With photos by David Papannah
With Guyana having just co-hosted the Caricom Heads of Government Summit, we asked the man/ woman in the street what Caricom means to them as Guyanese, if they were aware of the recently concluded conference and whether they believe we are benefiting from being part of the community. Their comments follow:
Stacey Gordon – ‘Caricom means integration. It’s not a place or just one country, it’s the formation of a collectivity of several countries to build a community which seeks to implement mechanisms of empowerment and development of the Caribbean folks. It means greater empowerment and improvement since two heads are always better than one and it creates forums for the unified discovery of solutions. Yes, I’m fully aware of the 37th Heads of Government Confer-ence as knowledge of current affairs is important. The Carib-bean countries have benefited from Caricom in numerous ways through the establishment of several institutions and programmes which seek to promote social and economic development, create better opportunities and foster free movement amongst Carib-bean countries, examples of these being CSME, CROSQ, CXC etc. Nevertheless, in light of such, Caricom still has a far way to go in ensuring the effective functioning of these institutions as in some cases they have failed us which was highlighted in the recent meeting of the heads of government. There is need for much more performance, dialogue and assessment of these institutions.’
Dellon King – ‘What they’re doing is a good job. I’d love to see many more in the next 50 years, bringing all the countries together. I didn’t know about the conference, but I think Guyana is benefiting 100% from Caricom, because what we’re seeing is that what the previous government didn’t do before, the new government is doing since they took over.’
Leslie Sobers – ‘Guyana shares common experiences with the rest of the Caribbean. Even though the Caribbean Sea doesn’t touch our shore, we have come from practically the same place. We share the same culture, and because of slavery and indentureship, we share common experiences. And so we can feel comfortable being a part of a community with persons who share common ideas, common goals and have common experiences with us. The converse of that would be looking inland, but think about it, we are not Spanish oriented, and around us are persons with Spanish persuasions apart from Brazil. And when we look towards the Caribbean, we see English, Spanish and some French, but we see people who are very much like us. We speak the same language. We understand the same things. We sing Calypso, all our cultural mores or norms are practically the same. In terms of our economics, it would be worthwhile for us and beneficial for us to continue to be part of the community. I think we have benefited significantly; markets have opened up for Guyanese products, we travel freely. The business with the taxes, I’m not too clear on it, but I think we have benefited, because when we negotiate with the rest of the world, we negotiate as a unified body–the Caribbean–as against Guyana trying to negotiate for certain things by itself.’
Shamar Maxwell – ‘I am a part of the general public and I don’t think the general public knows what they do, because they don’t do enough to sensitize us. There was a meeting, I know of that, but that’s only because I know someone who was there. If it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have known about the meeting. For somebody like me, they need to find a way to reach people like me and the general public. I don’t know if or how Guyana benefits because I don’t see anything, I’ve just heard. People would talk about the CSME and some other benefits that I cannot state because I have not seen it anywhere.’
Terrence Thompson – ‘Yes, I’m aware that they had a heads of government conference. I think Guyana could benefit more from being a part of Caricom because I think there needs to be more transparency in what Caricom does. I mean, they had the meeting, but all we know—or all I know, rather—is that they had a meeting. I don’t know what comes out of the meeting more or less. So every year I hear they have this meeting, these heads of government come and meet, but other than that, what is Caricom doing? I think we as the people need progress reports on what is happening in Caricom. There are some fruits, like CSME free flow of people. Also, Caricom is directly responsible for CSEC examinations. Caricom does small things, but there’s more that can be done from Caricom.’
Brandon Mortley – ‘Yes, I’m aware of the conference but I didn’t follow any of the stories. I do think Guyana being a part of Caricom is a good thing. I think it’s going to be very beneficial because we’re still in the Caribbean and we share a good relationship with the other Caribbean countries so I think that’s a really good step we’re taking. I don’t know much about Caricom. I don’t think there’s any aid at all where Caricom is concerned. I mean we’re benefiting because tourism is gonna grow in a way but the country will not really benefit from any handouts, we have to strictly rely on our mother country and that’s Great Britain. Although they stepped away from the EU we still have to look for support somewhere. And we really need to go international, so like in the US somewhere, or maybe in the Netherlands or anywhere further from the Caribbean, because Caribbean countries, they’re good, they’re beautiful, but they won’t benefit our country in any way.’
Dexter Lindo – ‘I was taught about Caricom at a young age in primary school and as my knowledge on it developed over the years, so has the organization itself. I once thought it was just a body, but I later learned that it’s a group of head of states, governments, institutions, organizations and sub organizations working together for the betterment of the entire region and not just its members, though its members stand to benefit the most. It has helped the region a lot but Guyana has seen many benefits both directly and indirectly in various sectors over the years. The education sector has benefited tremendously from Caricom through CSEC and CAPE, which Guyana has undoubtedly been dominating consistently for years, and UWI. They have also helped with infrastructure, skills training, immigration, tourism, business and entrepreneurship, trade, disaster relief, health, and some others. However, there is still so much more that could be done. The CSME concept truly needs a lot of work before it could really be realized and Caricom with all these head of states has been moving at a very slow pace for years. Their response to the border threats Guyana has constantly been receiving from its neighbours has left a lot to be desired. The University of the West Indies is a sub-organisation of Caricom, yet Caricom has not replied to the cries of Guyanese students for fair treatment or the fight for a local law school for a number of years. Even the simple giving of scholarships would be good but are not being provided by the organisation so that our students could further their studies locally or abroad–a country in which its secretariat is located, a country that has been dominating the education sector regionally despite its economic standing. And yet we are talking about a regional organisation that received financial support from its member states and further, an organisation that pays interesting salaries to its employees, an organisation that was given prime property and the tax free blessing from the state. I’m not debating the salaries or saying it is bad, but there is still so much that Caricom could and should be doing for Guyana. Nevertheless, it is an improving organisation, just at a very slow pace. I could be mistaken, but if I am, then Caricom must certainly be tightlipped or has been very quiet on their successes for the past few years.’
Reuben Cato – ‘I know they had a conference. I know they blocked off areas for the traffic and such. As a Guyanese, Caricom means that we’re closely knitted to the Caribbean countries. We can travel without visa and such; we can travel in and out of the countries easily. Are we benefiting from Caricom? I can say that we are looking out to get benefits from Caricom. For instance, the neighbouring countries who may be trying to invade our land, we’re looking to get most of the Caribbean countries to come on board with us to do representation.’
Curwin Alleyne-Giddings – ‘The Caribbean Community in my view is not simply a regional body or union of Caribbean states. Caricom should therefore be the representation of an institution of a regional identity, and therefore should seek to promote free movement of and trade between citizens and member countries and not just in theory and therefore a comprehensive review of this free movement and trade should be undertaken so that each member country can benefit satisfactorily. As a collective whole, Guyana and other member countries hold a much greater bargaining power on international markets which could not otherwise be achieved as individual states.’
Twedale Marks – ‘In the education system I was taught that Caricom was the successor of the Caribbean Free Trade Associa-tion (Carifta). I was also taught that Caricom served as a stratagem for social, political and most importantly economic integration of its member states. In my humble view, the objectives of Caricom, theoretically, are commendable and would be quite beneficial to all member states, but in reality one often questions the effectiveness of this integration movement. It would be unfair to claim that Caricom has not in any way benefited Guyana or other member states after all we do see year after year the Caribbean Examination Council, an institution of Caricom, facilitating the CSEC and CAPE examinations for students across the region. Additionally, due to the update of its policies and the implementation of CSME, the concept of free trade and free movement of people within the region has been realized and accepted by citizens of the various member states. A more recent benefit of being a Caricom member state has manifested at the 37th meeting of the Heads of Government of Caricom in which the Prime Minister of Trinidad offered assistance to Guyana in her oil exploration. Nonetheless, there are glaringly obvious shortcomings of Caricom–the major tenet of this integration movement is to develop socio-economically as a region and to stand as a united force. This, I must admit regrettably is yet to be fulfilled, while some countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and The Bahamas have seen significant development in their economies, countries such as Guyana, Haiti and Jamaica are struggling to play catch up. Shouldn’t Caricom benefit all the economies equally? In theory, the objectives of Caricom could not have been written more beautifully but it is quite evident that these policies are not implemented by some nations. Take for example the Caribbean Court of Justice in its appellate jurisdiction, although located in Trinidad, it only serves as the final court of appeal for Belize, Barbados and Guyana. In addition, in April of this year, Jamaicans [wanted] to boycott the products manufactured by Trinidad and Tobago which is in contravention of the objectives of CSME-free trade. These are just a few of the few shortcomings that need to be remedied for Caricom to further benefit all member states and function effectively. As a citizen of Guyana I am quite proud of the series of successes Caricom has made but I am also cognizant of its pitfalls. We have come a far way as a body but we have more to go to achieve our goals and aspirations.’