“Happy Emancipation”: Now who was the brain behind this in Trinidad?
August 7, 2008
Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe notes in his blog that “The Airports Authority’s emancipation exhibit in its atrium proudly proclaims, “Happy Emancipation” and informs us that “in 1985, Trinidad and Tobago became the first country in the world to declare a national holiday, Emancipation Day, to commemorate the abolition of slavery on August 1, 1834.” Read more
CARIBANA 2008
August 5, 2008
Caribana 2008 in Toronto was quite an artistic cultural experience. I was privileged to attend the parade at Ontario Palace, SocaVivor at Water World and part of the closing concert on Centre Island on Sunday August 4th. I first noticed how well the events were organized; the city of Toronto seems to embrace diversity in its’ truest form unlike some of the experiences I’ve noticed living in New York. Caribbeanites from all corners of North America during Caribana festivities take timeout from their busy schedules to embrace their roots with song, dance, and costumes. Read more
Press on Living Guyana Blogspot!
July 10, 2008
The team at Baiganchoka.com was pleased to see that livingguyana.blogspot.com was back up and running after a couple of monkeys hacked into the site that is being operated by Guyana Media Critic intending on erasing all content and ultimately destroying the platform. Fortunately, that did not happen. What happened to Living Guyana should be an example of how important it is for Guyanese speaking on Guyana to continue speaking out on subjects that affect the lives of so many at home and throughout the Diaspora. At baiganchoka.com, we believe that freedom of speech should not be granted because it was already given. No man has the right to censor that which is given. Continue the work Living Guyana! Read more
Must Read! AIDS in the Caribbean: The second-most affected region in the world.
June 12, 2008
At the end of 2007, an estimated 230,000 people were living with HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean. Some 17,000 people were newly infected during 2007, and there were 11,000 deaths due to AIDS.
In three of the larger countries in this region - the Bahamas, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago - more than 2% of the adult population is living with HIV. Higher prevalence rates are found only in sub-Saharan Africa, making the Caribbean the second-most affected region in the world. More than half of adults living with the virus are women. Read more
Coolies: How Britain Reinvented Slavery
June 3, 2008
Another exceptional documentary from the BBC. The documentary follows the recruitment of Collies (Indians) from Calcutta India to the Caribbean (Guyana and Fiji) and then to South Africa. Slavery was officially abolished, yet the Empire where the sun never sets found a way to work around the horrors of Slavery with another shameful practice, Indentured Servants. Read more
Take action! Learn how you can reduce your carbon footprint by making simple changes around you.
May 17, 2008
Would you like to have a better planet to live, of course you do. Who wouldn’t want to breathe cleaner air, play in better parks, drink cleaner water and preserve the earth from the destruction that man has caused? We all do want those things, don’t we! But realistically time and finances do not allow us such luxuries, well at least most of us who inhabit this beautiful and accommodating planet of ours. Read more
Caribbean Women and Present Health Concerns
May 16, 2008
The health of immigrant populations has been of great concern for many years. For the purpose this Blog, let us for a while focus on the health of the Caribbean immigrant populations, and get a little more specific with women’s health.
Caribbean immigrants make up 10% if the total incoming immigrants in the US. (Vital and Health Statistics. 369: March 1st 2006) .Many of the women who emigrate from the English speaking Caribbean countries are in the US with their, spouses and children, or alone as illegal immigrants, Immigration and assimilation to a different culture and way of life is an extremely difficult process and especially so for our women. It is a well known fact that even though white women are more likely to have breast cancer, more black women die of breast cancer, simply because more are diagnosed at a more advanced stage of disease with poor prognosis. According to the Cancer Awareness Network (Center for Immigrant Health) from the NYU School Of Medicine, invasive cervical cancer is usually diagnosed in more advanced stages, in Haitian and English speaking Caribbean women than in US born black women. Read more
The Surging Cost of Rice Globally: What might be the resulting implications for developing Caribbean nations.
May 9, 2008
Increasing starvation for one will be experienced across the Caribbean because rice as all caribbeanites are aware of is part of our staple diet. Like Haiti and now Africa, food riots are quite promising in the near foreseeable months in Guyana, Brazil etc. Read more
Earth Day 2008 and its impact on developing Caribbean Countries.
April 20, 2008
What are you doing to help the environment?
It seems like a far cry from the realities of daily life for developing Caribbean nations to be impacted by the symbolism of Earth Day. With the world’s economics in crisis, developing Caribbean nations are holding the short end of the stick. Read more
Barbadian Prime Minister on getting the Caricom to produce unique Products
April 16, 2008
David Thompson, the Prime Minister of Barbados at a luncheon yesterday with the President of Trinidad and Tobago Manufactures’ Association said, “the Caricom needs to create unique products that make them competitive in a fully open market.” Read more
Caribbean Nations need to deal with Poverty Eradication as their “top priority” in supporting the laws against Domestic Violence
April 12, 2008
Domestic violence may include men, women, and children and usually involves a detrimental situation or circumstances at home; however, women and children are most often the victims of domestic violence. Domestic violence is universal; it does not discriminate with age, color, social standing, size, educational level and so on.
Read more
“US Admiral says Caribbean possible terrorist thread”
March 31, 2008
Caribbean360 reports the Caribbean as being “potential bases for future terrorist threats to the United States and others in the Americas.” Read more
Western Ideals and Female Body Image
March 27, 2008
Women in the U.S, U.K and greater western countries aspire to have a thin and ideal body, placing excessive importance on the ideal that being skinny is sexy and experiencing trepidation of being fat. Women value their experiences and emotions on body image and their eating habits. However, in the Caribbean, a curvy woman is regarded as sexy and healthy. Read more
Towards a more open, more tolerant Caribbean
December 12, 2007
Steering Committee: M Kleinmoedig, C Mc Ewan, C Orozco, C Robinson, J Simpson et al.
PO Box 1750, 92A Wrightson Rd., Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
+1-868-463-5599; +1-868-752-8517 • cflagsc@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 11, 2007
To the Editor:
Towards a more open, more tolerant Caribbean
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons have been among the most productive citizens of the Caribbean. Although our place has often gone unrecognised and our status as moral citizens denied, we continue to contribute to the project of building a Caribbean where the equal and inalienable rights of all persons, whatever their social or economic status, are recognised and protected. As the world pauses this week to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the many individuals and organisations across the region who belong to the Caribbean Forum for Lesbians, All-sexuals and Gays (C-FLAG) are urging Caribbean citizens to reflect on the need to foster a culture of rights in the region that values diversity. There have been clear signs of progress in this regard during 2007. Read more
The Caribbean Woman
September 22, 2007
What is the “Caribbean woman”? Who is she? Is she a woman from the Caribbean? Does she even exist? An article by Claudia Liburd at SKNVibes speaks with several women from the Caribbean in an effort to help define the “Caribbean woman”. Read more