Reading Time 2 mins#NationalNursesDay! #COVID19Response #st.kitts&nevis May 2, 2020 Like the king of destruction, the corona virus has ridden hither, thither and yon leaving a trail of death, anguish, and economic despair. The swiftness with which it has claimed thousands of lives, decimated communities exposing fault lines of health and economics, reminds us that “all humanity is as grass” and that “the grass withers and flowers fade.” Yet amidst the darkness and dismay there are many green shoots! Green shoots evidenced by citizens in New York opening their windows at 7 pm nightly for a musical tribute to health workers who put their lives on the… Read More »MESSAGE OF HOPE COVID19 By Dr. Thelma Phillip-Browne

Reading Time 6 mins#coronapandemic #IntWorkersDay May 1, 2020 Even if you have been around the block a few times, or you are a serial cynic – you are still left shaking your head, not so much at how the US government is using the pandemic to inflict further pain on working people but more at the fact that, thus far, they seem to be getting away with it. Shaking our heads that too many workers still have that ‘wait and see’ attitude to this real threat, not just of the pandemic but even more gravely, the government’s callous disregard of our rights and lives. Too many are… Read More »COVID-19: Stand Up And Fight!–Roger Toussaint

Reading Time 2 minsApril 25, 2020 What a morning it was on April 21st, 1970, in Trinidad and Tobago! Along Long Circular Road, just a stone’s throw from the St James Barracks–the Police  Training School–fire broke out at Camp Ogden, the military outpost, while the radio stations blared the news that at Teteron, T&T Defense Force Headquarters, some sort of insurrection was underway. As a matter of fact, my younger brother’s ranking membership in the Regiment and more so his posting at Army Headquarters added a great deal to my curiosity to find out the facts of the matter at… Read More »I Was There! — Duff Mitchell

Reading Time 2 minsBDN EARTH DAY EDITORIAL – EARTH DAY 2020 April 22, 2020 Today is Mother’s Day. No, not that mother, but our older, bigger, original, irreplaceable one – Mother Earth (with due respect!). Yes, April 22, is celebrated around the world as Earth Day. Established in 1970, Earth Day has now become an annual global event – a day that creates awareness, highlighting the unprecedented global destruction and rapid reduction of plant and wildlife populations which are most directly linked to causes driven by human activity with its far-reaching impacts: deforestation, climate change, trafficking and poaching, habitat loss,… Read More »Caribbean Earth Day! #ClimateAction

Reading Time 2 minsApril 21, 2020 Today, April 21st, 2020, marks the 50th Anniversary of the declaration of a State of Emergency in Trinidad & Tobago on April 21st, 1970. That State of Emergency (SOE) was imposed to suppress a growing rebellion sweeping T&T at the time.  While mass demonstrations (the “Black Power Revolution”) had started back on Feb 26th, 1970, the immediate series of events that sparked the declaration of the SOE were; the impending work stoppages on April 21 among sugar, transportation, and telephone workers, with the militant Oilfield Workers workers and their union guaranteed to move in solidarity. In addition, the… Read More »Remembering April 21, 1970 in Trinidad and Tobago: An Historic Marker – Roger Toussaint

Reading Time 4 minsFirst published, April 20, 2020. Republished March 8, 2022 “Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.”― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 I am stumped! There is no way to escape my meditation practice. No classes to teach on campus, no visits to the doctor for another month, no meetings with friends and acquaintances at my book group site, and no… Read More »Pandemic Meditation by Dr. Joanne Dowdy

Reading Time 5 minsApril 9, 2020 #BigDrumNation @BigDrumNation #COVID19Response The biblical parable of the stone that the builder refused is quite applicable in the present Corvid-19 crisis in regards to Caribbean immigrants. It is a cruel paradox that in a moment of xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments stroked from Washington, D.C., and London, immigrants are proverbial frontline soldiers engaged in the pandemic wars. Caribbean immigrants and their counterparts from around the world have historically been the backbone of the health service industry in the United States of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In the US, people from the Caribbean and Latin American are second… Read More »Surviving in These Times – BDN Editorial

Reading Time 4 minsMarch 8, 2020 On #EachforEqual… [Valerie Gordan]: #EachforEqual urges me to do my part in the work towards gender equality and strengthens my own sense of who I am and what I can accomplish.  It also urges me to do my part in my family and work life as I engage with different genders – challenging others to become their best selves and recognizing achievements as they occur.  At the same time, it generates a sense and expectation of support from others, locally and globally for my own efforts.  I am encouraged. Strides In Gender Equity… [VG]:… Read More »Women: No Longer ‘In Service’ Of Men – Valerie Gordan

Reading Time 1 minsWhile 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 by 1911. Today, IWD growing in popularity. Buoyed by women’s rights activism globally and the #MeToo movement, IWD is… Read More »#EachForEqual- BDN Editorial

Reading Time 2 minsMarch 8, 2020 Big Drum Nation [BDN]: We have seen lately a resurgence of International Women’s Day as a global movement. What does the International Women’s Day slogan, #EachForEqual mean for you in your work life? Keisha-Gaye Anderson [KGA]: I think it is time for us as human beings to see each other as equal in every way, uniquely positioned to contribute something that only we can contribute something to society and essential, and know that we are essential to our collective evolution.  BDN: Much of your work is centered on self-empowerment and self-determination. How does your… Read More »Each Contributing to the Whole – Keisha-Gaye Anderson