This past week I attended a Trinidad and Tobago Town Hall meeting in Boynton Beach. I was invited by Gillian Smart of The Smart Group who was one of the event’s organizers. She is high on my list of people to have a sit down with in the near future. The aim of the meeting was to bring the T&T Consul General and other representatives face to face with members of the T&T Diaspora. The discussion encompassed areas such as immigration and passport requirements, the need for the involvement of the T&T Diaspora in activities back in their homeland and a growing crime problem in Trinidad. The meeting was well attended and proved to be an eye opener for me. Living here in the US and being from Jamaica I could see that the issues faced by the T&T Diaspora here is identical to the issues faced by the Jamaican Diaspora. See previous post.
Similar to the Jamaican Diaspora movement, the T&T consul general Gerald Green echoed the call for T&T nationals here to invest back home. That is similar to a presentation made by Jamaican Aubyn Hill last year where he urged Jamaicans to “come back home”. Both shared the view that the Caribbean is ripe for investment. Green, last week also spoke about the 2020 Vision where T&T aims to be a developed nation by year 2020. As such, there is an effort to maintain a database of T&T nationals here along with the skill set that they possess. The T&T government can use this database as a pool to draw from to complete projects that can’t be staffed back home. Again, the Jamaican Diaspora is looking to do the same.
And of course, the question of crime in the Caribbean islands came to the forefront. The T&T representatives did point out that crime is on the decline in Trinidad and that often time crimes are being committed by deportees from the US. This appears to be reaching endemic proportions across the larger Caribbean islands.
I did learn a bit from the meeting regarding the 2020 vision as well as the fact that the University of Trinidad and Tobago offers free education to its citizens. With higher education as costly as it is, that is definitely a huge investment that a country can make in its citizens.
The organizers did well with this event and I hope to be invited back to many more. From the point of view of the Caribbean Business Digest magazine, it is essential that I make inroads into the T&T Diaspora as well. If this kind of event that engages the T&T Diaspora continues to develop, I think that they will make a huge impact among the Caribbean Diaspora here in South Florida. I do wonder though if the T&T Diaspora and the Jamaican Diaspora will develop strategic alliances with each other on a formal basis so that the Caribbean American group will become a potent force in economic and political terms.
With the Jamaican Diaspora looking to get organized I think that is possible. It may be way too early to guess on this but all the signs are there.
Similar to the Jamaican Diaspora movement, the T&T consul general Gerald Green echoed the call for T&T nationals here to invest back home. That is similar to a presentation made by Jamaican Aubyn Hill last year where he urged Jamaicans to “come back home”. Both shared the view that the Caribbean is ripe for investment. Green, last week also spoke about the 2020 Vision where T&T aims to be a developed nation by year 2020. As such, there is an effort to maintain a database of T&T nationals here along with the skill set that they possess. The T&T government can use this database as a pool to draw from to complete projects that can’t be staffed back home. Again, the Jamaican Diaspora is looking to do the same.
And of course, the question of crime in the Caribbean islands came to the forefront. The T&T representatives did point out that crime is on the decline in Trinidad and that often time crimes are being committed by deportees from the US. This appears to be reaching endemic proportions across the larger Caribbean islands.
I did learn a bit from the meeting regarding the 2020 vision as well as the fact that the University of Trinidad and Tobago offers free education to its citizens. With higher education as costly as it is, that is definitely a huge investment that a country can make in its citizens.
The organizers did well with this event and I hope to be invited back to many more. From the point of view of the Caribbean Business Digest magazine, it is essential that I make inroads into the T&T Diaspora as well. If this kind of event that engages the T&T Diaspora continues to develop, I think that they will make a huge impact among the Caribbean Diaspora here in South Florida. I do wonder though if the T&T Diaspora and the Jamaican Diaspora will develop strategic alliances with each other on a formal basis so that the Caribbean American group will become a potent force in economic and political terms.
With the Jamaican Diaspora looking to get organized I think that is possible. It may be way too early to guess on this but all the signs are there.
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