June 13, 2023
How did we elect the leaders we have? Did we elect them, or was it by some CIA conspiracy that they were foisted upon our tiny little islands? *Sarcasm off*
Here we have it, two eminent Caribbean leaders in Andrew Holness of Jamaica and Philip Davis of The Bahamas, spoke at a Haiti’s stakeholders’ meeting to just reiterate what they have said months and even weeks ago. But have no credible steps forward to help the country that they stood up and said they want to help.
Are they just grandstanding and glory seeking for US VP Kamala Harris? Probably. Odds are they were caught up in the moment, promising things they didn’t even know they had to work at delivering. You see, now we are seeing the metal and strength, intelligence and courage of the people that lead us right here and right now.
Mr Holness said that we should focus on security in Haiti. This is fine and good, if he had not said this several weeks ago. Also it would be good of Kamala Harris had not said the same thing just last week and pledged money to support securing Haiti. You see, you may have been impressed with Mr Holness repeating something he said many moons ago, but we were no impressed. We hope that the next time he speaks on the issue of Haiti that he has some tangle steps forward on even security as he is want to remind us of.
Mr Davis, on the other hand, has a penchant for uttering glittering slogans for headlines. He said Haiti needs solutions and that they will find the solutions. How great! Well, what are some of the solutions, sir? What do you bring to the table? You have to have some running thoughts on what should be done. My God, you are an intelligent man who leads a very successful and stable country. You have to have more than just empty slogans. Those slogans are good for elections, but not for actual work and motivating people to action to do real work.
We are witnessing the shortcomings of our Caribbean leaders right before our very eyes. The vapidity is stunning. We love both men. We love all of our leaders. But we would be doing the community a disservice if we don’t challenge them to do more than just this.