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Kaieteur News
Sunday April 15, 2012
The Chinese leap into the Caribbean By Jean H Charles The last time the American contribution to the Caribbean topped $3 billion was during the Reagan administration some thirty years ago. The US aid in the region today is less than $1 billion. By contrast, the Chinese financial and social contribution to the Caribbean is today more than $6 billion. A recent article in the New York Times revealed that the United States is finally discussing at the
highest level such Chinese leap just some miles away from Florida. The United States will demonstrate its true leadership if it takes care of business at home and in its backyard. It will otherwise with time become irrelevant. This is an arrogant statement. I have some five years ago in an essay on the Caribbean vote published by Caribbean Net News made the same observation that has now become an official policy
concern. I have seen how the Chinese have transformed the landscape of tiny Dominica with a giant stadium that may rival its namesake in the Bronx, New York. The workers who came from China to build that stadium now have children who speak and behave like Dominican teenagers. The Bahamas has just inaugurated its own stadium, the forum for big name entertainment celebrities that will transform the tourist sector of the country from a tired cruiseship industry to a multifaceted destination, giving a jolt to the local economy. The Chinese largesse is all over the Caribbean. Haiti has been flirting with Taiwan and the Chinese involvement is not as pronounced there as
it is in the rest of the Caribbean islands. With almost one billion Chinese aspiring to and ascending into middle class status, targeting 10% of the population as potential tourist clients will bring in at least 100 million new customers to any and all the Caribbean countries. The American connection to the islands has always been an elusive one. It is represented mainly in the form of the medical schools that never extended to the status of the Ivy League institutions. They are above all fringe commercial industries of higher learning with dubious outcome for the host country, with very few scholarships for the homegrown students, and no university hospital attached to these universities
that could create a booming medical tourism industry for the host island. And, they represent potential targets for international conflicts that can lead to invasion. Grenada was invaded under the cloud of protecting the American students. The main concern of America concerning the Caribbean has been the reining in of the drug transshipment business as well as the containment of the illegal immigration, mainly from Haiti, Guyana, and the Dominican Republic. The issue of the criminal returnees that create havoc concerning peace and security in the region is still unresolved. The brain drain of graduates from the medical field to Canada and to the United States is depleting the human resources necessary to build vibrant nations. The Caribbean is a natural paradise that could rival the Mediterranean coastal nations with proper funding and technological direction from the United States. It is not an American policy even through proxy islands in the region such as Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands. The American financial contribution to the Caribbean, with Haiti taking the lion’s share ($712 million), has the outcome seen in Haiti. No major impact that affects the fate of the entire population, in particular those who are the most destitute. It seems any non-profit organization with a technical assistant with a link to Georgetown University can receive a grant from USAID as long as a USAID logo is well printed on the car, the desk and the chairs of that institution. By contrast, the contribution of the Chinese or, for that matter, the contribution of Cuba and Venezuela, has been more
discrete and more effective in changing the landscape of desolation in the country. The backbone of the health care provision in Haiti rests on the Cuban medical brigade. But for the Cuban doctors, Haiti would have seen more than the 7,000 deaths due to the outbreak of cholera brought into the country by the UN soldiers. Venezuela, pretending it owes a debt to Haiti that goes back to its independence, is showering the country with electrical plants that provide most of the major cities with sufficient energy that will spur the Haitian economic recovery. The Chinese domination and influence in the Caribbean islands is arriving slowly but surely as the paper tiger has been transformed within a generation into a giant superpower with the gold reserve piled so high that it can buy most world resources. President Barack Obama in his second term, or Mitt Romney, the likely Republican nominee, will have to turn their attention to the Caribbean with a policy that goes beyond containing drug transshipment and illegal immigration. Good governance, assistance for the delivery of state services and technology transfer for regional infrastructure, these are the way the American government could beat the Chinese in their leap forward the Caribbean. Growth in the Caribbean is predicted to be one of the lowest in the world. The Caribbean is too close to the United States for that stagnation not to be a major concern for a neighbour which is still so far the most influential country in the world. (Caribbean News Now)