HAVE PERMIT WILL TRAVEL

IN THE 50s it was Federation, in the 60s it was work permits, today it is restricted movement and deportations. We failed to get Federation to last. We insisted, under the guise of job protection for each country’s nationals, on devising a method of cross-border movement that would enable us, as a people with a common destiny, to enjoy skills and knowledge transfers. We failed to see that movement of people would benefit each country in the development and strengthening of its economy. Many would agree that such restrictive action may well have benefited some territories. When one considers that the Caribbean countries — now CARICOM — could never have gained recognition and respect in the comity of nations unless and until they came together and with a common voice spoke on issues, it is difficult to understand why we maintain this course.

We recently, notwithstanding the importance of the Caribbean Sea, sun and sand, failed to come together to demand our rightful share of the profits of the cruise business. Why did it happen? Who was to blame? Why were the cruise ship operators able to penetrate our defences and put us to flight? The entire region is dependent on tourism; it took us decades to recognise that our several interests would best be served by a common approach to advertising and promotion and this, more so, since no single country could comfortably afford the level spent to make the appropriate impact in the various markets.

The wheel is destined to go full circle but one does not have to pedal faster than within one’s capability, lest we invite a speed wobble. Today, we have turned our faces towards a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). We say we see it as the way forward. We say it must be founded on free movement of goods, technology and people. Yet we construct barriers to trade, to establishment of a regional media competence and to the movement of people.

The two entities we have held up as beacons to our determination to embrace the ideal of oneness, namely the University of the West Indies and West Indies Cricket, are breathing as though gasping for oxygen, as does an asthmatic who is starved of clean, fresh air and space. History will reveal that there has been a relationship between Guyanese and Barbadians for many years. This relationship has now soured mainly because of the enforcement of immigration considerations, seemingly to the disadvantage of Guyanese, and has led to comment at the highest levels in that country and which seems to threaten retaliation. It is precisely that type of knee-jerk reaction which has always had the potential to adversely affect relationships around the region and take us nowhere.