Category Archives: Caribbean

December 10-12, 2021, Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

17 June 2022

Report

The Caribbean regions Informal Drug Policy Dialogue that was held in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), in December 2021, at the initiative of Transnational Institute (TNI) in close collaboration with the Medicinal Cannabis Authority (MCA) of SVG highlighted several challenges to the establishment of a legal medical cannabis industry currently being faced by countries in the region. These issues include international banking restrictions; access to laboratory, research and testing facilities; complying with EU GACP and GMP to meet the standards for exports, the Seed-to-Sale System; securing access for patients and getting doctors to prescribe; the structure of the licensing system; guarantees for the Rastafari community for ceremonial ganja usage, and most importantly, how to envisage traditional cultivators inclusion in the regulatory framework and practice being developed. Around the table seven (7) countries were represented from the region: Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, St Lucia and of course St Vincent and the Grenadines.

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Report on the Caribbean Informal Drug Policy Dialogue on the Future of Cannabis - Transnational Institute

(San Juan, P.R.) Puerto Ricos first official video game team, the Red Roosters, continue to bet on developing industry on the Island, with a view of becoming the undisputed leader of eSports in the Caribbean and Latin America.

"The year 2022 has undoubtedly been one full of successes for the video game industry in Puerto Rico. At a competitive level, we have managed to achieve great triumphs in all the events we have participated in," said the group's spokesman and professional gamer, Ricardo "Mono" Romn.

Back in March, the Red Rooster Team developed at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum the eighth edition of the Winter Clash 2022. The event had 300 participating competitors and more than 2,000 attendants, making it the most important video game events in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.In addition, in the 2022 closing of the Elements League, Puerto Rico began the competition by beating the undefeated world champion, Saprisa eSport of Costa Rica.

Study of the Esports industry and market in Puerto Rico

Romn's expressions are given in the context of a study by the Inteligencia Econmica firm, which evealed that betting on the eSports industry in Puerto Rico shows solid growth in the context of the pandemic, which establishes a new source of income for the state and for private industry.

"With the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of many sporting events, many media have turned to video game streaming as a content alternative. The betting market on digital platforms in eSports can present an opportunity to attract non-traditional bettors. Given the demographic of the eSports audience, which tends to be younger, this represents an opportunity to create a new betting market in a sport that is in its infancy and demonstrating impressive trends of development and growth."

Hotels and the training industry would also benefit of this in general in the face of the challenges of the pandemic. "This option can be a way to generate revenue in the short term, and not lose the captive customers those hotels, casinos and other players in the industry have," they say.

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Puerto Rico Emerging as an Esports Leader in the Caribbean and Latin America - The Weekly Journal

George Lamming, a novelist and essayist from Barbados who was among the last of a generation of Caribbean writers whose work traced their regions transition from colonialism to independence, died on June 4 at his home in Bridgetown, his countrys capital. He was 94.

The death was confirmed by his daughter, Natasha Lamming-Lee. She did not provide a cause.

Mr. Lammings early work, like that of his contemporaries V.S. Naipaul and Samuel Selvon, was filtered through his experience as a young man in London, where he published his first novel, In the Castle of My Skin, in 1953. He was part of what came to be known as the Windrush generation, the hundreds of thousands of Caribbean people who migrated to Britain after the government ruled, in 1948, that they were British citizens.

For Mr. Lamming and others, the rapid collapse of the British Empire was a moment of soul-searching and measure-taking: What did it mean to be Barbadian? Could a former colonial subject, let alone an entire society, craft an identity independent of its colonizer? And what was the place of art in that vision?

I think that they were seeking the right to speak for themselves and their societies and their landscapes, to describe the world which had made them with a precision and care of the insider, Richard Drayton, a historian at Kings College, London, and a friend of Mr. Lammings, said in a phone interview. For its own sake, not for the entertainment of an English public.

In the Castle of My Skin was a critical success, winning the Somerset Maugham Award and earning Mr. Lamming a Guggenheim fellowship. A loosely autobiographical tale about a boy growing up in Barbados amid labor and social unrest, it also drew on Mr. Lammings extensive readings in existentialist thought. The French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir both championed the book, as did the Black American writer Richard Wright, who had moved to Paris in 1946.

The novel, full of dense imagery and metaphor, blends techniques and styles from poetry, memoir and theater, a mlange typical of Mr. Lammings fiction.

The water rose higher and higher until the fern and flowers on our veranda were flooded, he wrote. My mother brought sacks that absorbed it quickly, but overhead the crevices of the roof were weeping rain, and surfacing the carpet and the epergne of flowers and fern were liquid, glittering curves which the mourning black of the shingles had bequeathed.

In his introduction to the books U.S. edition, Mr. Wright wrote that Lammings is a true gift; as an artist, he possesses a quiet and stubborn courage, and in him a new writer takes his place in the literary world.

Mr. Lamming used the money from his awards to travel to Ghana and the United States, as well as back to the Caribbean; those journeys put him in touch with the African diaspora and bolstered his sense of political commitment, an aspect of his work that set him apart from Walcott, Naipaul and many others in his cohort. He attended the landmark Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris in 1956, and he became close friends with the Marxist literary critic C.L.R. James.

Hes very different from the others in that he placed himself in what one might term a sort of Afro-global diaspora tradition, the writer Caryl Phillips said in a phone interview.

At the same time, Mr. Lamming was also steeped in British literature Thomas Hardy was one of his favorite poets and he was fascinated with Shakespeares The Tempest, in particular the relationship between the shipwrecked sorcerer Prospero and his slave Caliban, which was, he felt, a metaphor for the relationship between colonizer and colonized.

Throughout his work, Mr. Lamming sought to complicate that relationship. It was a hierarchy, he conceded, but also a dynamic, in which the colonized can overcome his or her double consciousness, or experience of alienation, to make space for his or her own identity and freedom.

The double consciousness must be seen as a strategy, and not as a prison, he said in a 2002 interview with the magazine Small Axe. Hes in my consciousness as I am in his. And I have the power to place meanings on him that is no less than his placing meanings on me.

Achieving that vision takes political struggle, and as his career progressed Mr. Lamming dedicated more of his energy to activism. He wrote the last of his six novels, Natives of My Person, in 1972; his subsequent published work was all nonfiction, in the form of essays, speeches and manifestoes.

He worried that in the wake of colonialism, Caribbean society was recreating the same class structures, and even finding new imperial metropoles to submit to, above all the United States. He traveled widely, supporting left-wing governments and organizing activists around the Caribbean.

To support himself, he began an academic career in the late 1960s, teaching and serving as writer in residence at Brown University, the University of Texas, Duke University, the University of the West Indies and other institutions.

To him, fiction, essays and activism were all part of the same endeavor.

I havent changed very much in that sense of almost seeing what I do and myself as a kind of evangelist, he told Small Axe. Im a preacher of some kind; I am a man bringing a message of some kind.

George William Lamming was born on June 8, 1927, in Carrington, a village located on a former sugar plantation outside Bridgetown. His parents were unmarried, and he knew his father only from a distance. His mother, Loretta Devonish, was a homemaker who later married Clyde Medford, a police officer.

He recalled wisps of class consciousness from an early age. Labor unrest swept through the island in 1937, killing 14 and providing the backdrop for In the Castle of My Skin.

He won a scholarship to attend one of Barbadoss three grammar schools, where an English teacher, Frank Collymore, who also edited the islands leading literary magazine, introduced him to writing.

In 1946 he moved to Port of Spain, Trinidad, where he taught in a boarding school for wealthy Venezuelans. It was a culturally and politically vibrant place; he met the American singer, actor and left-wing activist Paul Robeson, who was there on tour, and he began his first encounters with Marxism and continental philosophy.

He married the artist Nina Ghent in 1950; they later divorced. Along with his daughter, he is survived by his longtime partner, Esther Phillips; seven grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren. His son, Gordon Lamming, died in 2021.

Mr. Lamming returned to Barbados in 1980 and eventually moved into a hotel on the rural eastern side of the island. It became his base of operations, where he met with political activists and wrote his speeches and essays.

And though he remained focused on Caribbean politics, he was also prescient about a global resurgence of white supremacy in the 21st century, long before it became obvious.

The white world is closing ranks, he said in a 1998 speech at the City College of New York. The Cold War is over, and a new racial hierarchy is emerging.

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George Lamming, Who Chronicled the End of Colonialism, Dies at 94 - The New York Times

Compiled By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 17, 2022: The founder of the African Blood Brotherhood, one of the one of the seminal groups of African American associations in the 1917s, was born in the Caribbean.

Cyril Valentine Briggs was born on May 28, 1888, in Nevis and emigrated to the United States in July 1905 to join his mother, who had already emigrated here. Briggs first American writing job came in 1912 at the Amsterdam News.

In 1917, Briggs founded the African Blood Brotherhood (ABB), with a goal to stop lynching and racial discrimination, and ensure voting and civil rights for African Americans in the South. He also called for black self-determination. The group initially opposed American involvement in the First World War.

In 1918, the ABB started a magazine called The Crusader, which supported the Socialist Party of Americas platform and helped expose lynchings in the South and discrimination in the North.

Briggs hoped that President Woodrow Wilson would support voting rights for African Americans in the South after the service of veterans in the war. Southern Democratic congressmen opposed any changes. Disillusioned by Socialist and progressive efforts, Briggs joined the Communist Party of America in 1921 and called for control by African-American workers of the means of production which employed them, whether in industry or in agriculture.

Briggs became a leading exponent of racial separatism. Briggs saw American White-Black racism as a form of hatred of the unlike that draws its virulence from the firm conviction in the white mans mind of the inequality of races the belief that there are superior and inferior races and that the former are marked with a white skin and the latter with dark skin and that only the former are capable and virtuous and therefore alone fit to vote, rule and inherit the earth.

Briggs proposed a new solution then emerging, in which the African American had come to the realization that the salvation of his race and an honorable solution of the American Race Problem call for action and decision in preference to the twaddling, dreaming, and indecision of leaders.'

Briggs would remain an active member of the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) throughout the decade of the 1920s.] In 1925 the African Blood Brotherhood was dissolved and replaced with a new organizational entity, the American Negro Labor Congress. Briggs was tapped as the new national secretary of the new Communist Party-sponsored organization.

He would remain an influential figure in the partys hierarchy until the advent of the moderate Popular Front. Briggs would ultimately be expelled from the CPUSA at the end of the 1930s, accused of maintaining a Negro nationalist way of thinking in defiance of the new integrationist party line.

Briggs died on October 18, 1966, in Los Angeles, California.

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This Caribbean Immigrant Founded The African Blood Brotherhood - Caribbean and Latin America Daily News - News Americas

Nudge St. Lucia Group Photo

Since its pilot launch in September 2021 in Saint Lucia, the Nudge Caribbean social enterprise has welcomed twenty-six mindful entrepreneurs. As cohort 3 sets to activate its instore promotion in Massy Stores Mega on Friday 17th June 2022, entrepreneurs in the community and key stakeholders met at Coco Palm Resort for an interactive mixer to mark the occasion.

Nudge Caribbean is founded by creative entrepreneur Anya Ayoung-Chee and Julie Avey, Massy Groups Senior Vice President of People and Culture. The programme was first introduced in the Trinidadian market in 2020, to support entrepreneurs affected by the COVID19 pandemic and a year later welcomed Barbados and Saint Lucia into the community.

Nudge Caribbean is supported by the Massy Group and the Caribbean Development Bank to aid in developing the various initiatives in each island. The products are all #MindfullyMade, handmade with locally sourced materials (where possible).

For partners like Massy Stores, supporting this initiative aligns with the companys mandate to assist small businesses in developing products which are sustainable and purposeful.

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According to Linda Augier, Division Head Category Management, Merchandising and Sales, of Massy Stores Saint Lucia: Our role in this initiative is similar to our Because We Care campaign which supports local manufacturers and places a spotlight on their achievements. For us, to provide a platform for Saint Lucian Nudge entrepreneurs to raise awareness and experience sales in our stores is immeasurable, and we are committed to providing our continuous support.

A consortium from the Nudge regional team joined the local coordinators in welcoming the entrepreneurs. Also present at the mixer were strategic partners from the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards, Bank of Saint Lucia, Cabot Saint Lucia, Massy Group and Massy Stores (St. Lucia), They were able to engage the community, interact with the products and participate in a pre-sale activity.

The e ntrepreneurs have the expertise of the entire regional community within Nudge and receive guidance and hands-on support from Nudge Country Coordinator Kezia Preville of AdVizze Consulting Inc, and Brand Ambassadors Shenel Charles and Keamalyn Charles in Saint Lucia.

The new cohort joining the growing network in Saint Lucia and showcasing locally made products at Massy Stores Mega Friday 17th June 2022 are:

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Lisa Barton- Volney, DeKloze Line (clothing, jewelry) Allana Maximin, Mallee Designs (jewelry) Jasmine Joseph, Natiwelo et Belle (natural deodorants and soaps) Huanna French-Leon, Sak Sa (creole activity book) Kisha James-Henry, Luvysmade758 (face and body products) Easteline Lewis, Els Designs (handbag sets) Nydia Norville, Choiselle (coconut wax candles and body products)

Edisa Eugene, EBamboo CreationsKayode James, Real 3D PrintingKera Rene, KerNaturalsTerill Nicholas, Illuminating DesignsShena Nathaniel. XennEmma Abraham, Emma DollsJessica Alexander, Sa Nou (St Lucia)Malon Joseph, Lucian ChildJancel Thomas, Healthy StrandsShakira Roberts, Lotus Cosmetics Slu

Christina Jn Pierre, KleteChelsea Jongue, Katuri DesignsCatherine Edmund, CK DesignsJenneivi Augustin, Adellee BagsCecilia Augustin, Ceelouette BijouxMelissa Charles, Springforth Hair OilsDarnica Jn Charles, DAtizayAngella Dalsou, Local Hippie ProductsSheena Xavier, Ti Kay Bouton

Visit the Nudge Market Stall inside Massy Stores Mega every Friday (9AM 4PM) and Saturday (8AM 1PM) from June 17 to July 24 and show support for these incredible creatives!

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Nudge Caribbean Continues To Grow Its Community In Saint Lucia - St. Lucia News From The Voice - The Voice St. Lucia

THE WOODLANDS, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Eagle LNG Partners LLC (Eagle LNG) announced today it has partnered with the Royal Caribbean Group to provide liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering for the cruise companys LNG ships, including the first ship debuting in 2023 Icon of the Seas, the first ship in the Icon Class for the companys Royal Caribbean International brand. Eagle LNG will debut multiple purpose-built LNG vessels equipped for marine bunkering and gas delivery throughout the Caribbean.

The LNG bunker supply vessels are optimized for cruise ship bunkering with state-of-the-art distance keeping, hose handling, product conditioning and mooring solutions. Given the beauty of the countries and islands where they will operate, the vessels will maintain the highest possible environmental ship index (ESI) score, fuel efficiency, versatility and cargo handling capabilities while incorporating design elements from the vibrant colors of the Caribbean islands.

Eagle LNG is honored to have been chosen by Royal Caribbean Group as its LNG bunker partner. Our shared vision for a sustainable future, including achieving net zero emissions by 2050, creates a strong foundation for a long-term partnership, said Matthew Fisher, Vice President of Corporate Development and Sustainability for Eagle LNG. By introducing these purpose-built bunkering ships for the Caribbean, we are setting that vision into motion while also creating opportunities for island nations to access low-cost, secure, U.S. produced natural gas for power generation.

The LNG supply will be sourced from Eagle LNGs liquefaction facilities in Jacksonville, Florida. Eagle LNGs facilities are designed for loading bunker vessels and LNG carriers for the Caribbean while maintaining economies of scale using modular liquefaction technology. The facilities will be capable of blending in renewable feedstocks to help customers achieve their carbon reduction goals.

About Eagle LNG

Eagle LNG is a privately held and operated portfolio company of The Energy & Minerals Group. Eagle LNG provides affordable, efficient, and clean-burning energy. It develops bespoke small-scale LNG fueling solutions for marine industries and power generation in the Caribbean and Latin America. Eagle LNG is based in Houston, Texas. For additional information, please visit http://www.eaglelng.com.

About The Energy & Minerals Group

The Energy & Minerals Group (EMG) is a private investment firm with Regulatory Assets Under Management of approximately $13 billion as of March 31, 2022. EMG targets equity investments of $150 million to $1,000 million in the energy and minerals sectors with talented, experienced management teams, focused on hard assets that are integral to existing and growing markets. For additional information, please visit http://www.emgtx.com.

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Eagle LNG To Introduce Caribbean-Based Vessels to Fuel Royal Caribbean Group Ships - Business Wire

Ignition-Innovation, a digital ID firm in the Caribbean, has selected the face biometric authentication and liveness detection services of iProov to verify users of its TruMeID product in Trinidad & Tobago.

TruMeID is digital ID software that opens access to online services with facial recognition. It compares a selfie to photo ID for authentication and biometric liveness detection. The passive face biometric scan also enables authentication in real-time, which prevents digital injection attacks such as with deepfakes, according to the announcement.

Jeston Lett, CEO of Ignition-Innovation, says the company chose iProov because of its, superior facial verification technology, as well as the support from the team, their willingness to help and the spirit of collaboration.

Governments around the world are all facing the same challenge how to provide citizen access to more digital services when cyber criminals are ramping up their tactics and intensity, says Andrew Bud, CEO of iProov. Our technology plays a major role in helping governments keep people and data safe in light of this growing threat.

iProovs biometric authentication services were also recently integrated into Nuggets self-sovereign ID platform and a decentralized digital ID platform from Finema.

biometric authentication | biometric liveness detection | biometrics | digital identity | face biometrics | identity verification | iProov | selfie biometrics

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iProov biometric identity verification sails into Caribbean - Biometric Update

Verbinski's work on the remake of the Japanese horror movie "The Ring" and his Rube Goldberg-filled film "Mouse Hunt" gave him a unique skill set for his work on "Pirates." That combination of supernatural and slapstick created exploding skeletons, swinging Sparrows, and of course, the wheel fight in "Dead Man's Chest." In the scene, James Norrington (Jack Davenport) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) clash swords while balancing on an unhinged mill wheel, which traps the hapless Sparrow (Johnny Depp).

Bloom shot another scene with his pirate crew inside a large, bone cage that swung like a pendulum between two green screens. In the film, it looks far more dangerous as the pirates dangle between two cliffs. But by contrast, the wheel fight isn't a work of CGI. In an interview with MovieWeb, Bloom recalled the scene as the most challenging he had to shoot for the film.

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The Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Stunt That Challenged Orlando Bloom - /Film

A dreamy escape to the Caribbean is on most peoples bucket list, but it may not be as far away as you think.

Escape to BCs magical Calvert Island for the next best thing to a tropical vacation that is also a lot easier on the wallet.

RELATED:5 BC Getaways With Incredible White Sand Beaches

With glistening waters and pristine sandy white beaches, this gem is known as being the Canadian Caribbean.

The beautiful oasis is nestled on the southern edge of the Great Bear Rainforest, about 100 km north of the town of Port Hardy on Vancouver Island. While its quite the trek to travel here, its well worth every minute.

Photo: @kelly.durst/Instagram

Whats more, is it offers world class scuba diving in Carrington Reef. And it features a variety of secluded bays, coves in addition to lagoons just waiting to be explored.

Photo: @yestoeverything/Instagram

The island is also home to a variety of wildlife, including deer, wolves and black bears.

By visiting this seemingly tropical spot, you may feel like youve been swept away to the Caribbean without leaving B.C.

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Where: About 100 km north of the town of Port Hardy on Vancouver Island

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This Remote Island In BC Is Known As The Canadian Caribbean - 604 Now

And so it was that another historical opportunity was missed by the countries of the Caribbean, Central and South America, with the exception of a few who had the courage to take a stand. The majority of leaders from the region, those who Maurice Bishop so aptly called yard fowls, and those who should have known better, traipsed up to Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas held on June 5 10th, 2022, despite the fact that Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were excluded.

On May 5th, Telesur reported that CARICOM will not attend Summit of the Americas with exclusions. In the same report, Antigua and Barbudas ambassador to the US, Ronald Sanders, was quoted as saying, The Summit of the Americas is not a meeting of the United States, and it cannot decide who is invited and who is not.

Unfortunately, behind the scenes there was much wrangling to steer CARICOM off course and ensure that they towed the Masters line. Some did not even bother to explain their complicity, while others sought to excuse their attendance, claiming that they would use the platform to denounce the US position. However, the exclusion of three nations, and the boycotting of the Summit by six others, rendered the Summit even more ineffectual than previous Summits, and a diplomatic disaster for the Imperial hegemon. Former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, rightly called the Summit a stillborn event, stating that The latest version of the misnamed Summit of the Americas is born dead by the absence of several brother presidents who reject the arbitrary and unilateral exclusion of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua by the United States.What a ShameAnti-imperialist organizations throughout the region were calling for a full boycott. It seemed so clear what had to be done. Although decisive and unified action against the Empires ruthless repression alludes us, with so many yard fowls in our midst, this was surely a red line that everyone could agree should not be crossed. Surely, it was clearly understood that the US did not have the authority, as Sanders pointed out, to enforce this type of exclusion, amounting to blatant and unacceptable victimization. It was not a difficult stand to take, even for the yard fowls. It did not require any degree of militancy, since it is simply preposterous that the US should exclude certain nations at its whim. But alas, once again US hegemony and white supremacy had such a grip on the conceptually incarcerated minds of our misleaders that even this crude and blatant disregard for the rights of sovereign nations was to be ignored. The Master tells them to jump and they cry how high. What a shame.

Historical Opportunity MissedAt a time when the US is becoming increasingly isolated globally, as a result of its attempt to encircle Russia, a majority region-wide boycott, as CARICOM originally proposed, would have dealt a significant blow to the Empire. It would have also given impetus to the growing number of countries in Africa, Asia and parts of the Arab world, weary of US intimidation, and sending signals that US bullying will no longer be tolerated.

It is clear that the decline of the US Empire and its West European surrogates is underway. This is the tipping point that our ancestors fought and died for. The end of the US dollar as the global reserve currency is inevitable. Of course, its economic and military power is beyond all measure, and it will not go down quickly or easily. In the midst of this historical struggle, it is imperative that those who have been oppressed for centuries by US and West Europes genocidal policies do whatever they can to assist in the effort to isolate and further the demise of the Empire. And so it was all the more painful to see the descendants of captured Africans, and those throughout the Americas, whose ancestors suffered genocide and brutal oppression at the hands of this Empire, and who are still being strangled by its imperial policies to this day, flocking to Los Angeles at the Masters behest.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley joins the ranks of Misleaders Then there was the terrible moment when Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, took to the podium. She began her speech quoting Bob Marley, so fitting to the times we live in, Bless my eyes this morning, Jah sun is on the rise again, the way earthly things are going, anything can happen Indeed, including the fall of the US Empire if we all join in the push! What followed, in a speech full of progressive initiatives, was an expos of the contradictions and inconsistencies of her social democratic ideology. The belief that somehow capitalism can be humanized and imperialism can be ended by an appeal to reason, by persuasion and eloquent speeches. Appealing to the Beast, she called for an end to the inequalities of an old imperial order with sincerity and that hopeless naivet that fails to recognize that the very existence of the Empire depends on that imperial order.

She urged the gathering to learn from Europes recent example, that there is a dignified way to treat migrants. It was clear that she was alluding to the way that the Ukrainian refugees have been received with open arms. Did she really miss what the entire world noticed, that is, the way that Europe received European refugees in stark contrast to its inhumane and racist treatment of refugees from war torn countries in the Global South, such as Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan?

And the worst moments were yet to come. At the very end of her speech she said that it was wrong that Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were not present but added an absurd caveat and I quote, however, those countries must equally recognize that you cannot want to fully participate, if you are not prepared equally to engage and to see progress and that the simple priority must be people, not ideology.These are the words that Prime Minister Mottley, perceived to be one of CARICOMs most progressive leaders, uttered from the podium in Los Angeles. Confusion surely reigns. Since she quoted Bob Marley, she should remember his famous words, none but ourselves can free our minds.In the speech, she thanked Joe Biden and Kamala Harris without a mention of their impropriety. Since she chose to introduce the notion of prioritizing ideology over people, she ought to have pointed out that the US proxy war with Russia, which is most certainly about prioritizing ideology over the welfare of the entire global population, is pushing our region, and indeed the world, to famine, or that the United States exclusion of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua from the Summit was a clear example of prioritizing ideology over people.

In fact, her statement reeks of the fallacious and deceptive post-modern narrative, that we now live in a post-ideological world. That it is only those who take a stand against the Empire that are ideologically driven. What about Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and you Prime Minister Mottley, do you not have an ideology? Is the neo-liberal capitalist agenda not ideologically driven? Were you seriously suggesting that it is Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua that dont want to engage and see progress, when it is the administration of the very people you thanked, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that have maintained crippling sanctions on those countries? And why? Simply because they asserted their God-given right to self-determination, which includes the right to adhere to any ideology and political system of their choice?

It was Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that chose not to engage these countries by excluding them, even though they had no right to do so, since this was not a US Summit but a Summit of the Americas, as Ron Sanders rightly acknowledged, and yet they were not admonished by Prime Minister Mottley. Instead, the blame was placed on the victims of the United States ideological dogmatism, which obstructs progress and inclusion not only in our region, but throughout the entire world. In contrast, Bolivian president Luis Arce, who chose not to attend the Summit, was clear with regard to where the blame lies when it comes to hindering progress: With blockades and sanctions, a sustainable, resilient and equitable future will never be able to be built in the hemisphere, as the Summit of the Americas is proposing.

Antony Blinken, take Bobs name out of your mouth Certainly, the most sickening moment of the entire Summit was after Mia Mottleys speech, when chairperson of the session, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken commented, In the words of Bob, no woman no cry, dont shed no tears, Lets act, we can sing a redemption song together. Blinken was clearly delighted with Prime Minister Mottleys speech. An arch-imperialist, Blinken felt so inspired and confident, realizing that Mia Mottley, who has become very influential in the region, was on side with the US agenda, that he called Bob by his first name, and spoke about us singing a redemption song together.

Antony Blinken supports an ideology that for centuries, and in its present form, has spawned policies that are responsible for the death of millions of people throughout our region and the world. We, the descendants of captured Africans, and the rightful inheritors of the legacy of all our ancestors, including the late, great Robert Nesta Marley, say to this war-monger, take Bobs name out of your mouth.

We salute those on the right side of history We salute Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines, President Andre Lpez Obrador of Mexico, President Luis Arce of Bolivia, President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, President Xiomara Castro of Honduras and President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, who chose not to attend. It will be recorded that they were on the right side of this crucial historical juncture. So many are risking everything, including their lives, to send a clear message to the evil Empire that enough is enough. History will record that these leaders took a stand, joining the ranks of freedom fighters like Maurice Bishop, who said, No country has the right to tell us what to do or how to run our country or who to be friendly with. We certainly would not attempt to tell any other country what to do. We are not in anybodys backyard and we are definitely not for sale. Anybody who thinks they can bully us or threaten us clearly has no understanding, idea, or clue as to what material we are made ofwe would sooner give up our lives before we compromise, sell-out or betray our sovereignty, our independence, our integrity, our manhood and the right of our people to national self-determination and social progress.

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Leaders of the Americas and the Caribbean Miss Historical Opportunity to Deal Blow to US Imperialism - CounterPunch