Aug 31
Monograph of the Western Hemisphere Security Analysis Center, Florida International University, June 2011. Professor Griffith is a political scientist from the Caribbean and is Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs of York College, The City University of New York.
The re-emergence of Desie Bouterse as President of Suriname in 2010 reflects his political acumen in aggregating disparate political interests and in establishing a viable coalition government…. (but it) has generated anxiety in some places internationally. This study examines anxieties related to (a) relations with Guyana, where there is an existing territorial dispute and a recently resolved maritime dispute, (b) illegal drug trafficking operations, and (c) foreign policy engagement with Venezuela….
Aug 30
African governments requested Unesco to formulate and implement a regional project, for the entire continent, which would, effectively, put Africa’s past at the service of both its present and its future. Unesco organized three expert-cum-preparatory meetings to conceptualize the project (the Pedagogical Use of the General History of Africa), formulate it, and plan its implementation. Can the Caribbean learn from this?
Aug 30
This paper is based on a presentation delivered for the Beyond Juba Distinguished Lecture, 22 June 2011 of the Refugee Law Project, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/74882) and will form the introductory chapter of African Awakening: The Emerging Revolutions edited by Sokari Ekine and Firoze Manji. Pambazuka Press: Cape Town, Dakar, Nairobi, Oxford, 2011 (http://fahamubooks.org/book/?GCOI=90638100375050) (forthcoming). Firoze Manji is Editor of Pambazuka News.
We are living today in what is probably one of the most inspiring times in our recent history, reminiscent of the period of the rise of the anti-‐colonial revolutions that followed the Second World War….
Aug 29
Presentation At Training Workshop For Officials Of The Foreign Ministries Of CARICOM States Organised By The Institute Of International Relations, UWI, With Support From The Government of Australia, on August 22, 2011
The world of today is infinitely more complex and volatile than the world in which most CARICOM countries attained statehood. Accordingly, the challenges to diplomacy are infinitely more complex and fast changing. But have our thinking, institutions and diplomatic practice kept pace?
IMF says pace of expansion in the region begins to moderate CaricomNews Sept 24 2011
World Bank says region’s long-term growth requires more than current China links (sept 24 2011)
Aug 27
On the day of the Memorial Service for Dr Pat Bishop, cultural icon of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, we post in her honour the video recording of her production of the Hallelujah Chorus for the Palm Sunday Concert of 2000.
Rest in Peace with the Ancestors, Pat
Obituary Trinidad and Tobago News
Aug 26
An angry demonstration virus spreads to country after country in response to negligent and callous political leaders who have ignored the basic needs of their citizens. Instead, they have bowed or eagerly catered to demands of multinational corporations and banks, thus deepening the already profound world’s income gap. In 2011, billions face hunger, or even starvation. A smaller elite has accumulated even more wealth….
Aug 26
At its 29th session, the UNESCO Executive Board adopted Resolution 29 C/40, proclaiming 23 August, the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and of its Abolition, in tribute to the night of 22 to 23 August 1791, when the uprising of slaves took place in Saint Dominque leading later to the ultimate abolition of the transatlantic slave trade and the creation of the first Black independent State, the Republic of Haiti…
Aug 24
Libya’s rebels are a front patched together from groups of varying interests and ideologies, they were disorganized, undisciplined, and untrained for battle when they first attacked an army base and a police station. By themselves, they could have perhaps achieved negotiations and reforms, but they could not have overthrown the government….
Aug 24
A meeting of UNASUR cconomy ministers and central bank heads is consolidating South American economic unity in the face of the economic crisis in the US and EU.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 4, 2011 (IPS) - Default, insolvency, fiscal irresponsibility, debt crisis and similar terms form part of the vocabulary used to describe countries in the developing South in the 1980s and 1990s. A decade later, the world seems to have turned upside down…
Aug 22
When the US and NATO “liberate” Libya - who then liberates Libya from the US and NATO? The attacks on Libya are no more or less than criminal - and I do not use the word lightly, but literally mean it for good reason. UN Resolution 1973 does not anywhere in it permit:-
• Support of a faction within Libya to overthrow the government
• Arming of a faction within Libya to overthrow the government
• Bombing in support of a faction within Libya to overthrow the government
