By Peter Polack

Peter Polack

Cassandra, the Greek myth of a a woman cursed to tell truths that no one believes, must resonate throughout the islands of the Caribbean.

A United Nations Development Programme report estimated that Caribbean countries suffered a 17% annual loss to their GDP because of storms. It went on to state that: 

“since 1950, 324 disasters have taken place in the Caribbean, inflicting a loss of over 250,000 lives and affecting over 24 million people.”

It would not require much more imagination and innovation to understand that the Caribbean must plan for concrete and steel housing not metal box solutions. To do otherwise would be to disregard official reports and well, common sense.

There is also the secondary problem that aid from the United States is no longer dependable for financial support. The same applies to the European nations who are struggling to oppose the existential war in the Ukraine that, unlike proper government planning, are not of their own doing. Although less than 1% of budgets, overseas aid will soon disappear and nations of the Caribbean must prepare to paddle their own canoe without those oars.

Grandiose Caribbean dreams like underground electric utilities or undersea communication cables are not achievable by small, but rich, nations and for sure off the table for the bigger countries. Preparedness must be the new primacy and proper planning the new road.

What is achievable is not storm resistant housing but resilient structures imposed on society to face next year disasters with a solid wall, not thin metal. A secondary imperative would be the wholesale promotion of mass use of solar systems, not massive loans to Asian owned energy corporations, a default position for underground electricity.

The rush for prompt action and recovery is becoming an annual event that commands resilient spending by governments and patience by residents who must understand the virtue of coming out of regular disasters, mostly unscathed.

The new Caribbean paradigm of substantive seven day recovery only requires a forward thinking government not a reactive scramble by departments and institutions.

Longevity in the Caribbean isn’t just infrastructure, it’s people believing their islands are worth staying in. That requires safety, opportunity, and a sense of agency. When young people see homes that can withstand storms, systems that actually function, and leaders who anticipate rather than react, they invest back into their communities instead of leaving.

The prevention penny may have to become a dollar but it is doable.

Think on it. We have eleven months.

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.