Campbell's Commentary - A COMMUNITY WITH VOTES AND NO VOICE
By Aubrey Campbell
NEW YORK. NY. Tuesday, May 05, 2020 – May Day May Day!
Cinco de Mayo is upon us! And that means the summer season is here, evidenced
by the warm weather of the past few days! In the same breath, I am worried that
the rush to get back outside is dangerous at this time. The science and the
evidence are there.
What you now have to hope and pray for is that those persons
who are selected/chosen to sit on task forces charged with determining the best
way forward, will do the right thing and not ‘bungle’ the evidence the way the ‘Chiefs
and Indians’ in the swamp on the hill, did!
So, yes, summer is here and the great American outdoors
beckons but we are not there yet and those who are not paying the requisite
attention, do so at their own peril while putting others in harm's way!
I’ll have a Red Stripe, thank you!
Folks, our community is hurting, bad, and the signs of the
times are being printed in screaming headlines, everywhere. The tragic death of
the young woman during child-birth in a Jamaican hospital due to negligence and
incompetence is beyond conscience.
The funeral home, right here in Brooklyn, where greed over
compassion and care resulted in bodies being stored in rented, unrefrigerated
trucks at curbside and in Florida, bodies in body bags being left unattended in
a cemetery.
How could that be?
It is my hope, with a prayer, that upon full disclosure,
families so affected will put pressure on the city/county of Brooklyn and state
of New York, to not only have their (Funeral Home) license suspended but
revoked!
Unfortunately, here it is again where our community is
victimized, twice!
We are the ones on the frontlines. Look at the pictures on
your screen, 24/7.
If we must die…!
Where is Claude McKay when we need him? Surely, we are in a
renaissance!
Which brings me to another disturbing aspect of and about
our community, a community let down by the big Fortune ‘876’ companies, a
community that remits billions of dollars ‘home’ and is now facing homelessness
because without work, without gainful employment, that reality for many, and
sadly so, is just one paycheck away!
With all the death and stench of death, I have not seen or
heard of care packages, paycheck protection or economic stimulus, at the
community level. It is needed here, not overseas!
A lot of our ‘small’ businesses will not reopen because they
were not fully compliant with city and state regulations. In other words, they
were operating under the radar!
This reality will hit home, hard, because it’s a community
with votes and no voice, a community that thrives on the ‘proverbial’ crab in
the barrel mentality was to tear down and tear apart, is the modus operandi
of choice and reason!
That said, I will, not name the names of those ‘Fortune 876’
companies, which, when convenient, glorify us in their fancy power-point
presentations and dissertations as ‘key stakeholders’.
Key, my ass!
Our community is hemorrhaging, bad, bad! The mentality I
mentioned earlier, is partly to be blamed. We tend not to trust our own and
when that happens, it presents those persons with motives and agendas to step
forward, step in, and seize the moment, so to speak.
If there was a singularity of purpose, the Diaspora movement
would have been stronger and that means, it would have been more responsive, in
the present context of this global disaster.
I will say it again. Something has to give! And the ‘give’
has to come from the government of the day. Having gone through with the
establishment of the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council (GJDC), late last year,
the unit has been left to fend for itself in hostile territory.
The good doctor needs help!
With the Midwest and West seemingly rolling with the punches,
the dogfight between the pivotal Northeast region and ‘forces’ embedded in the
Southeast, have persons literally shaking their heads off their shoulders!
And by the way. The hurricane season is just days away!
…to be continued!
In the meantime, between time, you have the floor!
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Editor’s note. Aubrey Campbell is producer/host of
Caribbean Conversation, now airing Sundays, 2 – 4 pm, on WVIP, 93.5 FM,
and streaming on the Wee Radio network at; www.WeeRadioOnline.com.
Accountability is what's lacking. We don't hold CEO's, politicians and the powers-that-be accountable like we should. People have become so overwhelmed and exhausted, that sadly the fight is not there as it should. Is it a poor excuse? Sure! But look around and name one entity that you don't have to fight. Judge Judy said it best..... "don't pee on my head and tell me it's raining!" As citizens, it feels like that is what's being done to us these days from all sides.
ReplyDeleteShirley McKenzie
Ms. McKenzie, thank you. We need to come together and decide how we are going to stop the rain before it takes everything from under our feet. For that, we continue to keep hope alive!
ReplyDelete