Caribbean with Simon Reeve Documentary Part 2

    In this part of the documentary, Simon visited some different parts of the Caribbean including St. Vincent and Venezuela and got a look at some of the markets and businesses that drive these regions and how the countries handle these businesses. Starting in St. Vincent, a less thought about island, the documentary looked at large, hidden marijuana fields and farms where people grow and sell the drug that is still illegal in the country, though it has been decriminalized and legalized in many countries and states. Simon made the interesting point that if they were to approach a marijuana field in somewhere like Central America, they would likely be met by men with assault rifles, but here that was not the case because, "this is not marijuana being grown by organized crime." These people were just trying to use their resources to make enough money to provide for their families. It was interesting to me that these people were not profiting more than they were given the business they are in. The farmers were in raggedy clothes, but said that this was "more than just the money." While these lands have the resources, it is worth questioning whether or not they are getting the most out of them or operating in the most efficient ways.
    This same question could be asked in Venezuela, where the documentary also visited. Here, they had a great amount of gas, selling at an unbelievably cheap price, filling a tank for the equivalent of one U.S. dollar. A decades old government subsidiary allows this, but the country could be benefitting much greater from this. Instead, the documentary said 30 million pounds of gasoline are smuggled every week into neighboring countries. This is not money that the businesses or government is seeing, so certainly the situation could be managed. Instead, many of the people are impoverished, like in the abandoned skyscraper that the documentary shows where hundreds of families have squatted in an unfinished building. Again, a lack of good infrastructure, almost symbolic of the country, doing everything it can to keep itself together. It is unfortunate because these places could almost certainly be prospering or at least be in better shape that they are. Like Simon says in the documentary, these places have "so much natural wealth, but are being so poorly run." If the people could take back more power, would they be able to operate more efficiently for the country or is it too far gone? With such rich natural resources and land, I have hope for the Caribbean to be much more than just Americans' vacation destination.
-cs

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