IRA MATHUR
Sandra Ann Baptiste’s career as a journalist and specialist in Caribbean affairs spans over three decades, during which she has chronicled major developments across the region with a particular focus on the regional integration movement, Caricom. Her extensive experience in print and broadcast media includes work with renowned organisations such as the BBC, CBC, CANA, the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of Barbados, and the Guyana Broadcasting Service.
As the first head of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) and a Certified International Trade Professional (CITP), Baptiste has a deep understanding of the Caribbean’s socio-economic landscape. Her newly launched book, Caribbean Perspectives, which focuses on Caricom from the 1970s to 2014, is a compelling collection of articles spanning just over three decades.
The collection provides insightful analysis of Caricom and various social and economic issues in the region, featuring interviews with over a dozen heads of government and two Caricom secretaries-general. The book delves into economic and trade issues, the region’s external trade relations, and tourism developments, with a special section on the Commonwealth.
Baptiste’s interest in journalism began in high school with an internship at the Guyana Graphic newspaper, followed by a stint at the Guyana Broadcasting Service during the launch of Caricom after which, she recalls she was encouraged by Dr Edwin Carrington, (who later became secretary-general of Caricom) to specialise in the regional integration movement. Her career flourished as she covered numerous Caricom and Commonwealth Summits, trade, finance, and tourism meetings, putting together in-depth reports reflecting the views of government, private sector, and civic leaders.
“Travelling around the region and becoming familiar with the politics, economy, people, culture, and food was an amazing experience,” Baptiste remembers her tenure at CANA, the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, and Voice of Barbados as “among the most productive periods” of her media career.
Baptiste’s work has always been about more than just reporting; it has been about sharing the rich, complex stories of the Caribbean’s politics, economy, and culture. Her relationships with key figures like Edwin Carrington and Roderick Rainford, along with several heads of government and business leaders, allowed her to provide a nuanced view of the region’s developments. Now, as a business and communications consultant, Baptiste continues to champion Caribbean investment, trade, and tourism through Carigold Signature, a magazine based in North America.
Her legacy of insightful journalism and dedicated consultancy shapes the narrative of Caribbean growth and unity.
Excerpt: Caribbean Perspectives
–Page 32 with permission from the author exclusively for the Sunday Guardian WE magazine.
From “Slow Boat to Unity”–The Pace of Integration
Caribbean World Magazine, London–1992
Sandra Ann Baptiste talks with Jamaica’s Prime Minister Michael Manley and other leaders about the struggle for an integrated market in the Caribbean. “Manley has warned that the international community was getting negative signals from Caricom’s failure to implement many of its trade and other agreements, which would be a prerequisite for the establishment of a single market.
Over the past five years, Caricom governments have implemented about 30 per cent of decisions taken at their annual summits. He seeks a stronger political will to ensure that Caricom accords are translated into action. The region’s leaders have been widely and harshly criticised during the consultations which the independent West Indian Commission held in 1991 within the region, and in the United Kingdom and Canada. Manley attaches a lot of importance to the work of the West Indian Commission which he hopes will help inject some badly needed dynamism into the movement.
In an interim report, the commission, chaired by former commonwealth secretary-general Sir Shridath Ramphal, called for “immediate action” in six areas: easier travel for West Indians within their own region; the free movement of skills in the region; steps towards a common currency; the creation of a Caribbean Investment Fund; creating the CARICOM Single Market and mobilising for international negotiations. Manley had hoped that the meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in mid-February in Jamaica would focus solely on these areas. “There are certain short-term problems that you face in any integration process, but it is justified by the tremendous transformation in your capacity to deliver progress if you do integrate,” he said.
“If three entities as huge as Canada, the United States and Mexico look at the world economy and find it necessary to begin an integration process, the whole of mighty Europe with a history of one thousand years now puts warfare behind it and is going to integrate, who are we to think that we can afford not to?”
Dominica’s Prime Minister, Dame Eugenia Charles, is a lawyer by profession whose political career goes back 35 years. Now 73, she is a tough, no-nonsense politician who is referred to as the Iron Lady of the Caribbean. She played an important part in the involvement of American troops in Grenada in 1983 when she went to Washington to see President Reagan on behalf of the region. She has been severely critical of Caricom, particularly the performance of the secretariat. She wants it removed from Guyana–which has its own economic problems and has failed to attract enough residents from other islands.
Dame Eugenia is clearly frustrated. She complains that Caricom programmes never get off the ground because little attention is paid to specifics like personnel, funding and responsibility for projects. In the 1970s and 1980s, international recession and fluctuations in the price of oil have resulted in a slump in relations among Caricom countries.
At their 1989 Summit in Grenada, Caricom leaders approved the historic Grand Anse Declaration, setting out target dates for major advances. Most of the deadlines have not been met. Of the 19 decisions taken at Grand Anse, only two have been implemented. The regional integration movement failed once again in 1991 to meet several deadlines which the Heads of Government set. The Common External Tariff (CET), a duty on goods imported from outside the region to give a boost to regional production, has not yet been fully implemented.
Member states did not adhere to the December 31 target date for removing all remaining barriers to intra-regional trade. Two Caricom projects which did succeed in 1991 were the limited start-up of a Regional Stock Exchange–involving the cross-listing and trading of stocks of companies in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago–and the establishment of a CARICOM Emergency Disaster Response Agency.
In 1992, the region will continue to feel the effects of the international recession. Tourism, its major industry, suffered from the Cold War and has been dealt a further blow with the collapse of Pan Am. Tourism is one area where there is room for cooperation, particularly because the outlook for this vital industry is far from rosy. The Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has projected a hard winter, with little or no growth.
One positive development was the historic mid-February meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government on the future of tourism, including the plans for the joint marketing of the region and facilities to lure more investment to the sector, which is badly in need of capital for refurbishment. The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) says that all of the Caricom countries, with the exception of Barbados, experienced some growth in 1991, but the region’s economic performance on the whole was “not very good.”
–End of Excerpt
Sandra Ann Baptiste is currently the Chief Executive Consultant of Florida-based company Carigold Signature, producing the Caribbean Business & Travel magazine and the Caribbean Tourism and Hospitality Investment Guide.
Ira Mathur is a Guardian Media
journalist and the winner of the 2023 Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction for her memoir, Love The Dark Days.
Website: www.irasroom.org
Author inquiries can be sent to irasroom@gmail.com