CARICOM crabs in a barrel

KINGSTON, Jamaica - WE have never for one moment deluded ourselves into believing that the signing of the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas -- that governs Caribbean Community (CARICOM) relations -- would have ushered us overnight to the Promised Land of regional integration.
In fact, we knew clearly that we would only achieve the ideal of a single economic space, binding these disparate current and former colonies, through an evolutionary process demanding nothing less than the absolute best of our collective Caribbean genius.
What we never expected, however, was that 40 years hence we would still be a fragmented bunch of islands, fighting against each other like crabs in a barrel, while clutching -- like a drowning man to a straw -- to the illusion of sovereignty.