We either stick together or fall apart
GT Agri investment forum “welcome sign” for Region “coming together: Barbados Nation Editorial
There are times when the Caribbean’s demonstration of unity, particularly among members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), is admirable.
Examples of the cooperation and agreement occur on several levels. We have spoken with one voice on the need to end the unconscionable United States of America economic embargo of our Caribbean neighbor, Cuba. We come together to ensure that our University of the West Indies (UWI) remains one of the premiere global higher institutions of learning.
The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas has ensured that we codified how members including Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago will operate and treat each other in commercial and trading activity. It also speaks to the treatment of citizens.
Our level of functional cooperation has also deepened with the list of CARICOM institutions continuing to grow. They include the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, the CARICOM Development Fund, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality, the Caribbean Meteorological Organization, among others.
Despite these achievements, there are several areas that we as CARICOM citizens, remain dissatisfied with the lack of cooperation or the failure of regional institutions to live up to their mandate. By extension, the organizations’
failings reflect the failure of political leadership.
This can be observed in the demise of LIAT, for example, as it failed to get the full support it required from the many countries whose citizens it served. Too much of the LIAT burden fell on too few countries, including Barbados.
Recently, there have been some signs of cracks in the CARICOM wall. Worse yet, it appears that some countries are going off on their own flights of fancy, resulting in weakened regional positions. In this connection, we