Georgie bundle

So many potential topics to write about in so little time, as things are changing so fast that I could barely keep up. So much has happened in just one week. I did say in previous articles that 2025 was going to be a weird year of uncertainty, upheaval, and drama.

First, Trump slapped tariffs on most countries, using numbers with no correlation, logic, or sense. Then there was a strong suspicion that Trump manipulated the US stock market by driving stocks down, then advising his friends that ‘now is the time to buy,’ before pausing the tariffs for 90 days to allow the stock prices to increase again. As of today, China has pushed its tariffs to 125% while Trump has kept his at 145%.



Since a significant number of imports are from China and via USA, drastic effects are likely to be seen shortly in our little Caribbean isles. The Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestinian wars continue seemingly unabated. A judge ruled to deport the Columbia University US resident student who was involved in the pro-Palestinian protests.

The US government banned romantic or sexual relationships between its government officials in China with Chinese citizens. On the local side, the Dragon deal has died. Election is in the air with every side promising the world and beyond.

Currently, the effects of the slight majority dougla and mixed population, in addition to the cynicism of the Generation Z (who have now reached the age to vote, but may not), would make this upcoming election less traditional and more unpredictable. The third parties, the marginal seats and the Tobago seats may be the deciding factors. The stark reality is that as soon as the election is over, if the red side wins, they would give us the sober talk that it is going to be a rough rest of year.

If the yellow side wins, they would first complain and blame everything on the previous side, then give us the same sober talk. No matter what is being promised, prices would increase, salaries would not, the forex situation would get tighter. And then measles.

Many of my paediatric colleagues think it is not a matter of if, but when, with regard to its spread to the Caribbean. There are now 700 cases in at least six states in USA. The malaria cases are increasing in South Trinidad and dengue is right around the corner.

I had topics and issues coming out of my ears. So much is happening. Then one morning it was all upended when I received a call from my neighbour.

“JP,” he said, ”we have a problem!” “Who is this?” I said. It was just after 6 o’clock in the morning and my brain was not yet awake. He proceeded to tell me that there was a young woman and her infant sleeping on the top of the stairs of my immediate neighbour’s house.

He saw her when he had come outside to go to his car. When he spoke to her she said she had nowhere else to go and thus she was sleeping there. By the time I reached downstairs, another neighbour had already approached the mother to find out what was happening.

From her recap, it seems she lived somewhere nearby and had had an altercation with her husband. She was supposedly thrown out. Feeling unsafe, she walked around until she found the neighbour’s house and spent the night lying in a corner, on the tiled surface, with her infant cuddled atop of her.

Some bamboo trees lean over the houses. With the breeze blowing, their leaves fall on the stairs and every week the stairs have to be swept and washed. In between these cleaning days, the stairs have prickly leaves, insects, ants, bamboo dust.

There is also the chance of frogs and even snakes. As we talked to the mother, I imagined the night they would have had, on the cold tiles, a towel covering, with ants and insects, on spiky leaves, in the dark, bamboo trees and other branches swaying in the breeze, alone, afraid, vulnerable. As I watched the infant play with the empty plastic water bottle, I realised that for a mother to choose to spend the night on someone’s stairs with her child, she must have felt that she had no other option.

There was no back-up plan. She had no phone. No one to call.

No place to go. Such an utterly vulnerable place to be. At some level, this year is also a vulnerable temporal space.

The world has left itself in a vulnerable place where one man is able to cause such chaos and disruption, in not just his country but worldwide. With regard to our own internal election, although 17 parties are contesting, the voting options seem limited. To remove ourselves from perceived limited options, though, the trick is to push and advocate within the five years.

It is up to us, not just them. With regard to relationships, or anything, the rule is to always have an escape plan, a back-up, a plan B. Especially in situations where you feel unsafe.

To survive this year 2025, on an international, national, and personal level, I am recommending we all get some vex money and a Jahaaji or Georgie bundle. It is either that or sleeping on bamboo leaves. Dr Joanne F Paul is an Emergency Medicine Lecturer with The UWI.

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