May 12
Existential Threats in the Caribbean: Democratising Politics, Regionalising Governance; Norman Girvan
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C.L.R. James Memorial Lecture of the OWTU, Trinidad, 12 May 2011
CLR James was arguably, one of the outstanding personalities of the 20th century. In a life that spanned nine of the century’s decades he embraced most of its great social movements with passion, eloquence, and brilliant insights. His impact extended far beyond his native Trinidad and Tobago to the entire Caribbean, Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States and Africa…
I worked in the Federal Government of the West Indies-1958-62 and am very conversant with “Nello’s” Lectures in Trinidad during this period when Dr. Eric Williams made us ” conscious CARIBBEANITES” by his popular Lectures at “THE UNIVERSITY OF WOODFORD SQUARE”. My one regret is that there is no living voice that conferred on my generation the PASSION that Norman Manley gave us in the late 40s early 50s and that Marryshow and Eric Williams bestowed on us through his monotone, in the 1960s. UNLESS THERE IS A PASSION FIRED IN THE POPULATION WE SHALL HAVE WHAT WE CURRENTLY HAVE IN JAMAICA; A SOMNOLENT ,UNENTHUSED POPULATION.
The most we can look forward to NOW is for INTELLECTUALS of your calibre (and there aren”™t many now so engaged) engaged in presenting ourselves to ourselves as we were and could become AGAIN!
The passion of which I write is that transference from speaker to audience that fires the imagination and presents us with a noble goal to be attained-such as REAL INDEPENDENCE AND CONTROL OF ONE’S DESTINY. Such was the passion of a KEN HILL; WILLS O ISAACS; NORMAN MANLEY and a NOEL”CRAB” NETHERSOLE. Such was the passion which emanated from Dr. Eric Williams in his monotone; it was the spirit which emanated from a John G Diefenbaker and lodged in his audience. To me, a young man then, it was like the lightning rod of electricity ; it came and it sparked in you a feeling “that I must journey to the mountain top with men like those”.
I watched those around me possessed by a spirit of “CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN;NOTHING CAN STOP THE CONQUEST”. If you have ever been in the presence of such “GREATS” then you understand what passion is really about in its purest form. It is the saner side of “BURN, BABY BURN ” because it seeks accomplishments that make us ” walk tall”.
Wilson Middleton
Jamaica
The question that Wilson Middleton has posed is one I get asked all the time especially by younger people, “what will happen after people like yourself are gone?”. At the lecture on Thursday night I was introduced as “The last remaining progressive intellectual in the Caribbean”. There was a subtext that said that “you had better make sure to listen to him while he is still around because after he is gone that will be it”. I have never heard such nonsense in my life and it is an indirect way of evading responsibility. I know that there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the abject and pathetic state of our region and I sense a growing determination to do something about it and it is time for the under-50s generation to step up to the wicket, take strike and start scoring their own runs and showing the people of the region and the world that they too can make their mark, as did the generation of Worrell and Sobers and before them Headley and Constantine, Garvey, Marryshow and Cipriani, CLR James, Manley and the rest. Yesterday a new political party was launched in Trinidad and Tobago called The Movement for Social Justice and the spirit of James, Marryshow was invoked but of course so far it has been blanked by the Press. Well we will see.
I am inviting others to join in the exchange Wilson Middleton’s comment has started and start telling us what they are doing and plan to do.
Norman
I am afraid that some of the personalities that Mr. Middleton has mentioned are not familiar to me. I’m ashamed, even understanding that I did not have control over that reality. Now that I have been informed that these people were actually around, I can do my research and learn about them. My understanding of history prior to my adulthood has been unfortunately fashioned by partial and incomplete accounts, briefs and snippets of truth and the distorted truth, but now I have greater control over what information I process and what research path I could pursue.
The feeling of apathy indeed does grip some of the present generation, I admit, and the extant power distance, perceived and real, between members of the powerful political elite (and the background string-pullers) and ordinary citizenry impacts significantly this situation. However, I have decided along with some colleagues to help start shaping a new reality, one where greater participation and power could be demanded and exercised by a civil movement. We do have fears, and some insecurities in this regard but we certainly wish to shift somewhat the recognition that power that has been hitherto and historically concentrated through hierarchy, will not persist. We have begun discussions and activities around what we hope would be a budding Civic/(l) Movement for Caribbean people, and we will be using what media and other means at our disposal as possible to mobilise, educate and transform mentalities. However our own education is crucial and all of the initial persons involved in this activity are continually educating ourselves and it is through that education we were motivated to do something. Indeed, we have a lot to learn and a lot to glean from past experiences and to delve much deeper into getting greater understanding of our history and people who’ve influenced that history. And so we depend on persons like Professor Girvan and yourself Mr. Middleton, and others to enlighten us. We are genuinely appreciative of past efforts and the continuing enlightenment that is happening, but there are challenges ahead which may bombard us; and we definitely would like your support, bearing in mind that new approaches and relevant methods which were not possible in the past may be necessary and should also be tested and could be effective in bringing about the change we need, of course with the advice of those who’ve tread similar paths before us, and that therefore shows that definitely their work is yet not done.
Keston Perry,
On behalf of the Civil Movement for Caribbean Empowerment
Mr.Middleton and Norman,
If you permit me.
The issue seems to me to be that “KEN HILL; WILLS O ISAACS; NORMAN MANLEY and a NOEL”CRAB” NETHERSOLE” of which one speaks were days when the idea of political independence was a huge progressive step.
What we now face, as indeed does Libya or South Africa, is the advancement from the political symbolism of having one’s own flag to the actuality of economically controlling one’s destiny. That is the point.
I was reflecting earlier today that Ghadaffi’s 300m contributed to the total 400m to give Africa its satellite and save the continent some 500m per year for telecommunications expenses paid to France, is the kind of logical and progressive step one has to take when walking along the path of economic independence. Likewise, launching the gold dinar is another progressive and necessary step.
South Africa has gained the franchise for the majority, but it has a struggle to achieve the raised living standards that will validate and vindicate the flying of the majority’s own flag.
I have moved backward to Mr. Middleton, forward to Africa, and now I shift sideways to the related issues in our Caribbean. Manley’s vision in Jamaica was one that did bear reference to an uplift from what George Beckford accuratetly termed “perpetual poverty”. There is the real challenge.
Courtenay Barnett ( wwww.globaljusticeonline.com)
Mr Perry,
My one word to you is: FEAR IS UNREAL; IT IS THE CREATION OF OUR MINDS AND SO WE RESTRICT OURSELVES.
WE AS A PEOPLE HAVE SHOWN BOLDNESS IN THE PAST_SEE HAITIAN HISTORY AND THE HISTORY OF NANNIE OF THE MAROONS. THAT SPIRIT LIVES IN US BUT WE HAVE CAGED IT IN BY MISTAKENLY THINKING THAT “WE ARE CIVILIZED AND MUST OPERATE ONLY IN THEOREMS OF GEOMETRICAL CERTAINTY”THAT IS WHY OUR POLITICIANS MAKE A MOCKERY OF US. JUST FOR A MOMENT STUDY WHO THESE TIME SERVERS ARE;THEY COME OUT OF OUR ROOTSTOCK SO THEY HAVE NOTHING OVER US EXCEPT TO COWER US INTO BELIEVING THAT WE ARE THEIR SLAVES. READ ERIC WILLIAMS LIFE OF STRUGGLING SUCCESSFULLY AGAINST SUCH RUBBISH. READ HOW WILLIAMAS TOLD THE BRITISH GOVERENMENT”I AM TAKING OVER THE POLICE IN TRINIDAD”AND HOW MCLEOD THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES FLEW DOWN TO TRINIDAD AND KEPT ON RUNNING BEHIND WILLIAMS AT THE AIRPORT : WILLIAMS TOOK OVER THE POLICE UNDER HIS MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS. AND THE REST IS HISTORY.
Wilson Middleton
Norman, I hope you publish my response this time – I was a bit saddened that what I thought was a good qualifier to Commissiong’s passionate polemic on Bin Laden was binned (pun unintended). Different views can make for healthy debate, and believe me I agree a lot with what is usually posted on your blog by yourself and others. You should however be more brave, bold and objective enough to air alternative views which might help us all in the Caribbean arrive at our truths (which is usually caught somewhere in the middle).
Anyway, I would would agree with all the points made, but only to add that one reason for the apathy is that the world has moved on for better or for worse. Young people seem more concerned about owning all the trappings of modern life. The idealism that existed decades earlier that was essential for the struggles and fights that ensued later was as a result of a desire to be considered equal, to have the opportunities that was available only to the former elites.
One gets the feeling nowadays in the Caribbean that the fire went out of the Caribbean after Independence was achieved. Its sad that the new generation as illustrated above cannot even recognise the name of some of these illustrious Caribbean heroes. Just yesterday I was telling someone about a relatively unknown Trinidadian in the late 19th century called JJ Thomas (who was news to me, a Trini, until I heard about him in a lecture by Rupert Lewis in Jamaica) who wrote one of the best ripostes to the colonial mindset in his book Froudacity. Im sure its probably out of print and all but a handful know his name today.
I think its also a generational thing, but the current impasse/crises within our Region might just about be the catalyst for the change that we need.
Kala–your previous response wasn’t “banned”–it was just too long.
Norman
Mr Barnett, In calling upon my fellow West Indians to develop your passions and let them be expressed in a contained way to Governments and those who rule us, I will to use the case of Jamaica as an illustration.
Jamaica is a “BUY AND SELL ECONOMY”. We import from abroad and sell at home-even our foodstuffs, by and large. Yet there was an Agricultural Plan devised as far back as the 1950s that would have developed industries on our agricultural base Agriculture could have fed us and allowed for jobs both in agriculture and in the industrial spin-offs. We have descended to a country that imports escellion, thyme, pepper and tomatoes through the SUPERMARKET RUN SYSTEM OF IMPORTS THAT DICTATES OUR EATING HABITS ALMOST TO THE EXCLUSION OF WHAT WE COULD GROW; THIS AFFECTS OUR POOR AND THOSEWITH VERY LOW OR NO INCOME WAITING ON REMITTANCES.
Our leaders DO NOT LOOK AT THE STRUCTURE OF OUR ECONOMY AND SEE THAT IT DOES NOT FILL A NATIONAL NEED IN TERMS OF INCOME GENERATED ACROSS THE BOARD NOR THE FOOD INTAKE IN A COUNTRY THAT ONCE AGO WAS MADE TO FEED ITSELF DURING WORLD WAR II. What we have is an economy of enclaves that suit groups but not the polity entirely . In all this, 60,000 workers have lost their jobs in the PRIVATE SECTOR and to this is shortly to be added another 10,000 over time from the PUBLIC SECTOR. Multiply these numbers by an average of four dependents and you will see the calamity facing the country. No POLITICIAN has made this NATIONAL CALAMITY a reason for looking at what our resources can bear and how can we utilize such resources.
We allowed FOREIGNERS to come in and utilise our agriculture for their benefits but we cannot see that there are still benefits to be obtained by us. We have come to rely on Tourism as the SAVIOUR , not recalling that when the Tourist Industry went into problems , the Hotels fell to Government to maintain; we then passed them off once more to an industry about which there are questions as to whether or not full inflows reach our shores. Our politicians have become so mendacious in our National Business that we get caught up in our need for funds that we become obligants to any country or group or Global monopolist for whose funds we give away our rights. Yet, the Government wastes millions on wasteful COMMISSIONS OF ENQUIRY TO SATISFY POLITICAL SALACIOUSNESS.
Mr. Barnett back in the 1950s when there were men of GOODWILL, we had our possibilities set out in a PLAN CALLED “PLAN FOR PRIOGRESS”. Since then none of our “in and out Governments” have shown that they understand that the country has to assess its assets and liabilities. It is here that I think NEW and PROGRESSIVE THINKING of the young (called by me PASSION) has to be brought into WHERE ARE WE GOING AND HOW TO GET THERE.
One of the aspects of our peoblems which I think that should engage the young is the questiion of education.
We entered upon a revolution when the socialist Government of NORMAN MANLEY literally threw open the GRAMMAR school doors to all children who were required to COMPETE for space THERE NEVER WAS ANY TALK OF SOCIAL EQUALITY AS THE SINE QUA NON OF THE COMMON ENTRANCE-SOCIAL EQUALITY COULD BE ONE OF THE BENEFITS OR BLESSINGS THEREOF.
The system worked well and brought out the best in teaching over a number of years and fitted well with the obligation of a government to ensure that all children were in a level playing field by the use of their brains.The system worked and through it wss to benefit Private Schools and some Primary Schools equally sweept the field.The Private (Preparatory) Schools were having.excellent results. But one of our political masters brought his personal preferences-not what was good for the children, the real beneficiaries of the system and he scuttled the programme. He brought into his administration the types of schools which were outmoded in Britain. Instead of the paradigms benefitting the children, we had school types that turned out those without hope.
Ever since then,the Education system has been in a mess and I am certain that if a census followed,the DROP OUT RATE among children would have increased over any number that there were before.
We are still wrangling over educatiion in Jamaica and the benefits which should have been reaped has been scattered JUST BECAUSE PREPARATORY SCHOOLS, IN THE FIRST BLUSH OF THE COMMON ENTRANCE DID EXCEEDINGLY WELL.
The Government that messed up the pathway of the Common ENTRANCE was more concerned with BRINGING ENFORCED SOCIAL EQUALITY RATHER THAN DEVELOPING BRAINS WHICH WOULD IN TIME ALLEVIATE THE PRESUMED SOCIAL IMBALANCE.
THE GOVERNMENT HAS SINCE THEN ABANDONED THE COMMON ENTRANCE AND NOW HAS TRIED A NUMBER OF EASIER APPROACHES FORGETTING THAT STUDENTS CAN ONLY BENEFIT FROM TASKS THAT DEVELOP THEIR BRAINS RATHER THAN EASE OF EFFORT.
THIS IS SO OBVIOUSLY AN AREA THAT CHILDREN SHOULD HAVE THEIR SAY.
TRINIDAD’SCOMMON ENTRANCE FOLLOWED JAMAICA’S IN TERMS OF START UP DATE.
Mr. Middelton,
Fully agree with you. Two points:-
1. Externally imposed influences feeding into a quagmire of consumption:-
Television ““ shapes a general outlook as to ” achievement”/ ” success”.
Loans/ national borrowing patterns ““ IMF/World Bank etc. sinking the country into a debt quagmire.
Individual spending habits ““ influenced by the images, the value systems and the aspirations that the populace is most exposed to ““ dance hall ““ “˜bling”™ ““ American consumerism ““ ostentatious dress/show-off life styles.
Collectively call the foregoing phenomena – ” a bankrupt economy”.
2. A bankrupt polity:-
Two party dictatorship ““ an unhealthy arrangement called ” democracy” where two main warring factions intermittently share the spoils and eat heartily on the benefits from having claimed victory via “˜elections”™.
Former EU colonial powers and US Empire applaud seasonal political change ““ endorsing a polity that ensures borrowing and national dependent beggarly penury. But ““ foreign money at the ready for lending = dependency. “˜Golden goose national assets”™ sales (e.g.Dunn”™s River ) as solution. Solution becomes problem.
Observations:-
No genius needed for observing:-
A. Good agricultural use; ensurance of backward and forward economic linkages; agriculture complements manufacturing development.
B. Education/ health care are national priorities .Jamaica the humane, sensible and decent society with a vision?
C. Debt burden reduction. Otherwise the political directorate truthfully says ” we can”™t afford priority B above, until money is free for development -not debt servicing.
Consider:-
i) Gas guzzling vehicles are afforded. What pays? The national coffer for a costly source of energy. Electricity based on oil? Other sectors of the economy oil dependent?
ii) Luxury imported goods are afforded? No local garment industry? The few afford the foreign exchange expenditures? A society of ” buy and sell” vendors mimic the dominant consumption patterns. Schooling and national development ignored and/or neglected as a path to national development?
iii) The vortex of a debt cycle of borrow ““ spend ““ borrow ““ spend etc. – but never produce or develop anything? A nation not pursuing sustainable development?
Trained minds; experts in economics, psychiatry/psychology, sociology, management, finance, education, health care, agronomy and many other vitally important areas of study have carefully analysed, focused, discerned national problems. So, this:-
All above has been focused on and/or already researched. Emotionalism and patriotism of an NDM movement having produced good ideas/ sensible concepts/an urgent list of needed reforms – met by cross-party locking of hands for assurance of no parliamentary seat despite the votes that were garnered nationally. Telling? Vested interests find itself preserving power – pursing benefits – resisting constructive change . Moves that threaten, reduce, reconstruct and potentially can remove the vested interests and status quo consistently resisted. Maintenance of the status quo thus militates against necessary change. No impetus; no ameliorative or gradualist change; no revolutionary momentum. Thus, the majority of Jamaicans deprived of a better life. No new polity; no different system ; no re-ordering for a new set of socio- economic priorities.
NOW SOMEONE GO OUT THERE AND IMPLEMENT CHANGE. ANOTHER ” ARM CHAIR REVOLUTIONARY” HAS JUST SPROUTED MORE WORDS!
One of my central themes throughout all I have said so far is that there is a disconnect between governments in the West Indies and their populations. Some will even overlook the attitudes and actions of the mercantile class against the interests of the population per se when it suits. As I said in a piece before this: it is no skin off the noses of those who preside over our imports whether or not our agriculture is resurrected.
Secondly, our governments take it upon themselves to do what suits them without reference to the polity; I cite here as good evidence, Jamaica”™s agreement with the EU which continues our second class status. There were people in Jamaica who did not know what that whole arrangement was until letters to the Gleaner (which in the days of the Federation was a West Indian newspaper, available elsewhere in the West Indies beside Jamaica) began to reveal what was involved and the possible shortcomings thereof.
Mr Barnett,
Yours was a well condensed version of what we know ails us. Now let us try to see if we cannot galvanize some effort on our part mighty though the fragile wall that stands against us ” What Man”™s Mind Conceives Man Can Do”-my impelling argument to myself.
Because we are basically an agrarian people whether or not, we like to think so, we must thread land, farmers etc into anything we want to inculcate in the society/ies. Feeding ourselves must be the number one priority. We have read ad nauseam about the increase of poverty in our region, especially Jamaica. What that simply means is that we cannot feed ourselves; we are like Lazarus watching dives enjoy a meal while ” white squall” overcomes Lazarus. One of the keys that fit into criminality is that the haves feed well; the have nots not at all. By the way, when I talk about poverty and hunger I have a specific picture in my mind: the same people who used to buy quattie salt fish and penny flour and little coconut oil are the same people today who go to the grocery and buy, if they can, the relatively still low basket of foodstuffs. If you want a real measure of poverty and stagnation of people, visit any little corner shop in rural Jamaica and observe.
So, I would think that there has to be some impulse coming from where agriculture presently is obliterated by import policy set by the mercantilists.
This is not a romantic notion: we have to bring the farmers and the buyers through to an integrated system to ally themselves: see what happens to all when there is no unity of purpose in the national effort. I don”™t care how you organize that togetherness but each side has to see that the benefit of one is the benefit of the other. After all, have you ever seen when countryman wants to clean pastures, wants to clean space to plant? It is a cooperative venture of the best the rural areas offer. We have to resurrect that spirit and build on it and this is no arm-chair reasoning; the tinder is there it needs the spark.
Secondly, this is a most desirable goal but personalities stand in the way: the Caribbean has a plethora of giant intellects who know much about their problems and the ineffectiveness and inefficiencies of our governments. You have to find a way to harness the brain power and intellectual integrity of these persons into a sort of think tank that is willing to lean against the nonsense performance of government and mobilize their less fortunate brethren in saying ” no” to nonsense and what is not in the national interest by showing how betterment for the poor, the marginalized and the unemployed do not benefit from the personality style of government we employ. They may not (I did not say cannot!!!) succeed if all this brain power stands aloof from their plight.
Mr. Middleton,
” it is no skin off the noses of those who preside over our imports whether or not our agriculture is resurrected.”
One idea I have always entertained is that Guyana could be the breadbasket for the entire Caribbean. It has land mass, arable land,water in abundance, and economies of scale can operate in the production process because of large size. This observation brings one full circle back to an intergrated regional approach: re. populations;production;financing and the collective benefits to be derived from a properly implemented and managed programme of this nature.
RESPONSE
Let us unto the breech dear friends. We the unfortunates of Jamaica have had 49 years of opportunities of turning our country into possibilities for all, including those below the poverty line and the unemployed; we made a crack at it through the Pioneer Industries Incentives Law crafted in the late 1940s, to benefit all and not just some. As an example under that Law, a vacancy had to be first filled by a native, unless it was a very highly skilled post which Jamaica could not provide. We could have focused on national needs, instead of keeping the originally wealthy ensconced. One of the requirements of the applicant firm was that a native had to be trained for that position, unless the firm could show otherwise. The same persons (families) who exploited our circumstances, in conjunction with (allied) foreign interests, are still the “caller of the shots” today. Indeed what makes it so horrific is that some families who benefitted from the exploitation of our resources have moved on and out of Jamaica to create more wealth in other distant regions.
But, Roger Mais said it best: “Jamaica is like the body of a prostitute”-a come trkki tavern. Where these fortunate exploiters have moved on, in many circumstances their descendants are left to continue the “reaping game”. Most of those whose parents were factors of production in that game are still ‘factors of production ‘ themselves in today’s game. Thus, when some of those who use the term “changes have come” I ask:”have you controlled the wealth and resources gap from your ancestors”™ time until now? A Lebanese trader once boasted to me, in earlier years, how he drove a donkey with cloth to sell to my ancestors living in the hills; today his descendants own small jet planes while my kith and kin have only graduated from jackass panniers to bicycle, generally and a few to the automobile.
Think on that imagery as the distance now between the descendants of the man who walked behind the panniers of the donkey and those to whom such goods were sold; one has gone down generally, while the others are the real owners of the society and economy. Please do not bleat in my ears the usual lamentations about ” Blackman lazy” or ” he has not tried” etc. Ask yourself the serious question: what has gone wrong in an economy whereby small businesspersons of the past, no longer have continuity. Thinks of the various ‘cold supper shops” owned by Blacks and that dotted Kingston in the early fifties. While some of the original wealth holders have transitioned from Dry Goods etc into other more fruitful areas, what has happened to Black owned businesses generally, including High Gate Foods?