Letter of the Day | Our silence will not protect us

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The world is on fire. Incessant bombardment of Iran, Gaza, and Lebanon, and hunger, destruction and displacement, at this moment facing the unbombed. Immigrants of colour are painted as unwanted and illegal and iced in the United States and here in our region, lest we forget, our Cuban family is under siege by blockading their fuel supply. Our mission now is to delay their starvation. Meanwhile our region has been subdued by the occupation of Venezuela. At the recent CARICOM heads of government meeting everyone felt for the people of Cuba and all spoke of Humanitarian support. But they need fuel, Guyana and Venezuela have fuel, but they cannot send it.

The people of the Caribbean from Guyana to Belize are sorrowful and hurt because we must speak in carefully constructed sentences so that maybe we will dodge a bullet. It seems that we are living cautiously. And this caution must be for some of us but not for all of us. We the people of the Caribbean will find ways to be there for you, because for many years you were here for the poorest of us, Cuban doctors made up an important part of our health care system and the remarkable teams who removed cataracts and helped us to see again.

I understand the silence. We are small countries and we have to be careful. We have to protect our own people. And so this will not be easy. Last month, a university in Nottingham England decided to start a GoFundMe link for Cuba, with the intent of raising 20 thousand pounds. The next day over seven thousand pounds were raised and the link was arbitrarily stopped and the money was taken. The mistake was the word Cuba. This is the extent of the suffocation being wrought against our Cuban brethren. Their dehumanisation is ours as well.

What will happen to the Cuban doctors now that our agreement with Cuba has apparently ended. Will you send them back now that their country is starving or pay them for their services directly. We want to know. We, both government and civil society must act not irresponsibly or defiantly but carefully, with heart, guided by a moral compass. We should find ways to be brave.

NESHA HANIFF