(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Kamla Persad–Bissessar’s statements about applying conditions to any aid T&T provides in the wake of Tropical Storm Tomas has triggered an avalanche of criticisms. Throughout the region, there are calls for a boycott of products from Trinidad and Tobago as posted by Caribbean nationals on social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, as well as the BlackBerry broadcast message service. Angry nationals from Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and Barbados expressed their disgust and outrage over Persad–Bissessar’s statement that T&T should get something in return for assisting its Caribbean counterparts who were affected by Tomas..
An article which appeared on the website Go–Jamaica yesterday said an online campaign was underway to boycott T&T’s products.
There were several comments by upset bloggers. One blogger urged Jamaicans to boycott products and “even the airline.” “Let them (products) spoil on the shelves. We need to send a message to that little country that no man is an island and no island stands alone,” the comment by ‘Jamaican’ said. ‘Sanfar’ stated: “I agree with boycotting their products. Just to send a message to them that we can do without their products.” A page, created on Facebook. stated “Kamla needs to apologise.” It listed 476 members at 4 pm yesterday.
Also on the Facebook community news page was “On The Ground News Report” which is “liked” by 46,161 people. Several persons posted comments lambasting the PM. In addition, BlackBerry-users have been receiving a message which states: “Join me and many of my friends in the ‘BUY NOTHING MADE IN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO’ campaign. This is a result of the T&T PM’s open statement to the media saying she will not give any assistance to Caricom countries affected by Hurricane Tomas unless it is to the benefit of Trinidad. “I wonder if she is aware of the amount of products we purchase daily that is made in Trinidad. PLEASE JOIN AND PASS IT ON.”
