CARIBBEAN WORLD

November 20 - Brazil celebrates Black Awareness Day The Day of Black Awareness ("Dia da Consciência Negra" in Portuguese) is celebrated annually on November 20 in Brazil as a day on which to reflect upon the injustices of slavery (from the first transport of African slaves to Brazil in 1594) and to celebrate the contributions to society and to the nation by Brazilian citizens of African descent. It takes place during the Week of Black Awareness. The day is marked on the anniversary of the death of Zumbi dos Palmares (1655–1695), the last leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares. The Day of the Black Awareness. The date was first observed in the 1960s and has been on the school calendar since 2003. According to Fly Brother , many people in Brazil are celebrating Black Awareness Month. But many others see this particular exercise as unnecessarily divisive and alien to Brazil’s culture of “inclusiveness and miscegenation.” And November is the best month to com...

L'illettrisme en Guadeloupe : un mal à endiguer Détails Publié le jeudi 11 octobre 2012 22:52 2013 fera de l’illettrisme la grande cause nationale et interpellera la Guadeloupe dont le seuil alarmant de 20% de la population est touchée selon les derniers chiffres de l’Insee (2009). Pour rappel, l ’illettrisme concerne les personnes qui, ayant appris à lire et à écrire, ont oublié par manque de pratique, tandis que l’ analphabétisme désigne les personnes n’ayant jamais appris ni à lire, ni à écrire. En Guadeloupe, la paupérisation financière et culturelle de la population amplifie ce phénomène que l’on retrouve particulièrement dans les milieux défavorisés et ruraux. Champ d’action des enseignants limité À l’âge de 16 ans en Guadeloupe comme sur le territoire national, les adolescents sont censés avoir appris et maîtrisé les bases de la lecture et de l’écriture. Or, en 2012 l’illettrisme est avéré chez bon nombre d’entre eux lorsqu’ils quitte...

Essay: Why it is Necessary that all Afro-Descendants of Latin America, the Caribbean and North American Know Each Other More Written by Tomás Fernández Robaina Translated by Miguel Contreras My main focus is the following: to exchange experiences regarding the struggle and visibility of the contributions of Africans and their descendants in the formation of Latin American nationalities and cultures, to highlight that historical legacy and its actual presence, to obtain a foundation that will allow us to reclaim our rights at all levels of society, and to attempt to eliminate the history and social omission perpetrated by the eurocentric political and cultural influences inherited from colonization. It is very important that we recognize how this struggle began long ago, when we did not call ourselves “Negroes,” “African-Americans,” or “Afro-descendants,” as has been used more recently, but as “Cubans,” “Mexicans,” “Colombians,” “Brazilians,” identified, rather, as c...

Caribbean Olympians do their countries proud (Caribbean) Of the 204 countries that marched into London’s new Olympic Park for the opening ceremony on July 27, 22 hailed from the Caribbean region. Delegation size ranged from two (Dominica) to 110 (Cuba). Kudos to these Caribbean athletes at the Olympics. They are champions who embody the Olympic spirit, whether they medaled or not. And the folks back home, from the Bahamas to Trinidad, are celebrating their native sons and daughters in true Caribbean style. They all just know how to party so well. Kirani James from Grenada captured the island’s first-ever Olympic medal, and it wasn’t just any medal. It was gold in the 400-meter dash. “This win is not just for me, this is for my whole country,” said James, the first non-American to break 44 seconds. “Everyone in Grenada will be proud. They will be having a street party, everyone getting merry.” And indeed they were. From the capital of St. George’s to the west coast fish...

Need for a single Caribbean sports academy Sir Ronald Sanders Sunday, August 12, 2012 ON the basis of the size of populations and medals won, the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada would be ranked in first place in the 2012 Olympic Games in London with another Caribbean island, Jamaica, in second place — though with a larger number of medals. Officially, Jamaica is ranked at 18 and Grenada at 42. At the time of writing at the end of Day 13 of the 16-day Olympic Games, the United States is officially ranked number one with China in second place. But the medal haul of the US and China is drawn from populations of 312 million and 1.3 billion respectively, while Grenada’s medal — a gold for Kirani James in the 400 metres — comes from a population of a mere 110,000 and Jamaica’s outstanding nine medals (three gold, three silvers and three bronze) from a population of 2.8 million. ...

Olympic glories and the Caribbean image ANALYSIS Rickey Singh Sunday, August 12, 2012 THE remarkable feats of Jamaican athletes at the 2012 Olympic Games and, to a lesser extent, those of Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago, must make all citizens of our Caribbean Community quite proud to be part of the chain of islands and mainland territories that comprise this microcosm of peoples of diverse ethnicities, cultures, economic and political systems of the world. It’s a good time to be a citizen of the Caribbean. As a journalist of this region I join in saluting the superhero Usain Bolt, the Jamaican who is the fastest runner on this planet, and his admirable colleagues Yohan Blake and Waren Weir, for their record-breaking stunning clean sweep of the men’s 200-metre sprint on Thursday. Usain Bolt (centre) and his Jamaican teammates Yohan Blake (left) and Warren Weir swept the m...

Mieux connaître les Congolais de Belgique Mis en ligne le 19/06/2010 En Belgique, le haut niveau d’éducation de la diaspora congolaise n’empêche pas un haut niveau de pauvreté et de précarité. Cette génération “suréduquée” assiste, impuissante, à un renversement de situation pour la seconde génération. Une opinion de: Gratia Pungu La diaspora congolaise est répartie largement des deux côtés de l’Atlantique. En Europe, son foyer principal n’est pas la Belgique comme on pourrait le croire a priori, mais bien la France (plus de 50 % de la population en immigration); l’ancienne métropole n’étant que le deuxième lieu d’établissement de la communauté mais surtout lieu de passage. La raison de cette désaffection tient en grande partie au fait qu’il est connu au sein de la diaspora que le taux de chômage des Congolais est bien plus élevé en Belgique qu’ailleurs; ce phénomène a d’ailleurs été mis en évidence ...