Dear Editor: Why must oil-rich T&T still depend on Cuba for nurses? And imagine if Sea Lots had boat party?

“[…] We have been bringing health personnel from Cuba for almost two decades. Would that money have not been better invested in training and remunerating our own? 

“One imagines the human body in Cuba is essentially the same as ours. They have built an exemplary health system under an economic blockade. We have had petro-billions flow through here during the same period. Yet look at ours…”

The following Letter to the Editor on a range of topics pertinent to Trinidad and Tobago’s fight against the Covid-19 virus was submitted to Wired868 by Rae Samuel of Balmain:

You would think that, having been a cabinet minister for so long, Terrence Deyalsingh would spot a bad idea a mile away, even if it was approaching at a slow rate.  He’s been ringside for the fall-out from Malcolm Jones’ failed Gas to Liquids project at Petrotrin, the sale of the refinery, Gary G’s appointment as police commissioner, the retention of Marlene McDonald as a minister… 

Heck, he has seen enough from inside. Yet, here, in the midst of our worst health crisis, he finds himself solemnly writing the son of a fellow cabinet minister on how to circumvent the Public Health Regulations—which he literally cries and begs us to follow. 

This is done to facilitate a boat ride at a time when infections and deaths from Covid are at an all-time high and the parallel health system is perilously close to collapse.

Let us recall how he ‘strongfully’ lambasted Samantha Ramsichand—the young lady who posed alone on a private beach, in breach of the regulations—calling her a shame. What? 

The boatload represents ‘herd immunity’ while Samantha’s act does not? Thanks for clearing that up. That explains everything. 

Can you imagine the response if this boat-staurant had taken place in Sea Lots?

The police probably have more important things to do right now anyway. Like explaining how an officer trained in the use and care of an assault rifle manages to lose it, along with two magazines, while drunk at a party—only realising this when he awoke ten hours later

The Cabinet proposes to hire 45 more Cuban nurses to assist its health care workers. We have been bringing health personnel from Cuba for almost two decades. Would that money not have been better invested in training and remunerating our own? 

One imagines the human body in Cuba is essentially the same as ours. They have built an exemplary health system under an economic blockade. We have had petro-billions flow through here during the same period. Yet look at ours! 

Rest assured also that these Cubans will not be serving under month-to-month contracts.

Why has good sense not prevailed in this issue? Because larger interests are at play. The Cabinet is at the service of larger powers and ministers, and ministries are at the beck and call of said interests—who have no interest in the greater good. 

But we must not mourn. 

We are in the midst of a bitter class struggle. As the inept Government seeks to ‘legally’ enforce vaccine mandates, it would surprise no one to hear that Terrence has found a way, along with Johnny Seukeran, to safely have Carnival 2022.

We must not despair. As Dessalines said to his fellow Haitians, when faced with the gravest of dangers ‘Take courage, I tell you, Take courage’.

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