“A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours wasted,” Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk once said. An extraordinary turn of phrase; but only that it was not true!
If only that the reality could have been confined to the television world of William Shatner who played the fictional character admirably.
Alas, the taking of minutes and the wasting of hours might very well have been attributed to the latest meeting of CARICOM?Heads: that which transpired last weekend.
After two days of meeting, well into Saturday night, the most profound announcement that could come from our Caribbean Community leaders is the promise of a new two-day retreat in Guyana (they swear) before July.
Some good it will bring to fortifying the Caricom Single Market and Economy, regional health and development!
And to think that before the start of the two-day summit in Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Denzil Douglas swore it wouldn’t just be talk.
Well what do we have since Saturday?
A “reaffirmation of faith” by the region to CSME. Words!
As to the collapse of the Trinidadian-based Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) and British American Insurance Company, our leaders have come up with a “new mechanism” that was “brought to the deliberations” on which “further discussions would take place”. Words, words!
As for a replacement for retired Secretary General Sir Edwin Carrington, nought! The appointment of a new officer is “a work in process”, says CARICOM chairman Tillman Thomas.
We know from him that there are six candidates for the post of CARICOM Secretary General, interviewing has not yet been completed; and, at the current rate of bureaucratic inertia, God alone knows when completion shall come.
But Mr Thomas seeks to assure all of the Caribbean that despite the absence of the Secretary General the CARICOM?Secretariat is functioning as it should. How could it? Words, words, words!
The closest thing to virtual reality proceeded from Prime Minister Freundel Stuart. He reported that CARICOM leaders had reached some understanding that the “original deadline” of 2015 for compliance could not be achieved, given “the challenges being experienced globally and also by individual member states”.
Some observers would argue CARICOM members would not have been ready anyhow, for all the procrastination and doublespeak that have infected the Caribbean Community “process”.
Meanwhile, CARICOM member states limp on and on, making excuse after excuse for their fumblings and failures, taking comfort snugly in words, words, words, words!