Regionally minded
Over the past few days I have spending sometime at a conference and with family. Despite the fact my flight was cancelled and I won't leave till Sunday morning the experience from the conference compensates for the lost time.
What does this whole idea regional integration truly mean? Is just our heads of government meeting to make decisions on our behalf or is it the interaction of the people from these countries?
CARICOM consists of only the English speaking Caribbean countries and Suriname however this conference involved students from the French Caribbean as well so it was a true reflection of the Caribbean coming back together.
I had the opportunity to interact with French speakers as well as learn snippets of the language as well as songs.
We were also given the pleasure of a conference presentation in french to be translated in English this made us understand what it feels like to be in place and have to depend on translators in order to understand what was going on .
This experience as an economist proves that our analysis of the Caribbean has to take into account the languages and cultural barriers to free trade and population movements. Is it possible for us to truly be regionally minded in our decision making?
What does this whole idea regional integration truly mean? Is just our heads of government meeting to make decisions on our behalf or is it the interaction of the people from these countries?
CARICOM consists of only the English speaking Caribbean countries and Suriname however this conference involved students from the French Caribbean as well so it was a true reflection of the Caribbean coming back together.
I had the opportunity to interact with French speakers as well as learn snippets of the language as well as songs.
We were also given the pleasure of a conference presentation in french to be translated in English this made us understand what it feels like to be in place and have to depend on translators in order to understand what was going on .
This experience as an economist proves that our analysis of the Caribbean has to take into account the languages and cultural barriers to free trade and population movements. Is it possible for us to truly be regionally minded in our decision making?
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