Dear Editor:
In my humble opinion, this (13 Jamaicans being turned away from Trinidad) has nothing to do with you guys being Jamaican and everything to do with them being Trinidadians.
I am Grenadian and we face similar issues with Trinidad especially since the Kamla Persaud Government took over.
Up until recently I lived in Trinidad for nine months. I have my Caribbean Community (Caricom) skills certificate, but Trinidad sees it as a "temporary visa". It allowed me up to six months at a time to legally reside and work in Trinidad before having to get another skills certificate issued by the Trinidadian Government. That's fine. But the Trinidadian Government refused to accept the legitimacy of my own skills certificate.
They informed me that I had to go through the entire process again to get it and that it could take up to four months. In other words, to hell with the fact that my government accepted my submissions.
My wife also had her certificate. And the same thing happened to her. She is a lawyer that studied in Trinidad but they still gave her hell.
I'm an engineer who studied in Cuba, and did not relish the task of yet again getting translations of my degree and course work... blah blah blah... So we left.
I gave my little story to say that Trinidad, in general, is just unwelcoming to all Caribbean people. Not just Jamaicans. We Grenadians feel it too. The Barbadians feel it, the Dominicans feel it. It is only my opinion, but my opinion is that the current government is just racist and elitist and very Anti-Caribbean.
We certainly don't believe all Jamaicans are criminals. I personally don't believe that even the majority of you are criminals. So don't take it personally. It's not you, or us, it's them.
Let's keep trying to be united as one region. The Kamla's and others like her will lose.
-Samora Robertson
In my humble opinion, this (13 Jamaicans being turned away from Trinidad) has nothing to do with you guys being Jamaican and everything to do with them being Trinidadians.
I am Grenadian and we face similar issues with Trinidad especially since the Kamla Persaud Government took over.
Up until recently I lived in Trinidad for nine months. I have my Caribbean Community (Caricom) skills certificate, but Trinidad sees it as a "temporary visa". It allowed me up to six months at a time to legally reside and work in Trinidad before having to get another skills certificate issued by the Trinidadian Government. That's fine. But the Trinidadian Government refused to accept the legitimacy of my own skills certificate.
They informed me that I had to go through the entire process again to get it and that it could take up to four months. In other words, to hell with the fact that my government accepted my submissions.
My wife also had her certificate. And the same thing happened to her. She is a lawyer that studied in Trinidad but they still gave her hell.
I'm an engineer who studied in Cuba, and did not relish the task of yet again getting translations of my degree and course work... blah blah blah... So we left.
I gave my little story to say that Trinidad, in general, is just unwelcoming to all Caribbean people. Not just Jamaicans. We Grenadians feel it too. The Barbadians feel it, the Dominicans feel it. It is only my opinion, but my opinion is that the current government is just racist and elitist and very Anti-Caribbean.
We certainly don't believe all Jamaicans are criminals. I personally don't believe that even the majority of you are criminals. So don't take it personally. It's not you, or us, it's them.
Let's keep trying to be united as one region. The Kamla's and others like her will lose.
-Samora Robertson