The Mediterranean is that body of water and of people along the shores that links Asia, Africa and Europe and which played throughout history a significant role in the shaping of world's movement and world commerce. It was the highway toward colonization, trade and the search for new food in particular from Asia and America to Europe. It is now a vibrant setting that propels the world through commerce, culture and energy.
The Caribbean is also the body of water and of people that links North America and Central America to South America. It has played also, albeit much later, a role in the making of world history. It is interesting to ponder why the Mediterranean has evolved today in a much better way than the Caribbean.
Both regions are considered paradises on earth, due to their mild climate, the laissez-vivre culture of their populations, their abundant fisheries products as well as the organic nature of their produce.
They represent an idyllic way of life that, even for a week, every citizen on earth aspires to visit or live in. Yet while the people of the Mediterranean are solidly settling in their own land, those of the Caribbean are still leaving en masse for London, Ottawa, Paris or New York.
At the dawn of the year 2015, I would like to come back to a column written some seven years ago "A road map for a coordinated and integrated approach for the Caribbean islands", this time with a comparative look at the Mediterranean, urging the people and the governments of the Caribbean to take their destiny in their own hands so as to build nations that will become fully hospitable to those who live in them.
A new development at the sundown of 2014, the opening of Cuba and the beginning of the end of the embargo against that island nation by the United States, has offered new opportunities that, if not seized in time, could waste this major breakthrough as occurred with the fall of communism in the Soviet Union or the fall of autocrat rulers in the Arab Spring.
The talk of the pundits and of the governments in the Caribbean is centered on how to protect their national turf against the foray of Cuba into mainstream tourism; it is not on how to profit from the educational and the public health advantages of Cuba to build a stronger Caribbean that could rival the Mediterranean in hospitality for all, residents and non-residents.
The Mediterranean has been lucky to benefit from the expertise of an esteemed colleague of the Caribbean, Dr Basil Springer, shepherded by the European Union, a regional organization solidly centered on well-rounded development. The Caribbean on its side has a weak Caribbean Community (CARICOM), an ineffective Organization of American States (OAS), a disinterested United States and venal leadership in the islands interested in their small glories and not vying for the larger prize of a strong Caribbean that would be good and profitable for all.
The Mediterranean by itself sustains 30 percent of world fisheries and protein consumption. It attracts one third of the flock of tourists from around the world seeking a place to land for a few days, liberating themselves from the stress of their daily life. It carries one third of total merchant shipping spanning the globe in search of produce and goods to buy from one place and sell to the other. The Mediterranean is booming in spite of hot spots such as Palestine, Lebanon and Syria that share the region.
The Caribbean is languishing, selling only sun, surf and salt, not building on its human resources to create a value-added product that would make the region attractive, not only for its own people but also for potential investors.
Cuba is still hesitating about whether it should build on the potential of its highly educated population to unleash its energy in the capitalist sea for self and for others. Haiti, in spite of its foray into democratization, is still a sad case, where the human potential is wasted by the symbiotic conspiracy of its past governments and its elite. The Dominican Republic is true to its motto of "y palante que va" - we are pushing forward! yet it does not realize that, from ancient Corinth to New York, NY, the places that have flourished throughout history have remained hospitable to all, citizens and residents alike.
The rest of the Caribbean has rulers in different degrees of non-hospitality, with Guyana holding the lowest echelon, being more interested in their own future than the future of their citizens. They fail to make their setting true to its paradisiacal nature for their own people.
The United States, the big brother in the Caribbean Basin since Ronald Reagan, has shown scant interest in the region. Its funding in the area that reached $3 billion decades ago under the Gipper has dwindled to millions, with Haiti receiving (without clear results) the lion's share of that funding.
Its Diaspora, in spite of pious pronouncements, has not made the jump from brain drain to brain gain. Well settled in Miami, Montreal or London, they visit the islands only for Carnival or the year end celebrations, not contributing to revitalizing the region with their talent, their time or their money.
A distinguished son of the region, Sir Ronald Sanders, was nominated to become the next secretary general of the Commonwealth but his candidacy that needed the collective support of the region to face the African and Asian gang has been sabotaged by tiny Dominica for reasons that defy the common cause.
The common cause is that the entire Caribbean region must stand united, including Cuba, to forge a new alliance that would propel wealth for each citizen of the region. The formula to create wealth is the same that I have been proposing throughout the life of this column, the building of a shared vision of the future amongst the citizens of the region, sane institutions and adequate infrastructure to incubate the creative minds of the people and the collective will to pull to the front those who have been left behind.
The upcoming Latin American and Caribbean Conference in April will set the tone as to whether the United States, CARICOM and OAS combined will act as the European Community did for the Mediterranean, an incubator for nation-building for each one of the nations that surrounds the Mediterranean sea. I would hate some seven years from now to lament on the same sad situation where the integrated Caribbean is a hollow aspiration without meat to make it a concrete reality.

o Jean H. Charles, LLB MSW, JD, is a syndicated columnist with Caribbean News Now. He can be reached at: jeancharles@aol.com and followed at Caribbeannewsnow/Haiti. This is published with the permission of Caribbean News Now.

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