est. 2007

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How CARICOM Members Rank On The FP Failed States Index 2008

CARICOM Members Rank Score Colour Index Antigua and Barbuda 126 62.8 Orange The Bahamas * 130 60.9 Orange Barbados 135 57.2 Green Belize 111 69.5 Orange Dominica – – – Grenada 119 67.9 Orange Guyana 104 73 Orange Haiti 12 101.8 Red Montserrat – – – St. Kitts and Nevis – – – Saint Lucia…

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CARICOM Members

Rank

Score

Colour
Index

Antigua and Barbuda

126

62.8

Orange

The Bahamas *

130

60.9

Orange

Barbados

135

57.2

Green

Belize

111

69.5

Orange

Dominica

 – – –

Grenada

119

67.9

Orange

Guyana

104

73

Orange

Haiti

12

101.8

Red

Montserrat

–

–

–

St. Kitts and Nevis

–

–

–

Saint Lucia

–

–

–

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

–

–

–

Suriname

103

73.2

Orange

Jamaica

117

68.9

Orange

Trinidad and Tobago

123

66.7

Orange
CARICOM Associates

Anguilla

–

–

–

Bermuda

–

–

–

British Virgin Islands

–

–

–
Turks and Caicos Islands

–

–

–

Cayman Islands

–

–

–
* The Bahamas is a member of the Community but not the Common Market.

Orange – (60-80.9) Red – (90-120) Green – (30-59.9)

The Foreign Policy (FP) group which is based in Washington annually prepares a failed states index in collaboration with The Fund for Peace. We find the analysis interesting in the context of recent discussion on BU questioning the value of Barbados continuing its commitment to the CSME project. The discussion has been heightened in recent days by negative comments issued by former Prime Minister Erskine Sandiford.

The FP website does not list rankings for four Caricom members (Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines)  and the associates but BU suggests the colour index for the countries omitted would be orange with a rating in the 60-80.9 range. BU  has tried to find out if the analysis was done for those countries with no success to date. If we receive the rankings for the countries omitted BU will update the table. Of note is the ranking for Barbados which is the only Caricom member with a colour index of green.

The methodology used to feed the FP analysis can be viewed here.

The big question to be answered is whether the favourable rating for Barbados would be adversely affected in a Caricom project?

64 responses to “How CARICOM Members Rank On The FP Failed States Index 2008”

  1. livinginbarbados Avatar
    livinginbarbados

    @David
    As regards the fact that some choose not to participate here, they are not friends of mine, but points I have heard made by various persons whom you might call academics, politicians, and business people. They prefer to exchange their ideas in another arena and form. Some write articles or letters to the newspapers, or send submissions to politicans. Some speak directly to persons they wish to influence. That;s pretty normal. Not everyone is comfortable with the Internet and not everyone has or wants to spend time engaging on blog threads.

    I’m not in control of them. Many of them are nationals here and I think understand things better than me, and that may include how to get THEIR ideas heard.

    If they feel encouraged I imagine they will do what is needed, moniker or not.

    From what I see the persons engaging here are very few in absolute terms, so you ought not to think that a wide audience or spectrum of opinions appear here. I certainly don’t believe that.

  2. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @LIB
    I worked out long ago that you are not easily intimidated. You are indeed a real real Jamaican. I had a previous life for a number of years living with and among a Jamaican Community and that probably accounts for my non-traditional-Bajan characteristics…

    …be that as it may, when I was there I did not (dare) try to preach to those J’cans how to live their lives (…indeed I was too shocked at the level of aggressiveness to know where to start..)

    About the ‘amount needed’ for development…
    Maybe you need me to translate my previous post into Jamaican,..but I did not speak about any ” amount needed to be earned to spend on the sustainable investments ?
    All I said effectively was that had we been visionary enough over the past two decades, we would have realized that the bubble would eventually burst – and would have planned for our future by focusing long term structural development in such areas as agriculture, manufacturing, education etc.
    Had we done this, we would now have been well placed to live within our collective means…and ride out any storm.

    You would want to tie this now to some dollar figure? .. and look at the feasibility and cost of funding some project or other (the usual IMF crap) and we all know that most of the money will end up stolen, paying off bribes, and paying good-for nothing consultants (oh sorry is that what you did??!!)

    What amount needed what?!?

    I was just talking about basic common sense – thats all.

  3. livinginbarbados Avatar
    livinginbarbados

    @Bush Tea
    “We were successful in tourism because of the peculiar character of our people (…and by this I am not necessarily speaking of any positive characteristics.. For example our willingness to turn the other cheek and let others walk all over us… our meek and subservient attitudes etc)” [I will take your characterisation of the national character, lest I am accused of knowing what I do not know. Those who appear to do much of this walking over are themselves nationals. I have tried to listen carefully to discussions about how various government agencies have functioned over the past two decades, and all I hear leads me to believe that nationals have trodden badly on other nationals. Now, perhaps the feeling is that these same nationals should be left to mend their ways. Then all will be well. I do not believe that will happen, so I have little faith that the wrongs will be righted. Recent published reports lead me to hold that view more strongly than I did before.]

    “It generally means simply limiting what you spend to what you have been able to earn. …..or as GP would confirm ‘by the sweat of his brow shall a man eat bread’ …. Rather than operating under the expectation that the world owes you a given standard of living.” [Again, taking your characterisation as given. How will nationals come to see that this new scheme of things will be needed and if they query with “What is in it for me?” or “I am not going to change”, what then? How should I interpret comments made my nationals (business persons and politicians and government officials) about certain problems in work attitudes, how should I interpret them? Will the anger underlying some of the positions taken here be displayed against those who do not want to make what you see as the needed changes?]

  4. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    LIB,
    Sometimes I wonder about you – honestly!
    ***********************************
    LIB “….so I have little faith that the wrongs will be righted. Recent published reports lead me to hold that view more strongly than I did before.”
    *************************************
    Uh nah dat me a try tell yuh?

    Neither the misguided government, the passive locals, the arrogant immigrants or the ill conceived IMF are able to come to grips with the coming chaos…

    Hell, even Micro Mock Engineer appears to have given up his MASS (Movement for the Assurance of Salvation through Science) …and spends his time nowadays between nightclubs and Cropover tents playing the other mass….LOL

  5. livinginbarbados Avatar
    livinginbarbados

    @Bush Tea
    I spent most of my life NOT living amongst Jamaicans. I do not intend to preach, but I am not prepared to take a remark as good just because it is uttered. Blame my schooling for that: 2 Jamaicans out of 600 pupils cannot possibly be dominant.

    My living has been to not take at face value claims in which I have doubts. They could have cost me my job when someone else later asks the questions I should have posed but did not. If a Finance Minister says “I will do…” I must ask “When?” and “Do you need the President’s/PM’s/Party’s/Parliament’s approval?” Depending on what he told me, I could move on. IMF programs often wait for Budgets to be approved to ensure that the measures agreed with the authorities have legal backing. If not, all can easily unravel. I call that ‘due diligence’ and ‘keeping people honest’.

    Ideally, I would like a dollar figure and then we can discuss how to safeguard what we have earned. Again, I would not presume that bad things would happen. We need to avoid that at all costs.

    No, I am not a consultant and never worked as such except for one short period of two weeks 18 months ago. I was always a public servant. I have also worked in public service structures where you DO GET DISMISSED for wrong doing, and NAMES ARE NAMES, and YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE. I can name former colleagues who have had to suffer that indignity, and they were not minions.

    Thanks for your attempt to explain the problem of quantifying what I would like to see quantified.

    Tony Marshall (like him or not), as I write: “You are backing away from something you cannot substantiate..” If I cannot back up what I say, I prefer to say nothing. If people have counter views, I merely ask that they try to do likewise.

  6. livinginbarbados Avatar
    livinginbarbados

    @Bush Tea
    My previous views were based on certain assumptions, and as I am not privy to certain information here, I had to wait for ‘evidence’. I’ve now seen two key pieces of evidence that were published in the past two months.

    “Neither the misguided government, the passive locals, the arrogant immigrants or the ill conceived IMF are able to come to grips with the coming chaos…” [With respect, you name 4 actors. I may fit the bill for being in 2 sets. But the picture is not complete. By implication there may be ‘guided’ government; ‘active’ locals; immigrants who are ‘not arrogant’. Let me please you and accept that you will only see the IMF as ill-c0nceived. For what you say to hold, then the 4 you cite must outstrip the rest. I cannot judge that and I will let others think, agree or disagree.]

  7. Micro Mock Engineer Avatar
    Micro Mock Engineer

    “Movement for the Assurance of Salvation through Science”
    —————

    LOL… dah one bad.

    A high concentration of tannic acid in de bush tea today.

    I don’t expect salvation through science, but progress through human ingenuity… maybe there will be a time when the challenges we face as a species exceed our intellectual capabilities… but we aint there yet.

  8. Micro Mock Engineer Avatar
    Micro Mock Engineer

    … as you well know, the Big Boss alone is the source of our salvation. 🙂

  9. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Just making sure that you still there MME…. You know nuff draft…

    I am depending on you to be the first blogger to concede when that “time when the challenges we face as a species exceed our intellectual capabilities” comes.

    …don’t get to far from your computer – please…. LOL.

    p.s.
    I hope you see that the Micro Mock Economist (LIB) don’t have any clue about any possible solutions….
    (…not that economics is a ‘real real’ profession or anything LOL, ..but they now even seem at a loss for the fancy big words that they like to toss around to impress….)
    … as an Ing., I will give you a little more time LOL.

  10. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    In light of the political economic depression that is currently adversely affecting Barbados, the PDC has recently been visiting a number of malls in Bridgetown to observe and evaluate what it is like in them ( the level of customer patronage, the number of stores operating in them, etc.), and, if so, to properly relate the results of having carried out such surveys with what is found within the context of the wider rapidly declining business environment in the country, and – having done that too – to then – using whatever available mediums of communication – report to others – and esp. those who are willing to listen – on some of the very disastrous effects that this avoidable local political recession is having on various human lives in Barbados.

    So, here we go. There is this mall – the Broad Street Mall – that we were on last Thursday, about 3 pm, invited to see by a friend of our party. This invitation was done because we were at the time going through the DaCosta Mall and we had observed at the time we were passing through this latter mall that there was NOT a single local or tourist that was spotted doing business in the jewellery store to your left and right in the mall as you exited onto Broad Street. Such a sight was most unusual but instructive at that time. And, therefore, when contrasted with two years ago this situation must have been representing another sign of serious decline in business activity in Barbados.

    So, off we went soon to the Broad Street Mall and what we saw on entering from Broad Street was bewildering and unbelievable. For, it appeared as if some kind of a hurricane was about to pass through it, and many people had therefore raked up their belongings and quickly left before the impact of the system – well on actually seeing that there was only about 3 measly desolate stores operating in there now.

    As for the level of customer activity this was so paltry – as that there was only a number of customers that you could count on your fingers that was being served by attendants in the remaining stores. The mood of some of the few remaining store tenants was so glum and down casting that you could have thought you were on a hospital floor.

    It is absolutely unbelievable the evidence of what now remains of what was once a very vibrant area of business activity. There was a time back say – 6 years ago – when you could have gone through there and you would NOT have seen a single empty store space. It was simply that buoyant an area of activity, so much so that when we – PDC – and others used to be so caught up doing business with JAS Internet Services, we used to be reminded by the owners that closing time was near. And when it around Christmas time you could NOT pass one another properly without having to make one self smaller as you made your way through that fairly narrow thoroughfare in the mall.

    So, what was once a beautiful cluster of jewellery clothing, eating, internet places etc. have been reduced to nothing but bare empty hollow spaces by the circumstances of outright mall mismanagement and by this current local political recession.

    We have heard from many reliable people in tune with some of the things that have been happening to that mall that the rents have been so high and the marketing of the mall by the owners so little and the closing time so early, that many of the tenants had to leave – starting about less than 2 years ago. No doubt many of these former tenants are small black business people. Again, it is we – members of the masses and middle classes – that have to bear the brunt of these kinds of indignities. And, so, instead of properly marketing the mall, what the mall owners seemed to have preferred were many vacant store spaces, some with bolted up doors , some with newspaper stuck onto their glass windows, and some containing the remnants of their previous activities – perhaps the last occupiers having had to panickingly retreat to higher safety out of the mall to avoid the oncoming hurricane.

    Finally, after spending about 10 minutes in the Broad Street Mall, we would leave through the backdoor by Por-Tab realizing that this Broad Street Mall is another glaring piece of evidence that THIS WICKED EVIL TAXATION system, that this wicked evil Interest Rates system, that this demonic system of having people repay their own monies esp when they have gone and got some of these monies for productive purposes, that this lack of a system for properly regulating building rent in Barbados have altogether contributed to the demise of the Broad Street Mall, and furthermore have been severely contributing to the depression in the
    wider political, material and financial affairs of this country.

    PS – Another Mall that we have been invited to see is the Norman Centre Mall – which we will go and see this week.

    So long!!

    PDC

  11. Themis Avatar
    Themis

    Save yourself the trouble, PDC. you’ll come to the same conclusion …for the same reasons! Yaaaaawwwnn…

  12. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Things are very hard now. Forget the politics and pray that Barbados can get through this hard period that will continue to go through for some time to come.

    It is going to very rough and the Government will need all the advice and support it can get.

    Maybe it is time for the government to tell the people the extent of the difficulties facing us. I don’t think we should blame the government, but they need to tell us that we are in the middle of an economic hurricane.

  13. David Avatar
    David

    Stay tuned Prime Minister David Thompson will be hosting his quartrerly press conference this coming Tuesday.

  14. PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926 TO 2014 , MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS OF BARBADOS, BLPand DLP=Massive Fruad Avatar
    PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926 TO 2014 , MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS OF BARBADOS, BLPand DLP=Massive Fruad

    This is all self inflicted by the BLP , DLP and the new DBLP , This have nothing to do with the World , it all have to do with our own World in Barbados, When crooks , liars and Scumbags run a muck and dont give a Fcuk about any thing, but building and sucking money for self,

    Who is working can not afford NHC housing or even low income housing , they need to try for no -income housing to be in business .

    If these crooks can not get a kick back, nothing will happen , The housing being done is for the rest of the world coming to Barbados and not for the Bajans , This DBLP Government looking at exchange out side of Barbados means they looking for a overseas Dollar to run Barbados and not Barbados running Barbados,

    Price Summary
    May 2nd to 16th date 2014

    LIAT: svg low $259.6usd to $420.29usd round trip
    jet blue NY $359 up and down $243 round = 602 usd
    Price like that better to go to NY , You can buy some thing to sell to help with ticket cost coming back ,
    People today just buying , bread, sugar, oil, flour, toilet paper, rice .nothing else needed ,but to top up cell phones so they can call each other to say how bad things are,
    VOTE BETTER GET BETTER.

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