This was first written back in 1957, it is really interesting to see how things change over time and what would it be like if the Caribbean was the United West Indies.
At 5:20 p.m. one day last week, a delegate burst from a closed hall in Jamaica's University College of the West Indies, where the British West Indies federation conference was meeting, and cried: "Trinidad wins!" With the choice of a capital, a new nation was born, the Western Hemisphere's first since the creation of Panama 53 years ago.
The former British colonies—11 main islands with 8,000 sq. mi. of land and 3,000,000 people sprawled across 1,500 miles of the Caribbean Sea—had in earlier weeks picked a name for the nation: The West Indies. Now, with the touchy trading over the capital accomplished, only the formalities remain: the Queen's appointment of the Governor General this summer; the election of the first legislature early in 1958, capped by the selection of the first Prime Minister.
Even the choice of the capital by an 11-5 vote represented a declaration of independence. A royal commission from London had plumped for Barbados, but prosperous Trinidad had the most to offer its smaller, poorer neighbors, and copped the prize. Port-of-Spain's No. 1 Calypso Singer King Sparrow chanted: READ MORE
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