The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

IT was the news article, Bodies in Bathtubs, that is prompting this letter, but by no means is this the only issue at hand.

I have lived on Mangrove Cay, Andros, for nearly 14 years. A couple of months ago a young boy died here. The father, already distraught over the death of his son, had to run all over the island after midnight to try and find ice for his son’s body. More recently, an elderly man passed away, with his family having to do the same thing, run around looking for ice.

So, to read about the people in Cat Island faced with the same issues, I have to ask myself, “Do we have no decency?”

I am being sincere. Do we have no decency? How can Dr Sands get up and talk about National Health Insurance, yet know these conditions exist in the Family Islands?

Can I not say that we have a national heath emergency, when we hear reports such as this?

We have a relatively rich country, spending big money so our politicians can jet around the world. We spend big money on our roads, airport, sports facilities, on consultants, on celebrations, as if we have our country under control and our people prospering.

Spending big money on consultants to advise us on National Health Insurance, while our clinics are in an inarguable state of shambles. We cannot even get our clinics right for our existing citizens. We must be crazy to be talking about NHI right now.

$50.00 a month for supplies is an insult.

So, it occurred to me that if this is going on in Cat Island and here on Mangrove Cay, how many other Bahamians are living with these 3rd World realities?

Come to Mangrove Cay and see for yourself. Talk to the professional clinic staff and see what they say. Ask them, who in government has heard, and acted upon the deplorable conditions they have seen with their own eyes.

We have an MP who is unresponsive to our needs. Find a resident on Mangrove Cay who will tell you, our MP, one of four PLPs to survive, has done anything for our community. He is non-existent, unless he is in HOA asking for more money and “special considerations” from BEC, or embarrassing his constituents and our country.

Everybody in government seems to be non-existent for us.

I am tired of keeping silent about these insults to our humanity.

I am tired of travelling to Nassau only to see the mass of homeless people, clearly mentally challenged, begging on the streets, growing in numbers by the day, it seems. The cruel indifference shown to these people is unacceptable. Now we run over people in cars, killing them, not even stopping to see if they are OK. Like animals. That doesn’t sound good does it? But how is it wrong to say it? Like animals. How sad.

We have a partly remodelled clinic here on Mangrove Cay that was supposed to be finished in eight weeks. This was in 2016. Now, after construction was begun again, it was “unfunded” once the FNM got into power. Is this a cruel joke? Now it sits rotting away while our “clinic” is in a substandard building not suited for a clinic at all.

We must do better. Not tomorrow, but now.

It is one thing to misrepresent and fail on all of the promises made to us over the years.

It is entirely another when you are wholly insensitive to our needs as human beings.

Anyone who makes excuses for this inhumane treatment is not worthy of ever “leading” anyone. Ever.

We have been “promised” a Port of Entry for decades, by our MP himself, only to be told the FNM wouldn’t hear of it.

Our community dock is a disgrace. Our water pipes are bursting on an almost daily basis.

Our electrical generators are old and hanging on by a thread.

All of our public facilities are in need of maintenance and repair.

Personally, I believe that instead of a raise, the MPs should remind people that we are all in this together and they should forgo 50% of their taxpayer’s pay cheque until we achieve basic human decency for all Bahamians, not just those in Parliament.

I am indignant that the Bahamian government can act as if they are presiding over a country that treats its citizens with dignity and respect, when the facts staring them in the face asserts that this is NOT the case.

We also have to run around looking for ice to cover our deceased loved ones. This is totally unacceptable.

NORMAN TRABULSY Jr

Mangrove Cay,

Andros.

March 2, 2018.