“You Either Die a Hero, or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become the Villain” is an iconic line in an even more iconic movie “The Dark Knight”. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the movie touches on many contemporary themes and issues which are particularly poignant today. Harvey Dent was made to be a hero when he was a villain and CARICOM was portrayed as a heroic organisation fighting the good fight against American hegemony. But now it appears that they are more akin to the spirit of Harvey Dent than ever before.
The CARICOM bloc appears to be willing to illustrate to their citizens and the wider diaspora that whilst they may not go the route of Kamla Persad -Bissessar and be a virtual puppet in the arms of Donald Trump and his agenda, they are nonetheless proving to be the same.
In what many see as a conflict that seeks to further Israeli interests under Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military complex, the United States launched missiles into the heart of Tehran. However, for many CARICOM governments the swift condemnation came towards Iran for its retaliatory strikes against US military ships and Gulf states.
The Gulf states were targeted for allowing their bases to be used as staging areas.
First and predictably ready was Trinidad and Tobago, followed by Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda, with now Barbados who called the retaliatory attacks by Iran unprovoked. After reading this I went to the law offices of a friend to sue not only Merriam-Webster but also my former school Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School for having failed to teach me the correct definition of ‘unprovoked’ and lord knows what other things. Have we become so suckled at the American tit that we lack any semblance of independence or are we in a Matrix simulation?
As aforementioned, in a previous column, whilst many CARICOM leaders and governments heap praise upon Cuba and the Castro ideal, none possesses the cojones to actually support Cuba as we see them kowtowing to the United States. First came the mounting American pressure to remove Cuban nurses and doctors from our health care sector, by the Americans, despite the fact that our primary and secondary facilities rely heavily on them, then came the demand to remove ourselves from the opportunity of acquiring degrees and learning from Cuban universities. With the continued lack of access to the United States due to the many visa restrictions, where will we go? The government’s first-generation scholarships whilst admirable and commendable are surely inadequate to deal with the breadth and depth of intellectual hunger in this country. Rightly or wrongly, many see the acquisition of a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent as a window to the world and thus are determined to acquire one to afford themselves opportunities beyond our shores.
Now with the abuse of British sovereignty to false asylum seeking, or perhaps as punishment for our CBI program, pick and choose which story you believe, there remain even more limited opportunities for those who see it as a step forward.
This seeming quagmire, being torn to assert our independence and inclined to spit at the powers that be and their visas and access to their countries whilst not wanting to be another version of Cuba, is a litmus test for our leaders.
Are they set to become the heroes or villains in our story?