Well, our CARICOM Heads of Government are currently in Washington meeting with the big kahuna himself, President George W. Bush, for a conference on the Caribbean. These meetings always amuse me, because the USA has its own agenda, we have ours and sometimes never the 'twain shall meet.
What may be different this time around? Well, for starters, four Caribbean nationals are accused of attempting to blow up JFK Airport. If that doesn't get the US' attention nothing will! Then there's still that pesky drug trafficking problem that won't go away. I'm sure the region's leaders are still annoyed that Bush passed through on a Latin American tour earlier this year and didn't bother to swing by any of the Caribbean states.
Barbados' Prime Minister Owen Arthur, forever the devil's advocate, made a not too subtle remark yesterday that Cuba, China and Venezuela were shouldering the burden when it came to supporting the region financially, and even though we all like to make fun of Bush's intelligence, not even he's so dense that he could miss the implications of that statement. From my layman's point of view, the US always wants to tell the region what to do - about drug trafficking, terrorism, the environment, etc. - but is tight-fisted when it's time to fund programmes. Bring the money and come, Uncle Sam!
Click here to read more about the Conference on the Caribbean.
Photo courtesy of the White House
No comments:
Post a Comment