The Caribbean Unity Dividend Pt 2

The Caribbean Unity Dividend

Part 2

ISSUE No 16

In Part 1, we asked whether Corporate Caribbean should help shoulder the burden carried for decades by our two greatest unifiers — Cricket West Indies and the University of the West Indies.
Chris Dehring’s call for the tourism sector to invest in cricket sparked an overdue conversation.
But when you look beyond our shores, you realise: the rest of the world has already found ways to make national pride financially sustainable.
So maybe the question isn’t whether it can be done — but what model best fits the Caribbean.

Everywhere you look, nations have learned to turn emotion into infrastructure. Pride, culture, and sport are still symbols — but they’re also funded systems.

United Kingdom – The National Lottery
Since 1994, a share of lottery proceeds has been reinvested in sport, heritage, and community projects. Team GB’s Olympic success and grassroots programs are the dividend of that model, private spending, public pride.

France – The “Taxe Buffet”
Named after the sports minister who introduced it, this levy on broadcasting and betting revenues ensures that every commercial dollar linked to sport cycles back into its federations and anti-doping agencies. The more people watch, the more the sport earns.

Brazil – The Sports Incentive Law
Corporations can redirect up to one percent of their owed taxes to approved sports or educational projects. Transparent, voluntary, and transformative, it marries business strategy with national development.

Australia – The Green & Gold Partnerships
Corporate sponsorships are formally integrated into the country’s sporting system. Companies can directly fund athletes and grassroots programs, earning recognition as “Green & Gold Partners.” Corporate pride becomes policy.

Singapore – “Team Singapore” Compact
A structured alliance between business and sport. Corporations fund national athlete programs in exchange for community branding, tying patriotism to partnership.

These aren’t acts of charity; they’re examples of codified connection.
They formalize what we already feel: that those who profit from a nation’s identity should also help preserve it.

The Caribbean already has that emotional foundation. Cricket gives us belonging; UWI gives us intellect but we lack the financial mechanism, the bridge that channels private profit into public purpose.

Imagine a Caribbean Unity Levy: a small percentage on regional advertising, betting, or air travel, pooled into a Caribbean Unity Fund jointly supporting CWI and UWI.
Or a Corporate Caribbean Compact, where the region’s largest companies pledge a fixed share of CSR budgets for unified recognition, a seal of “Proud Supporter of Caribbean Unity.”

The goal isn’t taxation it’s transformation.
If the UK can fund its pride through lottery tickets, and France can sustain its federations through media levies, why can’t fifteen nations bound by one flag and one team do the same?

Unity isn’t a slogan. It’s an investment.