I was bemused to learn purely by coincidence that Heads of Government of CARICOM  were attending a two-day retreat in Guyana from  May 20 – 21 this year.  This little bit of information was not widely disseminated in the more widely accessible medium of radio or television, at least not in St. Lucia, but as a voracious reader this tidbit came to my attention via the Nation Newspaper of Barbados.  It carried a news item pointing at what epitomized the seemingly useless travel by ministers of Caribbean governments as they go on their frequent globe-trotting  junkets, with the headline  ‘Stuart in today, gone tomorrow!’  This was in reference to current Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.
Those who follow political issues beyond the boundaries of St Lucia would be aware that the Barbados Prime Minister has been under tremendous pressure in recent times for what is perceived as his poor performance as the successor to deceased Prime Minister, David Thompson.  The article noted that Stuart had just been away for a week attending a climate change meeting in Europe and was leaving the following day to attend the retreat in Guyana. Strictly speaking in my opinion, such meetings as climate change should not be attended by politicians, but instead Caribbean technocrats or experts trained in those disciplines should be our representatives.

The vast majority of citizens of CARICOM were totally unaware of this meeting taking place in Guyana, or had knowledge of the issues that were to be discussed on the agenda, and what has been accomplished of a positive nature after numerous retreats that have been attended by our CARICOM leaders for the past ten years or more.

Our leaders must point to concrete measures and initiatives that have advanced the economic and social welfare of citizens of the English-speaking Caribbean, in order to erase the common perception that these meetings are mere talk-shops and provide an opportunity for our politicians to go shopping, stay in expensive hotels, gorge themselves on hotel food (no wonder so many put on great girth when they get into office) and flirt with hotel receptionists and house-keepers.  Strangely, we have yet to have a political leader being arrested and charged for sexual harassment of rape as has the IMF, but who knows?  Would law-enforcement officers in the Caribbean be as bold as the New York police officers to arrest a Caribbean politician, put him in handcuffs and charge him with sexual assault or attempted rape?  I can answer categorically, ‘I don’t think so.’  We must be reminded of events in St Vincent of a female police officer on security detail who laid rape allegations against the country’s Prime Minister, and attempts were made by the offending administration to pass a law that sitting Prime Ministers could not be charged with such offences while in office, only after they have demitted.  Of course the Attorney General who was a member of the ruling party made the decision that there was no merit in the allegations.  No wonder we are deservedly referred to as  ‘Third World’ or the bottom of the ladder of the inhabitants of an enlightened world.

The evidence that confronts citizens of CARICOM is that there are greater signs of fragmentation and disintegration than forming a unified entity, which would strengthen the region economically and socially.                  The past political leaders of the English-speaking Caribbean had greater vision and intellectual credentials than our current crop of politicians whose vision is confined purely to the next election.  It was intellectual heavyweights such as Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Errol Barrow of Barbados and Hugh Shearer of Jamaica, who in the same year of the collapse of the Federation in 1963, conceived the idea of the continuance of the areas of cooperation that had worked so well under the Federation.  CARIFTA was formed and later expanded to form CARICOM  to embrace all the smaller and larger territories by the Treaty of Chaguaramas in 1973.  Today’s leaders lack the resoluteness and serious approach to issues to make their ideas become reality.  Today meetings are held, decisions are made but are never implemented.

The fact is we are not at a stage of development to erase the fears of CARICOM citizens over their legitimate concerns over job security and the free movement of people.
In recent times we have had insults traded in the open between Barbados and Jamaica over the search and deportation of a Jamaican female visitor from Barbados.  There was also the recent decision by Barbados to deny medical treatment to non-nationals of Barbados who are CARICOM  citizens.  There is also the decision by the two leading economies of CARICOM—Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica—which have rejected the move to be members of the CC,   preferring to retain the Privy Council as their final court of justice.  How can ordinary citizens have confidence in an organization when its leading members do not demonstrate support for its initiatives?  These actions just breed further insularity in the region and instead of uniting the people, create divisions and widen the chasm between our people.

Entities that promote and strengthen Caribbean integration are destroyed and not encouraged.  Take the recent closure of the BBC Caribbean Service.  This provided a vital, non-partisan, objective analysis and roundup of Caribbean issues presented by top professional Caribbean broadcasters.  This programme started by the BBC as far back as 1939, before the advent of WWII, was funded by British taxpayers.  With the closure of the BBC Caribbean Service, it is left to be seen how we will get a true regional Caribbean perspective.    Instead what we have are parochial radio stations dealing purely with local news and very little of what is going on in other territories in the region.  The BBC Caribbean Service provided a balanced and comprehensive coverage of issues in economics, politics and sociology that affects the Caribbean.  It provided a forum to hear the work and voices of Caribbean poets, writers, philosophers and politicians speaking on issues that affect us without fear of political interference, a hallmark of the BBC.

Was there no voice of reason among the leaders of CARICOM with the imagination to come up with the idea that Caribbean governments could have approached the British government and propose that governments of the region would fund the service for its continuance?  The annual budget for the Caribbean Service was 0.8 Billion Pounds Sterling or approximately $ 4 million EC.  Collectively CARICOM governments spend tens of millions which are kept secret, in meaningless meetings year round that do not serve the interest of Caribbean integration as much as the contribution of BBC Caribbean Service.

We could recruit some of the outstanding professionals who worked for the BBC to operate and manage the service.  And we don’t want any such entity to be run by Caribbean governments, because we know of the cronyism, nepotism and interference that will creep into such an operation.  An independent entity could be constructed to operate such a broadcast organization free from the poisoned control of Caribbean politicians.
While our leaders were in Guyana sipping cocktails and keeping the people’s business a secret, the major anomaly that should have confronted them is the reality of the lack of resourcefulness and determination that prevents us from rising above the dependency syndrome.  All of our bureaucratic organizations from the OECS Secretariat, the CARICOM Secretariat and the CDB would be non-functional without foreign aid from the USA, Canada, the UK,China and the EU.

Did any of our leaders in a moment of introspection or intuition, consider the vast size of Guyana, blessed with enormous natural and mineral resources, which could be transformed into the most dynamic economy in the region?  Guyana has an
area of 83,000 square miles, has abundant water and forests for timber, mineral resources of gold, diamonds, bauxite, and as yet undiscovered oil and other minerals.  Contrast Guyana’s size and resources with tiny Singapore which has an area of 267.57 square miles and Taiwan 13,892 square miles.  While the GDP of Guyana is a mere US $ 3.08 billion for a country its size, Singapore has a GDP of US $ 222.7 billion and Taiwan has a GDP  of  US $ 423 billion,  and are among  the leading manufacturers of computers and high-tech electronics in the world.

Singapore and Taiwan have the reputation for their far-sighted economic policies that have transformed these countries from agrarian to high-tech economies, which attract high-technology transfers from the advanced countries, by offering attractive incentives to the major scientific researchers in bio-technology, computer technology, robotics etc, to set up research facilities in their countries and incorporate the brightest students in science subjects to work along some of the world’s top scientists.  Why can’t we learn from the best practices of those countries?

We must have a paradigm shift in our universities, instead of just simply gaining academic degrees without applying our knowledge to create things.  Instead our university graduates become pen-pushers, shuffling papers around a desk in some bureaucratic job, that does not use the knowledge gained from the degree acquired?

Contrast this with the genius of young students in their teens at universities in the United States in their dorms, who put their knowledge of mathematics and physics, to create Google, Face book and Twitter, that have revolutionized communications in the world, and made those teenagers multi-billionaires with money they can’t count.

What have we contributed to the development of communications and computer technology and research that is ongoing in those countries in all areas, like finding cures for all manner of disease, space exploration, artificial intelligence.   Whatever the mind can conceive they pursue it.  Which reminds me, that when I left St Lucia in 1982, for England, with my deep disappointment over the charade of the Labour administration and its inevitable demise. I was listening in my cold, lonely bed, in the wee hours of the morning, to BBC Radio, when I heard a lecture given by a brilliant African Professor Ali Mazrui.  He was delivering the annual Reith Lecture which featured a series of lectures from some of the most brilliant minds in the world.  Professor Ali Mazrui uttered some words that will forever remain inscribed in my mind.  He was very caustic in his criticism of the development strategies of African countries.  The words that still ring fresh in my mind from 1982 by Professor Mazrui were, ‘While western man is landing man on the moon, we are still trying to get to the next village’.  And how much the world has advanced since 1982.  Since then, Western man has landed space explorers on Mars, thirty-five million miles away, and all kinds of advances have been made in all areas of science and technology.

Yet our African brothers are still killing each other over tribal, political and religious differences in Darfur, Nigeria, Liberia, Ivory Coast and the Congo, with machetes and submachine guns supplied by Western arms dealers.   Meanwhile, Africa’s rich resources are exploited by Western countries, because we have not developed the know-how or scientific capabilities to do it ourselves.

We like to blame colonialism for our condition, but the colonialism excuse
is wearing thin, for the case of India disproves this argument.  India, a former colonial country like ourselves, is now a scientifically advanced country developing its own nuclear technology by Indian scientists, is now in the top league of computer technology in the world, and is now competing with China for the exploitation of Africa’s resources.
I recall in the 1970’s during my stint at Radio Antilles in its glory days, using a song by an African group, Osibisa, for a promo.  It had a haunting melody and words which stated: “We are going, Heaven Knows, Where We Are Going.”

We can apply those words to CARICOM and Africa, too.  I know I will earn the ire of my people for statements relating to our limitations as a people, but the facts and reality are there for all to see.

St. Lucia STAR