Volume No. 2 Issue No. 46 - Monday July 14, 2008
The rule of Law Vs the Law of the Jungle (part 3)
 Gerald La Touche JP
Gerald La Touche on the left being sworn in as a London magistrate.
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In the first two papers of this commentary celebrating Dominica�s 30th anniversary of independence, I reflected on the maturity and resilience with which we have thus far managed to stay the course; amidst tough economic, political, environmental and social challenges.
I recognised such stability across the wider Caribbean comparing this to other post-independence scenarios in Asia and Africa. As I now embark on delving into the Americas, I see before me the myriad of experiences and scenarios this region presents.
Because of the proximity, diversity and relevance of the Americas� experience to Dominica�s, I want to go a bit further than I have in parts 1 and 2, digging a bit deeper. The question that will occupy me for the remainder of these papers relates to the North Vs South divide.
Why has post-independence development been so different for the nations of North America Vs those nations in South America?
The complexities involved in attempting to answer this question require volumes of writing. That I shall attempt to answer this here may well be regarded as a travesty of justice, but please remember that I am only trying to generate thought, consciousness and debate.
This brief analysis will therefore require more than one paper and will be further developed and continued in future parts. When in part one I presented the Burmese case, it occupied my entire thought because of the current issues at the time.
But we could have easily applied that same question to Asia; the creation and independence of India and Pakistan on the same date. Sixty years later India is booming and emerging as a developing nation at the �Global table� while Pakistan is still struggling to establish the basics of democracy and sovereignty � not a North vs. South issue, or is it.
The African scenarios in part two also gives weight to this question � why have some countries emerged and others fallen behind. I plan to answer this question in the Americas � in the future parts to this paper.
By the time Dominica gained its independence from Britain on the 3rd of November 1978, �the march to freedom� was a long time started and most of the colonised world was either independent or on their way to independence.
There is a much broader issue to be addressed about what was going on in the world generally and more specifically what was going on in Europe at that time. We will briefly touch on this here but revisit in detail in another part.
I want to get you to think of the independence of the nation and the independence of self outside of the local politic box. Remembering at the same time the words from the meditation of John Donne, �No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.�
Thus, with the recurring imagery of the island and the mainland, John Donne affirms that no one man can exist on his own, cut off from all the rest of society; there are no human islands. Interestingly, in today�s world, the same can be said about the �independent nation�.
In our post-industrial, post-modern, current Globalised world environment � no nation is an �island�, entire of itself. No one nation can exist on its own, cut off from the rest of the world.
Every nation is a piece of the Earth, a part of the Globalised world! And so, with our independence, it seems the greatest art to be mastered by any independent nation today is the art of the management of inter-dependencies and inter-relations: international trade, international law, international cooperation, and international cultural exchange. Pity the nations today who do not understand the importance of this.
The Americas present some very interesting complexities, experiences and scenarios, most of which are so far removed from our Dominican independence experience, but yet they offer us a wealth of experiences and examples to learn from and to compare ourselves against.
And this is what we have to do within our development process; learn from the mistakes of others and take the good from others experiences.
So we will start in the Americas with the Declaration of Independence by the USA (then only 13 states) on July 4th 1776, after the long "American War of Independence" between 1775 and 1783.
Later we will examine the establishment of the world�s first black Republic, when after the most successful slave revolt and revolution, on January 1st 1804 Haiti declared itself independent from European colonisers. A free republic ruled by blacks, the first of its kind.
While in Latin America, Argentina would lead the way with independence from Spain July 9th 1810. At that time in Europe, during the Peninsular War (part of the Napoleonic Wars), Napoleon advanced into Spain and deposed the Spanish King Ferdinand VII (1784-1833).
When this news reached Buenos Aires in 1810 it triggered an insurrection. Spanish troops failed to suppress it. The Spanish viceroy was removed and replaced and the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata was formed on May 25, 1810. Argentina effectively won its independence from Spain.
On July 9, 1816, an Argentine congress met at Tucuman, declaring Argentine independence and adopting a constitution.
This is followed by several other Latin American countries winning their independence between 1811 and 1903. A very interesting scenario arises from Belize independence from Britain on September 21st 1981, which we shall return to in future papers, as Belize struggles with its neighbours to gain recognition for its independence; sovereignty, identity and territory, almost going to war with Guatemala and not having the support of the USA. Later to be saved only by a British intervention.
The Canadian anomaly makes for another very interesting study - Canada peacefully and gradually evolved as a nation, no war, no revolution and no real gaining of independence!
In 1867, six British North American colonies joined together in Confederation as a new country known as Canada. The international status of Canada evolved rapidly in the post-First World War period having fought alongside Britain.
In 1919, Canada was one of the signers of the Treaty of Versailles and was elected as an independent member of the League of Nations. In 1926, the Balfour resolution was adopted at the Imperial Conference. In it Great Britain recognized that the Dominions were "autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate to one another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations".
Today, Canada Day previously referred to as Dominion Day and Confederation Day is celebrated in Canada and commemorates the British North America Act of July 1, 1867, that gave Canadians Home Rule. There is no �Independence Day� in Canada.
And this is the complexity and variety of experiences in the Americas which we will be exploring in the future parts to this independence paper as we make an assessment of Dominica�s independence 30 years on, making comparisons with our neighbours. While at the same time attempting to answer the post-independence question - why have some countries emerged and others fallen behind.
Read part 1
Read part 2
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