Brief Update

It's been a while since I let you all know what I've been up to, so I am going to interrupt the essay posts for a second here.
Two weeks ago my friend Julia came down to visit for a week.  While she was here we did some interesting things that I had yet to do, such as go on the Mount Gay Rum tour and visit the old synagogue in Bridgetown (over 350 years old!). 

Side note: the modern history of the Caribbean is actually tightly interwoven with Jewish history in the region.  The cultivation of sugar cane was made possible by the exodus of Dutch Jews, who were fleeing Portugese rule in Brazil, to the Caribbean.  The Dutch jews brought windmill technology from Brazil to the Caribbean, thus making industrial-levels of agriculture production possible.

Also, because we went to a birthday party for a friend of mine I met a bunch of new people who live in Barbados.  The most immediate result of these new contacts was an invitation to participate in a Thursday pub trivia game at a bar on the West Coast.  This has been a lot of fun and is something I hope continues during my remaining time here. (Notice: I am soliciting good pub trivia names!).

Currently I am in the middle of my last class for my program. The course is on disaster management in the Caribbean and is taught by two very experienced professors.  One is a Jamaican-born, Canadian university professor who has spent his life traveling and teaching about disaster management.  The other is the director of CDEMA (the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency), which is one of the few shining examples of a productive regional institution.  Not only do their life experiences complement one another well, but they are old friends dating back to their undergraduate days at UWI.  It's actually quite uplifting to see two good UWI products standing before me.  Before, all I heard about was the UWI graduate seen pumping gas or working a menial job in some department store.

Finally, I have planned my trip home, which will be from July 1st to the 9th.  During that time I will spend a few days in Connecticut celebrating Independence Day, one day in NYC, and a few days in Philly with Nora.  Between now and July 1st my only goals are to finish my disaster management class on a good note and secure a rental car to use until I leave Barbados for good. Unfortunately a car is necessary to get to the job I will be starting on July 11th, which is located allllll the way by the airport in the south (about as far away from my apartment as you can get).  On the plus side, having a car will vastly improve my social life since lack of personal transportation has been the main impediment to my going places.

That's pretty much all thats going on at the moment. I'll post more parts of the essay in the coming days.  I haven't forgotten!

Integration in the Caribbean: A Historical Perspective

For my course on CARICOM last semester I wrote an essay on why Caribbean integration is necessary but problematic. I think it provides a good snapshot of the situation facing the modern Caribbean and as such I have decided to share it with you all. Over the next couple of days I will post segments of the essay, in their natural order, for you to peruse. I hope you find them both enjoyable and edifying. Here is the first segment:

“The idea of regional integration has existed in the Caribbean for a considerable period of time,” states scholar Ian Boxill. “Since the seventeenth century, attempts at uniting territories of the region to rationalize administrative costs of running the colonies occupied the thinking of the British government.”[1] In fact, the attempt at federation in the Leeward Islands from 1674-1798 was the second such endeavor in the British Empire, following only the feeble Massachusetts Federation, which was established in 1643.[2] Clearly then, even at the very beginning of their modern existence, the West Indies were seen as prime candidates for integration (especially under the Federal model). This belief – that integration in the West Indies is necessary – has existed continuously in various forms since their founding. Yet despite the longevity of this view, and the growing list of motives propelling it, integration in the West Indies has proven problematic and largely illusive. The argument that Caribbean integration is necessary but problematic remains as true today as it was in the 17^th century.

Many of the arguments in favor of integrating the Caribbean date back to the first discussions on the topic in the 17^th century. The most significant of these reasons was to coordinate and consolidate the administration of the islands in order to address issues on a regional rather than individual basis and so as to promote administrative efficiency (i.e. save money by shifting administrative authority from each individual island to one regional authority). Attempts at both of these forms of regional governance can be seen in the fraught history of the early Leeward Islands Federation, where federal taxes were successfully raised and where a proposal to standardize the laws of the islands was put forth in 1683 (it was rebuffed).[3]

The issue of coordinating the administration of the islands, originally seen as a way to improve their defense against French and Spanish ambitions and remove official redundancies, gained renewed importance to West Indians as a vehicle for development during the early part of the 20^th century. Radical West Indian leaders such as Cipriani, Marryshow, and Hart favored Federation because they saw it as essential “for the overall planning and development of the Caribbean area as an integral part of the larger world economy.”[4] Moreover, “it meant the means whereby West Indian social problems such as education and child labor could receive immediate attention in a way that Crown Colony government could not offer.”[5] In other words, regional integration was the best way to secure a prosperous and just future for the people of the Caribbean.

Very Smart Commercials

I came across these commercials the other day and thought they were very smart, although their "fairness" is questionable.  Thought you might enjoy them.