Dear Editor,
In 1973, I participated as a member of the Jamaican contingent in the Trinidad leg of the Annual Cadet Exchange Programme. Our campground was at Chaguaramas Bay — a stone's throwaway from where Caribbean leaders, including Jamaica's then Prime Minister Michael Norman Manley, were meeting and would later, on July 4, 1973, sign the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which gave life to the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom).
On reflection, it was a heady experience for me; as the magic of Manley's rhetoric had captivated me — like numerous Jamaican youngsters at the time — and the idea of being in Trinidad at the same time as the prime minsiter gave springs to the strides of this contingent of young Jamaicans.
The signing of the treaty was a defining moment in the history of the Commonwealth Caribbean. Although a free trade area had been established, CARIFTA did not provide for the free movement of labour and capital, or the coordination of agricultural, industrial and foreign policies.
The objectives of the community, identified in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty, were: to improve standards of living and work; the full employment of labour and other factors of production; accelerated, coordinated and sustained economic development and convergence; expansion of trade and economic relations with third States; enhanced levels of international competitiveness; organisation for increased production and productivity; achievement of a greater measure of economic leverage and effectiveness of member states in dealing with third states, groups of states and entities of any description; and the enhanced coordination of member states' foreign and foreign economic policies and enhanced functional cooperation.
Between 1989 and 2000, there has been several revisions of this treaty aimed at strengthening its provisions and making it workable throughout the region, allowing the transforming of the Common Market into a single market and economy in which factors move freely as a basis for internationally competitive production of goods and provision of services.
Forty years after its birth, I am sorry to say it all still means absolutely nothing for me and thousands of other Jamaicans. The experience of Shanique Myrie on her visit to Barbados two years ago, as well as the group of 13 Jamaicans denied entry to Trinidad last week confirm that the spirit of Caricom is dead; were it ever truly alive. For, if the members of a single market and economy are denied that very basic freedom of movement between territories, then the idea of Caricom is indeed dead.
It is the people of the region who man the borders and ports who give effect to treaties such as this, not governments. Obviously, the ideas of individual government ministers and the psyche that drives these port officers are completely detached. And it seems Jamaicans are not the only Caricom nationals having these experiences in Barbados and Trinidad. Ask the Guyanese, the Vincentians, and nationals from other islands.
After reading of the latest experiences of my fellow Jamaicans on their visit to Trinidad, I am now convinced that the switch of our Jamaican passport for one that is labelled Caricom does me no service. I doubt our government will see the signal that this is a dead idea and return us to a Jamaican Passport. Maybe it is a good time to go get myself that US Passport. After all, I have earned it.
Richard Hugh Blackford
richardhblackford@gmail.com
Give me back my Jamaican passport
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In 1973, I participated as a member of the Jamaican contingent in the Trinidad leg of the Annual Cadet Exchange Programme. Our campground was at Chaguaramas Bay — a stone's throwaway from where Caribbean leaders, including Jamaica's then Prime Minister Michael Norman Manley, were meeting and would later, on July 4, 1973, sign the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which gave life to the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom).
On reflection, it was a heady experience for me; as the magic of Manley's rhetoric had captivated me — like numerous Jamaican youngsters at the time — and the idea of being in Trinidad at the same time as the prime minsiter gave springs to the strides of this contingent of young Jamaicans.
The signing of the treaty was a defining moment in the history of the Commonwealth Caribbean. Although a free trade area had been established, CARIFTA did not provide for the free movement of labour and capital, or the coordination of agricultural, industrial and foreign policies.
The objectives of the community, identified in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty, were: to improve standards of living and work; the full employment of labour and other factors of production; accelerated, coordinated and sustained economic development and convergence; expansion of trade and economic relations with third States; enhanced levels of international competitiveness; organisation for increased production and productivity; achievement of a greater measure of economic leverage and effectiveness of member states in dealing with third states, groups of states and entities of any description; and the enhanced coordination of member states' foreign and foreign economic policies and enhanced functional cooperation.
Between 1989 and 2000, there has been several revisions of this treaty aimed at strengthening its provisions and making it workable throughout the region, allowing the transforming of the Common Market into a single market and economy in which factors move freely as a basis for internationally competitive production of goods and provision of services.
Forty years after its birth, I am sorry to say it all still means absolutely nothing for me and thousands of other Jamaicans. The experience of Shanique Myrie on her visit to Barbados two years ago, as well as the group of 13 Jamaicans denied entry to Trinidad last week confirm that the spirit of Caricom is dead; were it ever truly alive. For, if the members of a single market and economy are denied that very basic freedom of movement between territories, then the idea of Caricom is indeed dead.
It is the people of the region who man the borders and ports who give effect to treaties such as this, not governments. Obviously, the ideas of individual government ministers and the psyche that drives these port officers are completely detached. And it seems Jamaicans are not the only Caricom nationals having these experiences in Barbados and Trinidad. Ask the Guyanese, the Vincentians, and nationals from other islands.
After reading of the latest experiences of my fellow Jamaicans on their visit to Trinidad, I am now convinced that the switch of our Jamaican passport for one that is labelled Caricom does me no service. I doubt our government will see the signal that this is a dead idea and return us to a Jamaican Passport. Maybe it is a good time to go get myself that US Passport. After all, I have earned it.
Richard Hugh Blackford
richardhblackford@gmail.com
Give me back my Jamaican passport
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