Last year, with great fanfare, we had the first ever “Agri Investment Forum & Expo” at our Convention Centre – and it was a biggie!! You could’ve gauged its magnitude and strategic importance by the fact that EIGHT Caricom leaders jetted in to participate. These folks from tourist islands are used to an exhibition per day (including that of nekkid bodies!!), so the Expo had to be special to drag them in. So, why was it such a big deal??
Well, if for nothing else than, for donkey years, Caribbean leaders had been moaning and groaning – to no effect – about rising food bills draining their treasuries!! Since early in the year, world food prices had skyrocketed, and their “natives” were about to storm the barricades!! Political unrest does tend to focus the minds of politicians wonderfully!! Think Sri Lanka!! That Expo was their last best chance to, at last, get in on a plan that could’ve solved their problems.
Ironically, they had the same opportunity two decades ago. Then President Jagdeo had the lead on food security for Caricom, and came up with a plan they dubbed (very creatively!) “The Jagdeo Initiative”. Each territory was asked to use its comparative advantage – eg, we had land, TT had money, Barbados had marketing etc…and collaborate to solve the problem. But guess what?? The Caribbean crab-barrel mentality came to the fore, and thinking that Guyana would benefit most, they all folded their hands and sat on the sidelines!!
Manning from Trinidad – Rowley’s PNM predecessor – went so far as to flex his oil wealth by launching 18 “Mega Farms” that would’ve supposedly taken care of THEIR needs!! Well, they all flopped, and now they’re not even back to square one – since their oil money’s run out and their food bill has ballooned!! Well, let’s see what they’ll do now that Guyana, at long last, has its own funds (from oil) and can go it alone if necessary.
But it all comes down to leadership, and from what we’ve seen, Barbados’s Mia Mottley is a cut above the rest, and she and Pres Ali seem to be quite simpatico!! Your Eyewitness hopes now they’ve taken the lead in explaining to her peers that “there’s strength in numbers” – especially when it comes to taking on a strategic project like food security.
Ironically, all of us in Caricom are here because of agriculture – and in fact pioneered agriculture as an industry with our sugar, cotton, coffee, and cocoa plantations!! At that time, we were shipping our production (and profits) to the imperial masters. Can we now use agriculture to feed ourselves?? Back in the (rigging!) day, Burnham had a slogan: “Produce or perish!”
Maybe Caricom might heed his call!!
…protecting our democracy
We, in Guyana, owe a great debt to Caricom for saving our democracy in 2020. You don’t want your Eyewitness to regurgitate that sordid episode, do you?? What a change they were from the old Caricom old boys club, which allowed Burnham to rig for two decades while our country was destroyed and Guyanese refugees washed up on their shores! Your Eyewitness believes the least we can do is to acknowledge our debt to them. Even with the Barbados “Guyanese Bench” and all!!
At a minimum, Mia should get a medal for being so forthright in calling out the riggers! Remember when – on seeing the rigmarole from the PNC camp on challenging the legality of their leader-initiated recount – she declared there were “forces here who didn’t want the recount”?? She was the leader who lent her great moral weight to the stance of Jamaica’s Golding to call a rig a rig!!
Even T&T’s dour Rowley was a prophet with his, “This will not end well”! Let’s big them up!!
…at twenty-five
So, what brought on this maudlin paean to Caricom?? Well, just that, in a couple of weeks, they’re gonna be commemorating their 25th anniversary!! Imagine that!! Twenty-five years the little Caesars have been protecting their prerogatives…umm… “sovereignty”.
