On March 8, 2023, General Laura J. Richardson of the United States (U.S.) Southern Command gave testimony at a congressional hearing wherein she issued a warning to U.S. lawmakers about the expansion of Chinese influence in the Caribbean that were at odds with purported U.S. interests in the region.[1] Richardson advised policy makers in the U.S. to “pay more attention” to the Caribbean (and Central and South America) because “proximity matters.”[2] To raise the issue to a level of “threat” for U.S. policymakers, Richardson claimed that China had “increased its support for anti-U.S. regimes in the region” of which the . . .
Caribbean politics
Dragon or “Pawn” Star?
Trinidad, it too late to post this? We 9-day memory cycle kick een arready? I was thinking we should forget cricket and football and make chess our favourite game like how it is in Russia. For one thing, it go teach we to think several moves ahead, and another thing, we go learn about that chess piece known as the pawn. Cause dais the first thing that came to mind when I heard the news that this country was “granted permission” by the United States to develop the gas deposits in the Dragon field… owned by Venezuela. Well… that thought . . .
Haiti in the Caribbean
Often, when you mention Haiti in conversation and the anti-imperial struggle that has consistently been waged by the Haitian people against imperialist forces for centuries, you are met with minor acknowledgement and some confusion by the listener. Even in cases where there are those who understand Haiti’s battle against imperialist interventions and incursions – many people are still unclear about: “why Haiti.” This is especially true in the present, where there exists a propagandized belief that there are no broader imperialist aspirations in the Caribbean, insofar as those interests cannot be tied to interests in Latin America, and especially to Cuba. Persistent myths about Haiti and confusion about the nature of politics in the Caribbean have allowed systematic investigations into (neo) imperial enterprises in the broader region to go largely uninitiated. This is all at the peril of failing to contextualize sustained foreign meddling in the Caribbean region and the consistent need by those forces for sustained violence to maintain their dominant position. . . .
Reject Statehood for Puerto Rico
The island of Puerto Rico has been under the direct control of a foreign power for over 400 years. Puerto Ricans have seen their freedoms violently stripped away and their natural resources privatized, yet in the face of this brutal colonization, Puerto Rico is still left standing, flag waving proudly , screaming, “¡VIVE PUERTO RICO LIBRE!”. As Puerto Rico continues to feel the brunt of frequent climate disasters, we must debunk the lie that further colonization through statehood would provide more liberties, aid, or protections from the United States. To suggest that statehood would create these securities is not only . . .
Trinidad and Tobago: Still On Di Road
Transcript Salifu: So yeah, Shaun, I’m very excited to have you here to talk about a lot of the recent developments in the Caribbean. I know we’ve talked, ahead of this, that we wanna talk about foreign meddling, we wanna talk about some of the organizing that’s going on in the region where you are in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago. But before we get into all of that, I figured it would be interesting, at least for me, ‘cause I’ve listened to you talk in other places quite a bit, but I’m curious to know about younger you. I . . .
NATO’s Warmongering Voice in The Caribbean
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Sir Ron Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US and the OAS, has emerged as one of the most strident Caribbean voices in favour of US/NATO warmongering in eastern Europe. He is widely considered to have played a pivotal role in dragging CARICOM countries into their shameful support for the one sided United States/NATO resolution in the United Nations General Assembly on 1 March which pinned all the blame for the war in Ukraine on Russia and painted the US and its NATO followers as completely blameless. The resolution failed to . . .
Britain’s Legacy of Brutal Slavery in Barbados
Yes, the British Empire is indeed one colony smaller as Barbados formally declared itself independent of its colonial rulers after 400 years yesterday in a big ole fancy ceremony attended by all kinds of dignitaries. England’s Prince Charles delivered a message from his mother, Queen Elizabeth, conveying the “warmest good wishes” and said, “from the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which, whatever stains out of his study, the people of this island forge their path with extraordinary fortitude.” It’s nice that he mentioned that appalling history of slavery, but it deserves more than a . . .
The Responsibilities of Caribbean Intellectuals
Aaron Kamugisha is Professor of Caribbean and Africana Thought at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus The tradition of Caribbean intelligentsia insists on a grounding with the masses against the elites. What then are the responsibilities of Caribbean intellectuals? I draw my definition/sense of the intellectual here from figures as diverse as Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said, Claudia Jones and Audre Lorde. For the purposes of this essay I am twinning the thought of George Lamming and Walter Rodney – specifically Lamming’s succinct description of an intellectual as someone whose fundamental orientation is a life of the mind, . . .