One Vincentian who is employed with the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings company gave voice to the mounting distress being experienced by Eastern Caribbean nationals who are quarantined aboard several cruise ships at Port Miami.<\/p>\n
In an exclusive Asbert News Network interview on Monday, the young sailor responded to what he perceived to be negative political comments and something akin to prejudice in the government\u2019s response to his colleagues\u2019 particular dilemma \u2013 getting home amidst global border and airline restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look on some of the comments on Facebook, people saying NDP (New Democratic Party) would do better close the borders. This is not the time for that. The way I see it, the government is trying to unite everybody to play a part in society. Am out here wanna come home [but] \u2018close the borders.\u2019 You\u2019re saying you don\u2019t give a damn about Vincentians outside especially sailor men and women.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I don\u2019t like what Saboto Caesar wrote on Facebook either. I didn\u2019t comment or say anything, I have respect for this guy what he done in terms of sports and getting involved in those activities. He wrote \u2018if alyo sailor man love Saint Vincent alyo better stay home.\u2019 Big minister should be doing that? If you wanna say something go about it in a mannerly way.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what got a lot of sailors upset. Every Vincentian on every cruise company saw that post.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs not sailor men alone and women alone is coming inside the country but I guess they know that now. That disease don\u2019t care if you sail or if you work on oil rig or pick fruits of even if you work in office. NDP or ULP (Unity Labor Party) you getting it, that\u2019s the fact. This thing is serious really serious. I wanna be able to come home.\u201d<\/p>\n
PM Gonsalves told ANN, \u201cin principle I have no problem at all with our nationals coming home, in fact if you are a citizen of a country I don\u2019t think that the government can say that you can\u2019t come home, lock off the borders from you. But in the circumstances, we have to make sure that any persons coming in such large numbers at this time, we have to have the right protocols.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, they\u2019 have to be tested before coming in and they can\u2019t just say so; it has to be done by somebody independent. So the tests are done, they\u2019re certified and still when they come here they would have to be quarantined for 14 days even though they tested negative for COVID and the company would have to pay for their quarantine and all the associated charges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally the Vincentian Prime Minister mentioned the stipulation that, \u201cany of them, of course, who have COVID we\u2019d ask them to stay out until they\u2019re tested again to say that they\u2019re free.\u201d<\/p>\n
To this the Vincentian sailor responded, \u201cwell then we not coming home. Same they can test us, they have testing kits there. The other countries they are not doing that. It\u2019s when you reach home they put you in quarantine. I don\u2019t understand really. The point is being home. The longer we out here the more we are likely to get this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prefacing a follow up voice note with his expressed desire to not \u201cbe disrespectful or anything,\u201d the Norwegian Cruise Line crewman fingered the Philippines, Brazil and Indonesia as \u201cmore bigger\u201d countries whose citizens were sent back home without fulfilling the prerequisites being tabled by the Dr. Gonsalves-led government.<\/p>\n
\u201c800 Filipinos off this ship alone and more are going to be dispatched from this ship without them being tested so what are you telling me if Philippines send for their people and Indonesia send for their people off this ship without them being tested so what is the Prime Minister implementing?
\n\u201cWhat happen, this sound like a discrimination thing that people back home have for sailor man. Nobody from the Philippines discriminate them.<\/p>\n
When they go home they\u2019re going into quarantine [and] they\u2019re being tested there so why we cannot have the same thing done for us too as Vincentians? This like is a discrimination thing. Is like sailor man is bringing home this thing. It\u2019s nothing like that. I don\u2019t understand this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crewman further asserted, \u201cI think these countries have love and care for their people more than the Caribbean countries. I understand that they are small and they don\u2019t have the resources to deal with the virus but come on, come on man.
\n\u201cYou want to tell me there\u2019s no love in the Caribbean anymore? Everybody discriminating \u2013 I don\u2019t understand this. I think that the Prime Minister should be more like the Philippines government and then Vincentian people, they would love him more. That is my opinion. Be more like the Philippines government and implement strict rules, 24 hour lock down.<\/p>\n
If you come on the street tell the police to shoot them I believe that they would love him more because I don\u2019t understand this,\u201d he said in some contrast to an early part of the interview.<\/p>\n
At that point he reported on the adulations being showered on the local government for its refusal to close borders and relatively lax quarantine enforcement measures. \u201c.\u2026 He said if he go home, he can\u2019t be outside or the will get shot. He asked me if that happen in my country, I told him no. He said St. Vincent is the best, saying that the people don\u2019t know how lucky they are\u2026. Then countries started closing only St. Vincent was open. Everybody, on the ship, say we were lucky because everybody else was trapped here. Everybody say our government was very good.\u201d<\/p>\n
JP.Schwmon.Vincy@Gmail.Com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One Vincentian who is employed with the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings company gave voice to the mounting distress being experienced by Eastern Caribbean nationals who are quarantined aboard several cruise ships at Port Miami. In an exclusive Asbert News Network interview on Monday, the young sailor responded to what he perceived to be negative political<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news","category-mainstory"],"yoast_head":"\n