Columns

This year, the annual Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place in Katowice, Poland, bringing together a registered 14,000 party delegates for two weeks of intensive climate talks. This 24th COP was considered the most important UNFCCC...

October is synonymous with breast cancer in the Caribbean.  The 16th annual “Walk for the Cure” was held on 7th October 2018 in Barbados.  In Jamaica, its cancer society hosted a number of similar activities in October, in an attempt to bring more awareness to the...

One of the most fundamental characteristics of a modern society is to secure the requisite to survive this constantly evolving world whilst adapting to technological advances.  Given the enormous challenges of facing a future of rapid change and ushering a one-tiered oil and gas economy like Trinidad and...

During the extremely active 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season, major Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall on several Caribbean territories. CARICOM member and associate-member States were affected by these hurricanes, with Dominica and Barbuda among the more severely impacted islands. Floods, earthquakes and hurricanes are some of...

Despite the importance of tourism for a number of economies, local residents of many destinations across the globe have voiced their discontent with tourism development. For them, quality of life – and, in particular, happiness – is more important. Tourism as an industry has positive and...

On the 19th of March 2018, retired judge Paula-Mae Weekes was sworn in as President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Weeks prior, on the 6th of February, Trinidad Guardian journalist Joel Julien published an article confirming that Weekes was “not a lesbian.” On the...

On 21st April 2018, the government of Trinidad and Tobago deported 82 detained Venezuelan migrants back to their country.  According to the Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon in a Trinidad Express report, out of the 82 Venezuelans, 3 abandoned their asylum certificates. Further, in a...

Simply put, being a “real man,” in the Caribbean, requires having the propensity to reinforce the traditional hierarchy of male domination and keeping your multiple female partners as sexual playthings. Gender socialisation creates pressures for young males to assert dominance and to engage in risk-taking. Reference...

On the 11th of March 2018, Cubans turned out to the polls to vote. In a press release, the President of the National Elections Commission of Cuba, Aline Balseiro Gutiérrez, announced that the 605 candidates in the elections were now deputies of the new National Assembly....

“When you point a finger at someone, there are three more pointing back at you.”  – Unknown   In early January 2018, whilst discussing under what conditions the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras might be renewed, the US president...

Similar to a heroin addict looking for the next fix, many countries continue to feed their greed for fossil fuels, investing and expanding the search for oil and gas. The addiction to fossil fuels is leaving big, gaping abscesses far away from the sites of injection....

Today, the United States of America recognises Columbus Day. A day which commemorates Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain with intentions to find a new route to Asia. On October 12, over two months later, he...

The Ocean Conference: Our Oceans Our Future At the opening ceremony for the Ocean Conference, held from June 5th to 9th 2017, the UN Secretary General stated that: “the health of our oceans and seas require us to put aside short-term national gain, to avoid long-term...

Some say we live in a borderless world, but based on the stringent anti-immigration policies doled out by the Dominican Republic against its neighbour, Haiti, borders are to be respected at all costs. Haiti, a Francophone nation, and the Dominican Republic (DR), a Hispanophone nation, are...

Global concerns about climate change and the emergence of potential new energy markets such as renewable energy have attracted a great deal of attention. Nothing concentrates the mind as much as crises do and this is why there have been ongoing debates about being climate resilient...