About 15 organizations representing a broad cross-section of Jamaican society, including NGOs, the government and the private sector participate din a forum marking the first anniversary of the 51% Coalition: Women in Partnership for Development and Empowerment through Equity. This coalition’s primary thrust is to increase women’s participation in decision-making at the highest levels …
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.
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. ..
Well, we reach. Early in the evening of May 24, 2010, Hazel Brown’s everlasting ‘Put a Woman’ campaign bore its first full fruit. Trinidad and Tobago declared Kamla Persad-Bissessar its first woman Prime Minister. And despite the expected questions, concerns about coalitions and acknowledged challenges about managing a testosterone-laden side, feminists, gender advocates and activists can’t help but sing victory songs…
One World Action and the Commonwealth Secretariat recently published the report: Gender Justice in Trade Policy: The gender effects of Economic Partnership Agreements [1]. Based on the goods tariff liberalisation schedules agreed in Jamaica, Tanzania and Mozambique, this research provides the first detailed economy-wide analysis of the likely gender effects of EPAs…
Last Monday, on International Woman’s Day, President Sarkozy announced a carefully-timed decision which, apparently, he hoped would resonate with women voters of immigrant descent who will be voting in tomorrow’s elections for France’s 22 Regional Asemblies …
Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin and- Anne Marie Coriolan; Haitian feminist leaders killed in the earthquake
“A loss for the whole nation.” That is how one of Magalie Marcelin’s friends described the death of this women’s rights leader in Haiti’s earthquake January 12…
Whether feminist scholarship seeks to recuperate Jesus as Meryl James Sebro does in Genderstanding Jesus or not, many millions of women worldwide come to him as a source of strength and liberation, a bulwark for our identity and a ladder to transcendent life. It is a reality we seek out against all odds. As it is, naming oneself a Christian woman is not without challenge, both from the outside as well as internally…
I take as my starting point the notion that the women’s movement in the Caribbean has been said to have been destabilised. This argument also proposes that the movement has been thereby weakened, but whether this has been the only result is a matter for debate. I, suggest that also up for debate is the question of destabilisation itself….
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The Caribbean lost a stalwart educator and pioneer in the regional gender movement with the passing of Kathleen Bibiana Drayton last Monday (July 6), at age 78. She joined the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill as a lecturer in the Faculty of Education in1973 and had an unbroken association with the institution until her retirement as senior lecturer in 1991.
Principal of Cave Hill campus Professor Sir Hilary Beckles described the late academic’s journey as “long and complex … with many eruptions of excellence” adding that she was one of the many matriarchs who helped to nurture the fledgling campus.He noted that for younger members of the academic community she epitomised “university service” in her efforts to advance Caribbean development and growth with justice and equality.
“She was an academic worker who stood by the worker in an environment that was not always worker supportive. In this regard, we had good cause to be impressed with her public energy which was used to engage all who were willing to participate; this she did with vigour and fairness,” noted Sir Hilary.
On Friday last, the Chapel on the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) opened its doors to celebrate the life of Dr. Lucille Mathurin-Mair, who died at the age of 85 on January 28th., After searching online, I had to conclude that with the – obvious – exception of Jamaica, there was little or no column space in other Caribbean newspapers dedicated to this story, a silence that underlines both the necessity as well as the regrettable failure of national media today in promoting a genuine regional consciousness….More
