Mark Wignall | No cards to play with the Cuban doctors

It would be socio-political torture for our people to believe that Prime Minister Holness and his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) members of government don’t personally need Cuban medical care so they can afford to play mind games with us because they believe we are little fools. In reality, they have private doctors, health insurance, and can go overseas for medical care as they often do.

Most Jamaicans do not have ready access to private doctors as the fees required are burdensome, and for overseas medical care, economically just about impossible. When all is added up, it seems that the Government doesn’t care. If that is not so, can the Government mount a sound argument to convince us that they acted in the interest of the people at all times and we are the ones drowning in negative perceptions?

First, Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith must have known that she was embarrassing herself when she tried to sell us the idea that the ending of the 49-year- old Cuban medical programme has nothing to do with the US. Try again, Mrs Johnson Smith. Maybe at your next attempt we will laugh for two seconds.

Even with our eyes wide shut we can see that the lady’s attempt to stretch the truth has failed. When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio came to Jamaica last year, the issue of the Cuba medical personnel was brought up by him. He told the PM and others to end the programme when it was up for renewal. This was a case of the mighty US telling Jamaica what to do. This was not a debate. It was a directive issued in the age of imperialist Donald Trump.

Jamaica had no cards to play and had to submit. Question: Why did the Government not immediately seek out alternatives? Instead, it seems like DrHolness and his team of competent ministers and bureaucrats were caught napping when real action was needed. Now, they are trying to recruit to fill the void when they should have been proactive and have a solid plan in place.

Detest the Cuban regime or not, their doctors and medical personnel have been invaluable to Jamaica and other Caribbean countries. Thousands of Jamaicans have benefited, especially those from the forgotten, poorest rungs of Jamaican society. One cannot be sure that Dr Chris Tufton, our Minister of Health and Wellness, is aware of the long lines of senior citizens islandwide waiting, many while standing, for care inside Jamaica’s poor medical services and overstretched resources.

The Government was on notice from last year. The PM mumbled something about the Cuban medical personnel not having access to their travel documents. Did they have access to such documents in 2024 and for 48 years before that?

Some of our people, including me, have praised our PM for standing up to the US, but the truth is, with significant lead time, Team JLP did nothing. Where action is demanded, rhetoric, however sound, falls flat.

DEVIOUS, CALCULATING TRUMP

Since the US attacked Iran and started a most destructive war, the Epstein saga has been put to the side and quieted down, just as it was heating up and bothering the president a lot. Since the war started, the bad economic news has been put to the side.

Since the war started, attention has shifted from the US Supreme Court decision that found the tariffs Trump imposed did not meet constitutional muster, and many business folks are clamouring for refunds. But the war has drowned out the bad news and dulled the impact of the Supreme Court decision.

It is no coincidence that Trump attacked Iran when he did. At times, Trump may be seen as purely a buffoon and an idiot, but if we are fair in our judgements, we have to conclude that it is the work of a devious, calculating man. And, of course, he is the world’s most dangerous human being.

GAS PRICE INCREASE

From Wikipedia: “In October 1973, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) announced that it was implementing a total oil embargo against countries that had supported Israel at any point during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began after Egypt and Syria launched a large-scale surprise attack in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover the territories that they had lost to Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.”

In the great oil crisis of 1973, I was 23 years old, and the year before, 1972, I had bought my first car, a six-year old Renault Gordini for J$600. That year, 1972, gas price increased from J$.40 per gallon at the pump in Jamaica to J$1.20. The Manley government, along with drivers, found themselves in a major social, economic, and political crisis.

There are two items on the war calendar that Donald Trump failed to factor in that will impact global oil prices and the American people. The first is the Strait of Hormuz.

From Wikipedia: “... it provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world’s most strategically important choke points.”

The second is the killing of Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei. There was hardly anything good even Iranians had to say of Khamenei, but once the US killed him, America was seen all over again as the Great Satan. All of the sleeper terrorist cells Iran had in America awakened. Every American became a target.

It seems impossible to jam up oil tanker movement in the Strait of Hormuz without oil price shocks resulting. And the sleeper cells of radical Islamists are now imbued with the fervour of Fatwah. Many of us remember the 1989 Fatwah on Salman Rushdie and how he had to spend his life in hiding.

Trump’s policy personnel are not the brightest people in the American political system, and those in Congress are too afraid of him to offer guidance that differs from his ‘feelings’ on key geopolitical scenarios.

As the price of oil heads upwards and large gatherings of Americans become ready targets, Congress may eventually decide to pull the brakes on Trump before death and economic earthquakes show their awful faces.

By then it may be too late, but it will be better than never.

Mark Wignall is a political and public affairs analyst. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mawigsr@gmail.com.