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Caribbean
Highlights
Issues
of relevance to Caribbean Development from around the region |
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Coping
with a $20b windfall
Author: Raffique Shah
This issue focuses on the importance of using economic resources
to develop
human capacity as a means of improving the quality of life in the region
and reducing inequity. It is through the development of human
resources that economic productivity will increase, and existing wealth
can be properly managed. The key areas in terms of the development
of human resources are Health and Education. The absence of this
kind of vision has meant that these very important areas of human
development have been, by and large, neglected by Caribbean policy makers
. Certainly this must figure as one of the major reasons why
the region has not achieved the status of developed societies.
Another issue of importance raised in this article is the need for an informed and proactive population for proper
governance. You are invited to read this article and make
your comments by clicking on this link. |
More articles
Trini teen in chains
King interviews Belafonte
Haiti |
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Corruption
and Mismanagement in High Office
Articles from the Jamaica Gleaner and the
Trinidad Express
This issue relates to the question of corruption and
mismanagement in public office and the implications for the process of
development in the Caribbean Region. The cases of the Netserv fiasco
in Jamaica and the Biche Secondary School debacle in Trinidad and Tobago
point to the wider question of the role of the state in the development
process. Neo-liberalists have made the case that it was due to the corrupt
and inefficient hand of Government why the countries of the Region became
subject to Structural Adjustment policies administered by the World Bank
and the IMF beginning in the mid 1970s. Although this argument
ignores the contribution of the wider global setting to the problems that
beset the Region at the time, it ought not to be entirely discounted. The
policies that followed over the next 30 years emphasized minimal levels of
Government involvement. The dire consequences that the people of the
Region have faced as a result of these policies are well known. In recent
times this strict laissez faire approach has fallen into disfavour. The
legitimacy and importance of Government's involvement in the social and
economic planning process in partnership with the private
sector and the NGO community is now recognized. The cases of Netserv in
Jamaica and Biche in Trinidad and Tobago raises the question of whether
the culture of governance in the Region has changed much from the days of
the 1970s. Can the poor and disadvantaged in our societies bear the burden
of another round of 'Government failure'? You are invited to read
these articles and make
your comments by clicking on this link.
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Hassle
Free Travel for US Citizens but Not for CARICOM Citizens? - Right here in
the Caribbean?
Editorial from The Express Newspaper - Saturday May 4, 2002
Although Caribbean integration has long been on the political agenda
of countries of the Caribbean Community, the political leaders are seen as
giving only lip service to this objective. Recently in the midst of
activities to provide free movement of Caribbean peoples within the region
in order to prepare for the Caribbean Single Market Economy (CSME), the
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago announced his government's intention
to allow US citizens to enter this country without passports.
Needless to say, the immediate question asked by many, was What about
CARICOM's citizens? make
your comments by clicking on this link. |
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