By Sir Ronald Sanders (The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat)   Just in case it has escaped careful attention, the Trinidad and Tobago government does not intend to abolish appeals to the British Privy Council for civil and constitutional matters.  Careful reading of the statement, made by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in Parliament on April 25th, clearly shows that the ...

        By Sir Ronald sanders (The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat)        China’s presence in the Caribbean is becoming a matter of increasing debate if not concern as more Chinese businesses open in Caribbean towns and villages crowding out locals, and Chinese-funded projects import a majority of Chinese workers at a time of high unemployment in Caribbean countries.  Five million ...

By Sir Ronald Sanders     (The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat)   What prohibits a meeting of representatives of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments on the crucial matter of air transport within the region, even as the situation worsens, is beyond comprehension.   Three blatant realties are these:  Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) is losing money once its massive fuel subsidy from the Trinidad and ...

           Sir Ronald Sanders Trayvon Martin and St Vincent’s UN Ambassador: the racist similarities It seems that institutional racial profiling continues to be a massive problem in the United States notwithstanding that the country has an African-American President, several African-American Congressmen and Mayors of Cities, and accomplished African-Americans in the media and in corporate America.  I have not mentioned the entertainment business – either ...

By Sir Ronald Sanders (The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat)  Air transportation in the Caribbean has always been difficult.  The news that a privately-owned, low-cost carrier, REDjet, has been forced to suspend its operations has made Caribbean air transportation even more problematic.  Over the last 15 years or so, carriers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany have ...

  By Sir Ronald Sanders (The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat) On February 9th, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, wrote a robust letter to the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Irwin la Rocque, pointing out the deep malaise in which the regional integration project is mired. His letter was copied to all CARICOM ...

    By Sir Ronald Sanders (The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat)   A United Nations Security Council, genuinely concerned with the welfare of people and applying objective standards, would have taken positive global steps to apply biting sanctions on the regime in Syria to compel an end to the killing of innocent civilians including children.   Instead, the Security Council, hamstrung by the ...

    By Sir Ronald Sanders (The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat)   Imagine if a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Head of Government were to say boldly the following truths however inconvenient they may be to other Heads of Governments: ·         CARICOM’s mode of marking time, at an historical moment of overwhelmingly awesome challenges for our region, which compellingly demands a more profound integration, ...

Antigua & Barbuda will host the second meeting of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) Technical Working Group (TWG) on Preventing Crime by focusing on at-risk youths and vulnerable populations. <!----> The meeting on Tuesday is being organized by the Guyana-based Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretariat with support from the United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID). It will be held under the ...

    By Sir Ronald Sanders (The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat) Oil wells off the coast of South America’s only English-speaking country, Guyana, are now being drilled in earnest.  Already Guyana’s economy is benefitting from millions of dollars being pumped by two companies into their operations.  Should the drilling release the expected millions of barrels of oil and trillions of ...