CARIBBEAN WORLD

Don't blame the people for the Caribbean's failures Sir Ronald Sanders Sunday, July 11, 2010 SOME leaders of Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) countries often suggest that the slow progress of regional integration is due to a lack of "trust and understanding" among the people. Certainly this was the view expressed by Bruce Golding, the prime minister of Jamaica, at the opening of the 31st Caricom Heads of Government Conference in Jamaica. Interestingly, Golding also said that integration also requires "building trust and understanding" among the leaders themselves. He is right on both counts. But if the citizens of Caricom countries lack trust and understanding of the benefits of regional integration, the blame lies with the leaders. Over the last 20 years of Caricom's existence, the people of the region have been fed a regular diet of Caricom-bashing in the media. That bashing was - and is - conducted by Caricom leaders...

March 21, 2010 When Freedom Fails: The Myth of Decolonization By Robert Hoffman In 1804, after twelve years of conflict and tens of thousands dead, General Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed victory against the French and declared the new state of Haiti. It was the longest and bloodiest slave rebellion ever. Dessalines then announced that he'd be assuming the office of Emperor for Life of Haiti, the world's first independent republic ruled by African descendants. Thus began two centuries of oppression, dictatorial governance, violence, poverty, weird superstition, official corruption, and economic bottom-feeding. The recent mega-earthquake in Port-au-Prince turned the world's attention to the still uncounted dead, many of whom perished because Haiti is a state that never was. It had no chance to fail since it never succeeded. And the politically incorrect thought experiment arises: What if Haiti...

Equipe de France : le bleu et le noir AFP/FRANCK FIFE Thierry Henry, Patrice Evra, Nicolas Anelka et Florent Malouda, le 10 octobre 2009. P our différentes raisons, notamment politiques, l'équipe de France de football n'a disputé qu'un seul match, de toute son histoire, en Afrique du Sud. C'était il y a dix ans. Une rencontre amicale sans grand intérêt (0-0), mais précédée d'une entrevue avec Nelson Mandela . Sur la pelouse de l' Ellis Park de Johannesburg, le lendemain, le sélectionneur Roger Lemerre avait aligné huit joueurs noirs. Un aspect qui, deux ans après la victoire de l'équipe black-blanc-beur en Coupe du monde, passa quasi inaperçu en France. Mais ne laissa pas insensible en Afrique du Sud, où le football est le sport de prédilection de la population noire. "Les spectateurs étaient surpris, se souvient l'ancien défenseur Lilian Thuram . Ils imaginaient l'équipe de France... différe nte." Et d...

Autres Brésils

Blacks in Brazil: Myth or reality ?

Race, Law & Politics

What is Race? When some people use the "race" they attach a biological meaning, still others use "race" as a socially constructed concept. It is clear that even though race does not have a biological meaning, it does have a social meaning which has been legally constructed. Biological Construction By . . ."biological race," I mean the view of race espoused by Judge Tucker, and still popular today, that there exist natural, physical divisions among humans that are hereditary, reflected in morphology, and roughly but correctly captured by terms like Black, White, and Asian (or Negroid, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid). Under this view, one's ancestors and epidermis ineluctably determine membership in a genetically defined racial group. The connection between human physiognomy and racial status is concrete; in Judge Tucker's words, every individual's race has been "stampt" by nature. . . .[D]espite the prevalent belief in biological races...