The next decade....what's in store?

PJ getting nuff big ups

The Caricom Heads of Government meeting is taking place as I write, just down the road at one of the "Aliens Hotels" (not the right name, for obvious reasons!) where I did some work last year. Check the archives around the end of October/early November for what I wrote about that sorry hotel chain. I can just imagine the many complaints that guests at that hotel have. Poor them.

Anyway, outgoing Chairman of Caricom, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua, referred to the Most Honourable PJ Patterson as the "Master of Caricom" many times. Go deh PJ (who by the way is wearing a ring on his ring finger).

Another thing that PM Spencer said which is to be noted is that even though Tourism (my real field...not this journalism thing which I dabble in) is the mainstay of most economies in the region, it never appears as a regular agenda item at these meetings. So true.

Caribbean governments pay scant regard to development as it relates to Tourism, whether it is development of space, of financial incentives or of the most important assset - the people. If they were reallly serious about Tourism, they would make sure each island had a top class school to train aspiring entrants into the industry. But before that, they would ensure that the primary and secondary education produces students with the capacity to learn, grow and develop intellectually, and be able to function in the world.