Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events
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What you think about Brasil Olympic chances
The quality of Brazilian football has declined sharplyI don't know who's competing for what, I should look it up. I saw the Brazil vs South Africa match a few hours ago andthe women have a better chance at winning a gold medal. They played yesterday and were a lot better.
Haiti 101 Years After US Invasion, Still Resisting Domination
By:Justin Podur
Demonstrators march during a protest in Port-au-Prince, January 2016. | Photo: AFP
Published 28 July 2016
The U.S. presidential candidates can be looked at from the perspective of Haiti. One candidate has an extensive record there. The other has some historical parallels.
The U.S. invaded and occupied Haiti 101 years ago today, and remained there for 19 years. Accomplishments of the occupation include raiding the Haitian National Bank, re-instituting slave labor, establishing the hated National Guard, and getting a 25-year contract for the U.S. corporation, United Fruit.
RELATED: Hillary Clinton Already Has Destructive Legacy in Latin America
There was a pretext for the invasion—the assassination of Haiti's president in 1915. But to understand the event, which has lessons to draw from a century later, it is necessary to look more closely at the invader than the invaded.
In 2016, the United States is living through a presidential campaign with a candidate willing to exploit racism and pander to anti-immigrant sentiment. Police are killing Black people in cities across the U.S.
Having drawn down troop levels in its two big wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. still runs airsrikes and drone strikes in the region and covert actions all over the world. The U.S. is still the determining voice in Haiti's politics and economy. In other words, 101 years after its invasion of Haiti, the U.S. retains two features: violent racial inequality and empire.
The U.S. presidential candidates can be looked at from the perspective of Haiti. One candidate has an extensive record there. The other has some historical parallels.
The Clintons have treated Haiti as a family business. In 2010, after an earthquake devastated the country, the Clinton Foundation was among the horde of non-governmental organizations that stepped up their role in the, still unfinished, rebuilding phase. Haiti's social sector had already been taken over by NGOs and its streets—since the 2004 U.S.-led coup and occupation—were patrolled by United Nations troops.
RELATED: Interim Haitian President Calls for New Elections in October
The Clinton Foundation received pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid to rebuild Haiti. The crown jewel of the Foundation's work: the disappointing Caracol Industrial Park, opened in 2012, which promised and failed to expand Haiti's low-wage garment-processing industry, long a source of foreign profits and little internal development.
Hillary Clinton made her own interventions into Haitian politics as secretary of state. At a key moment in Haiti post-earthquake politics, Clinton's state department threw its weight behind presidential candidate Michel Martelly.
His electoral legitimacy was dubious and his presidency led the country to a constitutional crisis when people mobilized against another stolen election in 2015. That crisis is still ongoing, and will no doubt provide pretexts for the next U.S. intervention.
To try to imagine the impact of Trump on Haiti, one need only look back a century. As Trump continues his seemingly unstoppable march to the White House, he is compared to Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and other populist buffoon-politicians. Woodrow Wilson, the invader of Haiti in 1915, may be a better example of the damage a president can.
When Woodrow Wilson became president, he set about doing what today would be called "Making America Great Again." Decades had passed since the U.S. Civil War. The post-war Reconstruction involved efforts to desegregate cities and government workplaces and make a place for newly-freed Black people.
Wilson reversed these efforts, strengthening racial apartheid in the U.S. His administration made sure there were separate bathrooms in federal government offices.
Although Trump is unlikely to re-introduce segregation, something else happened under Woodrow Wilson's rule that is relevant in this context: white vigilante violence and lynchings spiked.
Wilson created a permissive environment for such atrocities. First elected in 1912, Wilson only got around to making a statement against organized white violence—called “mob violence” or “race riots"—in mid-1917.
OPINION: The US in Latin America: Obama for Now, Maybe Worse to Come...
When more riots broke out in 1919, this time designed to suppress the democratic impulses of Black soldiers returning from WWI, the NAACP implored Wilson to make a a statement. But it was Wilson, himself, who had restricted Black soldiers to non-combat roles during the war.
In foreign policy, Donald Trump's pronouncements have been predictably incoherent and uninformed. But Woodrow Wilson's presidency suggests that domestic policies of racism will not be confined to the domestic arena.
Wilson sent U.S. troops all over Latin America—Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua and of course, Haiti—which may have gotten the worst of it all. Racist wrath has been a constant in Haiti's history since it won its independence in a slave revolt, and Wilson unleashed that wrath on the island during the 1915-1934 occupation. Chomsky's "Year 501" gives a flavor for what U.S. occupiers were thinking and doing:
“Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, found the Haitian elite rather amusing: 'Dear me, think of it, ******s speaking French,'" he remarked. The effective ruler of Haiti, Marine Colonel L.W.T. Waller, who arrived fresh from appalling atrocities in the conquest of the Philippines, was not amused: "they are real ****** and no mistake ... real nigs beneath the surface," he said, rejecting any negotiations or other "bowing and scraping to these c00ns," particularly the educated Haitians for whom this bloodthirsty lout had a special hatred.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt, while never approaching the racist fanaticism and thuggery of his distant relative Theodore Roosevelt, shared the feelings of his colleagues. On a visit to occupied Haiti in 1917, he recorded in his diary a comment by his traveling companion, who later became the Occupation's leading civilian official.
Fascinated by the Haitian Minister of Agriculture, he "couldn't help saying to myself," he told FDR, "that man would have brought $1,500 at auction in New Orleans in 1860 for stud purposes."
"'Roosevelt appears to have relished the story," (Hans) Schmidt notes, "and retold it to American Minister Norman Armour when he visited Haiti as President in 1934."
Chomsky conclude this section of horrifically racist quotes from the U.S. elite about Haiti with a warning, "The element of racism in policy formation should not be discounted, to the present day.”
Nor should Haitian resistance.
The U.S. occupation of 1915-1934 faced a rebellion led by Charlemagne Peralte. Marines assassinated him and circulated a photograph of him crucified. Rather than intimidating Haitians, the photo enraged them and cemented Charlemagne Peralte's place as a national hero.
If Haitians had a say in the U.S. presidential election, a case could be made for the devil-you-know of Clinton rather than the risk of a new Woodrow Wilson in Trump. But subjects of the empire can't vote, only citizens. The U.S. tried to set the tone of master 101 years ago.
But people still resist.
Haiti 101 Years After US Invasion, Still Resisting Domination
By:Justin Podur
Demonstrators march during a protest in Port-au-Prince, January 2016. | Photo: AFP
Published 28 July 2016
The U.S. presidential candidates can be looked at from the perspective of Haiti. One candidate has an extensive record there. The other has some historical parallels.
The U.S. invaded and occupied Haiti 101 years ago today, and remained there for 19 years. Accomplishments of the occupation include raiding the Haitian National Bank, re-instituting slave labor, establishing the hated National Guard, and getting a 25-year contract for the U.S. corporation, United Fruit.
RELATED: Hillary Clinton Already Has Destructive Legacy in Latin America
There was a pretext for the invasion—the assassination of Haiti's president in 1915. But to understand the event, which has lessons to draw from a century later, it is necessary to look more closely at the invader than the invaded.
In 2016, the United States is living through a presidential campaign with a candidate willing to exploit racism and pander to anti-immigrant sentiment. Police are killing Black people in cities across the U.S.
Having drawn down troop levels in its two big wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. still runs airsrikes and drone strikes in the region and covert actions all over the world. The U.S. is still the determining voice in Haiti's politics and economy. In other words, 101 years after its invasion of Haiti, the U.S. retains two features: violent racial inequality and empire.
The U.S. presidential candidates can be looked at from the perspective of Haiti. One candidate has an extensive record there. The other has some historical parallels.
The Clintons have treated Haiti as a family business. In 2010, after an earthquake devastated the country, the Clinton Foundation was among the horde of non-governmental organizations that stepped up their role in the, still unfinished, rebuilding phase. Haiti's social sector had already been taken over by NGOs and its streets—since the 2004 U.S.-led coup and occupation—were patrolled by United Nations troops.
RELATED: Interim Haitian President Calls for New Elections in October
The Clinton Foundation received pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid to rebuild Haiti. The crown jewel of the Foundation's work: the disappointing Caracol Industrial Park, opened in 2012, which promised and failed to expand Haiti's low-wage garment-processing industry, long a source of foreign profits and little internal development.
Hillary Clinton made her own interventions into Haitian politics as secretary of state. At a key moment in Haiti post-earthquake politics, Clinton's state department threw its weight behind presidential candidate Michel Martelly.
His electoral legitimacy was dubious and his presidency led the country to a constitutional crisis when people mobilized against another stolen election in 2015. That crisis is still ongoing, and will no doubt provide pretexts for the next U.S. intervention.
To try to imagine the impact of Trump on Haiti, one need only look back a century. As Trump continues his seemingly unstoppable march to the White House, he is compared to Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and other populist buffoon-politicians. Woodrow Wilson, the invader of Haiti in 1915, may be a better example of the damage a president can.
When Woodrow Wilson became president, he set about doing what today would be called "Making America Great Again." Decades had passed since the U.S. Civil War. The post-war Reconstruction involved efforts to desegregate cities and government workplaces and make a place for newly-freed Black people.
Wilson reversed these efforts, strengthening racial apartheid in the U.S. His administration made sure there were separate bathrooms in federal government offices.
Although Trump is unlikely to re-introduce segregation, something else happened under Woodrow Wilson's rule that is relevant in this context: white vigilante violence and lynchings spiked.
Wilson created a permissive environment for such atrocities. First elected in 1912, Wilson only got around to making a statement against organized white violence—called “mob violence” or “race riots"—in mid-1917.
OPINION: The US in Latin America: Obama for Now, Maybe Worse to Come...
When more riots broke out in 1919, this time designed to suppress the democratic impulses of Black soldiers returning from WWI, the NAACP implored Wilson to make a a statement. But it was Wilson, himself, who had restricted Black soldiers to non-combat roles during the war.
In foreign policy, Donald Trump's pronouncements have been predictably incoherent and uninformed. But Woodrow Wilson's presidency suggests that domestic policies of racism will not be confined to the domestic arena.
Wilson sent U.S. troops all over Latin America—Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua and of course, Haiti—which may have gotten the worst of it all. Racist wrath has been a constant in Haiti's history since it won its independence in a slave revolt, and Wilson unleashed that wrath on the island during the 1915-1934 occupation. Chomsky's "Year 501" gives a flavor for what U.S. occupiers were thinking and doing:
“Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, found the Haitian elite rather amusing: 'Dear me, think of it, ******s speaking French,'" he remarked. The effective ruler of Haiti, Marine Colonel L.W.T. Waller, who arrived fresh from appalling atrocities in the conquest of the Philippines, was not amused: "they are real ****** and no mistake ... real nigs beneath the surface," he said, rejecting any negotiations or other "bowing and scraping to these c00ns," particularly the educated Haitians for whom this bloodthirsty lout had a special hatred.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt, while never approaching the racist fanaticism and thuggery of his distant relative Theodore Roosevelt, shared the feelings of his colleagues. On a visit to occupied Haiti in 1917, he recorded in his diary a comment by his traveling companion, who later became the Occupation's leading civilian official.
Fascinated by the Haitian Minister of Agriculture, he "couldn't help saying to myself," he told FDR, "that man would have brought $1,500 at auction in New Orleans in 1860 for stud purposes."
"'Roosevelt appears to have relished the story," (Hans) Schmidt notes, "and retold it to American Minister Norman Armour when he visited Haiti as President in 1934."
Chomsky conclude this section of horrifically racist quotes from the U.S. elite about Haiti with a warning, "The element of racism in policy formation should not be discounted, to the present day.”
Nor should Haitian resistance.
The U.S. occupation of 1915-1934 faced a rebellion led by Charlemagne Peralte. Marines assassinated him and circulated a photograph of him crucified. Rather than intimidating Haitians, the photo enraged them and cemented Charlemagne Peralte's place as a national hero.
If Haitians had a say in the U.S. presidential election, a case could be made for the devil-you-know of Clinton rather than the risk of a new Woodrow Wilson in Trump. But subjects of the empire can't vote, only citizens. The U.S. tried to set the tone of master 101 years ago.
But people still resist.
Haiti 101 Years After US Invasion, Still Resisting Domination
Cuban Artists Are Employing Hip-Hop To Dismantle Racism
Shanna Collins | August 5, 2016 - 3:41 pm
CREDIT: Getty Images
When the Cuban revolution happened in 1959, the government hoped that the ousting of Fulgencio Batista, U.S. imperialism, and the implementation of socialist practices would gradually bring an end to anti-blackness on the island. While such ideology is incredibly idealistic, the Aponte Commission has “acknowledged the reality of police racial profiling, a tourist industry that disproportionately hires whites, and a national entertainment media in which Afro-Cubans are underrepresented.”
Hip-hop artists today are seeking to challenge the island’s anti-blackness through DIY workshops outside of official Cuban curriculum, in an eye-opening study in the The Atlantic.
READ: Rapper El B Starts Over After U.S. – Cuba Controversy
Journalist Eric Gleiberman says that “efforts to combat racism in Cuba—which is widely believed to be majority nonwhite—through education have emerged quietly over the last several years,” but that “the bold efforts are coming from below. A few semi-independent universities in Havana, and regional centers like Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, and Camagüey, are taking the initiative, along with grassroots educators and activists involved in a hip-hop movement spearheaded by Obsesión.”
Education in Cuba is presented as relaxed and open to dialogue surrounding social concerns, despite American projects of Cuban classrooms as being repressive due to their status as a socialist country.
“The evolution and social dynamics of Cuba’s fledgling anti-racism education work echo similar work in the U.S. over recent decades. Without any national curricular guidance, U.S. educators, like their Cuban counterparts, have created anti-racism teaching at the ground level of districts and individual schools. Collaboration across the Straits of Florida could be powerful because Cuba’s contrasting racial paradigm offers an opportunity for the U.S. to examine its racial realities through a different lens. Currently, many U.S. students know virtually nothing about race in Cuba, although Cubans hear about the U.S.’s more high-profile news, including fatal police profiling and the Black Lives Matter response.”
Due to the U.S. embargo against Cuba (initialized in 1960), teachers are unable to access materials by black novelists and journalists that explore the realities of race, and thus have limited ways to parallel the experiences of Afro-Cuban students to those of black people in America. “As the debate on lifting the Cuban embargo continues into the next presidential term, Congress might recognize that the embargo affects more than commerce,” writes Gleiberman. “Schools can’t exchange materials: Cuba cannot buy any of the U.S.’s anti-racism curricular materials or African American and Latino literature.”
Underground hip-hop artists in Cuba link racial oppression in the country to the history of Spanish colonialism, U.S. imperialism, and the spread of global capitalism. “Beyond the classroom walls, several hip-hop groups and grassroots activists have openly developed an anti-racism curriculum, signaling the government’s willingness to permit public discussion of racial issues. Some hip-hop groups are even registered with a national Cuban Rap Agency.”
Gleiberman also noticed how the infusion of hip-hop curriculum in Cuba is especially important for Afro-Cuban women involved in community organizations, particularly the group Red Barrial Afrodescendiente (Afrodescendent Barrio Network), consisting of “Havana women who hold meetings to discuss racial realities and provide hands-on workshops for families.” He observed the group’s leader, Hildelisa Leal Díaz, who said “the meetings give women a language to describe a racism they had never consciously named. In the Black Doll project, named for a José Martí short story, mothers and their children make paper-maché figures that are sometimes Afrocentric, such as the Yoruba Santería deity Yemaya.”
READ: Women In Cuba Are Skateboarding Into The Revolution
The Cuban couple Obsesión, Lopez and her husband Alexey Rodriguez Mola, conduct workshops with grade-school children, using fables and visual art to assist in anti-racist education. Outside of teaching, the two have also delved into the topics of racial profiling in “Víctimas”, the beauty of natural hair in “Los Pelos,” and infused feminism into “La Llaman Puta” (They Call Her Whore), where Lopez “suggests how historically rooted racial-economic disparities, institutional racial discrimination, and individual prejudice combine to marginalize black women.”
Alejandre de la Fuente, a professor of Latin American history and African American studies sees the powerful potential of work being done by collective DIY workshops led by hip-hop artists. “Groups exemplified by Obsesión can reach beyond the classroom to the street, and in particular, to young people.”
Cuban Artists Are Employing Hip-Hop To Dismantle Racism
Shanna Collins | August 5, 2016 - 3:41 pm
CREDIT: Getty Images
When the Cuban revolution happened in 1959, the government hoped that the ousting of Fulgencio Batista, U.S. imperialism, and the implementation of socialist practices would gradually bring an end to anti-blackness on the island. While such ideology is incredibly idealistic, the Aponte Commission has “acknowledged the reality of police racial profiling, a tourist industry that disproportionately hires whites, and a national entertainment media in which Afro-Cubans are underrepresented.”
Hip-hop artists today are seeking to challenge the island’s anti-blackness through DIY workshops outside of official Cuban curriculum, in an eye-opening study in the The Atlantic.
READ: Rapper El B Starts Over After U.S. – Cuba Controversy
Journalist Eric Gleiberman says that “efforts to combat racism in Cuba—which is widely believed to be majority nonwhite—through education have emerged quietly over the last several years,” but that “the bold efforts are coming from below. A few semi-independent universities in Havana, and regional centers like Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, and Camagüey, are taking the initiative, along with grassroots educators and activists involved in a hip-hop movement spearheaded by Obsesión.”
Education in Cuba is presented as relaxed and open to dialogue surrounding social concerns, despite American projects of Cuban classrooms as being repressive due to their status as a socialist country.
“The evolution and social dynamics of Cuba’s fledgling anti-racism education work echo similar work in the U.S. over recent decades. Without any national curricular guidance, U.S. educators, like their Cuban counterparts, have created anti-racism teaching at the ground level of districts and individual schools. Collaboration across the Straits of Florida could be powerful because Cuba’s contrasting racial paradigm offers an opportunity for the U.S. to examine its racial realities through a different lens. Currently, many U.S. students know virtually nothing about race in Cuba, although Cubans hear about the U.S.’s more high-profile news, including fatal police profiling and the Black Lives Matter response.”
Due to the U.S. embargo against Cuba (initialized in 1960), teachers are unable to access materials by black novelists and journalists that explore the realities of race, and thus have limited ways to parallel the experiences of Afro-Cuban students to those of black people in America. “As the debate on lifting the Cuban embargo continues into the next presidential term, Congress might recognize that the embargo affects more than commerce,” writes Gleiberman. “Schools can’t exchange materials: Cuba cannot buy any of the U.S.’s anti-racism curricular materials or African American and Latino literature.”
Underground hip-hop artists in Cuba link racial oppression in the country to the history of Spanish colonialism, U.S. imperialism, and the spread of global capitalism. “Beyond the classroom walls, several hip-hop groups and grassroots activists have openly developed an anti-racism curriculum, signaling the government’s willingness to permit public discussion of racial issues. Some hip-hop groups are even registered with a national Cuban Rap Agency.”
Gleiberman also noticed how the infusion of hip-hop curriculum in Cuba is especially important for Afro-Cuban women involved in community organizations, particularly the group Red Barrial Afrodescendiente (Afrodescendent Barrio Network), consisting of “Havana women who hold meetings to discuss racial realities and provide hands-on workshops for families.” He observed the group’s leader, Hildelisa Leal Díaz, who said “the meetings give women a language to describe a racism they had never consciously named. In the Black Doll project, named for a José Martí short story, mothers and their children make paper-maché figures that are sometimes Afrocentric, such as the Yoruba Santería deity Yemaya.”
READ: Women In Cuba Are Skateboarding Into The Revolution
The Cuban couple Obsesión, Lopez and her husband Alexey Rodriguez Mola, conduct workshops with grade-school children, using fables and visual art to assist in anti-racist education. Outside of teaching, the two have also delved into the topics of racial profiling in “Víctimas”, the beauty of natural hair in “Los Pelos,” and infused feminism into “La Llaman Puta” (They Call Her Whore), where Lopez “suggests how historically rooted racial-economic disparities, institutional racial discrimination, and individual prejudice combine to marginalize black women.”
Alejandre de la Fuente, a professor of Latin American history and African American studies sees the powerful potential of work being done by collective DIY workshops led by hip-hop artists. “Groups exemplified by Obsesión can reach beyond the classroom to the street, and in particular, to young people.”
Cuban Artists Are Employing Hip-Hop To Dismantle Racism
More tourists coming
Visitor arrivals up 5.6 per cent during first half of 2016
Added by Marlon Madden on August 5, 2016.
Saved under Business, Local News
Barbados tourism industry is rapidly putting the years of decline behind it and is on an upward trajectory, according to the state agency charged with promoting the destination.
The Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) today reported visitor arrivals were up 5.6 per cent during the first half of this year when compared to the same period in 2015.
In announcing the industry’s performance for the period January to June 2016, BTMI Chief Executive Officer William Billy Griffith suggested there was reason to be upbeat. And, Griffith promised, this performance was only the beginning.
“All of our major indicators are performing well – arrivals are up, visitor spending is up, property investment among the accommodation sector is up, new experiences are being created for our visitors and that much needed confidence is returning to our industry. In short, we need to keep up the momentum and we need to be relentless in our pursuit for success. Let it be known that we are only getting started in realizing our potential as a destination,” the BTMI boss said.
BTMI Chief Executive Officer William Billy Griffith
During the first half of the year Barbados welcomed 320,953 long-stay visitors, 17,094 more than the corresponding period last year.
The United Kingdom recorded a three per cent increase, to remain the primary market with 36 per cent of the arrivals.
The United States, saw growth of 13.3 per cent, providing 24 per cent of the visitors, while both the Caribbean (15 per cent) and Canada (14 per cent) grew by one per cent each.
However, Griffith told journalists gathered at the Savannah Hotel that within the Caribbean market, arrivals from Trinidad and Tobago climbed by 21 per cent, with the rest of the region recording growth of 6.6 per cent.
Griffith indicated that the performance of the European market was a concern, with total arrivals from that market down by four per cent, suppressed by a 7.3 per cent drop in visitors from Germany. The rest of Europe performed slightly better, declining by 3.5 per cent.
He explained that a fall in airlift and security concerns were the major contributing factors.
“This period coincided with a decrease in airlift via Condor, the only airline with direct service from that market. We are also of the view that a general reluctance to travel would have been sparked by political turmoil and unfortunate acts of terrorism,” the tourism head reported.
He announced that efforts were under way to reverse this situation, with new airlift scheduled for November, and new digital marketing campaigns to come.
Griffith also reported that the Brazilian market slumped by a near precipitous 31 per cent, blaming the economic situation and the Zika outbreak for the steep drop. However, he said this was offset by an equally strong 31 per cent rise in arrivals from Columbia, due to a new Avianca service, which began in 2015.
Overall, he said, the Latin America market, which accounts for a one per cent market share, grew by 6.3 per cent.
Quoting figures from the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization, the BTMI executive indicated that first quarter earnings from tourism were better than previously thought, with tourists spending US$288 million here between January and March, up from the US$280 reported earlier.
“So there were more gains recorded after the adjustment in 2015 and that is the first quarter of 2015. This means we did better than previously assessed in 2015,” Griffith said.
The tourism official said the island was anticipating increased airlift for the upcoming winter period, with 42 additional flights – or just over 57,000 additional seats – out of Canada; new services out of Munich, Germany and Paris, France; additional flights out of the UK by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic and an additional flight by Jetblue out of New Jersey.
More tourists coming
Visitor arrivals up 5.6 per cent during first half of 2016
Added by Marlon Madden on August 5, 2016.
Saved under Business, Local News
Barbados tourism industry is rapidly putting the years of decline behind it and is on an upward trajectory, according to the state agency charged with promoting the destination.
The Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) today reported visitor arrivals were up 5.6 per cent during the first half of this year when compared to the same period in 2015.
In announcing the industry’s performance for the period January to June 2016, BTMI Chief Executive Officer William Billy Griffith suggested there was reason to be upbeat. And, Griffith promised, this performance was only the beginning.
“All of our major indicators are performing well – arrivals are up, visitor spending is up, property investment among the accommodation sector is up, new experiences are being created for our visitors and that much needed confidence is returning to our industry. In short, we need to keep up the momentum and we need to be relentless in our pursuit for success. Let it be known that we are only getting started in realizing our potential as a destination,” the BTMI boss said.
BTMI Chief Executive Officer William Billy Griffith
During the first half of the year Barbados welcomed 320,953 long-stay visitors, 17,094 more than the corresponding period last year.
The United Kingdom recorded a three per cent increase, to remain the primary market with 36 per cent of the arrivals.
The United States, saw growth of 13.3 per cent, providing 24 per cent of the visitors, while both the Caribbean (15 per cent) and Canada (14 per cent) grew by one per cent each.
However, Griffith told journalists gathered at the Savannah Hotel that within the Caribbean market, arrivals from Trinidad and Tobago climbed by 21 per cent, with the rest of the region recording growth of 6.6 per cent.
Griffith indicated that the performance of the European market was a concern, with total arrivals from that market down by four per cent, suppressed by a 7.3 per cent drop in visitors from Germany. The rest of Europe performed slightly better, declining by 3.5 per cent.
He explained that a fall in airlift and security concerns were the major contributing factors.
“This period coincided with a decrease in airlift via Condor, the only airline with direct service from that market. We are also of the view that a general reluctance to travel would have been sparked by political turmoil and unfortunate acts of terrorism,” the tourism head reported.
He announced that efforts were under way to reverse this situation, with new airlift scheduled for November, and new digital marketing campaigns to come.
Griffith also reported that the Brazilian market slumped by a near precipitous 31 per cent, blaming the economic situation and the Zika outbreak for the steep drop. However, he said this was offset by an equally strong 31 per cent rise in arrivals from Columbia, due to a new Avianca service, which began in 2015.
Overall, he said, the Latin America market, which accounts for a one per cent market share, grew by 6.3 per cent.
Quoting figures from the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization, the BTMI executive indicated that first quarter earnings from tourism were better than previously thought, with tourists spending US$288 million here between January and March, up from the US$280 reported earlier.
“So there were more gains recorded after the adjustment in 2015 and that is the first quarter of 2015. This means we did better than previously assessed in 2015,” Griffith said.
The tourism official said the island was anticipating increased airlift for the upcoming winter period, with 42 additional flights – or just over 57,000 additional seats – out of Canada; new services out of Munich, Germany and Paris, France; additional flights out of the UK by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic and an additional flight by Jetblue out of New Jersey.
More tourists coming
St. Kitts-Nevis PM wants closer collaboration on Citizenship by Investment Programme
August 8, 2016 | Reuters | Regional | 0 Comments
Source: zizonline.com
ROSEAU, Dominica, Aug 8, CMC – St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris is calling for closer collaboration as Caribbean countries seek to implement various forms of a Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) as a means of boosting investments in their respective countries.
Harris, who is leading a delegation to attend the funeral of a Dominica-born St. Kitts-Nevis Police Force member, said that the programme is a massive revenue earner but warned that new entrants may take action that could undermine the programme.
St. Kitts-Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda have CIP programmes allowing for foreign investors to make significant investments in designated areas outlined by the countries and in return have the opportunity to receive citizenship from the country.
“We have been arguing that there is a need for all countries in CARICOM (Caribbean Community) that are participants in this programme to come together to develop standards for the industry and for the region as a whole so that we do not get into cut throat competition with ourselves,” said Prime Minister Harris.
Speaking on the state-owned DBS radio here, Harris said such infighting would “damage the programme as a whole because you only need one major incident involving one country for that to tarnish the programme for the entire region.
“So it is in our self-interest we believe that we should come together, establish what are the best practices…harmonise our legislative framework,” he said, urging the region to avoid being played against one another.
“So that wherever you go, if it is a no in Dominica it is a no in any other island of the region to which you go,” he said, adding that speaking with one voice “we can give assurance to the critical international stakeholders, the US, the Canada, the EU (European Union) regarding the quality of our programme and that there is no risk to the security of the programme”.
St. Kitts-Nevis PM wants closer collaboration on Citizenship by Investment Programme
August 8, 2016 | Reuters | Regional | 0 Comments
Source: zizonline.com
ROSEAU, Dominica, Aug 8, CMC – St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris is calling for closer collaboration as Caribbean countries seek to implement various forms of a Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) as a means of boosting investments in their respective countries.
Harris, who is leading a delegation to attend the funeral of a Dominica-born St. Kitts-Nevis Police Force member, said that the programme is a massive revenue earner but warned that new entrants may take action that could undermine the programme.
St. Kitts-Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda have CIP programmes allowing for foreign investors to make significant investments in designated areas outlined by the countries and in return have the opportunity to receive citizenship from the country.
“We have been arguing that there is a need for all countries in CARICOM (Caribbean Community) that are participants in this programme to come together to develop standards for the industry and for the region as a whole so that we do not get into cut throat competition with ourselves,” said Prime Minister Harris.
Speaking on the state-owned DBS radio here, Harris said such infighting would “damage the programme as a whole because you only need one major incident involving one country for that to tarnish the programme for the entire region.
“So it is in our self-interest we believe that we should come together, establish what are the best practices…harmonise our legislative framework,” he said, urging the region to avoid being played against one another.
“So that wherever you go, if it is a no in Dominica it is a no in any other island of the region to which you go,” he said, adding that speaking with one voice “we can give assurance to the critical international stakeholders, the US, the Canada, the EU (European Union) regarding the quality of our programme and that there is no risk to the security of the programme”.
St. Kitts-Nevis PM wants closer collaboration on Citizenship by Investment Programme
TMNT4000
Superstar
France will get its.. in our lifetime
Can you guys give more info on this?(but in a separate thread, I don't want this thread getting derailed)
Decades After Killings and Displacement, Afro-Colombians’ Struggle Isn’t Over
Posted 9 August 2016 15:17 GMT
Community members pay homage to the victims of Operación Génesis. Image shared by FOR Peace Presence, used with permission.
This post is an adapted version of an original text written by FOR Peace Presence, originally published here.
With peace talks nearly complete, many communities around Colombia must now work to build a lasting truce in the country's more remote regions, facing numerous challenges and a complex network of relationships that have defined the conflict for years.
Today's Afro-Colombian community in Cacarica, in eastern Colombia, knows these challenges all too well. Historically, the region's black community has witnessed high levels of state-sponsored violence. The most infamous example is Operation Génesis, which took place in February 1997 and caused the displacement of more than 4,000 Afro-Colombians during the internal armed conflict that's only coming to an end today.
In 2013, the television program Contravía recorded interviews with several of the victims of this displacement:
Armed forces from both the military and the paramilitary executed the forced dislocation, officially in order to counteract the presence of guerrilla groups. A right-wing death squad called the “United Self Defense Forces of Colombia AUC” worked closely with the military, furnished with weapons by large landowners who had had a vested interest in the operation, because of damage to their businesses caused by guerrilla attacks. The operation caused the deaths and forced disappearances of more than 80 people. It is just one of several massacres committed by military and paramilitary groups in a joint operation.
Only in November 2013 did the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) condemn the Colombian government for the forced displacement of Afro-Colombian communities as a result of Operation Génesis.
The Creation of CAVIDA: An Answer to Injustice
For years, the Colombian government refused to implement any of the collective or individual reparations ordered by the IACHR. As a result, surviving community members have organized themselves into the Communities for Self-Determination, Life, and Dignity of Cacarica (CAVIDA), founding one of the first humanitarian zones in Columbia, called Nueva Vida y Esperanza en Dios (New Life and Hope for God). The humanitarian zone is a legal entity based on the Geneva Protocols.
Colombia's humanitarian zones are clearly demarcated areas inhabited by civilian populations where armed forces of any kind are not supposed to enter. The establishment of a humanitarian zone enabled CAVIDA members to return to their land and live protected from the internal armed conflict in a region with presence of all types of legal and illegal armed actors.
During all the years of their displacement, victims of Operation Génesis asked for a collective land title as an Afro-descendent community in order to guarantee their stay on the land, which they received in July 1998. The collective land title of more than 103,024 hectares was finally handed over to the black community of Cacarica in December 1999. This collective title was based on Colombia's Law 70, or the “Law of Black Communities,” passed in 1993 to protect the rights and cultural identity ethnic minorities.
In the documentary film ‘We Are Land,” shared by Peace Brigades Colombia (part of Peace Brigades International), members of the Cacarica community talk about their experiences with displacement and relocation:
Despite facing threats from armed groups, the community resettled its homeland in 2000 and 2001. “We still haven’t really returned,” says one member of CAVIDA in the film. As these people settled land in the newly founded humanitarian zones, only a few were able to return to their original homes and past lives. Most decided to stay on the land concentrated in humanitarian zones, citing fears about continued threats from armed men.
The IACHR had also ordered a reparation measure regarding collective memory. When the government didn't respond, CAVIDA took it upon itself to construct a monument in the humanitarian zone Nueva Vida. The statue's inscription summarizes the community's demands, reading, “Yesterday they displaced us, murdered us, and kidnapped us. Yesterday and today we are together holding hands with the world, resisting death, and resisting impunity.”
The IACHR also established a commemoration to remember Operation Génesis and its atrocities. This year, CAVIDA invited international and national organizations to attend its commemoration of the 19th anniversary of Operation Génesis and organized a hike that lasted several days and led through the thick rain forest to the border between Colombia and Panama, up to a hill called Cerrro Mocho, which is also home to a military base. Cerro Mocho forms a boundary of the black community’s territory in Cacarica with the Panamanian border.
Despite efforts to tackle the traumatic experience of the massacres and displacements caused by Operation Genesis and the unfulfilled demands for reparations, members of the Afro-Colombian population who returned have generally been unable to retake their quiet lives as subsistence farmers, facing continued threats. According to local reports, there have been recent incursions by paramilitary groups that pose the constant risk of forcing new displacements, all over again.
An Ongoing Struggle
The border region between Panama and Colombia comprises a vast territory of thick rain forest with enormous biodiversity, rich in minerals and precious woods. It also constitutes a strategic corridor for a diverse range of interests: among other projects, plans exist to complete the Inter-American highway and interconnect an electrical power infrastructure between Central America and South America.
But the interested parties looking at this land don't end there. In 2013, a binational military base was constructed at the border. Companies are increasingly interested in exploiting natural resources in the area and are taking advantage of the fertile soil for banana monoculture production. At the same time, the area is also an attractive route for Illegal armed groups that consider the corridor an ideal route for drug trafficking, as well.
Paramilitary groups were officially demobilized in 2005, after the Justice and Peace Law of 2005 was adopted. In reality, however, many members of these groups never demobilized, or they formed new groups that still exercise social and economic control over local populations (especially in this border region). One of the biggest and most hierarchical neo-paramilitary groups is called the Gaitanistas Defence Forces of Colombia (AGC), which also has a strong presence in this region. Even though the peace accord between the Colombian government and FARC has been signed, the communities in Cacarica and elsewhere are mostly worried about the persistence of neo-paramilitary structures, which threaten their rights to a peaceful life, according to human rights defenders.
The binational Colombian-Panamanian base located at the border of the humanitarian zones is another big reason for concern among the communities. In June 2013, five months before the IACHR ruled that the Colombian state is responsible for the displacement of the Afro-Colombian communities, the base Guamal was constructed on Cerro Mocho. According to GPS measurements taken by community members and international delegations, the territory of the military base coincides with the territory of the collective title, a fact that Colombian tribunals have denied. This is quite problematic, as the Colombian military was one of the perpetrators during the the operation that resulted in the mass killings, almost two decades ago.
In an effort to protect the civilian population, communities in the humanitarian zones have laid down rules barring access to armed forces. In addition, the Panamanian news media revealed in 2014 that William Brownfield, Colombia's assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, along with the former ambassador of the United States in Colombia, visited the base, raising concerns about the US government's role in such a strategic area.
Apart from remembering the victims of Operation Génesis, the commemoration also sought to raise concerns about the new base's location. In a joint statement, CAVIDA and others called for an official mission of verification in order to investigate the possibility that the base is located within the community's collective territory. The statement also calls for an inquiry into any agreements signed between the governments of the US, Panama, and Colombia.
In the meantime, today's self organized Afro-Colombian community is left with a lot of unanswered questions, an unsatisfied demand of justice, and many unpleasant neighbors.
Posted 9 August 2016 15:17 GMT
Community members pay homage to the victims of Operación Génesis. Image shared by FOR Peace Presence, used with permission.
This post is an adapted version of an original text written by FOR Peace Presence, originally published here.
With peace talks nearly complete, many communities around Colombia must now work to build a lasting truce in the country's more remote regions, facing numerous challenges and a complex network of relationships that have defined the conflict for years.
Today's Afro-Colombian community in Cacarica, in eastern Colombia, knows these challenges all too well. Historically, the region's black community has witnessed high levels of state-sponsored violence. The most infamous example is Operation Génesis, which took place in February 1997 and caused the displacement of more than 4,000 Afro-Colombians during the internal armed conflict that's only coming to an end today.
In 2013, the television program Contravía recorded interviews with several of the victims of this displacement:
Armed forces from both the military and the paramilitary executed the forced dislocation, officially in order to counteract the presence of guerrilla groups. A right-wing death squad called the “United Self Defense Forces of Colombia AUC” worked closely with the military, furnished with weapons by large landowners who had had a vested interest in the operation, because of damage to their businesses caused by guerrilla attacks. The operation caused the deaths and forced disappearances of more than 80 people. It is just one of several massacres committed by military and paramilitary groups in a joint operation.
Only in November 2013 did the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) condemn the Colombian government for the forced displacement of Afro-Colombian communities as a result of Operation Génesis.
The Creation of CAVIDA: An Answer to Injustice
For years, the Colombian government refused to implement any of the collective or individual reparations ordered by the IACHR. As a result, surviving community members have organized themselves into the Communities for Self-Determination, Life, and Dignity of Cacarica (CAVIDA), founding one of the first humanitarian zones in Columbia, called Nueva Vida y Esperanza en Dios (New Life and Hope for God). The humanitarian zone is a legal entity based on the Geneva Protocols.
Colombia's humanitarian zones are clearly demarcated areas inhabited by civilian populations where armed forces of any kind are not supposed to enter. The establishment of a humanitarian zone enabled CAVIDA members to return to their land and live protected from the internal armed conflict in a region with presence of all types of legal and illegal armed actors.
During all the years of their displacement, victims of Operation Génesis asked for a collective land title as an Afro-descendent community in order to guarantee their stay on the land, which they received in July 1998. The collective land title of more than 103,024 hectares was finally handed over to the black community of Cacarica in December 1999. This collective title was based on Colombia's Law 70, or the “Law of Black Communities,” passed in 1993 to protect the rights and cultural identity ethnic minorities.
In the documentary film ‘We Are Land,” shared by Peace Brigades Colombia (part of Peace Brigades International), members of the Cacarica community talk about their experiences with displacement and relocation:
Despite facing threats from armed groups, the community resettled its homeland in 2000 and 2001. “We still haven’t really returned,” says one member of CAVIDA in the film. As these people settled land in the newly founded humanitarian zones, only a few were able to return to their original homes and past lives. Most decided to stay on the land concentrated in humanitarian zones, citing fears about continued threats from armed men.
The IACHR had also ordered a reparation measure regarding collective memory. When the government didn't respond, CAVIDA took it upon itself to construct a monument in the humanitarian zone Nueva Vida. The statue's inscription summarizes the community's demands, reading, “Yesterday they displaced us, murdered us, and kidnapped us. Yesterday and today we are together holding hands with the world, resisting death, and resisting impunity.”
The IACHR also established a commemoration to remember Operation Génesis and its atrocities. This year, CAVIDA invited international and national organizations to attend its commemoration of the 19th anniversary of Operation Génesis and organized a hike that lasted several days and led through the thick rain forest to the border between Colombia and Panama, up to a hill called Cerrro Mocho, which is also home to a military base. Cerro Mocho forms a boundary of the black community’s territory in Cacarica with the Panamanian border.
Despite efforts to tackle the traumatic experience of the massacres and displacements caused by Operation Genesis and the unfulfilled demands for reparations, members of the Afro-Colombian population who returned have generally been unable to retake their quiet lives as subsistence farmers, facing continued threats. According to local reports, there have been recent incursions by paramilitary groups that pose the constant risk of forcing new displacements, all over again.
An Ongoing Struggle
The border region between Panama and Colombia comprises a vast territory of thick rain forest with enormous biodiversity, rich in minerals and precious woods. It also constitutes a strategic corridor for a diverse range of interests: among other projects, plans exist to complete the Inter-American highway and interconnect an electrical power infrastructure between Central America and South America.
But the interested parties looking at this land don't end there. In 2013, a binational military base was constructed at the border. Companies are increasingly interested in exploiting natural resources in the area and are taking advantage of the fertile soil for banana monoculture production. At the same time, the area is also an attractive route for Illegal armed groups that consider the corridor an ideal route for drug trafficking, as well.
Paramilitary groups were officially demobilized in 2005, after the Justice and Peace Law of 2005 was adopted. In reality, however, many members of these groups never demobilized, or they formed new groups that still exercise social and economic control over local populations (especially in this border region). One of the biggest and most hierarchical neo-paramilitary groups is called the Gaitanistas Defence Forces of Colombia (AGC), which also has a strong presence in this region. Even though the peace accord between the Colombian government and FARC has been signed, the communities in Cacarica and elsewhere are mostly worried about the persistence of neo-paramilitary structures, which threaten their rights to a peaceful life, according to human rights defenders.
The binational Colombian-Panamanian base located at the border of the humanitarian zones is another big reason for concern among the communities. In June 2013, five months before the IACHR ruled that the Colombian state is responsible for the displacement of the Afro-Colombian communities, the base Guamal was constructed on Cerro Mocho. According to GPS measurements taken by community members and international delegations, the territory of the military base coincides with the territory of the collective title, a fact that Colombian tribunals have denied. This is quite problematic, as the Colombian military was one of the perpetrators during the the operation that resulted in the mass killings, almost two decades ago.
In an effort to protect the civilian population, communities in the humanitarian zones have laid down rules barring access to armed forces. In addition, the Panamanian news media revealed in 2014 that William Brownfield, Colombia's assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, along with the former ambassador of the United States in Colombia, visited the base, raising concerns about the US government's role in such a strategic area.
Apart from remembering the victims of Operation Génesis, the commemoration also sought to raise concerns about the new base's location. In a joint statement, CAVIDA and others called for an official mission of verification in order to investigate the possibility that the base is located within the community's collective territory. The statement also calls for an inquiry into any agreements signed between the governments of the US, Panama, and Colombia.
In the meantime, today's self organized Afro-Colombian community is left with a lot of unanswered questions, an unsatisfied demand of justice, and many unpleasant neighbors.
Time for Afro-Guyanese to demand benefits from govt they voted for
Posted by: Denis Chabrol in Business, News, Politics | August 7, 2016
Professor David Hinds addressing a plenary session on “Socio-economic and Political Self-Realisation” at Cuffy250’s Fourth State of the African Guyanese Forum
Afro-Guyanese, largely supporters of the David Granger-led administration, were Sunday urged to pressure government into looking after their welfare in exchange for the votes that they cast for the APNU+AFC coalition last year.
The calls were issued at the Cuffy250 Fourth Annual State of the African Guyanese Forum held at the Critchlow Labour College, Woolford Avenue, Georgetown. Delivering the opening remarks at the plenary session on “Socio-economic and Political Self-Realisation,” was Executive Member of Cuffy250, Professor David Hinds.
“We have a government that we voted for and if you vote for a government, you got a duty to direct that government,” he said. Hinds noted that President David Granger in his address to the opening session called for a plan to improve the condition of African Guyanese. “We have to take him at his word” after crying out in the wilderness for 23 years, a clear reference to the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s (PPPC) period of rule from 1992 to 2015.
The Cuffy250 official said Afro-Guyanese would only secure benefits if they push and advocate to ensure that the government does something tangibly rather than only around election time. He called on Afro-Guyanese to collectively place a high premium on their votes cast at the May 11, 2015 general elections. “If the Africa Guyanese community rise up and says our votes meant something, our votes are worth something, our votes have value and so we have got to get value for our votes and we want that value in policy- policy that helps our community directly and indirectly,” he said.
A similar call was made by General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis who stressed the need to hold the government accountable. “We vote for them and they must deliver for us. Don’t run away from it. Don’t tell me is we government and we shouldn’t talk about them,” he said and questioned whether the APNU+AFC administration was preparing for its supporters to turn against it at the 2020 general elections. Hinds and Lewis said it was not about just criticising the government but it was about keeping them in check so that the APNU+AFC could continue to run the country. Lewis said it was time to end the talk about social cohesion and instead dole out funding, some of which could be diverted from the GYD$16 billion GuySuco bail-out, to revive village economies.
After analysing the roles of colonial and post-independence governments that have led to the decline of Black private sector and the village economies, Hinds said it was equally the duty of government to craft a policy to “repair the damage that was done.”
“I am arguing that it will take a heavy dose of government intervention to ensure that African Guyanese have equality of opportunity,” he said. Those, he said, must include an investment in villages such as a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)-funded project in four Afro-Guyanese villages.
Hinds said agriculture must be merged with business so that Afro-Guyanese could develop their own businesses such as value-added entities to export products to sister Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states.
The Cuffy250 official also recommended that steps be taken to address past discrimination in the award of contracts through the procurement system. “I am calling on the government to institute affirmative action in the granting of contracts, that there must be set aside money and set aside contracts for small and medium-sized contractors and we know that most of contractors in the Afro-Guyanese community are small and medium-sized. Give them a share; the government must ensure that,” he said. He recommended that several contractors come together and bid for large contracts. “We have to learn to be communal again so, therefore, the cooperative spirit has to return to our sense of community and our sense of business,” he said.
Among the policies, he said, that affected Afro Guyanese was the retrenchment of thousands of workers as part of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Structural Adjustment Programme but there was no Black private sector to absorb them. “Policy has ethnic impact and sometimes we don’t talk about and so, therefore, when you make those decisions and they have a negative impact it means, therefore, that when you are beginning to correct them you have to take into consideration the ethnic situation,” he said.
While the private sector is widely touted as the engine of growth, Professor Hinds reasoned that the then People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC)-led administration empowered its supporters in the private sector. “I don’t see anything fundamentally wrong with that except that what they needed to do was to make sure that the people who were not its supporters were also empowered and that is what I take issue with,” he said.
Hinds dispelled the view in some quarters that African Guyanese are historically not business-oriented, saying that it was the freed slaves who had pooled their resources to purchase villages and create agro-based village economies. Among the ensuing challenges was racism based on skin colour as it relates to inferiority and superiority that resulted in social and economic discrimination against Blacks across the globe where “blackness is constructed as nothingness.”
He said the agro-based village economies eventually collapsed because colonial and post-colonial governments stopped investing in agriculture, and improving drainage and irrigation, rangers against predial larceny and the Guyana Marketing Corporation declined. “If you do not invest in repairing agriculture and bringing it into the modern world then… it is not going to beneficial, it is not going to be financially feasible to continue to farm anymore,” he said.
There are no banks that are friendly to African Guyanese that you can go to and get start-up loans, cooperatives and vendors who imported food during the 1970s and 1980s when there were massive food shortages during bans and restrictions.
Time for Afro-Guyanese to demand benefits from govt they voted for
Posted by: Denis Chabrol in Business, News, Politics | August 7, 2016
Professor David Hinds addressing a plenary session on “Socio-economic and Political Self-Realisation” at Cuffy250’s Fourth State of the African Guyanese Forum
Afro-Guyanese, largely supporters of the David Granger-led administration, were Sunday urged to pressure government into looking after their welfare in exchange for the votes that they cast for the APNU+AFC coalition last year.
The calls were issued at the Cuffy250 Fourth Annual State of the African Guyanese Forum held at the Critchlow Labour College, Woolford Avenue, Georgetown. Delivering the opening remarks at the plenary session on “Socio-economic and Political Self-Realisation,” was Executive Member of Cuffy250, Professor David Hinds.
“We have a government that we voted for and if you vote for a government, you got a duty to direct that government,” he said. Hinds noted that President David Granger in his address to the opening session called for a plan to improve the condition of African Guyanese. “We have to take him at his word” after crying out in the wilderness for 23 years, a clear reference to the People’s Progressive Party Civic’s (PPPC) period of rule from 1992 to 2015.
The Cuffy250 official said Afro-Guyanese would only secure benefits if they push and advocate to ensure that the government does something tangibly rather than only around election time. He called on Afro-Guyanese to collectively place a high premium on their votes cast at the May 11, 2015 general elections. “If the Africa Guyanese community rise up and says our votes meant something, our votes are worth something, our votes have value and so we have got to get value for our votes and we want that value in policy- policy that helps our community directly and indirectly,” he said.
A similar call was made by General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Lincoln Lewis who stressed the need to hold the government accountable. “We vote for them and they must deliver for us. Don’t run away from it. Don’t tell me is we government and we shouldn’t talk about them,” he said and questioned whether the APNU+AFC administration was preparing for its supporters to turn against it at the 2020 general elections. Hinds and Lewis said it was not about just criticising the government but it was about keeping them in check so that the APNU+AFC could continue to run the country. Lewis said it was time to end the talk about social cohesion and instead dole out funding, some of which could be diverted from the GYD$16 billion GuySuco bail-out, to revive village economies.
After analysing the roles of colonial and post-independence governments that have led to the decline of Black private sector and the village economies, Hinds said it was equally the duty of government to craft a policy to “repair the damage that was done.”
“I am arguing that it will take a heavy dose of government intervention to ensure that African Guyanese have equality of opportunity,” he said. Those, he said, must include an investment in villages such as a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)-funded project in four Afro-Guyanese villages.
Hinds said agriculture must be merged with business so that Afro-Guyanese could develop their own businesses such as value-added entities to export products to sister Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states.
The Cuffy250 official also recommended that steps be taken to address past discrimination in the award of contracts through the procurement system. “I am calling on the government to institute affirmative action in the granting of contracts, that there must be set aside money and set aside contracts for small and medium-sized contractors and we know that most of contractors in the Afro-Guyanese community are small and medium-sized. Give them a share; the government must ensure that,” he said. He recommended that several contractors come together and bid for large contracts. “We have to learn to be communal again so, therefore, the cooperative spirit has to return to our sense of community and our sense of business,” he said.
Among the policies, he said, that affected Afro Guyanese was the retrenchment of thousands of workers as part of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Structural Adjustment Programme but there was no Black private sector to absorb them. “Policy has ethnic impact and sometimes we don’t talk about and so, therefore, when you make those decisions and they have a negative impact it means, therefore, that when you are beginning to correct them you have to take into consideration the ethnic situation,” he said.
While the private sector is widely touted as the engine of growth, Professor Hinds reasoned that the then People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC)-led administration empowered its supporters in the private sector. “I don’t see anything fundamentally wrong with that except that what they needed to do was to make sure that the people who were not its supporters were also empowered and that is what I take issue with,” he said.
Hinds dispelled the view in some quarters that African Guyanese are historically not business-oriented, saying that it was the freed slaves who had pooled their resources to purchase villages and create agro-based village economies. Among the ensuing challenges was racism based on skin colour as it relates to inferiority and superiority that resulted in social and economic discrimination against Blacks across the globe where “blackness is constructed as nothingness.”
He said the agro-based village economies eventually collapsed because colonial and post-colonial governments stopped investing in agriculture, and improving drainage and irrigation, rangers against predial larceny and the Guyana Marketing Corporation declined. “If you do not invest in repairing agriculture and bringing it into the modern world then… it is not going to beneficial, it is not going to be financially feasible to continue to farm anymore,” he said.
There are no banks that are friendly to African Guyanese that you can go to and get start-up loans, cooperatives and vendors who imported food during the 1970s and 1980s when there were massive food shortages during bans and restrictions.
Time for Afro-Guyanese to demand benefits from govt they voted for
THE LOST WORLD OF SURINAMESE FUNK: HOW A SOUTH AMERICAN SCENE DISAPPEARED OVERNIGHT
August 4, 2015 / 11:01 AM / By Angus Harrison
In a dark corner of the internet, shrouded in gaudy galactic imagery and word-art, sits galaxyeuropemusic.com - the online home of Sumy. Battling past the flashing 'on air' gifs and incoherent subheadings ("a planet God defence"?), you might just be able to discern that the owner of the site was once the centre of his very own musical universe. In his nation of Suriname, Sumy spent the early eighties producing soulful calypso-infused funk records that were as fast and loose as the best Western efforts. Then, along with a host of other artists, Sumy and the Surinamese disco movement completely disappeared.
According to the Lonely Planet, the country of Suriname is best described as a "warm, dense convergence of rivers that thumps with the lively rhythm of ethnic diversity." The suggestion that anywhere thumps with ethnic diversity is the sort of line normally reserved for a Liberal Democrat back bencher on Question Time, but with Suriname it might just be true. The tiny country has a history as a global crossroads. Due to Dutch colonialism, their African slaves, and subsequent Javanese immigrants, the population of around 500,000 people are made up from all continents and cultures. It gives the country a diverse history, but not necessarily a joyful one, creating a climate where identity was challenged and repressed.
Via Discogs.
Profoundly then, and not for the first time in the history of subjugation, dance provided an outlet. During a particularly tumultuous period in the nation's history - when slavery was still legal and prolific - a dance called Kaseko emerged. Developed by the descendants of escaped African slaves, the dance was a celebration of freedom itself, sweeping and high-tempo driven by feet pounding over clattering syncopated rhythms. The word Kaseko is thought to be a subversion of the French 'casser le corps' which translates as 'break the body'. An act of sacrifice as much as celebration. Kaseko grew through the twentieth century, bumping into jazz, calypso, and eventually the electronic music of North America.
Further down the line, the blend of African and South American stylings met new forces, and voices who had grown up with Kaseko began to construct new strands of funk and soul that charted an elevation from their hybridised roots. This is where Sumy comes in. Nicknamed after an abbreviation of 'Surinam baby', the musician's career started out in Paramaribo, the nation's capital. He first began to play music on self-made instruments as a hobby, but in 1979 moved to purchasing his first Hammond organ, Rhodes piano and PPG synthesizer. With these new toys he recorded his first single, "Going Insane". It's a bizarre slice of budget boogie, spitting and crackling with attitude and lyrics as punchy as they are totally vague (mostly just the words going insane).
With this first single under his belt, there was seemingly nothing to stop Sumy from producing some of the snappiest and strangely titled funk records of the eighties. This all came to a head on his 1983 album release Tryin' to Survive. The track-list is entertainment in of itself, featuring titles like "bytch, We Danced a Lot", "Goodthingman", and the album's lead single "Soul With Milk". I've listened to "Soul With Milk" a bunch of times now and feel no closer to understanding exactly what Sumy is reaching for. Maybe it is a reference to his attempts to mix soul music with shades of other influences, maybe just spiritual cereal. Regardless, the track titles and album's aesthetic perfectly captures the spirit of the Surinamese boogie revolution. Backed by shocking pink, wearing a metallic two-piece and showcasing a significant bulge, Sumy's album cover pose says it all. Distinct, sexually charged and completely over the top, Sumy was leading like Kaseko, dancing out of anonymity.
So why haven't you ever heard of him? In basically the only interview with Sumy that seems to exist, he mentions his struggle to be taken seriously by European musicians who found him arrogant, claiming as he did to have been "born a superstar, going to the top of the world straight from Surinam". Possibly this struggle to become a fully realised artist in Europe, eclipsed within a genre dominated by the likes of Prince, was the reason. The struggle for recognition has proven hard enough for African-American artists, so it only stands to reason that the task would be even harder for the Afro-Surinamese. That being said Sumy was signed to Philips for a two single deal — "The Funky G (Only Comes Out at Night)" and "Funkin' in Your Mind". Off the back of this success he was able to release Tryin' to Survive and then form his own label.
Photos via Discogs.
Perhaps in the end the work of Sumy wasn't unique enough. The songs on Tryin' to Survive are bizarre and brilliant, but are still clearly constructed in tandem with the American funk and disco scene. Perhaps his ambition to emulate the greats saw him disappear into their shadows. There were attempts, Sumy and his band the Freaky Thangs played shows in Amsterdam, but outside of these performances the airplay was limited. In 1986 Sumy changed his name to Krisnallah, stating since that he did so because "Sumy is an alias, a nickname, and the people of Surinam will give me a statue after I am dead because I have proven they can have one superstar child, a main leader forever ya know."
At the start of this year Netherlands based Rush Hour records re-released a limited 500 copies of his cult-funk classic Tryin to Survive. This release came two years after fellow Dutch label Kindred Spirits released the compilation Surinam! which featured Sumy along with many of his Surinamese contemporaries. The interest is pretty clear, in the heat of the disco and funk revival that has been gathering in momentum over the past few years everyone wants unheard material. For DJs it's no longer safe to rely on Chic cuts, or even that fairly obscure Commodores track you stumbled across on YouTube. Sumy, for now at least, offers that rare gift: gloriously funky music people genuinely haven't heard before.
It is nice to think then, that not only is Sumy part of a strangely brief pocket of time, place and culture, but that these re-releases could mark a revival of sorts. It is testament to the power of his recordings that they are basking in recognition so many years after their conception. It is also a powerful statement about the universality of dance music. Sumy describes himself as "born out of a mixed DNA" having "Chinese, Indian, European, African and some 30% Native American blood". The likelihood of this actually being true is probably slim, as are the chances of the people of Suriname building a statue after his death. But his ambition and idiosyncratic spirit speak of volumes of the way he views his music. In part his moment was fleeting, but being dance music its capacity to inspire and motivate is timeless and cross-generational. The story of Sumy and Surinamese disco may never be fully explained, but the windows we have into it reflect the reckless expression of world truly lost in music.
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Haiti Elections on Hold Due to Corruption Now Waiting for Hillary to be Crowned Pres! Battle for Haiti’s Billions in Gold & Oil Turning Into Treason, Murder, & Insanity!
Submitted by IWB, on August 10th, 2016
Haiti Elections on Hold Due to Corruption Now Waiting for Hillary to be Crowned Pres! Battle for Haiti’s Billions in Gold & Oil Turning Into Treason, Murder, & Insanity! « InvestmentWatch
too much to copy and paste
Haiti Elections on Hold Due to Corruption Now Waiting for Hillary to be Crowned Pres! Battle for Haiti’s Billions in Gold & Oil Turning Into Treason, Murder, & Insanity!
Submitted by IWB, on August 10th, 2016
Haiti Elections on Hold Due to Corruption Now Waiting for Hillary to be Crowned Pres! Battle for Haiti’s Billions in Gold & Oil Turning Into Treason, Murder, & Insanity! « InvestmentWatch
ZoeGod
I’m from Brooklyn a place where stars are born.
Yeah nobody knows when the election will happen. It's confusing now cuz alot of the senators and congressmen in the Parliament were elected in the fradulent. Plus Obama and the EU have refused to send aid money to Haiti to run the election. So there is no budget to run the election. Smh.