There is a saying that when America sneezes, we in the region catch the cold.
In today’s world, America has become a dictatorial regime with a new form of dictatorship and new rules being dictated to the rest of the world, and its true colours are being shown.
Take our story with the relationship that the Caribbean islands have cultivated with Cuba, considering the amount of help they have given us, especially educational and in other supportive ways, but we are now being asked to turn our backs on them.
The same applies to some other Latin American friends.
Now, we are being told that as a region, if we continue that collaboration, we can and may lose our visa status.
Also, with all the cutbacks in grants and economic support from mighty America, all of that can be put on hold.
We are being dictated to as to who we can make or relate to as our friends and who we can do business with or have an alliance with.
There is also the possibility of the cost of living rising because of all the sanctions and tariffs, plus new decisions being made and our over-dependency on imports coming from that part of the world can spell disaster.
The decisions they are now taking can also reduce remittances from family and friends living in America.
Meanwhile, if we rebel against their visitors or trade arrangements, we are liable to get black-listed or become isolated and made to be declared an enemy, rather than a friend of America.
All this new development plays into the hands of the opposition party, which will blame the government of the day for high prices but will not tell it as it is, especially when our opposition has a leader described as Tropical Trump.
It is important to note that world affairs can affect our lifestyle, damage our economy and put a spoke in our wheel. There is a lot of misinformation and false truths about the reality of what is really going on in a society like ours, where propaganda is heavy and full and gullible people take sides without knowing the facts.
All of that disturbs me. Why? Because we are an honourable society highly dependent on tourism and, by extension, American visitors and business interests, any action we take can be seen as us having a hostile attitude.
As a budding economy, we have to be extra careful because we are not self-reliant or self-sufficient. Our future is bleak, our survival is under threat, and the stakes are high.
We are swimming in shark-infested waters. It is not only this Island that is at risk, but the whole region — and unity is not our best policy.
We are at the brink of a third world war, a global meltdown from an economic standpoint, plus our dog-eat-dog mentality that can result in chaos.
Any hardline position, independently or regionally, can lead to our total demise.
The church will not help, our prayers may not be answered, and our governments are subjected to be dictated to in this new world order.
Since the Haitian Revolution, or the abolition of slavery, black people — especially in this part of the world — have no means of revolting or being defiant because we are at the point where we have no say and at the crossroads between the devil and the deep blue sea.
We have to tread carefully or else risk total devastation and even becoming extinct, and these matters need to be discussed by all concerned, at all levels, because this new world order is not to our benefit.
Change is inevitable, but some changes can be disastrous. And we sometimes believe that world affairs have nothing to do with us, but I urge all of us, as a people and a region, to unite against such imperialism and dominion.
We must never be enslaved again. Let’s make our region rebellious again such a dictated attitude to ensure it must not take root in this region, or we shall perish.
Besides, completely ignoring the situation will not help our cause.
The masses are waiting for guidance, and failure on our part to deal with this situation will be disastrous.
Whether you think material or spiritual, that is where we stand at this moment in history.