Category Archives: Caribbean

Several elected officials kicked off National Caribbean American Heritage Month with a celebration of nine people of Caribbean heritage at the Our Caribbean Heritage Celebration last weekend at the Celeste Bartos Forum, New York Public Library in Manhattan, hosted by City Council Member Andy King.

Among this years honorees were City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito; United Nations Ambassador to Dominica the Hon. Bannis-Roberts; Gabriel J. Christian, Esq.; Henry A. Garrido, DC 37 executive director; Ambassador Curtis Ward, former ambassador of Jamaica to the United Nations; the Hon. Dr. Irving W. Andr, Superior Court of Justice, Dominica; Crispin Gregoire, United Nations Development Programs chief of the Caribbean Strategic Monitoring and Support Unit of the Regional Bureau of Latin America and the Caribbean; and Dr. Clayton Shillingford, former president of the Dominica Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Supporters of Our Caribbean Heritage Celebration include Congress members Gregory Meeks and Eliot Engel; borough presidents Ruben Diaz Jr, Bronx and Eric Adams, Brooklyn; state senators Jamaal Bailey and Kevin Parker; State Assembly members Latrice Walker, Rodneyse Bichotte, Victor Pichardo, Diana Richardson and N. Nick Perry; and City Council members Bill Perkins, Fernando Cabrera, Rory Lancman, Rosie Mendez, Mark Levine, Rafael Espinal, Laurie Cumbo, Corey Johnson, Vanessa Gibson and Jumaane Williams.

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National Caribbean Heritage Month kicks off - Amsterdam News

BY TRONE DOWD Editor

The Queens Tribune honored seven Caribbean Americans for their community work during the papers inaugural Caribbean Heritage Month celebration on June 2 at Douglaston Manor.

(Left to right): Deodat Urprasad, Linda Watson Lord, Clive White, U.S. Rep. Yvette Clark, Adrian Peters, Roy Hastick, State Sen. Roxanne Persaud, Patricia Chin, Younna Bailey-Magalhaes, Carlo Thertus and Barbara Atherly. Photos by Bruce Adler

We are a great city of diversity, Queens Tribune publisher Mike Nussbaum told attendees. Were proud of that. We take pride in our cultural roots. Its a significant part of who we are and each of the immigrants who have come to this borough here has a story.

The ceremony drew a number of special guests, including city Public Advocate Letitia James, U.S. Rep. Yvette Clark (D-Brooklyn), city Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop and consulate generals of Jamaica, Guyana and Barbados.

Bishop recalled the journey that his grandmother took when she immigrated to New York City from a politically ailing Grenada, pushing his mother at a young age to do all that she could. He said that his mother attended college, while ensuring that her children had the same values that her mother taught her. He said that he was proud of the role that he has in helping small business and entrepreneurs, many of whom come to the city from abroad to start anew.

Clark talked about the historic importance of Caribbean Americans, both in the past and the present, and said that the city should protect immigrants, especially in the current political climate.

James told the crowd that it is important to recognize the contributions of Caribbean Americans and that their hard work and commitment to family is part of what makes New York City great.

The events honorees all had a chance to speak upon receiving their awards, reflecting on their lives as successful Caribbean Americans and how far they have come in their respective fields.

Jamaica native Patricia Chin, founder of the world-renowned VP Records, accepted her award on behalf of both her Caribbean heritage and status as a woman in a male-dominated field.

I am blessed that I could have continued what my mom and dad told meto help others, Chin said. This country is a beautiful country. If you work hard and play by the rules, you can be a success. Just make sure that you never forget where you come from.

Clive White, a banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and second-generation Caribbean American of Barbadian and Dominican descent, said that he was thankful for the opportunities afforded to his parentswhich, in turn, laid the groundwork for his success.

They helped nourish my passion to help the community, he said, adding that he was pleased for the opportunity he has to help cultivate small businesses and further his passion for assisting the little man.

Deputy Inspector Deodat Urprasad, the commanding officer of the 102nd Precinct, dedicated his award to honor his family in an emotional speech.

Its a humbling experience to be here, said Urprasad, who moved to the United States with his parents in 1973. I am happy to share the moment with my family and friends.

Urprasad also gave a shout-out to his brothers in blue, thanking them for the support theyve given him over the years. I have some great men and women in the 102nd Precinct, he said. He attributed a 41 percent deduction in crime since he took the position in 2015 to their work.

Carlo Thertus, a Haiti-born artist whose work is frequently of a political nature, displayed some of the artwork from children who attend Creative Space for Kids, an art school Thertus founded in Long Island in 1996. He told the Queens Tribune that he wanted to show off his students workrather than his ownduring the event.

Adrian Peters, a branch manager for New York Community Bank who originally hails from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said that he was grateful to be recognized for his work.

I am grateful for my parents, he said. I realized the value of what they taught me growing up. It starts with my mom. She taught me how to cook and bake some of my favorites, like callaloo. She taught kindness. I remember weekends with people who did odd jobs. They had lunch with us and were served first. I was told, It will come back to you.

Peters also remembered that his father taught him the importance of service above self, whether through an organizationsuch as a churchor community programs.

State Sen. Roxanne Persaud (D-Brooklyn), who hails from Guyana, was recognized for her extensive involvement in her communitywhich culminated in her running for office three years ago. Persaud said that Caribbean Americans should be proud of their heritage and encouraged them to become involved in their communities. She closed out her acceptance speech with a plea to end gun violence in the five boroughs.

Dr. Roy Hastick, a Grenada native who worked in a number of city agencies and operated a newspaper before founding the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, thanked his wife upon accepting his award, noting that it is good to have a strong woman beside you, behind you and, sometimes, driving you.

Hastick said that he was thrilled to see fellow Caribbean Americans being recognized for work in their respective fields as he pointed out City Council candidate Richard David in the audienceespecially in government, where he was pleased that they can help move a document to the top of the pile.

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Queens Tribune Celebrates Caribbean Heritage Month - Queens Tribune

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Royal Caribbean drink package rules overview - Royal Caribbean Blog (blog)

Even if you've never danced, feasted and gawked your way through the spectacular celebrations of Caribbean carnival, you likely have some sense of the elaborately feathered headdresses and sequined bikinis, the exuberant soca bands, and the endless parades and merrymaking involved.

"En Mas': Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean," which opened two weeks ago at the DuSable Museum of African American History, includes just about none of this.

Instead, brown cardboard cutouts, flower-patterned coffins and shields bearing photographs of London townhouses fill the small series of rooms along with a mysterious white geodesic sphere and a black-suited alien posed halfway up a metal ladder. A sousaphone plays mournfully in its lowest register, while a man whistles robin calls, and two people chat conspiratorially.

Co-curated by Krista Thompson, a professor at Northwestern University, and Claire Tancons, the exhibition, which debuted in New Orleans and has traveled to the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, eschews an anthropological approach (though extensive wall labels inform about the finer points of masquerade, Junkanoo and other traditions). What's on view instead is the critical and creative take of nine contemporary artists commissioned to make projects during the official 2014 carnival season in cities including Port-of-Spain and Nassau, and diasporic ones like Brooklyn and New Orleans.

Instead of flamboyant costumes, Bahamian artist John Beadle created towering wearable structures of cardboard shapes, patterned with the designs of concrete screen walls and iron fences. Though ironically no less decorative and sprawling than typical regalia, the drab materials and functional forms of "Inside-Out, Outside-In" are their opposite, referring slyly to the actual supports that form the undergirding of the most extravagant parade wear.

In contrast to the classist extravaganza of carnival in Kingston, with its pricey tickets and imported costumes, Ebony G. Patterson organized "Invisible Presence: Bling Memories," a defiantly handmade and working-class memorial to the victims of urban and police violence. Not surprisingly, parade organizers just barely permitted Patterson's group of 80 volunteers carrying 50 coffin-shaped sculptures covered in loud prints, tassels and plastic flowers to participate in the official road march.

Meanwhile, in London, a unit of foot soldiers marauded through the main hall of the Tate Modern, herding and harassing befuddled, iPhone-wielding visitors. Choreographed by Hew Locke, they wore masks printed with jerk chicken, peas and rice popular carnival street food, but grotesque as facial decoration and brandished town house-patterned riot shields and batons, drumming out a catchy beat while enacting a performance that spoke to the tensions on display across town at the Notting Hill Carnival, where the real police were at work protecting a now-posh neighborhood from revelers who decades ago, when the festival was founded, would have been right at home.

A bold alliance of popular and avant-garde culture, "En Mas" presents a number of curatorial challenges, some intentional and some not. The DuSable, venerable institution that it is, is also underfunded, cramped and unused to displaying multi-media contemporary art. And while it makes perfect sense for a museum of African-American history to host a show about Caribbean culture, it seems a missed opportunity on the part of mainstream art institutions to have embraced a non-Eurocentric history of performance art.

More thoughtful, though, are the ways in which some artists have approached the problem of re-presenting in a museum live art that was made for the streets. The tried-and-true solution of sharp video documentation and striking artifacts has been put to good use, but it has also been gotten beyond. Viewers of Charles Campbell's "Actor Boy: Fractal Engagement," don't just see photographs of what they missed an uptowner's excursion to downtown Kingston involving a contortionist, a fire-eater and sci-fi masks but something new besides: an animation by Oneika Russell that fancifully interprets the tour and a strange sparkly dome by Campbell that serves as a monument to a postcolonial utopia of the future.

Though carnival is all about public spectacle, living life to excess in the streets, two of the most magically immersive artworks in "En Mas" are decidedly intimate. Christophe Chassol composed a full-length film essay out of noises and images recorded during carnival in Martinique. "Big Sun" neither sounds nor looks as expected: Men play dominoes and blow conch shells in a provisions shop, the surf crashes on a beach, birds twitter, rain falls, a flautist plays in a concrete cemetery, creole is spoken. Overtop it all is Chassol's own startling instrumentation, jazzily harmonizing the fragments that make up the whole.

For "C Room," Nicolas Dumit Estevez filled the back room of a folkloric museum in Santiago de los Treinta Caballeros, Dominican Republic, with props ranging from potatoes and shopping bags to sparkly wigs and colorful umbrellas, and then invited friends and friends of friends to transform themselves into the weird and wonderful. I want to have been there, too, with a string of plastic pitchers for a necklace and a pink bra for a hat. That's my kind of festival.

"En Mas': Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean" runs through August 13 at the DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Pl., 773-947-0600, http://www.dusablemuseum.org.

Lori Waxman is a freelance critic.

ctc-arts@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @chitribent

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'En Mas' at DuSable takes a different look at Caribbean carnival - Chicago Tribune

Posted by William A. Gould, US Forest Service/USDA Caribbean Climate Hub and Isabel K. Pars, US Forest Service/Caribbean Climate Hub Coordinator in Climate Food and Nutrition

Jun 06, 2017

Sr. Sapo is a very popular figure among children in Puerto Rico and Latin America and he has a new healthy hobby, agriculture! The USDA Caribbean Climate Hub and the musical group Atencin Atencin Inc. partnered to produce a video focusing on how food is grown and its relationship with nature.

The USDA Caribbean Climate Hub explains they want to promote agriculture and help children better understand how the food we eat is connected to sunshine, rain and the soil.

The video illustrates how food production is influenced by the sun and the rain through the experiences of Sr. Sapo in his home garden. Sr. Sapolearns to prepare the soil and succeeds at harvesting fruits and vegetables after his garden was affected by a drought followed by severe flooding.

Where do potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes come from? Today, few children understand where food comes from so we thought it was important to collaborate with the Caribbean Hub to produce this video, which shows the benefits of agriculture and its relationship with nature to create environmental awareness in children, Vctor Rivera, President of Atencin Atencin Inc. said.

The Caribbean Hub also developed a coloring book based on the video, which the Hub uses as an educational tool when participating in agricultural and environmental events throughout the Island. Both are available in Spanish and with English subtitles in the Kids' Corner on the Caribbean Hub website.

Located in Ro Piedras, Puerto Rico, the USDA Caribbean Climate Hub is one of ten Regional Hubs nationwide that delivers science based knowledge and practical information to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners to help them adapt to climate and weather variability.

The video and the coloring book are available in Spanish and with English subtitles in the Kids Corner on the Caribbean Hubs website.

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New Caribbean Climate Hub Video Teaches Kids About Agriculture - USDA.gov (press release) (blog)

Horace Burrell, a longtime Caribbean soccer official and former ally of several controversial FIFA vice presidents, has died. He was 67.

The governing body of soccer in North America said the Jamaican, a senior vice president, died Tuesday. Media in Jamaica reported that Burrell was a patient at Johns Hopkins Cancer Treatment Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

Burrell oversaw Jamaicas qualification for the 1998 World Cup during two stints as president of the soccer federation from 1994-2003 and since 2007.

Captain Burrells commitment and vision for the sport contributed to create a strong legacy for the game within the region, the Miami-based CONCACAF soccer body said.

Burrell gave the Caribbean region continuity at CONCACAF and FIFA through corruption scandals that have flared since 2011. He was a FIFA disciplinary committee member, but lost that duty in 2011 when he was banned for three months in a Caribbean bribery case during that years FIFA presidential election.

Burrell, who had not cooperated fully with a FIFA-appointed investigation, was not implicated in taking money in a scandal which removed CONCACAF president Jack Warner from soccer.

Warner was replaced as CONCACAF leader and FIFA vice president by Jeffrey Webb, once a business partner of Burrells in a Cayman Islands branch of the Captains Bakery and Grill restaurant chain.

Webb and Warner were both indicted in May 2015 by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a sprawling and ongoing investigation of bribery and corruption in international soccer linked to FIFA. Webb has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentence, while Warner is fighting extradition to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago.

A third CONCACAF president, Alfredo Hawit of Honduras, was also indicted and arrested later in 2015.

Burrell had rejoined FIFAs inner circle within weeks of his ban expiring in 2012 and was appointed to the committee organizing Olympic soccer tournaments.

As CONCACAF cleaned house in fallout from scandals, Burrell served as its No. 2 elected official and the most senior Caribbean in the 40-nation group.

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Longtime Caribbean soccer official Horace Burrell dies at 67 - FOXSports.com

Edmund Bartlett, Jamaicas minister of tourism. (photo by Brian Major)

Jamaicas Ministry of Tourism is partnering with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and international financial organizations, including the World Bank Group, to host a novel conference organizers hope will result in innovative strategies to expand Caribbean tourism.

Announced by Caribbean government and tourism officials at a press briefing Wednesday in New York, the inaugural UNWTO, Government of Jamaica and World Bank Group Conference on Jobs & Inclusive Growth: Partnership for Sustainable Tourism event will be held November 27 to 29 at Jamaicas Montego Bay Convention Center.

The first-ever gathering will bring regional destinations together with Caribbean tourism groups that include the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), plus international development banks, non-profit organizations, academic groups and hotel and cruise industry officials.

The conference will address methods to attract increased tourism investment to Caribbean destinations while formulating policies through which communities will better retain and benefit from tourism expenditures, noted Edmund Bartlett, Jamaicas tourism minister.

The event will be the first UNWTO conference to take place in the Caribbean and coincides with the organizations year-long focus on international sustainable tourism development, said Paul Pennicook, Jamaicas director of the Jamaica Tourist Board.

Among several Caribbean officials to refer to the region as the worlds most tourism-reliant, Bartlett said countries in the region have the worlds highest proportion of total employment and percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) derived from tourism.

It is estimated that one in every four [Caribbean] persons is employed by tourism-related activities, and the sector accounts for 41 percent of all exports and services and 31 percent of all gross domestic product, he added.

READ MORE:Haitis Hometown Airline Spreads Its Wings

Bartlett also outlined the tourism industrys growing global significance: Global travel employs 10 percent of global labor. That means one in every 10 people working in the world is working in tourism. 1.2 billion people traveled globally in 2016, spending $1.3 trillion and 30 percent of world trade is in tourism.

Yet, Caribbean destinations have largely failed to retain tourism expenditures, Bartlett lamented. Thus the conference will focus on building linkages in our communities to capitalize on tourism dollars.

Bartlett said 80 percent of global tourism operations are run by small and medium-sized businesses.

If tourism is to be an economic driver, we have to improve in our retention of the proceeds, he said.

Bartlett said the conference themes will include tourism and sustainability; threats, risks and challenges; the strengthening of human capital; tourism value chain linkages and technology and innovation.

He added that the gathering will culminate in the formulation of a Montego Bay Declaration, which will provide an action plan for tourism destinations to follow.

The Montego Bay Declaration will contribute to a UNWTO global report on public-private partnerships. The conference will also feature the presentation of Caribbean Legend Awards to individuals that have made an indelible mark on the tourism industry, enhancing the Caribbean brand, Bartlett said.

Because we are the most tourism-reliant region of the world, we have to be the most tourism-competent, said Riley of CTO. We have to care more about the quality of the experience of the people who visit.

Matt Cooper, CHTAs chief marketing officer, noted Caribbean hoteliers operate in the worlds highest-cost region based on electricity rates and access to water.

Sustainability to us is a matter of practicality and survival, he said.

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Inaugural Jamaica Conference Invests in Caribbean Tourism - TravelPulse

The US Coast Guard recently offloaded in Puerto Rico more than a metric ton of cocaine, the latest in a string of seizures that points to a potential growth in the Caribbean's role as a drug transshipment hub.

The Coast Guard unloaded 1.1 metric tons of cocaine in Puerto Rico on June 2. The drugs, seized a week earlier off the island's southern coast, are estimated to have a wholesale value of around $32 million.

According to a June 6 press release, three Dominican nationals were arrested as part of the operation. They will face US federal charges in a Puerto Rico court.

The incident is the latest in a series of large cocaine seizures in the Caribbean this year. In a single operation in February, the Coast Guard seized 4.2 metric tons of cocaine heading to Europe in international waters off the northern coast of Suriname -- the largest bust in the Atlantic Ocean in nearly two decades.

Meanwhile, on June 4, the Jamaica Observer reported a small seizure of 75 kilograms of cocaine that were being shipped from Suriname and Guyana, indicating that the Caribbean is an important route for both large-scale and small-scale trafficking.

The latest seizures serve as a reminder of the Caribbean's important role as a drug transshipment hub, but also of the variety of routes and operations established in the area.

Central America and Mexico remain the main corridor for South American drugs heading to the US market, accounting for an estimated 76 percent of cocaine smuggled north, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration's 2016 National Drug Threat Assessment report. However, almost all of the remainder travels to the United States through the Caribbean, the report states.

SEE ALSO: Caribbean News and Profile

US authorities have in the past argued that evidence points to growing trafficking activities through the Caribbean. In fact, the DEA has said that the region saw a three-fold increase in drug smuggling between 2009 and 2014.

Indeed, the Caribbean's transshipment role has grown increasingly visible in recent years. The region remains one of the two main transit points for cocaine crossing the Atlantic to feed European consumption markets. This flow has most likely been fueled by the boom in Colombia's cocaine production, while the deep crisis shaking neighboring Venezuela -- from where many Caribbean shipments are launched -- also facilitates trafficking activities.

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String of Large Drug Seizures Suggests Growth in Caribbean Trafficking - Insightcrime.org

Royal Caribbean Blog (blog)

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6 things you may not have tried on a Royal Caribbean cruise - Royal Caribbean Blog (blog)

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Cable Bahamas yesterday expressed optimism that it had created a path for other Bahamian firms to follow by becoming the first local company to cross-list on another Caribbean stock exchange.

Kino Williamson, the BISX-listed communications providers finance chief, told Tribune Business it had taken a big step through last Fridays listing of $14.7 million worth of preference shares on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE).

I think we are definitely the first Bahamian-owned entity to cross-list, he said. The JSEs managing director mentioned that.

Its a big step. When you think about it, we are striving to be a global company, and part of our strategy is to get our name and company out there. It [the cross-listing] gives us more alternative avenues out there for fund-raising, and creates more value for shareholders.

The Series 11 preference shares listed on the JSE are split into two tranches, one denominated in US dollars and the other in Jamaican currency. They represent the portion of last Augusts $50 million preference share offering that Cable Bahamas sought to raise outside this nation from Caribbean investors.

The BISX-listed communications provider had engaged Scotiabank (Bahamas) and its affiliate, Scotia Investments Jamaica, to place the Caribbean portion of the issue, which targeted raising $20 million or 40 per cent of the proceeds. Ultimately, $14.7 million, or 34.4 per cent of the $42.7 million total raised, came from outside the Bahamas.

Besides establishing a milestone for Cable Bahamas, Mr Williamson said Fridays cross-listing could also show the way for other Bahamian companies when it came to tapping capital markets and financing sources outside this nation.

Hopefully, it allows other companies in the Caribbean to come to our market and vice versa, he told Tribune Business, with a company on the local market that wants to cross-list on a Caribbean exchange.

Were creating that path. Were excited. It was a condition of [the preference share] raising to list. Were happy to do it, and happy to accomplish this milestone for the company. It will be interesting to see how our shares do, even though theyre just prefs.

Regional cross-listings, with Caribbean companies listing on the Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX), and Bahamian firms going on other regional platforms, has often been talked about as one way to expand the local capital markets and boost their liquidity.

This, though, has yet to translate into action apart from Cable Bahamas JSE listing last week. The Bahamian private sector generally, encouraged by exchange control regime restrictions, continued to look inward rather than outward for investors, financing and markets.

Cable Bahamas, with its $100 million expansion into Florida, is one of the few to break that trend. Mr Williamson said the JSE was extremely excited to receive its preference share listing, given the potential boost to liquidity and the possibility it will act as a magnet for more cross-listings.

He added that the increased exposure to a Caribbean investor audience was a key attraction for Cable Bahamas, especially as the company undertakes rapid expansion through Alivs mobile license and its Florida initiatives.

Hopefully with this move, once persons start to see us, particularly the Jamaican investors, following the transition from triple-play to quad-play provider, and see our growth, that creates avenues to raise additional funds if something comes up in the not too distant future, Mr Williamson told Tribune Business. Were excited about it.

We wont stop. Were back to the drawing board, looking at whats next for the company, and hopefully we will come back with something.

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Cable 'Creates Path' For Caribbean Cross-Listing - Bahamas Tribune