-President Granger calls for gov’ts, media to assist

By Ravin Singh in Grenada
OUTGOING chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), President David Granger, shares the view that more needs to be done to educate citizens in the Region about the benefits of CARICOM.
The President expressed this view on Tuesday morning at the Maurice Bishop International Airport in Grenada, just after he arrived in the country for the Conference of Heads of Government meeting of CARICOM. The meeting starts today and will conclude tomorrow.
“Yes, we need to do more to educate our citizens,” he said, while acknowledging that a lot has been achieved over the years. CARICOM nationals share mixed views on the role of the regional bloc and its apparent inability to achieve desired outcomes since its formation 44 years ago.

With the Region spanning an area of more than 3000sq km, and two of the Community’s members geographically located South America, President Granger reasoned that communication has always been a challenge. Communication, he offered, has been one of the reasons CARICOM nationals believe that the regional bloc has not achieved much, nor has it been doing any serious work. He said that it is for this reason, heads of government in the Region are working towards creating a single Information and Communication Technology space.

“Communication has always been a problem and ICT will be on the agenda, because it is through ICT we will seek to bridge this gap,” the outgoing chairman said.
He explained that it is impossible for CARICOM ministers and heads of government to travel the Region and inform nationals about every project or programme the regional body is spearheading or has executed. Given the leaders’ inability to do this, President Granger suggested that governments and the media play a more active role in building awareness about CARICOM and its achievements.
Further, he pointed to the fact that regional integration is not as attractive in terms of making the news as compared to a crisis in the Region, which the media would treat with priority.

“When things go bad or there is a crisis, there is a lot of news coverage. But there is a lot of day-to-day work in the Region that does not get reported on; the way we deal with disease, education and functional cooperation. That is not sexy news, but those things have been ongoing,” the outgoing chairman told reporters.
While commenting on his tenure as chairman of the Community, which ended July 1, President Granger was keen to note that over the last six months, there have been significant changes in the international community. Last year, the United Kingdom (UK), in what has been described as a historic and unexpected move, voted to leave the European Union (EU). This lead to several major developments in the global political economy, including a devaluation of the pound sterling.

Not too soon after, the United States (U.S.) saw the elevation of Donald Trump to presidency – a development which many had feared would have serious impacts on the Region and other parts of the world.
And according to President Granger, “No one could have anticipated the change in international relations…and the impact they had.” Notwithstanding CARICOM’s continued efforts to navigate itself through these challenges, the outgoing chairman said that the bloc was able to focus on its primary objective. “The important thing is that we have been able to put more clearly in focus, the need for the Community to speak with a single voice.

I would say that there was something about crescendo when our Foreign Minister had to meet in Washington with the OAS [Organisation of American States]. We were able to use various devices, particularly face-to-face engagements, to ensure that the entire Region sings from the same song sheet,” he said.