Feb 28
This statement from the Cuban government about the unfinished struggle against racism, despite many advances against racism in the material and spiritual lives of Cuban Afro-Descendants by the policies of the Revolution, could be a critically important juncture at which Cuban citizens, especially those of Afro-Descent, and the Cuban government, can become central players in the Continental wide ideological and political discourses and policies of Afro-racial-cultural identity and related discrimination, participatory democracy and integration of the Caribbean and Latin America…
Feb 28
The CARICOM Intersessional Summit held in Grenada on February 25-26 ended with a decision to hold a Heads of Government retreat in Guyana to deliberate on the direction of the regional integration movement. Leaders say that they are aware of the ’scepticism and impatience’ of the public on the slow progress of integration; and that the present structure of governance is not ‘delivering what the Caribbean people demand’.
In the run-up to the retreat, Caribbean citizens need to continue to speak out to their leaders and to lobby vigorously on the urgency of re-dynamising the integration movement and to offer ideas on how to do it. Below is a selection of recent commentaries that addresses issues of Caribbean identity and its link with economic performance, the marginalisation of women, crime and violence, CARICOM’s implementation shortfalls and its participation deficit, and leadership.
Feb 27
Marc Ramsay is a 24-year old law student from Jamaica. From the Sunday Gleaner February 27, 2011.
At this moment in our history, the issue is not whether we integrate, but how. Thus, our history and the history taught to our children must answer the crucial question of how we came to be one new people..Unless we adopt a new regional identity, and engage in a passionate and concerted drive towards growth and development, our lack of identity will continue to hold us back…
Feb 26
Address by the President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce on February 24, 2011
What we have seen is a significant shift in the relation between people and power. Civil Society, united around common principles of accountability, transparency and integrity, reached across the several ideologies and sociologies which divides them and forged a common purpose and intent - to demand accountable government and set in place for posterity, standards of behaviour in public life…
Feb 26
Introduction to El Discurso Antillano, Havana: Casa de las Americas, 2010
Edouard Glissant opens his monumental 1981 book of essays Le discours antillais with the bold declaration “Martinique is not a Polynesian island”. In so doing he insists on the importance of Martinique’s specificity in the face of cultural extinction that Departmentalization threatened…
Feb 23
The expulsion of the Haitian National U-17 football team from Jamaica has led to anti-Jamaican demonstrations in Haiti, burning of the CARICOM flag, and a threatened rupture in diplomatic relations between the two countries. This detailed, sober account of the incident by the President of the Haitian Football Federation to Haitian President Rene Preval raises disturbing questions about the treatment of the Haitians by the Jamaican medical and other authorities and suggests that deeply rooted prejudices against Haitans may have played a part–questions that need to be answered. Dr Bart concludes by sayiing “the most difficult aspect of the experience was the repressiveness, the aggressiveness, I would even say the hostility of the medical team, which every day, harassed a delegation of minors, while the other delegations were treated differently. It is clear that there was predisposition, and psychological aggression was perpetrated against these Ambassadors of our country”.
English translation by Myrtha Désulmé, President of the Haiti-Jamaica Society, email myrtha1804@yahoo.com
Feb 21
A total of 77 people attended the first international academic conference on the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) held at London Metropolitan University on 29 January, which attracted academics from Puerto Rico, Istanbul, Canada, Cuba, Venezuela and the English-speaking Caribbean. Papers dealt with ALBA and regionalism in South America, research on ALBA in Venezuela, Cuba’s medical mission in Venezuela, ALBA ‘grandnational’ projects, ALBA and the English-speaking Caribbean, and the successes, setbacks and challenges of ALBA.
Click here for the Conference Programme, Abstracts and Presentations
Feb 20
Last Sunday, ‘mi head tek mi’ when I saw the poster for the conference on ‘Collective Responsibility for the 21st Century’, jointly hosted by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Commonwealth Secretariat. I simply couldn’t believe it. The advertisement featured 11 men. Not even one token woman! Nor a single young man…
See also “‘Mek West Indies Federate’: Celebrating the Arts of Regional Integration in the Poetry of Louise Bennett,” published in the proceedings of the UWI conference to mark the 30th anniversary of CARICOM: Caribbean Imperatives: Regional Governance and Integrated Development.
Feb 20
The celebrated Martinican poet, academic and writer Edouard Glissant, whose work illuminated the complexities of the colonial condition in the Caribbean and elsewhere, has died aged 82; an event that has passed relatively unnoticed in the English-speaking Caribbean. In his youth, Glissant had campaigned for Martinican independence within a Caribbean federation. The following Obituary was published in the Guardian (UK).
Edouard Glissant, who has died aged 82, was one of the most important writers of the French Caribbean….Glissant’s body of work, comprising eight novels, nine volumes of poetry, one play and 15 collections of essays, constitutes not only a profound reflection on colonialism, slavery and racism, but also a powerful vision of a world where cultural diversity flourishes…
Feb 19
An article in last week’s Economist, entitled “In the shadow of the gallows: Trinidad debates the death penalty” http://www.economist.com/node/18114940 underlines the widespread sentiment of people throughout the region that the death penalty should be reinstated. ..
