The Caribbean time machine

Martinique and Guadaloupe, France - August 2021

Time seems to have stopped on these 2 French Caribbean islands. Although most of the people in all Europe have already had their second covid19 vaccine booster dose, life in these overseas french territories, is still as it was in 2020. Outdoors, strict rules of social distancing still apply, and apart from the busiest streets near the market areas, most of the places are almost completely deserted. In the sky you can see helicopters that dive as soon as they spot someone on the beach. In order to meet outdoors, people leave their cars on the road and go into the forests where they can stay together without incurring the risk of fines or even more serious problems with the local police. Supermarkets are raided and shelves remain empty for days. Most restaurants and hotels are closed, some are open for take-out only. In addition to a few No-vax writings around, there are a lot of advertisements for campaigns in favor of vaccination. Some people say that the vaccine has never arrived here. Others say that there is no money to be able to get to the few local hospitals where they could get the vaccine, and that therefore only a small part of the local community has been actually vaccinated. Newspapers have reported recently about visits from some of the most important ministers of Paris government, but after their return to continental France no measures have been proposed so far that could change the situation in this part of the country. Some French newspapers subtly suggest that it’s the local black population that doesn’t want to be vaccinated. Martinique and Guadalupe is for the great majority composed by heirs of 12 millions people reduced to slaves and brought from North West Africa to the Caribbeans for centuries by European countries, when they managed to survive during the journey. According to the point of view of some western and local commentators, original inhabitants would not trust the vaccine because it comes from Western medicine: based on this position supported by some newspapers, mostly foreign to the Caribbean islands, people here would be scared because of medical researches that have used in the past part of the black population as animal tests without their consent nor knowledge, causing serious and permanent physical and psychological damages. No one would deny these events (starting from the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments), but according to the current available data vaccines do not arrive on the islands in sufficient numbers, and the available shots seem to be intended only for those who can afford to reach the hospitals. The majority of the people here say that they have not been able to get vaccinated, denying any personal responsibility or choice involved.