Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
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The journey facing us in these (once-upon-a time) Spice Isles, cannot be over-exaggerated - in terms of coming human hardships of all varieties, of making sacrifices and being very humble, and above all else of exercising patience and deep tolerance.
Obviously and quite naturally, different personalities will be affected very differently. In addition thereto, some of us are better equipped to face the hardships and whatever else maybe coming, for a variety of reasons.
And although many of us may have faced very stressful hardships in the past, and are therefore more able than most to take things easy - as one of my former jail mates used to tell me, almost every night the cell doors were slammed shut with us inside the detention centre we shared at Richmond Hill Prison, “Bro. Lloyd, it is not easy, to take it easy.”
From that experience, I do realize and understand how a whole lot of our people who have lived through “Ivan the Terrible “are feeling and reacting now-a-days.
I could say that a lot of what is now happening depends on one’s faith; another person’s strength and resilience; and among the very practical or realists - those persons’ acceptance of the physical reality, that stress and worry and sleepless nights cannot and will not change anything.
The only change that has manifested itself since Ivan, especially among the elderly in our midst, is that a lot more persons have passed on to the great beyond, by very sudden deaths from one cause or another.
But whatever I may say, in terms of trying to help others come to grips with the reality facing them, the very basic fact and fundamental position will remain the same always.
And that is, for the majority of those ordinary little people who have lost their roofs, or their humble wooden homes and everything contained therein, they cannot even begin to understand, much less accept, the nice sounding phrases about how resilient they are, while their little homes remain in shambles.
Those unfortunate folks have been hearing, like the rest of us, of all sums of millions of dollars (ECC and US) coming to Grenada in relief aid from all over the world.
Important and well meaning people have been visiting our ravaged Island, and our Government Ministers have been traveling to various cities to address groups and meet other Government Ministers - all in the drive for more aid and assistance of one kind or another.
But still after seven weeks I have not heard of one single pre-fab house donated to a homeless family island-wide.
The pavements and road sides have to be cleared and cleaned up; the rotting woods and branches and old galvanize have to be removed and dumped somewhere. And in that exercise I must commend those Trini brothers and sisters in their blue uniforms, who are doing a fantastic job in restoring our city of St. George’s to order and cleanliness.
Like their countrymen in T&T, they are true ambassadors of the CARICOM unification we hear so much about.
All those aspects are necessary and have to be undertaken - but they do not go to the core of the problems facing us; the treatment of our less fortunate people living under sub-human conditions must be addressed urgently, as a very pressing short-term issue.
Those people, who are the ones with the bigger families usually, not only have no homes but the majority have no earning capacity - because in most cases the little gardens they farm to earn a living have also been ravaged.
These people do not have the contacts, or other means, to even make a start in clearing the rubble from the house spots they occupied. And needless to say, many are elderly - and many others have teenage children in those conditions.
It seems to me that the aid being sent to Grenada in cash should be utilized to help those families regain some dignity in their living conditions.
With all the hundreds of school leavers, many in the Imani programme, the Government should have had loads of them in every village and parish preparing a full list of names of family and dependents, of the damage suffered and basic needs to be replaced.
Instead of all the repetitive ole talk, if the above was done as the immediate short term exercise, hundreds of families would be by now receiving the humble replacement homes that are so desperately needed all over the country.
I know that certain countries have given cash donations to Government that could easily be used for the above solution. The people in those desperate situations are not asking for fancy buildings and modern conveniences; they do not expect concrete structures and re-furnished homes - although that would be so very nice.
They understand the island-wide situation facing us all, so they are grateful for small mercies.
I am able to speak from personal experience. One of my principals at St. George’s University (my client) sought my advice as to how he can help some families directly. Acting on that advice he made some monies available to help about fifty families in the six parishes in Grenada.
The sum allocated for St. John was entrusted to me, and I checked out seven very needy families and visited and gave each a donation to help start the re-building process to replace their homes.
They were so moved by the gesture - from a total stranger they will never see in their village - that I only wish I had some of the millions in aid monies we keep hearing about, to repeat the same elsewhere.
Their spontaneous response was - may the good Lord richly bless that generous man and his family, which I will surely convey to that very caring person.
The sums for the other parishes were entrusted to a very, very, reliable person, so am sure some needy families will have benefited in the other five.
It is all very well to plan for the future – although the strangest thing about human, beings generally, but we in these Isles especially, is that we always waiting until the damage is done to start worrying about future damages.
In other words, we seem never ready to learn from others mistakes or suffering, and often times not even from our own tragedies of the past.
All the meetings of these engineers and other qualified personnel in the building industry are perhaps very justified for the long term scenario. Although even then, their findings and recommendations will only apply to a very small section of our home owners - since the chattel (board) house owners cannot be thought of in that group and they are in the majority.
And in any case the aid that is being provided by donors anywhere, for victims of the Ivan ravages, are to be spent on those victims now - and goodness knows there are thousands out there.
Putting a shelter over people’s heads is a number one priority, I submit; but of co-equal importance is providing opportunities for those same people to start earning their daily bread, to be able to feed their families. The food parcels are temporary, and are already beginning to dry up as expected.
If the shelter needs are satisfied speedily, these same people can and will be better placed to help themselves to facilitate the earnings process. But if all the emphasis is placed on these middle and long term goals, and those two critical areas of shelter and daily earnings are not given priority status, we could be carelessly laying the foundations for serious social unrest in the months ahead.
What is just as critical, in my view, is the whole question of accountability and publication thereof. And accountability in this context must be two fold - the first is to openly acknowledge receipt of how much and who from, and the second is to state publicly the purpose for which it was spent. And the rationale behind that level of giving due account, is that having displayed such frankness and due diligence with the initial donation, it would be a very powerful precedence for justifying further donations to complete the remaining needy cases.
A large cross-section of people Island-wide, are sharing similar views with me on a daily basis, so it is not a case of me trying to find fault and nothing else. A whole lot of concerned citizens are just as concerned about this matter, but getting them to go public remains a major shortcoming in the whole process of creating a vibrant and vigilant public opinion platform - which is the hall-mark of a functioning and people-oriented democracy.
I do hope that one of the many lessons we have learned from the horrors of “Ivan” is that we cannot remain in our own little corner, and say and do nothing about what has taken and is taking place around us.
And I am referring here to happenings in our public administration sector, as well as in the private business and services areas that cater to the public.
But these should not include idle gossip and malicious rumours about people’s private lives - nor should they be fashioned for purely political opposition tendencies from either side. We have a devastated country and a badly traumatized people to rebuild and rehabilitate – we cannot achieve either goal by fighting, and selfishness, and vindictiveness, and endless talking with no implementing.
Friends and neighbours in the region, and people worldwide have been very kind and generous to us in our darkest days, but they do not owe us maintenance for all times. The best way to show our gratitude as a people is to utilise those gifts and services and whatever else for the improvement and betterment and restoration of our citizens’ pride and dignity, regardless of religious, political or social status.
The time for scoring points, or hogging the limelight, or proving who is the boss and in charge, is not now.
Rather, now is the time to cut out the ole tale, and endless meetings, and attempts at defending the many public allegations by denials. The time is long overdue to stop talking and start doing.
And while we are in the mood for thanksgiving and uniting and reconciliation, we must not forget that twenty-one years have now passed by since those seventeen men and one woman have been incarcerated at Richmond Hill Prison, for the 1983 political upheavals.
Thirty one jail years is an over long period of punishment, for wrongs that hundreds more were just as guilty of, and for a sentence from a trial that was riddled with irregularities as well as flagrant breaches of the laws of the land.
If what we are thanking the Almighty for, and asking for our own forgiveness for having offended Him, are truly and sincerely meant, then at least we owe it to ourselves to set the record straight, and wipe the slate clean by letting bygones be bygones, so that we can honestly commence the recovery and rebuilding process for the long term.
Keeping those guys in prison, after all we have heard and seen and now experienced from “Ivan”, is almost line prolonging an agony that is crying our to the Almighty for vengeance.
We have heard and seen enough talking and procrastinating - let the action begin.
Lloyd Noel is a former Attorney General of Grenada, prominent attorney at law and political commentator.
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