GOlITElITS
Issue No. 67 June 1997
ISSN 0254 -962X
SPEGIAT GOYERAGE Country Profile - Jamaica ...........34-37
Saluting Caribbean's illustrious figures: Martin Carter ................................ 3 8
Our fallen heroes: Cheddi Jagan, Michael Manley
.
30-32
George Lamming ..........................
3
9
GHAlrctlrc ltoRtzolts Politics: The Regional Negotiating Machinery
- Securing our future................... 5-6 - Still to find its place in the
Sun
.............. 7-9
Sugar and Bananas
- Future ofpreferential trade... l0-13 - An Act of War .......14 Cover: Design Concept& layoutby
Errol
R
Brewster, Heritage Television Productions
One Shot at the Goal -
Caribbean/US Summit ............ 42-44
Now that the Ship has Docked The Shiprider Agreement ....... 48-51
-Towards Good Governance... 2l-23 Education - towards the next
century
.................24-27
CARICAD Public Service Reform............ 57-58 CPDC People-centered approaches to
economic integration .................... 59 The Church - and the new
millennium..
....... 60-61
GHALTElIGES CARICOM and the United Nations 3-4
Thc flag of thc Caribbean Community features a blue background thc upper parr being of a light bluc rcpresenting -Ote sky and the lower parr of a dark bluc rcpres€nting theCaribbcan Sea. The yellow circle in rhc
Time to take in the Begging Bowl ......................... I 5- I 7 Crossing the Rubicon Saint Lucia Elections .............. I 8-20
Telecommunications ........ ........... 52-54 Ten Commandments................... 56-58 Information Strategy ...,... ............ 64-66
ccntrc of the flag reprcsents the sun.
.
Thc
interlocking
tr
in btack is rhe logo of
the Caribbean Community.
The narrow ring ofgreen around the sun repres€nts thc vegetation ofthe Region.
-
Articles may be reproduced in pan or wholly, with due credit givcn to rhc publication.
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE is published once a year and reports on the work, achievements and problem ofCaribbeanCommunity, and is issued free ofcharge to readers in the Community. Published by: the CARICOM Secretariat Communications Unit, Bank of Guyana Building, Box 10827, Georgetown, Guyana, S.A.
EIIYIROTrEilT Montserrat and Disaster
Preparedness
.......... 68-70
II{STITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT Amending the Treary
Chaguaramas
of .........
62-63
P.O.
OTHER VOICES
Printed by: Cole's printery Limited, Wildey, St. Michaet, Barbados, W.l.
Garvey Since Garvey .................. 2g-29 Debatting Post Colonial Cricket . 40-41
TASU - Strengthening CSME ..........6j
Approaching the New
Millennium
............45-47
Page 2 CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
Facing challengesfor joint engagement: CARICOM AND THE UNITED NATIONS * Edwin Carrington
In recent years, the Caribbean
It was a mere generation ago - on 14 December 1960 to be precise - that the
Community has also benefitted from many
United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution l5l4 (XV) containing the
ECLAC, and from our association with
other studies and reports prepared by
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Territories and Peoples. It is largely due to that historical Declaration, and to the forces which gave rise to its formulation and adoption, that the CARICOM Member States - all of
occasion ofthe recent departure ofthe out-
going ECLAC Director, Mr. Daniel Blanchard, to convey the sentiment that "As CARICOM moves with increasing
which achieved their political
Memorandum of
conviction towards the realisation of an increasingly uniled Caribbean, we see this invigorated relationship as a vitsl element of this process". Mr. Blanchard also echoed a similar conviction "... that by working closely together, we can provi.de the most effective service to our re spe ctiv e memb er countrie s " The Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation between CARICOM and ECLAC came at a time when the Community had embarked on expanding the range of its contacts with the United Nations, in an environment characterised by new andrenewedrelationships. Today's
Understanding signed on 24 January I 995. One of the seminal contributions flowing from that process of cooperation derives
meeting provides evidence that this process continues, and the Cooperation Agreement which we shall shortly be signing pursuant
independence between 1962 and 1983 are here represented in this the premier
forum of the international community, under Your Excellency's distinguished leadership.
In this regard, I wish to take this opportunity to convey to you once more,
this time in person, the warmest congratulations of the Caribbean
Community, on your appointment to the esteemed Office of Secretary-General of the United Nations. We are confident that with your many well-known talents, honed by practical experience and with the support of its membership, the United Nations will
successfully meet the unprecedented challenges ofour new era. The countries of the Caribbean Community, which like
many other small developing countries must adapt rapidly to the processes of
globalisation and technology and information revolution, pledge their unswerving commitment and firm support
to you and the United Nations in this endeavour. The Caribbean Community is greatly pleased withits cooperation withthe United Nations not only at the global but also at
the sub-regional levels. The Economic
a
number of regional activities and meetings organised by that UN Agency. It was this valuable experience which led me on the
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean with Sub-regional Headquarters
for the Caribbean in
Port-of-Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago, provides close cooperation and strong supPort to CARICOM as one of the important integration movements in Latin America and the Caribbean. That cooperation was
enshrined
in a
from the ECLAC Document entitled, "Open Regionalism in Ittin America and the Caribbean: Economic
Integration as a Contribution to
Changing Production Patterns with Social EquiE", in which the benefits of integration and global free trade are conceptually reconciled, thereby rendering as a false dichotomy, the choice between
globalisation, on the one hand and regionalism on the other.
to Resolution 51116 will enhance this relationship, and open new vistas for cooperation.
The Community is pleased that it has proven possible forthe Representatives of a number of the UN Specialised Agencies to be present at this meeting. We in the Caribbean region are all keenly aware of the critical role played by these Agencies, performing, as they do, the bulk of the
technical assistance and
human Page 3
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
FACTNG CHALLENGES FOR development functions of the United Nations in providing assistance to developing countries. We are also aware that, were it not for the development of global cooperation over a broad range of important areas by these Agencies, with their recognised expertise and professionalism, it would have been wellnigh impossible for the United Nations to
carry out its economic and social development goals.
CARICOM has
concluded
Cooperation Agreements with many such agencies, including the FAO,ILO, IMO, PAHO, UNDP and UNESCO. These
Agreements not only greatly facilitate cooperation between the United Nations and CARICOM, its Associate Institutions and its Member States, but also actively promote the ideals ofthe UnitedNations in
fOrNT ENGAGEMENT: TheAgendafortoday'shistoric meeting covers a number of areas which the Caribbean, as a special area and with
special needs, dictated by unique
vulnerabilities. recognises as requiring international cooperation. Issues related to the
United Nations. The historic Declaration adopted at the Special Commemorative Meeting for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations held on 24 October 1995, dealt with issues related to Peace, Development, Equality, Justice and the reform of the United Nations Organisation. These are all issues which
CARICOM supports. The Region's contribution to the peace-process in Haiti was one such tangible and outstanding demonstration. CARICOM continues to
support the social and economic
reconstruction of Haiti which represents a major challenge to the Region as well as to
Social Conferences on "Population,
IEdwin Carrington is Secretary General Community
[Excerpt of a Statement delivered at the
and use ofdrugs and related
crimes including the illicit traffic in arms and to the environment, all fall into this category and exemplify the challenges
which demand joint engagement by CARICOM and the United Nations.
(cARrcoM)l
First General Meeting
between
Representatives of the Caribbean
Community and its Associate Institutions and of the United Nations System, June t9971
CONTRIBUTORS Beckles, Dr. Hilary McD. Director. Centre for Cricket Research and Prof. of History, UWI, Cave Hill Benn, H.E. Brindley H.
Ramkhalawansingh, Rita Co-ordinator, CPDC
Ramphal, Sir. Shridath
Blackett, Ms. C. C. CARICAD Brown, Dr. Kathy Ann Lecturer, Faculty of Law, UWI, Cave Hill
Chief Negotiator, Regional Negotiating Machinery Ross-Brewster, Dr. Havelock Ambassador of Guyana to EU Sanatan, Roderick
Guyana Ambassador to Canada
Carrington, Edwin
Secretary General, Caribbean
Secretary General, CARICOM
Telecommunications Union
Coffey, Marva Joumalist,'Nation" Newspaper Clarke, Dr. Simon
Hogan, Claude, Deputy Programme
CARICOM Secretariat Manager,
UNESCO Representative (North) and Education Adviser for the Caribbean
Foreign and Community Relations
Collins, Mrs Carol former Director, CARICOM Secretariat Duncan, Dr. Neville, Political Scientist, UWI, Cave Hill Gibbings, Wesley Communications Consultant, Trinidad &
Coordinator, TASU Pollard, Duke, Legal Counsel Edited and Produced for CARICOM Secretariat by
Holder, Yvonne,
Jeane Skeete
Tobago
CARICAD Gibbons, Rawle Director, Creative Arts Centre, UWI,
country.
economic development of human-kind.
illicit traffic
countries of the Caribbean are seeking to
wish to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Community, to call on the United Nations to continue its efforts to urge the International Community to honour its commitment to this sister Caribbean
significantly to the execution of our respective mandates for social and
of the Caribbean
Gomes, Dr. P.I. & Blackett, Ms C.C.
international agenda in support of that country's special development needs. I
intensification of relations between our Organisations and will no doubt, contribute
Women, Food and other themes" to the sustainable development of SIDS, to the
the International Community. The
maintain a prominent place on the
Institutions. The Work Programme that we now develop and adopt will lead to an
follow-up to the recent International
the Region. I would like to recognise the outstanding contribution to the promotion of these ideals made by those international civil servants emanating from the countries of the Caribbean Community. I wish to take this opportunity to pay a well deserved tribute to them for their dedicated service to the
I am confidentofa very successful First General Meeting between our Secretariats, the representatives ofthe UN Specialised Agencies and of the CARICOM Associate
St Augustine Gonzales, Dr. Anthony Senior Lecturer, IIR UWI, St Augustine
Haraksingh, Kusha
Attorney-arlaw, UWI,
St Augustine
Persaud, Bernadette Guyanese Artist
Photographs: Grateful thanks to JIS:for photos of Jamaica & Michael Manley BIS:for photos on CARICOMruS Summit and George Lamming The 'Minor" : David Vitalis - for phoros on Sainr Lucia elections Phyllis Carter: for photos of Martin Carter
Jagan : for photos ofCheddi Jagan Hilary Beckles: for photo of C.L.R. James pp l0 & 24 "Development, The Caribbean" Janet
and the European Union, June 1995
Page 4 CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
SECURING OUR FUTURE * Sir Shridath Ramphal
Caribbean leaders, have resolved to
establish
a Regional
Negotiating
Machinery. Significantly, they have done so not at the level of CARICOM but of CARIFORUM, that is, of CARICOM with Suriname within it and with Haiti and the Dominican Republic as Caribbean members of the ACP. A Prime Ministerial Committee:
in order to have gional po s ition for the iv e re
Within the policy guidelines established
"Agreed that c
ohe
s
s
a
by the Conference orthe Prime Ministerial
e
Sub-Committee on External Negotiation, the Chief Negotiator will:
complex talks and varied negotiations, some of which have already been initiated, there needs to b
e e stablishe d a machine ry on
which
willmaximise the Region's chance of
success in the negotiations, by harnessing all its talents to suc c e s sfully undertake this
proc e s s..."
and at the Antigua Summit in February 1997, CARICOM Heads of Government adopted it on the basis ofa paper dated 20 February from the Secretariat. In doing so, the Heads invited me to accept the post of Chief Negotiator and authorised the Prime Minister of Jamaica to convey therequest and pursued detailed
arrangements with me. The Machinery has become operational
from 1 April 1997 and already
the Negotiating Machinery, either through Prof Persaud or myself, have been involved in meetings in Santo Domingo, inTobago, in Maastricht, in Harare (where President CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
Mugabe is Chairman of the ACP), in Bridgetown (in the context of President Clinton's visit) and at Belo Horizonte in Brazil. The role I have been invited to play is that of the region's'Chief Negotiator' ; and among my responsibilities, as developed by the Heads of Government, are the following:
.
a
the plan with the approval of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee; Lead the Region's negotiating team
and be the main spokesperson in the conduct of the negotiations, especially those at the decision making level;
.
Americas, encompassing NAFTA, the CBI, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and
intra Hemispheric arrangements such as Andean Pact, the Central American Common Market andnow Mercosur. They will include as well such negotiations in the WTO context as are inevitable (and could be critical) in that period. That is another way of saying that they concern the future of the Caribbean. And beyond Europe and the Americas lies, at the global level, the WTO to which all CARICOM (CARIFORUM) States are
Develop an overall plan from
management perspective, of the various negotiations in which the Region will be involved to the end of 1999 and execute
.
the whole range of negotiations in the
Develop or fine-tune the strategy for
the various negotiations within the time table identified for the particular area;
. Maintain regular
contact with
sectoral negotiators and work with them in
the identification of issues and the development of appropriate responses;
signatories. The WTO is now playing a more central role in international trade policy, unlike the GATT which was more concerned with administering
a
contractual
arrangement. Although the Caribbean depends extensively on preferential
trading
arrangements negotiated outside the contextof the GATTflVTO, its interests in discussions and negotiations in the WTO enlarging. A number of basic propositions follow from these developments and must inform those purposes and pursuits. The first is that while the fact that we are engaging the world as a region follows from the logic of our oneness as a society, it follows also from the reality of 'Community and Single Market'. We cannot be a Single Market are
and each go our separate ways in negotiations with Europe or the Americas.
In particular, we must not abandon These negotiations will include Lom6 IV Convention - that is, ourrelations with
theEuropean Union; andthey will include
CARICOM
in
separately pursuing
prospects ofjoining other groupings that, however enticing at a national level, may Page 5
SECURINC OUR FUTURE
turn out to be illusory or minimalist. CARICOM
is
ourbedrock; itis on that we
regional approach to our engagement with the wider world is that the negotiations
will be multifaceted.
must build ourexternal economic relations. It is in that regional persona that we must
themselves
negotiate.
particular, we do not have to choose
will be pursued on
They
with Europe, for example, on a successor
many fronts; in
to the Lom6 IV Convention, the solidarity of the ACP could be crucial: crucial to the
highlighted in a timely way in his recent address to the West Indian diaspora in
Caribbean and the Pacific, but crucial to Africa also. It was that solidarity which in 1974 produced the Convention at all. It does not follow that it will automatically
Miami. Our most fundamental economic
persist into the new rurangements, and
strategy mustbe to keep open, as the West Indian Commission had strongly urged, all the many windows that we have opening to that world. The negotiations themselves will have linkages. What we agree with
there are hints already inthe Commission's
between Europe and the Americas - a fact
Another proposition is that Regional Negotiating Machinery does not mean that our West Indian society must occupy only one place at the negotiating table.
Indeed, a valid strategy of negotiation may well call forusto occupy many chairs.
There
will be need for Heads of
Government and Ministers of member countries of CARIFORUM to play important roles in this maze of negotiations. What it does mean is that we must develop a regional strategy for the negotiations and that as West Indians, whether Prime Ministers or Ministers or officials, we must speak brief'
which Prime Minister Owen Arthur
Europe could have implications for negotiations in the Americas and vice versa
Developing that ne
Developing that negotiating strategy,
gotiating strate gy, that common brief,
of
our intellectual resources. They nestle in
will
many places: in the CARICOM Secretariat,
occupy the best of our
in the University, in our public service, among our Ambassadors, in the private sector, in civil society, and very specially
int e lle c tual
among Heads of Government and Ministers; and the Regional Negotiating
Machinery allows the CARICOM Secretariatto pull these resources together.
Occupying a rather special place in this structure is a High-level Advisory Group appointed by him in consultation with the
of the Prime Ministerial
re
s
places: in the CARICOM Secretariat, in the University, in our public
Committee and the Secretary-General of
CARICOM. That Group is already
Meanwhile, at the level of member States, more complementary work will be taking place - streams of policy proposals feeding into the regional strategy.
The third proposition implicit in this Page 6
service.....
ar
work and it has the authority to draw into its process, as it needs, skills and talents and experience from any quarter.
-a
Organisation of African Unity on behalf of unified Caribbean conveying that message of solidarity, andlaterinJuly as CARICOM a
Heads of Government meet, they will welcome not only the European Commissioner for Development, Prof Pinheiro. but the Zimbabwean Minister for Trade and Industry, the Honourable Nathan Shamuyarira - Zimbabwe being Chairman notonly of the OAUbutof theACPas well.
ourc e s.
They nestle in many
chaired by Sir Alister Mclntyre and Chairman
Green Paper that ACP solidarity is not necessarily a European priority. I believe it will be a priority of the ACP. I know it is apriority of the Caribbean. But we have to work at this, and on many levels, and that work has begun. This very week the Prime
Minister of Dominica, the Honourable Edison James, will be addressing the
*'-':i::e
that common brief, will occupy the best
strengthen our regional negotiating position. In relation to our negotiations
And so it will go - the development of a unified negotiating strategy, the evolution
of solidarity
beyond the region, the
coordination of the regional negotiating effort - but always and only as one region - as the West Indian society we are. There is no other way. All else is fantasy and illusion. This is of course the harder way; for our West Indian society it is the way less travelled by, but I am sure it is the way that will in the end make all the difference.
reality which itself compels an integrated
strategic approach
to the several
negotiations.
My final basic proposition is that in these negotiations we shall have to develop
and pursue particular alliances that
IErcerptedfrom an Opening Address
by Sir Shridath Ramphal, at
the
Seventeenth Caribbean Insurance Conference Bridgetown, Barbados, 2 June 1997.1 CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
STILL TO FIND ITS PT ACE IN THE SUN - The Regional Negotiating Machinery * Anthony Gonzales
The setting up ofaregional negotiating
structure was indeed problematic for CARICOM. The regional movement has over the years fiercely resisted any serious
delegation of authority and specifically, formal granting of external negotiating competence to the Secretariat to conduct the
international negotiations in specific areas. The situation therefore has been, and continues to remain one in which the political masters do not, on an ad
referendum basis, hand over
to
the
Secretariat any constitutional powerto take initiatives, be recognised at the negotiating
does not yet seem to have gotten its
together, in consultation with CARISEC, the activities of the PMSEN, the NWGs and the TAG. The Technical Advisory Group is split into an Advisory Group comprising the key regional institutions and a Consultative
institutional re-structuring right, as can be judged from certain structural flaws in the negotiating machinery.
representatives oflabour, the labour sector and NGOs, the Chief Negotiator and
international negotiations with its awesome pressures, high costs and inequality of power. The establishment of a regional negotiating structure does reflect this new perception of reality. However, the region
Actors The structure recently adopted by CARICOM to undertake negotiations involves several actors. They are the Prime
table and conduct negotiations similar to what certain other regional integration
Ministerial Sub-Committee on External
schemes have done. In addition, the status-
Negotiator, the Technical Advisory Group
quo continues to exist in spite of the region' s
on lnternational Economic Negotiations (TAG), the CARICOM Secretariat (CARISEC), the OECS Secretariat (OECS) and the fournegotiating Working Groups (NWGs) concerning Lom6 NAITIA/FTAA, Summit of The Americas
long involvement in so many international negotiations and notably, CBI, Lom6 and CARIBCAN. The creation of a common front at these negotiations was always on an ad hoc basis and largely facilitated by "nonreciprocal" talks in which the region was largely the "Demandeur". In today's
changing world, with its emphasis on reciprocity and conditionality, one wonders whether the past can be any guide to the future. In this sense the recent shiprider debacle has already brought some telling lessons.
Awareness has indeed grown in CARICOM of the need to have a stronger united front to better face the future. This new-found consciousness has no doubt stemmed from the culrent realities of
Negotiations (PMSEN), the Chief
(non-economic issues), and Global Trade and Economic Issues. At the zenith is PMSEN which is taking charge ofexternal
negotiations on the basis of authority delegated by the Heads of Government. Its membership will be open-ended. The Chief Negotiator assisted by a Chief Co-ordinatorwill lead the entire negotiating process and coordinate the work of the sectoral negotiators as well as advise the various bodies, in particular the PMSEN.
For this purpose he has been accorded ambassadorial rank and
will have to pull
Advisory Group consisting
of
various
Chairpersons of Ministerial Councils. CARICOM Ambassadors abroad whose position in the structure was not clearly defined, would seem to be slotted into the the practice so far, this division into two sub-groups may be superfluous. The TAG is entrusted with ensuring the widest possible technical input from experts and civic institutions. Finally, the NWGs would prepare the
TAG. Operationally from
technical inputs for the negotiating brief and comprise national officials, OECS, CARISEC, regional experts and representative from labour, private sector and NGOs.
Roles
In examining the structure, the first observation that strikes the analyst is that
there appears to be some distinction between the technical and political levels. PMSEN, and its governing body, the Heads of Government, are no doubt at the top of the political order. As one descends the pecking order and, in particular, the technical one, some confusion emerges as
to where the highest level of technical PageT
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
STILL TO FIND ITS PLACE IN THE SUN
competence resides. It could be either in TAG or the NWGs. Cost minimization as
specific expertise required and TAG should
The above
will facilitate the adoption
be more selective in inviting expertise.
of awell informednational position which
in turn would lead to the official
betterto concentrate the technical expertise into one body and allow it to deliberate without the presence of member states. Its deliberations can then go forward to the meetings of officials which would be the first contact with member states. At present, the process of reporting,
Furthermore, the approach, adopted in the creation of NWGs, is one that emphasizes the geographical sector (Europe, FTAA/ NAFIA, WTO, etc). It is not costeffective and does not allow the maximum harnessing of knowledge since expertise in the trade fields is not available only in that tunnel fashion. It also comes in terms of subject matter such as tariff policy, rules
coordinating and decision-making would seem to run as follows: the NWGs would be coordinated by CARISEC which would then funnel these deliberations into TAG
of origin, service, etc., and serious
participate should put the CARISEC in
professionals at this level take the WTO as their base and follow all important trade agreements. The cost savings here would
position to present a draft common policy position to PMSEN. The ChiefNegotiator would also have his input at that meeting.
which in turn will channelits deliberations
be significant, quite apart from the
While he will no doubt have a role in
to the Chief Negotiator who, in turn will report to PMSEN which will then adopt a
advantage of having expert discussions in the first round and then going forward on this basis with that of officials in the next. The input of NGOs and otherexperts should be mobilized at the national level.
importantly for him will be to get a clear and well-founded negotiating mandate so that he can later on properly act on an ad referendum basis. The role of CARISEC
well as the maximum harnessing of it may be
expertise would suggest that
final position on behalf of the Heads. Since the roles of the Common Market Council (CMC) and Standing Committee of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (SCMFA) are not clear, it is assumed that, after the
meeting
of officials, the next
Co-ordination
step in
Care alsohas to be exercised in avoiding
formulating an official position will be at PMSEN where the final mandate for the Chief Negotiator will be determined. This may be an unrealistic assumption, given the roles CMC and SCMFA do play in these matters. Furthermore, the openingup of PMSEN into what originally was a small group of four or five states, to all states which wish to participate, has now turned this group into another Heads of Government Conference - a matter which would no doubt need a second look with that of the roles of CMC and SCMFA. The four NWGs which each has about l5-20 NGO representatives and experts,
the real possibility of national positions notbeing properly cultivated and funneled
spokesperson for the country or sub-region
in a position to articulate that position. The coordination of a national being
position by CARESEC could then be confined to a few meetings of basically official representatives using the input of
TAG. The output of these meetings in which the Chief Negotiator should a
determining the outcome, more
in liaising with national teams and preparing the first draft briefing based on its contact with member states should minimize friction at the level of PMSEN.
to the top. This may seem to be contradictory since the structure is already elaborate and is genuinely attempting to respond to the needs for broad-based consultation. However, to ensure that national positions are adequately covered, two types of actions would seem to be necessary. The first is that consultation at the national level (or in a sub-regional context as is the case of the OECS) should be as broad-based as possible and be well prepared. To assist this process, CARISEC
Anotherdimension that appears lost in
the debate is that negotiations are a permanent activity. Gains in capacitybuilding are really in the long-term. In the present maze sunounding the roles of the respective organs and individuals, not enough attention has been given to this aspect. As an example, the role of ad hoc
agencies such as TAG and Chief
without counting the national officials, cannot function in practice. It will be too
programme (where needed)
should develop a technical assistance to help
Negotiatorcould worktothe disadvantage of permanent ones such as CARISEC Official Working Groups, etc., if a way is
strengthen the National Negotiating teams
costly to bring together all these persons. NGOs do not have the resources to cover their participation in such meetings and
as well as a system of providing
not found to properly integrate their
experts will only come if they are covered. It would seem more appropriate to channel
documentation and up to date information to such groups (WEBSITE, etc). In many cases here (and even with the private sector) there is a need for basic training and
the expertise into TAG after trimming it down. There is scope here fordownsizing.
information. The Chief Negotiator and TAG should also touch base with these
Several persons identified do not have the
groups from time to time.
Page 8
activities. While this does not appear to be a problem at present, it could emerge over the long haul if steps are not taken to lay down the ground rules. As a principle, the major beneficiary from these longterm negotiations should be CARISEC,
Member States and their national institutions. CARISEC is the repository CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
STILL TO FIND ITS PIACE IN THE SUN
of the experience and should be the main
on an ad hoc basis and depending on the
needs
institution at the regional level that is
type of negotiations. Since these
strengthened from this new structure. It should house the technical armada of the negotiations in so far as any search goes, as
the inevitable broadening of the coordination structures that their
some principle of rotation would
negotiations would be over the long term,
obviously
its
have to be agreed upon and in doing so the capacity of each country to carry the burden
closeness to the Governments. The Chief
of the chair has to be taken into
Negotiator's function should be more diplomatic and be based on received mandates and dates from PMSEN. His main task is to run with the negotiating
consideration. A six-month alphabetical rotation, as is done in the EU, may not
well as the key coordinator, given
ball.
Private Sector The role of the private sector in the process also seems to warranty further consideration. The private sector is not just another NGO. It is now the engine of growth whose decisions on investment and trade will determine the real success of these negotiations. It must be given a more strategic position in determining proposals and in reacting to proposals from the other side. At present its incorporation is taking
place largely at the level of NWGs and TAG. It would however need to be closer to Governments and the negotiating table.
A position worth considering is having its
of the Chief Negotiator's team. Such added representative as part
responsibility for the private sector should have as its counterpart a more serious technical impact on the part of this body. At present, unlike its sister organizations in many Latin American countries, the private sector in the region does not have
the human and financial resources necessary for the tasks. It has few professionals in its employ that can come to terms with the technical aspects of these negotiations.
***** An outstanding issue is who will read CARICOM PAGE (Negotiating Brief). There is deliberate ambiguity on this question not only because of the delicacy the
of
negotiations but also because the
organisations has always settled this matter CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
in a is such a vast
therefore meet the requirements
situation where there
fortranslation and intcrpretation and
participation wouldrequire. A fairamount ofskill and finance would be needed to get these structures workingproperly and there has to be some learning-by-doing. Underlying all of this, there is also a strong case for CARISEC having a locus standi at the international negotiating table alongside Member States. Refusal to do so
difference among member states in terms
has already led to some embarrassment
of capacity. Instead, some list of
to mention the opening of fault lines in the collective position. The present ad hoc fashion in which this is done is reflective of
spokesmen, clearly identified ahead of time with the necessary back-up, could be selected and set the task for a two- year period, each rotating every six months in some kind of troika fashion, with the
outgoing remaining as a vice-chairman and the successor to the incumbent also
not
a whimsical approach and a lack of solidarity. The choice of an official CARICOM spokesman does not replace the need for it since the Secretariat
acting as another vice-chairman to ensure
incarnates the aspirations of all the member states and remains the strongest symbol of
continuity.
unity.
Clearprocedures would also have to be established as regards arriving at the COMMON PAGE. It was suggested earlier that starting from the consultation
with national officials, a first draft could be done by CARISEC. A revised draft in consultation with the Chief Negotiatorcan then be sent forward to PMSEN. This would obviously imply that PMSEN must be as inclusive as possible. It would also mean that it would be the responsibility of the Secretariat to ensure that all the member
states are adequately consulted and that
the agreed Common Page would be availableto all national delegations before they arrive at the negotiating sessions. In conclusion, the main thrust of the argument centers on streamlining TAG and NGO's, strengthening national participation and specifying more precisely
the lines of interaction with a view to making the structure more functional, capacity-building and cost efficient. Notwithstanding the latter suggestions, how these things will work in practice remains mind boggling, if one adds Haiti and the Dominican Republic with their
The European Commission (EC) has had external competence in International
Trade Negotiations since 1957 and sits alongside its member states, the symbolic be underestimated. I suspect that this is also
value of which should not
where the Central American Common Market is now heading with its new found unity in the face of tough adversity and the negative experience of bilateral escapades. Recently, the EC Commissioner Leon Brittan in charge of trade negotiations,
attributed the success of the EU in Multilateral Trade Negotiations and especially the Uruguay Round to the external competence given the EC in trade matters. He went on to lament the fact that the EU Heads had not yet seen it fit to give the same authority to the EC in services, investment and competition policy for the
next WTO Round. This is the representative of the world's largest economic market speaking. One can easily imagine what it does imply for CARICOM.
(Dr. Anthony Gonzales is a Senior Lecturer, IIR UWI, St Augustine). Page 9
THE FUTURE OF
PREFERENTIAL TRADE and Sugar * Kusha Haraksingh
(Slightly edited version of a presentation made at the F.O. Licht's 2ndAnniversary World Sugar & Sweeteners Conference)
.....Preferential arrangements are
a
hallmark of the existing situation, and this is especially so in relation to sugar. Surely,
if
there is to be a move
to
some other
arrangement, then it is reasonable to expect that the proponents of that new dispensation
should be the ones charged with making the case. All the same. this is not a challenge, I am afraid of facing, and my confidence is strengthened by three
significant considerations. Firstly, the lesson to be learnt from the grand sweep of history, especially in this hemisphere, is that all trade is calculated with an eye to advantage, and in that sense it is always preferential. Secondly, that the existing
arrangements, though described
with a predictable outcome in favour of the later. However, the argument is not as simple as it seems, and slowly, it does appear as if the complexities involved are
coming more and more to the forefront. Thus, last month, at the start of the IADB' s annual meeting, Enrique lglesias, President
of the Bank, went to great pains to point out that free trade alone was not enough to eradicate poverty, and that attention to
social needs was essential to building healthier societies. And in the war of words between the US and the EU over the
banana dispute before the WTO, both sides. whatever theirdivergent views. were
in little doubt that the dismantling of the
banana regime would cause severe hardship and political instability in some
as
preferential and therefore by implication seeming to confer a benefit to one party only, are really distinguished by the way in which a mutuality rather than singularity of interest is served, and by the way in
the same ones that the advocates ofchange would like to see achieved. For these reasons I feel sure that special arrangements would continue to be a feature of the world sugar trade.
Page
l0
***** There is probably no more political commodity in the world than sugar, and this has been the case for hundreds of years. From a Caribbean perspective, it is
clear that the world which sugar created was always distinguished by the interlocking of the forces of the global economy, whether in the context of lTth and l8th century trade which tried but never succeeded in dissecting the Caribbean into neat and self contained blocks or, in relation to I 9th century ideas of free trade which was not free and hardly trade at all, or within the ambit of the 20th century economic and political penetration of the region. All of these configurations
existed were arrangements for the movement of goods, and that in the delineating of those arrangements, some
desirable and laudable. and moreover are
were more favoured than others. k
That brings me to a basic point, when people talk about preferential trade, they usually mean preferential trade between or among countries. But trade, in a generic sense, is commerce that occurs between producer and buyer/consumer. Using that
have just said contemporary
wisdom, atleastas itiscommonlypackaged in academic as well as in popular circles. This is partly owing to the mannerin which the discourse has been constructed, as for example, in the way in which the popular press treats the issue: in simplistic terms, as protectionist against free traders, and
assured'
produced the same lesson, that there was really nothing like open trade, that what
which benefits are shared and distributed among the parties. And thirdly, that the ends secured by the arrangement are
I am aware that what I runs against the grain of
countries. Perhaps, then, opinion is slowly coming round to the view that the real goal should be fair rather than free trade. and it is precisely because the preferences in sugar are fair that I believe their future is
generic definition, almost every country that produces sugar engages in preferential propelling female labour on to a pla{orm of modernin'....
trade within its own borders, because practically every producer country provides CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
THE FUTURE OF PREFERENTIAL TRADE
some protection to its own sugar industry. Countries tend to protect their own sugar industries notonly to allow theirindustries and related jobs to survive, but because sugar also provides badly needed hard currency. Sugar is a vital component of many country's diet, and most producer countries consider it a matter of national security to maintain a sugar industry to protect against the loss of access to other markets or an inability to purchase sugar
abroad.
proposition that almost every producer country engages in preferential trade, even if it is within its own borders. They recognize that to do otherwise wouldbe aprescription forwhat has been called "unilateral disarmament" accompanied by chaos and uncertainty. So, we need to note the
For this reason, condemnations of preferential trade are somewhat disingenuous, unless the country making those condemnations has no internal nor external protection for its own sugar or other industries.
more varied agricultural and industrial base. Sugar is usually only a minor part of their overall economy. It may even be a minor part of their agricultural economy. But, in countries like Guyana, Trinidad
Republic and many others, sugar is either
againstpreferential trade - that it interferes with and makes less efficientthe operation of the world economy. That argument is easy to make in an academic sense, and it
commodity in terms of agricultural income and hard currency. In other words, sugar is more important to us than it is to the larger producercountries. Take the United States,
example
and Tobago, Jamaica, the Dominica
the first or second most important
for instance. Sugar is important to its economy, but the loss of that industry alone would not throw America into a recession, much less a depression. But, in some of the smaller countries, the loss of
the sugar industry alone could easily produce severe shocks that would reverberate
*":*-
jT:ntire
economv'
The academic economists would respond: well, you need to diversify your
economy. That was the big
message coming out of the original Caribbean Basin
Preferential ffade between and among countries is often attacked on two grounds firstly, that it interferes with, and thus makes less efficient the operation of the
world economy, and secondly, that it creates an unequal playing field by picking winners andlosers ratherthan leaving those
decisions to the market. The premise of the first argument, that
preferential trade creates an unequal playing field, is difficult to sustain since it assumes thatthere was alevel playing field to start with. That is just not true when it comes to smaller countries like the ones I happen to represent. Smaller producer
countries like ours have inherent
disadvantages trying to compete with large producer states like the United States, Australia, Brazil and Mexico. With large intemal markets. the mills in those countries
can achieve high levels
of
efficiency
because of their volume of production. These larger countries also have a much CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
preferential trade, the winners and losers would be determined before the competition begins. That brings me to the other argument
Initiative. I remember delegations of American businessmen and experts travelling throughout the Caribbean preaching the message of diversification. Many attempts at diversification were
instituted, and most of them failed. In agriculture, in many instances, the poor soil ofour nations is unsuited to any large scale agricultural pursuits other than
growing sugar cane. And when we have tried to get into other enterprises such as textiles, the larger companies object to
providing us with markets. And even here, we must compete against China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, andothers whohave far greater resources and advantages. So the premise of the argument, that there is a level playing field to start with, does not always hold water. In fact, I
would argue just the opposite
-
that
preferential trade serves to level the playing field for small countries which have few inherent advantages and few possibilities
of diversification. For us, without
is hard to argue against. But, take
of
the
in
small developing countries such as my own. If we were sugar
forced tomorrow to give up ourpreferential
markets in the EU and in the US, which have now been enshrined in WTO arrangements, our economy would certainly be severely jolted. Some would say, that's unfortunate, and that the market
must make all economic decisions. My response would be: we have to consider the great numbers of people in small developing countries and what can happen to their governments when they lose this valuable hard currency. Even assuming compassionis in short supply, thepractical
consequences have to be taken into account. Can the world just turn its eyes away fromcountries in economic despair? Can the industrialized world ignore the political consequences of small countries
with nothing to lose? What if the alternatives come to be expressed in
unacceptable political systems, or waves of illegal migration, ordrug trafficking, or instability among neighbours? Everyone knows the democracies of the industrialized worrd cannot that happen.
"tT:j::,
Just go back a few years in Central America. How much treasure, diplomatic capital and just plain worry did the United States and the West expend to turn back the insurgencies in Nicaragua, El Salvador
and Honduras. We
all know those
insurgencies were born out ofpoverty and
in the contemporary situation, we just have to note the consequences ofextreme poverty economic despair. And,
and authoritarian rule in Haiti. We hear of border clashes as the Dominican Republic Page
ll
THE FUTURE OF PREFERENTIAL TRADE
seeks to stop the flood of refugees form Haiti. The same thing happened a couple of years ago in Florida as the Haitian boat
to corn sweetener and sent the displaced
people arrived by the thousands. Small countries without hope economically can become big problems even for economic giants like the United States. The industrialized world cannot afford to let
was designed to protect US producers and
this happen, not because of
an
overabundance of compassion, but because
of their own self interest. Preferential trade arrangements were,
for the most part, not created out of compassion but out of a recognition that the fate of some countries could be ineparably harmed if they were not given some means of developing an economy that provided jobs and produced hard currency. In some instances, those giving preferential markets did so to protect their
sugar to the US, in effect taking over most
or all of the quota. The side agreement the offshore producers.
We are now in the fourth year of NAFIA, and just what some predicted has occurred. Mexico in converting its soft drink industry to high fructose corn syrup. That. along with good crop years and increased production as a result of privatization, has resulted in a sugar surplus which Mexico would like to send to the US at the US preferential price. But, it is
as I have tried to show, vital to comity among nations as a whole.
Once this acknowledged, it is not difficult, though perhaps it might be protracted, to work out arrangements that can be designed to increase the general welfare. A good case in point is the recent intergovemmental agreement on Special Preferential Sugar, a new embodiment of EU/ACP partnership and co-operation. In
contrast
to the new measures being
promoted by the WTO which would have the effect of increasing access to new
markets
for products exported
by
own investments in former colonies. In other instances. it was a way to maintain influence in former colonies and dependencies. In the case of the United States, its quota had less to do with former colonies than with maintaining good economic and diplomatic relations with its allies, especially those countries to the South who were called upon to fill the breach caused by the embargo on Cuba.
This leads me to a threat that
has
developed to that market for most quota-
holding countries. During the U.S. Mexican negotiations on NAFTA, American negotiators (prompted by the US producers) were fearful that unlimited Mexican access could destroy the US sugar
tryinq to compete with large producer States...
programme. The CBI Sugar Group,
prohibited from doing so by the side
developed at the expense
composed of producers in the Caribbean and Central America, knew that unlimited Mexican access could mean that all of the US quota, or at least all above the WTO minimum, would go to Mexico at the
agreement to
NAFTA. To get around this obstacle, some in Mexico have begun
countries, the new SPS agreement actually does increase international trade to the mutual benefit of the signatories and shows the convergence of interest which is possible.
expense
of the 39 other
quota-holding
countries. As a result, US negotiators concluded a side agreement with Mexico
which allowed them increased, but not unlimited, levels of access over the 14year period of NAFTA. Without these negotiated limits Mexico could have simply switched its soft drink industry from sugar Page 12
claiming that there was no agreement to the limitations.
This problem, like so many, is
a
microcosm of what the smaller countries of the hemisphere face every day. We do not have the natural advantage of our largerneighbours, despite the adoption of free market principles in our economies. Nor do we have the political clout of our larger, wealthier neighbours. That is why preferential markets are so vital to us, and
of
developing
The SPS agreement ensures consistent supplies to EU refiners and helps the EU to
more than comply with its minimum commitments to the WTO. Moreover, the SPS agreement is in accordance with WTO principles, especially in the context of the rules on customs unions and in the light special and differential treatment for less developed countries. This convergence of CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
THE FUTURE OF PREFERENTIAL TT{ADE
interest is sure to give the arrangement a
good chance of withstanding future
We do not have the
challenges. The preference then is forfaimess, rather than for freedom in the abstract. This is not
advantage
a blind adherence to a distant age, or a burying of one's head in the sand, but rather a confronting of demands that are
of
our larger neighboltrs,
real and urgent. The same governments in
the Caribbean which insist on
natural
the
despite the adoption
maintenance of sugar preferences have, in theirdomestic situation, instituted new laws with respect to intellectual property and the protection of the environment, have disbanded negative listing which debarred
of
free market principles tn our economles
the importation of certain commodities, and have done so even before anti-dumping legislation could be put in place. These governments have introduced transparent Central Bank regulations and free floating currencies. Even some troubling reforms,
like the removal of restrictions on landholding by non-citizens - especially troubling in very small countries - have been countenanced. Thus, they have shown a great willingness to embrace the
If free trade is meant to promote and increase the general welfare, then this is
the one hand, and on the other, marketing,
precisely what the preferential trade in sugar has been able to deliver. The Green Paper produced by the EU on the subject
equipment and specialized services.
leading principles of a new world economic order. and to grasp the opportunities present
of its co-operation with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, acknowledges this
in that endeavour. But who can blame them for their determination to look for solutions that take national and regional considerations into account, and which try to avoid the pitfalls of a blanket approach to world trade applied to small nations with limited physical and human resources? Perhaps the advocates of the theoretical doctrine of comparative advantage might be tempted to do
so. But, comparative
advantage has never been something written in the sky, or preordained from above. True, there is an element of fortuitousness, as in natural resources, or in land area or geographic location. But, there is also a large element of artificiality, of things made by man, of arrangements which are deliberately designed rather than
simply inherited. Any preferences are quite simply a form of designing. From this perspective, the real question then becomes: what are then ends to be served? CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
shipping, refining, the provision of
It is important to emphasize this
synergism of objectives and to prevent it from being obscured by approaches to world trade which are somewhat blunt in
point, for while it notices that some countries have not benefitted as much as was hoped, it concedes that there have been spectacular success stories. The fault, if there is one, does not reside therefore in the trading arrangement itself but perhaps in more general conditions applicable to particular countries. As far as the Caribbean is concerned, sugar preferences helped to construct the bases
conception and application, and which see efficiency in narrow economic terms. A more tenable approach is one which is wide enough to include social factors,
forthe region's first industrial revolution, for the rise of an artisan class, and to
ideas that go back to the French Revolution,
environmental concerns, development and democracy. For at the end of the day it would be a matter of great irony if the grand purposes on which so many of the
newer and poorer nations of the world - based on
have fashioned themselves
to the US constitution, to the Mexican
enable peasants to enter the cash nexus as
Revolution, are put at risk by trading
consumers, to propel labour relations, including those associated with female labour, on to a platform of modernity, while promoting renewable and sustainable agriculture, a bulwark against urban drift and illegal migration to the
arrangements which promote instability and upheaval. I do not think that anyone, even the most ardent advocates of the theory of free trade, would wish for that to
developed
world. And all the
while
ensuring the region' s continued integration in the world economy: export earnings on
happen.
(Dr. Kusha Haraksingh lectures at the UWI, St Augustine, T&T). Page 13
AN ACT of WAR! The Caribbean Speal<s out on the Banana lssue at the OAS Assembly
The subjectof bananas was notincluded as an agenda item of the Organization of America States when it met in Lima, Peru
from June 1-6, but several Caribbean delegates took advantage ofthe
opportunity
to bring the subject into sharp focus by expressing concern on the gravity of the situation as it relates to the social and economic plight
of
the Caribbean.
"The Government of Saint Lucia is deeply concerned at the attack on the arrangements which have been made by the European Union to assure the survival of the banana industry of the Caribbean. The very fabric of our social, economic and democratic institutions are now being threatened by the action of some member states in ourvery hemispheric institution", declared the Ambassador of Saint Lucia. Addressing this matter in the context of
Grenada's Ambassador called on Member States "to refrain from pushing
She went on to say, "Powerful trading countries must appreciate that globalized
hard line national policies which will knowingly undermine the economy of
competitive trade
Member States", in referring to the banana dilemma. Although no bananas are grown for export in The Bahamas, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of that country expressed Bahamas' "grave concern about the
of preferences or protected quotas, unless such economies are allowed suitable periods to diversify and are provided assistance in their diversification". The Ambassador of St Vincent and the Grenadines stated, "As we have reiterated
economic plight of the banana producing states in CARICOM, and the lack of
time and again, the destruction ofthe banana
sensitivity exhibited by the response thereto of ourpowerful friends within the Region".
/
The above statements by Caribbean concern ofthe Caribbean. It is a concern they have been expressing to the Congress of the United States, the United States Department of State and the White House on many occasions including atthemeeting between the President of the United States and Caribbean Heads in Barbados in Mav this year.
r{ll
J
The question is, what more can be said,
what more needs to be done to solve this problem? Will the Caribbean people and countries be sacrificed in the name of free
dismantle the regime and rejected the concept of aid as a substitute for trade. He
called for the maintenance of "the traditional and historical access of Dominica and "Windward Island bananas to the European market". Page 14
economy of the Caribbean Community, noting that "those who claim an abiding interest in our stability, our welfare and our prosperity now cut offour legs and tell us, run. It reminds me of former times when unfortunate women accused of witchcraft were burned at the stake. His closing remarks on this subject were expressed as "Barbarism dressed up as justice..." Heads of delegation during this important OAS Annual Assembly represent the deep
security implications, particularly for the
Dominica' s Permanent Representative to the United Nations warned against the consequences of a successful effort to
entire
Belize's Minister for Foreign Affairs
which
Eastern
of the
referred to banana as :fundamental to the
quoted the President of the United States who, on more than one occasion cautioned that in this galloping global economy, small states cannot be trampled upon by their large neighbours. Jamaica's deep concern at the recent ruling in the World Trade Organization on the European Union Banana Regime was made evident by its Foreign Minister, who declared that "the dismantling of his regime will have profound social, economic and
of the
rum, will spell disaster, not only for hemisphere".
is "tantamount to an act of war", the Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda
smaller economies
trading regime, coupled with the loss of markets for Caribbean sugar, rice, and
and social foundations
economy, and referring to the un-doing of
Representative.
destroy small
Caribbean producers but for the economic
small states and a galloping global the Lomd Agreement as a hostile act
will
economies which are dependent on systems
trade and the interest of United States
irn NnNn ''
multinationals? The economic. social and democratic stability of the Caribbean is at Packaging bananas,
St.
Lucia.
stake. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
TIME TO TAIG IN THE BEGGING BOWL? - The Caribbean in post Lom6 Europe x Havelock Ross-Brewster
assistance for
End of an era Caribbean governments have taken a
.
sources
from the most liberal to the most conservative (with the possibility of some nuances by the French government), that the outcome of the negotiations would be as
follows:
.
.
symbolic umbrellaagreement with differentiated policies for Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific; a
theadmissionintotheACPgroupof additional countries in the very poor category,
.
abandonment of the principle of trade preferences (except in so far as these
are tolerated by the WTO for the group of least developed countries) in favour of an international trade policy based on the multilateral disciplines of the WTO and CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
into a single fund
ap-
project aid, eliminating Stabex, strengthening conditionality and making it more functional;
.
various co-operation instruments are of course also desired. However, nothing could be further from reality as seenthroughthe eyes of the EU.. The eclectic discourses in Europe do not mask the intention of the Member States,
consolidation of the various EU aid propriated within the EU budget, providing for budgetarylprogram/
they want a continuation of trade preferences and financial assistance in the existing forms, including Stabex. Certain improvements to the functioning of the
of major issues that ultimately will have to be addressed.
promotion;
more status quo stance in respect of the re-
negotiation of the Lom6 Agreement with the European Union (EU). A basic principle in this stance is maintenance of the unity of the African-Caribbean-Pacific group of countries (ACP) associated with Europe. Together with the social partners
enhancing
competitiveness and trade
stabilising the overall level of aid to the ACP even with the addition of new ACP and EU member states,
compensatory measures being
instituted to increase
aid
efficiency;
.
the institution of a mechanism for wider political dialogue with the ACP as a means of ensuring greater coherence (commonality) of EU foreign and security policy in respect of the developing world.
The task of the negotiating team by the Caribbean States necessarily will have to go beyond the mandate originally established by the
The Framework The negotiating context twenty years ago was very different from that of the present time. Differentiation was hardly an issue then, both among the ACP and between them and Europe. There was as yet little experience of the working of the
trade and aid regimes. Caribbean negotiators recall that they made disproportionate contribution to the Lom6 outcome; were influential in uniting the African themselves; and, combined, got a much better result than if each region had negotiated separately. Basically, therefore, the thinking seems to be that if the Caribbean holds onto Africa it (and
Africa) would get a better deal than if it went separately, if only because of the greater leverage of solidarity and the unquestioned greater merit of the African case for international assistance.
organised
Heads of States, not only in terms of the negotiations with the EU, but implicating the broader foreign and security policy of the region. The creative thinking and research that will go into this exercise
But, how valid are these traditional propositions at the present time? What interestcouldAfricanow have in solidarity with the Caribbean and the Pacific? In the years following the conclusion of Lom6, the Caribbean seemed to have completely forgotten their African allies. Fair weather
would need to be matched by political
friends? In the meantime, both
foresight and courage of an unusual order. Questions are raised below on a selection
Caribbean and the Pacific have found other
the
powerful partners in their respective Page 15
TIME TO TAKE IN THE BEGGING BOWL?
regions, adevelopmentthathas notescaped
African notice. More to the point, it is entirely plausible that, at this point in time, Africa would regard the Caribbean and the Pacific as a drag in their efforts to get the most out of the EU. To be sure these are not the terms publicly used by the Africans. But the message is unmistakable in their strong endorsement of the principle of
Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) itself, the days of preferences for these products are numbered. In fact, they are past for rum and rice, while bananas has been ruled incompatible with the WTO regime. Preferences for manufactured goods have been eroded over the years with the
differentiation, while reasserting their
drive towards world trade liberalisation, are presently negligible, and inevitably will disappear in future trade liberalisation
belief in solidarity.
exercises (in clothing, preferences will end
with the abolition of the MFA in 2005). Moreover, they appear to have had hardly Fromthe Caribbean's standpoint as well it cannot altogether be dismissed that some customising of its relations with Europe could be more beneficial than insisting on
any positive effect in expanding and diversifying the manufactured exports of the ACP to Europe relatively to other developing countries. Doubtless this is
ACP solidarity. For one thing, it could offer the prospect of co-operation tailor-
less an argument against preferences than an illustration of the fact that there are other factors important in export success
made to the specific needs of the Caribbean
that were missing.
and to exploiting the benefits of greater coherence in its external economic and political relations. For another, there are the forgotten "economies of small scale". For, in virtually every case in which small States have been treated separately, they have done proportionately better than when
grouped with larger States. For example,
in terms of size it would be difficult to justify the Caribbean's share in bilateral aid programs or, for that matter, in lending by the multilateral financial institutions.
Trade The Caribbean has been a beneficiary of substantialpreferences underthe special commodity arrangements, in particular, for bananas, sugar, rum and rice. (Other products in which there have been
preferential benefits to other countries beef, dairy products, horticultural products,
other cereals, olive oil, fisheries, clothing have been of little or no export interest to
the Caribbean). However, setting aside sugar which involves the future of the EU Page 16
Financial and Technical Co-operation
There seems to be little prospect for increase in total (union and bilateral) European financial assistance to the ACP countries, even if there are additional ACP and EU member-countries, bearing in mind
that bilateral aid would increasingly be transferred to the Union budget (for the sake of greater coherence and effective programming of a common European aid and security policy). It is difficult to imagine that the Caribbean countries would be able to maintain their relative share of the financial transfers. Moreover, all EU States have establishedpoverty as themain criterion for aid eligibility and, in that context, Caribbean States, even the lesser developed ones, do not rank among the priorities. Anyone familiar with poverty in
the world would not find
it difficult
to
understand that conclusion.
Should these other factors - rather than
preferences and concentration on traditional primary commodities - not be the focus of the Caribbean's negotiating position with the EU? Would such a focus not be facilitated by identifying new and expanding exports of goods and services; the ways in which assistance from Europe
would promote their production and marketing (an example of the customised approach); and the kind of co-operation instruments that might be amenable to an inter-governmental agreement? Equally,
would it not be tactical to contemplate certain measures of trade reciprocity? Should such reciprocity be partner-specific, in the proposed FTAA, or, would it not be more advantageous on the whole to go the route of multilateral trade liberalisation through the WTO? At first consideration, as
an agenda like this does not look too compatible with retention of the present ACP framework.
..... at this point in time, Africa would
regard the Caribbean and the Pacific as a
drag in their efforts to get the most out
of
the EU The Caribbean stance however has been that acase still exists forfinancial assistance
on grounds that GNP is only a partial measure
of
development status: other
factors should include, forexample, income
distribution, small-scale and infrastructure
cost, debt, vulnerability, insularity, transport cost, etc. These arguments have
never carried much conviction in international circles. In some ways the CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
TIME TO TAKE IN THE BEGGING BOWL?
insistence with which they are pressed by
and
the Caribbean does damage to its
outs.
credibility. Such arguments come across as specious but not compelling in
vulnerability of the areademandhand-
of Guyana and Jamaica) established an influential, disproportionate outreach Foreign and Security Policy
comparison with the claims of truly poor countries.
Would it not then be more productive to acknowledge that some progress is being made but that specific and appropriate forms offinancial and technical assistance are needed to maintain the monumentum
and take the Caribbean onto a new sustainable trajectory. What forms then could such financial and technical assistance plausibly take? They would probably include specific areas of human
resources, technological and services development, institution building and
policy-management,
enterprise
development, disaster prevention and rehabilitation. Relatively greater access to resources from the European Investment Bank, and private capital markets would likewise be areas of co-operation to pursue more vigorously, as would joint ventures. The mechanisms that would facilitate
progress
in
promising
'"-
those directions could be
"::o-operation
1":: Again
it is not immediately obvious
that such a specific agenda could best be
developed within a common ACP
The closer involvement of the Caribbean with the United States within recent years has not been balanced with a deepening of its relations with other potential allies, in particular Europe, Africa and South Asia.
withlatin America, though much in the news are, in reality thin, and, in any case, would hardly represent a spreading of alliances since that region is even more embedded into the United States than the Caribbean. There are obvious economic dangers in such a heavy over-weighting of theUnitedStates. Forexample, its capacity to deliver benefits to the Caribbean through the NAFTA or FTAA processes. The economic frailty of the relationship would have been noticed in the real results ofthe recently concluded Summit meeting. The political dangers of such a concentration have been demonstrated in recent times in a range of issues, such as bananas, the Relations
environment, drug, money laundering, ship-rider policy, immigration policy, law of the sea, telecommunications, intellectual
property rights, weapons and the deportation of criminals, among others. It calls for an unusually large dose offaith to believe that the Caribbean does not and will not ever need fair as well as foul wearher friends in the worrd
::::":
agreement. In the meantime, a relatively small and achievable increase in the savings rate of Caribbean countries could
eliminate
all but the most unexpected need for external grants. Could it not be feasible to contemplate taking in the begging bowl? A more responsible, self-reliant and performance-related ethic might well earn more credits and respect than medicancy, than a continued insistence that the poverty CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
the Caribbean (largely through the efforrs
Europe has been taken for granted, notwithstanding the Lom6 Convention, Africa has been ignored. South Asia and the Islamic world neglected (setting aside
the efforts of Guyana). All this at a time when the Non-Aligned Movement and the developing countries Group of 7'7 are in disarray. The situation now is so much in contrast to that of the 1960's/ I 970' s when
through the NAM - which paid outstanding
economic (commodity and petroleum prices) and political (Cuba, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Palestine, Namibia) dividends. Future relations with Europe and the ACP present the interesting possibility of shaping a similar outreach foreign and security policy for the Caribbean. Can this be done within the confines of a common EU-ACP Convention? The Europeans are finding that this is impractical in respect of their own foreign and security policy. It is an argument for re-considering the nature and framework of the Caribbean's future relationship with Europe and of course
with Africa
-.:t::::"
Given the central role of Africa in the post-Lom6 association withthe EU, itcould be useful for the Caribbean - whatever route it should eventually take - to seize the initiative to engage Africa in a constructive dialogue about their common relationship
with Europe and about their own future relationship. Why not begin with inviting a group of African leaders to a well prepared Caribbean Heads of State conference before negotiations commence with the
EU rationalising and up-grading the Caribbean' s foreign serv ice representati on in Africa, and instituting a small Caribbean international aid programming focused on technical assistance and training in areas in which the Caribbean has something to offer, and move on to an Afro-Caribbean co-operation pact. [The author is the Ambassador of Guyana
to the European Union. The
opinions
expressed in this article are personal and
do not necessarily represent the views the Guyana governmentl
of
Page 17
Saint Lucia Elections
CROSSING THE RUBICON *
Wesley Gibbings
1996, had chosen to contest the
Sporting a changed slogan, a different style and anew face atthe
election as an independent
candidate in the Gros Islet seat he had held for several consecutive terms.
helm, the Saint Lucia Labour Party
(SLP) scored a stunning victory
over the seemingly invincible United Workers Party (UWP) when the two parties faced off at the polls on May 23. The results
Hunte's participation as
with six other
exclusive party politics were
:"::car
drawing to
**** The high tide of expectation following the SLP win could have easily been anticipated. The party' s
elections manifesto entitled "New Leader of the victorious Saint Lucia lnbour Party, Dr. Kenny Anthony (third from left front row) and other candidates during pre-election ralll-.
in place for 30 years, was difficult to resist.
Indeed, the acrimony and scandal ofthe
On that occasion, the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) won 33 of the
to hauntthe SLP more than once during the
*::::use
close. That, however,
deposit on May 23. Hunte was amongtn"t'*
scale of the win ( l6- I ) appeared to be a daunting surprise. "I am very
"
a
was not to be as every independent candidate, save one, lost his or her
For SLP leader, now Prime Minister, Dr Kenny Anthony, the
country's
non-aligned
candidates in other constituencies, led to a conclusion that the days of
have set the stage for a new phase rife of Saint -"::
overwhelmed, I had not expected that the verdict of the people of Saint Lucia would have been so decisive," he said election night. The temptation to point to Trinidad and Tobago's landmark 1986 election which saw the ejection of a Peoples National Movement (PNM) administration,
an
independent candidate, together
seats'
1979-1982 period in Saint Lucia returned
April - May campaign. But, considerable rehabilitative work had already been undertaken by the new Anthony team which
sought to distant itself from a hard-line There have also been attempts to equate
the success of the SLP's protracted endeavours over 33 years - if you don't count its disastrous three years in power between 1979 and 1982 - wirh the 1992 victory of Guyana's Peoples Progressive
stigma
*-.t*";r:
";t
its militant I 970s.
Vision, New Directions for
a
New
Century" was not shorton promises
and SLP speakers spoke gratuitously on a wide range of issues during the hectic campaign. The government's economic advisors gained early recognition of the need to
begin work on establishing a fiscal framework for promoting the type of extensive agricultural diversification spoken about in the SLP manifesto. This has been seen as being especially critical in a situation in which near 45Vo of the
working population is employed in
Party (PPP) over a durable Peoples
There was, as well, the challenge of the fact that former party leader Julian Hunte, a respected regional cricket administrator,
agriculture - the cultivation of bananas in particular. The party had also promised to put in
National Congress (PNC) government.
after voluntarily yielding to Anthony in
place "appropriate incentive packages for
Page 18
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
entrepreneurs to undertake corporate ventures for the development of nontraditional crops for export and domestic use." It cites as one deficiency of the sector "the absence of linkages with other sectors, particularly tourism."
The thrust closely resembled a pledge made by the ousted UWP administration. In an interview shortly before his election loss, formerPrime Minister Vaughan Lewis said he recognised the need to reorient the
modernising and diversifying their production base, they have often lacked the financial resources to do so. Anthony has also thus been under some pressure to follow through with his promise to "emphasise to the banking community
that the risks faced by the farming community shouldnot serve to debarthem from access to capital and other services." Other priority issues include housing
,
health, education and employment. However modest, the new government's
country's agricultural sector.
"We have to make sure that the arrangements that have been put in place
programme of employment generation will come under close scrutiny as the weeks
for stabilising the banana industry and improving the quality of production go
and months proceed.
ahead with a lot of speed," he said. "We alsonow have to make surethatwe establish
direct state employment through the public
a more effective linkage
create a new structure which
between
agriculture and tourism." The SLP had also made an ambitious
statement
of intent to
persuade
a
conservative banking community to widen
The SLP has also pledged to create sector while moving "aggressively to
will help the SaintLucian economy to grow andexpand while providing the modernisation which will propel our country into the 21st
century."
the scope for farmers' credit facilities.
Unemployment by the new
One recurring problem among banana farmers has been the complaint that while
government's estimates is in the order of 29Vo and. while there has been moderate growth in the economy, the demand for
they are being asked to work toward
jobs by ayoung population has farexceeded the ability of the country to generate new
jobs.
With a per capita GDP in the order of US$3,000, Saint Lucia is the most developed island of the Windward chain. But, chronic unemployment and growing
demands on the country's physical and
social infrastructure have greatly challenged its ability to achieve a sustained level of diversified development. With warning signals already being sounded in the banana market, the urgency of reform requires the kind of social and political cohesion the SLP victory appears to have been founded upon.
"It is an overwhelming mandate and responsibility," Anthony said. "I want to assure the people of Saint Lucia that the
trust that they have reposed in me, is a trust I will always, always treasure and is a trust I will make sure that I handle with care. sensitivity and with compassion." Not many Saint Lucians over the next five years will tend to allow their new Prime Minister to forget those words.
Defe at e d P olitic al
I*
ade r of t he U ni t ed Wo rke r s
Partv, Dr. Vauglrun Lewis (left) shaking hartds with Sir John Compton. This picture was taken in J anuam I 996 when Si r J ohn.forma ll,- pas sed on the part,- leadership ttt Dr. Lewis. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
Page 19
..LABOURTIME'' MEET THE NEW PRIME MINISTER "The results of the May 23, 1997 General Elections is one which has brought me immense personal satisfaction. It is a satisfaction borne out of the fact that I was able, with the assistance of
quite a few persons, to transform the SaintLuciaLabourParty from one which was perceived as being unable to provide a serious alternative to the Government.
into a cohesive, united and committed organisation. Today, the party stands stronger than it has ever been with a mix of youth and experience. The party was bold enough and displayed sufficient foresight to have the confidence to incorporate in its midst, a twenty-one year old candidate, Ms. Menissa Rambaly. That boldness, foresight and confidence was completely justified when she returned the largest margin of victory at the polls. The House of Assembly now boasts two female representatives. Only one had sat previously, between 197 4 and 1979. Further satisfaction was derived from the appointment of twenty-two yearold Ms. Charlotte Mangal as the youngest Senator ever. The LabourParty therefore, has given me the opportunity to promote two of the most neglected resources of my country women and youth. The Labour Party's victory came as a relief from what a large majority considered an uncaring and unaccountable Government. They viewed it as the end of an era of arrogant men who had forgotten their oath to serve and had instead become masters. Our people had lost confidence in the
ability of Government to see to their needs. It had become clear in theirminds.
the Government cared nothing for the poor. The young and female felt neglected and left out. The Labour Party victory has given new hope to all of these dispossessed groups and individuals. They viewed it as a return to account-
ability, a return to a caring Government, Page 20
Dr. Kennt Anthtnt'
a
return to a Government of the people,
for the people and by the people. The Saint Lucia Media too had felt entirely under siege by the last Government. Sections of the press were insulted and threatened. The Labour victory has given new hope to the previously belea-
guered press. The Saint Lucia Media Workers Association has been given the
for example, should be undertaken more
collaboratively. The recent "shiprider" agreement, in my view, provided an excellent opportunity for such a collaborative response.
Instead. what we had was each state going about the business of the agreement signing on its own. Saint Lucia, will however. insist on greater reciproc-
assurance that the Saint Lucia Labour Party Government fully respects free-
ity among States.
dom of expression and will do nothing to impinge or infringe on these rights. The Labour Party victory is among the best guarantees ofpress freedom the country has had over the past few years. I envisage a more committed approach to the question of Regional Integration. I am ofthe view that external relations,
the deepening of relations among the
My Government stands committed to countries of the sub-region and the wider Caribbean Community".
T CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
Towards
GOOD GOVERNANCE in the Anglophone Caribbean *
The purpose of this brief paper is to begin the process of linking central government, local government and non-
state sectors (especially NGOs) in a relationship which conduces to good governance. The largest assumption is that civil society is emerging in all countries as a
significant factor in good governance
and macro-economic policy, and must be
treated co-equally in the grand macrodevelopment scheme of things. This implies the necessity to look at Caribbean Institutional frameworks which do or do not promote this growing interdependence and develop the capacity of communities and groupings to contribute to the empowering of individuals within them so that poverty can be conquered and wellbeing achieved. The understanding of good governance
used in this paper starts with the achievement of liberalization, privatization, deregulation, decentralization and deconcentration of power, and community participation and democratization (in local,
regional and central) government. It explicitly accepts the principle of subsidiarity (meaning sharing thedecision load down below) and collaboration with international donors and non-governmental organizations. The only problem is the meaning and purpose of these expressions which were seen to vary depending on the
macro-economic paradigm within which they are used. There is a preference for a paradigm which privileges social sector reform. The task is to modestly begin to put
together some starter proposals for adaptation by individual Anglophone Caribbean states given the diversity which exists even withthis category of Caribbean states. It will certainly not be the case of one model fits all. It is not the case of merely having expanded democratization
forthe
Dr. Neville C. Duncan
sake
ofcitizen participation (social
political). The society must be shown as well to develop economically and culturally. The first place to start is with and
Symposia during the period July 1993 to November 1994. Fourmajor studies were
examined: (l) on Constitutional and Administrative reform, (2) on Human
the Caribbean commitrnent to public sector
Resources Management
reform which began, with some degree of urgency and seriousness ofpurpose in the 1980s. Within that framework of technical improvements of central government administration and the corresponding drive for decentralization of central govemment services, can be self renewed interest in refashioning local government by some
Development, (3) Policy Managementand Implementation Strategies of Privatization
and
and Divestment, (4) and on Financial Management of the Public sector.
It has
now been fully accepted by all
co-operation between governments and the various groupings which make up the
Anglophone Caribbean governments that comprehensive, concerted and sustained attention must be given to public sector reform. There are now available sufficient research and political commitment to move to the technical
non-state sector.
aspects of
Anglophone Caribbean Government's Commitment to Public Sector Reform
plans, with the appropriate financial
Caribbean governments and the developing
reform. The reports are detailed and form abasis for the devising ofaction
During the 1980s, various efforts atpublic sector reform were attempted but the results were less than pleasing. Initially, most of
package, to achieve significant public sector reform. These, andotherreports, areextremely valuable but have been very weak on
issues
of social sector and
local
Government participation. Indeed, the
these efforts were directed at reducing significantly the number of public sector workers. The destabilizing effect of this was considerable. The Caribbean Centre
had better treatment in development prescriptions arising out of reports
(CARICAD) was set up by governments
commissioned by international fi nancial and aid agencies in relation to individual
for Development Administration
with financial and technical support coming from international agencies to give support to national efforts at training and to provide critical research. Reform units and Ministries of the Public Service were established in several countries. The Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM states in The Bahamas on July 6, 1993, endorsed a proposal for a Working Group
on Public Sector Reform
and
Administrative Restructuring. The Working Group conducted a series of country missions,workshops, case studies
and two Ministerial Consultations and
social sectors andlocal Governmenthave
Caribbean countries. The Anglophone Caribbean governments would agree with Dunshire that "we shall simply not cope with social change now, let alone in the
if we rely on the railway for transport, the telegraph for future,
communications, and bureaucracy for
government".
NGO/Non-State Actors and Local Government Contributions An understanding of the institutional framework related to NGO and local Government activity became necessary. Page
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
2l
Towards
GOOD GOVERNANCE
Five aspects of apossible framework were
utilized
- (l)
quasi international non-
governmental organizations (QUINGOs) ; (2) quasi non-governmental organizations
(QUANGOS); (3) NGOs/CnOs; (4) National and regional Networks of NGOs; and (5) Local Government.
upon poverty reduction and community empowerment, lessons about collaborative management and co-production were derived.
National and Regional Networks of NGOs abound and form an impressive i
nstitutional framework for interventionary
QUINGOs were shown to have achieved outstanding success in Caribbean countries in spite of obvious weaknesses, and elements of successful methodologies of
activity at all levels of decision making
poverty intervention strategies were highlighted. The over-articulated governance which IFIs impose on their
international advocacy, and the workof its member organizations sub-regionally and
sponsored agencies and
the
in povertyreduction. The Caribbean Policy Development
and action
Centre's (CPDC) work in regional
and
nationally have been recognized by by the CARICOM
governments and
disproportionate focus on accountability
Secretariat. Yet work needs to be done in
processes rather than missions betray a deep mistrust of autonomous agencies in the Caribbean. Those efforts which have
making the regional and national coverage of NGOs/CBOs comprehensive and
adopted an explicitly community
development approach such as that of the Futures Fund in Guyana have shown how some aspects of this problem can be solved.
The ecological NGOs have achieved outstanding success in their collaborative efforts with stakeholders including the government. The highly acclaimed work of the National Commission on Self Help (NCSH) in Trinidad and Tobago shows
the institutional capacity residing in Caribbean countries for successful workin poverty reduction on a broad communitywide and nation-wide basis. It proves that collaborative work with central and local
government community groups, state corporations and the private sector can do
work very well, and relatively
securing formal recognition from
governments as part ofthe policy process. The Caribbean local government system
is inadequately developed despite the sterling efforts of the Caribbean Association of Local Government Authorities (CALGA) to ensure its spread and its legal andconstitutional recognition
and relative autonomy from central government. Local government is a critical
dimension
of a reformed
system of
governance and hence its development is
urgent. Local government is well-suited between central government and NGOs to play a meaningful role in community development and poverty reduction. This paper illustrated some of their community
development activities, based on a collaborative management approach,
autonomously.
which reveal
Some examples of other NGOs engaged in poverty relief and development activities,
to be thebasis of
response
a
willingness and a capacity acountry-wide structured
to poverty reduction. It
reduction have been examined. Their
was strongly emphasized that local govemment should not be bypassed in the rush to generate parallel organizations and popular
successes and problems were revealed.
institutions.
some explicitly economic, and other more social, though no less signifi cant forpoverty
Along with those cases which dealt explicitly with groups in environmental protection, whose work positively impacted Page 22
The role of the state in actively promoting collaborative management and co-production activities was stressed. A
recommendation was made
for
the
establishment of a Social Investment Fund overseen by a National Commission, with broad-based membership, to encourage
national efforts at poverty reduction. Institutional strengthening and capacity building for national and regional NGOs, as well as for Local Government was proposed. Among other recommendations
throughout the paper and at the end is the
notion that a legal and constitutional framework needs to be provided by the state and, through a system of reformed governance, the necessary autonomy be provided for multi-partite (including all the non-states actors) arrangements to function with the greatest efficiency and effectiveness.
Experience has shown that for local government authorities to make a
meaningful contribution to good governance and community empowerment,
Anglophone Caribbean models of local government should contain the following features:
L
have constitutional or legal status;
2. municipal and District Councils
be
established as statutory corporations so that local authorities can act fully as development agencies; 3. meetthe criterion of full electiveness;
4.
have well-defined financial
autonomy; and 5. explicitly establish local authorities as community development and empowering agencies as part of their constitutional and legal mandate.
Local government systems, where they
exist, are closer to targeted populations, are in a position to strengthen what people
already do to survive economic recession
and structural adjustment, and can join with credit unions, trade unions, and NGOs in this common endeavourof empowering people. In this way they can prove to be effective instruments to work with the poor CARICOM PERSPECTryE JUNE 1997
Towarcls
GOOD GOVERNANCE
in communities to reduce poverty. The efforts ofthe poor and disadvantaged have often been limited or stifled by the lack of transfer of adequate technological progress to what they do. Local governments,
through their connections with central
Caribbean, they do not, and must not be allowed to, supersede the role and function of local government, whether in a unitary system or as part ofa federal government
arrangement. More importantly, the
control of vital equipment and facilities, representativeness, are well-placed to make
responsibility ofthe state for social welfare and development must not be allowed to become decomposed. The power and authority of the state must, necessarily, be diffused to new centres ofaction closer to
thenselves relevant in ensuring food security
beneficiaries and involve the latter's
and the creation of economic productive environments. Local Governments should not be
meaningful participation at all stages, but
governments, through their ownership and
and through their elected
bypassed
in the
generation
of
the state remains central.
and democratization of authority and power to
be an integral part of the community development process. They are, increasingly, revealing the willingness and capacity to move firmly in this direction. From a review of collaborative activities between local government and community groups it became obvious that communities are fully capable of identifying their own needs, planning how to meet them, and implement the agreed plan. In doing so ,a variety of resources are mobilized which
added tremendous value to the limited financial and material support provided by local and national govemment, other interest groups and the international community. If governments are prepared to tap into this
dynamism and reservoir of effective governance, then considerable improvements can be made to the lives of people in a wide variety of ways.
Articulating Central Government Reform, Local Goverrrment Renewal and Non-State Sectors in a New Governance Systern
government, and lacking a general base rooted in representative elections. NGOs,
however, have a direct legitimate basis, especially the grassroots organizations, through their activities. Their experiences, shared with national and local decisionmakers, provide invaluable lessons vital for conceiving development interventions . International donor agencies are rapidly learning this. The samepoints canbe made in relation
with local government and othernon-state
actors. Local Government's location
organizations and popular institutions. They
decentralization, devolution
financial connectedness to central
to NGO/governmentrelations and the two
parallel
shouldbe facilitatedby constitutional, legal and institutional changes which promote
integrated assault, lacking institutional and
The reason is as simple as it is often overlooked in exaggerated views about what NGOs/non-state actors and local
governments can
do.
None
of
these institutions (local govemment, NGOs/nonstate actors) can, at any time, even with the
most extensive and intensive capacitybuilding, be the agency through which the contradictions of planned change and induced development be primarily or
ultimately addressed.
It is in their
interrelationship and shared, though not necessarily equal, responsibility, within
between community and nation leaves it well-placed to bring civil society and state
together in urgently productive It has to be ensured that
relationships.
well-planned decenralizing, devolving and democratizingexercises are designed with the full participation ofthese three groups, with labour and business fully involved, and which ensure that there are sufficient resources to enable local government and NGOs/Community-based organizations to meet local needs forpoverty reduction and social development.
the framework of a new system of will be released which will produce better governance, that a new synergy
development and better government.
NGOs/non-state actors and local government should not be seen as competing forces which are better able to put people at the centre of development. They must of necessity collaborate. The weaknesses of the one are oftentimes delicately offset by the strength of the other. NGOs may be seen, as Annis I I 87]
noted, as small scale, politically independent, low cost, and innovative - as positive attributes. However, there features
Aparticipatory process ischaracterized by a proactive stance on the part of those engaged in the process. The government has tobe committed to this ethos andbe the
initiator of the dialogue intended to achieve real results. The ethos embraces all the canons of good governance. Governments, local government. NGOs, business and trade unions must be clear on the strategy and mission statement which they are trying
toachieveandtowhichthey arecommitted.
are unable to treat effectively with Although there has been the appearance of numerous NGOs in the Anglophone CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
pervasive poverty and dispossession. They
are unable
to offer a
sustained and
(Dr. Neville Duncan, is Political Scientist, UWI, Cave Hill). Page 23
EDUCATION FOR THE zoth CENTURY *Simon Clarke
Next year 1998
will be the fiftieth
anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human rights by the General
Assembly of the United Nations. Article 26 of that Declaration, proclaimed on l0 December 1948, points to the central and fundamental role of Education in human development.
"Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and
friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups,and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance ofpeace".
In the context of this
Declaration,
education goes beyond the mere acquisition of knowledge and skills. It involves the promotion of understanding, tolerance, and
friendship among all people. It involves the mutual respect, human rights, democracy, fundamental freedoms. It "
As we come to terms with a new wq) of thinking
about ourselves as humans; about the way in which the natural world self-organizes and co-evolves
through support for diversiQ; about natural intelligence, the process of learning and the significance of environmental stimulation, so our view of what is needed to support learning changes
radically. This initiative has an immediate concern with the learning of young people as an essentialfirst stage in the creation of a more thoughtful, responsible, humane and democratic society." Page
A
involves cooperation and integration. It is concerned with the preservation ofpeace, the preservation ofthe environment and all life. It is concerned with the development of the human being,living not merely as an individual but more especially the human being living in community.
The phenomenal development in the field ofScience and Technology, especially in recent years, has had a most profound effect on human kind. Its development is the result of past education. Its impact is felt today in the way we live and interact with each other and how we relate to the environment that surrounds us. Science
and Technology, now regarded as one integrated discipline, influences the way we apply information and new knowledge to human survival. It also challenges, not only old paradigms and philosophies concerning terrestrial life, but also introduces a whole range of new
understandings
and
possibilities
concerning the universe and the probability ofthe existence oflife beyond the confines CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
EDUCATION FOR THE zoth CENTURY
of this planet. This naturally has serious implications for education for the future, andprovides small states, like those of the Caribbean with serious challenges as well
as unprecedented and
exciting
opportunities. The information 'super highway' has already begun to have in impact on the economic, social, cultural and educational life of the Caribbean. This is likely to have, sooner or later, a direct impact on the
economic, social and political arrangements as well as forms of governance of countries of the region. Information and Communication technologies are influencing modalities of work and leisure, creativity, cooperation,
powerful new tools for the representation and communication of knowledge. The use of this technology has been greatly enhanced by the fact that hardware and software are now more powerful and are available at lower costs. Caribbean states now have a resource that can really be exploited. This resource is not oil or
precious metals or vast industrial complexes, or bananas or sugar. The resource is knowledge. Unlike oil, minerals, coffee, bauxite, etc., knowledge
"
rights and peace.
The International Commission on 2lst century warned
Education for the
that a real danger existed of societies with fast and slow tracks colliding with each
other. It is to eradicate these inequities that educational systems, with the assistance of information and communication technologies, mustplay
a
key
role in developing the human potential needed to address these challenges. The full participation of every community in
We live in an exciting time with the
opportunity to shape the future in ways as
the sharing of ideas and the discovery, exploitation, distribution and utilisation of human and material resources. In addition to the economic, social and political impact, these new technologies will cause major repercussions on the organisation of thought and knowledge and as a consequence on the ways in which decisions are made and actions taken. We are, for instance, gradually beginning to appreciate a new dimension of time and space and the space-time continuum, once regarded as the theoretical preserve of quantum physicists, is fast becoming part
is the only resource that increases, the more it is used. The development of the
the 'information society' is therefore
implications for education. Any country
ofthe everyday experience ofthe average
that is serious about sustainable economic,
person. You type
social and cultural development, that is,
The new information and communication technology has caused a shift in the role ofthe teacher from the teacher as a dispenser of education to the teacher as a mentor, guide, manager of learning, consultants and even co-learner with the student. This, in turn has created a shift in the role of the student and requires of
a letter on your computer and utilising the facilities of electronicmail, you hit one key and in a split second
the letter is transmitted and simultaneously
received in Tokyo, or Sidney, or New York, or Paris, or Moscow or Castries, Saint Lucia. With the advent of e-mail, the
facsimilie machine is
fast
becoming obsolete. Telex is virtually a thing of the past. Two or three minutes is now much too slow for
a
letter to be sent and received.
The constantly accelerating rate of change in the technologies relating to
information access, presentation and exchange, demands urgent responses at the national, regional and international levels. An ever expanding reservoir of
powerful as our greatest forefathers. Unfortunately, this period of 'big change' could also have a dark side"
'knowledge industry' has major
any country that is interested in the development of people, and wishes to take advantage of the new opportunities now becoming available, must place education at the centre of its development strategy. But access to information and com-
a
crucial issue that cannot be overlooked.
thelearner more responsibility
in the
munication technologies is not equally availableto all. Notonly is there agrowing
learning process. The new environments require that the learners become more
gap between the developed and developing countries in their ability to access and use
for their learning. It is important
between some countries of the Caribbean.
understand what benefits as well as what stresses will resultfrom the new role of the teacher and the learner. What is urgently
technology, inequities in access to information technologies also exist
self-directed and take greaterresponsibility
to
is pre-service and in-service
These inequities exist even within
needed
is now available and digital
individual countries or townships where in certain communities, the telephone, television and even electricity cannot be
education programmes not only to prepare teachers to use the current generation of technologies, but also to accommodate
technology, integrating text, graphics, video, voice and music is providing
implications for democracy, human
data
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
taken forgranted. This naturally has serious
and develop a positive attitude in responding to these technologies and to Page 25
EDUCATION FOR THE zoth CENTURY
will be introduced in the future, for without effective teacher-training, investments in technology will bear little
those that
fruit. A frequently expressed concern is the
fact that because the new technologies emerge primarily from the developed
world, the content and form of
the messages they carry tend to reflect the cultural values, prejudices and interests of that world. Some argue that there is the dangerthat the technologies may result in loss of culture and language among many people of the world. While there is some truth to this concern in situations where
countries simply do nothing, a real opportunity exists for using the same facilities for disseminating to the rest of the world the best of Caribbean culture. This is exactly what the Bob Marleys, the Derrick Walcotts and the creators of the steel band did.
The International Commission of Education forthe 2l st century, stresses in its report (Learning: The Treasure Within, 1996) that '...these technologies are in
the process of accomplishing nothing short of a revolution before our eyes, one that affecting activities connected with production and work just as much as those connected with education and training'. Technology is now making it possible for students in isolated areas of the world to access information resources and expertise unavailable locally. It has provided new tools for cognitive learning, intellectual collaboration and problem solving. It has enabled children to work with other children across the globe is
through computer-mediated communications and developed new levels of cultural insight and understanding. It has
also opened new opportunities for
strategies for facilitating student learning
and new and different ways in which technological tools and information
problems are already being felt in the developed world. Computer hackers can now intercept information on credit card
resources may be integrated into learning environments. In view of the rapid development of the
transactions using the same Pager technology that is used to read securitysensitive messages. Many shops and
new information and communication technologies, the Second UNESCO International Congress on Education and Informatics, held in 1996, recommended that policy-makers should set up working parties to considerpriorities in the provision of technology for education and training, appropriate to the resources and
infrastructure
of each country. It
also
recommended that governments should urge their telephone and communication companies to consider the establishment
of appropriate links to educational institutions,either free of charge or at discounted rates. But is the Caribbean ready? Over the past I 5 years or so, Information Technology
garbage that is alsoreadily available on the
institutions in the region in varying degrees. From outdated and discarded systems donated to schools by overseas or local
communication technologies is one thing, but getting them to use the principles learnt forhuman growth and the development of
interests to state-of-the-art equipment provided by government or the private
society
sector, more and more schools are coming
into contact with computers. In most Caribbean countries, however, its introduction is still in the embryonic stage and a great deal of developmental work needs to be done, especially in respect to the anomalies that exist in equipment and software and the provision of trained
is quite another. Courses in information and communication technologies must also include programmes that
will
enable students to
sift from the colossal mountain of information, the wheat from the chaff. Students must be made to understand the moral and ethical responsibility which must
undergird their access, interpretation,
application and dissemination of
instructors. Of the fi ve Caribbean countries
information. It is in this respect that it is
that submitted to the Kingston office of UNESCO the information requested, it is clear that much work needs to be done if the Caribbean region is ever to catch up
most unlikely that the computer will replace the teacher in the classroom.
with what is happening in this field
professional development opportunities through new distance-learning technologies.In addition, the new multimedia technologies have provided unique and powerful ways to convey difficult and abstract concepts. Research in cognitive learning is providing new insights and
however, should not be regarded as the panacea of all present ills or should it be assumedthatonce we havethetechnology, we have the passport into the twenty-first
2.6
to a vast reservoir of useful data and information, there is also an incredible amount of invalidated information and propaganda, pornography and other 'net'. Training students in information and
in
elsewhere in the world
Page
worthiness by swiping credit cards through a device on the till. In many cases, the details are transmittedto an authentication centre via radio in a similar form as pager messages. It is this information that can be intercepted by a simple radio scanner. If this is happening inthe developed world, it will not be long before that plague hits the Caribbean. We must also be aware of the fact that whilst the Intemet provides access
educational
has been introduced
theeducation of the disabled. It has enabled
adults to receive job training and
restaurants check customers' credit-
The new information technology,
century. The introduction ofthis technology
has brought with it problems of unprecedented dimensions. These
But, there is urgent need for the transformation of whatwe call'education'.
Very often education is mistaken with teaching. Teaching, as largely practiced
today, is almost solely directed to the intellectual abilities. It is a mental transmission designed to increase the amount of knowledge and skills. Bit education goes beyond mere knowledge
and skills. It involves the building of character or of one's capacity to feel. It involves an understudying of human CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
EDUCATION FOR THE zoth CENTURY
it
(i)learning to know; (ii) learning to do (iii) learning to be (iv) learning to live together. Given the rapid changes brought about by scientific and technological progress and the forms of economic and social activity, an important acquisition of facts which should form thebasis for informed
This should be regarded as the very
certain
decisions and actions. Educational
countries. A vastmajority ofpersons of the dominant ethnic group declared themselves againstracism. There was littledoubtabout the sincerity of their reply. When the question was asked, however, as to whether they would allow theirdaughters to marry men from the minority racial group, very few gave apositive answer. This illustrates
opportunities must be provided not only
a new respect and appreciation for those who live on other lands and have other cultures. This new spirit, guided by the
emotion,
involves habits and the of positive values and attitudes. There is a very important difference between knowledge and attitudes. To illustrate this here is an strengthening
example. Some time ago, a survey was conducted
concerning racial opinions
in
that their knowledge about the evils of racism which no doubt they learned in school, made them openly opposed it. When itcame to the question of the marriage
of their daughters, family tradition, habits and attitudes influenced their behaviour.
In the same way, one may have firm opinions about the preservation of the
in the 'formal' sense forpersons of school
age. Opportunities must be provided
recognition of our growing inter-
towards lifelong education for all. Adult and continuing education is no longer a marginal phenomenon. At the workplace, developments in technology and changing patterns of employment have brought the need for continuous updating of skills throughout one' s lifespan. Patterns of non-working life have also changed, providing remarkable new spaces for inner enrichment, creativity and the broadening of horizons. Knowledge is empowerment. It strengthens the ability to make choices r welfare. that are .*rt.":::,.t."*'
dependence and the common challenges of the future, would induce people not only ofthe Caribbean but throughout the
environment, but may proceed to destroy
trees
for what may be termed 'good
economic reasons'. A teachermay have all
kinds of opinions about education for
'Learning to do' is another pillar and
democracy and participatory democracy, but manages the class in an authoritative manner. This is also true of governments. The kind of education that is required is
involves the application of what we have learned, that is the knowledge we have acquired, to specific actions that enhance human life. It is learning to do efficiently
job of work. It involves
one that links knowledge and skills,
and effectively
opinions and attitudes into one integrated
the acquisition of competencies that enable
experience. This kind
people to deal with a variety of situations. In short, it is the mastery of a skill. The third pillar is 'Learning to be'. Learning to be involves knowledge of self. It involves learning to develop and exercise greater independence and
of
education,
sometimes called 'holistic educafion', tends
to awaken, develop and integrate both reason and intuition, both the sensation and feelings. It is the establishment of a kind of harmony between the intellectual and the psychic. It is the balance between the right brain and the left. The fusion between the cognitive and the affective. 1r is the blending of knowledge andwisdom. The International Commission on Education forthe 2 I stCentury ofUNESCO proposes that education for survival into the 2 I st century should rest on four pillars CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
foundation of education. Each one needs to develop the skills of living and working with others. Each one needs to develop an understanding of others through a study of their history,tradition,spiritual values and on this basis, to create a new spirit and
a
judgement combined with
a
stronger sense
of personal responsibility for
the
attainment of selected goals. It is the development, to the fullest, of all those individual talents ofbody,mind and spirit, with which each person is endowed. The greatest emphasis is Put on the fourth pillar, 'Learning to live together' .
world,to understand the necessity of working together and of finding common
solutions to common problems. It is working and living together for mutual survival. It means organising ourselves
for cooperation and not competition. As we approach the next millennium, we are at the leading edge of a change in the vision of reality, of the birth of a new interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary paradigm which corresponds to a new vision of the world and of all life. This change requires not merely a change in our approach to education. It requires also an inner change in consciousness. It will
not be possible to sustain human
development unless the new vision of education is applied. Survival into the next century requires not only aknowledge
of quantum physics, or of the use of computers and the aPPlication tf in.fo
rmation and
technologies.
comm unicati on
It also requires
an
understanding and the application of tronspersonal psychology, cultural and spiritual traditions and the realisation
that energy is not just a PhYsical
phenomenon, but rather is the very basis of lifu, of knowledge and information and of matter.
Dr. Simon Clarke is UNESCO se
RePre'
ntativ e ( north and e duc ational Adv
for
ise
r
the Caribbean) , Kingston, JamaicaPage 27
Garvey Since Garvey *Rawle Gibbons
The Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey died in 1940, alone, in exile, yet having created anetwork of African peoples globally on a scale never seen before or since. He died a poor man though he
handled millions of dollars that African peoples contributed and generated through the economic projects of his Universal
Negro Improvement Association. Described by C.L.R. James as 'the most influential' black leader of the century, what is known of the man, his work and ideas at schools and univeristies in the region of his birth? What has happened to the consciousness of Trinidadians between
the 1930's when they established thirty (30) branches of the UNIA (more than Jamaica and second in the region only to Cuba) and today? These are some of the paradoxes and questions underlying the Creative Arts Centre' s explanation of Garvey' s message through the Edgar White play
"I Marcus Garvey". Garvey's work and thought have held significance for every major advance of African peoples since the 30's as he himself pledged to be with us 'In the whirlwind of the storm' until African people win
Garvey exhorts the people.
for his race. Did his ideas also influence the Port of Spain Black Businessman's Association alive during the 1930's as was the case ofblack co-operative ventures in then British Guiana?
'freedom, justice, and liberty'.
In
Jamaica, Garveyism strongly
reinforced the emerging Rastafarian faith. Thebelief in ablackGod, in thedeliverance of African peoples from the oppression of Babylon, in the centrality of Ethopia to this deliverance from common ground between the two and, as with the Nation of Islam,
His ideological impact on AfroThe pillars of Garvey's thought were: Race First; Africa for Africans at home,
and abroad; Black
Economic
Independence. These ideas he propounded
forcefully and rationally through his speeches, internationally circulated newspapers, business and political ventures, with tremendous impact. It is hard to imagine, for instance, that a young
Cyril Duprey working in New York in the 1920s, the heightof Garveyism, wouldnot be
inJluencedby Garvey's economic vision
Page 28
America requires no such speculation. The Nation of Islam, the resurgence of Black nationalism from the I 930's through Black Power to today, are directly linked to Garvey's declaration of 'Race First' - that the African must place his collective selfimprovement at the top of his agenda for progress. Elijah Mohammed, who would lead the Nation of Islam, was himself a member of the U.N.I.A. The similarities in the two movments are therefore not surprising.
many Rastafarian leaders, had been
GarveYites'
***** Garvey also directly influenced the of Trade Unionism in the
emergence
Caribbean and through this the politics
of
West Indian nationalism. His links with
Grenada's Marryshow, Bustamante's labour movement in Jamaica and his admiration forTrinidad's Cipriani, are well known. Further afield, the leadership of
African Independence came under
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
and the people who live there.
CARVEY SINCE GARVEY
White's theatrical biography is a study in organic thearte in its truest sense, being
Garvey's influence, Kwame Nkrumah,
Indiana.
at once educational and entertaining, confrontational and celebratory. It was moving. Indeed Rawle Gibbons' moulding ofthe play gives it the dimension of an epic musical - he directs it like a movie.
Jomo Kenyatta, and Dr. Namidi Azikiwe, being the most notable examples. Today, Garvey is more alive than ever.
The play presents an account of Garvey's life and struggle between l9l4 and 1940. The story traces Garvey's growing realization of his destiny, his
His work is the subject of
serious
scholarship providing added value to his already monumental contribution.
[Rawle Gibbons is Director of the Creative Arts Centre, U.W.L St. Augustinel I exce rpt from p ro g ramme at a pre s entation by the Arts Centre of 'l Marcus Ganey'l
I Marcus Garvey
(and The Captivity
ofBabylon) was the firstpresentation to be
held at the newly-opened Learning Resource Centre on St. Augustine Campus of the U.W.I. A theatrical biography on Marcus Garveyby EdgarNkosi White, the play was directed by Rawle Gibbons, with a cast headed by Michael Cherrie as Marcus Garvey, and Camille Quamina as his sister,
founding of the U.N.I.A. His imprisonment and deportation, as well as his final years in London. The writer intends for the audience to reflect on the life of this great West Indian and the significance of his message today. Gibbon's adaptation sought to "revive
an era of unrepentant racism and imperalism, reliving the story of 20th century slavery, the people who were affected by it and their stuggle to end it. It is at once a personal and social statement,
simply told and without pretence. A cast traces the life and travels of Marcus Garvey,
the audience imagines most vividly the mountains of Jamaica, the dull and dinge of London, Harlem's groovy decadence,
The plot progresses onstage from one
country to another. from one time to another; the scenes melt into each other. the calm of a Jamaican sunset in l9l2
transforming before the audience in the
smoky vibrance of Harlem, years later, literally in the blink of an eye".
"All peoples are struggling to blast a way through the industrial monoply of races and nations, but the negro as a whole has failed to grasp its tue significance and seems to delight in filling only that place created for him by the white man" "Education is the medium by which a people are preparedfor the creation of their own particular civilization, and advancement and glory of their own
race"
"The days of slavery are not gone forever. Slavery is threatenedfor every race and nation that remains weak and refuses to organiTe its strength for its own protectio
Garve y-'s Struggle.
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
Page 29
CHEDDI JAGAN - Guyana (l 91 8
-
1997)
emphasis on Jagan's partfromthe notion
of
class struggle, as a rallying call, to the advocacy of socialism and its economic doctrine, public ownership of the means of production. Already branded communist, he would now be baptized Russian, the
OUR TALLEN HEROES
intended manipulation being that in as much as socialism was something Soviet, the
absurdity followed that to advocate
*When in 1947, Cheddi Jagan was first electedtoparliament, the prevailing state of mind of sophisticated and unsophisticated Guyanese alike, was markedby an inherited subservience to white colonial officialdom anduncritical acceptance ofthe labelsposted on people. By the time of his election, Jagan had already spent six years in the United States,
had studied dentistry, had married Janet and had become acquainted with the ideas associated with Marxism. The effect of these ideas on the content of his thinking and the substance of his activity he has
I *r'**
openly affirmed. Chief among the ideas associated with Marxism is that which relates to class struggle as the force that brings about really important social change. Given the specific social stratification obtaining in Guyanese society it would be no accident that Jagan's insistence on the primacy of class struggle in political thought and action, would, in the minds of supporters and opponents, acquire the status of superstition, in the sense of a questionable applicability, a
superstition displacing such other superstitions as the political responsibility of the native educated stratum or the
political
benevolence of colonial administrators. The events leading up to and following the suspension ofthe constitution in 1953,
showed however. how little the two latter superstitions had been displaced. By which time the notion of class struggle had itself been displacedby another superstition, that is to say, race struggle again a superstition,
The early years. Page 30
in the sense ofquestionable, applicability. It was even as this transition took place
that another one did; the transition in
Socialism and be a socialist, was once to be Soviet. Under the burden of these accumulated confusions, Cheddi Jagan's political work strained for resemblance to the work of other English-speaking Caribbean leaders. Yet, even before the careers of Jagan and his contemporaries had begun, there was already a particular difference in place, and this had to do with the fact that while the other Caribbean leaders' critical years in
political education had been British
oriented, Jagan's had been American, a comparatively unusual thingfor any kind of education in those times. Jagan's own memorials of his life as a
child of, and on a plantation, depict
a
privation and remoteness which could not be less of a preparation, although possibly more of differentiation than a childhood in a town or city would have inured. The urban and British, rural and American contrasts involved here must have much to
do with the difference in political style between Jagan andhis contemporaries; that style that so many have commented upon, and so wrongly interpreted as a function of
ideological orthodoxy. It was in keeping, offensively, with the anxiety to find some reason that would disparage, that, in the earliest of Jagan's political days, it was to the white American
lady's, Janet's, Cheddi Jagan's wife's incitement that many of Jagan's opponents would attribute what they saw as Jagan's intransigency. The antecedent implicit in both of these
instances
of refusal was and remains
a
commonplace of colonial psychology, that inversion of the acceptance of domination. Of the latter, itremains to Burnham's credit that he did not countenance or exploit such and like canard. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
It was afterCheddi Jagan againbecame
With accession to virtual parliamentary
Premier in 1951 that the nature of class struggle as such manifested some of its
control following the elections in 1964, and with accession to State control following elections in 1968, the PNC and Burnhamism would fuse into leadership
more intractable demographical and productional contrarieties. The observable as againstrural interests that hardened after the split in 1955, was a confirmation of partisan resolve to rectify that disappointment of the prospects raised by the PPPvictory in the elecrion of 1953,
partition of urban
paramountcy. This in turn would conduce to a demand from Jagan's supporters, that,
above all, he should look out for their interests, since the paramountcy in place
would dispossess them. And political
that, rather than a consequence of thorough-going ideological conflict
struggle, such as it was, would dissolve into rampant opportunism, impenetrable
as
made out at the time by thesis-contriving experts and colonial office spokesmen.
and self-justifying,
Immediately bound up with political activity over forty years the outstanding
The point was that ideological affairs by then had become things that leaders argued about which would then also have to mean that it was notideology that made leaders, but leaders who made ideology.
But even such a formulation would
c
haracte ri s ti c of J a gan' s inv o lv e ment has
a single-mindedness commanding admiration. It is as a pioneer in a been
community's education that Jagan has
be
come to be accepted. The dismissively
inadequate. For with the advent of what,
intentioned cliches borrowed from an obsolete reactionary vocabulary and
in the crass idiom would be called Jaganism andBurnhamism, had come the
wantonly applied cannot diminish the value
imprisonment by mentality of whatever aspects ofideology might have happened
of what he has done. (*celebrated Guyanese poet) ('Stabroek News', December I l, 1987)
to be engaged.
*Miles Fitzpatrick
...the "world of Soviet leadership finally collapsed with Gorbachev's reforms. But, unlike other international socialist leaders, Cheddi Jagan survived and won a democratic election. There are many reactions for this, but surely one of themis the factthat, whatever his world view, his deepestpersonal instincts were always democratic, not authoritarian.
him pleasure rather than pain. Over nearly three difficult decades, his leadership kept his party together and in battle trim, always present at the centre of all the treachery and turmoil of politics, like a large stone in a troubled nation. That he achieved this in the land of the
is perhaps his
greatest
The late
Dr. Cheddi Jagan
accomplishment. In the end neither office nor power define
a man. Cheddi Jagan will live on, not in statues and monuments. in books or in speeches, but
in the sometimes indefinable of our lives and the
tremors and flows
assumptions that we live them on.
place over our future, the hum will still tell us that he passed this way. The PPP now or later will name a leader
from a different generation. The Oxford dictionary defines "succeed" as "take the place previously filled by." No one will succeed Cheddi Jagan."
Cheddi Jagan never came to power by
force of arms nor crushed a rebellion. He never divided a country or hatmed student. He was a builder, not a destroyer. Yet, the metaphor lives true. No matter how many layers history may
Cheddi Jagan was
a top class organizer educatorof the working people. In the first place he allied himself with existing
and
Trade Union organizers but found many of them unwilling to devote consistent and serious attention to hard work still persisted. In his education of the working people, he demonstrated that they were
entitled to understand, not merely their immediate problems, but the reasons for these problems. As such, he analyzed for them the nature of Guyanese society, the role of
the Sugar Industry and its connection locally and abroad. He used information from official reports to present them the facts and figures. He taught them that anyone could secure this information from
certain Government Departments as he had done. In explaining big businesses, sugar, and certain officials. A publication he put out,
"Who Owns the Press," was an
eye opener.
In addition he analyzed the problems brought on by colonialism and called upon them to show solidarity with their brothers and sisters fighting in Malaysia, Kenya and other countries in Asia and Africa. He also called for solidarity with workers and farmers of independent countries fighting for betterment against capitalism and land
lordism. In the city and towns, on the waterfront, the quarries, the wood grants and among Government employees he united with militant workers and their leadership to spread his message. But Cheddi Jagan taught not merely by words but by example. Two important incidents - the Enmore Sugar Strike which resulted in the shooting to deathof five workers,
Indeed, he was frequently accused of indecisiveness because of his insistence on searching for consensus. The rough and tumble of political debate, one sensed, gave
ephemeral
*Brindley Benn
*(Miles Fitzpatrick is an Attorney-at-lnw,
with injuries to many others and the modification of charges for passage of Sugar Estate punts through Buxton local authority waterway, found him on the side of the workers and the villagers.
[H. E. Brindley Benn is Guyana's High Commissioner to Canadal
Georgetown, Guyana) (Excerpted from a r ibute app e ar in g in'Stab roek N ew s', M arc h
t
9, 1997).
I CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
Page
3l
OUR TALLEN HEROES
MICHAEL NORMAN MANLEY (1 924 - 1997) f amaica
to be shy, Manley grew uP to be one of Jamaica's most gifted public speakers'
In 1952, he returned to Jamaica as Associate Editor of the Public Opinion. Later he was elected to the National Executive Council of the Peoples National Party (PNP), founded by his father, and began to handle union negotiations with
the formation of the National Workers Union (NWU). He increasingly became
involved
in trade union and political
activity while he continued his work with the 'Public Opinion', until Augustof 1953 when he accepted the Post of Sugar Supervisor for the NW-U. Within two years he was made Island Supervisor and First Vice President of the union. During his years as an active trade unionist, Manley strongly believed that
"the progress of the working classes is indispensable to the progress ofthe nation" a philosophy which guided his life in
-
representational politics.
Although a member of the Upper House of Parliament, the Senate, Manley did not seek elective office until 1967, when he
Former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Michael Norman Manley led a multifaceted life and is widely known for his political persona. His careers included that of pilot and World War II veteran, journalist, trade unionist, coffee farmer, horticulturist and author. His fatherwas National Hero Norman Washington Manley and his mother, renowned sculptor, Edna ManleY.
Manley attended the St Andrew Kindergarten School in Kingston and later attended Jamaica Colleges in Munro. He left Jamaica to study at Mccill University, but, tv.'o weeks later volunteered to join Page 32
Air Force . He returned to Jamaica and had his first introduction to journalism as a sub-editor with the 'Public the Royal Canadian
ran against E.K. Powell in Central Kingston, won the seat and was re-elected in every General Election contested by the
Opinion' newspaper. He left Jamaica again to study at the
PNP until his retirementin 1992.
London School of Economics in the United Kingdom where he received Bachelor and post graduate degrees. While in England he continued his journalist work with the
Party Leader
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). During his student years in London, Manley became actively involved in
politics having started as a student organizer and founding member of the West Indies Students' Union. First known
In 1970, Michael Manley was elected leader of the PNP following his father's resignation. He re-organized the PNP and, two years later, embarking on an election campaign marked by the slogan "Better Must Come", he led the PNP to victory at the polls and was sworn in as Prime Minister on March 2, 1972. CARICOM PERSPECTIYE JTJNE 1997
During his first four- year term,
he publicly declared that he had made
Manley's government declared that its
errors during his previous administration and he took a more moderate ideological line. The new Manley administration was
ideological platform would become Democratic Socialism. This political shift led to the introduction of such social and economic reforms as theMinimum Wage
Law, compulsory recognition of labour unions, Maternity Leave for women and the Children's Act (popularly known as the
BastardAct which grantedequal status
to children born to unwed as well
decidedly capitalist
in its outlook
reflected inthe Prime Minister's speechto the 52nd annual conference ofthe PNP in 1990. He saidthe taskof governmentwas to release the "spirit ofinitiative" and the "sense ofenergy and entrepreneurship" in
every Jamaica. This ushered the move to the liberalization of the economy.
Free secondary education was also introduced, the Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL) and the Basic School Development Programme were other initiatives of the
In his later years of political life Manley told the nation, "I have been in Jamaica's
new socialist government. Manley's government also introduced the Bauxite Levy in 1974 which exacted 7.5 percent of the earnings from bauxite sales. In addition, govemment moved to
acquire majority ownership of the local assets in the alumina industry.
public life for 40 years and, in fact, I have
been an activist
in the
ln
197
6, Manley'
47-1 3 seatvictory
s
PNP won
a
landslide
overtheJamaicalabour
Pafiy (JLP). But, by the end of the second term in office, the Manley administration's Democratic Socialist ideology lead to alienation of theWestern giant, the United States of America, and to the disenchantment of the electorate. The result was an equally telling landslide victory by the JLP in 1980 which put Manley again in the seat of the Parliament' Leader of the Opposition.
s
Between 1980 and 1989, the JLP
progressive
movement for some 47 years now. I have always believed that political leaders must know when to step aside and make room for others".
The Internationalist In May, 1992 Michael Manley received Jamaica's third highest national honour -
the Order of Merit
- for
distinguished
Manley wrote six books. With the exception of the 1988 publication "A History of West Indian Cricket", the first detailed account of the history of the Caribbean'
s
most popular pastime, all his
books were focussed on his political interest and involvement over the years. Manley was recognized as an avid sports enthusiast, whose special interests were
in cricket and boxing.
He was also the person
who
popularized the practice ofjogging around the Mona Dam where for many years he exercised each day, at the crack ofdawn.
Both revered and vilified for his politics, Manley 's work has touched the lives of generations ofJamaicans and will continue to be studied by generations yet to come,
Manley was an outspoken critic of the racist system of govemment. His persistent opposition of apartheid earned him a United Nations Gold Medal Award in 1978. He also received the Juliot Curie Peace Award of the World Peace Council
in
1979 and was appointed to rhe Privy Council in August, 198.
His socialist beliefs led to affiliations internationally with those of like belief. He was elected vice-president of Socialist International in 1979 and chaired the organization's economic commission in I 988. The first report of the Commission, Global Challenge, was published in 19875.
not contested by the Manley-led PNP on
Through Manley, Jamaica was closely
election was called. Between 1983 and
The Author
service in the field ofinternational affairs. Throughout the struggle against apartheid
governed the country. However, it was only between 1980 and 1983 that the PNP was officially the Opposition party - the "Snap Elections" of December, 1983 was
the grounds that the government has promised electoral reform before any
international circuit.
as
as
married parents).
appearances and statements. He established the firm Manley and Manley Associated which offered consultancy services and he frequently lectured on the
associated
with the Non-Aligned
Movement, the Group of 77 as well as the Caribbean Communiry (CARICOM).
1989 there was no constitutional opposition. However, Manley was viewed as the de facto Opposition Leader. Michael Manley was re-elected Prime Minister in 1989. Priorto his re-election, CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JIJNE 1997
Retirement Following his retirement, Manley led a quiet life, occasionally making local public Page 33
HOSTS FOR THE 18th CONFERENCE OF CARICOM HEADS OF GOVERNMENT
IATVIAICA
is the third largest of the Caribbean islands. Situated in the Jamaica
Caribbean Sea, it lies 965.4 km (600 miles)
south of Florida, 160.9 km (100 miles) southwestofHaitiand 144.8 I kn (90miles) south of Cuba. Theisland's 28,389.2km'? (4,41 I square
miles) are dominated by magnificent mountains. The principal range runs East to West, and the country's summit, Blue
Mountain Peak, at approximately 2.256 metres (1 ,4o2feet), stands near its eastern end.
The mountains boast a varietY of minerals, chiefly limestone. Economically however, the most important mineral is bauxite (aluminum ore), and there are also deposits of gypsum andhigh gradecalcium carbonate. There are many mineral springs, including the world renowned Milk River Baths in Clarendon. Temperatures vary from 27'C (80'F) to 32"C (90"F) on the coasts, to as low as 4oC
(40'F) on the highest mountains. The average temperature in most areas in 24'C (75"F). The wettest months are normally
May and October and in some areas, annual
rainfall is over 2,032 mlllimetres (80
Bamboo Walk in the parish of St. Elizabeth.
Elizabeth, Manchester, Clarendon and St Catherine. Kingston, situated in the south-eastern part of the island, is the capital city. The
other city, Montego Bay, is the leading tourist resort and is located on the island's north-western coast.
The country is divided into three
Jamaica's multiracial population of
counties - Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey - which are subdivided into 14 parishes:
approximately 2.4 million people is
Portland, St. Mary, St. Ann Trelawny, St.
James, Hanover, Westmoreland, St.
.:
Upper House, and the House of Representatives, also known as the Lower
The PeoPle
inches).
Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Thomas,
Commonwealth, the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, is the titular head of the country. She is represented in Jamaicaby a Governor-General. The Jamaican parliament consists of two Houses, the Senate, also called the
primarily of African, European, East Indian and Chinese origin. Although English is the official language, most people speak an English-based creole known as patois. Originally populated by Taino tribes, the country was claimed for Spain by the explorer Christopher Columbus in 1494. In 1655 Jamaica was captured from the Spaniards by the British until 1962 when
the country became an indePendent
House.
Justice Jamaica's legal and judicial systems are based on English common law practice. Justice is administered by several courts.
Social Services
Numerous voluntary organisations serve many areas
of social welfare. The
Council of Voluntary Social Services coordinates the activities of the many independent voluntary social organisations.
member of the British Commonwealth.
Housing
,f&
frz 1'', Tourists on the beach. Page 34
Government Jamaica is a consitutional monarchy
and as a member of the British
Both public and private sectors engaged
are
in the provision of housing in
Jamaica. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I99?
ln 1975 the Government
established
the National Housing Corporation (NHC)
and National Housing Trust (NHT) to accelerate housing development.
the Edna Manley College for the Visual
and Performing Arts (which combines schools of art, dance, drama, and music); the College of Agriculture, Science and
The National Housing Trust is funded by a combination of personal and corporate contributions through salary deductions. The NHT Act requires that all employees over eighteen years, and their employers,
Education; G.C. Foster College of Physical Education and Sports and 12 teacher training colleges.
make contributions to the Trust. Selfemployed persons are also required to make NHT contributions. The Ministry of Environmental and Housing, through its joint venture
Literacy (JAMAL), has been working to eradicate adult illiteracy. Over the last
programme, works with public and private
sector entities
to invest and provide
affordable housing units and serviced lots for Jamaican families.
Living Conditions Update The number of persons living below
Since the 1970s, the Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of seven years some 113,878 persons have in its classes islandwide. Its
enrolled
programme is organised by a core of professional workers, supported by a
network volunteers. The success of
JAMAL and other educational programmes was reflected in a survey done in 1994 which revealed that 75.4 percent of all Jamaicans were literate.
and the tourism boom in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1990s, tourism has become the major earner of foreign exchange.
The international recession which in the mid-1970s, adversely
occurred
affected economic growth.
Jamaica's economic stabilisation and adjustment process, which began in the 1980s, advanced significantly during the 1990s as the stages of deregulation and libersation were accelerated. This included the liberalisation were accelerated. This included the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market; market determined interest rates; the removal of price control on goods; the elimination of subsidies on products; lowering of fiscal borrowing requirements, and increasing the pace of privatisation of Government-owned entities. The main impetus foreconomic growth
from nearly 50 per cent in 1991 to 26.2 per cent in 1994. These figures are from the latest Survey on living Conditions carried out by
has come from an expansion in the
the Statistical Institute of Jamaica
1980s) and in the service sectors. In 1995 the economy grew by 0.4 per cent; agricultureby 2.2 per cent in 1995 while mining, aluminum,/bauxite grew by 6.5 per cent and gypsum by 3.6 per cent.
the poverty linehas decreased
tourism
industry, rehabilitation of export in agriculture, recovery in the bauxite/ alumina industry (after a set-back in the
(STATIN) and the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
Living conditions improved over the period 1989-1994. STATIN data shows an eight percent increase in the numberof
The National Industrial Policy
home-owners and a 6.7 per cent decrease
in the number of squatters. Electricity supply to homes went up from 67 per cent to 75 per cent ofthe population.
On Wednesday,March 27, 1996, " The National Industrial Policy - A Strategic
Health Medical services are provided by 24
Development" was presented through
Plan for Economic Growth government general hospitals. Six specialist hospitals provide treatment for mental illness, polio, respiratory illness, pre- and postnatal care for children.
Hall Great House in Montego Bay is of the infamous Annie Palmer, called the WhiteWilchof Rose Hall, dates backtothe late
Rose home
18th century, and is considered to be one of the finest of that era.
Education The Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture has overall responsibility forpolicy direction of education. Tution is heavily subsidized at the primary and seconday
and
Parliament to the nation. The four essential components of the
Policy are:
. . . .
Macroeconomic Policy Industrial Strategy Social Policy Environmental Policy
The Policy has set specific targets for economic growth and has targeted strategic
churches and private groups and many receive subsidies from Govemment. Tertiary education is offered by the
The Economy Historically, the Jamaican economy has had an agriculture base, dependent on a few staple export crops, primarily sugar
clusters for development. An integral part of the Policy is a Social Partnership which sets out agreements by the three social
University of the West Indies (a regional institution) ; the University of Technology;
andbananas. New economic development began with bauxite mining (after 1952),
employees - with regard to a number of areas of economic organisation.
levels. A number of schools are run by
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
partners
-
Government, labour and
Page 35
Financial Institutions
within the portfolio of the Office of the
Prime Minister and named as the The Bank of Jamaica The Bank of Jamaica administers the banking and monetary systems.
coordinating agency for the Government' s important and high priority privatisation programme.
The Jamaica Mortgage Bank facilitates the development of housing and small business loan organisations. There are I I commercial banks, 29 merchant banks of which six operate as merchant and trust companies only.
There are also a number of building societies (savings and loans associations),
insurance companies, credit unions and several cooperative banks which aid farmers.
extent, a variety of spices, such as ginger and pimento, also contributing to Jamaica's foreign exchange earnings. Domestic food crops are grown mostly on small farms usually below five acres. a lesser
These include yams, sweetpotatoes, corn,
pumpkins, peas, beans and other
The objectives are to:
.
secure greater efficiency
in
the
operations of the enterprises . reduce the drain of Government's fiscal resources; . optimise the use of Government's management resources; . secure enhanced access to foreign markets, technologies and capitals; and . widen the base of ownership and direct equity participation in the economy
vegetables, as well as tree crops such as breadfruit, mangoes, avocado pears, and ackee.
Increasing emphasis is being placed on
the development of forests, for both commercial and watershed purposes. In addition to an established fishing industry in coastal districts, inland fi sheries have been introduced.
Mining
The Agricultural Credit Bank The Agricultural Credit Bank of Jamaica (ACB ) was established as a limited liability
Industries and Natural Resources
company
Agriculture
Limited, a subsidiary of the American
The agricultural sector is the country's second largest employer. Sugarcane and bananas are the most important export crops with coffee, cocoa, tobacco and, to
Reynolds Metals Company commenced
in
198 I
, as a result of
Government's decision to consolidate all
public sector agricultural credit programmes under one agency. It commenced lending operations in August 1982.
The National Development Bank The National Development Bank of Jamaica (NDB) was established on June
was
The Jamaican flag has
a
diagonal across or
saltire with four triangles in juxtaposition. The
diagonal cross is gold, the top and bottom triangles in green and the hoist and fly triangles
economic development of Jamaica; increase the aviliability and access to medium and long term project-based
in black. The Jamaican Coat of Arms shows a male
nancing for the industrial, agro-industrial, tour ism and mining sectors of the economy; among others fi
and female member of the Taino tribe standing
on either side of a shield which bears a red cross with five golden pineapples. On the crest \,rtr,'trJ;
iiir,l
is a Jamaican crocodile mounted on the Royal Helmet of the British Monarchy and Mantling.
The Jamaican National Motto is "Out of Many One people", based on the population's
The National Investment Bank of Jamaica
multiracial roots.
The National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) was established in 1984. At that time, investment banking and the
The National Bird is the indigenous
Bird' or swallow-tailed flr,'
\,rfr,rr,tJ jrnrrl
divestment of public assets were set out as
the main areas of activity for
the
'Doctor
hummingbird
(Trochilus poltmus).
The National Fruit is the ackee (Blighia sapida), an edible fruit originally from West Africa.
organisation.
The National Tree is the Blue Mahoe
role was expanded
when it was mandated to facilitate private investments through the promotion ofjoint ventures. In December 1990, the NIBJ was placed Page 36
the export of kiln-dried ore. This
followed in 1953 by the export of alumina by Alumina Jamaica Limited, a subsidiary
National Symbols
18, 1981, as a limited liability company. The main objectives are to foster the
In 1984, NIBJ's
The local bauxite industry dates back to
1952 when Reynolds Jamaica Mines
(Hibiscus elatus), a valuable timber for export. The National Flower is that of the Lignum ||rr' \.t!rt'n,ti I i..;rrr
Vitae tree (Guiacum fficinale), whose name, 'wood of life' is believed to reflect its medicinal properties. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
{
of Aluminum Company of Canada. By 191 2,therewere fi ve alumina plants and two bauxite drying plants on the island,
with combined capacities of l5 million tonnes of bauxite per year. Currently there are three alumina and one bauxite plant in the island. In 1995, production levels averaged 10,851.492 kilo tonnes. The industry is regulated by a Commissioner of Mines and monitored by the Jamaica Bauxite Institute.
Other mineral resources include limestone, marble, gypsum and silica.
Major tourist destinations include Negril, Montego Bay, Runaway Bay, Ocho Rios and Port Antonio. Science and Technology Important areas of research in Jamaica
include geology, mineralogy, biochemistry, food technology, nutrition, agro-industry, crop and soil agronomy,
epidemiology and ecology.The formulation of a National Science and Technology Policy
in
1990, placed the
spotlight on science and technology as the
driving force behind the development process.
Manufacturing Manufacturing, which started in eamest in the early 1950s, with the enactment of
incentive laws, is now quite diversified. Jamaica manufactures a wide range of
products, including food and drink,
clothing, footwear, textiles, paints, building materials, agricultural machinery
Communication There are approximately 5,579 km of main roads island wide. Of this amount, 320 km are main roads within the Corporate Area.
The Media Jamaica has three morning newspapers:
and toilet articles.
The Daily Gleaner, The Jamaica Herald and the Jamaica Observer.
Tourism The island is now a popular year-round
The JBC has operated a television service since 1963 - JBC TV. A second
vacation spot. The North American market accounts
televison station, CVM TV, was introduced
for some 75.7 per cent or 868,144 of
in March 1993.
stopover visitors to Jamaica, and is the country's main tourist market. In 1995,
The Arts
I97 ,544 or l7 .2per centEuropean tourists
visited the island.
Prime Minister, P. J. Patterson.
cultural expression and since then successive governments have undertaken to nurture the arts throughout the country. The Institute ofJamaica was, established in 1879. Jamaica's popular music has achieved
world fame through the emergence of reggae, a music form that emerged from traditional indigenous Jamaican music with
African and Black American roots. Many reggae artistes have won intemational fame
The move in the 1930s and40s towards
self-government which gave birth to modern Jamaica, paid much attention to
for original compositions, recordings and performances - notably the late Robert
(Bob) Marley. For his cultural
contributions, Marley received Jamaica's third highestnational honour - the Orderof
Merit. Religion Jamaica has both traditional and nontraditional churches. There are over 100 Christian denominations with the Church of God having the largest membership. Other Christain denominations include Roman Catholic, Methodist, BaPtist,
Anglican, Congregational, Ethiopian Orthodox, and the Seventh-day Adventist.
There are also Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Baha'i and Rastafarian communities. Rastafarianism is an indigenous Africanbased religion, which has its roots in the belief in the divinity of the late Tafari Jamaica House. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
Makonnen (Haile Selaisse) of Ethiopia. ( J amaic a Information S e rvic e s ). Page 37
PERSPEcTTvE
Salutes "CARIBBEAN's
Maftin Cafter "Again and again, lines from Carter strike the reader as being absolutely right, completely appropriate to our particular historical moment.....The poet is a maker who answers "the challenge of space in 'his soul' with a quest for shape, who answers the unanswerable riddle of destiny
by becoming his poem....
Overforty-five years he has written and continues to write with distinction, an absolute integrity ofcraftand sentiment, in a context where the bearers of the Word must endure the direst moral isolation embrace either exile or the possibility of being silenced for good. We salute him too, because he has chronicled and borne witness and given testimony to his country's painful birthing and prolonged transition towards freedom, because he stayed and endured "the terror and the time" because he has traversed and still journeys across
"the wide waste" toward "the door of morning" which, in spite of all the passion ofhis saying, is still tightly "locked against the sun".
(Excerpts from Prof. Gordon Rohlehr's tribute appeaing in' Perspective' No. 66
of 1996)
-{
'Early days"
RAIN FOREST Every clear raindrop helps to obscure the green towers; every grain of white sand the specks of bright gold. These are of memory as nights of love are, inside our human forest of loss.
It is the same everywhere, Ants lay waste ants. Pe ril lurks ambiguously as it always does in the least or most fertile purposes of the works of human courage. The swamps
are treacherous. The hustling creeks of identical water are beautiful and still, one cry, one however begun human cry, contains all Both sunrise and sunset have often been scarlet and returning noontime so blue and so white, I do notyet know the name men have given
that fluttering yellow but ubiquitous butterfly whose life is not long but whose beauty is so startling
(
1974)
Sharing views with Church and State -- Carter with Jesuit priests and the late Cheddi Jagan at a reception in Guyana. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
I
LLUSTRIOUS LITET{ARY FIGU RES George Lamming ........onLamming Labour working people, culture defined to begin with the work of the fisherman and
the farmer, sovereignty -- these are the key
words, and they are the key to what Lamming wants the collective Caribbean mind to feel: "The political sovereignty of a people is impossible unless it rests upon a cultural base created by its working people."
Lamming's dissatisfaction with in the Caribbean is often narrowly udnerstood as a dismissal of democracy
electoral democracy functions in the Caribbean to rob labour of the unity he
believes couldmake the central force in the reshaping of Caribbean society; and this because "the contending political parties, in their fierce pursuit of office, create an artificial division within the ranks of the
people, and make the power of Labour much easier to control." "Power at any time, and by whatever means it realizeditself, always seeks to create the means of its own defense. It knows itself to be futile if it cannot defend itself. And so we must expect that the internationalizing of Capital
will seek the means of
internationalizing its defense. And culture, as a weapon of ideological penetration is one of its most formidable assets. When the contradictions between this system and a native resistance
sharpen, the internationalising of will assume a greater rigour
defense in the
internationalizing of repression.
As part of the logic of this
encirclement, it is like when men and
women, who had once thought themselves secure, may exPerience what are for them very novel forms
of
punishment: the articulate maY be driven to silence by various forms of
censorship, highly certificated elements of the middle class maY be CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
forced by a hostile regime into unemployment, orbecome new recruits for prison. I say novel, since they have too often retained class expectations that never saw prison as a place built for
them, and always
regarded
unemployment as exclusively the burden of the poor. Men and women technically have the means of collaborating with nature in the liberation of man and woman, and yet the paradox of those means is that today, nature is endangered bY man. That is to some extent the climate of my preoccupation. In my concrete corner of the world as an organic Part of the writing of books, my work is for me really arecord ofthe ways ofseeing and recording the collective experience of those to whom I am joined by history. That is, I do believe that labour, which is the basis of all culture, must also be the
motive force
in the humanizing of
working people."
( Excerpts from " Conversations : George Lamming, Essays, Addresses and
Interview
s I 95 3 - 1 990 : I
992 Karia Pre
ss
).
Secretary-General Congratulates Carter ancl Lamming It is with deep sense of Pride and gratitude that I convey to you on behalfof the Caribbean Community warmest congratulations on the occasion of your seventieth Birthday.
For one whose life's work has contributed so much towards the
improvement in the quality of life of his fellowmen, the people of the Caribbean Community embracethis special occasion to express their profound thanks for your outstanding contribution. Best wishes on this important milestone and in your future endeavours. Page 39
*Hilary McD. Beckles
setting the Stage and C.L.R. are seated on wooden, upright desk chairs leaning over a
I mme diat e ly, my imagination took fli ght and c onstructe d the w hole s c e ne.
"Dear Prof," stated the message from Grace pouring out of my fax machine, "I am sorry to inform you thatyourfriend..."
I felt weak, unfocussed and reduced, as I sat behind my desk. It was 8.25 a.m., and Grace, Michael Manley's charming secretary, had reached out to me before
the mass media started their usual excavations.
Michael had a way of stimulating public and private imaginations. I
with him it was the other way around. We first met "in cricket", but recognised each
the
tape recorder as discreetely
was vulnerable, I saw myself taking a back seat, disturbing the two sages only with supplie s of coffe e. I imagined every aspect ofthe exercise; the three
as expected, and to silence the kettle at the first hint of an irritation. At the end of the day, I would transcribe the recording, and select a section for a
of us, the two of them, and the tape
short magazine publication. My
recorder. I amwallowing in the bosom of a soft leather armchair. Michael
Michael and I had met in "politics" but it was in cricket that we became close comrades and friends. Memories of C.L.R. James also darted to mind, but
roundtable made of the same material.
I would stir occasionally to attend
imnginings were along these lines:
for
Debatting Post Colonial Cricket with
other subsequently in "history" and "politics". In a certain sense it was a 'triangular' trade between us that fixed our respective gaze upon turbulent relations of cricket, history and politics. Michael saw clearly. Cricket for him was the contemporary epic drama of the West Indian Journey through modernity.
For C.L.R., Toussaint L'Ouverture's revolution had placed us at the core of modernity' s Enlightenment discourse by closing achapterontheColumbus Project. 'We' were now in charge of a space. For Michael, the life displayed on our cricket fields carved out among thousands of dying -sugar fields - sustains the cultural and philosophical paradox that came to represent the West Indies as a centre of the modern 'West'. Here, in small places, we would forget ourselves and behave like our ancestors - as if we inhabit big, continental places. We would even get
'besides' ourselves and encourage our poet laureate to smuggle ancient Greek Gods, and their earthly business, into our little fishing villages as if to resolve in these islands the predicaments of the human condition. God knows, I miss those rap sessions with Michael. During his brilliant inaugural SirFrank Worrell Memorial lecture at the Cave Hill Campus of the UWI in 1994, Michael had stated, in an idle sort of way, that a day well spent would be one in which C.L.R., himself and I were left at peace to debate
the turbulence and tensions of
contemporary West Indies Cricket. Page 40
&
C. L. R. Jumes
Michael:
C.L.R.,
you
researched
'Beyond A Boundary' during the 1950s and published itin 1963. Twogenerations of West Indians came to an acute understanding of what we were doing with this cricket business, and what it has done to us. You outlined a paradigm that demonstrated the ways in which cricket and national society were interwoven, and
you painted a picture ofcultural identity and nationalism that framed the painful butrewarding struggle to tearcricketaway from its oppressive colonial scaffold. You alone saw these things with clarity within the heart and souls of West Indian folks.
C.L.R.:
I am not sure, Michael, that it
now. Your father, for instance, who I admired, was there in the was clear then as it is
Michael Manley
1950s and represented the divided consciousness of West Indians in much the same way that cricket does. The dialectial
method I hoped would have helped us to know how to break with the past, reject its injustices, but carry over into the future its progressive element. Cricket I saw as the Janus that typified
All of us longed for liberating political order, internal social justice, and deep respect for critical the West Indian experience.
discourse as humanity seeking the highest intellectual ground. We embraced cricket
and asked
it to serve our need for
advancement. We said to it, help us to
uproot the excluding mentalities of the past while at the same time promote the embracing values and ideologies of the new order. The investment has been enorTnous. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JLTNE 1997
Michael: C.L.R., overthe years I followed the twists and turns of your mind as it brought these things together, and I oftentimes asked myself whether we have asked too much of cricket, and whether it is time for us to let it go free to find a level
and place outside of our extraordinary social expectation. I wondered if the end of Viv's playing career was the passing of your cricket and national societyparadigm, and if the new dispensation requires a re-
thinking of these relationships.
Then came along Brian Lara and Chanderpaul, and with the persistence of Ambrose and Walsh, the matter seemed settled for now. But I arn still concerned about our lack of understandings of the ideological forces within the turbulence that now characterises the internal relations of the game. The tensions between the achievements and celebrations ofthe past, and the anxieties and expectations ofthe future, directly informed the texture of my own "History of West Indies Cricket" in so far as I experienced personal connections with pivotal individuals.
C.L.R. I
share, Michael, your sense of the instability and transitional nature of the moment, as well as the importance of the need for a clear conceptual grasp of the
I knew the young Learie Constantine, George Headley and Frank Worrell in much the same way that you know Gary, Clive and Viv. I had no doubts about Sobers as a player, and neither do processes.
you about Lara, though we both may have good reasons to theorise their leadership skill beyond the boundary. But the issue here is quite simple. We expect the captain ofthe enterprise to be in command at sea as well as on land, and in the air if necessary. In effect, we expect
civil leadership of popular and sophisticated kind that the politicians have proven themselves incapable of delivering to the youth. It is here Michael, that
politicians should be conducting selfcriticisms, because the role expected of the cricketer speaks to the magnitude of the void that exists in civil leadership. I have noticed, forexample, that young cricketers have become publicly discourteous of politicians, including Prime Ministers and no longer see them as possessing moral and credible authority. Their company is avoided. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I99?
Michael: I would wish to offer comments
take shape. Maybebecause
on this new player mentality, and on the general circumstances of the youth. I saw it first, C.L.R., during the 1980s when the so-called rebel-tours to South Africa were being discussed. These tours took away overtwo dozen Westlndies young players and divided public opinion across the
in so many ways he held back the tide of
region in a way that started political leadership. I offered counsel to many players, and some eitherrefused orignored it. I was very close to Lawrence Rowe and yet he refused to see me to discuss it. I
knew that the relation between young players and politicians were fractured and
in deep crisis. I spoke with Clive, Malcolm and Viv, but I knew that those who came behind
them would not see the world
in
Viv was special
change by a decade.
Michael: I agree, C.L.R. that "Beyond A Boundary" did anticipate, in a dialectical
sort of way, the moral, political and economic crisis of the postcolonial State, and that cricket which was so furnly wedded to the process of nation-building would seek a renegotiation, or rejection, of the relationship. But what about its relationship to civil society outside of the discredited
- of so-called Labour political discourse Party representation and lawyer-dominated governance? The cricketer still represents the embodiment of painfully accumulated
technological skills and ideological
the
sensitivities. The task for the future is to
ideological way they did. What is to be done? Well, I think that we should begin by recognising that an understanding of postcolonial society in the Caribbean requires new frames ofreference, and that cricket's role within the social culture of this generationbom in the age of globalised
find progressive popular movements,
mass media, renewed U.S. cultural imperialism, structural adjustment and the collapse ofthe State as social provider and protector, will be determined by new sets of expectations. Many of them now ask critical questions about independence, its meaning, significance and desirability.
C.L.R.: "Beyond A Boundary", you
are
saying Michael, needs to be critiqued,
compelling new social ideals with engaging
visions that can direct and energise communities as the renegotiated arrangements are put in place. Cricket may need to reinvent itself as a democratising agency for the youth who need a centre of gravity of their own. That is, C.L.R., we need to know how the young people are seeking a redefinition and new understanding of their West Indianness, and what it means for them to be West
Indian while stepping into the next millennium. Once we know and understand these things we will be able to perceive what they will make of cricket and what cricket will make of them in the years
revised and the analysis brought forward.
ahead. We should begin with facts, gleaned
ofthis and already the ideas are forming in ways that I would expect. The falling away ofthe States, and cricketers' determination to detach themselves from its leaders, are processes that took much longer than I had expected. My confidence in the vision and leadership capacities of
from a closer examination of the coded messages that reside within the present
I am aware
the so-called "Founding Fathers" was breached very early in the game, since I knew that theircommitment to deepening
the democratic process was severely limited. Cricketers from working class backgrounds I knew would revolt against
the conservative middle
class
administration of cricket, and reach directly
for global commodification of their skills of individualistic liberation. It was clear then, as it is now. I expected it
turbulence.
C.L.R.: Maybe Hilary can tell us where the University plans to locate itself in all
Hilary: Well, how can I add to what you have said other than to say that the University is making preparations for a significant intervention, and that we feel it must be based on conversations between academic, community networks and cricketers. Furthermore...
as acts
(Prof. Hilary McD Beckles is
sooner. Professionalisation would
Dire cto r, C entre for Cricket Re s e arch and P rofe ssor of History, UWI, Cave
transcend nation and new ideology would
of
this.
Hiu) Page 41
A SINGLE SHOT AT THE GOAL * The Caribbean/UsA Summit *Marva Coffey
An assessment of the May 9- I I visit, of the United States President, Bill Clinton, should bejudged against the result hoped for by Caribbean people . Among the hopes
was equitable trading conditions which show empathy to the peculiarities facing
small developing states in the swell of trade liberalisation which is engulfing the world. In other words, measures aimed at providing economic improvement for the Caribbean countries and allowing enough time to ready the islands' economies for the onslaught. President Clinton started the visit to the Caribbean with the right words. He spoke about ensuring that "the galloping global economy does not trample small economies or leave them behind".
Bananas IfCaribbean leaders could have gotten the United States to move significantly away from its stance towards the preferential treatment given to Caribbean bananas on the European market, that would have been atangible achievement, a
Hands across the table - Jamaica's Prime Minister P.J. Patterson with US President,
Bill Clinton. banana market, pushed its government to file the case against "discriminatory" tariffs
disaster after a US- government-led case
said to cost Chiquita US$400 million in revenues over three years. Even though Caribbean states recognise trade liberalisation as inevitable, as noted by former Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Dr.
was upheld by the World Trade
Vaughn Lewis, banana-producing states
Organisation (WTO), providing for end oftrade preferences which spurredthe Caribbean's eight per cent share of the European banana market. Enraged by these preferences, the US-based Chiquita company which, along with Dole and Del Monte, controls two-thirds of the world
wanted a five year phase-in period. "We made an agreement with the European Union which will end the regime that now
real demonstration of Clinton putting his words into action. Caribbean islands, especially the single-
crop Windward Islands, face economic
the
Page 42
... All we are a chance to play give regime that is saying
exists, in the Year 2OO2
itself out in the context of the Europeans
assisting us
with substantial aid
to
reorganise and make more competitive, the banana industry," Lewis said. After two intense days of negotiations preceding the Summit, the United States and Caribbean officials were miles apart on the issue of preferential treatment.
With
no solution in sight, an answer was left up to the President. Clinton, as expected didn't offer a reversal. Instead of the "tangible and meaningful
expression from the US", which CARICOM's Chairman P.J. Patterson, of Jamaica, hoped for, Clinton repeated his pledge of support for "duty-free access for Caribbean bananas". He cushioned these CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
show of solidarity with Castro in face of United States intransigence.
a
A SINGLE SHOT AT THE GOAL
Plan of Action Clinton's visit was, however, hailed as success by some regional leaders. Guyana's President Sam Hinds saw the forum as a big step towards establishing a new era of US/Caribbean collaboration and support for Caribbean development. CARICOM's Chairman and Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson saw it as "the opening of a new chapter and the start of a meaningful dialogue". While Barbados' Prime Minister Owen Arthur praised a "new partnership between the
a words by adding that his target was "a discriminatory European system, not the Caribbean nations". Obviously, it was a misdirected missile,
for it will not land on Europe but is set to wreak destruction on the Caribbean.
Chairman of the Windward Islands Bananas and Development Exporting Company, Arnheim Eustace, described Clinton's words as meaningless. "The World Trade Organisation's ruling still stands. The US government says it does
US was trying to get Caribbean islands to give them the liberty of carrying out ship searches in Caribbean waters. Relations with some countries soured over the means
of doing this, namely the Ship Rider Agreement which offended some governments as it allowed US ships to carry out counter-drug operations with or without a local official on board. Barbados resented what was seen as an
attack on the country's sovereignty and Though the US did not get the type of
is inconsistent.
wanted with all the territories, it appeared satisfied at the Summit with the separate but closely related arrangements concluded with Barbados and Jamaica, which insisted
duty-free access. The WTO ruling affects licensing, which is an integral component. It involves a quota as well... If this systen ends, there will be no incentive to buy our bananas," Eustace said. The positive thing,
though, was the US pledge
to
fund
agribusiness and technical skills to help diversify the Windward Islands economies.
Ship Rider This treatment of the Caribbeanby the United States in the banana issue brings home the change in the US' behaviour towards the Caribbean. With the Cold
War over, the US no longer sees the Caribbean as important on the geopolitical map. Noticeably, US economic assistance to theregion has fallenby about90percent
from $226 million in 1985 to $22 million in 1995 and the Caribbean is being asked to stand on its own feet. Recently, though, the Caribbean caught the US' attention, as -
the region has become an imPortant transshipment point for illegal drugs to feed the appetite of a US population which, though less than five percent ofthe world's people, eats up half the world's illegal drugs. Against this background, the CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
"'n" "Tt:lt.t1t"'
like Jamaica refused to sign the agreement.
not want to harm us but the position they have taken with the WTO must harm us. It
"This (matter) does not only involve
Caribbean states and the Government and " peopre
maritime anti-narcotics law
it
initially
that US seek permission before "hot pursuits".
Havana An issue which apparently did not work out to the Caribbean's satisfaction was
He cited the Partnership For Prosperity And Security In The Caribbean, a 30-page document signed by Caribbean leaders and the President aftertwo-and-a-half hours
of talks which fine-tuned two months of negotiations preceding the Summit. It spoke to trade, development, finance, the environment, justice and security. On telecommunications, the US pledged to help Caribbean countries examine their telecommunications systems in order to
encourage competition and exploit
that relating to Cuba. Clinton seemed not
investment opportunities for value added
disposed to talking about Cuba, a long time thorn in United States' foreign policy side. Questionedby ajournaliston whether
services as well as basic communications. In countries where off-shore data entry
he had received any constructive
and cost effective telecommunication
suggestions over handling Havana, Clinton simply said he did not discuss Cuba. In contrast, Patterson wanted "steps taken that would integate Cuba fully, not only in the Caribbean family, but into the hemispheric family of nations," and said that over lunch the Caribbean leaders would indicate to the President "the steps we think would be possible to secure that objective".
Recent events suggest that these attempts failed to bear desired fruits as relations between Cuba and US continue to diverge. Individual Caribbean leaders, Patterson, Dr. Keith Mitchell, of Grenada, have made theirway to Havana, suggesting
industry is important, having an improved services is crucial. Agreements, however,
give Cable and Wireless a monopoly on
domestic and international telecommunications into the year 2000. Some countries find that despite concessions,
telecommunications rates are high compared with other countries competing for investment in information services and they may see US help on this matter as a good thing.
Equally important and perhaps
less
palatable to some regional countries is the
question
of plans by the Federal
Communications Commission to have a system forcing companies to pay each other for calls. A proposal was made to change Page 43
A SINGLE SHOT AT THE GOAL
been greeted with scepticism in some quarters following the bad luck similar legislation fared in 1996 and 1995. "There simply isn't a constituency on
Capital Hill for NAFTA parity for the Caribbean," a diplomat was quoted as saying in the Barbados Press. The Caribbean seems to have a better chance to push their case for concessions based on
their small size under the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which President
settlementof rates, a move predicted as being costly to the system of accounting and
annual earnings
-
US$10 million for
Barbados and US$75 for Jamaica. The Bridgetown Declaration pledge to
maintain "the multilateral consultative process during the revision of rules or accounting rates, taking into account the implications for Caribbean countries in those rates".
Of comfort to the Caribbean, is the US
pledge to continue helping Caribbean nations with their economic reforms by,
among other things, maintaining significant programmes in Haiti and making every effort to protect others in Jamaica and Guyana. Some Caribbean governments hadhopedthat the US would
endorse
Clinton has been promoting during his visit to Latin America and the Caribbean. In the document. the US endorsed the recommendations of the working groups
on smaller economies "to provide opportunities to facilitate the participation of smalleconomies during the negotiations and their effective integration in the FTAA,
to make every effort to reduce
the
transitional costs and minimise dislocation
to their economies during
its
implementation".
legislation will increase trade for all the Caribbean nations and help prepare them to take part in a Free Trade Area of the Americas," the President said. Many of the promises once made by the USA to the Caribbean have gone unfulfilled; in fact one regional leader reminded the President of this blemished United States record. To his credit, Clinton has put forward the establishment of an annual meeting of foreign ministers (US and the Caribbean) and high-level working
groups on justice and security, development, finance and the environment. These, Clinton said, "will
help... totum (the) actionplan into action".
It
gives the Caribbean a chance to be
heard by the US and is therefore seen as a major development with potential to bear fruit. In fact, it could be the single most
productive development at the Summit. It could provide the Caribbean's only shot at the goal.
In a bid to enhance trade and investment,
Clinton promised to submit a Caribbean attachedtothe " Nation"
Basin Trade Enhancement Act to Congress
IMarvaCoffey
on his return home. "When passed, this
Newspaper, Barbadosl.
is
IDB (Inter-American Devel-
opment Bank) membership forthe islands inthe Windwardand Leeward, but sources said that the US would only agree if the Caribbean countries gave up part of the shareholding to make room for the Organisation of Caribbean States. But many Caribbean islands only hold
KN'BEHffi
3[ltreETlowT|r AAâ&#x201A;Ź3ADO6
IG I{AY
the minimum required for maintaining their membership. InsteadintheDeclaration, the USjoined
"in the call to the IDB to meet its commitment under the eighth replenishment, to target 35 per cent of
Bank's lending to smaller economies including those in the Caribbean." The
USA again promised
Caribbean
governments that their products would not be discriminated against vis-a-vis products from countries covered by the
NAFTA agreement. Clinton said he had found the formula to permit legislation providing for
NAFTA
parity to be passed by Congress. This has Page
M
The conference Room CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I 99?
APPROACHING THE NEW MILLENNIUM Introduction What is the state of our art as we approach the new millennium?
Colours of America t
tee6l
Acrylic on Canvas (
-
I 6'x24' )
Bernadette Persaud
Triumph of the Euro-American aesthetic?
For those of us - in the Caribbean's major current - accustomed to seeing ourselves, our history, in strictly colonial beginnings, it is almost inevitable that we define our art in the context of mainstream tendencies of 20th century Western art. In more specific terms, this translate into an assessmentofourvisual artthrough
the frame of
EuroPean/American
modernism and post-modernism. Bernard Lewis' has pointed out that,"in every era of human history, modernity has
meant the waYs, the norms, and the standards of the dominant and expanding
civilization......" So, those of us, unable to see the world with ourown eyes, can perhaps find solace
in the logic of this argument. For the Caribbean region, confronted with a great expanding technological civilization, right at its front door, whether Lewis' logic is comforting or not, this has been the
dominant reality for more than half of a century - an encircling Euro-American CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
I do not have any particularly morbid thoughts about anythinS. as we approach the new millennium - perhaps sour might be a more appropriate word. For long years the four horsemen of the Apocalypse have beenfuiously galloping behind us, and I guess the new millenniumwill stiltfind them hard at our heels, trying to catch up with us. I suppose my great grandmother' s dictum, that we are living in the SIes! cycle of the Kali Yug, is in my bones, so the year 2000 - Anno Domini - has no earth-shattering special, resonance for me. But, concerning the state of our art in the region, I, like most other artists, am more familiar with the art-history of Western Europe - and lately - of the ILnited States, than with the work of my colleagues in the Caribbean. And this, I think, is not only a commentary on the continuing poverty of our post-colonial order, but an
indictment on the functioning of our regional institutions.
power, replacing four centuries of European
Significantly, with the exception of
politicaVcultural hegemony. Ifthe art ofthe region - in particular the Anglo-Caribbean - is measured againstthe norms articulated by a dominant Euro-
Haiti, no Caribbean art-movement has had
American culture,
it is bound to be
characterized by a lack of vitality' originality and innovation - aesthetic canons inscribed in modernist and postmodernist art-practice for almost the entire century. This of course, is not surprising;
for ever since NaiPaul's damning
declaration that "nothing was created in the West Indies", we have had no shortage of critics who have ever failed to point out that our art remains "backward, irrelevant and clinging to outdated forms of l9th century art practice - the exception to this,
of course, is the avnnt-garde of our diaspora, huddled together in the art capitals of the North, "fully engaged in relevant contemporary art strategies" - in New York, check our Carl Hazlewood, Frank Bowling and'dem other boys',fully at ease with values of a dominant EuroAmerican aesthetic.
a decisive impact on the so-called
(International, emPtY of connotations of domination and power). It would appear then, that as we move towards the end of the century, the art of the Caribbean remains firmly in place: on the margins of a great exPanding
'International'
art scene.
a neutral, vacuous word,
technological power. This dismal picture of our contemporary
art is certainly perplexing in view of the astounding vitality of our literary arts, our poetry, drama, music ... Ourcreative artists - confounding Naipaul et al - have managed to forge an alien language into an instrument expressive of self and inscribed with its own distinctive cultural identity. Language itself, imprisoning us all, has, surely' been the most potent colonizing weapon in the 'whole' arsenal of Western conquest and expansion - and yet it has been conquered, utterly, in the hands of our poets: crafted wonderfully, lyrically into a "mastery of the language of our negative yes."..2 So Page 45
APPROACHING THE NEW MTLLENNIUM
why this seeming failure of the visual imagination, the visual language?
-I
say seeming, because
I
practitioners, the quintessential symbol
am not
convinced that our art, our visual culture in totality has failed; rather our major current of art hooked in varying degrees of mimicry on European and American modernism, is the problem.
But, more importantly, we need to take a second look at the colonizing potency of the very language - the verbal language which determines, shapes, explicates and
evaluates our visual art
-
rationalism of the Surrealist movement. It became in the hands of its American
at home and
abroad.
It may be useful at this stage to cast a backward glance at the politicaVcultural environmentof the WesternFront in order to clarify rather than define our present condition/failure/dilemma. Arnericanmodernism The end of the World War signalled the
beginning of American political
ascendancy in the Western world. Closely
tied up with this development was the diffusion of American artistic expressions abroad. The art leadership ofFrance began
to give way and by the middle of the century, the triumph of American modernism was assured. Its success was closely linked to the success of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists Pollock, Rothko, Motherwell, de Kooning and others - who contributed largely to the making ofNew York into the art-capital of the world - displacing the School of paris.
Abstract expressionism, with its antecedents in the European Expressionism of Grunewald, Van Gogh, Munch and
others, synthesized the non-repof Kandinsky, Mondrian of the De Stijl group, the resentational abstraction
Supermatism of Malevich and the anti-
of
Modemism.
It should be noted that the ascendency of AmericanModernism also signalled the deepening of American political/cultural hegemony in the Caribbean - a region just emerging or about to emerge from the grasp of European colonialism. Now what exactly constituted American modernism? For outsiders, positioned in the backwaters of the Caribbean it is not a
fully
comprehensible phenomenon. 3, writing in 1979,
Insider, Hilton Kramer
summed up the success of modernism in US culture as: "total and complete - and not only in the museums, of course. In the big world beyond the museum, in the worka-day environment of daily lives, we live in
a universe decisively shaped by
the
grammerof modernistdesign. It is there in the shape of the chairs we sit on, in the colours of the walls that enclose us, in the look of the objects we covet and of the advertisements that entice us into spending
money on them not to mention the yery city-scapes we inhabit. So sweeping has been the triumph of modernism in US culture, that a great many people who have neverconsciously looked at aMondrian or
a Matisse now live in the visual world bounded by the distant offspring of ideas frrst adumbrated in the workof... modernist masters"
Another Insider feminist critic, Lynda Benglis, writing atalaterstagehas summed
up modernism as "a heroin abstract
expressionist, macho, sexist game". I guess if Oswald Spengler (d.1936) had lived a few years tongei tris opinion would have been pretty more interesting. For if he could read into the masterv of Linear Perspective by early Renaissance artists, the prophetic conquest by Western
civilization, of ocean, planet, space, through ship and railraod and missile what would he have made of Abstract Expressionist art? But what would be the response of the classic outsider - someone outside both American mainstream culture and the
Caribbean'mainstream'
?
- Andthis brings me to another story. Lest summer my friend and I stood for a
few moments in front of Motherwell's painting
Robert
at the National
Gallery of Art, inWashington, arrestedby its unexpected scale - accustomed as we were to text-book size reproductions. "
Mother @#@#!" muttered
frie nd,s p ontane
ous
m\)
ly.
And that, I suppose, summarizes admirably the gut reaction of the uncolonized outsider to much of American modernist painting. Much of American modernist painting is incrediblu ugly IBeauty, incidentally, ai an aesthetic canon made a permanent exit
in the l9th century; nowadays it is mainly
carried on in the minor currents of Women's Art, which in any case never make the history booksl. But in addition to what Lynda Benglis says, Modernist art
is aggressive, violent and above all, strongly supremacist culture. And as it
developed into a multiciplity of .isms, from spontaneous 'free' expression to Action painting, to what was neither Abstract nor Expressionist, it became an
unprecedented success
in
American
mainstream culture. By the late I 950s and 1960s, its impact was being felt in several European countries.
Which brings me back to its impact, here in our part of the world, and why so much of ourart - the main currentof ourart
- is seen as derivative and lacking in originality and motivation.
Page 46 CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE IS97
Now, imagine our Caribbean artist in a settingofsun, sea, sand, mudlands, forests,
staid little colonial houses,
savannahs, urban ghettos, sugar, bananas, rum, rice, donkey carts - engaged in modernist art strategies! Most likely, armed with a sunhat and a Fauvist pallette he would be struggling in the idioms of a modernist language, to capture the exotic tropical light and land he is so busy hidingfrom...[literally and
metaphorically!l
And to this absurdity, the fact that modernism is now history and we are into the Post Modernist era.
What
is the
lesson
for us all?
Increasingly quite afew ofus are realizing that we do not have to apologise for being preoccupied with our cultural concerns. Post Modernism: transaction Thepostmodern era - roughly spanning
the better half of this century - is now characterized by an even more bewildering variety of contradictory tendencies: Pop art, Neo-expressionism, Conceptualism, Minimalism, Hyperealism, Environment, Earthworks, Femminist art, Performance art, Happenings, Colourfield Painting,
Computer art, Video, Installations etc, etc.
Further, post-modernist art theory and criticism now come shrouded in a dense and almostimpenetrable language. Often, the language, the texts, the catalogues, the journals, which profliferate in the art wodd, are much more visible than the 'objects' of art. Blank canvases, or white upon white, or black upon black, or a series of
shades
of white now
caPtivate the
reconfigured eye. Theemptiness, the vacuum, theminimal object, the concept, the happening - all constitute as strong, rationaVirrational
response to the aesthetic values inscribed
in modernism. And this is a positive
phenomenon, prefiguring an era of transition and change; a return to sanity and the values of the human spirit. The excesses of the modern free market state, global capitalism, the World Wide
Web and other surreal technologies, spawning a profound reaction will gain momentum in the next millenium and this will interact with the new aesthetic. And when thathappens, those'minor' currents of art in the region, on the human planet which never fully collaborated with the dominant aesthetic values of Western 20th century art, will become stronger more
visible A new language, alive to fresh, diverse conceptions of Time and Space and God, will re-read the art of the future. (B
ernadette P ersaud
is a
Guyane se artist ).
Who assimilates whom?
Detail from flag installation - colours of Self-Gold (1996) (Acrylic on canvas). professor Emeritus of Near Eastem Studies at Princeton University, in "The West and the Middle East" - Foreign Affairs, 1997, Vol' 76' No' I 2. Martin Carter: Pems of Affinity: 'With that Loan'.... 3. Hilton Kramer:art-sitic of the New York Times
l.
Page 47 CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JI.]NE 1997
NOW THAT THE SHIP HAS DOCI(ED A Postscript to the Shipricler Debate *Kathy Ann Brown
There appears to be some confusion in
the region as to whether Barbados and Jamaica signed the much heralded Shiprider agreement, i.e. the Agreement
Concerning Maritime Counter-Drug Operations, as has been signed by other CARICOM states, norably, Trinidad and Tobago, the OECS countries and Belize or the slightly different arrangement entered
into by the Bahamas. The
agreements
signed by the Governments of Barbados and Jamaica with the U.S. are Agreements C onc e rning C o- ope ration in Supp re s s in g
Illicit Maritime Drug Trfficking. They establish a very different regime for cooperation
in maritime
counter-drug
activities than that proposed by the U.S. in the Shiprider agreement. The offensive and controversial aspects of the Shiprider
arrangement have been either omitted or reworked and the revised documents which have emerged provide the region with a choice of two acceptable legal frameworks for cooperation in the suppression of the illicit traffic in narcotic drugs based on the fundamental principles of reciprocity and respect for sovereignty and the rule of law. The Shiprider agreement attempts to
rewrite basic rules of international law
within the Caribbean region. The greatest dangerposedby the agreement stems from the powerwhich international law ascribes to its subjects. International law is built on treaties and other forms of state practice. State practice over time may craft new rules of law completely contrary to formerly well established principles. It is therefore possible for a multilateral treaty or a series Page 48
of bilateral agreements to shape new customary rules of law paralleling treaty law. This sort of mechanism, based on a process of transfusion of treaty law into customary law, has been used by the U.S.
to clarify rules of international law in
keeping with its interests, particularly in the fields of intellectual property rights and foreign investment. Typically, in these instances there has been some controversy overthe which govern.
""tt.T.Tes
The rules governing the law of the sea have been largely settled by th e 1982 United Nations Convention on the km of the Sea. U.S. President Reagan, in refusing to sign
the 1982 Convention, declared that
the
compromises reflected in the convention
third state flag vessels. In enlisting one Caribbean government after another the U.S. has strung together a
series of bilateral Shiprider agreements which threatened to emerge overtime as a norrn sanctioning broad U.S. competence
within the Caribbean region. In the post CARICOM-U.S. summit era the Shiprider arrangement looms less ominously. In standing up for principle Barbados and Jamaica have highlighted the unacceptable nature of the offensive aspects of the Shiprideragreement. Moreover, if various statements made by leaders in the Eastern Caribbean are to be believed the Shiprider agreement may well unravel and with it the U.S. proposed "seamless web" which has stretched like a dark cloud hanging over the Caribbean Sea.
which were satisfactory to the U.S. had
Comparison of the Barbados and
emerged as customary rules of law and as such were binding on all states, while others which the U.S. found objectionable were merely rules of treaty law and bound only those states which signed the convention.
Jamaica Agreements and the
Among the rules stated
in the l9B2
Convention which, undoubtedly, reflect customary international law are rules goveming jurisdiction within the territorial sea and internal waters and others relating to the treatment of vessels on thehigh seas. Although states may choose to derogate from these customary rules in theirrelations interse they arenot free to implement their agreements so as to erode the rights of third parties as may arise, for example, in the treatment of third state nationals or
Shiprider - Highlights
I.
Nature and Scope
In contrast with the
Shiprider
arrangement, both Barbados and Jamaica agreements are reciprocal in nature. The
significance
of this should not
be
minimized. The principle of reciprocity is a useful check in defining relationships between sovereign states and increasesin
value with the likelihood rhar rights conferred in the agreement may actually be acted upon by the weaker state. The majority ofthe rights conferredwithin U.S. waters and U.S. airspace in the Barbados and Jamaica agreements, admittedly, are not likely to be invoked by eitherBarbados CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
NOW THAT THE SHIP HAS DOCKED
or Jamaica. In other respects, however, as
in relation to rights
concerning the
interdiction of vessels seaward of any nation's territorial sea, these small states may be able to take advantage of these agreements to assist their efforts in suppressing the illicit drug trade. The scope of the Barbados and Jamaica
agreements differs somewhat. The Barbados agreement covers only the territorial sea of the Parties (for the U.S., including U.S. territories in the Caribbean area, i.e. the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and U.S. Virginlslands) andexcludes internal waters, such as ports, bays and rivers. The Jamaica agreement covers all areas over which the coastal state exercises
sovereignty,
i.e. internal
waters,
archipelagic waters (in the case of Jamaica) as well as the territorial sea. The broader scope of the Jamaica agreement mirrors the Shiprider arrangement in this respect' However, as we shall.see, the Jamaica agreement hits at the very heart of the Shiprider arrangement in denying the extensive rights which the Shipridergrants to U.S. vessels in areas covered by the agreement.
II. Combined Operations The Combined Maritime Law Enforcement Programme of the Barbados agreement is coordinated by a Combined
Coordinating and Planning Committee which oversees the planning, professional exchange, pre-deployment exercises and operations of the Programme. It is envisaged that one Party will request the other to make available a law enforcement vessel to enable the coastal state, i.e. the requesting Party, effectively to patrol and conduct surveillance of its own waters. All
law enforcement operations are clearly of the Party
underthe control anddirection in whose waters the operations are being
conducted. The law enforcement vessel which is loaned to the requesting Party shall, during such operations, also fly the flag or ensign of that Party. The Jamaica agreement omits a few of the details of the Barbados agreement. Still, in practice, combined operations in the context of the Barbados and Jamaica agreements will take place on a similar basis.
The "shiprider Program" after which the entire U.S. proposed Maritime CounterDrug Operations Agreement has become
detail
known, is probably one of the least offensive aspects of that agreement as
which is used to safeguard the interests of
coastal state authorities exercise some
the Parties. This is seen, for example, in
ostensible
the emphasis placed on the criterion of reasonableness, a concept which scarcely is mentioned in the Shiprider agreement. The use offorce provision in the Shiprider
Barbados and Jamaica agreements, however, there are important though
A significant feature of both Barbados and Jamaica agreements is the added
arrangement contains
a
general prescription
to use the minimum force
reasonably
under the circumstances. It
necessary provides a good contrast with the detail of the Barbados and Jamaica agreements which place strict limitations on the use of
control. The Program is somewhat similar to that envisaged in the seemingly subtle distinctions which may be drawn. The Barbados and Jamaica agreements essentially envisage a "hands
off' approach
where a detachment of coastal officials embarked on the other Party's vessel engage in law enforcement activities without assistance unless
details of the Jamaica agreement. Article 7(2) of the Jamaica agreement, for example,
provides that
underscores that "[a]ll law enforcement activities ... shall be under the control and direction of Jamaican law enforcement
officials and shall be conducted in accordance with Jamaican law". Article 3(8) of the Barbados agreement is of similar
import. It clearly defines
operational control of the vessel is in the hands of the state which makes the vessel
available, all other activities are under the control and direction of the state in whose waters the operations are being conducted.
III.
Pursuit and Entry
The basic principle underlying the Jamaica and Barbados agreements is that enforcement action within the jurisdiction of the coastal state is the reserve of officials of the coastal state. The Jamaica agreement, which covers all coastal waters in contrast with the Barbados agreement, adopts a slightly stricter approach than the Barbados
agreementonthe issue ofpursuitandentry. The Jamaica agreement exPresslY provides that a Party must make a "special request... fora dhoc petmission" to pursue vessels into the other Party's waters or entertheotherParty's waters to investigate suspect craft. Any such, ad ftoc request
it is claimed that sPecial circumstances exist and that there are
the previous authorization of the flag or coastal state except when warning shots
enforcement official, the Shiprider'
suspic ion"
embarked on a U.S. vessel authorizing
vessel to stop,
or in the exercise of the right of selfdefense. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
U.S. Coast Guard oPerations.
The distinction between the two
approaches is highlighted in some of the
for
permission "s hall be supportedby the basis
proscribe the discharge of firearms without
a
the
responsibilities of law enforcement officials of both Parties. Tactical or
on which
are required as a signal for
their
the vessel's systems to communicate with the suspect vessel. ...". Article 7(3) further
exceptional circumstances arise' The U.S. proposed Shiprider Program assumes a "hands on" approach with one local law
force. The Barbados and Jamaica agreements, for examPle, exPresslY
in order to fulfill
responsibilities, Jamaican officials may "request the Commanding Officer of the U.S. law enforcement vessel to take navigational measures or allow the Jamaican law enforcement officials to use
reasonable grounds
for the alleged
(Article I 0(2), added emphasis). The agreement further provides that in granting permission the coastal state "may give such directions and attach any i onditions it considers appropriate to such Page 49
NOW THAT THE SHIP HAS DOCKED
permission." (Article 10(3), added
circumstances... if the situation
emphasis) Anicle 17(6) of the 1988 United N ations C onv e ntion A gains t I llicit Trffi c
deteriorates" (added emphasis) coastal state officials may give directions, inter alia, to stop, board and search suspect
Substances
vessels. In other circumstances where a suspect
in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic on which the Jamaican
provision is modeled, expressly refers to conditions, "including conditions relating to responsibility". Other assistance, such
as boarding and searching vessels only may take place on and in accordance with the express instructions of the coastal state. To this extent the position adopted in the Jamaica agreement is essentially the same as would exist if there was no agreement between the Parties at all. The Memorandum of Understanding
between the Jamaican and U.S. Governments permits pursuit or entry
"upon notice" in
extraordinary
circumstances for the sole purpose of maintaining c ontac t w ith a s us p e ct v e s s e l, pending response to permission requested.
The Jamaica agreement, however, expressly excludes any authorization of enforcement action against Jamaican flag vessels (defined as including registered or
licensed fishing vessels)
in
Jamaican
waters.
The Barbados agreement adopts a slightly different approach. It permits a Party to pursue suspect vessels into the other Party's territorial sea and pending the receipt of instructions or the arrival
local law enforcement officials
of
the
pursuing vessel may order or signal the suspect vessel to stop. No further action against the suspect craft is authorized and
any further assistance is subject to the direction of local law enforcement
officials. The Diplomaric Note from the Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs to
the U.S. Embassy expresses the understanding of the Barbadian Government that in "exceptional Page 50
vessel is located within the territorial sea
of one Party, before a vessel of the other Party may enter coastal waters it must
obtain confirmation from coastal authorities that no local law enforcement
vessel is immediately available to investigate. In these circumstances entry is permitted only in order to maintain contact with the suspect craft and keep it
under surveillance until local law enforcement officials take control of the
situation. Pending the receipt of
instructions or the arrival of local law enforcementofficials, the law enforcement vessel of the other Party may order or signal the suspect vessel to stop. Coastal authorities must be kept continuously
informed of the situation and any further action against the suspect vessel only may take place on and in accordance with the express instructions of the coastal state. The Jamaica and Barbados agreements stand in stark contrast to the Shiprider arrangement. In the Shiprider agreement U.S. Coast Guard vessels are authorized to pursue suspect vessels into coastal waters
where they may stop, board and search such vessels without initiating any contact
with the coastal state. Where local Shipriders are "unavailable to embark on
a U.S. vessel" (an extremely broadly
worded phrase) U.S. Coast Guard vessels may enter coastal waters and investigate any suspect aircraft or board and search any suspect vessel other than a coastal state flag vessel. Caribbean states party to theagreement, conversely, enjoy no similar rights in U.S. warers.
The broad language of the Shiprider agreement conferring extensive powers on U.S. Coast Guard within Caribbean waters (includinginternal waters) has been omitted
from the Jamaica and
Barbados
agreements. Still, out of an abundance of
caution the Jamaica and Barbados
agreements stipulate that nothing in the agreement shall be construed to permit a law enforcement vessel of one Party to "randomly patrol" within the waters of the other Party.
IV.
Airborne Provisions
The different approaches of the Jamaica
and Barbados agreements with respect to
pursuit and entry of law enforcement
vessels of one Party into the waters of the otherParty are sustained in those provisions
governing overflight. The Jamaica agreement establishes the basic principle thatU.S. aircraftmay notmanoeuvre within
Jamaican airspace in order to maintain contact with suspect vessels or aircraft
without the express authorization of Jamaican authorities granted on a case by case basis. Aircraft of one Party, however, may overfly the territory and waters of the other Party in pursuit of suspect vessels or aircraft fleeing into or located within the
otherParty's waters and airspace provided that the appropriate law enforcement and civil aviation authorities are notified and information is provided as to the grounds on which the vessel or aircraft is reasonably
suspected of engaging in
illicit traffic. The
Memorandum of Understanding between the Parties further suggests that the party overflown may request aircraft of one party to relay to the suspect aircraft orders to comply with the instructions and directions
of its flight safety and law enforcement
authorities The Barbados agreement, on the other hand, provides prior authorization for either CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I99?
NOW THAT THE SHIP HAS DOCKED
Party to fly in the other's airspace and to order aircraft reasonably suspected of illicit
traffic to land. The agreement excludes "scheduled civil aircraft or other duly
agreement, however, suggests that the coastal state may waive its primary right to exercise jurisdiction and authorize the enforcement of US law against vessels
authorised non-scheduled civil aircraft" (Article 7(2)(b)). The equivalent Jamaican provision refers to "aircraft engaged in legitimate scheduled or charter operations
in coastal waters or on the high seas and regardless of an individual's nationality. The Shiprider provision offends basic
for the carriage ofpassengers, baggage or
principles of international law.
cargo" (Article
l(5)). Both Jamaica
and Barbados agreements underscore the need for compliance with air navigation and air 1
and/or persons on board whether detained
VI.
Interdiction on the High Seas The Jamaica and Barbados agreements
agreement is marked. In the Shiprider arrangement whenever U.S. Coast Guard
officials encounter a suspect vessel registered in a state Party to the agreement, located seaward of any nation's territorial sea, U.S. Coast Guard officials are authorized to stop, board and search the vessel without any prior contact with flag state authorities. The Caribbean state party to the agreement, however, has no similar rights with respect to U.S. vessels even within Caribbean waters located seaward
safety directions and the importance of maintaining contact with the appropriate aviation and law enforcement authorities. The imponance accorded to flight safety is what distinguishes the Barbados agreement from the Shiprider approach.
provisions relating to high seas boardings while the Barbados agreement contains
VII. Claims against the
The Shiprider agreement contains
only one. The Barbados agreement adopts
The issue of the privileges and immunities remains largely unresolved in the Barbados and Jamaica agreements. Neither agreement establishes any particular regime regulating jurisdiction over law enforcement officials involved in maritime operations. Still, the numerous restrictions placed on enforcement action by non-coastal state officials in the context of the Jamaica and Barbados agreements
a
minimal reference to the Parties instituting appropriate notification procedures of overflight activity by U.S. aircraft. In the amended four-part Shiprider agreements
where a distinction
is drawn
between planned and unplanned U.S. operations, U.S. pursuit of suspect aircraft into the other Party's airspace is authorized on the basis that the Parties "may exchange
information concerning appropriate communication channels and other information pertinent to flight safety." (Article 8 BIS, added emphasis). V. No Waiver of Jurisdiction Within Areas under State Sovereignty
In the Barbados and Jamaica
agreements suspect vessels and aircraft within areas under state sovereignty must be prosecuted according to the laws of the coastal state. Where suspect vessels are detained seaward of any nation's territorial sea a Party may waive its right to exercise jurisdiction and will not object to the other Party enforcing its laws against the vessel, cargo and persons on board other than nationals of the flag state. The Shiprider CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
adopt a similar position on the issue of interdiction on the high seas. The Jamaica
agreement, however, contains two
the traditional, more cautious "will not object" formula. The Jamaica agreement, however, follows the more recent trend in
granting "authorization"
in
certain
circumstances.
Article 3 of the Jamaica agreement establishes basic procedures regarding shipboarding in operations seaward of the
territorial sea. These procedures include verification of registry and a request for authorization to board and search. Article l4(2) of the Jamaica agreement provides that if the flag state fails to respond for three hours after receipt of confirmation in writing of an oral request for verification
of claim of registry it will be deemed to have authorized the other Party to stop, board and search the vessel. The Barbados agreementcontains no provision equivalent
to Article 3 of the Jamaica agreement. However, Article 14 of the Barbados and Jamaica agreements are substantially the same. In practice, therefore, high seas
boardings arrangement basis.
in the context of will
either
take place on a similar
The contrast with the Shiprider
of its contiguous zone (i.e. a maximum breath of 24 miles from shore used to measure the territorial sea).
U.S.
Government and its Forces
effectively limit the opportunities for improper or unreasonable actions by such
officials and thereby reduces
the
signifi cance of this omission. Additionally, the Barbados agreement provides that "[i]n
the event that the Parties are unable to resolve a claim, it shall be settled in accordance with the domestic law of the Parties;' (Article I9(4), added emphasis). The Jamaica agreement contains no
equivalent provision. However, accompanying both Barbados and Jamaica agreements is a Letter from the U.S. Ambassador stating that where the U.S. Government is joined in a claim against the coastal state for loss or injury suffered
as a result
of any action by the
U.S.
(Continued on page
Page
7 I)
5l
IT TRENDS
Table
Caribbean Milieu
I
Basic Indicators Population
IN THE
Density
Total
Per Capita
Total
(M)
(per km2) 1995
(us$)
(us$)
(K)
per 100 Inhabi-
1994
1994
995
tants
1
r995
l.
Guyana
2. Belize 3. Dominica 4. Grenada 5. Jamaica 6. St Vincent & The Grenadines
*Roderick Sanatan
7. Antigua & Barbuda 8. Barbados 9. Saint.Lucia
Introduction In a recent major Commonwealth forum
by the
Main Tel Lines
Total 1995
EDUCATION SECTOR IN SMALL ISIAND STAIES OF THE CARIBBEAN
organised
GDP
Commonwealth
Secretariatin Malta, the issue of education was raised and the use of IT for building
10. Trinidad. & Tobago 11. The Bahamas 12. Montserrat
0.84 4 0.22 9 0.07 95 0.09 264 2.53 221 0.11 285 0.07 149 0.26 647 o.t1 269 l.3l 254 0.28 20
0.5 0.6 0.2 0.3 4.2 0.2 0.5 1.7 0.5 4.8
6',55
2'620 2',974 2',828
r'699 2',r57
1'012 6'624 3'51 I
3.1
3'109
rr'44
44.6 28.9 17.8 23.2 29r.8 18.2 20.0 19.1 30.6 29.3 77.0
5.30 13.40 25.07 25.49 11.56 16.43 30.77 34.53
t8.42 16.04 28.32
13. St.Kitts/Nevis
information. The issue put frontally the case for examining experiences and strategies for
Table 2
Commonwealth Caribbean countries to go
into forward gear.
This article explores the emerging scenario in the Caribbean and its potential for moving in towards a learning culture.
Global context
It is not only true that the age of information is upon us but also that the visible hand of the technological revolution will be with us for another generation.
Small Island States of
the
Commonwealth are in peculiar developing country category - making up half of the
Commonwealth, but with inadequate infrastructure and human resource capability to match theircousins in the rich
parts of the Commonwealth with
ATIONS
technology, markets and capital. The Commonwealth conundrum in the
Telecommunications sector requires
a
search for equity and partnership that can
yield great dividends to the Commonwealth as a whole. (See page 54)
The Commonwealth itself in global significant multilateral buffer for knowledge transfer arrangements and market development. It is timely therefore that we re-map the Commonwealth in terms of its potential effectiveness and resource terms can be
a
allocations. (Table l).
Services Pay TV, VAS, Internet
Content Broadcast
Media
Film Libraries
lnteractivity Instant
Milti-media (Public, User groups, Private)
Delayed Voice
Telecommunications Facilities
Data Sound Graphics
Network Information Super highway Computer/Information Technology
Video
Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing
INFORMATION SUPER STRUCTURE Page 52
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
The issues put for Information and Communication Technologies are critical tools for development in the Caribbean. They are the key to the fast-tracking of the Education Sector itself - human resource development and training in other sectors of the economy.
If
the Trade Unions where IT isbeing offered to re-train the labour force.
of entrepreneurs doing training within the schools and as business ventures.
we assess the supply side of IT
Trinidad and Tobago: Shares similar features with the others, with an additional advantage of the Government's role in IT
-
programmed through TV Channel
country fibre optic infrastructures satellite coverage etc.
There is the paradox of an advanced technology platform parallel with other demands and application. It fits into the applications aspect of development of the society. Using Bill Melody's framework, we see where we
need
IT to impact on the sectors of
development. (Table 2).
initiatives by the local private sector. The University of the West Indies itself a provider of education, shares a common thread through the region and
especially in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago - to deliver IT education.
What is new is the impetus given bY NGO support groups of IT professionals
Internet and School
Commonwealth Caribbean is pointing to an interesting combination in the School
The emerging scenario in
Internet access is becoming the order of the day - yet prices are, by global figures, adjustment. The school seems to be a major growth area in terms of the catchment group.
the
Business demands are also pushing the
Country
Schools
Barbados
The Caribbean trends are alreadY showing the largest IT injections in the following sectors:
Belize
- Education, Banking, Government, Tourism.
Jamaica
Internet
in
cooperation with overseas
of
players.
2. Institutionally, we need to think through the areas of educational content
and property rights parallel with the encouragement of entrepreneurship.
3. Appropriate policy incentives may draw out more co-operation offers by the telecommunications providers and the
4. It is evident that technology is not a big issue in this thrust for its development.
Producers
Entrepreneurs
Others
UWI Info Society
Computer Society
UWI
Emerging Scenario based on Selected Country Experience
Barbados: There is an active model being developed in the school system using
IT take off in the Education Sector
Emerging Scenario based on Selected CountrY ExPerience
frontiers of traditional arrangements especially since the WTO has begun to
We offer some discussion on the table:
l.
seems to have the goodwill of a range
Table 3
of downward
stimulate interest in broad IT Agreements for the year 2000.
There are four lessons which are worth considering:
private sectors.
Information Superstructure Centre
need
Institutional Challenges
Saint Lucia: Like Belize, has spawned
information society members, etc.
in
Government The University of the West Indies The Telecomms providers Private Entrepreneurs NGO Professional Groups
Belize: Brings the additional innovation
infrastructure in the Caribbean we shall
find adequate technologies for
Education System:
Trinidad and Tobago
Saint
Lucia /
Government
UWI IT Society Info Society
Schools.
Telecommunications provider is also active. An interesting innovation is among CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
Page 53
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Page 54
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 199?
TEN COMMANDMENTS for Caribbean Development * Edwin Carrington
It is said that the end of centuries tend to be periods of heightened activity between as well as within countries. In support of this view, some analysts recall the end of the l8th century with the many, social, political and military convulsions in Europe: the French Revolution, the Napoleonic and PeninsulaWars with their outreach very much to us here in the Caribbean and, at the end of the 19th century, the upheavals in South Africa. This latter period also witnessed major technological innovations, in such areas as telecommunications and transportation. The developments at the end of this current century centering around those of 1989 - a veritable annus mirabilis involving the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War and the unification of Germany, would seem to support the view that there may be indeed such a pattern. If so, no one
can say for certain what psychological anxiety causes popular adrenalin to stimulate such flurries of activities among peoples at these times. Certainly, if there is such a phenomenon, one can only hope that it is given scope and direction to break
down longstanding barriers to social and economic development and equity. We in
the Caribbean must now ride this psychological wave and seize this time to establish a new and clear AGENDA to enable us to take our place in the 21st century. That agenda in my view should include the followingfundamental items, a sort of "Ten Commandments" for further Caribbean Development.
L. Most importantly, stimulating the Peoples of the Region to become involved, on an ongoing basis, in matters affecting
their lives, be it in their villages, communities, countries or region. A CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
specific dimension of this, is the need to
increasing trade and pursuing external
forge into the consciousness ofthe peoples,
negotiations.
through the media and all other relevant mechanisms, the imperative and the advantage of thinking and acting as one region, as the best and perhaps the only
These external negotiations must include not only relations with major
way to pursue and secure our aspirations: and we must do this by instilling a sense of prideinourmany achievements asapeople;
2. Within the context of the various Regional institutions - CARICOM, CARIFORUM and ACS
-
developing a shared perception, among the Region's leadership, ofthe future direction for the Caribbean. This process should be transparent and pursued within an environment and culture of consultation, particularly withthe social partners - the private sector, labour, NGOs, churches to name a few - as well as of
public accountability;
3. Adopting clear policies to shift the
countries and groupings, but critically also
with the International
Financial
Institutions;
6. Strengthening ourhuman
resources,
by according greater priority to
our
Universities and other Institutions of learning,firmly grounding our educational policy in regionalism, linguistic versatility and computer literacy, and extending into the newer
as
technological developments such
bio technology and informatics.
7. Developing production and marketing infrastructure through deeper forms of integration which permit freer movement of all factors of production, the formation of regional companies as well as strategic alliances between such
commodities towards a more balanced mix of goods and services. This must however
production units, regionally and globally; 8. Strengthening the vital information and telecommunication infrastructure to achieve improved production processes and to include production of a number of
be firmly grounded in international
new services;
competitiveness and greater participation in international trade, within a context of new global thinking;
9. Democratising the private sector to encourage the general population, and not simply a limited class, to participate and benefitdirectly fromthe fruits of successful
axis of economic activity away from the
traditional domination of primary
4. Adopting domestic and regional policies which incorporate as an integral part, the social dimension of development. Such policies should be measured against
economic and social development, (especially in our present context of market driven economic development) ;
criteria not only of economic growth but
10. Finally an explicit regional
also ofjob creation; poverty reduction; the
commitment to ever closer political,
participation
of women, environmental conservation and the meaningful
economic and cultural cooperation.
involvement of youth; 5. Strengtheningregional cooperation and formulating strategic alliances between
observations relevant to the pursuit of the proposal for a New CARICOM Agenda.
arrangements such as CARICOM and the
acknowledgement that no man is an island and no island a world. The Caribbean,
ACS, as abasis fordeveloping production,
In conclusion here are a
few
My first flows from the earlier
Page 55
TEN COMMANDMENTS
- CARICOM or ACS wise - is a small part of the world, strategically located, historically and culturally important yes, but small. We
CARICOM export trade in Norlh America, in CARICOM and in Latin America. It
therefore need more than most, to place our policies and our strategies within the context ofthe external realities, especially
Tobago's second largest market after the United States, taking in 1994, nearly 2O per cent of its exports as compared to 4l per cent by the US. There are many lessons here, one of
however defined
given the extreme openness of our societies,
economies and general way of life. The relationships we choose to make therefore, assume great importance to our present and future well-being. That choice calls for careful reflection and may often have to be dictated by hard economic facts
or sharp political realities. This
is
particularly relevant as CARICOM refl ects on the prospects for urgently developing closertrading relationships especially with other countries in the Region, such as the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. The second observation concerns the
importance of our own region to our economic and trade development. Taking the present situation of CARICOM, we
does not do so in Europe. And, interestingly
enough, CARICOM
is Trinidad
and
which is the importance of the CARICOM market to Trinidad and Tobago. The achievement of the stated goal by the President of the Trinidad and Tobago
Manufacturers Association of reaching a level of manufactured exports of $2billion by 2000 may well depend therefore, on how this CARICOM market stands up. This brings intoplay the significance of the OECS market which accounts for nearly
percentof all intra-CARICOMexports. To pay for these, that market relies on its export earnings gained primarily from bananas and tourism, both of which face
45
precarious market conditions. Trinidad and
observethatsome46percentofourexports and 52 per cent of our imports are from North America (using 1994 figures) after which comes the trade with Europe at
Tobago should therefore have a vested interest in developments affecting the
about 12 to 15 percent and then that among CARICOM being slightly less. The Latin American market, at 6 per cent, is yet to be
between the two. Forthe OECS, Europe is its major market while as stated earlier for
fully explored
and exploited.
These figures, while important indicators, of course do not tell the whole story but they do tell an important story, that is North America (USA and Canada), Europe and CARICOM are currently the three major markets for the Region. If we look for example, at the position
of the largest trader in CARICOM Trinidad and Tobago - we would observe that Trinidad and Tobago dominates Page 56
OECS economy.
There is an important difference Trinidad and Tobago it is the US. In the formation of a united CARICOM external economic policy, these differences must be catered for and have served to justify the position, that in forging such a policy the Region cannot afford to be lured into a
"false choice" between Europe and North AmericaThis situation however, re-enforces the
profitably marketed without special preferential market access arrangements. However, with the recently established World Trade Organisation and new treaty requirements, trade preferences - tariff and non tariffs - are fast disappearing. This situation calls for a restructuring of large parts of the Caribbean economy. Indeed the Prime Minister of Barbados describes it as a need to ". . . reposition
the Caribbean in the new Global Economic Order". That is a subject on which more will be said on another day. Suffice it to reiterate that we need to shift the centre of gravity in the CARICOM economy from a primarily goods axis to one ofmore balanced goods and services. My final observation relates to my preoccupation with the question of leadership
in our various societies. Heads of - the supreme decisionmaking authority of the Caribbean
Government
Community - has, since September 1994, witnessed changes in nine of its fourteen Members. With so many changes in so short a time, and with the 2lst century looming, the question of ensuring shared perspectives and vision in this critical body, in my view, calls foranearly wide-ranging
exchange of views among them. It is unrealistic and risky to assume that they are necessarily all in sync on all relevant fundamentals.
This a time when unity is most necessary.
It is out of that great regional debate thatmay emerge some vision of thecritical path for the Region into the 2lst century. [Excerpt of a lecture by the SecretaryGeneral of CARICOM to the Institute of
realisation that a significant part of CARICOM economies is geared to
International Relations, Hilton Hotel,
producing products which can hardly be
January 19961. CARTCOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
BUILDING CAPACITY for PUBLIC SERVICE MANAGEMENT *P.1. Gomes
A C. C. Bleau-Blackett
involvedwithNGOs andCBOs throughout
councils would be in charge of promoting activities and policy issues related to the priority areas established at the consultative
its seventeen-year history. However,
processes.
following the Global Conference on Small Island Developing States of I 994, a UNDP Project with funding from Capacity 21 has had an essential component on information networking amongst NGOs
c) The development of a Sustainable Development Network (SDN) amongst the islands in order to share information,
Divestment of State-owned Enterprises.
CARICAD has also been actively
Challenges of Change and
Institutional Innovations Today, more than ever, Caribbean to explicitly
governments have begun
acknowledge the demands for fundamental changes in the administrative structures and operational functions of the State and
In collaboration with
recognize the fundamental need for an enhanced managerial capacity and delivery
Caribbean Development Bank
of services within the public sector,
agency, the Project has adopted
as a
and CBOs.
as
the executing a
whole. One should also note the growing acceptance ofthe need for closer working relations and institutional mechanisms to
programme approach comprised of five
enable national consensus and col-
processes in the selected islands so as to assure the revision and implementation of the results of the SIDS conference and its
laboration among all the social partners: govemments, unions, private enterprise and
civil society
as a
whole.
From the inception of programme activities in 1980, CARICAD was mandated with the major responsibility to
train the top management
of the civil
services in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). In conjunction with a wide array of training courses in that respect, extensive analysis and recommendations
were also provided to the membergovernments on areas forimprovements to the sffucture, composition and performance of Service Commissions, in the discharge
of their constitutional responsibilities for
an independent and professional civil service. More recently, CARICAD a monograph of the seminal policy research and documentation that had been conducted on the complex issues ofPublic Enterprise Management, Privatization and
provided
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I 997
strategies:
a) The development
of
consultative
implications at the national and regional level, as well as the revision of various existing environmental plans and
programmes, Environmental Impact Assessments and other studies. The consultative processes should result in the
selection
of National
Sustainable
Development Priorities. Groundwork for consultations will be canied out by selected Non-governmental Organizations.
b) Strengthening of
public
environmental administration systems, through the establishment of Sustainable Development Councils (SDC) in each of the concerned islands. Participation in these consultative bodies should include
governmental and non-governmental organizations, business and commercial organizations and communities, fostering horizontal cooperation among them. The
human resources, and valuable experiences so as to avoid duplication of efforts and optimize the rational use of human and institutional capabilities, and the available
data on research and projects for the development of incrementally efficient activities. A pre-feasibility study for the Caribbean region SDN will be carried out
during the first semester
of
1994.
Therefore, this proposal has beendesigned taking into account the need to integrate the two initiatives. Linkages with UNEP s and ECLAC s data systems are being actively sought. d) Selective regional training of the above councils in updated processes, such as negotiation techniques, project and
AMBIONET
programme formulation
and administration, as well as current issues such as incremental costs (economic
valuation of environmental resources), legislation for sustainable development, community awareness and participation. Sharing ofexperiences amongst the islands on selected issues.
e) Facilitating Inter-agency coordination among international donors and other support agencies in the region to maximize benefits from their interventions. f) Support ofcase study projects related
to the priority
areas selected
in the
Page 57
BUILDING CAPACITY for PU BLIC SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Concluding Remarks The strategic direction, envisaged for CARICAD inthecoming years, will place a heavy burden on all current resources human, financial and physical. But, indeed the growing demands of the public sector
consultative processes which involve the public and private sector, including fu nding strategies for the implementation of these projects and economic strategies as to
formulation and more effective and timely
implementation
will be an enhanced
capacity for networking and participatory management of human resources.
convert them into self-maintained, Furthermore CARICAD has been involved in strategic planning activities with the labour movement and professional associations regionally and globally.
sharply focussed. This, we believe, our
are accruing from improved relations
A relevant series of activities must aim to:
A Vision as Catalyst
for urgent action and steadfast commitment sover the longer term, deserve a response that is well thought-out and Strategic Plan adequately addresses. It is recognized that tangible benefits
Networking between the Social Partners
sustainable projects.
for an infusion of new insights, precise priorities
between ministerial policy-making and the executive management in many areas of
public administration. Needs of middle
for increased supervisory authority, greater scope for career management
.
Consistent with the original mandate butresponding to increasing demands and
Establish andlor strengthen mechanisms for ongoing dialo gu e, de b ate disp ute / c onflic
t
advancement and opportunities to share expertise with colleagues across the Caribbean, are receiving attention in
the imperatives of a new era, CARICAD s Strategic Plan is premised on a vision to be
resolution and exchange of
a regional organization promoting
participation in
institutional changes as catalyst and beacon for governments and the social partners.
Services that encompass collective
of policies fo, National
Development and regional
public are helping to discard long-standing, negative stereotypes of civil servants.
experiences and proven methods will be made available and adapted toenhance the capacity of public and private sectors to realize improved levels of efficiency and productivity of the client organizations along with deeperjob satisfaction oftheir personnel.
integration.
These are demonstrable gains of public service reform initiatives but it is also
By definition, our tasks are multi
experiences
.
Facilitate implementation of constitutional and legislative c hange s for gr e ater dev oluti.o n of increased
efficiencies
.
Provide technicsl assistance and
administrative support for institutional strengthening of umbrello organizations dealing with management development, professional enhancement of public sector employees and the
A diversity of skills,
to change and a resolve for excellence.
the
authority and
oriented and relevant to the attainment of personal and organizational goals through which sustainable human developmentcan
be realized.
greater public
formulation, implc me ntation and manage me nt
disciplinary and intersectoral, results-
perspectives, insights and attributes of staff and clients are blended to stimulate a will
for
private sector.
.
Develnp systems and processes
A financially buoyant and sharply
for collaboration by regional
focused organization can be realized by a phased approach to increased income generation, the assurances of the highest
restructuring, while giving
quality of service, and the enduring commitment of dedicated and qualified staff.
At the core of this thrust for a transformation of public policy Page 58
e xp eftis e in pro gramme s ofpublic sector reform and s.dministrative
speciftc attention to addressing
several countries.
Enhanced customer relations and the
timely delivery of services to the general
acknowledged that the many deep-seated
problems can not be solved in the short run. For this reason, the primacy of an enduring commitment, from all levels and by every stakeholder, is the single-most important condition on which the future success of this Strategic Plan rests. Without delay and building on modest
achievements
of the medium-term
programme ( 1992-95), CARICADisready and anxious to continue a collective effort
advance the cause of reform and transformation, which the public sector of the Caribbean must genuinely pursue. A course has been charted, the involvement of all has been invited and steps for effective implementation are already being taken. Do not hesitate to provide us with the assistance of your
to
the Programme of Action (POA)for Sustuinable Development
critical support.
Planning and Programing.
Strategic Plan: I 997-20021.
the priority areas of
I Extract e d and adapte d from CARI C AD' s CARICOM PERSPECTTVE JUNE 1997
CPDC calls for
PEOPLE CENTRED APPROACHES to Economic Integration *
Luna Ramkha I aw ans in g h
phase
It is acknowledged that in the current of world economic development, the processes of globalization and
resist the notion that sovereignty and selfdetermination are obstacles to the creation of an economically abundant and people-
governments in all their efforts to achieve this objective. We reiterate that Caribbean NGOs do
liberalization are advancing rapidly and
caring Caribbean. We argue, that for
not see themselves as another arm of
are throwing up particularly difficult challenges for small, indebted, open
Caribbean countries occupying
economies such as those in the Caribbean. And, if we are honest with ourselves, we
result of domestic factors, such as ill-
sovereignty in this particular conjuncture must take on a new meaning, informed by: . the recognition that the region has to be economically integrated to be viable . a firm belief, that in the exercise of our
government nor do they wish to become one. We will continue to argue for the "reempowerment of the state" in so far as this
will also acknowledge that a significant part of the development crisis is also the
space
within a larger
a
regional
hemisphere,
will
enable
it to fulfill its basic
responsibilities in the fields of social and economic development. We are very clear that there exists a division of labourbetween the state, the social partners (trade unions, private sector and NGOs, the universities and international agencies). We are clear
conceived policies, mismanagement,
rights
political tribalism, indebtedness, limited resources and other factors specific to
possibilities of cooperation in conditions
small-island developing states. However, we are convinced that a large part of the
(FTAA)
also that in fragile, open, indebted
belief that as a region we have the right and the capacities to determine to a significant degree how we participate in
economies such as those which exist in much of the Caribbean, there is a role for
the hemispheric process. In this connection, we fully support and
government interventions. The specific set ofregional and global circumstances in which we now find ourselves requires the
problem lies
in the intransigence of
international structures with which small economies such as ours have to interact, and frequently have to depend on. Supporters of the globalization process and the neo-liberal development model of which it is an integral part argue that the Caribbean is unable to compete in the global market economy unless it is modernized. This modernization is only possible, they argue, if the countries become integrated in the hemispheric process of economic integration. However,
a cause for concern is that the content
of
this modernity is not only economic but political and cultural as well. This means that in this hemisphere, it is not just the acceptance of the notion of market economics, but of the North American/
IMFAVorld Bank model of economic
growth and development which is concerned primarily with "getting the macro-economics right", often at the of indigenous cultural and political considerations. A "ship-rider solution" expense
becomes acceptable and sovereignty ceases to be an issue. We, in small states must CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
as
citizens, we must seek and support
of equality and reciprocal
.
benefits
a
commend the CARICOM governments for their united and principled stand against the Helms-Burton Law, which seeks not only to further isolate and punish the people of Cuba, but to extend the territorial
jurisdiction of the US government to countries and investors who wish to maintain economic relations with Cuba. The NGO community feels strongly that the power and responsibility of the state must continue to be used to ensure that Caribbean producers at all levels of production, women and men - in our backyards, home kitchens, on street
in industrial
market mechanisms and appropriate
concern, focussed attention and firm commitment of all the social partners, working together. As we urge the governments to reach an early agreement on this matter, we offer our support in seeing to its implementation across the region. We end by emphasizing, as
Secretary-General Carrington has done
on several occasions, the importance of greater'people-centred' approaches to
regional economic integration and functional cooperation. This will require adequate preparation and broad
complexes, modern offices, in farming communities, in export production and
consultation across the region. As social partners, the NGO community welcomes the challenge ofparticipating fully in this
off-short activities - are enabled to have
process.
ofmodern technology at a level and pace which can easily be absorbed by the users, to bring them up to world market standards in the shortest possible time. NGOs support Caribbean
(
corners,
access to andthe use
estates, hotel
Luna Ramkhalaw ans in gh is CPDC).
C o o rdinator
[Excerpt from presentation to the ]7th
Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government, Barbados, July 19961. Page 59
persons, but humanity is not simply a soul, there is the whole question of the body as well, and one cannot get away from the fact that the need to take care ofthe body is an importantpartofthe mission of the church.
The Church
The individual who is hungry and dispossessed, the individual who is
unemployed and socially dislocated, has very little time to listen to sermons about
&the New Millennium
the saving grace of God for the soul, while he suffers in body within a system that is
* Rev. Dr Monrelle Williams
doing little or nothing to improve his/her situation.
Ifthechurches are to have any impact in millennium, they will of necessity need tolook as the whole question of what is relevant in the lives of persons. It is true the
The dawning of the new millennium has conjured up many interesting images in theminds ofpersons within the churches across the region. For some, it conjures up the idea of jubilee when there should be some degree ofdebt forgiveness across the region by foreign banks as an indication of
their capacity to forgive. For others, it is
to seek for
seen as an occasion
even to fail - and the willingness to learn from our mistakes." (R. Kew. The Mis si.on
Imperative, p.104, Shaping Our Future,
J. Stephen Freeman (ed.) There is no denying that the emerging age will be a most challenging one and the churches
will
have to be cognisant of this and make the necessary adjustments to suit the new
age. New and interesting ways will
reconciliation and forgiveness for past failings so that as we move into the new
persona
millennium, we can do so in both instances
speaking
with a proverbial clean slate. The questions that face the church in the region are: what kind of church are we going to be as we go
into the new millennium? How is the church going to grapple with the way the world is changing so that it can speak to it with relevance? The type of church that will be, must be determined, to alarge extent, by the kind of society in which the church finds herself and how far she is prepared to trust herself to the guidance of the Spirit. Whether the
be
needed to market the gospel because the
to whom the churches will be will be better educated and certainly much more advanced than
previously. One ofthe key features ofthe church in the twenty-first century will be relevance. The church is being forced to face the fact
that there is an interesting number of
the
This secularisation represents avery serious threat to the churches. If the rate of growth
have created an increase in poverty in areas in which it was felt that poverty was
continues, the time
will come when this
group will outnumber those who make up
dragged kicking and screaming from the tired agendas ofthe past, and are forced to make a serious response to a fresh and confusing set of realities. This new world demands from us robust vision, a strong stomach, sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit, the courage to experiment -
the churches. Much of the disaffection with the churches is based on the issue of
(Rev. Dr. Monrelle Williams is General Secretary Caribbean C onferenc e Page 60
of
C hurc he
s
)
midst of severe austerity programmes brought about by the introduction of
persons around the region who are claiming that they have no particular religion and this group is growing at an alarming rate.
it or not they "are being
churches like
that God is always relevant but the way in which one interprets God is determined by the context in which one finds oneself. The Caribbean Church will need to interpret God andHis action in relation to its context and issues which many might think are not for consideration within the Churches and are designated political or economic will, of necessity, have to become part of the churches' agenda. When one looks atthe Caribbeanregion from a theological point of view, what one sees is a region which is moving from one crisis to another. The world's economies are in confusion. We in the region have managed to negotiate the difficult waters of colonialism and then into the struggles of neo-colonialism. We are now in the
relevance. The churches have lost touch
Structural Adjustment Programmes across region. These programmes, diagnosed as a cure for the ailments of the region,
virtuallynon-*t::": _
_
The region had witnessed a decline in
with the things that are of importance to persons. They continue to operate in the same old-fashioned way without any
the provision of social services, the
reference to reality.
absorb. As one looks around the region the social consequences are being seen at all levels with unemployment on the increase; income disparities are become even more pronounced as we see the gapbetween rich
Body and Soul
It is true that the church must address the issues which deal with the souls of
alienation and marginalization of the youth.
The effects have been very difficult to
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
and poor increasing at an alarming rate. There is the emergence of a phenomenon that was not seen in the Caribbean before; street children in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Jamaica. This has happened because with rising unemployment, more
and more parents are forced
by
circumstances to depend on their children
to provide some means of subsistence. There are persons who have become disaffected with the whole political process and there is a general lack of interest in what is happening politically. There is a
wave
of violence
across the region,
indicative of a lack of hope on the part of the person in what is happening in the various countries. These are areas in which the churches, with the large constituency that it represents, will need to respond very urgently, to bring some hope, if the problems are not to escalate to the kind of proportions which are witnessed elsewhere in the Southern hemisphere. The whole ecological crisis is one that
the churches
will
have to address.
Sometimes one gets the impression that the feeling in the Caribbean is that this is a North American/European issue. The destruction of the rain forests in Haiti and
in some Central American territories is an issue which needs to be looked at very
carefully. Industrial accidents
have occurred in ourregion with the widespread effects that they have brought. There is a school of thought which is of the opinion thatthe severity and regularity of hurricanes andearthquakes witnessedinrecenttimes,
have something to do with the way in which we have treated our environment. It is indeed a fact that, much of the flooding that we have witnessed in certain countries, has resulted from the way in which we have sought to dispose of our solid waste. One of thebasic theological facts is that humanity, created in the image of God,
the churches
in the region. It will
be
imperative that the churches have some
voice at the level of CARICOM where policies are made. The churches can bring a perspective to discussions which no
other body can
bring; it
can bring
a
theological thrust which places persons at the centre ofthe developmental process rather than profits. In other words, the churches will need to move much further up the information ladder so that they can be proactive rather than reactive. The churches have for many years been the receivers of information and have as a result only been able to react. As we move into the millennium, this will need to change. The contribution that can be made by the churches at the level of decision
{.{.i<**
Internally thechurches will also haveto of transformation.
undergo some kind
Many of the churches are still very medieval
in orientation believing that God's grace
ceremonies. "Modern hu(man)ity is simply
at the local level but at the international level as well, where trade agreements are being worked out and where decisions are made that affect the lives of persons to whom the churches have to minister. The church really does bring an expertise into the discussion which has been lacking for many years.
The understanding of the church will therefore have to undergo some change. Church is not to be distinguished from state along some hard and fast lines, as though the two are somehow mutually exclusive. Church will haveto move out of the building and go to wherethe people are and speak to them directly about the issues
that affect their lives.
But in orderforthe churches to respond to these issues, merging across the region
in any coherent manner, there will be
a
need for a closer collaboration among the
seems tobe ahardening of
not medieval." (Schillebeeckx, The Mission of the Church) The feeling seems to be that because it was good in the past then it must be good in the future and be so forever and ever. That is really not the case. Certain ceremonies have in effect
lost their value. There is still much that is archaic in the thinking of some churches that will need to be changed. To quote Schillebeeckx again: "For Contemporary hu(man)ity then, the church must be the
effective and visible presence ofgrace and she must therefore, while remaining true to herself, that is, in faithfulness to Christ, speak the language of contemporary man." (Ibid, p.28) As we move into the twentyfirst century this will need to be addressed. The twenty-first century person will not understand medieval concepts and, as such, the whole question of relevance will once again emerge as an issue.
Collaboration
different denominations. As we approach denominational
boundaries and the protecting of denominational turf from the so-called intruders. This has resulted in aweakening of the ecumenical exercise where we have
in social activity, rather than fellow sufferers on the
become co-operators
A Theological Thrust
ecumenical journey. There is need for the churches to speak with one voice; unless the churches come together and witness
The emerging economic agreements will also be a matter of some concern for
together, then the effectiveness of their message will be diffused and, hence, lost
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
increasing in the strength of the ecumenical voice will make the churches' contribution that much more powerful in the region.
discussion of the implications of the policies being decided upon. This is true not only
the end of the twentieth century, there
ecological balance is absolutely crucial to our survival.
than
denominationally. The decreasing in the strength of thedenominational pull andthe
can only be mediated in medieval
creation; but this dominion has to be seen in terms of stewardship. The protection of ourenvironmentis and mustbe part of that exercise of that stewardship. In a region so heavily dependent on agriculture and
of a proper
done ecumenically rather
making, could lead to a much fuller
was given dominion over the rest of
tourism, the maintaining
on the intended audience. This ofcourse means that the ecumenical agenda will have to come much higher up the churches' lists of priorities. It is a well established fact that the message of the church will have greater influence and impact, if it is
The coming of the new millennium offers the churches exciting prospects and possibilities in the region. It can represent anew beginning forthe churches as together they strive to preach a relevant gospel; a gospel informed by scripture, one that is fully cognisant ofthe society in which the church ministers and the whole effect of what is happening.intemationally in relation to the region. No church in the new period
worthy of being called the church, can afford to ignore the emerging economic, political, social and cultural changes in the region. These cdnnot be left solely in the hands of the practitioners in the political and economic fields. The church must have a say. To'ignore this call is in effect, to ignore what we are called together for. Page 61
AIVTENDING THE TREATY OF
CHAGUAM
on Establishment, Services & Capital * Duke Pollard
Introduction
funding
Further, in deference to the perception that
required, conventional wisdom argued against revision of the Treaty by plenipotentiary conference. Negative
consultations are critical to an effective
ested donor agencies to commit the
At its Special Meeting held in Port-ofSpain, Trinidad and Tobago in October 1992,theConference of Heads of Government decided to esrablish rhe CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and set up the Inter-Governmental Task Force to supervise the revision of the Treaty of Chaguaramas for the purpose. Recognising
that to be effective the required Treaty revision process would be a protracted
perceptions in the wider Community about
the delivery of CARICOM decisionmakers appeared
the comprehensive treaty revision process extending for a considerable period. CARICOM Heads of Government, by
plementation was the bane ofthe integration
Intersessional Meeting of the Conference
movement and implied that the lack of implementation was a function of, among
signing Protocol
I at the Eighth
in St. John's, Antigua and
participation at every stage of the process, the Inter-Govemmental Task Force, at its Third Meeting, decided to revise the Treaty by a series of Protocols. This incremental approach would ensure discernible progress, periodically, toward the agreed goal - the CSME, and facilitate external donor funding from various sources for each phase ofthe exercise. The only other credible alternatives to the incremental approach adopted by the
February 199'7, indicated both their
Inter-Governmental Task Force are, firstly, a comprehensive Treaty revision process involving extensive national consultations by interested stakeholders and extending over a period in excess offive years, and secondly, aplenipotentiary conference with multi-disciplinary participation from each
CARICOM Member State and extending over a period in excess of three months.
Barbuda in
willingness and readiness to take the bold steps required to establish the
CARICOM
Single Market and Economy. Protocol I addresses the Organs, Bodies, Institutions and Procedures of rhe CARICOM Single Market and Economy. In this context, it is important to bearin mind thatthe Community as transfigured, in terms of the quality and intensity of anticipated economic interactions among the Member States,
continues to enjoy the status of an association essentially of sovereign States. Consequently, the principle of unanimity, the juridical expression
of sovereign
equality, continues to determine decisionmaking in the Conference, the Supreme Organ of the Community. However, as a departure from the process of decisionmaking in the old regime, other Organs of
Given the known budgetary constraints of Member States, the significant expenditure likely to be involved in such an exercise,
replace the Common Market Council and
of inter-
make decisions by qualifiedmajority vote.
and the possible indisposition Page 62
The Consultative Process
to argue against
exercise, involving extensive consultations and national
decision-making process, Protocol I provides for an appropriate regime.
the Community, which, collectively, the Standing Committees of Ministers,
In its celebrated report, the West Indian
Commission concluded
that
im-
other things, inadequate consultation in the
Community. Informed by these perceptions, the Inter-Governmental Task Force determined that each draft Protocol
must be the subject of in-country consultations with national multidisciplinary stakeholders from both the public and private sectors. These consultations on various draft provisions of the Protocols were to informthe relevant
deliberations
in the Inter-Governmental
Task Force and the orientation and defini-
tion of relevant Instruments. In this connection, Protocol II was the subject of in-country consultations with multi-
disciplinary teams in Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname. One general consultation was conducted with national representatives of the OECS as a group in order to benefit
from the cross-fertilisation of views
tendered by national representatives, and to contain expenditure overuns. In all these consultations, it was agreed that national representatives on the Task CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
AMENDING THE TREATY OF CHAGI.IARAMAS
Force would be adequately briefed by competent officials and that deliberations in the Inter-Governmental Task Force would be faithfully reported by national representatives to their institutional superiors
Protocol
in detail. In this connection, was the subject of detailed
II
this space, all factors ofproduction would be able to be efficiently employed in a manner designed to enhance the international competitiveness of regional producers from both LDCs and MDCs.
The Commitment Process
discussion atthe following Meetings ofthe
Inter-Governmental Task Force: Sixth Meeting, Guyana, 2-4 October 1996; Seventh Meeting, Barbados, l6-19 December 1996; Eighth Meeting, Antigua and Barbuda, 24-26 February I 997; Ninth
Meeting, Saint Lucia, 22-26 April 1997, and Tenth Meeting, Barbados, 5-6 May 1991. In addition, Protocol II was tabled for discussion at the 44th Meeting of the Common Market Council, Guyana, 30-31 January 1997, the Second Special Meeting of the Standing Committee of Ministers responsible for Legal Affairs, Dominica, 12-13 May 1997 and the Seventeenth Special Meeting of the Common Market Council, Guyana, 5-10 June 1997. The
Standing Committee of Ministers for Finance, the Standing Committee of Ministers responsible for responsible
Legal Affairs and the Common Market Council, all commended Protocol II to the Conference of Heads of Government for signature at its Eighteenth Meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica inJuly 1997.
Objective of Protocol
In confirming their commitment to the right of establishment, the right to provide services and the right to move capital in any part of the Community by any Community national on a non-discriminatory basis, Member States are undertaking, by way of Protocol II: (a)not to impose any new restrictions on the rights mentioned above; and
very real sense, Protocol II, which addresses the right of establishment, the right to provide services and the right to
move capital
in the Community, is
a
microcosm of a wider movement towards liberalisation and globalisation in the international community - a process which
is enveloping all CARICOM Protocol
II
States.
may be seen as the most
important single instrument in establishing
the CARICOM Single Market
and Economy (CSME) which would create a single economic space for the collectivity known as the Caribbean Community. In CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
Member States experiencing balance-ofpayments problems resulting from removal
of restrictions on the exercise of rights. Similarly, Article 38bprovides for waivers for Member States not in a position, at the material time, to remove one or another restriction within the contemplation of the Protocol. In effect, the Protocol attempts to go as far as it must to satisfy the
established.
compatibility with relevant provisions of the WTO Agreement. Any further concessions to protectionism and discrimination in the Community can
As such, the Protocol is designed to establish enabling conditions only in respect of the removal of the restrictions mentioned above. The identification of specific restrictions to be removed and the time-frame for their removal, have to be established and agreed by Member States in the competent Organ at the material
time. And in establishing any such
special needs of the LDCs to be taken into account. In effect, even after the Protocol
a
of transitional problems of weaker, inflexible economies. Thus, Article 37c(bis) provides for derogations by
requirements of an exclusionary integration process desiring
enters into force or is applied In
The Protocol implicitly recognises that the economies of Member States differ in strengths and structural rigidities and therefore establishes conditions to take care
(b)to remove such restrictions as exist according to relevant programmes to be
programmes, Article 38c requires the
II
Facilitating Conditions
provisionally
as
contemplated, the rights
to be accorded and the obligations to be assumed by Member States are still to be negotiated and agreed. It is further
understood and agreed that the OECS States, in signing on to Protocol II before Protocol VII on Disadvantaged Countries, Regions and Sectors has been
completed, would enjoy in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) to be established conditions no less favourable than those
currently enjoyed in the Common Market.
place the CSME outside the exceptions recognised by the WTO.
Differing Degrees of Integration Protocol II must also be read in conjunction with relevantprovisions of Protocol I and, in particular, Articles 17(4) and 19(3) and (4). Article l7(4) contains an opting-out provision, not unlike the Luxembourg Resolution of the European
Union, while Article l9(3) and (4) gives Member States a veto power in Organs other than the Conference, provided that specified conditions are satisfied. This is designed to ensure that genuine concerns of Member States are not lightly ignored by others not similarly circumstanced.
of Drafting of drafting adopted in Protocol II is similar to that
Scheme
The scheme elaborating
employed in the Rome Treaty. The Protocol requires a standstill by Member States (Continued on page
7l)
Page 63
Towards
A REGIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE xCarol Collins
Introduction Global Information Infrastructure (GII) refers to the facilities, mechanisms and policies that are put in place to enable electronic information interconnection, sharing and communication at a global level. It is an open, self organizing, interactive, resilient, interconnected system providing dynamic and democratic means for people not only to find information but
prospects of CARICOM upgrading its information infrastructure in order to take
Information Infrastructure Task Force (RIITF) to advise on the process. The
advantage of the benefits that would accrue were a regional information society to be established. The development possibilities for the Caribbean would include some, if not all of the following:
broad mandate given was for the RIITF to
- improved efficiencies
study the situation in CARICOM and advise
on the development of the regional information infrastructure through the development of policy guidelines and a strategic plan for the region.
and
This short article reports on the progress
-
productivity in the workplace, direct access to world markets and
which has been made, and identifies the
storehouse of knowledge of mankind to be accessible to anyone with the technology, telephone connections and the know how. The resultant sharing ofknowledge, ideas and experience, now available to developed
-
new opportunities for international trade and commerce, economic growth and sustainable
and developing countries alike, provides a
-
also to put forward their own ideas for others to see. The GII allows therefore, the
chance for countries like the Caribbean to
develop knowledge-based industries.
The information
technology
development through electronic
-
advancements which includes telecommunications, and the opportunity of sharing knowledge, compel
of the traditional
a
approaches
CARICOM region to
-
reassessment
in
the the importance,
priority assigned, management and use of information. The rapidity of these changes and advancements demands that the Caribbean have policies and strategies for
the establishment of the information infrastructure in the region and that Governments facilitate and encourage the involvement of the private sector in building
that infrastructure, in order to take advantage of the opportunities which can offset the effects of our lack of natural resources and smallness of size.
-
trade, investment and commerce,
better management
of
natural resources and the environment, early warning systems for weather and other natural phenomena,
enhanced capacity for the development of human resources, skills and competencies, greater decision-making capability through timely access to a wide variety of accurate and diverse sources of information, efficient delivery of public services through improved mechanisms and greater customer responsiveness,
- increased access to
public
information for public, private, labour, voluntary and academic
-
sectors,
more efficient interface between public and private sectors,
health care possibilifu s the list
improvement
exhaustive. In order to guide the developments in is not
In 1995 the Standing Committee of Ministers Responsible for Information
CARICOM and set priorities. since it
(SCMINF) considered the issues regarding the globalization of information and the
make gains over time, the SCMINF agreed
Page 64
would only be possible for the region to
to the establishment of the Regional
existing constraints.
The RIITF Membership of the RIITF, at first drawn mainly from the public sector, regional
institutions, an academic institution, a related international organisation with a regional presence, regional associations and a small representation fromthe private sector, was deemed inappropriate for the successful handling of the mandate at the second meeting of the RIITF. It is now agreed that current membership will be expanded to include suitable representation
of the private sector telecommunication service providers, broadcasting, news services, Internet service providers,
academic institutions, regional
telecommunication organisation, regional
integration institutions, other regional institutions such as, Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Caribbean Examinations
Council, Caribbean and Disaster Emergency Response Agency. Membership will also include representatives from information provision
systems and private sector companies in the information and computing fields. A meeting of the expanded RIITF has not yet been convened. The work of the RIITF is not funded at this time, and members attend meetings at their own expense. It is critical however CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
Towarcls A REGIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
thatadequate funding be acquired to carry out the extensive consultations necessary for undertaking a comprehensive study and for developing the strategic plan. Various research also has to be undertaken, the work of the RIITF facilitated, and a web site established and maintained on
the Internet to ensure the wider participation in the process. The Internet will be used to canvass opinions, and solicit ideas and to allow people to
comment. All
these activities and
consultations cannot be carried out without incurring costs.
Current Situation CARICOM cannot yet be considered information conscious society, and none of the Member States have a developed an
information infrastructure. There are
portance of in-depth consultations with all the stake holders is doubly important
for the RIITF. The use of the Internet in the Caribbean has grown since 1995 and its influence is expected to be found significant, when the impact study is undertaken by the RIITF. , as inthecase ofBarbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and St.Kitts and Nevis, all the schools are to be equipped with the technologies to allow access by students, one can anticipate a dramatic change within the next ten years, in the
And if
quality of the work and the level of achievement in the education system. The RIITF in its deliberation highlighted the need to design a plan for ensuring that the disadvantaged students also have access to the technologies, so that the societies would not be divided into information rich and information poor, and for encouraging
of gifted
however, various strategies being
or
formulated at the national levels, some far reaching ones such as Barbados', which
children, to increase the process ofchange in the Caribbean. . It is interesting to note that the use of
goal, 'creating the physical infrastructural environment for a dynamic and competitive Information Society' and which has already begun the process of wide consultations in this regard. The governments of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St. Vincent and St. Kitts and has set as its
Nevis are also in the process of determining national strategies for upgrading the information infrastructure. All these initiative are important in determining the priorities to be set for the region. Achievements over the years in the information sub-sectors, especially in the field of information provision systems
and database creation are important building blocks for establishing the information infrastructure. As there are no central administrations for the information sector in Member States and
responsibility is usually shared by the Ministries responsible for Telecommunications, Information, Communication, and Education, the imCARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
speeding up the progress
Canadian consultant contracted by the International Development Bank (IDB) as part of its assistance programme to CARICOM. Unfortunately the whole report cannot be adequately reviewed here,
nor can all the comments of the RIITF regarding the study be considered. The study, based on assessments done
in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and Jamaica, identified seven common directives (that are likely to be repeated across the region) to be considered
by the RIITF:
. . .
then questions regarding security and fraud will need to be addressed and policies determined.
Developing a Strategic Plan There are sufficient areas of common concern and agreed goals to form thebasis ofa regional strategy. This was part ofthe findings of a study rdone for the RIITF through the CARICOM Secretariat, by a
adoption of an investment base wide as possible
as
access to telecommunications by
all
competitive environment
. local manufacturing wherever appropriate . harmonization of networks to .
promote global interoperability and to strengthen integration
use
of
telecommunications for
solving majorproblems in the sectors
.
the terms of agreement with the Government. At another level,
determining what national information will be put on the Internet is important. If the Internet is to be used for commerce also,
telecommunications)
users, at least to basic services in a
the Internet is likely to force policy decisions ahead of the analysis to be done by the RIITF. The question of suitability of content forchildren, would need to be addressed early. In Guyana, for instance, the service providers have to ensure that pornography is blocked in accordance with
separation of regulatory and operating functions (in respect of
.
of Health, Education and the Environment participation in international fora to share experiences and to benefit from the lessons learned by others and to adopt success where aPProPriate
formulation of totally Caribbean information and telecommunication policies
The study also advocatedthatthe region should concentrate its efforts on selected areas in the first instance, rather than have too wide a spread of issues with which to
contend. Universal access, Education, Value -added services and Partnerships, were the topics identified.
The RIITF in considering the consultant's report, agreed that the critical Page 65
Towards A REGIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
issue of Universal Access should be addressed and that it should speak specifically also to access using the latest technology. Furthermore, the access should also be to band width on demand, in order to improve the region's distance learning capabilities. Notwithstanding that position, the RIITF determined to examine in depth, the question of Universal access.
With regard to Education and "lifelong" learning, the RIITF agreed with the far reaching recommendations made, and went even further in some instances. Not only was education seen as the means to determine the future of the region, but also
as a means of gaining competitive advantage, with the capacity to increase
per capita income as well as improve the quality of life of the population. It will also
provide the basis of knowledge-based industries in the years to come. The need to re-organise the education system was recognised and the importance of governments making its most significant
investment in education, stressed. The introduction of information technology in all schools was agreed. The mounting of pilot projects in the region , such as the
Schools-Net Project
in Trinidad
and
Tobago, was seen as an important way to spearhead innovations. The experiences of all such projects should be shared within
consultant suggested that the critical issue to be addressed was that ofcontent and its
the information and communication
ofthat
exchange and information content and not an end in themselves. The final recommendation considered and agreed to by the RIITF was that a Facilitator should be engaged to provide support for the RIITF and coordinate the
subset ofissues, such as copyright
which is available on the Internet,
ownership of information that comes across
sovereign borders. The focus it was felt should be on training and research and development, while allowing the telecommunication providers to improve
services. RIITF was concerned with arriving at a clearer definition of value added services and in finding out the status
of value added services in the region
as
well asthe levelofderegulation thatobtains. Non-the-less, the importance of content was recognised and the relevant Working Group of the RIITF would be charged with looking at the matter across the board with the assistance of representatives of the
Information Service
Providers,
Broadcasting Industry, technical experts from the health, education, labour and industry sectors and information specialists or librarians It was recognised that in this area lay products for the global market. The RIITF appreciated the comments regarding Partnerships to be entered into and alliances to be formed with the key stakeholders in the society - those who provide the conduits by which information flows, those who develop the systems to ensure the efhcient and equitable exchange
the region. It was agreed that computer
of information; those who are ultimate
literate societies should be developed
users of the information and for whom the
throughout the region
availability of required information will influence the quality of their lives; those who are ultimately accountable for the formulation of policies ensuring the social, economic, cultural development of the knowledge-based society. As a result of these observations the membership of the RIITF was widened to include the groups
The RIITF also strongly recommended
the use of the Internet for promotion of opportunities for continuous learning and determined to work out strategies that would make it possible for the disadvantaged to get access to the necessary
technologies are in support of information
research and consultations that need to be
undertaken.
The RIITF decided that in order to move the process forward, a document outlining the plan of action would be submitted to the Conference of Heads
of
Government for its consideration and
approval and that the CARICOM
Secretariat would be requested to assist in
finding funding for carrying out the agreed work and the preparation of the strategic plan.
Conclusion There is too much down time on the part of the RIITF, through no fault of its own. But the technologies are advancing by leaps and bounds and decisions regarding policies and strategies are going to be made on the basis of expediency, which
will complicate further the attempt at coordination at the CARICOM level. What is clear is that the process of establishing an effective information infrastructure is expensive and that ajoint approach is advocated, with shared responsibilities among various Member States. Itis also importantthatCARICOM Member States with apopulation in excess
of five million, "speak with a strong unified voice at any decision -making fora relating to information and communication technologies policies
technologies for that purpose. The culture of lifeJong education and training was discussed and seen as a very significant one forthe Caribbean. All methods should be used to encourage the use of the information technologies and private sector and educational institutions shouldjoin to stimulate the youth by offeringprizes n the
the RIITF in its deliberations and to constantly validate the findings and recommendations. This group will in the
alone can influence the direction of an
area of information technology. In respect of Value-added services, the
end be the one to ensure the information needs of the citizens are being met and that
(Carol Collins, former Director
Page 66
mentioned above. Of significant importance also was the decision based on the recommendations, to create an Advisory User Group to assist
and the nature of the information society that will evolve. It is clear, based on the current state of development, no one Member State information society for the larger region.tt CARICOM).
CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
Strengthening the CSM&E Strategic I nterventions *
The Technical Action Services Unit (TASU) at the CARICOM Secretariat has
taken on board a set of strategic interventions which will assist Member
in implementing the Single Market and Economy (SCME). The highest priority was being given by the Heads of Governmentto create the CSME and 1998 has been set as a benchmark for achieving discernible Sates
elements to this decision. TASU, set up to assist Member States overcome any technical hurdles that could
delay the implementation of
regional
decisions, has therefore directed its efforts during 1996-1997 at:
. .
strengthening technical capability in Member States, and promoting strategies and initiating actions for building consensus with the social partners.
Strengthening Technical Capabilities CosU Benefit Workshop The implementation tasks required for the creation of the CSM&E are premised on trained personnel and easily applicable methodologies which can be used to assess
the various proposals and
advise
governments, special interests and the
population at large of the positive and negative impacts that result from the implementation of the CSM&E. TASU undertook the organisation of a Regional Workshop that provided training for a cadre of national and regional offi cials CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE I997
Yvonne Holder
in the application
of appropriate analytical
tools and methodologies for examining net benefits. at the micro and macro economic levels, ofpolicy measures taken in the context of the CSM&E. All Member States were invited to send two participants
as
well
as
the OECS and
Consensus-building with the Social
Partners
TASU supports the position that
the
development of policies in the region must of necessity require the full support and involvement of the regional public. The social partners - NGOs, organised labour,
the CARICOM Secretariats. This Workshop, conducted by a regional
the private sector and
consultant, tookplace in Barbados andthe mix of skills and disciplines that the
major stakeholders in the implementation of the CSM&E and an important element
participants brought to the exercise provided an added dimension to an
the
media
to its success. Hence, an understanding
are
of
key policy issues that inform this critical
decision and the implications
interesting and valuable experience.
-
of its
implementation for the integration of the Statisticians Encounter
region, demand
An excellent opportunity arose for pertinent interaction with
a
critical group
of technicians in the region on the CSM&E
when the Twenty-First meeting of the Standing Committee of Caribbean
process
a
constant and continuous
of national and
regional
consultations to foster consensus-building. TASU initiated a process of consensus building activities aimed at encouraging and promoting consensual approaches among the social partners on issues
Statisticians (SCCS) was held in St Kitts the members of the SCCS are themselves
pertinent to the creation of the CSM&E.
both providers of critical inputs to the
on developing 'smart partnerships' with
policy determinations and implementation
process
of the CSM&E, as well
as
stakeholders in their capacity as citizens
of the community. The encounter provided a perspective on how the statistical process supports the formulation of decisions on the CSM&E'
highlighting the social and economic realities that implementation of the CSM&E entails and which Member States must address and operationalise through
the provision of accurate and timely statistical data.
The delivery adopted by the Unit , depended
private sector organisations in the beneficiary countries, in planning and executing the activities. The target groups represented a wide range ofthe social partners. All the sessions engendered dynamic and informative interaction between the social partners
and Secretariat Personnel. The
consultations attracted an average attendance of about one hundred people and were held in the following Member States: Page 67
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS in the Caribbean
- TXPLORING A NEW PATTADIGM *
The establishment of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) as an inter-governmental agency in I 99 I marked the filling of a critical void in managing the disaster experiences of the Anglophone Caribbean, chief among them
being the destructive annual phenomena called the hurricanes. While the focus of CDERA on disaster preparedness and response, was and remains well founded,
the hazard events which affected CARICOM Member States in 1996 have been instructive to an emerging disaster managementparadigm. Development of this archetype has been catalysed by the crises which have resulted
from continuing volcanic activity in Montserrat, the eruption of amud-volcano in Trinidad, floods in Guyana and the
hurricane emergencies following the devastation of the Leeward Islands by, particularly, hurricanes Luis and Marilyn.
Claude Hogan
there have been five eruptions between 1718 and 1979;The Valley of Desolation in Dominica in 1880; and the Sulphur
Springs
in St. Lucia in 1776.
Mont
Liamigua in St. Kitts is believed to have erupted in 1692 and I 843. Kick'em Jenny, a submarine volcano in the southern Grenadines, has erupted frequently since it was first identified as a volcano in 1939. The relocation of populations at tremendous economic and social cost have been the experiences ofGuadeloupe and St. Vincent and the Grenadines during the eruptions in those countries in 1979. The latter case may be compared to the situation in Montserrat except that residents were relocated from an area of sparse
infrastructure in north St. Vincent to the more developed areas of Kingstown and other areas. The heavy deposits of ash on
Barbados from the St. Vincent volcanic episode and the tsunami threat of a Kick 'em Jenny underline the vulnerability of
the entire Region of dormant or active volcanoes.
The Case of Montserrat: Linking the past with the Present There have been three other volcanoseismic crises at Montserrat's Soufriere Hills Volcano: 1897; 1933-37 and 196667. Manifestations of these crises included numerous small earthquakes and increased fumarolic activity at the Soufrieres. The
SRU believes that these past crises represented periods when the volcano attempted to erupt but failed. The Wadge and Isaacs Report of 1987, undertaken as
Background Volcanoes can erupt suddenly and violently causing majoi damage and loss life. Volcanoes usually give an indication of an eruption weeks, months oreven years in advance and can, conversely, maintain eruptive activity for up to several years. of
According to the records of CDERA, there are thirteen active volcanoes in the Caribbean with ten of these located in six of the smallerisland states. Therecords of the Seismic Research Unit (SRU) of the University of the West Indies indicate that some of the most catastrophic eruptions
have occurred in the Caribbean and it should be assumed "that volcanoes which have erupted in the past have potential for
eruption in the future."
There have been several volcanic eruptions in CARICOM Member States: the Soufriere Volcano of St. Vincentwhere Page 68
Volcanic Activity 1995. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JT]NE 1997
part of the Pan Caribbean Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Project (PCDPP), the predecessor to CDERRA, has gone so faras topresent simulations of another series of volcanic episodes and to forecast this activity to occur in the midnineties. The dramatic events in Montserrat as
of
18
July 1995 emphasise the need for
governments and populations threatened by flood, volcanic or other hazards to use
The Montserrat Volcano Observatory, corroborated by leading seismologists and volcanologists of the United States and other countries, has declared the northern
half of Montserrat 'safe'. It is
adequate shelter for those who have been relocated;
-
and St. Patrick's areas on the east
will be no [sic] death-threatening activity to
and south flanks of the volcano, are not expected to return home in the foreseeable future.
considered expert opinion that "there
this zone although some parts may suffer from heavy ashfall."
the analyses and recommendations of
(ii)
The Impact
scientists in disaster mitigation planning.
Montserrat's Soufriere Hills Volcano erupted on the evening of July 18, 1995
following volcano-related seismic activity in the current episode datin gbackto 1992.
Three major relocations of population living in close proximity to the Soufriere Hillshave taken place since the eruption in July 1995. The most significant seismic activity since April 1996 was in September andNovember l996andJanuary 1997. A series of dome collapses during the period 17-18 September 1996, lead to the first magmatic explosion of the current eruptive phase of the volcano. Rocks and pumice fell in the east of the island and houses
in the village of Long Ground. A major ash plume rose to 40,000 feet and approximately 600,000 tonnes of ash was deposited on southern Montserrat and the capital Plymouth on the island's were destroyed
enclosingthe volcano) on the southern rim ofthe crater, stirred fears among scientists of a lateral explosion from the volcano and the possibility of a tidal wave should the wall undergo catastrophic collapse.
That tidal wave could have affected Guadeloupe which lies immediately to the south of
Mon""ll;
_
.
Those Montserratians who have not migrated under special arrangements to neighbouring CARICOM Member States or temporarily to the United Kingdom (approximately 7,600 inhabitants), remain housed in nonpurpose-built shelters in the "safe zone" of north-Montserrat which is
that half of the island with infrastructure. CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
sparse
developing programmes for the
youth, including counselling, The volcanic crisis has had a major negative impact on all aspects of life in Montserrat. Economic activity has been curtailed with a corresponding decline in government revenues. There has been significantjob loss in all sectors including retail trade and small business sectors. Families continue to endure enforced separation, severe income loss and loss of privacy, the construction, agriculture, tourism,
associated
with living in
training and the development recreational facilities.
of
The disruption of life has demoralised a large sector of the population. The youth
are tending increasingly towards involvement in negative social behaviour and the plight of the elderly, many of whom have lost their lifetime investment, is cause for serious concern.
cramped
conditions in non purpose-built shelters which are mainly church and school buildings. Part ofthe unplanned result has been the increasing demand on the social
Response Actions
Regional support for Montserrat has been sustained over the period of the crisis
services, including the schools, of
in forms of technical and financial
neighbouring Antigua and Barbuda where according to one official "it was not at all
through the:
a
rorally ouo,n,n:; _
west coast. This ash plume also forced the closure of the airport in Guadeloupe while
several others continue to cause intermittent closure of Montserrat's lone W.H. Bramble Airport. In November 1996, the instability of the Galway's wall (one portion of the mountain range partly
The residents of Long Ground
the
it
..
The Govemment ofthe twin island state,
was conjectured, was finally able to implement arrangements which reduced the need to bus children to
andfrom school,
since as a result of the influx of students from Montserrat, many who commuted to schools in the capital were encouraged to attend the schools nearest to their home.
The social scientific value of this misadventure which apparently also reduced acute overcrowding
in
some
schools in Antigua may be worthy of some
study and analysis. In any event, while commendations are in order for the timely and faithful response of the Government of Antigua and Barbudato the plight of the people of Montserrat, the situation speaks to a greater challenge for the Region.
assistance to the Govemment of Montserrat
-
CARICOM Secretariat; Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA);
-
Seismic Research Unit, University of the West Indies;
-
Caribbean Development Bank; and
Hundreds emigrated
The current priorities of the Govemment
(i)
the provision of housing and
of
Montserratians have
to neigbouring CARICOM
countries as part of a programme of support agreed by Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community involving:
- the waiver of work
permit
requirements and the easing of immigration restrictions
-
;
facilitating of school placement for
accompanying children; the
provision of:
-
A New Reality of Montserrat are:
CARICOM Member States.
-
health supplies and temporary health personnel to ease the difficulties in this sector;
the services of a Physical Planner
with emphasis on the efficient utilisation of the Limited land Page 69
resources of the area;
-
the services of a Communications and Information Specialist with the emphasis on the development of a sustainable system for disseminating
public information related to the volcano across the region:
-
shelter facilities for displaced persons; and
-
facilitating arespiteparticularly for children from the harsh conditions
of a generally successful environment;
Moving Beyond Emergency Response The CARICOM Secretariat convened, over the period 17-18 February 1997, a
Meeting of Donors to Review the
Programme of Assistance to Montserrat in
Bridgetown, Barbados. That Meeting included representatives from Montserrat,
CDB, CDERA, ECCB, UWI, DTRS, EU FAO PAHO/VVHO, UNCHS, UNIFEM, UNDP, UNESCO and the CARICOM Secretariat. The Meeting agreed on a programme of technical and financial support to address not only the short term needs, but also the development of north Montserrat. The list ofcritical areas identified and agreed on by Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community for attention were: Planning Support, Housing, Infrastructural
Development, Social Sector Support, Technical Training, Communications,
Economic Rehabilitation, Essential Services, Health, Productive Sector
SuPPort'
north Montserrat to include
establishment
The establishment of a technical team to elaborate several project proposals for housing etc., and prepare a long term developmentplan was also agreedon. The
Regional Resource Team (RRT) will comprise in the first instance, team members from Montserrat, the DTRS,
UNDP, CDB, CDERA with
the
of a CARICOM Village
comprising a seventy-five unit housing
The Government of Montserrat has indicatedthatthere is sufficient land space to meet all the needs ofMontserratians and convinced that the island can remain viable entity even ifthe southern portion
is also
role as coordinator. There is an urgent need for over one thousand permanent units of housing to
accommodate relocated residents and displaced persons. The planning exercise which has been undertaken with funding
To what extent is hazard assessment information taken into consideration in development plans?
How many hazard specific plans can the Region afford or cannot afford.
Does the Region have a clearly
remains uninhabitable. The word from
developed concept ofthe requirements for shelter and shelter management?
scientists both at home and abroad is that this is a real possibility for at least the next three years.
Should the mandate of CDERA be expanded beyond Preparedness and
Questions of a New Paradigm
As the case of Montserrat has highlighted:
the
CARICOM Secretariat assuming the lead
Does the Region possess the insurance
and re-insurance capacity to adequately absorb attrition type catastrophies?
project.
a
*r.***
Page 70
from the CARICOM Secretariat and the United Nations Centre for Housing and Shelter (UNCHS) is expected to be followed by a major housing project in
What are the ingredients formobilising national/regional responses for crises of a long term duration?
What are the parameters foreconomic
and social adjustment catalysed by disasters?
Response to include the other phases of the disaster cycle, viz: Recovery; Rebuilding; Prevention; and
Mitigation. Answers to the foregoing questions are at the heart of the emerging paradigm of comprehensive disaster management which will have a bearing on the Region's quest
for sustainable development.
I CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
NOW THAT TIIE SHIP HAS DOCKED (Cont'd from page 5l)
simply may terminate the arrangement
Government or its officials. the U.S. will not claim sovereign immunity if the remedy sought is damages. The Shiprider agreement as proposed by the U.S. provides full immunity from
previous status quo.
criminal prosecution for U.S. officials and immunity from civil suit limited to actsperformed inthecourse oftheirduties.
(Note that the Trinidad and Tobago agreement omits this provision). Additionally, there is no established mechanism capable of ensuring a final resolution of claims. Neither is any assurance provided to the coastal state
upon three months notice and return to the
STRATEGIC INTERVENTION TOWARDS STRENGTHENING THE CSM&E
Conclusion
The preamble of the Barbados
(Continued from page 67)
agreementunderscores themagnitude and complex nature of the problem of illicit
traffic in narcotic drugs and the links between illicit traffic in drugs and other criminal activities. Significantly also, it recalls, inter alia, the 1996 U.N. International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) Regional Meeting Plan of Action for Drug Control Co-ordination
Jamaica.
This took the form of a Round Table with the panelists presenting perspectives on:
The Integration of Capital & Financial
Markets
and Co-operation in the Caribbean. The
will not claim immunity from
UNDCP brings all the parties with
Critical Establishment Issues
significant interests in the region, including
The Escape Clause Finally, perhaps the greatest safeguard
the European Union, to the negotiating table. It offers a forum with the potential of shaping a new multilateral maritime cooperation arrangement which draws
Implications for Local Government Strategies for Public Education, and Media support, and looked at strategies
that the U.S.
suit.
VIII.
in the Barbados and Jamaica agreements
is the three months termination clause. This may be contrasted with a one year termination provision in the Shiprider agreement. Should the U.S. fail to honour
its commitments Barbados and Jamaica
upon the best aspects ofthe Jamaica and Barbados agreements.
(Dr. Kathy Ann Brown is a Lecturer, Faculty of lnw U.WJ., Cave Hill).
AMENDING THE TREATY OF
felt, however, that these concerns have
CHAGUARAMAS
been taken into account in the drafting
(Cont'd from page 64)
on the imposition of new restrictions
of
this Protocol. In the first place, specific safeguards and waivers have been
upon entry into force of the Instrument. This is followed by a requirement to notify the competentOrgan of
inserted into the Protocol at Articles 38c, 38c(bis) and 38b as well as in the relevant provision of Protocol I as cited
relevantrestrictions in place upon entry into force of the Protocol. The most important phase in this process of removing applicable restrictions is the establishment of relevant programmes for the purpose. And it is at this stage that Member States, as an attribute
above. Furthermore, the proposal is to
of sovereignty, will determine the types of restrictions to be removed,
and the number, manner and time-
frame for their removal. Consequential Importance
of
the
Protocol on Disadvantaged Countries, Regions and Sectors Some concems have been expressed
by representatives of some OECS countries with regard to signing on to Protocol II without knowing the specifics ofthe Protocol on Disadvantaged Countries, Regions and Sectors. It is CARICOM PERSPECTIVE JUNE 1997
for The Way Forward. The Jamaican Institute of Management (JIM) was the agency which collaborated in the planning
Belize.:
A one-day Seminar was organised in partnership with the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, under the theme, "Preparing Belize for Establishment and Participation in the CAM&E". The key areas ofinterest to Belize centred on issues related to Trade Finance,
Production and Movement of skilled persons. Suriname.
apply all Protocols provisionally, pend-
ing their definitive entry into force through the satisfaction ofrelevant con-
ditions including ratification by Mem-
ber States in accordance with their respective conditionalprocedures. And, if during its implementation, Protocol II is perceived to be operating adversely on the economies of the LDCs despite the safeguard mechanisms and waivers mentioned
above, appropriate remedial
measures could be provided in the Protocol on Disadvantaged Countries, Regions and Sectors to ensure that
Associatie Van Surinaamse Fabrikanten
ASFA) was TASU's collaborating partner in organising for a CSM&E Seminar which was enhanced by the participation of the (
President of Suriname and the CARICOM Secretary-General at the opening session. The group sessions addressed issues on: Trade, Finance, Production possibilities, Regulatory and Administrative measures and the movement of skills.
T
the LDCs continue to enjoY their comparative advantage vis-a-vis the
MDCs in terms of distribution of benefits from the integration process. Page
7l
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