…the Haitians?
It’s like we’re living through that very first episode of the “Twilight Zone”…which introduced the trope that became a staple of movie making: Where’s everybody??! In our case, the facts in the ongoing “Case of the Missing Haitians” are undisputed and, in fact, most of them were provided by the Citizenship Minister. So for once, the Govt can’t blame the PPP for conjuring things up. In a trend that started in 2017 but has now gone off the charts, over 8000 Haitians entered our country via Copa Airlines, but just 13 exited!!
What’s going on? Enquiring minds want to know – but not your Citizenship Minister Winston Felix, whose bestie, Roger Khan, will be returning any day now!! The mind boggles at the thought of the tapes in the offing!! Right bannuh?? The PPP’s top theory is that the Haitians are being secreted in homes across our fair land, armed with all sorts of ID’s – including birth certificates. They’ll be captured in the H2H Registration (in this case, this also means “Hotel-to-Hotel” Registration!!) and be ready to vote whenever the PNC decides elections will take place!!
Now this is quite plausible – given the history of Burnham’s efforts to replicate Eric Williams’ successful feint in bringing in all those “small islanders” back in the day to tilt marginal constituencies PNM’s way. Just check those declassified CIA files from the later sixties and talk with old timers from the gold bushes on Burnham’s scheme!! Granger would’ve been in on those plans. With our bush now filled with Venezuelans, Brazilians, Chinese, what’s another 10,000 Haitians or so?? Just two seats to pip the PPP!!
In fact, Haitians will stick out less that the above-mentioned folks – once they keep their mouths shut and don’t start with all that voodoo stuff in public!! But even if the PPP are a bit too skittish, not unreasonably so— mind you in light of the rigging during the PNC’s infamous 28 years – shouldn’t we be worried that the EU will be squeezing our testicles for facilitating the Haitians to get to their overseas department of French Guiana?? Let’s not forget they’re the only folks between us and the deep blue Atlantic – through their funding of our sea defences!!
Then, of course, there’s our hard-earned rating on TIP by the US. No matter how you slice it, there are always elements of trafficking and exploitation when such huge numbers of people are moved from one country to another – secretly. What will Uncle Sam, via Aunty Sara-Ann, say? At a minimum, you’d think Felix ought to be cracking down on the human smuggling rings.
Or is he getting a piece of the action??
… “racial attacks”??
Your Eyewitness was quite taken aback – to say the least – that some of his fellow Guyanese citizens would call the exposé on the Haitian influx over the last few years a “racial attack” on “black” people. Some folks really have race on their brain!! One commentator claimed that this newspaper’s article expressing concerns about the health risks posed by the Haitians was the “dog-whistle” clincher in reaching their conclusion!!
So your Eyewitness wants to ask…isn’t Haiti the most AIDS-infected country in the Caribbean? And isn’t it then likely that some of these “entrees” are HIV-infected? And that since some of these persons will almost certainly be sexually “used”, they could spread the disease? And if the UN Nepalese troops could bring cholera to Haiti, couldn’t one of the 800,000 cholera-infected Haitians bring cholera to Guyana?? With 15+ of them packed to a room and (maybe) a bathroom, who are monitoring even basic hand-sanitation to prevent transmission here?
The problem is that some Guyanese are bent on playing the race card. Never mind it’s destroying the nation.
…the number of “returnees”?
The State-owned and Government-controlled Chronicle dealt with “The Case of the Missing Haitians” story by trumpeting that “45,000 Americans” also arrived.
They didn’t say these were practically all Guyanese-Americans, who promptly returned to the US!!
