David Jessop

Some years ago, on the table at which I was sitting in a Barbados hotel, there was a small brown packet of sugar.

As far as I can determine, few if any of the current group of Carib-bean prime ministers, or opposition leaders keeps a diary recording events and conversations of importance.

On August 15 Panama celebrated one hundred years of operation of its canal.

On May 7, 2015 Britain will hold a general election. Under the terms of its Fixed Term Parliament Act, this date, which forms a part of the agreement that established the coalition government, may not be varied other than by new legislation.

Geneva, a city that hosts many international organisations, is an attractive place.

When Caricom heads of government met in Antigua earlier this month they had held a “frank and enthusiastic” exchange with selected leaders of industry and commerce.

As this is being written a series of summits have been taking place in Brazil which may have a lasting effect on the way in which the Caribbean and other small indebted nations come to address their future.

A little over a week ago, Cari-com Heads of Government met in Antigua.

Living in the Caribbean it is quite possible to imagine that the world sees the region and its economic fortunes in an unchanging light.

Trying to describe the overall outcome of the Eighth UK-Caribbean Forum, the biennial government to government dialogue that took place in London on June 16-17, is far from easy.

Sanctions and large fines are becoming the weapon of choice for the United States and others as they seek ways to stop nations facilitating trade or financial transfers that touch countries they are engaged in a political dispute with.

When Barack Obama campaigned to be-come President of the United States he made clear that he was against what he described as ‘wars of choice,’ a reference to the way he saw George W Bush’s decision to invade Iraq.

When the Economic Partnership Agree-ment (EPA) between the countries of Cariforum and the European Union was finally signed in 2008, the Caribbean tourism sector believed that it contained much of value to an industry that had become the region’s largest employer after the public sector; its biggest foreign exchange earner outside of the oil, gas and extractive industries; and a significant generator of external tax revenues.

For much of the last decade the Caribbean has been actively diversifying its political and economic relations.

Later this year China will become the world’s largest economy, overtaking the United States roughly five years earlier than was previously expected.

Two weeks ago the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, made a one-day visit to Havana.

How others see us is sometimes hard to accept. Despite this, what they say when we are not present, can play a significant role in creating reputation and identity.

On March 29 Cuba’s National Assembly passed a new foreign investment law.

In 2001, one in 10 voters in the United Kingdom were members of an ethnic minority; by 2050 the number will have risen to one in five. 

It is not often that one can point to a clear victory for the Caribbean; however, that is the message contained in the decision by Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, to return Britain’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) to a two band system.