Gya: Haiti, we're sorry, but you're not wanted in Caricom!

Jamaican businessman Oliver Clarke needs to tender an apology to the people of Haiti for questioning the wisdom of including Haiti in Caricom (Haiti has been a Caricom member since 1998). Clarke, who seems to be dismissive of the region's poorer countries, Haiti and Guyana, wants a common Caribbean market in order to improve the standard of living in the region. In Clarke's view, the bottom-line is all that matters; for, as he argues:

it is inappropriate for small countries in the Caribbean to be expected to solve Haiti's problems, which ... are probably unsolvable "when we have so many of our issues which go unresolved."

Is it appropriate for Caricom to dump a neighboring country because the countries in the region have problems of their own, and Caricom regards that country as "a failed state" in the throes of a civil war?

In Clarke's view, the Dominican Republica, Haiti's neighbor, would have been a better bet for Caricom membership, perhaps if only because the DR seems more politically stable than Haiti. Evidently, Clarke is unaware of the Ley de Lemas problem in the DR. Clarke's bottom-line view is all that counts and leads him to ask what's in it for us (the rest of Caricom) that Haiti, one of the largest countries in the region, is a member of Caricom? What has prompted Clarke down this road? This:

One of his menu of measures for improving the standard of living of the region's citizens is to re-evaluate the viability of many of the regional states.

Haiti isn't viable and cannot contribute to improving the standard of living in Caricom; therefore, Haiti must go. It's a cold and selfish position to take. In this age of global terrorism, the leaders of Caricom must consider that Haiti could become another Muslim Triangle, which will have a negative impact on the standard of living in the region. More than that, Haiti is a neighbor in need of help. The charitable thing to do would be to devise strategies to help Haiti. Perhaps, Caricom needs to play a more interventionist role in Haiti; for, the region's countries possess people with knowledge and skills which can be used well to bring Haiti out of the morass into which civil war is plunging it.

Caricom countries cannot look northward to the U.S. unless they are willing to help Haiti themselves. Haiti will one day be on its feet, and Caricom's abandonment will be remembered and rued.