THERE WAS a rather interesting observation by Dr Kenny Anthony in the MIDWEEK NATION of November 12.

Anthony seems concerned that member states have not responded individually or collectively to the world financial crisis. He went on to suggest that there is silence on who the region's strategic partners are, in relation to what he termed the new global economic order.

Could this have something to do with a perceived lack of direction being given to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) process? Could Dr Anthony's observation be part of the reason why Trinidad, St Lucia and St Vincent are talking about a union outside of the same CSME, which seems to have been derailed since January?

A few days before Anthony's comments were published, Barbados' Prime Minister David Thompson seemed to have been chiding his senior Caribbean prime ministerial colleagues for the fact that the implementation of the CSME seem to have stalled. In my layman's view, the Single Economy will not meet its 2012 deadline.

About a year ago and at the time too when there was a lot of talk about a wind of change blowing through the Caribbean, Professor Frank Alleyne said on Good Mornin' Barbados that a change of regional government at that time would seriously set back the regional integration progress. Time has proven that he was absolutely correct.

In my view it has always and will always come down to the management of the economy. But if you cannot manage your domestic economy, how then will you be able to give direction to the advancement of "a single economy" or 15 economies functioning as a single domestic space?

– BERTRAM ALLEYNE