Caricom perspective, no 58 & 59, january june 1993

BAHAMAS'ARTISTS SPEAK

"This period of my work is grounded in the realities of the African/Europ ean experience of today's Bahamas, complete with its contradictions, complexilies, tragedy and comedy-hopefully a mirror oftruth overlayedwith the cris s -cross ed rhythms andfestival colour of our exuberance ".

Feel the Spirit of the Living God.

" A s a B ahami an,

I hav e alw ay s w a nt ed to p a int

Th e B ah

amas,

to add my work to her emerging lilceness. The ounryard conventions afforded her as a subject no longer sufice.

She remains faceless and ever changing and it's up to the artist to capture somefleeting likeness.

Ourhistory and environrnent, the very things that root us are

being torn down or ripped up. There is an urgent needfor planting and for painting ".

Brenl Malone Pege 2

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY . JUNE T993

1l

THE EEC BANANA REGIME AND THE

CARIBBEAN *llnthony P. Goruales

Section ofthe CARICOM Delegation at Second CANCO

M-

Central America Ministerial Conference-Jamaica, Mty, I 99 3 which concluded on issuing a,slatement on Bananas,.

The EEC decision in December, I 992, to establish aNewBanana Regime (NBR)

(NBSS) after three years, the Community intonds to keep the competitive pressure on ACP producers in order to ensure that they adopt adjustment

in sync with the Single European Market (SEM), raised the hopes of Caribbean Banana Producers who were seeking the assurance from the EEC that the treat-

policies. Ifthe intention is to set the base price oftheNBSS inthree years to reflect

ment under this New Banana Regime would be no less favourable than that existing under the Lome Banana Protocol. Even though the NBR did not offer the same degree andtype ofprotection, it did provide some opportunity for the industry to survive in the long-term. This opportunity, however, has to be grasped 11d can only yield success ifthe Region finally grabs the bull by the hom and decides to join the competitive game.

The scope pffered by the NBR lies essentially.in the liinitation imposed on the impgri4ion of doliar.bananas to 2 milliq$tgdsannually as well as the stipulationihat traditional sellers of ACP and EECbhnanas would enjoy privileged accessto aquota ofdollarbdnanas on a prorata;.hasis, in order to make their.sales

market trends and changes in

productivity, thenACP countries that do not successfully restructure will just fall by the wayside.

Ina fundamental sense, itcanbe safely concluded that the only real guarantee

,

that the Region obtained was a STABEX price forthe nextthree yean based on the average price for the last three years.

This small'lictory" in no way reflected the conditions ofthe edsting Bp and the commitment of the EEC, in that Bp is to provide the ACP with no less favourable Eeatmenl Realistically, it seemed the best that the Region could expect from

the long arduous and even bitter negotiation.

In spite ofthe reservations about how in practice this guaranteed price and dis-

tibution of ACP bananas would work, the Caribbean producers appear to have generally felt ttrat it is worthy giving the NBR a chance to perform. The majority

The above arrangement is not, however, a full guarantee. [t basically serves

to provide some time for restructuring the industry. Such a breathing space is

just about tlree or four years from the date the

for

NBR is introduced (now planne{

1993). By allowing tariffs on nonquota dollar bananas to be progressively I 17 I

reduced and by making no firm commit-

mentto what the base price would be for

the New Banana STABEX System

of them also seem to think that they would get their competitive act together progressively overthe comingyears. This

outlook existed even though the banana industry in the Region is reeling under the low prices due to the decline ofthe pound ahd the reluctance of the UK (urrlike France) to protect Caribbean producers from oversupply on its market.

Recently, however, widespread skepticism has emerged as a resuhofthe attacks on the NBR. Such attacks have generated a tremendous amount of un-

CAN,ICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE, 1993

certainty about the future. They call into question what regional producers would consider to be marginal gains as compared to what they had under the Bp. A tenif ing wait-and-see attitude now prevails to the detriment of the banana industry.

There is no doubt that the NBR is under serious threat from within the EEC and from GATT. By taking the EEC to the European Court of Justice, banana importers in Germany, Belgium and Holland as well as the German Government are querying the fairness of the NBR and its compatibility with the objectives of

the SEM. The legality of this question

will be determined in terms of EEC common market law. While the NBR

appears to be constitutional as it is based on a valid majority decision and a

community-wide tariff quota, no bets could be made on the outcome.

On the GATT front, matters werc made worse by the recent decision ofthe GATT Panel that EEC NBR is in contavention to the GATT rules since preference-granting should be based orlsome formil ap plication for a derogation. This may just turn out to be a formality since the EEC has not officially informed GATT ofall its preferential schemes, including those outside of bananas. There is ample

evidence of GATT members giving preferential treatnent to friends and neighbours andthe GATTTreaty provides for this. The Goveming Council ofGATT

meets shortly to examine the panel decision and its ruling is awaited before

further pronouncement.

Diplomatically, the Regron has been lobbying the US Govemment, the EEC Cont'd on page 5 Prgc3

THE NOVEL I ANI)

CULTURAL ALLEGIANCE

George Larnming The novel has had a peculiar function in the Caribbean. The writer's preoccupation has been mainly with the poor; and fiction has served at a way of restoring these lives - this world as men and women from down below - to a ProPer order of attention: to make their reality the su-

preme conoern of the total society. But along with this desire, there was also the

writer's recogrition that this world, in spite of its long history of deprivation, represented the womb from which he himself had spnrng, and the richest collective reservoir of experience on which the creative imagination could draw.

This world of men and women from down below is not simPlY Poor. This world is black, and it has a long history at oncevital andcomplex. It is vital because it constitutes the base of labor on which the entire Caribbean Society has rested; anditiscomplexbecausePlantation Slave Society (the point at which the modern Caribbeanbegan) conspired to smash its ancestral African culture, and to bring about a total alienation of man from the source of labor, from man, the human

welcome.

merical minority, and the fragmented

heritage nor the e)eectation of welconre

memory of the African masses betrreen White instruction and Black imagination. The totalitarian demands of White suprâ‚Źmacy, in a British colony, the psy' chological injury inflicted by the sacred rule that all fonns of social status would be determined by the degrees of skin complexion; the ambiguities among Blacks themselves about the credibility of their own spiritual history.

All this would have to be incorporated into any imaginative record of the total society. Could the outlines of a national consciousness be charted and affrmed out of all this disparateness? And if that consciousness could be affrrmed, what were its true ancestral roots, its most authentic cultural base?

The numerical superiority of thd'black mass could forge a political authority of their own making, and provide an alternative direction forthe society. This was certainly possible. But this possibility was also the measure of its temporary failures.

I was among those writen who took

flight frgm the failure. In the desolate, frozen heart oflondon, at the age of23, I tied to reconstnrct the world of my childhood and early adolescence. It was also the world of a whole Caribbean rcal-

rty.

Migntion was not a word I would have used to describe what I was doing

person.

The result was a fracttred consciousness, a deep split in the sensibility which now raises diflicult problems of language

when I sailed with other West Indians to England in 1950. We simply thought that we wene going to an England which had

and values; the whole issue of cultural

consciousness as aheritage and a place

Prgc4

It is the measure of our innocence that neither the claim of

allegiance between the imposed nomrs of White Power, represented by a small nu-

been planted

in our

childhood

of

would have been seriously doubrcd.

England was not for us a country with classes and conflicts of interest like the islands we had left. It was the nane of a responsibility wlrose origin may have coincided with the beginning of time.

Today I shudderto think howa counso foreign to our own instincts, could have achieved the miracle ofbeing called Mother. It had made us pupils to its language and its institutions; baptized us

try,

in the same religion; schooled boys in the same game of cricket wittt its elaborate and meticulous etiquette of rivalry. Empire was notavery dirty word,andseemed

to bear little relation to those forms of domination we now call imperialist.

The Englishthemselves were notaware ofthe role they had played inthe formation of these black stangers. The ruling class were serenely confident that any role of thein must have been an act of supreme generosity. Like Prospero, they had given us language and a waY of naming our own rcalitY. The English working class were not awarc they had playedany role atall anddeeply resenrcd our anival. It had come about without any warning. No one had consulted them.

Occasionally I was asked:"Do you belong to us or to the Frcnch?" I had been dipsolved in thdcommonview of worker and aristocrat. English see themselves as

worken could also

architects of Empire.

(Excerpt from, " Conversations -George

Lamming. Essays, Addresses and Inter-

views 1953

-

1990,

Karia Press,

U.K.

teg2)

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE -JANUAN,Y -JUNE 1993

GOIITEIITS GOUI{TRY PROFITE

-

IIIE BAHAIIAS

Interviewwilh Prime Minister

including the UK and the Latin American countries to get an outcome favourable to it. No successful light is yet appearing at the end ofthe tunnel. Worst ofall, the real threat which is the challenge to the NBR from within the EEC is not likely to go away very easily. The stakes are high especially in an EEC Community struck with recession and trying to grapple with the thomy problems of Eastem Europe.

Germany in particular is hard hit and its position as financial pillar of the EEC, is now under doubt. Furtherrnore, sympathy for the ACP and the Caribbean has been on the wane. Lomd preference no longer is attractive to EEC development policy-makers in this post-colonial and post-cold war world.

In the final analysis, it would seem that most, if not everything, depends on the price the UK is willing to pay to maintain the subsidies to Caribbean

Hubertlngralnm

..... 33-36 Statistics,Art,Culturcetc. ........... 3 I J6J5

FEATURES

. . . . .

W.I.CricketattheUWI........................ l0

HumanRightsintheCaribbean.. .............

TrinidadandTobago TrustCo. ..............

A CANCOM Joumey ..........................

IWOKRAMA - Too Little, Too Late.....

WomenandPoverty inGuyana.............. I 7 Inthe Pulse ofthe Morning .................... I 8 The Lowly SafetyPin ............................ 29 StoryoftheSteelPan............................ 30

37 39 43 48

SPEGIAT FEATURE

.

The Cuban C atch-22 ............................... 6

GUEST GOLUMII

.

Women'sDevelopmentWindow ............

l6

banand producers. Judging from its support for the NBR, one could gauge the extent it is willing to stick out its neck. An EEC legal decision against the NBR can however profoundly alter the game and raise the price to the UK. In these circumstances it is difficult to predict the final outcome.

Dr. Anthony P. Gonzales is Senior Lecturer,IIR, UWI, St. Augustine.

REUIEWS

. Sacred Mission ofthe Artist ................... I 9 . AssasinsoftheVoice ............................ 20 . Couvade .......................21 . BlackJacobins ...................................... 22

ABOI'T THE REGIO]I

. NAFTA ........................ 13 R& D. - CaribbeanandlatinAmerica.. 14 . What'stheProblemwithBananas .......... l5 . AirTransportation ......... 4l

20thAnniversary Celebrations ............... 44 CARTIS, CFRAMP ................. ............ 47 Development News ....................... 48-54 ........................ 45

Meetingp

PAST AND PBESEI{T

.

I ::::::i:i:

CaribbeanEmancipators: George Padmore .................... ............... 12

I{TER 1{ATIO

.

IIAI

.

Georgekmming: The Novel

-

and Cultural Allegiance

AFFAI RS

CARICOM'sCubaPolicy andthe newU.S. Adminisnation ............. 8

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE, 1993

Prge5

THE CTIBAN CATCH-22 *Anthony Maingol

The single most important sociological study ofCuba done before 1959 was Lowry Nelson's Rural Cuba (1950). Observing the richness of Cuba's soil and vast amounts ofgovemment-owned lands

lying fallow (the so-called "realengos") Nelson felt that if such natural endowments were everything, Cuba's future was insured. But natural endowments are

never everything. "Much depends," Nelson reasoned, 'trpon the degree of imagination which the Cuban people can bring to the task of finding and developing new products from their natural resources". The Cuban Revolution of 1959 was initially premised on meeting that very challenge. Three decades later, Cuba is being challenged like never before as

labelled, achieved total efliciency in the production and sale oflocal products, it would still be 40 percent below what in 1989 was considered minimally necessary to sustain a "normal" rhythm of the economy. The slippage which has occurred in just tlree years is dramatic.

According to the UNDP's Human Development Report for 1993, Cuba's ranking on the Human Development Index (which measures real purchasing power, education and health), has slipped to 75th place.

Compare this to the 20th place ofBarbados 3 lst place ofTrinidad and Tobago

or the

to get a comparative perspective. In the Caribbean, only St. Vincent (76th) and Guyana (l05th) rank lower than Cuba.

Cuba's economists are admitting with remarkable candor.

Flagging Spirits

***

What follows is merely a summary of the literature which relates to the present

decision to further centralize and tighten the command economy and disincentivate

individual initiatives. The ideas behind Perestroika and Glastnosl were already in the air. By 1986 the socialist countries

which subsidized the Cuban form of socialism were in evident structural crisis.

Michel Gorbachov was as clear

as a

rooster

crow when he warned in his 1957 book P er es tr o i ka tlnt"Socialism' s prestige and possibilities would be directly harmed if we clung to the old forms of cooperation ..." One ofthe forms ofcooperationwhich had obviously been targeted for revision was the socialist bloc's agreement to pay over 50 percent higher than world market prices for everything imported from Cuba, as well as subsidizing Cuba's purchases

of oil.

Catch 22

In 1993, Cuba's most articulate political economist, Julio Cananza Valdds,

crisis.

Though hardly ever discussed by

factor which we might call "Sacrifice

seemed to be echoing Nelson's words when he warns that the survival of the Cuban Revolution will depend on a "strategic redefinition of the revolutionary model ... This is the challenge: what is needed is creativity and political audac-

exhaustion", there are solidly economic indications that, as presently constituted, the system is involved in a wasting proc-

***

economists in such terms (they use terms such as "the need for more labour discipline"), any analysis has to begin with the psycho-sociological climate in presentday Cuba. Virtually every, even modestly impartial observer has remarked that since the closing of the free peasant markets which had been authorized in 1986 there has been an evident flagging of Cuban

The nature ofthe challenge in 1993 is simply monumental: making the socialist

spirits. Those "mercados campesinos" had virmally overnight put on sale a large

system work with 70 percent less resources than they had in I 989. That drop reflects the drop in socialist bloc subsidies. What is the capacity of the national economy to compensate for a loss of such magnitude? It is impossible to be opti-

number of items which had not been seen for years, especially food items. Within stopped, isolatedthe economists who had designed the experiment and began what was called the period of "rectificacion de

Cuban

errores", i.e. creating a purer form of

economists themselves explain. Even Cuban production during this Special Period in Time of Peace, as it has been

socialist disinterest.

In 1986 Cuba's leadership made what now appears to have been a fatally flawed

ity".

mistic, for reasons which

Prge 5

if

Aside from this social-psychological

months Castro ordered the experiment

ess. The combined impact

of a totally

centralized economy of imports and exports in the midst of fuel and equipment shortage is taking a tenible toll in terms of the increasing amounts of inputs nec-

essary

to produce marginal gains in

outputs. In I 98 l - I 985, it was bad enough: for every peso invested there was a $0.53 increase in production. During the 1986-1990 periodthe situationwas simply unsustainable: for every I peso invested there was in production.

I

* , t":::e

The inefficiency of the system could also bejudged by the fact that, as Cuban

economists now admit,

fully

600,000

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE 1993

reorientation, according to the authors and many others, would still have to be the sugar industry. As Cuba's economic Czar, Carlos Lage, said in November, 1992, Cuba's goal is to gain an increased

people were unproductively employed.

This rras part ofa payout in soci{l services

which was growing three times faster than productivity. As if those indications

were not warning enough, it is now revealed that, during the last five years, money in circulation has been growing I ll2 times faster than the availability of merchandise. The results were predictable: not just inflation but a booming black market. Just how artificial, not to say unreal, things have become is made evident in a study by Cuba's centre of economic research, CIEM, whichreveals that, in 1989,70 percent ofthe savings accounts were ofless than 200 pesos, or US$3.50 at black market exchange rates.

Clearly there is notthe intemal savings to capitalize a new initiative in local pro-

share of sugar's hard currency market.

This, he admits, will require more land, more fertilizer and a longer cane cutting season (zatra) to increase production.

Cuba's 1992 production of 7.0 million tons gave Lage andthe authorsinCuba's Foreign Tradethe confidence that, with 6.3 million torrs fel export, Cuba might just make it. Unfortunately for Cuba, this has turned out to be little more than pouring new wine into old bottles.

For the past two-and-a-half decades,

(l)

attracting more foreign

investments; (2) diversifying Cuba's foreigrr trade, and (3) accelerating the development of the tourist sector. The authors note that the appropriate legal changes to accommodate these initiatives have been made, to wit: Article 23 of the 1992 constitution recognizes and protects foreign investments, and the deci-

By

1993 the Cuban Chamber

ofCom-

merce claims that 500 economic entities werc directly, ifnottotally autonomously, involved in foreigrr trade. Ah, but there is

a

fly in the ointment. The fundamental

engine driving

that

economic

markets.

The news could not have come at a wone time for the island. With so much land concentrated in sugar, the deficit in food production has been increasing. In 1989 Cuba was importing 57 percent of the proteins and 5 I percent ofthe calories consumed. Tliepurchasingpowerin 1993 be considerably less than it was in 1989. This deficiency in local food pro-

it

consumes over 30

duction has also affected the plans to

Cuba's ideological inflexibility has given way to an obvious quest for new onswers about their predicament.

The last thing which should be done is to stifle that initiative by ill-advised and in thefinal analysis,futile political meosures, either inside Cuba by the leadership, orfrom outside by embargoes.

percent of the nation's enerry, employs

ward linkages into the agricultural sector.

440,000 people. But even Minister Lage had to recogrrize some crucial economic

Tourism in Cuba is little different from what it is in the rest of the Caribbean: sustained by imports.

The Cuban economy appears to be caught in the typical viscious cycle of poverty so often discussed-by development specialists: they wish to take new initiatives, but these have to be financed by traditional sectors which are failing.

The inputs which Cuba can provide-additional land, increased personal sacrifices are simply not enough.

Ifthere is little chance under present

realities which would surely affect their plans. In 1989 Cuba imported l3 million tons of oil, in 1992 that was cut in half. If one keeps in mind that Cuba's sugar milling equipment is ofgas guzzling (and polluting) vintage and, that its sugarmills are spread across Cuba, requiring an intensive use of fuel-driven transportation, one understands the drastic nature of fuel

deficits.

*** tons of fertilizer.By 1992 that figure had been reduced to 300000 tons. Similarly, in 1989 they purchased $80 million worth of herbicides. By 1992 that had been

conditions for autogenerated growth, what opportunities does the island have for a process financed through extemal credits. The prospects here appear just as dreary. Cuba's inability to secure credit today should not come as a surprise to anyone. Cuba entered into the dramatic period ofcrisis (after 1989) burdened by

to $30 million. The results of

Cont'd on page 9

Additionally, Cuban sugar has become

sion to remove the state's monopoly over

exports.

reinsedi*:j"_*"n

integrate the towistindustry throughback-

Nothing illushates the virtual collapse

pillars:

start a

cultivated area,

of the Cuban economic model than the

Th? authors believe that that

Cuba has arguedforce majeure in suspending sales ofsugar contracted to convertible cunency clients, hardly a way to

will

* ,| {r

reinsertion can be achieved through an " ap er lura e co no mi c a" anchored on three

1992-1993 sugar harvest, a crop of 4.2 million tons, is the smallest in 50 years.

Cuba has hitched its economic destinies to that star called sugar. Sugar cultivation takes up nearly 60 percentofall ofCuba's

duction'

situationofsugaras it affects the best laid out plans to reinsert Cuba in the world economy, the one thing they all seem to agree on. The muchcircdpiece by Manual Rua and Pedro Monreal in Cuba Foreign Trade,No.l (1993) illustrates the problem. a veritable Cuban Catch-22.

these cuts did not wait to be evident the

dependent on the extensive use

offerti-

lizers.In 1989 Cubaimported

million

reduced

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE, T993

1.3

Pege 7

CARICOM'S CUBAN POLICY AND THE NEW IJ.S. ADMINISTRATION 1

The foreign policy interests of CARJCOM in Cuba at this moment seem to be based essentially on the outstanding question of Cuba's role and integration in the Region, as well as the humanitarian concern for a peaceful political landing in Cuba. How to proceed with such an

agenda remains problematic since CARICOM itself, in the first instance, is not clear on the form relations with Cuba should take. Secondly, and perhaps more

importantly, CARICOM is still probing the US Government to see if the form it comes upwithwill, ifnot fully acceptable to the US at worst, carry a minimal affordable price it is prepared to pay in its relations with the US. Cuba, in its anxiety to circumvent the US blockade and rapidly substitute Latin American and Caribbean integration for the collapse of integration into the world

socialist economy, has been making strong overtures to the Region. It sought

and obtained membership

in

the

Anthony P. Gonzales

Questions have been recently raised as to whether CARICOM should not demand a quid pto quo in the form ofthe relaxation

of 'dictatorial' rule in

integration into the Region with some procedure for peaceful change in Cuba.

The present WACO stand-offbetween

the US and Cuba is worrisome. It is making the process of change in Cuba more likely to be violent. The US position up front seems to be that there must be unconditionally free and fair elections in Cuba. Apart from a few margins, Cuba's

policy is generally "socialism or death" and "Communist fundamentalism". In this context, CARICOM could only have credibility in the US if it equally shows some concern forthe democratic process in Cuba. Under the Bush Administration, this was a non-startâ‚Źr, since the policy of striking while the iron is hot left no room

Commission and embraced the proposed

attractive for Cuba since its basic irterest appears to be political legitimacy. Cuba must be well aware that there is really nothing additional that this Commission can accomplish in terms of trade, culture, and technical cooperation, which cannot be done in the existing bilateral level and/ or at the regional level within the

of

until the dust settles. Such Commissions

are renowned for their inaction.

CARICOM should thus meet the US

criteria of no low intensive activity that would not stop the Castro Govemment from falling down the abyss.

An additional benefit ofsuch

a

strategy

to CARICOM is that the time needecl to work out the process of the widening of

CARICOM through the proposed Association of Caribbean States (ACS) would be provided. A stronger and deeper

CARICOM pursuing a single market would have used the interim to reinforce its collective negotiation position, vrz-aviz_the wider Caribbean Basin.

The Joint Commission idea, however, appears to be running into some snags.

Pege

E

CARICOM's interest in the Joint process

for a negotiated settlement based on

Commission as a way

arrangements.

of the US behind this, there seems to be for the first time , an afiempt to link Cuba' s

compromise.

of Joint

another

Commission embodies a strong ooncem

fully recognizing the Govemment of Grenada. It welcomes the West Indian

diplomatically putting Cuba on a hold

in one form or

being handled within existing institutional

Cuba. Without necessarily seeing the long invisible ann

Caribbean Tourism Organization after

CARICOIvf/Cuba Joint Commission.

Some observers would regardthe idea

livestock, are

The Joint Commission proposal is

for post-Castro Cuba and the whole of long-term regional and hemispheric integration. Cuba is a strong

potential competitor with CARICOM in tourism, sugar and export manufacturing.

Inaddition,the post-Casno Cubanmarket

could be potentially an attactive one.

The Joint Commission proposal allows

CARICOM to set Up another regional

framework for cooperation with Cuba, whilst at the same time avoiding any overt cuddling with the present Cuban Administration, which could endanger future relations ifCARICOM is foundto be overexposed in today's Cuba.

Implicitly, it seems that CARICOM would wish to see the dismantling ofthe US embargo matched by the opening of the political market in Cuba in terms of freedom ofexpression, etc. Over time, as people and goods move back and forth, a process of political change will forcibly take place leading eventually to free and fairelections. Ifthis penpective is correct, then,tagging onto the Joint Commission idea a more substantive democratic move

by the Castro Government would allow CARICOM to legitimately call for the whole or partial lifting ofthe US embargo and the start of normalization process

Caribbean Development Cooperation Committee. In Cuba's present peropus state, not much could be expected in terms oftrade. Cuba lacks hard currency

throughnegotiation.

worthiness through some non-payment

1992 Cuban Democracy Act (Tonicelli Law) andhas yetnot signalledany change iri US policy towards Cuba. It is torn between the powerful Cuban exile lobby holding fast to the status quo and the advice of some oflicials who are urging

and had withered away its credit of debt to foreign firms. Furthernore, barter trading is now discredited. The

CARICOM market, in any case, does not hold much potential for Cuba, both in terms of demand and supply. , The areas of technical cooperation

which have been examined overthe years in such areas as biotechnology, fisheries, sugarcane and its byproducts, and

Some analysts are, however, skeptical about this option. They do not anticipate

any policy change in Washington. The Clinton Administration has endorsed the

that the Govâ‚Źmment should condemn violent action by exile groups; declare it

intention to invade Cuba; relax iS embargo to include "all transactions that CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY. JUNE 1993 has no

foster communications ... including tourism" in response to positive sleps by Cuba; reject the Tonicelli Law; and work constructively withother Governments in the hemisphere.

The above skeptics believe that the

chances of the Clinton Administration taking the second conciliatory position are slim in this first term of office.

According to them, the political cost of

cessful. It would not carry the old immediate political glamour and gain from appeasing the now moribund Caribbean left.

It would, however, at some point strike a chord in the hearts of Caribbean people who are keenly interested not only in a peaceful change in Cuba, but also the oppornnity for a fully representative de-

only occur ifa slowprocess ofopening and convergence takes place, giving Cuba the breathing space for political organization to occur and democracy to work eventu-

ally.

(Dr. Anthony P.Gonzales lectures at the

IIR, Uln, & Augustine).

mocracy to emerge in Cuba. The latter can

the Cuban exile cost and its supporters is

too high for a President from whom so much is expected on the domestic economic front.

The situation,however, does notappear to be cast in stone. The US is under some diplomatic pressure from Latin America to soften its position. Domestic groups, in

particular religious, labor and some minority ones, are becoming more articuiate on this issue. They are

an extraordinary debt: to the socialist bloc, $30 billion (of which to the former USSR, $28 billion). Its convertible cur-

condemning present policy and focussing more and more on the frumanitarian side

rency debt stood at $7.8 billion which in 1992 represented 355 percent ofthe island's foreign exchange earnings. As was to be expected, Cuba's ability to import has been in steady decline: imports went

of things. This could boomerang into a wider movement as the issue heats up.

Furthermore, third countries including

strong US allies are now wary

of

US

policies, such as the Tonicelli Act which violates intemational law and intervenes intheirdomestic afrain. They see overkill in this type ofapproach and are keen to see a process ofreconciliation. Besides, the growing non-US corporate interests in Cuba is becoming a concern for US corporations which are banned from

investing and trading with Cuba.

Corporate America could possibly become

Cuba's biggest ally in the future.

The above considerations would CARICOM should proceed withanevenhandedpolicy,engagingeach side in a dialogue and working alongside the Latin American Groups seeking to promote peaceful democratic change in suggest that

Cuba.

The Region's voice, if not its whisper, isjust a rporal and rational one. By itself, it will most likely fall on deaf ears.

However, in unison with the growing chorus of similar voices it could gain a greater hearing over time. It would require

from 8,124 million in 1989 to 4,090 million in l99l,to 2 200 million in I 992.

They surely will be even lower for 1993.

What then, are the chances that Cuba will be able to renegotiate, reschedule or, in general, reach some agreement with its creditors? Again, the prospects are disheartening.

As regards their debt to the former socialist bloc, in July 1990, Vice Presi dent Carlos Rafael Rodriguez was adamant: "I don't know if they will forgive the debt. In any case we are not going to pay". While this is a position the Russians appear to be reconciled to, the same

sanguinity cannot be expected from other creditors. Canadian economist Archibald Ritter recently responded to the question

according to press reports, Representative Torricelli and his like-minded colleagues in the U.S House of Representatives, are planning to extend the reach of the bill to include the former members of the USSR. Clearly Cuba's economic decline cannot be laid to the embargo. What the embargo does, however, is reduce Cuba's manoeuverability. This is an especially short-sighted and counterproductive consequâ‚Źnce given the search by many Cubans foranewway out. The only

positive thing coming out of Cuba today appears to be the new realism and candor

evident among Cuban economists. Their former coyness has given way to forthrightness, their ideological inflexibility

to an obvious quest for new

answers

about their predicament. The last thing which should be done is to stifle that initiative by ill-advised and, in the final analysis, futile political measures, either from inside Cuba by the leadership, or from outside by embargoes.

[Prof. Anthony P. Maingot lectures at lhe

whether Cuba could reasonably be ex-

Florida International University, La.tin

pected to service its hard crurency debt at

American and Caribbean CenterJ.

this time or in the near future with

a

rotund'No".

As if all this were not misery enough, there is the additional inconveniences created by the American embargo, fur, thertightened by the Torricelli Bill. Now,

commitment and peneverance to be sucCARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY . JUNE, 1993

Prgc 9

WEST INDIES CRICKET AT UWI Hilary BecHes

There should have been nothing surprising about the decision of the History Department at Cave Hill (UWD to offer a semester course on West Indies crickethistory since the mid-l9th century.

Rather, it should have been considered

phenomenal that such a departure had not taken place before. Certainly, it is within the intellectual mandate of the University to, and piomote discourse on any process, event, or institution that has capturedthe popular imagination in such a manner as to exercise a magical hold

upon self-expression. Given this understanding,we had little choice butto place the evolutionofWest Indies cricket

Dr. Beckles with a

modern institution, then, must be examined in terms of both its social and economic relations.

Since

its early years cricket

has

propelled the Region into the realm of intemational relations and politics, and remains very much at the centre ofwhat it is to be perceived as West Indian. It is popularly seen as the beacon of West

class at the

UW., Cave Hill.

years , a vast amount ofliterature has been published on West Indies cricket in distinguished academic journals such as The

International Journal of the History of Sport, The British Journal of Sport History, American Ethnologist, Journal of Social History, Canqdian Jouraal of History of Sport, and the Sociolog of Sport Journal. This material speaks to

culture in the classroom for clinical and

Indian nationalism, a critical pillar on

critical analysis by students.

Organised cricket, unlike any other

which the quest for regional nationhood rests. It is immersed within the fabric of mass politics, arts, drama and corporate

the fact that West Indies cricket history has occupied the attention of scholars globally, and that the intellectual product ofthis attention has reached the highest

business.

disciplinary standards.

This course is designed to trace the historical sociology of the institutional culture of cricket. The study of West Indian social history can be greatly

Unfortunately, we can use only a niurow selection of the text material written by West Indian cricketers themselves. With few exceptions, these biographies and autobiographies are devoid of scholastic and intellectual

aspect ofpopular social expression, has assumed hegemonic proportions within West Indian culture. Creative artists and social scientists are in agreement that the institution of cricket constitutes a mirror

within which images of the historical development of West Indian creole culture and social consciousness can be seen. Certainly, an examination of the

evolution

of this cultural

institution

illustrates more clearly thatr any other the changing nature of race and class relations and ontological formation in the Region.

From its historic root as part of the social activity of the British imperial community in the West Indies, cricket emerged by the end of the l9th ceptury as

a principal index of social status and division within the local ruling classes.

Its association with the elitism ofproperty and race was aggressively challenged

erihanced by an examination ofthe growth ofpopular culture,. and cricket represents

the most compelling institution through which to analyse the process of social creolisation, and the evolution of West Indian identity and popular creativity.

The structure of the-course, then, is designed in such a manner as to bring a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of West Indian popular art and culture.

Sociological, anthropological, historical,

economic, and pyschological concepts and methodologies are mobilized in the analysis ofthe game and in identification

of its social

contours and meaning.

explanations and narratives. In fact, it is rather disturbing to note the conceptual

gulf that exists between players'

understanding of what they are doing and societal expectations and dictates.Such

texts are essentially recollection so performances, and though important empirically, says little about the social culture ofcricket. Itis tagic,forexample, thatto date we do nothaveasociologically

meaningful analysis of the Sobers' phenomenon. Neither is there an explanation for that critical West Indian

- the 100

Basically, the discourse is divided into

technological breakthrough

five broadthemes. These are: colonisation

m.p.h. pace capability. The question here of course is this: ifwe do not understand

during the inter-war years by blacks and coloureds, reflecting the political impact

and cultural imperialism; creolisation,

of black nationalism as articulated by Marcus Garvey and socialist labour

ideology and popular culture; race, ethnicity and the politics of change;

leaders. By the end ofthe war,the success of the democratic movement resulted in the transformation of cricket into a mass cultural activity. The dernocratisation of cricket wenthand in hand with the tend towards its professionalisation. The Prge l0

nationalism, identity and liberation; and finally, a critical evaluation of C.L.R.

James' voluminous historiographic contribution.

There is no shortage

of

scholarly

materials for such an exercise. Over the

these things, how can we ensure their reproduction?

Students, then, have a great deal to come to terms with, and while doing so

they would recognise that under consideration is really the sociolory of

modern West Indian civilisation. The following sample ofquestions putto stu-

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE 1993

NEW MEDIA TITLES dents during the course would indicate the issues under consideration and the approaches adopted:

l:

Assess the view that cricket

intense political considerations," Discuss.

It is not our intention to terminate our search for a research capability in cricket

with the offering of this undergraduate

Discuss the argument that

course. What I envision is the establishment of a Centre for Cricket Studies at the University that would

a

conduct research and publish findings,

democratising social force during the inter-war period.

and function as a distribution outlet for quality research data. Such a Centre would be equipped with a high+ech archive, exhibition gallery, seminar facilities, and an academic joumal. It

was an instnrment of Empire at the end of the l9th century.

2.

organised cricket constituted

3.

Cricket!Whatanexcellentlens

through which to view the evolution of West Indian social strucfure." Discuss.

Discuss the view that cricket is the West Indies foremost expression of popular culture, art and aesthetics.

4.

5.

"SirFrankWonell'sleadership

of West Indies cricket

represented a

political watershed in many respects."

Discuss.

6. Account for and analyse the socio-political character of test match 'riots' in the West Indies.

7.

Assess the evidence that

would be staffed by visiting professors and research fellows whose tasks would be to carry out research and enhance the

intellectual standing of the University.

Research fellows could be former players

who wish to write quality texts with the assistance of the Centre's staff and

archives.

In the end, the intellectual

process would illustrate quite clearly that

the mission statement of the U.W.I. and the W.I. cricket team is one and the same.

suggest the demise of white West Indies

cricket.

8.

"Westlndiescricketculturehas

(Dr. Hilary Beckles lectures at the Department of History, UWI, Cave Hill).

historically been shaped and charged by

Alison lilhite and Patricia Thompson: The Caribbean Food and Nutition Book, 1989, Macmillan, London.

Jean Bertrand Aristide: In the Parish of the Poor - Writings from Haiti,-1991, Ortis Books, New York.

Caryl Phillips.' Crossing the River, 1993, Bloomsbury Press, USA.

Trevor Millett: The Chinese in Trinidad, Inpring Publication, Port of Spain, Trinidad, 1993.

Brian Meeks: Caribbean Revolutions

and Revolutionary Theory, 1993, Macmillan, UK. J.A. George lrish: Life in a Colonial Crucible.- Labour and Social Change in Montserrat, 1946 - Present, l9gl,JAGPI Productions, Montserrat. e.d. Edward Greene: Race,Class and Gender - In the Future of the Caribbean. e.d. Alistair Hennessy: Intellectuals in the 20th century Caribbean, Vol II 1992, Macmillan, UK.

Stephanie Daly: Child and Family Law, Trinidad and Tobago - lgg?

Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Social Services, Government of Trinidad and Tobago. 1993, ISER, UWI, Mona Jamaica.

Vital Demographic Statistics of Caribbean Countries 1990-1991 Udeogalanya.' Caribbean Research Centre, Brooklyn, 1990 Colonialism and Resistance in Belize; Essays in Historical Sociology, lrligel O.

Boland, Cubola Production, 1988

Colonialism and Underdevelopment

in Guyana,

15 80-180 3, Alvin Thompson, Carib Research and Publications Inc.

Barbados,1987 When Me Was a Boy: Charles Hyatt, IOJ Publications Ltd., 1992

History and Time in Caribbean Literature, ed. Claudette Williams, Institute

of

Caribbean Studies, UWI,

Mona, 1992 Richie Richqrdson, l(est Indies Cricket Captain, addressing Dr. Beckles' class on the subject: "Leadership Concepts in l(est Indies Cricket". April, 1993.

CARICOM PER.SPECTIVE . JANUAR,Y - JUNE. 1993

Ours the Earth: Joseph R. Pereira, Inst. of Caribbean Studies, UWI, Mona, 1990-.

.ffi

iri:::ii:iiiiiil-'iiiililiiiii:l:iiliffi Prgc

ll

being. Our friendship developed into that indescribable relationship that exists be-

GEORGE PADMORE [1e02-sel Trinidadians have played a conspicuous part in the Pan African Movement, and in the African anti-colonial struggle.

H. Sylvester Williams originated the movement in 1990. George Padmore was one ofthe fathers ofAfrican liberation in

the 1940s and 1950s.

BornldalcomNurseatArouca in 1902, his father was an interesting personality, a black schoolmaster, entomologist and agriculnral instructor. Malcolm's grandfather was a Barbadian who had been born a.slave. He was educated at Tran-

quillity,

St.

Mary's and Pamphylian High

School in Port of Spain. For a time he worked with the Ctuardian,buthe hated it and was soon fired. Trinidad seemed too

confined for the highly intelligent and ambitious young man. He left for the U.S.A. in l924,proposingto study medicine.

But Nurse was not destined to the respectable world ofNegro professional-

ism. Soon after his anival in the USA, Nurse entered the Communist Party, taking the cover name of George Padmore when engaged in Party Business. He became quirc an important figure in the US

Communist world. For Padmore, only the Communistseemedto offerananswer

to the colour question: it didn't exist.

Workers would unite to tlrow off their chains regardless ofrace or nationality. It was a time when the USSR seemed to be the great hope for radicals all over the

world, especially the colonial world. In l929,Padmorewentto Russiaand became the head of the Negro Bureau of the

Communist International

of Labour

Unions. He also served as Secretary

of

the International Trade Union Committee

of Negro Workers (ITUC-NW). Both these bodies were COMINTERN agents to agitale and moblise the Negro people in the colonial world and in the USA. For a time, Padmore enjoyed great penonal authority and prestige as an honoured foreigrr comrade in Moscow. He founded and edircd Negro Worker, the organ of the Communist Negro movement.

But disillusionment was to come. In Pegc 12

the early 1930s, Stalin's regime reduced

its anti-colonial activity in order to gain greater acceptance forthe USSR from the west. The ITUC-NW was disbanded in 1933 because itwas especially objectionable to the Westem Imperialist powers.

Padmore immediately resigned all his COMINTERN offtces and was formally expelled in 1934. It marked a permanent break with the USSR, though he continued to hold that the USSR was the only state which had successfully eliminated racism. From this time on, Padmore's interests shifted towards Africa and Pan

Africanism.

For most ofthe rest ofhis life, Padmore

lived in London, nearly always in poverty, as a writer, joumalist and agitator in the cause of black freedom. Among his

tween brothers."

By then, Padmore's interests focussed on Africa, though he did not abandon his commitment to the wider cause of international liberation. In l944,with others, he founded the Pan African Federation.

The next year, Padmore organised a Pan African Conference at Manchester. W.Du Bois, the veteran American black leader was its Chairman, and among the partici-

pants were Garvey's widow, Mrs Amy Jacques Garvey, and Nkrumah. Padmore

was the main planner of the Manchester

conference. After his relationship with Nkrumah developed, Padmore focussed increasingly on the Gold Coast as the vanguard ofthe anti-colonial struggle in Africa. He was influential in persuading Nkrumah to return there to lead the nationalist movâ‚Źment, and he came to see the African as the hope for a free, united Africa.

In I 957, Padmore was invited to Ghana for its independence celebrations - Ghana

lonial matters. He lectured very

being the first non-white British colony to gain independence , the first ofso many .

He stayed on as Nkrumah's personal adviser on African affairs. For just under two years (1957-9) Padmore exerted a powerful influence onNkrumah, Ghana, and black Africa. There was opposition in Ghana to Padmore's influence - after all, he was a foreigner - but Nkrumah placed great reliance on him. In 1958 he organised a meeting in Accra ofthe Heads of the independent African states and

colonial students inLondon. His lodgings became, inthe I 930s and I 940s,the centre

his ashes were buried Nkrumah's request.

most important books were:

How Britain Ruled Africa (1936); How Russia Transformed Her Colonial Empire (19a6); Africa, Britain's Third Empire (1949);and Pan Africanism or Communism? (1956). The last named is

probably his most important and certainly his best known book. He also wrote innumerable articles in a variety of left wing journals and papers, mostly on co-

frequently, for instance to meetings of the British Independent Labour Party, and conducted political study gtoups for

of anti-colonial struggle in London.

Among the callers were his boyhood friend C.L.R.James, and also a young Oxford undergraduate named Eric Williams. ln I 945, Padmorâ‚Ź met a young African from the then Gold Coast, Kwame Nkrumah. There was an instant mutual attraction. On Padmore's death,Nlrumah was to say "When I first met George Padmore in London, we both realised from the very beginning that we thought along the same lines and talked the same language. There existed between us that rare affrnity for which one searches for so lonq but seldom finds in another human

accompanied Nkrumah on various African tours. But his health began to fail, and late in 1959 he died in London;

in Accra at

Padmore's career is one of considerable significance foi the modem history of Africa. He may rightly be regarded as one of the fathers of African liberation.

He devoted a life time to the cause ofthe

black man's dignity and freedom; his propaganda and agitation kept the issues constantly alive in Europe, America and Russia. Padmore was one ofthe men and women who inspired the struggle of the black man for freedom from oppression.

[" Caribbean Emancipators ", publication by the G.B.U. Public Relations Division, Ofice of the Prime Minister, Trinidqd and Tobago, 1976J.

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE 1993

MARCHING TO A FOREIGN TUNE *Dr. Yaughan Lewis, Director General, OECS

As far as the West Indian islands are concerned, for a very long time we have been part of one international economic system or another. Since 1963 , when Britain rnade its first application to join the European Common Market @EC), the system of which we are a part began to disintegrate. It has taken us some time for us to think forcefully of the implica-

combine and confirm policy management of a regional integrated system of production, a systâ‚Źm which would have its inspiration, internally, and so be in a position to adjust continually to external pressures. That is really the lesson ofthe

Asian countries - that you put your internal system in order and that you use your internal system, although it may be an open system, to respond to the extenral pressurc. And that we have failed so far to do.

tions of that notice.

With Britain moving more and more into the European Community,the United States - recognizing that there was an

Presentations made at a Panel discussion on NAFTA and the Caribbean held recently in Dominica

increasing regionalisation of the world, as her own policies towards the Asian

countries began to pay off in terms of Asian success - sought to create now a new system, a new intemational system of which it can be in control.

For a long time, we have felt that we were part of a wide Atlantic system, a British imperial system, and have never fully taken grasp ofthe fact that we exist geographically in the middle ofthe Westem hemisphere. Sooner or later, we will have to come to terms substantially from the pressure of that hemisphere, and that that hemisphere is dominated by a particular country.

As regionalisation of the world has taken place, the US itself, powerful as it is, has had to respond, and has begun the

construction of its full intemational system. The old system, of which we were once a part, has begun to disintegrate, and we are left somewhere floating; economically but geographically, we are still part of the Western hemisphere and we will have to come to tenns with it sooner, or later.

Although we have been on notice since thought that we should begin the construction of our own Caribbean arrangements. In the 1960s, soon after the British put us on notice, we began to talk 1963 , we

about integration once again and, we came to the solution of CARIFTA and then CARICOM. CARIFTA and CARICOM were really compromises. It was a system of CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY . JUNE,

*Philip Nassief, Businessman, Dominica.

The Region must be very cautious and

move slowly. It is clearly a policy of the US govemment to reduce its substantial

deficit. The US cannot make much

America and the Caribbean - you should have a maximum of 20%o, when they themselves have massive subsidies in their own agricultural sectors. That will destroy our agricultural and manufacturing base, reduce our foreign exchange earnings, and create massive unemployment.

For example, in Canada the situation is alarming. In Ontario unemployment has reached well up to Do/o, which is

progress with a united Europe, neither can it make much progress in terms of trade with the Asian countries. In order to reduce its deficit, the US will use Latin America and unfortunately, the Caribbean ges caught into that. The US is using unfortunately , a policy ofdebt relief as an instrument to pressure those countries that have massive debts, to honour its policy requirements of bringing down the CommonExternal Tarifffrom existing levels to a maximum of 20% within five years.If we look at the successful Asian countries in the developing world, they have had a managed market, as distinct from a free market. This is important factor. What are the factors that have contributed to success ofthe success of Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong?

One of the key factors is their neutral status, removing all anti export biases.

We have not, as yet, done this in the Region. To a large extent,those countries that have been very successful have not opened up their markets. To this day Japan has an 80% import tariff on rice, Europe has an average of 600lo,the US an average of40Yo on agricultural produce.

understand why the regional governments are just marching to the tune of the US and looking at some short term gain for a

Yet the United States says to Latin

lot of long term pain.

1993

All the companies thatwere operating in Canada, that were subsidiaries of the US companies, have shut down and every thing is directly the cause of NAFTA.

being supplied from the US. Already, within a year ofthe decision ofthe Region to acceptthe directions ofthe US,we are beingtold - as a manufacturing company making under license for one of the big giants - 'goodbye, by the end ofJune we will cut off your contract, we will ship direct from outside ofthe Region.' Lever

Brothers in Trinidad and Tobago are saying,'we will not be able to manufacture anymore, all you will have to do is import from the parent company in the UK. What will happen is that we will lose foreigr exchange and many jobs? I cannot

Prgc 13

R&

D COOPERATION

Pacific Islands.

CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICA Technical cooperation in the banana of the Caribbean and Latin Americahad its embryonic beginnings in

industries

1964 when the Government of France organized a banana tour in Guadeloupe for research workers, growers, cornmercial representatives, economists and the private and public sectors in the Region in order to share banana technologies as

one of the ways of moving rapidly towards our comrnon goals.

In that same year, delegates from the Jamaica Banana Board, the University

of

Puerto Rico, the French Overseas Research Department (IRFA), the Wind-

ward Islands Banana Growers Associa-

tion (WINBAN), the University of the West Indies, the governments of Trinidad and Suriname met in Puerto Rico and

established the Association for collaboration of Banana Research in the Caribbeanand Tropical America (ACORBAT).

The organization was subsequently constituted under French Law and registered

in Fort-de-France, Martinique.

The aims and objects of the Association are: * To recommend and study, research, survey or trial with respect to bananas in the Caribbean and Tropical Americadesigned to improve thdir culti-

vation, management, packaging or processing, and

* To promote by all available means the adoption of methods and techniques designed to improve the quality of the fruit and to stimulate acceptance ofbananas produced by the countries of the Association.

Field trips were organized to various banana growing countries. The fint formal meeting of ACORBAT was held in Saint Lucia in 1970, followed by meet-

ings in Jamaica, Martinique, Panama, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico.

ACORBAT has grown from its modest meetings in the Caribbean to a major forum for exchange of information in all aspects ofscience and technology ofbananas for Research and Development (R and D) personnel for banana growers, Pege 14

managers of the banana industry, agroindustry personnel, public and private

In 1976, at the invitation o f the Union of Banana Exporting Countries (LJPEB) and with funding provided by the International Development Research Cente of Canada (IDRC),the WINBAN Director ofResearch,together with three ofhis staff, visited Colombia to advise UPEB on the identification of national and regional research priorities and the establishment of research networks for Latin

sector interess gnd banana multi-national corporations.

The Caribbean has therefore played a major role inthis far reaching hemispheric Association forthe cooperation in banana Rand D. The forum ofACORBAT resulted in a rapid transfer of technology across national and regional boundaries. The pioneering work by the French scientists in Martinique and Guadeloupe on Sigatoka leafspot control using a forecasting system was adapted and implemented in the English-speaking Caribbean and Latin America.

tory procedures and agreed to work together with the UPEB territories in order to enhance the advancement of our re-

The findings related to the de adly Black Sigatolcaleaf spot disease in Latin America was made known to the Caribbean, putting

age caused by nematodes was not as

the islands on the alert and permitting them to institute preventative control measures.

The early research findings on nematode control from WINBAN was rapidly

transferred to Latin America. The Banana bieaking work in Jamaica and Honduras complemented and strengthened

each other

in the development of to Yellow

Tetraploide with resistance

Sigatolca. These are some of the many examples of banana technology transfer

emanating through the forum of ACORBAT.

At the time of the founding of

ACORBAT,the private growersi in Latin America had little or no access to the findings of the multi-national fruit companies and there was very little national R and D dedicated to banana in that region.

MNBAN Research Centre based in Saint Lucia and the Jamaica Banana Research Department were looked upon as rnajor sources for information in banana R and D, owned and financed by the banana growers of the Windward Islands and Jamaica with the support of their respâ‚Źctive govemments.

WINBAN R and D Centre became a major training centre for several scien-

tists from the wider Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe and the South

America and the Caribbean.

At the meeting in Colombia, WINBAN made available to UPEB, its

various research techniques and labora-

spective industries.

Further, around that time, and at the request of private banana growers in Central and South America, the WINBAN Director of Research gave advice to ba-

nana farmers of Central and South America on nematodecontol. The damknown as

well

it is today, and thousands of

acres of banana were coming under their

attack. Advances made by WINBAN on the use of brominated hydrocarbons and

findings

in the use of

granular

nematocides were demonstrated to private bananagrowers inCentral and South America.

The Organization of Tropical American Nematologists in the 1970s wacs established in the Caribbean to foster greater links benveen the Caribbean and

Tropical America

in the area of

Nematology. The sharing of research knowledge and technology in this field has resulted in cost savings to our respective banana industries.

We can see from the above that the Caribbean played a role in the development of technical aspects in the banana

industry of Central America from the early 70s. It is therefore incumbent upon us to build onthis long standingrelationship. We should continue to explore further areas of technical development and widen our area of cooperation.

(Excerpt of a presentation to the

N C O M- C entral America Ministerial Conference, Jamaica, May 27-28, 1993, prepared by the Embassy of Saint Lucia, ll'ashingS econd CA

ton)

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY . JUNE T993

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH BANANAS? The more we examine this matter, the more we discover that the problem is not with the Cental American producers, but

Delegatesfro* CANCOM and Latin America met in Jamaica last June to discuss the thorny issue of Bananas.

with the United States' dollar. In most banana producing countries, production is on a small scale by a large number of frmers as opposed to a few States, in whichproduction is ona large scale by a small number of multinational companies.

The small number of large-scale producers are motivated by exploitative profits, and are therefore attempting to distort the banana trade. Those companies already have over 75%o ofthe European

Grenada's Ambassador to Washington, H.E. Denneth Modest outlined what he smy was the real problem with Bananas.

market.

"Its sales and earnings hsve been

did@

because of, among other things,

an outbreak ofbanana disease, plummet-

ing banana prices in Europe caused by

over-production, and lower-than-expected sales in theformer Soviet Bloc."

(Wall Street Journal, Jan. 15, 1993) This was in connection to one of our companies. I read also in the Wall Sheet Journal that "banana exports to Europe keep many Caribbean Islands afloat". So, we are talking here, not of loss of profits, buuhe economic viability ofentire States. tn" nn[ in banana piices in Europe, which is now affecting the companies, is an inevitable consequence of their overproduction to satis$ a market in Europe

ments have successfully resisted the at-

our product is ofa higher quality. I visiled

that has eluded them.Why should the

tempts of the multinationals to dictate their domestic and foreign policies.

Caribbean be called upon to sacrifice our survival for the miscalculation of those companies?

opportunity to indicate and demonstrate to the multinationals that their relation-

Indonesia recently and was honoured to have been afforded an opportunity by the President to discuss with him the price of nutmeg on the world market. The President said the following !o me in rtlation to our volume of output: "You are small in size, we are large in relation to you" We know how important nufineg is to Grenada, We will divenifr into other crops - He did not say that Grenada should divenifu - and let you have an adequate share ofthe market in the spirit ofcooperation among develop ing countries.

I am hopeful that the same approach would be adopted by the countries of Central America.

The issue is not free hade, but fair tade. What we seek is a fair share of the Eade for our island developing countries whose foreigrr exchange earnings depend

in large part on our export ofbananas.

Given that we both have an interest in the production and marketing ofbananas, we should work together in the spirit of solidarity and cooperation, rather than both sides articulating irreconcilable positions.

I know that Cental America govem-

Central American states now have an

ships with the Caribbean is of greater interest than the mere maximization of profits, especially since the wages which the workers are paid on the Companies' farms are not commensurate with the level of profits which they realise from the trade.

Indonesia and Grenada are the two producers of nutmegs for the world market. Because ofthe size ofour respective countries, Indonesia could push us out of the market, if it chooses to, except that

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY - JUNE, 1993

Prgc 15

MOTHERS' DEVEI,OPMENT WINDOW

As thef@ling ofpnwerlessness threat-

ens to paralyse large sections of our Caribbean population and more specifically, the poor, eforts by individuals or collectives to confront poverty and empower themselves desene every encouragement.

In

its previous issue, 'Perspective'

described the social patterns existing between poverty and violence. In this issue we continue the discussion on poverty,

but highlight a womenb collective response to this problem.

'I\e Mother's Development Window (MDW) was formed in January, 1991, with a bit of seed money (amounting to US $41) donated to a group of young mothers in Buxton, a village on the East Coast of Guyana.

The MDW was created specifically to deal with poverty among single mothers.

Members

of the village community,

Buxton-Friendship, were hard hit by single motherhood, female under-employment and under-taining.

The Charter of the MDW which was adopted on February 17,l99l reads: "...the

MOTIIER'S DEVELOPMENT WIN.

DOW will cater for the all-round development of the group, starting with income eaming and including education, training, nutrition assistance, protection ofmothers and childrerr and giving moral support to other human causes".

Membershiptothe collectivewas open to mothers who were single or were rendered single by widowhood or the operation of any law or of social or economic forces. A mother who is not single, but

whose income, along with that of the child's father is insuflicient is treated as a special case.

The organisation is organised in cradles with a minimum membership of ten mothers. Members pay a fee of $20 on joining and can buy investment Units_of the WINDOW each costing $25, with a minimum fixed generally at the convenience of the mothers, over a period.

Gem Marcus of the Buxton Cradle

her own line of activity. The first three loans were granted on January 27,1991

was focussed on raising and lending funds to individual members for micro-

totalling $1300 with the first loan limit fixed at $700. This was later raised to $900 after the l99l budget. Originally the

business. Loens cen also be grented

loans were meant to be income earning, but a later decision was taken to include paying for a taining course.

and donations end hed made [15 loans.

The biggest loan grented to dete wes $10,000. Loans can be used fortnding, buying end .selling, food processing, garment meking, charcoal burning and livestock Each borrower decidei on

Each cradle has the following oflicers

- a Chairwoman, Deputy Chairwoman,

Secretary and at least two Trustees and

two other members to form the Cradle Committee.

The MDW decided to raise funds and

lend to individual members for micro business. Each borrower would decide Pege 16

The

Growth MNDOW initiated the fi rst loans

inthe village ofVictoria and subsequently to Georgetown, Essequibo and- Wismar.

At May last year, MDW had a membership of 95,90 of whom were borrowers In the lirst two years since it was

formed most of the group's attention

for "self-improvement' treining. MDW mobilised $G175,000 from fund raisers

her own activity. No collateral is required for a loan, the only gulnntee, the group rpports, is honesty with repayment period within three months, regardless of the size of the loan. Re

payment of loans is near l007o.

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY . JUNE 1993

Strcngths and Wcakncsscs

In an evaluation of MDW's work to date, two committee members detailed a

number ofweaknesses and strengths and observed that inasmuch as the first loan of$900 istoo small topermitsomewomen to make a turnover so that they can repay the loan, the size of the first loan should not be increased since it provides a test of members' seriousness. The women who stay on seem to be more dependable and

defaults on second and third loans are infrequent.

Andaiye, in her presentation to the Seminar on Poverty at the University of Guyana last March outlined three structural problems the group needs to confront:

L

its reliance on volunteers for

administrative work; 2. its acceptance

of individuals

who are not attached to any group or part of any community where MAW is established, as loan recipients, and 3. the lack of micro-enterprise feasibi I ity studies for thecommunities where itoperates,whichcanhelp members make more informed decisions about the businesses they want to develop.

Talking with Gem Marcus of the Buxton Cradle,'Perspective' recognised the purpose and independence this group

has brought to its members. Operating with small budgets, and faced with a

number

of infrastructural problems,

MAW must however,

landmark attempt at empowerment ofwomen.

Given the necessary economic and other assistance it needs, the women of MAW will in a t-ew years, be able not only to be hailed as a

leave the degradation ofpoverty, but cer-

tainly be able to widen their scope and encourage others to deal positively with the issue ofpoverty.

WOMEN & POVERTY -Issues in Guyana *Andaiye

Many Caribbean's activists are of the

view that women are over-represented among the poor because they have a prescribed responsibil ity for reproductive work, which is work performed, on average, for several hours a day, without remuneration.

We need to recognise that what we are

talking about is work (rather than a role) if we are to be clear that this work has a central place in the chain of wealth-generation; and if we are to understand that combatting women's " over-represenlation among the poor is at once a human right, a political and an economic im-

peralive. 'l'he

above u'as c-xcerpted liont a presentation by Andail c preparcd lbr the I DSi [JC] Scnrinar"l)ove rtv in Guvana:Finding Solutions", held in Guvana on March l81993

'l'he presentation ofl-ered available data olr woureu and povcrtl, in Gu1'ana,partial/

indirect indicators

ol-

rvonten's poverty,

thc bases of povertl.' alnong Gul,anese \\'onren and described sonte recent moves

to conliont povert)' antong \\'or1ten.

'fhe lbllorvins are excerpts fiom

Anclail e's presentalion:

Two nrajor developments which have had a significant impact on women's reproductive work and their access to income are the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP)andmigration. The impact

of SAP on the household is visible in at

food has become hunting and gathering the cheapest items which then take longer to prepare and cook.

There is increasing evidence ofchanges in household composition in Guyana: evidence of child-shifting, children heading households, ofplural (rather than extended) households where several decision-mak-

ingunits share acommonlivingspace,but not a common pot; of a rapid increase in female-headed households. Migration is a major factor in several of these developments, since it has often been a migration not of households, but ofindividuals; the goal when an individual migrates may be reunion but the process is lengthy and the goal sometimes jettisoned or unrealizable.

More women than men are migrating permanently. In terms of recurrent migration, more women than men are also traders, while more men than women are migrants to the old and new industries of the interior. Whatever the figures, migration is increasing the number of de facto female household heads. A mother who migrates alone, or who moves in and out of the country, does not typically leave

children with their father; fathers who migrate overseas or go into the interior to

work leave children with their mothers or other female relatives.

There is virtually no social support for reproductive work in Guyana. Maternity and motherhood benelrts through NIS are not unreasonably small compared to salaries,butonly asmall proportion ofwomen receive NIS maternity benefits.

While the law provides for maternity

least two ways:

grants and benefits, it does not provide for protection against dismissal on the grounds

services,

By cutting expenditure on social it has shifted the burden of responsibility for providing those serv-

of pregnancy, paid time off for ante-natal care,paid or.unpaid maternity leave orthe

ices, orcompensating for their inadequacy,

right ofreinstatement after matemity leave.

The existence of women in high posi-

onto households. SAP also increases the

tions in the public sector obscurrls the

l)

need forvoluntary work on communities,

reality for the majority ofwomen in both

much of which is done by women.

2) By the series of measures which have widened the gap between prices and incomes, it has intensifi ed the work needed

the public and private sectors, who remain largely clustered in traditionally "female" areas of work.

to provide food security. Shopping for CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY - JUNE, I993

Cont'd on page

l8

Page 17

ON THE PT]LSE OF MORNING Here, root yourselves beside me, I am Tree planted by the River, Which will not be moved.

I, the Rock, I, the River, I, the Tree I am yours - your passages have been paid.

Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need

For this bright morning dawning for you.

History, despite its wrenching pain, Cannot be unlived, but iffaced With courage, need not be lived again.

Lift up your

eyes

Upon this day breaking for you.

Give birth again To the dream.

Women, children, men, Take in into the palms of your hands, Mold it into the shape of your most Private need. Sculpt it into The image of your most public self.

Lift up your hearts Each new hour holds new chances For a new beginning.

Do not be wedded forever To fear, yoked eternally To brutishness.

Maya Angelou ...in Jamaicafollowing a Reading of her poems

recenlly

The horizon leans forward,

Offering you space To place new steps ofchange Here, on the pulse of this fine day You may have the courage To look up and out and upon me, The Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.

No less to Midas than the mendicant.

No less to you now than the mastodon

(There are a number of programmes

oriented towards enabling low-income

then.

women to confront their poverty and the presentation mentioned Red Thread and the ll/omen's Development llindow).

Here, on the pulse of this new day You may have the grace to look up and out And into your sister's face, And into your brother's face,

Your country, And say simply Very simply

With hope Good morning. l'age

l8

The following reforms were suggested:

(Excerptfrom lhe Inaugural Poern "On of Morn in g " by Maya A n ge lou, reprinted wilh pennission by the author and the Mutual Life Gallery, Jamaica). the Pulse

I ) Legal/legislative recognitionofreproductive work as a social function.

2) Provision of extensive system of children and child support.

3) Strengtheningwomen'sinputinto the functioning of government.

CARICOM I'ERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE I993

THE SACRED MISSION OF THE ARTIST - Reflections and Concerns of an

Artist in a Multiracial Society

*Bernadette Persaud

Our special peculiarities (if I may go over the old cliches) lie in the fact that we are the only Anglophone country in South America, that we are located on the edge

of this Continent, that most of

us,

descendants oflndians,Africans, Chinese, Portuguese, Mulattoes, withthe exception

ofour Indigenous peoples, live uneasily together on

a

narrow Coastal edge, caught,

literally and metaphorically, in

the

memorable words of Wilson Harris, between the advancing sea and the advancing forest.

It is no wonder that, given the nature of the historical forces which threw so many races together, that a psychological disquiet, a sitting on the edge, pervades

this society. The tension of ethnic communities living side by side in a tenuous kind of equilibrium in varying degrees

of cultural

dispclssession and, united(itwould seem) mainly by aEuro-

centric ideology,

is

particularly uncomfortable. (This, perhaps, is too simplistic a view), but the difficulties, the tauma, for this mix of peoples who are expected to pursue a shared eistence, a shared destiny are dubious.

How can we forge a national

perhaps compulsive. This is one of the conscious imperatives of my impulse to paint - and sometimes not to paint. For often I am assailed by doubts . . Didn't Christopher Columbus, Leonardo, Monet, Picasso, Gaugin - discover it all?

What is there left to be done at the end of the 20th Century which has not been done before? And even when I tell myself that I discovered the BIRDS, and the

.

Soldiers and the LOTUS, the moist perplexingquestion remains . . . How can the enigma of self be examined in another man's self-annihilating language

- - whether verbal or visual?

Can we use his forms, his techniques, his perspective, his colours (ground from

his high-technology machines) his Self?

As an artist,

I

want to play a new melody. I wantto findanewcolour. And I want to proclaim like Schopenhauer.

'The world is my ldea' But is it possible to

see the

world with

my own eyes? How can the landscape, within and without, be seen not through the eyes ofEurope?

identifr

Howhave ourartists andpoets respond

or unity?

How can the artist forge an authentic

to this dilemma? What solution have

cultural identity?

And how can he pursue his ethniccultural roots when it seems to be at odds with the pursuit of a national identiff, in a multiracial society?

Some writers and artists have answered.

Flee - - escape.

Choose permanent exile.

It is better to ignore our special type

they articulated through their work?

Consider the work of Phillip Moore in the visual futs. I have signalled out this artist because, it seems to me that art in Guyana before Phillip Moore has been mainly an imitation of Europeanisms' (ofcourse, European Art has been fed by

numerous sources, including Africa,

of

unreality (or is it complexity?).

Butthe artist in me whose psyche has been shaped, not only by heredity, race and culture, but also by our peculiar geophysical and colonial circumstances, seeks solutions: follows a quest for an authentic vision, for wholeness, which is

Bernadette Persaud

concepts of Time and Space, and find

India, the New World, particularly during the l9th century and, by the 20th century a rather eclectic language had evolved).

So it seems that we are producing art in the context of a rather characterless intemational language.

The artist, using this approach, takes great risks, the importance ofthe markeV

the State/the patror/the art-critic

is diminished. tte risks being incomprehen-

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE. 1993

sible to his fellow human-beings, who remain culturally limited. again, in a society filled with racial antagonisms and competition, the ethnic character of his work may cause unease and even anger.

Consider the reactions to the 1763 Monument?

Consider the reactions to the proposed

Indian Monument.

Youcansee thatwe have some way to go before we can understand, much less

appreciate each other's aesthetic.

Consider the current debate on "lndian" music. After more ttran 150 years the ears of the majority of non-Indians are not attuned to this mode of expression. I think ifa being from one ofthe planets in some other galaxy were to step on this planet, it would find ALL our music strange, shrill, raucous, and perhaps see no beauty in a rose or sun - flower. But, after a 100 years we would expect some.

understanding' from this alien.

Michael Gilkes is anupdated Couvade - 20 long years after the first Couvade

to explore these ethnic and cultural issues. What lessons do we gather from this work? attempts

,

nfd

on page 2o Prge 19

For politicians whose task is govemance, it would be much easier if we were

araceless people - ameltingpot. Butthis I suspect will remain a fantasy - a mulatto dream (understandably).

The Government of any plural, democratic society should heeding UNESCO's declarations, seek to promote

and reinforce equally every group's cultural expressions. (has this been done in this society?) In the long-run this task

would have to be implemented by culturally limited individuals, with their own vision of what the society should evolve into.

No self-respecting artist wants to be

manipulated by any Government or Department of Culture (or any other group), and ifour fathers or grandfathers

seek,outofthe shells and rags ofmemory to reconstruct their identity, in a strange land, on the edge ofa forest - far from the motherland - letthem be. And I certainly, will not repudiate my grandfather or grandmother.

In the final analysis,I do not think that

our ethno-cultural self can be wished away in the individual/collective quest for authenticity. And despite the autonomy and freedom of the human spirit, which forever seeks to transcend race, culture, geography - man remains earth-bound, inextricably bound and

limited to his portion of the planet.

Inevitably, the genuine work

of

In a statement entitled "The Location of the Artist" (Martin) Carter describes art as a form of "negative productivity (which presupposes a process of positive productivity as its environment." He goes on to explain what he means: "The first consideration to be dealt with concerning art and the artist has to do with satisfaction and fulfillment. This satisfaction and fulfillment has to do with the development of self-consciousness.

Self-consciousness itselfis an issue, itself subsumed by the issue that subsumes all issues: human fate.

The artist cannot change the nature of this fate: all he can do is endure it. At the same time it is his society which has to provide the conditions that make this fate endurable. It is in these senses that art is

does not have the requirements ofpositive productivity, is not in a position to offer

a

[Bernadette Persaud is artistJ

a

Guyanese

responsibility of the artist.

(Excerpt from " The Shape ofThat Hurt "

by Gordon Rohlehr. Longman,1992)

required environment ofthe artist. Where there should be interaction of negative and positive productivity we find instead only the contiguity of two negative productivities, one seeking to retain its

spirit while paradoxically clinging to the particulars ofrace and culture.

The authentic work of art is

of Self in Cosmos and Cosmos in Self becomes the existential

described as negative productivity and

spirituality and physicality, reflects the sameness or universality of the human

compelling reflection and PROOF ofthe limitations and freedom inherent in the human condition.

fatality, time and death through constant

exploration

positive productivity suggested as the

integrity through independence and autonomy, the other attempting to assimilate this independence and autonomy into a system which, since it

art,

emerging from those polarities of

life is caught. If resistance to comrption of the word and its corollary, clarity of utterance, are a political imperative for the citizen, resistance to the riddle of

co-existential status".

The artist's responsibility in this context is defined again and again in ofAfinity. These poems are often about politics, and do offer a perspective of'resistance'. But they are also about

Poems

time, endurance and people's unfilled abuse of their grim time. If politics is constant degradation of peoples' sensibilities,

a

diet ofdecaying language,

and ultimately an assassination of the voice, time is neuter process in which all Pege 20

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE I993

COTIVADE *Nigel Rogers

Michael Gilkes'Couvede opened at

the National Cultural Centre in

Georgetown, Guyana, on May 26,1993.

The play has since been performed in

Africa (National Theatre, Nairobi), England (The Keskidee Centre) and the Caribbean (Jamaica School of Drama), andhas nowbeenpartly re-written for its re-appearance in Guyana. A 'new' Guyana is in the making, and the 'new'

COIMDE

Colette Jones - to produce a canvas that

will reflect the merging of the hostile cultures into a salubrious whole. The seeming sterility ofhis painting, however, drives him to near insanity. He has seen

sailofdespairwideningonthe horizon, and he barks at his pregnant wife, who is the

the living embodiment of what he is toiling to produce, that he has No, time,

No time, No

time!

The ultimately

bow our heads, feel around our necks, wear close to ow hearts.

Colette Jones handles her role as Lionel's long-suffering wife with great sensitivity and Conviction. Also excellent is Andre Subryan, who plays Eddie, her brother, with the ease of a veteran actor.

He functions in the play as a kind of mirror into which Lionel and Arthur refuse to look. 'His simple arguments

dramatises both the exciting

possibilities and pains of re-birttr.

The play has undergone some

adaptation designed to bring into the fold issues that have since become pertinent.

This is not to say that ttre issues with which it was concerned in 1972 have been excluded or overridden.

Couvade, in essence, is an attempt at such a conciliatory blending; an attempt

to dispense with the outdated,

even

dangerous modes of thought that serve no other purpose than to keep us

fragmentary and fractious,

living in

uneasy alliance.

Much of its spectacular success can

it brings together these seemingly disparate and janing elements and obliges them to act in concert. The audience is aware ofthis, andthe first bold step toward the uniquely be ascribed to the fact that

Errol Silahal, Collette Jones prophetic words ofhis friend, the sociolo-

Guyaneqe, the uniquely Caribbean

gist Arthur, again portrayed by Ron Robinson, are heard only in passing: "A robe of ancestors is to be worn, not

culture envisioned by Lionel, the painter

trapped on a canvas".

portayed by Richard Naraine, is taken.

The two porkknockers, Santos and Mergency, pormyed in superb cameos

by Ron Robinson and Andre Subryan respectively, make theirappearance early.

The play then proceeds to excavate the

rich nuggets of culture residing in the Guyanese people, to melt them down, and finally to fuse them into a strong, beautiful chain which is given visual expression in the innovative, semi-circular set designed by Ken Corsbie and around which the performers are arrayed at the end of the play.

Lionel, is a man whose commitment to the same forging process is such that it verges on obsession. He strives day and night - to the detriment of his health and the distess of his wife Pat, played by

It is only after Lionel's revelatory

dream that the echo ofthese words comes back with telling resonance. He suffers a breakdown when he realises that no art is comparable to a life lived along the lines ofwhat he has expended such energy on and, in the end, failed at. His two dominant dreamselves, the Shaihan and the Shango Priest, free the canvas from its easel and lower it onto his shoulders. He is cloaked now in the robe ofour ancestors, all of them. This, then, is Jacob's coat ofmany colours. Beautiful to look at on its own, but transcendent when it drapes the

contours of that most sublime and preeminent of structures, the human form.

This, then, is the new and uplifting bondage, the superb forged chain to which we, as a people finally free, must gladly

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUAR,Y - JUNE, 1993

contain more wisdom that those

oflionel

and Arthur, who prefer the high-flown,

philosophical path, along which, more often than not, they lose their way.

Other outstanding performances came

from veterans Ken Corsbie, in the double roles of Shaman and politician, and from Marc Matthews, in the double roles of a Shango Priest and a Jordanite Leader

of

forbidding countenance. Jermonica

Walcott could well be a direct descendant

of Moses; her supporting role as a Jordanite Sister possessed all of his biblical rage and fire when presented with the spectacle of the golden calf.

The heaviest guns of some critics have been discharged at the improbability of the character played by Errol Sitahal of

Trinidad and Tobago: a Hindu Pandit who chooses as his partner, a black, Christian woman. It is at the proponents ofsuch a view that Couvade takes direct

aim. Why, after some one hundred and Cont'd on page 24 Prge

2l

BLACK JACOBINS -tRrymond

Part of the set of the current of the CLR James' "The Black Jacobins", is an old, burnt out performance

PTSC bus. The windows are all shattered, andthe engine has beenripped out, leaving

what looks like the entrails of a gutted mastodon dangling onto the concrete.

It's a set desigrrer's dream, to have that kind of budget to work with. But, more

realistically, the bus belongs to an increasingly popular agglomeration of kitschy objects known as "found art". It was found, decaying on the landscape at the Scherzando Cultural Centre, a polite name for the Scherzando Panyard where the performance is being staged.

There are

a lot

more things,

appropriated for that landscape, that are used in the play, and some indelible parts of the landscape which the play is built around. This was the intention, Rawle Gibbons, the director of the piece said in

an interview, published in the S O Magazine, that his intention, an intention which he hopes to communicate was (is)

whatBritish directorPeterBrook calls, an Immediate Theotre.

An Immediate Theatre, to paraphrase Brook, is an organic sensory-reactive appendage of the society it serves. To any theatre goer, (or even Practitioner) inured to the,unfortunately,more popular definitions of theatre here, the very idea of an appendage might be iconoclastic.

But nonetheless, Gibbon has it that the purpose of the theatre is a little more

to create

meaningful than that, and the use

of

relevant ideas, contemporary events, and existing the physical landscape to give the society a meaningful look at itself, is closer to the purpose ofthe theatre than

offarce and voyeurism.

As a member of society enters this performance, as he walks into the "auditorium", a huge covered pavilion, with no side walls, he is directed onto a precarious bleacher, wherefrom he finds himself looking down onto what looks the endless season

like a small section of a Pr,ge22

ghetto,

Ramcharitar

transplanted onto the bare floor of the building. There is no sign of set construction, or any other artifice.

At 8:25, a group of people clad in white bodi.ces and trousers and skirts enter the auditorium silently from behind the ghetto and begin to place various articles onto the tables, old boxes and ad loc stands. They place fruits, assorted rag tag dry goods, clothing and paper.

Then they leave as they came. At 8.30, there is a great deal of shouting from behind the ghetto and a group ofpeople appear waving slogans and shouting in Creole (Haitian dialect).

The slogans read

(translated)

"Democracy or death", "Free Haiti", Bring backAristide" and "Downwith the Ton Ton Macoutes".

A few men wearingred and blue military type jumpsuis (the colours of the Haitian flag) emerge from the shadows behind the bleachers, carrying clubs. As the group sees them they band together into a huddle, and the men with the clubs

begin to attack them. The people (villagers) run offthe stage and the man proceed to wreck what

little

order that

exists in the slum. The villagers came back on, and after attempting to restore

some of their surroundings back to normalcy, begin to dance. The village voodoo priestess, brings out a book, a sword, an epaulette, and a tricom hat, all very battered and partially destroyed, which she hands them to various people who, using them as symbols ofcharacter, begin to re-enact a story. The story is one of the victory, the one solace they have amidst the poverty and oppression. The

story they begin to tell begins with Toussaint Louverture, an old slave, reading his Raynal . . .. This is where the

text of CLR James' play, "The llack Jacobins" written in 1937, begins.

The merits and demerits of the performance per se are not the issue here, this should be the subject ofa theatrical review, which this is not. The issue here

is the use of the particular form which,

if

taken as seriously as itispresented,could effect a reorientation ofthat which causes

us under the guise of theatre, to sit in

darkened halls and cathartise our neuroses. The play itself fits into the guiding context of relevance. Although based on specific fact, and although written in 1937, it contains universal themes which in the contemporary Caribbean context are today as urgent and in need of attention as they were in the Colonial period.

The text traces, using the Haitian Revolution of 1789, the conflict of four ideologies, which in that seminal stage competed to form the fledgling nation, any nation, and their final resolution. At leastup to the present day.

The forces are represented archetypally by Toussaint, his nephew Moise, Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henri Cristophe, the four main figures in the

Haitian Revolution.

The narrative details are mainly historical fact, oriented such that the

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY - JUNE T993

nothave been more timely, in at leasttwo

ways. In the

Caribbean there

is

a

tremendous apathy and even aversion to the discussion of the problems in Haiti, characters reaction to them display the naturc ofthe force they represented.

Toussaint represented the old benevolent paEiarch, Dessalines, the am-

bitious but ruthless Lucifer, Henri

which Gibbons is at the forefront of

ouBide ofthe Region, arcepting urrcritically the bad press on the Haitian people and the

negative intemational attitudes to ever resolving their problems.

This committee feels that much ofthis

addressing it in real life as well.

lack of involvement stems from

"Raymond Ramcharitar is a feature writerfor the T&T Guardian ".

inadequate exposure of the real issues involved and little interactionorengaging with Haiti and its people.

Haiti is predominantly a Caribbean

Christophe, the brooding patient schemer,

last few years leading to the election, then deposing of President Aristide has

We must take responsibility for events in the region as we must begin to take responsibility for

comrptedby power,andwho is killed by

engaged the world's attention. Despite the fact that this has been taking place in

resources, constraints and limitations, we

Dessalines' machinations.

our own Caribbean backyard, the

I believe that the ironies are selfevident and no direct references are necessary to

committee felt that Caribbean societies and Trinidad and Tobago society have dealt with the situation as if it is the US's or and someone else's problems. We have been passive recipients of media analysis and coverage emanating largely

and Moise,,(the least well known historically) the socialist idealist, (representing also the playunight's voice),

the only one who does not become

fit the ilay firmly into a specific

Trinidadian context. But even so, by itself, it would have constituted a rather tedious exposition, ifplayed straight in the realist scene. But Gibbons' master sboke, placing the play within another play; in a contemporary Haitian village, wherein for solace and escape the Haitians re-enact the legend of victory, puts a new life into James' script, and it transforms whatcouldbe lookedatas aratherdidactic piece of work in the terms above, into a

The unfoldingevents in Haiti overthe

vibrant, contemporarily relevant immediate piece of work.

Using the contemporary situation as a backdrop to the early formative processes ,

Gibbons is able to show the irony, no doubt as James inrcnded, of both the causes,theuseofpowerto helpthepeople, againstits use to maintainone individual's power, and their eventual disastrous outcomes; the betrayal of Toussaint, the murder of Moise and the accession of

Dessalines and Christophe, and the persistence ofthe govemingethos ofdeceit

and brutality to the present day.

But there was more, even within the

form Gibbons takes the notion of immediacy further. The Immediacy of the theatre became literal when as part of the denouement, he directs his actors to go into the audiehce and attemptto galvanise them into action lojoin the village protest,

past very real, intimidating guards and show their solidarity by signings a petition.

This invocation of Immediacy could CARICOM PER,SPECTIVE - JANUAR,Y - JUNE, I9!'3

responsibility.

ourselves in the region. Whatever, our must participate in determining our own destiny . This is true ofall our neighbours , Haiti, Grenada, Guyana, Cuba, et al.

[Excerpt from brochure on programme ofactivities launched by The Haiti Action

Support Team (HASTE) on Trinidad and Tobago.J

April l,

is

back on the question and in so doing finds its gaze directed at the Region's Indigenous peoples, from the seeds of

whom can flowa different, diverse, and

more vigorous theatre.

[Nigel Rogerfis

a

Freelance Copy Editor,

GuyanoJ

fifty years ofliving

side by side, must such charactprremain improbable? The question hangs, and we must pray that, ultimately, it is the only thing that does.

The Hindu pandit, Pat's father, ena

dows his characterwiththat stengthtinged with heartsickness which is the particular

attribute of great, open-hearted men engaged in protracted struggles with minds that have congealed into patterns dictated by fear and ignorance, and which

misleads men into the great folly that tavels under the arrogant, xenophobic banner of racial and cultural purity. His monologue, describing the storm of protest - some of it physical - that his marriage to a black, Christian woman, is

particularly moving. It is a tribute to the actor's skill that he laces with nostalgia this speech about such turbulent times, suggesting thereby that no amount of intervening years can diminish his love

nor his longing for his dead wife, the victim of a fire of dubious origin.

Other contributory factors to the play's success were the lighting, again designed

by Ken Corsbie, and particularly effective when the stage and Amerindian members ofthe cast are bathed in a lurid glowinthe scene depicting the political unrest in the

interior of the country; and the set, especially the rough poles bouhd together in the tiered arrangement representing the hinter-land ofGuyana, the traditional

homeland of the Indigenous peoples.

This arrangement provides a cradle, a place ofsecure anchorage for the birth of the newculture ofoneness which the play

advocates, and which is played out in

cenhe stage.

It is here that the play

expands to include the broader context of the Caribbean. No attempt at integration, it suggests, will achieve even a modicum

ofsuccess

ifit

fails to take into account

the richness - ofhistory, culture, art - that the Region's Indigenous peoples have to

offer. This inclusion of the Indigenous peoples is also the answer to a tacit

question: shall our gaze and the compass

of our thought, art, theatre be

drawn

inevitably toward the magnetic North?

Couvade does not simply say no; it tums Prgc 24

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY. JTJNE 1993

TRUTH TELLING Dangling Man in Georgetown The action ofthe novel takes place in

a litle over a fortnight, with a flashback to the incident of 'the Chairs', the caz,sz$ Delliofthe events rryhich occurwithinthat

nanow time span. The narrative is calculatedly simple, its significance is nol Raj the ccntral cbaracter, a frustated ardreluctantteacher,with awealrress for schoolgirls, a Hindu activist and wouldbe-published novelist, is involved in a protest against the innoduction of chairs into his t€mple. The meetings ofhis youth groupare banned,andthey beginaprotest againstthe temple committee. He spends several frusftating days at school, visits the library acouple oftimes;conrcmplates the seduction ofone

ofhis female pupils,

stafis a t ping class, skirmishes with a female colleague, waits impatienfly for

news of whether his novel is to be published, takes part in a street demonsnation and is thoroughly scared ofr by the appearance of the dreaded

inspector

Adjit. Waiting, though,

inftriating experience, but

it is never

dull.

In creating this exEaordinary pennn, Persaud achieves a number ofthings. He

creates

a

character who

is

an

orhaordinarilyacut€porhayaloftheinner life of an awane, politically conscious Indo-Guyanese of the 1980s, with all the confusions, anger, double-standards that real persons have. In being both inside and outside Raj, Persaud is able bottr to create the Guyana ofthe eighties as seen

very specifically from the perspective of the Indo-Guyanese, but also shows us how Raj's biases are constucted. Since V.S. Naipaul's classic men The Mimic Men few other Caribbean uniten have achieved that kind of complexity ofvision.

closer, Raj begins to see that within his

with

own milieu, his own behaviorwith respect

Indo-Guyanese racial

to power and responsibility is often not that different from the behavior of the comrpt political despots he despises.

a

Thus, though Raj 's anger is filled

sense

of

dispossession,The Glns t ofB ellow's Man is far from being an ethnocenhic novel. It

ducls none of the pains of living in

a

is

comrpt and shabby racial despotism, but

Yet, if the suhance of the novel is

treatment of Indian racial hang-ups.

This inwardness also enables Persaud to go beyond a naturalistic porfayal of the comrptions of public life. The usual

perhaps Raj's principal occupation.

.

be inside Raj's mind is frequently an

is equally frank and merciless in its

Ultimately, what Persaud achieves with his focus on Raj, and the subvenive,

self-mocking commentary going-on inside his head, is the investing of the ordinary, the everyday ledium with an intensity and exactness which demands

a6out frustration, the passing of dead days in despairing times, the novel is anything but negative or dull.

Part of its life comes from the friction betweenthe differentways the events arc told. At tines we are within Raj's stream of consciousness, directly within his of the world, at times he is

tendency isto blame itonthe politicians,

It is appropriate then, that Raj's

particularly of the other ethnic group.

Persaud portrays Raj, as moying from the tendency to regard himself as having become comrpted by the society he lives

ambition as a writer is an important part of the novel. At one point, diiillusioned with yet another publishing rejection,

presented as a third person character and

in towards asking deeper questions about

for the last third of the novel, as the fictive creator of the diary-text. Raj is

personal and interpersonal ethics he acts

thus seen from difrerentperspectives and the natue of how he constucts both a view ofhimself and the eveNrts he acts in becomes the living texture of the novel.

Raj is not so much an 'umeliable' narrator as an inconsistent one. He is at once acutely self-perspective and selfdeceivingg rebel ufro is at times a stickler for convention, the taker of high moral strnces and an abuser ofhis position of tnrst, a self-aggrandizing perceiver ofthe political sipificance of his actions, but

also, and savingly, self-mocking in an ofhis deficiencies. To

honest awar€ness

the relationship between the codes of

in

accordance

with,

sometimes

unconsciously, and the nature ofpolitical

culture in his society. There is, for instance, an episodti in the classroom when Raj, observes a surly reluctance amongst some pupils to do anything until ordered to, and another when he himself makes ajuvenile show ofrebellion against his authoritarian headteacher.

He is led to wonder how deeply

embedded in the national psyche are such patterns of authoritarianism and forrrs of protest which are ultimately dependent

that they be seen anew.

wittr himself and with the ability of unitingto make any differcnce,he decides to burn his manuscripts, until he is told by his brother, 'What we've got to have in this place is people who will tell us the

truth'. Raj, having begun to admit uncomfortable tnrths about himselfin his diary, realises that not only must the tuth-telling begin with himself., but that

truth is always more cornplex that it appears.

(Peepal Tree Raiew of the novel 'The

Ghost of Bellows I'Ian' by Sasenarine Persaud, Peepal Tree Books, England, t992)

on that authority. Forced into looking

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUAR,Y. JUNE, 1993

Prgc25

LAE,TITIA ] Merle Hodge The protagoni st of Laetitia

"Laetitia" is, an all-purpose story.

Providing their reading skills are up to it, young people will respond to Laetitia at a particular level of the story. Some of my friends are reading it too, and "vtith" children in their families - children who are as young as seven and eight - and these thildren, I am told, are becoming quite involved with it.

There are, however, some fairly adult concerns and issues in the book that are meant to engage the attention of adult

of social status, but which for her is the Good Life.

One of the concerns of the novel surrounds a problem thathas arisen inthe

era of independence, with the sudden expansion of access to secondary education in Trinidad and Tobago in particular.

In the pre-independence era, only a small percentage ofthe population entered secondary school, and these were largely children from families which could pay the fees, i.e. a sociaf elite. Teachers and most students were from the same social

We haven't yet developed a separate tradition of children's fiction in the modern literature ofthe Caribbean. When Caribbean literature was introduced into the school

books

- In the Castle of My Skin

(Lamming), The Year in San Fernando (Anthony), Cft r is top her @rayton), Anni e J o h n (Kincaid), B eka L amb (Edgell) and so many others. My first novel Crick

Crack, Monkey falls under this

home

does not hold out much material comfort

Caribbean readers.

cuniculum,itwas adultfiction, by and large, that our students took on.

For the time being, children and adults share the same fiction - as was the case with traditional oral literature.

There is a large body of Caribbean writing in which children are the protagonists, but these are not children's

gores

- takes up her oum life. Indeed, she has never ceased to value this life ofhen that

of poorer children got in, through scholarships or through major sacrifices on the part of their families. stratum. Only a minority

Merle Hodge do not fit into the storybook mould. In our part of the world, people live in a variety of combinations, and it is things like the

quality of relationships in the individual family that count, not the structure of the group. Any family can be dysfunctional or successful at carrying out the functions

Today, the minority has become the rnajority. The secondary school is full of working-class children, and the teacher is, by definition,ofthepetit - bourgeoisie and upwards. Teacher and student are from two different worlds.

Some teachers either do not know the world of the child, or know it very well, but would like to put it far behind them

description, and so do many novels from

of family.

because they are on their way up the

the French Caribbean.

Since these stories are about children or are told through the eyes of children, they hold some appeal foryoungreaders.

But young readers cannot respond to, or

I am also concerned with the question of what scope families give women for growth and self-realization, and in my estimation, the stock nuclear family often scores quite low in this area. " Laetitia" and " CrickCrack, Monkey " are two novels which have a great deal in

something to be wiped out.

This is, ofcourse, a variation on the theme ofexpatriate teachen in the colonial era trying to wring our own selves out of us - "saving" us from ourselves.

are simply not interested in everything that these books explore.

Laetitia was consciously aimed at secondary school age children, but I would have been disappointed if it had not also attracted the interest of adult readers.

ln the novel, I address the myth that there is only one family arrangement in

which children can be successfully nurtured and socialized. The nuclear family is only one among a number of family forms that we have either inherited

or developed in the Caribbean, but we continue to disrespect family forms which Pegc 26

common. A major difference is in where "Laetitia" (happiness) is thought to be

found. ln Crick Crack, Monkey, the protagonist by the end of the novel is quite alienated from her origins (a rural, working-class background) and the solution to her conflicts is for her to be whiskedaway toEnglandwhere herfather

2 lives. That book is set in the.colonial era, and what England meant to the colonized consciousness I need not elaborate upon: it was the very Kingdom

ofHeaven.

social ladder. The base culture is

In a nutshell , the novel is about finding our way back home, like Laetitia. It is set in the early independence era when the school curriculum was moving to take on the task ofdecolonizing itself- thatprocess is consciously reflected in the novel.

The rnale'figure appears to be marginalised in the story, but I think it is only a'tomment" on how well women writers can be expected to portray men, and vice yersa. Male writers portray women very often in a limited, extemal way, and I think the same can be said for

Cont'd on page 29 CARICOM PERSPECTIVE. JANUARY. JUNE 1993

SINGERMAN tHazel D. Campbell

Once there was a black Starliner, a floating ship in the Caribbean Sea to which history gave power long before anybody in western seas would think that

power could be black.

The Starliner sailed proudly, flying its black flag. But it had to make its way in

a hostile white-foamed sea. Its course was a lonely one and its isolated existence helped to breed excesses among certain

of its officers.

Successive captains lost their way.in the uncharted waters of the Caribbean.

From time to time the crew mutinied.

Once or twice pirates plundered the Starliner and as the years passed the ship grew shabbier and the crew got poorer.

Nothing, not even the proud memory of the ancient black moorings from which it had been so crudely cut off, not even the beauty ofthe ancestral art, not even the mixed-up memory worship ofthe gods of the forefathers, could save them from the storms which the sea-god put in their path, year after year after year.

One day, after a long spell of foul weather, the crew mutinied again, and the baby-faced captain was forced to abandon ship.

As the ship seemed to be floundering, once again on the brink oftotal disaster, othernearby ships sunounded itandthrew lealry rafls and bad rations to the crew.

'Steerthis way,' some ofthe onlookers shouted.

'No, that way!' others directed.

Some only looked on, because they thought they had no right to interfere in the ancient Starliner's business. But some modern day pirates watched in the hope that, although it was only a very poor ship flying a black flag, perhaps,just perhaps, there might be booty.

Eh! Eh! That was scandal

and

bacchanal in the place for days. Argument hot, HOT! Some pelting blows and cuffing

down one another over Blister Crusade.

Little most camival and all get eclipse -

little most. Nothing can't out out camival.

Well, that was the year that Singerman record catch the place afire. When he hit the tent with 'Haiti,

I'm sorry'; after man blinking they eye like they can't believe what is this they hearing for carnival; after woman waist freeze into one side of a wine for the song not wining; after they listen a little and the mood of the song ketch them; goose pimple running up and down people body and them moving them hand in the air as if Blister Crusade done start already, for 'Haiti' soundin so much

like hymn people askin, 'Wait! Singer tum Christian now?'

Singerman have some winey-winey song too, but is 'Haiti' popular, man.

Everybody singing or humming it.

Even after carnival gone, record shop

playing'Haiti'. In fact,the whole Caribbean start singing it, and sound system still

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY . JUNE, 1993

cause they glad somebody write a song

apologise

to Haiti for how they can't

make up they mind to help or to ignore the

brothers andsisters overthere. Everybody

wringing they hand since Babyloa run away, but when some act, some vex.

Some saying one thing, some saying a nex. Nobody can't agree what to do, or who to put. Everybody anxious about the anguish ofHaiti, butthe whole Caribbean fraid revolution. They fraid it bad,like is something you could ketch like yellow

fever or AIDS. Anyway, they glad Singerman mek up song saying 'I sorry' for them, and Carnival done but everywhere you go you still hearing 'Haiti'. fHazel Campbell is alamaican aurhor|.

[Excerpts from'Singerman' Peepal Tree

Bool<s,199lJ

Pr,ge27

MTISTARD BATH Amera Slreete

Displacement, loss

of

innocence,

rebirth and death are some of the themes woven intothe intricate plotofthe movie 'Mustard Bath', which copped the Gold Prize at World Festival '93, in Texas, for the Best Drama Feature Film.

Matthew (played by Canadian Michael Riley), ayoung doctor,retums to Guyana after an absence of about 20 years, to learn more about his roots. In his quest, he develops an emotional relationship with Mindy, a school teacher (played by Guyanese Alissa Trotz), is befriended by aRastaPriest(playedby Eddie Grant) and a young orphan - effectively portrayed by Fernando, a young occupant of the St. John's Borstal in Georgetown. an thrown Matthew existentialist dilemma on the death ofhis father and his mother (from whom he was torn at the age of nine and sent to Canada). His return to Guyana is to find 'inner peace'. There, he is taken up with

is

into

the orphan, and Mindy, and also develops

a strange relationship with a

German

Jewish woman, Grace, (played by Martha

Henry).

It is in this complex relationship that the issues ofdisplacement and rebirth are played out. Grace epitomises the mother fi gure for which Matthew subconsciously yeamed, and he, the husband she was forced to watch murdered during World War II while she herself is being raped.

Analogous references are created in her restriction to a wheelchair, as was

Matthew's mother (of which only the audience are aware, and which was the reason for his unexpected departure to Canada). He relives in Grace his lost 'mothering' and seeks release from feelings of parental abandonment. The relationship climaxes into an incestuous one - the symbolism of the act one of 'rebirth' in her womb, for the tormented Matthew.

An intense, introverted figure, he is drawn to the innocence of the young orphan and the fresh, youthful school Prgc 2E

Alissa Trotz teacher Mindy. He again returns to his lost childhood in Guyana and a beautiful friendship develops between him and the young boy. But, the orphan disappoins Matthew and does not live long enough for Matthew's tortured soul to find solace.

As he desperately nies to infuse life into the dead child's body, Mindy, with a flash of insight, asks him, "What are you doing... this is all aboutyou and all about contol; you want to control everyone ... but you can't contol death and you can't stop loving people because they die!"

Guyanese movie lovers will probably greet the location shots of Mnstard Bath with shouts of recognition. Takes of a Barber Shop, scenes on the East Bank and

East Coast, a creek along the Linden Highway and Santa Mission are certain to be enthusiastically welcomed as was the feature fil m 'The Harder They Come' ,

when it opened in Kingston, Jamaica.

The film was originally written for location in Eastern Europe. Funds however ran out and the script was rewritten for location in Guyana. A Guyanese, and senior parher in director

Daryl Wasyk's frrm 9Y6S, introduced the idea of filming in Guyana to him.

Mustard Bath is a play on the phrase and, in reality refers to an actual abortion

which Grace undergoes on anival in Guyana and which is performed by an Amerindian. Metaphorically, the name refers to Matthew's childhood and his return to claim something that he has lost. fAmera Slreete is afree lancejournalist, GuyanaJ.

[Reprinted with permission ana Review', June 19931

from 'Guy-

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE 1993

Cadbbcon Yoicq Abroad

THE LOWLY SAFETY PIN Raised in a rural village at the edge of jugle in Guyana, Tina Fung Holder believes her childhood spent outside an industrial urban centne accounts for a

the

lifelong fascination with manufactured materials, and conbibutes to her unusual approach to working with them. Yet it is more thanjust herupbringing in a remote part of the world tbat has served Frurg

Holder so well artistically.Tina mahred during a time ofturmoil, when all aspects

of contemporary life were being questioned, reviewed and given new definitions.

In the 1960s-1970s, a new aesthetic arose regarding the role ofpreciousness in a work

ofart. What raditional culture

designated as intrinsically worthless, artists chose to embrace. They insisted that what constituted a work's success was its content, its level ofartistry and the skill of the maker, not what material it was constnrcted from.

Artists rushed to create a wonderful array of stimulating and unique work wherceconomy andphilosophycombined

to create opportunity, and Tina Fug Holder began transforrring the lowly safetl"pin and other quite ordinary items into dramatic shoulder-sweeping collars

and neckpieces since that heady

Neckpiece of safety pins, with glass beads. l(hen worn, this necklace gives the impression of an Egtptian broad collar. but eventually Tina Fung Holder wanted

offthe headmill.

While her experiences as an accessory designer were finally exhausting, Fung Holder's commifinent to art has not been dampened and she continues to pnrduce and exhibit jewelry and small, doublelayeredbasket forms made ofwire,plastic tubing and other industrial materials.

All of

one-of-a-kindjewelry pieces are intricate collages ofmodular safety pinblockunits, with the designs planned in elaborate detail. Barely recognizable, a multitude ofpins and snaps achieve an unlikely, ironic identity as they are integrated into work which challenges one perception

of

jewelry and preciousness.

Tina Fung Holder's current

[Excerpt from " Ornament " I 6(l) 1992]

It

one level laetilia is about women: girlchildren and old ladies; women who are

explorative time.

*I sfive,"

she says, 'to create an awarcness of personal adomment that exceeds the restrictive boundaries of

traditional Western materials and techniques."

Atbactedto the safety pin for its form

well as its function, she crochets the underlying structurc for herjewelry and as

views each pin as a unit wittrin a system when designing.

Immersing herself in studies soon after

heranival inthe USA,

she specialised

in

textile off-loomtechniques and, laterwith Susann Craig in the early 1980s, started

in the fashion industies.

the portayal ofmen by women writers.

can'tbe helped- notuntil menand women cease to occupy different cultures.

I feel saferportraying male behoviour, see and observe, than trying to e:rplore the inner life ofa male character - his motivation, how he sees the world,

which I can

fiercely independent, others who

are

completely squashed, and others putting up a personal struggle against the

ordinary, everyday oppression of a woman.

how events around him impact on his consciousness.

In any case, if men seem to be marginalized, it is probably because at

The venture was e:rhemely successful, CARICOM PERSPECIWE . JANUARY . JITIT'E, r993

fMerle Hodge is a writer and school teacher, Trinidad and Tobagol Prgc29

The emergence of the Steelpan among the urban folk in Port- of- Spain and irc environs , its subsequent development and present national status has given rise to a number ofheated debates centred on the

question of its place of origin and its inventors. However, of one thing we are certain, that is, that the steelband had its genesis in Trinidad and Tobago.

To date, however, there is not

a

comprehensive documented history of the steelband. Instead, there are many "histories". While some are documented,

others rely on varying accounts to geographical locations oftheir respective

informants.

An investigation ofthe steelband then presents numerous challenges to the researcher. The tendency ofmany to focus mainly on the musical instrument and its product almost negates the human factor, Pege30

Stalin aptly put it in his Calypso "Pan Gone but The Panman Stay". One cannot

as

be oblivious to the fact that Music,

as

sound phenomenon, does not generate itselfbut is dependent on the "sonic order" of the people who produce it.

Pan as an artform evolved almost unnoticed until its actual emergence in the late thirties. Some popular historical accounts indicate that pan had its genesis in Tantie Winnie's Yard at Gonzales.

Damaged Bamboo instruments forced Sousie Dean, Ronnie Taylor, 'Killie' and Mussel Rat' to opt for improvised iron

instruments during the Carnival Celebrations of I 936. Some credit'Spree' Simon as the inventor ofthe 'ping-pong'; while others in the West speak of Sonny

'Sire' Roach as one of the

great

contributors in this movement.

More than fifty-six(56) years later

more recent history speaks of Tony Williams and the 'spider web', Ellie Manette and the double-seconds, Ray Holman and his 'own tune', Rudolph Charles and the 'Rocket Pan', Len 'Boogsie' Sharpe and his avant-garde music and Bertie Marshall for harrronics and pan amplification.

Steelband clashes, jail terms and other

nqgative aspecti of this movement seem to be buried inamore recentpositivepast.

It is interesting to note that offrcers ofthe

law who previously

incarcerated

steelbandsmen are today the aficionados of thc art-formand support participation by their off-spring steelband activity.

[Excerpt from the booHet "Coning

Age" an uhibition on

The

Of

Ewlution Of

PanThe National Musical Instrzment of Tyinidad and Tobago, Jan 3I - April 3, r993J

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JT'NE 1993

- Hosts for the I4th CARICOM

CONFERENCE OF HEADS OF GOVERNMENT

STATISTICS AT I99

r

Politics Government: System: Parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster model.

A GLANCE

The Ecortotrtl' Economic performance I 990 GDP in current ......B$:$ 2,810,000,000 .... I 1,036 GDP per capita: Total exports: ............ B$ 2,592 A60,000 Total imports: ................. 2,9 I 9,885,000 Intra-regional exports: ......... I 1,5 54,000 5,807,000 Intra-regional imports: Population Dcnsity: 47.32 per sq. mile Language: English Religion : Primary religions are Anglican, Baptist, Roman Catholic and Methodist.

Politicat parties: Principal parties are the governing Free National Movement (FNM) and the opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Results of last election held August 19, 1992. FNM won 32 seats in the House of Assembly and the PLP 17. (In November 1992, the FNM successfully contested one seat in the Election Court.)

Educotiott Compulsoryage:.... 5 to l4 years of age No. of primary schools: ................... I l5 No. of secondary schools: ................. 39 No. of vocational schools: ................... 4 No. ofcolleges:.................................... I The College of The Bahamas offers a teacher-training programme.

Teachers in primary schools:....... 1,881 Teachers in secondary schools: ... lA77 Teachers in vocational schools: ......554 No. of Libraries: ................................ 5 I School for handicapped: ..................... 5 Cont'd on page 55

FACES OF THE BAHAMAS

Pri n ci pul Trael ing Purt n ers I

rlnorts

l.

1990

United States ........ B$1,038,121,000 2. United Kingdom...... B$107,839,000 ... 8$17,514,000 3. France 8$16,824,000 4. Canada....

Ex=orts 1990 United States ........ B$1,983202,000 2. Puerto Rico.............. 8$447,699,000 8$22,738,000 3. Canada....

4. United Kingdom........ B$19,544,000

l.

,\tttittnul Rudgct

Revenue Expenditure Nationaldebt

199

I

B$475397,0u0P

B$549,715,000P B$1,157,870,000P Foreign reserves ........... B$ 1 7 1,000,000 Retail price index 128.2

f;i&-* ....4: I

Agriculturt Major crops: Bananas, onlons, cucumbers, irish and sweet potatoes' tomatoes, citrus and cabbages.

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE, 1993

Page

3l

PROTECTING OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE ]Sen Frank Mitchell

The major political cleavage in The

discussion on the issue

will make it go

Bahamas has been race for at least the last 50 yi:ars and probably beyond. Prof. Rex

away.

Nettleford of the University of the West Indies, describes the creole societies in

Bahamas is a sub.culture of the United States in many respects.

this Region as'qthe rhythm ofAfrica with the melody of Eruope."

The African prcsence is dominant in

numbers, and the Europeans, though smaller in numben, is dominant in the economy and the formal culture in The

Anthropologists might say that The

That is so, having regard to the settlement of The Bahamas by the Loyalists and their slaves, the racial divisions, and even today when a great

Bahamas.

whatthey ought to be,and future elections in this country may well once again find race to be the defining issue.

But, quite apart from politics, there is

traction, entailed

dancinginandabout an open fire.

"light skin.'

The Jumping Dance which was

This smacks of a problem of selfesteein. No nation can be strong if 85 per cent of its people have dorgts about their

usually an adult ac-

tivity, originated in West Africa. Hand clapping, chanting and drum beating

self-worth based on natural characteristics over which they have no contol.

There needs to be an open and frank dialogue on race. It rears its head in all sorts of ways. It is being mutlered under

racial makeup typical of the community generally, may in the near future have to consider the election ofa white Bahamian

candidate from amongst a number of candidates for bishop, having regard to the present Bishop's announced intention

!o seek election ofa coadjutor later this year.

Will that present any special kind of

trauna in today's racial climate? The

question is: should race be a determining factor in our national life? The great Negri scholar, W.E.g. Dubois, saia tnat .Itre

pmblemofthe20th century istheproblem of the colour line.'

I believe that is so in The Bahamas and

no amount of suppression of public Prgc32

and some form of rhytrmicaccompaniment are common.

obsolete except as a

the preoccupation with "Good hair. and

The Anglican community, which has a

of

tourist night club at-

still

ought to explore what they are.

public hearings

The fire-dance,,

community itself there is still some self-

over. Othen say black Bahamians just -But don't know how to run businesses. these may well be prcjudices and we

the

which is now all but

a concern that, within the black

the breaths ofmany that whites are taking

@xcerp\from

the Senate Select Committee on Culnre).

JUI\KANOO

Whilst race relations have sigrrifi cantly

improved in the country, they are not

hatred about being black, and there is

many Bahamians are glued to television sets to determine the world champions of basketball.

The Select Committee hopes that out of the process will come a wide-ranging report defining in 1993 who Bahamians believe they are.

usuallyaccompanied

Goombay, "the pulsating, powerful language of the drums' was biought to The Bahamas by the first African slaves more than two centuries ago. The word is

probably a remnant

of

some African

expression like "Goomba" or,.Ghumbay"

meaning "peace or war dance".

G- oombay, unlike calypso, depends on the drummer's rhythmic beat. Ii is on thewhole faster and brighter than calypso and_has always been synonymous with the fue dance in The Bahamas. The drums are usually accompanied by saws, an

accordion, lignum vitae sticks and rum bottles wittr coins orpebbles inside. Songs

such as'Tohn B. Sail.,.Hold'Im JoI" and'Spread Down YourApron Gal" are fiue examples of melodious Goombay tunes.

Dances which have African origins ar.e

Fire-Dance, Jumping Dance and *ng

Play. In all of these dances, the rin!

formation solo dancing, dancing in pairi

the dance giving rhythm to the blatantly sensud movements of the dancers.

Unlikettrejumpingdance,Ringplay is .largely achildren's gamewithmore Euro-

pean musical influences. The beat is longer

and the music moremelodious incharicter. To a certain extent the two latter dances are still fairly popularinoursociety today.

Junkanoo, a pan-Caribbean festival was held by the slaves who cane to the

Bahamas in the si:rteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most folklorists believe that it resembles the West African John Canoe festival said to have been celebrated by West African slaves.

The modern day Junkanooers weat fringed paper costumes and dance to the music of goat skin drums, cowbells, bugles and horns. Junkanoo today is very commercialized and competitive and for the most part a winter tourist atEaction.

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY. JT'Nf, 1993

THE BAHAMAS: HOSTS For The 14th Conference of Heads of Government

A PRODUCTIVE PARTNER OF CARICOM Perspective talks with Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham common Caribbean currency would not include The Bahamas, though we would

a

Qt What are your apectations of W* role and for the achievements of

be veri favourably disposed

CANCOIvfl

discussions on the convertibility Caribbean currencies and vice-versa.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning has, I believe, prepared an excellent blue print for future chairmen of the Bureau and of Conference and I expect to draw on his example.

As you will be aware the Bureau was

our historically different paths to economic development . . . ours being

in

India Commission,

of CARICOM

Member States with the record of the

Community on implementation of by the various Ministerial

decisions

Standing Conmittees of the Community,

and most especially with

the

implementation of the decisions of the Conference of Heads of Govemment.

We appear then to have no difftculty in making decisions . . . the record on

implementation of those decisions unfottuatety has been no match t'ot Oe number and/or speed of the decision making. The poor record is the creation

of many maste6. I hope to continue the exercise already in train to streamline that long listand identiS those decisions still of relevance to the Community. We

will

want to move forward on those

decisions which continue to be relevant.

The failure to properly equip the Secretariat with ddequate trained and compensated staff, as well as the absence

of modem office and communications tools and equipment has proved a major stumbling blockto systematic action and follow up to decisions. The Secretariat simply been overburdened. firis needs to be addressed.

We have been looking at proposals for has

the reorganisation and sfrengthening of the Secretariat at the Bureau level. A first

of

in The Batramas

This is not a distancing ofThe Bahatnas from the Caribbean, but a recognition of

response to the overall dissatisfaction, identified by the West created

to

proposal prepared by the Secretariat at our request was reviewed by Conference in March at Dominica. The way forward is not yet crystallized but, we are well along the way I believe.

Of course none of these plans or reorganisation can have a positive ef;Fect without the accompanying political will

of all Member States. And that '$ill?' must translate into financial support . . . payment of our quota contibutions on a regular and timely basis. I would certainly expect to make the need for financial responsibility to the Community one of the comerstones ofmy six month term at the helm of the organisation.

Q:Youwere quoted in the regional press on beingvery clear on the links betwem

The Bahamas and the Caribbean Community, especially on the Common Marlrct and on a common cunency. What

is your political perspective on The Bahamas and the Caribbean?

I very clearly

set out at the Special Meeting of Conference in Trinidad and Tobago last October that The Bahamas economy was not yet rcady for entry into the Common hfarkeL I also advised that

CARICOM PERSPBCTWE . JANUAR,Y - JTJNE' 1993

one substantially dependant on service industries, (Tourism, Financial Services) and the Caribbean's largely dependent on the exploitation of primary products, be they agricultural or mineral. Ofcourse all things change.

The Commonwealth Caribbean has in recent years come to fully appreciate and seek to exploit the service indusfries and we inThe Balramasare anxiousto develop those vital lir*s between our still infant

primary sectors and our large towism industry. These developments do not furtlrer isolate but ratherpresent excellent

opportunities

for new, important

cooperation betneen The Bqhamas and its partners inCARICOM. We are actively

pursuing improved tansportation links with CARJCOM States through BWIA. We already have them with Air Jamaica.

There are no neasons why an increased percentage of our imports to service our tourism'industry, of over three million visitors a year, ought not come from the Caribbean.

The Bahamas shares with the Commonwealth Caribbean a common past ofcolonialism and movement toward

Independence. Culturally we share corlmon African and European heritage inlluences. Perhaps the most important common links exist in our commitnent to participatory democracy and respect for human rights.

Internationally also The Bahamas sees Prgc33

itself as a part of the Commonwealth

Caribbean.

In this

increasingly interdependent world, no country, regardless of its wealth and resources, can stand alone; all rely on critical alliances. This is even more important for small states with small populations and linit€d natural and financial resources.

Singularly, none of us in the Caribbean wield influence ofconsequence on intemational developments. However, collectively, states of CARICOM can are able to

achieve special strength through their unity ofpurpose vis-a-vis the rest ofthe world. The Bahamas orpects fully to

economy. This is critically important to our success. We are convinced that tremendous benefits are in store for the

economic health and sustained development of The Bahamas through the creation of linkages between our tourism sector for example, and the still

Q: You, monifesto

open govemment. How

improving the investment climate of The

CARICOM

fact been intimately involved in

CARICOM affairs since joining the organisation in 1983. The Bahamas has twice hosted Foreigrr Ministers and will

in July ofthis year host the Conference of Heads ofGovemment for the second time.

We have also hosted Tourism, Labour Ministers and Attomeys-General from CARICQM. We have played a leading

role in CARICOM's effort to restore democracy inHaiti,and been instnrmental

inraising the consciousness ofthe Region

with regard to the threat to the Region created by the illicit transit of illegal drugs.

Q: In your last budget speech, you described the ups and downs ofthe economy

- especially in the tourism sector. How does

your Government propose to trans-

form lhe economy?

We seek to make our economy more

eflicient and to a greater extent more self reliant.

The Bahamas economy will no doubt continue to be driven specifically by the service industries oftourism and fi nancial

services. However, my Government is seriously committed to creating linkages between those sectors and the rest ofthe Pegc34

of an

Additionally, we are interested in stimulating our export industries particularly in agriculture and fisheries.

We already have in place in Freeport,

unity.

I might also add that, though many in

in

development

indigenous

manufacturing/e:gort economy.

infant agricultural, fisheries and light

continue to be aproductive partrer inthat

frequently note the isolation of The Bahamas from CARICOM, we have in

importation of equipment and supplies at a loss of some $117 million in customs revenue during l992,with no measurable benefit to job retention/creation or to the

manufacturing sectors.

Grand Bahamas, appropriate legislation and infrastmcture for the development of a dynamic export processing sector.

The Bahamas and

legislation allowed for the duty-free

My Government is committed

to

Bahamas. We have already put in place a

"one-stop-shop"for investors in an effort

to get rid of the red tape frequently associated with doing business in The Bahamas, for example.

However, some ofour efforts continue to be stymied by "hold-over" legislation.

We intend to address this by amending and/or repealing legislation which serves

to stifle investment and

consequently

economic growth andto replace it,where

appropriate, with legislation conducive to sustainable economic development of the country.

We are now circulating draft

declares the needfor islnur government

tackling public accountability and lransparency in the operations of

government?

My Government is firmly committed to public accountability and transparency in the operations of Govemment and this will be again demonstrated in my budget presentation to Parliament in June.

My administration began its term in offrce last September with the opening of Parliament in Rawson Square. One ofour first acts in Parliament was to abolish Government's monopoly

in radio

and

television broadcast.

We have fulfilled our manifesto promise to undertake a thorough and public inquiry into the mismanagement ofmajor Public Corporations, namely, Bahamasair, the Hotel Corporation of The Bahamas

and The Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation. The first Commission of

legislation which, when adopted, will

Inquiry into the operations and management of Bahamasair is now

residential property in The Bahamas by foreign persons by eliminating the approval process. We hope in this way to

underway. Youwill be interested toknow that allofthe Commissioners and/or legal counsels involved in the work of the Commission are Bahamian or Caribbean

stimulate the secondhome/vacation home

nationals.

greatly facilitate the acquisition of

market for well-to-do and/or retired frequent visitors to The Bahirmas.

I also expect to introduce, before the end ofJune, a new Investnent Policy for The Bahamas. Legislation is also to be drafted based on this new policy which whenadopted will unifr ourmyriad pieces of investment incentive legislation and

Q: Th"r" are great crises in Cuba and Haiti at the present time. Does the proximity of The Bahamas to these

procedures and rationalise incentives

resolution, or non-resolution ofthe crisis in each state will also be very diflerent for

simplify or eliminate application offered.

We need for example to urgently address the fact that existing incentive

co

unt r i es hsv e impl i c a t ionsfo r your

s

ta te ?

Crisis or trouble in two of our nearest neighbours have implications forus. Each state is of course very different and

us.

If I might address Cuba first,I would

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JI'NE 1993

notethatCubahas existed as aCommunist state to our immediate south with little any impact on our social order for more than thirty years. Refugees enroute to the USA throigh The Bahamas have generally been welcomed in the United States and sotheir sojourns here havebeenrelatively

if

brief.

The willingrress of the local Cuban community and of the Cuban-American community in South Florida to support their compatriots, limited the economic burden created by their numbers on The Bahamas. This has been so throughout

the period

of the revolutionary

Government in Cuba beginning in 1959.

We have in recent times experienced a resurgence in the numbers and frequency ofanivals from Cuba,largely I suspectin reaction to increased economic hardships in that country, following the collapse of

the CommunisVSocialist international block on which it depended for support.

CARICOM Bureau: Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham (r) with Prime Ministers Kennedy Simmonds of S t. KittsNa,is (l) and Patrick Manning ofTrinidad and Tobago

Our one military encounter with Cuba, in May, 1980, resulted in the sinking of

(centre).

one

number ofEuropean travellers have been taking twin centre vacation trips to Cuba and The Bahamas. There have been approaches to our tourism authorities for the expansion of this opportunity.

Haiti is of course a far more serious problem for The Bahamas. We have for nearly a quarter of a century been host to an unspecified number of illegal Haitian

of our patrol boats, the HMBS Flamingo. That situation was satisfactorily settled when Cuba accepted

full responsibility for the incident

and

compensated the families ofthe Bahamian sailors who lost their lives, as provided

for in intemational law. Government was

also compensated for the loss

of

its

vessel. This incident has not prevented

For example, a relatively significant

the continuation of diplomatic relations

immigrantVrefugees. These individuals

between Cuba and The Bahamas and the

have created an unreasonable demand on our social , educational and health services ,

Cuban Ambassador accredited

to

The

Bahamas visits periodically. *thteat" posed to Perhaps the greatest The Bahamas by Cubarests inthe eventual

continue to bear. Hence the solution to the crisis in Haiti holds special interest

of its political problem with the United States. The pundits of the

for all Bahamians.

I think that we in The Bahamas are

resolution

tourism'sector have for some time now

warned that a reopening of the once immensely successful tourism industry

in Cuba will create special challenges for all Caribbean Tourism destinations and

a burden that we are ill-equipped to

perhaps more keenly aware than most, of the Haitians living in diaspora, whether in The Bahamas or inNorthAmerica,aqe not voluntarily immigrants. These people have

very specifically for Bahamian tourism

been'forced from their homes by economic conditions which have made life

whichprofited fromthe close ofthe Cuban destination in 1959. But there have been areas where The Bahamas' proximity to Cuba has gathered tourism benefits.

of dictators.

bearly tolerable. The economic collapse of Haiti is tragically , man-made over decades ofabuse and mismanagement by a variety

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY . JUNE' 1993

We are particularly interested to see democracy given an opportunity in Haiti.

I think we often speak of restoring

democracy in Haiti when we ought instead

to be speaking of planting the

seeds

of

democracy in that parched, hard land.

I am very hopeful thatthe currentUN/ OAS initiative which has been nurtured

from infancy by CANCOM, will find some level of success. Of course, every

day of progress by the various missions have been quickly followed by days of uncertainty, but we must persevere.

A political situation in Haiti is the only basis on which an economic recovery

can begin. And, it is that economic recovery which will arrest the further

disintegration of Haiti and provide an impetus for the citizens in diaspora to return home.

But the compelling reality is that we

ought perhaps.

to

recognise that

democracy is yet to have its genesis in Haiti. I say this with due regard to the election which brought PresidentAristide to Office, and with the brevitY of his tenure.

It

is

diffrcult for me to escape the view Prgc35

that the objective vis-a-vis democracy in

Haiti needs to be redefined, in truly

pragmatic tenns.

Ql

The human resource base

for

transforming the Bahamian economy requires urgent attention. What areyour Government's priorities

for action here?

correlation with the significant role of the Financial Services Sector of the Batrunian economy. The College has

policy ofthe promotion and preservation of Bahamian cultural identiff. In fact, a

developed an excellent reputation in this

Culture has recently begun Public/ Community Hearings on Culture. The findings of the Committee will provide

area, its Associate Degreed students having been accepted, with full credit, intotoprankingUniversities inthe United States and Canada for the completion of

their first degrees.

My Government is keenly aware of the need to educate young Bahamians to meet the needs of the economy. To this end aNational Task Force on Education

was launched in February of this year, with a mandate to rcview the entire public

and make for its overall

education system recommendations

Q: Is Bahamian anlture under stress or under threat? Is your government developing a conscious policy in response?

I believe ttnt Bahamian culture is very much alive and doing quirc well.

improvement The Task Force is due to present its preliminary report at the end ofJune. A fi nal report is e:<pected prior to

ever before with a resultant resurgence

the opening ofthe next school year in September, 1993. It is our intention to begin to decrease, if not eliminate,

Batnmian art, music and local theatre.

Bahamian artists for the first time have a significant local market for their

weaknesses

work, so much so that several are able to pursue their art to the exclusion of any other economic activity.

in our fuhre work

force,

through development, refinement and stnengthening of curicula taught in our schools.

Additionally, my Government is giving priority attention to technical and vocational education. The Ministry of Labour, Human Resource Development and taining holds responsibility for the Industrial Training Centre and for The

Batnmas Hotel Training School, two

primary institutions responsible for spccific job related training relevant to our economic performance.

Outreach programmes in agriculture

and fisheries from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries are similarly

designed to assist the development of these critical sectors of the economy.

Complimentary to theseprogrammes,The

Bahamas Development Bank has been provided with sector specific funds to

provide for financial support in these important sectors.

The College of The Bahamas has recently orpanded its twoyearAssociates

Pery9 Programme to a firll four year Bachelor's Degree in Finance and Business Studies. This has a direct Prgc36

There is now

a

greater appreciation in our

community for "things Bahamian" than

dedicated to its display alone. The leaders

of the major

Junkanoo groups are recognisable to all Bahamians and considered super heroes and leaders in the Community.

Local Bahamian theatre continues to thrive and new young writers and actors appear with regularity. Locally produced plays, which draw on the Bahamian experience, have been warmly received locally and have in fact also received accolades abroad.

This is not to suggest that Bahamian

culture is not heavily influenced by developmentC.

Obviously, so close to the North Americanmainland,The Bahamas isvery

much under the cultural influence of America, but I doubt that our young people wear more bluejeans and T-shirts thando their contemporaries throughout the Caribbean.

My Government is committed to

the fi rst working document for aproposed

Task Force on Culture which I expect to name shortly. The Task Force and the Senate Hearings are all gearedtowardthe realisation of longstanding aspirations in the community at large for a National

Institurc for the Arts, a school for the performing arts and ofcourse, aNational Museum. The latter which already exists, lacks a stnrctured home. The opening of the Pompey Museum on slavery,late last year, was a significant first step toward our national goal.

of

Junkanoo, the most significant er<pression 6f gahamian art and music has recently had an exhibition Cenhe

outside cultural

Senate- appointed select Committee on

a

Q: to

What do you propose on the decision

privatise theutilities and corporations

in The Bahamas? Is Bahamianisation the economy inadequate?

of

My Government is committed to the divestment of Govemment equity in those secton ofthe economy where the private sector is able and willing to provide the service and where that service can be provided by the private sector at increased

efficiency and reduced cost to the consumer.

We have offered for sale

the

Govemment's holdings inthe hotel sector.

We have announced the planned {lyggtnent of a percentum of the -ajor Utility Corporations within the nixt eighteen months.

The sale of sand and the collection of solid waste have also beenadvertised for divestment.

My Government is committed to transforming The Bahamian economy into a tnrly market driven economy, dr we feel that this is the best option for sustainable development.

But,Iwillhaveabsolutelyno hesitation Government intervention, should free market excesses merii affrrmative action in defence of the people's right to economic justice.

i1 ordgring

CAR,ICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY - JUNE 1993

HUMAN RIGHTS

IN TI{E CARIBBE,AN *Marion O'Callaghan

The question of Human Rights is on

the agenda of nearly all the Englishspeaking Caribbean countries. The debate, to a large extent sparked

offby

increased criminality, has centered on ways of reforming the judiciary, to bring it more clearly in line with the public's demand for law and order. In this debate, Human Rights are often seen as stemming from a particular constitution and

therefore as part

of a negotiated

independence package. Linked to this is the perception ofHuman Rights as being

a luxury of Western industrialized countries and, except for a vague democracy, simply not part ofCaribbean

traditions or culture. More important, HumanRights are often seenas stemming from a particular constitution and

therefore as part

interest

not only one of destruction. It was a war

to the U.S. Supreme Court ofkeen

in which the case of one

country:

to every minority group, and would, in

Germany. Hitler had won an election and had been democratically given the power

the United Kingdom make the operation of justice a concern of sociologists.

De4ocracy, taken for granted is the

whichenabledhimto disenfranchise Jews, Gypsies, Socialists and Communists as the first step in the "First Solution".

Few who had lived through the 1930s could disassociate the war from the prewar depression that had dislocated nearly every country, nor could they igrore the labour unrest which threatened, should the pre-war social status be re-established.

While the Universal Declaration has been associated with Eleanor Roosevelt (U.S.A.) and with Rene Cossin (France) delegates of both China and Egypt made

considerable contributions to it, while even if this was nowhere explicit, the

right to vote, turned out to be more complex than many supposed. Not only were the arguments for and against Presidential rule, or for and against

varying methods of Proportional Representation. A number of countries would introduce measures which attempted to regulate the financing of political parties, to guarantee political access to radio and television, or to decrease political patronage. The debarc

on democracy went beyond this, as witrcss the question of the immigrant vote in Europe. The function of the

of a negotiated

independence package. More important,

There is the perception of Human Rights being simply not part of Caribbean Traditions or Culture.

Human Rights are seen as principally seen as principally linked to court proceedings and to certain "rights" easily circumvented by crooks or drug dealers,

and of no intinsic value to the lawabiding.

Few, including at the level ofjudges and magistrates, seem to realise that there

is a Universal Declaration of Human Rights where"Rights" exist independent

of this or that constitution or this or that social context, whatever its seeming immediacy. These rights preordained in 1948, and more closely defined by pacts and covenants in the late 1960s, do not flow from the units of States, but rather

make

it

incumbent upon States to to implement Human

guarantee and Rights.

Unlike the French and American of Human Rights, these rights are not circumscribed by citzenship, norare civil former declarations and/or taditions

and political rights disassociated from social and economic rights. It is not by chance that this is so. The Universal Declaration of I 948 was one ofthe replies to the Second World War. This War was

anti-colonial struggle of Ireland and of India helped to improve the concept of 'tniversality" in spite of some reticence

Panchijat in India, the question of language or of literacy defined certain political rights in some Latin American countries or the place of chiefs h oy,

Africa.

The first principle of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is that of non-discrimination. Race, Sex, Social origin, political opinions or religious beliefs cannot be used either to define

Tanrbia.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights included freedom of information.

The freedom to inform and to be informed implies varying and accessible sources

from nationalistic quarters in South

rights or to establish a hierarchy ofrights' Indeed much ofthe work in the area of

Human Rights would have to do with ways in which defacto, mdnot simply de jure, eq;rrlity could be ensured. Equality before the law would be not only a single

law which governed all residents of

a

State, but also procedures which bind law

enforcement agencies at

all

levels,

equality ofaccess to legal representation, as well as some guarantee that the composition of the jury did not reduce bias. It is this principle of equality before the law which would make nominations

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE' 1993

of

information, complexity of

presentation and competing frameworks for evaluation. It is because ofthis that monopolies within the media - State or othenvise - have beenjudged dangerous, even where both ownership and political

choice are explicit. But the freedom to inform and to be infonned is not simply a matter for journalists. It also implies a certain eagemess in government, known rules for the access to archival material, clear regulations governing state secrets: what constitutes classified material, or Cont'd on page 38 Pegc37

uAat comes under "security". The right to consumer information as well as the right to medical information and choice where this concems oneself, part of that freedom in civil society that is the corollary of freedom in political culture.

The same is tnre of the right to know what is recorded in one's personal file -

work or cultural security.

Human Rights include the right to create culhue and to participate in culture.

This is a wide area. The right to culture is

modified by the siteing of community centes, theatres, censuses, bookstores, libraries, publishing houses, and the use of language. It is also affected by ways in which popular culture is encouraged, permitted or directed.

Since culture is always changing and is always controversial, it is an area not only of debate but of contestation and experimentation. Whether this is over

censorship

or over the relationship

between dominant "national" culture and groups within this. It is within this format

that culture is created.

The right of association is of importance both to culture and to trade unions. It is right of association which a[ows for groups which mediate between the State and the individual. To this extent the right of association allows for the

empowering

of individuals

through

collective action, while at the same time ensuring the freedom to belong or to refuse to belong.

One of the key insights is the right to education. This right further elaborated in anumber ofdeclarations by UNESCO,

is the basic right which permits the knowledge and accumulation of knowledge necessary in all societies, as well as the access to all other rights or at least informed choice and knowledge of rights and of the limits of righs.

Here equality of access, generally accepted afterthe Civil Rights movement in the United States, has given more to Prgc3E

equality of chances. In other words if education is a right, it is a right ensured

only by a number of supplementary measures which offset povefty, physical or mental handicap of, or the many blacks

that there may be to a real evaluation of talent and of intelligence.

Civil and political rights, social and

economic righs interlock, providing for certain section of society. This vision is in no way uncontrolled freedom. One is free only one's freedom does not encroach on the freedom ofothers. I am free to refuse vaccination, but not if in doing it I put others at risk.

I am free to refuse to vote but not free to stop others from voting. I have the right to a school of my own choice. I do not have the right to use this to ensure a

if

racial exclusivity or

I

suspect, class

exclusivity. I have the right tot choose my own doctor, but not at the expense ofa viable health service for all. Indeed, it is this limitation of freedom which premits the unversality of rights. Freedom and license are in no way synonymous.

It should by now be obvious that the Caribbean cannot avoid the question of the universality of rights. We cannot premit ourselves the luxury to ignore the question of non-discrimination, to opt out ofthe debate on equality before the law, to suppose that we have totally achieved democracy or that one education system really guarantees the equality of chances which it should do. Nor can we

refuse the issues of rights as against govemments or their ofiicers, the rights ofthe mentally ill, the handicapped or the rights of those arrested.

We can hardly be expected to ignore the rights of immigrants - too many West

Indians are immigrants - or the many righs for which we have fought. The agruementthatwe are too small to afford

rights could have beenusedaganist Jesuits and were) or aganist Quakers (and were).

The concept ofrights has been dearly bought including by ourselves. The right to freedom of expression was paid for by

our calypsonians. Freedom of religion paid for in clandestinity by Spiritual Baptists, paid in non-violent disobedience in marriages'trnder the bamboo" or fought throughas aganist State religions. There is

no Caribbean country that has not obtained trade union rights through a costly struggle or indeed universal suffrage.

Irritation over increased criminality or ofthe growing organisations ofdrug gangs easily becomes a public outcry for action at all costs. It is highly doubtful rhat this type ofhysteria will solves what is notonly

a police question but a social problem.

After all, whatever the temptation,police brutality, torture in any form or arbitrary arrest not only affect rights today, they set precedents for rights of tomonow. What

is true is that, whether or not we like it, integration into all societies is achieved through forms of renumerated employment and through methods ofsocial incooperation.

Information on Hurtran Rights is badly needed in the Caribbean. As important, is

some analysis

of

implementation, and the incidence of abuse. Beyond this is the

problems

of implementation

need for a regional body to which claims against an individual State may be

referred. Without this, we run the risk that Human Rights will seem as irrelevant or even as dangerous.

That would be a pity.

(Marion O' Callaghan. Marion patrick Jones is a Social Anthropologist,

&

Tinidad

Tobago).

these rights could have been used aganist

Tuscany or the Dutch City States. The arguements that we cannot afford these CAR,ICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE T993

SHAREHOLDING DEMOCRACY -UTC's Success Story lDeryckR. Brown InNovember last (1992), the Trinidad andTobagoUnitTrustCorporation(UTC) celebrated its l0th Anniversary. In its short l0 years, the UTC has become an important fxhre inthe country's financial landscape and is testimony - if any is needed - that govemments in developing countries can get it right on occasion'

Three (3) principal objectives lay behind the establishment of the UTC. The first was to increase the rate ofsavings (and investment). Secondly,the UTC was

to be a major

in

the development of the local capital market, coming, as it did, shortly after the establishment of the stock exchange' Third, and perhaps most important, the Corporation was meant to provide the

intended

steP

small and uninitiated investor with an indirect route to the stock market.

This last objective is to be underlined.

To put it simply, the UTC was set up with the aim of establishing a shareholding democracy in Trinidad and Tobago.

At the time that the UTC was

established (by special Act ofParliament,

No. 26 of l98l), the financial system included the Central Bank, eight (8) commercial banks and twenty-one (21)

non-bank financial institutions.

Localization ofthe banking and financial sector was a key concem ofpublic policy then, and the Unit Trust was intended to play an important part in the process.

It was also a time of expansion in the state enterprise sector. A stated objective was to ultimately divest ownership ofthe burgeoning state sector to as wide a public as possible. Again, the UTC was expected to feature prominently in this.

When it was called into existence, the UTC would have added both breadth and depth to the financial system. Simply by virtue ofits physical presence, it widened the financial landscape ofTrinidad and Tobago. More importantly, however, by providing to "persons of modest means"

with direct investment, particularly in equities, the UTC was engaged in deepening the financial system.

It

was no small triumPh, the

establishment of the UTC. The idea had been mooted since the sixties, resurfaced

in the mid-seventies, and took a full six (6)yean to materialize. Itwas the product of many months of careful studY and

planning by

a

Cabinet-appointed

Committee comprising members of the

banking and financial community, the Ministry ofFinance andthe Cental Bank.

The Committee was chaired bY then Central Bank Governor, Victor Bruce.

On more than one occasion, when the

UTC

Bill was being debated

in

Parliament, there were attempts by the private sector to derail it. Among their concems was the apparent monoPolY status that the Corporation would enjoy.

Not only would it have first option to a maximumof l0 percentofall share issues, but there was also legislative provision fbr special tax status, both in respect of its own income and that accruing to unitholders. The latter point, in particular,

has been at the core

of the quiet

antagonism between the UTC and the private financial sector ever since.

What the UTC does, quite simPlY, is to mobilize the resources of many small savers for investment in instruments such

as equities, bonds and term deposits.

reach.

Finally, there is the Chaconia lncome and Growth Fund which is the Third

Unit

Scheme. This recently launched Fund

targets savings and investments

denominated in US dollars, making it especially timely and appropriate in the

of the foreign exchange liberalization regime.

Quite apart from the Unit Schemes, context

the UTC also offers a number of innovative savings plans. Foremost

The funds are invested mostlY in

The Corporation also boasts of

if

minimizing the risks typically associated

Scheme,

for full and Profitable

Insurance Board, commercial banks and other financial institutions. This Fund is divided into equal portions or units, the price of which is calculated on a daily basis and is influencedby thevalue ofthe underlying securities in which the Frurd is invested.

The SecondUnit Scheme -the Money Market fund - was launched in 1989. The resources of this Fund are invested in high-yield govemment and corporate debt instruments as well as in bank deposits.

There are stipulated minimum as well as maximum subscriptions. Through this fund, small investors have access to a wide range ofmoney market instnrments which would otherwise be beyond their

productive activities.

Unit-holders are therefore really -

participation in the stock market and other financial markets, while substantially

avenue

was launched at the Corporation's inception in 1982 with initial capital contributions from the Central Bank,life insurance companies, the National

among these is the Individual Retirement Unit Account (IRUA), introduced in late 1992 to provide an alternative to the traditional pension plans and annuities

Individually,these savings mightbe small and insignificant; but collectively, they amount to substantial sums of money.

indirectly - share and bond-holders, with all the benefits that accrue. As simple people, unacquainted with the world of high finance, unable to meet minimum amount of requirements, information costs and other barriers to individual participation, unit-holders are relieved of the need to contend with the complexities of the market.

To date, the UTC has launched three

in

known as the Income and Growth Fund,

(3)

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE' 1993

Schemes. The First

Unit

available from the insurance industry. a

Children's Investment Starter Plan and a

Monthly Investment and Re-investment Plan.

Funds under management have grown

from fi$42.0m at inception in 1982 to

TT$410.9m

at the end of

1991.

Meanwhile,total funds mobilized by the institution increased from TT$36m atthe start-upto TT$960.4m in 199 l. The TT$ I billion mark was passed in June 1992.

Cont'd on page 40 Prgc39

After l0 years, the unit-holding community is in excess of45000 with an avemge investment of about TT$8,500.

This is an outstandingachievement when it is considered that the Corporation had originally set itselfa target of l0 percent ofthe labourforceof 1982 (approx. 40,000 persons) to be achieved by its tenth year.

Payouts to unit-holders rose from a mere TT$2.6m in 1983 to TT$4.5m in

1988. In 1991, unit-holders were the beneficiaries ofa total record distibution of TT$29.1m. Over TT$85m has been paid out to unit-holders overthe ten-year

period, making units fairly attractive, high-yield investments.

Success Story

Although the UTC has had its share

of

difficulty during the onerous eighties, it remains a huge success story by any standard. What has accounted for this success? Part of the explanation surely hastodowiththe fiscal incentives enjoyed

by unit-holders in the form of tax concessions on personal income up to a

limitofTl$625 onaminimum investment of TT$2J00, as well as an exemption from dividend income up to TT$5,000.

Growth in the number of unit-holders is undoubtedly related to the stimulus provided by the tax incentives. Tax revenues foregone by the State through these concessions are minimal when compared with other areas, and can be regarded as the costto the economy for generating investnent funds which in turn

are used directly for the stimulation of economic activity.

Success has also been due in part to a vigorous marketing stratery which sees

staff members from the Corporation providing counselling on personal

financial management and sprelding the ethos ofa wider share-holding democracy in^work-places as farremoved as floating oftshore oil platforrrs. Almost 2000 suc[ seminars have been held since 1985.

Another reason for the UTC's success has been the fact that units are available easily. Units can be purchased at any Prgc40

branch

of a commercial bank,

from

stockbrokers and from certain licensed life underwrrters.

Trail Blazers But the success of the UTC rests ultimately on the vision, skill and commitment of its dynamic management team over the years. Operating in what

could only be described as a hostile environment, the Corporation's senior managen have set an enviable record by blazing a nail that has left traditional actors in the financial sector clamouring

for a "level playing field".

What is most sigrrificant about the management and staffof the UTC is that they are all nationals of Trinidad and Tobago. From the very beginning, the institution

has been an

entirely indigenous

effort. This is an

outstanding

accomplishment given the usual stigma of inefficiency and mis-management associated with public enterprises and

greater number

of people have been

brought into the savings and investment cycle than would otherwise have beenthe case. This is extremely critical as we come more and more to appreciate that external funds are not to be relied upon for our economic salvation.

Thirdly, the UTC is an example of how fiscal policy can be used for the cornmon good. Too often tax incentives are ineffective because they are not properly conceived in the first place. The tax concessions offered to unit-holders and to the Corporation itself have

contributed in no small measure to the success of the UTC and, by extension, to the increase inthe savingsrate inTrinidad and Tobago.

As we move towards the 2l st Century, we must ready ourselves for the challenges that lie ahead. In this context, we ought to

look closely at institutions like the Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust

state entrepreneurship in general. Indeed,

Corporation. We must welcome the good new of the UTC's accomplishments and wish them well in their onward joumey.

it may well be validating evidence of the current orthodoxy on the superiority of competitive markets: the UTC has to

f,Excerpt from Lloyd Best and Deryck Brown, The Trinidad and Tobago Unit

doggedly to anive at its present position.

published by the Trinidad and Tobago Instilute of the l(est Indies, 1992J

compete against long-entrenched financial agents, and it had to compete

Trus t C orporat ion

: Ten Years of Success,

Lessons There are many lessons in here for all ofus. First ofall, the Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation is a clear example

of what can be accomplished by

collectivity acting as one. By pooling our tresources, we are empowered to give fight to the economic odds around ui.

Secondly, in these times of structural

adjustment with a high degree of on external souices of

dependence

financing for the development effort, the

UTC demonstrates how domestic financial resources can be mobilized through enhanced financial intermediation for investment in productive, employment-generating sector of the economy. Because of the UTC, a far

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY - JUNE 1993

AIR TRANSPORT - Regulatory Policy The Convention on International

Civil

Aviation commonly known as the

Chicago Convention (1944), recognises sovereignty" which every State has over the air space above its territory and it provides that "no scheduled intemational air service may be operated over or into the territory ofa Contracting State, except with the special permission or other authorisation of that State,and in accordance with the terms of such permission or authorisation". On the basis of these and other provisions of the Convention, a complex and expanding system ofbilateral air services agreements the "complete and exclusive

has developed for the regulation of

dependent territories

in Latin America

and the Caribbean. Two CARICOM States and the CARJCOM Secretariat

participated in the Workshop which provided an informal forum at which

governments examined a wide range of issues including the aims of government regulation of international air transport; the process and structure ofregulation at

the national, bilateral and multilateral levels; the content ofregulation such as

market access, airline ownership and control; the application of competition laws to international air transport; and the implications of certain air transport

challenged as inadequate, a consequence

activities being regulated by the proposed arrangements for inlemational trade in services under the auspices ofthe General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

As the world formulates its policies,

ofthe global trends in intemational trade

there are strong forces at work in the

relations. A number offundamental issues have arisen, the response to which has

developed countries aimed at determining the outcome. InEurope,there isthe regime

commercial air transport.

In recent years, the scope and content

of traditional

agreements have been

grave implications for the development of regulatory policy. For example, as the world moves towards more economic groupings, would regional arrangements among groups of States replace the . traditional bilateral arrangements for the conduct of air services?

What is the role of increasirig foreign and multinational ownership of airlines in the provision of air services and the ganting of cabotage privileges in the future regulatory environment?

Should intemational air transportation continue to be regarded as a special service industry and regulated in a manner that is not normal for other service industries?

The World-wide

Air

Transport

Colloquium which had been organised

by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (IACO) in Montreal, in April 1992, addressed these and other issues thus launching the public debate on a global basis on the development of

future air transport regulatory policy.

The debate continued at an ICAO Regional Workshop which was held in

the South American city of Quito, Ecuador, from April 19-23, 1993, specifically for Contacting States or their

that is moving gradually towards

that sub-region and the United

States,

including Puerto Rico. It is believed that such an agreement would allow greater access to the Unircd Starcs market than is possible under traditional arrangements.

The United States, a major trading

partner and tourist market of Latin American and Caribbean States, is supporting closer collaboration among those States and their airlines, and its great influence could very well determine

the development of regional policy.

However, cognisance has to be taken of the difliculty inherent in joint action.

Although there is economic justification for a strong multinational carrier vis-t-vb a multiplicity of small,

weak national carriers in a limited market, CARICOM States have been unable to form such a carrier after three decades of

effort, perhaps, due to the difficulty perceived in distributing the benefits to be derived from a multinational carrier following the disbandment of national

liberalisation, whilst in North America there is full liberalisation. In Latin America and the Caribbean, there is still

caniers. CARICOM States have also been unable to conclude joint negotiation ofan

a tendency towards protectionism.

Kingdom. The Workshop approachedthe issue ofjoint negotiations very cautiously.

Of particular interest to CANCOM is the aviationpolicy ofthe United States in

this hemisphere. The United supports an open skies policy

States and is

promoting this concept in the Americas.

The Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs of the Department ofTransportation had expressed the view at the Colloquium held in Montreal, that a regional airline or airlines operating under a multilateral agreement in the Caribbean might provide a better service to consumers than a multiplicity of small national carriers.

In this regard, a multilateral regional

agreement

that allows several

govemments to pool their bilateral air services rights might also provide abetter service than is possible under a system of bilateral anangements. The United States

has proposed initially a multilateral agreement with Central America that, in its view, would create a liberal aviation marketandunprecedented scope between

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY . JUNE' 1993

air services agreement with the United

The Latin American Civil Aviation Commission (LACAC) reported that it had considered the issue but made no progress in the area.

One of the CARICOM States urged the Workshop that a careful assessment should be made of the benefits to be derived from joint negotiation vis c vir individual negotiations to ensure that embarking on the former course does not result in diminishing rights for the group ofStates as awhole. There wasthe general consensus that groups of Starcs should conclude their internal arrangements before embarking on joint negotiations.

During the course of discussion of

several specific elements

of

bilateral

agreements, it was recogtised that the definition ofsuchterms as market access, scheduled flights, multi-modal and courier or small package services, and

rair competition was

Ii),{fi"'i; Prgc

4l

ICAO for the purpose ofpunuing studies on new regulatory arrangements in the light of the outcome of the World-wide Air Transport Colloquium. GEFRA had consequently, there was difficulty in

been mandated'to identiS and develop substantive issues to be considered at a

regulating activities in these areas. Issues

proposed Fourth Air Transport Conference

were raised about the ownership and control ofairlines ofdeveloping countries and their desigrration on the basis of the

of ICAO to be held in

November-

December 1994. The Workshop was informed that there was an opportunity for

principle of community of interest pursuant to ICAO Resolution A24-12.

Latin America to participate in the work ofthe Experts and that the Experts will be

(Onthis basis aCARJCOM State may be

available at a proposed one-day Seminar to be held prior to the Conference to respond to queries of Contracting States relating to their work. The conclusion of the Workshop was that States should

dlowed to designate the airline ofanother CARICOM state to exercise its route rights and other air tansport rights.)

There was also the issue of whether there can be fair competition between

prepare promptly and thoroughly for the

State-owned carriers which enjoy

Conference with the assistance of

unlimited financial support from the State and other carriers which do not receive such support. With regard to market access, the view was expressed that airlines of States which form regional economic groupings should be granted the privilege of carrying their own stop over traflic and other cabotage traflic (i.e. passo'nger, mail and cargo taken on for remuneration at one point in a foreigrr

appropriate regional organisations.

The Workshop has achieved its objective of providing a forum for the exchange ofviews on regulatory issues of cornmon interest to territories and inter-

governmental organisations

of

Latin

Europe to compensate for the carriage

of

intra-Community traflic by the foreign carriers of those regions.

The Workshop briefly examined the expanding courier or small package services and their compliance with the regulations ofthe Universal Postal Union relating to carriage of intemational air mail. Note was taken ofICAO's policy as

contained in Resolution Al6-26: International Air Mail, and the

recommendation of ICAO that Contracting States take into account the effects on international civil aviation whenever policy is formulated.

The Workshop focused onthe workof the Group ofExperts on Future Regulatory Arrangements (GEFRA) which had been established by the Secretary-General of Prlgc42

importance ofeconomic mega-blocs. That inter-dependence, makes the massive down-sizing of IBM, Sears, American

Airlines, Federal Express in the USA, important to us here in CARICOM as does the cutbacks in BWIA, in WASA and in the Barbados and Jamaica Civil services. In such a world we, the small and weak economies, like those of the Caribbean need to have

a

very clear sense

of what our potential is and where our greatest opportunities lie. Also, we must howwe wish to position ourselves in that world. A meeting ofthis nature can help to forge come perspectives on this be clear

important matter. For unless we, as a

determinedly towards some agreed

guidelines published by ICAO on several

approaches adopted for solving common problems encountered in Latin America

airlines should be allowed to carry cabotage traffic between designated points in States in North America and in

liberalisation and the increasing

provided by an ICAO expert of the

territory) in States with extensive markets in order to correct the apparent imbalance created by the caniage ofintra-

tenitories) by the airlines ofthose States.

In this regard, for example, CARICOM

We live in a world of increasing interdependence, as emphasised by trade

Region, can, amongst ourselves, agree on

regulatory topics and the information

Community fifth freedom traffrc (i.e. traffic carried between two foreign

rEdwin Carrington

America and the Caribbean. Participants were enlightened by the clarifications

tenitory and destined foranotherpoint in the same

REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS

provided regarding the different

and the Caribbean.

The debate continues and there is unlikely to be a consensus on all issues among States of developing regions which have particular concems, and the States of the developed regions.

As a follow-up to the Workshop, CARICOM States should pursue rwo major courses of action, namely:

(i) the co-ordination of their activities to ensure thatthe interest ofthe

Community

is taken into account by the Group of Experts and the proposed Fourth air Transport Conference to be held in 1994; and

(ii) the

promotion of closer collaboration between an intergovernmental aviation agency of the Community and LACAC at the organisational level, and between Member States of CARICOM and LACAC at the

govemmental level, possibly, through increased membership and active

participation LACAC.

in the activities of

where we wish to go and really work objectives others

will

decide where we

ought to be and we shall increasingly lose the capacity and opportunity to make and

implement the decisions governing our own future. This is what in some quarters is, euphemistically, as marginalisation.

We cannot allow ourselves to become marginalised. Our heritage is not one of insignificance, and we certainly owe it to our children not to leave thema legacy of marginalisation.

I am keenly aware that we cannot afford to become inward looking. A Community of

less than six

million people

is not a viable long-term entity for continuing economic development. We must first of all put our own CARICOM House in order and decide on a way forward, but we must fairly quickly seek to embrace overtures by neigbouring non-

English speaking Caribbean countries and

other larger groupings. ,t,l** Excerpt

from the Remarks by the CANCOM Secretary-General at the Opening of the 1993 Caribbean Conference on Improving Regional Competit iveness and Expanding Extraregional Markets, Forte Crest Hotel, 8-9 February, I 993

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE T993

A CARICOM JOURNEY *Sharon Marshall

I coveredmy fiTstCARICOM summit 1982. I0was the historic one held in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. It was historic, not becuse itwas my first summit, butbecause itwasthe firsttime in sevenyears thatthe leaders ofthe Caribbean Community and

in

Common Market got together to talk matters of common interest.

At the time I was employed as an

Information Specialist (read Senior with the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporatibn (that's Barbados' state owned radio and

Reporter)

television service).

I must not have done too badly on that assignment, because the following year, I was assigned to produce a television

documentary in honour of the Tenth Anniversary ofCARICOM. And that was

the start ofa great adventure!

Cameraman Frank Grimes and I set out for Trinidad and the Chaguaramas,

the place where the Treaty establishing

CARICOM was signed ten years before.

It was not only the building where the I

973 signing was held that help convey to

us a sense

of history; but we were able to

videotape the

old black and white

photographs of the founding fathers --

Michael Manley, Errol Barrow, Eric Williams and Forbes Burnham, and Secretary General William Demas - which

were important archival additions to our material for the documentary.

Next stop Grenada!

In

1983, Grenada was the "black

sheep"

of the CARICOM family.

The

People's Revolutionary Government's Marxist philosophy had put it at odds

with most of the other members of the Caribbean Community.

Frank and

I

landed at Pearls Airport

and took the winding road, through nutmeg groves and fecund fields of fruit, to St. George's and our cotlage on serene Grand Anse beach.

And we waited for our interview with

Maurice Bishop.

We set up our camera equipment in

But Frank's equipment was acting

the designated room and waited. Outside

up, because of dust and moisture

the evening wind was howling through the shutters, and we waited.

Maurice Bishop came with a clatter of car doors closing, abuzz of voices, and footsteps in the hall. He was smoking. He smoked throughout the interview. We talked about - among other things - the contribution of Grenadian statesman, T. Albert Marryshow, to the cause of West Indian unity; about the P.R.G.'s idea of "participatory democracy"; and about Ronald Regan's charges that the airport under construction at Point Salines was

acquired on the journey. He started to dismantle the recorder to clean it, while

intended for other than commercial civilian purposes.

When the interview was over,he kissed

me on my right cheek and called me "Comrade Sister". It was only my professional resolve that kept me from swooning.

With that done, it was on to Guyana.

We'd left Barbados with the understanding that our interview with Forbes Burnham was scheduled for the day after our arrival in Guyana. When we got to Georgetown, we were told that the Comrade Leader couldn't possibly see us then. We were advised to relax and stay for another two or three days.

We were sampling some Chinese cuisine at a restaurant near our hotel one evening, when to our zrmazement, a man on a motorcycle rode right into the restaurant and up to the counter to order his food. It gave a whole new meaning to the term "take away".

Our interview with the Comrade Leader was to take place at his country estate.

We decidedona spotforthe interviqw

on the wide verandah, set up our equipmentand waited,along with a small group of the President's men. President Bumham eventually emerged, and tried to put us at ease.

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE -JANUARY -JUNE, T993

a very solicitous President Bumham enquired ifthere was any assistance he could offer. Frank said some rubbing alcohol would be good but methylated spirits would be better, The President sent forhis little black bagand produced methylated spirits and cotton swabs.

By this time, it had turned dark so Frank set up lights so that we could begin the interview. When he tumed them on, the bulbs blew.

All this time the Comrade Leader was being very charming - offering us

sandwiches made with bread from locally-produced flour, admiring the leather boots of one ofhis men who was just back from a trip to Brazil.

Frank replaced the bulbs and the same thing happened again.

Black out!

From a bank ofphones next to his favourite chair on the verandah, President Burnham summoned help. A man emerged from somewhere in the nether regions ofthe house , but evidently it was the wrong man. "Where is Mr....?",

for the electrician by name. He was told itwas the electrician's day offbut this was his President Burnham asked

assistant.

"Look at that," he told us with a mixture of pride and amusement, "My electrician is off, but his assistant is here."

We were finally able to get our interview with Forbes Burnham.

Since then,as an editor, I've sent out

reporters to cover summits in The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana and Antigua. But the images of that 1983 trip have stayed with me as though it were yesterday.

[Sharon Marshall is the News

Coordinat or for CAN B VI SIONJ

Prge 43

...There are no

paths

ln watâ&#x201A;Źf... (tlook jacket design Gamer Russell) Mike Snrallconrbe).

Jacket photo

-

A

desperate foolishness. The crops failed. I sold my children. I remernber. I led them (two boys and a girl) along weary paths, until we reached the place where the mud flats are populated with crabs and gulls. Returned across the bar with the yawl, and prayed o while in the factory chapel. I watched as they huddled together and stared up at the fort, above which flew a foreign flag. Stood beneatlt the white-washed walls of the factory, waiting for the yawl to return and carry me back over the bar. ln the distance stood the ship into whose keep I would soon condernn them. The tnan and his company were waitingto onceagaincross the bar. We watched a while. And then approached. Approached by a quiet fel/ow. Three children only. I jettisoned thern at this point, where the tributary stumbles and swirns out in all directions to meet the sea. Bought 2 strong man-boys, and a proud girl. I soiled my hands with cold goods in exchange for their warn.r flesh.

shanreful intercourse.

I'agc 44

I could

A

t'eel their

eyes upon me. Wondering, why? I turned andjourneyed back along the sallle weary

/ believe my tradel:ot' lhis voyags has reached its conclusion. And soon after, the chorus of a cotrrrrron lllenlory

paths.

began to haunt nte.

For two hundred and fit1y years I have listened to the many-tongued chorus. And

occasionally, among the sundry restless voices, I have discovered those of rny own children. My Nash, My Martha, MY

Travis. Their lives fractured. Sinking hopeful roots into difficult soil. For two hundred and fifty years I have longed to

blanre only myself for my present misery.

For two hundred and fifty years I have waited patiently lbr the wind to rise on the

t'ar bank of the river. For the drunr to pound across the water. Forthe chorus to swell. Only then, if I listen closely, can I rediscover nry lost children. A brief, painful conrnrunion. A desperate foolishness.

The crops lailed. I sold my children.

frotn "Crossirtg the River" by Bloomsbuty Press, LottPhillips, Caryl

(Excerytt

don,1995).

tellthem: Children, I anr your lather I love you. But understand. There are no paths in water. No signposts. There is no return.

To a land trampled by the muddy boots of

others. To a people encouraged to war among thenrselves. To a father consumed with guilt. You are beyond. Broken-off, like linbs fronr a tree. But not lost, lbryou carry within your bodies the seeds of new

trees. Sinking your hopeful roots into

dilllcult soil. And

I, who spurned you, can CARICONI PERSI'ECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE I993

A M

A

C E

R

N E

C

T R R I A C L A

I C

o M

Secretaries-General of CANCOM O and of "SIECA" (r), Edwin Carrington and Rafael Rodriguez Loucel, respeclively, signing lhe Agreements.

The Ministers ofthe Member States of the Caribbean Community, participating

in the Second CARICOM-Central

America Ministerial Conference in Kingston, Jamaica, on 27-28 May, 1993 issued a Statement on Bananas agreeing "to intensi$ their efforts to safeguard the vital interest of Caribbean ACP Banana Suppliers to the Community and to defend the integrity ofthe Lome Convention and the Banana Protocol in all forums and

under

all

it is

circumstances, when

necessary and proper to do so."

A Basic Cooperation Agreement between the Caribbean Community Secretariat and the Permanent Secretariat

of The General Treaty of

Central American Economic Integration also agreed that the CARICOM Secretariat

execute whether

jointly or in

coordinated manner,

in

a

areas falling

within their respective fields of competence, activities, projects, studies and papers with a view to establishing

greater linkages and also to promoting

the economic development and the expansion of trade among the Member Countries of their respective sub-regional integration schemes.

The two Secretariats agreed also to maintain aregular syslem of information exchange which will enable them to monitor the progress of both economic integration processes; and

that both Institutions promote the mutual exchange of experts for the provision of reciprocal assistance in

and SIECA establishaninter-institutional

projects where this is deemed appropriate The Agreement also setout modalities

cooperation programme such as would

of operation and date for entering into

enable the Parties to analyse, develop and

force of the agreement.

BUREAU The Bureau ofthe Conference offleads

of Government of the

Caribbean

Immigration and Appeals Bill,the Bureau agreed to solicit support to modifr this

it felt had no place

Community met for the second time in

legislation which

February this year in The Bahamas.In reviewing events following the decision of the European Community concerning marketing ofbananas, the Bureau agreed that every effort should be made by the ACP and its allies to mobilize support for

among Commonwealth partners.

the decision of the EC to avoid

the UN Global Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing

anY

overturn of the EC decision.

The Bureau also issued a statement reaffirming the determination of the Community to work for fundamental changes in Haiti.

With respect

to

the UK

1993

During the meeting Trinidad and Tobago signed the Agreement to establish

a Caribbean Assembly of

Parliamentarians. A number of other issues were discussed by the Bureau including Countries and the filling of the post of Presidency of the 48 Session of the UN General Assembly.

The third meeting is due to take place in St Kitts and Nevis in June,1993.

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY . JT'NE, r993

HAITI Ministers of the

Caribbean

Community and Central America meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, on the occasion of the Second CARICOM-Central America Ministerial Conferenee during the period

27-28May,1993: Recalled that at the Fint Ministerial Conference they condemned the

disruption of the democratic process in Haiti and that despite the efforts of ttre Intemational community the intemrption ofconstitutional order continues, in total disregard of the popular will ofthe noble Haitian people: Reiteroted their condemnation of the military regime inHaiti and its supportof the right ofthe Haitian people to determine

their destiny in conditions of liberty and democracy.

Firmly convinced of the need for the

implementation of additional measures

for

the re-establishment of constitutional

order in Haiti;

Reafirm their total support for the relevant Resolutions adopted by the

United Nations and the Organisation of American States in an effort to resolve the political crisis in Haiti; and

Urge the entire international

community to intensifr its efforts to bring about an early resolution of the Haitian political crisis.

INSTITUTIONAL STRBNGTHENING CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin

Carrington and Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana John Zawisza recently sigrred a CDN $4.4 m. pmject agreement in support ofstrengthening the

CARICOM Secretariat.

The project, funded by the Canadian

International Development Agency (CIDA) will be executed over a five-year period and is intended to stnengthen the Secretariat and its capaclty to initiate, plan and implement regional, social and economic developmentpolicy studies and

progrzmmes as well as provide Member States with timely proposals for decisionmaking.

Prgc

{5

THE BAHAMAS ANI)

ALTERNATTVE POLICIES

CARICOM

Karl Theodore

rA. Leonard Archer The fundamental geo political reality

in the world today, is that all countries sense the need to form economic

alliances and strengthen their economies in order to compete with other economic blocs that are being formed.

Even the United States ofAmerica, the

to enlarge their market space

world's single largest and richest oconomy, has decided that in the face of competition fiom the Eumpean Economic Community, Japan and the Pacific Rim

countries,

it

should form an economic

'alliance', and has sigrred an agreement

with Canada and Mexico to form the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA). The long-term policy is to form an alliance of all countries in the Americas, stretching from Alaska in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south,

more commonly referred to as the Enterprise for the Americas Initiative (EAr).

Most of the countries in the Americas seem to have decided that it is in their

long-term interest to become a part of NAFTA, which is intended to be the forerunner of EAI, and are making the necessary economic and policy decisions to access NAFTA. CARICOM has signed a framewqk agreement with the United States, which is a preparatory step to

becoming involved

in the

Americas

Economic arrangements.

The United States representatives in the past, have made it clear, that it is not inlerested in dealing with thirteen small independent countries, and that the CARJCOM Countries had better get their acts together, and form a single market and economy, if they want to participate in the economic alliances that are being formed. As a matter of fact, the view was expressed that an economic bloc which included the Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean and Central America, would be looked on more favourably than the CARICOM countries alone.

With these developments taking place in the Americas, I see three (3) possible future scenarios for The Bahamas.

Prgctl6

Moral Dimension of Adjustment

Scenario I would have The Bahamas remaining free of all alliances and tying to go it alone. I need not develop this any further, since I believe that it is agreed by almost everyone that in the light of the economic restucturing that is going on in our hemisphere, The Bahamas cannot go it alone.

Scenario 2 would have The Bahamas seeking to be absorbed into the Florida Economy, and to become Dade County

I

East. am slue that there are some Bahamians who would be pleased at the prospect ofbecoming Americans, but the majority I believe would not relish the idea

of giving up their identity, their

history and culture andtheirindependence to become a part ofFlorida. Furthermore, I do not believe that Florida would have any interest at all in the absorption ofThe Bahamas and therefore this scenario is

not a possibility.

Scenario 3 would have The Bahamas become a full member of CARICOM, and along with CANCOM broaden the

relationship with the non Englishof the Caribbean,

speaking Countries

Cenfral America and South America, to form the Association ofCaribbean States and, as an association ofthe Caribbean States, access NAFTA and EAI. I believe that the future ofThe Bahamas

is inexticably bound up in CARICOM, and I see the third scenario as the only realistic alternative for The Bahamas.

A. Leonard Archer has been appointed, High Commissionerfor The Bahamas to

CANCOM States.

Having looked at what various to say about alternative approaches to structural economists have had

adjustment, it is important that we do not convey the impression that getting us out of the present difliculties is a job for the economists and for the politicians.

In this regard, the alternative we are being called upon to grasp as citizens is more a mo r a I a lt ernat iv e tharr an economi c ahernative. In one sense it may be said that this is what the period of struchral adjustment attempts to teach us: except we change our ways of doing things we will always.end up with the same set of problems.

What then is the content of this moral alternative and how is it related to our economic life? I want to suggest that this

alternative points us

new

more for our hospitals , more for our roads

,

more for our pensioners. We cannot eat our cake and have it.

The third direction in which we should bend our adjustment programme is one

which will give new meaning to the

propositionthatwe are tntly our brolher's keeper. The point here is that we cannot see an adjustment prognrnme as being

complete

CARICOM AMBASSADOR H.E. Louis A. lliltshire: High Commissionerfor Trinidad and Tobago to CANCOM and to Barbados, Guyana and to the Eastern Ca ribbean.

in ,lree

directions that matter importantly to the key variables in our economic system.

The first direction concerns our lifestyle.

The second direction in which we must point our structural adjustment activities is towards a much more eficient use of our resources. In the public sector this means that we might be able to do more with the lowered level ofpublic revenues,

if it does not give explicit

recognition to the fact that there will be those amongus whowill betotally severed from any source of income as long as the adjustment lasts.

[Excerptfrom apresentation to the First

National Women's Conference on the Econonomy, Fernondo, Trinidad and Tobago, onJanuary 22, lgg|.J CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE 1993

CFRAMP

CARTIS

The CARICOM Fisheries Resource Assessment and lvlanagement Programme (CFRAMP) whichwas establishedin June I 99 I , is a project geared towards assisting

fisheries management institutions

of

CARTIS,

a

regional trade information

network, is designed to support the development of intra-CARICOM and exha-regional trade. Its aim is to provide an appropriate information technolory

infra-stnrcture to facilitate information

CARICOM. The program aims at enhancing the basic information and

exchange and allow businessmen to make

institutional capability necessary for the countries of the Region to manage and develop their fisheries in a responsible

trade.

and sustainable manner.

Countries participating in the program

Antigua& Barbuda,Barbados,Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts &Nevis,SaintLucia, are

St. Vincent

& the Grenadines, and

Trinidad & Tobago.

informed decisions on matlerc affecting Currently, CARTIS is a computerised

network linking the Regional Centre at the CARICOM Export Development Project and Trade Information Centres

located

in either Trade Promotion

Organisations or Ministers of Trade in the CARICOM Member States.

The CARTIS network also provides access to a wealth of information on the

rales.

The CARTIS network will link usen with Information Centres (ICs) from regional private and public sector organisations, as well as individuals offering trade information services which meet their needs. At the national level the network will be coordinated and marketed

by Information Brokersi who will act as CARTIS agents identifing needs, new sources of information and faciliating the collection ofdata. The Regional Centne

European markets through its linkages to

at CARICOM Export Development Project in Barbados will continue to manage the network and to maintain linkages with other international

international database hosts such

networks.

Why CFRAMP?

North American, Latin American and

The region's rich and diversified fisheries resources contribute significantly to its social and economic well-being. Like any other renewable

Dialog, Data Star and OAS-SICE. CARTIS was launched in 1988 and has succeeded in providing the region

resource,they have the potential to benefit

Centre at Barbados External Telecommunications Limited, which will provide users across the Region with easy access at cost-effective communication

with

a

as

Coverage

range oftrade information services

Information will be provided on those markets which are currently of interest to

and products which include product level

Caribbean producers and exporters,

CFRAMP is strengthening fisheries

trade statistics, company profiles, aild

management structures, capabilities and technical expertise through training and advisory assistance. It is also providing

including the Caribbean Community, North America (USA, Canada), Western Europe and the EEC counties.

establish a

theregionindefinitely

-

ifwisely managed.

information on fishery resource abundance and availability and is establishing a regional fisheries management advisory mechanism.

Implementation CFRAMP carries out its programs through four centers: the CARICOM Fisheries Management Unit (CFMU), headquartered in Belize, and three

business opportunities.

For the future, CARICOM hopes to

fully functional trade information network linking not only key information providers and clients in the CARICOM Region,but expanding to the non-CARICOM Caribbean tenitories and ultimately furttrer afield. In order to facilitate ttre development ofthe Region's

private sector and to help businesses maintain acompetitive edge,the CARTIS

network

1993 , and the Belize

latter part of 1993.

RAU

is slated for the

zuela and Mexico.

The trade information service will be targetedprimarily ate:<porters,producers, manufacturers, importers and will also meet the needs of decision-makers in the regional public sector.

Access to CARTIS

USA and Europe.

Resource Assessment Units (RAUs) based in Trinidad & Tobago (shrimp and ground fish), Belize (lobster and conch), and St. Vincent&the Grenadines (shallow reef, deep slope, large pelagics, coastal pelagics and flying fish). The St. Vincent RAU was established in May/June 1992, the Trinidad RAU will be set up in early

will be linked to other

information networks in Latin America,

Future expansion is envisaged to cover

the non-CARICOM Caribbean, Vene-

Description Throughthe use ofcunent informatlon technology, the system design facilitates regional and on-line access international databases and the network will provide services such as, electronic mail and computer conferencing. The current plan is to utilise the Information

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY - JUNE, 1993

to

CARTIS is easily accessible by mail, telephone, facsimile or via computer.

Most of the services and publications will ultimately be available inthe majority ofthe thirteenCARICOMMember States.

[Excerpt from a submission to the CANCOM Private Sector Conference Guyana, February 1993J

Prlgc17

IWOKRAMA - TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE Throughout the tropical world, the forests arc disappearing at a faster rate thanthey are beingregenerated. In many such forests, like the Amazon, the fire

Over the two centuries or more of logging the forest, not a single tree has

continue

been planted successfully to replace the thousands that have been cut down. On the contrary , the evidence is that wherever valuable trees were cut down they have

burns continuously, making way for farms and grasslands; else*here the sounds of

the axe and the saw

ones are unknown factors.

The destruction of the forest is

been replaced by species of liule commercial value, thus reducing the

motivated by nvo factors. There is, firstly, the need in the developing world to make

economic value of the forests. Waves of exploitation have swept and are sweeping

way for farming and cattle-rearing and to accommodate the needs of increasing populations. Secondly, there is the cutting down of trees to supply the local and world demand for hardwood timber, and it is this second category of exploitation that is mostdestnrctive. Many countries, in the name of development, gave

through the forest leaving nothing but valueless bush in their way.

unintemrpted.

unreasonable

and

Some recent ecological studies caried out in the forest in the interests of mining operations cannot stand the scrutiny of high level scientilic investigations; some

of

these were done by inadequately qualified persons who have reported

extraordinary

favourable results without having done

concessions to large companies, but the

sufficientorproperly planned field-work.

Such reports while favourable to their promoters have given the public a false sense of well-being.

revenue obtained is quite out ofpmportion

to the damage done.

Most extracting companies aim at making maximum profits in the shortest time and then move on to fresh forests.

Neither the governments nor the companies concerned pay sufficient attention to the preservation ofpermanent

values. Forests are trealed as a finirc resource to be exploited for the maximum

profit in the minimum time. Under such conditions,

it

should not be difticult to

realise that there would come a time when all the valuable forests of the tropics will

have been removed. ln this country during the 200 years or more of logging, nothing has been done to eruune the preservation of the relxlunce values ofthe foresg. There has been no

successful programme of replanting or regeneration ofthe species that have been

Projects such as the one planned for Iwokrama have at least one useful purpose - the preservation of examples ofclimax forest has many reasons to commend it.

In fact, representative examples offorest should be preserved in different parts of the country for posterity.

In otherrespects howeverthe value of zuch a project as Iwokrama has to prove its merit. There is a dangerthat it may, in the end, merely provide an expensive

diversion to scientists who have never gone deep into the forest to understand

its complexity and also provide employment and experience for expatriates. There is also the possibility that there could be duplication and

removed, not even in the case of Greenheart which has a limited

of experiments that have already failed elsewhere and also projects which could be inappropriate, irrelevant,

distribution and takes more than 75 years

expensive and unproductive. For

to mature; nor has sufEcient data been

example, the suggestion that experiments should be conducted to use genes from the Mangrove tree to produce salt-tolerant rice plants could be unnecessary and

collected on the rate ofreproduction and

growth. The rates at which young trees maturâ&#x201A;Ź or old trees replaced by younger

Pr3oft

redundancy

inappropriate as well as scientifically inadvisable.

There is no shortage of unoccupied lands suitable for rice. The Iwokrama region is unsuitable for rice cultivation and even ifsuch an experiment should be

done there is no reason why Spartina or

rice grass should not be used more successfully than Mangrove; both have a tolerance of saltwater.

The projects aimed at developing the

of forest produce commercially, such as fruits, nuts and latex have questionable financial merit. exploitation

Wild rubber and balata cannot compete

with plantation grown rubber

and synthetics. Nuts such as Brazil Nuts are valuable luxuries but cannot support

stable industries, They are useful

as

supplements to indigenous people and as exotic foods. Projects such as these have not been proven economically viable in

other countries.

Synthetic and genetically engineered drugs have greatly reduced the value of the forest for such compounds.

The usefulness of such projects as

Iwokrama could only be realised

if

successful methods are achieved to reclaim damaged and over-exploited forests,andto replantorregenerate forests

to keep pace with lumbering and in working out a safe level of exploitation in order to maintain sustained yield.

However,consideringthe rate at which the useful forests is being removed and the rate at which research on forest regeperation is progressing, most of the useful forest will have been successfully anived aL By that time there may be little or nothing to preserve.

The hope that there is a plant waiting impatiently onthe groundtorcplace every tree cut down in the forest is vain and

unscientific.

[Excerpt from "Sunday Chronicle", March 28, 1993 by Naturalist - N. O. PoonaiJ

CAR,ICOM PER,SPECTIVE . JANUAR,Y - JUNE 1993

ANTIGUA & BARBUDA

BARBADOS

TELE-CONFERENCTNG

Harvesting Flying Fish

The Fisheries Division

has fish harvesting

-THE WAY OF THE FUTURE

implemented a flying processing and marketing project, in

collaboration

with the Antigua

tDeborah Stoute

and

Barbuda Fishermen's Association.

Funding is coming from the OECS Fisheries Unit in St Vincent to a tune of $15 000. An expert from Barbados, Lloyd

Clarke, is already on the island to implement the project.

The primary objective ofPhase I ofthe project is to train a cadre oflocal fishermen in the techniques and equipment to be used in the harvesting of flying fish.

Although flying fish have been observed in Antigua and Barbuda waters, this fishery resource has been largely unexploited and it is believed that further exploitation ofthis resource would result in substantial benefits to Antigua and Barbuda.

Mr. Clarke will be engaged in a series oftraining programmes that will involve at leasteight local fi shermen,three ofwhom axe captains and two staffmembers ofthe

FisheriesDivision.

Phase 2 of the project will deal with processing and marketing.

Expansionworkhas started atthe V.C.

Bird Intemational Airport and is being canied out by the Clarence Johnson Construction Firm.

Fifteen thousand square feet will be added to the airport anival and departure

will

be

expanded.

New baggage handling systems

will be implemented and the number of immigration and customs counters will be increased.

The roadway and parkway lot will also be repaved and landscaped. .

The Bank ofAntigua is providing 9.5

million dollan to renovate and rehabilitate

the Airport and its environs. The expansion and enhancement ofthe airport

is expected to be completed by midDecember.

CBC's studios in Barbados were recently utilized as the Barbados end ofa

to technical people in Barbados regarding the types of shots, i.e. camera angles they

required. The second line originating in Barbados, allowed Ms Bassett to hear and respond to questions asked by the

tele-conference - a live press conference

with Beverly Hills Television in California.

It all

began with

a telephone

journalists.

Transmission from Barbados rcquired

representative of Touchstone Pictures (Walt Disney) and CBC's Chief Engineer, Glyne Husbands to facilitate a press conference on the imminent release of the motion picture conversation between

a

Tina: What's Love Got to Do With It,

Airport Expansion

lounges, while the restaurant

Bassett at CBC Sndios

starring Ahgela Bassett - the 34-year-old supporting actress iri ' Malcolm X' - who was visiting Barbados on a short holiday.

CBC wasrequiredto providethe studio

facilities which facilitated the satellite link-up that enabled Ms Bassett to speak to the press assembled in Beverly Hills; the press conference was scheduled for eight hours.

The production required a crew

of

about fifteen persons ranging from communications technicians to riggers to lighting and sound engineers and a director.

CBC's technical role was two-fold -

to receive in-coming audio from California which was required so that Ms Bassett could hear questions from the

California-based journalists, and to transmit video and audio signals !o enable thejoumalists to see andhearMs Bassett respond to their questions.

CBC employed two telephone lines: one as a coordination line which enabled technical personnel in Califomia to talk CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUAR,Y - JUNE, 1993

theutilizationofamicrowave link. CBC's riggers were required to position the link on the roof so that the video images and audio signals could be transmitted to the Barbados Extemal Telecommunications

headquarters at Wildey which then relayed the signal !o thc Earth Station at Congor Bay, for satellite transmission to the US. Tele-conferencing is one ofthe growth areas in broadcasting and CBC is ideally placed to facilitate this activity.

Asked about her experience at CBC

Ms Basseett declared,

"It

was very

rewarding to go into a station like CBC and see it run by black people from top to bottom. That was real interesting for me, being an actor. I go to lots ofstation, but so rarely do I see black people. Usually, all I see is perhaps one 'brother' on the technical crew running the camera. But to see the entire operation run by people who look like me... it's wonderful!"

Tele-conferencing just might be another way for CBC to expand its service portfolio as it prepares to embrace the 2lst century.

(Deborah Stoute is Public Relations Ofiicer, CBC, Barbados).

(Rcprintcd tbrough the kird courtesy -

of CBC Barbados

On Air nagtzinc,Vol. I,No. 3, June,1993).

Prgc{9

BELTZF' FISHING INDUSTRY The fisheries sector is an important contributor to the Belizean economy.

Export sales averaged $16.4 million Belize dollars in 1985-90 period, and in

I were in excess of Bz $20 million. In 1991, fishery products were the fifth largest export eamer. The industry is a small-scale commercial one utilizing some 760 boats and providing jobs for 199

more than 2000 fishermen.

Fishing activities in Belize have

taditionally revolved around the lobsler and conch fisheries. Over the last few years, shrimp and finfish, both demersal

and inshore pelagics, have gained of tremendous economic potential. Other fisheries

recogrrition as fisheries

harvested on a small scale are the stone crab, marine aquarium fishes, seaweed, mullet, stone bass and shark.

Fishing occurs mainly on the continental shelfin the waten between the mainland and the main barrier reef which is from 12 ta 20 miles offshore, and within the offshore atolls outside the reef. Some

deep sea fishing also occurs but on a small scale.

The Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries is

canoes may be equipped

with

small

engines but oars are usually used. Here, fishing activity is centered on finfish that are caught using hand lines or nets.

The shrimp fleet is comprised of I I

shrimp trawlers that operate mainly in the southern waters of Belize. These tawlers are ofthe standard GulfofMexico type and all operate in Belize through joint venture agreements with the cooperatives.

The fi shing industry is regulated through the Fisheries Act which empowers the Minister responsible for Fisheries to make

enabling regulations. Lobsters are regulated by a closed season from 15 March to 14 July and conch from I July to 30 September.

The lobster and conch fisheries are also regulated by size

restictions. Lobster

a

shermen's cooperative. The fi shermen

conch are sold locally, either at local

regard, is involved in the development

of

policies and strategies, implementation of programs, enforcement of regulations,

quahty assurance and basic research.

Most fishermen are members of fi

dive for lobsler and conch although fishing for finfish occurs as a secondary activity.

Large dug-out canoes are also used, particularly in the fishing villages in the southern regions of the country. These

has a minimum carapace length of 7.62 cm and a tail weight restriction of I13.4 gm. Conch has a size limit of 17.7 cm shell length and a minimum body weight of 85 gm.

Catches of lobster, conch and shrimp are primarily exported. To this end, the bulk of the catch is delivered to the cooperatives. However, some lobster and

responsible for the development and management of the sector and in this

deliver their catch to the cooperative which in turn processes, packages and markets the product. The cooperatives provide ice, fishing equipment and soft loans to their members. Presently, there are eight functional fishing cooperatives in Belize.

The fishing fleet is composed of open boats,sloops,canoes and shrimptrawlers.

The open boats are made either ofwood or fibreglass and range in size from 4.3 to 7.6 meters.

All

are equipped

with outboard

motors. Fishermen utilizing these boats

usually engage

in lobster

trapping

although fishing for finfish also occurs.

The sloops are larger wooden vessels up to l0 meters long and equipped with sails Pegc 50

BELIZE

and small auxiliary outboard engines.

Fishermen on these boats usually free

fi shing markets or at a

fishing cooperative.

In order to satis$ the domestic market,

government requires

all

fishing cooperatives to sell at least 5olo oftheir products on the local market.

Finfrsh is sold both on the domestic and

foreign market. The larger snappers, groupers and pelagics (e.g. mackerel, tuna) are exported while the smaller specimens and lower priced fishes such grunts and porgy, are sold locally.

Aquaculture is also proving to be a very

as

viable industry in Belize. The total productionofmarine shrimp in l99l was estimated at approximately 450 mt harvested from some 215 hectares of ponds.

Map of Belize Exports of ornamental fish continued although there was a decline in the number of boxes exported from 320 in 1989 to only 180 in 1990.

Giventhatthe lobsterandconch fisheries

have exhibited some fluctuations in

catches over the last ten years,

Govemment has been encouraging the industry to diversifu its resource base and to utilize new processing and packaging techniques that will add value to the products. Aquaculture has also been given ahigh level ofpriority by the govemment which has provided a number of tax incentives to the industry to encourage further development. Deep sea fishing is also being encouraged through the establishment ofjoint venture agreements between cooperatives, the private sector and foreign investors.

["CANCOM Fisheries Newsnet

Vol.2.

No.1,19931.

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY. JUNE 1993

DOMINICA

SCHOOL FEEDII{G PROGRAMME 'Gregory

Community Participation is a key to

the success of the programme. Indeed a feeding programme can only commence in a particular school when parents give their consent. The parent's involvement and responsibilities go beyond this. They are responsible for meal preparation on a volunteer basis. They are also required

Map of Dominica

The Dominica School Feeding Programme was launched in July 1991.

The programme is being funded by the World Food Programme of the United Nations over a four-year period (1991 95) to the tune ofEC $5.5 M. and is being

ad.ministered Education.

by the Ministry oi

According to Ms pamelia Guiste, Programme Manager in Dominica, there

are two basic components to the progftrmme - the upgrading of schools and the provision ofmeals. Government-

owned primary schools are the main beneficiaries of the programme.

The upgrading prograrnme entails the

to pay 50c per meal and provide food staples. The parents also provide free labour for the construction ofkitchens.

One difficulty being experienced is the drop in commitmeni of parenb after the first few weeks. This puts pressure on the faithful fewwho showupiegularly to prepare the meals. In some cases, where parents do not turn up, the children are sent home at midday. some parents

programme.

is Ueing

dietary needsofgrowingchildren. parents

too are less burdened with children retuming home at lunchtime. They now have more time for other things, trltping

9n the farms, pursuing part-time jobs.

Farmers benefit from sales of vegetables and staples to the programme.

School infrastructure particularly with respect to water and sewerage facilities has been enhanced. Importantly too, the

programme has served to increase lllkages between the school and parents.

There has been a noticeable strengthening ofParent Teacher Associations as a resultl

term.

Over the next two years, the

programme in Dominica will seek to incorporate schools in the urban area.

Presently, mostly rural schools are in the programme, According to Ms Guiste, this will be a

participating

great challenge given the different socioof urban life, the limitations on parent involvement as in many cases both parents hold full or parttime jobs. The programme is also targiting to feed a total of6000 children by the end of the period.

economic realities

Positive Impact

Despite these difficulties, the

programme has brought tangible benefits

to children and parents. There is a noticeable improvement in the diet of

children. Restlessness and fainting in the classroom resulting from inadequite diet or lack ofa meal have disappearid. There

is a significant increase in

Future Directions.

nnAlA.

Ms Guiste points out that these contributions are lodged at a special account in the narne of the sch8ol in question to be applied at the end of the present progmmme period in 1995 so as to sustain it over the medium to long

emphasis on waterand sewerage facilities.

However, as most schools have no kitchen

serye as a kitchen. In addition as school gardens are important for the feeding programme, fencing material is also provided. A total of39 schools have been supported to date.

The feeding programme involves the provision of a midday meal(lunch) to school children. According to Ms Guiste, the projected targets for Year I and year 2 of the programme, i.e. 1000 and 3000 children respectively, have been met. A total of20 schools are participating in the

tool, has resulted in more parents being aware ofnutritional issues, the importancof balanced diets and in particular, the

complained about the fees being Charged

giventhatthe programme

provision of general repairs, renovation and maintenance to schools with an

facilities, the programme has had to provide for the construction offacilities or the renovation ofa spare classroom to

Rabess

[Gregory

Rabess is a member of SpATJ.

school

aftendance particularly in the postJunch period. As some communities are spread out, children have to walk greatdistances to school resulting inabsenteeism. Indeed this issue was a key factor in the selection of schools for participating in the initial phase of the feeding programme.

Parents too have benefitted. The feeding programrne, being an educational

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE . JANUARY - JUNE, 1993

iii

.ili*'*iiiiiiiitlii

l*

ffi i:i

:::::

::iiiii t:::i::iiii:t:

Pegc

5l

GRENADA

JAMAICA

MONTSERRAT

Construction

WOMEN, CHILDREN TO BENEFIT FROM NEW LAWS

The House of rePresentatives last March 1993 passed four pieces of social legislation and amended the Constitution.

Thirty-four members of the House,

in January,1994.

The Multi-project consisting of the

including the lone opposition member,

Neville Gallimore, voted unanimously to amendthe

constnrction ofjetties, roads, sea defence stnrctures and water supply systems, is being implemented with a CDB loan of

Constitution sothatchidlren,

born in or out of wedlock, in or out of Jamaica,

MONTSERRAT'S economy is expected to receive a major boos! in 1 few months, following the completion of new multi-million dollar port facility' The project, which began around-June 1991, iJbeing canied out by Interbe-ton

B.V. of the Netherlands and should be jetty completed by April 1993. The old bY destroYed was of Port Plymouth has A barge 1989. in Hugo Hunicane

since then been used for onJoading and off-loading cargo.

The new port facility, which will be a

vast improvement, will comPrise an apptoacfi bridge, the main jetty and a roil-on, roll-off berth. It is being built to

withstand surfs ofup to 33 feet. Funding forthe projectwas made available through loans from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) of US$6 million, thb

gank @IB) ofU-S$3 Europein fnv6stment

miilirn and a US$3 million grant from the European Development Fund (EDF)'

In an exclusive interview with the Caribbean Contact, Port Manager

Franklyn Greenaway said the project is on schedule. "Pile driving should be completed this month (February), and slab'work, sand-blasting, painting and

welding of piles continue", he said' Mr' Greenaway-told 'Contact', "The entir- e project sn6UO be completed by April'"

ile- said this is expected to increase

efEciency at Port Plymouth and hopefully the volume ofcargo and cruise ship traflic'

Observers are anticiPating the successful completion of this project, which will he another milestone in the economic development ofthe 40 sq' mile British dependent territory' lExcerpt ftom Caribbean Contact,

r993.J Pegc 52

will have Jamaican citizenship

$3.4 mn. Consultants have been selected andthe desigrr and preparation ofcontact documents comPleted' Expansion of the Port project entails

thorugh either Parent.

MaP of Montsenat

April

The CitizenshiP (Constitution

Amendment) Act, 1993 also allows, as of March this Year, Jamaican women marrying non-Jamaicans to have the same riehf as Jamaican men marrying nonlimaicans. Non-Jamaican men will now

I

be able to register for

of the Fourth Feeder

Roads began in April, 1992 - a project which involves the construction of 19.2 km of agricultural feeder roads and which is being assisted with a CDB loanof$5.5 mn approved in 1990. The project is on schedule and is expected to be completed

a feasibility study for the expansion

of

cargo and cruiseship facilities, and is being financed through a technical assistance loan fromthe CDB. Work is

Jamaican

in

progress by consultants selected by the

citizenship iftheY so desire.

A second piece of social legislation passed by the House was the inheritance

Govemment.

(CDB Annual RePort 1992)

tprovision for family and defendants) Act 1993, which enables the court to

make orders, on aPPlication for reasonable financial provision to be made

for the maintenance of the Family and

deoendants of a deceased person where the disposition of the deceased's estate effected by his will or because he did not make a will, is not such as to make

reasonable financial provision

The third, the Jamaica nationalitY (Amendment) Act 1993 enables those *tto tt"d renounced their Jamaican citizenship to reacquire and retain by appealing to the Minister, and not having to-sadsry a host or requirements.

It

al;

enables a non-Jamaican child

Jamaican citizen either thorugh an adopted mother or fahter' And 6e National Council on Education Act 1993, Passed bY the House, established the National council on Education which will advise the Minister on the formulation of policy, nominate persons for appointment as members of 'sctroot boards and administer a National Education Trust Fund. ["Jampress ", March I 99 3] :frii

AND THE GRENADINES

for his

family and defendants'

to be come

ST VINCENT

Road reconstruction of almost 20 km. ofthe Northern Leeward Highway on the

island got underwaY in 1992. The reconstruction programme with financing from the CDB to a tune of $3.25 mn.

Consultancy services for establishing a

road maintenance system which forms part ofthe loan also started in September of 1992.

Last May, installation ofl 0000 meters aimed at establishing an equitable basis for the payment ofwater tariffs started in Vfay and progress was made on leak detiction and related pipeline repairwork, with a resultant reduction in wastage.

At year-end, approximately $1.42 mn had been disbursed from a $2.5mn credit approved by the CDB in providing subloans in agriculture, industry and tourism andto finance courses inhigher,technical and vocational education.

(CDB. Annuql Report 1992)'

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - JUNE 1993

CREOLE LANGUAGE

SAINT LUCIA

+Norman Faria

On the walls of Saint Lucia's Folk Research Centre @las Wichech FoHd), even the "No Smoking" sign is in the local creole (Kweyda hnguage. It is Pa

Fimen Isi-a Soupli.

The Centre's Executive Director, Embert Charles, and the rest ofhis staffat

the 20-year old NGO would like to see

more signs around this former British Eastern Caribbean nation state, the bulk of whose 130,000 population use the

vernacular

in

everyday

life.

December I 990,"Kwdydl activist"Albert de Tererville, in Saint Lucia, started a multi-lingual FM radio station, Rodyo Koulibwi with news input from ^Radio Anti-Entennosyonal in Haiti and Radyo Levi Douboul in Martinique.

Yetthe valuable researchand concrete achievements of the Centre in the linguistic field is but a part of its work in preserving and "making respectable" some of Saint Lucian everyday culture.

Even the political directorate have

Indeed,

come

to

recognise the Centre's

Charles, a former journalist who started withthe Centre in 1985,would like to see English taught as a second language.

and highly qualifi ed staffers and resource

more

people, such as Education Programme

For those working for a

prominent and oflicially recognised role for creole, there are however some hurdles. Because it was long considered an inferior language to standard English, no attempts were made, for example, to set down grammatical rules or make a dictionary - anorttrography ofa language.

As Embert explains, creole in Saint Lucia (with slightly differences in syntax and

pronunciation, is also spoken

in

slavery and French colonialisin. It contains French, English and African words and sounds a lot like a French

dialect. But Embert cautions against describing it as a "mixed language".

But the efforts to "get people literate in creole" is changing following the seminal work ofthe Centre,especially its collaboration with Saint Lucia teacher and linguist Jones E. Mondesir and University of the West Indies professor Dr. Lawrence Canington. A Dictionary of Kweydl was launched early this year, published by the Mouton de Gruyter firm received

funding from UNESCO, the Austian Government and the Caribbean Conference of Churches.

The work with creole has been greatly

helped from networking

organisations

in

Officer Kennedy Samuel, have put together a module of several booklets on Saint Lucia for training guides in the

tourist sector and other purposes.

Launched inAugust last year (l 992), the module will be updated periodically with new themes including "acquatic events" such as the Aqua Action Festival held

every Jrure.

Collaboration with the Ministry

other

parts ofthe Caribbean with Francophone influences such as Dominica and Haiti) evolved as a language during the days of

in Berlin and New York. It

contribution. Embert points out that he

with similar

neighbouring

Francophone countries. Collaboration continues with GEREC in l\,Iartinique. In

of

Health includes using popular theatre in the communities to get messages more easily across in various campaigns, including AIDS prevention.

Another major development for the Cenfre this year will be the moving into what Charles describes as a'Vorking/ educational centre". An old traditional Saint Lucian residence in a Castries suburb, belonging to the Devaux family, is now in the process ofbeing acquired.

Its larger buildings and spacious grounds will allow for such activities as longterm exhibitions. Because funding from local and overseas agencies are getting scarce these days, it is hoped the new headquarters will be financially selfsustaining and put some money in the coffers.

In 1992, the Centre started work on an

Map of Saint Lucia

As the photos on the wall offwo ofits national heroes, the Morne Caynenne

FolkGroup,and the composerand dancer, Sesene Descartes, attest, the Cenhe has

also done a

lot to popularise culttral

forms that were in danger of dying out in

the face of overseas foreign cultural penetration thnough such media as cable

TV from the United

States. The

resurgence in interest among the general public in quadrille dancing, and making

and playing

of "indigenous"

musical

instruments such as the banjo owes much

to the Centre's recognition of their importance to Saint Lucian life.

Meanwhile,the Cente's resources and expertise are being utilised by another

regional administration. In Nevis,

St.

Kitts, the Cultural Department is getting help from the little known but influential Saint Lucian NGO.

[Nonnan Faria b a Barbadianj our"talis{

oral history project through Help Age

in Barbados.

Interviewing'of senior citizens to record their recollections helps people such as social worken make the remaining years of the elderly a little more restful.

International based

CARICOM PERSPECTIVE - JANUARY - J['NE, 1993

Prgc 53

ST

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO EDUCATION REFORM

Map

KITTS-NEVIS

of

Trinidad &Tobago

Map of

The Report of The Task Force on Education, laid in Parliament as a.green paper on March 12,1993,has called for the raising ofthe Common Entrance age plus to 13 plus, and for limit from placement at the secondary level to be ultimately based on both continuous assessment and a national examination.

In the Report, the Task Force on Education also suggests that the Common Entrance Examination be retained in its present form until the pre-requisites for change are fully implemented. To effect this change, the Report states, a team of oflicers of the Ministry of Education

ll

and be given its own Human Resource Department. The Education System itself should be decentralised into eightdisticts

with a School Supervisor

lll

and a

support team coordinating each division.

The committee has also suggested that a

body be set up to re-draft existing educaiion documents, such as the Education Act, Teaching Service Regulations and Confidential Report Forms.

The issue of deshifting Junior

Secondary schools is also dddressed in the Report. It is recommended that Junior Secondary Schools be de-shifted over a

the

period of time, starting in 1994 with Mucurapo, Siparia and Penal Junior Secondary Schools. It has also been

recommendations contained in the Report

suggested that the Cunicula in these and

should be set up by no later than September 1993.

These are some of

and which are currently the subject

of

monthly National Consultations with individuals representing various groups in the country.

Lennox Bemard, Secretary ofthe 23member Task Force said that the Report

which represents the Ministry of Education's draft policy framework 19932003 "contains a comprehensive action

other schools include Morals and Value Education, a Personal Guidance Period weekly and an Assembly to ensure that Religious, Moral and Ethical concems are met.

Chairman ofthe Education Task Force, Dr. Carol Kellar, said that the Task Force sees the need

to develop an education

and

system which produces well-rounded individuals. For this reason, curricula

management of the education system."

engineering is being suggested to address

He said that some of the major managemert

curriculum reform and overall resource of education in Trinidad

issues in Health, Human Sexuality, 'Family Life, Political, Social and Environment Activities, Disaster Management and Information

and Tobago.

Technolory.

With respect to resource management of the system, the report recommends that the Education Ministry be autonomous within the public service

Division of Information, ffice of the Prime Minister, Trinidod and TobagoJ

plan for -the restructuring

issues were the Common Entrance Examination,

Prge 54

St.

KittsNevis

Loans have been approved by the CDB to reswface, provide drainage and other improvements to more than 24 km of the coastal ring road on the island of St Kitts; and a grant has also been obtained to strenglhen the capability of the Public

Works Department, Ministry of Communications, Works and Public Utilities, to implement the project and to plan and execute effective road and bridge

maintenance.

The Nevis administration has also received assistance to develop its port facilities so as to separate cargo and passenger haflic, to accommodate present and projected cargo throughput to the

year 2010

and, overall,

improve

management of the Nevis port sector.

The project involves construction ofa sheet pile gravity structure providing 260

of berthing face, berth and onshore facilities consisting of a transit shed, open and container storage, gate house, offices and access road. An

metres

associated grant of $2a0 000

will finance

the recruitment of a general manager/ training officer and accounting consultants to strengthen the capability of the Nevis Island Administration to implement the project.

(CDB Annual Report, 1992)

[Dianne Thurab is attached to the CARICOM PER,SPECTIVE . JANUAR,Y . JT'NE 1993

Map of the Bahamas

CONTRIBUTORS Archer A. Leonard High Commissioner forThe Bahamas to CARICOM States (des-

ipate).

Andaiye, Member of Working People,s Alliance,Guyana.

Beckles, Dr. Hilary, Head, Dept. of His-

tory,UWI,Cave Hill.

Brown, Detyck, Unit Trust Company, Trinidad&Tobago.

Campbell, Hazel D, Jamaican novelist.

Carrington, Dr. Edwin, Secretary General,CARICOM. Feria, Norman, Barbadian free-lance jourCont'dfrom page

yrs; Females - 74.9 yrs.

Birth rate: 24 per 1,000

nalist.

Gonzales, Dr. Anthony P., Snr. Lecturer, IIR, UWI,St. Augustine.

Hodge, Merle, Writer and School teacher, TrinidadandTobago.

Maingot, Prof. Anthony, Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology, Florida Intemational

Infant mortality: 24.5 per 1,000 live

Univenity.

3l

Manufecturing: Products include mattresses and pillows, soft drinks, paints, canned foods, domestic and industrial chemicals, purified water, dairy items, poultry, confectionery and bakery items,

Health Life expectancy et birth: Males - 67.5

straw goods and handicrafu.

births

Marshell, Sharon, News Coordinator,

Hospitals: Princess Margaret Hospital,

CARIBVISION.

Mining: Aragonite - a natural mineral

462 beds (1991)

used in the manufacture ofglass, cement, soda and fertilizer - is mined from the

Rand Memorial Hospital, TS beds (1991)

seafloor offBimini.

Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre, 457 beds (1991) Doctors Hospital, 26 beds

Media

Communit5r Clinics: I l5

(ree2)

Newspapers: The Tribune - daily The Nassau Guardian - daily The Punch - every Friday The Bahamas Journal - weekly

Radio: ZNS-I, ZNS-2

Doctors: 370 Dentists: 43 Pharmacists: 66 Nursing personnel: 1,468 Psychiatric hospital: I

and ZNS-FM

O'Cellaghan, Maureen, Social Anthropologist, T & T. Persaud, Bernadette, Guyanese artist.

Rabess, Gregory, Member of SPAT, Dominica.

Remcharitar, Raymond, Feature Writer, T&T'Griardidn".

Rogeri, Nigel, Freelance copyeditor, Guyana Skeete, Amera, Freelance journalist, Guyana Stoute,DeborahrPublic Relations Offrcer,

CBCBarbados.

Theodore,

Television: TV-13

Flag of the Bahamas

Telecommunications Domestic Telephones: 145,854

OPM,T&T.

Transportation

Photos:

Roads and highways:' 1,800 miles Motor vehicles: 73,616 Seaports: 3

Airports: 58

Dr. Karl, Lecturer, Dept. of

Economics, UWI, St. Augustine.

Thurab, Dianne, Division of Information, CCS Staff: Lewis,John. pp. 1,32:- Brent Malone p. 2: Jackson Burnside. pp. 10, I I : Dr. Hilary Beckles.

p. l8:BernardJankee p. 22: Edwin Chu For p.26: Carol Bullard. p.28:'GuyanaReview' p. 35:G.I.S. The Bahamas p. 49: G. Babb, CBC, Barbados.

Grateful thanks: to: Hon. Hubert Ingraham for interview on pp.32-36.

Sen. Frank Mitchell p. 3 l.

W.P.A. for material on Women's DevelopmentWindow.

CARICOM PERSPECTIIt, - JANUARY - JI,NE, 19!t3

Psge 55