Assembly of the Peoples of the Caribbean Calls for Caribbean Solidarity

The Caribbean Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba denounces the intensification of the blockade and the destabilizing actions of the United States against Cuba, as well as the ratification that the island has not been and is not alone in its struggle of more than 60 years

Cuba will never fail his brother peoples

Caribbean voices demanded the elimination of the U.S. blockade against the island

By Eduardo Palomares Calderón | palomares@granma.cu

Santiago de Cuba– The denunciation of the intensification of the blockade and the destabilizing actions of the United States against Cuba, as well as the ratification that the island has not been and is not alone in its struggle of more than 60 years, stand out in the final declaration of the Caribbean Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba, in the framework of the 9th Assembly of the Peoples of the Caribbean, which was held in this city.

The text proposes the formation of an anti-imperialist united front to respond quickly and forcefully to any action against Cuba or other peoples of the continent.

It also calls for a Caribbean solidarity event next year in Santiago de Cuba, in salute to the 70th anniversary of the Moncada heroic deed and the 50th anniversary of the constitution of Caricom.  It conveys its solidarity support to the Haitian people in the solution of its internal problems, and to the struggle of Puerto Rico for its full independence.

Danniel Sanó, in his message on behalf of Haiti, called for the development of concrete actions to prevent the imperium's attempts to asphyxiate the Island and assured that raising that flag for the Cuban Revolution is to raise, at the same time, the flag of hope of the oppressed peoples to be truly free, like Fidel's Cuba.

The Hero of the Republic of Cuba and president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, thanked the support for the strengthening of the network of solidarity with Cuba, and affirmed that this island will never fail its brother peoples of the region.

Also present at the Salón de los Vitrales, in the Plaza Mayor General Antonio Maceo, was Ángel Arzuaga Reyes, vice chief and coordinator of the Department of International Relations of the Central Committee of the Party.

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The Haitian Revolution was the worse nightmare of colonial powers with possessions in the Caribbean - the ghost of Saint-Domingue disturbed the sleep of slave holders for years

Cuba, Haiti, the Helms-Burton and the crime of insubordination

Empires never forgive rebels; an insubordinate rebel plants a seed that can sprout many generations later

By Raúl Antonio Capote

The Haitian Revolution was a breeding ground of revolutions

Haiti was the first free nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, the first nation in the modern world emerging from a slave revolt, and the second most long-standing republic in the Western Hemisphere.  The Haitian people overthrew the French colonialists in 1804, abolished slavery, and declared independence.

Their revolution was worse nightmare of colonial powers with possessions in the Caribbean - the ghost of Saint-Domingue disturbed the sleep of slave holders for years.

The imperial powers imposed a rigorous cultural, economic and political blockade on the new Haiti, to prevent the extension of its example.

Two decades after independence was proclaimed, in 1825, French warships returned, blockaded the young nation and issued an ultimatum: pay compensation or prepare for war.

An emissary from King Charles X delivered the message.  France demanded payment for properties confiscated by the Haitian Revolution: 150 million gold francs, some 21 billion dollars today, payable in five installments.

According to the colonial empire, the young nation was obliged to compensate French planters for the property and slaves they had lost.

On April 17, 1825, Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer signed the Royal Decree presented by Charles X, who promised French diplomatic recognition in exchange for a 50% reduction of tariffs on French imports and the outrageous compensation.

For Haiti the figure was impossible to pay, given the conditions of its economy, ravaged by the French naval blockade and a devastating war, but the "generous" colonialists made a proposal "they couldn’t turn down."

A group of French banks offered Haiti a loan to cover the compensation, resulting in a double debt that, along with the interest, bled the small country to death, over the course of the 122 years required to pay off its "independence debt."

What’s more, The New York Times recounts in a recent five-part series of articles, when the U.S. army invaded Haiti in the summer of 1915, a group of Marines entered the national bank and stole some 500,000 dollars in gold, that days later made its way to a Wall Street bank vault.

The United States, using the financial and political chaos the island was experiencing as a pretext, occupied the country militarily, continuing its longstanding policy in the region.  Haiti was to be governed by a U.S. military proconsul.

For more than ten years, a quarter of all Haitian income went to pay off debts to the National City Bank, incurred by the country to cover the expense of "assistance from the U.S. government," according to The Times.

ANOTHER ISLAND DARES TO CHALLENGE THE EMPIRE

In January 1959, another small Caribbean island, Cuba, defying U.S. imperial power, declared itself the first free territory of the Americas and dared to announce its decision to build the first socialist nation in the hemisphere.

The "crime of insubordination" committed required immediate action by the "superpower.”  Since then, all variants of war have been waged against the rebel island, including the economic, without success.

As an essential part of the plan to break the soul and subsequent extermination of the Cuban people, a monstrosity known as the Law for Cuban Democratic Freedom and Solidarity was concocted.

What similarities can be seen between this legal atrocity and the one foisted on Haiti by the French empire? 

Let's skip some frightening sections of the Helms-Burton Act, as it is also known, and consider the plan it envisions.

Let’s imagine two hypothetical scenarios, totally impossible for those of us who have confidence in the capacity for resistance and courage of our people.

First: The imperialist enemy and his allies, making use of their military power, would manage to occupy most of the country and establish a transitional government, after proclaiming the end of the Revolution.  Second: Division, deception, and discouragement sown by the enemy would lead to betrayal, another Baraguá, and we would “let the sword fall,” as in 1878.

Would we then have "free and democratic" elections?  No, the transitional government, handpicked by the occupying forces, would not call elections until the United States Congress approved such a move.  

The U.S. President or his proconsul, appointed for this purpose, would prepare a report to Congress every six months outlining progress being made in the transition process on the occupied island.

How long would this process supposedly last, if they are requiring a report every six months?  How long would Yankee troops remain in Cuba?

The answer to both questions is “Who knows?” (Reading the Bush Plan is recommended.)

Finally, after who knows how many years, the U.S. Congress would approve elections.  

What about the economic, commercial and financial blockade?  Would it be lifted when the end of the Revolution was proclaimed?

No, this is not part of the plan; the blockade is to remain intact during the transition, as an ironclad mechanism to apply pressure.

Once the elections were held in U.S. occupied Cuba, with the Revolution removed from power, we would have a president and government, in the style of the imperialists and to their liking.

Insistent questions remain: Would the blockade be lifted?  Would the economic war end?  The answer is no, that's not what the Helms Burton proposes.

The new Cuban "president" would verify to Congress that all U.S. citizens who were “former owners” had been compensated with the full value of all properties nationalized or confiscated in accordance with revolutionary laws and in line with international law, including those Cubans who, after 1959, became “Cuban-Americans.”

The “indemnity” or “compensation,” according to U.S. experts in 1997, would have an approximate value of 100 billion dollars.

The empire has a solution that would allow the Cuban government to pay for the legal procedures, compensation and debt: loans from U.S. banks, the IMF, etc., which would generate ever-increasing interest payments and create an endless spiral of plunder.

Cubans, like Haitians years ago, would spend decades paying off a practically impossible debt.  How could a country devastated, depleted, impoverished by war and occupation, a country that had lost a good part of its population of working and productive age, afford to do so? 

It must be clear that they could never occupy our island, without defeating a Cuban people determined to defend every inch of our homeland.

We would be left in the hands of our hangmen, ready and willing to drain every last drop of our national wealth.

Thomas Piketty, one of the economists consulted by The New York Times, in his work on Haiti, referred to this policy as "neo-colonialism by debt."

The "crime of insubordination" is the greatest "sin" that a people can commit.  Empires never forgive rebels. 

An insubordinate rebel plants a seed that can sprout many generations later.

The Haitian Revolution was a breeding ground of revolutions.  The punishment, the viciousness of the colonial master, could not erase its example. Inspired, Our America rose up to fight for its independence, again and again, as tireless as the courageous Haitians who defeated Napoleon’s best generals, in the first years of the19th century.

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The Global Inflation Momentum

40% of all US dollars in circulation were printed less than 3 years ago

THIS AIN’T YOUR DADDY’s INFLATION!

By Professor Gilbert Morris

Nothing done by the Central Banks of the world, will cauterise the current inflation momentum, which is not nation centric, but global!

This last clause - about the global character of this inflationary flourish - is telling: the Central Banks seem willfully ignorant of this global scale, each applying domestic tools as if shoveling water in a strainer will at least appear to be effective.

It is galloping nonsense of the first water!

In the US, the Federal Reserve’s role is to police “headline inflation” usually the effects of the money system, the cost and value of credit, driven by the money supply.

The problem is this inflationary moment is not American, (it’s global as I said) and worse, the US Federal Reserve had a hand in distorting the money system, so much so, as to render itself and it’s tools irrelevant to the scope and scale of the problem: over the last 13 years, “Quantitative Easing” - basically printing money to inject into banks - has lead to a situation that 40% of all US dollars in circulation were printed less than 3 years ago.

The basic law of supply and demand suggests that such a phenomenon alone is inflationary.

This Quantitative Easing together with interest rates at zero destroyed traditional lending that drives growth in an economy.

Where did all those trillions of dollars end up?

In the hands of the wealthiest 1% of the population, and in large corporations whose boards initiated the largest stock buybacks in American history; rendering the securities markets a fever unto themselves; a most morally vulgar undemocratic feature of Anglo-American capitalism.

This exacerbated the wealth and income gap on its own: and COVID 19 and the impacts of economic expansion away from the traditional economy to digital platforms - like Amazon, ZOOM etc. - foolish, ill-thought out stimulus packages, work-from-home initiatives, automation and permanent labour replacement and the normal economic incentives of the marketplace have been distorted beyond recognition.

Notably, the same employees who want to remain at home, also want liquid retirement packages when the time comes. However, their 401k and retirement funds are invested in office buildings. These office buildings now empty or leases collapsed, companies go bankrupt with losses to their own retirement funds in a vicious cycle.

But these are side notes: the real problem are two:

1. The abject stupidity of shutting down the entire world in 2020, destroying global supply chains and the delicate global informal labour markets that supported it; which will never be repaired.

This is the baseline driver of price appreciation and not the money system; which as I said above has induced economic and social disequilibrium.

If one listened to the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve yesterday, he has essentially defaulted to chasing the energy markets where the Fed has zero impact. His problem is market sentiment is ahead of Fed actions in determining overall economic sentiment.

2. The war in Ukraine - which is the fault of the West - though Putin is responsible. The war, together with the COVID 19 induced supply chain crunch has driven up fuel prices and so energy costs, which means energy inputs to every aspect of modern life has been impacted …and at the same time, lack of capacity (from the stupid shutdown) means the energy induce price together with the supply induced pricing has sent prices spiraling upwards.

Now this has begun to impact product availability and consumer sentiment. Tesla raised prices three times this year alone.

Even if countries turned toward development, availability and delivery of supply suffers from both energy input costs and lack of supply scale.

In 2020, I called for a $4.5 trillion dollar global reset “stimulus”, paid in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to avoid inflationary US dollars, tied to meeting some sustainability criteria. (“Credit Guidance toward purloined outcomes as my brother Craig Shelton advises so often). Of course this was not done. There was no global leadership on resetting the mommy world’s economy after the reopening from the shutdowns. This was barking madness; given the impact of COVID and the impacts of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing, incoming automation and the economic and financial pressures on households globally.

Now, the US/NATO in stoking Putin into this conflict in Ukraine; they have ignored all the basic economic calculations of this conflict.

Tunisia is about to starve to death for Russian/Ukrainian wheat. I’ve said again and again…hold all parties to the conflict accountable, but make deals to offset the effects of the conflict. Instead, the West - the world’s chief warmongerers - wasted time demonising Putin for doing what the West has done 120 times in the 20th century alone, rather than making critical deals as Kissinger, Professor Mearsheimer and myself have argued.

Worse, the incompetence of the West is shown not only in the near destruction of Ukraine, but also in the new strategic alignments that are stronger than the West, including Russia, China, India, much of Africa and South America or nearly 60% of the world’s population.

Additionally, at the same time that 40% of all US dollars in existence were printed in the last three years, the West’s hubris has led to the strongest Ruble in its history and a Ruble/Rupee exchange rate trading away from US dollar reserves.

For the Caribbean, we are suffering already: we will find it hard to build a bird’s nest because of supply chain issues. Our purchasing power will be routed by imported and implicit inflation. And the heat of the coming summer will cause unforeseen suffering and infrastructural collapses with no relief in energy prices…because we did not use the pandemic to shift our capacities toward alternative energy.

For those delusionists touting crypto as a hedge: Learn to read facts: crypto is not a hedge. It’s a proxy and has been in synchronisation with traditional assets for 17 months now!

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Understanding The Significance of The United States Game Against The Bahamas and Cuba

CUBAN STORY - JOSE MARTI

“Deo adjuvante, non timendum.”

“With God as My Helper, I have nothing to fear”

We Must Ensure that the United States of America Does Not Create Confusion in The Bahamas Relationship with the Republic of Cuba

By Dr Kevin Alcena

Unlike men with political ambition, Jose Marti was a man with political ambition with a difference: a difference that propels a political activist, poet, journalist and teacher to attain national heroic status in the Republic of Cuba. Born in 1853, Jose Marti became a known activist against established foreign institutions and powers that dominated Cuba. He suffered and labored for the people - notwithstanding the level of oppression by colonial powers against him and his people.

No wonder he wrote that "Men of action, above all those whose actions are guided by love, live forever. Other famous men, those of much talk and few deeds, soon evaporate." His love for his people is immeasurable and profound, without form and shape and not bounded by any potential personal gain.

Jose Marti’s dedicated and zealous pursuit of freedom resulted in many incarceration with authorities right from an early age of 17 when he was exiled to Spain for being vociferously against the colonial rule suppression of the people of Cuba. and exploiting the natural resources of Cuba. Jose Marti selflessly took up the task of educating the people of Cuba to contradict the political system of the colonial powers in order to raise awareness with the generality of the people of Cuba to stand up for their rights. He used his expertise in poetry, and journalistic edge to advance his fight for the freedom of the Republic of Cuba from foreign domination.

Most interestingly, Jose Marti was very plain in denouncing the lack of spirituality and arrogance in the colonial powers’ approach to the manipulation of Cuba. He was strongly in support of democratic principles that will provide and assure ordinary Cubans the greater national security, respect of dignity of being a Cuban.

His zeal for the development of Cuba and freeing Cuba from the domination led him to leave the shores of the US (where he had flee to avoid the retribution of colonial masters) to join the war in Cuba for the independence of Cuba. Jose Marti was a man with courage to leave his comfort in the US to fight for his people without concern of his personal safety, but with vision of the future of the free Republic of Cuba.

Against advice from friends and well-wishers for his welfare and safety and his lack of military training, Jose Marti valiantly went to Cuba to fight the war in favor of his beloved country, which resulted in his death. This conforms to his philosophy that "just as he who gives his life to serve a great idea is admirable, he who avails himself of a great idea to serve his personal hopes of glory and power is abominable, even if he too risks his life. To give one's life is a right only when one gives it unselfishly.”

Jose Marti was one of the most prolific writers in the Hispanic world that helped to transform Cuban arts and cultures. He was a man of great ideas and philosophy that was ahead of his peers.

His vision and thoughts were innovative and constructive to help the development of democracy in Cuba, as he wrote in one his famous quote that ”like stones rolling down hills, fair ideas reach their objectives despite all obstacles and barriers. It may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them."

The Bahamas is not torn between the United States and the Republic of Cuba regarding the two Doctors detained at the Carmichael Detention Center. The Bahamas is a country of law and order and is signatory to international treaties with various countries such as the United States and Cuba, and the government has the obligation to uphold these treaties. The two Cuban Dentists should be prosecuted and fined for entering The Bahamas illegally, regardless of the fact that they are Cubans and have resident documents enabling them to reside in the United States.

We must be very careful with the United States, because they are the ones that brought these two Cubans to The Bahamas detention centre. We have to ensure that the US does not use this strategy to create confusion in our relationship with the Republic of Cuba.

If we comply with the US requirements to send the two Cubans to the US, we would be breaking the treaty between The Bahamas and Cuba, and in addition, it will result in mass travel illegally through The Bahamas by Cubans who have US visas but without Cuban exit permits that would allow them to leave Cuba legally.

In the views of Jose Marti, “the struggles waged by nations are weak only when they lack support’…wisdom and the ability to insist on agreement as guided by treaty between the Bahamas and Cuba. We must not forget that Cuban delegates were kicked out by US imposed conditions to a Sheraton Hotel in Mexico as a result of the US Helms-Burton Act. These Cuban gentlemen were minding their legitimate business, but the hotel was threatened to be fine up to $300,000 against the Hotel for accepting these Cuban delegates.

This is not political - it's perversity. It is not even the Superego judging the Ego. It is our own capacity for hate, increasing until it becomes a kind of compulsion - neurosis where reverence and destruction alternate and we reverently destroy. We falter and faint and deny him thrice. We develop sympathy at the expense of loyalty. I don't like it. It just ain't right.

Where is the outcry? We have become silent spectators, eagerly awaiting our daily dose of public scandal, noisy expulsions and excommunications.

''A man must swallow a toad every morning if he wishes to be sure of finding nothing still more disgusting before the day is over.'' (Morley)

We must stop this. It's not right. There is no honour in this battle. There is no dignity in this death. There are no victors on this battleground of shame. Only a man with the shield of Perseus against the ghosts of character assassination. ''Whatever you blame, that you have done yourself.'' (Groddeck) There is no hate without fear. Hate is the consequence of fear. We hate what we fear and so where hate is, fear is lurking.

We must stop this moth-and-candle preoccupation with hate, this triumph of resentment, this abuse of intellect, this perversion of the heart that obliterates our knowledge of the purpose of life; that denies the God within us, wantonly exterminated. I don't like it. It just ain't right.

The world failed to respond to this abhorrent issue, neither did Wall Street or any major US authorities. According to E. M Forster: ”if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my friend”. It is imperative that our Cabinet Minister understand the significance of this game that the American has instigated against The Bahamas and Cuba. Let’s not forget that our greatest friend is our greatest nightmare: that is the United States of America. They enjoy the art of propaganda and manipulation.

As President Fidel Castro said in an address on the celebration of the 51st Anniversary of the Attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cedspedes Fortresses, “I shall address a sinister character that keeps threatening, insulting and slandering us. This is not a whim or an agreeable option; it is a necessity and a duty”.

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Do Not Exclude Cuba from the Summit of the Americas

Cuba denounces U.S. government exclusion of Cuba from preparations for Ninth Summit of the Americas

Excerpts from statement to the press by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla

I am obliged to denounce the fact that the U.S. government has decided to exclude the Republic of Cuba from preparations for the Ninth Summit of the Americas set to take place in Los Angeles, June 8-10; and is currently exerting extreme pressure on numerous governments in the region that have privately and respectfully opposed this exclusion.

The U.S. government is misleading the public and governments of the hemisphere by saying that it has not yet made decisions regarding invitations.

I respectfully urge Secretary of State (Anthony) Blinken to say honestly whether or not Cuba will be invited to the Ninth Summit of the Americas.

A central axis, according to preparations for the event, will be health.  And I must inform our people and international public opinion that there are currently negotiations underway, conducted in an unclear manner, with quite a few neoliberal elements, and many shortcomings, in relation to the real needs of the peoples regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the structural causes of precarious health systems that have led to tragic consequences and caused an extremely high number of deaths in our hemisphere, including the United States of America, and have avoided substantial cooperation and basic financing to address these consequences, and are now negotiating in an opaque manner a so-called Health and Resilience Action Plan for the Americas through the year 2030.

I must note that these negotiations are being held, in an obscure manner, with the exclusion of Cuba and other member states of the Pan American Health Organization, which are participating in these processes, in violation of their own mandates.

Cuba has always, in a modest but altruistic and persistent fashion, provided the possibility for international cooperation in health, which has been recognized worldwide.

There are Latin American vaccines against COVID-19 which are Cuban. The medical brigades that responded to the COVID emergency in the region, in the hemisphere in more than 50 countries on the planet, have been Cuban.

It would be convenient to take into account during this process, and benefit our peoples, Cuban medical presence in confronting natural disasters and epidemics in the past, the provision of tens of thousands of medical scholarships for low-income Latin American, Caribbean and United States youth, the existence of the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Operation Miracle that returned the sight of millions of low-income persons, Cuba's ability to establish cooperation, transfer state-of-the-art technology, provide pharmaceutical products, vaccines and novel treatments, the ability to share advanced protocols and medicines in the field of health…


Another central axis of the Summit, from which Cuba is intended to be excluded, is emigration.  A document with a long title: Letter of Understanding on Migration Management and Protection of Migrants is also being negotiated behind the back of international, US, Latin American and Canadian public opinion.  It is a code that seeks to force Latin American and Caribbean States to repress migration, to absorb the migrants that the United States decides to process outside its territory, which incorporates elements of the racist, xenophobic and plundering U.S. vision of our migrants.  It does not address in any way the real causes of migration, but it does, however, offer palliatives, stimuli, financing and economic incentives to countries that send migrants to the U.S. and are closer to its borders, to attenuate this process.

With Cuba, however, his recipe is the extreme tightening of the blockade, causing deprivation to Cuban families, the application of Undersecretary Mallory's stark memorandum: "depressing wages, causing hunger, despair and the overthrow of the Government," is the American prescription in relation to Cuba…
The exclusion of Cuba from the Ninth Summit of the Americas would constitute a serious historical setback in relation to the two previous editions.  In Panama, in 2015, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz led the delegation from our island which participated on equal footing, and raised his firm, dissenting voice, but always serene, respectful and constructive…

A third axis of the Summit of the Americas is that of democracy and human rights.  In the obscure negotiations taking place today, the intention is to establish the Organization of American States to certify all elections in the region.  This is the same OAS of the coup in Bolivia, and the intention of the United States, historically responsible for coups in our region, and also responsible for the coups in recent decades against progressive governments.

How can a Summit take place, centered on democracy, having excluded, at the arbitrary whim of the host, certain countries of Latin America and the Caribbean?  Can anyone think of something more undemocratic?
The U.S. has no moral authority to set itself up as a model in this matter or to criticize others…

The Ninth Summit of the Americas could still be an opportunity if, in an inclusive manner and on equal terms for all countries, it debated, without exclusions and with sincere commitment, the most pressing problems that affect the continent.

Cuba supports the genuine efforts to promote dialogue, links and cooperation between Our America, the America of Bolivar and Martí, and the United States, between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and the United States government…

Cuba, which firmly defends the unity within the diversity of Our America, today expresses our profound gratitude to the peoples and governments that maintain a courageous, dignified, solidary position, demanding of the U.S. government that Cuba not be excluded from the Ninth Summit of the Americas.

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The Property Value Explosion Issue in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean

It was likely that property prices in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean would shoot upwards...

THIS IS THE WRONG MOVE…!

By Professor Gilbert Morris

Canada is an attractive place….with excellent systems, infrastructure, commercial and service clusters: this attractiveness is confirmed by a blistering property market that rivals Turks and Caicos and Tokyo.

The result of this property value explosion - like Turks and Caicos islands - Canadian locals are being priced out of their cities and country. I myself, have raised this spectre and I warned at March 2020, that an impact of:

1. Covid 19

2. The 100 million North American retirees over the next 20 years

It was likely that property prices in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean would shoot upwards. I explained that the two drivers - one an event driven demand and the other a demographic driven demand - cross-pollinated into a sustainable economic force, likely to run for at least two decades. Neither the Caribbean nor Mexico are prepared for this influx or uptick. And Canada’s attempt to limit property purchasers shows they are woefully unready.

The full details of what’s wrong and how to put it right can’t be shown here.

HERE ARE THE DECISIVE POINTS:

a. Limiting purchasers will fail because it does not move at the speed of the markets = and could have the reverse effect of generating even higher prices - and so a lottery dynamic for the designated properties

b. This would result in “overspill” in price appreciation to properties not included in Trudeau’s selections, still pricing citizens out of their country

c. Any solution must move at the speed of the market by absorbing the appreciation in price and value into a mechanism for the benefit of the citizen, rather than fighting price appreciation pointlessly

d. The best mechanism for this is to place designated properties into a Sovereign REIT, of which all citizens are members, then allow those lands to gain and move by the same open market momentum

This means the government would not have to offset the price appreciation - or introduce redistributive programmes as citizens would benefit from market driven organic momentum!

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Bahamas Deputy Prime Minister, Chester Cooper Calls for the Legal Age of Consent in The Bahamas to be Increased to 18 years of age

Bahamian Deputy Prime Minister - Chester Cooper:  I am also for eliminating any ambiguity in the law with regard to teenage minors consenting to sex with adults - once again, they cannot.

Public discourse can be rocky, but it can often bring about change.

The current discussion about the age of consent should be followed by action on the part of lawmakers.

I have previously called for the legal age of consent to be increased to 18 years of age, and I stand by that today.

This will further protect minors and make clear that children who cannot drink alcohol, join law enforcement, open a bank account, stand before a court as an an adult or vote, for example, cannot reasonably consent to sex with an adult.

Any law that suggests otherwise is out of step with what the vast majority of those whom the law is supposed to serve believe.

I am also for eliminating any ambiguity in the law with regard to teenage minors consenting to sex with adults - once again, they cannot.

Laws must change as the values of society evolve and mature.

Cabinet is considering measures to bring about these changes and they are long overdue.

- Chester Cooper, your DPM and MP

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