NEW YORK, CMC – The New York-based Caribbean Diaspora United, Inc. (CDU) has launched its Caribbean Diaspora Permanent Natural Disaster Fund amidst concerns that the Caribbean region is vulnerable to hurricanes and other natural disasters.
“The Caribbean region is one of the world’s regions most prone to natural disaster, particularly hurricanes,” said former Grenada’s ambassador to the United Nations, Eugene M. Pursoo, who is leading the CDU.
“Every year, the region experiences extensive devastation from hurricanes, coastal erosion, landslides, flooding, occasional volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
“From the smallest islands like Carriacou (one of Grenada’s two sister isles; the other is Petite Martinique) through the Windwards (Windward Islands), Barbados, the Leeward Islands, the larger islands like Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Haiti, these disasters wreak havoc on the local economies, resulting in severe dislocations and deaths,” he added.
Pursoo said while hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and the current menace of the sargassum invasions make the news, “quiet disasters like coral bleaching, disappearance of mangroves, and other environmental threats are occurring with little fanfare.
“Businesses in the coastal zones, the cradle of our economic development, would find it increasingly difficult to secure adequate insurance coverage. Regardless of the cause of our problems, we have the primary obligation to fix them.”
Pursoo, a prominent leader in the Caribbean Diaspora community, stated that the CDU Disaster Fund is intended to be a permanent one, enabling the Diaspora to expedite relief to the affected countries.
“Throughout the year, we’ll be appealing to you,” the former Grenadian envoy told patrons at the event, which brought together close to 500 attendees from the New York Caribbean Diaspora, the African American Community, the Continental African Diaspora, the Indo-Caribbean Community, and other ethnicities.
New York State Senator Siela A. Bynoe, a first-generation Caribbean-American who chairs the Senate Standing Committee on Libraries, also urged patrons to contribute to the Fund.
“When we hear of these storms, I encourage each of you to make a donation – make a donation from your heart,” said the representative for the 6th Senate District in Nassau County, Long Island, New York, whose father hailed from Suriname and mother from St. Kitts and Nevis.
The event’s guest of honor, Trinidad and Tobago’s Opposition Leader, Pennelope A. Beckles-Robinson, said she had “the good fortune to be Minister of Environment” when the Nutmeg Industry was “almost wiped out.”
“The prime minister at the time, Patrick Manning, decided to send me to Grenada,” said Beckles-Robinson, referring to widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
“You have a situation where you don’t understand what happens in a lot of Caribbean countries,” added the former permanent representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations. “When the volcano erupted in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, ash went to Barbados. Another way is sargassum. You go to St. Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua, and you can’t benefit from using the beaches.”
Sargassum is a type of free-floating brown seaweed (algae) that forms large mats in the ocean, particularly in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and has, in recent times, become a menace on Caribbean beaches.
Beckles-Robinson, the first woman to head the prominent opposition People’s National Movement (PNM), said it is “important” that the Fund be set up to assist the region in times of natural disasters.
“I cannot overemphasize the importance of this initiative. I urge every one of you to support this Fund,” she added.
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