How Adequately Prepared Are We In Caricom For Globalization?Essay Preview: How Adequately Prepared Are We In Caricom For Globalization?Report this essayThere continue to be wide ranging debate on the preparedness of CARICOM countries for the pending impact which globalization will have on these small developing nations. Globalization is expected to have a negative an impact on the economic, social, environmental, Industrial development of small countries. Caricom countries because of their size, population, isolation and remoteness fit into this category of countries considered to be small. If these factors are examined for there likely impact on the Caribbean Islands, they will overwhelmingly show that while some CARICOM countries has made some attempts to prepare for Globalization many if not all are still not yet prepared.
In the 1990s the concept of globalization was widely employed in academic and political debates but the meanings attributed to this term are far from consistent.
Globalization may be defined as the growing influence exerted at the local, national and regional levels by financial, economic, environmental, social, political and cultural processes that are global in scope. (Globalization and Development, 2003)
Globalization refers to the growing level of economic integration among countries. (Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization: An Action Plan for Caribbean Labor Markets, 1999)
Based on these definitions, we can identify various aspects that would need developing to keep up the globalization process. Even though the definitions have identified these areas of developments which are necessary, the major Factors which dictate the unpreparedness of the CARICOM would be that of Financial and Economical.
One of the most important aspects is the financial position of CARICOM members is of great importance in their development for globalization. We view the financial position of a state to be an aspect of their economic position.
Financial and EconomicalAccording to (Caribbean Trade and Investment report 2000: 4) “there are various factors which combine to make small states especially vulnerable and susceptible to income volatility. Such Factors include remoteness and isolation, susceptibility to natural disasters and environmental change, limited diversification and debilitating poverty. Where countries are small, their ability to undertake the sort of large-scale operations that are usually required for sustained growth is indeed limited.”
The Caribbean is very susceptible to natural disasters, namely hurricanes. Now this is especially evident in countries such as Grenada, who after Hurricane Ivan, is sill crippled especially in terms of their economy and financial status. This wiped out their means to produce and maintain their economy and thus gotten rid of their ability to support the changes needed to be implemented for global development.
In other islands like Dominica or St. Lucia, whose main form of capital still resides in their banana industry, would face a similar fate if this was to occur to them. However natural disasters is not the only area in which CARICOM countries will have difficulty in competing in a globalized environment for another such area is in the removal of preferential trade barriers.
It is well known that the Caribbean utilizes agriculture for a means of foreign exchange and earning capital, thus globalization affects it on a major level. Belal Ahmed- The cost of production, especially for sugar and banana is rising. This factor is compensated by the higher preferential marketing prices of sugar and Banana protocols under the Lome Convention and also the subsequent Contonou Partnership Agreement signed in June 2000, which guarantees both the export amount and prices until 2008, after which the Caribbean sugar and banana industries are expected to face the full impact of globalization. CARICOM countries have been challenged in this area by the slow pace to diversify into other crops, lack of increase production and continued labour problems in the sector. This clearly identifies another area in which CARICOM countries are unprepared for the impact of globalization.
Another major economic factor would be that of Labor markets, especially as a result of migration and population movements. It is known that currently, there is a great movement of people from one island in the Caribbean to another, one such present case being the influx of Guyanese Nationals who entering Barbados in search of jobs. Conversely Barbados has suffered from what has been termed a “Brain drain” in which many of its Nationals, namely teachers and Nurses have been migrating to North America and Europe in search of bigger pay packages. Member countries because of the low wages that they pay have been unable to address this so called “Brain Drain” in a meaningful way. This further exemplifies the unpreparedness of the CARICOM countries and problems for their economies.
In regards to poverty, it is well known that this is an area widely spread throughout the Caribbean. According to Browne (1999) the foreign minister of Trinidad and Tobago at that time, Ralph Maraj, stated that the process of globalization and liberalization have further accentuated the divide between the rich and the poor of the world. He added that over 1.3 billion people are currently in the category of the poor earning less than $1 per day, resulting in great number of children not having access to education or proper healthcare especially in small developing states. (Caribbean Trade and Investment report 2000: 8) An economy in which the population is able to satisfy the basic needs could thereby enhance its ability to grow and regenerate itself.
The Caribbean is an immense population with more than 5,000,000 people living in the country. According to the 2011 Census Households, there were over 70,500, with over 7.3 billion living in the country. There were over 15 million people living in the coastal area of the country that year, according to figures published in 2013. In 2014 the population of the province of Trinidad and Tobago was 65 million, the largest group and by a similar margin in the world. The country also houses more of the highest concentration of migrants. More than 25,000 refugees arrived at the country in 2014 alone.
In a recent interview, David W. Gartman said: “We have a large population in a land that is much better protected than other countries when it comes to people moving in, which is a fact that we have seen over the last five years. We have seen a very small growth in number of asylum applications and it’s a very high rate of illegal migrants, with thousands from other countries. All of this is a global phenomenon, not in some parts of Africa.”
The Caribbean also has an unusual degree of poverty. The highest rate of poverty in the country is in the coastal area of Trinidad and Tobago, which has roughly a 3% annual poverty rate according to the Global Poverty Index of 2010. In 2010, only one third of the population of Trinidad and Tobago had children less than 10 years old, while 20% had children under 10 years. Among the countries listed in the Global Poverty Index are Angola, Algeria, Ethiopia, Ethiopia-United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahamas, Bahamas, Bonaire, Bahamas-United States, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of China, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Uruguay, Venezuela, Virgin Islands, Wallonia, Yemen, and the United Kingdom. Among the countries that are below the Global Poverty Index was Liberia, Nigeria, and Nigeria.
In the Caribbean, poverty is highest among the four countries that contribute the most to the development of the economy of the country: Africa, the Middle East, the Central African Republic, the Indian subcontinent, Haiti, the Western Sahara, the Caspian Basin, and the Southern Hemisphere. In the Central Mediterranean region the rate of poverty is very high due to the high amount of migrants arriving from sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the 2015 International Poverty Index this is the eighth highest in the world, representing roughly 5.5 times the proportion of the population of the world that has its own country of origin. During the first half of the 20th Century the poverty rate was in the highest 20% in the world, on average, at approximately 12%. Today, the rate is just 5% in South Africa, less than 10% in Algeria, and 17% in the Caribbean. Despite the fact that almost one in four families live in the countries below the Global Poverty Index, there are