Britain has obligations to the devastated Caribbean that it must honour
WE should all reflect with deep sympathy on the tragic circumstances imposed on the people of the Caribbean in the wake of Hurricane Irma and seek ways to contribute to disaster relief (“Florida remains in eye of storm as Irma heads north along peninsula”, The Herald, September 11).
In the Caribbean deadly and destructive hurricanes are almost an annual phenomenon at this time of year.
Yet despite major improvements in forecasting, disaster management and higher levels of construction standards, we are still witnessing tragic outcomes.
The Caribbean regional common market organisation Caricom has established the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) with disaster resilience, training and shared resource management as some of its goals. The UK has substantial interests in the Caribbean, both current and historical.
Many thousands of British tourist enjoy the Caribbean. No doubt this Conservative Government in particular will have taken notice of the massive damage to the British Virgin Islands where many billions of pounds in British offshore funds are harboured.
But it is the horrendous human tragedy that should drive British concerns.
The UK Government should have substantial stored emergency equipment and supplies within the region. The Department for International Development should have a strategic relationship with CDEMA offering regular funding, training and resources. What I have known is support for CDEMA from Canada, Japan and the EU: what is the UK contribution?
But there is more. When we see the horrific images of massive infrastructure damage the viewer would have noticed that total destruction (“like a bomb”, said one correspondent) is found in the board and zinc sheet housing while the concrete and steel bar or steel frame buildings remain standing.
As one who spent more than 30 years across the Caribbean I can assert that the insecure wooden dwellings, shops and churches belong to poor black people and that the wealthy (and virtually all of the white population) will dwell in the more secure concrete block structures. This is a social disaster created not by hurricanes but by history, with Britain and its empire making that history in the Caribbean. Yes, there were, indeed are, others complicit in this tragic history but in the context of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, and Turks and Caicos, Britain has direct responsibility while, with Antigua, Barbuda, and the Bahamas, Britain has historical responsibilities.
In The Herald on an earlier occasion I raised the issue of Caricom’s demand for talks on slavery reparations. Surely a wellfunded Caribbean hurricane disaster management and relief organization would be a first step for the British Government and indeed its EU counterparts (while they still exist.)
Thom Cross,
18 Needle Green, Carluke.