Caribbean Insights

*88 pages. Available as .epub 

My books Virgin Island Sketches and Caribbean Sketches capture the essence of life as it was lived in the islands during the closing years of the 20th century. This collection of essays continues on the same theme. The earliest date from the 1970’s and they continue up to the present. The topics range from education to architecture; from culture to self-sufficiency.


In essence the Common Entrance Examination is an Intelligence Test and as such it has the major failing of all intelligence tests: it cannot measure creativity. Neither can it measure the co-ordination between hand and eye, an essential attribute for all skilled work. A creative answer is marked as nought. Hence, a dyslexic child hasn’t a cat in hell chance, and over 15% of Afro-Caribbean children are dyslexic. To that you can add at least 40% of pupils who are creatively rather than academically inclined…

It would help if parents had a different mind-set towards education. Too often it is the parent’s aspiration that instils a preference for academic rather than creative subjects. Dominica does not necessarily need more lawyers, but we do desperately need more people who are creatively skilled…

Self-sufficiency for small island states relates to lifestyle expectations. Three generations ago hard work was the order of the day and the islanders lived within their means. Since then, there has been a hankering for a westernized lifestyle and a reliance of wealth generated by foreign economies…

There can be few images saintlier than that of a West Indian father and child…but first, we must understand and come to terms with a terrible fact: At least 95 percent of all West Indian children are unwanted at the time they are conceived.