Dear Editor,
Because of the events happening so quickly around the world, I hasten to ask: Where is our humanity? The biggest failure of this appalling scenario is playing right before our eyes and the many agencies who should be there for people in crisis seem not to be adequately heeding the urgency of these separate situations.
To me the most heart-wrenching of all is the plight of the Rohingya people. Almost no one in the political world seems to be putting enough pressure on the Myanmar government and moreso on Aung San Suu Kyi to explain exactly what caused these people to leave that country. This is a crime against humanity. Unlike the European refugees who chose to leave their countries, these poor people of Myanmar have been driven out of their homes.
Bangladesh is not preventing humanitarian and food agencies from entering the country, so where are they? The Rohingya seem to have become today’s untouchables. And shame on India for wanting to put them out of that country also. Where is our humanity?
Coming closer to home, Caricom heads once proposed a regional security system to help sister countries experiencing disasters of all kinds.
Now, over twenty years later, with the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, there has been no common and concerted action to help those people in need. Instead we see leaders wasting time and money on fact-finding missions instead of having the Caricom Secretary General convene an emergency conference call of all available heads on this grave and urgent issue. Where then is the unity in Caricom? What is its purpose?
This has not erased one iota of my long-standing conviction – Cari-com and Cari-go.
Yours faithfully,
Gloria Lye
