Caribbean Matters: Countering poor U.S. coverage of CARICOM’s 50th anniversary meeting

Caribbean heads of presidency met from July 3-5 in Trinidad and Tobago to kick off a 12 months of celebration marking the fiftieth anniversary of CARICOM (the Caribbean Group). One of many key areas of debate on the group’s forty fifth assembly involved confronting the challenges of local weather change.

As per typical, there was nearly zero protection in U.S. legacy media. Frankly, I had no expectations of main reportage, since, as I hold saying, the Caribbean is barely of curiosity to People when a hurricane is crossing it and headed towards the U.S. mainland. I do know that sounds cynical. However I used to problem my school college students to call any Caribbean head of state, and the standard response charge was zero. After all, lots of those self same college students couldn’t identify greater than three or 4 Caribbean nations on a clean define map; the bulk couldn’t identify any. 

Whereas I used to be penning this story, my goddaughter dropped by my home together with her grownup son; they’re of Caribbean descent. I made a decision to query them for this piece. Neither knew what CARICOM is, and neither may identify a Caribbean head of state aside from the late Fidel Castro. Be that as it could, and given the truth that many individuals within the U.S. are lastly starting to pay extra consideration to local weather change (minus right-wing local weather deniers), all of us must be involved with the very actual conditions confronted by our Caribbean neighbors on the entrance traces. 

RELATED STORY: Caribbean Issues: CARICOM meets in Belize

Caribbean Issues is a weekly sequence from Day by day Kos. If you’re unfamiliar with the area, take a look at Caribbean Issues: Attending to know the international locations of the Caribbean.

With U.S. media missing, I rely totally on Caribbean information sources and the CARICOM web site to seek out out what’s happening down there—and the latest CARICOM occasion was no exception.

As Antigua and Barbuda’s Observer reported on July 3:

The packed agenda for the Assembly tackles a number of urgent points for the Group, together with meals safety considerations, local weather change and the local weather finance agenda; the continued difficulties in Haiti; safety points; exterior relations issues and the CARICOM Single Market and Economic system

The Heads of Authorities will have interaction a number of worldwide visitors, together with the President of Rwanda, H.E. Paul Kagame; the UN Secretary-Common, H.E. Antonio Guterres; President-Designate of the United Nations Local weather Change Convention (COP 28), H.E. Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jabe; the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea H.E. Han Duck-Soo; US Secretary-of-State, Mr Anthony Blinken, and Minority Chief within the US Home of Representatives, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries.

One would suppose that with each Blinken and Jeffries in attendance, extra consideration could be paid right here. Nope.

RELATED STORY: Caribbean Issues: VP Harris visits the Bahamas to satisfy with Caribbean leaders

I additionally learn concerning the U.S. delegation on Loop Information:

The Members of the delegation are:

Chief Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Chief, U.S. Home of Representatives
Rep. Amata Coleman Radewagen, Member, Committee on Veterans’ Affairs; Member, Pure Sources Committee; Member, International Affairs Committee
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, Rating Member, International Affairs Committee; Member, Committee on Monetary Providers
Rep. Steven Horsford, Chair, Congressional Black Caucus; Member, Monetary Providers Committee; Member, Armed Providers Committee
Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, Member, Committee on Power and Commerce; Member, Committee on Homeland Safety
Rep. Joyce Beatty, Member, Committee on Monetary Providers
Rep. Joaquin Castro, Member, Everlasting Choose Committee on Intelligence; Member, International Affairs Committee’

The Miami Herald is likely one of the few main mainland information shops that stories often and constantly on Caribbean doings—and far thanks goes to their award-winning journalist Jacqueline Charles.

Charles’ July 3 report: 

It started as a bunch of former British colonies, led by 4 of the Caribbean’s fiercest and most independent-thinking leaders of their day when it got here to international coverage. Realizing, nonetheless, that their energy as small states lay of their unity, particularly in the course of the Chilly Warfare, the 4 pioneers of the Caribbean Group, or CARICOM, joined forces to create the framework for a standard market and what integrationists hoped could be a political union to find out the coverage of the area. Fifty years later, that alliance, led on the time by prime ministers Errol Barrow of Barbados, Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Norman Manley of Jamaica and Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, is as we speak a regional political and financial grouping of 15 Caribbean international locations that features French-speaking Haiti and Dutch-speaking Suriname. All however one, Montserrat, a British dependent territory within the japanese Caribbean, are impartial. The opposite 5 British dependent territories of the Caribbean area are affiliate members.

[…]

“These early steps taken in Chaguaramas have led us far past what the naysayers and doomsayers have been sure would have been a brief lifespan and one other disastrous shattering. However right here we’re, 50 years on, facet by facet in mutual solidarity,” Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley stated Monday as he recalled the signing of the treaty on July 4, 1973, within the Trinidadian metropolis that laid the muse for CARICOM. “We’ve confronted challenges and we’ve risen to beat them.”

[…]

Just like the European Union, CARICOM was fashioned to advertise regional financial integration. However not like the EU, it has lagged behind the creation of a single forex, the removing of commerce boundaries and the motion of individuals and expertise throughout member states.

Charles continued her protection on Monday, shifting towards the devastation brought on by hurricanes.

Patricia Scotland remembers when she first began speaking concerning the connections between local weather and debt. The newly elected secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations, the political grouping made up principally of former territories of the British Empire, Scotland had seen firsthand how one exterior shock like a hurricane may devastate a rustic, plunging it deeper into debt with no recourse however to borrow cash at charges it couldn’t afford.

Her personal nation, Dominica, misplaced 226% of its Gross Home Product in 2017 when Class 5 Hurricane Maria plowed by earlier than devastating the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Two years later, Hurricane Dorian inflicted losses of about $3.4 billion on The Bahamas, an quantity equal to one-quarter of the nation’s GDP, in response to the Inter-American Improvement Financial institution. The GDP loss was the equal of the U.S. dropping the mixed financial outputs of California, Texas and Florida.

“All of those international locations are beginning to suppose, ‘Am I going to be hit this time?’ ” Scotland stated in an interview with the Miami Herald. “We all know it’s not ‘if,’ it’s ‘when.’ And so this actuality, which is barely current within the Caribbean, is beginning to impinge on the consciousness of different international locations as a result of no extra can they are saying [you’re crying] wolf, as a result of the wolf is right here and he’s consuming our lunch.”

And as Gail Alexander, senior political reporter for the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian, wrote of leaders’ frustrations on July 5:

With the Caribbean now within the hurricane season, Caricom chairman Roosevelt Skerrit expressed concern a couple of lack of agency choices on local weather change.

He admitted that he someday looks like giving up and never attending COP local weather change conferences. Skerrit spoke at a flag elevating ceremony marking Caricom’s fiftieth anniversary which came about in heavy rain yesterday on the Chaguaramas Conference Centre.

He stated individuals are dwelling in a world which is tougher than it was 50 and even 20 years in the past and Caricom needs to be united as a result of too many injustices are being inflicted on to it as a Caribbean group. He cited local weather change and “kicking down the bucket of agency choices” to deal with Caricom’s considerations. “Generally we really feel like giving up and never going to any of the COP (Convention of the Events) conferences however we mustn’t ever relent on our battle in opposition to injustice,” he stated.

If there isn’t any eleventh hour volte-face, Caribbean Group (CARICOM) leaders final week took what will probably be their most consequential resolution within the half a century of the present iteration of the regional integration motion. They agreed at their summit in Port of Spain to, by subsequent March, go the total hog on the proper of residents of the group to reside and work in one another’s international locations. Whereas this unfettered freedom of motion is already loved by residents of the Organisation of East Caribbean States (OECS) (a bunch of seven international locations  in  the Leeward and Windward Islands which might be individually members of the group)  it’s not an obligation of CARICOM, whose present association covers solely a restricted class of expert employees.

This growth is profoundly essential on two fronts:

First, it’s the second important pillar upon  which CARICOM’s ambition to transition to a real single  market and financial system should stand – the free motion of labour. The opposite, although nonetheless a piece in progress, the free motion of capital, is essentially in place. For probably the most half, the member states which might be signatories to the settlement on the only market and financial system adhere to the unrestricted proper of CARICOM nationals to determine companies wherever locally.

Second, it underlined the vitality  of the previous three years – unmatched  for the reason that early days of the group  – to get issues completed, beginning with the 2021 launch of a report on how one can reignite CARICOM by a fee chaired by Avinash Persaud, a Barbadian economist who’s shut adviser to that nation’s prime minister, Mia Mottley.

Will Kenton wrote this explainer on CSME for Investopedia: 

The Caribbean Single Market and Economic system (CSME) is an initiative of the Caribbean Group and Frequent Market (CARICOM) that might combine member-states right into a single financial unit. The tip end result could be the free motion of capital, providers, know-how and expert professionals inside the area.

The broader objective of Caribbean financial unification could be to assist member economies—lots of that are small and nonetheless creating—compete with bigger rivals within the international market.

Key Takeaways

The Caribbean Single Market and Economic system (CSME) is an initiative of the 20 member states and associates that make up Caribbean Group and Frequent Market (CARICOM).
The CSME would would combine all member-states right into a single financial unit.
The objective is enable free of charge motion of capital, providers, know-how and expert professionals inside the area.1
It’s hoped CSME will give member international locations a stronger footing in an more and more aggressive and globalized market.

This was the primary CARICOM assembly the place I had the chance to look at your complete three-plus hours of the assembly’s opening ceremony. The published stream was hosted by T&T Guardian journalist Dike Rostant, who carried out a number of attention-grabbing interviews previous to the beginning of the official program. He opened with a dialog concerning the situation of freedom of motion all through the Caribbean with veteran journalist Andy Johnson.

One of many (a number of) issues I discovered attention-grabbing within the ceremony was the various illustration within the prayers supplied; Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, Orisha, and Pentecostal religion leaders all participated, representing the broad range of the foremost religions practiced within the area. As an Orisha practitioner right here within the States, the place my religion is nearly ignored, I used to be happy.  

The CARICOM Track was additionally a part of the ceremony:

The CARICOM Track is the official, patriotic music of the Caribbean Group, which celebrates the historical past, tradition and id of the folks of the Caribbean. It’s for use primarily at ceremonial and Group occasions. In celebrating the Fortieth Anniversary of CARICOM in 2013, the CARICOM Secretariat launched a Track Competitors to encourage the participation of all CARICOM Member States in composing a music that might encourage regional pleasure and unity, have a good time our range and spotlight our shared imaginative and prescient and aspirations.

The composition “Celebrating CARICOM” by Ms. Michele Henderson, a extremely acclaimed recording artiste from the Commonwealth of Dominica, was chosen by a regional panel of judges because the official CARICOM Track. A singular characteristic of the Track that celebrates our linguistic range, is the Kwéyòl spoken within the Lesser Antilles and Suriname’s Sranan Tongo that punctuate the rhythmic bridge

Right here’s a efficiency of the tune, from 2022.

Lyrics:

CELEBRATING CARICOMVerse 1

From many distant lands, our fore fathers cameSome looking for journey, some sure in chainsThrough battles waged and foughtThrough victory and painBy check of their courageOur freedom was gainedIn homage to these gone earlier than usThe heroes of lands within the sunWe vow to hitch fingers and to focusOn constructing one Caribbean

ChorusRaise your voices highSing of your Caribbean prideSing it loud and strongFeel our hearts beat as oneCelebrate in songAs we rise to heights the place we belongSound the victory drumFor CARICOM

Verse 2Though nice and numerous be our ethnicitiesThe bonds that unite us are stronger than theseWe dine we pray we love, we dance and we playWe relate to one another the West Indian wayToday as folks unitedDetermined and steadfast we standWe look to a model new horizonThe future now firmly in our fingers

Refrain

BridgeHélé hélé bwavo (Shout Bravo)Opo yu stem CARICOM (Increase your voices CARICOM)Lévé lévé vwa’w (Increase your Voices)Naki yu dron CARICOM (Beat your drum CARICOM)Tanbouyé tanbou a wo (Drummer drum woh)Opo you stem CARICOM (Increase your voices CARICOM)Lévé lévé vwa’w (Increase your voices)

I’ll shut right here, and hope you’ll be part of me within the feedback for extra on CARICOM, and for the weekly Caribbean Information Roundup. 

And circling again to my college students, I discover myself curious to know what number of Caribbean international locations you might be aware of, and what number of Caribbean leaders you’ll be able to identify!