It was a touching scene to see Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, cry on television over the overwhelming support he got from several Caribbean countries at his country’s hour of need he said “this is why I love the Caribbean.”
I’m glad he felt that way and showed it because we need these support mechanisms to work every time there is a natural disaster that hits our shores, which seems to be every year or so now by either a Hurricane, earthquake or tsunami. Many of our people in low lying areas are at risk of being killed by Mother Nature and it is not as easy as telling people to move out or don’t build in certain places- the people have nowhere to do. That is their home.
The region needed that when Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda felt the brunt of Hurricane Maria and Irma, respectively that left those countries looking like the aftermath of a nuclear blast. Same thing with The Bahamas and Hurricane Dorian, an entire island was destroyed and still has not been fully rebuilt.
I didn’t want to dove tail into climate change politics, because it is way over my head. But now as a person living in a climate impacted country and seeing the damage first hand of what it does to a nation, we need more help from the larger countries in not just curbing carbon emissions and things that create harmful CO2 gasses, but also we need money back to us to help mitigate against the damages that they create for us. It is only right and fair!
But I like to see a bit of emotion from a world leader. Kudos to PM Gonsalves.