Royal visit spurs protests, reparations demands (March 24, 2022)

A weeklong visit to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas by UK Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, was intended as a charm offensive to persuade other Caribbean nations not to follow Barbados in removing the Queen as head of state this year. (Guardian) Just eight former colonies in the English-speaking Caribbean, including Jamaica, still pay allegiance to the queen. 

Instead the tour has stirred up protests and debate about colonialism, reparations and an apology for slavery in some corners of the countries they are touring, reports the Miami Herald. 

Republican sentiment is not new in the Caribbean Commonwealth, but it has recently gained momentum amid worldwide protests against racism and police violence against Black people and calls for Britain to atone for the ugly legacy of colonialism, including by paying reparations for the slave trade, reports the Washington Post.

The British royals started their week-long tour in Belize, where they cancelled a planned visit to a village after residents protested against it. (Reuters, Guardian)

Then in Jamaica, protesters welcomed them with a list of 60 reasons why they should apologize for slavery and begin a process of reparations. Jamaican campaigners have accused British Queen Elizabeth of perpetuating slavery, and, in a letter, urged the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to atone for colonialism during their ongoing Caribbean tour, reports the Guardian. (See also Petchary's Blog)  

The Duke of Cambridge expressed “profound sorrow” for the “appalling atrocity of slavery” during an address to Jamaica’s prime minister and other dignitaries that stopped short of the apology activists had demanded, reports the Guardian. William also made reference to the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which is Friday.

But much more than lip service is needed, writes Jamaican MP Lisa Hanna in a Guardian op-ed, calling on the U.K. to seriously engage on the issue of reparations, specifically on Caricom Reparations Commission's 10-point-action plan. "Flowery words and artful symbols not only do not placate us, but words without action will also offend us. We need leaders in civil society, in politics and in the monarchy to not only acknowledge historic exploitation and the consequences thereof but to begin to make concrete steps to rectify it."

Jamaican prime minister, Andrew Holness, surprised many when he greeted the royals saying  the visit provided an opportunity to address “unresolved” issues, likely including reparations and the removal of the Queen as the head of state. 

Jamaican officials have previously said the government is studying the process of reforming the constitution to become a republic. Experts say the process could take years and would require a referendum, reports Reuters.

More Decolonization and Racial Justice

• Can luxurious tropical vacations be squared with the Caribbean's painful past of human enslavement and abuse? Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon argues for tourists to "acknowledge and honor the region's difficult past while celebrating" its people and places. (Travel and Leisure)
  
  
• A year after being reintroduced in the United States House of Representatives and Senate, a Puerto Rico self-determination bill appears ready to die on the vine again in the current Congress, according to Latino Rebels.
  

Diplomacy and Territory

• Cuban life is dominated by the U.S. embargo and the shortages it causes in vital necessities -- such as milk. Some in Washington and Miami worry that lifting any restrictions now would reward the Cuban regime, but the members of Congress urging Biden to suspend the sanctions say they are not giving the Cuban government a pass," just recognizing the deleterious effects of the policy on Cuban lives, writes Anthony DePalma in a Los Angeles Times op-ed.

Climate Justice and Energy

• The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recognised that addressing unsustainable debt is central to responding to the climate crisis, explains the Jubilee Debt Campaign. The report recognises that debt undermines countries’ ability to invest in climate change adaptation. This creates a vicious circle, where lower-income countries’ inability to invest in adaptation exposes them to ever greater harm from climate disasters, driving them deeper into debt to pay for reconstruction. 
  

Public Security

• Rampant gang violence and crime has rocked the Haitian suburb of Croix-des-Bouquets, pushing hundreds of residents to flee the criminal stronghold on the outskirts of capital city Port-au-Prince that has been pivotal to the rise of feared street gang, the "400 Mawozo," reports InSight Crime.
  

Migration

• Guyana could be sanctioned if it is found guilty of mistreating Haitians, since its actions in this regard has been brought to the attention of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), reports Kaieteur News.
  

Economics and Finance

• UK officials are discussing how to implement sanctions against Russian oligarchs in the British Virgin Islands, reports the Guardian. The talks follow reports that a succession of oligarchs appeared to have hidden their assets in trusts based in the BVI in a bid to put them beyond reach of UK sanctions.

Women's Rights

• Attorney and CEDAW Committee member Marion Bethel analyzes The Bahamas' Sexual Offences Act and the proposed amendment bill to criminalize marital rape. (Equality Bahamas)

Indigenous Rights

• Guayana's Amerindian Peoples Association has called on the relevant authorities to provide increased humanitarian support to the Warrau migrants from Venezuela. (Kaieteur News)

Democratic Governance

• Policy Forum Guyana accused Guyana's government of weakening civil society by not involving groups in important policy making bodies and decision-making, reports Kaieteur News.
  

Culture

• Tostones and other plantain dishes have prevailed over centuries in many kitchens in the Caribbean and beyond. Plantains are not only a fruit or a dish, they are a family custom, a marker of identity, writes Israel Meléndez Ayala in Whetstone Magazine.

Events

• 31 March -- Current status of hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in greater Caribbean -- Virtual Forum Greater Caribbean. Register.
  
  
• 31 March -- Migration in the Americas: The Workings of Collective Hope -- Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC) at Florida International University. Register.
  
  
• 7 April -- Subregional Consultation for the Caribbean to Advance Development of Inter-American Principles on the Legal Regime for the Creation, Operation, Financing, and Dissolution of Non-profit Civil Entities -- International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) and Inter-American Juridical Committee Member Dr. Ramiro Orias Arredondo. More information.

Opportunities

• The Black Feminist Fund Grant Review Committee is looking for Black feminist activists from diverse movements in Latin America, North America and Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. More information.

Caribbean Food Security in conflict context (March 18, 2022)

Russia's aggression against Ukraine will likely result in larger current account deficits and mounting external financing needs across energy importer countries in the Caribbean and Central America, reports Americas Quarterly.

Caribbean countries, already dependent on imported fossil fuels for their country's energy needs, are vulnerable to the likely further escalation of oil prices as the conflict persists. Former World Bank managing director, Juan José Daboub, suggested that Caribbean governments may need to increase national budgets by at least 20% this year to adjust for prior assumptions. Countries “may have to buy oil with funds that they had earmarked for health, education or public works,” he told the Miami Herald last month.

“Freight costs are related to fuel prices (marine gas oil and fuel oil) and fuel prices are obviously linked to oil prices. This all means higher prices for food,” Kevin Ramnarine, Trinidad & Tobago’s former Minister of Energy, told Forbes.

Caribbean food security is deeply threatened by any major disruption that impacts the region, reports Forbes, noting that an annual average of 19 per cent of all imports to CARICOM's 15-member states consists of food and agricultural goods. The more than $5 billion each year is typically covered by tourism-generated foreign reserves, which are vulnerable to disruption.

According to the Caricom Secretariat, the food import bill for the Caribbean Community stood at US$4.98 billion in 2018 which was more than double the region's $2.08-billion food import tab of 2000. The Food and Agriculture Organization has indicated that if current trends continue, similar exponential increases in Caricom's food import bill will take place in the coming years. (Jamaica Observer)

"Neither regional governments nor the CARICOM machinery itself have been able, over the years, to provide concrete responses to questions regarding particular timelines for moving forward meaningfully on the issue of regional food security," notes Stabroek News in an editorial calling for "serious collective steps towards becoming a food-secure region."

More Food Security

• Advocate and changemaker in the fields of gender equity in agriculture and rural development in St. Lucia, Keithlin Caroo discusses the intersection of Food, Gender, & Climate at the Climate Conscious podcast. Their conversation explores the status of food security in the region, the value of local foods and farmers, the importance of building inclusive systems, and sowing seeds of empowerment to ensure women in agriculture. 

Climate Justice and Energy

• Environmentalist Simone Mangal-Joly has objected to a decision by Guyana's Environmental Protection Agency to waive the Environmental Impact Assessments for two 12-well exploration campaigns in the offshore Kaieteur and Canje Blocks, by ExxonMobil. (Stabroek News)
  
  
• Suriname is experiencing significant flooding in several interior villages. Local reports indicate Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk went personally to the affected areas by helicopter last weekend. (Caribbean Loop News, Star Nieuws) 
  
  
• Finance for Loss and Damage was a critical issue in the lead up to and at COP26. While the outcome in the Glasgow Climate Pact was underwhelming, the momentum gained on this issue, if not derailed, can lead to more success at COP27 in Egypt, argue Liane Schalatek and Erin Roberts of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung.
  
  
• St. Lucia's James Fletcher, director of the Caribbean Climate Justice Project, ex minister and ex climate negotiator at Paris discusses next steps in pursuit of climate justice for the Caribbean given events at COP26. (Two Cent Tuesday)
  
  
• Guyana’s extractive industries legislation is not advanced enough to permit effective reporting on the sector, according to Guyana‘s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Multi-Stakeholder Group member Vanda Radzik. (Stabroek News)
  
  
• Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. intends to press the Caribbean Community on their silence regarding oil and gas matters in Guyana that have the potential to adversely affect the region, reports Kaieteur News.
  

Democratic Governance

• Puerto Rico’s government formally exited bankruptcy this week, completing the largest public debt restructuring in U.S. history after announcing nearly seven years ago that it was unable to pay its more than $70 billion debt, reports the Associated Press.
  

Health

• Health professionals in Haiti held a three day strike this week over a spike in gang-related kidnappings that have further destabilised the crisis-stricken island. The stoppage included the shutting down of public and private health institutions in the capital Port-au-Prince and beyond, with only emergency rooms accepting patients. (Al Jazeera)
  

Migration

• Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader is emulating former U.S. president Donald Trump's proposal of a border wall as a one-stop solution to counter irregular migration, human smuggling and drug trafficking. But, as U.S. experience has shown, it's complicated, reports InSight Crime.

Culture

• Marisel C. Moreno’s Crossing Waters: Undocumented Migration in Hispanophone Caribbean and Latinx Literature and Art— an innovative study of the artistic representations of undocumented migration within the Hispanophone Caribbean—will be published in the University of Texas Press series Latinx: The Future is Now in June 2022. (Repeating Islands)
  
  
• A series of six limited-edition large-format experimental photographic prints by Puerto Rican artist Lionel Cruet, along with a video, are part of the new exhibition “As Far as the Eyes Can See” at the San Patricio Art Center in San Juan. (Repeating Islands)
  

Racial Justice

• The Dominican Republic's government has always aligned itself with white supremacism, following the United States’ lead on immigration policies towards Haitians, according to Nacla.

Decolonization

• The case of three Taíno wood sculptures of Cemis (deities) from Jamaica held by the British Museum show the difficulties for former colonies to obtain restitution of their cultural heritage, but also raises questions about Jamaica's preparedness to receive and exhibit the carvings. "It is high time for Caribbean museums and relevant authorities to do an inventory of relevant holdings in overseas museums, to consult with local and international stakeholders, and to articulate clear policies and strategies on these matters, nationally and on a shared regional level," argues Veerle Poupeye in the Jamaica Monitor.

Histories

• Sudhir Hazareesingh’s account of what he dubs the “epic life” of Toussaint Louverture provides a meticulous biography of his subject and, at the same time, a comprehensive new introduction to the Haitian Revolution in general. Black Spartacus represents a substantial intervention in the field of Haitian revolutionary historiography and the wider historiography of revolution, according to Jacobin.

Critter Corner

• Two recently published studies document 35 new beetle species for the islands of Saba and St. Eustatius.  Even with these latest additions, it is still estimated that nearly three quarters of the beetle population is still unknown.  Beetles play a vital role in breaking down natural waste and keeping insects in check, both important roles especially for small Caribbean islands. (Repeating Islands)
  

Events

• 19 March -- National Gender Policy: An Assessment of the Draft -- Equality Bahamas
  
  
• 19 March -- Will Oil Fuel Conflict in Guyana? -- Moray House Trust
  
  
• 24 March -- Climate Change and Land Tenure in the Caribbean -- Fideicomiso de la Tierra del Caño Martín Peña in Puerto Rico. Registration.
  
  
• 24 March -- The Role of Geographical Indications in the sustainable development of Caribbean economies and how Intellectual Property rights encourage and protect them around the world, featuring Professor Irene Calboli of Texas A&M University of Law -- MonaLaw Distinguished Lecture and Panel Discussion on Geographical Indications -- Register
  
  
• 26 March -- How Europe Underdeveloped Africa -- Walter Rodney Foundation

Opportunities

• FRIDA grant cycle open until April 19 for applications from young feminist groups. More info.

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.

St. Lucia presents new Domestic Violence Bill (March 11, 2022)

St. Lucia's government commemorated International Women's Day on March 8 by presenting a novel domestic violence bill in Parliament. The bill would replace the 27-year-old Summary Proceedings Act.

The proposal, which is gender neutral, broadens the definition of domestic violence to include psychological abuse, coercion, molestation, and arbitrary deprivation of liberty or forced confinement. In addition, the proposed legislation speaks to economic abuse, intimidation, harassment, stalking, and cyber-stalking and asserts that there can be sexual abuse in a marital relationship.

The bill also broadens the scope for police action in response to domestic violence, reducing the onus on victims to press charges.

(St. Lucia Times, Barbados Loop News, The Voice)

Women's Rights

• A recently released report, World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2022, indicates that Caribbean and Latin American women have less than three quarters of the legal rights of men. (Our Today)

Climate Justice and Energy

• Guyana only has limited liability insurance with ExxonMobil in the event of an oil spill, a situation has not prevented the oil company from expanding production in new developments, reports Kaieteur News.
  
  
• The former Head of Guyana's Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Vincent Adams is calling for an independent investigation into tExxonMobil's operations, accusing the company of violating the Liza Two Permit regarding full coverage liability. (Kaieteur News)
  
  
• The owners and operators of Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company/Alpart bauxite are proposing to mine nearly 700 acres of land encompassing 11 communities near Jamaica's Essex Valley region. (Jamaica Observer)
  
  
• Cuba is systematizing use and protection of its soils, with new legislation on sustainable soil conservation, improvement and management and use of fertilizers. (Cuba Debate)
  
  
• Mongabay Newscast discusses mangrove restoration and other nature based solutions to climate change.
  
  
• Experts say there’s still time to save coral reefs, but it’ll require swiftly addressing the three largest impacts to reefs: land-based pollution, overfishing and, most importantly, climate change. (Mongabay)
  
  
• The Guyanese government's decision to create a sovereign wealth fund with the revenue earned from the offshore extraction of oil has not proven to be a straightforward exercise. See the recording of the panel discussion including experts Professor Tarron Khemraj, Christopher Ram and Mike McCormack, moderated by Professor Alissa Trotz. (Moray House Trust)

Migration

• Over 100 migrants suspected to have travelled from Cariaco in Venezuela arrived in Guyana last week. The migrants, said to be from the Warao tribe, reportedly paddled their way to the village and have since been relocated to a migrant camp in Region One. (Newsroom)
  
  
• An estimated 24,500 refugees and migrants from Venezuela are living in Guyana, including some 2,500 indigenous Warao, the United Nations reported last year. According to UNHCR, these communities have limited access to services and the delivery of aid is impeded by remoteness, lack of transport infrastructure and distances.

Democratic Governance

• The Internet profoundly changed political dissidence in Cuba, writes William LeoGrande in World Politics Review. In recent years, Cubans with specific issues have found each other on social media, and followed up in person. "These new groups are distinct from more traditional dissident groups that contest the central ideology and legitimacy of Cuba’s political regime."

Covid-19

• A study on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on persons living with disabilities revealed that their quality of life declined significantly with some 47.5% of them having no healthcare and another 75% of them having limited access. The study was conducted by the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities. (Kaieteur News)
  
  
• A judge in St. Vincent and the Grenadines determined that public sector workers dismissed for being unvaccinated against Covid-19 could challenge the government's decision to fire them. (iWitness News)

Economics and Finance

• Dominican Republic authorities dismantled a transnational cybercrime network believed to have defrauded hundreds of US citizens to the tune of more than $200 million, in just the latest example of the growing threat posed by financial crime operations in the Caribbean, reports InSight Crime.
  
  
• The President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon, proposed to use a forward-looking approach –CDB’s Recovery Duration Adjuster – to make more concessional funding available for Caribbean countries.

LGBTQ Rights

• In 2018, the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled that an 1893 Guyana law that prohibited cross-dressing was unconstitutional. Last year, lawmakers formally removed that section from the law books. But for many transgender women this has not been enough to transform the way they navigate social spaces. (Alturi)

Children's Rights

• A decision by Jamaica's government to divest the manufacturing and distribution aspects of the country's longstanding school nutrition program signal raise questions of how it will protect the health of the country's children, say youth advocates. (Petchary's Blog)
  
  
• Jamaica opened the country's first child-friendly facility, that will assist child victims of human trafficking and other serious crimes, through a $6.7-million partnership between Jamaica and the U.S. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Culture

• Filmmaker José María Cabral's new movie tells the story of the 1937 Parsley Massacre on Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The ethnic cleansing by Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina has long been shrouded in silence despite being a catalyst for the anti-Haitian and anti-Black sentiment that permeates Dominican society today, reports the Miami Herald.
  
  
• Haitian Rodney Saint-Éloi’s publishing house Mémoire d’encrier aims to disrupt what he sees as pervasive apathy in Quebec’s publishing scene. A profile in the Walrus explains how "taking risks has helped [this] Quebec publisher stand out against the pervasive whiteness of the industry." (Repeating Islands)

Tourism

• Grenada launched a new Voluntourism Program, with a slate of opportunities available year round in sectors like agriculture, education, health and the environment. (Repeating Islands)

Critter Corner

• Thanks to species conservation work, St. Lucia's national bird has been flourishing since the country's first independence day in 1979. -- Guardian

Events

• 17 March -- Migration Conference "Histories of Migration and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean" -- Brown University -- More Info.
  
  
• 29 March -- Climate Justice Virtual Journalism Series -- This 4-day workshop for regional journalists reporting on issues of Climate Justice. Register here. 
  
  
• 30 March -- State of Justice’ in Jamaica -- Jamaicans for Justice. Register here.

Opportunities

• Toolkit for assessing women’s leadership in disaster and climate resilience -- UN Women and the Humanitarian Advisory Group.
  
  
• GLISPA Bright Spots fellowship application -- Bright Spots are island-based initiatives that showcase environmental resilience and sustainability.

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.

New IPCC report (March 4, 2022)

Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks, said scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released this week. Scientists point out that climate change interacts with global trends such as unsustainable use of natural resources, growing urbanization, social inequalities, losses and damages from extreme events and a pandemic, jeopardizing future development. (Eyewitness News)

The report concludes that nations are continuing to fall behind in their plans to protect cities, forests, farmlands, oceans and coastlines from the hazards that climate change has unleashed so far; such as record breaking droughts and rising sea levels.

The report makes it clear that small islands will not be able to adapt to a world that warms beyond 1.5°C, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) said. “This report spoke to the collapse and possible extinction of ecosystems if we maintain our current trajectory towards emissions reductions. We must act quickly to reduce emissions — as SIDS lives and livelihoods will be the casualties of a slow race to emissions reduction,” said AOSIS’ lead climate negotiator H.E. Ambassador Conrad Hunte.

Research revealed in the report has directly linked the benefits of governments mobilizing large-scale investment in climate change adaptation to the acceleration of gross domestic product growth. (Nassau Guardian)

"One striking fact from the report is that from 2010 to 2020, human mortality from floods, droughts, and storms was 15 times higher in high (sic) vulnerable regions, including Africa, South Asia, Central & South America, SIDS, & the Arctic. This raises the following question: Is it too much to ask for justice for nations on the frontline of the climate crisis?" writes Selwin Hart, Special Adviser and Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Action at United Nations

The report also looks at how lack of education and awareness around climate change in the general public, as well as limited cultural and social appreciation for the risks, is a significant challenge for effective climate change adaptation. (Nassau Guardian)

Diplomacy

• 141 nations -- including all of those in the Caribbean, except for Cuba -- voted in favour of a U.N. General Assembly motion condemning the invasion of Ukraine, while just five – Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Syria and Russia – opposed it. (See yesterday's post.) Thirty-five countries abstained from voting on the resolution that demands the immediate and complete withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.
  
  
• This week  at the U.N. Cuba's representative said the country defends international law and will unambiguously support Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace. He noted, however, that it is impossible to rigorously and honestly analyze the situation in Ukraine without considering factors that led to the use of force. 
  
  
• The United States and the European Union decision to sanction Russian banks could also end up punishing Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, who are dependent on the Russian financial system to bypass their own U.S. sanctions, reports the Miami Herald. 
  
  
• CARICOM has left the possible imposition of sanctions on Russia to individual member states following hours of intense deliberation on the second day of the 33rd Inter-Sessional Meeting of Heads of Government in Belize. (Jamaica Gleaner)
  
  
• In the Caribbean, economists and leaders are reflecting on how conflict in the breadbasket of Europe will affect an import dependent region that is still reeling from the financial impacts of Covid-19, amidst supply chain disruptions, hikes in oil and commodity prices, rising shipping costs and limited availability of vessels and containers, reports Forbes.

Climate Justice and Energy

• A December judicial ruling against a luxury hotel in construction on St. Barts might signal a turning point in the hyper-development of this tropical Arcadia for the rich, according to the New York Times.
  
  
• Caribbean countries are receiving more funding and support to prepare health Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments, a key step in building Health National Adaptation Plans (HNAPs).
  
  
• The update of the seismic hazard map of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands will have to wait until at least 2026, despite the fact that last summer, the resident commissioner in Washington, Jenniffer González Colón, announced that the final product of the new version of this cartographic model could be ready by 2024. (Centro de Periodismo Investigativo)
  
  
• Stony coral tissue loss disease is sweeping throughout The Bahamas, decimating coral reefs and destroying fish habitats at an alarming rate. (Eyewitness News)

Finance and Economics

• A new Atlantic Council report identifies how the withdrawal of correspondent banking relations, otherwise known as de-risking, affects Caribbean economies, people, and US-Caribbean relations. Access to the global financial system and development tools is critical for Caribbean economic recovery, growth, and resilience. 
  
  
• Key to this access is correspondent banking, but over the past several years, most Caribbean governments and banks have seen a steady decline in correspondent banking relationships as institutions across the world deem the region as too small to be profitable due to high compliance costs and the perception that the region is a high-risk jurisdiction.

Democratic Governance

• A number of Guyanese civil society organizations issued a blistering statement criticising the government’s handling of the country, accusing it of operating with impunity, while noting that the bewildering pace and range of official decision-making is rendering the administration accountable to no one and generating a widely felt dilemma of who to trust and what to believe. (Kaieteur News)

Migration

• The U.S. Coast Guard stopped an overloaded sailboat with 179 Haitian migrants crammed on its deck off the Bahamas, on Sunday, reports the Miami Herald. 
  
  
• A wall the Dominican Republic is building along its border with Haiti could increase conflicts, according to organizations working in both countries, reports the Haitian Times.
  
  
• The true motives underlying Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader's border crackdown are political, writes Garry Pierre-Pierre in the Haitian Times. "Bashing of Haitians has been a tried-and-true tactic among Dominican officials for decades, and President Abinader is pulling out that ace to win reelection."

Decolonization

• Capitalism and Slavery, a book of unpalatable truths about Britain’s slave trade has become a UK bestseller, almost 80 years after author Eric Williams (later Trinidad and Tobago's prime minister) was told it would never be published. His central argument was that the abolition of the slave trade was not born out of humanitarian wishes but of economic necessity, reports the Guardian.

Culture

• Jacmel's Kanaval's celebrations are a showcase for Haiti’s artists and a trip through the looking glass for animal lovers. The town’s festivities are renowned for the papier-maché masks that don’t so much depict animals as conjure visions of them, reports Atlas Obscura.
• Duolingo launched its new Haitian Creole course for English speakers. (Duolingo)
  

Events

• 11 March -- "How Britain Underdeveloped the Caribbean." Author Professor Sir Hilary Beckles will join SOAS Director Adam Habib and SOAS President Zeinab Badawi to debate the book, but also the issue of global reparations. SOAS University London.
  
  
• 16 March -- Reducing disaster risk through a gender-responsive midterm review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction -- UN Women
  
  
• 17 March -- Puerto Rico Climate Change Council (PRCCC) will release its State of the Climate Report 2022 -- Register
  
  
• 24 March -- Open Society Foundations Seminar: Counting the Cost of Exclusion: Linking Criminal Law, Political Exclusion, and Socioeconomic Inequality. The event will be moderated by Tracy Robinson, deputy dean in the faculty of law at the University of West Indies. Registration. 
  
  
• 29 March -- Journalistic Perspectives: Responsibility for Climate Change/ Intergenerational Impacts/The Cost of Adaptation -- Media Institute of the Caribbean. Register. 
• 29 March -- Climate Justice: Journalistic Perspectives -- Media Institute of the Caribbean - Register

Opportunities

• Islands and Small States Institute of the University of Malta will be offering the following study options, fully online or blended: Master of Arts (Research on Islands and Small States) and  Doctor in Philosophy (PhD), both full time and part time options. Further information, including scholarships, 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.