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The content of this portfolio acknowledges the course material of 'FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation'. A range of topics that relate to the history of the Caribbean are explored. Within a structure of thirteen dated entries, each entry is an attempt to analyse and respond to contemporary issues within my environment and as a collective Caribbean region via assigned learning objectives. Some entries provide multiple perspectives on one objective. Multiple issues such as neocolonialism, Caribbean culture, globalization, Caribbean integration, gender and identity are discussed.

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10th October, 2017

Indigenous people. Africa. India. China.England. Portugal. France. . These are the ingredients that cook a melting pot of demographic diversity that boils in the Caribbean. Caribbeanlands have hosted the ultimate microcosm of a world of peoples. Dating back to pre-Colombian era, the migration of the early Amerindian peoples to the lesser and greater antilles brought a culture of aborginal languages, technology, cuisine and artefacts. The colonial metropols of Europe not only brought an arsenal of philosphies, religion and economic systems of production but an entire West African race to exercise that arsenal on. The immigration and labor schemes resulted from the effects of the fallen sugar prices and to a minor extent the growing rallies of the abolitionists. This fall in European/Caribbean economy brought labor from nations such as India, China, Portugal, Java, Madeira and manumitted Africans from North America.

Today settlements of these peoples are seen across the Caribbean and its diaspora. The artifact chosen (Torres, 2012) is an image that represents the array of ethnicities found in Caribbean societies. Countries such as Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana host majority of Indian and African decendants. Suriname comprises of a small Javanese population. The islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao share colonial architecture as well as both Dutch and European ethnicities and language influences. Barbados, an entirely British ex-colony,  practices traditional Westminster governmental systems seen  islands like Trinidad Tobago, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Dominica, among others.
Thus, each nationality offered its  political system, ethnicity and culture that have lived on through generations with some becoming hybridized and syncretised.

Certainly, the Caribbean has forever been a host to diverse migratory groups whether it be through colonial re-discovery of lands, through Indentureship and labor opportunity or through coerced movements. These historical processes have shaped Caribbean culture and society.

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12th October, 2017

“The single story creates stereotypes making them not untrue, but incomplete.”   (Adichie, 2009)

Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, gave an insightful account into what she called the dangers of a single story. In learning about the Eurocentric/androcentric rendtition of Caribbean history due Unit 1-3 (Campbell, 2017), one can not only realise and denounce the extremity of telling giving a mono-perspective of a generational-old Caribbean civilisation, but to support the revisionist approach to Caribbean history. Adichie’s address calculated the basis of how the perception of a culture lead to what they become in the eyes of the less-informed.
Revisionism allowed for Caribbean intellectuals to denounce the erroneous accounts of Colombus-esque storytelling that evidently were not true to the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. The renegotiation/re-assessment of the Kalinagos described as cannibals, for example, affords such histories of Caribbean natives to be appreciated and the Spanish colonial prowess to be re-interpreted.  This misrepresentation in story-telling has been perpetuated throughout contemporary Caribbean society.
Hegemonic media constantly misrepresents the Caribbean society as seen in movies, sitcoms, and in conversations with people from Europe and North America.  Certainly, Jamaica made its mark on North American society due to a genre of music that transcends age and time. However, the frustration felt by other Caribbean people from different nations when they are assumed to be of Jamaican nationality when spoken to reflects the limited knowledge of Caribbean societies through the lens of imperial societies.
As seen in the snippet of an episode of ‘Conan’ (Conan on TBS, 2016), for instance, the guest was asked to give examples of accents from around the world. One can see that he managed to give spot-on impressions of US accents as well as areas in Germany and Russia. When it came to doing a Jamaican accent, the guest fumbled(2:08).And while there was some humour involved, one can only question why he reverted to saying “jerk chicken” after letting out a strange cartoonish sound. This begs the question: Is this the perception of Jamaican people to Hollywood figures? Moreover, why wasn’t he asked to do a Bajan accent seeing that a native of the island is a driving force in North America’s music industry? As a Trinidadian, it was disheartening to realise how imperialists stereotype the Caribbean which strips the collective factors that form its identity as individual islands and as a region.
It is imperative that people educate themselves, whether formally or via self-learning, about the diverisities one will find in Caribbean nations and their cultures.

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Fred Armisen Can Do Any Accent In The World  - CONAN on TBS

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CONAN Highlight: Fred's skill as a mimic is so thorough that Conan can name any city in the world and Fred can imitate their accent. More CONAN @ http://teamcoco.com/video Team Coco is the official YouTube channel of late night host Conan O'Brien, CONAN on TBS & TeamCoco.com.

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19th October, 2017

The past informs the present

When discerning the origins of Caribbean Civilisation and identity one needs only to revert to the history of pre-colonial Caribbean society and the subsequent events that led to what we know the Caribbean to be today.  Many scholars have provided evidential accounts or interpretations of what the Indigenous peoples were succumbed to. Interestingly, one well- known Caribbean poet from Jamaica gave a brilliant, inspiring and heart-wrenching rendition of the birth of colonialism through the perspective of the Indigenous people.

Olive Senior’s Meditation on Yellow takes the reader through a time when colonial conquest was ever present.  The colour yellow is used as a representation of the innocence of the natives in their encounter with the Europeans and then yellow as the colour of the sun that blazed on the backs of those in servitude to the Spaniards. The poem then makes a shift in the colonial era from the encomienda system, to the plantation society to contemporary society where servitude is engrained in the economies of most Caribbean societies. Senior described the profound ways in which the tourism industry proliferate histories of European exploitation of Caribbean lands. The poem mentioned the provision of beaches, the yellow sand, the breeze; elements that shape the tourism sector of Caribbean islands thus implying a neo-colonial society whereby locals still are still in servitude to tourists, and in particular those from Europe. Mention of Bob Marley’s music that provided tranquillity and peace in the face of traumatic post-colonial power gave rise to the cultural identity of the Jamaican persona.

This artifact was chosen because the poem is a useful tool that one can utilize to understand the nature of neo-colonialism in the tourism industry and the history of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean through an artistic medium.

Audio retrieved from www.ryerson.ca/olivesenior/poems/meditation_on_yellow.html

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"The yellow of the Caribbean seen from Jamaica at

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24th October, 2017

It is ironic that Standard English is taught while Creole dialect comes natural to us.

The value of education in Caribbean societies is an esteemed one. Unit 7 readings have shown that education was fundamental in building a better colonial society for the enslaved and the free. Religion was the underlying component that controlled the education system in colonial times. Modern Caribbean society reflects this where Roman Catholic primary schools for girls and boys are built between local churches seen in Trinidad, for example. In Saint Kitts, religion plays a major role in education and the formation of concepts of respectability.  As a member of Caribbean society for 20 years this is a true testament to the socialisation of Caribbean people. Respectability by appearance, speech and behaviour are remnants of a colonial past that has been socialised into modern Caribbean society.

Eurocentric models of respectability live in institutions such as the family, education and religion.  As seen in the article (Headmann, 2008), the issue of speaking in Creole such as patois or “broken English” is frowned upon in ‘prestigious’ academic institutions across Caribbean Secondary schools where the standardization of a dialect deemed ‘respectable’ such as that of Trinidad English or Bajan English results in the stifling of any sense of diversity in a society. The expectation of using Standard English, especially in formal settings, considers it more appropriate. Nevertheless, one can appreciate the diverse natures of each Caribbean island’s language such as that of Barbados which was colonized under Britain up until its independence, or that of Trinidad and Tobago which underwent colonial rule by the Spanish, the French and the British. These have created beautiful and unifying variations of English that remain true to each nation’s identity. The thirty dialects spoken in the United Kingdom, the Central American dialect of Guyana or Honduras or the English dialects of Asia are all founded on the English language. Thus, what makes the use of Creole dialect in post-colonial Caribbean education institutions any less valuable seeing that the English language takes many, many forms all over the world?
The stigma associated with Caribbean Creole English as ‘bad’ or ‘inferior’ becomes a silly one when the history of Caribbean civilization is fully appreciated.

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Jamaica Gleaner News - Keep patois at bay - Friday | August 29, 2008

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The Editor, Sir: Let us keep patois out of our schools. It should remain what it is, a street language. Patois is a word of of French origin which means to handle clumsily. It is often applied to any language that is spoken badly....

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Learning activity 6.3 Examining US Imperialism 

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Learning activity 6.3 Examining US Imperialism 

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27th October, 2017

The influence of external nations on the Caribbean region is by and large an issue that has affected the development of  nations.
Stemming from the days of colonialism, economic dependency on foreign manufacturing and distribution is an ample contributor to Caribbean consumer culture. The ever present tourism industry engages the needs of foreigners of the United States. They influence the industry and economy of tourist-centric countries like Barbados and the Virgin Islands. Moreover, the permeation of American advertisements into local homes of Caribbean people unconsciously influence wants and needs not only via marketing techniques and psychological strategies but also by the common ideal of a 'better' consumer market than that of the Caribbean.
Additionally, the culture of Caribbean is deeply hybridized by the culture of the United States. Countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica are largely influences by the emergence of American music i.e. Rap and Rock Alternative. These have influenced local bands like Orange Sky with the fusion of Reggae and Heavy Metal elements.
The fashion choices of locals, in particular those that hold brand quality, are the epitome of a Caribbean culture influenced by the US. People uphold fashion trends of the North America to gain status and envy among their counterparts. This is the extension of the dominance of the imperialist culture of America and the open market of the Caribbean in welcoming these ideals.

The artifact chosen below is an image of the US flag blowing in the wind (Black, 2013).To extend further, if one were to Google search 'flags blowing in the wind' a provision of endless images of US flags would be at their disposal. That is, unless an insertion of the word 'world' to rectify this is done. The symbolism implies that US imperialism perpetually dances in the cultural winds of Caribbean nations.

Attention should be paid by consumers to support local business and markets and to recognize the efforts of CARICOM in creating opportunity for regional trade so that the effects of US penetration in Caribbean markets is minimized and local economies are able the flourish.

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Hispañola: The Extents of Double Consciousness and Insularity

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Hispañola: The Extents of Double Consciousness and Insularity

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29th October, 2017
Immigration laws have created social instability between the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. New policies have strict documentation requirements for Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic for many reasons.
The racial tensions felt by Haitian nationals from their neighboring country also fuels the instability. These societies are divided by race and economic differences that manifest in the thoughts and expressions of Haitian deportees and the citizens of Dominican Republic. There is also the issue of a dual identity that creates equal tensions of insularity to Haitians with Dominican Republic citizenship. The artifact below illustrates the squalor of Haitians as they give accounts into the political upheaval and human suffering brought on by the latest immigration policy as well as the perspectives of Dominican Republic citizens. One Haitian expressed, "Culturally, I feel (the Dominican Republic) is my country, but I also have some hesitance to embrace it because of the discrimination for simply being Haitian, which puts me in a place of emotional instability..." (quoted in Castillo, 2016).
This new type of double consciousness seen in Hispañola has its effects.  Nationalism and security of a nation's own human resource and employment opportunities on the part of Dominican Republic are efforts implemented to care for its people. However, the nature of the immigration of Haitians seeking a better quality of life in the neighboring country is of equal magnificance.
As two Caribbean nations sharing one mass of land, and with their historical pasts, their cultures, languages, political systems and ethnic differences result in disagreements and tensions. Therefore, to what extent is this crisis being used as an opportunity to realize the detrimental effects of insularity and to allow for integration between each nation?
These events point to fact that there may not be one 'Caribbean Identity' in the face of adversity.

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It's an uneasy coexistence for countries whose intertwined histories of colonization, conquest and racism over the centuries have left deep wounds.

In recent years, controversial court rulings and laws have renewed tensions in the Dominican Republic.

Hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent were stripped of their citizenship and forced to prove they were born here. Hundreds of thousands more who are undocumented immigrants have been forced to register with the government.

In a political fight with arguments similar to the debate in the United States, the immigration hard-liners won. Last year I traveled across the Dominican Republic and Haiti to see the fallout from that battle. Among the people I met: A soccer player who left the Dominican national team because she couldn't prove her nationality, a law student fighting for Haitians' rights, and a woman who saw her town divided along racial lines.

Here are their stories amid scenes of life on the island.

Foreigner in her own country

Standing in front of her flower shop in Santo Domingo's Pequeño Haiti, or Little Haiti neighborhood, Raquel Aristilde de Valdez introduces herself as Haitian, though she was born here, in the Dominican capital.

She belongs to a slice of the Dominican population -- about 2.5% of 10.4 million -- born in the country with at least one immigrant parent.

I ask her how she sees herself, and she says "Dominico-Haitian. Fifty-fifty."

There is pride evident as she explains how easily she shifts between Dominican Spanish and Haitian Creole, fluent in the languages and cultures of the two countries.

"I speak Spanish perfectly well, I speak Creole perfectly well," she says. "I eat Haitian food, I eat Dominican food."

That between-two-worlds feeling is familiar to children of immigrants.

Despite her comfort inside Dominican society, Raquel considers herself an outsider. And she is treated as one.

"My skin color, my race, my physical features don't say I am Dominican," she says.

To her, the only things that make her "Dominican" are her birth certificate and her national ID card, or cedula.

For a time, even those things were stripped from her, when a lawsuit accusing the government of discriminating against people like Raquel backfired.

In the suit, another Dominican-born woman of Haitian descent alleged that authorities denied her a cedula because her parents were immigrants.

For decades, the Dominican Republic's Constitution had bestowed citizenship on anyone born on Dominican soil, just like in the United States. That ended in 2010, when the Constitution was rewritten to exclude children of undocumented immigrants.

The lawsuit sought to validate the citizenship of those born to immigrant parents before 2010. Instead, the country's highest court ruled in 2013 that all residents born to immigrant parents dating back more than 80 years were not entitled to citizenship.

In a flash, approximately 210,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent, including Raquel, were made stateless.

Human rights groups sounded the alarm over the population of noncitizens that was so suddenly created.

International pressure mounted, including from the country's Caribbean neighbors, and the Dominican government provided a "fix": a law creating a path to restore citizenship.

"No one born in the Dominican Republic will be deported, and no one who holds or is entitled to legal Dominican nationality will be deprived of it," Dominican Ambassador to the United States Jose Tomas Perez wrote in an op-ed in July.

The ambassador is partly correct. The mass deportations that many feared have not come to pass. But fear may have been enough. Heightened racial tensions and the idea of deportations caused tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent to leave on their own. It reminded me of the anti-illegal immigration laws some U.S. states have passed, and the talk of "self-deportations" in the 2012 presidential election.

Raquel was among the fortunate who didn't have to fear for long.

Her birth in Santo Domingo had been recorded in the civil registry at the time. With proof of her Dominican birth, she quickly reclaimed her citizenship under the new law.

Dominicans who bristle at accusations of xenophobia point to this legal remedy.

But less than a third of the estimated 210,000 left stateless successfully reclaimed their citizenship.

Figures provided by the Dominican government last year show about 64,000 people benefited from the law. About 70% of those who qualified to have their citizenship restored didn't or weren't able to seek a legal remedy.

The more common situation, I learned through dozens of interviews, is that children of immigrants are not recorded in the civil registry at birth.

The reasons are many -- fear of deportation if the parents are undocumented, births outside of hospitals, or language barriers.

"For me it was easy," Raquel says, "but others had more complications."

Born to play soccer

Cherlina Castillo Pierre was raised in Baraguana, one of the Dominican Republic's many bateyes -- slums that sprang up during the 20th century as Haitians were brought in to work the sugar cane fields.

Baraguana is in the northern Dominican town of Imbert, close enough to the coast to feel the full force of the sun but not the salty breeze.

Cherlina grew up playing soccer in the batey. "I learned by playing with the boys," she says. "I was the only girl playing."

She started playing competitively at age 12, and three years later was selected to the Dominican national women's under-17 team.

Her future looked bright. Soccer would open doors for Cherlina, who was born in the Dominican Republic, the child of undocumented Haitian immigrants.

She played halfback for the national team because, she says, her Haitian roots made her stronger than her teammates.

Her toughness and attitude surely was reflected on the field; records show that Cherlina played in five games representing the Dominican Republic, drawing a red card in one match and a yellow card in another.

The dream began unraveling when she had to renew her Dominican passport to travel with the team. She had been issued a passport as a child, but now that she was no longer a minor, she needed a cedula to renew it. Although this was before the 2013 court ruling, it was not uncommon for authorities to demand proof of a person's birthplace before issuing a cedula -- let alone a passport. Because her birth had not been recorded in the civil registry, she faced an uphill climb, and had to forfeit her dream.

She wore the Dominican jersey on her back, but the country it represented considered her a foreigner.

It confounded her. She is proud of her Haitian heritage but considers herself a proud Dominican as well.

"If I had a chance to play for the national team again, I would," Cherlina says. "But I didn't get my hopes up because I know I don't have a cedula, and with no cedula I won't be able to play anywhere."

An official at Fedefutbol, the Dominican Republic's governing body for soccer, told me that Cherlina's name didn't ring a bell and that the Dominican team would never have a Haitian on it.

"She's Dominican," I explained.

I sent the federation the records of Cherlina's matches and asked for more details, but got no response.

Cherlina now works at a restaurant in Imbert and, since 2013, has been among the stateless.

Because her birth was not recorded in the civil registry, the law to "fix" her status would require multiple identification documents, notarized testimonies of Dominicans to vouch for her birthplace, and a two-year wait to apply for citizenship.

Her father passed away, Cherlina says, and she has no idea where he kept the documents that may prove her identity and place of birth to the satisfaction of Dominican authorities.

A wheelbarrow and a dream

Bernard Teillon says he has lived in the Dominican Republic for 50 years.

And he wants to go back to his native Haiti, as soon as he can afford it.

A long-time laborer in the fields -- sowing and harvesting crops -- Bernard would qualify for legal work status under a recent Dominican law to address the population of undocumented immigrants.

The National Regularization Plan was the government's answer to the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants already living in the Dominican Republic, some for decades.

A 2012 census of migrants found that about 460,000 Haitian immigrants live in the Dominican Republic. More than half, about 61%, were undocumented.

The requirements to get right with the law sound reasonable enough:

Prove your identity and provide evidence of how long you've been in the country, your ties to Dominican society, and your work and socioeconomic condition.

It's an invitation to "come out of the shadows," to borrow a phrase from the U.S. immigration debate.

These apparently simple requirements, however, proved for many to be a bureaucratic nightmare, a hell brimming with red tape.

Bernard, for instance, struggled to get a copy of his Haitian passport or birth certificate to prove his identity. He said he couldn't afford the time or money to put together the required paperwork.

It is not impossible to get legal status without a birth certificate or passport. Some 20,300 undocumented immigrants registered without them, according to the Dominican Interior Ministry, but the alternate routes are not easy. It might require Bernard getting seven sworn statements from Dominicans who would attest to his life in the country.

Bernard found it too daunting. His neighbors are mostly Haitian. What Dominicans would vouch for him? Do the Dominicans he has worked for or interacted with remember him or know him well enough to write a testimony on his behalf? The immigration controversy is red hot, so many Dominicans might not want to put their name as a reference for an undocumented immigrant.

Bernard rents a small room in the Hato Mayor neighborhood of Santiago, the country's second-largest city. Immigration raids have snared neighboring tenants, and he knows it could happen to him.

"I confide much in God, so I have confidence I will be all right and that nothing bad will happen to me," Bernard says.

Timeline: A brief history of Hispaniola

Still, he wants to leave.

"Not so much out of fear, but out of respect and dignity," he says. "To see so many of my countrymen fighting so hard to get a simple identification card, and they still face so much discrimination in this country. All this has taken me to a place of consciousness to go back to my country."

He wants to depart the Dominican Republic on his own terms.

But he says he is too poor; even saving money to pay for transportation to the border is out of reach.

Next to his room, a wheelbarrow is locked to a post with a chain. It's an old wheelbarrow, and it is the one asset Bernard owns that helps him earn money doing small jobs.

"Haiti is also hard," he says, recalling why he left decades ago. Bernard remembers it as a place of permanent persecution during the rule of strongman Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

Though times have changed in Haiti, it made me wonder about the effects of trying to solve a country's immigration problem without talking to the nation of origin. Can taking a unilateral, hard-line stance against Haitians work if there is no future in Haiti either?

Bernard says his health is failing. The stress makes him feel that his age has caught up to him.

"I will go to Haiti," he says. "My future is uncertain."

Long lines -- and longer waits

The sun was past its highest point in the sky in Puerto Plata, the historic port city on the Dominican Republic's northern coast, when I met Mirlande Saint Jean. She was outside the city's main government office, waiting in line to try to get her immigration status "regularized."

She had been waiting since before the sun came up -- actually, since before the sun went down the day before.

But Mirlande says she really has been waiting for much longer.

"The thing is that every time I come to get my cedula, something happens," she says. The authorities tell her she is missing this document, or that document.

This is her fourth trip to city hall.

"I spent the night outside, sleeping on the street. Everyone slept on the street," she said.

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Mirlande says the Dominican Republic has been home for 20 years.

There was no dire situation that pulled her to emigrate, she just felt too closed-in in Haiti. She wanted to be somewhere with more possibilities. She settled in Puerto Plata, working first in a restaurant and now at a villa.

Politically, she is not opposed to the government's immigration controls. Every country needs to have its residents documented properly, she says.

"For me, this is better, so that I can live my life in peace," she says. "But everything they ask for is too much."

Technically, the process doesn't cost money, but Mirlande and others have had to hire attorneys to help sort through the law.

"All I want is to live in peace," she says. "All I want is to be left alone like I leave others alone."

'I'm still struggling'

The scene in Puerto Plata is repeated in other cities around the Dominican Republic. At dawn the next morning in Santiago, a line of migrants stretches around the block containing city hall and continues across the street along a park.

"I came here looking for a better life, a life I couldn't find in Haiti," says one man who didn't give his name. He says that better life never materialized.

He has a job as a doorman, he says, but "I'm still struggling. My job doesn't pay well."

The man, a native of Gonaives, Haiti, doesn't hold much hope that his life will improve with legal status, but after 14 years in the Dominican Republic, it's home now.

Surprisingly, many of the immigrants I meet in line aren't opposed to the idea of registering the undocumented. It's only fair, they said, that a nation should know who is living within its borders. But this isn't the way to do it. The laws, they say, need to be carried out fairly.

It left me wondering: How can a nation tackle the issue of illegal immigration -- by asking migrants to trust the government's proposals -- when the same government has not addressed its own legacy of racism? Prejudice on Hispaniola dates back to the first colonies and intensified as Dominican leaders portrayed Haitians as inferior to those with Spanish and indigenous roots. How can immigrants give the government the benefit of the doubt that there are no ulterior, xenophobic motives behind the new policies, when they have suffered discrimination from the same government for generations?

Hate on the radio waves

It's early morning, and we're on the road between Santiago and Puerto Plata. The drive is longer than an hour, and because we're tired, the small talk subsides and it's silent in the car.

Two hosts are talking about immigration. They are discussing a campaign by groups supporting Haitian immigrants to boycott Dominican exports to Haiti.

"The Haitians say they want to boycott Dominican products. So they will eat dirt, since you know the Haitians eat dirt," one host says.

The other host agrees: How are Haitians going to eat, since they don't produce anything? "They are ungrateful."

Dominican President Danilo Medina's restrictive immigration policies are good for the country, the hosts say, praising him for sticking to his guns.

One of the hosts suggests Haiti is trying to discredit the Dominican Republic in the eyes of the international community.

"I think this is the only country in the world where migrants aren't mistreated," he says. "Here, everyone is supportive."

We turn the dial and hear more of the same on another station.

Haitians "are unappreciative of this country," this host says.

Everything the international media has reported about the mistreatment of Haitians is wrong, he says.

"We are not the abusers of the Haitians; we are their saviors," he says.

The rhetoric is hateful and racist.

"(Haitians) lack hygiene, they're not sanitary," the host says.

How the dominoes fall

Four men are playing dominoes on a sidewalk in the capital's Pequeño Haiti neighborhood, taking turns placing -- or slamming -- their game pieces on the specially made table.

This barrio may be called "Little Haiti," but three of the men don't hesitate to share their views of Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

"They are ungrateful, they're traitors," one of them says. Another refers to one of this country's darkest chapters, the 1937 massacre of thousands of Haitians by orders of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo.

"I, like Trujillo, would send them all to burn," the man says as he makes a double throat-slashing gesture.

All the while, one of the domino players is not speaking. He is younger and darker-skinned than the others. The same man who said he would burn Haitians nods toward the younger man and says, "We treat them better than anyone else."

The Haitian man says nothing, keeps his head down and plays the next domino.

The fear of violence

Ramona Ramirez runs a food kiosk in the Ortega neighborhood of Moca, a city just east of Santiago. Dominicans and Haitians lived in Ortega peacefully for years, she says.

That's when her relative, 18-year-old Carlos Jose Nuñez, was kidnapped and found dead two days later, his body tossed by a bridge.

His face was swollen from an apparent beating. His legs were bound.

Witnesses told police that two Haitians who lived in the neighborhood had killed Nuñez, a Dominican who also lived in Ortega, according to local press reports.

When the news of the killing reached the neighborhood: "Oh my, if you saw a Haitian they would have stabbed him to pieces -- stabbed him to bits," Ramona says.

It just about came to that.

Dominican vigilantes armed with sticks and machetes assaulted their Haitian neighbors, shoving a woman to the ground as she screamed and grabbing a man with dreadlocks and cutting off some of his curls with a pocketknife. The mob broke into Haitians' homes, destroying belongings with baseball bats and hoes and removing personal items and setting them ablaze.

The incident, which came to symbolize the severity of the tensions between Dominicans and Haitians, was captured on video and shared widely by human rights groups.

After the attacks, all the Haitians in Ortega fled. The Diario Libre newspaper reported that some 300 Haitians left the neighborhood.

"They were scared, of course," Ramona says. "I wouldn't stay, either. Why? So they can stab me?"

I met Ramona several months after the attacks, but it was immediately clear upon approaching Ortega that tensions had not subsided.

There were four of us in the car as we approached the neighborhood -- myself, a photographer, a Dominican driver and a Haitian guide.

Our guide rolled down his window and asked two Haitian workers for directions.

The Ortega neighborhood starts there, one of the workers said, pointing across the street. But you can't go there, he added, motioning at our Haitian guide.

No Haitians allowed, the worker said. If you enter, you risk getting attacked.

There was a tense moment inside the car.

Our guide insisted on going, suggesting the risk must be exaggerated. But our driver feared a possible attack, saying the risk was legitimate.

The workers persuaded our Haitian companion to stay with them and chat while the rest of us crossed the street.

Down an unpaved road, another local resident, Elpidio Nuñez, led us to one of the homes the vigilantes ransacked.

"We are good people here," he says. "When Haitians come, we give them a hand up."

It was a mixed neighborhood and everyone got along, he adds.

"Now, (Haitians) don't enter the neighborhood at all," he says. "Because of fear."

We stood at a barbed wire fence; on the other side was the house Elpidio was showing us. There was some junk out front, but it didn't seem abandoned. There was a radio playing inside and a motorcycle in the gravel driveway.

Elpidio asked us not to cross the fence and would not tell us who, if anybody, was living inside now that the Haitians were gone.

Fighting for himself and others

In Batey Baraguana, an impoverished sugar worker's village near Santiago, Wendy Osirus makes the rounds with the skill of a politician, asking about each resident's immigration status.

He congratulates those who gained legal status and patiently answers questions for the others.

"You have to organize yourselves," he tells them.

Wendy moved to the Dominican Republic from Haiti when he was 4. Now 29 and studying law, he created an organization to teach people how to apply for legal status and avoid scams.

The NGO he created is called the Ministry of Dominican-Haitian Orientation, or MONDHA by its Spanish acronym. His small team has helped restore citizenship or get legal work status for thousands of immigrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent.

"There are people who don't understand or comprehend the immigration plan," says Antoine Raphael, one of the organizers at MONDHA.

The government passed the new immigration laws, he says, but didn't create a campaign to explain how to benefit from them.

Given the history of racism in the country, Antoine says, it is hard not to consider that the laws were set up to fail the migrants.

"In my opinion, the government doesn't want to help the people," he says.

It was the economic and political uncertainty after a coup in Haiti that pushed Wendy's family to leave Cap-Haitien and move to the Dominican Republic in 1992.

Growing up in Santiago, Wendy recalls other students in his public school feeling pity for him because of the unrest in Haiti.

That view changed after the devastating 2010 earthquake, which killed hundreds of thousands of Haitians and displaced more than a million others.

"The attitude toward Haitian migrants changed because their numbers multiplied, and so did their desperation," Wendy says.

As Haiti's sole neighbor, the Dominican Republic was forced to absorb some of the costs associated with the disaster, Wendy says.

In Santiago, Wendy showed me the remains of what was once a boarding house for Haitians.

Before the immigration crackdown -- before Dominican landlords were hesitant to rent to undocumented Haitians -- this building had maybe 10 small rooms divided by a narrow hallway. The rent for each room was about $23 a month, split among the four or five tenants who crammed into each room. All the tenants shared a single bathroom at the end of the hall. The building was gutted for a carpentry shop.

The landlord, Juan Mata, recalls at least four immigration raids on the property in the past few years. He hated how the immigration agents would knock down the doors to the boarding house each time.

"The Haitians who lived here were peaceful," he says. "They are hard workers."

The new immigration laws mean added scrutiny for Dominican landlords who rent to Haitians.

"I'm not racist. I treat Haitians just like Dominicans," Juan says, "But I follow the law. If they don't have documents, I can't rent them a room."

Gallery: Creating a home away from home

Juan calls himself apolitical, but based on what he knows, he says, the immigration measures sound fair.

"I'd like to live in New York, but if they catch me there without papers, they would return me here," Juan says.

On our way out, Wendy spots a group of about seven Haitian workers across the street. He walks over and asks whether they have submitted their paperwork to apply for legal status.

Get your documents in order or risk deportation or raids on your homes, Wendy tells them.

The men don't want to hear about paperwork.

If my house is raided, one says, "I would kill an immigration officer."

The threat hangs in the air.

After a moment of silence, Wendy responds just as forcefully: "No violence. The only fight is the fight for legal status."

While Wendy has helped hundreds get their papers, he was still working on his own immigration status when I left.

He tracked down records from his elementary school and found seven Dominican witnesses who testified to his 24 years in the country, but he was still searching for some older bank records.

In the meantime, Wendy is in this country on a Haitian passport and tourist visa.

He must drive to the border every 30 days, cross into Haiti, then cross back to extend his visa for another month.

"Culturally, I feel (the Dominican Republic) is my country, but I also have some hesitance to embrace it because of the discrimination for simply being Haitian, which puts me in a place of emotional instability," he says.

"I don't know which country is mine."

Crossing the border

For many Haitian immigrants going home, the border crossing at Dajabon offers their last view of the Dominican Republic.

I wanted to follow their path, so we took a local bus, or guagua, to the border. It dropped us off in front of a green sign pointing toward the international boundary, and the town of Ouanaminthe just on the other side.

Twice a week, this crossing turns into a binational market where Dominicans and Haitians can mingle and buy and sell goods in what is essentially an open buffer zone.

It's a clattering, disorienting scene of people hawking goods, offering rides, asking questions -- a flow of humanity in all directions, all happening right at the border crossing, which continues to function.

Navigating customs isn't easy in a crowd where it is hard to tell government officials apart from everyone else.

The soldiers, though, are easy to spot. A Dominican in uniform stood next to us as we leaned against a wall to fill out the exit paperwork.

Being posted at the customs building, which provides a sliver of shade, is better than being stationed in the middle of the market, he says. I wasn't curious about why a soldier was standing at the customs office until I caught a glimpse of a legal pad in his hands.

"Voluntary deportations," it read.

Reliable numbers about how many Haitians have voluntarily left the Dominican Republic are hard to come by, but on this day I see evidence that an attempt is being made to keep count.

By the outset of 2016, the number had topped 113,000, according to the Dominican government.

The government said more than 288,000 undocumented immigrants had registered for the "regularization" plan by late last year, according to the International Organization for Migration. But it is unclear how many of these immigrants have completed the process and have their identity documents. A spreadsheet on the interior ministry's website dated September 2015 lists about 200,000 names of undocumented migrants who were yet to pick up their paperwork.

More detailed immigration statistics -- deportations, estimates of undocumented immigrants living in the country, the number of people affected by the immigration laws -- were never provided, despite repeated requests and government assurances.

Authorities pointed me to a speech Dominican President Medina made last year at a summit of Central American leaders in Guatemala, where he called the criticisms of the immigration policies a campaign to discredit his country.

"I understand that this is a complex reality, with various legal elements, diverse groups of the population and many statistics," Medina said. "It is possibly not a great media story, since it does not lend itself to big alarmist headlines, nor a prefabricated narrative of persecutors and the persecuted."

His bottom line: If the United States and European Union can regulate and enforce their immigration laws, why can't the Dominican Republic do the same?

The view from Haiti

Across the border in Ouanaminthe, Sister Marleny Gomez helps new arrivals find their way back home.

Marleny, a Catholic nun from Colombia, has been based here for four years, at Our Lady of the Assumption Church and school.

"The voluntary deportees, the ones who are choosing to leave the Dominican Republic on their own, are the ones who have family here and who know where to stay," Marleny says.

The most needy are those who were deported.

"They've spent so many years in the Dominican Republic that when they arrive, they say they have some distant cousins or a grandmother somewhere," she says. "This is where the confusion arises, because they don't know how to get to those cities, they don't have money, they don't know where they are."

The flow of returnees and deportees has been manageable here, the nun says, but both governments are flirting with a potential crisis.

I crossed the border here thinking that a high-traffic crossing like this one might overwhelm the Haitian side. But I found Oauanaminthe to be functioning normally. (A crisis has indeed developed near the border, but not in the north. In Anse-a-pitre, in southeastern Haiti, tent cities sprung up as returnees flowed into unprepared municipalities.)

As we talk in her office, my gaze floats behind her to a painting on the wall.

It shows two boys -- one black, one white -- sitting together on a rock between two palm trees. Arms around each other, they're looking toward the ocean. Above them are two flags flying from the trees -- one Haitian, the other Dominican.

It's a vision of hope shared by many on both sides of the border, including those in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's major port city in the north.

That's where I found Jean sitting with several others on the steps of a shop.

Just a few weeks ago, Jean says, he came across a fellow countryman walking on the highway, having just returned from the Dominican Republic. The man didn't have money to buy a bus ticket to get to his hometown, so Jean helped him out.

"I want our countries to work together," he says. "There's no work here either."

We exchange good-byes, and I ask him for his last name.

I jot it down in my notebook, and then pause after reading it aloud. "Jean Kerry?" My attempt to pronounce "Jean" as the French would say it -- something akin to "John" -- is the punchline.

The entire group of men chortles.

Further down the street I run into Wilmar Innocent, a former mayor of Cap-Haitien, who was holding court with his supporters.

"The Haitians and Dominicans are two neighboring peoples on the same island," he says. "There are many problems, but we share one destiny."

He wants the international community to speak up and play a more direct role in bringing Haiti and the Dominican Republic closer together.

Every Haitian has a relative living in the Dominican Republic, he says. The two countries are too intertwined to try to segregate now.

"Politics tears the two countries apart," he says, "But we have to do everything we can to bring the two nations together, like the wings of a dove."

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haiti and the dominican republic: faces of a divided island - cnn

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Story by Mariano Castillo, CNN
Photography by Fernando Decillis for CNN

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It's an uneasy coexistence for countries whose intertwined histories of colonization, conquest and racism over the centuries have left deep wounds. In recent years, controversial court rulings and laws have renewed tensions in the Dominican Republic. Hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent were stripped of their citizenship and forced to prove they were born here.

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4th November, 2017
The article summarizes the Caribbean region’s stance on climate change and the imperialist forces of North America and its extensions that affect CARICOM’s unified structure that allows for an integrated attitude to the regional issue. The Organization of American States (OAS) intervening in Venezuela’s domestic affairs was also highlighted as well as the Caribbean Community’s stance to propose a “non-interventionist” approach in aiding Venezuela. Additionally, the effects of climate change on the ecosystems of Caribbean countries and their economies and infrastructure were discussed.

In reading the article, it instantly resonated with the material of Unit 6 (Campbell, 2017): the history of Caribbean civilisation in relation to identity. By its nature, CARICOM was developed in part by the basis of shared interests, ideologies and other commonalities.Surely, the issue of climate change requires a great deal of attention in Caribbean society, separately. But, in retrospect, the decision of CARICOM to remain integrated in the face of North American imperiousness stimulated the fundamentality of CARICOM. The Prime Minister of St Vincent quoted “... imperialism doesn’t sleep...CARICOM has to maintain its unity or there will be insanity...” (Telesur, 2017)

The identification of external forces that further perpetuate imperialism in Caribbean society is the stepping stone that will allow for recognition of Eurocentric implications to the Caribbean region and, with time, fade the branding of colonialism and negative imperialism.

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The First Caribbean Peace Conference ended with a declaration condemning "the neo-liberal counter-offensive of imperialism," which is "impacting Caribbean societies largely through the installation of retrograde capitalist forces."

RELATED:
Venezuela Defends 'the Poor and Powerless': Barbados Activists

Held in Barbados from Oct. 6-7, the conference was attended by the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, the Cuban Movement for Peace and People's Sovereignty, the Jamaica Peace Council, the Guyana Peace Council, and the Caribbean Chapter of the International Network In Defense of Humanity, as well as representatives from Barbados, Cuba, Guyana, Jamaica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and the U.S. Peace Council.

The conference added that the imperialist offensive "opened the countries to private sector dominance and the reversal of the social gains in health, education, public housing and transportation, adversely impacting the quality of life of the Caribbean working people."

The threat of climate change was also discussed by the conference which they said is damaging the ecosystem of Caribbean nations as well as the regional economy, saying that it "increases the risk of natural disasters that can wipe out Caribbean economies by wreaking havoc on infrastructure and by causing significant loss of life."

This was recently evidenced by the devastating hurricane season that has caused deaths, displacement and billions of dollars worth of damage to Caribbean nations. Delegates at the conference described the U.S. as the most eco-unfriendly nation on the planet and condemned the U.S. administration's denial of climate change as a human-made phenomenon.

RELATED:
Caribbean Keeps Watch As Hurricane Season Continues

Alongside climate change, the conference decried the presence of foreign military bases in the Caribbean region and labeled them as a serious impediment to peace and stability in the region. It pledged to "resolutely join in the actions of the international campaign against foreign military bases and for a world of peace without nuclear, chemical and bacteriological weapons."

The conference noted the degenerative influence of foreign media penetration in the Caribbean region saying that "the phenomenon of imported values eclipsing our local values of respect and human decency, and with movies and films perpetuating greed, violence, opulence and selfishness, then the rise in senseless killings and gang warfare, presents itself as a direct threat to our Caribbean civilization."

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1st Caribbean Peace Conference Slams Imperialism, Climate Change

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The First Caribbean Peace Conference ended with a declaration condemning "the neo-liberal counter-offensive of imperialism," which is "impacting Caribbean societies largely through the installation of retrograde capitalist forces." RELATED: Venezuela Defends 'the Poor and Powerless': Barbados Activists Held in Barbados from Oct.

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17th November, 2017
Happiest Man Alive: "Happiness is the measure of success"

But I don't got no time for no worries
I don't got no time for no stressin
Ah had rum on my mind so ah ready
To go on the road
Ah come out to live meh life

Caribbean Soca music holds within itself a collective remnant of a history that is manifested through song and lyric. A unique poetic medium, Soca music transcends race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender and even political affiliation. However, there is a common thread that runs through the lyrics of modern Soca music of the 21st century. An ethos of reckless abandon, mental recreation, gratitude to a 'higher power' and stress-free cognition which is manifested in dance and apparel. Thus, the existence of Carnival festivals across the region. One is able to discern this by listening to Machel Montano's hit 'Happiest Man Alive'. A sense of care-free dissolution is felt when hearing the harsh yet melodious instrumentals compounded by Machel's Creole dialect expressing happiness (H.M.A. Happiest Man Alive, 2014). This is an example of the effects of Soca music on the listener.
Surely, a day to day life as a college student is one filled with worry, stress, doubt, uncertainty and many more angsty adjectives. I suppose that anyone who is attempting to self-actualize is familiar with these words. Caribbean society is filled with these people. What better way to combat these feelings than by listening to music or even writing music. Evidently, Hip Hop music responds to the social ills faced by African- American society, and reggae music of Jamaica tales the history of the Caribbean and the humanistic interactions among its people. Likewise, Trinidad and Tobago's Soca music is the cultural medicine that strips us of these bad feelings whether during Carnival season or by listening to it on an uneventful Saturday night. The maximum potential of Soca music, however, manifests during Carnival season when concepts of 'going on d road' and 'drinkin rum' are the collective consensus of its participants.
Indeed, Caribbean music is a form of identity in and of itself where members of the region are connected via a beautiful and transcendental culture.

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Machel Montano - H.M.A. (Happiest Man Alive)  | Official Music Video | Soca 2014| Trinidad Carnival

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SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANEL NOW: http://bit.ly/1daMZwo Official Music Video for Machel Montano's 2014 Soca Music hit H.M.A. (Happiest Man Alive)! Directed and Produced by Damian Marcano for Blue Cinamon Group. Co Produced by Doug Miller and Zen Arts https://www.ZenArtsLA.com Dance choreography by Jason Young Song produced by Alex "Kubayashi" Barnwell.

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Cont'd Learning activity 8.2 Caribbean Music : A Critique of Cultural Globalization

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Cont'd Learning activity 8.2 Caribbean Music : A Critique of Cultural Globalization

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18th November, 2017

Is a Caribbean cultural identity shared among the intra-Caribbean nations or is it only manifested when in contact with extra-regional or imperial forces?

Efforts to introduce Soca and Dancehall, as well as African beats(Afropop) to an otherwise mainstream audience by local figures like Bunji Garlin, Popcaan, Sean Paul and Machel Monatano have evidently created an acculturation of music genres that foreign artistes and sound engineers have manipulated in their music. There is beauty in the sharing of cultures and identities among differing societies. However, when examining the history of Caribbean civilisation it is critical to ponder is successful, established names in American pop culture use the music that have shaped Caribbean identity for a capitalist agenda that merely give locals a sense of pride that our music is liked by foreign artists. It is incredibly important that an acknowledgment of the historical peril that shaped Caribbean culture and identity be made by extra-regional-artists who wish to exploit a fiery and revolutionary artistry.
With the ever growing Carnival and tourism industry new challenges arise such as increased competition among islands as they promote their products and artistes. But, does this hamper the sentiment of complete integration? When examining the ideas of Caribbean identity it is feasible to question of there should be a single Caribbean identity when discussing integration in economic development. Furthermore, is a Caribbean identity shared among the intra-Caribbean nations or is it only manifested when in contact with extra-regional or imperial forces? For instance, in sport, the West Indian cricket team comprises of players of differing countries with differing cultures. However, when they play against other nations like Australia and England there is a fact of identity (Khan, 1996) shared by West Indians. This principle can be used in the economic development of Caribbean nations using Carnival so as to lessen the impact of cultural competition.
Why not integrate the Caribbean Carnival industry to share revenue gained from Carnival and cultural tourism among islands that depend on the industry. The profits can be ploughed back into economiess and the intangible sense of community and development could be fruitful.

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20th November, 2017
New forms of indirect rule is more substantive that monetary gain.

It is a known fact that most Caribbean nations are dependent on natural resources that aid in their economic growth and development. Countries like St Kitts and Nevis, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Barbados, the Dominican Republic and Antigua and Barbuda rely heavily on tourism to fuel economic growth. Even so, most facilities that cater to tourists are foreign owned such as hotels and restaurants. The globalization of the Caribbean tourist industry unfolded an inevitable economic dependency on foreign investment as seen in the artifact below. (Times Caribbean, 2017).
Similarly, the reinvention or evolution of Trinidad Carnival to suit foreign tourist demand; and as an invitation to participate in a culture that was once a form of resistance to oppressed people, is a consequence of the globalization of Caribbean culture. Barbados and Dominican carnival originated as a satirical response to French and Roman Catholic influences This was symbolic of the freedom and defiance that inhibited the minds of ex-slaves. Modern Carnival traditions rely more on the popular culture of 'going on d road' fetes, artistes annually releasing new sounds, and of course the participation of foreigners.
Undoubtedly, an incredible boost in economies benefit the islands; not to mention the unifying ethos that the culture brings make the industry an economically lucrative one. That being said, to what extent has the foundations of Carnival and Ole Mas been faded to inaugurate the popular culture of Soca and Carnival. Moreover, did the tourism industry slowly become an unhealthy resurgence of colonial dependency that will forever reign over Caribbean lands? Economic servility by these avenues for income benefit nations but the historical implications of these forces on the collective psyche of the Caribbean comes into question. New forms of indirect rule is more substantive that monetary gain.
A suggestion to re-examine alternative means of economic development may remedy the dependence on the service industry of tourism and Carnival. Creativity and innovation would take the fore in devising an economy that is receptive to mass markets but is not especially dependent on foreign forces.

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BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 19TH, 2017 (PRESS SEC) - Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour, a five-star luxury beach resort that opened this month in the heart of Banana Bay with 300 local permanent employees, has propelled St. Kitts and Nevis into a unique position within the Caribbean tourism industry.

"You're unique," Mohammed Asaria, vice chairman of Range Developments, the developer of the project, said at Friday's press conference while addressing local media representatives, as well as Prime Minister Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris and Minister of Tourism the Honourable Lindsay Grant who were both seated at the head table.

"You have a Park Hyatt, you have a Four Seasons, you have a Marriott - three branded hotels - as well as a number of well-leading independent hotels, which really put you in a unique position compared to some of your peers, and we need to capitalize on that to have future growth in the economy," he added.

Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour - the first Park Hyatt hotel in the Caribbean - has received many plaudits in the international press, even making the cut onto coveted lists such as Forbes' 17 Hot Hotel Openings This Summer, The New York Times' Hotel and Resorts to Travel to in 2017, Travel + Leisure's Hotel Openings to Watch Out for in 2017, The Globe and Mail's World's hottest and hautest new hotels for 2017, The Telegraph's The 28 best new hotels for 2017, Forbes' 25 New Luxury Hotels That Come Highly Recommended, and Vogue's 2016 Hottest Hotels: The 16 Most Anticipated Openings.

There are more signs of St. Kitts and Nevis' growing stature in the international tourism market - a positive change being ushered in under the Team Unity administration.

For instance, for the 2017-2018 season, St. Kitts and Nevis is projected to receive a total of 569 cruise ship calls with over 1.5 million passengers, a record for the twin-island Federation. "Between November [2017], December and January [2018], this economy will see pumped into it EC$199,555,662. That is fantastic news for St. Kitts and Nevis," Minister of Tourism the Honourable Lindsay Grant said in the National Assembly last week, referring to three-month projections based on average expenditure per cruise passenger (US$111.08) in St. Kitts and Nevis.

At Friday's press conference, Minister Grant announced that, "American Airlines will now provide twice daily non-stop service to St. Kitts from Miami, for the first time in our history for five days a week up from four...the flight will operate inbound Wednesday to Sunday and outbound Thursday to Monday starting December 1st, with the first Wednesday operation taking place on December 6th."

The Minister of Tourism added that, "This news complements the new Delta non-stop weekly service from JFK [Delta's hub at New York-John F. Kennedy International Airport] and an additional service from Atlanta [Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport], as well as our recently added United [Airlines] stop out of Newark, New Jersey [from Newark Liberty International Airport]."
The increased airlift is indicative of the surging popularity of St. Kitts and Nevis' tourism product. Last year October, St. Kitts made it onto The Wall Street Journal's list of 10 "buzzy, newly accessible destinations...all on the brink of change, to visit next year." The Wall Street Journal noted that, "long-overlooked St. Kitts is finally gaining traction."
Prime Minister Harris said during Friday's press conference that the growing confidence in the country was seen recently when Adtalem Global Education Inc. looked to St. Kitts and Nevis to temporarily relocate the Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM) from Dominica after the passage of Hurricane Maria.
More than 1,100 RUSM students arrived in the Federation in mid-October and will be here up until mid-January 2018, attending classes and living on the GNV Excellent floating campus. Over 150 faculty and staff of RUSM have also come to the Federation, and many of them are living on land accompanied by their families. RUSM will then be temporarily relocated to facilities owned by Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.

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PRIME MINISTER DR. TIMOTHY HARRIS AND MINISTER OF TOURISM LINDSAY GRANT LEADS ST. KITTS-NEVIS INTO THE TOURISM BIG LEAGUES - Times Caribbean

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BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 19TH, 2017 (PRESS SEC) - Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour, a five-star luxury beach resort that opened this month in the heart of Banana Bay with 300 local permanent employees, has propelled St. Kitts and Nevis into a unique position within the Caribbean tourism industry.

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24th November, 2017

'What are the merits and demerits of gender depictions in the Media?' (Lamsee, 2017)

Historically, men and women have been allocated to roles specifc to their
gender since the early Victorian period. Women were expected to live subservient,
domestic lives while men lived liberated, sexually free lives. A patriarchal social
structure was ever present in differing societies; the Europeans and even in
Indigenous societies, for example. As the history of the world continued and the
colonial Caribbean was formed into modern society, ideas of gender changed
greatly.
Patriarchy is a cultural model that has transcended into modern societies where male authority and privilege is the root of gender inequality. Nevertheless, in Afro-Caribbean households masculinity is defined by the ability of males to provide economic security to a household. Seen firsthand, women and girls are allocated to domestic responsibilities like household chores which determine their sense of femininity in some traditional female mentalities. Moreover, there is some social pressure in courting and eventual marriage that are the expectations of older females in my environment. But with the ever present hegemonic media and its depictions of men and women in a simulated modern society, these social expectations have slowly been disregarded in defining femininity and womanhood. A tutorial discussion (Lamsee, 2017) about the merits and demerits of gender depictions in the media showed that women take on fictional lead roles in political fields such as presidents and chiefs of staff. This not only gives incentive and empowerment to women in the Caribbean to see beyond institutionalized gender inequality, but it speaks out against male dominance and what a 'man's world' entails. There is merit involved in  the progressive depictions of women in Media outlets. However, this change creates issues in the family.
In Caribbean societies, female empowerment and autonomy present itself
in the family and in the workforce. Women are the driving force of many
organizations and political groups in the region which speaks to the change in
gender roles of Caribbean society. Consequently, issues of marginalization or the 'absent male', domestic violence, male infidelity and male “bashing” of radical feminists point to the thought of masculinity and the psychological trauma of males living in matriarchal households.
The artifact below displays a photographical representation of gender equality. It is suggested that conversations that delve into the historical past of gender role allocation be had, as it will promote an understanding of prevalent inequality in contemporary Caribbean society. It is known that socialization begins in the family. These conversations will challenge the minds of those who feel that one gender is 'superior' because of the cultural significance placed behind it. Equality in the family, the workplace, social settings and in the thinking of both men and women should be the order of the day.

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Economic Growth Leads to Economic Development

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Economic Growth Leads to Economic Development

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30th November, 2017

Regional groups like CARICOM, the Association of Caribbean States and the Caribbean Tourism Organization strive to grow in industry. There are many challenges that come with development efforts, however. Economic development is not just about financial security but the quality of life of every member of society.
Factors such as eco-tourism, Carnival and the Arts give extensive opportunity for Caribbean economies to maximize benefits of globalization with particular attention on the private sector. However, economic development is not solely about financial security but about the human factor; the quality of life of every member in society. Has the cultural sector benefited the standard of living of locals who contribute to the industry besides gaining small employment opportunities?
The humanistic aspect of development should be of equal focus when strategies to grow economies are assessed. The notions of a 'Fixed Melancholy' (Campbell, Unit 4, p.5) is evidence of a highly powerful human psyche. Humans (ex slaves) willed themselves to death resulting from the conditions of West African enslavement. They were fatalistically disempowered. In translation, modern Caribbean nations would do well to place emphasis on the ideals of human needs to ensure that they cater to their own people with the same urgency. The artifact below illustrates efforts by CARICOM to holistically 'embrace early childhood, tertiary education and workplace learning for the development of knowledge, skills and competencies “ in the pursuit of regional workforce development and better citizenship"(Loop, 2017) via the Human Resource Development Strategy 2030. This is a step forward by CARICOM in reaching the threshold of holistic economic development.

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CARICOM adopts Human Resource Development Strategy

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Caribbean people now have a blueprint for their development, with the adoption of the CARICOM Human Resource Development Strategy 2030. The strategy was presented by t

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1 December, 2017

FOUN 1101 Caribbean Civilisation defines, explains, responds, and critically analyses my Caribbean society. Each session provided insights into the historical issues of society and its presence today.  I believe that it is important for students of the Caribbean to understand their background. This course gave fruitful insights into the foundations of society that I still cherish and deem important to me as an individual. The foundations of religion in the Caribbean, culture and identity and, most importantly, the historians that have made it possible for Caribbean students to fully understand the efforts of Revisionism to critically assess Caribbean civilisation, imparted opportunities for me to formulate thoughts that may not have been relevant to me three months ago.

The course allowed for me to illustrate my thoughts freely, through a medium that I most enjoy utilising- writing. The idea of writing a book report and the creation of an online journal such as this give me a new incentive for learning that strays from the traditional regurgitation of knowledge through final examinations. The smooth operations of the online classrooms and forum discussions made the learning experience much more exciting.
In conclusion, the application of knowledge that I acquired made this course an enjoyable one. It allowed me to give of my time and effort into understanding Caribbean society. I do recommend that students have a head-start in beginning assignments and not delay, especially if they desire to gain a holistic appreciation for the course material.

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Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. 'The Dangers of a Single Story', TED. July, 2009, www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story. Accessed 12 October, 2017.

Black, Brian.'September 11th 2001: A Retrospective and Never Forgetting our Flag'.11 September, 2013. Image, www.itstactical.com/centcom/memorial/september-11th-2001-a-retrospective-and-never-forgetting-our-flag/. Accessed 28 October, 2017.

Campbell, John. 'Course Material for FOUN 1101' University of the West Indies. 2017.

Campbell, John. 'Fixed melancholy: Suicide on an 18th Century British West Indian plantation Course Material for FOUN 1101'. University of the West Indies. 2017.

Castillo, Mariano. 'Faces of a divided island: How centuries of racism and fear shaped the people of two nations — and echo through a modern-day crisis' CNN.  13 April, 2016 edition.cnn.com/2016/04/12/world/dominican-republic-haiti-immigration/index.html. Accessed 29 October, 2017.

'Fred Armisen Can Do Any Accent In the World'. Youtube, Uploaded by Conan on TBS, 15 June, 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm7U_ZZaOAc.

Hedmann, Gerald A. Letter. 'Keep Patois at bay'.Jamaica Gleaner. 29 August, 2008, old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080829/letters/letters6.html. Accessed 23rd October, 2017.

Khan, Abrahim. 'Identity, Personhood and Religion in the Caribbean Context'. New YorkUniversity, October, 1996.

Lamsee, Akilah. 'What are the merits and demerits of gender depictions in the Media?'. Online Tutorial. 24 November, 2017. University of the West Indies. 2017.

LoopTT. 'CARICOM adopts Human Resource Development Strategy' 8 July, 2017, www.looptt.com/content/caricom-adopts-human-resource-development-strategy-4. Accessed 27 November, 2017.

'Machel Montano - H.M.A. (Happiest Man Alive) | Official Music Video | Soca 2014| Trinidad Carnival'. Youtube, Uploaded by machelmontanomusic. 29 January, 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=na5eNkT21Ds.

Schermerhorn, Patti. 'The Mango Tree'.Acrylic and Mixed Media. Background Image. Fine Art America. 7 October, 2013, fineartamerica.com/featured/2-the-mango-tree-patti-schermerhorn.html . Accessed 20 November, 2017.

Senior, Olive. "Gardening in the Tropics: Meditation on Yellow".Insomniac Press, 2015, www.ryerson.ca/olivesenior/poems/meditation_on_yellow.html. Accessed 8, October, 2017.

Telesur. ‘1st Caribbean Peace Conference Slams Imperialism, Climate Change’.  9 October, 2017, www.telesurtv.net/english/news/1st-Caribbean-Peace-Conference-Slams-Imperialism-Climate-Change-20171009-0015.html. Accessed 12 October, 2017.

Times Caribbean. 'Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris and Minister of Tourism Lindsay Grant Leads St Kitts into the Tourism Big Leagues'. 20 November, 2017, timescaribbeanonline.com/prime-minister-dr-timothy-harris-minister-tourism-lindsay-grant-leads-st-kitts-nevis-moves-tourism-big-leagues/. Accessed 20 November, 2017.

Torres, José Alberto Cabán. 'Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the Caribbean'. 11 April, 2012, enciclopediapr.org/en/encyclopedia/ethnic-and-racial-diversity-in-the-caribbean/. Accessed 9 October, 2017.