Juliet Portillo

Development for the Caribbean on the basis of whose ideologies? The Global North?

Development implies purposive action to get from an existing state to a desired state. But from what or through whose lens do we equate development.  Why do we in the Caribbean have to depend on others to tell us how to live...what we should eat, wear or the type of houses in which to live to get the approving nod?  Is it not unfair to use the same yardstick to measure development as relates to small size of some Caribbean countries as against others?  Has market led development benefitted us in this region? Jamaica for example is not much better than it was years ago.  Foreign aid accompanied by structural adjustment policies has crippled Jamaica.  Its debt is over 4 billion dollars Trying to honour its debt meant cuts in social programs, wages, employment and health just to name a few and has hindered any kind of development. Multinational corporations are flourishing whilst the country is riddled in crime and poverty.

Former prime minister Michael Manley said that Jamaica was not for sale.  He was however forced to sign his country's first loan with the IMF in 1977.  There seem to be no other alternative.  No meaningful development has taken place.  Clearly the Caribbean needs an ideology of development of its own.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?