By Deandrea Hamilton
Editor
A woman says she was going shopping at a front road located grocery store when an armed gunman threatened her with a pistol and grabbed her bag. She told friends she was so shaken-up, she fled the scene and did not wait around for anything or anyone.
A rampage is on in Providenciales and no one is off limits to the overly aggressive males who have high-jacked peace of mind. Worst of all, no one is speaking out.
Security video from Liz Bakery was appalling. A gun shoved in the face of a little girl, her small monies snatched… women forced faced down on the floor and high powered weapons brandished in an environment which was anything but combative; come on this is our hometown, home grown, native bakery we’re talking about.
Then, the horrifying news that a little girl, only 10-years-old, was grased by a bullet in an armed invasion. I wonder if this little girl was visited by government ministers and police; like the tourist man was when he was shot by a gun toting thug.
No advocacy from community or country leaders and it is this news organisation’s strong view, based on the variety of comments we receive, that this lack of public demonstration of concern and outrage is doing more damage than the criminals behind the crimes.
Another burning point; the hospital care in the country and its severe limitations.
Residents are dying at home and abroad and many believe it could be needlessly. It continues to be a mystery, why TCI would return millions of dollars it is approved for by a major regional bank and the United Kingdom when we desperately need a trauma center to deliver on this kind of medical care at home.
An entire wing of the Cheshire Hall Medical Center is a ghost town, waiting to be brought to life and to serve some medical need of this little country.
Efforts at medical tourism are shelved when arguably, our nation provides an idyllic escape for those recuperating from medical procedures and while the TCI is small, it is obviously rich but cannot serve patients who need Intensive Care.
No intensive care unit in a country which welcomes 1.6 million tourists a year and has a home population of another 45,000. Surely this can’t be right, it is certainly not good.
While nearby countries are prepared to take our US dollars, they are unprepared to adapt their laws to allow grieved loved ones who lose a relative to get them back in one piece and not dust. Do we need stronger negotiators at the table because Magnetic Media is aware of a Turks and Caicos Islander who was returned to the country as a whole person after dying in the DR, reportedly to COVID-19. All it took was heart and mental muscle – thank you to Evan Spencer of Spence Security.
At this point, based on the issues our news company is fielding on a daily basis, the optics on all of this are horrible and while the premier and opposition leader squabble over who has the money, islanders are increasingly afraid to visit stores for goods they need but can hardly afford and wonder, what happens to me or my loved ones if there is traumatic injury that the TCI Hospitals cannot handle.
High paying, high security, high profile jobs are not getting done, but it continues to be business as usual when results in many cases are deplorable.
How do you keep your job when you’re failing at it? Words like accountability and transparency are tossed about, but they do not only refer to making information known; they also beg integrity when fulfilling the contract requirements.
Money is sweet but the people of the Turks and Caicos need more than money and if this journalist has to tell one what the people need, then maybe it’s time to end the contract and let’s get someone else who does know, to give the jobs a try.