Social Footprints and the World Cup
In our region, history and economic circumstances have left a legacy of under-development, so aggressive vigilance is necessary if we are to protect and nurture what we have.
Caribbean lands are prime sites for multinational corporations to earn enormous profits without proportionate investment, pretty much as they did during the days of massive plantations. Thus, the onus falls on us, the people whose sweat has watered this soil, to ensure we demand that the principles of corporate social responsibility are fully observed by all who wish to do business with us.
What we interpret as corporate social responsibility may depend on where we sit in the scheme of things, but a working definition for my purposes can be that of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, which sees it as the "continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large".
We are to host the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 in a few short months. Staging this event has required massive investment throughout the region from governments and citizens alike, despite the contract being between the West Indies Cricket Board and the ICC.
The ICC imposed severe conditions and set out its needs plainly. We were to deliver or face financial penalties, or the relocation of the World Cup. It might be too late for a move now, but it is not too late to ask about the ICC's social responsibility to the West Indies where it stands to make millions.
The Caribbean is one of the world's premier tourist destinations. Escalating global warfare as mankind redefines concepts of civilisation to favour military might heightens the value of a relatively peaceable Caribbean. This is not the site of an economic handout from the ICC; it is a source of substantial revenue. As a corporate entity, whose mission is "the global expansion of the game through its associate and affiliate members and a major international development programme", it must be called to responsibility for ensuring that in staging the World Cup in our yards, it leaves something behind that will contribute not only to cricket's development, but also to economic and social growth.
While we have acceded to the ICC's requests for stadia, security, VIP, media and tourist accommodation and transport, have we asserted our rights stridently enough to ensure that this does not yield benefits solely to that body and its cohort of affiliates?
If anyone thinks that staging the World Cup in the Caribbean is a favour bestowed upon us so that we must be beholden to the ICC and relinquish all rights in the process, they must either be incredibly narrow-minded and without a social conscience, or just looking for an ICC job when the event is over.
It cannot be merely putting on a show for everyone to wine and party at matches; it has to bring something valuable and lasting to us. Small firms within the region must have access to business opportunities. Countless contracts for the provision of services and material are going to be awarded. Who is taking responsibility for ensuring that the majority of them will go to homegrown enterprises?
Already, several projects of immense cultural value have been cavalierly shunted aside by the CWC Board as needless distractions to producing a great show. It has been a source of distress to me, because I believe that Caribbean culture is our greatest asset and needs to be treasured and nurtured with all our might, and I am not talking here about the "culture below the waist" as described by one of our intellectuals.
Showtime speedily approaches, and even if we put on the greatest show on earth, when it is over, will the legacy be one of bankruptcy?
* This column is republished with permission from the NATION newspaper in Barbados where it first appeared.