AS I write, tropical storm Irma is wreaking havoc and destruction in Florida, and threatens to spread her carnage farther inland to areas such as Georgia. At last count, 23 persons were killed as the largest storm since 1992 slammed several Caribbean islands. Many Guyanese nationals who are scattered in the Caribbean, are among the victims of this latest bout of natural disaster.

Like so many Guyanese, I have relatives and friends in the Caribbean, Florida and elsewhere in the United States who have fallen victims to natural disasters of various types. I choked on my emotions as I spoke with my eldest sister, aged 80, who lives in western Florida, and had felt safe inside her home before the storm dramatically changed course. I was worried for my niece Julie and my friend Cecil in the Fort Lauderdale area, who couldn’t leave their homes due to traffic congestion, and buckled down for the worst. They are amongst the nine million inhabitants who are exposed to the double hurricane whammy – now Irma, and later, Jose.

At a personal level, we can all agonise for our loved ones because we can do nothing else, and can only hope for the best and, in a worst-case context, that our next telephone conversation would not be the last. In any case, the footprints and scars of these storms would be enormous and tragic.

PAIN AND LOSS
But as a nation, we can hold out the promise that Guyana could help in some ways to ease the pain and cushion the losses. As the Governor of Florida said, “we can rebuild your homes, not your lives.” And we have done this before when our sister Caribbean states such as Haiti and Dominica were in distress. We sent cash and food, apart from technical teams to help the reconstruction efforts. We also have to reach out to the many Guyanese who may want to return to their homeland, even temporarily, until the nightmare is over.

It is estimated that some 20,000 children are among the tens of thousands who are without adequate food and safe shelter. In Barbuda, some 132 schools have been flattened and so have bridges, roads and hospitals in Anguilla, the British Virgin islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas and Cuba.

In Guyana, we have to abandon the idle boast that we don’t live in a hurricane or earthquake zone. The recent earthquake in Mexico, which killed 80 persons, and previous ones in nearby Venezuela, should wake us up to the reality that no where is a disaster-free haven. Tail-lashes in Regions One, Five and Eight from itinerary storms that flattened houses; and rising water levels in some of our rivers, as in Region Nine, show that we too are exposed and vulnerable even when floods emanate from another contiguous state. The spectre of climate change now haunts us all, globally.

GOOD NEIGHBOUR
So when President Granger held out our nation’s hands in solidarity with our sister peoples of the Caribbean, including Guyanese nationals, he was doing what any good neighbour should be doing. This is not a matter over which there should be politicking; or an occasion for double-speak as Opposition leader Jagdeo sought to do. He was reported by yesterday’s Guyana Times as saying, under a banner caption: “Govt must tap Treasury to help natural disaster victims at home.”

It needs very little imagination to picture what Mr. Jagdeo intended. With forked tongue, he was saying: help the Caribbean, but do something for Region Eight disaster victims. Why Region Eight? Well, Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) is politically a battleground constituency, where a few swing votes could make a difference at the polls.

That was why he had called for compensation for damage caused by freak storms and flash floods in Region Eight, knowing that his administration didn’t pay compensation for previous natural disasters. It didn’t pay a dime to businesses that suffered losses in the periodic and regular, annual ritual of flooding in Georgetown. It didn’t even bother to hold an inquiry into the 2005 Great Flood, which had devastated the entire East Demerara, including portions of Georgetown. The flood had all the hallmarks of gross negligence, for which food hampers and a cash pittance were doled out to some affected areas.

DIVIDE AND CONFUSE
His latest empathy for Region Eight is more of the old divide-and-confuse, racist obsession with fortifying an electoral base. He tried to couch his pronouncement but couldn’t conceal the central message: “Don’t neglect Guyanese-Amerindians for African-Caribbean nationals”!

It’s the same divisive politics playing out, reminiscent of the Jagdeo-PPP opposing subsidies for electricity in Linden on the ground that the sugar belt was paying the full cost for the service. I recall when GPL removed street lamps that were illegally installed in a few West Berbice villages at the instruction of former government officials, the cry again was for government to withdraw the energy subsidy from Linden.

GRATEFUL NATION
Guyana is known for her hospitality and one would expect that we should maintain our generous disposition, even whilst we face challenges of our own. Recently, we received reports from PAHO/WHO of an outbreak of measles in Venezuela and that Venezuelan nationals were trekking across the border for treatment in Guyana.

We did not turn away the sick and the needy, although Guyana would have every reason to be disturbed by the continuing false claims raised by this neighbouring state to our territory, and had sabotaged our development. We re-affirmed that the Venezuelan people are our neighbours and our friends and we opened to them our clinics and hospitals for emergency treatment.

We know that in times of natural disasters, Guyana too has received assistance from other countries, and solidarity from our neighbours. We must therefore evolve as a grateful nation, and extend a helping hand to those in distress from natural disasters. There is no room for equivocation, double-speak or cheap politricking.