Covid-19 impact in the Caribbean (Aug. 27, 2021)

 Covid-19 impact in the Caribbean

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Covid-19 Impact

• Pan American Health Organization Director Carissa F. Etienne said the severe shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in Latin America and the Caribbean is a “wake-up call” for increased regional production of vaccines and announced the start of a new platform to reach that goal.

• The World Health Organization is starting a program to manufacture vaccines in Latin America and the Caribbean. The move aims to address global inequalities in vaccine access, an issue that “remains the Achilles’ heel” of the pandemic fight, said Etienne. Vaccines produced by the program are to be distributed to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region where an average of only 23 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated so far, reports the New York Times.

• Covid-19 is having a more devastating effect on many Caribbean economies than natural disasters in recent times -- Media Institute of the Caribbean

• International vaccine inequality likely played a role in the second wave of Covid-19 infections in Trinidad and Tobago earlier this year, according to a data review in the BMJ that points to the difficulties Caribbean countries have had in procuring vaccines.

• France's government warned of an "extremely serious" Covid-19 crisis in the country's overseas territories, especially in the Caribbean. Martinique tightened the lockdown already in place and told tourists to leave while similar measures were also expected on Guadeloupe, a huge economic blow to the Caribbean islands, reports AFP.

• Medical staff in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are threatening to strike in response to the government's regulation requiring frontline workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19, reports the Asberth News Network. (See Aug. 10's post.)

• Record numbers of Jamaicans sought Covid-19 vaccines this week, in the midst of weekend lockdowns aimed at containing a surge in infections. (Reuters, Petchary's Blog)

Debt Relief

• Haiti’s crushing debts are hampering its ability to respond to crises, like the recent earthquake that devastated the country's south earlier this month. Large scale debt relief would be a quick and simple way to free up resources for Haiti to address the aftermath of the earthquake. It is also a vital part of creating fiscal space for the country to address the climate crisis, sustainable development and other national needs in the mid and long run.  (Jubilee Debt Campaign)
  

Reparations and Decolonization

• A British citizen has agreed to contribute US$500,000 to the University of West Indies' development fund as reparations for her family’s involvement in slavery. (UWITV)

• Caribbean Labour Solidarity (CLS) has joined the ongoing campaign to Decolonise the Curriculum of the United Kingdom’s constituent nations. 

• In Boom and Bust in Puerto Rico  journalist A. W. Maldonado charts the rise and fall of the Puerto Rican economy and explains how a litany of bad political and fiscal policy decisions in Washington and Puerto Rico destroyed an economic miracle.

Climate Justice and Energy

• Suriname is in the midst of a severe economic crisis. "With the prospects of a booming oil industry, it is important to approach the current crisis with an eye to the past and examine how earlier Surinamese governments have responded to crises," writes Mavrick Boejoekoe in Global Americans.

• Guyana must offset the environmental impact of its oil wealth with measures to transition to a green economy -- Global Americans.

• Guardians of the land, we the Maya Q'eqchi and Mopan of Belize
  

Food Security

• Amid a global banana crisis, Puerto Rico’s abundant biodiversity offers a taste of hope, reports the Washington Post.

• Jamaican athlete Shelley-Anne Fraser-Pryce suffered from chronic food insecurity as a child -- Forbes

Culture

• Graphic novelist Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez is the creator of La Borinqueña, a superhero character who was created as a direct response to the struggles Puerto Ricans were facing after the devastation that Hurricane Maria left behind and the lack of government support -- Remezcla.
  

Opportunities

• Call for papers: A forthcoming special issue of the journal Environmental Justice will focus on how communities are using law and organizing to reimagine environmental governance from the bottom up. 

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News Updates. You can see the Updates on our website, as well as receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading.

Haiti grapples with aid issues (Aug. 20, 2021)

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Saturday has, perversely, provided a respite for Haiti's tenuously positioned caretaker government, according to Foreign Policy. The tragedy has provided distraction from the country's acute political crisis, but instead put a harsh spotlight on Haiti's long-term problems. "The earthquake victims, not to mention the rest of the Haitian majority, are left basically on their own. Haitian communities have an incredible capacity for self-reliance—one forged out of necessity in the face of repeated abandonment."

Official efforts to aid victims of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck southwest Haiti on Saturday have been patchy and limited. This hasn't surprised local communities, which have little faith in the government, reports the New York Times. Instead people have been forced to manage their own crisis, reports the Washington Post.

Many small Haitian communities affected by last weekend's earthquake have given up hope that the government will come to their assistance, reports the Miami Herald. "Many people in the isolated villages say it’s as if they’ve been forgotten." 

Nonetheless, tensions over lack of assistance are growing, reports the Associated Press. Haitian authorities said at least 600,000 people were in need of humanitarian assistance and 135,000 families displaced, reports Reuters.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said his administration will try not to “repeat history on the mismanagement and coordination of aid,” a reference to the chaos after the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, when the government and international partners struggled to channel help to the needy amid the widespread destruction and misery.

Humanitarian groups are adamant that immediate and long-term help must be implemented differently this time, compared with the aftermath of a devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016, reports the Miami Herald. "Many in the humanitarian sector say they are committed to improving coordination across an array of non-governmental organizations to meet" victims' needs.

Activists have urged the public to avoid large international organizations, and instead donate and provide resources to local organizations and groups directly connected to people in the country rather than give to large, disconnected organizations, reports NBC.

Haitians were marginalized in 2010, and many emergency interventions caused long-term harm in Haiti. "We again have the chance to create sustainable improvements by maximizing Haitians’ role in all aspects of disaster response," argue Brian Concannon and Kathleen Bergin in The Hill. 

"We need a truly Haitian Solution, once and for all… Haitians have the capacity and expertise, even if Haiti doesn’t have enough financial resources to address the multiple crises," said the Haitian Studies Association in a statement. (Repeating Islands)

"Democratic institutions are vital for strengthening Haiti’s ability to respond to crises," argue Sophonie Milande Joseph and François Pierre-Lois at In These Times. Haiti's political crisis is a result of the undermining of the country's democracy by domestic elites and foreign meddling, they write.

In a similar vein, Jonathan Katz rejects narratives that call Haiti "unlucky": "Haitians’ constant suffering is the result of very intentional decisions (about who gets money, who avoids accountability, and construction codes, among other things) made in foreign capitals and Port-au-Prince—not random chance." (Slate)

The international community must assist with Haiti's political crisis, but not interfere, writes Harvard lecturer Christopher Rhodes in Al Jazeera. "The country’s long-term political stability depends on outside forces taking a back seat to a Haitian-driven rebuilding process."

And, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called for a “global reckoning in which we must all come together and truly participate to give Haiti and the Haitian people their rightful chance for stability and prosperity ... And it starts with working to create a floor in our Caribbean — to create a standard below which no one must fall, to guarantee access to the basics needed." (Caribbean News Roundup)

Climate Justice and Energy

• ExxonMobil’s huge new Guyana project faces charges of a disregard for safety from experts who claim the company has failed to adequately prepare for possible disaster, according to an investigation by the Guardian and Floodlight. "Experts claim that Exxon in Guyana appears to be taking advantage of an unprepared government ... allowing the company to skirt necessary oversight. Worse, they also believe the company’s safety plans are inadequate and dangerous." The investigation quoted industry analysts at IHS Markit who said the Guyanese government was receiving a below-average return on ExxonMobil’s projects.
• Guyana aims to increase its oil royalties and revamp other contract terms as part of a new profit-sharing agreement for future crude and gas projects now in its draft stage, said vice president Bharrat Jagdeo. "We have made it clear that in any new PSA we negotiate for those blocks, the conditions will be very, very different than the ones from the Stabroek block," Jagdeo said, including higher royalties and mechanisms for deducting costs from investment. (Reuters)

• Trinidad and Tobago environmental activists documented the Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited's half-hearted attempts to clean up an oil spill. The region’s oil industry has come under increasing fire as the Gulf of Paria has been plagued by spills over the past few years, reports the Guardian.

• Dominica is among the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change, according to an IMF report. During 1997-2017, it was the country with highest GDP losses to climate-related natural disasters and ranked in the top 10 percent among 182 countries for climate-related fatalities.

• Adaptation is more relevant for Caribbean countries grappling with climate change than mitigation, which is why Trinidadian lawyer Michelle Scobie, an expert in environmental governance, says it's important to get "home-grown understandings of the ways in which we can overcome disasters [in the] medium and long-term." (World Wise)

• The quality of one of Jamaica's major water resources, the Rio Cobre, has also been severely compromised by a recent spill of caustic effluent from the nearby bauxite plant, reports Emma Lewis in Global Voices.
  

Democratic Governance

• The Puerto Rican Partido Nacional Progresista's quest to make the territory into a U.S. State is quixotic, unlikely to succeed or be discarded, according to Pedro Cabán at Latin American Perspectives. But statehood does not solve the economic inequality and insecurity, and widening impoverishment of the population that threaten Puerto Ricans' human rights, he argues.

• Two bills in the U.S. Congress aimed at resolving Puerto Rico's territorial status -- one granting statehood and another offering Puerto Ricans the chance to decide regarding statehood -- are deadlocked in Congress. Instead legal experts Rafael Cox-Alomar and Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus say lawmakers should combine both. "The key is to recognize that it is up to the people of Puerto Rico to choose their future, but it is up to Congress to offer them a choice— and the information they need to make it," they write in the Miami Herald.

Regional Relations

• A lack of coordinated policy and over-reliance on a one-size-fits-all trade structure have long hindered the development of the maritime transport infrastructure that Caribbean small island developing states need. The region’s current infrastructure, which carries more than 90 percent of its goods, is vulnerable to disruptions and inefficiencies, writes Ryan Sullivan at the Aula Blog.

Corruption

• The new Saint Lucia Labour Party government intends to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate corruption under the former United Workers Party administration. (St. Lucia Times)
  

Covid-19 Impact

• Confrontations over vaccine mandates in Guyana are, at heart, about a broader lack of trust and fairness. Both the mini-bus sector, nurses and teachers’ opposition to vaccination is influenced by unresolved non-COVID 19 grievances, without this being explicitly acknowledged, according to the Guyana Human Rights Association.

• The Executive Council of the House of Rastafari Inter-Mansion Collective, in the Bahamas, issued a statement claiming religious exemption from mandatory vaccination. (Eyewitness News)
  

Human Rights

• The Guyanese National Assembly has passed a bill that formally repeals the ban on cross-dressing that was struck down as unconstitutional by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in 2018. (76 Crimes)
  

History

• Researchers have traced the origins of the Zoutsteeg Three, 17th century skeletons found on Saint Martin, to at least two distinct linguistic groups in West Africa. "The study paints a fuller picture of the African populations that were subjected to the transatlantic slave trade and suggests that DNA may help scientists reconstruct the life histories and ancestry of enslaved individuals," reports Black Wall Street Media.

• Raymond Ramcharitar’s A History of Creole Trinidad, 1956-2010 offers a history of post-Independence Trinidad and Tobago and critically analyses the popular conception of creolization as the driving force in the country. (Repeating Islands)
  

Culture

• Astrid Roemer, the Surinamese winner of the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, came under fire after showing support for former president Dési Bouterse, who was convicted of murder, reports the Guardian.

Olympics

• A 1996 rule bars dependent territories from forming National Olympics Committees, leaving many Caribbean countries unable to participate, though six Caribbean countries were grandfathered in. (Caribbean and Co) 

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News Updates. You can see the Updates on our website, as well as receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading.

Anti-Vax protests in the Caribbean (Aug. 10, 2021)

Anti-vaccine protests are popping up in Caribbean countries, particularly in response to efforts to make jabs mandatory for certain groups. 

Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was hospitalized after being hit in the head with a rock thrown by a protester, at an anti-vaccine demonstration led by nurses and other workers. Gonsalves clarified that he would not make vaccines mandatory, but an amendment to the country's Public Health Act “requires certain frontline workers to be vaccinated” (Associated Press, iWitness News)

Caribbean leaders denounced the violent turn: "The introduction of violence into the political life of Caricom is shameful and deplorable and those responsible for it must be brought to justice with all due dispatch,” said Caricom chair Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne. (Jamaica Observer) “This development in Caribbean politics is reprehensible. We should all strongly condemn it,” said Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador to the United States.

Just a few days later, police in Antigua and Barbuda broke up an anti-vaccine protest with tear gas. (News Americas Now)

This weekend people in Guadeloupe marched during a French National Day Of Protest against the compulsory COVID-19 vaccination for certain workers and the mandatory use of the health pass called for by the French government.  The march came as French authorities appealed for volunteer doctors and nurses to travel to the country's overseas territories of Guadalupe and Martinique, where hospitals on the two islands are overwhelmed by a wave of COVID-19 infections. (Reuters, News Americas Now)

And in Barbados hundreds of demonstrators -- some reports say 2,000 people -- protested potential mandatory vaccination for Covid-19 policies. (Jamaica Gleaner, St. Lucia Times)

In Guyana there have not yet been major protests, but a multitude of local organisations and entities have already expressed their disdain over the incremental transition to a truly mandatory COVID-19 vaccine. (Kaieteur News)

The Jamaican Economy Panel said information campaigns pivotal to combat misinformation and increase vaccine uptake though more forceful measures could be considered. (Petchary's Blog)

More Covid-19

• Fears that Covid-19 jabs could impact fertility are driving some Jamaican women's vaccine hesitancy, reports Our Today.

Diplomacy

• CARICOM's 14 member states have less loyalty to the so-called community than to client relationships with richer and more powerful countries, writes Sir Ronald Sanders in his latest column. "More often than not in their relations with each other, and in their hemispheric and global affairs, it is their sovereignty that they exercise, not their community. Consequently, each of them has remained small, weak and inconsequential in global affairs."

Democracy

• Social media played a pivotal role in catalyzing widely dispersed demonstrations in Cuba last month. There is evidence it was not all spontaneous: "The hashtag #SOSCuba, which served as a major focal point for spreading the word on July 11, appears to have been driven to an extraordinary level of activity from bots and automated accounts based outside of Cuba, retweeting multiple times per second while disguising their footprints to appear as if the posts originated on the island," writes William LeoGrande in World Politics Review, while still emphasizing that this "does not change the irreducible reality of July 11: Thousands of Cubans were discontented enough to come out on the streets and join the protests."

• The U.S. embargo on Cuba is "a big distraction," that impedes the multilateral action that the Cuban people so desperately need, Human Rights Watch's Juan Pappier told NPR.

Climate Justice and Energy

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has an interactive climate atlas that shows potential climate futures by region. Scientists are observing changes to the Earth's climate in every region and across whole climate systems, according to the Panel's latest report. (Caribbean News Service)

• The message from climate scientists in the IPCC report confirms the critical need for governments to take urgent action, and that it’s not too late to keep warming to 1.5˚C once concerted action is taken, says the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

• Rising temperatures have inundated Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Florida coastlines with Saragassum wreaking environmental and economic havoc. (The Conversation)

• A report commissioned by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) paints damning picture of Guyana’s Production Sharing Agreement with ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC. The report, which was authored by Tom Sanzillo, an American investment banker and financial analyst, highlights how the contract leaves Guyana at the mercy of the oil companies. (Kaieteur News)

• Among the contract’s weak provisions Guyana never imposed a “ring fence,” which means that the oil companies can charge the government for costs incurred for new development and pay for it out of the revenues from Liza Phase One, an oil field that commenced production in December 2019. (IEEFA) 

• The World Bank priced a catastrophe bond that will provide the Government of Jamaica with financial protection of up to US $185 million against losses from named storms for three Atlantic tropical cyclone seasons ending in December 2023.

• Repeated discharges into the Rio Cobre have negatively impacted the water quality of the river resulting in fish kills and loss of livelihood for fishers and community members, according to the Jamaica Environment Trust. (Our Today)

Human Rights

• Jamaican police authorities ordered an internal investigation after a 19-year-old woman claimed an officer forcibly cut off her dreadlocks that she had grown since birth as part of her Rastafarian beliefs, reports the Washington Post.

• "For many Jamaicans, this appeared to be yet another example of the policing of black hair," writes Emma Lewis at Global Voices, who notes that over the years, there have been regular conflicts regarding natural hair and dreadlocks.

Culture

• "Snaking through the hissing of the windy wetlands/Eyes stare in search of pea doves, iguanas, turtles and crabs/And windswept trees, but where are they to be found?" -- A protest poem (An Ode to Levera Wetlands and Mangroves that once was) -- Louise Nyack Francois

• Runner Jasmine Camacho-Quinn’s gold medal sparked a debate about Puerto Rican national identity. "Puerto Rico is, in fact, a U.S. colony in the 21st century. But although Puerto Rico lacks sovereignty, Puerto Ricans have created complex, fluid and ever-changing national identities in this context," Jorell Meléndez-Badillo writes in the Washington Post.
  

Security

• Haitian police have detained more than 40 suspects in the killing of President Jovenel Moïse, but many people fear Haiti’s crumbling judicial system could result in the assassination going unpunished, reports the Associated Press.
• Nearly a month after the murder, "the circumstances remain just as murky, with no shortage of suspects and speculation—and more new questions than answers," reports the Wall Street Journal. Key investigators are in hiding after receiving death threats.
• Amnesty International is calling on the government of Haiti to protect the families of a murdered journalist and an opposition activist who were gunned down in Port-au-Prince in June. Since the killing, family members and close confidants of the victims have told Amnesty International that both had received threats prior to their murder, and that they themselves are now facing intimidation for speaking to the authorities, reports the Miami Herald.
  

Economics and Finance

• Cuba's government approved legislation permitting the creation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The major shift in policy comes a month after massive anti-government protests on the island, reports AFP. Cuba's government has accelerated economic reform in recent months, spurred by an economic crisis that stems, in part, from U.S. economic sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gender and LGTBQ

• U.S. federal prosecutors charged three men with hate crimes in the 2020 assault of a transgender woman in Puerto Rico. They were charged for assaulting a transgender woman "because of her gender identity," reports CBS News.

We welcome comments and critiques on the Caribbean News Updates. You can see the Updates on our website, as well as receive it directly through the mailing list. Thank you for reading.