Covid-19 Impact
- COVAX facility vaccines have so far been delivered to Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, the Dominican Republic and Belize. Shipments to St. Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada and Saint Kitts & Nevis, are in transit. But the 350,000 vaccines received thus far are a drop in the bucket for the region's needs: the Caribbean region is home to over 44 million people. Several Caribbean island nations have issued a plea to the United States to share its stockpile of COVID-19 vaccine but the Biden administration has not done so to date. (News Americas Now)
- Haiti does not have a single coronavirus vaccine to offer its more than 11 million people over a year after the Covid-10 pandemic began, reports the Associated Press. So far, Haiti is slated to receive only 756,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX, but delays are expected because Haiti missed a paperwork deadline.
- Equitable access to health care across all territories is the only way for countries to better combat both the short and long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and other health care crises, argued Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley as she addressed a World Health Organization virtual press conference this week. She said the current pandemic has played havoc on predominantly smaller and poorer nations, and regions such as the Caribbean have been left on the sidelines in terms of equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and other necessary medications, when compared to larger nations. (Barbados Today)
- Mottley also pointed out that many of the challenges and vulnerabilities facing the region are not captured by the country’s per capita income or infant mortality rates. The CARICOM chair said where there is a global market failure as is happening now, small middle income states are at risk of not being seen or heard or not even accessing critical goods and supplies. (Barbados Advocate)
- The IMF and the World Bank's overly rosy assessment of Covid-19 impact in the Caribbean has resulted in inadequate instruments to help the region's economies, argues Sir Ronald Sanders.
- To further support reconstruction, and over the coming months, the United Nations will work with its partners across the Caribbean to facilitate the development of a build-back-better road map -- United Nations Sustainable Development Group.
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said teachers must either test negative for Covid or get a vaccine before schools start Monday. (Caribbean News Service) The Public Service Union and its lawyer say that the government is perched on “a slippery slope” in asking public sector workers to submit to their heads of department the results of their Covid-19 tests. (iWitness News)
- Total and partial school closures in Latin America and the Caribbean currently leave about 114 million students without face-to-face schooling according to UNICEF’s latest estimates. But national policies often elide disparities within countries, both in access to in-person learning, and remote options.
- ECLAC head Alicia Bárcena welcomed a recent call by the U.S. for a new issue of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and the re-allocation of excess SDRs to low-income countries (LICs), such as those in the Caribbean. (Caribbean Media Corporation)
Regional Relations
- A new U.N. geopolitical grouping, known as AfCAR (Africa Group-Caricom), gathers two regions, 68 member states, over one-third of the United Nations’ 193 members. It debuted with a joint statement by Caricom and the African Group to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. (Now Grenada)
- CARICOM finance ministers met virtually to prepare the group's agenda ahead of a scheduled upcoming meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, reports Kaieteur News.
Public Security
- The 24-year-old cousin of two Black teens murdered last year in Guyana was charged with the subsequent murder of Surojdeo Deochand called "Sarjie," an Indo-Guyanese man. (Kaieteur News) The gruesome killings ignited simmering racial tensions in the country, last September. (See Sept. 11's Latin America Daily Briefing)
- The recent killing of a young Jamaican woman came against the backdrop of a record number of murders on the island which, by some counts, had the region's highest homicide rate last year. Even as more women go missing, many Jamaicans are publicly expressing their dismay at the crime situation, writes Emma Lewis at Global Voices.
Gender Rights
- Domestic violence, femicides and attacks against trans women have haunted Puerto Rico for decades In January, the governor declared a state of emergency over gender-based violence, but activists worry that real progress will require deeper, cultural changes, reports Vice News.
Climate Justice and Energy
- Forecasters suggest an “above-average” Atlantic hurricane season this year, though not as busy as the historic 2020 season which saw 30 named storms, 13 hurricanes, and six major hurricanes strike all around the region, reports Accuweather.
- Climate change will deepen the rich-poor global divide, top economists warn. (Reuters)
- Energy is one of the most scarce resources in the Caribbean. A new study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provides an analysis of the evolution of energy consumption and expenditures in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), composition by energy source. (St. Kitts Nevis Observer)
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines' La Soufriere volcano, which has been erupting effusively since December, can erupt explosively in hours or days. (iWitness News) Residents near La Soufrière began evacuating the island’s “red zone” on today by traveling to nearby islands, boarding cruise ships or moving into emergency shelters on other parts of St. Vincent. (Washington Post)
- Jamaica's burgeoning bamboo industry is a sustainable economic boon, reports Forbes.
Democratic Governance
- The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) will convene its Eighth Congress on April 16‑19 to choose new leadership and assess policies intended to address long standing economic and political challenges – with no indication of bold new departures, writes William Leogrande at the AULA Blog.
- "Haiti has never truly been able to achieve the institutionalization of state powers prescribed by its 1987 Constitution. All the avenues of access to power have been attempted — elections, uprisings, coups d’état and dictates of the international community, negotiations, agreements, compromises, and expedients — without bringing us to a state of democratic normalization, let alone a political stabilization of the country," writes Haitian constitutional scholar Claude Moïse in an article in Le Nouvelliste and translated to English in Law and History Review.
- "There has never been a satisfying political solution nor an adequate institutional response to the country’s recurring political crisis. ... The country’s exposure to institutional instability and flagrantly unconstitutional rule is such that Haiti is now toppling on the precipice of arbitrary dictatorship and anarchy," he writes.
- Aruba's prime minister resigned this week after prosecutors announced an investigation for suspected embezzlement of funds by one of the parties in her coalition. (Caribbean News Service)
Labour
- The Dominican Republic's Alta Gracia garment factory is famed for paying a living wage, but nine months into the coronavirus pandemic, workers were furloughed without pay and the US-based company is struggling to stay afloat. The case raises questions over whether a clothing business can pay a decent wage and still be profitable, reports the Guardian.
Education
- The University of West Indies secured a $25 million international grant -- the largest in the institution's history -- a partnership with Silicon Valley digital tech giant Eon Reality. (Caribbean News Service)
Reparations and Anti-Colonialism
- Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne asked Oxford University's All Souls College for reparations for profit obtained from slave labor of enslaved people on Antigua and Barbuda. (Caribbean News Service)
- France’s plan for a national memorial to the victims of slavery has been suspended after a disagreement over its concept. (The Art Newspaper)
Culture
- Trinidad and Tobago nonprofit organisation Dada and Projects wants social art design to be part of Port of Spain revitalisation plans. (Newsday)
- Guadeloupe artist Minia Biabiany examines the colonial dynamics between France and its overseas territories in her work. (Repeating Islands)
Events
9 April
- Venezuelan Immigration to Trinidad and Tobago: A comparison of the Displacement Tracking Matrix Reports for 2019 and 2020 -- TEDU
13 April
- Debt-for-Climate Swaps for Small Island Developing States: An Innovative Approach to Preventing a SIDS Debt Crisis -- AOSIS
14 April
- Institute of International Relations Panel Discussion: Achieving the SDG’s on Health and Climate Change in the Caribbean: Challenges and Opportunities -- University of West Indies
22 April
- Championing Change: How Caribbean Women and Youth are Facing the Crisis -- Jhannel Tomlinson at Brooklyn College
No comments:
Post a Comment