Growing up in a Tropical paradise

"Shining waters and golden sands." Isn't that what the tourist from developed countries see when they plan their holiday to the Caribbean islands? Growing up as a young boy in the southernmost island of the West Indies, I was exposed to life as it really is in these small countries. From my earliest days at school I was told by the members of my family that I had to study and work hard to be always at the top of my class. Education, after elementary school, is not free, at least not in my day, in my native land. The only way it would not cost me was to win a scholarship to go to High school. So I studied hard to win one of the twelve or fourteen scholarships offered by the government to all the elementary school children elegible.
It is not only education, but also the availability of medical care, that was not open to those who could not pay. I remember that when I became sick, sometimes with such high fevers that I began to hallucinate, it was not a qualifed doctor but the application of home remedies by my parents that cured me.
Later on in my life, after I obtained my M.A. degree in an English university, I went to work in West Africa. There I saw that life was not far different for the native people to what I had experienced as a boy in my homeland. Life , in many ways, was even tougher for them. As I stayed working there even after the country achieved independence, I was able to see that rule by their own people did not bring about the utopia that was hoped for by the indigenous inhabitants.
A visitor only sees the wonderful warm climate, the beautiful beaches and blue
transparent waters. The song "Jamaica Farewell" ends with the reality of life in these countries. I hear the words: " I see women on bended knees cutting cane for their family." These people toil in the heat of the sun without the benefits that workers enjoy in developed countries.