ASD in the Caribbean~~please relate your experiences.

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Do you live in the Caribbean or have you in the past?
What country/countries?
How do their cultures respond to ASD?
How do their governments treat people with ASD?

or any other comments regarding the Caribbean?

thanks

I lived in Jamaica for 15 years. Everyone, even fairly well off people, try to talk "tourists" out of their money and possessions 24/7/365. It's called "lyrics," and many many 1st world people fall for lyrics, and end up broke, and heartbroken. I learned to say, "No mi cayn' 'elp you today," pretty early.

ASD was just on the horizon when I left for Jamaica in late '92, and I read about it first in the NYTimes in the late '90's. I can assure you that no one in Jamaica is diagnosed with Asperger's. People that have it, but don't know it, are treated harshly. People with difficulties, troubles, eccentricities, are cut no slack in 3rd world countries. For example, when I lived there, if you were in a hospital, you had to pay nurses BEFORE they would help you. People in wheelchairs? I never saw one in 15 years. Gay people? Never saw one. In schools students are hit by the teachers, and also it is a rare parent that doesn't hit their child. Everyone wears a uniform, and it must be clean and nice. I think most children with serious mental disorders, or even just problems that require lots of love and attention don't survive their childhood. People that get hooked on drugs, or become alcoholics, they don't live too long either.

What country are you interested in? Do you want to go live in the Caribbean?

Sounds like I would hate it in Jamaica. Remind me never to go there.

My wife is Trinidadian. She has little understanding of ASDs. There is an Autism society in Trinidad. Awareness is in its infancy there.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 27 Apr 2014, 7:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nah, I just love learning about everything i can.
I've never been....every country looks beautiful but I sure there are negatives like everywhere.

Are all the countries as harsh as Jamaica???
Have you been to other nations in the region??

I went to Cuba quite a few times... of course I didn't live there, but they are much different there. Much more gentle with one another. Cubans hold hands and sit in parks reading books, they line up for their buses, they have their teeth, and drive gently. Once when I was in Havana I was offered a box of Romeo @ Julietta Cigars by a young man in the streets for a very cheap price. Bootleg cigars that really were smuggled out of a rolling factory one or two at a time. I followed him into a back alley and upstairs to an apartment on the third floor, and made the deal. If you tried that in Jamaica you would be robbed, I guarantee it!.

I think that probably all third world countries don't have much energy for people who need assistance, even young people, and probably most people have totally wrong notions of what autism even is. I just Googled Asperger's in Africa. On first glance it looks like only South Africa has any awareness. And here is a little insight into autism in Africa... https://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/blog ... -in-africa.

My wife is Trinidadian too, in fact I have lived in Trinidad for five years. Autism awareness is low, no one knows what it is or means and they would just assume a child with autism or ASD needs to be beaten into behaving. Some less educated people might believe it is caused by a jumbie, a kind of infectious evil spirit.

There are no accommodations or treatment for LFA or classic autism, and most parents of these children are focused on getting their kids into an institution. Or they lock them up at home and hide them.

HFA people fare a little better because the job market is all about who you know and paying back favors. If you parents call in a favor you will get the job no matter how little eye contact you give.

There are maybe some private schools saying they cater to special needs children, but all are expensive and most fall very short according to what I've heard.

EDIT:It is difficult to convey just how subtly different things are socially, even a normal child from the USA would be constantly harassed by strangers in public, much less an ASD child.

It has made me hateful of the country and the citizens, and I'm at the point I enjoy antagonizing them. If someone comments on my son's stims or etc I WILL START COPYING THE STIMS TOO You should see their expressions, embarasses the hell out of my wife.(she cares what people here think unlike me).

I've had other customers and even employees and a security guard come harass me about my son's behaviour in fast food places. What was he doing? Silently playing with a toy car on our table, it is crazy.

Parents also believe in corporal punishment totally, not spanking beating with belts or sticks.

What part of Trinidad? My wife is from Diego Martin. Her father was from Toco, her mother from Woodbrooke. She is of mostly African heritage.

There is a strong tendency by some to beat their children. I've seen others just try to talk to them. It really depends upon the cultural level of the person (not the same as the economic level, by the way).

She took a long time to accept the fact that her son is gay. She still doesn't believe gayness is biologically-derived.

She believes people with Asperger's should just "get over it." She believes in using "willpower" to alleviate most troubles.