Happy International Women’s Day 2022

Reading Time 2 minsFirst published, March 8, 2021. Republished March 8, 2022 “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” While March is celebrated as Women’s History Month in the United States since 2016, March 8 is a special day in this most special month. It is celebrated globally as International Women’s Day (IWD). Originally organized by the Socialist Party of America, the celebrations first took place in February 1909 and were called International Working Women’s Day.  What began as a suggestion in 1910 following an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, grew into an international celebration… Read More »Happy International Women’s Day 2022

Women’s Liberation Impossible Without National Liberation – Sandra Coppin Mbodj

Reading Time 8 minsMarch 8, 2020 Big Drum Nation [BDN]: The role of Jamaican women as heads of most households and their, contributions to Jamaican sporting prowess, seeming growth in business leadership and, commanding role in shaping ideas through popular culture and the arts in general, does not seem to be commensurate with their subordinate positions in the realm of political power. To what do you trace this disparity? Sandra Coppin Mbodj [SCM]: Although women head most households in the country, the culture is still very much male-dominated. As such, it is reflected in positions of power such as in politics. We… Read More »Women’s Liberation Impossible Without National Liberation – Sandra Coppin Mbodj

Happy International Womens Day 2021

Reading Time 5 mins Reprinted from the Daily Gleaner (Jamaica) Published Sunday | March 7, 2021 Verene Shepherd March is Women’s History Month. So this latest ‘Reparation Conversations’, done in collaboration with the Centre for Reparation Research at The University of the West Indies, outlines some reasons why Caribbean women deserve reparation. Verene Shepherd recalls the conditions of enslavement that gave rise to resistance to slavery as justification for the call for redress. Critical are the revelations in the Claims for Compensation supplied by Ahmed Reid from the UCL database, which demonstrate that British women were beneficiaries of the system… Read More »Happy International Womens Day 2021

May Day: January 11, 1848 – The “Foreday Morning” of working Class Consciousness in Grenada – Caldwell Taylor

Reading Time 7 mins#IntWorkersDay #GrenadaHistory #Guyana #History #IndianIndentureship “Like an individual, a society can only know itself and its future when it explores its antecedents. We can have little notion of where we are going if we do not consciously appropriate our  past and make it a part of our living present and our future”-Selwyn R. Cudjoe International Workers’ Day is the perfect moment to call up Tuesday, January 11, 1848, the day when hundreds of drum-beating, shell-blowing, and tree branch-waving “labourers” took a protest demonstration to the Town of Sauteurs. Coming within ten years of the legal termination of… Read More »May Day: January 11, 1848 – The “Foreday Morning” of working Class Consciousness in Grenada – Caldwell Taylor

Phyllis Coard was always much more than a husband’s faithful wife! – Earl Bousquet

Reading Time 7 minsAnother October, another sterling contributor to the Grenada Revolution to mourn and remember…  Like Maurice Bishop and all others who made the Revolution happen in 1979, the Coards’ contribution to the realization of everything behind the eternal theme ‘Forward Ever, Backward Never’ simply cannot be erased… Like the Revolution they helped build, their contributions will be better appreciated henceforth, more for what they were and still are actually worth, than what those still bent on diminishing them would have preferred to have been their lasting legacy…    Another October is here and there’ll be the usual revisiting of events that led to the various sins of commission and omission and the Grenada Revolution’s implosion; and… Read More »Phyllis Coard was always much more than a husband’s faithful wife! – Earl Bousquet

Memories of the Mighty Swallow–James N. Cox

Reading Time 4 minsThe Mighty Swallow, Sir Rupert Philo, has certainly made his musical mark on me as I followed his music starting in my teenage years of the 1970s.  Thanks to radiostations like Radio Guardian in Trinidad, CBC Radio in Barbados and Radio Antilies in Montserrat, youths like myself, in rural Carriacou, Grenada, who had no access to purchasing records, got the opportunity to listen, learn, sing and dance to this Antiguan calypsonian’s music. The 1970s was truly a time of an awakening of Caribbean awareness through the music and the AM radio stations. Swallow was among the many,… Read More »Memories of the Mighty Swallow–James N. Cox

World Wetlands Day 2021 — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 3 minsMarch 1, 2021 Although February 2nd is recognized as World Wetland Day, the increasing importance of this issue globally may well support arguments to extend this recognition to the entire month. The Day marks the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention) in the Iranian city for which it is named, on February 2, 1971. Over the past five decades, the majority of Caribbean countries eventually became signatories to the Ramsar Convention, with many having designated Ramsar Sites. These include marshes, swamps, and bogs. There are several such sites with specific concerns to… Read More »World Wetlands Day 2021 — Martin P. Felix

Kelvin ‘Mighty Duke’ Pope: Calypso In The Service Of African Liberation–Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 10 minsMay 25, 2020 “Mussolini you too brass face and bold/ Ah mean to claim our land that’s filled with gold…. We are going to fight until we get you in the grave.” “Advantage Mussolini”, – Roaring Lion, (1936) “The national flag is a lovely scene/ With beautiful colors red, gold and green/And a black star in the center/ Representing the freedom of Africa.” – “The Birth of Ghana,” Lord Kitchner (1957) “The race question is subsidiary to the class question in politics, and to think of imperialism in terms of race is disastrous. But to neglect the racial… Read More »Kelvin ‘Mighty Duke’ Pope: Calypso In The Service Of African Liberation–Winthrop R. Holder

ODE TO THE MANGROVE — ALDWIN ALBINO [Reprint]

Reading Time 1 minsFebruary 28, 2021 ODE TO THE MANGROVE BY ALDWIN ALBINO It borders the land and borders the sea, Living organisms among it feel free. The Magnificent mangrove or “Mang” as we call it, Forever enhancing all that surrounds it. When a dark cloud releases its content quite heavily, Moistening the earth and filling the mang’s pools thoroughly, Tadpoles, Cascadura, Guabins, and other small fish, are happy, that they live in a place that abounds with plenty. Many more creatures seek out this place, All seem to go there willingly, and always in haste. Why do they treasure… Read More »ODE TO THE MANGROVE — ALDWIN ALBINO [Reprint]

Reset US’s Latin American/Caribbean Policy Now!

Reading Time 4 minsTuesday, February 23, 2021 Open Letter To The Biden/Harris Administration Reset the US’s Latin American/Caribbean Policy Now! The Vice President And President The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 February 23, 2021 Dear Mr. President Biden and Madam Vice President, As a group concerned about preserving sovereignty and ensuring that Latin America and the Caribbean remain a Zone of Peace, we write calling on you to revoke all of your predecessor’s damaging policies toward the region. We commend you and your Administration on the first slew of executive orders such as the partial moratorium on deportations,… Read More »Reset US’s Latin American/Caribbean Policy Now!