BBCCaribbean.com explores the candidates beyond those being covered most. Check an excerpt from their story below…
Under Haiti’s constitution, candidates must meet seven constitutional requirements….
…They must be a native of Haiti, be at least 35 years old, have never renounced their citizenship, have never been sentenced for a crime, own property and a “habitual residence” in Haiti, not currently be handling public funds and have resided in the country for at least five consecutive years before election day.
Mr Jean’s candidacy was believed to have been rejected on the grounds that he was not resident in Haiti in the past five years.
He said he would appeal the ruling.
Now that the hip hop star is out of the race, the main contenders are likely to be Mr Alexis, Mr Neptune and Mr Celestin….
Interesting article on the upcoming Haitian presidential election and the pair of superstar musicians, Michel Martelly, a.k.a. “Sweet Micky,” and Wyclef Jean, set to be pitted against each other. Check out an excerpt below…
Better known for the eyebrow-raising lyrics (and swearing) and his ability to rouse even the most conservative of Haitian elites to dance on top of tables, Martelly, 49, dressed in a suit on Thursday to submit his paperwork to run for President on the ticket of his party Repons Peyizan, or Countrymen’s Response. He acknowledges that comparisons will be made between himself and Jean (who according to the candidacy papers he filed this week is 40 years old, not 37 as his bios previously said). But Martelly says despite being opponents for the presidency, he and Jean are friends. Martelly appeared on Jean’s first solo album The Carnival in 1997. But Martelly jokes, “He’s global and I’m local.” And he says what sets him apart from the rest of the presidential field — his friend included — is the Haitian people’s true affinity for him.
Here is an interesting story, Wyclef is considering to run for the presidency in Haiti. One thing is for sure there needs to be a new regime, some new blood and less corruption to pull the country up. Is he the man for the job? Considering the type of rulers/politicians and dictators Haiti has gone through, I am not against it. So is he, and would he be the best person for the job?
Wyclef Jean has confirmed he is considering running for president of Haiti, according to CNN.
It’s premature to say whether he will be on the ballot in the Nov. 28 presidential election, the Grammy Award-winning artist said, but he has filled out the paperwork necessary to enter the race.
Today’s Times features a story on the past, present and future of Puerto Rican baseball, and the politics behind their recent decline.
Check out a excerpt from the story below…
…In 2009, only 3.5 percent of position players in Major League Baseball came from Puerto Rico, a 24-year low. Meanwhile, the percentage of Cuban and Venezuelan position players has nearly doubled in the last decade.
An average of 27 Puerto Ricans a year were drafted and signed during the past decade, down from 35 a year during the 1990s. Ten times as many amateurs were signed from the Dominican Republic.
Major League Baseball has tried to boost the popularity of the sport through the World Baseball Classic and by playing regular-season games in Puerto Rico, including this week’s series between the Mets and the Florida Marlins.
Kingston, Jamaica born Spragga Benz is the subject of Shotta Culture- A documentary about the life of this influential dancehall artist and the unforgiving streets he came from. Born into a large family of modest means, Shotta Culture chronicles Spragga’s rise to fame, as he overcomes personal obstacles, political strife and violence to become one of Jamaica’s most influential artists. Shotta Culture also explores the 2008 murder of Spragga’s son, Carlton Grant, Jr. at the hands of police. Providing never before seen interviews with witnesses and candid discussions of the ongoing violence claiming the lives of Jamaica’s youth.
With 76 people dead from the violence, Jamaican forces plan to resume the manhunt for Christopher Coke on Monday. If you ask me they will need to start searching neighboring islands. Here is CNN’s coverage on the events
On Friday, the US State department issued a travel warning to Jamaica because of violence that broke out in and around Kingston. Christopher “Dudus” Coke, the alleged drug kingpin is to be extradited to the US on drug conspiracy charges and that has sparked attacks on police stations in Kingston, barricading of roads and a near military state. CNN has some coverage on the emergency there.
If you have been to Jamaica and managed to venture off the resorts, you already know that there is an certain awareness you should have to your surroundings. Danger can come from a lot of different angles there. On one hand it could be the criminals, and on the other it could be the police. This news report, shot by Al Jazeera, highlights the brutal and deadly confrontations that many of the poorer people face.
The Havana sun casts a golden, late afternoon light, lending a brief glow to a narrow street. Decaying houses, with their half-crumbling facades, somehow cling to their faded glory. The camera pulls back and reveals the silhouette of a man, rounded by age and good living, puffing on a cigar. At the age of 67, Luis Tiant has come back to Cuba, the island he had left at age 20 for a trip he thought would last a month and became nearly a half-century. But is this still home? What is home for an exile that becomes a star in his new land, leaving former teammates to play for their government and country in isolation and povertis home for a man who never had a sister or brother and whose parents are dead? Where can he go to sort out the guilt and the glory? And is it too late?
I’ll (hopefully) have a full review of the film next week, so be on the lookout for that.
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
