WEDNESDAY, 02 FEBRUARY 2011 05:57 TRINIDAD EXPRESS
AS Trinidad and Tobago awaits the coming broadcast to the nation by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on new initiatives to curb the epidemic of criminality, I wish to focus on a regional issue of much concern at this time to our Caribbean Community (Caricom):It pertains to the evident secrecy over the official "search'' to select an appropriate candidate for appointment a new Secretary General of Caricom to succeed Edwin Carrington
The 72-year-old Tobago-born Carrington, a former secretary general of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states, retired last year after faithfully serving in that post for 18 years.
It is the norm for regional, hemispheric and international organisations, such as the United Nations, Organisation of American States, Commonwealth Secretariat and Pan-American Health Organisation, to indicate efforts to fill vacancies in their top posts and even provide names of nominees, as endorsed by their respective governments.
This is not happening in Caricom where a ten-member search committee, under the chairmanship of Barbados' Foreign Minister Senator Maxine McLean was mandated by Community Heads of Government last August to help in short-listing potential suitable candidates for the post of Secretary General.
The committee was established shortly after Carrington had officially announced on August 4, 2010, his decision to retire last year end after serving as Secretary General for 18 years.
His surprised announcement had followed a special caucus of Heads of Government at last July's Caricom Summit in Montego Bay. But host Prime Minister Bruce Golding, had denied that Carrington may have been provoked into making that decision as a consequence of the nature of the deliberations at the Montego Bay caucus.
Neither information on specific terms of reference to guide the work of the search committee nor qualification criteria required of potential candidates was forthcoming.
Beyond, that is, a bland press announcement which followed a meeting that was scheduled to deal with the broader and very pressing, but elusive issue of improved governance of an almost 34-year-old Caricom.
Read full article here.
February 23, 2011
CARICOM's puzzling secrecy By Rickey Singh
Migrant farm workers stage wildcat strike to demand thousands of dollars in unpaid wages: Employer responds with deportation
Although this wild cat strike by migrant workers took place last November in Canada, I have decided to post it because the site is a useful reference. Over the next few weeks here in Barbados, the government will be discussing the Green/White papers on proposals for legislative reform to the Immigration Policy and Guest Worker programmes are discussed in the paper.
November 23, 2010
(Simcoe, Ontario) Over a 100 migrant farm workers employed at Ghesquiere Plants Ltd. are facing imminent repatriation (deportation) after staging a wildcat strike to demanding thousands of dollars in unpaid wages.
The migrant workers from Mexico, Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados came together across racial, linguistic and ethnic lines to organize this wild cat strike and strengthen their collective power. The workers employed by this farm described numerous rights violations and complaints about their living conditions including the following:
- Workers are each owed from $1000 to $6000 in unpaid wages
- Workers are to be evicted and will be homeless as of Thursday, November 25th, 2010
- Most of the Mexican and Trinidadian workers will be repatriated by this Thursday. All Jamaican workers have been repatriated
- Electricity and heat has been cut off in one bunk
- Deplorable and very crowed living conditions
Read rest of article here.
February 19, 2011
Some thoughts on the migrant experience from a Canadian-Guyanese in Toronto
By Kevin de Silva for In the Diaspora
This piece is a response to an article, “Canadian Guyanese longs to come home” that appeared in the January 30th edition of Stabroek News. It isn’t meant to be read as a criticism of this article, which enumerates the benefits of the Canadian experience for the Guyanese diaspora. Canada as a place for wealth and opportunity is a strong enough theme in both popular talk and I would argue, even seeps into the Caribbean unconscious. Yet such a belief is rarely coupled with a different, more pragmatic understanding of the situation for Guyanese people in Canada. Whenever confronting a picture the key is to not see in two toned terms or in overblown colour, nor to focus on one isolated dynamic. The point is clarity, and a broader analysis, simply for the sake of honesty.
——
In the land of plenty, mega-supermarket temples dot the landscape with shelves full of food; items ranging from watches and furniture to toothpaste and shoes, all found of course, in one convenient location. The somewhat religious fervor of those who frequent these resource depots, as well as the cold and almost robotic activity found inside, is something still foreign to me, a person born and raised among them.
“Gyal, mi a come in las’ week and di soup a $2.09, mi come today an it $2.49. You people a lie.” An elderly Guyanese man, possibly in his 60’s, was scolding a sales representative about the store and his soup. The lady, who also was from the Caribbean answered calmly: “Sir we probably had a sale last week that’s over now.” The man snapped back, unconvinced by her explanation: “No, no, no. I un wan hear dat. Y’all people a lie and di aisle dem not even clean, everyting a mix-up, mix-up…”
Read full article here.
Barbados concerned about human trafficking
(Barbados Nation) Human trafficking appears to have found a place in Barbados. And yesterday during debate on the Transnational Organised Crime (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2011, both Government and Opposition spokespersons were in unison on its likely existence in the island and the need for a holistic approach to stop it.
Leader of Government Business Senator Maxine McClean and principal Opposition spokesperson in the Upper Chamber, Senator Kerrie Symmonds, gave accounts of situations involving women, which fell within the perimeters of human trafficking.
McClean referred to the Ghanaian nationals who were left stranded in Barbados two years ago and indicated that some of the females in the group were reportedly engaged in acts of prostitution almost immediately after arriving and subsequently disappearing on the island.
She noted many of them had come to Barbados based on promises of employment and a better life. She added it was clearly a situation where the Africans were exploited.
Read full article here.
February 16, 2011
EU Faces Challenge Of A Widening Wave Of Migrants by SYLVIA POGGIOLI
The uprisings in North African countries are creating newly freed societies, but it they are also triggering an exodus of people hoping to find greater stability and better employment in Europe.
In just a few days, 5,000 Tunisians have landed on Lampedusa, a small Italian island in the Mediterranean that normally has a population of just 6,000. The onslaught is challenging Italy and the rest of Europe to cope with this new migratory wave.
Lampedusa is a tiny flat island dotted with prickly pear cactus and sandy beaches.
It's closer to Africa than to the Italian mainland, and over the last decade it has become accustomed to receiving waves of boat people seeking better lives in Europe.
The latest to arrive are mostly young men.
Chakar Awadi, 28, says all he's seeking is freedom and honest work, either here or in France or Belgium. The sea passage was very dangerous, he says, with 75 people packed into a rickety boat for three days at sea.
When asked what he'll do if Italian authorities send him back home, he says he'll hang himself.
Read full article here.
February 1, 2011
Andrea Levy speaks about "A Small Island"
Guardian book club podcast: Andrea Levy
The writer explains how Small Island was driven by a wish to write about her parents' experience as immigrants, and that of the white British who met them.
Andrea Levy explains to the book club that the motivation driving Small Island was a wish to better understand both her parents' generation – her father being among the generation of West Indians who arrived in England on the Empire Windrush – and the experience of the white English getting used to their new neighbours.
She says that during the research for the book, she was very struck by the differences between the reception met in wartime Britain by black American and Caribbean soldiers: how the former, living in segregated barracks, were met with immediate hostility; while the Caribbeans only began to encounter discrimination in the late 40s as the Windrush generation settled in England.
The novelist also talks about Small Island's structure, which moves backwards and forwards in time around the pivot of 1948 (and how only American reviewers were able to get the hang of this). The structure, she explains, was only constructed after she had finished writing the book, weaving together bits of the story written at different times. The title itself, she says, was something she only found after the novel was completed.
The craft of writing, meanwhile, she says was a skill she learnt from watching TV rather than reading books.
Access the Guardian podcast here.
