If the old adage that when the US sneezes the Caribbean catches a cold were true, the financial trauma affecting the US economy would have already plunged the Caribbean into an economic coma. It is unlikely that this will happen. But the outward ripples of the financial crisis in the US will cause an economic downturn in the Caribbean.

Like a new strain of an infectious disease, crime is spreading across the English-speaking Caribbean with no sign of a cure. Regrettably, Caribbean Governments’ response to rising crime is often knee-jerk and sophomoric. As rising cost of living, crime, HIV-Aids, hurricanes and free trade pressurize the small economies of Caricom, the idea of a political union might not seem so far-fetched after all.