WESTERN BUREAU:
"NO CAUSE for worry", was how President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana, responded on Wednesday to reported threats of an impending coup in his country.
"Those who want to live in the past and focus on the things that divide us will soon disappear from the country", he told guests at the first Awards Banquet of the Westmoreland Home-coming Committee, held at The Negril Hills Golf Club.
President Jagdeo, who is responsible for agricultural matters in CARICOM, in a speech which addressed the issues of globalisation and its effect on the developing world, spoke of having grave misgivings about the present international trading system.
He said that globalisation and its philosophical paradigms, introduced in the 1980s as the solution to world poverty, had produced evidence to the contrary. Despite the promises of globalisation, he said, poverty had increased, there was growing inequality in the world and there was increase in hunger and the meltdown of some economies.
In calling for a recommitment to regional integration, President Jagdeo said that Caribbean leaders needed to break down the international issues into language and situations that people could understand. He expressed concern that, preoccupied with what was portrayed by the Western media, Caribbean nationals were not relating to the real assets of the region, such as diamonds in Guyana, and were, therefore not treasuring them and treating them as an important part of their heritage.
The 15 CARICOM countries were taking the lead in many of the international negotiations, because the block of 15 votes was of critical importance.
The need for unity was important as Europe and the USA were "deporting all the criminals back to the Caribbean and taking all the teachers and nurses from the Caribbean", he said to loud applause. "We should at least be demanding that they give us the cost of training back", he added.
In the wide-ranging speech, he gave examples of how aspects of the globalisation model such as trade liberalisation, the OECD's harmful tax initiative that sought to dictate fiscal policies in developing countries, and even environmental measures had adversely affected developing countries. President Jagdeo said that developed countries selfishly continued to operate in their own interests. One example he cited was the demand to remove tariffs on local products which were then forced to compete with subsidised foreign products resulting in growing unemployment and more social turmoil in countries such as Guyana.
Observing that Caribbean agriculture could be wiped out because of US farm subsidies, he said the newly introduced subsidies were already having a negative impact on Guyanese rice production.
"USA rice cannot compete with Guyanese rice without the subsidy," he told the banquet. "Sugar would soon be on the chopping block, aquaculture and cattle-rearing stymied by competition from subsidised products, and it is almost impossible for Caribbean manufacturers to compete with the developed countries because of the economies of scale".
According to President Jagdeo, Dominica, a banana dependent country, was already in trouble, as it was unable to pay public sector salaries, and Antigua was facing similar problems.
The awardees included the Hon. Muriel Carnegie, the first female Custos of Jamaica, who received the P. J. Patterson Award for Civic Involvement. Other awardees were: Sheila Smith, for Education; Aston Spence, for Community and Sports and Neville Blythe, for business. There was a posthumous award to Verita Segre, for Tourism. Attorney-at-law Vernon Ricketts chaired the awards ceremony.
The activities of the first Westmoreland Home-coming Week began on Sunday, July 28, 2002 with a church service and will end with a float parade and soca party on Saturday, August 3 2002. Other activities include a trade expo and food fest, street dance, gospel concert and an old hits party.
