Destination Caribbean Islands

Pulsed by music, rocked by change, lapped by blue water, blown by hurricanes, the Caribbean is not a place everyone would call stagnant. It’s an energetic and exciting surplus of people and places spread over 7000 islands (less than 10% are populated). Forming a vast swath around the Caribbean Sea, the namesake islands oppose in ways big and small. The diverse cultures of the region reflect the countless influences that have washed over the islands through the centuries. Perhaps the greatest illustration of this ebb and flow can be found on St-Martin/Sint Maarten, which speaks French and is aligned with France on one partially, and speaks Dutch and is aligned with the Netherlands (and calls itself Sint Maarten) on the other half. Sharing one island, Hispaniola, the differences are severe – Haiti was previously the stronger of the two but now it is the poorest country in the hemisphere.

Across the border the Dominican Republic speaks Spanish and has a Hispanic culture that is much nearer to pre-revolution Cuba than it is to French-speaking Haiti. This tangle of colonial ties continues to untie. The Netherlands Antilles, the crucial hodgepodge of islands tossed into a basket by their colonial masters, finally came undone in 2008 as each island staked out a character apart from the others. The supreme political changes in the Caribbean have had nothing to do with old colonial powers, however. Ruling regimes are being sent packing across the islands, generally at the ballot box and usually quietly. Celebrity gossip even played a role in the Bahamas elections. The end result was the opposition party won the elections. To the south later that summer, the opposition won a landslide victory in elections on the British Virgin Islands.

in the meantime over on Barbados, the traditional ruling party that had been in power for 15 years was ushered out in a landslide victory by the center left opposition who ran under the theme of ‘change.’ Change.

Voters no longer decide the party that makes the biggest promises. In the meantime the long-term issues for the islands are many, and first among them is tourism. To places that have little extra to offer than beautiful waters, beautiful beaches and outgoing literate people this would seem to be ideal circumstances. A poll in 2007 across several islands showed that more than 80% of people liked having tourists on their island. Development is surging across the Caribbean, and new resorts and condos are appearing like mushrooms after the rain on previously undeveloped coasts from Aruba to St Kitts to the Turks and Caicos. The report on the state of islands worldwide by National Geographic Traveler in 2007 got awareness across the Caribbean, especially on the low-scoring Jamaica, and St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Even the top scorers took note: Bonaire publicized its tie for number 17 even as locals fretted over the line: ‘poised for over-development.’ (The top Caribbean scorers were Dominica and the Grenadines.)

Hurricanes are one thing that the entire islands wish would go elsewhere. Even somewhat minor tropical storms cause huge damage as was seen in the Dominican Republic in 2007. Questions and contradictions aside, the Caribbean is sure to persist as a place of strongly defined cultures unique to the planet. One need only attend Carnival on one of the islands to know that weakness is not in their future.