My Little Oxford Dictionary describes ‘xenophobia’ as ‘A morbid dislike of foreigners’.
One can’t truly say the average Caribbean citizen has ‘a morbid dislike for foreigners’, but it is true that xenophobic tendencies exist regionally, at levels and amongst some who know that character isn’t defined by nationality – or complexion.
And then there’s the ever-present, mostly-dormant but increasingly resurrected traditional intra-regional xenophobic sentiments being expressed across the Caribbean, where fellow citizens of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations have historically been loosely referred to (even from colonial times) as ‘Foreigners’.
Sadly, in an age when, as equal citizens of Planet Earth, many Caribbean migrants caught in immigration binds tend to loudly demand ‘respect’ for their ‘equal rights’ in the countries they adopted in search of lily-white fields with greener pastures, lined with milk and honey.
But, back home, the same persons would see and treat fellow regional citizens as ‘foreigners’ – including those caught in flights of transit and those normally seeking honest possibilities through legal means – as well as those able, willing and seeking to invest in other CARICOM nations.
Take the case of Saint Lucian and Caribbean entrepreneur Rayneau Gadjadhar, whose companies dominate the construction landscape at home and has been quietly and quickly expanding horizons to neighbouring CARICOM and OECS (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States) member-states.
From leaving the island’s now-world-famous ‘Nobel Laureates School’ St. Mary’s College (SMC) to sell ice cream, his path to success and progress has been nothing but admirably phenomenal.
In less than a decade, the Rayneau Group of Companies (R.G. Group) and its flagship Construction and Industrial Equipment Limited (C.I.E.) have expanded into neighbouring Windward Islands (Dominica, Grenada and Si. Vincent & The Grenadines), as well as the Leeward Islands (Antigua & Barbuda and Montserrat) — and in Guyana.
In each case, Rayneau’s well-integrated and self-sufficient operation’s ability to purchase land, develop properties, construct health centres, highways, hotels and hospitals – at cost and in time — and to fund entire project costs while supplying both equipment and raw materials – has made Rayneau’s group the go-to construction company preferred (by-far) by private investors and governments with eyes on savings and dependable, safe, rapid delivery.
CIE built Saint Lucia’s grand Royalton Resort at Cap Estate in the island’s exclusive northern tourism capital, Gros Islet; built an airport and a hospital in Dominica; is in mining, earth-moving and agricultural exports in St. Vincent & The Grenadines; is building a hospital in Montserrat — and supplying asphalt, stone, cement and wood supplies for all its projects.
CIE is also the Caribbean-wide agent for South Korea’s Hyundai heavy duty equipment, with major outlets in Saint Lucia and Guyana.
The Group also last year purchased in China by-far the largest barge and tug in the OECS, to move equipment and export products and produce up-and-down the Caribbean.
But, on each occasion, Rayneau’s entry into another CARICOM member-state has been met by some loud resistance, being called and treated like ‘a foreigner’ by those opposing his arrival, including fellow contracting firms also with interests in other Caribbean nations — only to be widely embraced beyond the din.
That’s also the case today in Grenada and St. Vincent & The Grenadines, where competitors and invisible political operatives simultaneously accuse him of being favoured by governments.
Not surprisingly, whether in Saint Lucia, St. Vincent or Grenada, the mainly online and on-air opponents execute tailor-made equivalents of unsubstantiated claims that his installation new heavy-equipment construction plants disturb community peace, or his new ventures are being pursued without regulatory authority.
But Rayneau’s best record at home is also one that spells big PR and acceptability dividends abroad: his delivery of the Vieux Fort-based St. Jude Hospital that was destroyed by a devastating fire on September 9, 2009.
The blaze began on the surgical ward and spread through the operating theaters and pediatric wing, tragically resulting in the loss of three lives.
Because of the disaster, hospital operations were immediately evacuated to the nearby George Odlum Stadium, where they temporarily — for all-of-sixteen (16) years, across several administrations — remained while a new, permanent facility was being reconstructed on a costly regime change, stop-and-go basis, that saw each new administration undertake its own incomplete plans.
Up came Rayneau in 2025 – and in less than one year, with government assistance from Saudi Arabia and undertaking a fully-financed 24/7 approach to completing the inherited structures that saw hundreds of millions invested over a decade-and-a-half through cost-overruns without Bills of Quantity — C.I.E. delivered a state-of-the-art complex that every Saint Lucian is proud of, across-the-board.
Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre has indicated the New St. Jude hospital will by formally opened next month (July), when, coincidentally and unrelated, the island will also host the 51st Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government and the ruling Saint Lucia Labour Pty will observe the 5th anniversary of its historic July 26, 2021 General Elections victory.
This year also makes the 75th anniversary of Adult Suffrage in 1951, when Saint Lucians first got equal rights to vote without owning property.
The SLP won the first of several elections in 1951, until 1964, when it was cheated out of office by a post-election marriage of convenience that robbed the party that won the most votes and seats of its due right form the government – an act that established the United Workers Party (UWP).
But, whenever it happens, the opening of the landmark project will be yet-another lasting tribute to Rayneau Gadjadhar and his intuitive business mind and demonstrated will to invest where others don’t but instead care to be scared, to willingly take on tasks others find difficult, nary impossible.
His companies leave deep and large footprints wherever they go, on private or public contracts, as well as Private-Public Partnerships (PPP) and Build Own Lease and Transfer (BOLT) arrangements.
Most OECS member-states have found out; and Grenada is about to – again!