As Americans prepare to cast their votes in the presidential election on Tuesday, two local political thinkers have suggested that a Kamala Harris presidency would benefit Barbados and the wider region.
Meantime, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kerri Symmonds has criticised the Caribbean diaspora for failing to pressure both presidential candidates – Harris and Donald Trump – on the troubling flow of illegal firearms into the region.
Political scientist Dr George Brathwaite, while suggesting that a victory for Harris would serve Barbados better, also expressed concern about her silence on the worrying influx of US-manufactured guns coming into this country.
“One of the things that I would like her to be strong on is certainly crime, particularly how guns are getting into the Caribbean region because they are destroying my paradise with all of these guns, in terms of the illicit activities and the guns that get into our region,” Brathwaite told Barbados TODAY, noting that this issue has not been heard in any of Harris’ campaign speeches.
“That is something that I am fearful of, not just here in Barbados, but if you are in Jamaica, Trinidad, Grenada, little Saint Lucia,” he said. “I heard it is now happening in Tobago. So, these are things that she can bring that sense of calmness to; and I hope that she is willing to engage our leaders, particularly on matters of crime, and how these guns are getting into the region.”
He argued that generally, a Harris presidency could bring greater certainty, empathy, and favourable symbolism to the interests of the Caribbean people, with her being a person of Jamaican ancestry, a woman of colour, having already engaged CARICOM leaders, and not hostile to immigrants.
“I think, symbolically, those are things that leave an impression; and she has already met in her position as vice president at the Summit of the Americas with some of our leaders. And I get the impression that they are all on good standing. Politically, it is significant. After all, we will not have a leader who creates the grave uncertainty that we have seen in Trump’s first term as president,” Brathwaite said.
“So, I fundamentally support Vice President Kamala Harris,” the political scientist added. “But I think it will still be tricky in terms of economics…. For instance, she is talking about some of the price gouging that goes on in the US economy. If price gouging is going on and we’ve been complaining about it in Barbados and other parts of the Caribbean… if she is able to do something about it and make a dent, it will have a ripple effect on our leaders and how they respond to the private sector when the private sector in Barbados may be pressing buttons and over-pricing us.”
He also cited Trump’s proposed “tariff wars” and his planned mass deportations of undocumented immigrants as actions that Harris is expected to address.
Social scientist Professor Don Marshall, while identifying concerns with both candidates, said he would prefer Harris as the president who would better serve the interests of the Caribbean people.
The Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, singled out US foreign policy.
“Neither Trump nor Kamala promises to end some of the current skirmishes that the United States finds itself in, and to which we, as a country, are opposed. For example, the war in Gaza. There is nothing coming from the two campaigns suggesting an end to what really is genocide on the part of Israel in its excessive retaliation to attacks from Palestine and Iran, from within Gaza. We are not seeing a proportionate level of response that demonstrates an abiding humanity,” he told Barbados TODAY. “There is also no relief from the continuous blockade on Cuba, and that is something that we continue to decry.”
However, he favours Harris for president to address the need for greater business relations between the Caribbean and the US.
“In the interest of building greater economic and people-to-people relations, we would want to see the emergence of Kamala Harris as president, because, certainly within the Trump camp, there is a policy towards expelling undocumented migrants and moving in quite dramatic and draconian ways to do so. Trump’s immigration policy is not providing Caribbean people with any comfort,” Professor Marshall said.
Offering another reason why he believes Harris’ leadership would be beneficial for Barbados, the social scientist contended that in terms of human rights, the “violent rhetoric” from the Trump camp does not offer any comfort either.
“In many ways, if we want to have a greater moderation in the US’ tendency to be unilateral, we are relying on Kamala Harris because she has a greater capacity to negotiate, reason, and point to other broader diplomatic goals in the direction of multilateralism,” he declared.
Professor Marshall sees her presidency as a sign of the Caribbean’s influence on world affairs and US governance, insisting that it’s something the region should celebrate if she wins the White House.
In an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY, Symmonds expressed concern that neither candidate had been challenged on critical regional issues, particularly the escalating gun crime crisis fuelled by weapons manufactured in the United States.
Though steering clear of favouring any side, he said: “There has been no pressure applied about the crisis in gun crime as it arrives upon our shores and is conducted with weapons that are not manufactured, and ammunition that is not produced anywhere in the Caribbean.
“So we have seen a campaign in the USA in which nobody has been pressed on the fate and future of the people of Haiti. We have seen an election in which no candidate has been pressed on the crisis of climate change and the need to implement policy that reduces the economic and financial impact on small and micro-states in the Caribbean.
“Additionally, … neither party has been asked to speak to the consequences of de-risking and correspondent banking, which has threatened to undermine and economically alienate several Caribbean countries by virtually cutting them off from the rest of the financial world, effectively making it highly difficult, if not impossible in some cases, to pay for foreign imports and to send money to students overseas and so on,” Symmonds added.
He stressed the need for the diaspora to be mobilised to speak to these “bread and butter” issues “competently and coherently”.
“Just as the Cubans constantly keep their interests about Cuba at the forefront of political discussion, especially in Florida, and as the Jews keep their interest about Israel at the forefront of political discussion, so must we in the Caribbean keep the issues of concern about the Caribbean at the forefront of political discussion,” the senior minister pointed out.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
