Caribbean Corner

Guyana's Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Sonia Parag, said on Thursday during an end-of-year press conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Center, Ogle, that the City Council in Georgetown, which collects the largest amount of tax revenue, has a mandate for garbage collection and keeping the city clean. The municipality is responsible for the timely and proper garbage collection in Georgetown. However, according to Parag, her ministry has, on several occasions, taken on the responsibility of cleaning up the city. After years of neglect, City Hall has undergone total restoration to its historic glory. After years of neglect, it is just one of many projects completed in partnership with the King of England underpinning. "The central ministry has supported the council time and time again in the last year. We've had several instances where persons have called the ministry directly for assistance, and we have responded. His Excellency, in his...

Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson on Wednesday joined Principal of the Family Life Academy Charter School II Valerie Marchionno, Assistant Principal Marilea Alberto and Music Director Nicholas Diaz in debuting her first-ever Winter Holiday Concert, “Tis the Season.” The two-hour-long event took place in the Rotunda of Bronx Borough Hall, 851 Grand Concourse. Gibson, the daughter of a Trinidadian-immigrant father, told Caribbean Life that over 300 parents, relatives and caregivers gathered to hear more than 200 Kindergarten through 5th Grade students, enrolled at the Mott Haven school, sing holiday hits. They included “Joy to the World,” “Sleigh Ride,” “Holidays,” “Light of Kwanzaa,” “Ready,” “Steady Go Now!,” “Mele Kalikimaka,”and others. “It was a true joy to celebrate the holidays with over 200 students from Family Life Academy Charter School II at our first-ever Winter Holiday Concert, held in the Rotunda of Bronx Borough Hall,” Gibson said. “Through their ...

On the evening of Nov. 28, residents from various areas across the island of Barbados gathered in Queens Park to witness the brilliantly designed architecture and the Marcus Garvey Amphitheater's official opening. After years of embracing the ideas of Garveyism, many felt it was an honor to be a part of the historical event. In his opening remarks, emcee for the evening Chrispen Hackett said the opening of the amphitheater is where "arts meet history and undertake the work… and it is not only a moment of brilliance but also one of history." Hackett noted that Marcus Garvey first visited Barbados in 1937, and since then, every "public man" in Barbados between 1918 and 1940 has been influenced and shaped by the late Marcus Garvey's work. For her part, welcoming the residents and congratulating the effort of all those who made it possible and for this historic accomplishment, the Marcus Garvey Amphitheatre, Barbados' Prime Minister, Mia Amora ...

Kimbesha Campbell , a proud Guyanese immigrant, has brought the vibrant flavors of her homeland to Georgia through her food truck business, Kim’s Caribbean Kitchen. Specializing in authentic Guyanese dishes, Campbell’s food truck has quickly gained popularity, delighting locals with a taste of the Caribbean like no other. Originally from Berbice, she moved to the United States with her children, seeking new opportunities and a fresh start with her husband. As she settled into life in Georgia, she found comfort in sharing her love for cooking with family and friends. It wasn’t long before those closest to her began encouraging her to turn her passion into a business. Kimbesha Campbell, owner of Kim’s Caribbean Kitchen in Georgia. Photo by Kimbesha Dey “I love cooking and just enjoy it and every time I would host family and friends, they would rave about my cooking,” Campbell said. “They told me I should do this professionally. So, I decided to take the leap and turn my passion int...

This is only the second time that an Indian Prime Minister had visited Guyana since Indira Ghandi in 1968, but Narendra Modi on Wednesday unleashed a slew of goodies and offers of assistance to Caribbean leaders during the second summit meeting between the two in five years. Speaking during the opening ceremony of their half day summit here PM Modi announced plans to award 1,000 technological scholarships to CARICOM over the next five years as he urged the region to take full advantage of any help India can unleaseh on the 15-nation bloc Specifically singling out the sargassum or seaweed invasion of tourism beaches in the region in recent years, Modi said India had basically tamed that annoying scourge by using technology to turn it into fertilizer and other commercial uses. Help is available to the Caribbean in this area he said to loud applause. Major hotels and governments have been complaining bitterly about tons of smelly seaweed invading beaches across the region, chasing a...

This week’s flash floods, mudslides, and heavier-than-usual rains in the South and Eastern Caribbean allowed several Caribbean leaders attending the global annual climate change meeting in Azerbaijan to point to the devastation in Grenada and Trinidad as proof that the region is an unwilling victim of climate change and should receive climate finance from the developed world. Grenadian Prime Minister and current Caribbean Community Chairman Dickon Mitchell argued that the region needs the money to prepare infrastructurally and otherwise for increasingly powerful storms affecting the area each year. “It is just testimony to what we are talking about. You can have high, unpredictable, and erratic, but also highly dangerous weather patterns that are significant that we have to prepare for and respond to. Again, we have to be doing our best in those circumstances to treat and manage with this on an ongoing basis. So, it’s just the new reality, the new norm that we h...

A recent agreement between a Nigerian oil and gas company and the Global Petroleum Group (GPG) could soon see the Eastern Caribbean nation of Grenada step up exploration activities to discover oil and gas like its regional neighbors. Oceangate Oil and Gas Engineering says it has a production-sharing agreement with GPG covering an area of 7,500 square kilometers of water offshore Grenada. However, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell’s administration says authorities are still trying to find critical exploration information and data about previous agreements made by the Keith Mitchell government, which lost the general elections in 2018. GPG is based in the US but is believed to have links to Russia. Photo by George Alleyne, file GPG had done some exploration work more than five years ago and declared that a single area it had explored could contain more than 10 trillion cubic feet of gas. Grenada is less than 100 miles north of oil and gas-rich Trinidad and Tobago. Successive gover...

With the commemoration of the “devastating anniversary,” Clarke said, “let it remind each of us that Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in dignity, safety and security. In memory of all those innocent people that we have lost, and in full consideration of all those we hope to save, it is time to embrace a lasting ceasefire and to, at long last, begin walking the path towards peace.” Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson , whose father hails from Trinidad and Tobago, recalled that on Oct. 7 last year, “we witnessed an unimaginable tragedy, where violence erupted and thousands of Israeli civilians and families were lost. “Today represents a day of remembrance and reflection to honor the lives of those we lost as we vow to never forget,” she said. “In moments like this, we must come together as a city and remember that strength lies in our unity, and we must embrace our shared humanity. “We must stand with our Jewish community during this time of emotions, grief, sorrow an...

Three Caribbean leaders aimed their proverbial ‘pistols’ at the developed world this week, calling for climate change financing and reminding anyone who would listen that the region is one of the smallest polluters on the planet but is still among areas hardest hit by an ever changing climate. Ifraan Ali of Guyana, Gaston Browne of Antigua and Mia Mottley of Barbados all raised the climate change issue and its plethora of negative effects at meetings leading up to the start of sessions of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York. PM Browne, who has been a leading advocate of punishment for those who pollute and walk away, wagged a finger at big oil, warning that victim nations are going to pursue polluters to the bitter end. “Big oil, hear this:  your days of exploiting the global south’s natural resources are numbered. The rich industrialized nations must pay for the loss and damage that have devastated our communities”, he added. He contended that the global governa...

Jamaica’s main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Andrew Holness in the wake of an integrity commission report that has cast doubts about his finances and whether he has enriched himself since becoming head of government more than six years ago. The report, compiled after two years of investigations, details his finances in recent years made it to the 63-member parliament this week but Holness, facing general elections next year, says the report has cleared him of any wrongdoing and of any allegations of illegal enrichment as a result of being head of government. “After this most thorough interrogation of my personal affairs, which is not in any way connected to public funds, or a benefit resulting from my office, they were unable to come to a conclusion regarding illicit enrichment,” he argued but the PNP which says it is leading in opinion polls, says it begs to differ. Opposition leader and attorney Mark Golding argues that q...

A total of 24 Jamaican soldiers and police officers are headed to Haiti where they will eventually join up with local police and about 400 Kenyan colleagues as part of a multinational force battling heavily armed gangs disrupting life in the CARICOM member nation, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Tuesday. Announcing the pre-deployment of 20 soldiers and four policemen, PM Holness said Jamaica had been ready for most of the past year to make its contribution to the security effort in Haiti, noting that “Jamaica has close fraternal ties to the people of Haiti and we stand in solidarity with them. Jamaica also has a national security interest in the situation in Haiti, one of our closest neighbors. Here in Jamaica we see the growing entrenchment of gangs who organize the production of armed violence with a view to economic gain, spreading terror in communities and weakening the state’s guarantee to citizens’ security,” he told reporters at a special briefing in the city. Police offi...

The strategy promoted to help reduce gang violence in several CARICOM states, including Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and St. Lucia, was rarely employed to do so, according to a recent report from the United Nations (UN). The release stated that despite the advocating for a public health response, and although several Caribbean country governments had simultaneously stepped up their “tough-on-crime” measures of enacting states of emergency, promulgating anti-gang legislation, and instituting anti-crime units of authorizing heavy-handed policing strategies, there was discontentment with the strategy, the reactions to the police’s heavy-handed tactics were not uniform. “While tough-on-crime policing strategies have resulted in an increase in arrests and drug seizures, an erosion of trust has occurred within the heavily policed communities, and there is also concern regarding extrajudicial violence.” The study revealed that the extrajudicial executions by the police have re...

Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has joined growing tributes to Caribbean statesman Sir Shridath “Sonny” Ramphal’s passing. Guyanese-born Sir Shridath died on Aug. 30. He was 95. “It is with sadness that I learned of the passing of Sir Shridath Ramphal, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations,” said Trudeau on Monday. Sir Shridath Ramphal, the second Commonwealth Secretary-General, who served from 1975 -1990. Photo courtesy thecommonwealth.org “Born in Guyana, Sir Ramphal was a politician and diplomat who dedicated his life to advancing human rights and social justice worldwide,” he added. “He was a great advocate for the equality and prosperity of all nations – large or small, developed or developing – on the world stage.” Trudeau noted that Sir Ramphal was the longest-serving Secretary-General of the Commonwealth from 1975 to 1990. “In this role, he guided the organization through some of...

Caribbean governments Friday appealed to the region to take precautions against the mpox disease outbreak saying it is not impossible for it to spread from Africa to the Caribbean in the coming months. Bloc Chairman and Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said health officials and the public need to be on the lookout especially for the clade1b version of the disease as he called for a proactive posture to prevent any outbreak in the region. Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell. Courtesy Government of Grenada The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared the mpox outbreak, classifying it as a public health emergency of international concern, necessitating a unified and proactive approach by governments worldwide. “Mpox is a zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus that can spread through direct contact with infected individuals, animals, or contaminated materials. The current outbreak has shown a rapid increase in cases, particularly in the Democratic Republic...