CARICOM Continues to be Challenged by Governance and Economic Issues
Submitted by the Mahogany Coconut Think tank and Watchdog Group
As is customary, we join with other commentators, that review the year and what gains, if any, the region would have made. As much as it distresses us, we are forced to conclude that 2014 brought nothing new to the region and that 2015 portends little. We are reaching the end of 2014 with most economies still reeling from a world recession that occasionally fools us that it is over.
Within the region, our strongest economy, Trinidad and Tobago, appears to be facing unexpected challenges because of falling oil prices. This reality has forced the Central Bank to review growth predictions downward. Coupled with widespread state corruption and an election that will reveal the ugliest use of the dollar bill to buy votes; it is sadly obvious that T&T seems set for more malfeasance and stupidity in its governance.
In Guyana the President has created a constitutional crisis by attempting to run the country while ignoring parliament, for his glaringly nefarious political objectives. We are aware and have warned that the longer race continues to dominate Guyana’s politics, the longer it would take for this potentially great country to confront and eradicate its socio-economic problems.
Jamaica has convinced itself that the formula concocted by the International Fund has worked miracles. While we throw no cold water on the optimism that the current regime embraces, we are forever aware that the IMF usually boasts of successful remedies/medicines even when the patient dies!
Barbados finds itself technically broke as the administration tries everything from laying off public workers to internal cabinet squabbles regarding economic and now agricultural policy. In the mean time, the poor are being exposed to deteriorating social services. Armed crime is posing a major problem for law enforcement and the administration cannot even develop a proper garbage collection policy.
Opposition parties throughout the region have no true alternative plans to rescue the economies but are determined to just oppose for opposing sake, hoping to get their greedy hands in the cookie jar as soon as possible. Politics throughout the region is adversarial and non-productive. A collective inferior leadership has failed to produce a progressive economic program.
While we have identified the so-called big four of the region, we must inform that all the other islands are at various stages of economic and social decline. While they seldom come under the radar, we are aware that: political corruption, nepotism, crime and high levels of employment make up most of their socio-economic menu.
The Mahogany Coconut Group will never give up on the hope for a united Caribbean Nation but we must honestly conclude that 2014 has not brought our hopes and dreams any closer to reality. The situation would be perhaps beyond repair if the Caribbean masses were not resourceful and creative.
We fear that such resourcefulness and creativity is under threat by the inferior leadership now responsible for our destiny.
The struggle continues
We extend the very best wishes to all in 2015.
Barbados Underground 
Pingback: CARICOM Continues to be Challenged by Governance and Economic Challenges - Vibe Audio StationVibe Audio Station
Pingback: CARICOM Continues to be Challenged by Governance and Economic Issues - Vibe Audio StationVibe Audio Station
Funny how regional commentators instinctively leave out the Bahamas when they discuss regional issues. Surely, in terms of size of the economy, the ‘big four’ are Trinidad, Jamaica, The Bahamas and, presumably, Barbados. In terms of population size, it would be Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana and the Bahamas.
And Trinidad the ‘strongest economy’?? Please.
LikeLike
Caricom has always reminded me of Christianity. In the name of self service it is invoked and spoken of as if it is the conventional practice. That is until there is profit to be had, so that the partners can be conveniently discarded or placed on the back burner. Big brother CAL continues to choke the shit out of its sibling named LIAT, while who pays the most gets the least in terms of service and still have not yet realized why they are seen as CARICLOWNS.
LikeLike
Sinckler dropped several pegs in the eyes of the BU household when he reversed his position on the EPA EU.
Here is an old blog that addressed the matter:
https://barbadosunderground.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/epa-cariforum-eu-caricom-barbados/
Surprisingly this matter seems to have died or become irrelevant to Caricom.
LikeLike
Collaboration/Cohesion/Cooperation(functional included) is required, not the current dog eat dog Competition based approach that reigns.
LikeLike
In my opinion no one seam to know how to truly define CARICOM and the policies of this grouping. it is clear to me that it is more like a dog eat dog situation with those regions who believe that they are the big boys/girls, and they should determine the policies and direction of the region and where it should go even though there’s a continuing economic downfall. You have an established court system that is making laws and charging islands heavy fines for disrespecting these laws. Why Cant we have one collective proportionate governing body to manage the affairs of the region? Is it solely because of jealously, pride or stupidity? Economically the Caribbean basin is weak as individual entities and the decline will continue. Together a balance can be achieve by pooling certain resources and streamlining the thrust towards one collective, one nation, One Country. Thus, ‘One Passport’. This unification will bring about stability and drive towards a dominant force in the world market. Why not try a referendum on the question of one Country within the region. That would be the starting point where the citizens can speak collectively. Not the politicians.
LikeLike
In a word insularity.
If you listen to the oldsters who worked on the Panama Canal the insularity existed in that situation as well, low islanders etc.
We should concentrate on identifying areas to cooperate but governing a one space will not happen in our lifetime.
On Monday, 29 December 2014, Barbados Underground wrote:
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
We in this region do not rightly know who we are.
We label ourselves or are labeled
(a) Caribbean|
(b) West Indies
(c) Greater Antilles
(d) Lesser Antilles
(e) Windward Islands
(f) Leeward Islands
(g) Caricom
(h) Low Islands
(i) South American
(j) Central American
(k) OEC -Organisation of Eastern Caribbean
We even talk of having the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other, when every primary school child knows that the Caribbean Sea is located within the Atlantic Ocean.
But really and truly ,we are CARIB,….. Crabs,Assorted Residing in Barrels
LikeLike
@David
That is the big misconception–governng one space. What is required is some powers ceded to CARICOM to implement development related decisions/policies.
LikeLike
@enuff
The issues dogging Caricom/CSME.
1. Mobility of labour 2. Movement of capital 3. Trade and Settlement
On Monday, 29 December 2014, Barbados Underground wrote:
>
LikeLike
All this talk about needing to group together into a larger entity in order to survive economically is utter hogwash. Has nobody notices that the smaller a country the more likely it is to be wealthy and successful, ESPECIALLY service driven economies???? Hong Kong, Singapore are MUCH better off as small, independent service centres than if they were forced into the hinterland.
In our own region, it is no accident that smaller countries (like Barbados and the Bahamas) are wealthier, better run and have higher human development than larger ones. To some extent Trinidad bucks this trend, but only because of an oil windfall.
It is utter madness and without ANY economic validity to say that survivability requires pooling our sovereignty and our economies. The reverse is true. Small, independent, service-based economies that are FULLY INTEGRATED INTO THE WORLD ECONOMY stand nothing to gain by ‘integrating’ with one another. Absolutely nothing.
This copycat nonsense about ‘look where the world is going – NAFTA, EU etc.’ is so stupid that it couldn’t survive the scrutiny of a child. How can you compare these large, fundamentally different economies to ours. They are different creatures – and we are the lucky ones, not them! It is far easier for a small country with no resources to develop itself quickly and become globally integrated than a big one. That is why the only examples of post-colonial black societies developing to any admirable degree are in the Caribbean.
Let’s stay friends and work together on sentimental matters, but shift power and resources to Caricom? Never.
LikeLike
@ bahamared
Amen.
Thank you….
LikeLike
One of the reasons that there is this negativity toward a full Caribbean Nation is that we have not seen any collective government since the Federation. There is also the belief that we cannot successfully unify because of insularity. Unfortunately, there has been no collective effort to truly unify the region and that is why CARICOM has not progressed as rapidly as it should.Additionally, our educational system is not geared toward producing citizens who can see the entire Caribbean as their homeland. And of course the current group of leaders are basically clueless.
I take this opportunity y to wish the entire BU family and all contributors a very happy and prosperous new year and hope all will continue to let their voices be heard.
I sincerely thank BU and its team for allowing me to contribute in their organ. Continued success in all your endeavours.
LikeLike
@Bahamared
Hong Kong 7.8million
Singapore 5.5 million
Jamaica 2.7 million
Trinidad & Tobago 1.2m
Bahams 319,00
Barbados 270,000
Pick sense from nonsense.
LikeLike
@David
While we encourage international investors and sell passports! piss in muh pocket.
LikeLike
@Enuff
UK 65 million
France 65 million
USA 315 milion
China 1.3 billion
India 1.1 billion
Hong Kong 7.8 million
SIngapore 5.5 million
Dubai 2.1 million
Malta 380,000
Bahamas 362,000
Iceland 300,000
Barbados 270,000
Thanks for helping me make my point.
LikeLike
@Enuff
……Bermuda 65,000
Cayman 50,000
It is difficult to make sense of your post except to understand that you are alleging Hong Kong and Singapore are successful on account of their large population size!
Any country under 10 million is very small and under 5 million is by some definitions a microstate.
But the success that countries like ourselves, Barbados, Iceland and Malta have achieved is, like the larger, but still small asian statelets you mention, not predicated on the size of the local market but the extemt of our integration into the international economy.
How exactly is integrating into Caricom going to help us sell international services (tourism, financial services, data hosting, you name it) to the wider world?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bahamared
You said small and gave Hong Kong and Singapore as examples. I merely pointed out that maybe, just maybe, there is small and then too small. By the way The Bahamas is one of the bigger, both physically and in population size, Caricom member states.
LikeLike
The point, Enuff, as you well know is that the size is IRRELEVANT as a factor of success in this world.
THEREFORE resources that are expended in seeking to GAIN SIZE are wasted….PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIEND OWEN.
As bahamared has pointed out, the common factors that lead to success are innovation, productivity, creativity, assertiveness ….he calls it “integrating into the international economy” ….Bushie calls it “kicking ass” and being best at what ever it is that you do…. 🙂
It requires appointing PERFORMANCE DRIVEN managers; dealing with useless brass bowls; cutting out corruption and waste…. all those things that we currently ignore….
If anything, one can argue that it is EASIER to effect the needed changes in a SMALL country than it is in a larger more complex one.
In sum…..
what CARICOM what?!?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course the contributions for and against a United Caribbean forgot the mighty superpower called the United States of America and the former superpower called Great Britain and the Commonwealth.To include Hong Kong in the mix is pure nonsense.China will eventually rein in HongKong and Taiwan even if not in our lifetime.
LikeLike
Do Singaporeans need visas to enter the USA? Isn’t Malta, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands part of the EU? What is the relationship between Iceland and the EU? CARICOM, what’s that?!! Is Jamaica, Belize, Guyana (with its abundance of natural resources), Grenada, St.Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica or Antigua doing well? By the way how is the Bahamas doing? Not so well if what I read is true (10th highest homicide rate in the world and one of the highest levels of incarceration)!!. The future of CARICOM is to become like Haiti.
http://www.ft.com/ig/sites/2013/caribbean-islands-at-sea/
Check out a list of countries and dependent areas under 2000 square miles and/or populations under 3 million. Besides Singapore and Trinidad which of them are doing well that are not associated with either the EU, the USA, Australia or New Zealand?
Why does the average Guadeloupean, or Virgin Islander or Caymanian or Bermudian or Aruban or Saint Maartener lives at a higher standard of living than we (Bajans or Bahamians) do?
Integrate into what global economy?!!! You mean the North Atlantic Economy with its Asian associates China, India and Australia.
LikeLike
@enuff
I will take your points on one by one.
Singaporeans do not need visas to enter the USA. Neither do Bahamians. Nor do Bahamians need visas to enter the UK, Schengen states, Japan or any other ‘developed’ country. The only countries that Bahamians need visas to enter are Third World countries, mostly in Africa. I have a Bahamian and a US passport and I can tell you two important countries that I can only enter using the Bahamian one without a visa: China and Brazil.
Guadeloupe and Martinique do NOT have a higher standard of living than the Bahamas (or I believe than Barbados either). The average Bermudian or Caymanian does only because of the tiny population.
The murder rate in the Bahamas has little to do with this, which shows you are driven by emotion rather than reason. What is the connection?? In fact the murder rate has more to do with closeness to the US and the availability of guns than the failure of our economic model, which has clearly been anything but a failure, given the level of development and attractiveness as a migrant destination.
Nobody migrates from the Bahamas looking for work and remittances from the Bahamas last year were 144 million dollars, making it a far larger net remitter per capita than the US. So how does the murder rate (attributable mostly to a dysfunctional bail system and closeness to the gun-exporting USA) negate the success of the economic model?
The Bahamas and Barbados are successful precisely because they are integrated into the world economy. You talk of the North Atlantic economy, but add China in only as an ‘associate’ of the US? Get real. China holds so much of the US’ sovereign debt that the idea of US sovereignty is a joke.
LikeLike
@Bahamared
I think you were responding to Ping Pong. lol
LikeLike
sorry, that should have been @ping pong.
I just noticed u said the average Virgin Islander has a higher standard of living than Bahamians or Bajans. Have you been drinking something? Next you will say Puerto Ricans have a higher standard of living!
U.S. Virgin Islanders (and all that I have known have been immigrants living in the Bahamas) are, like Puerto Ricans, reduced to a life of food stamps and housing projects as most of their GDP comes from federal welfare transfers. They, like Puerto Ricans, have a lower GDP per capita than the Bahamas, according to both the IMF and world Bank.
Have you actually been to the Bahamas? You need to get your facts straight.
LikeLike
@ Ping Pond
…by “integrate into the global economy” bahamared is obviously talking about establishing RELEVANCE, especially as a service economy, in that you provide the kind of services that those who can afford to buy, want.
Obviously there are anomalies.
Some countries find themselves tied to the coattails of successful economies by history (the French Islands, Bermuda, Cayman etc)
Some are lucky to have oil. Some may have some other unique feature.
Most small countries fell into the same trap that we did…. by borrowing themselves back into slavery…..driven by greed and idiocy.
HOWEVER, the fact is that there are MANY already LARGE countries, with natural resources, who are in duck’s gut.
So large or small, success is about good management, vision, creativity and flexibility.
All Bushie is saying is that RATHER than expend effort and resources trying to come together for old-time-sake, we should use such resources to achieve the attributes that bring success….. wuh the same goes for Africa and other MASSIVE countries…..
LikeLiked by 1 person
As an outsider, I think the islands are small and people should be allowed to island hop
LikeLike
@Bushie
Expanding your population and size provides opportunities for greater “innovation, productivity and creativity”.
We are already integrated into the global economy, it is called specialisation based on a combination of location and accidental/natural advantages. It is why rum, tourism and offshore sectors have survived thus far and not manufacturing. As I have said before, we need innovative and creative solutions applied to the processes and systems that exist within our society that hinder productivity and the maximisation of our specialist skills .
LikeLike
@ping pong
What is Iceland’s relationship with the EU? Same as my relationship with the Emperor of Siam – there ain’t one.
Malta is a member of the EU, but as its wealth per capita is slightly lower than that of the Bahamas, that fact hardly pushes your point.
Bermuda and Cayman are internally self-governed, as Barbados and the Bahamas were prior to independence. You may have heard of the ‘three B’s’ (Bermuda, Bahamas, Barbados), which were the only British colonies aside from Canada, Australia and NZ left with internal self-government after the alarm caused by the Morant Bay rebellion in Jamaica in 1864.
My point is that Barbados and the Bahamas must be seen in the context of their colleagues (Malta, Iceland, Cyprus etc.) both in terms of population size and economic development, and the roles they play in the global economy (small centres of sophisticated services). Trying to push them into a regional grouping that reduces their sovereignty can have no positive effect on that role.
I am, frankly, still trying to understand the thrust of your ‘points’.
LikeLike
@Bushie
We spend too much borrowed money (hence heavily indebted) and lose too much income trying to out maneouvre each other.
LikeLike
@ Enuff
Expanding your population and size provides opportunities for greater “innovation, productivity and creativity”
++++++++++++++++++
LOL
where you got that from boss? the minister of eddy kashun?
Expanding your population and size only provides more brass bowls to confuse the damn place.
Innovation, creativity and productivity are products of RIGHTEOUS LEADERSHIP, the tactful management of resources, and a SENSIBLE education system.
It does NOT come from stupid outdated eddy kashun schemes; promoting political yardfowls; giving favors in exchange for sex; appointing chicken feed mixers as supervisor of insurance or by allowing a known thief to walk free just because he is not a leper.
How much time and money did your man spend trying to get CARICOM going? …now THAT is what Bushie calls WASTE……
LikeLiked by 1 person
@BushTea
Stupse!!
LikeLike
Bahamared
Enuff didn’t write the post you are responding to.
The Bahamian economy is one of the most vulnerable economies in the Caribbean. I will grant you credit that they were smart to stay clear of CARICOM and maintain/cultivate its association/ relationship/ connection (whatever word you want use) with the US and the EU (eg. Freeport, etc) and now with China (BahamasMar). However it is undeniable that the offshore financial sector is under threat with the desire of rich countries to stem the loss of tax revenue (FACTA ?) and that tourism remains vulnerable to such things as natural disasters, epidemics or….. crime waves.
Bahamas may be holding its own but Barbados is an accident happening in slow motion and the standard of living in all those islands mentioned is higher than that found in Barbados. We use to be around the 30’s rank in HDI now we are down to 59 and falling. One can spin it how which way but the dependent territories mentioned enjoy their high standard of living precisely because they are part of the EU or the US. The Bahamas proximity to the US is a factor in its development
The fact is that I am agreeing with you that CARICOM is a waste of time. The so called “global” economy is really the US, the EU, China, India, Australia and Japan. That China holds so much US sovereign debt is all the more reason that it is in China’s interest that the US economy remains strong. I am further pointing out that if we do not associate with those countries we will be going nowhere fast. The problem is that we (B’dos) do not seem to be offering much and as it is said pride goes before a fall.
LikeLike
Bush Tea
you know you are just tormenting the natives…good management, vision, creativity?!!! Who is offering those things or more critically who really wants these things particularly when these mean work, responsibility, moderation, cooperation, integrity, values and all similar “disgusting” concepts.
LikeLike
@ ping pong
We have been hearing about this supposed ‘vulnerability’ of the Bahamian economy for a long time. It mostly comes from ‘experts’ from the US and elsewhere who seem to understand economics only in retrospect. It also comes from regional people, mostly Jamaicans, who feel you need to grow or manufacture something to be being productive. Most of the latter I have heard this from were actually here working.
Thankfully, no Bahamian government has taken such talk seriously, and the country continues to show (even during global recessions) an ability to keep moving ahead. I completely disagree that there is any vulnerability to be associated with a small, nimble, open economy that follows its comparative advantages. But I will leave the talk to those who think they know better.
I know Barbados well, having spent lots of time there and having an uncle who was head of one of the Canadian banks there for years. If you take from this little horrid recession the lesson that following the pursuit of your comparative advantage as a small, service-oriented economy somehow leaves you vulnerable, then you will have drawn a wrong and harmful lesson from it.
I can think of few less vulnerable places than either the Bahamas or Barbados. Let the outsiders keep talking. But our two countries are the most advanced black countries on the planet in HDI and wealth of the population, and that is no accident. The model that is now being dragged through the dirt, has delivered.
Despite the recession, the rate of (mostly infrastructural) development in the Bahamas has actually accelerated in the last few years and with the explosion of economic activity that Baha Mar, Albany, RW Bimini and other projects will bring in 2015, the economy will clearly expand dramatically in the next decade.
Barbados is simply a little further out geographically, but the same will ensue there. It is just too well placed and has too many comparative advantages for it not to.
I agree with you on Caricom. But we must agree to disagree on the prospects of small, open Caribbean economies on their present course.
LikeLike
@ bahamared
you are wrong about Barbados though….
Special place….
…here we have managed to take a perfectly good winning hand, throw the cards on the floor and now we are searching for some kind descendants of our former slave masters to step in and set up plantations to run the country for us….
Our per capita numbers are still deceptively impressive, but mainly because we have imported a lotta rich foreign people who own and control every shiite. When you divide up the money the average looks good, but these people own 40% and COW and Bizzy own another 40%….
LOL …time you subtract Bushie’s loot the average Bajan barely have enough to get into the next reggae fete…
You probably won’t understand what is happening here ….since wunna fellows in Free Port may not be familiar with brass bowls….
@ Enuff
LOL …what happen boss?
tek care you don’t swallow yuh teeth…. LOL
LikeLike
What are we really discussing?
How to sustain an economic model to support conspicuous consumption?
How to support an innate human characteristic of greed?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Do you fancy working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics?:
Can you guess which organization this is?
Given up yet?
It’s the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group that cranks out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
How do we match up?
LikeLike
@ David
What are we really discussing?
How to sustain an economic model to support conspicuous consumption?
How to support an innate human characteristic of greed?
++++++++++++++++++++++
OF COURSE THAT IS THE MOOT.
What else?
How many years now Bushie has been trying to get us to look BEYOND the glitter of greed to the REAL values of life on this planet – and no one is interested….
…all we want to discuss is GDP, HDI and politics….
you think anyone is interested in the REAL meaning of life? …or what REAL success is?
so…
When in Rome…..
LikeLike
money is not as important as pussy or is that spirituality
LikeLike
@ Ping Pong
The point I am making is that your position (although you do not favour Caricom integration) is essentially the same as many of those who do. It boils down to ‘we are intrinsically small, vulnerable and weak and at the end of the day, the world belongs to the big white boys’
This kind of thinking comes from West African fatalism, a powerful phenomenon that is one of the first things that strikes Western visitors to West Africa. The acceptance of one’s place in the world that prevents west Africans from taking the tiniest initiative to improve their surroundings is part of the same thing that leads people in our region to call themselves ‘developing’ countries, long after they have passed any possible goal post of ‘developed’ status.
I recently heard some Caricom lady complaining that being ‘Graduated’ to Middle income status will hinder the region!!!!!! If the world thinks we are almost equal to them, they will stop giving aid. What backward, reverse thinking! Yet it is typical of the victimhood mentality that animates the Caricom project.
The problem with the victimood/Caricom thinking is that it does HUGE damage to political and economic decision-making, by making leaders focus on remedial matters rather than chasing opportunities to thrive.
People love to contrast our region negatively with Singapore. But look at the reality. In terms of location, the Bahamas (and probably Jamaica) are at least as favoured as Singapore in logistics etc. With miniscule efforts, we have achieved results that Singapore took a generation to achieve. In 1997, there was no container port in Grand Bahama. Today, there is the largest container transshipment port along the Eastern Seaboard of the USA. In 1997, there was no maritime industrial concerns in the country. Today, the Freeport Ship Repair facility is the largest cruise ship repair facility on earth and (according to the US State department) the largest industrial concern in the Caribbean region. Grand Bahama has a population of 50,000!
Yet owing to that same African fatalism and self-doubt government did not take these decisions until it was staring them in the face. Someone had to come in from outside and show them how well placed Grand Bahama was for such developments.
Now we hear about being ‘reliant’ (i.e. doing well at something) on tourism makes you vulnerable. As Bahamians sat around grumbling about the recession (encouraged by victim-hood-sellers), nobody seemed to notice the $3.6 Billion Baha Mar project rising into the sky- even though it is the largest construction site currently underway in North America. They open in March and are now busily seeking applications for the 7,000 positions being created. But somehow we are ‘uniquely vulnerable’.
Over in Jamaica, now that they are finally weaned off this notion that services cannot dominate a ‘real’ economy, government is nonetheless facing massive push-back about its excellent plan to create a comprehensive logistics hub to rival Singapore and Dubai. One the one hand, it is shrugged off as pie-in-the-sky, while on the other, the environmental lobby are scaremongering about how it will destroy Jamaica’s iguanas. Yet if that plan is carried out with any kind of competence Jamaica will indeed join Singapore and Dubai as an international logistics hub.
African fatalism. The last thing people so afflicted need to be told is that they are victims of time, place and history. They will eat it up and do what scared, insecure people always do: NOTHING.
LikeLiked by 1 person
” West African fatalism ” 500 years Slavery Racism White Supremacy
50 years independence
LikeLike
@ Easy Squeeze
There we go again with that fatalism. ‘My plight is somebody else’s fault and responsibility”.
It is amazing how persistent a trait that is among West African populations.
I have spent a lot of time in Japan and one feature of their culture that is most admirable is, when asked about historic grievances and suffering, the Japanese response is almost always the same. The only country to have been nuked (still in living memory), their feeling on the matter is simple: it is our fault. Why? “Because we lost”. Taking responsibility for your own fate. Imagine a little bit of that mindset in this region!
For the record, Africans, and not Europeans bear the largest share of the shame on slavery. The institution was LONG banished in Europe (since the dark ages). But it still thrived in Africa when contact with the Europeans took place. In fact, it still thrives in Africa today!!!!!! But because Africans have for so long been trained to pass responsibility on to others and to act the role of the victim, it is scarcely an issue.
Europeans bought enslaved Africans from other Africans. They did not invent the institution of African slavery. It was utterly alien to them. They merely took advantage of one savage aspect of west African culture. Throughout the period of western slavery, it would have been illegal to enslave a person. It would be called kidnapping under the English Common Law. The institution was only available in the case of those who came from Africa already in that condition and their descendants. Once manumitted, you could not re-enslave a person, unlike in Africa.
This victimhood nonsense is not only tiresome. It is self destructive. Like the blacks in America find all the energy to mobilise themselves when one white cop shoots a black guy. But nobody seems the least concerned how many thousands of blacks are killed by other blacks in a senseless culture of violence that has become a norm.
That is the same victimhood mentality that animates Caricom. Poor little black us. Please!
LikeLike
White propaganda and Lies won’t hide guilt in Reparations for Slavery Case
LikeLike
Will ‘reparations’ ever help black societies to take responsibility for themselves? I doubt it. In fact, it will compound their dependency and the sense that they are not free agents of their fate.
This is an interesting Berkeley study on the fatalism I am talking
about:http://cega.berkeley.edu/assets/miscellaneous_files/wgape/21_Miguel.pdf
LikeLike
@ bahamared December 31, 2014 at 10:29 AM,
Your comments prior to 10:29 were very interesting and challenging in complete contrast to your stereotypical rambling at 10:29.
The history of Japan and Africa (and her descendants) are incomparable. Your analogy was truly terrible. Japan was a coloniser and hated by her neighbours; and was a country renowned for her level of brutality against others. It was “colonised” after the second world for a brief period and was partnered by the USA whose sole purpose was to create a compliant Japan who it hoped would gravitate towards the American economic model; and within time become a major ally and an economic partner of Uncle Sam.
No such lofty ambitions existed for the African continent and her diaspora.
Caricom could and should be a force for good. The example of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad who maintained close relationships with Cuba – during the early seventies – despite the external pressure that it faced from America was the stuff of legend.
The fact that Caricom has been a relative failure over the years should be put down to her leaders past and present and not those of her citizens.
Happy 2015 to all!
LikeLike
@ bahamared December 31, 2014 at 10:29 AM
“This victimhood nonsense is not only tiresome. It is self destructive. Like the blacks in America find all the energy to mobilise themselves when one white cop shoots a black guy.”
Although your arguments do have some merit in explaining the current state of mental bondage portrayed the previously physically enslaved African in the West (Diaspora) there are still a number of holes that need plugging if you want to convince us that the white man or Western European ought to be exonerated from the act of slavery aka genocide both physically culturally.
For examples:
The Western European especially the Catholics from the Iberian peninsula deliberate decimation of the indigenous populations of the South & North American continents and the Caribbean.
We are certain you know of your own San Salvador history when the natives of the what is known today as the Bahamian archipelago save Columbus’s sorry ass from starvation and thirst.
How do you explain the western European sailing to, what we call today, Australia and New Zealand and killing off many of the natives and taking their lands and resources. Similar thing happened in South Africa and Zimbabwe; lands the white man found to be hospitable for his existence.
The question to you, therefore, is whether these “victims” of European genocide, exploitation and colonisation are also victims of ‘self-destruction’ like American and Caribbean blacks or is it something ordained by Nature or by your European god as clearly stated in your religious text and prescribed by the Pope or King James et al?
LikeLike
@millertheanunnaki December 31, 2014 at 4:53 PM #
Tribes have killing off each other over many millenia…..same melanin…..different melanin does not matter.
What holes do you want plugged…….tribalism is part of our genetic make up….how are you going to eradicate it?
LikeLike
@millertheanunnaki,
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/30/western-living-yanomami-shaman-brazil
LikeLike
manilla, cowrie shells and glass beads jewellery is not payment for children lives
although portable is worthless currency
the tribalism feuds explains the illegal selling of lives that do not belong to their own family and tribe
illegal actions which are not excusable
LikeLike
Oh dear Bahamasred
you really have gone off into the deep end! Stick to the promotion of the Bahamas Economic model or should we say the Stafford Sands economic model or would that reveal that the world does belong to the”rich white boys”?!!
It seems to me that “success” for an economy, a society and for a people is measured by the degree to which said people live and think like Americans and North Europeans. So by that yardstick the Bahamas is a great success. Cuba will never be a success until it gives up its socialist model and joins the scramble for CocaCola, Burger King, Hollywood, Facebook and rap music!
As A.G. Fraser of the Bahamian Central Bank notes, Bahamas has leveraged its comparative advantages to great effect. What are these comparative advantages? The proximity of the Bahamas to the US, the ease of travel between the US and the Bahamas and Bahamas geographical character as an archipelago which provides a variety of travel experiences to visitors (mainly from the US). The US, the US the US…
Click to access sssmodel.pdf
Your list of major capital projects (container transhipment port, cruise ship repair facility and BahaMar and while you did not mention it casinos) all have the fingerprints of the “rich white boys” and ok the rich Chinese boys.
So I plead guilty to “believing” the world belongs to “rich white boys” but only because nobody really offers anything else especially not you!
Also just for your information, Iceland is a member of the European Economic Area which allows the free movement of goods, services and people between Europe and Iceland.
As to your jaundiced view of West Africans let us take a little walk down memory lane and review the story of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and his attempt to build an a hydroelectric plant and an aluminum smelter.
LikeLike
LikeLike
@ Exclaimer
I note that I lose most of the ‘poor black us’ crowd the minute I mention another former victim state (Japan) that, on account of its cultural mentality, does not take adversity as an excuse for self-pity, but for learning and moving ahead.
What Japan’s being a coloniser and hated by its neighbours adds to this discussion is a matter known only to you. Successful human beings and human societies have exploited and dominated their neighbours throughout history, including Africans (ever hear of the Zulu Mfecane pillage through southern Africa?). That is a sad fact of human nature.
My point is not about morality (which you seem to use as a test to place strong nations on one side and weak ones as ‘victims’). Rather, it was about self-interest and being the agent of your own fate. It was about making sure you are on the strong side of history.
You resist being lumped with Japan (which only just resisted colonial subjugation) because you identify as a victim and think it uppity of me not to. I understand that mentality, because I have observed it for years.
@Ping Pong
Wow, you are lost?
So, you think it odd that investments in the Bahamas (or anywhere else) should have the fingerprints of ‘rich white boys’? You see some conspiracy behind that? I see only history and capitalism, which changes colour as easily as it changes the location of its concentration. Right now it is turning yellow. That does not mean yellow people are somehow destined to be victors and everyone else victims. It just is a plain fact of a shifting economic balance of power. For our region, it has been a boon, of have you really not noticed?
The Bahamas has a population of 350,000. Have you heard of an American or European city with a population of 350,000 where all the hotels, fast food chains, banks and industry belongs to locals? So why would you expect that of a country of 350,000. Obviously, the domestic sector (retailing, the professions, real estate…..) are reserved for locals, which own these sectors. But even in the US, the internationally traded sectors are NOT local.
You cannot be that ignorant.
By the way, Sir Stafford Sands is a hero of mine. He once said that a piece of paper will sit still and let you write anything on it. He was saying that not everything you read should be taken seriously. The same can be said of a computer keyboard.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@millertheanunnaki
I concede all you say about the evils of individual European peoples or societies at different points in their history. They are just like any other humans, morally speaking. There is no racial content to individual good or evil.
But what I am talking about is the virtue of taking responsibility for yourself and expecting nothing of others. If I am out innocently camping in the Serengeti and am set upon by lions, do I (having escaped) sit around moping about those evil lions? Do I try to call together a wildlife counsel to get reparations from the lions?.
NO. That would be unhealthy, unhelpful and an utter waste of time. Rather, I would think “silly me. I was caught napping in the middle of the freaking Serengeti! Let me go get my act together, take responsibility for myself and make sure I am in such state that if those lions (or Hyenas or Wild dogs) return, I will make it worth their while to pass me up in favour of some Gazelles”.
If you are a REAL PERSON (like Exclaimer see the Japanese, Chinese and whites) then your fate can NEVER be somebody else’s fault. It is always yours. That should be a matter of pride.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Slavery was bigger Crime than Holocaust. Global Racism (White Supremacy) Justification for Slavery was bigger crime than Nazi’s hate for Jews
LikeLike
@ bahamared
Amen again.
LikeLike
If you was a negro born in slavery, or a negro born in segregation, or a negro born in racist society or a negro born in poverty you would learn not to get burned owned and controlled by small minded hateful paranoid white race disrespecting you and your children or you are still and always will be a negro slave
LikeLike
@ bahamared
The “sound of your thunder” makes sense
It would be interesting to see if the Lightning which normally follows thunder will be transformed into useful energy or fizzle into the ether like I believe CARICOM in its current incarnation, manned by fossilized minds, an impossible personification, has.
One.
If you could suggest one area where you would implement such a practicuum that would manifest an alternative, your alternative, to the “woe is me” or the Othello like mentality that many of us are beset by ” Haply for I am black and have not those soft parts of conversation that chamberers have”
I too have hope and seek a thunderer like Thor or Indra with real thunderbolts and no “word song”
LikeLike
i was all in agreement with baharmed on small island mentality and islanders waiting for the goose with the golden egg to show up at their doorstep to save them from annihilation. absolutely correct
however bahamred trying to stay on point and having a zeal to be obviously correct and to chastise and be critical became over zealous and mistakenly obscured or even ignore the damage inflicted on small islands during colonial reign and the hardships still being felt induced by psychological scars and activated by low self esteem with the probability and intent to reinforce a hardened need to be dependent on others. yes with sound argument it is a bad place to be,
Moving forward and yet looking backward one can concede that these small islands state( have )a hard road to hoe and had not for outside help that road would be much harder e.g the bahamas has piggy back on the influence of the USA to propel and escalate its tourism industry , yes there are lions sitting waiting to devour its prey but then again some of the prey are too small to chase.
In the final analysis small islands nations would have to do what is in their best interest to move forward and pretense and wishful thinking is not going to do it,
LikeLike
@ Piece
“If you could suggest one area where you would implement such a practicuum that would manifest an alternative, your alternative, to the “woe is me” or the Othello like mentality that many of us are beset by….”
++++++++++++++++++++++
Is this not a MAJOR undertaking…?
….the classical solution to this problem would be for the country to invest in an education system that would research and disseminate an unbiased historical facts, develop a strategic vision for the future, and inculcate this knowledge into the population.
No doubt this is what Dipper had in mind, as did Nkrumah and some other visionaries…..
Had we done this, we would have developed a true and proper appreciation of our real worth; of the strength and resilience of our forefathers; and of our history.
We would have a clear vision of where we want to be in this world, what we want for a future, and of our abilities to actualize this vision.
…..but then we got people like Sir Cave Hilary involved….
…..we imported those ‘educated’ by the enemy to teach our ‘trildren’ about their inferiorities; their need for AID; their need for foreign investments….
…..we appointed vision-less jackasses as leaders – whose mission in life is to emulate the very people who seek to enslave us….
shiite man…..
…..we are begging for ‘reparations’ from the very enemy – the ultimate ignominy !!!
Sorry Piece, there is no other description that can fit…..
….the ONLY suitable explanation…
BRASS BOWLS……
Of course there is always the NON classical solution…..
But wunna fellows feel that the BBE approach is a joke….
LikeLiked by 1 person
http://tinyurl.com/ojsbrur
LikeLike
No one is begging for reparations
They are fighting for it in Court peacefully and legally
Attempting to do full Justice for the Cause to get Justice for Past Present and Future perspective
LikeLike
@ Bush Tea
I get really scared when I read what you write because the enormity of the challenge and the futility of discussing it is enough to distress and dissuade the spirit.
You are so right about implementing a national psyche indoctrination that a serious education programme, led by someone other than “the thrildrun are is learning” Jones Minister of Eddy Kashun, would do.
We are living in Revelations around the 8 chapter prior to the first cataclysmic earthquake…
Peradventure my Lord that there are but …. who love you, and do your commandments, will you save us from the things therein spoken of ???
LikeLike
@ US Slave
Good name…..
reflects your mentality…
But you see Bushie…?
The bushman will NOT be taking no animal who raped his grandparents for 500 years to no damn court looking for no damn amount of money to compensate….
…especially a court run by the same damn animals….
But it is not difficult to see how this could make sense to a slave….
LikeLike
US Slave is the name of Blog
see link
LikeLike
@Bush Tea January 1, 2015 at 8:57 AM #
You have started the New Year making sense…..except for the BBE……chuckle
LikeLike
@ Piece
Want to know what IS frightening…?
When you assess this world from the BBE perspective (as if any other perspective is relevant) it becomes patently clear that the VERY BEST option would be to assemble all the brass bowls together; melt them in one big fire, and start all over again …. cause it is abundantly clear that brass bowls will be brass bowls….
What is unique about Barbados is that it has had a uniquely excellent chance to be a model of what some polish and care could have done to transform brass bowls into ornaments of beauty….
….In terms of the kind of leadership we enjoyed up to the 1980’s
….the social and economic development that RESULTED from sound leadership
….the foundation of prioritizing and investing in education
….the infrastructural development
….the initial focus on owning national assets…
Talk what shiite yuh like, in those days, Barbados WAS the best place on earth…. (obviously no UN assessment would ever acknowledge that fact, but Bushie affirms it 🙂 )
Then came the philistines…..
Boss…
That Revelations Earthquake is now overdue…..
…and very appropriate in the circumstances.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have Racist Courts in Racist Countries with Racist Histories
Those are the Courts that Negros will be filling their cases for Reparations
What are you scaredy-cats scared of, losing a case
LikeLike
@ US Slave January 1, 2015 at 9:31 AM #
US Slave is the name of Blog
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
apologies…
But Bushie’s same sentiments goes to the blog then….
Bushie is the descendant of REAL kings and queens.
More importantly, the Bushman is one of BBE sons….
shiite man….
What slave talk what?!?!
Wuh even if a fellow were to capture and physically enslave the bushman ….he will not be holding a ‘slave’, but a KING to ransom…..
…and you can rest assured that his ass will pay the appropriate price in the fullness of time……all the way to his many generations….
LikeLike
Bush Tea wrote “…..we imported those ‘educated’ by the enemy to teach our ‘trildren’ about their inferiorities; their need for AID; their need for foreign investments….
…..we appointed vision-less jackasses as leaders – whose mission in life is to emulate the very people who seek to enslave us….”
now go read about Sir Stafford Sands
http://www.jabezcorner.com/Grand_Bahama/oulaha1.htm
Bahamasred thinks I am arguing with him but he’s mistaken. I am just acknowledging that his model is the only one on the table whether I agree with it or not. That said don’t promote the Bahamas model and then try to disparage me for observing the dominance of the “rich white boys”. Don’t disparage me for observing that the model is characterised by conspicuous consumption of the culture, the products and the thinking of the the “rich white boys”. Don’t disparage me because I may naively ask “but is there ever enough?” and question why if one is not chasing Facebook, Hennessy and Remi weave then one is supposed to be poor. Don’t disparage me because in my childlike innocence I ask what makes a Burger King Burger “better” than a Pink Star liver cutter or why the Wards had to sell Mount Gay to Remy Martin or why the credit unions can’t have a bank, or why Cost U Less was supposed to lower the cost of living, or why we need CAHILL to establish a waste to energy plant, or why we cuss the BLP for allowing the sale of land to foreigners but not the DLP for promoting economic citizenship of the same foreigners or , or or …. get the point!
We need to stop the hypocritical posturing and just be honest and acknowledge that we are chasing the Stafford Sands model and once having done that please take Barrow’s statue down, hand back the 1966 Independence Order and lets get the Sands model working “right”!!
LikeLike
@ Bush Tea
The modus (and meter) of “US Slave” is Easy Squeeze aka Make No Riot, she is known to the court muh lud
@ US Slave
Not that we are scared of winning the case.
It is more so the knowledge of know we will loose it a forehand, losing it and the colossal waste of scholarly effort and HR which could be better deployed using this cadre of warriors who are attuned to the fight in national psyche indoctrination for us niggas, by us smarter niggas for a wiser more resilient and economically independent future nigga.
Repatriation is a King Canute endeavour we cannot stay the reach of the waves…
LikeLike
Piece
Reparations is about lodging a Case in Courts as Statement of Facts and letting History Judge righteously. You take your Wins and Losses as life experiences and lessons. Winning basic human rights is not really winning anything. Life can be defined as fighting for rights
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was having problems posting up US Slaves Blog link since yesterday
and tried different permutations of my name and comment to determine who was blacklisted (whitelisted)
LikeLike
@ Kiki /Easy
Reparations is about lodging a Case in Courts as Statement of Facts and letting History Judge righteously.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
…surely you are not naive enough to expect righteous judgment from the very people who saw it fit, legal and morally upright to treat your fore parents like animals for 500 years, and who show no real inclinations to a different perspective even today – except that some physical LAWS exist, that prevent their overt continuation….. a la blacks in the USA today…
….besides, HOW MUCH would you accept as appropriate compensation for your ancestors’ blood? what will satisfy you in US dollars or Euros?
Let’s say they agree to pay twice whatever you choose to ask….
Could you live with the shame?
What EXACTLY would you do with the blood money? …buy mercedes for all the children of victims? Build infrastructure to mimic the people that you sued?
Look boss…
The right and proper response of a REAL king who had be held in bondage, and who won his freedom after 500 years, is not to stoop and beg at the feet of his captors, but to quickly re-establish his kingdom by utilizing and excelling at the those unique qualities that are inherent in royalty….
THEN he is in position to enforce TRUE JUSTICE and to honour his ancestors’ sacrifices…
….naivety, begging and scraping are NOT among those qualities, which include self confidence, leadership, justice, creativity, fearlessness, self-respect…..
LikeLike
@Bush Tea
You are wrong if you believe reparation is just about money.
LikeLike
This matter of reparations is being shut down by NSA GCHQ spies and propaganda, meanwhile they are pushing out propaganda of slavery elsewhere
A Case filed is a Case filed which must be looked at in Law. If Racist Courts in Racist Countries can block the case then it proves that they are still racist warmongers, they control what is in the interests of their Country and would kill and murder you for thinking radically different
LikeLike
David January 1, 2015 at 10:52 AM #
@Bush Tea
You are wrong if you believe reparation is just about money.
………………………………………………………..
David
What is it about?
LikeLike
My name’s not David, but establishing wrongs of white versus black slavery and white versus black supremacy and white versus black racism and white versus black bias in Court of Law would be one step towards remedying the white versus black injustices past and present and onwards towards future in terms of harmony and equal rights
LikeLiked by 1 person
@I Would Know Him January 1, 2015 at 12:28 PM #
In the real world…..right and wrong does not exist…….a future of harmony and equal rights,is a utopian dream……the world that we live in is geared towards constant animosity based on differences of which melanin content is only one of many differences.
This world as BT tries to explain time and time again is based on superior strength,either of arms or brains.
LikeLike
“The world that we live in” is created by yourself unless you allow others to create their version of the world for you. The connectedness of past wrongs still manifesting as present wrongs are seamless. The solution is identification and understanding the problem from history to present 2015. If you let USA-UK dictate policy you may as well suck their dicks
LikeLike
@I Would Know Him January 1, 2015 at 12:51 PM #
Thanks for making BTs point pellucidly clear,since he does not intend to be dictated to ,either in the courts or what goes into his mouth……….
LikeLike
Well its happening (the Caricom Reparations Case) and your chatter is helping them defeat you as you are psyched out mentally
LikeLike
@I Would Know Him January 1, 2015 at 1:05 PM #
…..to each their own……..enjoy
LikeLike
LikeLike
@Vincent
The topic of reparations is an emotive one and clearly not a black and white issue. BU’s view is known to you and those who contribute to this forum. Much of the developed world, especially England, was built on the backside of slavery. It was wrong, it was an immoral act which history has indelibly recorded. In simple terms it was state sponsored and it would be remiss of the Black race if history does not record that we try to address it. Spin it how you want and we can agree to disagree.
LikeLike
To those of you who are dismissive of reparations be very careful. You risk both denying and trivialising your history.
LikeLike
Slavery references on internet will be deleted
LikeLike
Money can’t buy you love
but the greedy man wanted to rob you
steal and breed your children for slavery
make them live in bondage
there is no moral or legal justification
except everyone else robbed Africa
until it was all taken up..
Hitler was forced to scapegoat Jews
and invade Poland instead
if you can’t spot racism
in culture you must be blind
truth is white is afraid of black
and afraid of reparations cases
and black unity
black strength is stronger than weaknesses
LikeLike
When will people take time to learn and understand history as opposed to bits and pieces from search engines.
So 500 years of west African/European trade existed that made both entities rich,as Obasanjo of Nigeria confirmed in Bim some years ago.
Re-read Bahama Red or Bush Tea and then tell me how somebody saying sorry is going to help you.
LikeLike
“So 500 years of west African/European trade existed that made both entities rich”
Glass Beads for people did not make any one rich
Europeans leveled the African Settlements and Cities that were even more advanced than Europe (such as Timbuktu)
When Africans sold competing tribes off to Europeans did they have much choice when dealing with the nice Europeans
LikeLike
Sorry is an admittance of a wrong.it is the highest form of truthfulness to be extracted from a perpitrator it is proof positive that those who did orcommited the wrong takes full ownership for the act or wrong doing that they did to another person or entity.
In seeking or pursuing the alleged perpitrator the first step of acknowledgement is prove that a wrongful act or deed was committed by the perpitrator
LikeLike
@ AC
Sorry is an admittance of a wrong.it is the highest form of truthfulness to be extracted from a perpitrator it is proof positive that those who did orcommited the wrong takes full ownership for the act or wrong doing that they did to another person or entity
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
…in that case, Bushie is SORRY to have considered you to be a total and complete jackass for all these years on BU……
Hopefully you can now sleep peacefully at night …..and the man may even come back from Arizona…..
..and if yuh want some reparations, feel free to apply for a few Grantleys after signing the appropriate forms and waivers of course….
…..bowl!
Sorry is a WORD…… period.
LikeLike
God Remembers Those who Repent
Leviticus 5:5
when anyone becomes aware that they are guilty in any of these matters, they must confess in what way they have sinned.
Numbers 5:7
and must confess the sin they have committed. They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged.
Leviticus 26:40
“But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me.
maybe the women are the rebellious ones who will sort out the reparations
LikeLike
@ Easy
Those references are about people who WILLINGLY come to a realization of guilt. Not to those on whom a court may confer guilt.
If you were right then THE perpetrators themselves (or their descendants) would be the ones convening the trials.
Did a duly convened court not acquit OJ Simpson?
Did anyone believe that the verdict was binding?
Did they not lock his pooch up anyway…?
You can take a racist to water (or court), but cannot make him drink, (….or wash his heart pure…..)
LikeLike
after the accuser extract the truthfulness that an illegal act had/ or being unjustifiably committed by the perpetrator ,next comes a formal guarantee by way of action by the perpetrator said action can be either by monetary or spoken or written word that may be executed in the form of an apology
LikeLike
Even the Europeans (descendents) admit that Slavery was wrong which is indisputable but will attempt to get off on technicality such as crimes were committed hundred years ago which can be challenged like Kenyan brutalities.
If Courts do deem Babylon not guilty, then the Courts will prove themselves partial and not fit for purpose as the legal system is on trial too
LikeLike
bushite .. i have something personnal to tell u but i would save it for later maybe after i take my midnite nap, ram goat..
LikeLike
LikeLike