Ja: Made in the U.S.A.

...What a refreshing change to visit Grenada, with a disciplined population of some 90,000. Their humble folk put great stock by education and make learning attractive to their children. Here's an example. I am visiting my friend's in St George's and a 10 year-old is dropped off to attend a concert with her. While she waits, does the child plant herself in front of the television? No, she produces a music book from her bag and asks if she could practise, "because I have an exam this week". No wonder Grenada has a 98 per cent literacy rate compared to Jamaica's 87 per cent.

The streets of Grenada are clean, the houses neat. At the national stadium, we rehearse a group of children from the Alpha Junior School in the hot mid-afternoon sun. Although we have them trying different formations, there is nary a grumble. My friend Shirley Brathwaite, owner and principal of the school, is calm and organised: not one child is late or absent. I am proud of my friend, who started her much sought-after school in the '80s. The children recognise the flags of the 30 Caribbean states on their T-shirts - they are participating in the Digicel/CFU Caribbean Cup launch. Their parents watch them adoringly from the stands.

Back at our hotel, nutmeg shells are the glistening top layer of the flowerbeds, and the single-serve packs of nutmeg jelly are manufactured right there in Grenada. This is nutmeg country, the second leading exporter of the spice in the world (Indonesia is the first). There are scores of nutmeg by-products, nutmeg jelly, nutmeg syrup, nutmeg ice-cream and smoothies from the hotel bar are topped with a generous sprinkle of this ubiquitous condiment. I even saw a billboard proclaiming the painkilling properties of a product called Nut-Med! (In his autobiography, the late Malcolm X wrote that it was nutmeg that scotched his withdrawal symptoms while he was in prison. He said a matchbox of the stuff was a precious jail cocktail.)

This country, with a population roughly that of Kingston 6, recorded 2.5 per cent growth last year. Their attractive new international airport and crime-free environment keep their tourism product strong, and they have active manufacturing, housing and offshore financial sectors.

Taking a whirlwind tour on the well-built roads, we see the first-world St George's University that boasts a fine school for Veterinary Medicine, and Westerhall Estates, a bit like Cherry Gardens without the high walls and wired gates.
...
But 1983 is still a fresh memory for many. That was the year that Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and senior government officials were shot dead in a coup. In a dramatic turn of events, the US intervened and the perpetrators were eventually tried and imprisoned in an imposing penitentiary overlooking the capital. As witnessed by Prime Minister Keith Mitchell's close win in their recent elections, democracy is alive and well in Grenada.

This is not to say that poverty is not a problem here. The CIA factbook states that about one-third of Grenada's population live below the poverty line, about the same as Jamaica. However, Grenada's crime rate is extremely low, so there goes the much- vaunted theory that our crime problem is the result of poverty. I have always maintained that if a child is raised with solid values, in a stable, loving environment, he is not easily tempted to turn to a life of crime.

What would Grenada have been like had the U.S. not intervened in 1983 and set Grenada once more on the road to democracy? No need to wonder too long; look north to Cuba. That's where Maurice Bishop was taking the country.