Caribbean stood tall in Washington:

The Caribbean may have walked away empty-handed from their recent sojourn to Washington, but to mind, they returned home with something far more valuable – and maybe not even recognizable by many of them.
I honestly don’t think any of the Caribbean leaders went to Washington with pre-conceived notions of expecting anything immediately to be handed to them – and I’m sure a lot more maybe are not banking on getting an iota from the United States, given their pre-occupation, fighting their battles in the Middle-East and their war of words with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.
What was indeed important about the visit to Washington in my view, was letting the US administration know that the Caribbean is not relaxing on its laurels but has been bravely forging ahead, with their pride held high against the odds as their countries continue to struggle economically, socially with high crime rates, unemployment and major health issues.
They face numerous challenges as small, vulnerable states adapting to globalisation and a world free from trade barriers and protectionist policies and facing marginalisation by free trade agreements between powerful nations which do not include them.
Yet, the Caribbean did not go with their hats in hand to beg; they did not cower and use nice words to describe the problems they were going through and they did not shy away from criticising the U.S on a number of fronts.
I think the Trinidadian prime minister Patrick Manning nailed it on the head when he said Caribbean leaders did not go to the meeting with U.S President George W. Bush to make any demands.
Instead, they wanted to share certain issues and concerns the Caribbean was facing.
“In outlining the case, what we sought to do, was not to specifically ask for ABC and D but to outline the situation, outline the position of the Caribbean countries and to ask the US that in those circumstances what are you prepared to do, ” according to Manning.
Barbadian prime minister Owen Arthur also struck a resonant point when he delivered one of his best speeches yet, informing Washington that, “we have not come to Washington to hanker after a nostalgic past. And we have come here not as people without hope.”
The Caribbean sought an audience with the U.S as it was the region?s closest developed country neighbour, their major trading partner and the home of the largest number of migrants from the Caribbean.
Among issues that were put on the platter for the U.S to consider were expanding the range of goods and services in the CBI; the issue of security in the Caribbean regarding the transshipment of illegal drugs and all the inherent problems with that in fueling crime; the issue of deportation and health issues such as HIV/AIDS.
It’s now left to the U.S to decide whether it will continue to ignore our concerns or  lend a hand in dealing with some of our problems which we all know would make a great, big difference to our countries.
One of the issues that was raised at the meeting by President Bush was the close relations between the Caribbean countries and Cuba.
The President was disturbed by this.
But it was made clear by several Caribbean leaders including Guyana’s President Bharat Jagdeo and St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves that Cuba, along with Venezuela and even China were the only countries helping the Caribbean.
Should we ignore their help which we so desperately need given our small economies and reducing GDPs?
The fact is that seven of the top ten countries across the globe with the highest ratio of debt to GDP are to be found in the Caribbean.  Only two are  beneficiaries of the HIPC initiative.
This might have been news to the U.S., given their lack of attention to us.
President Bush was also told that the Caribbean respected the U.S position to have partners and they hoped the U.S would respect the Caribbean to have their own partners as well.
Caribbean leaders also had an opportunity to meet with members of the civil society, including the Diaspora, the private sector, the academic community and others.
At one of the Diaspora meeting, one US-based Barbadian woman was lamenting the need for more Caribbean nationals living in the U.S to make the sacrifices and show up at meetings on the weekends to see how they can help the folks back home.
She threw the audience in a fit of laughter when she said people only turn up when they know food was going to be served!
But seriously, the Caribbean Diaspora should be tapped into as external partners for our countries and hope the leaders would consider their potential contribution to their home countries.
I know too well, how important their remittances are assisting families back in the Caribbean – and in the case of the Jamaican Diaspora, they have professionally organised themselves to aid the run-down hospitals and schools in the mother country.
There were scores of US-based Caribbean nationals at the Diaspora meetings who wanted to cement links and help the Caribbean in any which way they could.
There was one guy, John McKenzie, the President of the Caribbean-American Chamber of Commerce who wanted to link US-Caribbean professionals with Caribbean-based professionals and have some synergies going.
And while the U.S did not seem to have any senior officials at the various plenary and Diaspora sessions, the World Bank, the IMF, the IDB and the OAS were greatly represented – and once again, the Caribbean needs to tap into those resources for help – and their officials have all publicly pledged to give assistance to the Caribbean in several spheres.
As an aside, special thanks to the OAS and in particular, the Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin for inviting a large contingent of journalists from all 14 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to take part in a one-day seminar and facilitating our presence in Washington for the Caribbean leaders’ meeting.
We were indeed happy that more efforts are being made for a strong Caribbean presence in the OAS despite the overwhelming Latin American bias of the hemispheric body.