ABSTRACT
This chapter implies that if the Caribbean is to successfully meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, various policy changes are needed at the regional and national levels. The articulation and broad acceptance of a common Caribbean identity is not an exogenous factor, but rather a central element in the process of future regional development. As the Caribbean region struggles to adapt to the changes and challenges of the new global environment, policy-makers and bureaucrats are being forced out of their traditional inertia toward a dynamic reassessment of development strategies. It also presents an opportunity for academics, traditionally excluded from the inner circles of policy influence, to formulate ideas that can be useful to policy-makers in this more pragmatic and less ideological era. It is primarily at the official levels that the recognition of the centrality of culture still lacks cogency. And in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, cultural policy and integration is hindered in varying degree by ethnic tension.
