What about the youth, CARICOM leaders?

Dennie Quill, Contributor

Regional leaders and high-profile guests from major political and financial organisations are currently meeting in Montego Bay for the annual CARICOM summit, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

Battered nationally and internationally for his clumsy handling of the recent extradition affair, Mr Golding will be keen to impress on his regional colleagues that his image is slowly recovering one photo op at a time. The recent glimpses of him getting cozy with US President Barrack Obama during the G20 summit in Canada is one such significant step.

From the preconference utterances, it was obvious that security issues and economic matters would top the agenda; however, there are various other key issues on which the heads ought to seek consensus, including the age-old problem of regional trade and the pressing issues of free movement of skills and creation of new opportunities for the youth. For example, what is to be done with CARICOM countries who systematically bar the region's professionals while opening the flood gates so that all from Europe may enter?

Talking heads

The reality is that many people in the region, particularly the youth, have only passing interest in the annual affair, viewing these meetings as merely a gathering of talking heads. By far, there is more interest in what is happening in South Africa where football greats have gathered than in the events unfolding at Rosehall, Montego Bay.

The freshest face in Caricom, Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago, has been networking with the Facebook community because she understands that this is where people, mostly young people from various backgrounds meet to share ideas. Here's a recent positing from a CARICOM national:

"Is CARICOM integration dead? West Indies cricket is in the doldrums, UWI being splintered into dozens of little pieces, CSME hasn't caught on and the Caribbean Court of Justice is looking for takers." This post triggered more than a dozen, mainly negative responses, with people pouring scorn on the Rosehall assembly and questioning whether anything constructive will come out of Rosehall.

I have some sympathy for those who despair for, traditionally, CARICOM has been long on rhetoric but short on action. The leaders have tended to avoid differences than settle them. For these reasons our leaders have become very good at upsetting expectations and killing dreams.

New life

So we can understand the call by the regional youth for someone from among them to hijack CARICOM and breathe new life into the integration movement. Why, we ask, has the meeting not set aside time to discuss the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development Report on the Situation of Caribbean Youth. Never mind that the report was commissioned in 2006, the findings titled 'Eye on the Future: Investing in Youth Now for Tomorrow's Community' is the kind of magnet that would attract conscious-raising individuals of the region. This oversight of not placing youth issues at centre stage serves to reinforce the widely held view that the leaders are not really interested in integration.

We must ask the question: Apart from an occasion to preen in prestigious company, what will this summit achieve? If it does not achieve a mechanism to foster an understanding and the promotion of a shared sense of CARICOM identity especially among the under-35 age group, it would have failed.

What good is a regional movement if it cannot overcome the limits of national bounders and explore our diversity and benefit from it?

Dennie Quill is a veteran journalist. Send feedback to denniequill@hotmail.com