CUBAN SCHOLARSHIPS DOWN FROM 300 TO FOUR

I give you scholarship, you pimp my sister? Fuck you Lucians!!!

Cuban scholarships are down from a high of 300 to a new low of four. It’s the lowest number of scholarships ever since Cuba started bankrolling St Lucian university education for the poor.

It’s diplomatic stuff, so don’t expect the Cuban embassy to lash out at Lucian abuses.

But it’s about Lucian abuses.

In the early-to-mid-2000s, the number of Cuban scholarships to the poor reached record high levels. The Labour government was in power and pulled Cuba closer than UWP could ever do. The Cubans rewarded us with more opportunities for higher education for kids who could not otherwise afford university.

Many of the scholarships did not go to the poor.

They went to middle class and upper middle classs people who were well connected enough to get approved for scholarships even though they were not the kinds of people that Cuba intended the scholarships for.

The result was that people who were middle class in St Lucia were rich in Cuba. And they flaunted it. Credit card purchases, parties, extravagant spending at least by Cuban standards. And worst of all, Lucian boys were confirming that they were directly involved in prostitution.

“That’s my bom bag,” one of them confirmed after a shopping spree for female underwear and clothing at S&S and Hobie. “Cuban girls cannot get these things cheap. They will do anything for this stuff.”

To make things worse, both Labour and Flambeau governments made moves to cut off stipends to Lucians studying in Cuba, making life even harder for the poor and indigent students who the Cuban scholarships were actually meant for.

Leading the Cubans to believe that St Lucia did not need the scholarships.

After all,  if you give scholarships  to those who can afford to go to UWI and then cut off stipends for those who have no other options for higher education, making life exceedingly more difficult for them, then you are not in the market for scholarships for the poor.

Also, Cuban scholars from St Lucia have to be one of the most malonette group of people in the world. When they come back, they forget about Cuba, or bad-mouth conditions there. Apparently, they are unaware that one of the benefits Cuba gets from giving the scholarships is to have educated intellectuals all over the Spanish speaking and Third World be sympathetic to their cause. Without the active sympathy from Lucian graduates of Cuban universities, the scholarship programs are not worth what Cuba gives.

How can St Lucia recover from this? How do we convince the Cubans that we are worth it?

And as for the degree holders from Cuba, where the hell are you people? You don’t have an association? You don’t see further than your own education? You can’t tell that there are kids out there who are like you once were? Have you no responsibility to defend them and their future?

No. Of course not. You didn’t get your scholarship degree for anyone but yourself. What the hell am I thinking when I hope that you might do the same for others that Cuba did for you?