Download The impact of extra-regional societies on Caribbean Culture and

The impact of extra-regional
societies on Caribbean Culture and
Society, with respect to Consumption
Patterns.
“The Caribbean
subbin nice”
“The American subbin
nice-ah”
The term society is considered to be a
collection of people living in the same
geographical area, while culture is the
aspects of lifestyle that may be peculiar
to a particular society. Extra-regional
societies, countries outside the
Caribbean region, impact the
Caribbean’s consumption patterns in
various ways.
Source of IMPACT
Globalization is the tendency of
businesses to transcend to other markets
around the globe, thereby increasing the
interconnectedness of different markets.
Modes of transportation are modernizing and
the ways of communication are developing.
This increases a country’s ability to globalize.
In effect, this means that the Caribbean
market is becoming strikingly similar to the
markets of extra-regional nations.
International Preferential Trading
Agreements
 The main agreement between the African Caribbean Pacific islands (ACP)
and the European Union (EU) which is the Sugar protocol.
 ACP -African Caribbean Pacific consists of 79 members and began in 1975.
 The EU consist of 27 members and was founded in 1995.
 The Sugar protocol is basically a logical binding which controls the price
and the trading of goods between both markets.
 The Economy Partnership Agreement (EPA) is an agreement made with
the Caribbean in order to stimulate growth and eradicate poverty in the
Caribbean.
 With these agreements the EU basically provides a cushion market price
so that countries in the Caribbean countries could trade with European
countries and have certain tax exemption. This in itself makes it easy for
the European influence to infiltrate the Caribbean in aspect such as goods
and services.
GOODS AND SERVICES
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In history, persons in the Caribbean made a significant effort to produce their own
goods. As time progressed along with the migration of persons from America,
Europe, or more developed countries, the mixing of the different cultures have
changed our thoughts of the goods we produce compared to the goods made
abroad.
The Caribbean people are of the opinion that their region is too underdeveloped
for producing goods that can compete in quality to extra-regional societies.
The Caribbean’s total imports is likely to be more than it’s exports – A dangerous
side of the status quo.
The Caribbean people now gravitate to foreign diapers ( Huggies, etc) instead of
purchasing regional diapers. And that is only one product!
Globalization has instigated the introduction of some foreign services such as
social security, life insurance, and the credit card culture into the Caribbean
society.
V.S
Sources of Entertainment
• Forms of entertainment would include music, karaoke, and
some other sporting activities.
• The traditional music genres of Calypso and Soca are not
listened to by Caribbean people, especially the younger
generation, on a regular basis. Thus this culture is being
replaced by other music genres foreign to us such as Hip-Hip,
R&B, Rock and Pop just to name a few. This influences
Caribbean culture negatively since adapting someone else’s
style of music can lead to cultural erasure.
• The genre of Jazz has impacted our culture significantly and
This can be seen by certain Caribbean music festivals, mainly
St. Lucia Jazz Festival.
• The regionally held Digicel Rising Star was influenced by the
popular TV show, American Idol, which is held in the United
States.
V.
S
What do Caribbean people eat?
Local vs. Imported.
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Year
2005
2006
2007
Food and livestock from the USA:
US $ 770, 541
US $ 734, 813
US $ 897 417
Food and Livestock from other
CARICOM countries:
US $ 270, 376
US $ 268, 060
US $ 296, 018
As shown in the table above, Caribbean countries generally spend three times as
much money importing food from the United States as they do importing food
among themselves. This says a lot about our dependence as a developing region. It
shows that extra-regional countries impact Caribbean Society by making Caribbean
people feel dependent on outside region. The Caribbean culture now accepts
sardine and salt fish as everyday conventional breakfast meals, and they are
somewhat boycotting the idea of fungi, chana, ackee, fly-fish, and other Caribbean
dishes.
The information in the table shows the critical dependence that the Caribbean
people have on these extra-regional and this is NOTWITHSTANDING our cuisine
adaptations. What good is this doing for our economy? In the present Caribbean
culture, pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, ice –cream, lasagna are prepared food
products that are rapidly consumed and accepted by Caribbean Culture and society.
Leisure Activities
Caribbean society and culture possess characteristics, passed on
from our ancestral heritage, thus traditional leisure activities would
include games such as Worri.
Globalization has consequentially caused traditional games to be
replaced by other games such as checkers and chest which are of
European origin.
Tourism in the Caribbean accounts for a very high percentage of
revenue for many territories. In Countries such as Antigua &
Barbuda, Barbados and Bahamas just to name a few, vacation
activities have changed significantly thus becoming more
modernized to compete on an international scale.
The introduction of international sports such as golf and base ball,
although still evolving, have not yet really dominated over the
traditional sports such as Cricket and Football.
The presence of opportunities to play Baseball in the United
States has created an incentive for the young minds to aspire for.
V.Sc