[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 16, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1477-E1478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




DISCUSSION OF THE CARIBBEAN DIASPORA AT THE 2008 CARICOM CONFERENCE IN 
                             NEW YORK CITY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 16, 2008

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce an article that 
recapitulates the successful discussions that took place during the 
2008 Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) conference on the 
Caribbean Diaspora in the United States. The article was written by 
Tony Best and was published in the July 8, 2008 edition of CaribNews. 
This New York based publication serves as the voice of the Caribbean 
community in the New York metropolitan area.
  The article entitled: ``Work Together'' summarizes the forum held at 
York College in Queens, New York. Several Caribbean Heads of State were 
in attendance along with fellow members of Congress, Ms. Yvette Clarke 
and Mr. Gregory Meeks.
  Discussions about the Caribbean Diaspora took place as many members 
of the panel recognized the great importance of the. Caribbean 
community living and working abroad. Prime Minister of Barbados, David 
Thompson was quoted as saying, ``We Caribbean leaders have recognized 
that the time has come for us to tap the resources available to us from 
the Diaspora''.
  I am both proud and honored to have been able to help facilitate 
dialogue between CARICOM Head of State and the New York based Diaspora. 
Conferences such as this open up lines of communication which 
contribute greatly to economic growth and development in the Caribbean.

                   [From the CaribNews, July 8, 2008]

                             Work Together

                             (By Tony Best)

       The picture at York College of the City University of New 
     York was essentially Caribbean.
       And for good reason.
       An audience of about 300 people, truly representative of 
     the West Indian Diaspora, gathered in the large Performing 
     Arts Center of the school in Queens to be addressed by a 
     number of Caribbean Heads of Government or their 
     representatives on issues chosen by the people themselves.
       Billed as a conversation with the Diaspora, a ``Dialogue,'' 
     if you will, the function was the penultimate item on the 
     program for a much anticipated two-day Caribbean Community 
     Conference attended at different times by nine of the 
     region's Prime Ministers and a President, Dr. Bhrarrat Jagdeo 
     of Guyana.
       On stage were Prime Ministers David Thompson, Barbados, 
     Dean Barrow, Belize, Baldwin Spencer, Antigua and Barbuda, 
     Stephenson King, St. Lucia, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, President of 
     Guyana, senior cabinet ministers from Jamaica and Suriname 
     who headed their countries' delegations, and diplomatic 
     officials from Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts-Nevis, the 
     Bahamas, and Dominica.
       It stands to reason, then, why the reality of the occasion 
     didn't escape PM Thompson.
       ``As I was sitting here I was reflecting on when last I, as 
     a political leader in the Caribbean, had the opportunity to 
     address what one might call a truly Caribbean audience like 
     this,'' meaning people from throughout the region assembled 
     under one roof,'' said Thompson.

[[Page E1478]]

       Thompson, one of the three heads of Government invited to 
     make an opening statement before the function got down to 
     ``brass tacks'', an exchange of views between the leaders and 
     the West Indians who now call New York home-away-home, 
     seemingly felt compelled to remark on the essential qualities 
     that separate Jamaicans, Guyanese, Trinidadians, Antiguans, 
     Vincentians, Grenadians and the rest of the Diaspora from 
     other immigrants in North America, Europe and elsewhere. The 
     dividing line is the desire to return to the land of their 
     birth and live in comfort.
       Admittedly, only a fraction of the millions of West Indians 
     now living and working abroad ever return home and those who 
     do usually keep one foot firmly planted in the U.S. be it New 
     York, Boston, Miami, Hartford or Los Angeles and the other in 
     their country of birth.
       ``If you are living in Ireland and meet somebody from 
     Australia or the Ukraine, very seldom do they tell you that 
     they are returning to those places. But most of the people 
     you meet from the Caribbean they want to return home, said 
     the Barbados leader.
       That was why, he, added, West Indians living abroad should 
     continue to find ways to be involved in what their countries 
     are doing.
       As Thompson saw it, the immigrants should have another item 
     on their list of priorities: using their presence abroad to 
     help the Caribbean region achieve its social and economic 
     development goals.
       ``I don't think in your daily rounds and wherever you hold 
     positions of influence, authority or where you can use your 
     diplomacy and other skills you should forget to put the 
     Caribbean's case forward and advance the interest of the 
     Caribbean region,'' he said.
       President Jagdeo added another dimension to the task: the 
     election of officials to federal, state and local legislative 
     bodies.
       ``While Barbados is important and Guyana and Jamaica are 
     important we are Caribbean people,'' he told the gathering. 
     ``We have to work together as Caribbean people and (when we 
     do) it significantly magnifies the power that people have 
     within this society.''
       One way of flexing that muscle while at the same time 
     pushing their own and the Caribbean's agenda was to help get 
     people ``who look like us and who share our views elected to 
     offices at the local level, the state level and hopefully at 
     the national level so that they can be sympathetic to the 
     cause of the Caribbean and to make a better life and space 
     for the Caribbean people who live here in the United States 
     of America,'' Jagdeo argued.
       But he didn't stop there.
       ``We hope that in November you all turn out and elect the 
     person who we feel would be sensitive to our interest,'' he 
     said. ``This is a person I have seen in an image squatting 
     outside of a small hut in Kenya''.
       ``This of a person who although he is a Christian, he is 
     very proud of that, grew up with an understanding of the 
     Muslim faith,'' the president added. ``Anyone who shares 
     these experiences will understand us better, and will 
     understand our challenges. We need that kind of person to 
     lead the United States.''
       Although President Jagdeo was careful not to call a name 
     and didn't pinpoint the elected position he had in mind, few 
     persons, if any at all, had failed to identify U.S. Senator 
     Barack whose quest for the White House in Washington has 
     captivated Americans and has warmed the hearts of people 
     around the world.
       In his statement, PM King, who narrowly survived a recent 
     political attempt and power struggle by leading members of 
     his own ruling United Workers Party in St. Lucia to remove 
     him from office, said that ``it was important, vital was a 
     better way of putting it, for Caribbean nations to dip into 
     the vast human reservoir of talented human resources from the 
     Caribbean that can be found in the United States''. ``We 
     Caribbean leaders have recognized that the time has come for 
     us to tap the resources available to us from the Diaspora,'' 
     he said.
       What a pity then that such an atmosphere of cordiality and 
     interest wasn't reciprocated by a handful of immigrants, no 
     more than five or six, mainly Guyanese, who turned up at the 
     function to harass and condemn Dr. Jagdeo, and to do it in a 
     disrespectful and shameless manner by shouting at him from 
     their seats and before the microphones in an attempt to 
     disrupt his presentation. Fortunately, the President was able 
     to give even better than be got, responding to them in a 
     clear an unemotional tone. But perhaps the most rousing 
     welcome was reserved for the Belizean Prime Minister, the 
     first person of truly African-heritage to lead CARICOM's lone 
     country in Central America. Some of his enthusiastic 
     political supporters who were seeing him for the first time 
     since his election victory jumped for joy and waved their 
     arms in delight and in turn were warmly acknowledged by a 
     Prime Minister who seemingly enjoyed every second of the 
     acclaim. PM Spencer, the Antiguan head of government, was 
     upbeat as he soaked in the cheerful response from Antiguans 
     in the audience and regularly took the opportunity to explain 
     his government's and CARICOM's stance on domestic and 
     regional issues.
       The opportunity for an exchange of ideas wasn't lost on two 
     members of Congress, Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn and Gregory 
     Meeks of Queens, two lawmakers with large Caribbean 
     constituents. When the time came for them to speak, they 
     grasped the chance with both hands and used it to pledge 
     continuing support for the region.
       Interestingly, a public figure who wasn't there but was on 
     most people's minds was U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel, 
     Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. 
     House of Representatives.
       It was Rangel who engineered the conference and opened the 
     doors of Wall Street to the Prime Ministers and President 
     Jagdeo. It was people's way of saying thanks to him. Of the 
     leaders who came to New York, Jagdeo was the only one who had 
     to face a few placard carrying hostile demonstrators. From 
     all indications, he handled himself with aplomb, even 
     breaking away from the protective shield of the Secret 
     Service to have an exchange with some of his critics. ``I was 
     not afraid to talk to them,'' he said afterwards. In the 
     event though, as William Shakespeare's immortal line reminds 
     us ``All's well that Ends Well.''
       And the conference certainly ended on a high note when some 
     of the leaders joined U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel, 
     Chairman of the influential Ways and Means Committee of the 
     House of Representatives, for breakfast at Sylvia's, a New 
     York City landmark in Harlem.
       The event at York College was chaired by Dr. Ivelaw 
     Griffith, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic 
     Affairs. He's an expert on Caribbean security and has written 
     several books and scholarly papers on the subject. The 
     College's President Dr. Marcia Keizs, a Jamaican, set the 
     tone with a welcome that reminded many in the theater-style 
     auditorium of their own experiences as immigrants: leaving 
     home to go to better education abroad but with plans to 
     return to the birthplace. Instead, they decide to stay on and 
     in the process rise to the pinnacle of academic or 
     professional success, or both.
       Helen Marshall, the first Black person elected to serve as 
     Borough President of Queens, also spoke and emphasized the 
     value of maintaining links between the U.S. and the 
     Caribbean. In her own Guyana, the homeland of her parents, it 
     is a good example of bridging the geographic divide.

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