Column: Where is CARICOM heading? - by John Lindsay

"There is little doubt that Edwin Carrington, the Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will be a hard act to follow when, effective December 31, he leaves the institution he has served faithfully and well for the past 18 years".

Served faithfully and well, compared to whom?

There can be little doubt among both those in favour of CARICOM, and those against it, that the concept and application long ago reached a state of zero forward motion or evolution.

And as with the EU and other instances where disparate societies have attempted to unite for the greater good and the greater power of its component parts, there will always be some that overtly or covertly pull in another direction. That is unfortunately a facet of human nature.

Theoretically, it makes logical sense to unite. But in doing so there are degrees of individual power and status that the individual leaders are going to be obliged to surrender.

And they don't like that, those in elevated albeit localized positions, or those with a hunger to make a final step up to power. It is always going to be in a sense like communism.

"From each according to his abilities. To each according to his needs".

Great concept, but when it is to be interpreted and applied by people, with all their individual agendas of seeking power and position, sooner or later you are physically going to have to build a wall around yourselves, literally or figuratively, mostly to keep people IN, not OUT.

What is now the Economic Union, (EU) was intitially mooted as a way to unite Western Europe and therby hopefully eliminate the frequent and bloody wars between states within the region.

In the process it created the largest single market the world has ever known. The UK, with it's customary supremacist perspective on the world, was a belated member compared to France, Germany and other nations, in the 70's.

And to this day in the UK there is a substantial groundswell of opinion that the worst thing successive UK governments have done for more than 30 years, is to NOT withdraw from an entity that essentially is seen widely among UK loyalists as costing the UK economy a vast ongoing sum of money, (the popularly mentioned, but never to my knowledge verified figure being allegedly 43 million pounds every day), plus, and probably a far more heinous crime, 'IT ALLOWS ALL THESE FOREIGNERS IN!'.

Can we really envisiage the day when similar objections are not going to be levelled at some CARICOM member states by other member states, if only based on personal greed and paranoia.

After all, among certain ethnicities in T&T it is still possible to hear the accusations and criticisms allegedly associated with a past Prime Minister encouraging people from the country's 'small island' neighbours to relocate to areas like Morvant and Laventille, as a much needed influx of workers to the country, and by extension these same immigrant's progeny now being the cause of so much of the country's crime problems.

Societally, we all have degrees of prejudice in our programming, and which we each need to live with, knowingly or otherwise, or to work on overcoming as we strive for enlightenment.

We, ourselves come first. That is the element of survival above all others. Our families come second. Extended families or the tribe, next. After which comes the larger tribe, i.e. the nation. And barring an extra terrestrial invasion, that just leaves all other humans way down at the bottom of the ladder we all cling to.