The Present Situation
The 1990’s have not been, precisely, a great decade for these islands’ economy. Traditional exportation of agricultural products is threatened by the stiff competition of other countries. Likewise, industrialization intents as alternative to agriculture have faced also serious problems.
The sugar industry (limited now to Barbados, Trinidad and St. Cristobal) survived only thanks to the support of the European Union, which bought sugar from the old colonies at high prices. But this support faded away when the EU started their Common Agrarian Politic reforms.

Another huge blow to the island’s farmers is the banana industry crisis. From the 1950’s, small farmers from St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and Grenada, had a settled market, thanks to the special treatment they received from the United Kingdom and the EU. The US and some South American countries, complained to the World Commerce Organization, of being discriminated by the EU, and at the end of the 1990’s, that organism declared that that kind of support from the EU was illegal. The local farmers now fear that, without that help, they won’t be able to compete with great banana producers like Ecuador or Costa Rica. What will happen then, to the more then 50,000 small farmers dedicated to this product, once ships stop loading in the island’s ports?

The creation of the NAFTA treaty between the US, Canada and Mexico has added more clouds to the horizon. The Caribbean islands producing clothes and electric components for the American market, compete now directly with Mexico, whose products are more at hand. As a consequence, many factories have closed. American factories now look for clients in Tijuana or other border cities. Tourism is now the last stronghold of the island’s economy.

Pride and Prejudices
At the beginning of the XX century, the economic power of the white population declined, but being white was still synonymous of ideal image. Different from the US, where society was divided in whites and blacks, in the Antilles there was a qualification system embracing all possible kinds of skin colors, and the social standard depended on this. This made many people to deny vehemently their true color of skin, something properly resumed in a popular Martinique sentence: peau noire, masque blanc (black skin, white mask). The whites preserved their identity marrying only among themselves.

Now prejudices are related to xenophobia; so natives from the US Virgin Islands treat with disdain immigrants from the Leeward Islands. Those from Trinidad consider immigrants from Grenada “little islanders”, while the Indians of Hindu roots and the Creole blacks treat each other with disdain. At the French and Dutch islands, natives don’t have important jobs, which are always in the hands of white immigrants from Europe. However, people on the islands, have managed to live in harmony.

Bicycles and Cadillac
“The Little Antilles have now a bicycle economy expecting to become a Cadillac”
W. H. Bramble, PRIME MINISTER OF MONTSERRAT (1961 – 1970).

Green Gold
Cultivating bananas is very profitable for little Caribbean farmers. Bananas take only 6 months to grow, even in the craggiest hillsides, and they have fruits all year. Even a hurricane is not a big problem, because banana’s trees can be replanted and they will have fruits in a very short time, this is why banana is known as “green gold” amongst farmers. Although, the big banana producers from South America are now threatening the banana’s industry, so now some of these farmers are cultivating marihuana.

No Sugar
Because of the massive use of saccharine in Europe and the US, now the Caribbean sugar reign is coming to an end.