This is an academic text, but people are really dying in Blood, Bullets and Bodies: Sexual Politics Below Jamaica’s Poverty Line. Therefore I silently marvel at the courage and heart of the sister in doing the work. I marvel more at the heart and courage of the persons who live, struggle, die but also overcome in the very hard circumstances they do not choose…
I take as my starting point the notion that the women’s movement in the Caribbean has been said to have been destabilised. This argument also proposes that the movement has been thereby weakened, but whether this has been the only result is a matter for debate. I suggest that also up for debate is the question of destabilisation itself….
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The international community is coming to grips with the “colonial coup d’ état” perpetuated by the United Kingdom in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), one of six British-administered colonies in the Atlantic/ Caribbean. The United Kingdom Order in Council, issued in March and brought into force in August, suspends parts of the constitution of the territory for two years. But what is being termed a ‘partial suspension’ actually abolishes the Cabinet and House of Assembly, as well as trial by jury, and transfers a range of other areas of authority to the UK Government through its un-elected governor who now has unbridled power to govern at will. There is hardly anything left of substance that has not been “suspended.”
It is not for me to say whether religion (that is to say, the acts committed in the name of religion, since an abstract ideology or belief system cannot in itself produce any concrete effects) has caused more harm than good. I leave such judgements to others who are better informed, or wiser, than I am. It does appears to me, however, that the harm done in the name of religion over the centuries has greatly obscured the good done in its name. I am open to correction if my impression is wrong in that respect. It is true, human nature being what it is, that the good that is done in the world often goes unsung - forgotten, minimized or dismissed as uninteresting - while the bad that is done keeps our attention riveted…
I thought I would say something this evening about the state of our Republic as we prepare to enter the 48th year of our political independence. It is no secret that our population, whatever the socio-economic or other status of its members, is on the whole unhappy, or at the very least uncomfortable, with the condition of Trinidad and Tobago. We have specific concerns about crime, or race, or the cost of living, or the health service, or the carnage on the roads, and so on. But driving all these concerns is one major factor among others: the tarnished quality of governance….
The traditional global configurations are changing and new sources of power are emerging. The role of Latin America has also changed. Latin American integration schemes have enabled it to become a platform for change and a new source of power in the Western hemisphere. Amidst the many Latin American integration initiatives is ALBA which forces the Caribbean region to reevaluate their conventional trading partners and relationships. ALBA has the potential to become one of the more potent forces in the region, with the terms and conditions associated with membership bringing to the fore many social and economic benefits and previously unheard of trading conditions which take into consideration the unique positions of developing nations. On the other hand there are risks of economic and political dependency on new donors; and concerns regarding transparency and accountability. Concerns have also surfaced regarding the potential of ALBA membership to undermine CARICOM’s integration and to foment tensions in CARICOM-US relations.
I read with great interest the information provided by Joyce van Genderen-Naar on the announced EU-FAO-Jamaica food production initiative that is annexed below. The initiative will, supposedly, reduce poverty and enhance the country’s food security by assisting small farmers to increase their productivity….I looked in vain for any indication/evidence that the proposed small farmer production model and the urban food production model would be inspired by successful regional pactices in those very areas, rather than by EU and Northern agricultural techniques and practices which would, perforce, be unsuitable for a number of reasons that are too numerous to detail here. The absence of such evidence augurs ill for the success and the sustainability of the EU-Jamaica initiative…
It comes as no surprise to the Peoples Empowerment Party (PEP) that last ditch mediation talks between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) have totally broken down, and that the eminent mediator, Sir Shridath Ramphal, has warned that there is now an uncertain, dangerous and worrying future for cricket in the Caribbean!…
