Solving Our Own Problems

-
                                                           
                                                             by William Skinner

Lloyd  Best
Sometimes in our collective wisdom, to demonstrate our intellect, we lose focus of the very same problems we are feverishly trying to solve. The failure of Caribbean thinkers to develop creative and sustainable models of development is now clear to all.
The future of vibrant and prosperous Caribbean economies will not be found in copying:  Singapore, Cyprus or any such economies. The problems of our Caribbean educational system and more directly the University of the West Indies will not be solved by how universities in America or the United Kingdom are managed.
We have to recognize our unique position as a region that is slowly, and in some cases, successfully emerging from colonialism.  Accompanying this desired emergence is a culture and approach to development that has not been properly analyzed. One of the few Caribbean thinkers, who tried to analyze this emergence and culture, was the late Lloyd Best of Trinidad and Tobago. There is a Caribbean civilization but we have opted to reduce it to how others define us and think we should be developed and managed.
This failure to accept ourselves has led to repeated blunders in not only how we confront our challenges but how we seek to overcome them. Hence, we seem to be constantly reinventing a wheel that is broken beyond repair. Most Caribbean nations have yet to design and develop a proper network of roads; proper public transportation; an enlightened approach to housing, public health and education. We have now reached the stage where the very existence of the University of the West Indies is being questioned by citizens.
In the mean time, in the absence of a comprehensive model of socio-economic development, we find ourselves, returning to the clutches of the International Monetary Fund and other predatory international financial institutions. Their representatives arrive and tell our leaders what policies to execute and when to execute them.
As we approach two hundred years of the abolition of slavery, we must look for regional solutions to the myriad  problems we now face. We have much to offer the world in all the economic areas, we are currently mismanaging but once we reduce regional discourse to nothing more than one-upmanship politics , our arrival at total socio-economic freedom may well be permanently delayed. Hence the failure to make CARICOM a more vibrant regional institution is one of our biggest failures in the post independence era.
The questions should very well be: Where do we intend to be in the next century? What are we trying to build?  Where is the real road map? Unless we ponder on these things we would forever be held hostage: mentally, intellectually, socially and economically by those who seek to exploit our failure to create a new Caribbean nation.
Those who see us as being ready to be exploited or to become exploited by  another round of global imperialism are our true enemies. We, therefore, should listen to those citizens, who daily try to build and promote our own Caribbean civilization. If we are waiting on answers from New York, Hong Kong, London, Yale and Harvard, we are truly in a perilous state.

William Skinner is a commentator on Caribbean social, political and cultural issues.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oh Hell No, Mr Trudeau !

-
Image
The Caribbean Is One Nation. Justin Trudeau "But something is missing from this cabinet, from this reflection of the Canada of 2015. There are no people that look like me or my children or my grandchildren, despite there being at least six Liberal caucus members with Caribbean and African immigrant backgrounds. Once again, blacks and blackness are invisible. It is as if there is no black in Canada. Maybe despite all its diversity Canada in 2015 is still a white man’s country, where as in time of old all eligible and desirable non-whites and males have been co-opted into whiteness. Just like the Italians, Greeks, Ukrainians, Afghans, etc. that are now all white Canadians. Diversity through assimilation. And as has always been the case, the one unassimilable group – primary because of the colour of skin and the historic outsider status – is blacks. And this is at a time when south of the border there is a black president. Maybe it is true that Canadian and U.S. cultures and
Read more

Respect Hatians' Rights

-
Image
                                                          The Caribbean Is One Nation. President Danilo Medina We call on the Government of the Dominican Republic to repeal the nefarious rulings of the DR constitutional court and return the dignity to those Haitians born of Hatian descent in the Dominican Republic, by restoring their rights to be citizens.    We further make it public that we will oppose the Dominican Republic becoming a member of CARICOM  unless this blot is removed from its affairs. The Haitian people seem to have been identified, as the one people in our region, who must suffer indignity after indignity; be it political, natural or man made.  Haiti has been treated, not as the most progressive post slave society in our region but as an unwanted step child by the entire region. Yet in the face of betrayal and ruthless internal and external political machinations, the Haitian people, whenever given the opportunity demonstrate an inherent resolve, not so rea
Read more

The Killing of Dr. Rodney

-
Image
The killing of Dr Rodney By Rickey Singh NOW that Carnival 2014 is over, perhaps the people of Trinidad and Tobago could spare some time to reflect on developments in other Caricom states. One such country is Guyana. An issue currently in sharp focus in Guyana is a probe into the killing, decades ago, of the internationally famous historian and crusader for freedom and social justice Walter Rodney. Thirty-three years after this intellectual and writer was killed in a bomb blast in his car on the night of June 13, 1980, in Georgetown, a three-member team of Caribbean legal experts has been established to begin an enquiry into the circumstances surrounding the killing of Dr Rodney.  “Assassination” has always been the unofficial verdict of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), the party of which Dr Rodney was a founder-leader, as well as from thousands of its supporters across Guyana. They continue to blame the administration of late president Forbes Burnham for the murder.
Read more