The Editor, Sir:

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly is not an official of Washington, but his recent declarations after men from the Caribbean were arrested in connection with an alleged terrorist plot to bomb John F. Kennedy International Airport are symptomatic of the problem the Caribbean has always had with the United States of America. The mighty U.S.A. becomes concerned about the Caribbean only when there is some threat to the U.S.A., real or imagined, perceived to be reposing somewhere in the Caribbean. So Kelly's declaration, "It's an area we should take a closer look at", is not surprising.

When the U.S.A., under successive governments, whether Democratic or Republican, pays lip service to the Caribbean, whether it is in the pleas of the latter for inclusion in any really meaningful trade entity, or for meaningful assistance in curbing the illegal guns that flood the Caribbean area from the U.S.A., or for some creative action to staunch the American demand for the illegal drugs that come from or through the Caribbean, the U.S.A. is never ready to "take a closer look" at the Caribbean.

'Another Mogadishu'

When Caribbean government spokespersons plead with Washington in various tones and on various issues to consider the Caribbean the U.S.A.'s closest neighbour and to work out all the ramifications of that neighbourliness, the U.S.A. is not as interested in "taking a closer look at the Caribbean" as it does when there is a Panama or a Grenada or a Bay of Pigs or now, "another Mogadishu", just waiting to destabilise poor U.S.A.

Might I suggest that operatives of the U.S.A. watch the rhetoric? It is highly debatable that Trinidad is "another Mogadishu" waiting to happen. The rate of growth of Radical Islam is no more 'alarming' in the Caribbean than anywhere else in the West, including in the United States of America. Radical Muslims have done a number of dastardly acts in London and from London. I didn't hear any U.S. official say that "the U.K. is an area we have to look at". Could I beg the U.S.A. to dispense with any ideas that little Caribbean territories remain easy pickings for the kind of U.S. external actions that are never unleashed on their neighbours farther across the Atlantic?

Could I plead with the U.S.A. to take the time to understand the ethos of Orthodox Islam in Trinidad and Tobago before they go painting every Muslim therein as a terrorist? Might I suggest, also, that the U.S.A., too often guilty of being Big Brother - and some would not hesitate to say 'Big Bully' - when it should be Equal Partner, begins to adopt a true partnership with the governments of the Caribbean, and that the U.S. representatives who meet with the Caribbean heads come with tones and attitudes more like a Bill Richardson or a Madeline Albright rather than the tones of a John Bolton?

And might I warn that the U.S. consider the threat of terrorism to be equally devastating for other countries as it would be for America, in this global village?

I am, etc.,

Rev. Dr. MICHAEL FRIDAY

rev_manfriday@hotmail.com

801 Kayleen Drive

Bellevue, Nebraska

Via Go-Jamaica