Reading Time 2 minsEvery year for the past 10 years, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) encourages us to recognize June 25th as the International Day of the Seafarer. This year it is celebrated under the theme Seafarers are Key Workers. This could not have been a more appropriate theme as the world is virtually under lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic.  With almost 90 percent of the world’s goods transported via shipping, according to IMO’s estimates, the ship workers are particularly hard hit by COVID. Many Caribbean islanders depend on shipping (including cruise ship work) and related industries to earn a… Read More »June 25: Day of the Seafarer #SeafarersAreKeyWorkers — BDN Editorial

Reading Time 18 minsExcerpts from Classroom Calypso: Giving Voice to the Voiceless, (Peter Lang Publishing, NY 2007), a compilation of fourteen to eighteen-year-old Brooklyn high school students writings about, and challenging, rampant injustices such as police misconduct between 1989 and 2000. This chapter speaks to the ‘Uprising’ that’s refashioning American society’s fabric. “Could not recognize the faces standing over me/ They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality.” – Bob Marley, “Burnin’ and Lootin’.” “[P]oor America is maintained by the police. Its denizens are familiar with nightsticks, handcuffs, and jail cells.” – Walter Mosley, What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace. “‘Are Drugs,… Read More »Engaging Race On The American Plantation — Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 8 mins“Don’t push me ‘cause I’m close to the edge. I’m tryin’ not to lose my head.” Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, 1982 “Until the philosophyWhich hold one race superior and anotherInferiorIs finally And permanentlyDiscreditedAnd abandonedEverywhere is warMe say war”Robert Nesta Marley, 1976 It feels like the earth is wobbling precariously on its axis like an old merry-go-round spinning wildly, trying mightily to fly off its warped tracks each time it passes the blaring music. The ride speeds up, and you are in full terror. It slows down almost imperceptibly, and you exhale, exulting in the silence… Read More »FIGHT WITH POWER — Carlyle Leach

Reading Time 1 minsI protest because it is in my blood. I feel the strength of my father and grandfather with each step I take. I feel my voice get stronger as I think of their faces. I realize that they were not only fighting for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren. As I stand outside yelling, “No Justice, No Peace!” from the very depth of my being I realize that I am not yelling just for myself— I am demanding change for posterity, as well. How can I bring another brown child into this world without trying to make it a… Read More »Why I Protest–Auguste Leach

Reading Time 6 minsMay 25, 2020 “The truth is that any figure of Africans imported into the Americas which is narrowly based on the surviving records is bound to be low, because there were so many people at the time who had a vested interest in smuggling slaves and withholding data. Nevertheless, if the low figure of ten million was accepted as basis for evaluating the impact of slaving on Africa as a whole, the conclusions that could legitimately be drawn would confound those who attempt to make light of the experience of the rape of Africans from 1445 to… Read More »A Caribbean Reparations Lens on African Liberation Day — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 5 mins#MothersDay #ILoveMyMom #HappyMothersDay #MotherLove May 10, 2020 “The baby monkey holds on to its mother who jumps from tree to tree. The baby holds on to its mother for life knowing for sure that a slip in his responsibility might become a fatal mistake. The kitten on the other hand cannot and does not make anything to protect itself. It continues to do just mewing letting the mother know its needs. Wherever the mother decides to take it to, sometimes on a nice cushy bed, and sometimes on a poor bed of haystacks, it has to accept that… Read More »My Mother’s MOTHER’S DAY — Dr. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

Reading Time 2 mins#NationalNursesDay! #COVID19Response #st.kitts&nevis May 2, 2020 Like the king of destruction, the corona virus has ridden hither, thither and yon leaving a trail of death, anguish, and economic despair. The swiftness with which it has claimed thousands of lives, decimated communities exposing fault lines of health and economics, reminds us that “all humanity is as grass” and that “the grass withers and flowers fade.” Yet amidst the darkness and dismay there are many green shoots! Green shoots evidenced by citizens in New York opening their windows at 7 pm nightly for a musical tribute to health workers who put their lives on the… Read More »MESSAGE OF HOPE COVID19 By Dr. Thelma Phillip-Browne

Reading Time 6 mins#coronapandemic #IntWorkersDay May 1, 2020 Even if you have been around the block a few times, or you are a serial cynic – you are still left shaking your head, not so much at how the US government is using the pandemic to inflict further pain on working people but more at the fact that, thus far, they seem to be getting away with it. Shaking our heads that too many workers still have that ‘wait and see’ attitude to this real threat, not just of the pandemic but even more gravely, the government’s callous disregard of our rights and lives. Too many are… Read More »COVID-19: Stand Up And Fight!–Roger Toussaint

Reading Time 2 minsApril 25, 2020 What a morning it was on April 21st, 1970, in Trinidad and Tobago! Along Long Circular Road, just a stone’s throw from the St James Barracks–the Police  Training School–fire broke out at Camp Ogden, the military outpost, while the radio stations blared the news that at Teteron, T&T Defense Force Headquarters, some sort of insurrection was underway. As a matter of fact, my younger brother’s ranking membership in the Regiment and more so his posting at Army Headquarters added a great deal to my curiosity to find out the facts of the matter at… Read More »I Was There! — Duff Mitchell