CARICOM leaders clearly have a problem keeping their word, especially on matters related to the integration movement. Take the recent expulsion of Trinidad journalist, Vernon Khelawan and Dominican broadcaster, Lennox Linton from Antigua and Barbuda where they, without doubt, helped to add value to the media landscape there.
It is particularly irksome that at the time of these painful events, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer was making preparations to put on the best regional face for George Dubya in Washington DC.
Had there not been a regional platform ie. CARICOM for him to make his grand stand, Antigua and Barbuda would not have enjoyed its few seconds in the American sun and the photo-op lapped up by the Antigua press would not have been possible.
I shall be following the upcoming CARICOM Summit very closely to hear what praises to the regional movement Mr Spencer makes.
I am also gravely disappointed that Trinidad and Tobago has abandoned Vernon Khelawan as a citizen against whom a great wrong has been inflicted. Nowhere has there been the urgency or pain as expressed by Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt following the expulsion of Lennox Linton.
Once again, Trinidad and Tobago has failed an overseas citizen.
I have not forgotten the manner in which appeals from my cousin, Richard, to Foreign Affairs Minister, Arnold Piggott, were absolutely ignored when my family thought the murder of Richard's son, Robert, was being covered up by Bermudian authorities last year.
A letter written by Richard to the Minister was neither privately nor publicly acknowledged. No political points at stake, I suppose.
Eternal vigilance remains the key.
