COVID-19 is impacting the entire world, but each region is experiencing this crisis in a different way. In the Caribbean, where many country’s depend on tourism to sustain their economy, COVID-19 is exacting a particularly heavy toll. Millions of people are out of work, and governments that were already deeply in debt are now in even deeper economic and budgetary distress.
My guest today Geneive Brown Metzger is the former Consul General of Jamaica in New York. She is President of the Caribbean American Maritime Association and host of the new Caribbean affairs podcast Diplomatically Speaking.
In our conversation she explains how COVID-19 is impacting the Caribbean, this includes not only the domestic affairs of the various countries in the region, but also foreign policy. In particular, Geneive Brown Metzger explains how China is using this moment to advance its interests in the Caribbean — at a time when the United States under the Trump administration has been generally neglectful of the region. This region has quietly become yet another venue for China’s global development and infrastructure building projects, under what is known as the Belt and Road Initiative
If you have twenty minutes and want a good explanation of how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the people and governments of the Caribbean, have a listen