Mahogany CoConut Blog

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The Caribbean Is One Nation. The recent exposure of the dehumanizing conditions, in which an ex-convict is forced to live, in Barbados, deserves our comment. The ex-convict, now forty-six years old, was released from prison after spending twenty-nine years for murder. This means that he committed this horrible act at the age of seventeen. He would have also spent many years  on death row, during this period. We believe that citizens who have been punished for crimes they committed should be allowed to function normally, when they period of punishment has been completed. This citizen, has been forced to live in an abandoned car, he shared with a variety of rodents. He eventually secured a small piece of land, due to the generosity of a caring older woman, that he de-bushed and embarked on an agriculture project, growing a number of food crops, which he sold as a source of income. He eventually built   a small wooden house on the property. However, a series of unf...

The Caribbean Is One Nation. Caribbean fathers should be pampered today, Fathers’ Day, by the boys, men, women and girls in their lives. So often we hear the term “Daddy’s girl” because there is the belief that little girls cling to their daddies and never let them go when they become women. Amazingly both boys and girls seem to cling to their grand daddies. Boys can’t wait to refer to their father as the “old man’ and many men are known to be very nervous and emotional when they are called to “give away their “little girl’, to the new man- the husband. Many men look forward to  that first beer with their “boy”. These little traditions are the more pleasant and indeed funny sides of being a father and those men who have experienced them, would admit that such memories never leave and in times of more unpleasant challenges, they are what keep them calm and patient. They help in conquering and surviving the rough times that can invade fatherhood. Caribbean fathers have see...

The Caribbean Is One Nation. Note to our readers: Occasionally we will re-publish articles from the past. The Caribbean Struggle Continues January 03, 2012 Ever since we started in 2008, we have chosen to be frank and forthright. Four years later, we can claim to be the first Caribbean organ to identify the recession which finally arrived at the Caribbean ports of call in 2011. We were not taken seriously. After all Mahogany Coconut is not the dwelling place of opportunistic intellectuals, retired college professors, diplomats and bankers, who use their vast contacts  to end up writing columns for hefty sums. They write and then disappear into their gated communities protected by guard dogs, private security guards and expensive electronic security systems. It is not that they are bad people. Quite the contrary, they are good decent brothers and sisters, who are as trapped as the poor at the bottom of the socio- economic ladder. They also believe that we ...

The Caribbean Is One Nation. Our Elderly Citizens Today, Thursday,15 th ., June 2017, is designated World Elderly Abuse Awareness Day. Throughout the world, governments and social partners, are expected to highlight the plight of those elderly citizens, who have fallen victims to abuse. Attempts will be made to illuminate citizens better understanding of the different forms of abuse meted out to the elderly, and encourage them to assist wherever and whenever possible, in helping to reduce and eventually eradicate such abuse. The Caribbean governments via their officials, such as ministers and heads of various state agencies will regale us with the flowery speeches that we have heard on these designated days. Most citizens may conclude that they have heard the speeches repeatedly and wonder if they have had any real impact in preventing our elderly form the dangers of abuse. Fifty years ago, in our region, growing old did not present the challenges faced today. Most families ...

The Caribbean Is One Nation. National Flag of Barbados The Barbados economy continues to spatter throwing the entire country into widespread panic. The most recent budget of Minister of Finance, Chris Sinckler failed to allay the fears of the business and public sectors that any hope of the economy growing significantly will simply not happen. The country has been meeting the payment of public servants by utilizing the printing of money by the country’s Central Bank and the use of Natural Insurance Service funds. The budget presented last Tuesday May 30th 2017, was also critically analyzed by at least two sitting members of cabinet, who thought the two major policies: the increase of the National Social Responsibility Levy from two to ten percent and a two percent tax on all foreign exchange transactions including online shopping and money transfers, might not be the best solutions. The measures are designed to decrease the fiscal deficit and save or dampen the use of cri...

The Caribbean Is One Nation. National Flag of Trinidad and Tobago Child marriage now illegal in Trinidad and Tobago Published on June 13, 2017 PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- Child marriage is now illegal in Trinidad and Tobago. On June 9, 2017, the country's parliament unanimously passed legislation to outlaw the practice, changing the legal marriage age to 18. Prior to this amendment of the Marriage Act, some members of the Hindu and Muslim religious communities engaged in the practice, and there was great public outcry in May 2016 when Harrypersad Maharaj, the leader of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO), a group that brings together representatives from the country's diverse religious groups, said that the state should not interfere because “age did not determine maturity”. This, despite the fact that Trinidad and Tobago is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), w...