Troubles in a Pauper's Paradise

An archipelago of tiny democracies faces economic woes

One of the more important pieces of legislation that got lost in the rush of last month's lame-duck session of Congress was President Reagan's much heralded Caribbean Basin Initiative. Originally proposed in February 1982, the CBI offered $350 million in short-term cash aid and a variety of long-term trade and tariff benefits for the struggling ministates of Central America and the Caribbean. Approved by the House and the Senate Finance Committee, the plan must be presented anew to the 98th Congress, although the short-term aid money has already been disbursed.

In Central America, the main aim of the CBI is to fight Marxist-led subversion and insurgency. But in the 2,000-mile-long sweep of islands that dapple the Caribbean Sea, the problems are very different. The area's twelve sovereign nations, nine of which have become independent since 1961, face poverty, high unemployment, crippling debt and declining income from their few marketable commodities. TIME Caribbean Bureau Chief William McWhirter and Correspondent Bernard Diederich visited much of the archipelago and interviewed its worried leaders. Their report:

It was the search for gold that brought the first voyages of discovery to the Caribbean. The intrepid explorers found little gold, but they fell upon a pauper's paradise of emerald seas, swaying palms and scented hillsides. Marveled Nicolo Syllacio, a writer who traveled with Christopher Columbus on his 1493 expedition to the islands of the New World: "The beauty of its mountains and the amenity of its verdure must be seen to be believed." The natural allure remains, but the modern quest in the

Caribbean is both more practical and more urgent. It is a search for the means of basic political and economic survival.

The U.S. has much at stake in the outcome of that search. Not only do the Caribbean islands (total pop. about 26.5 million) extend across vital American shipping lanes, but most of the tiny nations, ranging in population from Barbados' 79,000 to Cuba's 10.3 million, have another special asset that is rare in the developing world. Despite a cruel history of imported slavery, colonialism and harsh exploitation, the fledgling states remain among the most democratically governed in the world. The major exceptions: Cuba, Grenada and Haiti. Most of the other governments are aware of, if not always responsive to, a barrage of scrutiny from independent newspapers and opposition parties that extend across a spectrum ranging from conservative monetarism to Maoism with a calypso beat. Political apathy is rarely a problem. On minuscule Dominica (pop. 80,000), for example, virtually everyone seems to tune in to daily radio broadcasts of debates in the 30-member House of Assembly. As a U.S. State Department expert puts it, "We can take solace in the fact that the parliamentary system is fundamental in the Caribbean, and holding up well almost everywhere."

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the region's economies. Trinidad and Tobago (pop. 1.1 million) is lucky: the two-island nation now produces about 183,000 bbl. of oil a day. But the list of social and economic problems elsewhere in the Caribbean is a depressing one. Cash debts are staggering: the islands as a whole owe Western banks and governments more than $6.5 billion. In Jamaica (pop. 2.2 million) the $1.4 billion foreign debt is equal to 40% of the country's entire gross domestic product. In Grenada, the Marxist-inspired New Jewel Movement has run up a $17.1 million debt that equals 21 % of the country's annual production of goods and services. Despite largescale emigration from the islands, unemployment has reached rates of more than 30%, with the level approaching 50% among increasingly restive youths. Says Rex Nettleford, a Jamaican author and director of studies for the Trade Union Institute of the University of the West Indies: "If there are not fundamental changes, we are going to have very serious problems. Violence is quite possible."

Along with economic decline has come social demoralization, especially on the islands where local values have been distorted by mass tourism, gambling and the drug trade. In the once conservative and traditionally oriented society of the Bahamas, 10% of all marriages now end in divorce, and 60% of all births are illegitimate. Health studies indicate that half the population suffers from malnutrition. Says Venezuela's ex-Foreign Minister Aristides Calvani, who is heavily involved in his government's $750 million aid program for the Caribbean: "The general rule is poverty going to misery. The Caribbean states are not the Third World. They are the Fourth World."

The Caribbean democracies would be better equipped to face their woes if they could learn to pull in tandem. But unique forces seem to work against that possibility. After three centuries of slavery and colonialism, independence has inspired a heady and often heedless individualism. Says Journalist Ulric Mentus: "People cherish their freedom. They think of dancing in the streets, throwing out their leaders and not going to work if they don't feel like it as all part of the same democracy. They will not vote for any government they cannot tell to go to hell."

The same strong-willed individuality has produced prickly rivalries among the ministates. Two attempts at regional federation failed. Although the area has some effective regional institutions, such as the Caribbean Development Bank, genuine cooperation in critical areas of government planning, marketing and even the costly business of diplomatic representation abroad is rare. Sometimes the regional competition reaches ludicrous extremes. In 1976, Jamaica used a developmental loan from Trinidad and Tobago to finance an elaborate London embassy and to create Air Jamaica as a rival to the donor country's BWIA International; both airlines are now heavy money losers. Major General Robert Neish, head of the 4,000-member Jamaica Defense Force, finds it easier to work out military exchange programs with Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, than with his independent neighbors.

Further splintering of the island community is a possibility. Already the Leeward Island of Nevis (pop. 9,000) is threatening to split away from neighboring St. Kitts (pop. 35,000) before their scheduled independence from Britain in mid-1983. Says Dominica's Prime Minister Eugenia Charles: "We have become little nations of our own, and it's not easy to go back. If we were given an ultimatum of aid for unity, we would probably give up the aid."

For all the disharmony, there is a firm convergence of views on what the islands need in order to survive. At the top of the list is a better economic infrastructure. Says Journalist Mentus: "It's amazing how similar the situation is in all the countries: bad roads, bad telephone service, electrical shortages and insufficient food production." In Dominica, no factory exists to preserve the fish that residents catch, nor is there adequate rural drainage, meaning that too much rainfall washes away vegetable crops. In addition, citizens remain reluctant to perform certain vital tasks. Says an economist in Dominica: "People have an aversion to agriculture because it is associated with slavery and indentured labor."

But there is also a new message in the Caribbean states, one of working harder and living within realistic limits. As Trinidad's Prime Minister George Chambers repeatedly told his citizens on a recent rural tour, "Our principal problem is how to make society more productive. We must stop passing the buck." In the hard-pressed Dominican Republic, newly elected President Salvador Jorge Blanco has halved his own $120,000 annual salary and added an extra hour to the local work day. Warns Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga: "If we don't have growth, you will be looking at independent countries searching for alternatives to the private-enterprise economy."

In the new but fragile mood of Caribbean realism, the Reagan Administration's Caribbean Basin Initiative, with its emphasis on incentives to private enterprise, may play a helpful psychological as well as economic role. Says a senior U.S. diplomat in the region: "I have tried to warn [Caribbean leaders] that they have got to get their act together. If we put down a road, they had better put a factory at the end of it."

Despite the economic conditions, nothing seems to constrain the good humor and optimism of the average Caribbean citizen. Individually, at least, they simply believe that their life will improve. These feelings, however, could change if the anticipated benefits do not appear. Almost every island now has its fledgling Marxist movement awaiting such a day of reckoning. Typically, Trevor Monroe, the Rhodes scholar who leads Jamaica's Marxist Workers' Party, charges that "the democratic system has been tried to its greatest extent in the Caribbean, and it is worn out." Even in the warm and languid tempo of the Caribbean, time is running short to prove that Monroe is wrong. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.