Dear Editor,

I believe there is a particular kind of moral intoxication currently gripping the Caricom leadership and some local pundits: a desire to be seen as virtuous that far outstrips any desire to be effective.

We are told, with increasing frequency and volume, that Jamaica’s “regional responsibility” involves an open-door policy towards our neighbours in Haiti. Yet, as I recently argued in these pages, there comes a point when empathy ceases to be a virtue and becomes a suicide pact.

The term for this, popularised by the evolutionary psychologist Dr Gad Saad, is “suicidal empathy”. It describes the pathological urge to prioritise the needs of a foreign collective over the survival of one’s own society. For Jamaica to absorb even a fraction of Haiti’s displaced population — a nation of nearly 12 million in total collapse — would be the deliberate importation of a catastrophe we are uniquely unequipped to handle.

One must be ruthlessly clear-eyed about the geography of our plight. For decades the guns-for-drugs trade has served as a dark umbilical cord between our two nations. This is the reality. Our criminal underworld is already bolstered by a steady flow of high-powered weaponry from Haitian ports. To invite mass, unvetted migration (truly, what kind of vetting can actually occur in light of current realities on the ground?) from a territory ruled by warlords is to provide the perfect human shield for the very syndicates currently terrorising Jamaican communities.

The compassionate crowd speaks as if a nation is an abstract concept, or perhaps a hotel with an infinite number of rooms. It is not. A nation is a fragile ecosystem of social trust, limited resources, and the rule of law. When that law is already under siege by local gangs, the addition of a larger, more volatile element — fleeing a society in which the State has entirely evaporated — is the quickest way to ensure that Jamaica follows Haiti into the abyss.

Recent discourse suggests that Jamaica is being “guilted” by local and regional partners who are themselves remarkably hesitant to take the lead. We must reject this moral blackmail. True empathy involves a duty of care to one’s own citizens first. If we allow our emotional reflexes to override our survival instincts, we will soon find ourselves in the position of having no stability left to offer anyone.

Compassion without boundaries is merely a slow-motion catastrophe. We cannot save Haiti by becoming it.

Jillian Forbes

jillianforbes21@gmail.com