50 years ago, Caricom came into existence. While individual governments are about their people, as they should be, Caricom takes a broader view of the Caribbean as a whole-one that is primarily about regional support for the 20 members of the organisation.

One may enquire why is it that not all islands of the Caribbean-like Cuba and the Dominican Republic-are allowed to join Caricom when nonisland states like Guyana, Belize and Suriname-all part of South Americaare allowed in?

While I’m not against including parts of South America, what I’m against is excluding those that are neighbouring Caribbean islands. The shoddy excuse is that Cuba and the Dominican Republic are not Englishspeaking countries. Then why include Suriname, a Dutch-speaking country in South America?

With no single currency among the member states, and using language to exclude some Caribbean islands, Caricom has failed in its mandate to build a unifying, cohesive organisation that is welcoming to all, even though its stated mission is to ‘promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy.’

If Caricom had included Cuba and Haiti from the outset, would they be the failed states that they are today? For example, we could have counselled Castro to be more open to a democratic process instead of the Communist hell that has been in existence for more than 60 years, with 88% of the country living in extreme poverty. Instead, Castro relied on economic assistance from Russia, which eventually abandoned him.

What about Haiti? If we had initially included Haiti in Caricom (Haiti was given full membership in 2002), could we have prevented the failure of a once-booming economy?

‘Haiti, once called the jewel of the Antilles, was the richest colony in the entire world. Economists estimate that in the 1750s, Haiti provided as much as 50% of the gross national product of France. The French imported sugar, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, cotton, the dye indigo, and other exotic products.’ webster.edu ‘First, the warfare of the Haitian Revolution destroyed the capital and infrastructure of the economy. Second, Haiti lacked diplomatic and trade relations with other nations. Third, Haiti lacked investment, both foreign and domestic investment.’-uoregon.edu Why didn’t Caricom’s economic team invite them to join us to save millions of Haitians from starvation instead of abandoning them? Couldn’t Caricom have stepped in with economic experts and peace-keeping, diplomatic professionals and prevented Haiti from going from the richest colony in the world to the poorest?

At this late point, there are still things we can do, even amidst the rubble and the violence. If Caricom did not use the combined intellectualism of the 20 member states to help our fellow islanders, they would have failed to provide fellowship and humanitarianism to their neighbouring islanders in distress.

What are we waiting for to do the humane thing?

Caricom has an annual budget of EC$54.8m (approximately $137.8m), of which T&T contributes the mostEC$12.9m ($32.4m), according to Caricom’s 2020 annual report of the secretary-general.

Are we getting value for money? Unless Caricom can get its 20 member states to pass laws that would allow citizens to freely travel, vacation, work, and transport goods and services tax-free and tariff-free between Caricom countries (as was done between all 50 US states), then Caricom is of little value and a waste of millions of dollars.

Rex Chookolingo