“There is no envy, jealousy, or hatred between the different colours of the rainbow. And no fear either. Because each one exists to make the others’ love more beautiful.”– Aberjhani
Tomorrow, the first Monday of July, is set aside in Guyana to celebrate Caribbean Unity. There are aspects of Caribbean Unity that I think have been particularly successful, CXC being one of the most important to me.
During the past four years studying in one of our CARICOM neighbour states, Trinidad, I’ve met students from most of our Caribbean territories stretching from Bahamas to Belize. Hearing stories from them of how they grew up and how things are for them back home made me realize just how many experiences we Guyanese have in common with our Caribbean neighbours. And I developed a better perspective of how and why a unified Caribbean could be possible and is necessary.
There’s so much overlap with the food we cook, the music we listen to and the slang we use. It was incredible to see that all of the kids from the different islands had a version of curry that they cooked. I must’ve seen at least five different ways of cooking curry. Those Jamaicans cook a meeean curry!! Just writing about it makes my “mouth water”!! Variations on a theme, but a theme nevertheless.
We all learnt so much about each other’s culture, and I began to really understand the whole concept of Caribbean unity on not just an intellectual level, but on an emotional level. I mean, I always used to get emotional supporting our West Indian Cricket team, alternating between weeping tears of joy and tears (few and far between nowadays!) of anguish (like this last weekend, when my brother and dad flew over to root for WI). But, ever increasingly, I’ve continued to make personal connections with persons from the different Caribbean countries.
Over the past year or so, we’ve been assigned public health research projects. One of the areas my group honed in on was that of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – with good reason, because according to a PAHO 2012 report, the Caribbean region has the highest burden of NCDs in the Americas! Is it due to our plantation experience? The things that keep us together! Non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension (“high blood pressure”) are those that are, by definition, non-infectious and non-transmissible among people. An infectious disease would, for instance, be malaria. NCDs are the leading causes of death and disease worldwide.
In our readings for the project, we stumbled upon the 2007 Declaration made by the CARICOM Heads of Government, “Uniting to Stop the Epidemic of Chronic Non-communicable Diseases”. So it was heartening that at least we were taking a common approach to this major challenge. It demonstrated perfectly one of the main reasons for us to stick together as a region, apart from sharing a common heritage and culture — the benefits of pooling our resources.
And it was interesting to read about the follow-up implementation of this seminal declaration, towards which each member, including Guyana, made “commitments” in regard to achieving the original goals. At this time, the declaration has been implemented with different levels of success, with the most success achieved in the larger countries. Our own former Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, was a key figure in placing the NCDs on the agenda of PAHO, the Commonwealth, the UN, WHO, and possibly as a new Development Goal for the world. This is progress borne out of cooperation at the CARICOM level.
While there is some (much?) gloom and doom about the future of CARICOM, it is evident there has been progress in many areas. For there to be further and wider real change and real progress, it’s absolutely essential for our Caribbean leaders to work together to tackle the epidemic of NCDs and other challenges collectively. We need to buckle down and implement policies (guided by research) as a unified Caribbean.
Happy CARICOM Day!
And congrats to all of the NGSA students – not just the top 1% – who’re about to begin their own high school experience! Maybe you will fulfil the dream of Caricom unity!
