I am not talking about the excellent ‘Blacklist’ television network show but THE BLACKLIST. The one the Cayman Islands escaped by a whisker of not being included on by the EU. We are on the GREYLIST!

In an excellent article we have published today from the St Kitts & Nevis Observer titled “Blacklist: Caribbean Nations caving-in to EU economic threats” it says, “A main reason why the UK voted to leave the European Union was its forced subservience to EU laws and regulations that were destroying national sovereignty. Today that EU bully boy pressure is being exported clear across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

“The so called EU Blacklist of non Tax compliant nations is hitting Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia for allegedly being tax havens for rich Europeans. True or not the EU is threatening economic pressure against nations that don’t submit to its rules…in other words, play ball by our rules or face economic hardships.”

The expression “bully boy” is right. Incredibly, a bunch of unelected bureaucrats, tucked away in Brussels, Belgium have the power to wield a stick and reach out to us living in the Caribbean. They made unpopular and ridiculous rules on the peoples of the United Kingdom like not being able to eat curved bananas (what that had to do with nutrition only they knew), and throwing away perfectly good fish because the quotas they set had been exceeded, the British voted to get out. I predict more will follow. Even the ‘famous’ British ‘banger’ (sausage) was under threat!

How did the name ‘Blacklist’ come to be? It had absolutely nothing to do with racialism. It is something to be dreaded and avoided. According to Wikipedia:

“The English dramatist Philip Massinger used the phrase “black list” in his 1639 tragedy The Unnatural Combat.

“After the Restoration of the English monarchy brought Charles II of England to the throne in 1660, a list of regicides named those to be punished for the execution of his father. The state papers of Charles II say “If any innocent soul be found in this black list, let him not be offended at me, but consider whether some mistaken principle or interest may not have misled him to vote”. In a 1676 history of the events leading up to the Restoration, James Heath (a supporter of Charles II) alleged that Parliament had passed an Act requiring the sale of estates, “And into this black list the Earl of Derby was now put, and other unfortunate Royalists”.

“Edward Gibbon wrote in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776) of Andronicus that “His memory was stored with a black list of the enemies and rivals, who had traduced his merit, opposed his greatness, or insulted his misfortunes”.’

The blacklist or black list soon became used by a group or authority, to place people, countries or other entities on it. These names were to be avoided or distrusted and was used to discriminate against, refuse employment, or to be censured.

The ‘black’ was part of black and white dualism – the contrast of white and black (light and darkness, day and night). In Genesis the creation narrative has God “separate light from darkness” on the First Day. The underworld (Hades, Tartarus) was imagined as a chthonic place of darkness, contrasting with the celestial realm of the gods. Christian notions of heaven and hell inherit this conception, as do the “dark angels” vs. the unfallen angels, often with aureola (halos), in Christian mythology

Like everything in our world we never learn from the mistakes of history. Blacklisting is not fair and is often an abuse of power.

Many journalists are placed on a blacklist. Even if we report a truth that someone in power doesn’t like.

And now we have Greylists…… What would a yellow one denote?