The View from Europe
  By David Jessop
   
  Most administrations and the individuals who serve in them are transient. Officials and ministers move on: civil servants to other positions and politicians to take either a new portfolio, go into opposition, the backbenches or private life. It is the nature of western liberal democracy.
   
  I was reminded of the implications of this a few weeks ago in Brussels when discussing the special regime that applies to some rums entering the EU and the small but naturally eroding measure of tariff protection that Europe continues to give to the Caribbean.  
   
  What rapidly became apparent was that everyone who had been involved in the original decision in 1996 had moved on or retired. Those now responsible for negotiating new trade arrangements with other parts of the world were for the most part, unaware of why the rum regime was structured as it was or the long history behind the treaty obligations contained in the Cotonou Convention.
   
  It seemed that the collective memory had gone and with it the thinking and culture that encouraged the original decision on this and the other special arrangements that support small traditional suppliers in the ACP and the French départements d’outre-mer (the DOM).
   
  The apparent absence of any written record to which reference could be made easily suggested a vastly increased danger that future decisions will lack historical perspective and context.
   
  Although different in every respect, the recent news of the hospitalisation of the Prime Minister of St Lucia, John Compton, carries with it a similar message. Unrecorded, Mr Compton’s long experience of Government and Opposition will be lost and along with it an explanation of the common experience of St Lucia and that of other nations in the Windward Islands. 
   
  I note all of this because the basis for many of the most important recent political and economic decisions that touch on how the region has come to be where it is today are going largely unrecorded. This is contrast to much of the rest of world where the publication of almost instant political memoirs, autobiographies, biographies and diaries that record political, economic and personal decisions, has along with serious media analysis become a growth industry that feeds an understanding of history and identity. 
   
  The consequence is that while the volume of research on slavery or, for example, the struggle for independence continues to grow, there are relatively few primary accounts of the history of the last forty years. Instead what little that is available seems either to consist of volumes of collected speeches, is contained in sometimes turgid academic papers or appears as vanity publishing.
   
  This is surprising when the issues associated with the fall and rise of industries and the attenuation of preference are having an impact on the everyday lives of millions and will over time change the culture of the region.
   
  In this context, the absence of personal memoirs by regional leaders covering their time in office and opposition and their apparent disinterest in the publishing the diaries that many by self admission have kept for years, does a particular disservice to the region.
   
  This is equally true of those whose policy decisions have affected the Caribbean. They too have little to say other than in relation to extreme events such as Margaret Thatcher’s brief autobiographical account of the invasion of Grenada and her conversation at the time with the then US President, Ronald Reagan.
   
  This, it is suggested, is in part because the Caribbean market for books is small, the publishing industry in the region fragmented and constrained by the cost and logistics of distribution and because external publishers see little profit in producing titles other than for the academic or visitor market. 
   
  Despite this, there are some exceptions. Notably, Ian Randle Publishing in Jamaica has developed a significant catalogue of titles on a range of Caribbean issues, but for the most part book publishers remain very small and tied to the local market.
   
  In pursuit of the basis for modern Caribbean history, I asked a number of major companies and industries in the region whether they archived documents of historic relevance at the University of the West Indies or elsewhere. The answers I received were mixed. Some of the sectoral associations did so or wanted to, but many companies seemed not to see the relevance.  Yet this is common practice with major companies in Europe and North America who accept that when their files are eventually available for research – sometimes after fifty or more years –the relevance of their role in national economic development can be better understood. 
   
  In the last week I had the opportunity to be a part of an exchange of views on some of these issues with some of the region’s great and good. Their interest in the subject was profound. They felt that without a common and well understood history it will be difficult for the Caribbean to retain its culture and long-term sense of being Caribbean. Despite this they recognised reluctantly that they were unlikely to publish a memoir in their own lifetimes because the Caribbean was still too small a place to be able to be comfortable with the implications. 
   
  Their views argued for new ways of trying to retain the region’s experience through more thoughtful journalism, museums and regional radio and TV programming.
   
  It suggested new business opportunities for the broadcast media to replicate some of the ideas that are common in Europe after the passing of well known figures where interviews recorded today are held under lock and key for release on their death. 
   
  Some argue that culture loss, change and assimilation is the way of the world and is an unavoidable function of the process of economic globalisation. However, my conversations suggest that this does not sit comfortably with majority Caribbean thinking. The most strongly held view is that in small states understnding the past, whether recent or distant, remains the cultural key to retaining the region’s identity and guaranteeing an independent future.  
   
  David Jessop is the Director of the Caribbean Council and can be contacted at [log in to unmask]
  Previous columns can be found at www.caribbean-council.org
  June 1st, 2007

       
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