(Full disclosure: I am holder of a CSME Skilled National Certificate since 2007)
LEFT: Seen at right receiving my certificate, the first in Barbados, from a Ministry of Education official.
Does this sound familiar?
"CSME is a waste of time. The structure of the institutions in CARICOM is beyond worst. For example, if a ministry has to type a letter you have to wait three weeks.
[CARICOM state name withheld] is profiling its own CARICOM nationals, and prejudice is always evident in these scenarios. There is always insularity between the islands.
People in the ministries are not even aware of their so-called intergovernmental agreement much less CSME.
The whole concept was to copy what is happening in the EU but, gosh, CARICOM’s attitude and people are three stone ages away from this. Not this lifetime.
So stop this bull about CSME, go to [CARICOM state name withheld] and apply for a loan under CSME - you’ll see what I am speaking about.
Go figure."
Ok, so I cleaned up the comment for spelling and grammar and the mentions of a CARICOM state. This is a very recent comment (yesterday actually) that I copied from a website that was promoting jobs in the CSME. The comment suggests - with typical Caribbean passion - the notion that CARICOM falls short of the ideal of a single Caribbean market for goods, jobs and capital, the purpose and promise of the CSME.
All this is what we hear so often when we gather perceptions of the CSME. Let's be frank, some of it strikes a chord - a lack of effective communication between government departments, the ages-old notions of insularity, parochialism and Caribbean people's eternal distrust of each other.
But is our Peeved Poster (let's call him "PP") right? How do we know, really know, that he is right?
Where's the beef in PP's beef about the CSME?
It's easy to say the easy things about what CARICOM is not. It's second nature for us to trot out opinions like dogma. In no time, beliefs become facts, and mere thoughts become truisms.
Let's test PP's assertions.
For example, if a ministry has to type a letter you have to wait three weeks.
No argument there. Let's go further, be honest and say that in some cases, you'd be lucky to get a response that even acknowledges that you wrote the letter in the first place! But can a comment about bureaucratic sloth (a global reality) be true in the case of registering a CARICOM skilled national? First of all, there is no need to write a letter begging anyone for anything . In each CARICOM member state, there is a designated focal point for not only answering a phone call (so spare your wrist) but for acting on your application for a skilled national certificate. Based on what he wrote, I have my doubts that PP ever applied for such a certificate or even intends to work outside of his home state. Next....
[CARICOM state name withheld] is profiling its own CARICOM nationals, and prejudice is always evident in these scenarios. There is always insularity between the islands.
Out of a sense of fairness, I did not include the CARICOM state mentioned because it would be unfair to single a member state with a highly prejudicial opinion (see our house rules) that lacks a shred of fact to back it up. Mind you, if PP has a specific complaint about a CSME skilled national being denied entry to a state to work I am yet to hear a single case of this actually happening. If it happened to him, I'd want him to shout it from the rooftops. In fact, if you can append a truthful experience to any, or indeed, everyone of PP's rants, please post them here. Merely assuming that it could happen doesn't mean it has happened. Sure, CARICOM nationals must abide by the immigration regulations of the host member state but freedom of movement should and must mean just that - freedom. PP, prove me wrong.
Onward.
People in the ministries are not even aware of their so-called intergovernmental agreement much less CSME.
Now does PP have a point? It's so easy - and often tempting - to bash the bureaucrat. Study after study has indeed pointed to red tape as one of the most anti-competitive business practises in our region. In the civil servant's defence, not everyone can know every single thing about the CSME anywhere nor should they (I do think they should know a lot about it, of course). But there are publications available to both job-seeker and civil servant, apart from the circulars that government departments regularly issue among themselves about many administrative or legal developments.
The CSME focal point is the place to go for information about the best way to apply for registration as a CSME skilled national. Do you know yours? For first-timers, when you turn up at the Immigration desk at the airport on arrival you simply have to present your CSME Skilled National Certificate and you are given six months automatically to stay and work in the host country until you are accredited there. I will also readily admit that in the early days of the accreditation process (and I was the first registered person in my country) there was some confusion as to which department was responsible for issuing the certificates and whether a certificate is required of each country one works in. Now there's my personal beef with the process - one certificate, like a visa, stuck into your CARICOM passport - should suffice. I'd like your thoughts on this and whether this aspect of the process puts you off from working in another CARICOM state.
Finally...
The whole concept was to copy what is happening in the EU but, gosh, CARICOM’s attitude and people are three stone ages away from this. Not this lifetime.
So stop this bull about CSME, go to [CARICOM state name withheld] and apply for a loan under CSME - you’ll see what I am speaking about.
It is true that the CARICOM has modelled much of its work on regional integration on the world's most successful regional integration system, the European Union. The only agglomeration of states that can be more cohesive than the EU is a federal one-stop shop, like the US, or Germany. CARICOM is a collection of sovereign nations who have agreed to pool that sovereignty to facilitate the import of skills from their neighbours. And yes, we have a long way to go before attitudes (PP, are you listening?) accept the reality of a single Caribbean job market. "Three stone ages?" Ask the Europeans how long it took them to achieve their own goals of a single market and they will start you off in 1957 and the Treaty of Rome. CARICOM came around two decades later. Yes, PP, this lifetime.
As a journalist, I've had more than my share of troublesome experiences with CARICOM governments. In one very public case, I'd wished I could have registered as a Skilled National. The national law had been passed but not yet promulgated. Tough luck.
It's so easy to rant, harder to tell your own story, seek hard data and analyse facts.
As it is with our cricket, our music, our food and, naturally, our politics, we are more than entitled to our opinions but do we also have the luxury of being entitled to our own facts?
As we head to St Lucia for our first face-to-face dialogue, we will be seeking the facts in our factions and bringing the truth of our CSME experience - real truth - to light so that we can make a constructive contribution to better way of life for all in CARICOM. Now who wouldn't support that, and if not, why not?
Let's diaBlog.
- Julius Gittens is a regional broadcaster and communications specialist.
| More
CSME should become a lifestyle for us and we need to look at it in terms of preparing our children for that lifestyle - from pre and primary schools we need to teach about other people, loving and appreciating our differences, enjoying our similiarities. We have tried to change adults who are too accustomed to the insularity our politicians breed.....let us refocus on a new generation while we try to get blood out of stone for the present adult population. It is something we are leaving for the generations of children...we need to bring it to them in a variety of ways so that they live it!!
ReplyDelete