Dear Editor,

It has been over fifty years since Jamaica and Trinidad gained (or were given depending on how you view history) independence, and almost sixty that we abandoned the Federation.

Things have not been rosy since, after some time of growth we all as individuals came to the realisation that we are just too small.

In a world that is looking to unite in some way, see the European Union or what Russia and China are doing in central Asia, it makes one wonder what our leaders are thinking when they aim for going it alone. In a world that is uniting we are fast drifting apart and being left behind, to the common man it is scary so what does the politician think?

We as a region have oil, gold, diamonds, bauxite, natural gas and prime agricultural land. We as a region speak many languages and are close to both Europe and America. We are smack in the middle of an important shipping lane and aeroplane destination.

We have so much more to offer and yet our leaders continue to keep us apart. Individually we are torn apart by special interests, the US, China et al all have deep tentacles in us and strive to keep us divided. Divided it is clear we are poor, but if we could unite and combine our resources we could be the envy of the region.

What we need is a new federation. Now I will not hide the fact that I am a CARICOM baby and Federation grandbaby, but this is not about sentiment.

United we could produce our own aluminium and build cars. From a strictly business and regional viewpoint Federalism seems only practical.

Many worry about the loss of power that the state would suffer, I say what of it? We are under the jackboot of austerity in this region when we go it alone. We are mired in corruption when we go it alone. Separately Jamaica and Trinidad have massive corruption, skyrocketing murder rates and imploding economies, did we really bargain for this when we got independence? Instead of the prosperous future we got poverty, while cliques rule the roost. Special-interests group and foreign players have us fighting each other.

We have the ability to unite, we have the potential to exploit our resources to our collective advantage if we pool together. We have the potential to become the world leader in exotic sugar, coffee, tobacco and rum, all self-sustained and for our benefit.

Take for example the Chinese intervention in the region. Right now they deal with us individually so we are left to fight each other for the scraps that make up the individual payments. As a united Federation, we would be in a better position to bargain for more money and a greater say in how our resources are extracted.

As a united entity we could ensure that the infrastructure that the Chinese build in the region is complimentary to each other. With that we can ensure for harmonious interface between the nations of the region and also will help with regional trade.

The only way this will get done is through the people. Unfortunately our leaders for the most part don’t care and are wilfully selling us out to foreign interests, assured of favours returned upon leaving their government post. The people must unite for our environment as the Chinese and others ravage our nations, unite for our economies as it is clear that individually and as separate entities we flounder in international markets.

Until we unite we will always be at the mercy of others. We are not big individually, but united we take up a good chunk and are decently populated. Unite before it’s too late.

Alexander Scott