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?
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. ..
Third Distinguished Lecture, The Cropper Foundation; UWI, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago; September 1, 2010
Biodiversity, indigenous knowledge, and sustainable development are very closely linked. The indigenous knowledge systems of the peoples of the South constitute the world largest reservoir of knowledge of the diverse species of plant and animal life on earth. For many centuries, their indigenous agricultural systems have utilized practices and techniques which embody, what one scientist has called ‘Principles of Permanence’- ..
PAPDA’s critique of the Haitian Government’s Emergency Food Production programme is correct: the programme will worsen the very problems it is supposed to address. Concerned Caricom citizens, with assistance from Bolivia and ALBA, can support Haitian farmers and grassroots organisations to build food production capacity while empowering people at the base and protecting Haiti’s soil, forests and water resources.
This original Haitian Declaration of Independence is an extraordinarily inspiring document, which has come to light at a most opportune time - when the Haitian people are in most need of such inspiration. Facing the greatest ordeal in their post-independence history, the Haitian people are confronted with the urgent need to make important strategic choices concerning their country’s future…
The YouTube video on Indonesia sent out by Wendy Lee is further confirmation of the extent of the contribution of human action to global warming. The atmospheric pollution, so graphically shown in the video, is an indication of the future to which we might be condemned if we continue to dither on taking effective action to promote alternative development policies which could mitigate or halt environmental degradation…
Related documents
The great discretion on the subject (as evidenced by the absence of any publicity or public discussion of the issue) is, perhaps, yet another manifestation of the general indifference, on the part of Caricom citizens, of such a crucially important social problem, something I find most puzzling. Just as important is the misplaced focus by Caricom leaders on criminal deportees instead of the conditions in Caricom societies which generate crime. Transplants, whether physical, social, or cultural, can survive and thrive only if favourable conditions in the recipient society/country exist for them to do so. That principle applies to transplanted criminals.
Only when Caricom leaders cease treating the symptoms of the many serious problems which our societies face and begin tackling, instead, the roots of those problems would the need for alternative development policies become clear and unavoidable. But politicians, as distinct from statesmen (which our region sorely lacks), tend to pursue their narrow political interests. As long as Caricom citizens and civil society groups continue to either remain silent on important socio-economic issues (through passivity, resignation, or apathy) or merely content themselves with pro forma protests rather than stimulating a public debate on such issues with a view to proposing feasible alternative policies, business will continue as usual and nothing will change. In the course of my research on conditions propitious to, and the causes of, social and political change, I examined a number of revolutions and social explosions. A recurrent factor in all of them was the blindness of the “bourgeosie” to the grave danger of continuring to ignore or dismiss explosive conditions in their society.
James Baldwin
In 1963, James Baldwin published “The Fire Next Time” which he hoped would help prevent the racial conflagration he saw coming. Whether Baldwin’s book helped to open the eyes of the white power structure to the explosive situation in American society is not subject to proof but it most certainly galvanized the civil rights movement. The passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been attributed, in part, to the enormous impact his book made. Baldwin warned in his book that should his effort fail the words of a slave song might come true: “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, / No more water, the fire next time!” Who will be Caricom’s Baldwin? Who will come forth to warn Caricom society of the Fire Next Time?
Mervyn
CaribWorldNews, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. July 17, 2009: Over 50,000 convicted Caribbean-born criminals, who have called the U.S. home for many years, have been shipped back to the Caribbean in the past decade under tough U.S. immigration laws, a CaribWorldNews analysis of new Department of Homeland Security data reveals. The number of criminal deportees sent back to the Caribbean between the decade of 1999 and 2008 totaled 50,589, DHS statistics released this month and analyzed by CWNN reveal. Last year, the number was at 4,343, a slight increase from 2007, when the total was 4,315. However, it was an improvement from 2005, when the total rose to 5,149, the highest for the decade.
I decided to wait until all the comments on my paper Port of Spain Declaration: A Critical Analysis were posted before making a global response. Four comments were received - those by Norman and Yash in this exchange and two others - by Wendy Lee and Margaret Gill - (Wendy’s contribution is posted on the website, Margaret’s is not) in two separate, parallel e-mail exchanges. Notwithstanding the several important points made by Norman and Yash (which I discuss below), it is my opinion that only Wendy’s and Margaret’s contribution grasped the essential issue involved - sustainable development.
Wendy posed the crucially important question “How can we get decision-makers to absorb and act on the information that is so readily available about sustainable development IMPERATIVES, including critical ecological requirements, instead of pursuing the same old false, unjust and unsustainable models?” Margaret identified another key aspect (one that I explored in the paper) - how do we inform and educate the Caricom public on that essential issue.
Although Daly’s basic tenet in From a Failed Growth Economy to a Steady State Economy has considerable merit, Steady-state economy theory is a Northern-centered theory that is written from an exclusively Northern viewpoint. It reflects Northern interests and Northern fears. It does not take into consideration the situation of the South. Given their present circumstances, virtually all countries in the South would require many years of positive growth to be able to significantly alleviate (not to speak of eradicating) poverty, and for their populations to be able to attain a decent living level…
