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Caribbean Countries Should Integrate or be Left Behind

Alicia Nicholls – Caribbean Trade Law and Development blog A few days ago I had the pleasure of being on the Regional Integration panel at the 17th Annual SALISES Conference held this year in Barbados where I presented a paper co-authored with founder and president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Young Professionals Network (ACP…

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Secretary General, Irwin La Rocque
Secretary General, Irwin La Rocque
Alicia Nicholls – Caribbean Trade Law and Development blog

A few days ago I had the pleasure of being on the Regional Integration panel at the 17th Annual SALISES Conference held this year in Barbados where I presented a paper co-authored with founder and president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Young Professionals Network (ACP YPN), Miss Yentyl Williams. The consensus all the panelists had reached in our papers was that as small fish in a very large pond, Caribbean countries are facing a growing swell of global trade and other socio-economic tides which are deepening our marginalisation in the global economy.

We argued that the region desperately needed to deepen and widen its integration process or face being further relegated to the back of the global shoal. Of course, what we were saying was not novel and indeed, has been one of the oldest and most compelling justifications for the regional integration project.

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169 responses to “Caribbean Countries Should Integrate or be Left Behind”

  1. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Vincent
    Give it up…
    You can’t handle that…

  2. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    @Ping Pong

    The Clintons are the key Banking Cartel agents! Hillary will do nothing to piss off the Banks.
    Under Bill’s Admin the key legislation, The Glass Steagel Act was repealed, this led to the Financial Crisis that has been paid for by the People of the US and the World! Part 2 of the Crisis is coming real soon—-thanks Clintons!

  3. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ MoneyBrain
    …man tek it easy nuh skippa….
    Yuh don’t teach calculus in an 11 plus class…

    We here trying to explain basic binary arithmetic ..and you into deep calculus…

  4. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    @Chad9999

    U behaving real racist doh! (even though your analysis is probably correct)

    @WW

    Wuhloss so Whitey is really not the only bad player! Like I bin saying fah ears it is HUMANS behaving badly that is the real problem! Cant trust humans to lead proper! Corruption is the easy way out or to the “promised land of milk, honeys and money!

  5. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Caribbean Integration….not likely.

    Caribbean countries improving trade and “cooperating”……..possible and desirable.

  6. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ MoneyB
    Whitey is really not the only bad player! Like I bin saying fah ears it is HUMANS behaving badly that is the real problem!
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++
    You feel that you smart yuh know….

    So what is the problems with vicious dogs then….?
    Is it that all dogs are aggressive ..and will bite your ass when provoked….
    …or simply that the pitbull, doberman, rottweilers and a few other breeds are outstandingly so…?

  7. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Moneybrain…we always knew whitey is not the only bad guy, whitey just exploits situations, we gotta be fair….but, just like the pretence that there is no corruption on the island and no murders for hire, they leaders go waltzing around on their merry way, in lala land happily denying their denial.

    Hope all is well with you MoneyB…..these leaders, cause I am tired cussing them, need to be guided by someone, I would choose Canada over the US, because it’s more liberal, despite the racism and other issues…but in saying that Canada is still struggling with the dollar, refugees they are trying to help and other social issues.

    All the taxpayer’s money was wasted on educating the jackasses for leaders and professionals in the Caribbean…vex with the ones in Barbados particularly.

  8. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    MoneyB…that’s why so many young people do not want to see Clinton in the WH..at all, at all.

  9. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    WW
    Interesting how the young ladies hate her! Only the older females like Steinem etc just want a Woman Pres at all costs!

  10. ac Avatar
    ac

    Bush shit u can take your stinking advice and use it to energize BUP btw next time bring some original ideas

  11. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Therein lies the danger in the election, older females wanting a female president at all cost without caring that Clinton is not one of the females, but one of the greedy wall street parasites, one of the guys who takes money from big pharma, big business…pure poison. …lots of danger ahead..MoneyB

  12. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    WW

    Little do they know that Hilary was forbidden from wearing short skirts in the WH because when she bent over one could see her nuts!!! Woman my ass!!!

  13. ac Avatar
    ac

    WW&C wait bozie today you dont have any dragons to slay. Keep trying boozo one day coming soon you would see who is the jac a.sss .

  14. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Ping Pong et al
    The MF Group are lawyers and trust agents. Not a financial institution.
    Hence what the hackers have found is the tangled web of companies and trusts they bring to life for their clients.
    While very well known in offshore circles globally, they have their most favoured locations, and this hasn’t traditionally included the southern Caribbean.
    You will note the Cayman Islands are not mentioned either. [largely the BVI, Bahamas and Anguilla]
    I expect the next tranche might include ties to financial bodies, obvious via omission in the first bomb drop.
    I expect Bim will be spared.

  15. David Avatar
    David

    Here was a serious discussion going on until…

  16. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    @David

    Until some mirth was overdue??????

  17. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David,

    Hants April 4, 2016 at 11:51 AM #

  18. David Avatar
    David

    @MB

    No objections to injecting some mirth but let us do it without hijacking the topic.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    Thanks Hants.

  20. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Northern…until those international arrest warrants start coming out, after investigations.

    MoneyB. ..people believe Hillary is female and easy, lottle do they know, but they will learn if Sanders does not get the nomination.

  21. David Avatar
    David

    As the world escalate it’s fight against terrorism – now a faceless threat – offshore centres will become easy targets. Caricom must ask the hard questions, how can we work together to to ring fence this business.

  22. Sunshine Sunny Shine Avatar
    Sunshine Sunny Shine

    We are thought or should I say led to believe, that with numbers come strength, that united we can stand and divided we will fall, that one match stick is easier to break than 40 put together, and that where there is unity there is strength. We are also provided with evidence that when alliances are forged to combat a common enemy they are forged on the basis that the enemy of my enemy is my friend thus the success of victory stands a better chance in relation as oppose to remaining adversarial. If I am to believe in these sayings there must be evidence to support what unity can do that individualism cannot. What mergers can do that a non-merger cannot.

    What I know and can see is that a United Caribbean stands a better chance towards improving its relationships with each other thus leading to a Caribbean that can, hopefully, change its economic predicaments through an inter alia cooperate exchange of ideas, new approaches, business ventures, innovative endeavours, mergers and strategies that, if endeavoured, could bring about changes better suited to the dynamics of the Caribbean. This could easily produce a more structured system that could pave the way for bettering the islands’ fragile state.

    Since the focus on previous attempts to unify the Caribbean were by approaches that had the wrong focuses such as developing a single market economy and one currency (right idea wrong approach), and the need for the free movement of people that created conflicts and raised tempers as people believe that the poorer would seize the opportunity to migrate towards the better (right idea but wrong approach), it makes more sense having a corporative unity that can build up the Caribbean’s business sector to develop mechanisms of inter-Caribbean trade, first, where the Caribbean people are both the producers and consumers of its products.

    A cooperative approach would simply remove the dependencies for foreign goods and place the burden of production on the Caribbean people to utilized all the islands of the Caribbean to establish various industries to produce the require items its people demand. Thus, cooperative economics could easily usher in a strengthening of the islands’ financial positions, providing much-needed jobs as demands for goods and services increases, and dependencies on particular foreign goods decreases. This would make it easier for the free movement of people as persons could easily be transferred from one island to the next to fill positions or deficiencies where labour of all kinds are needed, without persons having to worry about other Caribbean people they like to call foreigners, stealing their jobs.

    The cooperative approach, as indicated by Bush Tea makes greater sense for a Caribbean Unity approach to be successful. This is because if focuses on establishing the right mechanisms for improving economies of scales from the bottom up with innovations, creations, development, skills, productions and so on, for all to benefit and feel comfortable and not just a select few who wants to control the reigns and dictate the paces.

    We have to Co-operate, build, produce and establish our own brands to have any type of economic recognition where the Caribbean can be seen as producers rather than beggars.

  23. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David
    “…offshore centres will become easy targets. Caricom must ask the hard questions, how can we work together to to ring fence this business.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    What (in the last 20 years,) have given you ANY hope or indication of pending improvements…?

    Sometime you REALLY worry Bushie yuh know skippa…
    You make it seem – on occasion – that you fully expect the calvary to come charging over the horizon …with their righteous guns blazing… to save us all from the wicked outlaws…

    You like you spent too much time in the Roxy hear?
    Those cowboy movies were FICTION… The truth is that the ‘bad-boys’ won after all.
    They outwitted the heroes, took control of the women and closed the church.

    The Bar is now open 24/7 and more and more outlaws are being attracted to our town…
    drunkenness and folly now rule the streets….
    There is only ONE WAY that this particular movie will end….

  24. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    ” critically ill sugar industry is being pushed closer to its grave by people who continue to illicitly burn the canefields”

  25. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    SSS….The bumbling governments go sign on to all these free trade agreements outside the region, where the free trade of goods flows into the Caribbean, but very little flows out to the big countries, to generate cash flow, once the region continues to be flooded with those foreign goods, cooperatives will find it difficult to survive…not to mention it’s more expensive to travel within the region than to North America….it’s deliberately made dofficult, they do not have much needed ferry services, they never saw the importance after Selby stopped his service somewhere in the 80s…tourism became king and they all lost the ability to think……we now witness the fallout.

    There is plenty work to do to reverse the one way flow of goods and get those cooperatives on stream…get some ferries rollong through the Caribbean, but who will start…..which one has the intelligence.

  26. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    *rolling…

  27. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Jamaica is doing something right.

    “Canada’s exports to Jamaica in 2014 totaled $120.7 million and consisted mostly of animal & products, chemical products and vegetable products.

    Canadian imports from Jamaica in 2014 stood at $264.6 million and consisted mostly of chemical products and food products.”

  28. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ The Honourable Blogmaster

    I really don’t think you realise what “ring fence this business” particularly as such relates to this faceless threat called terrorism.

    Observe how in something so simple as our Airport firemen they are up in arms regarding being scanned.

    Familiarity and laxness in rules and regulations are the key factors which facilitate successful incursions.

    It is because a Check Point relaxes a procedure, and the watchmen let down their guard, it is just one incident of individual laxness that is required to take out a whole set of people.

    Unless one is the PM of a country or the VP, every other individual entering a restricted area SHOULD BE CHECKED, irrespective of diplomatic passport!!

    Why should GAIA remove that identity check from Airport Firemen who are going into duty free stores and buying liquor for friends every time they are on a shift?

    THe same way that they can be involved in tiefing $60 in DF taxes from GoB they can be seduced to take a package into a plane.

    I have some comments about this substantial Caricom Integration issue but I going and take some medicine and come back

  29. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “We argued that the region desperately needed to deepen and widen its integration process or face being further relegated to the back of the global shoal.”

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    There are shouts of insularity from regional leaders when cricketers from their respective islands are not selected for the West Indies teams, even in instances where their performances do not justify selection.

    Dr. Keith Mitchell of Grenada has been noticeable vocal in his criticism of the WICB. But Stuart, Gonsalves, Skerritt or Browne cannot solicit similar zeal from Mitchell as it relates to investing in LIAT.
    Yet, Grenada and other non contributing Caribbean islands benefit from airlift at the expense of Barbadian, Vincentian, Dominican and Antiguan tax payers.

    Jamaicans and Guyanese use their respective island/country’s ECONOMIC CONDITIONS as JUSTIFICATION for EXPLOITING “free movement” in the Caribbean. These people think it is their GOD given RIGHT to enter in any island, ENGAGE in EMPLOYMENT or ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES, ignoring that island’s laws and the six months stay guaranteed to CARICOM nationals stipulates EMPLOYMENT is PROHIBITED.

    Jamaicans also use the island’s economic circumstances as an excuse for consistently trafficking illegal drugs into other islands. When caught they are imprisoned and fed at the expense of that island’s taxpayers.

    Caribbean Governments are fighting to disband the WICB and establish a new organizational structure for West Indies cricket. How does Keith Mitchell seek to achieve this objective when……….

    ………. there isn’t any collective or definitive opinion on islands investing in LIAT;

    ……… there isn’t any collective or definitive agreement on the CCJ, since some governments have refused to sign on to the Court, however, it automatically becomes the first option when their citizens feel aggrieved at being denied entry in other jurisdictions;

    ………for years regional governments have avoided a collective or definitive agreement on CARICOM.

    The there are prime ministers who, rather than try to “deepen and widen (the) integration process,” they seek to engage in CHILDISH hostile verbal and insular attacks on other islands.

    Case in point, Gaston Browne. From the time he became PM of Antigua, he launched CHILDISH attacks on Barbados. Browne has assured Antiguans that the USA embassy will be moved from Barbados to Antigua, as well as the UWI.

    These are just a few of the many underlying issues that must be solved before we can have a serious discussion about integration.

  30. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    @ bushie
    re that you fully expect the calvary to come charging over the horizon …with their righteous guns blazing… to save us all from the wicked outlaws…

    ACTUALLY THIS VERY THING IS SET TO HAPPEN VERY SOON AS IS PREDICTED IN JUDE 14-15
    And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
    To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him…………..AH LIE?

  31. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    I am going to axe a few ignorant questions as a fellah who left school at 11+

    Wunna remember getting a report card at school wid wunna marks? I do and since i was real ingrunt I remember hiding it causing each year I wud get my ass buss fuh being dumpsy.

    fuh all de years CARICOM has been in existence could someone show de ole man a scorecard of its performance?

    score·card ˈskôrkärd, noun
    (in sports) a card, sheet, or book in which scores are entered.
    (in business) a statistical record used to measure achievement or progress toward a particular goal. as in “he’s also insisting that all employees get regular scorecards on productivity and profitability measures”

    It doan have to be nuffin sophisticated but I am going to use a UN Report about cooperation between Small Island States to draft what it should look like.

    List of Partnerships and cooperations. With whom? When Established? what are the KPIs? etc

    What are the programs geared towards reduction of import bills? Specifically fossil fuels? Renewable energy?

    Can Caricom quantify the input of alll of its international development partners? What is the quantum of technical assistance? By Sector? By agency? e.g. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Labour Organization (ILO) IBD, EU? and all the rest

    What were the results?

    Number of Scholarships? market diversification initiatives? reduction in our dependence on international trade”? how many jobs created? what was the impact on youth unemployment? how many multi-stakeholder partnerships created? where are they? what are they doing at today? How many small businesses were created? where are they today? what is the state of business matchmaking? is there any robust climate to support these businesses? when the statistics are disaggregated what do they reflect per the economic empowerment of women? is the region collectively pursuing pertinent youth vocational training programmes? Is there any concerted effort to promote business intelligence platforms using information and communications technology? Does the monopoly and subjugation enforced by the rapists LIME, FLOW DIGICEL foster any possible climate for meaningful participation in the burgeoning global mobile markets? what are the opportunities in organic agriculture? Do our countries have a clue about effecting efficient value chains?

    If any uh wunna braniacs cud tell de ole man all uh dis in simple terms like de reportcard dat i used to get at school den all uh dis fandangled article wud mek sense but until wunna does all it mean is dat Laroque and de resta dem fellah getting dem per diem like Pamela Cooke Hamilton enjoying hers at Caribbean Export

  32. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Jamaica is one of the few island nations doing a brisk export trade to larger coountries…from coffee to coconut water, drinks, food etc. Trinidad and a few others also export internationally on a large scale…but it could be larger.

    Piece…what I and any EU delegate can tell is that hundreds of millions of EU grants have passed through the hands of Caribbeam governments over many decades……particularly for agriculture…I attended a seminar some years ago where Caribbean farmers swore the money never reached them.

    Since agriculture is a running political joke in Barbados, I cannot tell you what they did with the money, you will have to ask them….

    .Carib Export is the latest recipient of EU grants in the hundreds of millions, we all see in the public court records how well that is not working out for people to whom the money is designated, is the Coke-Hamilton gang still waiting with hands and mouth open for that 134 million EU draw down tranche.

    We all know who the problems are, they even have diplomatic immunity, to add insult to injury…so how will Caribbean people get rid of those titled, but not entitled…..parasites.

  33. David Avatar
    David

     
     
    TnT PATRIOTS <tt.patriot@yahoo.com>

    17:04 (5 hours ago)

    FIFA globally & regionally next. Then, drilling down into T&T politics, expect the explosive expose…. and not only one political party in T&T. And not only politicians. Business always find a way to make a profit from these dealings. MIAMI HERALD has a story today on the South Florida housing bubble fueled with hot LATAM money…

    You can subscribe to https://www.icij.org/ for mails on investigative journalism, and at Transparncy Intl for update mails… see this

    The OAS Connection

    The leaked files provide valuable clues to Emrith’s business dealings through a Panamanian-registered shell vehicle named Pendrey Associates Corporation and his US million-dollar connection to Brazilian construction giant, Construtora OAS, which was contracted by the People’s Partnership administration in July 2011 to build a contentious and yet-to-be finished US-billion-dollar highway extension to Point Fortin.

    Pendrey’s transaction trail details a complex web of shell corporations across borders, US million-dollar payments routed through the international financial system and a cast of convicted OAS construction executives and money launderers connected to Brazil’s largest-ever corruption scandal, which has battered the nation’s president, Dilma Rousseff, and threaten to ensnare another former president, Luis Inacio Lula de Silva, on suspicion of kickbacks related to a beachfront property.

    The MF files expose the connection between Emrith’s Panamanian offshore Pendrey Associates and key figures connected to the Petrobras bribery scandal, namely Joao Procopio, who was convicted of financial crimes, and Jose Luiz Pires, from the investment firm Queluz which had direct financial dealings with Swiss PKB Privatbank AG. Pires is the subject of a police probe.

    Exclusive investigation: Ken Emrith linked to Brazil bribery scandal

    Exclusive investigation: Ken Emrith linked to Brazil bribery scandal

    Part I: Ken Emrith, business consultant and a former low-level party functionary of the United National Congress…

    ————————-

    POLICE RAPID RESPONSE – call 911 or 999 

    * Protect Our Children – REPORT CHILD ABUSE!

    CHILDLINE 800-4321 Children’s Authority 800-2014

    NATIONAL FAMILY SERVICES DIVISION 627-1163

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    “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”

    ― John Milton

  34. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Panama Papers.

    http://www.theguardian.com/news/live/2016/apr/04/panama-papers-global-reaction-to-huge-leak-of-offshore-tax-files-live

  35. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    @ Well Well & Consequences.

    The world is changing.

    THe UK is contemplating its position in the EU, the migrant populations are overburdening the EU, and the parallel cultures that they once “tolerated” in their shores, they no longer want them there.

    Putin and his guys withdrew when they said “we’ve done enough to prop up your regime BUT here is where we withdraw because the “bleed from your civil war” is coming to my doorstep”

    “Much as I want your oil and forex, I do not want your teaming masses” Brek for yourself.

    NOw the trickle down effect.

    fellows meeting in Brussels dealing with the enemy at their gates, you think that they are going to cut their nose to spoil their face for a few West Indian brats and braggards who only interested in per diems?

    THe region has had billions of dollars of Direct and Indirect investment yet we cannot fill out a meaningful scorecard.

    You really think that the gravvy train is going to go on much longer?

    THe writing is on the wall, we have to reorient the Job Performance Indicators and tie them to deliverables.

    At 3 months, I will have delivered, 300 jobs, 1 industrial park, two sea egg projects, etc AT WHICH TIME I will be paid my salary AND NOT ONE CENT BEFORE!!

    Let the job applicants put their money where their mouths have been for the longest time PARASITES THAT THEY AND CARICOM ARE!!

  36. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    @Artax, I join with you in using the cricket team as the best palaver on regional integration or lack of.

    I readily appreciate the scholarly analysis of Ms Nicholls and her colleague but as was said at the onset, what new constructs are we extolling that have not been tabled by the Sir Sridaths, Dr Kurleigh King et al.

    The successes and failures of our cricket provide a perfect case study within proper context to get to the root of the missing trade partnership, private sector joint ventures and the like across the islands.

    I can only look at Bushie’s remark re the beer industry and be shocked at his interpretations. The exact thing that Ambev, the Miller Coors and the slew of many international beer companies did, we are being admonished that we should not have done. That makes absolute no sense to me.

    Banks, Hiroun, Red Stripe , Carib and all the other major beer brands regionally should have long been a private sector conglomerate. Absolutely, they would still have been a possible take over target but its also absolutely true that they would have been better placed to pick and choose with whom they wanted to be in partnership and more critically at what level of relationship.

    Anyone who has followed the beer industry knows that many international brands started to move across borders and partnered/took over others as drinking patterns/markets started to stagnate ad change markedly.

    And of course in doing that those larger corp did become take over targets by even bigger players and an industry that was regionally diverse soon became a market of a few big players.

    So would our Caribbean beer group have withstood that merger-mania …maybe not…BUT it still made good sense to have come together…improved bottom line, improved marketing power into the international markets etc etc.

    Business is about strategy and one adapts and moves according to the market and life demands. Clearly therefore there are (maybe now were) many practical reasons to amalgamate pan-Caribbean in many areas…but as we see with cricket one first has to overcome the petty slights, egos and conflicting interest and work towards the common good.

    Great success can be found that way…even as victory will still turn to defeats.

    If the common good is strong (think 50 ‘countries’ called the USA) there will be success. When the common-good is fractured and true cooperation is only a word (think EU) there will be failure.

    @Pieces, you were hitting quite hard there at 4:51pm. Very well said.

  37. Ping Pong Avatar
    Ping Pong

    Sigh. I have read the blog post. I am sure it would get an A+ as a term paper at UWI or some other university. However I am at a loss as how “integration” will result in (first) the production of goods and services that the rest of the world wants to buy and (secondly) the access to those markets that we currently cannot enter for one reason or the other. One thing “integration” will do, is add another layer of bureaucracy that will provide employment for the wordsmiths and navel gazers further impoverishing the majority of the people of the region at the expense of the few. We can talk for as long as we like, unless we produce the things we use or produce something that others are willing to buy and so give us the money to buy the things we use, the the talk is just hot air.

  38. David Avatar
    David

    At the mention of cricket, is it not the greatest irony our WI teams have won three major world titles of late yet the topic of conversation rivalling is the spat between the senior men’s team and the Cameron board with Prime Minister Mitchell adding his two cents to the fray? Woe is we!

  39. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Yes Jamaica is doing well??? From the Jamaica Gleaner in Jan 2015

    In Barbados, the minimum wage as at December last year was US$3.13 per hour, US$25.04 for an eight-hour day, or US$125.02 for a 40-hour workweek.

    In T&T, the minimum wage as at the end of 2014 was US$2.36 per hour, US$18.88 per eight-hour day or US$94.40 for a 40-hour work week.

    In Jamaica, our minimum wage is US$1.21 per hour, US$9.68 for an eight-hour day, and US$48.40 for a 40-hour workweek! That’s more than 60 per cent less than what the law mandates in Barbados and approximately 48 per cent less than in T&T!

    To use BushTea’s terminology, in albino economics Jamaica’s costs are so low they can export nuff, but the workers are struggling to feed themselves. If Bim wages were reduced by 60%, the entire island would be pun strike.

  40. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David…..

    We still think Caribbean Integration is possible right? lol

  41. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @PUDYR
    couldn’t resist
    “we have to reorient the Job Performance”
    we are re-ORIENTing and here is what it looks like…我們希望你的錢免費

  42. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Can’t be good for “low tax jurisdictions”

    “Panama Papers: UK PM Cameron’s father was Mossack Fonseca client”

  43. Exclaimer Avatar
    Exclaimer

    @ Alicia,

    I read your article and what struck me the most was its content and style. The template of your article is generic, lacking any identity, punctuated with cliché key words, uninspiring and here is the “kicker” it fails to offer a solution as to how the region can extricate itself from the shackles of a trading system designed specifically to keep our people depressed and enchained.

    Take a good look at the Caribbean region and ask yourself this question. Why is the whole region suffering with such high crime levels? The homicide rate in Barbados exceeds that of The USA! Let’s not discuss Jamaica, Trinidad or Guyana.

    The levels of corruption are off the scale; a country cannot evolve if it has no control over their levels of corruption. How do you propose to tackle this structural problem?

    What product, industry or service do we excel in that differentiates us from other countries in the world? What is so special and unique about our region? Can it be bottled, exported and gain us the foreign revenue that we so desperate to receive.

    Why are standards so low in our region?

    What makes you believe that those numerous island states with their high levels of dysfunctionality and poor levels of productivity could become stronger if they were to integrate their economies? I will give you an analogy. You are a mother of a young child and you need to find a good school for him/her. Would you be prepared to send that child to a school which attracted the wrong sort of kids: those who dealt drugs or were the children of criminals?

    Take a look at the appalling infrastructure of Barbados. Pit-latrines or standpipes have never disappeared. The roads are disintegrating and so are your heritage buildings. Look at how everything on the island looks half-complete.

    And, what of the Negro population which is becoming more marginalised and priced out of the region’s housing market.

    Alicia the Caribbean region needs original thinkers in order to develop and grow. Your intentions may be good but you are only capable of regurgitating what you have read in articles and books. You reflect the narrow values and beliefs of your peers.

    Who will benefit from integration in our region? Will it be the citizens or the elite? Let us get our house in order before we think of further integrating with our neighbours.

  44. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ GP
    “…THIS VERY THING IS SET TO HAPPEN VERY SOON AS IS PREDICTED IN JUDE 14-15”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    We know that GP, but it CLEARLY is not part of the plans of those who are tearing out their hair to understand the current perils…
    ..otherwise we would all be DEEPLY involved in some COMPLETELY DIFFERENT priorities as we speak.

    @ The Dribbler
    So would our Caribbean beer group have withstood that merger-mania …maybe not…BUT it still made good sense to have come together…improved bottom line, improved marketing power into the international markets etc etc
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    So you would have spent time, money and resources ‘coming together’, KNOWING FULL WELL that AMBEV would have eaten your ass anyway…??!!
    …and you STILL don’t get your lukewarmness??
    How about investing those same resources in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAY ….such as investing in LOCAL CREATIVITY, and INNOVATION……
    How about encouraging widespread local OWNERSHIP and involvement….. (Name a large Cooperative that can be ‘taken over; by the AMBEVs of this world).
    steupsss
    …blouse and skirts!!!

    @ Ping Pong
    Cuh shiite man. Did you have to put it so simply?
    ..at least you could have used some big words or some shiite….
    …yuh got Bushie sounding like ac in comparison…in trying to explain to these dribblers…
    Thanks boss.

    NorthernObserver

    The Barbados dollar has been overvalued by at least 70% for some time now. We should have been taking advantage of this imbalance to peak productivity, competitiveness and image, but instead, we have become lazy and laid back – apparently thinking (like the Methuselah at the Central Bank) that this rate is decided by the PM Froon and the Central bank’s whim and fancy…
    The OECS has enjoyed a similar (but slightly smaller) advantage on exchange rates, HOWEVER they seem to have exploited the advantage slightly better than we have.

    Perhaps they don’t have a Bizzy, COW or Maloney down there to extract large volumes of dollars for dubious purposes like desal and solid waste…

  45. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Hants April 4, 2016 at 3:49 PM #
    ” critically ill sugar industry is being pushed closer to its grave by people who continue to illicitly burn the canefields”
    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………
    That is in Jamaica. Barbados’ paltry canes this year , appear to be fire proof. Brush and grass fires are the order of the day, plus the tons of seized marijauna incinerated at Seawell .

  46. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Piece…the Icelander PM is under fir to tesign becsuse of his wife’s Panamanian offshore company, Cameron of England is feeling some hest….shit will hit fan and trickle while spreading.

    Coke-Hamilton Hamilton may as well fold up her tent and slither back to Jamaica, that big EU payout that they are dreaming about as retirement fund….will not happen.

    This is what we are trying to get the hard headed politicians and greedy people to understand.

    “Corruption and money laundering are not victimless crimes. The most vulnerable people in the world are harmed by financial secrecy.”

    They are all going to get caught eventually…all of them, think they slick, just wait.

  47. Suck Salt Editor Avatar
    Suck Salt Editor

    @David

    We’ve posted a comment on her blog on this. Alicia should do a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) version of this article.

    While it works for the academic and like-minded crowd – i.e., the minority – her important message is missing the majority of us common people. While she makes use of fishy metaphors (nicely done by the way), the rest of us are in the trenches supporting families, scrounging around for a few dollars for a top up, trying to earn a living, barely getting by, going by the stand-pipe to catch water, hustling for a bus, and so on and so forth.

    A follow up article to her thesis would be nice. Complete with points on what the author would do tomorrow if it was entirely up to her and why. Furthermore, if our respective governments are slow to make integration happen, what can we as individuals and private businesses do on our own within existing frameworks/arrangements?

    S.S.

  48. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    CTV news Toronto just named BARBADOS as a low tax jurisdiction.

  49. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Bet there will be more Canadian companies in de ling,

    “According to reports by media given access to the Mossack Fonseca data, RBC and subsidiaries were named in connection with more than 370 registered shell companies.”

  50. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Hants you watch too much TV….watch tomorrow as April 5th is to be Del Mastro’s verdict on his appeal.

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