Mainlanders don’t return Grenadines residents’ good treatment

A Member of Parliament has accused residents of St. Vincent of not giving residents of the Grenadine the same hospitality they expect when they visit the archipelago.

West Kingstown MP Daniel Cummings made the point in Parliament during the debate on the EC$136 million supplementary budget in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl.

He noted that he had asked the Minister of Health about the presence of certain staff at the Mental Health Rehabilitation Centre.

“And the reason I did that is sometimes it seems as though we who reside on mainland St. Vincent do not quite appreciate the harsh realities of people in the Southern Grenadines,” Cummings said. 

“Life is completely different. I mean, everything has to come here, has to take time to get down there and … it has implications for all of that. And because of that, people in the Southern Grenadines have a completely different lifestyle from most of us on mainland St Vincent,” the opposition lawmakers said.

Cummings said that when he first visited Union Island after the devastation caused by Hurricane Beryl on July 1, people were waiting on the wharf, trying to get onto the ferry to evacuate to St. Vincent.

“People just wanted to get away from Union Island. And it’s easy to understand; there was nothing there for them,” Cummings said.

“But the little things really matter,” he said.

He told Parliament that the least the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) could have done was to have where the ferries were docking in Kingstown a desk with several young people collecting the names and contact information of the evacuees and directing them, accordingly.

“But there was total — people on their own. You hustling, you getting away, you leave every, whatever, you come up the mainland. You mean somebody can’t be there to aid you and say, ‘Look, this is your option’?” Cummings told Parliament.

Cummings said these people could have made calls on behalf of the evacuees or given them information on how to get where they were going.

“Those are the little things that were lacking.”

He noted that Opposition Leader Godwin Friday had made the point that a hurricane can be forecast with greater precision than a volcanic eruption.

“We had advanced notice that the storm was going to be here within a certain time and intensity, and these things could and should have been done. That’s nothing to do with the prime minister’s work or the other government ministers’ work or the Director of NEMO,” Cummings said.

“These are simple, simple things that can make such a tremendous difference when they matter,” Cummings said, adding that the April 2021 eruption of La Soufriere gave the country a lot of experience in managing shelters.

“But to tell me sending people who come up from the Grenadines to shelters to find not even a cot to sleep on, no food, nobody, to tell them anything, that is worse than Beryl. … We could and must do much better than that, much better.”

Cummings said he observes people very closely and has concluded that among Caribbean people, Barbadians “are some of the strangest people.

“When they come to your country, they want you to do everything for them,” he said adding that, he has good Barbadian friends but was talking generally. 

“But when you go to a conference in Barbados and come four o’clock or five o’clock, the Bajans gone their own and they leave you to your own dispensation.

“And that behaviour reminds me of the way mainlanders treat people in the Grenadines. When we go down there, we expect the best treatment, and we do get the best treatment when we go to the Southern Grenadines, in particular, all over the Grenadians. I can testify to that.

“But when the Grenadines people come up here, we don’t reciprocate. We need to change that. We are all part of this blessed land. We could have done a whole lot more, and even up to today, there’s a lot more we can do,” Cummings said.

He said that in this regard, any plan to relocate students, teachers and parents from the Southern Grenadines to Kingstown so that school can continue uninterrupted, is bound to fail if it doesn’t sit well with residents of the Grenadines or if they are not allowed to contribute to it.

“Treat the people like their people. Their circumstances are unique, very unique. You wouldn’t know it unless you’ve been there, lived with them, and understand what is taking place,” Cumming said.