They made us memorize Portia’s speech on ‘Mercy,’ (Merchant of Venice) but it was Shylock’s that caught my imagination for it spoke of a certain expectation of egalitarianism.
“Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?”
July, stand by:
We are no longer standing by. Hurricane Beryl pummeled some of the islands this week but most notably, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Jamaica.
The anxiety, fear, pain and loss resonated with us all for we in the Caribbean have been disproportionately threatened by hurricanes since forever.
The phrase on everyone’s lips is that climate change is fueling an already ‘out of control’ nature. And if these events continue in their frequency, intensity and ferocity they have the potential to erase decades of economic gains.
Worst yet, environmental refugee status may loom.
This sounds like a crisis of which Rahm Emmanuel said: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
Tell that to the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) for it has been in the fight to raise awareness and influence global climate policy since 2004.
Caribbean people are not that dissimilar. They have a history rooted in slavery and the slave trade. Families were scattered across the islands.
So, apart from history, there is, likely, kinship albeit unknown.
And yet, it would be difficult to find a group, anywhere, that so celebrates its differences rather than its similarities.
We could never agree on the functionality of the West Indies Federation; We do not, all, support the Caribbean Court of Justice.
The single market and economy do not work because we are more comfortable shipping our goods to the bigger countries for pennies then buying them back for pounds.
And if we ever dare to try to compete with those countries, the might of bureaucracies like the EU threaten our very existence.
We walked away from the regional airline, LIAT, and, often, must travel to North America to get access to each other.
And we will likely not all adopt the free movement of skills and people because of economies of scale and security.
But the University of the West Indies, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) still bring us together, frequently.
So, we know each other and we hurt when misfortune visits any of our islands. And Shylock’s soliloquy resonates with us.
But we still have to wonder if the community of nations, the UN, cares at all about the impacts of climate change on small island developing states; If they concern themselves over these dots in the Caribbean Sea and elsewhere.
Or if year after year as sea level rises; as the planet warms to unbearable levels; as the ice caps melt; as extreme weather undermines our food and water security; as pollution, deforestation, droughts and fires rob us of diversity; as the quality of life diminishes for humanity; as the jet stream that warms and cools us threatens collapse:
We wonder if the UN functionaries know that we are indeed “…fed with the same food, …. subject to the same diseases, …. warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer…”
Maybe not.
But we dare not give up the fight for survival nor for solidarity.
And, on our Fridays, wherever our sphere of influence rests, let us advocate for the survival of the planet;
Our home.
Happy Friday!