One of the toughest things about running a blog is finding new content to post. Every now and then things just fall into my lap. Through a friend I just got wind of the “I am Caribbean 2010″ campaign.
CaribbeanFever.Com and FeverEyes.Com are proud US Census 2010 partners. We strongly encourage Caribbean persons across the USA to complete the Census 2010 form in March this year and answer question 9 with their ancestry and/or country of origin. Spread the word by telling your Caribbean friends and/or family about completing the US census given it’s importance. In addition it is only ten questions long.
The idea is to get ancestral recognition, checking Black, African American or Negro (I hate that they added that in), on the census form does not indicate if you are directly from Africa or your heritage is from the Caribbean or America. And not to be short sighted about this, the same goes for Indians, Asians etc, who have migrated to the US via the Caribbean. During the last census 1.8 million people wrote West Indian as their ancestry, so the numbers are there and obviously smaller than the actual numbers, if there was a place to check it off. Compare those numbers to Pacific Islanders who only made up roughly 874,000 people surveyed about 0.3 percent of the US population and they were able to have their own category.
Accurate counts in the once-a-decade survey ensure recognition from the federal government and the fair allocation of resources to state and local governments, advocates say.
While most Caribbeans are expected to at least check the box for “black,” lumping them together with all African-Americans means corporations and politicians won’t see the political, economic and social issues specific to their immigrant communities, Persaud said. They also won’t see the size of those communities or get a sense of the diversity of experiences among Afro-Caribbean groups.
I don’t know who denied us the last time we tried to do this - and decided to lobby for “Negro” but now is our chance to make a bigger impression. We got to get rid of Negro as well
Rex Nettleford performing in 1965; photo by Maria LaYacona
I made the mistake of not getting this out last week, when The Hon. Rex Nettleford, OM, FIJ, OCC passed. For that, I apologize. For those unfamiliar with Rex Nettleford, and the legacy he leaves behind, see the passage below…
Jamaica lost one of its most revered cultural figures last night when Professor Rex Nettleford, vice-chancellor emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and founder of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), died, just hours before he would have celebrated his 77th birthday…
…”Jamaica and the entire world have lost an intellectual and creative genius, a man whose contribution to shaping and projecting the cultural landscape of the entire Caribbean region is unquestionable,” (Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce )Golding said….
In the time since his death, numerous pieces have come up all over the net, a few of which I’ve compiled below…
We all know that Haiti needs help to get back on its feet after this week’s massive earthquake. But are outside forces taking things too far? Al Jazeera examines the current state of relief efforts in Haiti. Check the video below…
Is it really that serious though? I mean, REALLY? Check out the details on Jamaica’s PM, Bruce Golding, setting out to meet with Vybz and Mavado today to squash their beef….
Prime Minister Bruce Golding is to meet with dancehall artistes Vybz Kartel and Mavado today as part of ongoing efforts to put an end to the rift among supporters of the two performers.
The feud between Kartel’s Gaza and Mavado’s Gully alliances has spilled over into some schools with resulting violence among students.
Information Minister, Daryl Vaz said the meeting is scheduled for 10:00 a.m….
It’s no secret that the CIA had their hands in world affairs, in the Caribbean the CIA was in Guyana, Haiti, Grenada and Jamaica too. This is an interesting video that talks about the CIA’s involvement in Jamaica and some of the methods that they used to destabilize the government. A lot of their methods sound like “Quiet Weapons for Silent Wars”.
Oftentimes on this blog I mention my friend, Asho, and the events he helps organize in and around NYC. He’s linked up with FriendsWeLove for a qiuck, two-minute interview. Check the video below…
An internationally acclaimed journalist and cultural activist, Fernández Díaz is known as “The Cuban Hip-Hop Ambassador” for his pivotal role in shaping and documenting Cuba’s national Hip-Hop movement. Celebrated for his dynamic perspective and searing analysis of Cuban race relations, Fernández Díaz is a compelling, intellectual voice who enriches any event or forum he partakes in.
As new horizons on the U.S- Cuba relations front emerge under the Obama administration, new directions in the discourse around the future of the isolated island are becoming increasingly prominent in media and academic circuits. Fernández Díaz fills the void in these debates through his critical examination of race, Hip-Hop and popular culture, and contemporary politics in Cuba. Fernández Díaz’s pragmatic view of Cuban socialism and its intersections with the aforementioned topics demystifies the reality of present-day life in Cuba. His constructive critique of his homeland offers a new lens through which to evaluate Cuban society.
Fernández Díaz has been featured as a lecturer/panelist at: New York University, Brown University, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Lehigh University, Medgar Evers College (CUNY), and other notable institutions.
Fore more info on Asho, check out the full feature on FriendsWeLove.com here, or check out his official site by clicking here.
The NY Times posted an article today that talks about the pride that Sotomayor’s appointment brings to the Puerto Rican community. This is a sign of how the generational gap has been bridged in one way. It also reflects on the past achievements of Puerto Ricans in politics that have led up to this point.
Arguably the highest rung that any Puerto Rican has reached in this country, the appointment of Judge Sotomayor is a watershed event for Puerto Rican New York. It builds on the achievements that others of her generation have made in business, politics, the arts and pop culture. It extends the legacy of an earlier, lesser-known generation who created social service and educational institutions that persisttoday, helping newcomers from Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Yet the city has also been a place of heartbreak. Though Puerto Ricans were granted citizenship in 1917 and large numbers of them arrived in New York in the 1950s, poverty and lack of opportunity still pockmark some of their neighborhoods. A 2004 report by a Hispanic advocacy group showed that compared with other Latino groups nationwide, Puerto Ricans had the highest poverty rate, the lowest average family income and the highest unemployment rate for men.
In politics, the trailblazer Herman Badillo saw his career go from a series of heady firsts in the 1960s to frustration in the 1980s when his dreams of becoming the city’s first Puerto Rican mayor were foiled by Harlem’s political bosses. Just four years ago, Fernando Ferrer was trounced in his bid against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
All those setbacks lose their sting, if only for a moment, in the glow of Judge Sotomayor’s achievement, which many of her countrymen say is as monumental for them as President Obama’s victory was for African-Americans. It has affirmed a sense of Puerto Rican identity at a moment when that distinction is often obscured by catch-all labels like Latino and Hispanic — and even as it is subjected to negative comparisons.
I had no idea that Bob Marley was in the running to appear on Jamaican currensey, but it seems like a no brainer to me. Check out the details below…
…Cultural stakeholders in Jamaica say that music icon Bob Marley should have been on the new Jamaica $5,000 bill (US$70) and not former prime minister Hugh Shearer, whose impact, they claim, wanes in comparison to that of the reggae legend.
Bob Marley
The Jamaica Observer said that some see the khaki-coloured note as a political counteraction to the JA$1,000 bill, which bears the image of Michael Manley, former prime minister and People’s National Party politician.
“I can’t understand why someone who has done so much for his country has been side-tracked,” Cleveland Brownie, chairman of the Recording Industry Association of Jamaica said in reference to Marley….
I had a dinner conversation yesterday with a family friend about the revolutionary movements that took place in the Caribbean during the late 70’s. We talked about the likes of Fidel Castro, Walter Rodney and Maurice Bishop. While I should have posted this yesterday since it was Bishop’s birthday on May 29th, I feel its still appropriate to drop something on the slain revolutionary.
In 1979 Bishop’s party staged a revolution and deposed Gairy, who was out of the country addressing the United Nations at the time. Bishop subsequently suspended the constitution and declared himself Prime Minister of Grenada. All political parties except for the NJM were banned, and no elections were held during Bishop’s rule. Without a constitution in place, the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) simply issued laws by decree. The country was governed in theory by a cabinet of ministers with Bishop as Prime Minister, but in reality power in the country was exercised by the central committee of the party.
Bishop began to build a close relationship with Cuba after he took power. He initiated a number of projects, most significantly, the building of a new international airport on the island‘s southern tip which was later renamed in his honour and memory in May 2009. Financing and labor for the construction of the airport came from Cuba, although most of the airport’s infrastructure was designed by European and North American consultants. American President Ronald Reagan accused Grenada of intending to use the new airport’s long “airstrip” as a waypoint for Soviet military aircraft.
In 1983 disputes at the top level of the party leadership occurred. A group within the party attempted to get Bishop to either step down or agree to a power-sharing agreement with Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard. Bishop rejected these proposals and was eventually deposed and placed under house arrest during the first week of October 1983 by Coard. Large public demonstrations demanding the restoration of Bishop afterward occurred in various parts of the island. In the course of one of these demonstrations Bishop was freed from house arrest by the crowd. In unclear circumstances, Bishop made his way to the army headquarters at Fort Rupert (known today as Fort George). After he arrived, a military force was dispatched from another location to Fort Rupert. Fighting broke out later at Fort Rupert with many civilians being killed. Bishop and seven others including cabinet ministers were captured. Later in the day they were executed by an army firing squad.
…Guyanese have not only contributed to the Caribbean, but the entire world.
I just learned of the passing of Dr Ivan Van Sertima, a former professor of the University of Rutgers and an important son of the soil, who told the United Nations that Columbus did not in fact discover the Americas.
Van Sertima was a Guyanese-British historian, linguist and anthropologist. He was a noted for his Afrocentric theory of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas….
