The Caribbean in a New Cold War (Jan. 21, 2022)

If a new multidimensional Cold War is brewing in the world, "it could test Caribbean leadership and the response of civil society to the limits, as remaining nonaligned, which in the past has offered a way out of overtly taking sides, this time may be harder to achieve," writes David Jessop in the Jamaica Gleaner. "For this reason, it may be the moment for the Caribbean to consider how global confrontation might offer it leverage to obtain new, well-financed, rapidly delivered support from one or another global actor."

Exclusive focus on Chinese motivations for engaging Latin America and the Caribbean discounts the agency and influence regional leaders exhibit, particularly in crisis situations, argue Wazim Mowla & Pepe Zhang in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. "During the COVID-19 pandemic, LAC leaders leveraged their asymmetrical relationships with China and other global actors to shape international discussions on inequitable vaccine access or to procure development assistance."

For example, critics of Barbados' recent transition into a republic "have given undue emphasis to the role of China, demonising Beijing while simultaneously belittling Barbados’s agency – in other words, an ugly cocktail of fearmongering and geopolitical mansplaining," argues Sebastian Shehadi in Investment Monitor.

Barbados PM Mia Mottley, who won a landslide second term this week, is just one of a raft of strong women across the Caribbean and South America tackling society’s most pressing issues, argues Mandeep Rai in the Guardian. She "has changed the face of democracy in the country. ... It is difficult to overstate what her commitment to collaboration across the region and internationally has done for Barbados ... Countries like Barbados are often not the protagonist, yet Mottley put issues such as the climate crisis and international development to the front on the world stage.

-----

Puerto Rico restructures debt

Puerto Rico’s nearly five-year bankruptcy battle is ending after a federal judge signed a plan this week that slashes the U.S. territory’s public debt load as part of a restructuring and allows the government to start repaying creditors, reports the Associated Press. 

The plan marks the largest municipal debt restructuring in U.S. history and was approved following grueling bargaining efforts, heated hearings and multiple delays. Since Puerto Rico entered bankruptcy, its economic crisis has only been further deepened by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, a series of earthquakes and the coronavirus pandemic, notes the New York Times.

The restructuring plan will reduce the largest portion of the Puerto Rico government’s debt — some $33 billion — by about 80 percent, to $7.4 billion. The deal will also save the government more than $50 billion in debt payments. But critics worry that Puerto Rico will not have enough money in its general fund to make even the reduced debt payments over the long run, eventually forcing more painful economic cuts.

Nor is the plan "a cure-all for what snared the commonwealth in an economic tailspin in the first place. A lot of hard work still remains to put the island on a sustainable fiscal path," writes Brian Chappatta in Bloomberg.

----------

Vaccine Hesitancy in the Caribbean

Limited take up of Covid-19 vaccines has been an ongoing issue hampering the response to the pandemic
across the Eastern Caribbean subregion as elsewhere -- a new UNICEF survey examines vaccine hesitancy in Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago. 

"The study provides insight into what might change minds," said U.N. Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Didier Trebucq. "51 per cent cite the need for more medical and scientific information. Over 40 per cent want to know more about side effects and efficacy. 30 per cent want information on the impact of the vaccine on sexual health and their ability to have children. These are all rich veins to explore.” The research also suggests that vaccine promotion interventions need to be tailored to their audience. (iWitness News)

Democratic Governance

• Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley won a second term in elections this week, in which her Barbados Labour party won all 30 seats, up from 29 in 2018. She gained international fame last year with an incendiary speech at COP26, urging leaders to stand up to the challenge of climate change. She also oversaw Barbados' transition to a full republic last year. (Guardian)
  
  
• The situation in Haiti has reached a crisis point, as gang violence has surged across the country in the wake of President Jovenel Moïse's assassination last July. International observers are raising concerns that February 7 – the date Moïse's term would expire – could bring more violence and further complicate the country’s political transition, reports Al Jazeera.
• Haitian Judge Garry Orelien, who is overseeing the inquiry into Moïse’s July assassination is being removed from the case after failing to meet a legal deadline on bringing formal charges. The move comes amid doubts about Haiti’s ability — or even its desire — to prosecute those responsible for the brazen crime, according to the Miami Herald.

Migration

• The Government of the Dominican Republic said it will buy the private lands located along the border with Haiti in order to advance a border wall project aimed at limiting migration from the neighboring country, reports Dominican Today.
  
  
• The Government of the Dominican Republic and 30 political parties called on the international community to intervene in Haiti -- marking particularly that there will never be a "Dominican solution" to the problems facing that country, reports Dominican Today.

Climate Justice and Energy

• A new study has found that, for the sixth year in a row, the world’s oceans have been hotter than they’ve ever been in recent history due to human-induced climate change -- Mongabay.
  
  
• Suriname and Guyana might be able to achieve the seemingly mutually exclusive goals of alleviating poverty with oil revenues, while respecting their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement -- the key lies in leveraging their forests, argues Robert Looney in the World Politics Review.
  
  
• Guyana’s laboratories do not have the capability to do proper environmental tests associated with the oil and gas sector, though oil extraction has been ongoing for three years already, reports Kaieteur News.
  

Racial Justice

• Racial injustice in Cuba spills over into Cuban arts and the anti-government protests led by the islands artists, argues Juan Pedro Torriente in Hyperallergic.

Housing Rights

• Tax breaks implemented by Puerto Rico's government incentivize foreigners to move to the island are leading to gentrification in some areas, as Puerto Rican residents are pushed out of their homes by foreigners seeking to make money. (Bianca Graulau and Los Angeles Times)
  

Finance

• The Global Minimum Tax deal could open yet another door to discrimination and act as yet another vector for vulnerability of weaker states, argues Marla Durkharam in IFC Review. (Video here.)
  

Food Security

• As the pandemic persists, there is growing concern region wide about the ability of Caribbean countries to maintain reliable supplies and production of affordable, safe, and nutritious food. Leading Caribbean agriculturalist, Dr H. Arlington Chesney, discusses this and other issues with the Media Institute of the Caribbean.
  

Human Rights and Justice

• The mass trials against July 11 protesters in Cuba continued this week, despite local and international outcries, reports the Miami Herald. (See Monday's Latin America Daily Briefing.)
  
  
• The Greater Caribbean for Life “Building a Platform for Abolition: Strengthening the Anti-Death Penalty Movement in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean” has come to a close after three years of work challenging the death penalty in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
  

Education

• St. Vincent and the Grenadines will begin bonding locally trained nurses to work in the country for a number of years, announced Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. The bonding will begin with current cohorts or nurses enrolled at the nation’s training school and comes amidst a significant number of nurses choosing to work overseas, reports iWitness News.
  

In the Diaspora

• Four Windrush generation descendants have lost their high court battle for the British scheme for victims to be widened to include them, reports the Guardian. The current rules state that descendants who arrived as adults over the age of 18 after 1988 are excluded from the Windrush scheme.
  

Culture

• The ecosystem of artists in Jamaica according to Veerle Poupeye -- Le Nouvelliste
  

Events

• 27 Jan -- Youth Climate Anxiety: Implications for Litigation -- NYU -- Register here.
  
  
• 28 Jan -- Cuba: The U.S. Embargo After Sixty Years, an event co-sponsored by the National Security Archive and the Washington Office on Latin America, hosted by WOLA's Assistant Director for Cuba, Mariakarla Nodarse, and moderated by Peter Kornbluh, the Archive’s Cuba policy specialist. Register here.
  
  
• Oxford University Caribbean Studies Network programme for this coming term: Faith Smith, Professor of English at Brandeis University, will be talking to us about modernism and 'non-soverignty' in the early twentieth-century Caribbean; the philosopher Rocío Zambrana will speak on 'Colonial Debts'; and Meleisa Ono-George (Queen's College, Oxford) will talk to us about her current work on Afro-Caribbean women in late c.18^th and c.19^th Britain. All events will be on Zoom, sign up here.
  

Opportunities

• The recently established Legal Empowerment Fund will consider grant proposals from grassroots organizations doing legal empowerment work for up to 24 months of general support (core funding).  This is a global call and Caribbean actors are eligible to apply.  More information see here.  Deadline: 18 February.

  
  

• War on Want is holding a 3-day workshop series on Post-Extractive Futures,taking place between February 1-3.  Register here.

  
  

• Prince Claus Seed Awards: Annually recognising 100 emerging artists and cultural practitioners - including from the Caribbean - the Award creates space for experimentation and development of new perspectives on societal challenges.
  
  

• Island Innovation asks: Have you ever asked yourself how you could contribute more to the sustainable development of your island? Being an Island Ambassador provides you with the opportunity to bring members of your community together and create positive, tangible changes. For more information, see here.
  

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