BK Steve Naraine: Jonestown, Guyana & the Omai Mine Disaster
Posted: 31 Jul 2013
- Har pat mein baag lagaayen vaaraa Sindhi, ain khaak khey Son banaayen vaaraa Sindhi.
Which means:
A Sindhi is one who converts every land into a garden, And dust into gold.
Gold, and "jewels" which were sent overseas.
Steve Naraine was a big gun for the Brahma Kumaris, their first real "IP soul" (meaning an important person for their public relations campaign). I am not sure how pukka a BK he was, but he was certainly a "cooperative soul".
Actually, in real world terms he was not that "important". Guyana has a population of 750,000 which is the same as a small city or Idaho and a GDP of $4,700 per person, therefore he was at a similar level to the deputy mayor of a city in a developed nation ... but in BK terms of world conquest it counts as a *whole country*.
How did he and his wife get the BK names Uncle and Aunty?
Interestingly, as Minister of Works and Transportation, BK Steve Naraine visited the infamous cult leader Jim Jones's "People Temple" or Jonestown in Guyana ... to become the site of a mass cult suicide of 918 people in 1978 (see Jonestown Massacre) ... and saw nothing wrong with it. This was just at the time he was at least coming into the Brahma Kumaris and just two years after the failure of the Brahma Kumaris own End of the World prediction, the 1976 Destruction. One has to wonder if his vision was clouded?
Presumably impressed at how religious they were, he wrote for them ...
BK Steve Naraine wrote:"Very impressed with progress since I visited one year ago"
... And saw nothing else wrong.
The mass suicide and killings at Jonestown resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural non-accidental disaster prior to the events of September 11, 2001. By 1977, Jones had already attracted considerable criticism for his cult and in 1978, Leo Ryan, a Congressman from the San Francisco area investigating claims of abuse within the Peoples Temple, visited Jonestown only to be gunned down by the cult's security men along with reporters and others. The next evening, Jones ordered his congregation to drink a cyanide-laced, grape-flavored drink which parents were instructed to inject their children with.
287 children died in the Jonestown Cult Massacre. Why did not the "god of all humanity the Brahma Kumaris" just say something to Steve? Perhaps the BKs were too busy chasing VIPs that day?
I do not know of the depth of Naraine's involvement but the Guyanese government alloted 3,824 acres to the cult and was credited by them saying they would "never have progressed so far so fast were it not for their total cooperation".
Civil engineer Naraine started in the Public Works drainage and irrigation department as engineer and director of drainage and irrigation when Guyana was mainly jungle (it still is), became a Member of Parliament and housing minister in the early 1970s, and went on to directed the construction of many roads and other infrastructure within the country, including the direct link to the Omai Gold Mines, site of the worst mine disaster for the environment in history caused by cyanide poisoning.
The partly Canadian owned Omai Gold mine (Naraine died in Canada), was the largest open pit gold mines in the world. It displaced and destroyed the lives of upto 40,000 aboriginal people, whose land it was built on and who live permanently in the jungle using the river to eat, drink and bathe in and for transportation, when 4,000,000 m³ of sludge laced with cyanide poured into Guyana's largest river when the dam holding back waste material broke.
The 1995 Omai Gold Mine Disaster was "one of the worst mine disasters in history". Despite Cambior Corporation's alleged negligence causing mass contamination and fatalities, Quebec court refused to hear a NGO case against it as the native Guyanese had no connection to Quebec and passed it back to the Guyanese courts enabling the multi-national corporation to escape stringent punishment. Courts which had decided not to expel miners from indigenous tribes lands in clear violation of the 1978 Amerindian Act which was supposed to return land titles to indigenous groups. There is big money for developing nations in mining and, even now, child labour as young as eight years old is still a “widespread problem” within the Guyanese mining industry.
Mining in the country has been directly linked to commercial exploitation, especially of indigenous tribes people, including instances of forced prostitution.
The Guyana Commission of Inquiry went on to find no criminal liability for the spill and the Guyana Supreme Court Justice has ordered that a $2 billion lawsuit filed against Omai Gold Mines in connection with accident be dismissed and costs awarded to the Mine owners.
An NGO, Recherches Internationales Québec, had sought damages of merely $3,000 for each of 23,000 victims and argued the Guyanese Amerindians would be denied a fair hearing in Guyana.
Recently, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs has reported that Canadian companies are exploiting the mineral wealth of Guyana because of the political instability in the county in a way that is unfair to the people and the "investment-friendly" and "political corrupt" Guyanese government has failed in its oversight of its mining and public sectors over decades. The Omai Gold Mine was partly owned by it. "Companies had specifically looked at exploiting paradiscal areas of Guyana due increased pressure by environmentalists and governments such as the USA" elsewhere, said ]David Fagin whose company had responsible for the been responsible for the worst tailings dam disaster in the USA.
But according to the Brahma Kumaris, Steve is a "dearly loved and exceptional heir-child" who has not died but "ascended", so everything is OK ... just remember Baba, donate regularly and well and you'll get a special mention and a Bhog offering from the Brahma Kumaris.
Perhaps this is where the Brahma Kumaris expect to get all their gold to build the palaces of the Golden Age?
COHA wrote:"The majority of this corruption is the product of decades-long dependence on foreign capital and restrictive macroeconomic policies, as well as governmental inefficiencies and an ethnically-divided society”, the COHA claimed.
It all sounds very similar to India, really. Whilst Guyana is the least explored of the world's Archaean and Proterozoic virgin territories, whose original "owners" and natives were displaced by the Colonial British. Naraine, typical of the Indian Indians who side with the imperialists, directly enabled the expansion of the foreign corporation into Guyana, and rose to become the Vice President of Guyana then commissioner to India, whilst those corporations essentially ran unaccountable states within the nation from which the actual natives do not benefit.
Narain had become a parliamentarian in Forbes Burnham's Peoples National Congress after Burnham has seized "full dictatorial powers" during the rigged 1968 election and became a "brutal strongman" promoting a police state "in which opposition members were murdered".
Burnham, who made alliances with communist states of Cuba, the Soviet Union and North Korea, bankrupted the Guyanese economy costing jobs and a subsequent "brain drain" of the educated class to the US, Canada, and Great Britain which is where the Brahma Kumaris were to find the Naraine girls. Obviously, have money, Steve was able to send his family out for the sake of their comfort and safety.
Burhnam's thugs, such as "The House of Israel" robbed and pillaged the country. By 1979, the Working People’s Alliance reported that under Burnham "corruption had become a way of life, in which people were made to accept that stealing, cheating, lying, bearing false witness ... was a positive sign of loyalty to the regime" and so I wonder how Naraine survived or profited during this period? As Vice President and Minister of Works Communication he ignored requests to establish an office to investigate aircraft accidents in the territories as at the time "officials did not want another agency overlooking their shoulder".
Who knows what else was going on. He was a distinguished engineer, however, I never heard which side he took in any ethical, environmental, labor or human rights dispute.
As in many of their slave colonies, the British used anglicised Indo-Guyanese to run the business well and saw them as a caste over the negro slaves from Africa, or Amerindians whose lands they had stolen and killed off. They valued them for their docile and reliable nature and amenability to discipline under harsh in tropical conditions, except for those of Brahmin castes (the top 10%) which they distrusted as potential leaders.
I never knew Steve personally and did not get the feeling he was a pukka BK, nor demanded to be a pukka BK, although he did get extra-special treatment. Other people spoke well of him. His daughter BK Gayatri Naraine is deeply embedded and well trusted within the Kirpalani Klan Kult and active in their United Nation office, high level public relations, and historical revision. Savi Naraine and Sita Naraine are also involved.
Is this where the wealth to keep Gayatri active as a Brahma Kumari representative comes from? She and her family connections acted as a key to many doors for the BKWSO.
If so, I would argue that questions of ethics reflect on their NGO status when it comes to environmental and human rights. Native Guyanese speak of the contempt and arrogance with which they were treated by the government, a government which lacked the facilities even to monitor what the multi-national corporations were doing.
It is, of course, not atypical for the Brahma Kumaris to take sides with such elites and ignore the lower caste and tribal peoples, and we know they yearn for when this "impure world" of ours will be Destroyed and so have no real concern about the environment or indigenous cultures.
At the time "Uncle" Steve and "Aunty" Betty Naraine came into contact, the BKWSU was made up of mainly uneducated old ladies, inexperienced young girls and hippie type westerners who had all dropped out and were doing meaningless jobs in order to do lots of promotion of BKism. He was a big catch for them which they were able to play off others and use as a stepping stone in their social climbing.
It does not appear to be that they question what he did for a living, nor the implications of career. He had status and one presumes wealth. It might be worthwhile to look into that.
Steve Naraine took part in the Brahmakumaris' coordinating committee dealing with international affairs meeting every year in Mt. Abu and regularly met with their "god" BapDada who had the final decision at such meetings, via trance medium.
The evolution of these official BKWSU obituaries interests me. In the old days, people would just die and that was that. It was taken care of but not celebrated and not milked for publicity purposes. "When your mother dies, eat halva" the Murlis said (meaning be happy/celebrate); the individual was the soul not the body, one was supposed to be detached from all bodily connections and unemotionally. Death was just the dropping of one costume in order to take up another and the paying off of karma.
Of course, many senior BKs *were* attached and emotional over certain individual deaths, which was surprising and suggested that perhaps their practise was not as good as it was suppose to be.
Now, these obituaries carry all the weight of portentiousness and are celebrated as if they were a state funeral. Of course, the BKs will milk them for whatever regard they can extract from whatever "Important People" inviting them to a funeral and putting on a good show.
They might even be licking their lips looking forward to some money and property coming there way in such a case, for example, his wife being given into the care of the BKs and his estate going to be used by the BKs ... but we don't know yet, so let us watch and see. It is, however, what has happened before.
I think his gold and jewels of daughters Gayatri, Sita and Savi (?) are in the Brahma Kumaris but he also has two sons Ravi Naraine and Dr. Krishna Naraine for whom he was instrumental in setting up a consulting engineering firm, SKRN Engineering. Generally as such potentially beneficial funerals, non-BK "worldly family" are given extra attention to ensure it all happens smoothly. I believe that had a home in London too, or was that just Betty?
Still building contentious roads in the rainforest, recently the Naraine son & company SKRN Engineering secured more than $312,884 USD from the Guyana for acting as “Consultancy for Construction Managers" in [url=http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2012/03/18/dr-naraine-was-paid-us230-a-day-to-watch-‘fip’-bungle-us15-4m-project/]a bungled project[/url], including $8,130 USD ($270 per day) for some 30 days of work for which his failures were criticised but family connections must have helped. The contract was prematurely terminated and subsequently handed to China Railway First Group Inc.
The average salary in the country is approx $200 USD but 43% of the population live below the poverty line. Guyana is one of the poorest countries in South America and 117th out of 187 countries on the United Nations Development Programme.
It's often interesting to ask where the top Brahma Kumaris get the money to float around being angels on. In the case of the talented and very well travelled Gayatri Naraine, she has an MA and has been the BKs' United Nations representative in New York since 1980 and developed the Living Values Education program, but I cannot remember if she has ever worked.
How does she live? Off the BKWSO or her family's wealth? She became a BK in 1975, just before the 1976 End of the World Destruction scenario and has lived in the highly expensive NYC since 1978. The BKWSU's UN Blog has had a new work over.
On the death of Steve Naraine, the Brahma Kumaris wrote:To the lights of love and hope around the globe,
My dear and sweet Sisters and Brothers,
Please accept greetings of peace from the holy land of Madhuban (Shantivan).
This is to inform you of the ascension of our beloved Brother and remarkable service companion, BK Steve Naraine, fondly known as ‘Uncle’ within the BK family, to the Subtle Region on Tuesday, 30 July 2013 at around 8.00am. He was surrounded by friends and family in Toronto (Canada).
Uncle, Aunty and their family met the BK’s when Sister Jayanti stayed in their home on her first visit to Guyana in December of 1975. According to accurate drama, Sister Jayanti travelled from London on 29 July, arriving at Uncle and Aunty’s home less than 24 hours before Uncle’s soul flew to Baba’s lap.
Throughout his Brahmin life, by remaining in Baba’s remembrance, Uncle accummulated a very large spiritual income and created a memorial for all Brahmins to take inspiration from. Uncle’s courage, faith, total accuracy in his spiritual practice, bhavna, and humility were exceptional; he rightly earned a place in the hearts of the entire Brahmin family.
Uncle’s deep interest and spiritual efforts in Raja Yoga paralleled his rise in political and diplomatic life in Guyana. He moved up the political ranks of government becoming Vice President, and then moved to India as High Commissioner of Guyana to India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
His time in India provided an opportunity for Uncle, Aunty and their children to create deep and lasting spiritual friendships with the Dadis and Senior Brothers, and especially with the Centres in Delhi where he was stationed. He was the first public official at such a high level outside of India to speak consistently and openly about the immense benefit he had taken from his practice of Raja Yoga.
Uncle and Aunty were the instruments for service in Guyana, the first service in South America, Central America and the Caribbean, and the springboard for service in the US. Dadi Gulzar, Dadi Prakashmani and Dadi Janki all visited Guyana on multiple occasions as did most of the Senior Brothers. Sister Mohini came to Guyana to support the service they had started and thus began service in the Western Hemisphere.
We in Madhuban offer our heart-felt condolences to our sweet Aunty, Sister Gayatri, Sister Savi, and the lokik and alokik families of Toronto and Guyana especially.
The funeral is scheduled for Thursday, 1 August at 10.00am in Toronto. We request the entire Brahmin family to offer their loving respects in meditation to BapDada’s dearly loved and exceptional heir-child, Uncle Steve.
On behalf of the Dadis and Madhuban family,
In Baba’s loving remembrance,
B.K. Janki
B.K. Hirday Mohini
Poison in a Lifeline. The Guyanese government has handed over vast quantity of Amerindian lands to multi-national corporations for gold and diamond mining and forestry. Corporations which then ignore, abuse and exploit the native Guyanese people.
Both the native Amerindians and former slave negros suffered. Part two, Part three.