Another home coming

Time does really fly in truth. Come Wednesday next week, it would be exactly one year since ah left our beautiful Shores to go foh medical treatment (Raid-he-hear-shun foh pass-straight cancer) in Canada.

Ah had three options, Trin-dad, Canada and de USA. At de time ah piece ah bad publicity surfaced, dat over one hundred patients were over-radiated by mistake at ah Trin-dad Hospital. So Chin-dad was ah No-Saw!{{more}}

De US route had too much ah rig-mah-roll, de main ting was having to travel to Bo-bathe-us to get ah US Visa, dat trip to B’dos would ah cost about EC $2, 000. 00. In de meantime ah had met ah specialist from de USA foh ah second opinion, and he told me dat ah lot ah patients from de US going to Canada foh de treatment, it was cheaper and de Canadians were on top ah de ball, dey doing ah good job in de treatment ah Cancer. And dey was no Visa requirements. Tell me no more ah said, it was “Canada all de way!”

Ah got me-self ah new, genuine, SVG Citizenship Passport, book me passage, ah pack me suite-case, armed wid me plane ticket and Passport, ah jump pon de plane and ah was gone: “Ready or not, Canada here I come!”

Ah got into Canada near mid-night, de line to de Immigration Officer was long, but people were passing thru like when yuh returning from one ah dem boat-ride to Bequia. Ah was still worried, wondering how ah could enter such ah developed country wid no doc-yuh-mint, no Visa, not even ah lickle piece ah paper to say: “Yes, yuh could spend de eight weeks till yuh treatment done.” When it was my time, ah pull out more documents dan way bun up in de fire at de Financial Complex: “Passport, Police Record, Bank Statement, Medical Report, Job Letter from me-self.”

De Immigration Officer was kind-ah-young, about my age, he look at me, he obviously saw in me ah nervous ole joker, looking suspicious, no doubt ah suitcase full ah drugs, but he calmly said : “Only your passport please.” He stamped it so hard, ah say to me-self like he give me permanent residence right ah way!

Wid such ah warm intro to Canada, no hassle, no body search, no nothing; yuh could just imagine how spirit-broken ah feeling to hear dat Vincentians will now have to apply foh ah Visa to enter Canada. Ah release outlines de Canadian Guv-ah-mint’s concern about asylum claims and fraudulent travel documents; stating also dat documents from St Lucia and St Vincent are “unreliable” because “criminals from these countries can legally change their names and acquire new passports.” Yes we showing how we could beat ah genuine system, yet we hearing so much talk from dis ULP Guv-ah-mint bout our Citizenship Passport is not foh sale.

But ley we nah fool we-self, is long time de Canadian Immigration gunning foh we, long time! Remember all dem scandal-us story about SVG being Top in Rape or is it Rape at de Top!

Remember too, de story dat was on de front page ah de “Toronto Star” ah leading paper up dey? How SVG was de wuss place foh women to live, staring was ah vincy woe-man, Catch-yuh-raw Cupid who had tried foh refugee status and was unsuccessful.

She was listed among hundreds ah Vincy woe-men who were fleeing domestic violence in SVG, rated among de highest in de world. Not only dat, de story also stated dat de figures for Vincentians who sought asylum in Canada jumped from 179 in 2001, to 710 in 2010, and between 2001-2010 (under ULP rule) de total was 4, 500.

But ah suppose we could treat dis “set-back” more positively and have ah warm Home Coming foh our deported brothers and sisters; well-come, nobody could deport yuh from hey, is ah P.T. de Argyle International Airport ain’t ready yet, we have good Guv-on-ants, to hell wid de backward IMF, de E-com-me is doing well, we are tops in de negative growth, four years in a row; de doing so well dat our public servants not even bothering to mek noise foh de three percent due dem nearly two years now. In fact tings so good we have money till we could lend Grenada five million, and when dey offered to pay back, we re-lent dem whenever “Till-man” could pay.

Good ole and sweet Kay-blue-why-less tun sour “Lime,” dey lay off 15 wukers dis month, but nah worry, wuk along de side roads and drains booming; tell dem up dey we naar tun back, come home ley we Labour Now!

And wid dat, is gone ah gone again!

One Love Bassy.

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.