As the U.S. has finally admitted to being in a recession, and some predictions for 2009 remain glum, a rash of meetings, conferences, and seminars are being held to address the concerns for our own region.
The “Group of 20” or G20, recently met at their own summit, and in statements released by them, “this problem did not develop overnight, and it will not be solved overnight. No single nation will be able to fix this…but with continued cooperation and determination, it will be solved…”
This theme of cooperation seems to be a general consensus. That no one country will be able to get over this on their own, especially in the developing nations across the Caribbean.
The Conference of the Caribbean and Central America was also recently held to discuss questions about the impact of the financial problems around the world and how it will affect this region. We’ll have to wait and see if they came up with any good resolutions.
CARICOM heads of government met in Antigua at the end of November and, according to the Associated Press, made a pledge (although without specifics) to “push regional banks to provide more loans to builders and exporters, boosting jobs and trade to counter the world economic crisis.”
Sometimes it seems to take a crisis to bond people together…perhaps the same is true for nations? Perhaps this economic downturn with prove to be a valuable tool to drawing us and our neighbors together, making our region stronger as a whole.