We are small nations in the scheme of things; some of dots on the map. Why do we believe that if we ban together it would be to our detriment? Why are we so arrogant that we believe that peoplen are going to take what is righly ours? Isn’t it better for us to concentrate on finding the best solutions, implement good systems to try to alleviate some of the negatives of CSME -instead of bashing it.

Let us be our honest, our comments come from our fears. Fear has no place in progress. CSME can work if implemented properly. Infact, today Trinidad has more jamaicans working there than 7 years ago; Engineers who are making a differece. In fact, Trinidad has a problem getting people to work as cashiers, perhaps there are guyanese, jamaicans who could offer this service. The possibilities are limitless. Let us not limit our minds.

*Forgot the link..

In Grenada after Ivan the first foreign exchange earning sector to recover was tourism. Agriculture probably still has not completely recovered.

If I were to look at Trinidad I would point out that it’s economy hangs on oil which was great for you 6 months ago, but with the recession now looming, if Manning doesn’t reign in spending I think life in T’nt is going to get even tougher. It has happened before in the 80’s, it could happen again.

Tourism is by no means perfect, but there are no perfect solutions in this world. Further the tourism industry in Barbados has led to a far more equitable wealth distribution than exists in TnT currently. Apart from the hotel aspect of the industry, it has led to a number of spin offs, restaurants, cafe’s, landscapers, pool maintenance, wine merchants, spas, etc. etc. etc.

Marginal

You seem to have fallen into the fallacy that somehow a service economy is “not real” as opposed to one that does “real things’ like manufacturing and minerals. To describe an industry that has underpinned Barbados’ economic growth for more than half a century as “tenuous” seems somewhat counter intuitive to me. Indeed in the light of an emerging China most of the world’s manufacturing is moving towards the east. Including most of the garment manufacturing in Trinidad!

What we are witnessing is very careful political theatre on the part of our politicians. Owen Arthur was a vocal advocate for the CSME, and you can see what happened to him. Our current political directorate plays lip service to the “anti immigration” crowd, but when you look at their actions they have continued to push for the implementation of the CSME. Indeed the minister responsible for immigration recently urged graduates to seek work in the region!

The hard truth of the matter is that individually we are all too small to be viable in the global marketplace. Collectively we are a very small blip on the radar, but at least we show up. The EPA has shown that most metropolitan countries think of the area as one region and the logistics of dealing bilaterally with “all these little rocks” is simply not worth the trouble.

Some of the anti regionalism is simply thinly cloaked racism (one commenter on Barbados Underground indicated that he had no problem with black Guyanese but had problems with indian Guyanese coming to Barbados). However I would believe that the bulk of it is simply a lack of education about the CSME and its benefits.

The average Bajan is woefully uninformed about the CSME and the benefits of being part of the CSME. Into this information vacuum pours the loudest voices on the subject, most of which comes from the nationalist (some might say almost fascist) crowd. The failure of our public figures to effectively engage in this debate is perhaps the biggest threat to the success of the CSME.

The implications of this failure to engage are quite far reaching, as the success of the Caribbean in the future is inexorably intertwined with the success of the CSME.

And this is so whether we like it or not.

Marginal

I do as well.

Poor CSME. Maybe they should concentrate on the ‘other’ aspects, and leave out this mass migration a la European Union for much, much later? To me, it seems like they’re putting the cart before the horse. That migration policy has wreaked havoc on some EU states – especially Britain. I can’t imagine how it would be for Barbados. Why are we so keen to implement that part of the CSME agreement anyway?!