Cultural Penetration Hindering Caribbean Development
"Today popular culture is under siege by US television networks and the current battle against US cultural penetration is even more formidable." Gregory Rebess- Popular media and Cultural Identity in the Caribbean. www.waccglobal.org
During the late 1960’s and early 70’s, progressive Caribbean
thinkers, were warning about cultural penetration and the effects it would have
on the region.
By the end of the 60’s, the most developed islands: Jamaica,
Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana and Barbados, had gained independence, and with
this wave of nationalism, the expectations of the populations grew. This
wave toward nationalism and independence continued into the 70’s as more
islands sought to be politically independent. With political independence, came
the responsibility of fending for ourselves in the world of international
diplomacy and trying our best to be recognized as ready for the world stage.
As the tourism industry sprung to life and the need for
industrial development became the focus of governments, there was also the need
to attract foreign investors. However, those who had escaped delusional thinking
knew that the best way to forge our way in the world was to moderate
development with a dose of realism. Unfortunately, the political managerial class
saw development as mimicking the so-called developed countries.
This refusal to plan made us look to external forces for our
salvation. And by the time we caught ourselves, sometime in the mid-80’s, we
were virtually all on the way , cap in hand, begging international predators,
such as the International Monetary Fund(IMF) to loan us money and run our
economies.
As mentioned, in a previous article, our emigration
opportunities have all but dried up and we are now hearing about “restructuring
our economies”; the need for foreign exchange and we seem incapable of solving
our own problems.
However, we believe that the cultural penetration, we
allowed in the name of development, is perhaps the biggest stumbling block to
solving our problems. Being signatories to many “international” agreements,
have opened the region to a vicious form of competition that we cannot conquer.
Our people have become consumers of goods and services that cannot and are not
produced in our region.
The American fast food establishments;media (television) the music; forms of
dress and how we seem to be dealing with each other, have combined to ensure
that we are now more in debt and beholding to others ,than we ever were ,since
the abolition of slavery and the emergence from colonialism.
It is a great challenge to change what we have allowed to
ignore for the better part of four decades. Like a stranger trying to exist and
acclimatize, in a strange land, we are being forced to change our personalities
and habits in order to survive.
Call us dreamers or say that we are relics from a past era;
we still believe that the only solution is a vibrant, unified Caribbean Nation.
In order to save future generations, from a new wave of imperialism, we must
first save ourselves.
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