AT THE time of writing this column, Jamaica was still under distressing flash floods warning, with government and citizens bracing themselves for a new dose of socio-economic burden as a direct consequence of the battering from tropical storm ‘Nicole’
By Friday evening, reports out of Kingston pointed to an estimated death toll of sixteen, including a five-year-old child, and millions of dollars in destruction and damages by flood waters from pounding rains that forced closure of schools over three days, as well as businesses in various parts of the country.
As if Jamaica has not had more than its fair share of problems from rampaging criminality and recurring fiscal and economic challenges prior to, and after, the intervention of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), storm ‘Nicole’ was to wreak havoc across the country.
The expectation is that with available official assessments on the extent of destruction — in addition to loss of lives — the rest of the Caribbean Community will be responding with the haste and generosity of spirit, for which Jamaica — like Cuba — has become known at times of natural disasters in our region.
The Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) — a valued programme of CARICOM — has been in communication with Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency (ODPEM) to determine the scale and priorities of cooperation route in responding to the grief brought by ‘Nicole’.
Elsewhere in CARICOM, Haiti — already devastated by last January’s unprecedented earthquake — as well as Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana have also had to battle against the consequences of floods that will combine to aggravate agricultural production, and further contribute to rising food prices.

Two examples

Outside of natural disasters, there continues to be issues of political interest that point to the need for better acquaintance by some Heads of Government and cabinet colleagues to become more acquainted with policies and programmes of CARICOM and international institutions.
Two recent examples illustrate why this may be helpful. One involves new Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, and the other Barbados’ current Minister of Labour, Esther Byer-Suckoo.
In T&T, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, who came to power at last May’s general election at which her People’s Partnership coalition secured a landslide parliamentary victory against the incumbent People’s National Movement, returned home last Wednesday from New York after intensive official activities.
These included addressing the UN General Assembly, and co-hosting a function with Commonwealth Secretary- General, Kamalesh Sharma in her capacity as current chairperson of the 54-member Commonwealth of nations.
The Prime Minister has been reported as telling the Commonwealth function of her plan to discuss with Secretary-General Sharma the creation of a ‘Commonwealth Youth Parliament (CYP)’, as this would also give the youth of Trinidad and Tobago “a forum to express themselves…”
Okay! That’s the Prime Minister’s privilege! But is she aware also of the policies and projects of the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), or, for that matter, CARICOM’s own Youth Ambassador Programme (CAYP)? The latter, like the wider Commonwealth version, is committed to the development and empowerment of youth for the realisation of a “better future” for all citizens — young and old.

CARICOM Parliament

Further, if the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, in office for less than five months, considers it a commitment to have a Commonwealth Youth Parliament, has she considered discussing with CARICOM Secretary- General, Edwin Carrington the fate of the once vigorously pursued Assembly of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians (ACCP)?
Established in 1996 and now a virtually abandoned institution after just about three meetings, the ACCP was created as a deliberative forum to help in promoting better understanding and support for CARICOM as a regional movement for economic cooperation and functional cooperation.
Question is: What success could possibly be achieved in CARICOM’s backing of a Commonwealth Youth Parliament, as envisioned by Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, when there seems to be little or no interest among the Community’s governments for what now lies dormant as an Assembly of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians?
However, if Persad-Bissessar’s political ‘newness’ as a Head of Government could perhaps explain her haste to market the idea of a Commonwealth Youth Parliament, the Labour Minister of Barbados, Byer-Suckoo, has been a cabinet minister since the Democratic Labour Party won the government back in January 2008.
That’s a lot of time for her to be acquainted with some of the policies and programmes of CARICOM, particularly relating to the Single Market and Economy for which Prime Ministers of Barbados have traditionally held lead readiness-responsibility, and for which the Community Secretariat has an active communications strategy.
Minister Byer-Suckoo, nevertheless, was on Wednesday telling a ‘stakeholders meeting’ on the findings of a study by the Barbados-based CSME Unit of the need to “strengthen inter-agency communication to facilitate the kind of synergies that will make regionalisation successful…”
Whatever that may involve, a related observation by the minister, as reported, was the need “to develop a comprehensive regional communication strategy, which would better inform stakeholders about all aspects of the CSME and establish mechanisms of information sharing…”
A question of relevance here is whether the Ministry of Labour had been advised of the ‘public education strategy on the CSME’ being pursued by the CARICOM Secretariat, and which includes the work of the CSME Unit in Barbados?
It is also relevant to note here that too many governments fail too often to utilise their own information services and channels of communication at their disposal to facilitate the Secretariat’s efforts to sensitise the region’s people on the various aspects of the CSME.
Nor can the region’s media escape blame for often giving scant coverage to the CARICOM’s statements and activities.