Most of us in the Caribbean have respected the United States over the years as “our big brother” to the North that has provided the opportunity for our people to improve their lot in life.
There are millions of people in the Caribbean from Jamaica in the north right down to Guyana on the South American mainland who have chosen to live in North America with their families.
The average Caribbean man prefers to live in any of the major cities in the U.S as opposed to taking up residence in Havana, Cuba or any of the countries that were once part of the communist orbit in Eastern Europe like the Soviet Union which has diminished to become Russia, East Germany, Poland and Romania.
Our people have grown up with a certain belief that was fed to them over many decades that Cuba was bad and evil and should be shunned and avoided at all cost.
The birth of the Grenada Revolution in 1979 helped to evaporate that myth and thinking as hundreds of Cubans came to our shores to engage in all aspects of Grenadian life.
There was the contingent that came to help with the construction of what is now known as the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA), as well as help the island to seek to develop its fisheries and agro-processing industries, Sports and the medical brigade that provided a vital service to our people.
Today, Grenada can point to the scores of professional doctors, dentists, engineers and others who benefitted from free scholarships to improve on their education in Cuba.
This education has taken out hundreds of Grenadians from a life of poverty and misery to one that brought them great hope and prosperity.
One of the things that our islands in the Caribbean have in common with Cuba is our shared history of being an ex-colony of the so-called big powers.
And that is why thousands of Grenadians are upset with the backward position coming out of the new rulers in Washington to punish the Caribbean for having an association with Cuba and its Medical teams which provide a most vital and important service to us in the Third World.
Since the collapse of the Grenada Revolution and the end to the communist threat in this hemisphere, Washington no longer sees the Caribbean as a priority and the type of aid given in the past has almost dried up.
The void created by the U.S itself is now being filled by China.
Would the Trump Administration and those behind this anti-Cuba policy to significantly affect the Caribbean fill the gap that would certainly be created with an exodus of the Cuban medical personnel?
What kind of package is Washington prepared to give to the islands in the Caribbean in terms of scholarships and also the supply of medical personnel to replace the departing Cubans?
The U.S must never forget that most of the people living in the Caribbean are black and will never forget the role played by Cuba in bringing an end to White apartheid minority rule in South Africa and the liberation struggles in several African nations.
The Trump Presidency is bent on creating a new World Order with bullying tactics against U.S traditional allies and friends all over the world but especially Canada, and Europe.
It is clear to us that the Cuban medical brigade issue is now Washington’s fight with its own friends in the Caribbean.
The region is not interested in any such battle and warfare but would very much prefer to see the U.S government help us to battle the escalating crime and violence in some Caribbean capitals due to the illicit drug trade.
It is the huge appetite of the Americans that is continuing to fuel the drive of the drug cartels that are increasingly using our islands to channel tonne loads of cocaine and other illicit drugs into the United States.
The killings on a daily basis in places like Jamaica, Trinidad, St Lucia and some of the other islands are gang-related with “the bad boys” fighting for control of the local turf but more so the major routes to get their drugs up North and into the biggest market place in the world for “the goods’.
The Trump administration should make sure that the U.S do much more to help stem the drug trade that is a major threat to the national security of most of the islands in this part of the world that it considers to be its backyard.
THE NEW TODAY wish to laud those Caribbean Prime Ministers – Dickon Mitchell in Grenada, Mia Mottley in Barbados and Dr. Ralph Gonsalves in St Vincent and the Grenadines to stand on their feet on the Cuban issue and not go down on their knees to bow to the demands of the new controllers in Washington.
Let us all associate ourselves with the words of the Barbados Prime Minister: “This matter, with the Cubans and the nurses, should tell us everything that we need to know. Barbados does not currently have Cuban medical staff or Cuban nurses, but I will be the first to go to the line and to tell you that we could not get through the pandemic without the Cuban nurses and the Cuban doctors.
I will also be the first to tell you that we paid them the same thing that we pay Bajans, and that the notion, as was peddled not just by this government in the U.S., but the previous government, that we were involved in human trafficking by engaging with the Cuban nurses was fully repudiated and rejected by us.
Now, I don’t believe that we have to shout across the seas, but I am prepared, like others in this region, that if we cannot reach a sensible agreement on this matter, then if the cost of it is the loss of my visa, to the U.S., then so be it.
But what matters to us is principles. And I have said over and over that principle only means something when it is inconvenient to stand by it. Now we don’t have to shout, but we can be resolute. And I therefore look forward to standing with my CARICOM brothers, I wish I could say brothers and sisters, but brothers, to be able to ensure that we explain that what the Cubans have been able to do for us, far from approximating itself to human trafficking, has been to save lives and limbs and sight for many a Caribbean person.”