KINGSTOWN – Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves says the decision to accommodate Jamaican dancehall artiste, Vybz Kartel, in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is a “personal act of mercy”.
There has been widespread speculation about the artiste’s presence in SVG following his recent release from prison after 13 years. Kartel was acquitted of a murder charge by Jamaica’s Court of Appeal.
The artiste has disclosed that he has Graves’ disease, also known as hyperthyroidism and several videos of the 48-year-old artiste, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, have appeared on social media since he arrived at Argyle International Airport on board a private jet last Friday.
One of the videos shows the artiste seated at a dining table along with Gonsalves and his wife, Eloise Gonsalves, and other people, apparently at the Official Residence of the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Gonsalves, speaking on his weekly radio programme on the state-owned NBC Radio said he received a telephone call from Isat Buchanan, the artiste’s lawyer, a few weeks ago.
Gonsalves, who like Kartel uses the moniker ‘World Boss’, said “He (Buchanan) called me and said that he understood that we have experts here in the field of dealing with the issue of Graves’ disease, hypothyroidism, which is the condition publicly everybody knows that Kartel, suffers from.”
The Prime Minister said Buchanan asked whether it would be appropriate for Kartel to travel to Kingstown “to see these experts in this field.”
“So, I told him that, in fact, we do have a high-quality specialist, endocrinologist, a Cuban with a good supportive team, including specialists in internal medicine and I named the doctor… who is of Indian descent and who is also a teaching professor at one of the universities here….”
Gonsalves said the other internal medicine specialists include Dr Reisha Twana Browne-Caesar, wife of Agriculture Minister, Saboto Caesar and that these specialists have good supportive staff and a sufficiency of investigative tools.
“I think the understanding about what we had was probably conveyed by Marlon Samuels, whom I’ve known from the days of West Indies cricket,” Gonsalves said of the Jamaican batsman, adding that Samuels had visited the country to show solidarity after the impact of Hurricane Beryl on July 1.
“And immediately I was prompted to say, ‘Yes, we can facilitate him.’ Naturally, the government is not spending any money for Kartel, to be here staying.
“I mean, we’re facilitating, because the impulse came from a simple word called mercy. Somebody who is in need is reaching out for help,” he said. (Jamaica Gleaner)
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