CARICAD Screening October 10 2008

On the Map was screened to the the staff of CARICAD last Friday. CARICAD is the Caribbean Center for Development Administration which is a regional intergovernmental organisation, specialising in transforming and modernising the public sector. It's head office is in Barbados. The staff are from Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Jamaica and Trinidad. Discussion about the film and related issues went one for an hour after the screening.

One person noted that part of the challenge is to develop a certain sense of consciousness, a certain sense of responsibility among the purveyors of various forms of culture.


He also referred to how students used to go to UWI with a mission and wanted to come back to serve in their countries, which he feels is different now to students who are more interested in knowing what their qualifications will get them financially as opposed to what they might contribute to the society.

It was noted that UWI was an organ of integration several decades ago because the students were from the entire region and were forced to get to know each other and develop intra-regional links through this tertiary level institution. This has changed in more recent times now that campuses are increasingly filled with nationals of the countries and there is less integration happening at UWI. It was noted that our reality is not just a national reality, but a regional reality and we tend to gloss over the regional in political terms and focus on the national because of its significance for election to office.

Someone else noted that the key for integration to work is with our leaders who are in a unique position to influence our thinking but that they want to maintain their position and that they have given lip service. If it was left to the people, he felt, we would have had CSME a long time ago and that it is the politicians who are the main deterrent to the CSME.

Smeone else noted in her experience of interviewing migrants throughout the region, that the majority of people did not want to relocate from their homes but were forced to do so in order to improve their livelihood.