EDITORIAL

By GODFREY WRAY

The will of the women

A paper on Caribbean History by one Carron Logan had as its introduction: Caribbean women have had a long history of political contribution to their society. Their activism began with the early resistance and protest during enslavement and after abolition. Then working class women and middle class women continued their activities during the post slavery period for a better life socially and economically by being social activists and even entering representational politics. The heavily researched paper underlines women’s contributions to the shaping of Caribbean history and highlights their significant work in taking stands to protect self-interest and fight against injustices. According to the work women have always been key participants in revolts, strikes, picketing exercises and other critical political movements, even though their efforts received little recognition.

Creating an Impact

Bonding with Bonds

Within the last two (2) weeks, several records were broken, and new landmarks were set in sports, especially Baseball. I shall detail some of those accomplishments later on, but of greater importance to me, is the racial-dividend that has one more risen to the surface... For, after Barry Bonds had tied Hank Aaron’s record, media surveys showed that only thirty (30) percent of the white people surveyed, stated they were going to recognize Bonds’ achievement, while more than eighty (80) percent of Blacks and minorities who were interviewed said that they were going to acknowledge Bonds’ achievement. The results of those surveys simply brought back to the surface, the real racial feelings that are present in the United States of America; and at times, we have to wonder how far we have really progressed after the advocacies and sacrifices of personnel like Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King.

THINGS THAT BOTHER ME

BUSH’S BRAIN MY FOOT!

By HANDEL ANDREWS

Karl Rove‘s resignation the end of the month will not stop the sun from shining or day following night. It won’t stop the President from his pursuit to break Ronald Reagan’s record for the most vacations by a sitting President. It, sure as hell, won’t stop the White House from functioning. I know Karl Rove was the architect that built GW’s political career. But he was never Bush’s brain. Karl Rove was born on Christmas day 1950 in Denver, Colorado. Rove was not his original surname. He got it after his natural father abandoned the family, and he was adopted by one Louis Rove, whose wife committed suicide in 1970, one year after he announced he was gay.

BASIL SPRINGER COLUMN

AN ECONOMIC GEARING SYSTEM

"Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of any man, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it" - Deuteronomy 1:17

If one researches business policy as espoused by many governments, in large or small countries, it usually has a specific component focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the belief that they contribute significantly towards GDP. Thus, if government gives assistance, it can expect to get an economic return for its investment in support of the SME business policy. However, if the definition of SME is too restrictive, many businesses may be excluded from benefiting from the SME assistance and may not be large enough to garner assistance from the financial community on their own. It is wise, therefore, not to show partiality in judging but to hear both small and great alike. In this way, not only are isolated businesses brought into the fold, but government stands to get a greater contribution to economic growth.

The Georgetown Diary

The Ronald Austin Column

A Model of Excellence

I have always been fascinated by the fact that while Guyana is adversely affected by the lack of specialized manpower, Guyanese continue to excel in different parts of the world. It doesn’t matter where you go, whether it is Canada, the United States or Europe, you will always find a Guyanese who is a renowned and recognized professional. One is therefore compelled to ask the question: what would have happened had we succeeded in keeping these highly skilled people within the boundaries of our nation? Such reflection was prompted by the recent announcement that my good friend, Dr. Vincent Adams has just crowned a stellar career by being appointed as a Senior Executive Service (SES) Official of the United States Federal Government.

The Obama Dilemma

I feel sorry for Barack Obama. He is the Tiger Woods of American politics – mixed up, afraid of his lineage and anxious for white acceptance and Black understanding. Just recently this Demo-cratic presidential hopeful shocked the world by sounding very much like Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and President George Bush – a sharp departure from his measured political responses to date. Obama’s comments that he would launch a military campaign inside Pakistan without that country’s approval, if as president he was confronted by "actionable intelligence" as to where terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is, has drawn sharp criticism and evoked memories of a hawk in dove’s feathers.

PLUG INTO ENERGY

The Allison Skeete Column

Barbadian Researcher’s work ignites Caribbean Diaspora Energy world

Barbadian Andrea Jordan of Newcastle University, a researcher in England, has given the ailing sugar industries in the Caribbean a ray of hope. She revealed that there’s been an "early commercial" development of a gasification process to convert bagasse, (residue from the sugar cane), into a gas which is then used in power-generating plants to produce electricity. Unlike traditional combustion, which has been used by sugar factories for many years to burn bagasse to produce electricity and heat, gasification is a very efficient process which can increase the amount of electricity produced from organic materials by more than 3.5 times. "This method can contribute up to 30% of the electricity demand in countries such as Barbados, Guyana, Dominica, St Kitts and Grenada, where their agriculture waste material can be used," she told a conference of Caribbean power companies which had met in Barbados.

IN DEPTH

INCARCERARTED WITHOUT TRIAL: WHY THE CASE AGAINST BENSCHOP SHOULD BE DISMISSED

It is now more than five years since Mark Benschop, an outspoken TV talk-show host and fierce critic of the Guyana government, has been imprisoned in Guyana without being found guilty of any crime. Charged in 2002 and remanded since then, it took more than two years before Benschop’s treason case went on trial. Benschop was found innocent by all except one of jurors who heard the case against him. When the hung jury verdict was read in November 2004, a young, vibrant man returned to prison leaving his family, career, and children behind. An additional three years later, Benschop still languishes in prison with no trial date in sight. He is going on to his sixth year in prison without being found guilty of any crime. With a spirit unbroken by years of injustice, Benschop keeps up his fight for freedom. He has gone on hunger strikes, brought constitutional motions, and defended at least one motion opposing his attempt to secure an early trial date. His efforts, however, have not put in sight a date for his trial.

IMPACT ON CARIBBEAN LITERATURE

THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF CARIBBEAN LITERATURE: ANGLOPHONE CARIBBEAN POETRY

POETS IN THE DIASPORA (11):

In our last article, we began to trace the emergence of migrant Anglophone Caribbean poetry in Canada, noting that while some migrant poets in that country have been concentrating their creative endeavors on the theme of shifting between two homes, others, like Brian Chan, originally from Guyana, for example, prefer to appeal to a general readership by virtue of the focus on philosophical issues relating to the individual. In the United States and in contrast to poets like Chan, we find Rohan Preston (who left Jamaica as a teenager), focusing mainly on the issues of race and color. The Preface of his 1992 collection, "Soy Sauce", shares his rude awakening in his "new country" and as Baugh observes, this country shows him a reality quite different from the dream of the Promised Land in which he had been nurtured in Jamaica (272). (The majority of us in the Diaspora can immediately relate to this because we have all been conditioned to see the United States as "the land of milk and honey" and we have all experienced varying degrees of "awakenings" depending on the extent to which we believed in that myth). As Preston notes in his poem, "Letter from Foreign"

The Face Of The Undocumented

PART II OF THREE PART SERIES ON IMMIGRATION

No Drag On The Economy — About Eight Million Undocumenteds Pay Social Security, Medicare and Income Taxes

PART II OF THREE PART SERIES ON IMMIGRATION

An Analysis by MICHAEL D. ROBERTS

UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS MARCHING

The ongoing debate on immigration in the public domain continues to generate much interest from both left and right quarters in the United States. At the core of the debate is how to handle the estimated 11 or 12 million undocumented immigrants presently living here. Depending on where you are sitting in the debate – Left or Right – the answer to that question will be in an either/or formulation. On the Left of the debate are liberals, libertarians and compassionate Americans who acknowledge that this mass of poor people have broken, basically, at least one of three US immigration laws and should be penalized for that by paying a hefty fine, but that should not bar them from regularization of their status. For this group, kicking them out of the country is both un-American and not a practical thing to do. On the Right of the debate are conservatives and neo-conservatives who see the undocumented problem as a law and order issue – people broke the law, so incarcerate them and kick them out of the United States after they have paid for their crime(s). There are no shades of grey here; no compromise positions, with advocates for this kind of action demanding only that US laws be enforced.

 

I CALL IT AS I SEE IT

Bush’s Miami Vice

Cuban emigrants tend to hate Castro less than they once did. Maybe that’s why they now seem less welcome in the US. The only certain thing about the mysterious hold-ups on Cuban visas is that Washington is lying. Are the new Cubans voting the wrong way? Since 1994, the US has issued 20,000 visas a year to Cubans in return for Havana’s promises to try to stop Cubans swimming, rafting or boating their way across to Florida. Some recent surveys suggest these new immigrants, who have left with the cooperation of Castro’s government and are more racially and socially diverse, are less likely to vote Republican and less likely to support the embargo against the Cuban government. Looking at the knife-edge, by-chad-or-by-crook elections in Florida, this could actually make a difference.

Karl Rove: Not Really A Political Genius

By STAFF REPORTER

From President Bush to the supine, sycophantic mainstream media the kudos can’t stop coming about Karl Rove the supposed "political genius" as the person behind the Republican Party’s rise to power. But no amount of wax paper will obliterate the fact that long before his public decision to demit office at the end of August, Rove’s shine was badly scuffed and sullied and his political career was already in decline. But spin is spin and depending on which side of the political fence that you sit on you might agree with President Bush that Mr. Rove is a "boy genius." Me? I can’t as yet wrap my arms around these oozing flowery salutations to a man who will be remembered more for his foibles than for his political skills. Indeed, Rove’s raison d’etre – the reason for his existence – winning elections for his party sustained a serious crack in the armor when he failed to halt the Democratic juggernaut last November that resulted in the Republican Party losing both houses of Congress. That was hardly the work of a political genius but the dithering blundering of an incompetent.