Deportee skit - BNP style

Check this You Tube clip at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fxlOxU2msU&feature=related

Arizona's SB1070 Gestapo Law Reveal Right Wing Version of "Liberty"

Arizona Governor - Jan Brewer

"Show me your papers, are your papers in order?" This phrase was made famous, or rather infamous, by the Gestapo, and will soon be heard throughout the state of Arizona, should their Governor sign into law SB1070, a vague and broad law giving law enforcement the unprecedented power to stop and check the documentation of any individual where "reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the U.S.."

There are no guidelines as to what "reasonable suspicion" is, but knowing the reality on the ground, it is obvious to all that "reasonable suspicion" means those looking like, sounding like, or acting like general stereotypes of undocumented immigrants coming from Latin America. In short -- this is a bill that allows police to suspect all Latinos of being undocumented, and gives them the right to question their status at any time, for any reason.

Read full article here.

Nazism in proposed Arizona Immigration Bill

LOS ANGELES — The head of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese has condemned a proposed Arizona crackdown on illegal immigrants, saying it encourages people to turn on each other in Nazi- and Soviet-style repression.

Read full article here.

The future of the world in Haiti

Many who have followed Haiti’s recent political history have a strong sense that the aftershocks of the Haitian earthquake will not be felt in Haiti alone. What happens now in Haiti is a question of world historical significance. This is not the first time that events in Haiti have served as harbingers for the world’s collective future. An anti-slavery and anti-colonial revolution of 1791-1804 created the independent state of Haiti as only the second independent country in the Americas. In giving birth to Haiti, the Revolution transformed the socio-political landscape of the 19th century Atlantic world, unleashing forces that would ultimately lead to the collapse of Atlantic slavery. In a repeat of history, the 2010 earthquake has the potential to transform politics in our own times, either for better, or – if we fail to take the time to reflect deeply on the full meaning of what has happened – for worse. Together with Haitians, we must all confront the daunting but inevitable question: how do we imagine the future in the face of a catastrophe of this scale?

Read full article here.

Caribbean water shortage requires regional response strategy

Before last December’s climate change conference in Copenhagen, global public opinion was clearly supportive of an internationally agreed initiative to address the man-made aspects of global warming; now it is more divided.

The failure of the conference to reach a binding agreement; revelations that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had disseminated inaccurate information, and the worrying evangelical fervour of some scientists, NGOs and others on the issue, have led a sceptical public to become less certain as to whether global warming is caused by human activity or factors beyond man’s control.

Read full article here.

Just Like It Is - UK-managed migration

Published on: 4/11/2010.


BY PETER SIMMONS

A REPORT LAST WEEK in the print and voice media alerted us to the fact that the British government had written five Commonwealth Caribbean governments advising them that it was reviewing the long-standing practice of allowing their nationals to enter Britain without a visa.

Barbados was named among the countries to be brought under the new visa regime which, if implemented, would mean that Barbadians travelling there would need a visa. The other countries were Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Kitts-Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Each country would be assessed individually "to ensure any potential regimes would be aligned correctly".

In the case of Dominica and St Lucia, the British government had raised specific concerns, and there will be a six-month period of dialogue with those governments to "examine what action will be taken to address our concerns and mitigate the need for a visa regime".

Read full article here.

Easy access for region's products

ublished on: 4/11/2010.


CANADA SAYS it will guarantee access for Caribbean Community (CARICOM) products and services to its market but is insisting on reciprocity, the region's top trade negotiator Ambassador Gail Mathurin, has said.

The two sides have just completed the first phase of negotiations for a new trade and development agreement.

Traditionally, Caribbean goods have been guaranteed unilateral preferential access to Canada under the more than 20-year-old CARIBCAN agreement, which has assured the region of trade preferences.

However, that accord has been deemed to be out of step with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and is due to come to an end in 2011 when the current waiver expires.

With phase two of the negotiations for the accord scheduled to begin in Canada in the second half of 2010, Mathurin told reporters here on Friday that Canada had already assured the region that "the level of access that we currently have under CARIBCAN would not be diminished under a trade and development agreement.

"(But) as you know CARIBCAN deals with just goods," noted Mathurin, adding, "we would expect that in addition to the existing access that we have on goods which is practically the whole universe of goods . . . we also expect to have an ambitious agreement on trade in services which would cover our service providers which will be a new element vis-a-vis Canada."

However, in keeping with international rules governing free trade, CARICOM may be forced to ensure there is reciprocity.

"What CARICOM is saying to Canada is 'yes we are prepared to look at some kind of reciprocal arrangement with you'.

"At the same time, the level of reciprocity must be governed by factors such as the difference in the levels of development between CARICOM and Canada and within CARICOM itself so we don't see it necessarily as reciprocity that will be mirrored exactly on both sides," she told reporters. (CMC)

Is Caribbean rum in danger of losing the European market?

Ronald Sanders
Thursday, April 1st 2010
The European Commission (EC) has, once again, let down the Caribbean. This time on rum. All rum producers in the Dominican Republic and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are facing the grim prospect of losing their markets in Europe.

Having convinced Caribbean’s negotiators to sign a full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the 27-nation European Union (EU) on the basis that it was not necessary to include specific language on rum because it was covered in Declaration XXV in the Cotonou Convention, the EC is now reneging on its undertakings and many rum companies face a grave financial crisis.

CARIFORUM countries - the independent member states of Caricom plus the Dominican Republic - agreed to a full EPA in December 2007 under considerable pressure from the EC including the threat that if they did not sign, a higher tariff would be applied to their vital exports, such as sugar, rice and bananas, making them uncompetitive with other countries.

The single paragraph on rum in the EPA was not worth the paper it was written on, and a few weeks ago, on March 19, a ministerial meeting of EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries initialled the text of the second revision of the Cotonou Agreement, which is the legal basis for relations between the EU and the ACP, with no attention paid to the plight of rum producers. The EC objected to specific language on rum in the revised text, overriding ACP protests that it did not provide the substantial guarantees that the original Cotonou Declaration gave to the rum industry.

Read full article here.

What is CARICOM's role in determining Haiti's future?

A Haitian Beach

by RICKEY SINGH

YESTERDAY an International Donors Conference got underway at United Nations headquarters in New York with the objective of helping to determine "a new future" in Haiti following the horrific devastation of the January 12 earthquake.

Today, April 1, is normally treated in jest as "All Fools' Day". So far as Haiti's future is concerned, the aid donor nations would know that there can be no "fooling around" over the enormous challenges involved in the national reconstruction of a country that was already the most poverty-stricken in the Western Hemisphere long before the unprecedented earthquake disaster.

Over many decades Haiti has been dealt a very bad hand by rich and powerful nations and the international financial institutions they control.

Together, though with varying agenda, they have traditionally influenced political and economic developments under different administrations in Port-au-Prince without any fundamental change in the image of even the capital city from that of a shanty town.

Read full article here.