Dr. James Fletcher, April 19, 2024
A tale of two countries, Guyana and Haiti, neighbours in the alphabetic ranking of CARICOM states, and for a long time considered the two poorest nations in the Caribbean, by the metrics the international financial institutions (IFIs) use to rank national wealth and poverty.
Guyana’s GDP growth rate for 2024 is projected at 33.9%, while Haiti is projected to contract by 3%.
Interestingly, in a Caribbean region that has grown increasingly food insecure over the last two decades, Guyana has the largest expanse of arable land, capable of making a big dent in our food insecurity problem. However, despite many communiques and plans, we have never been able to convert that potential to reality.
Haiti, on the other hand, has some of the most resourceful and creative people I have encountered. But decades of exploitation by foreign elements, starting with the outrageous payments the country was forced to make to France for having the audacity to free itself from slavery, greed and corruption by self-serving politicians, and some devastating natural disasters, have reduced the country to the state that it is in today.
Having said all this, the brilliant minds we have in our region must get together to develop a better metric than GDP per Capita to determine whether a country is progressing or regressing. We should not wait for the World Bank or the IMF to change the metric. Whatever they come up with will not properly value our natural assets or factor in our distinct vulnerabilities, many of which they have worsened by their rampant consumerism.
Our minds are as good as the best of what the world has to offer. Let’s start behaving that way and making our own decisions.
