SAINT VINCENT PRIME MINISTER GONSALVES SPEAKS THE OBVIOUS TRUTH ABOUT THE DECLINING FUTURE OF OPPORTUNISTIC CARIBBEAN CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT FUNDING, AND THE LOOMING CHINA GEOPOLITICAL THREAT TO THE REGION

The Usual Suspects; Corruption, Fraud and Money Laundering kill CBI

RALPH GONSALVES, the wise Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, electrified his Caribbean audience this week with some blunt talk about the future, meaning the lack of it, of CBI/CIP in the region. The PM, after detailing how visa-free entry into the UK and EU for East Caribbean CBI passports holders would soome become a thing of the past,went to remind his viewers how the income from passport sales fostered corruption on a massive scale, generated dependency upon the easy money, and prevented normal economic growth in a region with dysfunctional economies, expanding populations, and Climate Change all threaten a dark and uncertain future for those states addicted to CBI's Golden Goose.

He explained how years of unchecked corruption and bogus Due Diligence had caused the United States, facing financial crime national security threats from the thousands of Chinese criminals and intelligence agents holding SKN and SLC passports, is closing the door on access to America for legitimate West Indians, as accountability for the CBI issues hits home. Added to the imminent removal of the only real asset of CBI, European visa-free travel, all that soon disappearing passport revenue doesn't seem so attractive to the people who the program was theoretically designed to benefit. The growing threat pose by an expansionist China, seemingly obsessed with controlling the region through CBI consultancies and loans that will never be repaid, also gives him great concern for the future.

While all the Prime Ministers of the CBI states, at a regional conference this week in Antigua are putting on a brave face, the programs which they depended upon to cover their national budgets appear to have a very short lifespan, as investors will be choosing alternatives elsewhere in the marketplace. As the Bible so aptly states: As you Sow, so shall you Reap. Can you say Endangered Species?