Mahogany CoConut Blog

One Caribbean Nation. PM: Trinidad and Tobago will not be blackmailed TRINIDAD Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar does not plan to bow to any pressure from Venezuela as she stressed that Trinidad and Tobago will not be blackmailed and is not dependent on any Venezuelan gas. She declared that no one - be it the Venezuelan government, the People's National Movement (PNM), CARICOM, or any other entity - will "pressure or blackmail" her Government into retreating from the fight against the drug cartels. In response to questions from the Express yesterday, the Prime Minister shrugged off Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez's proposal to be made by the board of the Venezuelan state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for President Nicolás Maduro to suspend all gas agreements with T&T. Persad-Bissessar said reports of Venezuela's proposed gas suspension with T&T are not a cause for any grave concern. "Our ...

One Caribbean Nation. The Caribbean Is One Nation. First published Monday, May 29th., 2017 In recent months, there has been a notable increase in crime in the region. Media reports suggest, that many of these crimes are committed against our children and women folk. Mahogany Coconut’s policy looks at crime as a regional problem thereby avoiding branding any country as the main source. While many may genuinely consider this approach to be somewhat idealistic, we believe that in the global scheme of things, the Caribbean is usually seen as a monolithic entity. As with all human endeavor, citizens from each country tend to seek bragging rights. We are aware that this is true whether we are discussing cricket or the state of individual economies. We see it as nothing more than healthy sibling rivalry. Unfortunately, while the global view of us may be monolithic, we are quite aware that our French and Spanish speaking countries are sometimes excluded for the simple reason, that our educat...

One Caribbean Nation. MONSTROUS MELISSA HURRICANE MELISSA  LEAVES BEHIND DEATH, WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTION Hurricane Melissa left dozens dead and widespread destruction across Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica, where roofless homes, toppled utility poles and water-logged furniture dominated the landscape Wednesday. A landslide blocked the main roads of Santa Cruz in Jamaica’s St Elizabeth parish, where the streets were reduced to mud pits. Residents swept water from homes as they tried to salvage belongings. Winds ripped off part of the roof at a high school, a designated public shelter. Melissa made landfall Tuesday in Jamaica as a catastrophic Category 5 storm with top winds of 185 mph , one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, before weakening and moving on to Cuba, but even countries outside the direct path of the massive storm felt its devastating effects. At least 40 people have died across Haiti, Steven Aristil with Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency told The Associated Press. H...

One Caribbean Nation. Maduro halts energy deals with Trinidad VENEZUELA Venezuela on Monday suspended energy agreements with Trinidad and Tobago, over what officials have described as "hostile" actions by the island nation. Trinidad is now hosting one of the US warships involved in a controversial campaign to destroy Venezuelan speedboats allegedly carrying drugs to the United States. During his weekly television show on Monday night, President Nicolas Maduro accused Trinidad of acting as the "aircraft carrier of the US empire" and said that he was left with no choice but to pull out of treaties signed with Trinidad ten years ago. The announcement came hours after the nation's vice president, who is also Venezuela's minister of hydrocarbons, had suggested the agreements should be cancelled. On Sunday, the USS Gravely, a destroyer fitted with guided missiles, arrived in Trinidad to conduct joint exercises with Trinidad's navy. Venezuelan authorities des...

One Caribbean Nation. A New World Order – or the formal admission of the Old? The world has long spoken of a "rulesbased order", as though the law itself held dominion over power. Yet, behind the diplomatic courtesies and the fine print of charters, it was power that wrote the rules and altered them at will. The difference today is that the altering is done in full view and only a few feign surprise. We all knew what the Order was, even when we hoped for better. We knew it in World Trade Organisation negotiations when our cries for special and differential treatment for small states in trade relations fell on deaf ears. We knew it in climate change negotiations when our pleas for a loss and damage fund evinced a sop, not a solution. From the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 to the Charter of the United Nations in 1945, the international system has proclaimed the sovereign equality of states. In practice, this has always been more aspiration than achievement. Legal sovereignty -...

One Caribbean Nation. US grants Trinidad permission to negotiate -Venezuela gas deal  TRINIDAD The US has granted Trinidad and Tobago permission to negotiate a gas deal with neighbouring Venezuela without facing any US sanctions, the Caribbean nation's attorney general said Thursday. The US Treasury Department granted an Office of Foreign Assets Control licence on Wednesday that allows parties to engage in a transaction that would otherwise be prohibited, according to the agency. With Venezuela hit by US sanctions, Trinidad and Tobago needed the licence to pursue the development of a gas field located in Venezuelan waters. The licence was granted following a request that Trinidad and Tobago made in May, according to Attorney General John Jeremie. "We have six months to negotiate, within parameters," Jeremie said at a news conference. "You have to hit targets, with respect to the US and their posture with Venezuela." He said US companies have certain commercial...