#BTColumn – The CARICOM economy (Part 2)
Article by May 2, 2021
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.
by Luke 13:6-9
Last week, a regular reader of my column, in noting the relatively weak average 2019 GDP per capita CARICOM performance when compared with selected countries, passionately shared this observation: CARICOM is a large bureaucratic financial black hole lacking in a smart partnership philosophy and is in urgent need of governance restructuring.
What else can we learn from these comparisons?
Singapore’s success, as one of the world’s most prosperous nations, is due to the strong leadership style by Lee Kwan Yew when he took over the reins as Prime Minister in 1959. His government’s Connectivity, Openness, Reliability and Enterprise (CORE) economic development strategy was expertly implemented.
While we all recognize the names of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr., from our studies of Black History Month, there are many other African American heroes who were important in the struggle for freedom and equality but whose names aren’t as widely known. These men and women are a vital part of our nation’s religious heritage, as well, and without their contributions, we might not even have had a Martin Luther King, Jr. So, I would like to highlight a few of those here today.
Many black preachers alive today are renowned for their impressive sermon oratory, but this is nothing new in African-American history. One of the earliest American black preachers to be appreciated and respected for his sermon delivery was Rev. Harry Hosier, who was the first to preach to white audiences during the post-Revolutionary War era. He was born a slave in North Carolina and freed in Maryland toward the end of the war, but remained illiterate despite traveling with th