The disconnect of political leaders and the reality of the lower class continuously raises its head, and more so in recent times.

Let me lay the foundation, first of all, so no one misses my point. Anyone who is acquainted with me knows the political party I am associated with; hence, you can be sure that my comments are not for political leverage.

Many nurses have found the comments by the Montego Bay Deputy Mayor Richard Vernon as disrespectful and quite insensitive which they quite frankly are and a sincere apology show be given.

He is quoted in the media as saying: “Only cowards run away to go to America because they are seeking out opportunity. Opportunities are there overseas, but do not run away and leave your country, especially leaving indefinitely, and you don’t want to contribute to the further development of your country.”

He continued: “You same ones who are saying that the country is not going on with anything, what are you doing to develop your own country? They made the sacrifice in America and all the First-World countries so they can live the life that you admire, so do the same for your country and your parish.”

As a nurse who has also migrated, I do agree with you that we are coward.

Throughout my life I have witnessed a lot of close relatives and friends losing their parents and I sympathised with them. I knew it must have been hard, but it was not until I lost my own mom that I knew the depth of that pain.

With that said, many of our political leaders win our support by the expression of their understanding of poverty and the aim to make things better, but if we should do a research most political representatives were not as poor as most Jamaicans. The reality of the situation is it takes money to win an election, so how can the poor ever get there? Therefore, they only can imagine what it feels like to be poor but never actually felt the real pinch and disadvantages of poverty.

Poverty is not the inability to buy clothes and have dinner at restaurants. Poverty is lying in your bed and not needing a balcony because you view the outside through the boards of your house. Poverty is sending your kids to school without lunch. Poverty is being unable to meet your basic needs and reaching out for help from the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) and other agencies and being told you’re not eligible because someone gave you their second-hand TV, but your neighbour who can afford it more than you can got it because she knows the boss. We have 63 Members of Parliament, list me 50 per cent who have truly been dirt poor.

So, to the deputy mayor, on the behalf of the cowards, many of us didn’t have the privilege of having parents who had savings for our education so our only options was the horrendous interest-bearing facility of the Students’ Loan Bureau. Bear in mind that the interest from this loan begins from the first year of university, so while we are studying our loan is already gathering interest. In addition, this loan only covers tuition, not other fees, which are also mandatory. It’s not like in other countries where there are funds to help with accommodations or other day-to-day necessities of school. We therefore graduate already in debt of millions to a salary less than one-third of the debt.

I hope you have taken into consideration that many of you, apart from your salaries, have numerous business gaining additional income which we are not privileged enough to have. In order to pay our bills, some barely, we have to work up to 70 hours a week. Still, we are unable to afford a home or to efficiently care for our families.

So, yes, indeed we are cowards. We are scared and anxious that we will retire in a rent house. As beautiful as Jamaica is we would like to lie in our houses and not see outside through rotting boards. We are scared that our parents, who washed pavements, washed your cars, and cleaned your houses, will die and not benefit from their labour. We are scared that we will be harmed on the roads traversing to and from work because we can’t afford our own vehicles. Yes, nurses are scared!

Do you think we all want to leave? I personally passed my exams two years ago and still delayed it thinking there must be a way to make it here. But I got poorer as the months went by. We have families back home who need health care. Don’t you think we care that they will need us? But, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, basic needs form our priority.

We talk a lot about this mass migration and this includes teachers, but name one thing you have done about it, Deputy Mayor. Nothing! A few weeks ago there were talks about sending nurses to be trained abroad and then they come back; come back to what?

The problem is you sit yourselves in these offices and come up with ideas you think will fix the problems, but they can’t. Have you ever had conversations with nurses and asked how you can fix this? When I say nurses I don’t mean heads of nurses or the ones sitting in offices at the Ministry of Health, because they don’t do day-to-day activities, some of them are so disconnected, they can’t even do a proper CPR. You need to speak to the base, the ones in direct contact with patients.

My mom would often tell me: “Life gives you lime, but use it to make lemonade.” How have you utilised this migration to your benefit? We have left the country knowing the weaknesses of the system and have gone to experience other systems, do you think maybe we have ideas on how we can make the health-care system more efficient? Many of us have migrated and have studied a lot, have you tried to maximise on that?

Personally, I have a lot of ideas and I can say I have tried on numerous occasions to voice them, and for whatever reason there was no interest. I have tried to arrange meetings to discuss things as basic as how we care for the dying and it was disregarded. However, we are willing to run with ideas from people who have no idea of nursing.

We left for a better life but it doesn’t mean we have neglected our country. The country gains remittance from us. We build houses back home, so that’s employment. And we are willing to give back to our country with the new and improved knowledge we have garnered internationally, partnered with our direct experience working in Jamaica, but you need to facilitate us.

With that said, truth be told, you the policymakers are the real cowards because you fail to step up, listen to us, and make a difference. We didn’t fail our country, you did.

Danielle Huie is a Clinical Education Facilitator in the United Kingdom. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or huiedanielle@gmail.com.