Ease The Squeeze – PLEASE!

Last week Wednesday, 1st November, a vote took place at The United Nations. It was one that customarily takes place with little notice, and is usually soon forgotten. On this occasion, however, that vote attracted attention from a number of countries and persons who are quite perturbed by the erratic, callous and generally irresponsible behaviour of the incumbent President of The United States of America.

From early in the Cuban Revolution, The United States imposed, and has kept in place, an embargo against that country. It is one which was supposed to have squeezed them into submission and acceptance of America’s demands, and also to restore some of America’s pride after the utter humiliation and severe embarrassment which they suffered at The Bay of Pigs fiasco.

Instead the embargo had the opposite effect. It has stiffened the Cuban people’s resolve and full determinationnot to give in to The US, even though, in the process, they and their country have experienced some terrible sufferings.But, in order to survive and grow, the people of Cuba devised and implemented novel ways of working with the other countries of the world, thereby acquiring some new and useful skills and an enhanced ability to survive.
For decades the vast majority of the world’s nation states have been calling on The US to lift the embargo and ease the sufferings which it has needlessly inflicted on Cuba and its people. In reality it is a failed policy. For several years only two other nations had voted with them, namely Israel and Palau, but in 2015 only Israel did so.

In keeping with President Obama’s efforts to normalise US relationships with Cuba, when the vote came up at The United Nations in 2016 the United States abstained, and only Israel voted to keep the Cuban embargo in place. It was a truly historic moment, and also one which lent great encouragement and strength to President Obama’s efforts to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, his state visit, and the eventual re-opening of the US Embassy in Havana which had been closed for decades.

The late Comrade Fidel Castro had predicted that America would seek to normalise relations with Cuba only when there was a Pope from a Latin American country, and a black president in The United States. His prediction came to pass.

But then something way outside of the ordinary happened. In January of this year Donald Trump became president of The United States and, when the 2017 vote came up at the UN, the world witnessed The US reverting to the abandoned policy and their return to voting in favour of maintaining the embargo in force against Cuba. The world groaned, audibly, at the obvious setback.

It was yet another of Trump’s arbitrary efforts to undo any and everything achieved by Barrack Obama and destroy the legacy of America’s first black president.

The appropriate words with which to accurately and adequately describe Donald Trump and his behaviour are yet to be invented.

For the sake of our brothers, sisters and cousins in Cuba, we hope and pray that good sense may once again prevail.

So, what does any of this have to do with St. Kitts and Nevis, most everyone would ask? The answer is in several parts. Like ourselves the people of Cuba are Caribbean. Therefore we have to care for and be concerned about them as we do for all other people of the region, and, additionally, the Cubans have always been very good to us in so many different ways.

Another consideration is that whatever the United States does to one it can do to all. Whatever they do to the least of our brothers that they do also to us.
And yet another part of it all is the almost exact pattern of events and behaviours which obtain and drive affairs simultaneously in Washington, DC and Basseterre. The narcissistic personality disorder which is wreaking havoc in DC quite clearly also afflicts us here in SKB.
It would be foolhardy of us were we to ignore the one or the other.

Trump and his lot seemingly conned their way into power mainly with the help of political propaganda founded on lies, especially about opponents, deceit, misrepresentation of facts, and appeals to the lowest instincts of their followers. Likewise SCHEME UNITY here at home.

With each passing day it becomes clearer that the Trump campaign sought and obtained outside (extra-national) help. So too did our lot.

They made countless promises to the American people on the basis of loose talk, numerous proposals, projects and programmes, none of which ever had the benefit of careful study and evaluation, and hundreds of ‘feel-good’ ‘ideas’ which were always out of touch with reality.

Again, it was the very same approach and methodologies which were employed here in St. Kitts and Nevis.

The parallels seem endless. In DC the administration is beset by scandal after scandal. With each passing week such matters worsen. Reports abound of professional persons who have resigned from governmental positions because they do not want to have their names become embroiled in scandal and lose their professional standings. Likewise here in Basseterre.

Now the realities are setting in. Trump and The GOP have not been able to get even one serious piece of legislation to be passed by the US Congress. Why? Because every one of their attempts fails to find favour with the voters back in their home states. The lies which they parade throughout the campaign are now being shown up for what they really are.
As a consequence more and more people have become frustrated, disillusioned and turned off. Hence the Democrats outstanding performances across the land in Tuesday’s off-year elections.

Here at home the failure to perform is based on the deceptions to which our people were treated, the emptiness of the myriad promises, the unrealistic nature of SCHEME UNITY’s efforts, coupled with the sheer incompetence and ineptitude of a government which is clueless, heartless and hopeless.

And just as the people of America are suffering, so too are the people of St. Kitts and Nevis, but on a far worse scale.

Every day we learn of more and more persons being turned away from their jobs because they support Labour or The NRP. Persons in the Civil Service, Teaching Service and other branches of government are being pressured into criminal behaviour, and when they refuse to comply they are victimised in some most wicked ways, either by being transferred or re-posted with last minute notices, pushed aside and given nothing to do, or by being ‘dismissed’ outright, and without just cause.

In addition to all of that the economy continues on its downward spiral. The cost of living continues to rise exponentially without any commensurate increases in pay or cost of living allowances. And, to add insult to injury, while the many are being subjected to such mistreatment and deprivation of a living, the few, the family members in particular, continue to rip-off the country and enjoy the ‘high life’.

The pressure is enormous. Our people simply cannot take much more of it, and, before things get out of hand, so to speak, we call on those in office to look at the plight of our people, on both islands, and implore them to have a heart.
We call on them to Ease The Squeeze – PLEASE!