Launch of Books on CARICOM edited by HE Sir Kenneth and Chuck-A-Sang

LAUNCH OF BOOKS ON CARICOM

EDITED BY

GOVERNOR GENERAL,

HIS EXCELLENCY, THE MOST HON. PROFESSOR

SIR KENNETH HALL, ON, GCMG, OJ

 AND

MYRTLE CHUCK-A-SANG

AT

KING'S HOUSE

ON

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008

Your Excellencies Professor Sir Kenneth Hall, Lady Hall, Most Hon. P.J. Patterson, Mr. Robert Pickersgill representing the Leader of the Opposition, Canon Weeville Gordon, HE Dr. Edwin Carrington, Their Excellencies of the Diplomatic Corp, Dr Rolin Bertran, Mrs. Myrtle Chuck-A-Sang and M. Ian Randle, distinguished ladies and gentlemen

We have as our editor someone with credentials as one of our most distinguished academicians is beyond question.  He is not only a distinguished Caribbean scholar, but is a distinguished scholar of matters Caribbean, benefiting I am sure not only from his familiarity with Caribbean history, but no doubt from his two stints as a member of the CARICOM Secretariat.

These two publications which are being launched today are only his latest in a series of valuable compilations of work focused on the evolution of the Caribbean community.  They have been, and these two are in the same vein, they have been more than just a historical narrative, more than just a collection of essays and commentaries that have been made.  They represent a body of work that has been assembled, that brings a deeply analytical perspective to the challenges that face the Caribbean integration process.  

Caribbean integration remains a work in progress.  Cynics might say it's an exercise in slow motion.  And yet, if we reflect on the European Union, which is the model that the Caribbean community has sought to pattern, it's been a long time - some 35 years between the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and Maastricht in 1992,   And I am sure that students of the European integration process would recognise that that too  is still a work in progress.  I think that we have frequently made the mistake of under estimating the integration process. I think the Caribbean integration is a natural phenomenon given our shared history.  There are many countries that share a common history that have found reason to go their separate ways.  And I think that there is a danger - if in seeking to identify the purpose of Caribbean integration - I think we have made a mistake, I think that there is a danger if we look for that purpose in where we are coming from rather than where we want to go - if we focus too much on our challenges rather than the opportunities that the future offers.  Because I think in doing that we so often pay scant attention to the challenges that we face, to the formidable difficulties that have to be overcome and we miss recognising those areas where we can overcome those obstacles better if we try to do so together rather than doing so separately.

We cannot afford to ignore those challenges and those obstacles.  I have found in my short time as part of the leadership of CARICOM that so often the actuality falls short of the zeal and the commitment.  Edwin will recall that when we were in Antigua recently, and I hope that I did not offend anybody when I expressed impatience that we were so quick to sign unto commitment with fine time lines and yet when the time came for us to deliver, we so easily found excuses as to why it wasn't possible to do the things that we had committed to do within the time for which that commitment had been made.  And I think that is because we have been reluctant to confront in all its harshness the difficulties that we face.  But we look through those difficulties to see how we can overcome them - finding areas of common cause.  

As Caribbean countries, we may be buffeted by the same winds, but the impact of those winds on each of us maybe quite different.  Hurricanes rage in the Caribbean but the damage they do in one country may be somewhat different from the damage that it does in another.  And whichever way it impacts on us, invariably it constricts our ability to focus beyond our immediate domestic challenges and imperatives in order to grasp those elements of hope that may lie in a regional collective agenda. 

I think it is only when we are prepared to recognise and face up to those challenges, to see through the clouds of difficulties and uncertainties and to see through those clouds the opportunities that are there for us to do together what we may never be able to do separately.  I think only then are we going to be able to put the energy and develop the momentum in the Caribbean integration process that it needs so desperately. 

The current crisis that has engulfed the world and which is still playing out itself in terms of the impact on countries like those in the Caribbean, that represents an area where perhaps it would be good for us to reflect a moment to look to see would we have been better able to withstand those shocks, would we have been better able to insulate ourselves from the contagious effects of that global meltdown if we had been able to move more steadily to creating the kind of synergies among our countries and among our economies to be able to be sturdier in resisting that onslaught. 

I believe that the works that are being launched today and as in the case with those that have gone before, I believe that they will help us in that process of critical forward thinking analysis rather than historical perspective.  I hope that they will be read not just by academics who are in search of knowledge, but I hope that they will be read and studied by policy makers and political leaders who are in need of solutions to the many problems that continue to bedevil the people of the Caribbean  and I commend the editors, I commend all of you who have been involved in these two important publications.  Thank you very much.