Dear Editor,
I am writing to express my profound amusement—and mild exasperation—at the peculiar priorities of our esteemed regional body, CARICOM. It appears that while we’ve managed to meticulously catalogue the region’s criminals in a shared database, we’ve somehow neglected to compile a similar registry for our skilled professionals. The result? A Guyanese job fair hosted in Trinidad, showcasing the exact type of regional irony that could be the basis for a new sitcom.
One cannot help but marvel at the efficiency with which criminality has been unified across our borders. If a petty thief or hardened gangster attempts to sneak into another member state, they’re met with the digital equivalent of border guards shouting, “Gotcha!” Meanwhile, skilled workers—those engineers, educators, and IT experts we keep saying we need—must fend for themselves, armed with little more than a resume and Google Maps.
This brings us to the recent Guyanese job fair in Trinidad. What a sight it must have been! The oil-rich land of six races, known for exporting rice, rum, and now, employment opportunities, pitching its need for skilled labour to the land of doubles and steel pan. One imagines the job seekers at the fair wistfully wondering why CARICOM hasn’t thought to streamline the process. Instead, they’re left to navigate a patchwork of immigration laws and bureaucratic hurdles while criminals glide smoothly across borders—at least until they’re caught.
Perhaps CARICOM’s criminal database initiative is a metaphor for our region’s philosophy: we are more united in adversity than in progress. The idea of a single skills database, which could promote the free movement of labour under the much-vaunted CSME, remains elusive. Maybe it’s because such a project requires trust, coordination, and—dare I say—ambition. It’s far easier, apparently, to unite against a common foe than to invest in shared success.
So, as Guyana recruits its labour force in Port of Spain, let us take a moment to laugh, lest we cry. Here’s hoping that one day CARICOM will surprise us by creating a skills database that rivals its criminal counterpart. Until then, we’ll have to rely on job fairs and sheer determination to realize the dream of regional integration.
Sincerely,
Keith Bernard
