Because it determines how people perceive issues and react to events around them, information is a weapon, a source of power, and a control mechanism. Understanding this, imperialist powers slowly instil a slew of information and a series of western media and government propositions into the minds of developing-world citizens via various covert means, resulting in the formation of a highly negative worldview of the Caribbean and the Global South in general.
The first stage in achieving this heinous aim is to achieve total dominance over information sources, and the second is to develop a ‘manufactured reality’ that serves the purpose of keeping the receiver of the information in a false state of reality. This has been, unfortunately, a very thriving colonial and neo-colonial project in the Caribbean facilitated through the radio, newspapers, television, educational institutions, the church, mosque, and lately (but every effectively), through the social media
Talk about the recent hit job by Guardian on a smaller Caribbean nation St Kitts and Nevis. The UK-based news organisation left no stone unturned to portray the Caribbean nation as a ground for all the bad things in the world. But does that represent reality? Absolutely not.
According to the Guardian, St Kitts and Nevis is a popular destination for tax evaders and one of the world’s most hidden offshore havens. The paper discussed how the administration has taken no efforts to reverse the country’s long-standing decline. However, a quick Google search can provide you with a wealth of information on how the administration of St Kitts and Nevis has worked tirelessly to rid the country of corruption.
Very recently, Bank of Nevis International Ltd. (BONI) (www.BONILtd.com), a leading provider of holistic wealth management and portfolio management services for clients from around the world, has partnered with Singapore-based Tookitaki to become the first Caribbean bank to launch the tech firm’s award-winning Anti-Money Laundering Suite.
AMLS provides holistic risk coverage, sharper detection, and significantly fewer false alerts than legacy financial crime detection systems. By using AMLS, BONI is joining other leading banks and FinTechs from across the globe to build agile and scalable compliance programmes and achieve new levels of accuracy and speed.
The recent collaboration between the two exemplifies the enormous efforts made by the government of St Kitts and Nevis to maintain checks and balances and eliminate incidences of money laundering.
So, why do Western media outlets such as the Guardian promote a negative and inaccurate image of the Caribbean nation? There’s a wicked game going on here. A false image of Caribbean nations contributes to what Chomsky refers to as “manufactured consent” against these nations globally, making it easier to blame them in West-controlled organisations such as the Financial Action Task Force.
And the blacklisting of this small island developing governments by the Financial Action Task Force, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the EU Commission becomes the main factor behind the prevalent notion of di-risking in Caribbean nations.
As a result of their prejudiced reports, it is presumed by investors around the globe that developing nations participate in widespread corruption, do not enforce anti-money laundering laws, do not stop the financing of terrorists, and actively encourage tax evasion and other economic crimes. A growing number of institutions are de-risking in the area as a result of these misconceptions.
De-risking has serious negative consequences, including sluggish economic development and a significant drop in foreign direct investment. As a result, these studies assist Western governments in ensuring that Caribbean nations remain eternally underdeveloped and hence remain under the sway of Western nations.
This spectacle of a sustained deliberate systematic misinformation effort by Western media, Eurocentric institutions, and governments, combined with the solid approval and support of puppet leaders on the continent, has worked to continually misinform the world about Caribbean states. However, the truth cannot be kept buried for long. For every biassed media organisation like the Guardian defaming Caribbean nations, there are organisations like us praising the region’s growth. This is precisely why the region has grown in prominence in the contemporary geopolitical space.
