The View From Europe

Over the next two weeks, Ministers, officials, non-governmental organisations, corporate lobbyists and protestors from around the world will assemble in Katowice, Poland.

In just over a week’s time, on December 2nd, COP24, the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in Katowice in Poland.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the United Kingdom, a once clear-minded and largely unified nation, is engaged in a process of self-harm over the issue of Brexit.

For some years now, several smaller Caribbean governments have been interested in increasing the number of shared embassies overseas in which one Ambassador represents several nations.

Among the extraordinary technological advances that will take place globally over the next decade, the most potent for the Caribbean may be Artificial intelligence (AI).

Last month, Moody’s, the credit rating agency published a report that indicated the potentially negative economic and political implications of demographic change in the Caribbean and Central America.

A few days ago, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned all financial institutions that many citizenship by investment (CBI) programmes that offer passports in exchange for large sums of money create the potential for misuse. 

For most citizens, international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the G20 and even the Inter-national Monetary Fund (IMF), have little immediate significance.

For just under forty years Caribbean Central American Action (CCAA) has worked with the region in Washington to promote private sector led growth, successfully finding ways to help Caribbean governments and business leaders engage with and influence the thinking of US administrations.

You will not find the word ‘overtourism’ in the Oxford English Dictionary. 

The Caribbean has always felt confident that it understands the politics and values of Europe.

Three weeks ago, Trinidad and Venezuela reached an agreement on the supply of gas from the latter’s Dragon Field through the creation of a 17km undersea pipeline that will link it to the National Gas Company of Trinidad’s offshore Hibiscus Platform.

Most in the political class say that what drives them to seek high office is a desire for change in ways that will improve lives.

Two weeks ago, El Salvador recognised China, breaking off its long-standing relationship with Taiwan.

Around the world, migration is redefining domestic and social policy, polarising politics, affecting foreign relations and challenging notions of free movement.

The word ‘cakeism’ has yet to appear in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Most politicians connect with their electorate, but few have the capacity or charisma to be able to encapsulate complex ideas in a manner that makes disinterested and disaffected individuals, irrespective of political persuasion, stop and think about what might be possible.

Addressing the opening session of the just concluded CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica, both Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, and Gaston Browne, the Prime Minister of Antigua, spoke about the need to radically improve inter-regional travel.

In the coming days, CARICOM Heads of Government will meet in Montego Bay.

If like me, you listen regularly to the BBC World Service, you may have heard a recent item about an extraordinary leap forward in technology, which, over time, could lead to clothes and even shoes being produced using a domestic 3D printer.