at the time although she felt it was directed to her and the condition of her arm.

Fast forward to Saturday April 25 and at a PPP/C campaign rally at Kumaka Recreation Ground Moruca, Rodrigues is reported to have told the crowd that opposition candidate Granger had visited the village and there were only “55 and a half persons” supporting him.

Phillips said she heard of the comment from two separate persons who both believe it was directed at her and was ridiculing her disability. Phillips believes the attack was because she had recently held a meeting on behalf of the coalition highlighting problems in the community.

Phillips says she knows Rodrigues, and that their respective families know each other well and she finds it disturbing that a fellow Moruca sister would mock her. As such she is asking for Rodrigues to clarify who exactly is the half person, she was referring to.