Garth RattrayI HAVE learnt a great deal in the school of life. I've learnt that things are not always what they seem. Among other things, we were put on this Earth to learn from our experiences (good and bad) and to help one another. We have to be careful not to stand rigidly on man-made rules and regulations especially when factors of morality are involved.
Tests from God are sometimes disguised as that lowly beggar at the traffic light or that hungry old lady on the sidewalk. They may even come to us as desperate refugees begging for asylum from political violence and destitution. A lot has been said about our "good luck" regarding the very near miss from Hurricane Ivan. No one (except perhaps a few) would have guessed that this extremely dangerous force of nature could turn at the very last minute and spare our little island the catastrophic event that was at our very door step.
I am not here to assert that it was prayer that saved us or that it was destiny, perhaps it was both. Perhaps it was all preordained so that we would stop and take a good, hard look at ourselves as a nation. Perhaps it skirted our coastline so that we would think about what could have been and be thankful for what we already have. And in spite of all our financial, political and other social problems, we do have a great deal to be thankful for. We therefore "owe" it to our fellowman to pass on our good fortune by way of our benevolence towards our less fortunate neighbours.
The stream of Haitian refugees began pouring into the island earlier this year. They left Haiti in a desperate bid to flee the violent fall-out from the ouster of former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Some Jamaicans complained that the government was feeding and housing "strangers" while many of our own people went without the basic necessities of life. Their plaintive cries were put aside as we went about the process of sifting through the various cases for asylum. Some of the refugees returned voluntarily after the violence was quelled and the interim Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue, was installed.
UNDERESTIMATE
Many Jamaicans underestimate the rank poverty and extreme violence that exists in Haiti. It is a nation of the few elite and the poor masses. The economy is in shambles, the infrastructure a mess and the politics volatile and violent. We don't seem to realise that we are a blessed nation. As bad as things are, no one from Jamaica has found the need to put the lives of their families and themselves at risk and board a sea-craft ill-suited for long-distance journeys in order to escape violence, persecution and hunger. None among us has ever had to decide to die trying to escape Jamaica. Such a decision must certainly be made only under the stress of dire circumstances.
I know that Mr. Gilbert Scott, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, is only doing his job when he argues that natural disasters (acts of God) are not covered under the 1951 United Nations Convention on refugees and the corresponding 1967 protocol. And so it is now up to others above him to make the crucial decision whether or not our country will show mercy by exercising their discretionary privilege. We certainly don't have the moral right to stand on propriety and the word of the law when many people already ignore, bend, circumvent and break our laws whenever it suites them.
Whether or not we allow the Haitian refugees to stay must indeed be a very difficult decision. There are issues of precedence to consider. There is that United Nations Convention to consider. There are matters of logistics, employment and housing to consider. And then we have to consider the quality of mercy. After all, we stood up for truth and justice when Mr. Aristide was "chaperoned" out of his own country by agents of the most powerful nation in the world. Perhaps we can find the moral conviction to extend the hand of kindness to our desperate brothers and sisters.
Dr Garth A. Rattray s a medical doctor with a family practice.
