‘The best tribute we can pay to this great woman of Africa is to continue to organise so that we can gain higher levels of spiritual awareness and build the shared values for peace and social justice across the planet,’..

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Cuba is about to begin drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. If it finds what it is looking for, oil wealth could snatch Cuba out of the century-old grasp of the United States before Obama leaves the White House….Cuba is part of Petrocaribe, a region-wide program of exploration, refining, and distribution backed by Venezuelan oil. PDVSA ships 200,000 barrels per day to Petrocaribe member states under a liberal payment plan with up to twenty-five years to pay….Whether or not Cuba becomes an oil exporter, it plays a geographically and operationally central role as Petrocaribe’s refining, storage, and shipping center…

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Statement By Prof. Verene A. Shepherd, Member of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, at the High-Level Meeting to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, held at the United Nations, New York, 22nd September 2011. Prof. Shepherd declared that ”slavery and the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans were crimes against humanity…(we) call on states that sanctioned this crime against humanity to take immediate steps, first to apologize unreservedly and not resort to linguistic obfuscation that mimics apologies; and secondly to negotiate with the representatives of victims, a respectful reparation package, based on their contribution to European development”

Read statement.

If anyone wants to watch the video of Verene’s address, please try the link below. Verene is the first speaker after the two co-chairs make their opening remarks. If you want to jump to Verene’s speech, click about half-an-inch down the video progress bar.

http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2011/09/round-table-2-high-level-meeting-on-the-durban-declaration-and-programme-of-action.html

You can consult any encyclopaedia. Ask which was the first free country in America. You will always receive the same answer: the United States. But the United States declared its independence when they were a nation with six hundred fifty thousand slaves who remained so for another century, and in its first Constitution they established that a black slave was equal to the three fifth parts of a person…

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I take a break from the tasks that are occupying all of my time these days to dedicate a few words to the unique opportunity presented by the political science of the sixtieth session of the United Nations General Assembly…

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Part 2

The Dark Side of American Exceptionalism Max J Castro

I am a 25 year old Jamaican, born and raised in Canada and currently in my final year of law school at McGill University in Montreal.  I would like to express my sincerest thanks to Dr. Alissa Trotz for having invited me to write this column. (I wish to) explain how my identity as a Diaspora Citizen has affected my reaction to a very intolerable incident I experienced on a Montreal university campus on September 14th, 2011…

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Opinion: Blackface incident shows racism is alive and well in Canada, Charmaine Nelson

Usain Bolt’s Publicist’s Letter to HEC Montreal

Also by Anthony Morgan

Why Haiti Should Not Become a U.N. Protectorate

The CARIFORUM-EC EPA Two Years Later (With Joyce Naar)

The State of Emergency in Trinidad and Tobago is uncovering a lot of this country’s unfinished business. What was in darkness is coming to light. The clampdown on hotspot communities has prompted debates on the state of African communities and young black males. Some make snide remarks that African people world-over are hotspots…

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State of Emergency: Dangerous Seductions and an Enveloping Power Vacuum Sunity Maharaj

The announcement made today by Prime Minister and leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Bruce Golding that he will shortly step down as Prime Minister and leader of the JLP, is welcomed by New Nation Coalition as the “right and proper thing to do”, and “a step in the right direction for Jamaica.”..

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For background go to Jamaican Politics

The revelations by witnesses at the Commission of Enquiry into CL Financial and the Hindu Credit Union are not only utterly disgusting, frightening and highly shameful, but more instructive to Trinbagonians, they expose the corporate gangs, gang leaders and members operating in an environment not dissimilar to those in the Trinbago criminal underworld…

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Part 2 Published 3 October 2011

Also highly recommended The Odd Couple: Che and Duprey by Dr Godfrey Vincent

Havana, Sep 21.- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that Cuba is the only Latin American country without child malnutrition, while 146 million children are suffering from that scourge worldwide…

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UNICEF Praises Cuba’s Promotion of Children’s Rights