Campbell's Commentary - CARING FOR OUR COVID19 COMMUNITY

By Aubrey Campbell

NEW YORK, NY. Tuesday, April 28, 2020 – Hello folks, it’s another day and another week and soon it will be May Day! May Day for a number of community-based businesses, ravaged and left for dead by the Corona Virus Disease of 2019 (COVID19).

As the sun shines and the tide changes, for the better, we hope, - depending on who is doing the talking - we can say with some the certainty that the neighborhoods that we have called home all these years, will have a different look and feel.

Simply put. The stimulus will not trickle down to their level! And that is why I am angered by those who think they are doing good by organizing telethons and care packages, at this time.

Here’s the deal. COVID19 is not a local, regional or national disaster, negatively impacting a few. It is a global pandemic!

What’s in that you do not understand?

As a matter of fact, ‘global’ and ‘pandemic’ might be considered ‘redundant’ when used in the same sentence, the way I just did.

Stand by while I consult my English professor!

In good times, no one bothered to question our generosity and if you ask me, their greed is disgusting to the point where, if you were to ask  for a ‘thank you’, you would be told how many bones make up your face and which lobe of your brain needs realignment!

Factor this in. We were always on the frontline!

So, when I hear about telethon planners and care package providers targeting one and the very same community, I have to shake my – expletive deleted – head!

Are you kidding me?

Where is the telethon and the care package for our community here in the USA, where are the care packages for our frontlines, from those big businesses that tell you in their advertising messages how proud they are to be Caribbean?

When it’s convenient, they praise us for our patronage, loyalty, and patriotism!

I’m going to take it a step further and tell you why I’m upset!

There is a case before the courts in Jamaica. It has to do with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU). Straight up corruption, stretching all the way from Kingston to Florida and all the way up the Interstate 95, to 

New York City.

Much of the details are buried in the abundance of COVID19 coverage!

Last week, there was a call for the resignation of a senior civil servant in the MoE, because of hundreds of thousands of dollars cannot be accounted for and the supposedly supporting paperwork that’s been presented, is not matching up. That person is connected to the LASCO Foundation which is in partnership with the Jamaica Diaspora Taskforce Action Network (JDTAN), which is in partnership with the Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations (UJAA), which is now asking for money from the Diaspora to provide COVID Care Packages for persons and their families in Jamaica!

From what I hear, the care packages will cost a minimum of US$25. In one of the biggest and best cases of a coincidence this COVID-ravaged century, the principal of JDTAN was given millions of tax-paper dollars for doing nothing!

The continuing investigation into that case, no doubt, is being buried under the weight of this COVID19 coverage, but I ask you to please keep your eyes and ears open!

I will say it again, here, that the investment that you are making – week in, week out - in the education sector in Jamaica, is misguided at this time!

I am yet to see a statement from the education sector and key stakeholders in the Diaspora, condemning the senseless murder of the VP of Excelsior High School, in her yard, all because she stood up for the greater good of the student body!

Principals are attached at school and in fear of their lives, they declined to press charges!

We continue to give, billions upon billions of $s, and get nothing in return, not even a thank you!

Put that in context with the mixed messaging emanating from the far reaches of the swamp on the Hill and you know that not even the best disinfectant can help us!

We are now at what I want to call the ‘next phase’ of this COVID19 pandemic and that is getting back to business as usual, or accepting the inevitable, that it will not be business as usual.

What that means is that you have to start making the adjustment from now!

It is no longer sexy to speak about the ‘new normal’, it’s the reality of the times. Steven Mnuchin told us to ‘get over it’. I will just say, ‘get with it’ and if you come closer than six feet, I will have to, ‘beg you a ‘step off’.

Oh, one more thing. We hear of stimulus money ending up where it is not needed and stimulus money, running out before it gets to the businesses needing it most!

Sign of the times!

As borders remain closed, Jamaicans are stranded around the world and begging for help, like the 105+ crew members out at sea off the coast of London. Simply put, as you heard from the parent of one of the stranded crew-member, the government can do more. There are hundreds of empty hotel rooms on the island that can be used for state quarantine.

Those persons should not be treated differently from the ones ‘returned’ by the US government.

So, if you can, please reach out and lend a hand by calling the Overseas Missions in your jurisdiction.

And now for the answer from the professor. ‘Global pandemic’ when used together in the same sentence is ‘redundant’.

You have the floor!

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Editor’s note. Aubrey Campbell is producer/presenter of ‘Caribbean Conversation, a presentation of the Wee Radio Network, aired Sundays, 2- 4 pm, on WVIP, 93.5FM and streaming online at; www.weeradioonline.com.