Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 3

D. Markie Spring
Turks and Caicos Islands:

Ideally, education plays an important role in the development of the mind, character and the physical ability of an individual. This philosophy is a fundamental need within Caribbean states; therefore much focus should be directed toward developing education within the region. From my observation, the Caribbean region also has an obligation to unite all its resources to develop and implement a standard educational and research program.

The Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Haiti are at the bottom of the literacy list despite the enormous schooling facilities present in those states. It is heart-breaking to know that Haiti has a literacy rate of 53 percent, which means that this country has more than four million people who are termed as illiterate. In the Dominican Republic there is an average of three million illiterate people and around 840,000 illiterate citizens live in Jamaica. These numbers should be staggering and stunning enough to engage our Caribbeab leaders to correct this issue before it escalates further.

First, let me address our education standard and status to other parts of the world. In Canada and the United States, well qualified and experienced Caribbean citizens who migrate to those parts of the globe have to be re-trained and be placed back into the classrooms -- for the reason that our system, according to their beliefs, is below their educational standards.

To address this issue, the region has to first integrate its education system, coupled with a focus on scientific research. There is a need to combine all of our resources and set one standard. Again the OCES member-states have always facilitated regionalism. This time it is good to see that the More Developed States -- Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados -- have joined this regional effort. We have created CXC at the secondary level, and the University of the West Indies and the University of Guyana at the tertiary level. This is indeed a good start; however, there is a greater need to develop more programs and policy to finance and guide our education system.

Hitherto, it is important also that our education system focuses on programs, which would support exchanges and mobility -- a university program, which would support international exchange opportunities for many university and college students.

Similarly, programs to facilitate teachers from other countries into our system, which will be designed to encourage diversity, promote and spread good practices in education across the region. In so doing, the region would support comparable standards and compatible degrees throughout the Caribbean.

Conversely, the Caribbean must move ahead and start competing with the rest of the world through its education system. Efforts must be made to establish policy in this area to stimulate and coordinate research. The Caribbean must seek to allocate funds to finance Caribbean and national projects. Some areas that the Caribbean needs to diversify are geography, geology, oceanography, anthropology, archeology and other scientific research areas, including renewable energy to reduce our region’s dependence on foreign oil; taking into consideration our environment. As a matter of fact, our region should and can become the leader in this research area.

Throughout the Caribbean, education should be funded and made free to all citizens at the primary and secondary level. In this capacity, I do not support free education at the tertiary level; however, it should be affordable, while special programs facilitate scholarship for outstanding students and for students that do not meet the financial requirements. The reason for such opinion is that many students tend to perform less well when education is free of cost-- people value hard work over things, which are readily available. More so, the leaders of the region must sustain a regional fee at the tertiary level.

It is time for the Caribbean to produce doctors, physicians and surgeons, geographers, geologists, mathematicians, and astronauts that would lead missions into space. When are we going to have Caribbean representatives on an oceanography missions? When are we going to be on a geographic expedition?

The trend shows that the Caribbean is not making an effort to transform the education standards of the region-- an education standard that is compatible and comparable to the rest of the world. In this sense, I personally urge our leader to start investing in education and make our educational system a regional one. It is time for us to stop our dependence on developed countries and find a way forward for ourselves with their help.

Ideally, some citizens across our regions may find this article to be absurd – ridiculously unreasonable, unsound, or incongruous in nature. However, I strongly believe in these ideologies. The leaders must put their heads together to make this a reality. There are too many individual talents in the Caribbean that are going unnoticed, and some of which are adopted by developed countries.

I urge fellow West Indians to work hard toward this goal. The only way we could define hard work is through focus, determination and confidence.

August 9, 2010

Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 2

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas: Quiet war being waged in Bahamian waters, where unarmed Bahamian fishermen are dueling armed poachers

Quiet war waged on Bahamian waters
By CHESTER ROBARDS
Business Reporter
crobards@tribunemedia.net:



“Expulsis, piratis, restitua commercia” - Piracy expelled commerce restored. Funny how history has a way of repeating itself!

There is a quiet war being waged in Bahamian waters, where unarmed Bahamian fishermen are dueling poachers – often armed to the teeth – for their own survival and the security of their almost $100 million or more industry.

While this is not the canon blasting, sail tearing piracy of old, stories have come from the Tongue of the Ocean recounting our fishermen boarding poaching vessels and commandeering catch stolen from their own traps.

Many other stories tell of encounters with poachers brandishing semi-automatic weapons and opening fire on Bahamian fishermen. They have even exchanged gunfire with the authorities put in place to protect this country’s marine resources.

However, the fishermen say the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) often does not respond to their positions when radioed for help.

Vessels

These same fishermen recently identified as many as 11 poaching vessels in the Great Bahama Bank, some with Spanish names they now believe to have originated in the Dominican Republic.

Bahamas Commercial Fishers Alliance's (BCFA) chief, Adrian LaRoda, told The Tribune that poaching is threatening the survival of one of this nation’s largest exports, the spiny lobster, with poachers removing up to 22 million pounds a year of the product from these waters.

He said that while marine life was a valuable resource for this country, it was slowly being depleted by poachers from neighbouring countries such as the Dominican Republic.

According to Mr LaRoda, the BCFA has identified several vessels that poach in Bahamian waters. He said those ships can often carry up to 60,000 pounds of fish or lobsters out of these waters on one trip. And often, when caught, they are not stripped of their cargo, by the authorities but made to pay a $10,000 fine – often 0.5 per cent of the total value of their catch.

National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest said recently that measures have been put in place to thwart poaching in Bahamian waters for the opening of this crawfish season.

Mr Turnquest said a defence force ship and a smaller, faster craft, have been assigned to patrol the Great Bahama Bank.

He cautioned fishermen not to approach the poachers if they happened upon them, but to call for assistance.

“We don’t expect Bahamian fishermen to be out there in a fight by themselves,” Mr Turnquest said.

Abner Pinder, Spanish Wells’ Chief Counselor, said he has not yet received any reports about poachers from any of the vessels that originate from his island since the start of this crawfish season.

“I would be the first person they call,” said Mr Pinder.

Efforts

According to him, “no news is good news,” from the crawfish vessels. This, he said, he hopes is indicative of the efforts put forth by the RBDF.

“The same way I know how to raise cane when nothing is being done, I can give credit where credit is due,” he said.

The fishermen are often away from their families when the season begins, for up to six weeks at a time, stopping home mid-trip only for fuel and a quick family visit.

With the global downturn crashing crawfish market values last year, fishermen are hoping for larger catches and even larger returns than 2009.

And because the Bahamas was barred from trading with the European Union in January of this year, the fishing industry and its distributors have enough to worry about, without worrying about hundreds of thousands of pounds of their livelihood being sold on the black market.

Glenn Pritchard, president of Tropical Seafood, and Mia Isaacs, president of the Bahamas Marine Exporters Association (BMEA), spoke to Tribune Business recently about the implementation of the catch certificate.

Implementing the processes that would bring this certificate into force was the most important focus for the fisheries industry for the past seven months, as without it the Bahamas would not be allowed to trade with the EU.

If the chain of custody for lobster tails is not certified by the use of those certificates, countries in Europe could reject shipments of crawfish from the Bahamas, completely devastating the industry.

The certificates, which authorities have for months trained Bahamian fishermen to use, will allow purchasing entities to trace catches from their possession all the way back to the fishing boat that made the catch – and possibly even back to the exact spot in Bahamian waters where the product was caught.

Mandate

This requirement is part of a global mandate to help countries ensure their food exports are safe and traceable, and that they keep their marine resources in check to ensure sustainability.

To further the legitimacy of this country’s fisheries, the Bahamas is looking into joining the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) fisheries programme which at this time is voluntary.

The MSC is the world’s leading environmental certification programme for wild-caught fisheries and many importers of this country’s lobster tails are increasingly demanding that countries from which they purchase must be certified, in an effort to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing issues.

When the Bahamas brings into force the MSC certification it is likely that many poachers will find a closed market for their product.

While poachers may find it increasingly difficult to sell their stolen wares on the global market, they seem not to fear the Bahamas’ justice system, where they continue to be held for only days at a time when caught for poaching and then released, often without their illegal catches being confiscated, according to some fisheries heads.

Mr Turnquest suggested recently that there could be a connection between some defence force officers and poaching vessels.

While he did not say what those relationships might be, he said the Ministry of National Security has enacted an operation to squeeze out anyone who might be working in cahoots with the poachers.

According to him intelligence gathering operations have been put in place within the RBDF in an attempt to figure out how so many poaching boats reported, could avoid capture.

“They can’t continue to evade us every time we go down,” he said. “It is a huge issue for the fishermen and they have been in constant contact with the Defence Force, particularly with regards to Dominicans on the Great Bahama Bank.”

While the minister seems to have the best interest at heart for the fishermen, he could not say why poachers who have been caught have not been convicted of a crime against the Bahamas.

“We bring them in,” is all he said.

Mr LaRoda said he has before tracked a group of poachers who had been captured.

According to him, he periodically checked on the men while they were being held in the Charmichael Road Detention Centre, only to find out one day that they had been fined, released and never stripped of their catch or their vessel in accordance with the law.

Some avid readers of this paper’s website tribune242.com chimed in saying: “The Government of the Bahamas needs to be better protectors and stewards of Bahamian marine resources.

“The rich seabeds of the Bahamas need the protection of the Bahamas Defence Force. If placing a New Defence Force Base at Great Inagua to better protect the valued resources of the Southern Bahamas is needed... put the resources where it is needed.”

Another reader added: “They’ve been spotted in waters off east Abaco on many occasions, but no defence force patrols are seen in the area. Stiffer fines/jail terms and better policing are needed or we will lose a lot.”

Fishermen are hoping for a robust crawfish season this year, and with the European market opened back up to them, they could see the financial returns awarded them before the recession.

Though Bahamian fishermen threatened this year to go out in a blaze of glory if they encounter poachers, it is not the pirate battle of old they are hoping for. They are simply businessmen protecting their livelihood. They are intent on restoring commerce on the seas to which they have been accustomed for years as were their fathers before them.

The fishermen only ask for help from the authorities and that justice be carried out on poachers according to the laws of the land.

August 09, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

The challenges of an independent Jamaica

RAULSTON NEMBHARD




WE are just two years shy of celebrating our 50th year of political independence from Britain. When the Union Jack was lowered on August 6, 1962 and the Jamaican flag raised in its place, there was a surge of pride that we could now become the builders of our own destiny. We stepped out boldly, if not brashly, filled with a sense of optimism as to what we could build.

We did not place any limits on our innate capacities to build a great nation; the future beckoned and we were willing - if naively - to place Jamaica on the map and to make of her a nation with which the world would reckon. We were going to forge ahead, no matter the obstacles. If we stumbled, it was not because we had lost that initial vision but that we were confronted with the predilections of the newly independent in seeking to take responsibility for our own lives and destinies.

Despite the initial optimism we felt as a nation, an honest reflection on where we have come over the past 48 years must leave us deeply concerned about our status as a free society and to wonder where all this independence has gone. A further question may be, if we are truly independent, whose independence has it been? That of the vast majority of our people who continue to bear a disproportionate part of the burden for building this society (the have-nots), or that of the few (the haves) who have sought to govern and exploit them in their own thirst for power — political, economic and intellectual power?

We have come to realise, and sometimes shockingly so, that building a strong, independent nation is not predicated on wishful thinking, or on the capricious behaviour of those we have elected over the years to conduct our business. We are far from being a politically mature nation. We have failed to understand the consensus that should exist between the governed and their governors and that which should redound to good governance. We have simply ignored the time-honoured declaration of Thomas Jefferson to which we have to return constantly to remind ourselves of the basic foundation of good government -- governments which function with the consent of the governed. In that Declaration of American Independence, Jefferson made it known in a flash of brilliance which, as it turned out, was a characteristic of his, that governments exist to secure and promote the rights of people and that prominent among these rights is the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A nation that has slaughtered close to 2,000 of its people yearly for almost the last decade can hardly be described as a nation that respects the right to life. And I am talking here not only about citizens killing citizens, but extra-judicial killings by agents of the state. As to liberty, how truly free are we to live our lives in the wholesome fashion that Jefferson envisaged? There can be no liberty where there is no justice. Human freedom is constrained by injustice, especially when it is directed to the citizen from the state. When this happens, the citizen is shackled by the predation of the state and this predation is not just limited to the excesses of the state's agents, but by predatory tax laws that prevent him from keeping and using most of what he earns. In summary, we are still not functioning as a just society; we still judge people by how they look and the kind of community in which they reside. The very black among us get a different treatment tending toward injustice than the very brown among us. There is one set of laws for downtown and another for uptown. To use a phrase of the late Ralph Brown in describing socialism, what we have as independence when it comes to justice is "mouthwater" independence.

As to the pursuit of happiness after 48 years of existence as a nation, you can hardly ask one Jamaican how he is doing without getting the dismal response, "Nutten nah gwaan" or some other variant on a misery index. This is as true of those who are making it as it is of those who are barely surviving. Never mind where we are placed by the world as the "third happiest nation". We know in Jamaica life is tough and it is only the truly resilient who make it. It is true that no country can guarantee a person's happiness. Happiness is a function of private initiative and drive deeply riveted in the choices we make. If you squander opportunities that come your way, you cannot blame others for your own misery. For example, there is no law that says you must stay in an unhappy relationship; that you must become addicted to alcohol or other mind-altering substances; that the only way forward in life is to plant a plot of ganja or to become involved in some other nefarious activity. Each one of us lies in the bed we make and this is made worse if you owe three months' hire-purchase payment on it!

While I understand this, governments must create the ambience in which a thriving, energetic citizenry can embark enterprisingly on projects that can improve their lives and those of their families. This is where I think successive governments since independence have failed the Jamaican people. It is to the building of this kind of society that we have to bend our energies. We have wasted a lot of time and lost ground over the past 48 years. We are still a young nation and we can do better. The question is, will we?

stead6655@aol.com


www.drraulston.com

August 11, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamianisation emotionally administered, has destroyed The Bahamas

Where is Bahamianisation taking us?
tribune242 editorial:



BAHAMIANISATION, emotionally administered, has destroyed this country.

That is not a popular statement, but it is the truth, and the sooner Bahamians face the truth, the sooner will we see in top positions more qualified Bahamians, not only trained to international standards, but with a sound work ethic.

Any businessman will confirm that the only way for a business to succeed is to surround himself with solid staff. He is not going to stand for an employee to tell him who to employ or with whom he intends to work, nor will he tolerate a government dictating his employment needs. However, the smart businessman will always choose a native of a country, because on the long stretch it presents less hassle, and, if, like the Bahamas, there are high work permit fees, it is cheaper.

For 25 years, under the Pindling administration, an opportunity was lost to convince Bahamians that they had to work and study hard to qualify for employment. They were encouraged to believe that being Bahamian was the only passport necessary for the top jobs and the high life.

Those who had to operate businesses through those years can tell some hair-raising stories about what hell it was to survive in this country. Even The Tribune was making plans to move on. But just because of our cussed nature we decided to stick it out.

In those years not only was being a Bahamian important, but one had to be a certain kind of Bahamian. Not only did you have to be PLP, but you were also graded on your colour. Growing up we often heard maids discussing "brightness." For a long time we were stupid enough to think that "brightness" had something to do with intelligence. We certainly got a good laugh at our own dumbness when we discovered that intelligence never stepped into the arena -- black Bahamians were grading their own worth on their skin colour -- from the darkest, who was not the favourite of the mother's brood, to the "brightest", who was the apple of her eye.

One day we saw this order reversed when an elderly businessman from Grants Town burst into Sir Etienne's office at The Tribune. He had been so emotionally wounded that he was near tears. He and Sir Etienne had been good friends for years, it did not matter that he was now a PLP. He was among the original party founders, who had a dream for his Bahamian brothers that got derailed when Sir Lynden Pindling snatched the lead and moved the party down the path of his personal "one man's dream."

Apparently, it was a PLP council meeting that day in which persons were being nominated for top positions. This gentleman, a successful small businessman, and respected elder of the community, who had every reason to believe he was worthy of a nomination, was abused by a young upstart for entertaining such a thought. The young man who had neither qualified nor distinguished himself in anything, demanded that the elderly gentleman, pull up his shirt sleeve and hold out his arm. The young man, also pulled up his shirt sleeve and held his arm next to the older man's. One was chocolate brown, the other was ebony black. The young man then announced that a new day had dawned and blackness had won the day -- he was the one with the black arm.

More people in this country were awarded contracts for which they were not qualified, while others suffered hypertension because they were appointed to government positions for which they had no ability. The country suffered, the people suffered and today -- with D-minus averages to run our country -- the whole nation still suffers.

At the moment we are witnessing an unseemly scene in which a civil servant is being encouraged to believe that a position is hers as of right. It is as if she has taken ownership of the post.

Bahamians have to understand that for this country to succeed and its people to move ahead no one owns a job. They are only entitled to a position if they are considered the best man or woman for that opening. They might have the paper credentials, but another essential ingredient might be lacking, such as consistent and hard work on a daily basis, not an occasional spurt of effort, followed by a long "vacation."

We know many good artisans in this country -- but the problem is that there are not enough of them. For example, if you wreck your car, the happiest day in Mr Kelly of Fox Hill's life is when he can deliver the repaired vehicle to your door looking as though it had just left the factory. Then there is our faithful plumber, also of Fox Hill, and the electrician, the locksmith and so many others. They distinguish themselves because they are not only good at their job, but they take pride in their work and understand the meaning of reliability and service. No foreigner could ever replace these men. The Bahamas' tragedy is that there are not enough of them. This is what is found at every level of the labour chain -- from the most skilled professional to the lowest artisan. There are just not enough of the good ones.

The Bahamas is moving ahead faster than many of its people are willing to go. No nation can get very far with schools turning out D- graduates. Employers have been warning the country for many years that unless something is done to change the attitude of the work force, foreigners will always be needed. Eventually they will swamp the market.

And so we wish Bahamas Human Resources Development Association good luck as they wrestle with this serious problem and prepare a situation paper to try to solve it.

August 10, 2010

tribune242 editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas Government plans resolution in Parliament on 5,000 Chinese workers to help construct the $2.6 billion Baha Mar project

Govt still planning vote on 5,000 Chinese workers
By TANEKA THOMPSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
tthompson@tribunemedia.net:



GOVERNMENT still plans to bring a resolution to Parliament prompting all members to vote for or against the work permit approvals of some 5,000 Chinese workers to help construct the $2.6 billion Baha Mar project, said National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest.

While the arrival of so many foreign workers in the country may be a bitter pill for some to swallow, Mr Turnquest said the long-term job opportunities and economic stimulus for Bahamians could be a big enough impetus to support the work permits.

"They propose to build six hotels providing 3,500 rooms, convention facilities, casinos, golf courses, a retail village. They propose to have I think it's 7,000 permanent jobs at the end and 3,300 temporary jobs during construction. So all of that will have to be factored in. It also has to be factored in that this is a period of high unemployment and that has to be taken into account.

"We're the government but we believe that members of Parliament who represent the people of the Bahamas ought to have a say in an unusual labour component," said Mr Turnquest, referring to the Progressive Liberal Party's opposition to the vote being brought to Parliament.

He added that although Baha Mar was given approval last month by the Chinese government for its redevelopment of Cable Beach it still has several conditions it must meet before its luxury project can begin. Mr Turnquest, who is also the leader of government business in the House of Assembly, declined to reveal those conditions when speaking to The Tribune earlier this week.

Chinese Ambassador Dingxian Hu is expected to present Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham with the official documents outlining the Chinese approval when he returns from China on August 18 or 19.

"The prime minister will meet with him then, when we expect to get the formal approval from the Chinese government. There are some conditions to the Chinese approval taking effect, from the Baha Mar's point of view.

"Once Baha Mar has fulfilled all its obligations the only question remains is if government agrees to provide work permits for Chinese workers," said Mr Turnquest.

There has been speculation in some quarters that Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham will not approve the deal even though it was green-lighted by the Chinese.

However, Mr Turnquest dispelled the conjecture saying the government will respect the deal the developers signed with the Christie administration before it was voted out of office in 2007.

"The government has agreed to honour the deal," he said.

According to the developers, Baha Mar will employ approximately 4,000 Bahamians over the life of the construction period, expected to last almost four years.

Once the resort is fully operational, approximately 98 per cent of the staff will be Bahamian.

August 09, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

'Job description' for a new Caricom secretary general

Jamaicaobserver Editorial:


Mr Edwin Carrington, the secretary general of Caricom, has signalled he will be stepping down after 18 or so years in the job. The appropriate tribute will be paid to him when he does so.

But as the Caribbean Community looks for a new secretary general, the search, we suggest, must be guided by certain criteria in order to find the person with the necessary qualities. Let's start with the 'don'ts'.

First, the person cannot be a Jamaican because Jamaicans now head several regional institutions, such as the Office of Trade Negotiations, the Caribbean Development Fund and Caribbean Export. A Jamaican is also the financial controller (effectively number two) at the Caribbean Development Bank. Let's avoid the appearance of a Jamaican take-over.

No one from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has been secretary general and they are now the governments with the least commitment to Caricom. A woman has never had the post and this should not be ruled out nor made a requirement. The person should not be a naturalised citizen of the OECS as they would not have support in the sub-region.

Second, the person must be a genuine leader with proven political acumen and experience and have a stature which commands respect -- ideally, a former minister or prime minister.

Technocrats and bureaucrats from regional and international organisations should, under no circumstances, be considered.

Third, the person must be in his or her mental and physical prime, given the stamina required to maintain the arduous travel schedule and the tedium of the perpetual round of meetings. The new SG must be able to serve for 10 years and this should be the enforced term limit.

The region must not entertain the delusion that anyone in their 70s can properly execute the duties of SG. Ideally the person should be in the 40s, like United States President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. The heads of nearly all Fortune 500 companies are below 55 years old. There is good reason why 60 is the normal mandatory retirement age for diplomats.

Fourth, nobody currently in the Caricom Secretariat or retired from it has the ability or credibility to become SG because of their culpability for the failures of the outgoing administration.

Recruiting someone from outside is necessary, both to inject new management and to send a clear signal that there is a new beginning. An outsider needs to be unencumbered by loyalties to existing senior staff since they will have to be quickly replaced. This is often a healthy practice when there is a new CEO.

Fifth, it is essential that the person should have some exposure to and understanding of Caricom affairs. The vice chancellor of UWI can vouch for the difficulties and disadvantages entailed in the steep learning curve of Caribbean politics when you do not have that background.

In short, the new SG must be a non-Jamaican in his or her prime (under 55 years old) who has a track record of leadership, management skills and political savvy. Under no circumstances should the new SG be a former diplomat, bureaucrat in an international organisation, academic (generally out of touch with reality) and current member of staff of the Caricom Secretariat.

The Caribbean has an embarrassment of riches in human resources. The region has more than enough well-qualified and talented people to find a very able individual to be SG of Caricom as it struggles to survive.

August 08, 2010

jamaicaobserver editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Jamaica: Not much to show after 50 years of independence

Not much to show after 50 years of independence

By Keeble McFarlane




As Jamaicans everywhere pause to acknowledge 48 years of independence, we should reflect that we joined a bandwagon which had been gathering momentum since the end of one of history's most tumultuous events, the Second World War. With the exception of a strip along the Mediterranean Sea, Africa - the second-largest land mass on earth - remained largely unknown to outsiders until the voyages by European explorers between the 15th and 17th centuries. Egypt, of course, was one of the earliest centres of civilisation and the other countries running west towards the Atlantic had been under European influence since classical times. Two countries escaped the European scramble for Africa in the late 19th century - Ethiopia, which had always been independent, except for a few years of occupation by Italy starting in the 1930s, and Liberia, established by freed slaves from the United States in 1847.

The Europeans came mainly in search of the continent's vast mineral treasures. To this day, about one-third of the world's minerals, including more than half of its diamonds and almost half its gold, are mined in Africa. Other minerals, now highly sought after by the insatiable maw of the electronic factories which churn out cellphones, flat-screen TVs and the like, are now ruthlessly exploited from the continent. At the same time, the birthplace of mankind is ravaged by diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, while poverty and underdevelopment have kept its teeming millions shackled in a never-ending struggle for mere survival.

Fifty years ago, 17 nations in sub-Saharan Africa gained independence from their European colonists. Fourteen of them were former French colonies and the largest African nation, Nigeria, severed itself from British rule. I recall the excitement some of us felt when as teenagers attending high school we learned about Ghana, the first British colony in Africa to break away from Whitehall's clutches. We looked up to Kwame Nkrumah, who led a non-violent struggle for the independence of the Gold Coast, as the colony was known, achieving that aim in 1957. He was prime minister for the first three years and then declared Ghana a republic in 1960, just as that other large bunch of countries gained their sovereignty.

The new crop of leaders included some worthy contenders - Patrice Lumumba in what was known as the French Congo, Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Ivory Coast, Léopold Senghor in Sénégal and Nnamdi Azikiwe in Nigeria. The new leaders and those who were to come later - like Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya, Julius Nyerere in Tankanyika (which became Tanzania after merging with the nearby island of Zanzibar), Milton Obote of Uganda and Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Nyasaland, which became Malawi - were all fired up about building a new future for their countries now that they had severed themselves from the suffocating strictures of colonialism.

Resentment of colonialism and resistance against it had begun early in the century in several parts of the world. But the colonial powers held all the cards, controlling the world's industry, banking, methods and means of trade right down to the ships in which the raw materials and manufactured goods moved around. The big powers also spent a lot of time and effort squabbling with one another, and the cataclysm we know as World War II soaked up all the available manpower, raw materials and attention of country after country, including the colonies, which now had to feed bodies into the giant meat-grinding machine that war constitutes.

The war left the colonial powers exhausted, both in spirit and in treasure, and they consequently lost the stomach to fight to continue control of the colonies. One of the weakest of the colonial powers, The Netherlands, never regained its prize colony, the Dutch Indies, which became Indonesia, while the much smaller and far less important holdings in the Caribbean lingered on until relatively recently when they detached themselves while retaining a fairly strong connection to the old colonial centre.

Britain was forced to give up its prized holding, India, which had proved most difficult to handle. But the Africans, who had their own complicated social, linguistic, religious and tribal make-up, were a bit easier to hold on to by the classic methods of divide and conquer. Even here, though, the inexorable forces of enlightenment brought about a trickle of changes after the war. Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia and Morocco led the pack in the 1950s before Ghana in 1957 and Guinea, under Ahmed Sékou Touré, in 1958.

Curiously the earliest global empire was the longest lived - at almost six centuries - and the last to quit Africa. Portuguese seafarers were in the front line of European explorers, poking around the coasts of Africa from the early 1400s. After World War II, Portugal's Fascist strongman, António Salazar, conducted a long and bloody armed effort to hold on to the remnants of his empire. The rebels who overthrew him in 1974 immediately recognised the independence of all Portuguese colonies except Macau, a small enclave on the south coast of China. It eventually went in 1999, by agreement with the government in Beijing.

The African dominoes began falling at an unfortunate time - this was the Cold War, when the United States, together with its supporters and clients were locked in a deadly earnest conflict with the Soviet Union and its satellites and clients. Both big countries were not only arming themselves with the latest diabolical weaponry their scientists could devise, but threw vast amounts of money, arms and threats (veiled and otherwise), at the new countries which emerged from under the cruel yoke of colonialism.

So Africa became a battleground for the two camps, and its newly emergent states paid dearly in lives, stillborn development possibilities and distorted governance. Promising leaders like Lumumba in the Democratic Republic of Congo were eliminated and replaced by corrupt figures such as Joseph Mobutu, who morphed himself into Mobutu Sese Seko, renamed his country Zaïre, siphoned vast sums of money meant to help develop his country, and presided over decades of disaster.

Promising leaders like Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Houphouët-Boigny and Robert Mugabe in Southern Rhodesia, which became Zimbabwe after a long and nasty struggle, turned into self-aggrandising tyrants interested only in holding on to power. Instead of building and nurturing vigorous and vibrant democratic political structures, they instead surrounded themselves with sycophants and toadies and eliminated opponents either by intimidation or brutality.

The Cold War eventually ended and outsiders lost interest, except as a place ripe for exploitation. Some countries are engaged in the arduous and painful task of building something in keeping with the aspirations of the early independence figures. A few have managed to remain stable and relatively prosperous. Now there is a new external contender - China - but it is motivated primarily by economic rather than political concerns.

At this half-century mark, there is little to celebrate. Much of the continent's difficulties can be attributed to its colonial heritage. But by the same token, many of Africa's problems are self-inflicted. So instead of celebrating, Africa's extraordinarily complex, complicated and differentiated societies need to examine where they went wrong and generate new ideas on how to tackle the enormous problems they face. They need only take a look across the Atlantic at South America, whose long-battered nations are dynamically devising new political and economic solutions to the demands of the 21st century.

keeble.mack@sympatico.ca

August 07, 2010

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