Palestinian Holocaust in Gaza

By Fidel Castro Ruz:



...
 

I am writing them rapidly, to state only that which requires deep reflection.

I think that a new, repugnant form of fascism is emerging with notable strength, at this time in human history when more that seven billion inhabitants are struggling for their survival.

 

None of these circumstances have anything to do with the creation of the Roman Empire, around 2,400 years ago, or with the U.S. empire which, in this region only 200 years ago, was described by Simón Bolívar who exclaimed, “…the United States appears to be destined by providence to plague America with misery in the name of liberty.”

England was the first true colonial power to use its dominion over a large part of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, North America, and many Caribbean islands, in the first half of the 20th century.

On this occasion I will not talk about the wars and crimes committed by the United States empire over more than 100 years, but will only state what it wanted to do to Cuba, what it has done to many other countries in the world, and only served to prove that “A just idea in the depth of a cave is stronger than an army.”

History is much more complicated than everything I have said, but that is the way it is, in broad strokes, as the inhabitants of Palestine know, and it is likewise logical that the modern communications media reflect the news which arrives daily, as has occurred with the shameful, criminal war in the Gaza Strip, a piece of land where the population lives in what remains of what was independent Palestine only 50 years ago.

The French agency AFP reported August 2, “The war between the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas and Israel has caused the deaths of close to 1,800 Palestinians,… the destruction of thousands of homes, and ruined an economy which was already weakened,” although it does not indicate, of course, who initiated the terrible war.

Added later, “… As of Saturday at midday the Israeli offensive had killed 1,712 Palestinians and injured 8,900. The United Nations was able to verify the identities of 1,117 dead, in their majority civilians … UNICEF counted at least 296 dead minors.”

“The United Nations estimates …some 58,900 persons homeless in the Gaza Strip.” 

“Ten of the 32 hospitals were closed and another 11 damaged.”

“This Palestinian enclave of 362 km² does not have the infrastructure needed for 1.8 million inhabitants, above all in terms of the provision of electricity and water.”

“According to the IMF, the rate of unemployment surpasses 40% in the Gaza Strip, territory subjected to an Israeli blockade since 2006. In 2000, unemployment was 20%, and in 2011, 30%. More than 70% of the population depends on humanitarian aid during normal periods, according to Gisha.

The Israeli government declared a humanitarian truce in Gaza at 07:00 GMT on Monday, nevertheless within a few hours, it broke the truce attacking a house, injuring 30 persons, in their majority women and children, and an eight-year-old girl died.

In the dawn hours of this same day, 10 Palestinians died as a result of Israeli attacks in all of Gaza and the number of Palestinians murdered has already increased to 2,000.

The killing has reached the point that, “French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius stated this Monday that Israel’s right to security does not justify the massacre of civilians taking place.”

The Nazi genocide of Jews outraged all the earth’s peoples. Why does this government believe that the world will be insensitive to the macabre genocide which today is being perpetuated against the Palestinian people? Perhaps it is expected that the complicity of the  U.S. empire in this shameful massacre will be ignored?

The human species is living in an unprecedented stage of history. A crash between military planes or warships which are closely watched, or other similar events could unleash a conflict with the use of sophisticated, modern weapons, which could become the last known adventure of Homo sapiens.

There are events which reflect the almost total inability of the United States to face the world’s current problems. It can be stated that there is no government in this country, no Senate, no Congress, CIA or Pentagon which will determine the final outcome. It is truly sad that this should happen when the dangers are so great, but the opportunities to move forward are great as well.

When the great patriotic war took place, Russian citizens defended their country like Spartans, underestimating them was the worse error made by the United States and Europe. Their closest allies, the Chinese, who like the Russians achieved their victory on the basis of the same principles, constitute today the earth’s most dynamic economic force.  
Countries want yuan and not dollars to acquire goods and technology, and increased trade.

New, indispensable forces have emerged. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - establishing links with Latin America and the majority of countries in the Caribbean and Africa struggling for development – constitute the forces which in our era are willing to collaborate with the rest of the world’s countries, without excluding the United States, Europe or Japan.

Blaming the Russian Federation for the in-flight destruction of the Malaysian airplane is a stunning oversimplification. Not Vladímir Putin, nor Serguéi Lavrov, Russia’s minister of Foreign Relations, or any other leader of this government would ever come up with such nonsense.

Twenty-six million Russians died in the defense of their homeland against the Nazis. Chinese combatants, men and women, inheritors of a millennial culture, are people of uncommon intelligence and an invincible spirit of struggle. Xi Jinping is one of the strongest and most capable revolutionary leaders I have met in my life.

Fidel Castro Ruz

August 05, 2014

Chile searches for vision

   By Christopher Lenton

In Chile, presidents are unable to run for consecutive terms and their administrations change every four years. It is an extreme form of democracy that safeguards against any one person or system from hijacking a government, a clear reaction to the 1973-1990 dictatorship.

While Chile is a relatively healthy democracy and should be congratulated for the social and economic advances it has made in the past two and a half decades, such quick successive change can hinder long-term planning, which in areas such as infrastructure, energy, and education is essential to the building of a modern nation state.

The lack of a coherent and proven long-term vision – to ensure projects will go ahead, companies will not be nationalized and rules will be respected – can also hamper investment and investor appetite.

For this reason I applaud the Chilean energy ministry's launch of Energía 2050, an energy policy initiative that calls on experts and the public to develop a vision for the country – all the way through to 2050.

"As the president has stated, we want to move from a reactive energy policy to a long-term strategy," energy minister Máximo Pacheco said.

Like most countries in the region, Chile follows an energy model developed in the 1980s that prioritizes the market and works more or less without any role from the state. While it has generally served as a model for other nations to follow, this lack of vision and foresight has led Chile to where it is now: a country that finds it nearly impossible to develop new projects and faces rising energy prices, a congested transmission system, and an overall sense of disorder in the industry.

"Every four years, a new government arrives that understandably has its own vision for the country's development," says Rene Muga, head of Chile's generators association. "If we can't create a plan that transcends administration changes, I don't think we'll be looking at a stable future for investment in the sector."

To change this, Chile and other countries need to think beyond the current government, even beyond the next administration, to take a look at where they are going.

What kind of grid do we want in 30, or 40 years? How can a modern, competitive energy system be developed that is both clean and affordable? How do we involve the citizenry in energy decision-making? How can we take advantage of local energy resources while not harming local communities? What can we do to curb climate emissions and limit the global temperature increase to 2°C by 2050? What kind of world do we want our children to live in? These are questions that must be addressed today in order for solutions and policy to be developed accordingly.

Long-term initiatives might also, I suggest, determine whether Chile reaches the much discussed 'developed country' stage.

Of course, these sorts of initiatives have been developed before, only to be stymied by politics. Energía 2050 is a nice first step, but will the next government carry on with the plan?

August 04, 2014

BN Americas

Let's 'map' Jamaica's Diaspora to achieve growth

 Diane Abbott

The Government attempt to map the talent in the diaspora is a good thing. The question, however, is having identified these talents, what will the Jamaican Government do with it to better the country and its people at home and abroad?

I am pleased that the Jamaican Government has set up the "Mapping Jamaica's Diaspora" project. It is potentially a brilliant idea. I have long argued that Jamaica's overseas diaspora is its greatest untapped natural resource.

The project is being driven by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and they are working with the International Organisation for Migration.

Its aim is to identify, through an online survey, what skills the diaspora has, and what they can contribute to the development of Jamaica. The survey is also designed to shed some light on what those of us in the diaspora think are the main issues facing us in our country of settlement.

I have dutifully filled in the survey and will wait to see what happens.

But, in the meantime, I would humbly suggest that ministers consider how they can maximise the value of the survey.

First of all, it needs to be more widely promoted so that people know about it. I know of very few Jamaicans in the UK who have actually heard of it. Most members of the Jamaican diaspora are going to have to be guided to it. So it cannot just be a question of merely putting it up online.

The Jamaican Government should work with churches and other grass roots organisations in order to get them to rally their members to fill it in.

There are at least 650,000 people of Jamaican heritage living in the UK — many more if you count the second and third generations. Hundreds of thousands of those will be connected to one of the black-led churches. They should be the go-to partners for any serious survey of Jamaica's diaspora.

I assume that the Government has sent details of the survey to the many different Jamaican organisations out there, whether they are national or linked to a particular town.

These organisations will be particularly valuable in targeting middle-aged Jamaicans who do not naturally spend a lot of time online. Because there will be this group of Jamaicans who will not find the survey online, because they never go online, the survey must be supplemented by other forms of research and data collection.

The danger in a survey restricted to online users is that, with no other supporting activity, it will fall short in documenting the diaspora in a genuinely useful way.

The Jamaican Government should also organise market research-type "focus groups" in all the towns of cities of Britain where there are large Jamaican populations.

This would add qualitative information to the merely numerical. This would cost money. But I suspect that the International Organisation for Migration is not working on this project for free.

So the same international organisations that are paying for that work could also pay to employ marketing and other experts to do a really thorough survey of Jamaicans and their descendants in the UK.

Then, once the survey is completed, the question is what will the Jamaican Government do with the information?

Having identified these talents, what will the Jamaican Government do with it to better the country and its people at home and abroad?

They have said they want to use the mapping exercise to support the development of a logistics hub, by identifying men and women with maritime industry, logistics, shipping and engineering experience.

Government has also intimated that it wants to advance the creative industries, such as animation and developing mobile apps.

If Government has these specific goals, in terms of identifying skills and talents, maybe they should also be approaching professional organisations and universities, encouraging them to identify people of Jamaican origin or affiliation within their ranks.

Professionals of Jamaican origin who have applied for jobs in the public sector back in Jamaica have sometimes felt unwelcome.

It would be a shame for the Government to go to all this trouble to identify skilled Jamaicans overseas yet still continue to recruit expatriates who are not obviously of Jamaican origin. We wait and see.

But "Mapping Jamaica's Diaspora" is a great project and, with a little tweaking, can make an important contribution to Jamaica's economic development.

— Diane Abbott is the British Labour Party MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington www.dianeabbott.org.uk

August 03, 2014

Jamaica Observer

Do we really need value-added tax (VAT) in The Bahamas

Do we really need VAT?

For most persons in the Bahamas, the talk of value-added tax (VAT) has been more of a nightmare than a pleasant discussion. Questions continue to surface because there is a distrust of the proponents for VAT. Do we really need VAT? Can we not implement another process which addresses the need for revenue generation without imposing a VAT? What about curbing expenditure and taking meaningful steps to assure the electorate that expense reduction is a part of the tax reform being touted.

Having done a study on the taxation system of the Cayman Islands, I am able to say that the indirect taxation model that is employed both here in The Bahamas and in the Cayman Islands has been working and is workable for the future. With this premise, in order to effectively eradicate deficit spending, we need revenue but we also need expense reduction. Expense reduction is the part of the equation that many seem to forget and/or wish to ignore. Revenue generation and the search to find ways to increase this part of the equation is not sufficient if we are going to address our financial challenges as a country. If it is that we have a revenue generation problem then finding creative but sustainable ways of generating revenue is the first step to the solution.

To assume that international agencies are the only solution providers when it comes to running the finances of our country is nonsensical at best and depressing at worst. Moreover, having seen the decline of the Jamaican economy over a period of 30 years with all of the involvement of the international agencies suggests to me that the solution for fixing our country’s problems cannot come from the outside but must come from within. After all, it is us who will bear the brunt of the financial realities. Moreover, it is my generation and the generation after me who will suffer from any adverse consequences with respect to VAT.

We must be adamant in ensuring that we do not idly allow this to be forced on us because some external groups says so. The Turks and Caicos Islands rejected VAT. The Cayman Islands does not have VAT. Why must the Bahamas adopt VAT? We can do better than that.

When I did my master’s degree in finance and studied taxation models, I realized very quickly that the indirect taxation model that we employ can work, contrary to what many would have us to believe. The fact is that Bahamians do not want VAT. Let’s just stop pretending that it is ok. From the feedback that is in the public domain, there is a dominant view that VAT is being forced upon Bahamians.

Let’s be more serious and efficient in collecting the taxes that we now have outstanding before looking at adding more. How many businesses are in arrears that should pay? This has to happen. Why should the masses be penalized because of the few? It is unfair to the majority of the Bahamian people to be saddled with VAT when there are workable alternatives which technocrats refuse to review or accept because of the international agenda being driven by them. The sovereignty of the Bahamas is at stake when the few impose their views on the many with far reaching detrimental effects.

If all Bahamians were to be honest when coming through Customs and paid their duties so that as a young sovereign nation we could have revenue to take care of our expenses, then we would probably not be at this point, watching VAT debated in parliament. While the government needs to do its part in collecting taxes, we as citizens have a responsibility to do our part and be honest and pay our fair share in order to build better schools, roads, parks and hospitals.

If 200,000 Bahamians travel to Florida or anywhere overseas annually and currently enjoy $600 in duty exemption, I am sure they would give this up to contribute an additional $120 million in revenue to the government. Further, if we looked at our work permit system as a source of revenue generation, which would also allow for an increase in foreign workers similar to Cayman, Bermuda or the British Virgin Islands, the potential for substantial annual revenues would be tremendous and the spin-offs in spending in the community would be beneficial to Bahamians. What percentage increase at the port could the Bahamian population afford that would provide the revenue needed while eliminating the call for VAT?

Sustainability is a key component and so this brings me to expenditure control. There has to be a reduction policy on expenditure in the public sector if we are going to be serious about eliminating our deficit. The Bahamas needs to have balanced budgets and we need to move in the direction of having surpluses. Is this doable?

The same level of aggressiveness with revenue generation must be exercised on expense reduction. It is no longer OK to do what is politically expedient or what is internationally directed when there are realistic alternatives to implementing VAT. Have we commissioned our economics professors at the College of the Bahamas to do a study that would support us using an alternative? If we believe in Bahamians we must start listening to what the Bahamian people are saying. Do not assume for one minute that they are stupid. With the addition of VAT there will be a need to add government services. What is the cost associated with this and doesn’t that add to the deficit? Could this expenditure cost an additional $30 to $40 million in Social Services costs?

VAT will add to the cost of living and this is a fact. Wouldn’t an alternative plan that has a lesser effect on cost of living be better for all of us?

Who will listen to the ordinary Bahamian? I know we all like the pie in the sky talk so when one hears of oil exploration in the Bahamas or the potential for salt production in Long Island or an increase in aragonite production for revenue, that too sounds good. Truth be told, if it were that easy it would have been done a long time ago. I think the sobering reality is that we must start with proper studies being done by Bahamians which include and take into account what the majority of Bahamians want. If it is that they want VAT, then VAT it shall be. As for me, I can say I don’t support it nor do I accept that it is the only logical way forward.

• John Carey served as a member of Parliament from 2002-2007 and can be reached at: johngfcarey@hotmail.com.

August 01, 2014

thenassauguardian

Food Security in The Bahamas

Ministry of Agriculture Implements Project To Advance Food Security in The Bahamas

By Jones Bahamas:

The sweet potato is the most important edible root to food security, followed by cassava in The Bahamas. Successive projects have aimed at increasing the amount of root crops produced, in an effort to satisfy increasing local demand for these commodities.

In both Abaco and Andros significant acreages of sweet potato have been planted using improved varieties. The Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Local Government has received approval for a research project: “Selection of marketable varieties of sweet potatoes and cassava.”

The purpose of the sweet project is to choose and obtain planting material for promising varieties of sweet potato and cassava, prepare trial crops in chosen islands, follow up its management and results and based on findings as to the best suited sweet potato and cassavas for production, train farmers and make planting materials accessible to farmers.

The technical and financial resources for the project will be provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Local Government, in cooperation with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).

The technical staff of the Department of Agriculture will be responsible for managing the project, using existing programme to improve the seed availability and crop management. At the end of the project it is expected that farmers would have a wider selection of high yielding sweet potato and cassava planting material which is suited to local growing conditions.

July 29, 2014

Jones Bahamas

The Gender equality issue in The Bahamas is set to be addressed via a constitutional referendum

Have Your Say: Bills To Bring About Gender Equality

Tribune242 Nassau, The Bahamas:



PRIME Minister Perry Christie announced the introduction of four bills in the House of Assembly on Wednesday morning which, once passed, will effect a constitutional referendum.

BILL 1: Would allow a child born outside of the Bahamas to a Bahamian mother and a non-Bahamian father to have citizenship.

BILL 2: Would allow a foreign man married to a Bahamian woman to seek citizenship.

BILL 3: Would allow an unmarried Bahamian father to pass his citizenship to a child born to a foreign mother.

BILL 4: Would end discrimination based on sex.

Have you been affected by any of these issues? Are they relevant to your life? If so, you can leave your comments below.

July 23, 2014

Tribune242

Black Bahamian Beauty

If you’ve seen a photo of me, other than the one posted here every week on this column, you’re thinking “where is this vanilla-skinned woman going talking about black Bahamian beauty?”

Hold that thought.

There was a time in history, not even so long ago, when I would have been considered too black to be white in some countries. And, yes, in some other countries, I would have been too white to be black.

This need to identify racial differences was driven by ignorance. Today, it still is.

People were then, as some still are now, unfamiliar with others who looked nothing like them, and they built their prejudices and judgments, and eventually hatreds, on their differences, fueled further by the human need to be right or to be best, and by the many intolerances of their parents and others before them who perpetuated this kind of thinking.

Now, after decades, centuries of racial mixing, when greater knowledge and less ignorance should exist because of greater exposure between countries and cultures, the separations continue.

The need to see and keep people in color blocks stems from an individual’s need to feel more comfortable about her or his position with respect to that other person. People long to fit in, be understood and loved. And if there are any perceived threats to them fitting in, being understood, or being loved, or the chance they might be considered unworthy of these things they long for, then they immediately begin an internal campaign to challenge the things and people they regard as threats to their comfort. From the comforts of racism to the comforts of relationships, this applies across the human experience.

The mere fact that everything always comes down to black and white, black or white, black versus white, is a lingering disturbance, but I have heard the question asked recently, “is The Bahamas racially divided?” “Do black Bahamians hate white Bahamians and vice versa?”

Maybe I’m not the one to answer this, because no one ever knows what I am. (Insert laughter here.) But when you hear Bahamians make serious racial slurs, in either direction, they’re just being one of two things: ignorant or hateful. And when you have a conversation with them, you find that the story goes a bit deeper, usually back to some personal experience that left them with emotional or mental discomfort, or something more psychologically invasive like a full-fledged mental (re)conditioning inflicted by 1) their own people, or, 2) an outsider.

A while back, I met a little girl at a private school sports meet. I should say, more accurately, she met me. She was about five years old. And I guess she gravitated towards me because she wanted to have a conversation about something that made her uncomfortable, and she was looking for some resolution.

She told me that she wished she was white. I told her that she should never say that or feel that way because she was beautiful… and she really was. But, of course, being who I am, I had to find out more about why this child, at five years of age, was already on this road to self-hate.

Every reason she gave me for wanting to be white was superficial, or mostly aesthetic, and in the end I concluded that her dilemma stemmed from the fact that she didn’t want to look the way she did because someone had, along the way, told her or shown her that her skin color made her inadequate.

Now, because I grew up in The Bahamas, my own experience reminded me that it was likely that the other little kids who looked just like her could have had a lot to do with this little girl’s interpretation of herself and the low self-esteem that would arise later on because of it, affecting, quite possibly, every part of her life and her outlook on life.

Yes, there are always some other influences in these circumstances, and with a little more time in this little girl’s company I might have discovered more. But, drawing on my own encounters, I was willing to bet that there was something going on closer to home. Someone was reinforcing for her that her brown skin was not as good as lighter skin. I would also be willing to bet that, at present, there is still at least one generation of brown-skinned people who don’t know or love themselves as they are, which is mind-blowing to me in a predominantly black country. And the perpetrators? Often ourselves… in the way we have subconsciously adapted the concepts of beauty over many years of being subjected to what we believed to be superior to us.

Sit and listen to the children playing in the streets or on a playground. Children can be so cruel and heartless, and Bahamian children have a special type and method of ‘cruelty’ when they grab on to the use of certain hurtful words. It is not uncommon to hear them taunt each other about their skin color: “come from here with your black self”, “well mudda sick, you look black, boy”, or “you so black and ugly.”

Where are these children hearing these things and why do they relive them every day? This special kind of thinking comes from a special kind of environment, with a special kind of parent or parents or adults who perpetuate it.

And it makes me wonder, where is the mother’s love in this equation? What about my little friend? What would her mother say if she heard her child telling me these things about her skin color preference? Or, maybe, she’d say nothing, because she herself says these things to the child or around the child. And maybe, just maybe, she, the mother, feels the same way about herself.

And I reflect on my own mother.

I was a mixed child who grew up with a predominantly black family. Unless they knew my maternal relatives, the assumption of most people I encountered was that I was white. But my mom never gave me any reason to believe I was different. We never had a need to have a conversation about race… not until I was almost a teenager, and she told me about the idiot (my word) who worked with her who, whenever he saw me, would call me ‘Imitation of Life.’

As a child, and at that time, I had absolutely no idea what that meant, but, when I grew a little older and watched the movie by the same name, it broke my heart. The movie itself was sad, but it was even sadder and more heartbreaking to me that someone could label me with such a burdensome title and know nothing about me. And from that moment on I became more aware of racial differences and intolerances, but most specifically the black Bahamian’s dislike for self and need for constant comparison, evaluation, and approval.

It never dawned on me that my skin color could make so many people perplexed, and that ranged from shock and speechlessness, to excitement at the novelty, to disgust and jealousy.

As I got older, the comments and questions got more ridiculous. While at COB, I recall another student walking up to me and asking “are you black or white?” And even though I had come to expect it by then, it still always caught me off guard. It never stopped being strange that someone had such a need for an answer to this question that had nothing to do with them.

I started to have a little fun with my responses, just to entertain myself, because surely this was a joke. Sometimes I would say ‘both’. Sometimes I would say ‘neither’. Sometimes I would ask, “Which makes you feel better?” Of course, on those latter occasions, I would get dead air. I still do this. And if today someone says ‘hey white girl’, I say ‘hey black boy/ girl’ and watch their silent, jaw-dropped reactions to the absurdity of the way that sounds.

From the insane comments about my good hair (which, by the way, still happens), to the more foolish comment that I was white and I thought I was better than they were, over the years the racial feedback grew in intensity.

And I remember feeling afire inside, finally deciding that no, I don’t think I’m white, I know what I am, but you apparently think I’m white, and are obsessed with labeling me to make yourself more comfortable with your interpretation of me.

In spite of the many mixed babies being born the world over and in The Bahamas, this assumption still holds strong to this day. I think this idea that I and others like me (perceived white) automatically have thoughts of superiority is based more on the fact that those who believe this automatically have thoughts of inferiority about themselves. Clearly, they were then and still are ignorant of my parentage, and it is has never been my concern to explain it to them. But it does starkly reveal the deficiencies in their own parentage which has caused them to see themselves in such a negative light, deficiencies perfected by years of practice being something other than they are.

Through the simple cultural routine of hair relaxing, pressing, and now weaving, to the skin bleaching, I realize that it is ingrained in our black Bahamian women (and men) to deny their true selves and their true beauty.
Could this be what happened to my little friend who wanted to be white?

The (Bahamian) black woman is taught, subconsciously, that her hair must be straighter. Some black women are taught that their skin must be lighter.

And in my years of observing my own culture, I’ve never known anyone to perpetuate these stereotypes more than the black woman herself, save for a few random exceptions, to fit the norm of societal expectation.

My mum has, since I was a child, worn her natural hair in a low afro. My grammy did, too. It was my norm to see this, and for black women to be this way. They were just being themselves. It was the standard of self-love and self-approval. It was a sincere lack of interest in conforming to those haunting and depleting social norms, something I held on to and have never, ever let go of. If you know me, you know I am a nonconformist in every possible way, and I care nothing about people’s opinions of me. And I think that, next to immeasurable love, is the greatest gift my mother and grandmother have given me.

When I look at Mummy, I see a woman of color with natural hair breaking barriers in an enslaved concept of black beauty. And when I see other black women who have done or are doing the same, intentionally or otherwise, I sing a little victory song inside, because there’s nothing more empowering for little girls, who one day become mothers of entire nations, to see their own mothers love themselves so completely.

It tells me that they know who they are and they love who they are. It tells me that if they can love themselves this way, their children will be more likely to love themselves in the same way. And if this could happen all around the country, there would be fewer little Bahamian girls telling me and other random strangers that they wish they were white. And they can stop looking at their differences from the perspective of needing to conform or change themselves on the basis of an arbitrary standard of beauty, and more from the perspective of celebrating themselves as they naturally are. And if they can celebrate their many differences even in beauty, then the differences, one day, perhaps won’t matter as much.

• Nicole Burrows is an academically-trained economist. She can be contacted via Facebook at Facebook.com/NicoleBurrows.

June 16, 2014

thenassauguardian