Preface

• Author: Kenneth Hall and Myrtle Chuck-A-Sang
• Pages: 7-8

vii

Introduction

P R E F A C E

Participating in periodic retrospection - is not necessarily retrogressive

and therefore should not engender or cause undue apprehension. For often,

reflection is the starting point of change, the genesis of innovation and the

basis of new achievements. If, for any reason therefore, retrospection becomes

depressing it should not be forgotten that oft-times it can be simultaneously

transformational and exhilarating. The Papers offered in this issue of The

Integrationist summon us to the sober activity of contemplating our common

plantation beginnings in the Caribbean and lead us to the consideration of

our integrated future. Their related thematic strains are held together by the

central objective of our efforts and the requirements for building a Caribbean

Community for all. For it is true that we have had a similar experience in

the past, we may also experience mutuality of gains in the future.

Today the Fathers and Founders of Caribbean Integration would no doubt

be proud of our achievement, as we enter the stage of a Caribbean Single

Market and Economy. They may upbraid us for slowness and reproach us

for previous indecisiveness. They would find it difficult however, not to

commend us for staying true to the aspiration of an integrated Caribbean.

The world of the 1940s and the place the Caribbean then envisaged for itself

is returned to with an assessment as to how we have done. A dispassionate

evaluation would identify our omissions, note our frequent stallings and

veering off course. It will equally have to show however, that we have

always returned to the pathway.

There is also some welcome evidence of what has often been advanced

about our Caribbean Civilization. We have to our credit a degree of intellectual

maturity, of commitment to scholarship, and of the pursuit of knowledge.