Mahogany CoConut Blog

 BEST:        Trinidad and Tobago Hunger Striker Dr. Wayne Kublalsingh who proved that principle and devotion to a cause override personal comfort . WORST:     Jack Warner, National Security Minister who said that Dr. Kublasingh should hurry up and "die quickly". BEST:            Barbados Entertainer Lil Rick for taking the kaiso art form to a new level and maintaining excellence WORST:   Abstaining from voting at the United Nations to recognize Palestine. BEST:           Jamaica Usain Bolt and all Jamaican athletes at the London Olympics WORST:   Violence against women and children.                                  ...

As 2012 comes to a close, progressive thinkers are further convinced that the entire Caribbean region is holding on by the skin of its teeth, as a recession, most certainly not of our making, continues to make life miserable for our unfortunate citizens. Governments throughout the region, lack the intellectual ability and the creative vision necessary for the development of a new energized Caribbean nation. As always we are treated like the soldiers, who used to complain about the soup-just get another bowl- we are lost in an ocean of intellectually bankrupt, self serving neo –colonialists, who are a sad reflection of what visionary leadership should be. How we got here is chronicled in works such as From Columbus to Castro (Eric Willams). Why we are perpetually stuck here is no secret: there simply is no leadership. No beacon of real hope and change.  Guyana with an abundance of natural resources finds itself impaled on the spikes of party paramountcy, political skullduggery...

By Angela Goring           Queens Park Bridgetown Barbados The Christmas season started in Barbados early in December with the staging of the Annual Agricultural Exhibition at Queens Park. The exhibition as its name implies featured the best that Barbados had to offer in terms of agriculture, animal husbandry and the cottage industries. The most famous land mark in Queens Park was the clock where many a date was made and broken. The clothes that were bought for the exhibition were the ones you wore to church on Christmas morning. This is the morning that people who did not go to church any Sunday during the year, would be sure to attend. After 5 o clock church service, there was the annual stroll through Queens park. You got to wear those clothes twice to Queens Park. Probably the most looked out for event on Christmas morning was and still is the stroll through the park; where persons are dressed to the nines; lots of colour and beautiful out...

By Michael Headley The November 29th abstention, by the Barbados delegation, on the vote for the non-voter member status of Palestine in the United Nations General Assembly, reeks of the perceived inertia, by some,  of the country's current leadership decision making.  Coincidently, the abstention was on the eve of Barbados' 46th year of Independence.   Ambassador Mr. Joseph Goddard According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, to abstain is to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial.   What plausible reason could Barbados have for denying itself a chance to help a displaced people get a better seat at the international table?    Only recently, Minister Louis Farrakhan was in Barbados and he intimated that Barbados should be leading the Caribbean.  My question is, how can we lead when we don't have the guts, to vote, to give another nation some rights?  Whereas Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Guyana, J...

Dr. Wayne Kablasingh  before hunger strike After  Hunger Strike Occasionally , a human being comes along, who demonstrates that there is more to life than qualifications and certifications. History is replete with these human beings, who are humble but visionary; whose intellect is often above average but never above humility. Our beautiful Caribbean Nation is known for throwing up such figures from time to time. Quite frankly those who labour and seek no reward are seldom given national honours or recognition. They simply go about their business believing, in many cases, that their god, whoever he or she may be, will be the final judge of their sojourn on planet earth. This simple but not stupid philosophy stretches across all religions and denominations. As we continue our march toward real independence, we can expect that there are many among us, who are going to confront the political, economic and social status quo. They are going to ask direct questions and...