Crime, food prices under the microscope:

As another year comes to a close and a new one throws open its door, many of us might be reflecting on whether 2007 was a good year. We may also be pondering on the possibilities that might be awaiting us in the new year.
As we pause and look back over the last 12 months, how do we feel? How do we feel deep within our souls about our lives and our living in this region of the world.
I ask these questions because I sense in the conversations with people across the region and through emails that something very precious has gone missing from our lives.
We seem to be on the verge of becoming a broken people. It’s like the pizzaz and the oomph – our Caribbeanness -  to joke and laugh and be lighthearted and back-slapping – is slowly seeping out of us.
So what has brought us to this hapless state of affairs?
Many people across the Caribbean with whom I’m in contact and various Caribbean blog sites and interest groups all lament about rising crime in their countries from the murder capitals of Kingston and Port of Spain – to St John’s, Castries, Bridgetown and Georgetown.
Even Trinidad’s sister isle Tobago which up to recent years used to record a couple murders annually are now seeing a doubling and tripling of those figures.
In Trinidad, the figure up to the time of writing yesterday reached 382, surpassing last year’s total by eleven.  The murder count in Jamaica is now past 1500 while the eastern Caribbean islands are reporting a rise in murder and general criminal activity.
Earlier this week, I received a mail from an Antiguan, concerned about the rising levels of crime in St John’s, who pointed out that for a third consecutive year, crime is down in New York city and was in fact at an all time low since the violent days of the 1960s.
Murder, robbery and rape went down although felony had increased.
I expect – but more in the hope – as I have been for the last few years – that our Caribbean leaders would make crime their number one issue – not in words – but in deeds and action -  and really go after the criminals in 2008 to take back our lands from further bloodshed and mayhem.
As a member of the Caribbean society, it bothers me that our leaders, guided by their top security officials, seem to know what should be done.
They have already identified the top cause of crime as the illegal drug trade that has spawned some of the most violent criminal gangs, ruling their roost with their illegal guns and cutting down other gang members and innocent victims alike.
So why are we not hearing more about the arrest and imprisonment of South American drug traffickers on the Caribbean seas or the arrest of their local drug trafficking agents who are responsible for getting the illegal drugs shipped off to North America and Europe.
There have been a few major confiscation of illegal drugs and arrests but the vast majority of drug related cases that I read and hear about are those drug mules intercepted at our airports before they get a chance to deposit the illegal substances in other countries.
But those drug mules are working for some big drug lords, so why doesn’t the police and the DPP collaborate in breaking up another level in the illegal transshipment activities and putting drug lords behind bars.
At the same time, controversial as it sounds, governments across the region may want to first clean up their police and other protective services by getting rid of those officers who have been aiding and abetting the criminal elements in the society.
It’s well known that guns belonging to the police and the army have ended up in the hands of criminals in some of our countries. Officers including those in the prison service have also been fingered in assisting in jail breaks or leaving open jail cells in police stations.
It was recently reported in Trinidad that a police officer was even renting out his service pistol to criminals in  exchange for money.
Before New York became a safer place, the New York Police Department began investigated their own, with many officers charged with various crimes including accepting bribes. The police department cleaned up their act and their image and then proceeded to deal head-on with the mafia and criminal gangs which terrorised the city for decades.
So, when next our leaders have one of their Crime Summits, cleaning up the police and other protective agencies should be a major part of the action plan in the fight against crime. Perhaps then we will really begin to see national crime plans really becoming effective.
It is also instructive that governments probe their own activities and actions to ensure that they too are not accused of aiding and abetting criminal gangs by handing out lucrative state contracts to them to built houses or roads.
The next big worry for us in the Caribbean is the sky-rocketing food prices and its impact on cost of living and inflation.
Earlier this month, heads of government at their 12th special meeting in Georgetown issued a sombre statement about the region’s poverty and the rising cost of living as a result of the persistently high and rising prices in the global economy.
One of the main reasons for the high levels of cost of living and inching inflation in our countries is the increasing price to import food.
The Caribbean already imports over US$3 billion annually in food.
With the rising cost of global food prices, the costs of products are further inflated by the time they land on the shelves of the supermarkets and of course far away from the reach of a significant part of our population.
So, what about the Caribbean’s plans of revitalising agriculture to help stem the import of food and contain the exorbitant annual food bill?
What’s the latest on the Jagdeo Initiative `Strengthening Agriculture for Sustainable Development’ – from Guyanese President  Bharrat Jagdeo – a comprehensive plan to alleviate some of the constraints to the development of the agriculture sector and creating the environment to encourage a resurgence of investment in agriculture to facilitate the transformation process?
The agricultural sector in the Caribbean in recent years was an important contributor to GDP, employment and exports and was critical to poverty alleviation and food security. Now, it’s overall contribution in the future is seen as being even more critical.
What too has happened since the agriculture donor conference that took place in Trinidad last June where leaders met with bilateral, multilateral and regional donors and partners to discuss financial and technical funding for approved projects which would expand and diversify the shrinking agriculture sector?
Are we even near to beginning the move towards bringing back agriculture into a significant part of our economic landscape?
So on the cusp of a new year, these are the two issues – crime and agriculture – that should be given priority attention by our leaders if we are to deal with the major critical issues facing the region.
And please don’t let another year pass us by where we are in a place, still waiting, still hoping.
To all readers, a safe and sane 2008.