Blah, Bloh, Blog

Jukkin confusion..

I came across this today. Of course, given the saga of the Bahamas and Caricom (are they in or are they out?), and ongoing regular drama of the CSME, B'dos vs Guyana, Trini oil vs Chavez and he big deal, blah, blah, blah, I found that page and the links it contains had me chuckling and grumbling. Rather thought provoking. Or maybe just plain provoking...........

If you guys allow me for a moment to express my views on the single market. In a nutshell - if we don't move on with our regional union then we might as well move to the Sahara and waste away. We have no choice. We cannot compete on our own. End of story. The issue is not IF, it is HOW BEST and HOW SOON.

Sadly, between our own selves and our useless politicians (yes all of them are useless) we just can't seem to get our act together and stop the back-biting, bitching, whining and moaning. The "me versus you" that we love to propagate among ourselves (case in point the link above) seems silly when the reality is that it is us against the rest of the damn world. To my unqualified eye it just seems that Caricom/CSME is fast heading the way of the W.I. Federation of the 60's if we - the populations - don't wise up fast and understand the potential and the possibilities. Most of us have no idea what the CSME is, how it can and will affect us, the pros and cons, changes or adjustments to make it work better.

That said, I must admit that I can't see how the Bahamas could really be integrated into a single market with most of us. Their entire socio-economic structure is different to most of ours. Yeah, they speak English but so what? They are certainly much more Americanised (less British), and obviously identify more with North America than with - say - Trinidad. Or Dominica. Just becasue they have their version of Carnival, doesn't make them an automatic shoo-in for CSME membership. Just because their population looks like the population of St Vincent, doesn't automatically mean the population's general outlook is anything like St Vincent's. Just becasue they have sun and sand and live on islands doesn't mean that what works for Grenada and Guyana will work for them. I'm not being divisive; I'm being realistic.
And I feel the same way about Haiti. (We'll have THAT discussion some other day). Haiti is so not on the same page as the rest of the Caribbean that.... well..... I don't even know what to say.

I am sure my opinion hasn't come across very clearly, and I hope no one gets offended! I'm certainly not as up on the Caricom/CSME issues as I have just pointed out we all should be. But I would love to hear what others think.
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Mull on this:

well I am proud to say that I am a bahamian. and I don't need no other island in the caribbean to represent my country cause no one else can. personally I feel that the majority of the caribbean is just jealous of the bahamas. especially jamaicans! and my thing is if you hate and destest us so much why do you migrate here in droves trying to find a better life or find some kind of income than what you have in ya own country? our dollar is the highest in the caribbean and we have one of the highest standards of living in all the caribbean. yes we listen to reggae, and you should be glad and thankful we purchase it to contribute to your economy. at least we live in a country where homes have running water and people don't have to bathe in tubs outside in the fuckin yard! at least we can afford to go to places like KFC or McDonalds and buy a frickin meal for under $5.00 USD. how much is your dollar again? is it a $100USD to one yet? when you get to our standards of living then you can open ya ass and speak. until then, continue to be jealous and shut the fuck up!

Yeah, well OK I threw that in just to muddy up the water and make some confusion. Find more here.

Boy, bachannal is one t'ing dat does unite all of us oui!

Posted by YingYang at 10:12 AM