The other side of paradise: Foreign control in the Caribbean (The Grove Press Latin America series)

From the earliest colonial slave trade and sugar-molasses-rum triangle, through US Marines occupations, CIA coups, AID, and the IMF, up to the recent Caribbean Basin Initiative and the US invasion of Grenada, this book details a close alliance between foreign investment and politics. Providing a comprehensive overview of international corporate investment in the Caribbean, the authors document its profound impact on the politics and economics of the region. They have assembled a wide variety of information on the top corporations at work —Castle & Cooke, R. J. Reynolds, Tate & Lyie, Grace Kennedy, Geest Industries, GuIf Western, and scores of others—to show how these corporations and their affiliates have penetrated virtually every sector of the Caribbean economy. In separate chapters on agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, banking, and trade, the authors demonstrate how most of this rich region of abundant resources and exquisite natural beauty has come to experience high unemployment, scarcity of food and basic necessities, low living standards, and ecological endangerment. In addition, chapters are devoted to profiles of each of the Caribbean islands plus Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana. “The Other Side of Paradise is a useful reference for all students of the Caribbean. While passionate in its approach, this book also provides a veritable gold mine of facts and sources on the area, as well as finely drawn political and economic sketches of the islands.” — Saul Landau, Senior Fellow, The Institute for Policy Studies, and co-author, Assassination on Embassy Row "Well-organized, readable, and highly informative— an indispensable handbook." — Joseph Collins, Institute for Food and Development Policy Tom Barry, Beth Wood, and Deb Preusch are the authors of Dollars and Dictators: A Guide to Central America, and the founders and directors of The Resource Center in Aibuquerque, New Mexico, an independent research organization that produces educational materials on important issues of our time. Contents Acknowledgments ix Map xii Glossary xiti PARTI Introduction 1 Transnational Corporations: The Strangers in Paradise 13 Agriculture: The New Plantation 27 Island Factories: Industry and Commerce in the Caribbean 55 Tourism: The Sun-Lust Industry 75 Oil and Mining: Control of Natural Resources 88 Caribbean Finance: Laundering Money in the Sun 117 Debt for Development 134 The Multilateral Lenders: Structuring Caribbean Development 145 Million-Dollar Diplomacy: U.S . Government in the Caribbean 156 Caribbean Alert: The Militarization of the Region 196 PARXn Great Britain and the Caribbean 210 Canada and the Caribbean 220 France and the Caribbean 226 Netherlands Antilles 232 Puerto Rico 238 U.S. Virgin Islands 253 Antigua-Barbuda 257 The Bahamas 259 Barbados 264 Cuba 268 Dominica 284 Dominican Republic 289 Grenada 305 Guyana 322 Haiti 330 Jamaica 341 St. Kitts-Nevis 352 St. Lucia 355 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 358 Suriname 360 Trinidad & Tobago 364 Reference Notes 373 Index 397 A collection of poems from a variety of sources describing and expressing a range of angry thoughts from pique to rage By Tom Barry, Beth Wood, And Deb Preusch. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 373-396.