No media passes

The 30th Anniversary meeting of Caricom Heads has gotten off to a very, very slow start. So much so, that media personnel in Montego Bay up to yesterday, have not as yet been issued with accreditation passes.

In the meantime at the weekend, Caricom heads and officials spent the time in Kingston watching the West Indies defeat Sri Lanka. On June 28, the Finance Ministers were holding the eighth meeting, while ministers responsible for sugar were due to meet yesterday. All of this is taking place miles away from Montego Bay where the heads are due to meet Wednesday, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The days leading up to Wednesday, the leaders are in Ocho Rios for two days of private discussions, before proceeding to Montego Bay for the grand opening ceremony which will be broadcast live on television across the region. In the meantime, media personnel in Montego Bay were met yesterday with the usual, “comeback tomorrow.” The preparation for the Summit is virtually nil in Montego Bay.

What is taking place is a so called Caricom exhibition being held at the Civic Centre, in downtown Montego Bay. The exhibition takes a simple form of a visual display of past photographs and heads of the various Caricom member states. Even officials have not as yet checked in at the Ritz Carlton. At Wednesday’s opening ceremony, those who will address the audience will include Jamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson, and the in-coming Chairman of Caricom Pierre Charles, Prime Minister of Dominica, and the Outgoing Chairman, Prime Min-ister Owen Arthur of Barbados. The Prime Minister of Belize, Said Musa and Caricom Secretary General, Edwin Carrington are also down to deliver addresses. In the meantime, the time leading up to the official opening, virtually nothing is happening. The Caricom Secretariat is yet to set up a desk with information at the Carlton Ritz, which is usually the case.