Mahogany CoConut Blog

One Caribbean Nation.   The calypso fraternity was plunged into mourning yesterday with news of the passing of Sandra Des Vignes-Millington, known and loved for her hard-hitting social commentaries and being two-time Calypso Monarch, Singing Sandra. The announcement concerning the 64-year-old artiste’s passing was made on her official Facebook page at about 7 am. “This is not a hoax. More information will be disseminated in due course. Condolences to the love ones of Queen Singing Sandra.  ‘Dear loyal fans and supporters worldwide.  The MGC group extends our profound sympathies to the family , friends and staff of Sandra Des Vignes-Millington. 

Jamaican School Children National Flag of Jamaica One Caribbean Nation. Court remands two charged with killing girl KINGSTON – The chef and girlfriend charged in connection with the shooting death of four-year-old Chloe Brown were remanded when they appeared in the Trelawny Parish Court on Thursday. Chloe and her father, 49-year-old Dalton Brown, were attacked in a family dispute in Freeman’s Hall, Trelawny, on January 11. Brown was wounded. The accused couple, 36-yearold Kevin Williams, otherwise called “Bug Head”, and his common-law wife Joan Turner, 42, were charged with murder and conspiracy to murder, respectively. Williams is originally from Red Hills Road in Kingston but had been living in Freeman’s Hall. Williams and Turner, who did not have a lawyer when they appeared in court, told   the presiding judge that they intend to seek legal aid assistance. They are scheduled to make their next court appearance on February 18. Police reported that on the morning of the incident...

One Caribbean Nation. By William Skinner Staci Abrams Kamala Harris Map of Dekalb County Georgia Georgia has often been considered by those in the Diaspora, as a cultural backwater, never to be compared with the mighty New York or the less mighty Ontario. For those Caribbean residents, who have made Georgia their home, the USA Elections of 2020 and the recently concluded senatorial run offs, have given impetus to burying this myth about Georgia, mostly referred to as Atlanta, its capital city. Caribbean Georgians obviously celebrated the victories because they have always favored the Democratic Party. The immigration policies of the Republican Party, and its apparent embrace of racist elements, have certainly not endeared them to   those in the Diaspora.   When President Trump declared that some immigrants were from “shit hole” countries, it was considered an offensive and unwarranted assault and insult on all immigrants. While it cannot be denied that the Caribbean/...

One Caribbean Nation. Political pundit ANCHOR WITH TRINBAGO ROOTS CREATING STIR CNN’s rising star Abby Phillip is getting a chance to shine on her own. The CNN recently announced the network’s new Washington-based anchor roles. Within that release came the news that Phillip has been promoted to senior political correspondent and will be taking the reins of Inside Politics Sunday from John King. So, CNN viewers will now be able to tune into Phillip every Sunday morning from 8 to 9 a.m. starting January 24th. Fans of the show will note that Phillip is no stranger to the Inside Politics set, having been a member of the show’s roundtable in 2015 and even filling in for King last month— perhaps as an undisclosed opportunity for Phillip to test drive the anchor role. Phillip was born in Virginia to parents June and Dr Carlos Phillip. Her parents are originally from Sangre Grande. They migrated to the US in 1985 and returned to Trinidad and Tobago in 1988 when she was a few months old. She ...

One Caribbean Nation. VP-Elect Kamala Harris CaribPR Wire, NEW YORK, NY, Sun. Jan. 17, 2021 : U.S. VP-Elect Kamala Harris on Sunday night delivered a special message to thousands of Caribbean Americans gathered virtually globally, at a star-studded virtual global Caribbean inauguration celebration in her honor, conceptualized and executed by Caribbean American entrepreneur and advocate, Felicia J. Persaud, and presented by Invest Caribbean and the Caribbean American Action Network, (CAAN). “Thank you for the efforts that so many of you have made throughout the course of the campaign to get us to this moment. … You did the work. You helped lay the groundwork for this historic occasion,” VP-elect Harris said. “Now, because of you and so many others, our country is on a path to heal and rebuild.” She also recognized the contributions of Caribbean Americans to the United States, which she said are woven “throughout the fabric of our country.” “Those contributions are reflected in the liv...

One Caribbean Nation. Darren Sammy Sammy’s scent FORMER WI CAPTAIN INKS PERFUME DEAL WITH ASGHARALI Former captain of the West Indies Cricket team Darren Sammy and the first and only captain in history to win the T20 World Cup championship twice has signed a new licensing agreement with Asgharali, a family-owned business based in Bahrain creating high-quality fragrances since 1919. Asgharali has won the hearts of consumers worldwide and laid its footprint in the perfumery market and related business interests with over 100 retail and franchise outlets and stores in the Middle East and South Asia and over 40 distributors worldwide in regions from Eastern Europe to South America. The new signature perfume under the Daren Sammy trademark will include a signature fragrance for men and women. According to Sammy “I am super excited to partner with Asgharali to create this amazing fragrance. I’ve always enjoyed connecting with people through my playing and in the stadiums. “It is my goal to...

One Caribbean Nation. Jamaica’s Sydney Schneider drafted Reggae Girlz goalkeeper Sydney Schneider says she feels blessed to have made history once again and is eager to begin training with the Washington Spirit in the National Women’s Soccer League. The 21-year-old Schneider became the first player from her university, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, to be selected in the draft when she was selected 29th overall by Washington on Wednesday. Expectedly, she was overjoyed. “I am so grateful and feel so blessed to have been able to make history,” she told Sportsmax.TV. “I am so thankful that the NWSL and Washington Spirit have faith in me and have given me this opportunity. I am excited to get started with the Washington Spirit and start training.” At Washington, she will understudy 2019 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year Aubrey Bledsoe, and Schneider said she is eager to learn from the veteran keeper. “ I look forward to training with one of the best goalkeepers and being able to lea...

One Caribbean Nation. Prestigious awardees SIR HILARY BECKLES, DR ANTHONY FAUCI UP FOR US HONOURS Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, will next week add another prestigious award to his list of accolades. Reverend Al Sharpton, President and Founder of the US National Action Network (NAN), today announced that the organisation’s Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Day awards would be conferred on Sir Hilary as well as Dr Anthony Fauci, at the annual breakfast event on MLK Day, on Monday. This is the 30th anniversary for the awards by which the work and the legacy of Dr King are celebrated and persons honoured with a view to refocusing and sustaining his dream. Sir Hilary is recognised for his global advocacy, academic scholarship and intellectual leadership in support of social justice, institutional equity, and economic development for marginalised and oppressed ethnicities and nations. Sir Hilary, who is also President of Universities Caribbean,...

One Caribbean Nation. Diaspora leaders: Come with a plan so we can help by Marlon Madden Yvette Clarke Political leaders in the Caribbean Diaspora have urged tourism officials in Barbados and the rest of the region to come up with a viable plan for post-COVID Caribbean tourism and development and approach them for assistance. While insisting that this must be done in a collective way, political leaders of Caribbean heritage told an online Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) forum on Wednesday that it was also imperative that the region explore other areas for development beyond tourism. New York Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, who is of Jamaican heritage, stressed that the region must build on existing relationships and agreements with more developed nations as it seeks to expand beyond tourism and attain “first world status”. She said: “I think that there has been a benign neglect of the region and I have my theories why that has been the case. However, we are facing new times and new d...

One Caribbean Nation. By Moses Nagamootoo The siege of the Capitol Building Moses V. Nagamootoo FOR THOSE OF us who shared the shame of what was described as “the crime of the century”, United States President Donald Trump reminded us of Jim Jones, on the eve of the “Jonestown Massacre” – the ghastly 1978 mass murder-suicide in Guyana. The evidence captured live on television on Wednesday, January 6, is compelling like a giant freight-truck in our face that the charge given by Trump to his far-right zealots to march on Capitol Hill was like a lethal Kool-Aid cocktail. The attackers, described by president-elect Joe Biden and many other American leaders as “thugs” and “mob”, invaded and occupied the Capitol. It was momentarily a palace coup. As vice-president Mike Pence was being whisked away to a secure location, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other terrified members of Congress and their staff were seen frantically diving for cover. The rag-tag militias were invariably hailed as “pa...

One Caribbean Nation. Regional leaders disappointed in Venezuela GEORGETOWN — The Caribbean Community (Caricom) on Tuesday said it was “deeply disappointed and concerned” by Venezuela’s announcement of a plan to establish a new territory in the area over which it is embroiled in a dispute with Guyana. In a statement issued as Caricom leaders met virtually for their 13th Special Emergency Meeting, the regional grouping said it “firmly repudiates any acts of aggression by Venezuela against Guyana” and reiterated, “in the strongest possible terms, its firm and unswerving support for the maintenance and preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana”. The statement came on the heels of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro last Thursday issuing a decree to establish a new “Territory for the development of the Atlantic Facade” in the Essequibo Region which Caracas has claimed and which is at the centre of its decades-old border dispute with Georgetown. “I approve the c...

One Caribbean Nation. by Sir Ron Saunders America’s battered democracy Sir  Ron Saunders Recent events in Washington, the revered capital of the United States of America, have shaken the moral authority of that country to lecture, threaten and coerce other countries in the name of democracy, rule of law and human rights. The disgraceful scenes of Americans storming their own sacred Capitol Building – the long-claimed sanctuary for democracy – was bad enough, but what preceded it was worse. A mob, mobilised to be lawless and violent, was deplorable. What was despicable were the actions of Republican Congresspersons, who do know better, to wilfully and shamelessly try to overturn the will of the people to change the government through a democratic process that was confirmed by state and federal courts and by the Supreme Court itself. A sitting President of the United States, Donald Trump, openly encouraged a mob to be lawless and to do precisely what they did – attack the bastion o...

One Caribbean Nation. YVETTE D. CLARKE Clarke begins eighth term in Congress WASHINGTON – United States Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, has taken her eighth Oath of Office at the start of the historic 117th United States Congress. “We ushered in the 117th Congress – the most diverse Congress in our nation’s history – and I proudly took my eighth Oath of Office to represent New York’s 9th Congressional District,” she told the   Caribbean Media Corporation   (   CMC)   following her swearing-in for her eight consecutive two-year term on Tuesday. “While this is often a celebratory occasion, we must not forget we are beginning this new Congress during a time of extraordinary difficulty,” added the representative for the predominantly Caribbean ninth Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York. “Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, we have experienced more   than 350 000 tragic deaths, over 20 million infections, an...

One Caribbean Nation. Mr. Gordon "Butch" Stewart The Mahogany Coconut Group expresses profound sympathy, on the passing of Mr. Gordon “Butch” Stewart, the founder of the internationally acclaimed Sandals Hotel Group. The MCG also notes his outstanding contribution, to the region’s tourism industry and the development of the emerging Caribbean corporate ethos. Stewart will remain a member of that elite group of Caribbean citizens, who have excelled in the development of the region in their chosen spheres of activity. He dreamed of and delivered a product, that is the hallmark of the region’s tourism industry. While we recognize this stellar contribution regionally, we must also give thanks and praises, to his country of birth, Jamaica, for giving and sharing such an outstanding son of the soil with the region and the world. He has demonstrated that with vision foresight and drive, we can compete and win on the international stage once we are determined and fearless in ut...