The William Skinner Blog

 Crime undermines the entire society Today’s Editorial As Barbados struggles with its citizen safety and security due to a spate of gun murders, one of the most extreme examples of a breakdown in law and order is playing out in the northern Caribbean. Haiti, a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state, is battling one of its worst episodes of crime and violence in recent times. The fact that the state apparatus has essentially broken down has created the circumstance for hoodlums and bandits to roam the streets in a literal free-for-all. At the centre of Haiti's crisis is gun violence and the free flow of high-powered firearms into the desperately poor nation. Marauding gangs of gun-toting young men have worsened an already dire situation that has spiralled out of control. As some regional leaders offer limited military and financial support to the CARICOM member nation, the situation there has become exceedingly challenging and beyond the scope of these small islands to address i

    We have never argued against or implied that exogenous issues don’t affect us. However, it is most interesting , that on several occasions, discussions about our national/ regional problems , have been ignored and we jump right into what is happening in Ukraine, Russia, Gaza , as if we don’t have televisions and other media. Our transition to true transformation is being inhibited because we want to pretend that some new global dispensation will be to our immediate benefit. That is a geopolitical illusion. For those , who read deeply , into current CARICOM thinking, there is a renewed call for such things as a common currency and speaking with one voice in international fora and trying to combat globalization with one common strategy. We need to do better in order to avoid another period of protracted poverty and political malaise. At this time we need more Caribbean thinkers; we need those who want to complete the independence project and transform our region. Only then would we b

  There is no doubt that we are still suffering from mental slavery . We have foolishly tried to bury our past and opted to ignore the psychological damage that we endured and that some have been able to overcome. A people cannot progressively exist unless they understand their past. This reasoning , sounds like pure gibberish because we have measured progress by materialism . Throughout the region there is self hatred because we don’t know ourselves ; we hate ourselves.  Until we address this collectively as a people , we are going to continue the social, political and economic malaise.  By understanding  our past, we would be better prepared to deal with the present and future. Where is the real foundation for our youth. We need to understand that earlier generations were denied true education and receiving an education was in itself very difficult. Ironically, they might have been spared because those of us who apparently mastered the colonialist educational system are now more colo