Of this and that

Editor: I must state from the outset that I am impressed with the level of print media journalism in SVG and had a great time reading all three local papers over the past weekend. Despite the fact that some stories are replicated in all papers, there are regular columns that are only found in each paper including exclusives, i.e. found in only one publication. Today I comment on issues that need to go one step further.

First is the report that Cuban medical professionals have a problem understanding English and in particular our dialect. If these medical professionals do not understand what the patient is telling them, then they can make a wrong assessment or diagnosis and based on that error, prescribe the wrong medication which can have irreversible consequences including death. Just as when Vincentians who have to study in Cuba have to spend one year learning Spanish, why can’t we demand, or politely ask, that our friends from Cuba learn English before they come here, so that they can communicate effectively and be of maximum usefulness while delivering service to our community ?

I also read online this time that an amendment was made to our laws to among other matters allow Caricom nationals to be employed as security guards in this country. This is setting a dangerous precedent and I wonder how persons in the Opposition allowed that group of ‘workers’ to be included. One could easily employ a hitman or woman from another Caricom territory to come here under the guise of a security guard, do their job and exit the country without scrutiny. Vincentians wake up !!!

With a local unemployment rate among young people hovering above 30% why should we be allowing security guards to be ‘imported’ here while we have so many young persons who can be trained to fill those vacancies. Our
local security companies ought to be the most vocal in denouncing this latest move by this government and join with the rest of the public and legal community to demand that this class of workers be struck off the list of Caricom ‘professionals’ allowed to work here.

Maduro must be cringing now that the world’s biggest bully seized his toy plane. When he announced earlier this year that Venezuela was claiming a major portion of Guyana based on a dead man’s letter, which put the
Guyanese government under duress, he must now be thinking different with the US turning on the pressure. Now mind you, I am not condoning the work of US policy makers, but ole people here have a saying that ‘every bully has his breaker’.

And finally, all TRUE RASTA, (and I don’t mean those persons who wear dreadlocks as a style), and right thinking nationals must condemn and protest against the medical marijuana fest scheduled to take place in SVG.

Local lawyers including Ronnie Marks (a former ULP Senator) and Grant
Connell have repeatedly called for the total legalization of the herb. The big contradiction is that the Vincentian petit bourgeois community can smoke the herb without fear of being arrested because they can pay over $100 for a prescription, while almost every week you read in the papers where a man is charged and in some cases jailed for not being able to pay the fines for a few pounds of weed. Peter Tosh sang “Legalize it, and don’t criticize it”.

What a country of double standards eh !

Donald De Riggs