Caribbean heads of government met from July 3-5 in Trinidad and Tobago to kick off a year of celebration marking the 50th anniversary of CARICOM (the Caribbean Community). One of the key areas of discussion at the group’s 45th meeting concerned confronting the challenges of climate change.
As per usual, there was almost zero coverage in U.S. legacy media. Frankly, I had no expectations of major reportage, since, as I keep saying, the Caribbean is only of interest to Americans when a hurricane is crossing it and headed toward the U.S. mainland. I know that sounds cynical. But I used to challenge my college students to name any Caribbean head of state, and the usual response rate was zero. Of course, many of those same students couldn’t name more than three or four Caribbean nations on a blank outline map; the majority couldn’t name any.
While I was writing this story, my goddaughter dropped by my house with her adult son; they are of Caribbean descent. I decided to question them for this piece. Neither knew what CARICOM is, and neither could name a Caribbean head of state other than the late Fidel Castro. Be that as it may, and given the fact that many people in the U.S. are finally beginning to pay more attention to climate change (minus right-wing climate deniers), we all should be concerned with the very real situations faced by our Caribbean neighbors on the front lines.
RELATED STORY: Caribbean Matters: CARICOM meets in Belize
Caribbean Matters is a weekly series from Daily Kos. If you are unfamiliar with the region, check out Caribbean Matters: Getting to know the countries of the Caribbean.