May 30
Since the end of the ideologically-based politics of the 1970s to the mid-1980s, politics in the Caribbean has tended to be fought along lines largely revolving around the material comfort of voters, state handouts to citizens, and contracts for large and small public works. The politics of money has replaced the politics of ideas, freedom, democracy, sovereignty and national self-determination. In this context, men of ideas, skill, talent, honesty and true ability count for very little…
May 30
The newly-elected People’s Partnership Government of Trinidad and Tobago has promised to implement 32 immediate actions within its first 120 days
1. Every child going on to secondary school from the SEA will be provided with a laptop to begin their secondary school education.
2. We will begin addressing the issue of securing and expanding GATE.
3. We will rescind the property tax…
May 28
The widely publicised bloody clashes over the last few days between law enforcement agencies and armed gangs in Jamaica are as bad for the economic and social well-being of the people of Caribbean countries as they are for Jamaicans…
May 26
by Katherine Haas, Council on Hemipsheric Affairs
Essentially, U.S. policy has been a source of benign neglect, with the continuation of a drug policy that does not emphasize the demand factor, despite words to the contrary. Certainly, the White House has no intention of taking on any new, big ticket programs. There is no evidence that the Department of State possesses the means or the vision for a new policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean that will dare to think the unthinkable…
May 24
From Stabroek News, 24 May 2010
Jamaica has made international headlines, with Prime Minister Bruce Golding battling for his political life and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) demanding his resignation. The Government of Jamaica had challenged the legality of a US extradition order seeking the removal of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to stand trial on charges related to drug trafficking. After weeks of prevarication, PM Golding admitted in parliament that he had authorized that the services of a US lobbying firm be contracted to engage the US administration, presumably to get them to modify their position..
May 22
The spring of 2010 has witnessed a plethora of articles in mainstream US media on the human rights situation in Cuba, largely surrounding three issues-the hunger strike (and eventual death) of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, that of Guillermo Fariñas (still alive at the time of writing), and a series of demonstrations by opponents of the government (and family members of prisoners) known as the Ladies in White…
May 17
“A new earthquake” is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day…
May 17
Yarimar Bonilla teaches anthropology at the University of Virginia. From In The Diaspora, Stabroek News
The University of Puerto Rico (UPR), one of the largest universities in the Caribbean with close to 65,000 students across its 11campuses, has been paralyzed since April 21 due to a student strike. ..The broader context for the student strike action is the increasing move towards privatization of public services that has characterized the island’s government in recent years…
May 14
A New Earthquake Hits Haiti: Monsanto’s deadly gift of 475 tons of genetically-modified seeds to Haitian farmers; by Fr. Jean-Yves Urfie
History and Monsanto’s Honey Trap; Mervyn Claxton
Destroying Haiti’s poor in the name of earthquake relief; Ezili Dantò
