ISSN 2077

Transcription

ISSN 2077

ISSN 2077 - 7043
FOREWORD
Each epoch of Caricom’s existence has been characterized by the memes that informed
the decision-making of its leadership groupings. These groups have comprised the older
and allegedly more experienced academics and administrators – mostly persons in the age
group 35 years and older. Theory and practice, then current, were combined to generate
approaches to the issues of the day. The presumption has been that theory mated with
idealism, but constrained by pragmatism and political adroitness, would produce the ‘right’
way.
Among the receivers of the decisions arrived at for execution, are persons in the age
group 18 to 35 years. Many of them have recently completed studies at university level.
Their critical faculties are supposed to have been honed by those studies; and their selfconfidence has risen in the matter of their ability to identify, assess, and propose, solutions
to the society’s problems. Accordingly, particularly for those who choose to not migrate
in pursuit of individual ‘betterment’, their concerns as citizens of Caricom drive them
to consider whether the current stream of decisions indeed augurs well for the future
of Caricom. Sometimes they concur enthusiastically with what has been decided; but
at other times they demur. The satirical tendencies of the yet-to-be convinced young
intelligentsia in evaluating both the ‘correctness’ of what is being proposed to be done, and
the cost effectiveness of what has been and is being done, continually manifest themselves.
These views, if expressed in a manner that does not qualify automatically as ‘ole-talk’, have
the potential for sharpening the perspicacity of the establishment. Should such sharpening
occur, the effect would be akin to raising the composite IQ of Caricom’s leadership.
Achieving this effect is, for various reasons, not likely to be an easy task. Among those
reasons is the reality that, in our educational system, kudos is often given to those who
master the art of accurate regurgitation of conventional wisdom Thus the graduates
accorded greatest acclaim will include those that have developed their capacity for
regurgitation to a high degree.
If we suddenly require serious, analytically justified,
departures from conventional wisdom on major issues of concern to Caricom, then we
are in pursuit of what might be considered rare behaviour among the new intelligentsia.
This periodical attempts to capture some considered views of the concerned young.
Such views should be useful for review by the older decision-making establishment in
pursuit of the objective of what is referred to above as ‘raising the composite IQ of
Caricom’s leadership’. The periodical offers vignettes, snapshots in prose and in verse –
commentaries by some members of the group of ‘concerned young’. The commentaries
have been chosen, albeit in a haphazard way, as snapshots of some views expressed by
members of this group from which the Caricom leaders of the near future will arise. The
hope is that systematic publication of such views will, over time, encourage the emergence
of constructive dissonance, by providing an opportunity for those being led to vent their
views with politely constrained abandon.
Myrtle Chuck-A-Sang
Project Director
UWI-CARICOM Project
2
Integration Quarterly - September/ December, 2009
Contents
Is the Caribbean Region On The Verge of Shipwreck?
Ruel Johnson
A Culture of Violence
Dzifa Job
4
4
6
7
Climate Change - An Incremental Attack on our Development
Yolanda Collins
Coin Toss –
Has throwing money at Caribbean Cricket improved the Game?
Candice York
9
11
Crime and Security - Is crime a deterrent to Regional integration?
Jermaine D. Nairne
Development is a Way of Thinking
Tricia Barrow Hazlewood
7
12
The Caribbean in the New World Order
Benito Wheatley
14
Surviving the StormThe Global Financial Crisis and its Implications for Regional Integration
Jon Bannister
Information and Communication Technologies A Driver for the Region’s Economic Survival
Joseph Ince
17
A Case for Regulation The CARICOM Financial Environment in the wake of CLICO
Christine Clark
The Honourable Usain Bolt, OJ
Youngest Recipient of the Order of Jamaica
15
9
18
20
Expanding Merida Why the US needs to bring the Caribbean in to its latest
anti-narcotic initiatives
Karelle Samuda
A Poem For Granny And A Flower
Amilcar Sanatan
Vladimir Lucien
Romona Carrico
25
Poisoned Arts
William Kippins
14
24
A Drowning
Transitions
22
21
26
15
3
Is the Caribbean Region
on the verge of
Shipwreck?
Ruel Johnson
“We have carried the integration process
quite far, but we have halted, we are stumbling…”
A LESS PERFECT UNION
The circumstantial evidence over the
past half year has not been encouraging
– the BBC sums it up in the paragraph
in a
preconference article which states “St
Vincent and Guyana are fretting over
Barbados' immigration policy, Guyana
and St Lucia complain about air fare
prices of Caribbean Airlines and
Liat, Jamaica hit outs [sic] at import
barriers in Trinidad and Belize - the list
of
irritants appears to grow by the
day.” Also in the background was the
potentially factious issue of Trinidad
and Tobago entering an alliance with
the
Organisation of East Caribbean
States (OECS).
Indeed, the air going into the recently
concluded 30th Conference of the
Heads of Government of CARICOM
was more redolent of that before
a heavyweight prize fight, or more
appropriately a WWE Smackdown
Free For All, than the annual meeting
of the political leadership of a regional
integration movement, the biggest
bone of contention being that of
immigration.
THE ELEVEN-LETTER FOUR-LETTER
WORD
Yet the immigration issue, and perhaps
every other issue, may be merely
symptomatic of the region’s failure
to launch in one area: political unity.
There is a consensus that one of the
fundamental issues which underwrote
the failure, indeed the outright collapse,
of the Federation of the West Indies
4
was the question of political union, and
the associated issue of the sacrifice of
‘national’ sovereignty (a problematic
concept considering the still colonised
status of the founding members).
To this day, in the post-colonial
era, “political union” and [ceding]
“sovereignty” are terms that are still
anathema within the official dialectic
of regional integration.
Take for
example the following questions taken
from the FAQ page of the CARICOM
Secretariat website:
“Is the Caricom Single Market and Economy
as [sic] political union?
The CARICOM Single Market and Economy
is not a political union.
Does the Caricom Single Market and Economy
replace national identity and sovereignty?
The CARICOM Single Market and Economy
is not a replacement for
national identity and sovereignty.”
Such terseness is arguably the epitome
of the prevailing attitude of the regional
political leadership when it comes
to even a hint (or spectre, perhaps, if
you happen to be regional leader) of
the ceding of political power within a
regional suprastructure.
The politically acceptable verbiage
includes terms such as the “pooling of
sovereignty” as used by the regional’s
leading public servant, SecretaryGeneral
of
CARICOM
Edwin
Carrington at the opening of COFAP
10, (May 2005)…
“The pursuit of the Single Economy
would require a certain measure
of pooling of their sovereignty by
CARICOM member states. And, the
harmonisation of macroeconomic
and sectoral policies would involve
the sacrificing of some measure of
traditional national policy.” (Guyana
Chronicle, 22-May-05)
…or “shared sovereignty” , the SG
again, this time at the opening session
of the Clear Connect symposium
on the CSME held in Barbados in
June, 2006. Exhortation of political
union has traditionally been from the
periphery of regional officialdom –
Havelock Brewster and Clive Thomas,
for example.
But political union and the unavoidable
ceding of sovereignty (including the
verbal labelling of it as such) to some
degree may be an idea whose time has
eventually and perhaps inevitably come,
if the integration movement is to be
saved from an implosion. Jamaican PM
Bruce Golding’s frank analysis during
his comments to the media during the
recent Heads conference apparently
leans towards this idea:
“Caricom cannot acquire political
authority without a political structure...
If you want Caricom to be an authority
that can override the parliament and
the cabinets of its individual member
states, then you must create a political
union and identify those countries that
are prepared to go in that direction. If
you are not going in that direction then
the challenge is to find a mechanism
that works,”
True, PM Golding’s tone on this issue
appears to be softer, volte-face even,
in contrast to his cautious approach as
opposition leader, in 2005, towards the
establishment of the CCJ (he expressed
reservation about any institution
whose establishment engendered a
“degree of cessation of sovereignty”),
and his assertion earlier this year
that the successful implementation
of the CSME was linked with the
establishment of a political union,
something in which Jamaica had “no
interest”. True, also, that his Jamaican
Labour Party has a history of reticence
towards integration leading back to the
Bustamante-initiated referendum which
resulted in the eventual disintegration
of the West Indian Federation.
Yet, some credit must be given for his
more than tacit acknowledgement that
discussions of political union and some
degree of the surrender of national
sovereignty within a regional political
structure need to be moved into the
mainstream regional agenda. And with
that comes yet another anathematic
subject within regional discourse.
REFERENDUM?
Speaking to the media during the
recently
concluded
Conference,
Sir Shridath Ramphal, whose quote
prefaces this article, said that during
his tenure as a member of the West
Indian Commission, what he found was
that the feeling on the ground vis-à-vis
issues of immigration, regionalism et
cetera was often far less parochial and
politically restrictive than the political
leadership, as supposed barometers of
public opinion and sentiment, made it
appear to be.
Whether this applies across the board
is eminently debatable, as would
be indicated by the election of PM
David Thompson’s Democratic Labour
Party to the government of Barbados,
largely on what may be euphemistically
referred to as an immigration reform
platform, the policy implementation of
which has seen the mass deportation
of undocumented Caribbean nationals,
mainly Guyanese, from Barbados.
Indeed, what Sir Shridath sees as a
disconnect between the people and
their political leadership may go either
way: if it is that those regional leaders
who are parochial in their outlook can
be accused of not adequately reflecting
the will of the people, then it stands to reason that
the same can be said of those leaders who are gungho about moving the integration process forward.
What appears lacking within the present milieu is
a credible mechanism via which the vox populi can
be expressed and assessed as the basis for decisionmaking. If the supposed will of Demos is presented
as a perpetual tacit excuse for not moving
forward with a deeper integration – what would
amount in spirit to (and here we channel the
US Constitution) “a more perfect union” –
then perhaps that will needs to be placed
on record as the foundation for moving
forward, in whatever direction.
Undoubtedly, the word “referendum” is
one that has very negative connotations
within the history of regional
integration, and today only seems to
come up with regard to Latin American
incumbents seeking to extend their
tenure ad infinitum.
Maybe the
negativity is unwarranted – national
elections are after all scheduled
referendums on governance; a crossregional referendum on deepening the
integration process is perhaps the best
option, if this is what it takes to affirm or
negate the direction in which the rhetoric
says we should be heading, to break the
gridlock and end the stasis.
Ruel Johnson is a former feature/editorial writer with the Guyana Chronicle, and former sports/business/
features editor for the BVI Standpoint. He has had work published in Caribbean Beat, Trinidad Express,
Jamaica Observer, Buenos Aires Herald and Small Axe Literary Journal; his article “Fear of Stones” (Guyana
Chronicle, 2006) won the national awards for Best Feature and Best HIV/AIDS Story for the PAHO
Caribbean Media Awards for Excellence in Health Journalism.
Johnson is also a winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature for Best First Book of Fiction (2002; Ariadne &
Other Stories), and the GT&T CARIFESTA X Publication Award (2008; Fictions,Volume One) - his collection
of poetry,The Enormous Night, was also shortlisted for the 2002 Guyana Prize awards. He was script writer
for the mini-series, Tides of Life, produced by Women Against Violence Everywhere (WAVE) with support
from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and a scriptwriter for Link Show 2009.
He is currently a freelance editorial consultant.
CONCLUSION
CARICOM is conceived as a sort of metaphorical
ark in which the people of what constitutes the
CARICOM region are going to find refuge against
the inevitable tidal wave of globalisation. And there
are numerous examples of how this ark works well,
in health, education, culture and very often trade.
The basic forceful logic of “Integrate or Perish”
still holds true, yet somehow this vessel that was
to guarantee our salvation finds itself buffeted not
by some overwhelming external force, the global
financial meltdown notwithstanding, but by a perfect
storm of internal faction. The great integration ark is
disintegrating, in danger of being shipwrecked from
the inside out, and the one thing that increasing
consensus seems to identify as the cementing agent –
political union – is the one thing that, with increasing
anachronism, has been deemed verboten by those at
the helm.
5
A Culture
Of
Violence
-Dzifa Job
Dzifa Job, a national of Trinidad and Tobago, is the voice behind the
blog Mystic Mélange (http://dzifajob.blogspot.com) that focuses on
current events and social issues. Her articles have been featured in
One Love Houston, and Caribbeanaxis.com.
Dzifa resides in New York, and serves as an Assistant Account
Executive at one of the leading Global Public Relations agencies
Weber Shandwick. There she helps to coordinate and execute
public relations programmes. These programmes include national
and local media relations initiatives, and special events.
As a young woman growing up in Trinidad, I was
very dismissive of the men in my peer circle, and
uninterested in acquiring the skills that “good
women” were expected to master. I had no desire
to learn how to iron a man’s shirt properly; and my
cooking skills could at best be described as limited.
When pressed by my mother to explain my lack of
interest in “keeping house”, and my curt manner with
the young men who pursued me, my response was
simple: “Wife is an endangered species of which I will
not be a part.”
6
Domestic violence is a fairly common occurrence
in Trinidad. Since 2004, when for the first time
Amnesty International’s Annual report singled out
Trinidad & Tobago for its rising violence against
women; it appears that not much has changed. The
facade of a liberal society that purports to celebrate
womanhood at every turn does not quite mask the
reality that something took root during our nation’s
evolution that has made acts of violence against
women part of the fabric of our culture. We have
accommodated this development.
For example, in cases of domestic violence, there
seems to be a disparity between the severity of the
crime and the severity of the punishment. In June
2009, Horace Jackson was sentenced to 25 years hard
labor, in addition to ten strokes with the birch for
attempting to murder his ex common-law wife. His
vicious attack caused her to lose her left hand, and
thereby a means of earning an income for their two
children. A high school classmate of mine admitted
to me that she was forced to end her most recent
relationship because the guy she was dating had the
tendency to get “aggressive”. He shouted at her
without any provocation, and, as he put it, shoved her
to “get her attention”.
While the assertion of female repression may conflict
with the reality of thousands of scantily clad women
parading through the streets of Port-of-Spain, dancing
with wanton abandon to lyrics that cherish the innate
sweetness of women and assert their sexuality, the
repression is still there. It is in the old wives tales
and “picong” that children grow up hearing: such as
“them Indian cyahn take horn nah, that is why they
have to drink Indian tonic and sometimes all them
women need is a good lash.” My own father once
told me, albeit in jest, after my failed attempt to iron
his shirt, “women get hit for far less.”
Probably the strongest indication of how deeply
embedded violence against women has become in
our social psyche, is the fact that it has found tacit
expression in one of our more popular art forms:
chutney music. Chutney music has been described
by a UWI student as the “Rum till I die phenomenon”
spawning songs that not only “promote strong alcohol
consumption”, but also “physical and verbal violence
towards women”. These songs label the girlfriend/
wife as “a threat to East Indian male expression
through the drinking of alcohol.”
While soca artistes have yet to cross the line, as
some chutney artistes have done with music videos
that portray the lead singer in violent confrontational
situations with their ‘significant others’, the lyrics of
some of the most popular soca tunes and dancehall
music should give us all cause for pause. For example,
while KMC’s “I’m not drunk” parodies the behavior
of a drunken man, one of the situations he describes
is of an overly amorous and inebriated man ‘wining’
on every woman he sees. As a female masquerader,
I’ve run into my fair share of aggressive men who
while in an inebriated state were not afraid to use
the Carnival festivities as an excuse to foist their
overly amorous attentions on me. On one such
occasion my refusal to give this suitor “ah dance”,
led to a violent confrontation between him and my
male friends who were thankfully within reach. In
recent times, Jamaican religious leaders have called for
a ban on “daggering” songs that contain lyrics that are
suggestive and often support violence. Consider the
recent hit song “Rampin’ Shop”, by Vybes Cartel, in
which he declares “Me go bruck you back, when you
come inna me rampin shop”.
While art imitates life, music has the power to inform
our psychology and philosophy like no other art form.
I can accept that as a Caribbean woman I have been
socialized to believe that men should more often than
not play the role of sexual aggressor, but admittedly
things get a little murky when one starts equating
sex with extreme acts of violence, as terms such as
“daggering” seem to do.
The fact remains that despite independence and the
appearances of an egalitarian society, women in the
Caribbean do not generally hold the reins of power.
For the most part we seem content to play second
fiddle to the men in our lives, so long as they give
us the freedom to wear short shorts and dance
suggestively. We appear to not recognize that this is
by no means a choice we have made freely because
these “acts of liberation” benefit the men too.
Even though the root causes of domestic violence
do vary, one ought to be concerned about the future
of any society that fails to ponder adequately the
situations reflected by its art. Drunkenness can look
funny, and over-protectiveness can seem romantic but
both conditions can have highly undesirable results.
The reality is that as more women shake off their
traditional roles, Caribbean men will have to adapt
to playing roles beyond those they are used to. If
our music is used as a barometer, it appears that this
need for male adaptation is an issue we have yet to
address adequately.
Climate Change
“An Incremental attack on
our Development”
Yolanda Collins graduated in 2007 from the University of Guyana with a BSC (Honours) in International Relations. Her final year thesis
dealt specifically with the impact of Climate Change on the Member States of the Caribbean Community and she has since had a keen
interest in policy positions taken by the region with respect to this phenomenon.
She has been employed at the CARICOM Secretariat since August, 2008.
‘CARICOM Secretary General calls Climate Change “an attack on our
development”’, CARICOM Secretariat Press Release # 18/2009 dated January
27,2009
Yolanda Collins
CARICOM Single Market and Economy. Our very existence, at most, and our
way of life, at the very least, hinge on the manner in which we address the effects
of the phenomenon of ‘Climate Change’. True integration among the member
states of the Caribbean Community is likely to strengthen our capacity to react to
the challenges being presented by Climate Change. The strengthening will occur
through the three main elements of the Integration process: effective coordination
of the Foreign Policies of Member States, entrenched Functional Cooperation, and
full implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.
The Secretary General of the Caribbean Community, Edwin Carrington, recently
referred to Climate Change as “a current yearly incremental crisis - an attack
on our development” . This statement warns aptly about the irreversible
consequences to our development that are likely if we procrastinate.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in addressing
the probable effects of this phenomenon, stated that Climate Change “…
is expected to result in more hostile regional climate change and sea
level rises. Sea-level rise with associated coastal erosion and salt water
intrusion, an escalation in the frequency and intensity of tropical storms
and hurricanes and disruptions in
precipitation and to fresh-water supply
‘CARICOM Secretary
that threaten the very existence of
General calls Climate
CARICOM States.”
Change “an attack on our
development”’, CARICOM
These and their concomitant ripple
Secretariat Press Release #
18/2009 dated January
effects include a wide range of social
27,2009
and economic consequences. Included
are school, church, business and other
institutional closures and relocations,
especially coastal residential relocations; a
substantial loss of livelihoods particularly for coastal farming and fisher folk,
tourism and hospitality service providers; and the overall societal and financial
costs of mitigation and adaptation efforts. Such costs will increase in step with our
delay in addressing this challenge .
We frequently speak of threats to our sovereignty, our existence and the need to
deepen integration in the face of ‘insurmountable’ challenges. However, at a time
when the future of CARICOM is being called into question, we, in the Caribbean
Community, are currently facing one of the principal challenges of our time.
The challenge to which I refer is that of ‘Climate Change’. Our reaction to this
challenge is being overshadowed by concerns for our economies during a global
economic crisis; the health of our citizens during a global pandemic; and emerging
rifts among our member states in the run-up to the full implementation of the
Extreme weather patterns and their debilitating effects have already begun
to manifest themselves in our region, as exemplified by Hurricane Ivan which
devastated Grenada in 2004, leaving 90% of homes destroyed and vast swaths
of agriculture uprooted . To date, the process of rebuilding continues with the
country’s Parliament still housed in temporary accommodations.
Member states of the Caribbean Community are exceedingly dependent on their
environment for their continued livelihood, through dependence on agriculture
and tourism as main sources of income. We face jeopardy at all levels to our
economic to social well-being, since adverse manifestations of climate change will
lead to a multiplicity of wide ranging effects. The state of poverty, in which many
Continued on page 8...
7
...continued from page 7
CARICOM citizens already live, will be magnified
throughout the course of the phenomenon.
The geographical differences that exist among member
states ought not to be viewed insularly, suggesting that
some states are at a greater disadvantage than some
others, and therefore negating the need for a unified
and equitable response. Alicia Barcena, in her article
“UNCED and Ocean and Coastal Management”
stated that while the potential impacts that have
been identified for coastal zones are applicable to
small islands, these
states face unique
constraints
in
IPCC in “Climate Change and the
comparison to that
Caribbean: A draft Regional Strategy
for Achieving Development resilient
of other coastal
to Climate Change – 2008-2015”,
states with more
Caribbean Community Climate Change
extensive
inland
Centre, February 2009
areas.
Although
Interpretations from “Stern Review
coastal states differ
Report on the Economics of Climate
in
the
options
Change, Summary of Conclusions,” HM
available to them
Treasury, 2006, http://www.hm-treasury.
gov.uk/d/Summary_of_Conclusions.pdf
because they have the
“Hurricane Ivan devastates
possibility of moving
Grenada”, Guardian.co.uk, September
further inland, an
9, 2004, http://www.guardian.
option simply not
co.uk/environment/2004/sep/09/
afforded to our small
naturaldisasters.climatechange, Last
island counterparts,
accessed July 14, 2009.
there remain similar
effects that will be
manifested
across
the region. It is for
this reason that a collaborative and cooperative
approach to adaptation is necessary. Some member
states, such as Suriname and Guyana, are in a better
position to relocate their economic, social and
political epicentres inland, as usable coastal land
becomes inundated by sea level rise.
Adaptation to this phenomenon is a responsibility
that is being thrust upon us. However, it is envisioned
that three salient elements of an integrated Caribbean
Community will dramatically aid in our efforts toward
adaptation. Firstly, the full utilization of labour and
other factors of production that is envisioned in the
implementation of the CARICOM Single Market
and Economy (CSME) will cushion the effects of
climate change on our individual member states. The
likelihood that resources may move freely within the
community may not only provide greater options
through which resources may be redeployed should
an individual member state suffer from a sudden and
devastating manifestation of the phenomenon, but also
provide for a greater pool of resources and technical
know-how in identifying mechanisms through which
the impact of impending crises may be mitigated. An
example is the widely reported relocation of families in
Grenada to Barbados
Alicia Barcena, “UNCED and Ocean
and other islands
and Coastal Management”, Ocean and
around the region,
Coastal Management, (Belfast: Elsevier
in the aftermath of
Science, 1992) p.42
Hurricane Ivan. This
relocation allowed
for continuity of the
8
family unit, education of children and maintenance
of a certain standard of living during the process of
rebuilding.
Secondly, Functional Cooperation is also of unique
importance in addressing Climate Change. The
original Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the
Caribbean Community defines functional cooperation
as the efficient operation of certain common services
and activities for the benefit of the region’s people,
the promotion of greater understanding among its
people and the advancement of their social, cultural
and technological development in activities such
as air transportation, meteorological science and
hurricane insurance, health, intra-regional technical
assistance, intra-regional public service management,
education and training . Such cooperation among
member states will enhance our adaptation efforts
by reducing the harsh effects that are likely to be
faced in the aftermath of a manifestation of the crisis.
Vital institutions around the region could adopt
similar institutional methods of operation, thereby
allowing for the seamless movement and relocation
of resources. Consider, for example, the region-wide
adoption of the Caribbean Examination Council
as a standard examinations body. Should a member
state of the Caribbean Community be hit by severe
flooding, students from the affected member state
would be able to relocate to another CARICOM
state that is more capable of absorbing them without
as gravely affecting the continuity of their education.
Such cooperation would certainly strengthen our
collective adaptation strategies since the negative
effects of displacement of resources - human,
capital and physical - will be buffered by similar
standards region-wide. Collaborative and functionally
cooperative efforts will also facilitate the application
of resources across the region in not only predicting
the negative effects, and in aiding the process of
rebuilding. The Caribbean Community Climate
Change Centre, for example, coordinates the Region’s
collective response to climate change by providing
timely forecasts and analyses of potentially hazardous
impacts of climatic changes on the environment, and
the development of special programmes which create
opportunities for sustainable development.”
Finally, a coordinated foreign policy is also likely to
improve our capacity to address Climate Change. It
is well known that CARICOM, along with many other
developing nations, will be most drastically affected by
Climate Change even though we contributed little to
its emergence.
We are therefore positioned to take the moral high
ground in lobbying for compensation and support
for the costs associated with our adaptation efforts.
We will be presented with the perfect opportunity
to pursue this goal at the upcoming International
Climate Change negotiation set for December 2009
in Copenhagen. So far, preliminary feedback from
Caribbean negotiators who have participated in the
first round of negotiations on the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC)
text of the Draft Declaration has been positive. It is
felt that “a significant common understanding has
been built to facilitate the negotiations”.
Our foreign policy vis-à-vis climate change ought
to be geared towards a more binding, measurable
and enforceable international agreement to combat
this occurrence. We should play our part in the
resolution of this monumental issue by ensuring that
we employ ‘green’
technologies in our
Working Group on Functional
development and
Cooperation, “Final Report of
during all stages
the Task Force on Functional
of our adaptation
Cooperation”, Presented to the
efforts. We need to
Twenty-ninth Meeting of the
Conference of Heads of Government
ensure that the very
of the Caribbean Community, 1-4 July
methods which aid
2008, Bolans, Antigua and Barbuda
in cushioning the
Caribbean Community Climate
Change Centre, http://www.
effects of Climate
caricom.org/jsp/community/ccccc.
Change do not
jsp?menu=community, Last Accessed,
in turn worsen
July 14, 2009
the intensity of
the phenomenon
through increased
deforestation
and other such
debilitating activities.
In short, we must ensure that our development does
not come at the cost of our further worsening the
environment.
Unfortunately, our work towards the implementation
of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy
(CSME) has been stymied by divergent opinions
on matters such as intra-regional migration, trade
and foreign policy coordination, leading to the
perception that CARICOM is failing in its mandate
to integrate, and suggesting that a new and more
vibrant integration movement is necessary. Reversals
in policies on integration are counterproductive to
our development, even more so in the face of this
impending crisis.
‘Regional Negotiators positive on text
for new Climate Change Agreement’,
Individual
member
CARICOM Secretariat Press Release #
states of CARICOM
will face challenges
230/2009 dated June 15, 2009
arising from the
requirements
of
the CSME. These
challenges relate to matters such as, the increases
in social costs arising from increases in immigrants.
However, the progress of CARICOM, taken as a
whole, does not admit the avoidance of common,
integrated approaches. Any comprehensive analysis of
the difficulties associated with Climate Change cannot
but highlight the necessity of the coordination of the
policies of the individual members of CARICOM, and
the avoidance of division among the ranks.
Candice York is a student at the University of the West Indies (Mona) where
she is pursuing a Master of Philosophy programme in Geography. A Trinidad
and Tobago National Scholarship winner, she has received numerous awards
including the Faculty of Humanities and Education Award for Language and
Argument in 2006, and the University of the West Indies Award for Outstanding
Performance/Service in 2008 and 2009.
Candice
Coin Tossing
York
Has throwing money at Caribbean
Cricket improved the game?
Continued on page 10
9
As the financial scandal surrounding the Standford name spread across our part
of the globe, many horns began blowing a tune new to the concert halls of cricket.
The traditional tune of ‘money is the root of all evil’ began to be played there. This
situation has left us in the Caribbean region with a lot to think about. While an
injection, by anyone, of much needed financial resources into the game of cricket
is more than welcome, have not some players been blinded by the new green sun?
Are they not choosing to play under the influence of money as opposed to the
stimulus of the development of the game?
In 2006 when the inaugural Stanford 20/20 game was played, the winning team
walked away with a handsome sum of one million US dollars; and the man of the
match pocketed one hundred thousand. Since then, the Indian Pro-League (IPL)
increased the rewards – individual players in that tournament could earn as much
as an entire team took home in the 20/20 tournament.
But as the money came so did the critics. One might argue that the objections of
cricket boards globally to the league dubbed ‘rogue’ are not unfounded. Leagues
like the IPL provide an avenue whereby players can become millionaires, with
arguably only the lottery providing another route by which that level of wealth
could be achieved as fast. The objections of the cricket boards may therefore be
seen as generated by the fear that their best players would be lost to a butchered
form of the game that centers on the rapid acquisition of wealth rather than on
the demonstration of talent. But is this entirely true, and even if it is only partially
true, what are the implications for us in the Caribbean?
Those of us blessed to have been around during the birth of one-day cricket would
have been exposed to the opposition it faced when compared to the longer version
of the game. Cricket is a game that is no stranger to evolution. No sport should
be. Evolution is necessary as it helps keep the public interest alive. The Caribbean
region faces a unique mix of difficulties where cricket is concerned. No other
cricketing group is faced with the task of managing the game where participants
represent the interests of as varied a culturally, socially and economically, disparate
population as the West Indies. A major component of the difficulties is that many
of the supporters of the game are located on islands from which, at times, none
of the players originate. There is the need to appeal to as many countries in
the region as possible, and what can do that better than offering the prospect of
persons from your country winning millions of dollars a game?
For each individual (whether at the level of player, or administrator, or pure
10
spectator) there is a conceptual uncertainty about the role that financial reward to
players should play in evincing effort and resolve to perform. It is left up to each
individual to decide on the attitude that a professional cricketer should exhibit
in the context that a pathway to wealth can be opened up if financial reward is
correlated with performance. For several young people in the Caribbean, this
pathway has already been explored in other sports such as track and field. Cricket
may therefore be seen as another means whereby young people with the requisite
talent can be given a chance to improve their earning capacity, and therefore their
lives, through use of their sporting talent.
However, the downhill path the West Indies cricket team has been travelling for
more years than its supporters would like to count, needs to be considered. The
West Indies team at times has caused those who can manage to speak between the
tears to ask the proverbial ‘why’ about poor performance. The answers proffered
have been many and varied; but in recent years there has been an increase in
responses based on money issues. There is the suggestion that ‘win or lose’,
players are unconcerned with both their personal and team performances because
the cheques had been already written.
So no real incentive other than pride
could operate.
It does appear that a system that correlates the earnings of individual players
and teams with their performances is an indispensable condition for encouraging
competitive effort. Also, for the benefit of not only the game but also the players,
an environment has to be created whereby money is injected into the holding of
tournaments, and substantial sums are also injected into programs that develop
the techniques associated with all the forms of the game. A system with these
two characteristics would place players in a situation where they are better able to
prolong their time in the game, and increase their capacity to earn during that time.
Players would be aware that talent is continually being identified and developed.
This burgeoning pool of talent would assure the continual availability of good
players and inhibit the growth of complacency among established players – the
latter circumstance being one of the factors that has dragged down the West Indies
team’s rankings over the years.
A well-developed team, operating under a regime of ‘pay for performance’
would give the West Indies Cricket Board greater leverage when bargaining for
sponsorship; and the system would be self-reinforcing in its pursuit of developing
new talent.
Crime and Security
Is crime a deterrent to regional integration?
Jermaine D. Nairne
‘UWISTAT Ambassador Jermaine D. Nairne is a 23-year old finalizing Master of Science (M.Sc) student in Government at the University of the West Indies, Mona. He completed his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)
degree with honours in Political Science (major) and Criminology (minor). He is currently employed at the Institute of Criminal Justice and Security at the University and tutors for the Department of Government,
UWI, Mona. In addition, he is a part-time lecturer at the University College of the Caribbean, Jamaica. Mr. Nairne is currently completing his M.Sc thesis on the Jamaican prison system to determine whether
inmates are being socialized to improve their resistance to criminal behaviour. His research interest spans crime and security issues in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.
.
The Caribbean region, like the rest of the world, is currently beset by economic
woes. In addition, our problems are compounded by what many describe as a
“startling reality” – crime. The impact of crime on the region’s security is
occurring at a time when integration is a necessity, rather than simply a desire,
since one can certainly not ignore the fact that the region has to form a united
bloc to mitigate the effects of globalization. It is against this background that the
following comments aim to address the issue of crime and security: Is crime a
deterrent to regional integration? This paper explores the realities that face us
as Caribbean people, focusing especially on how crime threatens our unified
existence. It emphasizes the need for all of us to join in a frontal fight against
this counterproductive force that exists in our societies, rather than jointly or
severally trying to circumvent it.
Our discussion of these matters would benefit significantly from clarification of
the two overarching ideas - crime and regional integration.
Crime may be viewed in two ways. Firstly, as Schmalleger (2004) notes, there is a
legal perspective – the intentional violation of the criminal law for which a sanction
is applied by the state. Secondly, it may be seen from a sociological perspective, and
therefore can be understood as the violation of accepted social norms/conduct.
Regional Integration as applied to the Caribbean speaks simply of the conjoining of
the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) under a single economic
and market arrangement. From this arises the CARICOM Single Market and
Economy (CSME).The CSME promises to be replete with economic opportunities
for individual member countries and, more importantly, for the region taken as a
whole.
Apprehension about committing fully to Integration has arisen partly because of
the threat of a lack of security due to crime, and more specifically, violent crimes.
Individual countries have expressed concern about the importation of criminality
from particular “crime capitals”. While the current arrangement is such that
specified groups can move freely throughout the region, when the CSME takes
full effect, all CARICOM nationals will be allowed to so do. Accordingly, any
CARICOM national who wishes to establish a business in any Member State will
be treated as a national of that state. Having mentioned that ANY member of the
community will be able to move freely, one may turn attention to the fact that this
includes criminogenic elements; and this is where the main concerns lie. These
concerns are both social as well as economic.
Professor of Criminology at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Dr. Anthony
Harriott (2002) in a report on Crime Trends in the Caribbean noted that there
are several sources and causes of crime throughout the region. These include:
poverty, economic inequality, drugs, corruption, and interactive processes, among
others. It must be noted that no one Caribbean country is overburdened by ALL
types of crime. For example, while violent crimes may be a problem in Jamaica,
Grenada is faced with high levels of property crimes and Trinidad and Tobago has
the unique problem of high rates of kidnapping. Using the same examples, Jamaica
has expressed concern about Trinidadians transplanting kidnapping into the
Jamaican society and likewise for Trinidad and
Grenada. Also, there is concern about murders
and other violent crimes in their societies as
well as about guns and the drug trade. These
concerns span the entire region.
Caribbean Community
Secretariat (2008)
CARICOM Single Market and
Economy. CARICOM- CSME
Unit: Guyana
Harriott, A (2002) Crime
Trends in the Caribbean and
Responses. United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime.
The question that one is tempted to ask is:
Schmalleger, F (2004)
would circumventing regional integration,
Criminal Justice: A Brief
Introduction. Prentice Hall.
in particular, constraining the movement of
New Jersey
citizens, eliminate the problem of crime? The
Siegel, L (2003) Criminology.
8th Edition. Thomson
answer is ‘Absolutely not!’ Although individual
Wadsworth: Canada.
territories may be prone to specific types
The Caribbean Single Market
of crimes, efforts to mitigate the problems
and Economy
http://www.caricom.
of crime have to be concerted. Crime will
org/jsp/single_market/
continue to exist whether we are an integrated
single_market_index.
jsp?menu=csme. Retrieved
unit or we persist as single entities; in fact, the
Monday May 11, 2009.
fight will be harder if we are to remain single
entities. However, if we amalgamate our efforts, we
will save both time and money, as no one country has the financial or human
resources to combat the problem effectively at its current scale.What we must do
is to face the challenge as a unit and engage our minds creatively so as to minimize
the impact of the culture of violence that may exist.While it is true that we cannot
eliminate criminality, we definitely can reduce it significantly.
We must engage the Caribbean population in the Region at every level – engage
citizens, the state, educational institutions as well as other stakeholders – and
improve our systems. The Institute of Criminal Justice and Security based at the
University of the West Indies with Centres at each campus can aid in this process
as their mandate includes research and development of policies as they relate
to crime. The University of the West Indies, as a regional institution, can lead in
this respect as various methodologies can be employed to analyze the trends,
the current reality and the solutions to address the problem. In addition to this,
the University can engage other educational institutions throughout the region to
facilitate solution-based collaboration. Interestingly, rather than being a deterrent
to regional integration crime would then function as a unifying issue as the different
governments sought to collaborate and engage the entire region.
It should be noted that ‘crime and security’ as a deterrent to regional integration
ought not to be viewed in its usual pejorative sense, but instead, should be seen
as an opportunity to strengthen what may be described as a weak link in our
Caribbean chain. It cannot be disputed that there are genuine concerns about
crime in the region; however, we all must work to facilitate the transition to peace
and security. The sooner we address the issue of crime the sooner the region
will be able to focus on developmental issues that are necessary to advance the
Caribbean as a whole. In recognition of the way that crime divides us, let us resolve
to make it unite us, for it is only through a collective effort that there will be
sustainable peace, safety and security in the Caribbean region.
11
Development is
a Way of Thinking!
by:Tricia Barrow Hazlewood
Tricia Barrow Hazelwood is a Senior Project Officer in the Foreign and Community Relations Directorate
of the CARICOM Secretariat where she has worked since 2003. She has completed a Masters Degree
in Foreign Languages applied to Business and Trade from the University of Caen, France. She also has
two additional Masters degrees from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. One is in International
Trade and the other is in Property Land and Ownership with a minor in Commonwealth Studies.
Tricia belongs to a family of engineers, artists and teachers and has high regard for the power of
the arts and science (including Information and Communication Technology), as tools for human and
social development, regional integration, and the consolidation and enhancement of relations between
cultures and countries.
I am a black Trinidadian national with a ‘red’ father carrying
French blood and a ‘dark’ mother with Spanish hair. I studied
in Trinidad and Tobago and then France only to return to my
Region to marry a Guyanese and work and live in the field of
regional integration and development. I am in short your typical
sort of Caribbean person.
Development, progress, whatever you call it, has always been
my passion. My father always told me that the measure of a
man’s success is how much better the next generation does. My
mother always told me that education is the key to success.With
the zealous independence of one coming of age, and the natural
curiosity of an islander desirous of seeing what lies beyond an
island haven, I set out at 19 to test these hypotheses and their
nexus… to see for myself the successes of a civilization built on
many generations of fathers and mothers telling their daughters
just what mine had told me. My choice of France was a choice
of idealism. For me any country that treated education as a right
and duty granted it to the meritorious and disciplined was one
worth investigating. Any country that granted foreigners like
myself equal access to that right was a successful and prescient
one - one which, in an age of globalization, had seen it fit to
‘globalise’ education.
Europe, was an education for me: clichés aside about development
being measured by GDP and sophisticated infrastructure, it
struck me there that development is really a state of mind, an
individual appreciation for beauty and order, justice and love
which when shared and expressed by a collective constitutes
12
development. In France, for example, the cities are categorized according to ‘fleuries’ or flower
points, with cities gaining or losing ‘flowers’ according to how many plants (preferably flowering!)
that fill their street pots and parks.
Tourists - even local ones - flock to those cities whose street lamps glow amidst fuchsia petunias
and golden marigolds, and city councils
and home owners alike huddle during
winter around garden plans that will
bloom in spring. The impact of this
practice is as transcendent and multitiered as the practice itself is simple.
The Councils generate employment;
the promise of employment inspires
the accreditation of ‘paysagistes’ or
landscape artists; the friendly annual
intra city competition for fleuries
engenders a sense of pride in each
street, neighbourhood and community;
the tourists flocking to see the annual
innovations of the landscape artists
generate revenue; the town dwellers
anticipate the beauty of the flowers
and the business of the visitors. The
flowers bring family and community
togetherness, beauty and revenue, and
most of all, they bring joy. That, to my
mind, is development.
In Spain trainloads of retirees fill what
would have been vacant luxury hotel
rooms around the country during
off peak season- an initiative perhaps
of some obscure hotelier or mayor
that grew in popularity and became
a norm in this nation that is a world
renowned tourist destination. The
retirees socialize amongst themselves
to the relief of caregivers who stress continued activity and interaction as critical
to good health, and, to the delight of benevolent hoteliers, they generate revenues
even in ‘down’ months. Professionals providing specialized care for the elderly find
themselves contracted to service the unlikely winter clienteles of these resorts
and so the advantages multiply in the interest of all- social cohesion, public health,
revenues, promotion of local brands (hotel and otherwise) – development – roars
ahead.
A programme whereby willing families departing on holiday ‘adopt’ a child who
would not ordinarily enjoy one engenders similar far reaching socio-economic
dividends as does one whereby young students mentor elderly persons desirous of
learning how to surf the net or speak a foreign language. For my part, I participated
in a programme as a young university student whereby for six hours a week I
taught English and communication in exchange for a regional council remuneration
that covered my accommodation costs every year.
For my honeymoon, my husband and I visited Europe- Rome, Venice, Paris and
Caen. It was his first trip. The varied subjects of his wonder were refreshingly,
sweetly and comically reminiscent of my own upon arrival in France for the first
time a decade earlier. I had been fascinated then at how the bus would, in snow or
sun, arrive at 6:57 pm exactly just as the schedule at the stop had predicted - not
one minute earlier nor one later.
He was entranced by the sheer number of people on any given street at any given
time. I banned him from taking random pictures of random crowds on random
streets which he did frequently, always with the observation: “This is to show
everyone what critical mass looks like.” The highways impressed him, of course,
but more so the prideful way in which the street cleaners did their jobs; that the
women doing this work wore makeup, and that they answered the endless barrage
of similar questions by lost tourists with smiles of equanimity, even taking the time
to remove their gloves and walk with us down the street to point out a route.
He noted with appreciation that the streets were so regularly cleaned - and not
just when a foreign premier was visiting or an international event was being hosted.
And that the Italian store keepers spoke with him in English and spoke with me in
French. On the way back home, anxious to rediscover his country and his home,
he nevertheless wondered when this philosophy of development would reach our
shores.
These snapshots of family, community and national synergies, these simple but
thoughtful socio-economic initiatives are the substance of development. Quite
apart from the tangible dividends derived are the greater and more profound
values that they engender and that constitute the very fabric of a developed
society- respect for the elderly, investment in youth, concern and appreciation for
one’s surroundings and a sense of responsibility toward its maintenance. We saw
ugliness and inefficiency of course- no place is immune - but what we also saw
were the creative efforts to correct them.
Development is more than highways and foreign reserves. The well known
Caribbean ‘susu’ or ‘box hand’ is development. Disciplined, courteous and humble
children are development. Development does not necessarily require that a
country or people be rich, only that they respect themselves, each other and their
environment. From thence will spring the persons who will create the policies and
pursue the results that bespeak a developed civilization.
Our leaders sometimes seem to forget that as they pursue that golden objective
of ‘people-centred development’ they really must place people at the very heart.
And this requires less revenue than it does imagination. A developed society can
be engineered out of the marriage of sheer good ideas and good intentions. People
will rally around people, and when they do, development becomes reality.
13
The Caribbean
IN THE NEW WORLD
ORDER
is diminishing and an uncertain new world order is
emerging.
Benito
Wheatl
ey
Benito Wheatley serves as a Program Board Associate at the
Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS) in Washington, DC. There he
focuses on Caribbean Affairs and International Development. In
1999, he completed his undergraduate education at Morehouse
College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political
Science and in 2005 he obtained a Master of Arts degree in
Political Science from Georgia State University, with a concentration
in International Relations.
He has served as Youth Representative at the UNESCO National
Commission of the British Virgin Islands and has represented the
British Virgin Islands at UNESCO’s biennial General Conference
and Youth Forum in Paris, France. His research interests are
Caribbean Development and Regional Integration. He is also
an active contributor to Overseas Territories Review and the BVI
Beacon.
Caribbean states today find themselves in an
international system in which the traditional centers
of power are shifting. No longer is power solely
concentrated among a select few powerful states in
North America, Europe and Japan; rather, economic,
political, and military power are now more widely
dispersed around the world. The economic and
financial weakening of the West, coupled with the
rise of China, India, Brazil and a resurgent Russia,
have dramatically changed the power dynamics of
the international system and accelerated the pace of
change. In sum, the uni-polar world of the post-Cold
War era dominated by the United States and its allies
This rare realignment of the international system
presents a historic opportunity for Caribbean states
to reinvent themselves in world affairs and to assert
themselves on the international stage. Importantly,
the Caribbean’s geographic location and colonial
history place it within multiple spheres of influence
and define the region’s relationship with the rest
of the world. The international relations of the
region encompasses Caribbean state’s relations with
powerful state actors like the United States (US),
China, and Russia; former colonial and status quo
powers such as Britain, France, the Netherlands and
Canada; regional powers like Cuba; and emerging
states like Venezuela. CARICOM, the Caribbean’s
premier regional organization, is an exercise by
a collection of Caribbean states to carve out an
independent sphere of influence. The organization’s
major challenge is managing the region’s international
relationships, while maintaining an independent
position that promotes the interests of the region.
Notably, the Caribbean has been courted by a number
of states as the competition for natural resources and
influence between traditional and emerging powers
has intensified in recent years. Great powers such
as China and Russia have established partnerships
and struck a number of strategic deals with and in
select Caribbean countries. Venezuela has made
strategic overtures toward certain CARICOM states
in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to peel
away various member states from their traditional
regional grouping and draw them into the orbit of
the revolutionary state. The US is closely monitoring
the activities of other world powers in the region
and recently pledged to renew engagement with
CARICOM and to increase aid flows to the region.
Despite these advances, CARICOM must be careful
not to entangle itself in any regional, hemispheric,
or global disputes or rivalries between competing
powers. Rather, Caribbean states should concentrate
their foreign policy on international trade, climate
change, democracy, and other issues that directly
impact the region.
Historically, the Caribbean, with the exception of
Cuba, has played a marginal role in world affairs in
the post-Cold War era. The relatively weak position
of the region in the international system necessitates
its small island and coastal developing states’ reliance
on international organizations and institutions
such as the United Nations (UN), World Trade
Organization (WTO), and Organization of American
States (OAS) to advance their interests in global
affairs. As members of the WTO, Caribbean states
have skillfully defended their commercial interests,
which was clearly demonstrated by the Republic of
Antigua & Barbuda, which successfully mounted a
challenge against the United States in 2005 on the
issue of online gambling. Caribbean states have also
vigorously defended their commercial interests in
the stalled Doha round of international trade talks
by joining a number of emerging and developing
states calling for the elimination of farm subsidies and
lowering of non-tariff barriers in agricultural markets
in the US, Europe, and Japan.
continues on page 15...
14
The Caribbean in the New World Order ...continues from page 14
In the diplomatic arena, Caribbean states have
also performed skillfully, which was most recently
demonstrated by the twin-island Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago, which successfully hosted and superbly
chaired the Summit of the Americas. The keenly
anticipated meeting was expected to be highly
contentious and non-productive, but was salvaged in
part by the statesmanship of Prime Minister Patrick
Manning and his staff. Importantly, CARICOM
member states are strategically positioned to play a
constructive role in the democratic development of
the region, given their strong traditions of democracy
and respect for human rights. Their stellar record in
both areas gives them the credibility and legitimacy to
speak forcefully on issues of democratization, political
reform, and human rights; particularly as it concerns
Cuba and Haiti.
Another area where the Caribbean as a region has an
opportunity to make its voice heard internationally
is climate change. The danger of rising sea levels
and more intense and frequent tropical storms and
hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea
as a result of global warming makes climate change
a legitimate concern for island and coastal nations.
Caribbean states should use the UN General Assembly
and OAS as platforms to express their concerns and
inform the world about the real dangers of climate
change and its impact on the region. Caribbean states
must also leverage international institutions to garner
support for combating problems like drug and human
trafficking.
Finally, in order to play a greater role in global affairs,
Caribbean states must transform the region’s image
from that of sunny vacation destinations and offshore
financial centers to regional power brokers. The
Dominican Republic was moderately successful in this
regard when it helped mediate and resolve a conflict
between Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador in 2008.
In conclusion, the realignment of the international
system has created a historic opening for the
Caribbean. Caribbean states, and in particular
CARICOM member states, have an opportunity
to change the Caribbean’s marginal role in world
affairs by strategically asserting themselves on the
international stage. A constructive role can be
played by Caribbean states in hemispheric relations
and the democratization of Cuba and stabilization
of Haiti. Caribbean states can also take active
roles in international trade negotiations facilitated
by the WTO and global talks on climate change.
If Caribbean states act strategically to position
themselves as power brokers in the emerging new
world order, they have an opportunity to exert a
greater measure of influence in the international
system than has traditionally been the case, despite
their limited capabilities as small island and coastal
developing states.
Surviving the Storm
The Global Financial
Crisis and its
implications
Jon Ban
nister
John R. Bannister, a Barbadian by birth, is a primary school teacher.
He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in history / politics
enrolled at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.
His degree programme is focusing on the use of conflict theories
to analyse and compare the effectiveness of select integration
processes – with special emphasis on the CARICOM experience.
He possesses an MA in History. The focus of that course of study
was on the evolution of US foreign policies in the latter half of
the 20th century and on their effects on CARICOM’s political
processes and integration efforts.
During the latter 1990s Caricom was faced with
myriad problems. Several of these problems were
associated with the effects of policies that Washington
developed to address main domestic concerns of the
USA. These concerns included a burgeoning trade
deficit with China/Asia and run-away national debt.
The policies adopted threatened to undermine and
cripple many Caricom countries. They impacted
on issues such as those related to NAFTA, OECD
black-listings, WTO regulations, the ensuing ‘banana
wars’, and the revocation of preferential trade
agreements that had long buoyed the region’s raw
material industries, under the auspices of the Lomé
Conventions.
CARICOM’s difficulties were further compounded
by the policies that sought to address the US’s flight
of capital in the face of globalisation. Consequent
pressures were experienced in the region’s established
tourism sector and its nascent financial services
industries.
For the fatalists, these developments presaged the
end of Caricom as many member states sought
respite individually from the economic fallout and the
expected socio-political problems. However, many of
the region’s leaders and technocrats saw the sense
in addressing those issues on the world stage as a
single, coherent voice. The mantra: ‘a single coherent
voice’, ultimately led to a revision of the Treaty of
Chaguaramas as early as 2001; a revision that was
later formalised in January 2006 as the Caribbean
Single Market component of the Caribbean Single
Market and Economy by less than half of the Caricom
members. One gets a sense of deeper integration on
paper and in rhetoric – but we did not ‘shake apart’.
Now, here we are at the sunset of the millennium’s
first decade, and we are seemingly faced with the
same issues of integration - a Washington seeking to
shore-up the US’s ailing economy, and the resulting
policies again challenging our foreign capitaldependent industries. A major difference, however,
is that unlike the 1990s, when the major financial
crisis was localised in Asia, that crisis is now global.
The environment in which the current spectrum of
issues has arisen is far more volatile.The question that
becomes apparent then is: If we recognise at each
critical juncture that integration is our best hope for
survival as independents, then why has this crisis not
propelled us expeditiously in that direction?
Highly publicised fissures in Caricom’s unity (especially
in relation to recent issues such as the EPA with the
EU, in 2008; and even in the signing of the Declaration
of Port-of-Spain, in April 2009) do little to foster
hope for the achievement of such apparently utopian,
though pragmatic, goals. One realises, as do the
region’s social/political commentators, economists,
learned technocrats, and observant laymen, that
there is not even a fully co-ordinated response to the
ongoing global financial meltdown.
It is common knowledge that the EU met and forged
a plan of attack as early as mid-2008; and the US’s
presidential candidates met with the incumbent
15
Surviving the Storm
The Global Financial Crisis and its implications for Regional Integration
continued from page 15
President G.W. Bush, later that same year, to
formulate a ‘bail-out’ plan for certain industries.These
economies, though stronger than those comprising
CARICOM, have structured plans.
In comparison, though economies in CARICOM have
registered casualties among the financial giants – the
Stanford Group and the CL Financial Group, there is
relatively less responsiveness to the jeopardy. Sure,
Trinidad and Tobago, followed by Barbados, have
devised ‘bail-out’ schemes for their respective Clico
groups; and yes, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
has moved in response to the run on the Bank of
Antigua owned and operated by the Stanford Group
, and financial institutions in the Central Bank’s
member states have since acquired its assets. There
has even been the belated formation of a College of
Regulators entrusted with the task of determining and
locating the bulk of the CL Financial Group’s assets
and liabilities. However, apart from the last mentioned
initiative, a regionally coordinated response is lacking.
If one uses the handling of this global financial crisis
as an indicator of the willingness of the region to
pursue integration, then one realises that the effort
towards integration is in crisis. There seems to be
acknowledgement by some of our leaders that they
need to move beyond mere rhetoric. For instance,
Prime Minister Brown of Belize, at one of the recently
convened Caricom Heads of Government meetings,
stated: “The global financial crisis has been hovering
over us like an incubus. To posit that it should act as a
spur rather than a deterrent to consolidation of our
Caricom destiny is one thing. To actually manage our
processes in such a way to make the word flesh, is
quite another.” However, this candid understanding is
thrust sharply into contrast with comments made by
others in different forums which give further insights
into the issue.
One such comment was given, during a postconference interview after the Caricom heads had
met in mid-March 2009, by Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime
Minister, Patrick Manning. Prime Minister Manning is
quoted as saying: “Even though we have been brought
in kicking and screaming and out of necessity, the
fact is that we are mature enough to understand the
situation that is before us.” Manning’s language seems
to imply a lack of the willing co-operation necessary
for the evolution of further Caricom integration. It
does, however, underscore the belief that it is not a
question of ‘can the region integrate’ but a realisation
that ‘it must’.
Thus, one finds it ironic that the individuals entrusted
with the charge of implementing regional integration
are sometimes the ones least willing to so do.
Caribbean leaders have often been chided for their
16
tardiness in the development of regional integration
processes. However, on closer inspection, one realises
that the blame is not entirely theirs to bear. It is not
for want of talent or desire that our technocrats and
leaders have been slow to act in the implementation
of the region’s further integration, but theirs, especially
the latter, is a precarious position – balancing what is
best for their respective countries with what is really
best for their respective countries.
In 1958, the people of Jamaica defeated Federation
with a referendum vote of 54% to 46% against
its implementation. This single point is an often
overlooked lesson in the democratization of issues
in the Caribbean. It is argued that had the people
of Jamaica been positively sensitized to the issues
of Federation then its more adverse effects could
not have been used as a political ‘means to an end’.
Many Caribbean opposition leaders are guilty of
this; however, we are all guilty of not necessarily
democratizing the process effectively.
We are all cognisant of the fact that leaders and
political parties are supposed to an expression of
the people’s will and to go against this, especially on
issues in which the public ‘temperature’ is hot, is akin
to political suicide – as apparent with N. Manley and
the Federation debacle. This ‘Manley-Busatmante’
practice, though, prevails and has been perpetuated in
regard to public sensitization of integrationary issues.
There is a severe need to bring the pertinent issues to
the people of the region in a meaningful way, and not
the vague message that ‘it is a benefit to the region’.
The region is made up of people, people who need to
know ‘how does integration benefit me, the individual,
the family unit?’
The Latina America and Caribbean Economic System
(Spanish acronym, SELA) organisations notes that
the Caricom and Latin American governments must
“encourage civil society to take part in integration
processes in response to the pressure exerted by
groups made up of highly organised networks capable
of influencing public opinion…” SELA further posited
that businesses, unions, academic and religious groups
need to provide the ongoing integration processes
with a broad support base, thereby giving them
legitimacy and transparency. In other words, due to
a lack of the democratization of the integrationary
process in the region there is little or no popular
agitation, hence, it languishes as a political and
rhetorical ‘plaything’.
From the countless online chat-rooms and blogs
on regional issues, one gets a sense that there
is an understanding amongst the region’s people
that there needs to be deeper integration. It is this
‘deeper’ integration, however, that is at the heart of
slowing the process. One will not naively state that
this emphatically is the only issue at heart but it is a
significant one, as put into particularly sharp focus by
the Guyanese/Barbadian polemic.
The parameters of this paper will not allow for
full elucidation of all issues at stake in the inquiry.
Nevertheless, one must also realise, as former Prime
Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, put it when
presenting at the Rotary World Understanding Day
dinner, 27 February, 2009 that essentially our leaders
are adept at handling economic crises as they have
been doing so from the inception of these independent
island states. This view alone offers some significant
insight into the slow crawl of our integration process.
However, it also serves to undermine the view that
the socio-economic problems, brought into sharp
focus by the global financial crisis, is an inhibitor to
the regional integration process. Rather, it seems, if we
consider the former Prime Minister’s statements, that
on the contrary, it is our skilled ability in managing
such crises that precludes a hastening of integration
to stem negative fallout.
In conclusion, one notes that the inquiry asks one
to consider whether the crisis can stall, hinder, or
better yet, catalyse further integration.The realisation,
though, is that this process has to move from being
extrinsically motivated. Its impetus must be from
within the region or one fears its progress will remain
politically and rhetorically encumbered.
Joseph Ince is the Director and Founder of InceGroup, an institution that creates websites and helps businesses in St.Vincent to initialise their Internet, Software
and Engineering needs. He graduated with an Associate Degree in Computer Studies from the Barbados Community College in 2002, and is currently pursuing
an Executive Diploma in IT Management from the Barbados Cavehill School of Business. His company is the first Eastern Caribbean finalist, selected from 854
companies worldwide by the Organisation
have answered if they are to implement systems with
the least possible employee resistance or
unwillingness to learn and accept the
change.
A Driver for the Region’s
Economic Survival
Throughout Caricom, individual economies have
experienced growth in various sectors, and significant
growth has been documented particularly in the
areas of Information and Communication Technology.
A good example of this phenomenon is the
Telecommunications sector. That sector has built a
solid reputation for providing efficient mobile services
and has provided self-employment to vendors who
sell prepaid phone cards. The population in Caricom
appears to have become reliant on mobile technology,
a development that has facilitated sustained positive
economic growth. This essay will address the topic
of how Information and Communication Technology
facilitate economic survival and stimulate economic
growth. It will look at the issue from the vantage
points of organizations and of individuals to derive
relevant perspectives.
There are several factors that have to be considered
when feasibility studies are undertaken to determine
what needs to be done for organizations to acquire
or improve their technological capabilities.
One main factor deals with the employees’ ability to
embrace the proposed change. This is probably the
most important factor, as the existence and vibrancy
of any organization depend profoundly on the quality
of its human capital, and its understanding and
commitment to organizational goals.
Organizations that train their employees for specific
roles would be faced with implementing and training
their employees to use Information Technology to
manage several processes within the organization.
If employees do not see the change as beneficial,
then they would be reluctant to learn and apply the
new technology that is to be implemented. As a
result, management may have assessed the systems
as ineffective, when it was simply the mindset of the
employees that defeated the attempted change in the
first place.
Understanding the culture of the Organization
is also important for an Information Technology
consultant or Manager. What is the environment
of the Organization? Are the decisions made by the
Board of Directors or other management? What
systems are currently in place? - These are just a
few questions specialists may be required to ask and
Another factor is that
the current Information
Technology systems in the
Organization may not be
adequate for dealing with
future systemic changes.
This circumstance would
hinder development in
general. For example, if
the government has issued
predefined forms for price
control on imported goods,
and the forms are required to
be filled by using a series of complex
mathematical calculations in order to obtain an
approved figure, the situation may be one in which
only a few employees know how to complete these
forms. The Specialist can design a system that can
perform the calculations based on minimal input
of data by the user and the system can print the
approved figure on the predefined Government form.
This would not only be efficient, but also in the event
of employee sickness, absence or even death, the
Organization can continue its operations once all its
employees understand the system and the reasons
why the system was designed.
A third factor is the appropriateness of international
products as opposed to regional or local products.
We must be careful, in identifying any International
product for use in a Caribbean business, to ensure that
it supports the Organization’s goals or interests. For
Information Technology to be used as an effective tool
facilitating the Caribbean’s economic survival, it should
be Caribbean based, and tailored to the Organization’s
environment. Organizations have to ensure that their
employees use information technology with which
they are comfortable, as opposed to encouraging
employees to pretend that they understand a system
as a means of demonstrating their technical ability.
Organizations that invest in systems which are simple
enough for the user, but structurally complex enough
to generate statistics useful at pertinent management
levels, would be best positioned to access the benefits
of Information Technology.
Let us now focus on an Organization’s possible
utilization of Information and Technology in pursuit of
its economic survival and growth, from the perspective
of the individual technician. Consider this question:
how many graduates are awarded Computer related
degrees in the Caribbean, and simply find themselves
working for an Organization? The truth is that
although working for an Organization is not bad in
itself; the individual’s possible contributions would
17
be limited to only the Organization in which he or
she works. Other Organizations that would like to
use technology to enhance their business but may
not have regular work for a Specialist, or may not
be able to add an Information technology related
position to their payroll, would be unable to benefit
from that individual’s input. This situation suggests
that some opportunities for individual effort should
be highlighted:
The first opportunity is self-employment.
Many
Caribbean nationals see forming their own business
with an adequate complement of employees as
something for which they would need extensive
capital. This perception deters many from pursuing
this entrepreneurial option especially since they
also perceive that companies may need the services
they offer only for a limited time. We should be
committed to developing our communities by offering
smaller companies the same services offered to larger
Organizations to increase their capacity for growth.
This marketing initiative would therefore serve to
make the economy stronger.
Also, there are mentoring opportunities available
to train youths who wish to gain similar technical
knowledge for the benefit of their communities. The
Caribbean has already lost valuable human resources
through migration to the developed world. We should
therefore endeavour to use our limited remaining
resources to train youths to perform these tasks
without feeling inadequate.
In this respect, the
Government’s responsibility should be seen as not so
much directly to create employment, but to facilitate
the creation of employment ventures in the region.
There are also large-scale projects in all aspects of
Technology .that are being funded by International
Organizations for the benefit of developing Caribbean
nations.
The Caricom Single Market & Economy is intended to
be a regime that provides to all citizens of Caricom
countries equal access to opportunities for economic
progress.
Under such conditions, Information
Technology, appropriately applied at organizational and
individual levels becomes a fundamental ingredient for
facilitating economic survival and growth throughout
Caricom.
A CASE FOR REGULATION
The CARICOM
financial enviroment
in the wake of Clico
by Christine Clark
Christine Clarke graduated magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke College with a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in Mathematics and Economics in 2002. She also possesses
a PhD in Economics from Rice University, with a specialization in Public Finance.
Dr. Clarke has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Phoebe Tulman Perlman Prize for Honors thesis in Economics; a Graduate Fellowship from the
Organization of American States; the Virginia Galbraith Undergraduate Prize in Economics for Graduate Study; and the Ora N. Arnold Fellowship for Graduate Studies.
She currently serves as the Director of Economic Planning and Research at the Planning Institute of Jamaica.
18
The world economic scene is pockmarked with financial crises of varying
longevity and profundity. Concern about the length and the depth of a crisis is
warranted since, as crises persist, the risk of contagion and the size of the fallout
increase exponentially. Fallout of sufficient severity will have harsh implications
for household wealth, requiring some intervention from the state. The current
crises evoke questions about the extent to which policy makers and financial
institutions have learnt from past crises. Indeed, the crises cause us to refer to the
dynamism of corporations, particularly those in the US economy where scores of
listed firms have disappeared from exchanges.
The “creative destruction” cycle that is embedded in the so-called free market
system has tended to cause a discontinuity in the interpretation of indicators of
crisis. We appear to have resiled from the idea that unless there is perceptive
monitoring of financial markets, crises such as the Great Depression, which are
significant life altering and market changing events, can recur.
Globally, stock exchanges and financial markets in 2008 have differed vastly from
their predecessors in the way they have operated. Markets have become almost
totally interdependent. Movements in major markets will cause less developed
ones to move. Financial institutions depend primarily on trust. Leaving deposits
in an institution requires confidence that they will be paid over on demand.To the
extent that regulators exist, investor confidence increases. If this trust is betrayed,
as happens when regulated institutions collapse, not only is the credibility of the
regulator reduced but also confidence in the institutions that remain becomes
very low. Accordingly, the occurrence of a crisis threatens both the credibility and
the integrity of the entire financial system.
The socioeconomic impacts of crises like the Great Depression last for many
years. These impacts change the structure of society, especially in terms of the
composition of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. The impact on private household
wealth caused by bank closures makes certainty of repayment a critical public
good. Very often, only the very young “losers” have any prospect of rebuilding
wealth lost due to crises.
The depth and breadth of the financial crisis of 2008 was facilitated by liberalized
financial markets which leveraged technology to facilitate real time information
flows. The costs of financial transactions were thereby reduced. Market mentality
is influenced by returns and the potential for current returns to persist or
increase. Since all investors have access to market information, as they rush into
markets to chase (abnormal) returns, asset prices inflate creating a bubble. These
bubbles have been observed in Asia between 1996 and 1997 and in the US in 2001
(dotcom) and, more recently, the global financial crisis of 2008 (housing bubble). In
fact, the Dot Com bubble can be linked to the monetary policy response to the
Asian financial crisis.
The CL Group of Companies fell prey to the temptation of inflated asset prices
that were close to the cusp of a bubble. In the course of the forensic audit,
it was discovered that the conglomerate had overextended itself in high-risk
investments with high interest debt and illiquid assets including real estate. These
events are not new to the region given the experience of select Jamaican financial
institutions between 1995 and 1997.
The fact that the CL Group was able to pursue investment strategies similar
to those of the failed Jamaican institutions without triggering appropriate
warning reflects possible investor insensibility. Perhaps it also indicates the low
capacity of the (state) agencies that are responsible for monitoring, regulating,
and sanctioning the actions of institutions that operate in their jurisdiction. But
these lapses ought not to be attributed without reservations to incompetence
of the regulator. Regulatory regimes in market-based systems are based largely
on self-reporting with verification by the regulator. Inherently, mechanisms that
depend on self-reporting by firms introduce asymmetry and possibly inaccuracy
in the information used by regulators. The effectiveness of regulation is, therefore,
subject to the regulators’ ability to determine the credibility of the financial and
other information submitted.
In addition to concerns about regulatory capability, effective regulation is rapidly
becoming the new public good. Governments have learnt the importance of this
public good given that in the presence of windfall losses from malfunctioning
financial markets, the state becomes the lender of first resort. More regulation in
its current form will not prevent crises. In fact, it is not clear that any regulatory
framework can prevent crises. During bubble and boom time, when investors
are relatively carefree, regulators will have little incentive to apply the scrutiny
necessary to safeguard the maximum number of investors; but, this is precisely
when such scrutiny is of absolute necessity.
What is needed is an accounting and financial system that facilitates analysis and
assessment of trillions of financial transactions and any market movement across
the globe that may indicate system stress. Better regulation requires adequate,
accurate and timely information from the firms and banks that are under scrutiny.
Further, given the context of the current global crisis, regulators would need to be
able, through the use of appropriate firewalls, to contend with financial innovation
as it develops in order to prevent interdependence from spreading contagion.
The CL debacle was initiated by the unraveling international conditions; but it
could have been mitigated if the lessons provided by the Jamaican events had been
learnt. At the very least, the situation of overleveraged positions in illiquid assets
that are mismatched with short-term deposits should have been detected by
existing regulators had they learnt from the experience of other jurisdictions. At
the minimum, investors would expect such detection by the regulators. Further,
liquidity problems in one institution can jeopardize the stability of the entire
system if the affected investors are able to motivate those with deposits in a
relatively superior institution.
Modern banks are opaque and complex, and it is hard for individual investors
to assess and quantify the risks being undertaken. Investors assume, by just the
fact of their existence, that regulators have adequate capacity to assist them in
determining the soundness of their investments. The importance of effective
regulation is reflected largely in the costs of a loss of confidence. As the impact
of the 2008 crisis persists into 2009 and 2010, consumers/borrowers continue to
resist all appeasements to re-enter goods and financial markets; and lenders are
still hesitant to extend the credit required to reinvigorate economic activity.Taken
together, these have implications for the potency of monetary policy.
Pushing for regional regulation is likely to follow the road that regional efforts at
integration have followed. Individual Central banks and regulatory agencies across
the region are likely to resist attempts to reduce their control over the financial
stability of their individual economies. Policymakers will however find it more
useful to insist on the development of appropriate regulatory frameworks and
mechanisms that interact both regionally and globally. Such regulatory frameworks
and mechanisms would enable the adoption of best practices and, through
information flows, develop the capacity of CARICOM regulators. Promoting
cooperation whilst maintaining national responsibility for regulation might also be
preferable since it can provide adequate incentives for each country to manage its
affairs prudently in response to both local and regional system failure.
19
honourable
Usain Bolt
the
Youngest Recipient of
the Order of Jamaica.
Look for more on this
young iconic ‘Lightning
Bolt’ in our next edition.
20
Expanding Merida:
Security cooperation agreement between Mexico and the
United States
Why the US needs to bring the
Caribbean into its latest anti-narcotic
initiatives
By Karelle Samuda
Karelle Samuda is a Research Associate at Leadership Africa, USA. This institution focuses on delivering leadership training to youth in Africa and the diaspora. Prior to joining Leadership Africa, Karelle was
the Special Assistant to the President at the Center for Global Development.
She also volunteers as Special Projects Coordinator with the Institute of Caribbean Studies. That Institute is an advocacy and education organization committed to advancing the interests of Caribbean
Americans in US policy. It promotes programmes and policies that aid economic growth and development in the Caribbean. Karelle holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Washington and
Lee University, and a Master of Public Policy degree in International Policy Development from Georgetown University.
The illicit drug trade and its negative effects such as the drug wars in Mexico
have emerged as early foreign policy issues in the Americas for the Obama
Administration. During recent trips to Mexico by President Obama, Secretary of
State, Hillary Clinton, and other senior U.S. government officials, the United States
announced initiatives to support Mexico’s efforts to tackle the drug wars. These
initiatives include: a Financial Year (FY) 2009 Spring Supplemental request for $66
million to procure Blackhawk helicopters for the Mexican security forces; a plan
to increase the number of agents and the amount of high-tech gear assigned to the
U.S. border; and a request in the FY2010 budget for $450 million for anti-narcotics
assistance to Mexico under the Merida Initiative.
As the U.S. focuses on the drug wars in Mexico, it is imperative that there be also
a strengthening of the relationship between the U.S. and the Caribbean region to
tackle narco-trafficking in the Caribbean. The justification for such an initiative
follows.
A PROBLEM RE-STATEMENT
A decline in narco-trade via one channel tends to lead to an increase in trafficking
in another. Caribbean countries, located as they are between the world’s largest
producers and consumers of cocaine, are extraordinarily vulnerable territories.
Drug traffickers, anxious to get their product to the North American market,
will take advantage of the permeability of the Caribbean region, unless there is
sufficient attention paid by both the U.S. and the Caribbean region to minimizing
the potential increase in drug trafficking through the Caribbean that is stimulated
by the heightened security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The most recent report on drug trafficking patterns in the Americas shows a decline
in cocaine trafficking through the Central America route and an increase through
the Caribbean. These shifts are attributed to increased law enforcement action
in the former, and the low levels of capacity to fund necessary law enforcement
among governments of the latter. Unless there are complementary programmes
aiding the Caribbean to combat effectively the negative effects of America’s
tightening of its southern border, and increased anti-narcotic collaboration with
Mexico, Caribbean societies face the danger of destabilization that comes with
a flourishing drug trade, and have far less capacity than a country like Mexico to
handle it. From America’s vantage point, the Caribbean becoming a major drug
trade portal shifts the problem from drugs flowing into America from a few more
or less centralized states to a situation in which the channels actually double as a
result of the fragmentary geography of the region.
SOLUTIONS
There are two main ways the US can engage the Caribbean in combating the
drug trade. Firstly, the Merida Initiative - as constituted at present - is a multiyear package of approximately $1.4 billion anti-drug assistance to Mexico, other
Central American countries, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In 2008, Congress
appropriated $465 million for the first phase of the Merida Initiative – $400
million for Mexico and $65 million for Central America, Haiti and the Dominican
Republic. To tackle the transnational nature of the drug trade in the Americas, the
Merida Initiative needs to be expanded to include the other vulnerable Caribbean
countries. This will not only allow for access to more support for the Caribbean
region, but can also allow for the development and implementation of more
targeted regional anti-narcotics strategies.
Secondly, the various constraints on their security forces and justice systems make
Caribbean countries particularly vulnerable to the illicit drug trade.There is a need
for institutions such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank
to work with these countries to implement reforms in these sectors. In 2006,
the Inter-American Development Bank provided a $19.8 million loan to Guyana
to address citizen security. A renewed focus on offering such services to the
rest of the Caribbean region, with a particular goal of combating drug trafficking,
should be a U.S. priority. The United States can use its bully pulpit to press these
organizations to focus on police and justice reform as key areas of development
for the Caribbean.
CONCLUSION
An increase in production and trafficking of drugs undermines the political stability
and economic development of any country.The economic penalties are high. Such
penalties include: reduced investment; declining revenues from tourism; and an
increase in costs such as personal security and ransoms for kidnappings. The drug
trade thrives because there is a demand for the product. As Secretary Clinton
noted, “our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade.” This means
tackling the drug trade ought to be a shared responsibility. The Merida initiative is
a commendable effort at giving effect to that shared responsibility. However, as
it is currently constituted, it merely facilitates lopping off one head of the narcotrade Hydra, and leaves the opportunity for several new ones to spring up and
take its place. Attempts to secure the Mexican border are laudable, but they must
be complemented by efforts to help Caribbean nations secure their waters and
borders.
21
r
o
F
m d
e
o
P
A ny An
Gran r
e
w
o
l
A F anatan
rS
ca
Amil
I eventually understood
that my mother never wanted Granny alone
On her single chair
Or in her jaded room
Uttering to God
Or an open window
To relieve her of her misery
On our blunt arrival,
She slowly opened the impaired door
And appeared as the wrinkled string of herring
Reeking her dated kitchen.
Her hidden eyes upheld a long silence
Undisturbed by the creaking door
(That was never fixed)
There was once a time
She sharply remembered our faces
Calling us by our saint names:
I could write that she was the affectionate grand- Joseph, Peter, Paul
mother
Serving us freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
sprouting wisdom and stirring blocks of sugar
and
sweetening her evening tea
Sliced apples, she beloved
- It is not quite that simple
She professed they only grew in December.
I could paint a classic portrait hung on elderly
walls
Where rising louvers shoot streaks of light onto
her luminous image
- The recondite picture is far from perfect
Mummy said “Granny was of a different time”
By this she meant
An older world that tarries the hindrance
Of yesterdays
Like the abstruseness of this village
Countless poems wander particular sinuous
tracks
The blistering sun
Ruined homes decaying
She sat at the black unnoticed back of the church
O how she entwined understanding of an exalted
lighter complex
Wrapped deftly in bloody sacred robe
And the remote Latin declension descending the
altar
Mary, Mother of God
Pray for us.
St Martin de Porres
Explain to us
This awful tale and lingering sorrow.
We rarely visited her but my mother forever
grateful to her aunt
Sometimes stopped by her pitiful home
Which bakes heat of the grilling sun
Held on feeble bricks.
22
Courtesy: Nikhail Ramkarran
The neglected black faces peeping through
ventilation blocks
My granny sat blandly
I observed the whispering memoir from all
angles
She conversed about the old cultured buildings
of Port-Of-Spain
And the forbidding doors casting her buried
reflection
While she fixed her wavy hair and purse
She savoured the depressing shade beneath the
arrogant balcony nose
And applauded the building for its manners
Her language was echoingly Victorian
Stressing “proper” speech and sibilant sounds
She told us our uncouth native tongue
Belonged to the buzzing of the flies in the dutty
latrine
Of the backyard
In her decrepit house
She never exult the rose beds of her nieces
blooming to convent
But she flourished how well they were raised
The reduced price volume collection of encyclopaedia books
Dust bound its pages.
Gold faded titles
More precious and shiny than her
polite eyes
Fell upon her trembling lips.
She cooked the best roast pork and stew
pigeon peas
She only glorified her prized tea plates
chipped by the cruelty of Europe
And she insisted the that imbibing saucers
were to be placed under our rebellious
glasses,
We never stained the second hand mahogany
furniture set.
Granny detained herself in an awkward prism
And the native sound of banana birds
Crept her skin
Everyday she wore these old world poems in
outlandish metres
That defied the rhythm of the
intruding knocking on her broken door
Belting road march in February
The sizzling of the heat throughout the house
and fierce latrine flies yelling the song of shit.
She wore her short sleeved high neck
Cotton flower carpeted dress
And a pouch of silver shillings
For twenty-five cent pieces.
I gathered the surviving ashes of her
wretched home
And rubbed it into my skin.
Everyday, I wear these poems
And I see her unravel an empire of flowers
from her palm
While her eyes water the very seeds
That bloom on some fresh soil
Of another time.
23
A Drowning
T
Vladimir Lucien
he unshorn heads of fishermen
Move from side to side on the bouncing waves
Like thuribles amidst the smoke of sea spray.
A man, Phillip, sat on the jetty that lay upon the sea
Like a fallen gravestone with no epilogue,
Awaiting its respective corpse; his woes
Swiveling in the auricle of a conchshell.
Everyday we had come here together
And watched our childhoods ebb with the sea,
Until the wind dabbed the white cowlicks
Rising above the ocean’s creased forehead,
And the Acacia trees would shudder seeing their deaths
In their fallen shadows under the midday sun.
Those pious footprints of childhood on this beach Are no longer ours, neither is this sand.
No longer do we believe that the horizon
Is the Lord’s fishing line, catching the drowned.
Yet in this orange village of sunset,
We can sit on the jetty where Phillip sat,
Watching the sea moved to and fro
By the breath of the restless drowned.
Watching the upwardly wept tears of the sea,
Until the salt silks of the wind burn our eyes,
And we shed our own tears, knowing
That our loves will always crystallize in salt.
24
Transitions
Romona Carrico
Twisting and turning,
With wings spread wide
A rapturous eagle soars on high
As naked effulgent sprays
Reflected lakes of candy clouds
Disclosing nature’s diversity
When sunlight quilts the sky
As the somnolent sun morphs
The land into a liquid field of
gold
The shadowy banks accentuated
crimson rivers
While mountaintops reflected
visions of sentinels
In the silky breeze of the
expectant night
25
Poisoned Arts
By William Kippins
From the dawn of arts
In these Caribbean parts
We took pride in telling our stories,
In small groups we gathered
In an orderly manner telling tales
Of our victories and sad stories,
26
Our voices were heard through
LP records in dance-halls, radio
stations
At home and abroad,
Profound and deep was our
musical leap
With Reggae’s new sound
The climb was no longer steep,
Many a time we recited these lines
With camp fires at night
Where our words took flight
As rhyme dance and song
Shine their creative light,
Now dancehall has come
With its uncoated displays
No messages to decipher
From any encrypted tales,
As time progressed
With our Caribbean finesse
New ways were invented
For creative protest,
Creativity has died
With our once focused intent
To deliver our creed
Onto youthful minds to augment,
Then Reggae dawned
A broader canvas to paint on
The issues we could only voice
In our songs,
Lets with care unravel
This misguided snarl
To retrieve and refurbish
This new innovative style
And continue on our road to
A united Caribbean vibe.
ISSN 2077-7043
© 2009 Caribbean Community Secretariat. All rights reserved.
While the introduction, copyright in the selection and editorial material is vested in the editors of the
Integration Quarterly, copyright in the individual articles belongs to their respective authors.
Contributing Editors:
Ms. Myrtle Chuck-A-Sang
Mr. Learrie Barry
Ms. Yolanda Collins
Mr. Haslyn Parris
Mr. Ruel Johnson
Photography in part by Nikhil Ramkarran.
Layout by Cirrus Multimedia.
27
The UWI-CARICOM Project is a mechanism established by the University of the West Indies
(UWI) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat to help inform the CARICOM
decision making process, Caribbean leaders and tertiary institutions, of the range of issues and
initiatives which inform Caribbean growth and development. The Project provides CARICOM , the
Caribbean Diaspora and the international community with pertinent perspectives on the Caribbean
Community and the work of its Secretariat through the provision of research based literature on
regional integration and development published in the Project’s ‘Integrationist’ Journal Series. A
high priority for the UWI-CARICOM Project is reaching nationals of the Caribbean Community
at all levels to aid essential understanding of how the integration process impacts their lives. The
content of every book, paper, journal, documentary or cultural Programme produced is intended
to awaken the consciousness of CARICOM people into achieving the vision of an integrated
Caribbean.
ISSN 2077-7043
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
All Correspondence should be addressed to:
Project Director
UWI-CARICOM Project
Caribbean Community Secretariat
Turkeyen
Greater Georgetown
Guyana
© 2009 Caribbean Community Secretariat
All rights reserved. While the introduction, copyright in the selection and editorial material is
vested in the editors of the Integration Quarterly, copyright in the individual articles belongs to their
respective authors.
Contributing Editors:
Ms. Myrtle Chuck-A-Sang
Mr. Learrie Barry
Ms. Yolanda Collins
Mr. Haslyn Parris
Mr. Ruel Johnson
Photography in part by Nikhil Ramkarran.
Layout by Cirrus Multimedia.

ISSN 2077

Transcription

Similar documents

COMPANY PROFILE National Canners Limited

caribbean invitation-4

founders awards eng

- The City Insight

digital distribution of caribbean music

PAGE 6.indd - Sj Image Creations

CRUISE IN THE CARIBBEAN

cruising - Royal Caribbean Incentives

Untitled