A delicious political, dangerous but valid claim

On this extraordinary occasion, my attorneys-at-law will be Ms. Aneisa Oumerally and her colleague and spouse Mr. Selwyn Baboolal.

Aneisa’s father, my distinguished and senior colleague, the famous Dr. Oumerally will be my Consulting Mangologist.

I have never been one to live dangerously, so I will rely heavily on this team of experts in their respective fields to protect, defend and support me in the perilous endeavour on which I am about to embark.

The Caribbean Camera, its owner / publisher, and its editor all disavow any responsibility or liability for the contents of this commentary. They do not affirm or deny, in any form or fashion, the veracity or authenticity of the scientific or cultural aspects of this document.

From that strictly legal point of view, I am on my own. Even the members of my team of experts enjoy total and absolute indemnity for this commentary.

Let me state from the beginning that I do not for one second depart from my well-known opinion that the Mango Vert, also known as Mango Vere and Long Mango, is the tastiest, sweetest and most versatile mango of all.

This opinion is cast in stone. My professional training and expertise were intimately engaged in arriving at this conclusion. I earned my B.Sc. in Mangology at age nine and my M.Sc. at 11. The only reason for the delay that resulted in my achieving my Ph.D. at the ripe old age of 13 was the fact I was enjoying the course work, the laboratory testing and the field work so much that I did not complete my doctoral dissertation until then.

I completed my studies for all three degrees at the Caribbean Regional Headquarters of the University of Life, in the People’s Republic of Belmont, an autonomous polity in the Federal Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

Given all those considerations that I have just spelt out in some detail, the central claim that I am making today, with unrestricted audacity and “bold-facedness”, is that the Mango Starch is tastier, sweeter and closer to heavenly ecstasy than the Mango Julie (also called Mango St. Julian).

Bear in mind that I have already inferred that both these delights cannot possibly surpass the spiritual flavours exotically embedded in the Mango Vert.

Furthermore, Dr. Oumerally, whose current rank is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mangology of the University of Life, wholeheartedly endorses the Mango Vert as the number one contender.

Secure and confident in this conviction about the utter superiority of the Mango Vert, I have never before condescended to get involved in the comparative merits of the Mango Julie and the Mango Starch.

Though I never got around to doing much of the post-doctoral research that attracted me over the years, I did sing the praises of the other members of the elite club. The Mango Bombay, in my not so humble opinion, is the pride and joy of India, home to the world’s oldest and most valuable heritage in the field of Mangology.

Moreover, I share the enthusiasm of the millions of Mangologists and Mango addicts who continuously remind us of their own favourites: Mango Calabash, Graham, Basterpool, Zabrico, War, Dou-Douce, Table, Spice, Teen and Sucer-Ma-Tante.

So the question that now arises is this: Why have I now decided to get into the most controversial issue among Mango lovers in T&T?

At the risk of offending many of my friends and even losing some of them, I have to give a straight answer that can be validated by scientific and empirical evidence: Mango Julie is a grafted mango and therefore is a manmade creation that is not genetically stable.

Simply put, a Mango Julie, depending on the specific tree from which it comes, can be exquisitely sweet, or slightly watery, or it can even be spoilt by a bitterish taste or by thick roots within the flesh of the fruit itself.

But Mango Starch is a genus of its own, not a product of human intervention.

Dear former friends, members of the majority group that swears by the Mango Julie, the facts are regrettably incontrovertible.

I rest my case.