Submitted by the Mahogany Coconut Think Tank and watchdog Group
It should now be obvious to all and sundry, that the year 2014 will mean nothing more than depressingly minimal growth for most if not all Caribbean states. We are being directed by the International Monetary (Mercenary) Fund; relying on the cooked up statistics of agencies such as Standard and Poor and Moodys. Almost daily we are being “rated” by foreigners, who still see us as fun-loving natives who spend our time in lazy repose on our beaches. As far as they are concerned, we are non –productive and incapable of managing our own affairs. Imagine they come out of the United States, a country that is saddled with its own debt and whose economy and corporate corruption are directly responsible for much of the world’s current economic crisis, which was fuelled by the greed of the Wall Street titans, and brazenly try to project themselves as our saviours. Why do we subject ourselves to such humiliation is beyond the imagination but there is nothing more pathetic, than witnessing foreign economists come into our countries ,and treat us like some abandoned outpost, as obtained during the days of the wild west.
Certainly those workers who built these economies by the sweat of their brows would not have imagined that almost fifty years after independence and in some cases more, we have reached the sorry stage, where it is believed that we cannot manage our own affairs and resources. The victories over slavery, colonialism, and rampant racism should have better prepared us to be masters of our own fate but somewhere along the way, we lost focus of the journey that started in the 1930’s when the labour movement started to show serious signs of becoming the driving force of a truly democratic Caribbean region.
Today, that same labour force is under constant attack. Throughout the region both public and private sector jobs are disappearing and unemployment figures in many island states exceed or are approaching twenty per cent of the labour force. The often referenced service industry is under pressure and competition from external sources. In the mean time, efforts to rebuild and reform the agriculture sector, are meeting road blocks ,such as lack of capital and ideas and an absence of progressive land use policies. As we approach the half year mark, it is more than fair to say that our Caribbean region is on the brink of total economic collapse and we join those who are calling on the citizens to save themselves because throughout the region most of our leaders, both public and private sector, are out to sea drifting in leaking, rudderless boats. However, we at the Mahogany Coconut Group fear that while we attempt to plug the leaks and use make shift rudders; the simple truth is that we are also without the essential compass. We are drifting but even more dangerous is the fact that we don’t even know where we are. How do we get back to shore? Region overboard!
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