Barbados may be facing tough economic times next year but it doesn’t register a blip on the global economic and social radar screen when it comes to the possibility of social unrest breaking out.
The highly respected Economist Intelligence Unit in London, which surveys national and international conditions in the almost 200 members of the United Nations, didn’t put Barbados on any of its five lists of 150 countries in different regions of the world facing some level of social strife.
Among the countries which didn’t earn a place on the lists were the Bahamas, Dominica, Suriname, members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and Liechtenstein. No explanation was given for their exclusion.
However, several of Barbados’ neighbours in and out Caricom found themselves on the risk lists. Belize, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are all facing a “medium” level of risk of social upheaval in 2014, according to the EIU. They were joined by Britain, Belgium, Canada, the United States, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Italy, India, South Korea and a host of other states.
Two CARICOM member states were placed in the category reserved for those facing “high risk”, Guyana and Haiti. Also among them were Chad, Croatia, China, Guatemala, Guatemala, Cyprus, South Africa, Iran, Honduras, Panama, Spain, Jordan, Brazil, Pakistan and Iran and more than 30 other nations. (TB)
