We all cringe whenever we see the wrenching images of Haitian refugees risking their lives, jumping off rickety, fragile boats, into raging seas off the coast of Florida. It gets worse, much worse, when we learn that after all the risks taken by these unfortunate people to flee the poverty and hardships of Haiti, they are promptly incarcerated by immigration authorities and sent back home.  

Of course, there is no ‘Wet-foot/Dry-foot’ policy established by the friendly United States for the poor, tired, and hungry black masses from Haiti. This invitation etched on the famous Statue of Liberty in the New York City harbor, obviously does not extend to Haitians. Under the “Wet-foot/Dry-foot” policy, Cubans can land and dash for the shores without any risk of being deported. However, the unfortunate Haitians refugees jump off boats in raging waters to reach land hoping for due consideration to stay here in America, which hardly ever happens. In fact, in fiscal year 2006, 1,198 Haitians who were indicted for coming to the U.S. illegally were returned to Haiti, despite expressing fears of being persecuted if returned home.

There is a popular song with a line that goes “A house is not a home, when there is no one there,” but we could change that line to say “A house is not a home if the mortgage is not there.” Unfortunately, recently there are increasing reports of an escalation in the incidence of home foreclosures, reaching record proportions across the country.

It has always been said that if a thing is too good to be true, it probably is. Things seemed very good, in recent years, when people within our community found it very easy to qualify for mortgages, and to purchase houses through new and creative methods like the interest-only and payment-option mortgages. With the former, the homeowner pays only the interest due on the loan, and in the latter he has the option to choose and pay a minimum monthly payment. Both options proved to be very appealing, especially to people in the black community, including Caribbean nationals.

Increasingly, Caribbean nationals in the USA are faced with a problem that was never seriously factored in the equation related to relocating to the United States. This problem has to do with care for our aging relatives – parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.

In the Caribbean when our relatives become too old to care for themselves, the quick response is to hire help to care for them in our homes. In fact, good help isn’t hard to find, and is competent, and is available at relatively low rates compared to the U.S. In the case of financially challenged families, unable to afford even the low rates, usually some member of the family can be relied on to take care of Mama, Papa or Gramps.