By Clint Chan Tack
Friday, December 9 2011 – newsday.co.tt
CUBAN PRESIDENT Raul Castro yesterday slammed United States (US) President Barack Obama for failing to keep a commitment he made at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain in April 2009 to lift the 49-year-old embargo which the US placed on Cuba since 1962.
Continue reading END ISOLATION OF CUBA
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Arrival of H.E General Raul Modesto Castro Ruz, the President of the Councils of State and Council of Minister of the Republic of Cuba for state visit ahead of the Fourth Cuba-Caricom Summit.
Continue reading Arrival of Cuban President Raul Castro: Fourth Cuba-Caricom Summit
US BIG STICK FOR RAUL
Hilton blocked from hosting Caricom conference attended by Cuban president
By Julien Neaves
December 07, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com
US-BASED hotel chain Hilton Worldwide has been denied a special licence from the US Government to allow for the IV Caricom/Cuba Summit to be held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre with visiting Cuban President Raul Castro.
The two-day summit, which starts today, will instead be held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port of Spain.
Continue reading US Bans Hilton Hotel from Hosting Castro
By Derren Joseph
August 11, 2010
In looking at the often controversial dynamics of our regional integration attempts, frequent comparisons are made with the European Union. After the fall of Rome, various egotistical régimes had made attempts to unite what is now “Western” Europe with varying degrees of success. Out of this, the first point to be made is that the present European Union with its many languages and cultures is the product of hundreds, if not thousands of years of history. So when we ask ourselves why our little Caribbean region seems to struggle when it comes to cooperation, part of the answer may lie in our relative socio-political-economic “youth”.
Continue reading Pursuing Closer Links with Guyana
Keeping the faith
Taking into account the noises made again last week from one end of the region to the other by citizens growing more cynical about the state of health of the regional integration movement, it remains a matter for the record, that the Montego Bay Summit qualifies for positive review on several fronts.
Continue reading Kamla shakes up Caricom
By Raffique Shah
January 24, 2010
WHAT surprised me about my column last week was the number of people, mostly local, who knew little or nothing about Haiti’s history. But what should I have expected in a country and an education system in which history has been deemed irrelevant? Or when students study the subject, the focus is on lands and civilisations afar? Let’s face it: we know more about America and Europe than we do of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.
Continue reading Haiti: Another American Annexation?
By Raffique Shah
January 17, 2010
SO we cry for Haiti again. Yet another natural disaster, this time an earthquake of horrendous magnitude, has all but flattened what was left of that ‘cussed’ country. In the Caribbean, so full of heart are we, even those who survive barely above the poverty line give, be it cash or clothes or food. But will our generosity, will the US$1 billion or so in help that will flow over the next year make a difference to 4.5 million of seven million people who live on less than US$1 day?
Continue reading Reparations, not handouts, for Haiti
By Ras Tyehimba
December 09, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago recently hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2009 under the theme “partnering for a more equitable and sustainable future”. Fifty-three leaders of countries, formerly direct colonies, gathered in Port of Spain, under the symbolic leadership of Queen Elizabeth II. The general responses to the Summit have been quite unsatisfactory, especially in terms of the lack of critical perspectives and understanding of the operations of the Commonwealth organisation and our own government’s participation in this. The shallow mainstream media reporting and discouragement of perspectives and activities that may “embarrass the government” has meant that people of the so-called Commonwealth, in countries across the world, have been locked into the agendas of Imperial countries. By looking at the Commonwealth of Nations from a historical perspective, there can be greater awareness of how various hierarchies and systems of control have evolved from the period of direct colonialism to the present.
Continue reading CHOGM’s Shameful Legacy
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
PoS CHOGM ends
COMMONWEALTH leaders yesterday paid glowing tribute to Trinidad and Tobago for hosting one of the most successful Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGM) in the 60-year history of the organisation. The leaders paid their tributes as they delivered their closing statements in the presence of local and international journalists during the final executive meeting of the CHOGM in the Port-of-Spain ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Centre.
Continue reading PoS CHOGM ends
By Raffique Shah
November 29, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
Friday morning. Big day for Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II heads a list of dignitaries attending the CHOGM. Over the next three days Trinidad and Tobago, this small country, will showcase its wonderful Chinese architecture to our envious Commonwealth brethren. Look at me! Watch my costume (including my brand-name ‘darkers’ that I don’t take off, not even to look Her Majesty in the eye, as royal etiquette demands). Don’t mash my Performing Arts cape! I’m on the world stage!
Continue reading An ‘old boys club’ headed by an old lady
