Dear Editor,

In a way, this is the chickens coming home to roost. If Jamaica, under [Alexander] Bustamante, had not sabotaged the Caribbean Federation, this ‘crab in a barrel’ mentality among the islands would have never reached this point.

A Caribbean Federation which includes Haiti and Cuba would have a population bigger than the US State of California, which by itself is considered the 12th largest economy in the world.

A Federation would enable the region to have more leverage in negotiating trade deals and would create the technology transfer necessary to uplift the economies in the region as companies would be required to locate their high technology manufacturing in the region in exchange for selling their goods (see Venezuela’s deal with Samsung to build an electronics plant there as an example).

The Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA) is being duplicitous in this manner because its members have the means to lower their costs by investing in renewable energy for their facilities, thus making their products more competitive.

Unfortunately, they, like the government, have developed a beggar mentality and want something for very little and thus their stance on the Trinidad issue.

A boycott is a refreshing, though emotional, exercise in self-determination among the masses. However, it should not be used as an opportunity to play into the hands of those who oppose the region’s goal of economic independence.

It would nice and more conducive to regional unity if Jamaicans would boycott products from the Dominican Republic due to their racial abuse of our Haitian Brothers and Sisters. Especially since the both Haitians and Jamaicans supported each other in the fight against slavery and, since citizens of both countries are now wrongly considered the region’s pariahs.

KwamePiankhi