Polack Post: Caribbean and World Community- Missing In Action
Peter Polack
By Peter Polack
The Melissa hurricane disaster has left a trail of hopelessness behind, not only in mostly Western Jamaica but in the Caribbean as a whole and further afield.
That hopelessness has now become reflected in the risible financial support from a country that used all the resources of Jamaica for over three hundred years as well as the labour of their imported inhabitants under the most brutal conditions.
The United Kingdom originally declared support of 2.5 million pounds, latterly increased by 5 million to a total of 7.5 million or almost US$ 10 million. This amounts to the sum of almost US$34,000 per year for the English occupation and use of Jamaica from 1655-1962 or 307 years.
It is not inclusive of reparations.
The famous sugar and rum fortunes also underpin the largesse of many British family and institutional fortunes even today. Some educators and even churches have caved in to their cumulative consciences but regrettably, a drop in the bucket.
The new wind of correctness has been led by the forthright former BBC presenter, Laura Trevelyan who has not vacillated before doing the right thing. Beauty and the beast.
Others, large and small, should follow.
There is no time in the unfortunate history of British responsibility for slavery in the Caribbean to make amends and turn a new page like the present. It would go a long way from the ridiculous referral of the reparations question to the Privy Council. More horse hair and hot air.
The wholesale reconstruction of Jamaica, was promised in 2015 by UK Prime Minister David Cameron who stated:
“We want to help the Caribbean on their path of development – supporting economic growth and creating new opportunities for people living here.That’s what this £300 million infrastructure fund is all about. It will help to fund upgrades to ports, new roads and new bridges – making it easier here for businesses to trade with one another and with the rest of the world. And it will help benefit British businesses too who have the knowledge and expertise to deliver the infrastructure improvements needed.”
This was reinforced by the UK government declaration in 2017 to set up a private sector Task Force to help long-term reconstruction in countries and territories hit by Caribbean hurricanes under the heading, UK leads the way to build back better after Hurricanes.
It would be laughable if not so tragic in the present day.
The Caribbean community, British Commonwealth and European Union have all become a communal shame.
Help now. Help urgently. Help big.
Notes
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-deploys-urgent-hurricane-relief-to-the-caribbean
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-leads-the-way-to-build-back-better-after-hurricanes
Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer from the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88.
His views are his own.
