Regional Leadership is Lacking

The Caribbean Is One Nation.

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West Indies Cricket

Once more our Caribbean leaders have concluded another summit(CARICOM Summit 36^th Heads of Government Conference, concluded Barbados July 4^th, 2017) and as expected myriad matters have been left undone, untouched or downright ignored. It is now obvious that unless new, enlightened leadership springs up, we can expect no real solutions to many of the problems we currently face. It is very sad but very true

We still cannot solve the problems with LIAT and it must be a source of great concern to both the workers and the travelling public, that we cannot successfully operate a single airline. We have a regional university that produces hundreds of citizens with degrees in management but we seem to either ignore them or allow them to go overseas and put their education to the use of others. It means the hard-earned tax payers monies, that paid for their education, is utilized to build other economies, that in most cases, are stronger than ours.

The region is now plagued with increasing violent crime, challenges to the environment and other issues that must be addressed if future generations are not to be burdened. We cannot continue the inertia and pettiness that continue to be the stock and barrel of essentially visionless leadership. Matters such as a full understanding of how the region will handle the Trump presidency should be occupying their minds. The public should expect our leaders to use their summits for more productive purposes rather than old fashioned window dressing. Furthermore, the wrangling involving some leaders is in very poor taste and does not engender hope for the region’s citizens.

We also note that the response to the Venezuela crisis sounded rather weak. One of the failures of regional leadership, has been the inability to have stronger ties between all the countries in our geographic location. It is obvious that Caribbean English speaking citizens do not have the passion to be involved in the struggles of others. There is a language/Cultural divide that must be explored.  Outside of a sprinkling of the ever-dwindling progressive regional thinkers, the problems of Venezuela do not attract widespread support.

The protracted territorial dispute involving Guyana and Venezuela has also caused some regional governments to pause because any support for Venezuela would be considered as being against Guyana. Although Guyana is a South American country, its support comes from within the English speaking Caribbean states. This suspicion of Venezuela is nothing new, taking into consideration the fact, that many Caribbean countries did not rush to embrace the   Caribe initiative offered by the late Venezuelan President Chavez.

Sadly, we are also experiencing poor leadership in our sports department. Our cricketers, have been for decades, our only example of lasting unity within the region. However, for the past five or so years, it has been retarded by poor leadership. In cricketing terms, we have number eleven “tail enders” opening the batting and failing to score. The recent debacle involving Darren Bravo and Dave Cameron, the current president of Cricket West indies,( formerly West Indies Cricket Board), clearly demonstrated that the attitudes of both the players and the top management of Cricket West Indies, need to be examined and measures put in place to assist them in working harmoniously for the betterment of the game and the region.

The Mahogany Coconut Group therefore firmly endorses the position of Dr. Keith Rowley, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, who believes that Cricket West Indies should not operate as a private entity because cricket should be a public asset. Dr. Rowley intends to seek the courts position, on what essentially boils down to the question: Who owns cricket-the Cricket West Indies or the public?

The inept collective leadership apparently cannot even solve the problems we have with the management of our major sport and unifier. It is fair to suggest, in cricket terminology, that it is failing both on and off the field.