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Until now the varying Caribbean nations have done little collectively to flex economic power as a bloc and instead has relied on their colonial ancestry for defense and economic support versus a regional approach. What is preventing that from occurring? Is it the deep ties to their colonial homelands and/or imperialistic intervention that has maintained a status quo? Collectively they could wield some economic might given the resources available and until now ignored sovereign versus international waters surrounding each.
When it comes to the Dominican Republic the focus is more with Central America which was intensified once DR-CAFTA started.
The DR isn’t a full fledge member of the CARICOM though it stands to gain the most since many Dominican products actually would get a natural advantage in all those islands. This isn’t because of the DR not being active to enter CARICOM, but rather every time the DR try to enter the CARICOM, member countries stalls the DR’s effort and the result is that it doesn’t get accepted. They fall on anything to not allow the DR in the CARICOM. I think the DR should get a hint already and accept that they don’t want the Dominicans to join. There is no reason to continue make an effort to join when the result is always the same.
Now, Dominican companies don’t need the CARICOM to enter into many of those islands. Diesco is a Dominican company based in Santo Domingo. Most of their production is also in their factories in Santo Domingo. They export their products such as plastic eating utensils with success to various islands in the Lesser Antilles. The country joining CARICOM would make the process easier and since it’s a common market, many or all Dominican products would be able to enter without paying duties. That would encourage other Dominican companies to expand to those islands, producing more manufacturing jobs in the DR.
Central America, on the other hand, welcomes the DR with open arms. Bukele, the current president of El Salvador, is a big supporter of the DR. Not only has he been obvious in showing this support, but the first country he visited once he became president was the DR.
The DR is actually at a disadvantage with Central American countries, but it has given surprises. Central American products flooded the DR and smong this was Dos Pinos from Costa Rica. From what I understand, all Dos Pinos products were imported but a very powerful Dominican family representing Dos Pinos in the DR was little by little buying stocks of the company. Today, they are major stock holders in Dos Pinos and it’s said that due to their increasing power in the Costa Rica firm, Dos Pinos created a production facility in the DR. A product that was 100% imports in the DR, now much of its products sold in the DR are made in its production facility in the outskirts of Santo Domingo. Essentially, an imported product was made domestic. Personally I like what was done here since no one saw it coming. Lol If the DR plays its cards right with DR-CAFTA, something that was not advantageous with time could become in favor of the country.
One thing I would like to see expanding to the DR is the SIMAN department stores. I think this is a Salvadoran company (El Salvador is tiny but has an incredible business class often leading in the isthmus, as they say big surprises come in small packages, lol) and they have stores in several Central American countries and none in the Caribbean. They have a store even in Nicaragua which is poorer than the DR. The middle class lf the DR is much bigger than the Nicaraguan counterpart, which means the potential for success in Dominican soil is there. While there is only one store in Nicaragua, they might be able to successfully open several stores in the Santo Domingo area, maybe one in Santiago and perhaps in a few more places. Not only it would be exciting for Dominican customers to have another shopping venue, but the arrival of SIMAN will create many new jobs. One thing people need are more jobs of all types!
Here you can see an amateur video in one of the SIMAN in El Salvador.
Just got back from Jamaica, and discovered their homes are made out of cinderblocks and cement. The sad thing, is no locals on the island know how to build structures, and the resorts and locals import Dominicans for weeks at a time to build everything for them.
Also, the locals don't own most of the businesses, its either foreign nations for the resorts, or Indians own most of the retail, groceries, shopping etc.
Until now the varying Caribbean nations have done little collectively to flex economic power as a bloc and instead has relied on their colonial ancestry for defense and economic support versus a regional approach. What is preventing that from occurring? Is it the deep ties to their colonial homelands and/or imperialistic intervention that has maintained a status quo? Collectively they could wield some economic might given the resources available and until now ignored sovereign versus international waters surrounding each.
Mostly it's the fact that even collectively, they're still dirt poor. And those that aren't (Dominican, and now Guyana with their massive oil find) are probably in no hurry to spread it around to the others.
If you think that’s it, you are setting yourself up for a very big surprised. For example, most people know about Jamaican tourism, but many people don’t know that Jamaica is one of the world’s main producer of ferronickel. That’s mining. There is more to the Caribbean than beaches.
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Originally Posted by DannyHobkins
Just got back from Jamaica, and discovered their homes are made out of cinderblocks and cement. The sad thing, is no locals on the island know how to build structures, and the resorts and locals import Dominicans for weeks at a time to build everything for them.
That’s odd since most professionals in Jamaica are Jamaican. Are you sure locals “don’t knos how to build structures?”
Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyHobkins
Also, the locals don't own most of the businesses, its either foreign nations for the resorts, or Indians own most of the retail, groceries, shopping etc.
Most businesses in practically all countries are small and most of them are owned by locals. In some sectors regarding the big businesses things may be different to a degree and depending on the place, but big businesses are usually few in a sector full of medium and small businesses. The notion that if a resort is owned by a foreign chain it must not be benefiting locals I think is flawed.
In neighboring Dominican Republic no foreign company is allowed to invest a single cent unless they partner up with Dominican citizens. If they don’t want to partner up with Dominicans, then they can take their money somewhere else. So even the resorts that nominally are owned by Spaniards, Americans, etc; there are locals also involved in the higher levels. This isn’t limited to foreign investments in tourism, but in everything. I would be very surprised if Jamaica doesn’t have something similar and they allow foreigners to set up shop in their land with no Jamaican investors involved.
Also running a resort implies many other things and many aspects are outsourced, meaning a local company is used for the service they offer. Take pools as an example. Many resorts don’t actually maintain their pools, but rather they get pool services from local companies that offers that. Jamaica probably can’t do the following because very few countries in the Caribbean actually produce most of the foodstuff they consumed, but the DR is one of the few. Much of the fruits, milk, juices and other eatable stuff you see in resort buffets and restaarants in the DR actually comes from the Dominican countryside. There are also a type of cooperatives that unite several small farmers that produce to sell to the resorts. That is done to make sure big farmers aren’t the only ones benefitting from that. The DR agriculture produces for the 10 million that live in the country + the millions of tourists that vacation in Dominican resorts. But this happens with many other things, not just food. For example, at lesst in the DR resorts are not allowed to import mattresses for their bed. Each and evefy single mattress in Dominican resorts are made in Dominican factories, usually in Santo Domingo. Think about that, because many of these resorts are big. Judt think how much goes on mattresses alone. After a few years they have to replace all their mattresses and that too comes from locals. There is a major side to tourism that is basically invincible to tourists. I find it hard to believe that at least in Jamaica resorts need to import everything.
Jamaica does have a large Indian population, but from my understanding most of them aren’t Indians from India, but rather Jamaicans of Indian descent. Whatever they own I think counts as Jamaican own. Whether you want to say those businesses are not owned by black Jamaicans, well that’s another thing. A non-black Jamaican is still a Jamaican and for many of them Jamaica is their everything.
Number of factors. 2 of the largest nations in the region, Cuba and Haiti, are effectively cut off from the rest for different reasons.
As OP mentioned historical ties to colonial powers mean some nations are in the Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanic worlds respectively and thus are not necessarily connected even though they are physically close.
Massive differences in size and population to where increased partnership may mean being dominated by the larger entity and the elite of the smaller entity would never allow that to happen.
Corruption in some countries is such that the elite are busy robbing all they can and sending it to Miami and the future development of the region is an afterthought.
The presence of a superpower nearby and other powers far away "managing" the governance and economic direction of Caribbean nations.
Just got back from Jamaica, and discovered their homes are made out of cinderblocks and cement. The sad thing, is no locals on the island know how to build structures, and the resorts and locals import Dominicans for weeks at a time to build everything for them.
Also, the locals don't own most of the businesses, its either foreign nations for the resorts, or Indians own most of the retail, groceries, shopping etc.
Your observations are somewhat correct but your interpretation that Jamaicans can't build structures is inaccurate and way off base.
You probably stayed at one of the Spanish hotels, Riu etc. They are known for bringing Dominicans in and the corrupt Jamaican Gov't allows it. But there is no mass influx of Dominican workers in Jamaica. Why would there be when the DR is doing much better?
It is true that a lot of the retail establishments in those tourist areas are controlled by Indians from India as well.
A lot of the tourist infrastructure is owned by foreigners but a lot of it (e.g. Sandals) is owned by the Jamaican elite as well. It definitely is a fact that the tourism industry in Jamaica is exploitative.
There are other resources in Jamaica besides tourism. A google search would show that. Now whether or not they are being managed effectively is a totally different matter and there are many factors behind that. Some of those factors have nothing to do with Jamaica and are related to geopolitics.
Number of factors. 2 of the largest nations in the region, Cuba and Haiti, are effectively cut off from the rest for different reasons.
I wouldn’t say this is that big of an issue. For one thing, Cuba isn’t cut off from the rest either in the past or now.
Remember the only country that had things such as the embargo and prohibited its people from visiting was the USA, everywhere else had no issues with Cuba even if there was marked differences regarding government policies and ideology. Also, even when at least other Latin Americans had a very strong difference regarding ideology with Cuba, those same Latin Americans sided with Cuba when they thought the USA was going beyond the line with its embargo and such on that country. There is a level of compassion among all Latin American countries in which even when they disagree with each other, they don’t appreciate when non-Latino powers do things to any Latino country that is stepping the line.
Regardless the ideology and position of the Latino and whether they are very critical of the current Cuban government, almost all are against the US embargo. A similar thing happens if say the US decides to militarily invade any Latin American countries, even the tiny ones of the English speaking Caribbean which technically aren’t Latino. The entire region will be against that and stand with those being invaded.
With Haiti they are going through a rough moment, particularly Port-au-Prince, but that is temporary and the Haitians don’t a monopoly on this. There is always somewhere in Latin America going through instability. It’s a case of now is you, but tomorrow it could be me. But Haiti isn’t cut off from the rest of the region. Even now things are exported and imported to and from various countries in the region. No one in the region are barred from going to Haiti and vice versa. There is the visa requirement, but it isn’t that Haitians per say are prohibited from going there or other people from going to Haiti.
Also, with Haiti something similar happens regarding an underlying compassion from other Caribbean and Latin American countries. For example, when the US put an embargo in Haiti that in reality made things much worse for the everyday people, the DR was playing a double card. On one side the then president Balaguer was saying it supported the USA, but behind closed doors trade with Haiti remained. The DR never put an embargo on Haiti and at that time almost all the gasoline that Haiti got arrived was being traded with the DR which it never had a shortage due to the embargo. Things remain the same even though from the mouth forward it was saying something else. This was done on one side to appease the Americans and on the other help out the Haitians in a situation where if all trade with the DR was halted, Haiti would had literally collapsed completely. Take gssoline as an example, if almost all of it in Haiti was in fact Dominican gasoline that the Dominican government expressively allowed it to flow into Haiti, from where else were the Haitians going to get gasoline? That thing is need tofunction in modern life. It’s basically like water. The overall thinking in Santo Domingo was that the Americans didn’t understand Haiti as well to know an embargo was going to achieve nothing and then it acheived nothing. What works in one place doesn’t necessarily works somewhere else. Things like culture, idiosincracies, etc get in the way that cause the same treatment to have different results in different places.
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Originally Posted by whogoesthere
As OP mentioned historical ties to colonial powers mean some nations are in the Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanic worlds respectively and thus are not necessarily connected even though they are physically close.
The differences are more marked than that. For example, even within the Englidh Caribbean there are marked difference between one island and the next. Anyone that thinks it’s all exactly the same because they speak the sane language is setting themselves up for a wake up call. There is also pride of being from a particular island. For example, confuse a Trinidadian for a Jamaican and then come back to let us know how it went. Trinidad and Jamaica aren’t enemies and the two peoples get along with each other, but confuse one with the others and that’s one mistake you will never do again. This happens up and down the archipielago. Then sone regions within a country has sn extra layer of pride for being from that region and that region has its own separate identity that is superimpose above the national one. For example, in the Dominican Republic in the Cibao region many people say they are first Cibaeños and then Dominicans.
In terms of “ties to colonial powers,” more than that the biggest thing to understand is that every Caribbean country is its own country. I think outsiders often assume it must all be the same or very similar, but it isn’t. A national border is a marker of not judt two or three differences on one side vs the other, rather these differences span many more aspects including thinking, speaking, traditions, etc. Often times croasing these lines isn’t quite like crossing from the USA into Canada.
Last edited by AntonioR; 04-16-2024 at 12:59 PM..
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