The Death of a Little Shame-Tree

Geopolitical Servility & CARICOM's Betrayal of Cuba.

In the arid courtyard of Jamaican diplomacy, a sturdy, indigenous species is reportedly extinct. The Mimosa pudica, known colloquially as the "Shame-tree" for the way its leaves recoil at the slightest touch of a transgressor, no longer reacts. At Jamaica House, the sensitive plant has withered into grey dust. How else are we to explain the chilling detachment with which the Holness administration has presided over the dismantling of the Cuban Medical Brigade?

Bravo. It takes a particular brand of audacity to dress up rank betrayal as "enlightened diplomacy." After five decades of faithful, healing service by Cuban doctors, nurses, and technicians—professionals who climbed the steepest hills of Portland and laboured in the overstretched wards of Kingston when others would not—Jamaica has chosen to bend the knee 'under the sycamore tree'. We are witnessing the systematic abandonment of a proven partner to appease the increasingly erratic geopolitical whims of "Uncle Sam." It is a spectacle that lacks both sanity and principle. This is not diplomacy; it is a capitulation to U.S. pressure at the cost of Jamaica’s health and self‑respect.

History is a cold bookkeeper, and the ledgers of AD 2026 will not be kind to Dr Andrew Holness, Mrs Kamina Johnson Smith, or Dr Christopher Tufton. They will be remembered not as strategists, but as the architects of a needless, self-inflicted wound to the national psyche. To discard fifty years of solidarity in exchange for the fleeting favour of an unsteady Northern power is not statecraft; it is a fire sale of our national dignity.

The departure lounge at Norman Manley International Airport has become a stage for a tragedy in several acts. As Cuban medical professionals pack their bags—the very people who fortified our primary healthcare system for generations—one must ask: what have the Jamaican people done to deserve this? What perceived slight or "strategic alignment" justifies stripping our clinics of the expertise that kept the rural poor from the brink of despair?

The rhetoric emanating from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade suggests a pivot toward "modern partnerships," a euphemism so hollow it echoes. There is nothing modern about ingratitude. There is nothing progressive about discarding a friend who stood by this island through hurricanes, pandemics, and economic strangulation, simply because a third party in Washington finds the optics inconvenient. This is not "alignment"; it is submissiveness masquerading as sophistication.

Dr Tufton, the Minister of Health, often speaks of "systemic resilience." Yet, one wonders how resilience is bolstered by removing critical backbone vertebrae of the specialist nursing and diagnostic sectors. Does the Cabinet believe that the goodwill of the United States—a power currently preoccupied with its own internal fractiousness—will manifest as a sudden influx of affordable, Spanish & English-speaking doctors willing to live in the storm-battered interior of St Elizabeth? It is a delusion of the highest order.

This pivot is an insult to the memory of Michael Manley and the giants of CARICOM who, in 1972, had the spine to chart an independent course in the Caribbean. They understood that sovereignty is not a gift bestowed by empires, but a muscle that must be exercised. Today, that muscle has atrophied. Under the current leadership--estranged from EPG Seaga's thought, Jamaica has transitioned from a principled voice in the Global South to an a*se-kissing accessory in a geopolitical theatre that views us as little more than a "backyard" chess pawn.

The betrayal is made more poignant by its timing. As global health security becomes increasingly precarious, burning bridges with a regional medical superpower is an act of spectacular short-sightedness. Cuba’s "white coat diplomacy" was never a threat to Jamaican democracy; it was a lifeline for the Jamaican heart. By severing this artery, the Cabinet has prioritised the "theatre of the photo-op" over the reality of the operating theatre.

Mrs Kamina Johnson Smith has often been praised for her poise on the international stage. Yet, poise without principle is merely performance --a kamina specialty. To manage the exit of our Cuban allies with such bureaucratic coldness suggests something fundamental---a plural (18 home-grown kamina eponymies of--)--- disconnection from the grassroots reality of Jamaican life. One does not trade a dependable brother for an unpredictable landlord and call it a "win."

As these medics depart, they leave behind more than just empty chairs in consultation rooms; they leave behind a vacuum of trust. We have signalled to the world that Jamaican friendship is a commodity with a short shelf life, easily traded for a nod of approval from the State Department. We have traded the "healing hand" for the "shaking hand," and the latter is looking increasingly shaky, over the Persian Gulph.

What have Jamaicans done to you, Dr Holness? Why is the health of the grandmother in Bamboo or the child in Rocky Point being used as a bargaining chip in a game of high-stakes sycophancy? The silence from Jamaica House is deafening. The Shame-trees are indeed dead, uprooted to make room for a flag of convenience. When the next crisis hits and the "steady power" we courted is too busy looking inward to help, we will look over the Trench and find only the ghosts of a solidarity we were too small-minded to keep. A dark day for diplomacy; a darker day for Jamaica's new 'bad-mind' soul. Aceres cubanos, I am seriously rejoicing that I attended KC starting in the first year of la Revolución cubana. I know the meaning of "Fortis---the Brave". So do you.

by Dennis A. Minott, PhD

March 24, 2026

Here is my Brahta from the Gleaner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayRrpwXeL2s