Would appreciated it
Check out this report she sent me, its from 2012 so its about as current as you can get. Its lengthy but a lot of good info
http://www.oidhaco.org/uploaded/content/article/687969158.pdf Page 21
Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events
- Thread starter Poitier
- Start date
Check out this report she sent me, its from 2012 so its about as current as you can get. Its lengthy but a lot of good info
http://www.oidhaco.org/uploaded/content/article/687969158.pdf Page 21
GreatestLaker
#FirePelinka
Great thread.
Subs
dap and rep
Subs
dap and rep
GreatestLaker
#FirePelinka
http://haitiantimes.com/afrocrowd-owning-haitian-history-through-digital-empowerment-10342/
ARTS & CULTURE, EVENTS, NEWS
AfroCrowd: Owning Haitian History Through Digital Empowerment
February 19, 2015 • 2 Comments
By Fabiola Jean
AfroCrowd, a new initiative aimed at increasing black participation in crowdsourcing, kicked off Black History Month, with a weekend dedicated to Wikimedia crowdsourcing. The kickoff event, held at the Brooklyn Public Library, was sponsored by the Haiti Cultural Exchange, Haitian Creole Language Institute,Afrolatin@ Project, Port Academie, Garifuna Nation, Yoruba Cultural Institute andAfri Diaspora.
One of the main reasons behind this project was so there’d be more content about Haiti on Wikipedia, Alice Backer, founder of AfroCrowd said. Wikipedia has posts published in 285 languages and receives about 470 million monthly searchers. The Haitian Wikipedia has 50,000 articles in Haitian Creole, compared to the 4,500,000 articles in the English wikipedia.
AfroCrowd founder Alice Backer Photo Credit: Fabiola Jean
“You can’t talk about Haitian culture without incorporating the Haitian language,” Wynnie Lamour, founder of the Haitian Creole Language Institute, said. The elevation of the Haitian consciousness has to include structured and relevant information.
The two-day event is part of a new initiative called “Black Wiki History Month,” a national effort to encourage people from African American and Black communities to contribute posts to websites like Wikipedia, that are built on the public’s participation. The movement also seeks to increase communities’ knowledge on resources available to them.
“By expanding on the content provided by Haitians in general, we can be a resource to our people,” Backer said, “especially to the children in Haiti.”
So many of them have limited resources to education, she said. The content we generate can be an encyclopedia not just of Haitian culture and facts, but also include a variety of subjects from geology to mathematics, written in Haitian Creole.
“It’s not something we have to wait for others to do,” Backer said. “It requires no funding, just time.”
Special qualifications are not needed to write for Wikipedia, president of Wikimedia’s New York City chapter Richard Knippel, said. He attended the event, where he made presentations on Wikipedia and crowdsourcing.
It’s a broad community, he said, and we’re trying to make it broader.
So many people tell our stories in a “monolithic way” when we are so rich in culture, Carmen Dixon, a community organizer, part of the “Black Lives Matter” NYC collective, said. We need to get our stories right by telling them ourselves.
AfroCrowd came to be after Backer met Milos Rancic, president of Wikipedia Serbia, at a technology conference. Rancic approached her about attracting more blacks to the “free knowledge movement.”
“Imagine the possibilities,” Backer said in an interview with Kreyolicious. “This is the largest reference website in the world.”
When you Google anyone, the first post is almost always a Wikipedia entry, she said. “So what happens then if black people, Haitians included, don’t crowdsource this platform with the rest of the world?
“In the age of black Twitter, it’s time for black Wikipedia.”
ARTS & CULTURE, EVENTS, NEWS
AfroCrowd: Owning Haitian History Through Digital Empowerment
February 19, 2015 • 2 Comments
By Fabiola Jean
AfroCrowd, a new initiative aimed at increasing black participation in crowdsourcing, kicked off Black History Month, with a weekend dedicated to Wikimedia crowdsourcing. The kickoff event, held at the Brooklyn Public Library, was sponsored by the Haiti Cultural Exchange, Haitian Creole Language Institute,Afrolatin@ Project, Port Academie, Garifuna Nation, Yoruba Cultural Institute andAfri Diaspora.
One of the main reasons behind this project was so there’d be more content about Haiti on Wikipedia, Alice Backer, founder of AfroCrowd said. Wikipedia has posts published in 285 languages and receives about 470 million monthly searchers. The Haitian Wikipedia has 50,000 articles in Haitian Creole, compared to the 4,500,000 articles in the English wikipedia.
AfroCrowd founder Alice Backer Photo Credit: Fabiola Jean
“You can’t talk about Haitian culture without incorporating the Haitian language,” Wynnie Lamour, founder of the Haitian Creole Language Institute, said. The elevation of the Haitian consciousness has to include structured and relevant information.
The two-day event is part of a new initiative called “Black Wiki History Month,” a national effort to encourage people from African American and Black communities to contribute posts to websites like Wikipedia, that are built on the public’s participation. The movement also seeks to increase communities’ knowledge on resources available to them.
“By expanding on the content provided by Haitians in general, we can be a resource to our people,” Backer said, “especially to the children in Haiti.”
So many of them have limited resources to education, she said. The content we generate can be an encyclopedia not just of Haitian culture and facts, but also include a variety of subjects from geology to mathematics, written in Haitian Creole.
“It’s not something we have to wait for others to do,” Backer said. “It requires no funding, just time.”
Special qualifications are not needed to write for Wikipedia, president of Wikimedia’s New York City chapter Richard Knippel, said. He attended the event, where he made presentations on Wikipedia and crowdsourcing.
It’s a broad community, he said, and we’re trying to make it broader.
So many people tell our stories in a “monolithic way” when we are so rich in culture, Carmen Dixon, a community organizer, part of the “Black Lives Matter” NYC collective, said. We need to get our stories right by telling them ourselves.
AfroCrowd came to be after Backer met Milos Rancic, president of Wikipedia Serbia, at a technology conference. Rancic approached her about attracting more blacks to the “free knowledge movement.”
“Imagine the possibilities,” Backer said in an interview with Kreyolicious. “This is the largest reference website in the world.”
When you Google anyone, the first post is almost always a Wikipedia entry, she said. “So what happens then if black people, Haitians included, don’t crowdsource this platform with the rest of the world?
“In the age of black Twitter, it’s time for black Wikipedia.”
OfTheCross
Veteran
GreatestLaker
#FirePelinka
FIRED FOR RACIST RANT
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/FIRED-FOR--RACIST-RANT-296673091.html
Board member of the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) Jaishima Leladharsingh has been fired for posting racist statements on Facebook.
Leladharsingh, who is also a senior United National Congress (UNC) activist and former marketing manager at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) on April 12, 2014 referred to Anthony S Mcleod as a “stinking ******” on Facebook.
Messages sent via Facebook to Mcleod yesterday for a comment were unsuccessful.
Speaking briefly with the Express yesterday afternoon, Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development Dr Bhoe Tewarie under whose portfolio CDA falls, said the posting by Leladharsingh had been under investigation and following its completion, he was asked to resign.
Asked how long the issue was being investigated and why in the interim Leladharsingh was still a member of the CDA board, Tewarie declined to comment and instead referred all his comments to the news release announcing his firing.
Efforts to contact Leladharsingh were unsuccessful.
Following the resignation, Leldharsingh’s Facebook page was on the receiving end of individuals expressing disgust over his statements. Posts left on his page have ridiculed his statements. The last activity on his page was on Monday where he posted pictures of Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine.
Checks by the Express revealed that Leladharsingh’s derogatory remarks on Facebook are not just last April’s. He and several other UNC bloggers have also launched a series of race attacks against Facebook users who oppose the Government.
Several of the posts have also attacked journalists and opposition members.
In one post dated September 15, 2013, Leladharsingh posted in a closed UNC group, “Each member should target at least five individuals and inbox them in persuasion of going to City Hall in protest for answers my pick would be for the ******s they pushy enough and gullible it would not take much to sway them it would also enhance the look of the PPG having the African members protesting. But I do need to ask Allan how did you persuade the “impeccable” Kazim Hosein?”
Sources told the Express that only a select group of UNC bloggers have administrative access to this closed group.
Last year, the administrators of this group expressed concern over the leaking of conversations into mainstream Facebook. Sources say the group’s main objective is to attack anyone perceived as being anti-government by using racial slurs and personal attacks.
Sources further told the Express that a relative of a former government minister who was once employed as the minister’s personal assistant has been named as one of the administrators for the closed group.
Efforts to contact the assistant were unsuccessful.
The genesis of the remarks made against Mcleod started following a post on April 11, 2014, written by former prime minister Basdeo Panday.
The post was in reference to comments made by Panday in the media following the death of former prime minister and president Arthur NR Robinson in 2014.
In that interview with the media on April 9, 2014, Panday said though he sympathised with relatives of Robinson on his passing, “I was instrumental in him becoming both prime minister and president. But I think that issue would not be as kind to him, for some of the things he did while in office.”
In his Facebook post two days later, Panday said, “It seems that my response to some journalists from the media who asked me to comment on the passing of Mr ANR Robinson has caused some very interesting comments. But none has accused me of speaking untruths.
“Had I lauded praise on Mr Robinson I would have been accused of hypocrisy, and justifiably so. All I said was that history would not be as kind to Mr Robinson as I had been to him. And when pressed for an explanation of that statement I referred to the 18-18 elections deadlock of 2001.
“I also referred to the breakup of the NAR. In so doing I spoke not an untrue word. Would my critics have preferred that I lied? Some say I should not have said what I said on such an occasion. Is there an occasion for the truth and another reserved for lies. If so, then they must surely have a morality of your own. I only ask that they do not pass it on to their luckless children”.
The Facebook posts
One day after the post was made, Leladharsingh posted: “I’m glad that Robinson is gone forever”.
Mcleod responded: “You would also be gone forever. We all have to go. I can’t believe how big people can be so stupid”.
Leladharsingh then stated, “go f... yourself Mcleod. You b*stards will never understand because you never had to fight nor work for anything. I gave my opinion and I don’t care what you f.... parasites think”.
This post by Leladharsingh received “one like” from Bridgie Ramkissoon. Checks on his profile have revealed that Ramkissoon is a medical doctor.
Mcleod’s response to this rant was, “Hahaha u rel funny”.
It was at this point that Leladharsingh stated again, “ and you are a stinking ******”
Mcleod brushed aside the comment stating, “you can say what u wat you still have to dead”.
“And you will die as a low class ******”, Leladharsingh shot back.
Mcleod responded, “You dnt knw me nor my status and you are so confident abt ur statements. Frm wht I can see is that you hav no class”.
“F... you both, Anthony S Mcleod you are a f.... stinking and low class ******”, Leladharsingh wrote.
Panday then intervened and warned Leladharsingh about his conduct stating, “My Dear Jaishima Please do not do anything to exacerbate the racial problem which has been the bane of this society for centuries. Speak your mind without being offensive. Please?”
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/FIRED-FOR--RACIST-RANT-296673091.html
Board member of the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) Jaishima Leladharsingh has been fired for posting racist statements on Facebook.
Leladharsingh, who is also a senior United National Congress (UNC) activist and former marketing manager at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) on April 12, 2014 referred to Anthony S Mcleod as a “stinking ******” on Facebook.
Messages sent via Facebook to Mcleod yesterday for a comment were unsuccessful.
Speaking briefly with the Express yesterday afternoon, Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development Dr Bhoe Tewarie under whose portfolio CDA falls, said the posting by Leladharsingh had been under investigation and following its completion, he was asked to resign.
Asked how long the issue was being investigated and why in the interim Leladharsingh was still a member of the CDA board, Tewarie declined to comment and instead referred all his comments to the news release announcing his firing.
Efforts to contact Leladharsingh were unsuccessful.
Following the resignation, Leldharsingh’s Facebook page was on the receiving end of individuals expressing disgust over his statements. Posts left on his page have ridiculed his statements. The last activity on his page was on Monday where he posted pictures of Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine.
Checks by the Express revealed that Leladharsingh’s derogatory remarks on Facebook are not just last April’s. He and several other UNC bloggers have also launched a series of race attacks against Facebook users who oppose the Government.
Several of the posts have also attacked journalists and opposition members.
In one post dated September 15, 2013, Leladharsingh posted in a closed UNC group, “Each member should target at least five individuals and inbox them in persuasion of going to City Hall in protest for answers my pick would be for the ******s they pushy enough and gullible it would not take much to sway them it would also enhance the look of the PPG having the African members protesting. But I do need to ask Allan how did you persuade the “impeccable” Kazim Hosein?”
Sources told the Express that only a select group of UNC bloggers have administrative access to this closed group.
Last year, the administrators of this group expressed concern over the leaking of conversations into mainstream Facebook. Sources say the group’s main objective is to attack anyone perceived as being anti-government by using racial slurs and personal attacks.
Sources further told the Express that a relative of a former government minister who was once employed as the minister’s personal assistant has been named as one of the administrators for the closed group.
Efforts to contact the assistant were unsuccessful.
The genesis of the remarks made against Mcleod started following a post on April 11, 2014, written by former prime minister Basdeo Panday.
The post was in reference to comments made by Panday in the media following the death of former prime minister and president Arthur NR Robinson in 2014.
In that interview with the media on April 9, 2014, Panday said though he sympathised with relatives of Robinson on his passing, “I was instrumental in him becoming both prime minister and president. But I think that issue would not be as kind to him, for some of the things he did while in office.”
In his Facebook post two days later, Panday said, “It seems that my response to some journalists from the media who asked me to comment on the passing of Mr ANR Robinson has caused some very interesting comments. But none has accused me of speaking untruths.
“Had I lauded praise on Mr Robinson I would have been accused of hypocrisy, and justifiably so. All I said was that history would not be as kind to Mr Robinson as I had been to him. And when pressed for an explanation of that statement I referred to the 18-18 elections deadlock of 2001.
“I also referred to the breakup of the NAR. In so doing I spoke not an untrue word. Would my critics have preferred that I lied? Some say I should not have said what I said on such an occasion. Is there an occasion for the truth and another reserved for lies. If so, then they must surely have a morality of your own. I only ask that they do not pass it on to their luckless children”.
The Facebook posts
One day after the post was made, Leladharsingh posted: “I’m glad that Robinson is gone forever”.
Mcleod responded: “You would also be gone forever. We all have to go. I can’t believe how big people can be so stupid”.
Leladharsingh then stated, “go f... yourself Mcleod. You b*stards will never understand because you never had to fight nor work for anything. I gave my opinion and I don’t care what you f.... parasites think”.
This post by Leladharsingh received “one like” from Bridgie Ramkissoon. Checks on his profile have revealed that Ramkissoon is a medical doctor.
Mcleod’s response to this rant was, “Hahaha u rel funny”.
It was at this point that Leladharsingh stated again, “ and you are a stinking ******”
Mcleod brushed aside the comment stating, “you can say what u wat you still have to dead”.
“And you will die as a low class ******”, Leladharsingh shot back.
Mcleod responded, “You dnt knw me nor my status and you are so confident abt ur statements. Frm wht I can see is that you hav no class”.
“F... you both, Anthony S Mcleod you are a f.... stinking and low class ******”, Leladharsingh wrote.
Panday then intervened and warned Leladharsingh about his conduct stating, “My Dear Jaishima Please do not do anything to exacerbate the racial problem which has been the bane of this society for centuries. Speak your mind without being offensive. Please?”
http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03...ions-seeking-drop-queen-elizabeth-head-state/
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...be-next-to-give-the-queen-her-marching-orders
Barbados is getting rid of the Queen. For some reason, the prime minister, Freundel Stuart, feels that the country’s head of state should not be a foreign white woman who has the job because of a history of conquest, who is also head of state for 15 other countries, including most of their near neighbours, and who last visited Barbados in 1989. Stuart promises to present a bill to remove her in time for next year’s 50th anniversary of Barbadian independence. If he does so, it is expected to pass.
To some extent it is easy to see why Britain keeps the Queen. She is British, after all. But what about Elizabeth II’s other queendoms? Might they be tempted to follow Barbados? Most Commonwealth countries have not kept the British monarch as head of state, and even those that have kept warm feelings may cool when Charles takes over. The list of candidates is: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Among these, Jamaica could well be first to go republican, and should have beaten Barbados to it. The prime minster, Portia Simpson-Miller, vowed to do so before Jamaica’s own 50th anniversary of independence in 2012. The fact that she still hasn’t may be a sign that this kind of constitutional change is often more popular than practical.
In Canada, a poll in 2014 showed that, if there were to be a change in the constitution, the majority would prefer “a Canadian-born person chosen by Canadians” as head of state, although no such change looks imminent. Australia nearly embraced republicanism in a referendum in 1999, but 54.9% of those who voted chose otherwise. The difficulty in agreeing what should replace the Queen was part of the problem, and since then the question has faded from view a little. Last February, just 39% of those Australians polled wanted a republic. In Tuvalu, voters have twice chosen to keep the Queen, in 1986 and 2008.
Perhaps a smart outside bet might be New Zealand. Sentiment there is broadly in favour of keeping the Queen, but her supporters tend to be older. Nor has there been a referendum recently. Instead, there will be a binding vote next year on whether to drop the union jack from the country’s flag. If this stirs up some republican feeling, and if King Charles III makes a poor first impression, and if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stop having cute children ... well, you never know.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...be-next-to-give-the-queen-her-marching-orders
Barbados is getting rid of the Queen. For some reason, the prime minister, Freundel Stuart, feels that the country’s head of state should not be a foreign white woman who has the job because of a history of conquest, who is also head of state for 15 other countries, including most of their near neighbours, and who last visited Barbados in 1989. Stuart promises to present a bill to remove her in time for next year’s 50th anniversary of Barbadian independence. If he does so, it is expected to pass.
To some extent it is easy to see why Britain keeps the Queen. She is British, after all. But what about Elizabeth II’s other queendoms? Might they be tempted to follow Barbados? Most Commonwealth countries have not kept the British monarch as head of state, and even those that have kept warm feelings may cool when Charles takes over. The list of candidates is: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Among these, Jamaica could well be first to go republican, and should have beaten Barbados to it. The prime minster, Portia Simpson-Miller, vowed to do so before Jamaica’s own 50th anniversary of independence in 2012. The fact that she still hasn’t may be a sign that this kind of constitutional change is often more popular than practical.
In Canada, a poll in 2014 showed that, if there were to be a change in the constitution, the majority would prefer “a Canadian-born person chosen by Canadians” as head of state, although no such change looks imminent. Australia nearly embraced republicanism in a referendum in 1999, but 54.9% of those who voted chose otherwise. The difficulty in agreeing what should replace the Queen was part of the problem, and since then the question has faded from view a little. Last February, just 39% of those Australians polled wanted a republic. In Tuvalu, voters have twice chosen to keep the Queen, in 1986 and 2008.
Perhaps a smart outside bet might be New Zealand. Sentiment there is broadly in favour of keeping the Queen, but her supporters tend to be older. Nor has there been a referendum recently. Instead, there will be a binding vote next year on whether to drop the union jack from the country’s flag. If this stirs up some republican feeling, and if King Charles III makes a poor first impression, and if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stop having cute children ... well, you never know.
As Brazilian Art Trends, the Country’s Racism Comes to the Fore
Installation view of ‘Jonathas de Andrade: recent works’ (all photos courtesy the artist and Alexander and Bonin)
As a Brazilian who has lived in the US for the past 10 years, I’ve found Americans’ growing enthusiasm for Brazilian culture and politics both welcome and bothersome. It’s been great, for instance, to see retrospectives of some of our most accomplished artists at important museums. But there is also this sense that Brazil has somehow been “re-discovered,” when really it’s that most people haven’t been paying much attention, and, as with most trends, there’s always the lingering question of how much of this recent attention is born of actual, substantive interest.
The Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade’s current solo show at Alexander and Bonin is, I suspect, a product of this trend. The gallery announced it would represent de Andrade when he was featured in the Guggenheim’s contemporary Latin American art survey last year, a show that Holland Cotter, when he reviewed it for the New York Times, prefaced his write-up with: “In these days of international markets and cosmopolitan tourist flow, it pays for Western Modernist strongholds to look culturally embracing.” The show focused on art responding to Latin America’s social inequalities and colonial pasts, works that have gone unnoticed not only in the West but likely in their home countries as well, including memorable pieces by Adriano Costa, Amalia Pica, and Erika Verzutti. But there were also a number of artists who did little more than fall within the exhibition framework, delivering work that relied on its message, including de Andrade.
“Cartazes Para o Museu do Homem do Nordeste,” de Andrade’s installation at the Guggenheim, which is also included at Alexander and Bonin, features posters of brown-skinned men posing for the camera with the words “Museum of the Northeastern Man” printed across their bodies. The work is a response to the existing ethnographic museum of the same name in Recife that, in departing from sociologist Gilberto Freyre’s seminal work, describes Brazil’s racial history as uniquely diverse and harmonious. In parodying the museum, de Andrade exposes the illusion inherent in Freyre’s ideas: namely, that Brazil is free of racism.
Jonathas de Andrade, detail of “40 nego bom é 1 real” (2013), 40 risograph prints on offset paper, 80 laser prints on offset paper, 7 pantographic recordings on acrylic sheets, 15 silkscreen prints on plywood, dimensions variable
Jonathas de Andrade, detail of “40 nego bom é 1 real” (2013), 40 risograph prints on offset paper, 80 laser prints on offset paper, 7 pantographic recordings on acrylic sheets, 15 silkscreen prints on plywood, dimensions variable
This denial of racism is prevalent in Brazil and de Andrade is right to point it out. He does so, mainly, by illustrating Brazil’s inherited reality of slavery (only abolished in 1888). For “Cartazes Para o Museu do Homem do Nordeste” he placed various ads in local, Northeastern newspapers seeking “descendants of slaves” and “brown-skinned” men “with strong hands.” His other works at Alexander and Bonin explore a similar population. “Zumbi encarnado” (2014) is a series of freestanding blocks imprinted with photographic close-ups of a black man looking slightly crazed, including fragments of his wide eyes, clenched fist, and mouth agape. The work alludes to the myth of a slave who famously escaped to become the leader of a fugitive settlement. “40 nego bom é 1 real” (2013) provides instructions for making a typical, banana-based Brazilian candy along with poppy illustrations of black men at work. On the opposite wall hang individual silkscreen print portraits of actual men in the industry, all shirtless, holding knifes, bananas, and crates. To accompany the portraits, there are placards with information like, “lost a finger while working”; “135 reais per week”; “stole from his employer.” Finally, “ABC da Cana” (2014) consists of photographs of workers making letters of the alphabet out of sugar cane stalks.
The men in most of de Andrade’s photographic portraits appear very much aware of being on display. Their poses are calculated, their expressions self-conscious. As a result, when viewing them for the first time, the works felt gimmicky to me, and, in searching for more, I resorted to written information. Though the messages behind the works are resonant and true, the literal and dependent relationship between the works’ concepts and visuals cut my engagement short. In the back of my mind lingered John Berger’s belief that art should be led by the imagination, for “truth,” he writes, can only be “discovered in open space.”
Jonathas de Andrade, detail of “Zumbi encarnado” (2014), silkscreen on wood in 7 parts with text on cement plaque, each: 17 ¾ x 9 7/8 x 3 1/8 in (click to enlarge)
In serving foremost a purpose — to illustrate racial roles — the portraits are absent of any sense of the actual people. The portraits do not communicate empathy; there is no palpable dynamic between the photographer and his subjects beyond the formal roles of portraitist and sitter. As part of “Museu do Homem do Nordeste,” de Andrade includes transcripts of his exchanges with subjects who did not wish to be photographed. In one account, a subject accuses the project of creating an “invented Northeast.” Next to this comment, the artist reacts with “???” implying the stranger’s reaction is absurd. Though I don’t think the project “invents” a Northeast, it does construct one.
I was reminded of what James Baldwin said in 1949 of the protest novel, that its stories of American black oppression resort to familiar narratives of destitution, violence, and ignorance. Baldwin accuses these novels of painting portraits of black Americans that lack dimension and of therefore being a “rejection of life, the human being.” Baldwin’s points are complex and beyond the scope of this review, but they aided my thinking about de Andrade’s work. The irony is that while his images expose a form of hidden racism in Brazil, they also represent its stereotypes. The brown-skinned men do not transcend their working lives or poverty, and though this is, to an extent, the point — to reveal that the stereotype is darkly real — in the end, I could only hear de Andrade trying to tell me this, while the voices of his subjects were muffled or lost.
Jonathas de Andrade, “ABC da Cana” (2014), 26 framed pigment prints on Hahnemühle paper mounted on aluminum, each: 11 ¾ x 13 ¾ in
The ideas behind de Andrade’s work are important. They are also ideas that Western, cultural institutions are eager to get behind. And though it is good to see interest in Brazilian artists — specifically in artworks that have generally gone under the radar — my possible streak of cynicism will only go away when the tale grabs me before the teller.
Jonathas de Andrade: recent works continues at Alexander and Bonin (132 Tenth Ave, Chelsea, Manhattan) through April 11.
http://hyperallergic.com/197601/as-brazilian-art-trends-the-countrys-racism-comes-to-the-fore/
- by Elisa Wouk Almino on April 9, 2015
Installation view of ‘Jonathas de Andrade: recent works’ (all photos courtesy the artist and Alexander and Bonin)
As a Brazilian who has lived in the US for the past 10 years, I’ve found Americans’ growing enthusiasm for Brazilian culture and politics both welcome and bothersome. It’s been great, for instance, to see retrospectives of some of our most accomplished artists at important museums. But there is also this sense that Brazil has somehow been “re-discovered,” when really it’s that most people haven’t been paying much attention, and, as with most trends, there’s always the lingering question of how much of this recent attention is born of actual, substantive interest.
The Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade’s current solo show at Alexander and Bonin is, I suspect, a product of this trend. The gallery announced it would represent de Andrade when he was featured in the Guggenheim’s contemporary Latin American art survey last year, a show that Holland Cotter, when he reviewed it for the New York Times, prefaced his write-up with: “In these days of international markets and cosmopolitan tourist flow, it pays for Western Modernist strongholds to look culturally embracing.” The show focused on art responding to Latin America’s social inequalities and colonial pasts, works that have gone unnoticed not only in the West but likely in their home countries as well, including memorable pieces by Adriano Costa, Amalia Pica, and Erika Verzutti. But there were also a number of artists who did little more than fall within the exhibition framework, delivering work that relied on its message, including de Andrade.
“Cartazes Para o Museu do Homem do Nordeste,” de Andrade’s installation at the Guggenheim, which is also included at Alexander and Bonin, features posters of brown-skinned men posing for the camera with the words “Museum of the Northeastern Man” printed across their bodies. The work is a response to the existing ethnographic museum of the same name in Recife that, in departing from sociologist Gilberto Freyre’s seminal work, describes Brazil’s racial history as uniquely diverse and harmonious. In parodying the museum, de Andrade exposes the illusion inherent in Freyre’s ideas: namely, that Brazil is free of racism.
Jonathas de Andrade, detail of “40 nego bom é 1 real” (2013), 40 risograph prints on offset paper, 80 laser prints on offset paper, 7 pantographic recordings on acrylic sheets, 15 silkscreen prints on plywood, dimensions variable
Jonathas de Andrade, detail of “40 nego bom é 1 real” (2013), 40 risograph prints on offset paper, 80 laser prints on offset paper, 7 pantographic recordings on acrylic sheets, 15 silkscreen prints on plywood, dimensions variable
This denial of racism is prevalent in Brazil and de Andrade is right to point it out. He does so, mainly, by illustrating Brazil’s inherited reality of slavery (only abolished in 1888). For “Cartazes Para o Museu do Homem do Nordeste” he placed various ads in local, Northeastern newspapers seeking “descendants of slaves” and “brown-skinned” men “with strong hands.” His other works at Alexander and Bonin explore a similar population. “Zumbi encarnado” (2014) is a series of freestanding blocks imprinted with photographic close-ups of a black man looking slightly crazed, including fragments of his wide eyes, clenched fist, and mouth agape. The work alludes to the myth of a slave who famously escaped to become the leader of a fugitive settlement. “40 nego bom é 1 real” (2013) provides instructions for making a typical, banana-based Brazilian candy along with poppy illustrations of black men at work. On the opposite wall hang individual silkscreen print portraits of actual men in the industry, all shirtless, holding knifes, bananas, and crates. To accompany the portraits, there are placards with information like, “lost a finger while working”; “135 reais per week”; “stole from his employer.” Finally, “ABC da Cana” (2014) consists of photographs of workers making letters of the alphabet out of sugar cane stalks.
The men in most of de Andrade’s photographic portraits appear very much aware of being on display. Their poses are calculated, their expressions self-conscious. As a result, when viewing them for the first time, the works felt gimmicky to me, and, in searching for more, I resorted to written information. Though the messages behind the works are resonant and true, the literal and dependent relationship between the works’ concepts and visuals cut my engagement short. In the back of my mind lingered John Berger’s belief that art should be led by the imagination, for “truth,” he writes, can only be “discovered in open space.”
Jonathas de Andrade, detail of “Zumbi encarnado” (2014), silkscreen on wood in 7 parts with text on cement plaque, each: 17 ¾ x 9 7/8 x 3 1/8 in (click to enlarge)
In serving foremost a purpose — to illustrate racial roles — the portraits are absent of any sense of the actual people. The portraits do not communicate empathy; there is no palpable dynamic between the photographer and his subjects beyond the formal roles of portraitist and sitter. As part of “Museu do Homem do Nordeste,” de Andrade includes transcripts of his exchanges with subjects who did not wish to be photographed. In one account, a subject accuses the project of creating an “invented Northeast.” Next to this comment, the artist reacts with “???” implying the stranger’s reaction is absurd. Though I don’t think the project “invents” a Northeast, it does construct one.
I was reminded of what James Baldwin said in 1949 of the protest novel, that its stories of American black oppression resort to familiar narratives of destitution, violence, and ignorance. Baldwin accuses these novels of painting portraits of black Americans that lack dimension and of therefore being a “rejection of life, the human being.” Baldwin’s points are complex and beyond the scope of this review, but they aided my thinking about de Andrade’s work. The irony is that while his images expose a form of hidden racism in Brazil, they also represent its stereotypes. The brown-skinned men do not transcend their working lives or poverty, and though this is, to an extent, the point — to reveal that the stereotype is darkly real — in the end, I could only hear de Andrade trying to tell me this, while the voices of his subjects were muffled or lost.
Jonathas de Andrade, “ABC da Cana” (2014), 26 framed pigment prints on Hahnemühle paper mounted on aluminum, each: 11 ¾ x 13 ¾ in
The ideas behind de Andrade’s work are important. They are also ideas that Western, cultural institutions are eager to get behind. And though it is good to see interest in Brazilian artists — specifically in artworks that have generally gone under the radar — my possible streak of cynicism will only go away when the tale grabs me before the teller.
Jonathas de Andrade: recent works continues at Alexander and Bonin (132 Tenth Ave, Chelsea, Manhattan) through April 11.
http://hyperallergic.com/197601/as-brazilian-art-trends-the-countrys-racism-comes-to-the-fore/
Apr.09.2015AU Commission Chairperson arrives in Kingston, Jamaica
GO TO ATTACHMENTS
Kingston, Jamaica – 9 April 2015: The Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma arrived in Kingston, Jamaica on Wednesday 8 April 2015, where she will deliver a lecture at the University of West Indies at Mona, a keynote address at the Jamaica Phenomenal Women Breakfast and also carry out other engagements.
The AU Commission Chairperson’s lecture will take place on Thursday, 9 April 2015 at 6:00 pm (Kingston’s time), at the University of West Indies Mona, which is the Caribbean's top university, renowned for its world-class higher education. The Lecture is set to start celebrations marking the 80th Birthday of H.E. Percival James Patterson, Former Prime Minister of Jamaica (1992-2006), and serving Council Member of the newly established AU Foundation.
On Friday, 10 April 2015, Dr. Dlamini Zuma will deliver a keynote address on the theme, “Women Leadership: ensuring transformation and sustainable development”, at the Jamaica Phenomenal Women Breakfast. Expected at the breakfast keynote address are leading women from the public and private sectors, members of the Diplomatic Corps, members of prominent women’s movements in Jamaica, along with select youth leaders and mentees of the International Women Forum (IWF) Jamaica.
The breakfast keynote event will serve as an opportunity for the IWF Jamaica Chapter to commemorate the beginning of the Decade Dedicated to People of African Descent.
JEE/
http://cpauc.au.int/en/content/au-commission-chairperson-arrives-kingston-jamaica
GO TO ATTACHMENTS
Kingston, Jamaica – 9 April 2015: The Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma arrived in Kingston, Jamaica on Wednesday 8 April 2015, where she will deliver a lecture at the University of West Indies at Mona, a keynote address at the Jamaica Phenomenal Women Breakfast and also carry out other engagements.
The AU Commission Chairperson’s lecture will take place on Thursday, 9 April 2015 at 6:00 pm (Kingston’s time), at the University of West Indies Mona, which is the Caribbean's top university, renowned for its world-class higher education. The Lecture is set to start celebrations marking the 80th Birthday of H.E. Percival James Patterson, Former Prime Minister of Jamaica (1992-2006), and serving Council Member of the newly established AU Foundation.
On Friday, 10 April 2015, Dr. Dlamini Zuma will deliver a keynote address on the theme, “Women Leadership: ensuring transformation and sustainable development”, at the Jamaica Phenomenal Women Breakfast. Expected at the breakfast keynote address are leading women from the public and private sectors, members of the Diplomatic Corps, members of prominent women’s movements in Jamaica, along with select youth leaders and mentees of the International Women Forum (IWF) Jamaica.
The breakfast keynote event will serve as an opportunity for the IWF Jamaica Chapter to commemorate the beginning of the Decade Dedicated to People of African Descent.
JEE/
http://cpauc.au.int/en/content/au-commission-chairperson-arrives-kingston-jamaica
Obama lands in Jamaica amid report that Cuba could soon be removed from terror list
By Jacqueline Charles
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com
04/08/2015 7:04 PM
04/08/2015 11:41 PM
› ‹
U.S. President Barack Obama, right, visits the Bob Marley Museum with tour guide Natasha Clark, left, Wednesday, April 8, 2015 in Kingston, Jamaica. Pablo Martinez Monsivais AP
KINGSTON
Streets have received a new coat of black top and sidewalk vendors were forced to relocate in a major makeover to welcome President Barack Obama, who flew into Jamaica late Wednesday for a historic visit.
Air Force One touched down at 7:30 local time (8:30 p.m. EDT), and Obama took off 14 minutes later in a helicopter for a Kingston hotel to meet with U.S. Embassy employees.
“I am overjoyed,” said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who gave Obama a brief hug.
What Jamaicans and Caribbean leaders can expect from Obama, the first sitting U.S. president to visit Jamaica in three decades, is a matter of considerable debate. Obama planned to overnighton the island before meeting regional leaders then heading Thursday to the weekend Summit of the Americas in Panama, where Venezuela and Cuba are to be featured prominently.
Related
U.S. President Barack Obama, center, is greeted by with Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller of Jamaica, left, on the tarmac during his arrival on Air Force One, Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at Norman Manley International Airport in Palisadoes, Jamaica. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais AP
Colombia’s Santos: U.S. sanctions on Venezuela ‘counterproductive’
Poll in Cuba: Obama more popular than Fidel, Raúl Castro
Cuba, Venezuela tensions rise in run-up to hemispheric meeting
The president landed in Jamaica amid a report that the State Department has recommended that Cuba be taken of the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. CNN reported late Wednesday that the administration was expected to made an announcement at anytime, perhaps as early as Thursday. Obama has long said that he favored removing Cuba from the list.
In Jamaica, a close neighbor to Cuba, residents had mixed reviews about the Obama visit.
“We feeling good, good,” said Elvar Barnaby, 57, a worker at National Heroes Park where employees spent Tuesday painting the rocks and trimming the grass while U.S. Secret Service agents made last minute checks. “We can’t stop talking about him even though we are not going to get to see him.”
Indeed, most of this nation of nearly three million will be lucky if they catch a glimpse of Obama, whose 2008 election was celebrated throughout the Caribbean but whose two terms as president have been marked by disappointment. Like others in the region, Caribbean nations have felt neglected by their largest security and trading partner as U.S. foreign policy focuses more on Iran, Ukraine and Islamic State militants.
Still, the visit carries enormous symbolism, taking place on the 33rd anniversary of the first visit by a sitting U.S. president — Ronald Reagan. It also comes five years after relations between Jamaica and the United States soured over the U.S.-sought extradition of influential drug don and Jamaica Labor Party supporter Christopher “Dudus” Coke.
“The Obama visit to Jamaica is largely, and I am not being cynical, a feel-good visit,” said Rupert Lewis, a retired University of the West Indies professor. “I don’t expect any grand announcements. We are a small region that if you don’t include Haiti, it’s 6 million people in the English-speaking Caribbean. This is why I don’t expect anything. But I am glad that he remembers there is this little island and some other little islands in the region.”
What Obama will find in Jamaica is a nation continuing to dig itself out of financial debt with the help of the International Monetary Fund. He will also find a Caribbean region that has strengthened relations with China and Venezuela while having no shortage of issues of its own to tackle. They include the need for development, financing and competitiveness, crime and energy woes, and the impact of changes in Venezuela and Cuba.
The themes of the meeting with Obama “reflect the major concerns of the Community as many of the member states seek to emerge from the lingering effects of the global economic and financial crisis,” the 15-member Caribbean Community, also known as Caricom, said in a statement. “With economic growth as a main goal of the Community, discussions related to competitiveness with the Region’s main trading partner is a significant element of the meeting.”
Obama will begin his day on Thursday with a bilateral meeting with Simpson Miller. He then will participate in a summit with other Caricom leaders. Later, he will host a town hall at the University of the West Indies with young leaders from around the Caribbean.
“This is similar to the types of events you’ve seen him do in Southeast Asia and Africa, where he will be able to focus on our commitment to partnering with the youth of the region on behalf of their aspirations and our shared interests,” said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.
Caricom Chairman Perry Christie, the prime minister of the Bahamas, said that he hopes Obama will gain from the meeting “an understanding that the Caricom region is of significance to America and should receive even more attention than it is getting now.”
Although he greeted Obama at the airport, no meeting has been scheduled so far with opposition leader and former Prime Minister Andrew Holness, which has stirred rumblings and anger among Jamaica Labor Party supporters, as has the last-minute street cleaning in some parts of Kingston.
Former West Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie, who represents the area in parliament as a member of the opposition Jamaica Labor Party, accused the government of using Obama's visit for “cheap political mileage.”
“We have seen where things that the government claimed they were not in a position to do, because of the strictness of the IMF guidelines, all of a sudden now we are seeing our roads being repaired, drains being cleaned, things that the government claimed they have to cut back on because they are sticking to a strict discipline program,” McKenzie told the Miami Herald.
Obama will conclude the visit by laying a wreath at a war memorial at National Heroes Park. The botanical garden pays tribute to Jamaicans who died in World War I and II, and national heroes such as Marcus Garvey, whose 1923 U.S. conviction for mail fraud has been the source of an exoneration campaign.
Obama isn’t expected to visit the Garvey memorial, but Simpson Miller has said that she plans to raise the exoneration issue.
Though this is the third time Obama will meet with Caricom, observers believe that the administration’s interests in the region have been reawakened by the crisis in oil-producing Venezuela, which has fallen on turbulent economic and political times.
A dozen Caricom nations participate in Venezuela’s discounted Petrocaribe oil program, which was launched in 2005 to counter U.S. influence in the region. Through the program, nations pay only a small portion of the costs up front for oil and refined products. They finance the rest under generous long-term debt agreements and use the savings for social programs and infrastructure investments.
But with world oil prices plummeting, countries are losing the advantages, and analysts are questioning how long Petrocaribe will last.
Last summer, as Venezuela experienced record-high inflation and food shortages, the Obama administration launched the Caribbean Security Energy Initiative. In January, Vice President Joe Biden hosted Caribbean leaders and private sector investors at the State Department to discuss how the United States could help them cut their addiction to Venezuelan oil in favor of alternative energy sources.
“The President of the United States — President Obama — has made it absolutely clear that both the Caribbean and Central America energy and security are, in fact, primary issues for us,” Biden said at the energy summit.
Carl Meacham,director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that he believes the U.S. efforts have to do with the collateral effects and damage that could occur as a result of a Venezuelan crash, economically and politically.
“The attention the administration is giving with energy has the potential to serve as a building block for the relationship to evolve into something else,” Meacham said.
“There is an obvious change going on in Venezuela that is going to impact the Caribbean one way or another,” said Council of the Americas Vice President Eric Farnsworth.
But the thawing of relations with Cuba is also another area of concern that could well come up, Farnswoth said.
“If I were a Caribbean leader, I would be very interested to know what the U.S. president’s plans are in reference to Cuba because of my economic well-being,” Farnsworth said. “Once Cuba does open up, the potential for U.S. investors to go to Cuba and overlook other parts of the Caribbean is significant.”
Farnsworth said that while Caribbean leaders’ impression that the United States has been focused elsewhere has merit, he would challenge the notion that the U.S. has cast the region adrift.
“The level of day-to-day engagement between the United States and the Caribbean is quite high in terms of security activities with the Treasury Department or banking regulators, Coast Guard officials, drug enforcement agent types. There is constant engagement at the working levels,” he said. “What hasn’t occurred is the high-level political engagement with the Caribbean.”
Americas
Obama lands in Jamaica amid report that Cuba could soon be removed from terror list
Cuban dissidents heckled at Americas Summit
Cuba, Venezuela tensions rise in run-up to hemispheric meeting
Uruguay’s new president wants U.S. to assist ex-Guantánamo detainees
Colombia’s Santos: U.S. sanctions on Venezuela ‘counterproductive’
Americas
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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article17895152.html#storylink=cpy
By Jacqueline Charles
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com
04/08/2015 7:04 PM
04/08/2015 11:41 PM
› ‹
U.S. President Barack Obama, right, visits the Bob Marley Museum with tour guide Natasha Clark, left, Wednesday, April 8, 2015 in Kingston, Jamaica. Pablo Martinez Monsivais AP
KINGSTON
Streets have received a new coat of black top and sidewalk vendors were forced to relocate in a major makeover to welcome President Barack Obama, who flew into Jamaica late Wednesday for a historic visit.
Air Force One touched down at 7:30 local time (8:30 p.m. EDT), and Obama took off 14 minutes later in a helicopter for a Kingston hotel to meet with U.S. Embassy employees.
“I am overjoyed,” said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who gave Obama a brief hug.
What Jamaicans and Caribbean leaders can expect from Obama, the first sitting U.S. president to visit Jamaica in three decades, is a matter of considerable debate. Obama planned to overnighton the island before meeting regional leaders then heading Thursday to the weekend Summit of the Americas in Panama, where Venezuela and Cuba are to be featured prominently.
Related
U.S. President Barack Obama, center, is greeted by with Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller of Jamaica, left, on the tarmac during his arrival on Air Force One, Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at Norman Manley International Airport in Palisadoes, Jamaica. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais AP
Colombia’s Santos: U.S. sanctions on Venezuela ‘counterproductive’
Poll in Cuba: Obama more popular than Fidel, Raúl Castro
Cuba, Venezuela tensions rise in run-up to hemispheric meeting
The president landed in Jamaica amid a report that the State Department has recommended that Cuba be taken of the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. CNN reported late Wednesday that the administration was expected to made an announcement at anytime, perhaps as early as Thursday. Obama has long said that he favored removing Cuba from the list.
In Jamaica, a close neighbor to Cuba, residents had mixed reviews about the Obama visit.
“We feeling good, good,” said Elvar Barnaby, 57, a worker at National Heroes Park where employees spent Tuesday painting the rocks and trimming the grass while U.S. Secret Service agents made last minute checks. “We can’t stop talking about him even though we are not going to get to see him.”
Indeed, most of this nation of nearly three million will be lucky if they catch a glimpse of Obama, whose 2008 election was celebrated throughout the Caribbean but whose two terms as president have been marked by disappointment. Like others in the region, Caribbean nations have felt neglected by their largest security and trading partner as U.S. foreign policy focuses more on Iran, Ukraine and Islamic State militants.
Still, the visit carries enormous symbolism, taking place on the 33rd anniversary of the first visit by a sitting U.S. president — Ronald Reagan. It also comes five years after relations between Jamaica and the United States soured over the U.S.-sought extradition of influential drug don and Jamaica Labor Party supporter Christopher “Dudus” Coke.
“The Obama visit to Jamaica is largely, and I am not being cynical, a feel-good visit,” said Rupert Lewis, a retired University of the West Indies professor. “I don’t expect any grand announcements. We are a small region that if you don’t include Haiti, it’s 6 million people in the English-speaking Caribbean. This is why I don’t expect anything. But I am glad that he remembers there is this little island and some other little islands in the region.”
What Obama will find in Jamaica is a nation continuing to dig itself out of financial debt with the help of the International Monetary Fund. He will also find a Caribbean region that has strengthened relations with China and Venezuela while having no shortage of issues of its own to tackle. They include the need for development, financing and competitiveness, crime and energy woes, and the impact of changes in Venezuela and Cuba.
The themes of the meeting with Obama “reflect the major concerns of the Community as many of the member states seek to emerge from the lingering effects of the global economic and financial crisis,” the 15-member Caribbean Community, also known as Caricom, said in a statement. “With economic growth as a main goal of the Community, discussions related to competitiveness with the Region’s main trading partner is a significant element of the meeting.”
Obama will begin his day on Thursday with a bilateral meeting with Simpson Miller. He then will participate in a summit with other Caricom leaders. Later, he will host a town hall at the University of the West Indies with young leaders from around the Caribbean.
“This is similar to the types of events you’ve seen him do in Southeast Asia and Africa, where he will be able to focus on our commitment to partnering with the youth of the region on behalf of their aspirations and our shared interests,” said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.
Caricom Chairman Perry Christie, the prime minister of the Bahamas, said that he hopes Obama will gain from the meeting “an understanding that the Caricom region is of significance to America and should receive even more attention than it is getting now.”
Although he greeted Obama at the airport, no meeting has been scheduled so far with opposition leader and former Prime Minister Andrew Holness, which has stirred rumblings and anger among Jamaica Labor Party supporters, as has the last-minute street cleaning in some parts of Kingston.
Former West Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie, who represents the area in parliament as a member of the opposition Jamaica Labor Party, accused the government of using Obama's visit for “cheap political mileage.”
“We have seen where things that the government claimed they were not in a position to do, because of the strictness of the IMF guidelines, all of a sudden now we are seeing our roads being repaired, drains being cleaned, things that the government claimed they have to cut back on because they are sticking to a strict discipline program,” McKenzie told the Miami Herald.
Obama will conclude the visit by laying a wreath at a war memorial at National Heroes Park. The botanical garden pays tribute to Jamaicans who died in World War I and II, and national heroes such as Marcus Garvey, whose 1923 U.S. conviction for mail fraud has been the source of an exoneration campaign.
Obama isn’t expected to visit the Garvey memorial, but Simpson Miller has said that she plans to raise the exoneration issue.
Though this is the third time Obama will meet with Caricom, observers believe that the administration’s interests in the region have been reawakened by the crisis in oil-producing Venezuela, which has fallen on turbulent economic and political times.
A dozen Caricom nations participate in Venezuela’s discounted Petrocaribe oil program, which was launched in 2005 to counter U.S. influence in the region. Through the program, nations pay only a small portion of the costs up front for oil and refined products. They finance the rest under generous long-term debt agreements and use the savings for social programs and infrastructure investments.
But with world oil prices plummeting, countries are losing the advantages, and analysts are questioning how long Petrocaribe will last.
Last summer, as Venezuela experienced record-high inflation and food shortages, the Obama administration launched the Caribbean Security Energy Initiative. In January, Vice President Joe Biden hosted Caribbean leaders and private sector investors at the State Department to discuss how the United States could help them cut their addiction to Venezuelan oil in favor of alternative energy sources.
“The President of the United States — President Obama — has made it absolutely clear that both the Caribbean and Central America energy and security are, in fact, primary issues for us,” Biden said at the energy summit.
Carl Meacham,director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that he believes the U.S. efforts have to do with the collateral effects and damage that could occur as a result of a Venezuelan crash, economically and politically.
“The attention the administration is giving with energy has the potential to serve as a building block for the relationship to evolve into something else,” Meacham said.
“There is an obvious change going on in Venezuela that is going to impact the Caribbean one way or another,” said Council of the Americas Vice President Eric Farnsworth.
But the thawing of relations with Cuba is also another area of concern that could well come up, Farnswoth said.
“If I were a Caribbean leader, I would be very interested to know what the U.S. president’s plans are in reference to Cuba because of my economic well-being,” Farnsworth said. “Once Cuba does open up, the potential for U.S. investors to go to Cuba and overlook other parts of the Caribbean is significant.”
Farnsworth said that while Caribbean leaders’ impression that the United States has been focused elsewhere has merit, he would challenge the notion that the U.S. has cast the region adrift.
“The level of day-to-day engagement between the United States and the Caribbean is quite high in terms of security activities with the Treasury Department or banking regulators, Coast Guard officials, drug enforcement agent types. There is constant engagement at the working levels,” he said. “What hasn’t occurred is the high-level political engagement with the Caribbean.”
Americas
Obama lands in Jamaica amid report that Cuba could soon be removed from terror list
Cuban dissidents heckled at Americas Summit
Cuba, Venezuela tensions rise in run-up to hemispheric meeting
Uruguay’s new president wants U.S. to assist ex-Guantánamo detainees
Colombia’s Santos: U.S. sanctions on Venezuela ‘counterproductive’
Americas
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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article17895152.html#storylink=cpy