Globalization facilitates the connection and interdependence of economies and cultures coming together on a worldwide scale via advancements in technology, communications, transport commerce and trade liberalization resulting in the world becoming a ‘global village’ (Thompson 263). Regional or Caribbean development refers to a similar agreement between the Caribbean islands to co-operate and work closely together to achieve peace, stability and wealth. The question is not which is better or which should more efforts be put into, but rather, for the Caribbean can one exist without the other? The answer here is no. As a small Caribbean island, there is no globalization without Caribbean development and here’s why! 
 The following points are separated into four categories or dimensions of developments, which are the socio-cultural dimension, the economic dimension, technology and communication dimension and the environmental dimension.

 

This includes the coming together and commercialization of various cultures, religion and forms of dress. It can be described as the spread of global popular culture, and other forms of human interaction. This can be explained by Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s theory of creolization where it is stated that creolization is a way of seeing society not in terms of separate nuclear units but as contributory parts of a whole. Brathwaite noticed that proximity facilitated the two way mixing of cultures between the colonial people and their colonizers which included language and religion. Similarly, with globalization the sharing of culture is as easy as a click of a button. You can learn about the culture and religion of another territory just by watching television. However, this brings with it issues of identity and a watering down of culture. The portrayal of American culture has led to a desire of western values and this usually means forsaking our Caribbean culture in acts as simple as online shopping rather than supporting local retailers or buying Starbucks coffee rather than rituals coffee. The information revolution and the mass media, provides both a window to the wider world and a challenge to traditional ways of doing things (Lieber 2002)

However, culture is a source of income for the Caribbean in relation to its festivals, music and cuisine and globalization and the spreading of knowledge of such culture has facilitated this source of income in the form of tourism and support for local artists. Visitors come from all over the world to take part in carnival celebrations, have a relaxing vacation on a tropical island and support for our music has taken local Soca artists Calypso Rose and Machel Montano to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, one of the largest, most famous, and most profitable music festivals in the United States and all over the world. Such publicity is sure to be beneficial to our little twin islands in recognition of our talents and our original genres of music.  In addition development of the Caribbean culture will bring major benefits to the tourism sector. Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries globally, and it is a primary contributor to the economies of most Caribbean countries (Mohammed 2015). This development should not be individualistic, the focus must be on all Caribbean islands to promote the territories as all being a vacation destination as a whole.  This is because the islands are already being looked at in a connected way and the reputation of one affects the reputation of them all. The major finding of  Mohammed’s study in Trinidad and Jamaica is that violent crime impacts negatively on tourist arrivals in both countries and that the image of the destination country could be negatively affected by high levels of violent crime. This goes for the Caribbean as a whole rather than the individual islands as the term ‘Caribbean Island’ refers to them all as a blanket term.

Sustainable development is a global problem, not a regional one. The focus of sustainable development is efficient use of the resources available to provide for today’s generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs (Thompson 229). And while there can be regional efforts, every nation needs to play its part in reducing and preventing further damage. This is the only dimension where development should be globally rather than regional and this is because of the severity of the matter as well as the accomplishments that may result from a global effort to prevent disaster. I presume that the ‘lifeboat Caribbean’ effect would be multiplied. This term describes where a natural disaster takes place in a Caribbean territory such as earthquakes that are frequent to Haiti and many other Caribbean nations chip in to help in recovery. Whether by providing financial aid, sending good and other necessary supplies or the human resources necessary to take care of the injured. This is what is envisioned on a global scale if efforts are made towards global development.