PM Dean Barrow address to the Summit of the Americas described many of the financial ails of the region. As he described the Caribbean Community as being largely victims in the world’s financial system’s collapse. Barrow described Belize as a “microcosm” of the region: “My country Belize… is a case study of how to reconcile difficulties of distance geography and heritage with the imperative of a regional destiny…around the themes of promoting human prosperity, energy security, and environmental sustainability. Implicit in the first is the fundamental issue of economic viability. Today the threat to that viability for the smaller and more vulnerable among us constitute a storm cloud that not even the fierce benediction of the Trinidad and Tobago sun can disperse…For us in the Caribbean, the fallout from the global situation has presented severe challenges and its consequences are being felt in the financial sector, the real economy, and our social sector.” The PM and CARICOM Chairman went on to describe the economic and social impact of drugs trafficking through the Caribbean saying:
“Our community and the hemisphere has for some time been the phenomenon of every increasing crime, fueled in large part by trafficking illicit drugs and arms and by deportees from the developed countries. In the Caribbean we are sandwiched between the largest producers of cocaine to the south and the largest consumer countries to the north. The pencil of God has no eraser and so the policies to deal adequately with transnational crime and citizen security must not only be multidimensional in scope but anchored by real international cooperation.”
But while the PM’s speech was emotional and eloquent many United States media outlets were caught up in the drama surrounding President Obama and his new approach to world relations. In particular American/Cuba relations and American/Venezuelan relations.
By Nkinkade
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