In Jamaica we have a saying ‘Sorry fi mawga dawg…..mawga dawg tun round bite yuh’. Well it seems like Jamaica is set to get a proper biting up from Haiti. I don’t know all the facts and statistics nor was I an eyewitness, so this is solely my take on the matter, but it just struck me as strange that after doing so much good, the one time something bad happens, we are being treated like we are the worst thing ever invented since diet and exercise.

Caricom flags are being burnt and voodoo dolls wearing Jamaica No problem t-shirts are being stuck full of pins in anger. What a la la pon di land. For all those times when Haiti closed its eyes and sang “Like a good neighbor State Farm is there” and we appeared. When Bredda Eddie helped to remove Baby Doc from power. How much flak Sister P and the then ruling PNP took for accepting and housing Haitians in Montpelier. How about when everybody else stood still after the earthquake, deliberating whether it was a sound economical and political move to help, we sent soldiers, doctors and nurses at risk of their own lives to assist with disaster relief? Papa B supposed to shame, because he insisted amidst cries from the naysayers like me to send our limited funds to help people suffering in Haiti after the crisis. All those individual Jamaicans like my mom who took up her good good tin things and packaged off for Haitian relief. I guess that is just how life is. Or them did have we up inna dem heart long time? I wonder if that is why Haiti’s fortune can’t see the light of a brighter day. Hmm, it could be, I guess I’ll never know why humans behave the way we do.

All this bad blood came about because of the recent situation with their Under 17 footballers being quarantined and denied entry into our island paradise. For what reason, you ask? On suspicion of attempting to smuggle unknown quantities of the malaria bug into Jamaica. I use the term ‘smuggle’ based on all accounts being fed to me via the social networks of Facebook and Twitter (@ElvaJamaica) who unreliably inform me that the football team members that were ill knew they were stricken and even sought to have a prescription filled for treatment. In my opinion they therefore were trying to sneak past Jamaican Customs officials with the deadly disease. Probably they never heard about Jamaica customs. Rumor has it that you might be able to pass with a suitcase full of discounted clothes, blackberry phones, wigs and even some weaponry, but a contagious disease… oh no sir. That will get you deported on the first plane back to from whence you came.

We take no checks with bacteria. Besides, if that was indeed the case I would salute the move since the island was acting as host to hundreds of footballers and their contingents from all over the region. If we took the chance, played nice and allowed them in and it spread we would not only have a National epidemic, but an international crisis on our hands. Trust me, poor little Jamaica can’t handle that right now. Could we have offered medical assistance to the youngsters sooner and not have restrained the coach with handcuffs when he attempted to defend his player’s rights? Maybe a little more tact should have been employed, but to risk it and allow them entry… that is not a chance we should be willing to take at all.

Moving forward, I hope we mend bridges because we are one Caribbean, besides thousands of Haitians now at sea will have to be re plotting courses to seek refuge in other lands that may be further away and the water supply may already be dwindling. Who else would we sell donkey meat to at a time when the donkey meat industry was just beginning to see a profit? Lord knows we need a strong, well to do ally like Haiti very close to us. On a more serious note though, if bad feelings between our countries means that the alleged gun trade between Haiti and wicked, evil filled, selfish Jamaicans will now cease, then I won’t be in a hurry to see us shake hands and make up anytime soon.

That has been my one cent on the matter. Thanks Marlon C for the idea. All comments are welcome, good bad or indifferent elvachatalot@yahoo.com .