Downstreet, your opinions of Trump are very similar to mine. But just as good men sometimes do turn bad, I am hoping the reverse may be true too. That's why I'm hoping that the awesomeness and the enormity of the office might just inject some sobering thoughts and attitudes in the Chump. What a time!!

The worry going forward with the Trump administration is not Trump, in my opinion ,but it is the people he is surrounding himself with and the dark agenda they will try to push forward. Trump likes to win and succeed even if it is just a semblance of same but the experience and cunning in the political arena of the cohorts he has lined up for executive positions in similar to the Dick Cheney and George Bush Administration. No meaning to go off the Migration thing just a sidebar I hope

Tony, take out the u and put i between the h and the m: chimp - not chump lol! BTW, all those hoping for better now, good luck, allu ever c leopard change skin?

On migration/emigration or immigration, would the Saga of that Legacy continue despite our building of any utopian society?

Let us have a look!

First, I will preface my opinion with a preamble, that every individual is driven by a predisposition of a genetic indulgence to find avenues of opportunities for him/her self in order to improve their lot in life. To the extent that we recognize that our "needs/wants" are conditional requirements of temporary inconveniences, so too we must conclude that the barriers to obtaining them are also temporary disturbances.The innate nature of man to use his God-given ambitions and talents would eventually supercede these obstacles. And when one recognizes that
the country of his birth cannot provide the avenues by which his ambition can be satisfied, he/she would eventually leave to find them elsewhere, hence the legacy will continue.

This, in my opinion, is where the evolution of the emigrant began. It is within that context that the word "Exodus" ("A going out; a departure or emigration, usually of a large number of people:") seems more appropriate than any other, despite the contrary opinion of our Tony De's  good Doctor friend. To infer otherwise.... as with the word "over flow" by the good Doctor, is to conjure up a connotation of a spill over of some sort, precipitated by over-population and this was hardly the case with our West Indian/Grenadian experience.

The History of this migratory and emigratory behavior among all species of the world dates back since time immemorial. It is captured yearly, notably among the Wildebeests on the plains of the Sarengeti in Africa. Also notable is the annual journey of the Hump Back Whales from South America to as far North as Alaska.They too are following that same genetically prescribed behavior in order to satisfy that  propensity for survival.

These migratory spcies can be a parallel case study of human migration as it is innate among all the species of the world with no exemptions given to us hemo sapiens. We follow the links on the food chain as a means of survival and it is only within that context that the perceived scourge of immigration on economically distressed societies can be fully addressed snd understood.

Here is the making of a Doctoral Dissertation that some of you younger folks can pursue.

But embedded within the immigration legacy is the often discussed issue of the inequitable trade-off of human resources between the host country and the country of one's birth.

There is a school of thought that believes this shifting of people impeeds the development of economically challenged countries due to the exportation of the young minds necessary for its nation building initiatives. This implication, commomly referred to as "brain drain" is one that is shared and argued chiefly among our Caribbean nationalists as a means of circumventing some of their failed efforts to properly chart avenues of economic upliftment for our people.

Another school of thought argues that developing countries, in most cases, do not have the economic resources necessary to develop their own young minds. As such, they must depend on imported professional educators, to complement the residual benefits from their foreign trained returning nationals. Therefore, it is important to recognize that  the 'brain drain' connotation is only applicable, to the extent that it is "carried" by the immigrant but without the 'draining effect' of any professional loss that the argument purports.

It is probably within these acceptable notion that the "free passage without hindrance" (full credit given to our once talkshop, Lady Genevieve) is being adopted among the countries of Western Europe to appease the refugee status of their Eastern Brothers and Sisters. But this phenomenon should not be confused with the emigration driven individuals. In this case, the 'brain drain' implication may be applicable.

But while there may be some truths within all arguments, it is without any doubt, that in the long run, the immigration trade-off in most cases (both educationally and economically) favors the host country in the long run. Just think about ourselves; what we came with vis a vis, what we contributed and what we left behind.

The difference is astronomical.

I will indulge here with yet another hyperbolic reference to accommodate those who may have envisioned the development of a utopian society to impeed the efforts of emigration and explain it away:

So moving forward from here and after another three decades, the year is now 2046. We have built a perfect society. Our cultural an social re-training initives implemented earlier have borne fruits; we have been successful in re-ingineering our society and have now charged government with its implementation. The populace are all smiling again with newly developed whitened, polished teeth; the young men are back cultivating the land with GPS controlled Plows and Combines Harvesters; the young ladies attire of Maxi Skirts being worn below their knees as mandated by law is now common place and on Sundays, the church piews of all denominations are fill to capacity with the mass and homily now being conducted in Mandarin. We have banned what was the once considered vulgarity of carnival and have adopted the religious edict that forbades the consumption of alcohol and use of contraceptives.

In one of our government pronouncements, it was reported that the country's debt has now ballooned to over six Billion Dollars and asked that everyone tighten their belts with austetity programs to follow.....sounds familiar.? We had sent "our negotiating team" to Beijing to negotiate our debt, the result of which was an extended forgiveness being tacked on the back end. We have placed on notice, the closing of all twenty five of our embassies throughout the world, leaving open, only the ones in China, India, US and Canada.

But there is good news that should make all of us proud.

Our young men and women who had left us a decade ago to further their studies have all graduated. We have over fifteen Scientists graduating with their Phd's from Tsinghua University and another five from Nanjing in China. From the University of New Delhi we have eighteen Medical Doctors. From Havard Business School we have over twenty graduates and from London School of Economics, twenty six. They are all due to return home to aid in our nation building initiatives. And most importantly, Miss Odan, Mi-mi and El Mira Fudge and Sugar-Cake are now being wrapped and exported.

With all these accomplishments, can we now say that the saga of immigration and its legacy would cease?

It is my humble opinion that as long as it is perceived that " the grass is greener in other pastures" the saga will continue to chart the epic journey of the immigrant.

VJL