Neglecting Medical Care of Sick Children

Music entertainer Shaggy, patrons, and staff at the hospital are smiling in a photo with a sick child who will benefit greatly from the machine purchased with funds from the Shaggy and Friends Charity performance. At the Bustamante Children’s Hospital, photo ops are common with smiling children, nurses, and patrons demonstrating an environment of happiness. Yet, on a normal day when the photographers and limelight are nowhere to be seen, the night staff wakes up sick children in the wee hours of the morning at 4:00 AM for their bath so that the staff will not have to delay their departure promptly at 6:00 AM at the end of their shift. Those children whose parents are regularly at the children’s hospital do not have to worry since they will not be awoken for a bath as their parents are expected to do this job on their visit. After their early bath, children whose parents cannot visit them regularly must take care not to wet or mess up themselves or else they will have to remain in their soiled attire since no health staff will make any effort to change them regardless of their loud, monotonous crying. There was a case where a little girl cried out one night. “I’m so cold……can I have a blanket?” A visiting parent who heard the child and saw her shivering made a plea to one of the nurses for a blanket. That parent had decided to spend all night at the hospital with her child since throughout her son’s hospital stay, she had witnessed the neglect of innocent, sick children. “We do not provide blankets to patients”, the nurse responded abruptly and coldly. The parent made further pleas but to no avail. So, she sought for and found a blanket on a cart which she used to cover the freezing sick child. Upon realizing what the parent did, the nurse quickly retrieved the blanket off the child’s body insisting that the parent was violating the policy of the hospital. So, the caring parent removed the child’s sheet from the mattress and used it instead to cover the child. The Bustamante Children’s Hospital has improved over the years. Yet, these incidents along with placing doctors and other medical practitioners from Cuba to care for sick children but are unable to clearly communicate with the parents demonstrate that the public hospital has a very long way to go. The only English word one mother could understand in response to her question to a Cuban doctor was the word, "baby" so he was unable to respond to the mother's concerns. Undivided attention is expected for all sick children regardless of whether their parents can only afford to use the services of a public hospital and all nursing staff should be empathetic to each situation.

Americanization of a Developing Country

Social influences from the United States have impacted the way of life in countries such as Jamaica. For instance, American based fast food establishments have become prominent throughout foreign cities as one is bound to see the unmistakable logos as he/she approaches a McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, TGIF, and the list goes on and on. It does not even matter that the cost of meals sold at the foreign franchises is overpriced since even the poor will find a way to purchase that quick meal to show their connection to the United States. Homes have access to cable television services which broadcast programs directly from the U.S. So visitors to the island never miss their favorite program and continue to keep abreast of the happenings in the U.S. On the other hand, the locals are bombarded with the American way of life and are lead to believe that one can only be successful if they possess the advertised clothes, shoes, cars, food, etc. Further, the cable programs that depict violence, drugs, and other crimes have often been blamed for the decline in discipline, moral standards, and the drastic increase in crime rate in Jamaica. To fulfill the appetite for American products, imports from the United States are at an all time high. So, with the misconceived notions that foreign items are better, there is a great desire to possess American products, and this diminishes the desire to produce or manufacture local goods. Further, government programs that could encourage locals to produce and manufacture goods locally are non-existent. This lack of effort to produce locally not only makes the country heavily reliant on products from abroad but the foreign minded mentality promote the blatant employment of foreigners including foreign contractors to work as highly overpaid consultants. Meanwhile, the services of highly qualified graduates from the local universities are overlooked. So, it is no wonder why there is a brain drain of talented individuals who take their intellectual capabilities to, of course, the United States. Countries such as Jamaica will continue to be influenced by life styles in the United States with the locals maintaining the misconceived notion that "everything foreign must be better!"

U.S. Consulate – Visas Approval Inconsistency

As Easter approached, teachers at a primary school in a Caribbean island planned to take a group of children to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. In the group, there were two eight year old cousins. Both cousins are the children of twin sisters and all live at the family home. So, both cousins who have grown up playing together in the same home were looking forward to going to Disney World together and anxiously awaited the day they would go to the United States embassy to obtain their visas. Parents accompanied their children who made up a small group of twenty. The first cousin, a little girl, was the second person in the group to approach an Immigration Officer. She stood in front of the officer with her mom, a hard working woman who leaves for work for her retail job at sunrise and returns home well after sunset. The officer asked her about her employment and she explained what her job entailed. Suddenly, the officer abruptly advised her that the application for her daughter was not approved and she should try again next year. At first, the little girl did not understand the decision that was made. However, when it was later explained by her mother, she cried profusely and her uncontrollable whaling became too much for her mother to bear. However, the event was not yet over since the little girl’s cousin and his mother had to appear before the same Immigration Officer. After learning of her niece’s visa denial, the aunt decided to act indifferent during the interview with the Immigration Officer since she felt her son too would be denied a visa. So, when the Immigration Officer asked her about her occupation, she responded in a nonchalant manner, “Mi no do nothing sir but sell bag juice to children at mi yard.” Then, the immigration officer beckoned her to go to another side of the room where the visa would be processed for her son! Greatly surprised by the decision, she quickly moved to the other side of the room even though she did not have sufficient money for the processing fee. Ironically, her hardworking sister offered to make the payment. This is one example where the issuance and denial of a visa do not seem to be logical. Unfortunately, with the high cost of the visa application fees too many applicants leave the embassy with no visa and lose out on the hundreds of dollars that they scrounged to obtain for the fee.

Biased British Embassy Policies

Jamaica seems to be the only western country where all who want to renew or obtain new passports must go to the British embassy in person at designated days and hours. A check on the procedures for many countries, including those that have British embassies, uncovered that these countries do not appear to be under any strict guidelines from the British Embassy. People from these countries are instructed to simply complete the form and send it along with the required documents to the Washington DC British Embassy. So, one can only wonder why the strict guidelines are imposed for one and not for all.