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CONTENTS UNDILUTED pays tribute to John Maxwell by featuring two previous columns by him from the Hot Calaloo UNDILUTED archives:
Not just a book but an invitation to join the Goodwill
Revolution against an unfair, unjust and deceptive system that
keeps the world poor and without hope. Find out how you can join,
quit the rat race, and achieve a happier more meaningful life for
yourself and others through goodwill to all
--------------- 
For
the Life of Laetitia
by Trinidad -born Merle Hodge
Price: $10.54a wonderful book about a young girl in the Carribean, the first of her family to go to secondary school.
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Strongly support the voter suppression of black voters |
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Seek to discredit and smear black leaders |
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Seek to discredit and smear black organisations such
as “Black Lives Matter” |
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Justify the police killing of unarmed black men, women
and children |
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Stereotype black people |
Now President Trump has come out of the closet and
joined the ranks of overt white racists to the dismay of his covert
Republican cohorts. Birds of a feather flock together so Trump’s flock
of Vice President
Pence, Attorney General Sessions and other cabinet members and
advisers, has pretty much had their white racist cover blown.
Some Republican big-wigs have disavowed Trump’s white racism,
but after
years of relentless obstruction of virtually everything Obama
did, I am skeptical. Especially since they have all been beneficiaries
of carefully crafted white backlash.
Some people might not have known that they elected
a white racist president. Now they know. Does it make any difference?
WARNING!
Fellow Caribbean citizens of the USA, we are facing a severe political
crisis here in America from Donald Trump.
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Most of us are non-white and President Trump is a
racist. |
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We are all immigrants and Republican president Trump
is anti-immigrant, stirring up hatred against immigrants. |
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He insults Caribbean nation as a ‘shithole
country”. |
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He threatens Caribbean countries, among others, to
vote the way the US votes or face reprisals. His reprisals could
hurt these countries bad and this vindictive racist would have no
hesitation in imposing them, making our native lands colonies again.
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Despite Trump's reprehensible polices, generally,
Republicans have not opposed him. Only voting
Republicans out of office
can reduce this menace, as the Mueller investigation will not. And,
Trump will only get worse. So,
vote Democratic. Do not vote for any Republican. A
vote for any Republican is a vote for Trump. These
Republicans are lying low until after the elections to come out of their
closets and embrace Trump policies with glee.
So, register to vote. Get eligible friends and
relatives registered and come November, vote Democratic.
This is not partisan. This is self-defense. This is about
survival. Sound the alarm. Vote Democratic!
(Put this warning on your facebook, instagram or
other social media. I hope every Caribbean media here in the US
will issue this warning.)
Stand up for justice by taking a knee
Kaepernick
by
Michael Irving Phillips
To
protest police brutality
Colin Kaepernick took a knee
For the whole world to see
For
the whole world to see
“Stand erect.
Sing out loud
Make your country proud
Only kneel in church to pray
And always do what de massa
say”
But…….
Cops killed another innocent unarmed black today
The white racist president is their champion. There
was a time howling enraged white mobs
challenged our peaceful protests against Jim Crow laws. But,
fortunately many white people do not share this myopic view. I think
that they believe in justice for all. I believe they are willing to put
their belief in justice for all above their white privilege. I believe
that they are in the majority too. But too many have been complacent.
“It could not happen here”, they believed. Many of us did too.
“This is America, aint it?” I
hope they are not complacent anymore.
Haitian
prime minister resigns after deadly protests
Less than a week after the
violent protests in the Haitian capital caused the government to reverse
its plans on removing a 2010 fuel price subsidy, Haitian prime minister,
Jack Guy Lafontant, during a speech to Haiti’s Chamber of Deputies,
resigned before a vote of no confidence could be taken against him and
his 18-member Cabinet.
Lafontant,
a medical doctor, having obtained his degree from the University of
Haiti, was appointed prime minister of Haiti in March 2017. From all
reports, serving as prime minister was his first stint as a public
servant and/or politician. No word yet on Lafontant’s successor, who
is to be selected by Haitian president, Jovenel Moise and
then given a vote of confidence by the Chamber of Deputies.
The removal of the fuel price
subsidy, which was set to take effect on July 1 after months of
consultations and advice from the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
which pressed for its removal, was quickly reversed after three days or
riots and protests shook Haiti last week, when citizens took to the
streets in some of the more upper scale and affluent areas, where they
broke into businesses, destroyed cars, blocked roads with burning tires
and debris and caused massive damage to property.
The IMF has also made
available a US$96 million facility to Haiti if and when the fuel subsidy
is removed, to further assist with the reconstruction and redevelopment
of Haiti still feeling the effects and damages of the 2010 earthquake
and the 2016 Hurricane Matthew.
Dominica
loses med school to Barbados
Dominica's Prime
Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced Ross University, which had been
forced to relocate its operations to St Kitts and the state of Tennessee
in the United States following the passage of Hurricane Maria last
September, would be leaving the Eastern Caribbean nation after 40 years.
Shortly afterwards, Barbados Prime Minister Mottley and Adtalem Global
Education president and chief executive officer Lisa Wardell announced
that Barbados would be the new home of the American university by
January 5, 2018.
According to media
reports in Dominica, some irate Dominicans have harshly criticised
Mottley for accepting the relocation. One critic went as far as calling
on the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to sanction the newly elected
leader for what has been termed an “act of economic aggression”
against a sister nation.
However, in her statement, Mottley said while she could not speak for or on behalf of Ross, “the hands of the Barbados Government are clean in this matter”. The Barbadian leader added that her Government spoke with officials of the Dominican Government who were still hopeful of a return of the school, but who conceded that a January 2019 start-up was highly unlikely given their circumstances.
Jamaica's
economy gets US$5 billion from PetroCaribe
over 13 years
Jamaica
says it has benefitted from projects estimated at US$5 billion under the
Venezuela-led PetroCaribe initiative over the past 13 years. CEO
of the Petro-Caribe Development Fund Dr Wesley Hughes said the
contributions of the fund to Jamaica have been “meaningful and
significant”.
Speaking
at a ceremony marking the 203rd anniversary of the Jamaica Letter
written by Venezuela's liberator Simón Bolívar in 1815, Hughes said
the PetroCaribe Development Fund, which has a mandate to strengthen
national capacity in the areas of human capital, culture, infrastructure
and the environment, had established the Simón Bolívar Cultural Centre
as an important vehicle in strengthening the friendship between the
Jamaica and Venezuela.
PetroCaribe
is an oil alliance of many Caribbean states with Venezuela to purchase
oil on conditions of preferential payment. The alliance was launched on
29 June 2005 in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. In 2013 Petrocaribe agreed
for links with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) to go
beyond oil and promote economic cooperation.
Dominica and Jamaica launch strong plastic bans
Dominica
The island nation of Dominica is banning various single-use plastics by
2019, according to Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who announced the
decision in a recent budget address.
Once
enacted, it will be one of the toughest anti-plastic laws in the world.
Skerrit framed the ban as an environmental imperative.
A
full list of banned items is still being formalized, but Skerrit said
that it will at least include single-use plastic straws, plates, forks,
knives, and Styrofoam cups and containers.
Jamaica
Soon afterwards Jamaica announced it will ban styrofoam, single-use
plastic bags, and single-use plastic straws starting Jan. 1, 2019.
It is also embarking on a campaign to reduce how much plastic enters
marine environments. Plastic pollution has become a major concern in Jamaica, and this new announcement
builds on earlier efforts to improve recycling programs.
The government will also be encouraging
citizens to reduce their plastic use by, among other things, buying tote
bags.
Jamaica is also working on a Plastic Minimisation Project in
collaboration with United Nations Environment, and with the support of
the Government of Japan, to reduce and manage plastic marine litter from
the land-based activities, in an environmentally sound matter. The
country’s National Environment and Planning Agency is still crafting
particular aspects of the law, including various exemptions that will be
phased in up until 2021. For example, disability-based exemptions for
plastic straws will be allowed. As the world has rushed to ban
single-use plastic straws, people with disabilities who rely on straws have not always been consulted.
Jamaica
and Dominica are out front in these bans. These bans reinforce the
message that single-use plastics are on the way out. In recent years,
more than 60 countries have
taken action against single-use plastics.
Some
countries have targeted specific items like plastic bags, while others are
trying to create more sustainable societies by transitioning beyond plastic.
Global
political bodies are also championing anti-plastic rules. The UN debated rules for plastic
waste in marine environments last year, and the G7 proposed similar rules this
past June.
The driving
force behind this increasingly coordinated effort is the growing
awareness of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. As scenes of animals fatally tangled in plastic nets and
rivers choked with plastic waste
go viral, people are demanding political action to deal with the
problem.
Caribbean
aims to become world's first climate-smart zone
The Caribbean
Climate-Smart Accelerator Program, which has the objective of making the
region the world's first climate-smart zone, was launched at the
University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus on August 9.
So far, some 26
Caribbean Countries and more than 40 private- and public-sector partners
have joined the accelerator, which will transform the region's economy
by fast-tracking sound public and private investment
opportunities that support climate
solutions for resilience, social development and broad-based growth for
the Caribbean.
The climate-smart
zone will not only protect the region but create jobs
and a new economy in climate-smart infrastructure.
Core partners
include the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank,
CARICOM, and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
Over the next five
years, the accelerator will create the right environment for private and
public funds to flow into investments in clean energy, building
resilience and climate-smart cities and healthy oceans.
Guyana
teachers end strike
The Ministry of
Education and the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) have agreed to send their
industrial dispute to arbitration paving the way for striking teachers
to end their action and resume their
duties. The decision by the arbitration would be binding on both sides.
The GTU is
demanding a 40 per cent pay hike for 2016 and five per cent annually
from 2017 to 2020. The government says it will cost the state four
billion dollars (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) if it is to meet the
GTU demands and is instead offering GUY$700 million to cover across the
board increases and GUY$200 million to cover debunching.
As
part of the agreement for resumption of duties, no deductions will be
made from the salaries of the teachers for the days spent on the picket
line and there will also be no loss of seniority. Additionally, the two
sides have agreed for there to be no victimisation by either side.
Jamaica
ranks 5th among
best world economies for business start-ups
According to a report from the Global
Banking and Finance Review,
Jamaica’s economy is fifth on a list of the best economies in which to
start a BUSINESS in
2018. The nation has a Distance-to-Frontier (DTF) rating of 97.3. The
DTF is a measurement of the distance of an economy to a “frontier”
that represents the best performance across all economies and years
since 2005. The distance-to-frontier is indicated as a number from 0 to
100, with 0 represented the lowest performance and 100 representing the
frontier.
The report ranked New
Zealand at the top of the list with a DTF of 99.96. This represents a
decrease in its rating of 0.18 percent from its figures in 2017, but the
country still rates the strongest economy for starting
a business in
2018. Other top economies were Canada
with a DTC of
98.23, Hong Kong with 98.14, and Georgia with 97.84. According to the
report, the top economies in the world for starting a business are, in
order, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong, Georgia, Jamaica, Singapore,
Australia, Ireland, South Korea, Kosovo, Uzbekistan, and Estonia.
The
global ratings consider paid-in minimum capital requirements, the number
of procedures, time and cost involved for small and midsized limited
liability companies to start up and operate formally.
Jamaica
sugar production drops from 500,000 tons in1965 to
83,000 now
Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Audley Shaw
reiterated Government's commitment to support the revitalisation of
Jamaica's sugar industry at the Sugar Industry authority's (SIA') 3rd
Annual Post Crop Seminar held Thursday at the Authority's Research
Division in Mandeville, under the theme 'The Future of the Jamaican
Sugar Industry'.
Noting that the
country's sugar industry was far from the halcyon days of 1965, when the
industry achieved its highest level of production with 514,825 tonnes of
sugar, Minister Shaw said that current production has declined to 83,000
tonnes.
“These
are tough times,” the agriculture minister said; noting, however, that
there was still a strong and solid place for a sugar industry based on
factors such as a long overdue diversification of products, more
efficient land use and the fact that the sugar industry still
contributes to GDP employs some 35,000 Jamaicans directly, and
provides them with the means to provide for their families while being
the backbone of many communities in eight parishes and 37 constituencies
across the island.
Honorary
doctorates for 4 Caribbean-born musicians
Four
of the Caribbean’s top musicians are set to be presented with honorary
doctorates from The University of the West Indies, (UWI). Their degrees,
which have been approved by the University Council, will be conferred at
The UWI’s 2018 graduation ceremonies and presented by Chancellor
Robert Bermudez.
Rihanna
Bajan star Rihanna is set to receive the degree for excellence in arts
at a special ceremony scheduled for October 20th at the Cave Hill Campus
in Barbados. According to Nation News, Rihanna will accept her degree
“for eminence in the arts.”
Grace Jones
The graduation ceremony in Mona will grant a similar Doctorate of
Literature to Jamaican model and singer, Grace Jones, for her
achievements as an entertainer, model and global trendsetter.
Monty Alexander
Also set to be honored at UWI Mona is Monty Alexander, dubbed the
greatest jazz musician from the Caribbean. He is being honored for his
achievements as a musician with a Doctorate of Literature.
The
Mighty Shadow
UWI St. Augustine will honor Winston A. Bailey, aka the Mighty Shadow,
from Trinidad and Tobago for his contributions as a musical composer
with a Doctorate of Literature as well.
Let us know what you think. Email us at hotcalaloo@yahoo.com