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 Stephen Kangal
April 23, 2010
The decision taken by the Manning Administration to sign the secretive T&T/Grenada Maritime Boundary Treaty on Wednesday 21 April while he has dissolved Parliament is illegal from the perspective of the laws of T&T. This is a treaty that could have the effect of decreasing the geographical extent of our maritime jurisdiction by establishing delimitation boundaries that decrease the areal limits of our vital northern hydrocarbon-producing marine areas.
Continue reading Signing Boundary Treaty with Grenada Illegal
By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
March 07, 2010
Saturday, 13 March 2010, marks the 31st year anniversary of the first successful armed revolution against neo-colonial government in the English-speaking Caribbean.
On 13 March 1979, while the neo-colonialist “criminal dictator” Eric Gairy was out of Grenada, “the real revolutionaries” of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) under the leadership of Comrade Maurice Bishop masterminded “a successful armed takeover of the True Blue army barracks and the island’s sole radio station.”
Continue reading Grenada Revolution Revisited
Haitians will defend their sovereignty By The Real News
Ronald Charles: This way of providing aid is a way to humiliate us and many Haitians will not accept it.
Continue reading Haitians will defend their sovereignty
By Raffique Shah
January 31, 2010
BEFORE the Herculean task of reconstructing Haiti can begin, the current relief programme must reach every Haitian. It must first ensure that all those who suffered physical and mental trauma during and after the earthquake are properly treated. Last week I made reference to amputations being done with hacksaws and without anaesthetic. Hello! Anaesthesia was introduced in the mid-19th century! The US military has large numbers of field hospitals equipped a wide range of medications to meet such emergencies. Where were they?
Continue reading A few good men…and women
Sending in the Marines
By Judith Scherr
January 29, 2010 – counterpunch.org
THE FRENCH COOPERATION Minister Alain Joyandet accused the U.S. of “occupying” Haiti rather than helping in the wake of the devastating January 12, 7.0 earthquake. Doctors Without Borders and officials from the Caribbean community expressed similar frustrations, as US military personnel controlling the airport turned away their planes. With just under 20,000 U.S. boots on the ground in Haiti or just off shore, the U.N. military force has augmented its numbers to around 12,000. Still, more than two weeks after the disaster, Haitians lack water, food, medicine, shelter and equipment to dig out those that may still be alive under the rubble.
Continue reading Q & A with the State Department on Haiti
By John Pilger
January 27, 2010
The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude. On 22 January, the United States secured “formal approval” from the United Nations to take over all air and sea ports in Haiti, and to “secure” roads. No Haitian signed the agreement, which has no basis in law. Power rules in an American naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training.
Continue reading The Kidnapping of Haiti
By Al Jazeera English
January 25, 2010 – aljazeera.net
In 2008, in the midst of the global food crisis, we travelled to Haiti to look at the politics of rice – how such a fertile country became dependent on food aid.
In the wake of this current disaster, that dependence is – initially – going to deepen.
Continue reading Focus on Haiti – The Politics of Rice
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 Viv Smith
Socialist Worker
FOUR DAYS AFTER the disaster in Haiti, the media shifted its attention from images of suffering to those of looting.
Talk has turned to keeping “law and order”. Haitians are increasingly depicted as savages.
But the real savages and looters are the US ruling class.
Instead of helping to rebuild Haiti’s infrastructure to meet people’s needs, the US is ensuring that the rich who have plundered Haiti for 200 years get even richer.
Continue reading Haiti: the real looters are sitting in Washington