THE EDITOR, Sir:MARCUS GARVEY made it clear, and Martin Luther King Jnr. concurred, that wherever a Black person struggles, all Black people struggle. It is a global struggle. To this end, the Haitian struggle for economic prosperity and social stability is a Jamaican struggle as well, not just because we are neighbours, but also because we are Black and because we are Third World.
The elements that have enforced Haiti's instability and impoverishment are the same elements that are arrayed, battle-ready, against Jamaica and the rest of CARICOM. The Haitian condition, historically and currently, is but an exaggerated caricature of every single Third World state. Haiti is full-blown colonial and neo-imperialist oppression. The rest of us are merely at varying stages on the continuum.
Heaven forbids, with our already chronically weakened state of economic and social affairs, that Jamaicans should think that we are immune. Heaven also forbids that any Black person should harbour any feelings of pseudo-security just because they live in a developed society. No doubt some who used to be "brown" in Jamaica have already found that when it comes down to brass tacks, wherever in the global village we live, we are all Black. As President Aristide has also found out, one's title or position makes absolutely no difference.
If we choose not to rally to Haiti's assistance, we would have failed not just Haiti. We would have failed every single Black person who ever struggled. We would have tarnished the memory of all our heroes and we would have failed our race and ourselves miserably. If we cannot find an enduring cure to Haiti's woes then we are all doomed to suffer the same fate, one by one. The only question that remains is 'who is next'?
I am, etc.,
STANLEY REDWOOD
stanley_redwood@yahoo.com
Middle Quarters, St. Elizabeth
Via Go-Jamaica
