Rethinking poverty in the Caribbean

So I've been travelling for work and it's taken me to Guyana, Barbados and Jamaica. Of course, since i live in Trinidad & Tobago that means I've been in four territories in four weeks. That gives you a kind of insight into how the region works and what is going on here.

Some thoughts:

•We're not as poor as we think we are. 

•Some of us have much more than others, but we are all, collectively, in the same soon-to-be-waterlogged boat with global warming.

•The rich are not doing enough to help the poor.

Since I work for a non-profit and my job in the last month was to write and co-produce scripts on the winners of the pan-Caribbean awards programme I work for (www.ansacaribbeanawards.com), I've had a unique opportunity to hear about and see the poor and how they live, particularly in Guyana and Jamaica.

In Guyana I went to an Amerindian village in the interior of Region One. Kids were malnourished, unable to go to school, and at the same time were locked away from their traditional lifestyles, so they weren't modern and they weren't ancient. They just were. Existing in a kind of timeless poverty and isolation that the awardee I went to interview is trying to help them build a bridge out of. At the same time, there is enormous natural wealth in Guyana: timber, gold, diamonds, agriculture, bauxite. Who knows, but there might one day be oil or natural gas found there as well. My column extols the virtues of the place I saw (www.guardian.co.tt/Lisa-Allen-Agostini.html) and asks some questions about development.

In Jamaica, because the awardee I was working with is a child rights activist, I got to hear some terrifying stories about little kids with HIV, families torn apart by drugs and violence against children that would make you cry. (Column next week, please God.)

Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago offer opportunities to see extreme wealth and privilege. Not that those things don't exist in Jamaica and Guyana, don't get me wrong. It's just that when you leave the airport, what you see slaps you in the face.

What are we spending our money on? As a region, are we looking after the poorest of our neighbours? As nations, are we looking after the poorest of our own? Development isn't an abstract concept, or it shouldn't be. Sure we need more airplanes and roads and administrative complexes. But we also need sensible, people-friendly approaches to making our lives better, making sure our children are eating the right foods and in the right quantities, are getting suitable and useful education, are being loved. Development means nothing if the least of  us is left behind.