Jun 04
Prime Minister Tillman Thomas’s proposals to the Heads of Government deal with reforming CARICOM governance to address the ‘implementation deficit’, management of the Secretariat, prioritising the benefits of economic integration, resolving issues in the movement of Community nationals, mobilising civil society in support of integration and an immediate action plan.
I read that piece in the Jamaica Observer with a lot of skepticism. After all the study found that more people (29%) thought Jamaica benefited from Caricom than those who thought Jamaica lost from Caricom (16%). The largest group didn’t know anything about Caricom (37%) and so it is puzzling as to how the Jamaican Observer came up with the headline that the study shows Jamaicans are “averse” to Caricom. A more accurate, unbiased headline would have been that Jamaicans have mixed views on Caricom or even that Jamaicans are ignorant on Caricom. It was also a bit surprising that the piece only seems to have found quotes from persons who fell within the 16% who were hostile to Caricom but couldn’t seem to find quotes from any of the 29% who thought Jamaica benefited a bit or a lot from Caricom. To be honest though, I’m not surprised as I’ve found the Jamaica Observer is a seriously poor and biased newspaper. The editorial will sometimes speak well about integration but then quite often the articles will be sensationalist and very nationalistic (not “patriotic” – there is a difference, I mean nationalistic in the form that took over Nazi Germany and Milosevic’s Serbia….the poisonous kind that needs to denigrate the Other in order to promote the Self).
I find it interesting though that the approximate breakdown of support and knowledge of Caricom (1/3rd support, 1/3rd opposed and 1/3rd have no idea what you are talking about) roughly follows that for a renewed federation in a UWI survey whose results were referenced in a Robert Buddan article some time ago and in the book “Envisioning Caribbean futures” by Brian Meeks. And this after years of Jamaican nationalism (not patriotism) and denigration of our neighbours and a general aloofness to regionalism and education on regionalism by our political establishment.
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