Mahogany CoConut Blog

One Caribbean Nation. Dr.Carla Barnett National Flag of Belize The Mahogany Coconut Group welcomes Dr. Carla Natalie Barnett, the new Secretary General of CARICOM. Dr. Barnett, a graduate of the University of the West Indies, is the eighth Secretary General and the first female to hold the office. The MCG hopes that her appointment will strengthen ties with her homeland Belize, and its Caribbean neighbors, and act as a conduit for us to further explore its beauty and customs. Dr. Barnett is taking up office at a very challenging time for the region. Most of our economies, have suffered severe shock, caused by the devasting damage to the tourism industry by COVID-19 and the challenge of finding the financial resources to combat the pandemic. There remains an embarrassing level of pettiness among some regional leaders, as was recently evident during the LIAT controversy. We are also fighting the negative effects of climate change on our beautiful but often fragile environment. O

One Caribbean Nation. From our very inception, the Mahogany Coconut Group, has placed considerable emphasis on the abuse of our women, children, and the elderly in our region. As some countries celebrate Child Month, we must once more state that child abuse and other crimes against children are rampant in many of our societies. In keeping with our philosophy of One Caribbean Nation state, we will not identify any country as the main culprit. Suffice it to say that a crime committed against one child in our region, is a crime against all our children. Many of the laws pertaining to the abuse and exploitation of children are bordering on the archaic, even when they are “modernized”. Our research of   rape cases and other atrocities against minors, indicate that the legal system allows several years to elapse before trials of this nature are heard. We are also alarmed that consensual sex is the defense of choice in these matters. Legally, there really cannot be any consensual sex

One Caribbean Nation. Within our region, the advent of COVID has given unscrupulous employers the greenlight to further emasculate the workers movement. Keen observers suggest that the trade unions are being systematically marginalized. While we expect such efforts from the private sectors; it appears that the public sector because of failing revenues, may have no choice and some countries are already finding difficulties in meeting public sector wages. We opine that the road ahead for all regional economies, will be fraught with almost insurmountable challenges. We remain concerned that too many economies are anchored by tourism and any further local, regional, or international shocks, to this industry, will certainly throw us into more socio-economic peril. A one-dimensional economy, limits employment opportunities and the concomitant unemployment, leads to decreases in the union membership thereby making workers targets of     anti-worker machinations. To avoid the destruction

One Caribbean Nation. DMX by Michael Headley There seems to a global push, by some government officials, organizations, media pundits and others, to advocate the decriminalization of the law, regarding possession and use of small quantities of marijuana/cannabis/pot/weed.   However, in their haste to celebrate potential users literally lighting up, they may want to avoid being later haunted by the words of the late rapper DMX, born Earl Simmons.  He died at age 50, from an apparent drug overdose, which triggered a heart attack on April 09 (New York Post, Entertainment April 09. by Chuck Arnold and Adriana Diaz).    In a November 2020 interview, published by Judith Charles Lotter (Home/News/Celebrity) DMX talked about how he was tricked into using drugs, by his mentor, who had deceptively slipped him a 'blunt', which was laced with crack.  Prior to this, at age 14, he said that he had never smoked cigarettes or weed. DMX asked "Why would you do that to a child? ...&qu