Living Oceans Foundation fights ocean pollution in Small Island Developing States
By GENA GIBBS
Nassau, The Bahamas
FIGHTING for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to have the scientific right to ecological protection is the mission of Khaled bin Sultan's Living Oceans Foundation.
After prior extensive aerial surveys and reconnaissance of the Cay Sal Bank, the first expedition will take place there on April 26.
Prince Khaled bin Sultan of the Saudi Royals began his foundation 10 years ago and is now funding a five-year global expedition. Since one of his passions is deep-ocean diving, he said he feels a special connection to the ocean. He has chosen a team of scientists who are now evaluating the impact that global pollution has on marine life and human survival.
"The first thing people ask is who is Khaled bin Sultan? He is a Saudi Arabian Royal and he is the Assistant Minister of Defence and Aviation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," said Captain Phil Renault, executive director of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation.
"So, everyone says, 'well how did he ever start this foundation?' About 15 years ago, he built these ships and the ship we're standing on right here is the Motor Yacht Golden Shadow. It is actually designed as a logistical support ship for the yacht he has."
Captain Renault explained that the captain of the ship in the mid 90s realised the Golden Shadow was an amazing platform to conduct oceanographic research. The yacht began to attract business from many oceanographers and researchers from around the world.
"And then someone advised the Prince that might be the proper time to establish a foundation, and that was the genesis of the Khalid bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. We just turned 10 years old," said Captain Renault.
"I consider the first decade of our foundation to be a developmental phase and the first generation in building capabilities and capacities. We are looking forward to entering what I consider the second generation of the Living Oceans Foundation and that is this global reef expedition. It is a very, very ambitious project."
The Living Oceans Foundation chose the Bahamas to launch their "Science Without Borders" research project on board the Motor Yacht Golden Shadow to examine the coral reef systems in the Red Sea, Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.
The foundation spent their first 10 years finding a niche in coral reef studies and surveys. Now they will spend the next five years going around the world mapping, characterising, and surveying the ocean resources.
"Beginning right here in the Bahamas, we'll take this ship around the world and we'll survey both remote and near shore coral reefs. We're going to look across gradients of biodiversity, and man-made stress, and try to close some of these scientific gaps," said Captain Renault.
"We have some significant gaps in the scientific knowledge on these coral reef ecosystems and our contribution will be to applied science. Products and outputs from this big project can go directly towards management and that's where it all becomes important."
Captain Renault said that global resource managers in business to protect coral reefs and their future natural sustainability are hungry for information.
"They are hungry for maps and they are hungry for outputs from a project like ours," said Captain Renault.
April 13, 2011
tribune242
An International Caribbean Online Log about the news and opinions in the Americas and World. This Caribbean Blog of global reach and appeal is maintained by Bahamian Blogger - Dennis Dames with all readers and subscribers in mind.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Bahamas: Many of our children and youth have a deficit of reading, writing and speaking skills
Improving literacy, numeracy and oracy
thenassauguardian editorial
Nassau, The Bahamas
The Ministry of Education has pointed to plans to allow for the expansion of focus on literacy and numeracy by using a coordinated approach to improve both standards at the national level.
The ministry must be applauded for its intentions, but in addition to intensified literacy and numeracy efforts at the primary school level, there is also a need to focus on oracy or the oral skills of our students.
Many of our children and youth have a deficit of reading, writing and speaking skills. A comprehensive focus on all three skills is necessary. They complement one another.
We applaud those young people who are excelling in various speech and debate competitions. But the majority of our young people seem to become tongue tied when asked to speak in front of their peers or others.
This is not just natural shyness. It bespeaks a lack of confidence and a lack of mastery of various and basic verbal skills. These are skills our young people will continue to need in a global economy in which our major industries require superior language skills, including superior verbal skills.
That English is the world’s lingua franca is a major comparative advantage for The Bahamas, but only if we master it, along with other world languages.
As regards the ministry’s proposed efforts in the areas of literacy and numeracy, we note similar such efforts by successive governments and ministers of education. Many of them have had limited success.
The country will require more engineers, scientists, and other professionals who are numerate, a focus on this area is urgent and welcome.
Of course, reading is a prerequisite for a more literate country. In this regard, a love of learning and reading begins with parents and guardians who enjoy reading and whose curiosity propels them to life-long learning.
Whatever the deficits in our home life, schools can make an enormous difference in encouraging our young people to appreciate the joy of discovery and adventure that may be found in the world of ideas and books.
The Ministry of Education’s expanded focus on indigenous educational material may go a long way in helping to inculcate this spirit of learning in our young people, whether they are at risk learners or students who simply need a little more encouragement.
Disturbingly, many professionals and leaders in various areas of national life also demonstrate verbal and reading skills which reinforce in our young people certain poor attitudes and sloppy practices as regards to literacy and oracy.
Rather than simply bemoaning the lack of these skills in our young people, these professionals and leaders may wish to lead by example, improving both their reading habits and language skills.
4/11/2011
thenassauguardian editorial
thenassauguardian editorial
Nassau, The Bahamas
The Ministry of Education has pointed to plans to allow for the expansion of focus on literacy and numeracy by using a coordinated approach to improve both standards at the national level.
The ministry must be applauded for its intentions, but in addition to intensified literacy and numeracy efforts at the primary school level, there is also a need to focus on oracy or the oral skills of our students.
Many of our children and youth have a deficit of reading, writing and speaking skills. A comprehensive focus on all three skills is necessary. They complement one another.
We applaud those young people who are excelling in various speech and debate competitions. But the majority of our young people seem to become tongue tied when asked to speak in front of their peers or others.
This is not just natural shyness. It bespeaks a lack of confidence and a lack of mastery of various and basic verbal skills. These are skills our young people will continue to need in a global economy in which our major industries require superior language skills, including superior verbal skills.
That English is the world’s lingua franca is a major comparative advantage for The Bahamas, but only if we master it, along with other world languages.
As regards the ministry’s proposed efforts in the areas of literacy and numeracy, we note similar such efforts by successive governments and ministers of education. Many of them have had limited success.
The country will require more engineers, scientists, and other professionals who are numerate, a focus on this area is urgent and welcome.
Of course, reading is a prerequisite for a more literate country. In this regard, a love of learning and reading begins with parents and guardians who enjoy reading and whose curiosity propels them to life-long learning.
Whatever the deficits in our home life, schools can make an enormous difference in encouraging our young people to appreciate the joy of discovery and adventure that may be found in the world of ideas and books.
The Ministry of Education’s expanded focus on indigenous educational material may go a long way in helping to inculcate this spirit of learning in our young people, whether they are at risk learners or students who simply need a little more encouragement.
Disturbingly, many professionals and leaders in various areas of national life also demonstrate verbal and reading skills which reinforce in our young people certain poor attitudes and sloppy practices as regards to literacy and oracy.
Rather than simply bemoaning the lack of these skills in our young people, these professionals and leaders may wish to lead by example, improving both their reading habits and language skills.
4/11/2011
thenassauguardian editorial
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Male achievement in education is one of the more urgent challenges facing The Bahamas
PM Laments Low Male Achievers
BY ANDREW J.W. KNOWLES
jonesbahamas
With males comprising just 15 per cent of the College of The Bahamas (COB) graduates, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham admits that male achievement in education becomes one of the more urgent challenges facing the country.
"We are all concerned, for example, that males now comprise only 15 per cent of COB’s graduates," Prime Minister Ingraham said.
"The imbalance between the number of female and male graduates speaks to a deeper and broader national problem of male educational achievement. The subject is ripe I believe, for study and research by COB as we seek to develop innovative and practical ideas on how we may address the gender gap as it begins to manifest at the primary and secondary levels of our school system."
His remarks came during the official opening ceremony of the $28 million Harry C. Moore Library and Information Centre last Friday morning at COB’s campus.
Recognising that male achievement touches on areas of national life from family life to crime prevention to economic development to public health, the prime minister said this "great national challenge" requires innovative and cross-disciplinary responses from fields such as sociology, social psychology, education, criminology, economics and other disciplines.
"If ever we needed to find innovative solutions to a critical national issue, we urgently need to do so on the challenge of boosting male achievement and reducing the level of criminality by young men."
"Even as the country turns to government and others for responses, it also increasingly turns to the institutions of higher learning to provide the research and ideas for innovation that will help us to collectively address this great challenge," the prime minister said.
Standing as a structure that promises to be a centre of excellence, learning, research and innovation, the library marks a milestone critical to the advancement of Bahamian scholarship and national development.
It also is a compelling milestone for COB as it continues to prepare itself to achieve university status.
Prime Minister Ingraham noted that the architectural vision and sweep of the centre serves to unify the college’s campus with entrances facing the entire college complex and surrounding neighbourhoods.
He also added that it points to a mission of outreach to the surrounding communities and also to a broader mission; one suggested by its technological capacity.
"This centre is host to a virtual library which is to connect and unify our far-flung island chain while also connecting the Bahamian archipelago to the world. The library will provide more than cutting-edge technology. It will help to preserve, inspire and advance the Bahamian imagination in every field of endeavour and scholarship. Indeed, the virtual library will significantly assist in the historic challenge of developing an archipelagic nation such as ours."
Proud that her husband’s dream of a library worthy of a university had been realised, Monique Moore said the modern structure would open the doors to new worlds of knowledge and prove that "the best things in life are worth waiting for."
"I am only sorry that Harry could not wait around long enough to see his dream become reality," Mrs. Moore said.
"He would be standing here, his slow smile breaking into a broad grin, that twinkle in his eye sparkling and he would nod his head in approval. Yes, he would say, this is good."
The elaborate library and information centre boasts a holdings capacity for 150,000 volumes, institutional archives and special collections and features a small auditorium, classrooms, media production studios, individual and group study spaces, support offices, a 24-hour Internet café and a museum commemorating the life of former Prime Minister the late Sir Lynden Pindling.
April 11th, 2011
jonesbahamas
BY ANDREW J.W. KNOWLES
jonesbahamas
With males comprising just 15 per cent of the College of The Bahamas (COB) graduates, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham admits that male achievement in education becomes one of the more urgent challenges facing the country.
"We are all concerned, for example, that males now comprise only 15 per cent of COB’s graduates," Prime Minister Ingraham said.
"The imbalance between the number of female and male graduates speaks to a deeper and broader national problem of male educational achievement. The subject is ripe I believe, for study and research by COB as we seek to develop innovative and practical ideas on how we may address the gender gap as it begins to manifest at the primary and secondary levels of our school system."
His remarks came during the official opening ceremony of the $28 million Harry C. Moore Library and Information Centre last Friday morning at COB’s campus.
Recognising that male achievement touches on areas of national life from family life to crime prevention to economic development to public health, the prime minister said this "great national challenge" requires innovative and cross-disciplinary responses from fields such as sociology, social psychology, education, criminology, economics and other disciplines.
"If ever we needed to find innovative solutions to a critical national issue, we urgently need to do so on the challenge of boosting male achievement and reducing the level of criminality by young men."
"Even as the country turns to government and others for responses, it also increasingly turns to the institutions of higher learning to provide the research and ideas for innovation that will help us to collectively address this great challenge," the prime minister said.
Standing as a structure that promises to be a centre of excellence, learning, research and innovation, the library marks a milestone critical to the advancement of Bahamian scholarship and national development.
It also is a compelling milestone for COB as it continues to prepare itself to achieve university status.
Prime Minister Ingraham noted that the architectural vision and sweep of the centre serves to unify the college’s campus with entrances facing the entire college complex and surrounding neighbourhoods.
He also added that it points to a mission of outreach to the surrounding communities and also to a broader mission; one suggested by its technological capacity.
"This centre is host to a virtual library which is to connect and unify our far-flung island chain while also connecting the Bahamian archipelago to the world. The library will provide more than cutting-edge technology. It will help to preserve, inspire and advance the Bahamian imagination in every field of endeavour and scholarship. Indeed, the virtual library will significantly assist in the historic challenge of developing an archipelagic nation such as ours."
Proud that her husband’s dream of a library worthy of a university had been realised, Monique Moore said the modern structure would open the doors to new worlds of knowledge and prove that "the best things in life are worth waiting for."
"I am only sorry that Harry could not wait around long enough to see his dream become reality," Mrs. Moore said.
"He would be standing here, his slow smile breaking into a broad grin, that twinkle in his eye sparkling and he would nod his head in approval. Yes, he would say, this is good."
The elaborate library and information centre boasts a holdings capacity for 150,000 volumes, institutional archives and special collections and features a small auditorium, classrooms, media production studios, individual and group study spaces, support offices, a 24-hour Internet café and a museum commemorating the life of former Prime Minister the late Sir Lynden Pindling.
April 11th, 2011
jonesbahamas
Monday, April 11, 2011
Freedom of movement curtailed since independence of Caribbean countries
By Oscar Ramjeet
The freedom of movement of Caribbean nationals has been severely curtailed since the breakup of the West Indies Federation five decades ago and the various countries in the region gaining independence.
It is unfortunate because in the colonial days persons were free to move from one country to another, even to Barbados, without hitch, but because some governments became intoxicated with sovereignty they imposed serious restrictions.
And although the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME) made provisions for free movements of professionals, musicians, journalists, etc., here is still a problem and regionalism does not seem to exist anymore.
There was some hope with the establishment of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the West Indies cricket team, but that seems to be shattered because there is no longer that regional togetherness of UWI students because of recent significant changes.
For instance, students from Guyana now complete their LLB degrees in Guyana and no longer have to travel to Barbados, where hundreds of students enroll every year, and now Jamaica is offering the LLB programme and this reduces the Jamaican student population at Cave Hill.
Bahamas now has its own law school and, as a result, would-be lawyers study at home.
From the 1950s up to recently, all medical students in the region have had to attend Mona, but now they can do so in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Grenada, and other Caribbean islands.
The poor performance of the West Indies cricket team has forced thousands of cricket fans to lose interest in the game and that to some degree has some effect on Caribbean unity.
The shameful behaviour of immigration and police officers at the Grantley Adams International airport against fellow Caribbean nationals should be dealt with by the Caribbean Community and it is unfortunate that CARICOM moves so slowly with these issues, as well as Caribbean unity.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Kamla Persad Bisssessar made a couple of unfortunate statements that Trinidad and Tobago is not an ATM machine for other CARICOM countries, but she has nevertheless said that she is very much in favour of regional integration.
Owen Arthur, former Barbados prime minister, who was masquerading and preaching the importance of CSME, was critical of Mara Thompson, running for a seat in Barbados because she was not a born Bajan, but a St Lucian, although she was married to a Bajan, late Prime Minister David Thompson, for more than 20 years.
The British Overseas Dependant Territories of Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos require entry certificates (visas) from Jamaicans, Guyanese and citizens of the Dominican Republic.
For years the CARICOM has been discussing freedom of movement, but it seems as if they are not getting anywhere; as a matter of fact, it is getting worse since there is more harassment at airports, especially Barbados.
There have been reports that, in Antigua and Barbuda, Guyanese nationals are given a rough time by the Baldwin Spencer administration.
What is also unfortunate is the lack of interest and in some instances the refusal of governments to get rid of the Privy Council as their final court and accept the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court.
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were the first countries to gain independence from Britain in August 1962, and it unfortunate that after nearly five decades they are still holding on to the coat tails of the United Kingdom for justice. If you had political independence so long ago why not judicial independence, especially since you have highly qualified judges who can do a better job than the English Law Lords, who are so far away and do not understand the Caribbean culture and way of life.
April 11, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
The freedom of movement of Caribbean nationals has been severely curtailed since the breakup of the West Indies Federation five decades ago and the various countries in the region gaining independence.
It is unfortunate because in the colonial days persons were free to move from one country to another, even to Barbados, without hitch, but because some governments became intoxicated with sovereignty they imposed serious restrictions.
And although the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME) made provisions for free movements of professionals, musicians, journalists, etc., here is still a problem and regionalism does not seem to exist anymore. There was some hope with the establishment of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the West Indies cricket team, but that seems to be shattered because there is no longer that regional togetherness of UWI students because of recent significant changes.
For instance, students from Guyana now complete their LLB degrees in Guyana and no longer have to travel to Barbados, where hundreds of students enroll every year, and now Jamaica is offering the LLB programme and this reduces the Jamaican student population at Cave Hill.
Bahamas now has its own law school and, as a result, would-be lawyers study at home.
From the 1950s up to recently, all medical students in the region have had to attend Mona, but now they can do so in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Grenada, and other Caribbean islands.
The poor performance of the West Indies cricket team has forced thousands of cricket fans to lose interest in the game and that to some degree has some effect on Caribbean unity.
The shameful behaviour of immigration and police officers at the Grantley Adams International airport against fellow Caribbean nationals should be dealt with by the Caribbean Community and it is unfortunate that CARICOM moves so slowly with these issues, as well as Caribbean unity.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Kamla Persad Bisssessar made a couple of unfortunate statements that Trinidad and Tobago is not an ATM machine for other CARICOM countries, but she has nevertheless said that she is very much in favour of regional integration.
Owen Arthur, former Barbados prime minister, who was masquerading and preaching the importance of CSME, was critical of Mara Thompson, running for a seat in Barbados because she was not a born Bajan, but a St Lucian, although she was married to a Bajan, late Prime Minister David Thompson, for more than 20 years.
The British Overseas Dependant Territories of Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos require entry certificates (visas) from Jamaicans, Guyanese and citizens of the Dominican Republic.
For years the CARICOM has been discussing freedom of movement, but it seems as if they are not getting anywhere; as a matter of fact, it is getting worse since there is more harassment at airports, especially Barbados.
There have been reports that, in Antigua and Barbuda, Guyanese nationals are given a rough time by the Baldwin Spencer administration.
What is also unfortunate is the lack of interest and in some instances the refusal of governments to get rid of the Privy Council as their final court and accept the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court.
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were the first countries to gain independence from Britain in August 1962, and it unfortunate that after nearly five decades they are still holding on to the coat tails of the United Kingdom for justice. If you had political independence so long ago why not judicial independence, especially since you have highly qualified judges who can do a better job than the English Law Lords, who are so far away and do not understand the Caribbean culture and way of life.
April 11, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Childhood obesity is a growing concern in the Bahamas
New programme to tackle childhood obesity
By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH professionals are teaming up to tackle the problem of childhood obesity, which they say is a growing concern in the Bahamas.
Darren Bastian, business development manager at Atlantic Medical Insurance, said insurers and health industry workers are seeing an increase in the number of children with diseases traditionally considered to be adult-specific, such as diabetes.
Atlantic Medical has teamed up with the Nassau chapter of The Links Incorporated, a non-profit organisation, to launch a childhood obesity programme in five pilot schools across the country.
Around 550 grade five students from St Anne's School, St John's College, Oakes Field Primary School, Sadie Curtiss Primary School and Woodcock Primary School will participate in the campaign, which aims to reverse the trend of childhood obesity.
They are being encouraged to participate in the annual Fun Walk fundraiser for the Cancer Society of the Bahamas and the Bahamas Diabetic Association. Last year the event generated $32,000 in donations to fund the two organisations.
"We are confident that over the years, Atlantic Medical Insurance Company Ltd has led the way in sensitising the Bahamian public about the importance of healthy lifestyles. We believe that if our children learn the importance of healthy lifestyles early in life that it becomes a win-win for everyone in the fight against lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and various kinds of cancer," Mr Bastian.
With the growing influence of technology, Mr Bastian said, many children are not as active as those who grew up just a generation ago.
He said local children used to entertain themselves with games that required exercise, such as "bat and ball".
Today, children usually sit in front of a game set with a bag of chips and exercise only their arms - by putting chips in their mouths, he said.
Childhood development is important, because "what is habit today becomes second nature tomorrow", said Mr Bastian.
"If a child develops unhealthy eating habits at a very young age that pattern will likely continue into adulthood," he said.
There is also a "ripple effect" in the system because of the problem of childhood obesity.
Mr Bastian said the healthier a population is, the more favourable insurance rates are. More diseases to treat and related higher the costs lead to higher insurance rates.
The role of a healthy lifestyle in disease prevention is a core focus of the annual fun walk and the school programme.
This is the 13th year of the fun walk and organisers expect to see many "fun walk babies" - children who first participated when they were infants in strollers and are now participating as teenagers, said Mr Bastian.
April 09, 2011
tribune242
By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH professionals are teaming up to tackle the problem of childhood obesity, which they say is a growing concern in the Bahamas.
Darren Bastian, business development manager at Atlantic Medical Insurance, said insurers and health industry workers are seeing an increase in the number of children with diseases traditionally considered to be adult-specific, such as diabetes.
Atlantic Medical has teamed up with the Nassau chapter of The Links Incorporated, a non-profit organisation, to launch a childhood obesity programme in five pilot schools across the country.
Around 550 grade five students from St Anne's School, St John's College, Oakes Field Primary School, Sadie Curtiss Primary School and Woodcock Primary School will participate in the campaign, which aims to reverse the trend of childhood obesity.
They are being encouraged to participate in the annual Fun Walk fundraiser for the Cancer Society of the Bahamas and the Bahamas Diabetic Association. Last year the event generated $32,000 in donations to fund the two organisations.
"We are confident that over the years, Atlantic Medical Insurance Company Ltd has led the way in sensitising the Bahamian public about the importance of healthy lifestyles. We believe that if our children learn the importance of healthy lifestyles early in life that it becomes a win-win for everyone in the fight against lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and various kinds of cancer," Mr Bastian.
With the growing influence of technology, Mr Bastian said, many children are not as active as those who grew up just a generation ago.
He said local children used to entertain themselves with games that required exercise, such as "bat and ball".
Today, children usually sit in front of a game set with a bag of chips and exercise only their arms - by putting chips in their mouths, he said.
Childhood development is important, because "what is habit today becomes second nature tomorrow", said Mr Bastian.
"If a child develops unhealthy eating habits at a very young age that pattern will likely continue into adulthood," he said.
There is also a "ripple effect" in the system because of the problem of childhood obesity.
Mr Bastian said the healthier a population is, the more favourable insurance rates are. More diseases to treat and related higher the costs lead to higher insurance rates.
The role of a healthy lifestyle in disease prevention is a core focus of the annual fun walk and the school programme.
This is the 13th year of the fun walk and organisers expect to see many "fun walk babies" - children who first participated when they were infants in strollers and are now participating as teenagers, said Mr Bastian.
April 09, 2011
tribune242
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Haiti, the big picture
By Jean H Charles
The Haitian people, after the birth of democracy some twenty-five years ago (the Haitian Constitution was adopted on March 29, 1987), have put their faith in three leaders to lead them on the road towards development. Michel Joseph Martelly is the last one.
There was first Gerard Gourgue, who never made it to the balloting box as the election was disrupted by gunfire on the sad day of November 28, 1987. The military regime in place then, allegedly under international directive (the Reagan government mistakenly attributed leftist leanings to Gerard Gourgue) opened fire on innocent people in line for voting, committing the crime of lese democracy. Dozens were killed, the proceedings were disrupted, and Gerard Gourgue, a fiery human rights lawyer, never made it onto the altar of the national frontispiece.
The convulsion brought in a slew of de facto governments until the election of 1991, when the Haitian people chose a fiery anti-American cum leftist leaning, former Catholic priest Jean Bertrand Aristide as their leader. The experience was cathartic. Aristide turned out to be a divisive personality bent on pulling apart the very fabric of the Haitian national ethos. Twice ejected out of the country, he is now back home, allegedly as a private citizen interested mainly in the area of education.
There was in between Rene Preval, a nemesis of Jean Bertrand Aristide, the beneficiary of choice of the international community. He was not, because of his persona and his lack of commitment to the welfare of the people, a popular choice.
Some twenty-five years later, after the departure of the dictator Jean Claude Duvalier, the Haitian people have chosen an iconoclast music band leader, Joseph Michel Martelly, to avenge the country and to create a nation that shall become hospitable to all.
The birthing of this dawn of democracy was not easy. As elaborated in my previous columns, the government as well as a large section of the international community tried to convince the electoral board that the popular voice should be ignored to the benefit at first of the candidate of the government in power (Jude Celestin). Later, in the second round, the call was to shake the numbers for the benefit of the wife (Mirlande Manigat) of a former president, elected twenty years ago under a cloud of illegitimacy.
The big picture is: Haiti and its people for the past five hundred years have been seeking its own place in the sun. During the first three hundred years, a bloated colonial class has been living off the land like princes and princesses from the slave labour of the masses who will become the citizens of the first black independent nation in the world.
During the last two hundred years, special interest groups, have succeeded as would have said Alan Beattie (False Economy) to halt and even send in reverse all economic progress in the country.
The literature on sustainable development is now interested in seeking out why some countries succeed and why others fail. I have been for a long time perusing the reasons why Haiti has been and has remained a constant basket case. Some of the reasons are deep and structural. Some are circumstantial.
Because of my long and personal relationship with Henry Namphy (the strong man General after the departure of Jean Claude Duvalier) and Gerard Gourgue, I have tried to reconcile both military and civilian leaders for the sake of the nation. I either did not try hard enough, or the animosity between the two men was too deep and to entrenched. The end result, Haiti missed twenty-five years of solace and good governance!
The structural impediments are many and varied. Using a page story from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, I would say at the beginning: “Knowing the right thing to do to enrich your nation is hard enough; bringing people with you to get it done is even harder.” The founding fathers, Toussaint Louverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe knew how to transform the mass of slaves into productive and creative citizens.
They could not rally the team of the other generals to conceive and build a nation hospitable to all after winning the war of independence. As such Haiti lapsed during its first century into fratricidal struggles brought about by interest groups that captured the resources of the country and dragged the nation down.
Around 1911, came about Dr Jean Price Mars, Haiti’s own Dr Martin Luther King, who taught the nation it must love itself and engage in nation building. The politicians transformed his doctrine into a clan policy entrenched in the Haitian ethos today.
Haiti suffered also for a long time from the resource curse as depicted in Pirates of the Caribbean. It was first its majestic mountains filled with mahogany trees that attracted the French and the Spanish. Later gold and sugar cane made this island the pearl of the Antilles.
After independence, corruption and mismanagement exacerbated the resource curse whereby Haiti became the failed-state poster child of the Western Hemisphere. Through dictatorship, military government and illiberal democracy, the nation did not deliver any significant services to its citizen.
Joseph Michel Martelly has demystified the last bastion of literati and pundits who could not believe that the Haitian people would identify themselves with a commoner in politics, backed only by his passion for Haiti as his pedigree, on his way to the higher office.
I am predicting the Martelly government will be a success for Haiti and for the region. He will have enough Haitian people at home and in the Diaspora, as well as well intentioned members and nations of the international community who will lend a hand to build a nation that will at last create an aura of hospitability for all.
After five hundred years, it is about time!
April 9, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
The Haitian people, after the birth of democracy some twenty-five years ago (the Haitian Constitution was adopted on March 29, 1987), have put their faith in three leaders to lead them on the road towards development. Michel Joseph Martelly is the last one.
There was first Gerard Gourgue, who never made it to the balloting box as the election was disrupted by gunfire on the sad day of November 28, 1987. The military regime in place then, allegedly under international directive (the Reagan government mistakenly attributed leftist leanings to Gerard Gourgue) opened fire on innocent people in line for voting, committing the crime of lese democracy. Dozens were killed, the proceedings were disrupted, and Gerard Gourgue, a fiery human rights lawyer, never made it onto the altar of the national frontispiece.
The convulsion brought in a slew of de facto governments until the election of 1991, when the Haitian people chose a fiery anti-American cum leftist leaning, former Catholic priest Jean Bertrand Aristide as their leader. The experience was cathartic. Aristide turned out to be a divisive personality bent on pulling apart the very fabric of the Haitian national ethos. Twice ejected out of the country, he is now back home, allegedly as a private citizen interested mainly in the area of education.There was in between Rene Preval, a nemesis of Jean Bertrand Aristide, the beneficiary of choice of the international community. He was not, because of his persona and his lack of commitment to the welfare of the people, a popular choice.
Some twenty-five years later, after the departure of the dictator Jean Claude Duvalier, the Haitian people have chosen an iconoclast music band leader, Joseph Michel Martelly, to avenge the country and to create a nation that shall become hospitable to all.
The birthing of this dawn of democracy was not easy. As elaborated in my previous columns, the government as well as a large section of the international community tried to convince the electoral board that the popular voice should be ignored to the benefit at first of the candidate of the government in power (Jude Celestin). Later, in the second round, the call was to shake the numbers for the benefit of the wife (Mirlande Manigat) of a former president, elected twenty years ago under a cloud of illegitimacy.
The big picture is: Haiti and its people for the past five hundred years have been seeking its own place in the sun. During the first three hundred years, a bloated colonial class has been living off the land like princes and princesses from the slave labour of the masses who will become the citizens of the first black independent nation in the world.
During the last two hundred years, special interest groups, have succeeded as would have said Alan Beattie (False Economy) to halt and even send in reverse all economic progress in the country.
The literature on sustainable development is now interested in seeking out why some countries succeed and why others fail. I have been for a long time perusing the reasons why Haiti has been and has remained a constant basket case. Some of the reasons are deep and structural. Some are circumstantial.
Because of my long and personal relationship with Henry Namphy (the strong man General after the departure of Jean Claude Duvalier) and Gerard Gourgue, I have tried to reconcile both military and civilian leaders for the sake of the nation. I either did not try hard enough, or the animosity between the two men was too deep and to entrenched. The end result, Haiti missed twenty-five years of solace and good governance!
The structural impediments are many and varied. Using a page story from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, I would say at the beginning: “Knowing the right thing to do to enrich your nation is hard enough; bringing people with you to get it done is even harder.” The founding fathers, Toussaint Louverture, Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe knew how to transform the mass of slaves into productive and creative citizens.
They could not rally the team of the other generals to conceive and build a nation hospitable to all after winning the war of independence. As such Haiti lapsed during its first century into fratricidal struggles brought about by interest groups that captured the resources of the country and dragged the nation down.
Around 1911, came about Dr Jean Price Mars, Haiti’s own Dr Martin Luther King, who taught the nation it must love itself and engage in nation building. The politicians transformed his doctrine into a clan policy entrenched in the Haitian ethos today.
Haiti suffered also for a long time from the resource curse as depicted in Pirates of the Caribbean. It was first its majestic mountains filled with mahogany trees that attracted the French and the Spanish. Later gold and sugar cane made this island the pearl of the Antilles.
After independence, corruption and mismanagement exacerbated the resource curse whereby Haiti became the failed-state poster child of the Western Hemisphere. Through dictatorship, military government and illiberal democracy, the nation did not deliver any significant services to its citizen.
Joseph Michel Martelly has demystified the last bastion of literati and pundits who could not believe that the Haitian people would identify themselves with a commoner in politics, backed only by his passion for Haiti as his pedigree, on his way to the higher office.
I am predicting the Martelly government will be a success for Haiti and for the region. He will have enough Haitian people at home and in the Diaspora, as well as well intentioned members and nations of the international community who will lend a hand to build a nation that will at last create an aura of hospitability for all.
After five hundred years, it is about time!
April 9, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
Friday, April 8, 2011
Is Barbados an apartheid state?
By Rebecca Theodore
The surfeit of the dueling public and the storm of accusations about Barbadians’ poor treatment of visitors that are not tourists or others of European descent, continue to highlight a fundamental split in the Caribbean.
Although recent developments in the world at large mark the end of legislated apartheid, it seems that its entrenched social and economic effect operates covertly on Barbadian shores. Thus, political, social and cultural ambitions differ tremendously from the glorious morn of West Indian federation, and in its wake the very fabric of national self-determination is destroyed amidst the silence of the masses.
Common sense is no longer the given, but a corrupted oppressive factor in whose reign the seed of distorted perception finds new meaning in a glowing age of literacy.
While opponents consider the analogy of apartheid defamatory and reflecting a double standard when applied to Barbados, it cannot be denied that in light of recent discriminatory practices towards their own Caribbean brothers and sisters, apartheid is practiced both internally and externally in Barbados. It is true that Barbadians have protected themselves with an aggressive nationalism, but sadly enough in the hierarchy of rights; it is not a fair nationalism.
The many xenophobic impulses released in the name of nationalism endanger the future sovereignty of Barbados because it is not a nationalism that speaks of the rights of minorities. Moreover, if the Hegelian dialectic of synthesis lists high autonomy as one of those preconditions that create powerful common mythologies in the art of nation building, then nations are formed through the inclusion of the whole populace and not just the voices of the elites or of the ruling class.
In Barbados’s struggle to present to the rest of the Caribbean the picture of a perfect society or the Utopian dream, covert segregation among its own people prevails, denying the ordinary working class the historical legacies that they had overcome since the days of slavery to their present day liberation.
Unlike other Caribbean islands, where private interest is fiercely protected and states cater to their own people before tourism, supermarkets in Barbados only cater for tourists -- another exchange that deliberately conceals the truth that Barbadians are treated unfairly on their own shores by the white bureaucracy -- an exchange that prompted local calypsonian Gabby to reclaim Barbadian heritage for all in song and poetry. Hence, the Marxist theory that ideologies are conceived from the productive forces existing within the bowels of society holds true in Barbados.
Externally, Barbados’s treatment of Guyanese, Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals has been compared by social activists, investigators, and human rights groups as apartheid on Caribbean soil.
The Myrie affair is not only the voice that speaks for all Caribbean nationals, but also an insult to Barbadians overseas. As this matter transcends to an international human rights investigation, they will notice that with a tarnished reputation as a people strangled from within and one that discriminates against their own colour, they will in time be treated the same by immigration officials on the international scene and their tourist industry will suffer as well.
Foreign minister McClean’s illogical conclusion that “the Jamaican woman lied, since her body was never searched” and later emphasized that “Barbados is committed to the truth to ensure that justice is done” will yield that facts are the worst enemy of truth; and at the heart of the matter lies the complicated relationship of ‘conceptual fixation.’
Minister McClean must pay careful attention to the notion that the power of sentences has nothing to do with their sense or the logic of their construction because words are ambiguous and yield to ‘conceptual fixations.’ It is ‘conceptual fixations’ that still contribute to anti-Semitism, discrimination against women, intellectuals, pacifists, and homosexuals in society. It is ‘conceptual fixations’ that paved the way to the gas chambers, slavery and the civil war and ‘conceptual fixations’ may very well put a dullness on the spirit of Caribbean unity if Barbados fails to examine the problem of apartheid both within and without and the sweeping generalizations about Barbadians overseas.
Barbados needs a new dialogue with other Caribbean states to understand that apartheid is a crime. The Myrie matter questions the expertise of the Caribbean Court of Justice in determining public policy. While not ideal in other Caribbean states, the CCJ is very much alive in Barbados and has authority to set policy and make decisions about accusations of criminal behaviour. The call for the matter to be resolved without further embarrassment and that all government officials in Barbados and Jamaica need to pause and stop talking cannot be muted. The matter reflects a certitude in the ability of governments to determine the truth and in seeing that security and freedom cannot be perceived if freedom to subvert them is permitted.
Thus, at this point, words have taken over my realism but the chaotic and baroque practice of apartheid in Barbados must be examined. The consequences of this duel have great significance for the broader Barbadian society as well as for the future of Caribbean unity.
April 7, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
The surfeit of the dueling public and the storm of accusations about Barbadians’ poor treatment of visitors that are not tourists or others of European descent, continue to highlight a fundamental split in the Caribbean.
Although recent developments in the world at large mark the end of legislated apartheid, it seems that its entrenched social and economic effect operates covertly on Barbadian shores. Thus, political, social and cultural ambitions differ tremendously from the glorious morn of West Indian federation, and in its wake the very fabric of national self-determination is destroyed amidst the silence of the masses.
Common sense is no longer the given, but a corrupted oppressive factor in whose reign the seed of distorted perception finds new meaning in a glowing age of literacy. While opponents consider the analogy of apartheid defamatory and reflecting a double standard when applied to Barbados, it cannot be denied that in light of recent discriminatory practices towards their own Caribbean brothers and sisters, apartheid is practiced both internally and externally in Barbados. It is true that Barbadians have protected themselves with an aggressive nationalism, but sadly enough in the hierarchy of rights; it is not a fair nationalism.
The many xenophobic impulses released in the name of nationalism endanger the future sovereignty of Barbados because it is not a nationalism that speaks of the rights of minorities. Moreover, if the Hegelian dialectic of synthesis lists high autonomy as one of those preconditions that create powerful common mythologies in the art of nation building, then nations are formed through the inclusion of the whole populace and not just the voices of the elites or of the ruling class.
In Barbados’s struggle to present to the rest of the Caribbean the picture of a perfect society or the Utopian dream, covert segregation among its own people prevails, denying the ordinary working class the historical legacies that they had overcome since the days of slavery to their present day liberation.
Unlike other Caribbean islands, where private interest is fiercely protected and states cater to their own people before tourism, supermarkets in Barbados only cater for tourists -- another exchange that deliberately conceals the truth that Barbadians are treated unfairly on their own shores by the white bureaucracy -- an exchange that prompted local calypsonian Gabby to reclaim Barbadian heritage for all in song and poetry. Hence, the Marxist theory that ideologies are conceived from the productive forces existing within the bowels of society holds true in Barbados.
Externally, Barbados’s treatment of Guyanese, Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals has been compared by social activists, investigators, and human rights groups as apartheid on Caribbean soil.
The Myrie affair is not only the voice that speaks for all Caribbean nationals, but also an insult to Barbadians overseas. As this matter transcends to an international human rights investigation, they will notice that with a tarnished reputation as a people strangled from within and one that discriminates against their own colour, they will in time be treated the same by immigration officials on the international scene and their tourist industry will suffer as well.
Foreign minister McClean’s illogical conclusion that “the Jamaican woman lied, since her body was never searched” and later emphasized that “Barbados is committed to the truth to ensure that justice is done” will yield that facts are the worst enemy of truth; and at the heart of the matter lies the complicated relationship of ‘conceptual fixation.’
Minister McClean must pay careful attention to the notion that the power of sentences has nothing to do with their sense or the logic of their construction because words are ambiguous and yield to ‘conceptual fixations.’ It is ‘conceptual fixations’ that still contribute to anti-Semitism, discrimination against women, intellectuals, pacifists, and homosexuals in society. It is ‘conceptual fixations’ that paved the way to the gas chambers, slavery and the civil war and ‘conceptual fixations’ may very well put a dullness on the spirit of Caribbean unity if Barbados fails to examine the problem of apartheid both within and without and the sweeping generalizations about Barbadians overseas.
Barbados needs a new dialogue with other Caribbean states to understand that apartheid is a crime. The Myrie matter questions the expertise of the Caribbean Court of Justice in determining public policy. While not ideal in other Caribbean states, the CCJ is very much alive in Barbados and has authority to set policy and make decisions about accusations of criminal behaviour. The call for the matter to be resolved without further embarrassment and that all government officials in Barbados and Jamaica need to pause and stop talking cannot be muted. The matter reflects a certitude in the ability of governments to determine the truth and in seeing that security and freedom cannot be perceived if freedom to subvert them is permitted.
Thus, at this point, words have taken over my realism but the chaotic and baroque practice of apartheid in Barbados must be examined. The consequences of this duel have great significance for the broader Barbadian society as well as for the future of Caribbean unity.
April 7, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
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