Mahogany CoConut Blog

Mahogany Coconut joins in wishing all Barbadians a happy Independence Day on Wednesday, November 30 th.   Forty five years ago, at the historic Garrison Savannah, Prime Minister Errol Barrow, lowered the Union Jack and lifted our new bright, black ,blue and yellow Broken Trident. We Barbadians use as our motto:” Pride and Industry.”  We go about our business with a sense of calmness and success that remains a mystery to many. Within the Caribbean our idiosyncrasies are well known: we are sometimes described as  more British than the British themselves; we sometimes appear a bit snobbish but those who have lived amongst us, know that we are just as generous, friendly and are accommodating as any of our wonderful neighbors.  Our quaint identity is our major strength, although it sometimes appears a bit colorless.  We may  never be instant and perpetual limers and party officialdoms like the Trinis; and we may never rival the tireless tenacity of our Jamaica...

By Pachamama In academic circles the last hundred years or so are generally considered as the period where the British and the Americans almost exclusively ruled more than the ‘western’ world. But where does real power lie? Is it in the hands of the known political elites? Or is it in the hands of the economic elites? Is there no discernible difference between the economic and political elites? What do we call a system where the political, economic and military elites are the same people representing the same interests?  Why are maximum and irrational efforts made by the so-called political leaders to ensure that all governments comply with the given notions about global governance – the so-called international community? Are there viable and competing models to structure global governance and where are they likely to lead us? Should we even trust the given notions for global governance? Is the Westphalian bifurcation of 1648 still determining the course of geo-political events? Mo...

By Selwyn Ryan Trinidad Express 11/20/11 Story Created: Nov 19, 2011 at 10:51 PM ECT  Story Updated: Nov 19, 2011 at 10:51 PM ECT  This is an excerpt from a paper presented at Miami Book Fair International on Wednesday. The political and economic problems currently being faced by Caribbean countries are extremely worrying. Even in Barbados, which is generally seen as a model nation. The only exception is Trinidad and Tobago, which is not as fiscally challenged as the others. The CLICO problem is, however, strangling the Trinidad economy and the truth is that nobody seems to know for sure what Trinidad's true economic position really is. The information seems to be a closely guarded secret. The political Opposition is alleging that it is just a matter of time before the Government becomes bankrupt because the Government was on a borrowing spree. In the meantime, there are problems in the energy sector. The price of oil is high, but production levels have dropped drastically. W...

By Pachamama It’s once more the time of year when the elites in Barbados automatically instigate actions of petite nationalism that are said to be consistent with an independent state/actor. However, when one examines the existential realities within either the political, economic, social or technological spheres a very different judgment could be made. Over the years many of us have presented arguments for a very different kind of nationalism, a different kind of Barbadianness. A nationalism that presents a Barbadian that comes from a longer history and that elevates the place of the indigenous peoples within our collective imaginations. A nationalism, which recognizes the indigenous people that have lived on this here land from the time before time - long before the invasions of Columbus. A nationalism that is not so wedded to the former colonial masters that it is near impossible to property understand our past, alter the present and shape a self-determined future. A nationalism, ...

By OBSERVER News - Monday, November 14th, 2011. ST JOHN’S, Antigua – AIDS Secretariat Counsellor Educator Oswald Hannays has expressed concern about the increasing incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the impact on the fight against HIV and AIDS. He explained to The Daily OBSERVER that persons with STIs such as gonorrhoea and Chlamydia are “at greater risk of contracting HIV.” He said more people are also presenting with genital warts, herpes and the human papillomavirus HPV. Hannays also highlighted the “trending bisexuality” especially among younger residents as a potential contributor to the rise in the HIV. “If you are going to have unprotected sex with both of those partners, if HIV enters that equation, it is going to likely spread to three persons,” he lamented. The counsellor educator urged the youth to re-examine themselves, focus more on education and access information that is accurate. He stressed that while “a huge volume of information is available o...

All Caribbean people, join in extending our heartfelt sympathies, to  the families and loved ones, of all those , who lost their lives last night, in the horrific road accident,in Choiseul, St.Lucia. Fourteen lives lost is a tragedy of monumental proportions. We now urge all Caribbean governments, to embark on national comprehensive road repair programs, designed to improve the travel of those, who depend on both public and private mass transport, by using the minibuses and other methods of transportation throughout the region. While we at Mahogany Coconut, would not use such a tragedy to blame any party or individual, we remain aware that there are many roads and bridges, throughout our region, that are themselves nothing more than "accidents waiting to happen." Once again we extend our sympathies and prayers to all those who will be forever affected because of this terrible tragedy.

Most true nationals would consider the abolition of slavery and the attainment of independence as the most significant dates in our history.Therefore like all patriotic Barbadians I will be celebrating our forty fifth anniversary of independence with a sense of pride and achievement. However it is most distressing that the collective political managerial class made up almost exclusively of Black Barbadians has failed to deliver Republican status after forty five years of independence.Progressive thinking citizens would have thought that becoming a republic was the next logical step. It is also extremely interesting that we seem to be moving heaven and earth to sponsor a sporting event, while becoming a republic has been put on the back burner, in order to appease those who cannot bring themselves to be finally rid of the monarchy. There are two issues which clearly reveal the confused  state of our national psyche: failure to remove the Lord Nelson from its current location, a...

EDITORIAL - Remove Antiquated,Homophobic Law Published: Tuesday | November 8, 2011 We believe that Prime Minister Andrew Holness missed the point or deliberately obfuscated the issue. There is not, at this time, any campaign in Jamaica for same-sex marriages or unions and for the law to be amended to accommodate these. What reasonable people, including this newspaper, have insisted upon is government leadership against the prejudice and discrimination against gays, including the repeal of the most repressive symbol of such bigotry, the law against buggery. This issue was recently reprised by the warning by Britain's prime minister, Mr David Cameron, that his government might  cut  off  budgetary aid to countries that do not uphold human rights, including the oppression of gays and lesbians. "Britain is one of the premier givers in the world," Cameron said in an interview in the margins of the recent Commonwealth summit in Australia. "We want to see countries that ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJIF_5uEFH0

                       Is  the Caribbean capable of solving its own economic problems ?

No Boot Camps In my opinion, placing difficult children in Boot camps is not the best action to take, as we grapple with indiscipline in our schools. Citizens should be concerned with the many knee jerk solutions, we are promoting and implementing, in order to curb negative social trends. I find the term Boot camp  psychologically dangerous because it is really grounded in semi –military philosophy and could be a very serious turn off for many parents, who apparently do not know what to do with difficult children. Those promoting boot camps should also be honest enough to inform parents that boot camps were originally intended for teens who were apparently on their way to becoming criminals or had actually broken the law and prison was considered to be too harsh. They also need to inform parents that there is need for after care in order to monitor such children when they leave boot camp because having been actually taken out of the broader school /society they would have to adjust...

Barbados'Crop Over 2011Revisited Those who are condemning Popsicle’s two calypsos are obviously unaware of what constitutes good kaiso writing.  First, in terms of pure lyrics when Popsicle states: don’t mind how long the recession lasts he isn’t selling his ass,or words to that effect, he is addressing two real social issues:  That we are having very tough economic times and even in tough times we should not do any and everything in order to survive. Similarly when he writes he would prefer to “pick a fair” rather than attend other events, he has again showed lyrical genius by playing upon a well known Bajan phrase. Whether we want to admit it or not, we Bajan men have been picking fairs forever. I remember I was once told you are not a man until you actually pick a fair. To be very frank, we have been virtually barren of good kaiso writing for many years. I give all credit to Plastic Bag for writing kaiso at a level that is on par with such maestros as Chalkdust and those wh...

Barbados and Maximum Leaders I would not go so far as to pronounce the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party as abject failures. Barbados with all its self inflicted scars is perhaps one of the best managed small countries/islands in any part of the world. The major problem confronting us is a dangerous habit of resting on our laurels and waiting until a crisis develops or envelops us to take action. Ideologically and philosophically, we really have a one party state. Hence, policies started by either party in power can be easily continued without the slightest managerial shift or approach when government changes.We are also suffering from the maximum leader syndrome. The period 1961 -1976 was characterized by the belief that Barbados had become Barrowbados. Barrow verbally assaulted: trade unionists, teachers, thePublic servants and the judiciary with equal zeal but the watchdogs became very silent and he ruled our island state like a colossus. When confronted with str...

Is there really any hope for the CSME/Caricom and the West Indies Cricket Team.