Populist political awakenings and continuing economic turmoil are writ large (if you excuse the cliche) across the world today. There are those who are going further, suggesting that the political and economic travail of the present are raising even larger questions about the capacity of the free-market (so-called) system and 19th century political models to carry the civilisation of the 21st century forward. Aware that China is not likely to be spared the growing conscientisation of peoples that has and is spreading outward from the Middle East and parts of North Africa, the Chinese Government recently took in front by arresting artist and activist Ai Wei Wei, afraid that he could stir up passions for freedom amongst the Chinese hundreds of millions of the population. Brutal and boldface dictators in other parts of Africa such as Joseph Kabila, who inherited the Democratic Republic of Congo from his even more sadistic father, Laurent; Robert Mugabe, and other dictators everywhere where people are being systematically denied the right to freedom and participation in governing themselves, must also be worried about the surge for freedom which must certainly have become irreversible.
By now, former President of the Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, flushed out of hiding in his basement by French bombing and forces loyal to elected President Alassane Ouattara, knows that old-time dictatorship and intransigence against the will of the people is coming fast to an end. But in extreme cases the rising tide of people intervention is however not stopping the likes of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi from resisting with all his might the gush of determination by people to take back their country and to begin to refashion their lives. As advocated by this column at the start of the Middle East surge of people power, Egyptians, having forced Mubarak to retreat, are back on the streets to ensure the revolution is not hijacked. That signifies an understanding of the process to freedom and preparedness to do what is required to secure governance of their country and their intention to insert themselves in the process.
Latin America has been undergoing less dramatic transformation, but no less fundamental over the last couple decades. Most of the dictators of the left and right have been swept way. Now only the Castro dynasty, however paternalistic it may have been, and continues to be, insists on denying the population the right to popular political participation and the freedom of choice. Caribbean democracy, partially achieved through frequent and acceptably fair general elections to choose governments, continues to hold, if not advance. Even in Haiti, the most challenged of Caribbean democracies, recently successfully (and that obviously has to be qualified given the circumstances of that country) held polls to install a new government in Port-au-Prince. However, the challenge for Caribbean democracy must be to enhance the quality of governance and strengthen existing institutions. In many countries the creation of a democratic institutional framework for governance, and the expansion and deepening of meaningful participation by the population, must be the challenge in the second decade of this century.
Surely the Caribbean will not escape the awakening in the Middle East, Africa and the coming movement in the Far East. Carib- bean governments sensitive to world events and the advancing people-tide must begin to anticipate the future or be swept away by the fury of the oceanic-type surges. Accountability, transparency in the expenditure of public funds, taking responsibility for decisions taken or not taken (neglected perhaps), understanding that public resources do not belong to any one segment of a country and that the Burnham notion of paramountcy of the party cannot be countenanced. In keeping with such political changes there has to be root and branch transformation of the party culture, the conduct of general elections, the electoral infrastructure inclusive of campaign financing, the relationship between the hierarchy of the party and the membership, constitutional change in democracies such as those in T&T and the rest of the Caribbean. At the same time that these ground-shaking political events have been taking place, economic organisation has become unstable even in the largest and strongest economy in the world, the USA.
Only recently, disaster and disgrace faced legislators with the possibility of the shutdown of the Federal Government. And while the closure was averted by a midnight compromise, the challenge of constructing and passing a 2012 budget with the economy once again facing trillions of dollars in deficit and debt, and in a presidential elections year, the American government is far from being out of the woods, no pun on a hapless tiger. Beyond the immediate of the American economy and the management of it by the Obama regime, the world continues to struggle to find its way out of the economic recession of 2008-2010. Japan, severely affected by the recession, has been knocked back by the impact of the earthquake and tsunami. Now Portugal has joined Greece and Ireland amongst the European casualties. At the same time, Spain, by far the largest of the EU economies in trouble, is said to be approaching the intensive care unit which could soon require bailout assistance from amongst its trading partners in Europe. Indeed, only Germany among the EU countries could be said to be growing and producing its way out of the two and one-half year slump. Perhaps only Latin America with its recently found confidence to avoid taking the econo- mic medicine handed down from Washington is hitting out in new directions.
Of course, China, India and marginally behind Brazil are comfortably registering real growth and development. As noted, it is the ability of these relatively second string of large industrialising economies to embark on their own economic strategies which are propelling them forward. Already, President Obama in Washington has woken up to the prospect of hitching a ride on Latin American sources of growth to shake the US economy out of its slide and what schools of economists have identified as a fundamentally flawed economic model for growth and development. Whichever way the political stirrings and economic travail lurch, stumble or glide smoothly to, undoubtedly the world is in an exciting period of change.