CARRIBEAN FAREWELL

A Caribbean farewell

Carribean Sugar Plantation in the 19th century

January 24, 2008

Something has started vanishing in the Caribbean.

A long time renowned as well as a passageway- where Spanish warships along with conquistadores lured by mirages and myths fought pirates and a battleground for 18^th and 19^th century colonial metropolis and   belligerent sea powers- the Caribbean now is moving into a new economic order. More than one system had settled there in a kind of sequential series, namely slavery, plantation economy, capitalistic venture and socialist model. In the coming years, no doubt that some clandestine economy would still endure . But chance are  that the next  model would probably take a more acceptable face.

Growing population  in search of a living already convoy and trigger the move from an entrepreneurial Caribbean is turning its back to epic times and show more openness. In other words, this region is modeling itself on the northern pattern. The West Indies are following into the footsteps of the American way embodied beyond the Wind passage by the State of Florida  regarded by many as  the Latin America capital .

haitian Tourism Minister at Ile a Vaches, off Les Cayes

perspective. They push a way or another one to more work division. A land provided with bauxite, oil and crop farming, the

Historically, 90 miles off Floridian coast,  the Cuban  missile crisis of the 1960s happening in the aftermath of the Castroist triumph in 1959 represent an enduring challenge and a cold war left over, which many still resent, mostly on the American side. Cuba now at its Castroist twilight belongs more to  past at a time when its bread basket is located at Miami. Its questioning future sounds like a global concern. Whatever the outcome might be, the Caribbean  islands rosary sprawling from the Florida peninsula to the Mexican Yucatan Channel has more to do with human needs than ideology. Almost 50 millions are expecting to meet the monthly  ends and master their future, most of the times,  by crossing the Rio Grande or relying on money transfer.

That way, the Caribbean is looking at open seas.  West Indies countries  in fact used to await for new comers as history witnesses it, but in economic terms, the regional trade that helped them support each other has grown in the sixties and seventies to reach out more strong partners. Crop,  Haitian coffee and mangos,  Dominican sugar, let alone the Cuban one, weigh a lot in the income of these farming based- countries  and the like. At the turning of the 80s and the 90s, the Colombian cocaine also headed North in seeking better market. It would be not surprising that Latin population and Caribbean immigrants follow a few time later. The  so-called under earth economics  and the clandestine immigration even in our times still unveil the every day aspects of the Caribbean life.

But, to be a passage way strategically important, the Caribbean still reminds the cold war memories  where once  the conflict west/East was on the verge to break out. Has  its fate been to serve as a battle ground through history?  Such question no longer prevails, for the Caribbean is now more keen to get a life  rather than  to fight.

  

While looking at the North  where they long for  a better life, Caribbean populations  are also eager to make it locally. First at all in tourism.  Starting in the 50s, tourism  continues to represent a good part of the West Indies budget. In Haiti, even though there has been recently a decline in the cruise, handcrafted articles put the bread of the poor middle class while evoking the golden age of Haitian tourism. But, it  is Santo Domingo that is displaying  the brand new names of hotels lining the renowned Malecon, such as  the famous Sheraton . From the 70s to now, a worthy part of the Dominican GNP is being drawn from the tertiary economy.

So, the bridge is setting up between these sunny islands and the North.  At winter, as it is said, there is nothing comparable to  luminous beaches and fun along the sandy Caribbean coasts.

Another way to say that the Caribbean is finding out its niche in the coming globalization. There are more than one country to have specialized  in the tourism economy. The best examples so far seem to be the Bahamas Islands and the Netherlands ones, both of them reputed for their banking. As well come in mind the Cuban Batista times.

We are watching a big move. Needless to mention that the Caribbean is still a dependant region due to its geography and history. The Caricom the ambition of which is to reduce this dependency has its policy aimed at strengthening  regional economy, but resources and the law of comparative advantages inspire more pragmatism.  Sugar, bauxite, oil are far from a panacea although they create fairy tale mirage. These peripheral economies are at risk to drag behind at a time  they have to cope with  needy mobs and far away determined prices. So?

In the coming years, the Caribbean would further  integrate  the mainstream of hemispheric economic. Its location between the Americas make it a kind of ideal passage and a point of observation for the back and forth   around  as well the Panama Canal  as  the rest of continent.  The speeding urbanization and gentrification of the Caribbean countries is nearing the Northern lifestyle, given the expanding net   and the move this  expansion is provoking. As regional economics tend to be less rural, hotels  and tourism rises as  an alternative. What sugar and bauxite were in the fading 20^th century, resort and mine industry promise to be so.  The surge  of regional airports  in Santo Domingo and Haiti doesn’t mean only cocaine economy but also  a wait and see of this  Caribbean waving  farewell to the sometimes bitter sugar’s  years while  bridging the North and South  for best or worst.

That’s  why the former pirates paradise is not but history