Series

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...

The Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro is well known for his controversial phrases regarding women and other minorities. In an interview to RedeTV in 2016, Bolsonaro said that he believed women should be paid less because they get pregnant. News portal G1 has reported on how he...

“I won’t fight it or discriminate against it, but if I see two men kissing on the street, I’ll hit them”, this was the response that Bolsonaro had during an interview with Folha de São Paulo in 2002. The newly elected President has held anti-LGBTQ+ stances...

Lisbon, Portugal-  The international press followed the Brazilian elections closely when it became clear that Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right candidate, had a good chance at winning. In one of the most significant countries for the Brazilian diaspora, due to the historic and cultural relations dating from...

Last month, Brazil elected its first right-wing president since the end of the military regime in 1985. Jair Bolsonaro was elected despite a history of controversial statements against minorities that gave him the name of “Trump of the Tropics”. His history of threats and discriminatory statements...

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...

It is early in the morning in Centre County, Pennsylvania, when my interview with Martin Perna, Founder of Afrobeat group Antibalas, begins. Perna is relaxed, a little tired from the early wake-up call, and he has a lot to say. “The group has become something of...

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...

“Personal liberty is inviolable. No one may be detained, inspected, or searched nor otherwise subjected to any restriction of personal liberty except by order of the Judiciary stating a reason and only in such cases and in such manner as provided by the law . Any...

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....