Polack Post: Caribbean U.K.Territories – Smoke and Mirrors
Peter Polack
From Peter Polack
The U.K. Minister for Overseas Territories recently visited the Cayman Island to much local kowtowing as he pronounced the mother country’s concern for crime, migrants and that reliable old chestnut, illicit financing. There was no mention of health.
Almost simultaneously the U.K. government was refusing help to an elderly woman from one of their colonies, Montserrat. This beleaguered country has still not recovered from a massive volcano eruption forcing many of their citizens to find unwelcome refuge in England. Even illegal migrants receive a hotel bed for the night.
What are the people of British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands and elsewhere to make of the swift removal of the welcome mat in their time of need.
The besieged police commissioner from Cayman recently despatched key personnel to help his fellow colonials at the direction of the U.K.. None came from the U.K.
Between a rock and a hard place.
The people of British Overseas Territories, who are mostly black, need to reassess their relationship with their betters in London.
All the pronouncements from responsible ministers and their local stooges must of necessity be disregarded in favor of the cold, hard reality.
Unwelcome at any time, at any cost.
Thankfully, Caribbean people still part of an obsolete monarchy and colonial empire have received a brief glimpse of the true relationship without smoke and mirrors.
The voices in waiting, some of whom are blinded by the oncoming lights from the luxury cars of a gated community where the elite reside, may speak.
They may, however, resume reliance on the anonymous donkeys drifting in and out of the comments section. Placebos for every man,woman and child.
But the Consul’s brow was sad,
And the Consul’s speech was low,
And darkly looked he at the wall,
And darkly at the foe.
Their van will be upon us
Before the bridge goes down;
And if they once may win the bridge,
What hope to save the town?
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, LORD MACAULAY
Notes
Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands for several decade. 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.
