St. Kts: Creeping one-worldism

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) - Prime Minister Owen Arthur said there is still too much insularity throughout the region, even as efforts continue to establish the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday, Arthur said a CSME cannot be viable without a sense of Caribbean nationhood.

"People in the Caribbean are first and foremost Barbadians, Jamaicans or Trinidadians, but people do not speak of themselves first as West Indians. The fact is that we have had 30 or 40 years of entrenched insular nationalism working as a divisive force in this region," Arthur said.

"Many people seem to feel that you can compartmentalise economic integration and political integration and you can build an economy without a sense of nationhood or a sense of cultural or political identity," he said during debate on the Free Movement of Skilled Nationals Bill.

Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders have set a 2005 deadline for establishing the CSME, which will facilitate the free movement of goods, skills and labour across the region.

This is the natural end of the talk about new ways of looking at sovereignty.