Caribbean Corner

Stanford Law and University of Pennsylvania-educated lawyer Jenifer Rajkumar says she brings an unparalleled record of public service and leadership. This includes fighting workplace discrimination for 5,000 women — a case recognized by the United Nations as one of the top 10 in the world promoting women’s equality. The outgoing Assembly Member, who has represented District 38 for many years and served as New York’s first-ever Director of Immigration Affairs, managing a $31 million project to provide legal services to immigrants, shared these sentiments when she kicked off her campaign for New York City Comptroller, on Nov. 21, adding, “I am ready to fight for the working people of New York City and remove the obstacles standing in the way of their dreams.” Rajkumar, a public servant for all New Yorkers, brought together a coalition of hundreds of supporters from all Five Boroughs at The Palace in Woodside, noting that she is running to make history as the fi...

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...

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) has unleashed the “Y factor,” with Dwight Yorke as head coach of the T&T team as they seek to achieve a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification spot. The former T&T captain and striker was officially and extravagantly unveiled as the senior team’s guiding light on Nov. 14 at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, Trinidad, under spotlights and sparklers. Yorke described the feeling of leading the national team again, this time as head coach, as “an emotional one” which “has always been a dream of mine.” After being appointed on Nov. 1, during his first public address, Yorke said he and his coaching staff are using the ongoing seven-day camp at the stadium for both players and officials to interact and acclimatize with each other as they begin working towards the ultimate goal of World Cup qualification. He commended former head coach Angus Eve for a job well done in bringing the team to thei...

Jamaicans with outstanding college loans and living in the United States will encounter several obstacles when attempting to modify or renew their immigration status. The government of Jamaica and its US counterpart have partnered to identify Jamaican immigrants with outstanding student loan arrears. Cheryl Surjue made this announcement as the manager of the Loan Servicing Department at the Student Loan Bureau (SLB) in Jamaica. She noted that there are outstanding loans  of several professional groups that have immigrated to the United States and other nations, leaving behind unpaid college loans, emphasizing that “when they leave, we are not able to fully track their whereabouts, (and) those loans tend to go bad.” Further explaining the operations that are in place to work along with people having these outstanding student loans, Ms. Surjue mentioned that “people who may have migrated on their J1 visa and want to renew their status in the US, before they can actually do that, ther...

Hollywood is claiming bragging rights from pre-holiday entreatments to families across the nation.  In fact, the production team deserves additional praise for presenting Oscar-worthy performances to global audiences for the debuts of “ Wicked ” and “ Gladiator 2 .” Both are slated for IMAX showcases, and the mega tech productions offer pre-Thanksgiving Day and pre-Christmas weekend boosts to make profitable gains for the Leap year. Already predicted to break box office records, the screen version of one of Broadway’s biggest hits and the sequel to the Sword and Sandals Roman blockbuster is being touted for Golden Globes, People’s Choice, and Academy Awards. ‘Wicked’ stars Cynthia Erivo as the off-colored green witch to captivate children and adults in the epic tale about the “Wizard of Oz.” Co-starring with Ariana Grande, Erivo is a British actress acclaimed for her performances in “The Color Purple” ...

A Rosedale resident is creating custom cakes with unique designs for her local community and beyond. Sabrina Wright, 28, owns and operates Golden Sugar Bakery , an online luxury cake business that has flourished into a six-figure venture serving clients in New York City and the East Coast. Wright’s story began in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She had just lost her job and was battling anxiety and depression from the uncertainty of the world. “Then suddenly, an old customer of mine from my previous job that I had just lost messaged me asking if I could make a cake for her friend,” she said.  Wright said at the time, she only had $19.84 in her bank account and was determined to use her last dollars to make the cake. She was inspired to use alcohol as she saw on the news that alcohol usage was on the rise during the pandemic.  “I went to the liquor store and couldn’t even buy a big bottle. So, I ended up buying two nips. I went home, and I made the cake,” she s...

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...