Sep 30
Panel on Regional Integration, Conference on Economic Growth and Transformation, in honour of Professor Alfred Francis, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Department of Economics, UWI, Mona, Jamaica, September 30, 2007
Discusses the limitations of the Caricom integration project that arise from:
- The reliance on market mechanisms to achieve its economic objectives
- Its emphasis on the economic apsect of integration
- Its reliance on inter-governmental cooperation as the preferred mode of implementing decisions
- Its being undertaken mainly in response to external pressure
Is Caricom losing speed? Ricky Singh, Jamaica Observer, 23/03/08
Norman:
I hope you have sent this to PM Arthur and to all the other Heads. I guess the other issue would be whether it will be read, and taken seriously. But then, Lloyd Best, by his efforts while he lived, showed that there is a little bit of Sisyphus in all of us. It is just that the Sisyphus’s Caribbean rock is so big.
Cheers,
Alan
It is not a big rock, this Caribbean. It is a set of small rocks that are led by people who cannot bear to let the people of the Caribbean congregate. And the people are no longer interested in their region really, as their television stations have led them to see television as entertainment and capable of providing a point of collection only when it is USA elections or scandal. Harsh, but I feel true.
A solution lies in rebuilding the regional ethic through a regional medium that is not only internet centred.
Perhaps now that we face a world recession we will eat more regionally through joint public/private sector enterprises.
Both these suggestions are linked to regional transportation.
I hear university officials say often now as a point to sell our university that we have now produced six prime ministers of the region. We seem also now further apart as a region than we’ve ever been.
I see that you have quite a lot of consideration towards the regional integration in your country. I hope and pray that your Caricom integration project is a grand success and I wish you and your country all success.