A Caribbean Journal opinion article at the weekend compared the “idleness” of CARICOM with the nimble and more effective Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).Author David Rowe, an attorney in Jamaica and Florida and an adjunct law professor at the University of Miami School of Law allowed that CARICOM has had “ ... some success — from helping to resolve problems (from) regional cricket to momentary triumphs like the single CARICOM Visa during the 2007 Cricket World Cup.“Indeed, CARICOM can have a major impact in the region if its uses the scope and depth of its power wisely. Too often, however, it tends toward idleness.”He said that is in stark contrast to the smaller OECS: “ ... which has quietly been dynamically moving forward regional integration, albeit on a smaller scale — with a strong court, a strong currency and ease of movement.”He quoted St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves who told Caribbean Journal earlier this year. “We’re moving faster than everybody else.”“The hope is that the rapid pace of OECS progress will help move CARICOM on a similar path. But very little is written about this fact.”He said CARICOM’s marketing needs to improve, calling it “ ... CARICOM’s media problem. Too few Caribbean citizens know what it is, how it operates and what it does on a daily basis.“Why, for example, does the CARICOM Secretariat not have its own Twitter account, with so many Caribbean people using the internet and social media every day on their phones? (Or, for that matter, why does CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque not have one?)“CARICOM must do a better job of interacting, of publicising itself and reaching out — both to media companies and the people of the region. It needs a new approach.“The integration movement, now in its sixth decade, still has a world of promise — but it needs to start turning that promise into results.”