Since it was decided we should be learning Spanish, we might as well learn about this word “Gringo” – which older folks would’ve learnt about from the old Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns!! It’s Spanish and means “foreigner”. Rubio’s parents fled Cuba following the rise of Fidel Castro after the Cuban Revolution!! Though he was born in Florida, he speaks fluent Spanish.
Well, it seems that good sense prevailed on Trump’s claim that Cuba was trafficking its medical personnel, and that visas would be pulled!! At Wednesday’s meeting in Jamaica, there was no grandstanding, like with Ralph Gonsalves, Keith Rowley and Mia Mottley: “Ah doan mind if dey tek away me visa, but dey’ll send away our Cuban doctors over my dead body!!” As your Eyewitness had advised Pressy here, all we should do was explain the rules under which Cuba’s medical programme operates.
Jamaica’s Holness did just that, to show there’s no trafficking and Cuba ain’t receive no money for the programme. Marco Rubio takes a hard line against the Communists in Cuba – backed off from Trump’s sanction threat against officials engaged in the Cuban doctors’ program!! Said he after the meeting with Holness: “They (Cuban medical personnel) basically operate as forced labour in many places. Now, there are places that have better labour standards; perhaps Jamaica is one of those, and that’s fine. Because of our relationship with Jamaica, we’re going to engage with them on that and…have a better understanding. Perhaps none of this applies in the way it’s handled here.”
See…whether the US insists on maintaining sanctions on Cuba, that’s THEIR business. Cuba also helps to sustain Venezuela’s oil industry – in addition to their medical system; that’s their business!! Every country would act in its own interest – AS THEY DEFINE SUCH INTEREST!!
Right now, for us, since 1962, Venezuela have defined us as an enemy because they insist that we OCCUPY Essequibo, which is theirs. It’s therefore in our interest to seek allies against the Venezuelan military juggernaut that Mad Maduro rolls out with alarming frequency!! And this is where the US and its Secty of State Rubio come in. They’ve said they would support us against Venezuela.
It doesn’t matter what are their reasons for doing this; the enemy of our enemy is our friend, and more power to them!!
…with poverty
Now, everybody and their uncle – especially those uncles now living in the US – know that we’s po’. Even our Government, which boasts about us being the FASTEST GROWIN’ ECONOMY IN THE WORLD, knows that the wealth hasn’t percolated to all individuals – so that many of us still po’. But there’s no question that, overall, we been movin’ on up!! Take how the World Bank evaluates us. When the PNC was finally ousted by the PPP in 1992, we was a Highly Indebted Poor Country. We had a 43% poverty rate that many folks earning less than US$1.25 daily was po’. Then we improved and was classified as a “Middle Income Country” – where being poor was now below US$1.90
Then, recently, we continued moving up to becoming an Upper Middle Income Country, where below $5.50 daily was po’!! So, you see where your Eyewitness is going with this?? It doesn’t matter how rich we get, the “poor” will always be with us, since the goalposts will always be movin’!!
…with the Opposition
Looks like tempers are becoming frayed in some areas over the political mobilisation for the end-of-year elections. Your Eyewitness been seein’ local political activists berating politicians entering their villages.
Hey – that’s not democracy…just don’t show up!!
