It is reassuring the moves being made here in the GTA, and back in our homelands, to reach out with relief to Caribbean neighbours devastated by the recent hurricanes. Last week here in the GTA saw the Caribana Arts Group working together in a fundraiser with Pheonix Concert Theatre, and with DJ’s Dr Jay, Bandit, Scratch, along with other artistes and performers. Funds raised (along with non-perishable foods) will reach the affected islands via the consulates and other local organisations on the affected islands.
It is worth keeping in mind the Caribana Arts Group has set up a bank account with TD Bank. Also, drop-off locations are available for priority items as canned, dried and baby dried foods, dried and canned milk, new baby clothes, baby bottles, soap, disinfectant, pillows, bed sheets, blankets, and other items.
A similar effort is being planned by the Kaisoca Ladies cricket club of Toronto to bring help to the hurricane-ravished island of Dominica. That event comes up on October 29 and a drop-off point for food and other items has been designated (see page 16 for details).
Back in our homelands, it is heartening to note the Guyana government pledged an initial (US) $50,000 to the relief effort. Along with this, while in New York last month President David Granger indicated Guyana’s vast land mass can serve as “a gift” for relocation and rebuilding of those Caribbean nations affected by the devastation. As we know, Guyana’s land mass of 215,000 square kilometres contain a population of just over 750,000, with many more of us living abroad.
Said Granger, “We have to sit down and speak to other Caricom states to see how this gift could be utilised to give the Caribbean people a better life in the wake of these disasters.”
Granger’s idea for consultation with the rest of Caricom is a good first move. While this magnanimity is uplifting, at the same time it comes with a lot of hard work up front, which Granger’s government must be prepared to do to ensure Caricom nationals arriving in Guyana are secure, settled, and enabled.
Perhaps Granger’s offer could be a start to the region one day becoming a borderless one for Caricom nationals. What exists now under the freedom of movement provision is each national enjoys automatic right of entry into member countries for a period of six months, as long as they are not considered a security risk.
So it is with raised eyebrows we wonder at the push-back that occurred in Trinidad and Tobago when its Prime Minister Keith Rowley put out the idea nationals who could afford to do so should welcome affected Dominicans in their homes for six months. We know Rowley, like Granger, means well for those affected by the devastation of both hurricanes. Perhaps, though, unlike Granger, it was all in the delivery by Rowley that led to fallout, which has since proven to be an embarrassment across the Caribbean, not only for Trinidad and Tobago, but for us abroad as well.
No doubt it is within the reach of the higher echelons of statesmanship for a leader to remind a nation what it is like to be in the wake of devastation from a Category 5 hurricane. Also, keeping in mind the straitened circumstances many nationals in Trinidad and Tobago are undergoing with unemployment, rising prices, crime, and the stresses of living in a chronically contracted oil economy, perhaps Rowley should have anticipated the range of responses to his recommendation, among these xenophobia and this nation’s sad history with identity politics.
While there have also been positive and supportive responses from many nationals in Trinidad and Tobago, the mostly social media responses to Rowley’s remarks, laced as these were with xenophobia and other extreme, negative commentary, were embarrassing and reprehensible.
However, it is still not too late for the government of Trinidad and Tobago to lay out a more adequate and consultative response to address these concerns, with its leadership keeping in mind the need to build bridges, as Guyana is doing, that are strong and enduring with the rest of the Caribbean.