# data[].attributes.headline
Can you guess which one of these is part of the Global Market?

# data[].attributes.subject
Can you guess which one of these is part of the Global Market?

# data[].attributes.headline
A Variety of Culture and Race but one Cohesive Family 

# data[].attributes.subject
A Variety of Culture and Race but one Cohesive Family 

# data[].attributes.body
The writer provided their opinion of the argument of whether the Caribbean integration or the global village is the best way forward for Caribbean development by examining economic growth, cultural diversification and societal tolerance and providing their critical analysis on each topic.

# data[].attributes.body
While the writer is an advocate for globalisation one cannot ignore that there are hardships in becoming citizens of the global village. Cultural erasure, crime may increase with increased freedom of movement, the issue of increased scouting and initiation into extremist groups who have in the past oppose other cultures to a violent extent and multi-national corporations outright dominating all local companies due to free trade. While the writer accepts these points as valid fears for the future of the world under globalisation they believe that the negative possibilities do not out weight those positive ones and that together with a unified world can move forward and attempt to solve any problem in a way that is safe and fair to the majority. It is difficult to imagine a perfect world as much as it is to imagine one where everything that can go wrong does.

# data[].attributes.body
American sociologist, Franklin H. Giddings described society as a union or organisation of formal relations that bounded all associating individuals. Trinidad specifically is often described as a rainbow community due to its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society; tolerance is even one of the watchwords of the country given to it by its first prime minister Dr Eric Williams. However, one can quickly realise that the intermixing of the various groups is very limited, this is referred to as the plural society thesis proposed by Michael Garfield Smith which states that various cultural and racial groups that formed the Caribbean people shared a common space however born of the vacuum of a colonizers department there is only extremely limited cultural exchange between those groups, instead they operate as solitary units with their own culture and socialization in norms and values. If the Caribbean were to join the global village then the tolerance that can be found in foreign countries may prove to be influential in creating a more homogenous Caribbean society as seen when Caribbean people move from their home and join foreign diasporic groups as typically, persons who have left the Caribbean to go to a foreign country develop stronger ties with anyone they meet there due to the sense of familiarity. Globalisation in the writers experience has aid in the socialising of younger generations to be more accepting of others as there is a steadily increasing LGBTQ+ community in the Caribbean who receive less public attack then prior years but are not yet to a point where they may feel most accepted or safe due to the older generations strict view especially as they still hold most high offices. It is also in the writers experience that older persons in the Caribbean society often promote racism to younger ones, and a society that is multi-racial cannot ever combine with issues of racism, but with the entry of a more globalised Caribbean and normalizing of communication between persons of different races one can learn that each individual is much more than their phenotype. Caribbean integration attempts have proven already that in the Caribbean we struggle with a strong sense of regionalism that often comes at a bereft of nationalism, perhaps joining a global village may strength the ties between the islands due to similarities in face of many cultures of stark contrast. A global village as a society is a daunting task especially due to the dislike or distrust indoctrinated into individuals for people of a certain race or culture however increased contact with a variety of people in the writer’s opinion will break that mould and create a more unified society, much more so than Caribbean integration could.

# data[].attributes.headline
Can the Caribbean flourish in the Global Market?

# data[].attributes.subject
Can the Caribbean flourish in the Global Market?

# data[].attributes.body
Economic growth is described by economic analyser Kimberly Amadeo as the removal of inflation through the increase of goods and services provided over a specified period. The Caribbean under its colonisers were sources of economic growth for their mainland, with the popularity of the view of mercantilism Europeans at the time believed that command over trading route and bullion made a country more powerful and thus a sweetener like sugar which could be generated in a colony. Thus, throughout history, the Caribbean served as a ground for experimental farming to some degree of success tobacco in Barbados or Cocoa in Trinidad until eventually, sugar cane dominated the Caribbean islands eventually being phased out in modern times. However, the Caribbean has been successful on the global market by creating niche items, for example S. M. Jaleel founded in Trinidad manufactured the Chubby soft drink which is marketed for children with small portions, easy to hold and a cartoonish mascot, before that no one had marketed those types of drinks to children, therefore, it was extremely successful on the global market. The writer believes that the Caribbean has many marketable ideas and practices with the advent of fast food, food items such as doubles, pholourie, or Jamaican jerk dishes, may have a place in foreign countries especially due to their exotic flavour and rarity so much that in an article on Huffington post they were named as foods that were better than even our renown beaches. The addition of pressure from the global market will also cause the need for evolution which is many times seen as a negative effect because Caribbean islands and generally much smaller than foreign countries and have less money, therefore, the efficiency of the foreign corporations allow produce higher quality goods by their standards, a larger number of goods which are all cheaper per unit for manufacturing. This is the opposing argument for the integration of the Caribbean into the global market, that Caribbean countries do not have space, resources and monetary ability to compete with any foreign multinational corporation. While this is somewhat true it is the writer’s opinion that individual Caribbean countries have so many unique goods and services that it never has to compete with these powerful multi-national corporations, however with global integration the issue of space may be tackled by establishing business in foreign countries depending on the type of good being offered as the nature of globalisation is free movement both forward and backward which is very similar to the proposal of Caribbean integration. The global market provides a place for Caribbean items to flourish as they could not before however it also provides for the competition from those with more resources, the uniqueness of Caribbean products can give way for a space in the market from which profit can lead to internationally competitive technological improvements.

# data[].attributes.headline
Are we losing our Culture or are we just changing?

# data[].attributes.subject
Are we losing our Culture or are we just changing?

# data[].attributes.body
Culture is defined by sociologist Nicki Lisa Cole as a large diverse set of mostly intangible aspects of social lift but includes material objects that are common to that group or society. Caribbean culture has been exceptionally difficult to define today as it was many years ago. Essentially Caribbean culture is the culmination of the interactions between majorly the European colonisers and imported West African slaves however in certain countries the impact of the original indigenous Neo-Indian groups can be seen, as well as indentured labourers from countries such as Indian or China. The culture is sometimes referred to as creole to signify its birth in the Caribbean but even the meaning of the word creole is quickly agreed upon by different people. The Caribbean identity is often not a concrete design due to the intermixing; African religious practices being disallowed during slavery creating the eventual merging of churches in African Methodist and Baptist which implemented Christianity with the fanatical movement and spirituality expressions associated with African religions. However, it is the writer’s opinion that this mixture of culture is not in itself a negative thing, a pillar of the lessons learned in this foundation class was “one civilisation is not better than another they are simply different” thus a culture born of what Caribbean people choose to retain from its African heritage mixed with any other culture across the globe cannot be inherently bad, the Caribbean has a history of taken other things and expressing them in a unique way. In Trinidad, Carnival was originally introduced to the Caribbean by the French; it was a celebration of bidding farewell to the flesh in reference to the abstinence from red meat until Easter. Fusing that religious celebration with rebellion the African slaves converted that into a celebration of mockery for expressing their views opposing their oppressors in a way that was creative and unique. Now Carnival has largely moved away from being that platform for social discourse about the disagreement of the people with those who had power and is now a more sexualised celebration affectionately called ‘beads and feathers', there is much less emphasis placed on convoluted costumes instead symbolises a social gather and loosening of stricter behaviour that brings joy to many people. One would often hear of the more modern carnival referred to in a negative light when compared to ‘ole mas' however it is simply a way in which Caribbean people choose to mutate the celebration into, for now, it gathers many tourists, brings foreign income and most importantly happiness to the attendees. Oppositely one can argue that there is cultural erasure due to globalisation, the loss of the meaning of Carnival or the loss of the practice of African religions or even speaking languages that aren’t European or derived from them however it is the writer’s opinions that change is inevitable, learning English allows for global communication, children are brought up watching American TV shows but they can’t avoid interaction with their fellow Caribbean people which will also shape their expression of culture. To continue the use of the example of Carnival in Trinidad, there is no longer a need to express our discontent with social situations using the stage of Carnival thus it is expected that ‘ole mas’ would lose its meaning, now the Caribbean is mostly democratic, the people therefore already have a platform on which to show their disagreement with those in authority. Becoming part of the ‘global village’ will open Caribbean countries to many cultures inclusive of those which persons can identify as their roots in Africa, India or China even the Garifuna culture in Belize can be retained more if many persons are able to experience it, however in that free transfer of culture one’s own culture may change and that mixture of old and new, ever-changing is in the writer's opinion a much preferable alternative to strict stable culture cut off from the world at large.

# data[].attributes.body
Historically, the Caribbean has been synonymous with the effects of globalisation ever since its re-discovery in 1492. Globalisation is described as “the progressive of economies and societies”. It is the writer’s perspective that is best for Caribbean people to embrace globalisation and aspire to become citizens of the global village as it would promote economic growth, cultural diversification and societal tolerance.