By William Blum
December 10, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
All the crying from the left about how Obama “the peace candidate” has now become “a war president” … Whatever are they talking about? Here’s what I wrote in this report in August 2008, during the election campaign:
Continue reading The Peace Candidate Myth: Yeswecanistan
By Stephen Gowans
November 03, 2009 – what’s left
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
It has become standard practice in many parts of the world for opposition candidates to decry as fraudulent election results that favor the incumbent. Charges of vote fraud are routinely levelled against governing parties that win elections contested by opposition parties backed by Western governments.
Continue reading When electoral fraud is met by congratulations
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
In this photo taken Friday, Aug. 14, 2009, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard is tended to by fellow U.S. Marines after being hit by a rocket propelled grenade during a firefight against the Taliban in the village of Dahaneh in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan. Bernard was transported by helicopter to Camp Leatherneck where he later died of his wounds. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Continue reading Was publishing photo of wounded US Marine irresponsible?
Q. Is Obama better than Bush?
A. It depends how you like your imperialism – with a white face or a black one.
By Stephen Gowans
July 19, 2009
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com
US president Barack Obama’s speech at Accra, Ghana on July 11, 2009 was equal parts jaw dropping hypocrisy, outright fiction, sound advice for Africans if taken literally, and advocacy for institutions ideally suited to capital accumulation in Africa by Western investors. Africans should heed the US president’s call to embrace the idea that Africa’s future is up to Africans (and Africans alone) and to build their own nations, but the path Obama proposes, if followed, would condemn Africa to continued underdevelopment and perpetual dependence on the West.
Continue reading Obama’s Africa Speech: Lies, Hypocrisy, and a Prescription for Continued African Dependence
By Derren Joseph
June 06, 2009
Trinidad and Tobago News Blog
www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog
In difficult economic times, the sensitive issue of immigration tends to get even more sensitive. It is hard not to notice this. In England for example, there is much debate about an apparent increase in popularity of a far-right political party called the British National Party or the BNP.
Continue reading ‘We are the land of opportunity’
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega arrives for the opening
ceremony of the Fifth Summit of the Americas – April 17, 2009
Speech by His Excellency Honourable Daniel Ortega Saavedra, President of Nicaragua, on April 17 2009, during the Opening Ceremonies of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.
Continue reading President Ortega’s Opening Statement at the Fifth Summit of the Americas
By Chris Floyd
April 28, 2009 – chris-floyd.com
Haiti has been a cursed nation throughout its existence. As I noted in a piece in 2004:
Exactly two hundred years ago, Haitian slaves overthrew their French masters — the first successful national slave revolt in history. What Spartacus dreamed of doing, the Haitian slaves actually accomplished. It was a tremendous achievement — and the white West has never forgiven them for it.
In order to win international recognition for their new country, Haiti was forced to pay “reparations” to the slaveowners – a crushing burden of debt they were still paying off at the end of the 19th century. The United States, which refused to recognize the country for more than 60 years, invaded Haiti in 1915, primarily to open it up to “foreign ownership of local concerns.” After 19 years of occupation, the Americans backed a series of bloodthirsty dictatorships to protect these “foreign owners.” And still it goes on.
It certainly does — even under the “enlightened” foreign policy of Barack Obama. As John Caruso reports (in separate pieces in A Distant Ocean and A Tiny Revolution), Obama and his “superstar” secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, are loudly championing the latest egregious, brutal farce that Washington and the West have foisted upon the uppity natives of Haiti.
Continue reading Cry, the Unforgiven Country: Obama’s ‘Continuity’ in Haiti
By Raffique Shah
Sunday, April 26th 2009
PRIME Minister Patrick Manning seems surprised that so many people are angry over this country hosting the Fifth Summit of the Americas. I wrote a few weeks ago that having committed the country to the summit when he did, he no doubt thought that we could afford that $500 million or whatever the real cost was.
He must have felt, too, that just having all hemispheric Heads of Government here would boost his image as a the premier Caribbean leader. I do not dispute his reasoning that the country would benefit from world recognition, only because it was billed as the battleground between Presidents Obama and Chavez.
Continue reading Caring too much about image
By Stephen Kangal
April 24, 2009
The hosting of the recently concluded Fifth Summit of the Americas was portrayed as a CARICOM initiative and, as usual, T&T bore the full costs involved.
I am very disturbed that T&T/CARICOM did not act collectively in an effective manner to maximize returns on T&T’s huge and staggering investment. The CARICOM meeting that was scheduled for Thursday 16 April was not held. No effort was made to concretize a CARICOM strategy at the Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Heads of Government held in Belize prior to the Summit.
Continue reading Lack of a CARICOM Strategy at the Fifth Summit
This interview has been transcribed from a translation during a press briefing featuring Bolivian President Evo Morales at the Fifth Summit of the Americas – April 18, 2009
PRESIDENT MORALES: Thank you my friends from the press. For those of you that don’t know me, I am Evo Morales Ayma, President of the nation of Bolivia. I would like to take this opportunity, first to thank you for your presence, and also to engage in a political and ideological debate that is taking place at the Summit of the Americas.
Continue reading Press Briefing with Evo Morales at the 5th Summit of the Americas
