Canada

Canada & the World Food Programme READY to advance resilience and adaptability to disasters in the Caribbean

admin — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 21:00:01 +0000

Canada & the World Food Programme READY to advance resilience and adaptability to disasters in the Caribbean

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admin Mon, 06/05/2023 - 21:00

Monday, April 3, 2023

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Political – The Bajan Reporter

Original Article

Canada & the World Food Programme READY to advance resilience and adaptability …

CARICOM Member States benefitting from regional project activities. As the home of the Regional Logistics Hub and Centre of Excellence, Barbados will also share in capacity building initiatives and technical assistance opportunities under the Disaster READY Project. Sharon Peake and Regis Chapman review the Disaster READY Project agreement at the High Commission of Canada in Barbados.

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Caribbean

Politics

Liberia’s Informal Businesses Make Strides Despite Covid-19 Interruption

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Liberia’s Informal Businesses Make Strides Despite Covid-19 Interruption

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 15:20

Friday, June 17, 2022

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Business – FrontPageAfrica

Original Article

Liberia’s Informal Businesses Make Strides Despite Covid-19 Interruption

Monrovia – Liberians have once again shown how resilient they are, having weathered the civil war and Ebola. Though battered and bruised by COVID-19, they have stood strong, demonstrating a tremendous ability to withstand harsh times.

Ramatu Shariff, 55, a mother of eight boys, lives in Monrovia’s Clay Street making a living selling spaghetti, acheke (a cassava delicacy prepared with fish, sausage, and pepper sauce), and plantain chips off the front porch of her house, mainly to school children.

We found her home with three of her sons: the eldest, 37, who was quietly practicing his trade – repairing shoes; Abraham, 22, who served as our interpreter; and the last born, barely two years old.

She said the COVID-19 lockdowns halved her income.

Abraham was forced to drop out of school due to a decline in their household incomes. He used to travel to neighboring Guinea to buy sneakers to sell in Monrovia. He said COVID-19 wiped out his business.

“When COVID came, people were first scared of touching the shoes in case they contracted the disease. I eventually sold all my stock then and had to live off all my earnings and savings. I have nothing to use to rebuild my business,” he said with great pain in his eyes.

These are some of the stories we gathered from small informal business owners in Liberia about how COVID-19 impacted their lives, and their determination to pick up the pieces and forge ahead despite pandemic setbacks because this is how they feed and care for their families. Alternative livelihood opportunities are scarce, and recovery is slow.

In response to the COVID-19 lockdowns, UNDP Liberia undertook a rapid survey of 20,000 vulnerable street vendors and home-based informal businesses across 10 counties, randomly selecting 6,000 businesses which benefited from a one-off cash transfer to tide them over the loss of business. The cash transfers were funded by the governments of Canada and Norway.

UNDP further supported the government of Liberia to undertake a detailed digital Socio-Economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) on informal businesses earlier this year. Conducted in collaboration with Crisis Bureau’s SURGE Data Hub, the survey covered more than 8,000 households in 11 of the country’s 15 counties where Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) thrive. Interim findings confirmed the importance of the informal business sector, affirming that 80 percent of the country’s population aged over 15 years are engaged in informal businesses.

More than 33,400 people in the counties of Bong, Gbarpolu, Grand Bassa, Grand Gedeh, Lofa, Margibi, Maryland, Montserrado, Nimba, Rivergee and Sinoe were interviewed between January and March 2022 about how COVID-19 had impacted their lives and businesses. The interviews were conducted by Liberia’s Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), with coordination oversight by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.

“These early findings confirm the critical role of the informal sector in Liberia’s economy, particularly its potential for creating employment for the youthful population, and for the overall prosperity of the country,” said Stephen Rodriques, UNDP’s Resident Representative in Liberia. “Without the creativity, innovation and resilience of informal businesses, which provided a critical cushioning effect against COVID-19, life would have been absolutely devastating for most Liberians”.

In the coming weeks, LISGIS, working with UNDP’s SURGE Data Hub, a UNDP Crisis Bureau initiative, will further analyze the findings of the study to better understand the contributions of the informal sector to the Liberian economy, and develop a multi-vulnerability index based on the sector workers’ experiences during COVID-19. The analysis will be used to inform the government’s policies for green, inclusive post-pandemic recovery.

“The lack of solid data on the levels of informality in the economy has long been a cause of concern not only to the government, but also for our development partners,” said Hon. Samuel D. Tweah, Minister of Finance and Development Planning. “Without this data, it is extremely difficult to make good policy decisions and design appropriate programmes for the sector,” the Minister concluded.

“Often, we need information on sectoral contributions to national income, but the information has not been easy to come by. The use of digital tools for data collection and analysis for the first time ever has enabled us to more reliably gauge the full extent and contribution of the informal sector, and the impacts of the pandemic on what is truly the largest sector of the economy numerically,” said Francis F Wreh, Director General, LISGIS.

Liberia has achieved a historic milestone by successfully completing the country’s first-ever comprehensive socio-economic impact assessment, using digital tools to collect and analyze highly detailed data about informal businesses.

The precise data collected about each respondent can be used in many ways including developing a registry of informal sector workers in the country; specifically targeting social protection payments down to a household and a specific person in the home, as well as developing initiatives that are driven by what people said they need as opposed to top-down prescriptive interventions. The data will also enable the government to compute the informal sector’s contribution to the GDP using primary data from respondents, as opposed to using guesstimates.

Africa

Business

Slow decision-making hampering development in energy sector – Mottley

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 15:10:01 +0000

Slow decision-making hampering development in energy sector – Mottley

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 15:10

Friday, June 17, 2022

Original Publisher

Barbados Today

Original Article

Slow decision-making hampering development in energy sector – Mottley

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has hinted at changes to legislation and the introduction of new policies to govern investment in, and production of renewable energy in Barbados. She also suggests that the island was losing out big time on major investment opportunities due to cumbersome regulation and the slow pace of the regulator to make certain decisions.

Mottley, who has identified energy security as a main element of the island’s development needs, made the comments during a panel discussion on Thursday, involving Managing Director of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva; Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Timothy Antoine and Canada’s Minister of International Development Harjit Sajjan.

Pointing out that legislation seemed to be a hindrance to development of the sector, Mottley said it was her view that perhaps the time had come for major regulation changes for the renewable energy sector to get needed investment.

Her comments come amidst rising concerns over the island’s lack of energy security in the face of spiraling fuel prices and the fact that Barbados is behind on its renewable energy goals.

“We go for regulation as we must. Then when the regulation is not effective or it takes too long, it is a drag on the economy. Right now we are facing that with respect to renewable energy and getting the regulatory framework correct,” said Mottley.

“The Government is going to have to make some decisions whether we continue to allow a process that is too long and too complicated and in my view, too complex, for small states as well. Whether we allow that process to continue unabated or whether we recognise that there is a crisis upon us and if we don’t intervene and try the best thing according to transparent and fair precepts to allow us to advance, then we run the risk of ending up at our destination fully paralysed or not even alive. These are the hard decisions that we are going to have to take, in my view from where I sit,” she said.

“It is going to mean, and we saw it with the pandemic, and insisted that the Cabinet . . . that all contracts over $1 million that we put before the Parliament so that people can see, because we will have to do more expedited procurement in order to save ourselves, save our region and to save jobs. We will have to do in some instances, some broad policy directives instead of complex regulation, with renewable energy in particular,” she said.

Mottley told the panel, “We have been waiting for investments to be able to get started purely because we can’t get the FTC (Fair Trading Commission) to do and act fast enough with respect to issues relating to feed-in-tariffs. At the end of the day when the directive comes, what use is it going to be? You are going to hear that we have waited so long that we can’t access the panels or you can’t access this material because of the supply chain disruption.”

The FTC is in the process of coming up with new tariff rates for systems of a certain size.

Reminiscent of a campaign promise that she made, Mottley said it was time the country goes back to “a principle on a lot of things and what is the public interest we are trying to defend, what is the public mischief that we need to avoid, how does the technology help us to do it in a more efficient way”.

Mottley said: “I am prepared to lead from in front on these issues now, because it is clear to me that you cannot play shots on a sticky wicket with the atmosphere very moist as you would play when it is dry and arid. You can’t play pace the same way you play spin, and we now have to adjust our shots for this environment that regrettably is too much like the environment a century ago, but with the knowledge that we do know better and we can defend the core principles of what must be defended better. But we cannot play by rote because we will end up with a lot of casualties,” said Mottley.
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Caribbean

News

Comissiong cops Presidents’ Award St Martin Book Fair

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 14:50:01 +0000

Comissiong cops Presidents’ Award St Martin Book Fair

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 14:50

Friday, June 17, 2022

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Barbados Today

Original Article

Comissiong cops Presidents’ Award St Martin Book Fair

MARIGOT, St. Martin — His Excellency David Comissiong, Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM, recently received The Presidents’ Award from the St. Martin Book Fair. The annual Award is the final highlight of the three-day St. Martin Literary Festival, said book fair coordinator Shujah Reiph.

“The Presidents’ Award is presented to individuals and institutions whose work is noted for its excellence and for combining literary, cultural, and liberation components in the service of progress, of their people or nation, and of humanity,” said Lasana M. Sekou, House of Nehesi Publishers’ consultant to the festival.

“This is an unexpected gift,” said Comissiong while accepting the ebony statute award before the 120 plus guests that filled the literary big tent.

The festival’s main book launch and closing ceremony — dedicated to noted Bajan novelist and political thinker George Lamming (8 June 1927 – 4 June 2022) — was held at the Port of Galis Bay, overlooking Marigot Harbour with the night lights of Anguilla in view across the channel.

The theme of book fair 2022, “The Rebirth” had already been elaborated on by Comissiong in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the festival in the garden of the Government administration building in Philipsburg.

Over the three book fest days, some 38 guest authors from Canada to Australia, the St. Martin public, and visitors to the island at book fair activities, had come to know David Comissiong as Barbados’ Ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and to the Association of Caribbean States.

“Few knew that he was a former senator in the government of Barbados and that he was born in St. Vincent,” said Reiph. Comissiong is also a founder-member of the Caribbean Pan-African Network; the Clement Payne Movement of Barbados; the Caribbean Chapter of the International Network in Defence of Humanity; and the Global Afrikan Congress.

Comissiong was an architect and the first director of the Barbados Government’s Commission for Pan-African Affairs. He also represented the Caribbean region at the 7th Pan-African Congress in Uganda (1994).

Comissiong played a key role in the United Nations’ World Conference Against Racism in South Africa (2001) and has represented the Diaspora on the African Union’s Economic Social and Cultural Council.

Since 2012, the alumnus of The University of the West Indies (UWI) has served as a member of Barbados’ National Task Force on Reparations.

An attorney-at-Law since 1984, Comissiong is the author of The Wide Streets of Tomorrow: Essays and Speeches, It’s the Healing of the Nation: The Case for Reparations, The Pan-African Love Story of Arnold and Mignon Ford; and The Year 1953 and The Shaping of the Soul of Guyana (pamphlet, 2022).

Among past recipients of the St. Martin Book Fair Presidents Award are Edwidge Danticat (USA/Haiti), Computech (St. Martin), Benny Wenda (West Papua), Norman Girvan (Jamaica), Casa de las Americas (Cuba), George Lamming (Barbados), Quince Duncan (Costa Rica), Nicole Cage (Martinique), Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados), Will Johnson (Saba), Drisana Deborah Jack (St. Martin), and Derek Walcott (St. Lucia).

The Presidents’ Award is named after the presidents of Conscious Lyrics Foundation (CLF), House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP), and the University of St. Martin (USM), said Reiph. (PR)

Caribbean

News

Digitising music is the way to go

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 14:30:01 +0000

Digitising music is the way to go

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 14:30

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Original Publisher

Business Archives - Barbados Today

Original Article

Digitising music is the way to go

Acquiring revenue from the sale of digitised music, subscription and streaming services, is still a mystery for many Caribbean performers, song writers, producers and others involved in the music production.

However, a special project led by Barbadian entertainment consultant Derek Wilkie, and financed by the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Creative and Cultural Industries Innovation Fund (CIIF), is putting artistes from several Caribbean countries much closer to accessing these platforms and monetising their creations. According to statistics from the American music industry, subscription and streaming revenues reached US$10.07 billion in 2020, making up the vast majority of revenues for the entire music industry.

Wilkie, however, is concerned that too many regional artistes are absent for this lucrative space. As a result, he is working to ensure that Caribbean performers with existing musical work and those creating new music, are armed with the knowledge and capabilities to exploit the fullest economic gains possible from their creativity.

The accelerator, facilitated by the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation, with contributions from regional partners the Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) and Compete Caribbean, catered to Caribbean performers, composers, and authors of musical works to help them transition from the physical distribution of music to the modern mode of digital distribution.

The project, which received US$40,000 in CDB funding, attracted 22 participants from Grenada, St Vincent, Guyana, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago, who were exposed to insight from the some of the leading experts in the area. Of the original funding US$10,000 was offered as a grant prize to one participant to develop a marketing and business plan for a new release.

Wilkie, the lead project facilitator, explained: “A great team of internationally regarded music professionals including Ivan Berry, Devon Carty and Spencer Mussellam, the label manager of Believe Music, based in Canada was assembled. Believe Music is a huge player in the digital music industry. They are a distribution partner who receive content and then they filter it out to all of the streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and others.”

The lead facilitator is a founder member of the Barbados Copyright Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (COSCAP) and a former chair of the Caribbean Copyright Link, the body set up to facilitate the region’s performing rights organisations. “We in the region are producing a lot of work and putting it out there but we are, for the most part, doing it incorrectly. For example, people are releasing new music, uploading it to YouTube and other streaming platforms without any sort of metadata. The metadata is the DNA of the song.

“It says who is the producer, composer, the author, the publisher and it carries unique code numbers that identify the music when it is streamed globally. This allows you to get royalties coming through the system for us to get paid,” the entertainment executive disclosed. Without that data, he disclosed, the music of Caribbean artistes could be downloaded and streamed millions of times without the revenue from royalties ever paid to the rightful owners.

The CDB’s CIIF-funded project is an attempt to address this situation by training and equipping regional writers, producers, authors and publishers with practical real-world experience in the processes. Participants are from across the Caribbean from Guyana, through the Eastern Caribbean and The Bahamas in the South.

“We held a 4-day session to hear from them first, learning what they are doing and giving them the best leads and possible strategies for new releases in a digital medium.” The music executive added: “It was interesting to hear from some of them what they were doing.”

A frequent lament emerging from participants was their inability to realise revenue even when it appeared their music was gaining significant traction online. As Wilkie explained, “You can’t get royalties if no one knows that you are to be paid because you are not in the system correctly.” “A lot of time was also spent during the project on marketing and the procedures required before releasing new music and what needs to be done on a global basis to create an audience,” Wilkie pointed out.

Conceding there was still so much for Caribbean creatives to learn about operating in the digital space, he recommended more collaborations between bodies such as COSCAP, the Jamaica Association of Composers Authors and Publishers, and intellectual property rights partners around the world.

“Performing rights organisations in the region, at this point, are unable to properly monitor the vast amount and volume of music that is being streamed and released. “There are millions of songs streamed every day and somebody has to analyse it. We don’t have wherewithal to do that in the Caribbean and so we need reciprocal agreements to make sure we get paid as well.”

Despite the trepidation of some regional creatives to enter the digital music and streaming space, Wilkie assured that once undertaken correctly, streamed music can become a reliable source of income. He added: “With the digital platforms, people are still uploading back catalogues released many years ago. We are talking about millions of songs that people are trying to get in the streaming environment . . . . You have got to digitise, create the metadata, link it and upload it.”

As proof of how a well-coordinated approach to content distribution works, Wilkie referenced his working partnership with The Orchard – the world’s largest distributor of audio and video content and Believe Music (Canada).

(IMC1)

Caribbean

Business

Vincentian fashion designer lauds CDB, CEDA assistance

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 14:20:01 +0000

Vincentian fashion designer lauds CDB, CEDA assistance

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 14:20

Thursday, June 16, 2022

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Business Archives - Barbados Today

Original Article

Vincentian fashion designer lauds CDB, CEDA assistance

The award of a US$10,000 prize grant from the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Fund (CIIF) was exactly the stimulus Kimon Baptiste-St. Rose’s enterprise needed to help launch its expansion in the region.

The young Vincentian knew from an early age that fashion design held her passion. What she did not envision at the time, was that it could unlock the path to a satisfying career in which she provides full-time employment for six people, and delights women across the Caribbean and North America with quality, unique, clothing from her successful Kimmystic Clo brand.

Baptiste-St. Rose comes from a family of seamstresses in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Sewing machines, fabric, and thread were as commonplace in her home as cutlery and dishes. From age 10, she experimented with taking clothing apart and sewing them back together.

“I was extremely tiny – short and small, and it was difficult to find clothes that fit the way I wanted. My mom taught me how to sew and from there I started practising. . . . Then friends in high school wanted items made and that’s where the ‘business’ started,” she recalls.

And even when she left St Vincent to pursue a degree in Management and Psychology at the Cave Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI) in Barbados, she was not the typical jeans and T-shirt student. She wore her own designs and attracted the attention of other students who made several requests to her to give them that unique look too.

“It helped me pay for school as I was not there on a scholarship,” she remarked. After graduation and acceptance to pursue post-graduate studies, Baptiste-St. Rose had a decision to make; throw her energies into Kimmystic Clo or spend another year at university going after a master’s degree. She chose Kimmystic Clo and has not regretted the choice.

As a microbusiness operator, Baptiste-St. Rose admits she struggled with staffing for her fledgling enterprise. This resulted sometimes in inconsistency in the products, as finding employees who were proficient in sewing and construction was a challenge.

However, the entrepreneur praises the CDB and its Accelerator executing partner, the Barbados-based Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA), for establishing the fashion accelerator in which she and four others were grant awardees.

Baptiste-St. Rose’s success story, however, has been her determination not to be another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, as she watched businesses close their doors all around her.

“From the prize grant, I was able to launch the website which helped us tremendously during COVID because we could no longer rely on the local market or even reach the regional market. As a result of our website, we shipped products to Canada, Europe and the United States and it helped to propel the Kimmystic Clo brand to the international stage.

“I am in the process of trying to develop more content for the website kimmysticclo.com because it has been doing so well,” she disclosed.

“Even before winning the grant, the accelerator project was extremely beneficial. It helped me to be critical of the work we were initially producing as opposed to after I underwent the training.

“The CIIF project was a capacity building one, and the prize grant was used to train my employees and position Kimmystic Clo to become export-ready. It also helped me to acquire proper machinery that I needed. Prior to that, we were working with domestic sewing machines and after we acquired a few industrial sewing machines, irons, and industrial overlock machines, the quality of the finished product was to a higher standard,” Baptiste-St.Rose observed.

Following the capacity building project, Baptiste-St. Rose recalled how Kimmystic Clo started “getting noticed” and retail stores in the region started reaching out to her. She moved from just two workers to six.

Kimmystic Clo apparel is now retailed in high-end boutiques in Jamaica, Anguilla, St Lucia and Antigua. She proudly acknowledges: “These were persons and storeowners who saw what I was producing and approached me to carry the brand. I am particularly proud of being in that space in Jamaica.”

The businesswoman, wife, and mother who also incredibly finds time to “moonlight as a flight attendant” because she “leaves nothing to chance with this pandemic”, said the cabin crew side hustle was one of the best decisions she made.

“Prior to COVID, I relied heavily on the United States to source my fabric. However, after COVID hit and I started flying, I found other places where I could source my fabrics.

“In addition, it allowed me to meet some of the store owners in person and they really appreciated that. Prior to going to Jamaica with the airline, I attended and showcased my work at a major expo in Jamaica before COVID-19 through funding from Caribbean Export. The reception was just fantastic.

It was so great, I sold about 80 per cent of the |items I took to Jamaica. When the buyers approached me after, it just blew me away. Having a presence in Jamaica at that level, I felt that was a real accomplishment,” she gushed.

Baptiste-St Rose said of the CDB’s CIIF programme: “I feel like I owe all this to my exposure to the accelerator programme and the additional prize grant funding gave me the start and the push I really needed to be able to accomplish all this.

“It helped in informing my thought processes, not just on the financial side but being able to assess my goals and what I want to accomplish.” (IMC1)

Caribbean

Business

CANADA: Munya Mataruse wins Folk on the Rocks main stage slot

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 07:50:01 +0000

CANADA: Munya Mataruse wins Folk on the Rocks main stage slot

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 07:50

Sunday, June 5, 2022

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Diaspora Archives - NewZimbabwe.com

Original Article

CANADA: Munya Mataruse wins Folk on the Rocks main stage slot

By cabinradio.ca

Zimbabwe-born Munya Mataruse will play Folk on the Rocks after winning the festival’s Main Stage Showdown on Saturday.

The contest, held at Yellowknife’s Elks Lodge, saw nine entrants compete to win a place on the Folk on the Rocks main stage alongside a $500 cash prize.

Mataruse was declared the victor by a panel of six judges. (The author of this report was one of the six).

In the space of a 10-minute set, Mataruse – equipped with a guitar and backing track – had a sold-out crowd on their feet learning a series of moves.

An audience member cried “He’s so sweet!” as Mataruse delivered an acceptance speech, telling the other acts: “Competition doesn’t mean that if you didn’t win, you’re not good. You’re good. But there has to be someone who has to be selected from the whole process, right?”

He told the eight rivals for the main stage slot: “I am willing to work with you guys in any projects that you do. You are beautiful musicians, all of you guys.”

Mataruse has been playing professionally for 17 years.

He came to Yellowknife in 2020 having recorded two albums in Zimbabwe, where his impact on stage was once likened to dynamite by Bulawayo daily newspaper The Chronicle.

On Saturday, he displayed depth, flair and complete control of his guitar and voice to build an instant rapport with the room, something that will be vital faced with a main stage audience in July.

“I love you all. I really enjoyed all of your performances,” he told the remaining contenders as the show concluded.

“Everyone here did a good job. The competition was really tight.”

The post CANADA: Munya Mataruse wins Folk on the Rocks main stage slot appeared first on NewZimbabwe.com.

Diaspora

News

CANADA: New organisation aims to support Black women and girls in St. Catharines

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 07:20:01 +0000

CANADA: New organisation aims to support Black women and girls in St. Catharines

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admin Mon, 06/20/2022 - 07:20

Thursday, June 16, 2022

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Diaspora Archives - NewZimbabwe.com

Original Article

CANADA: New organisation aims to support Black women and girls in St. Catharines

By stcatharinesstandard.ca

When Tapo Chimbganda was first living in St. Catharines, she said she had a tough time fitting in.

“I was quite isolated,” she said. “It was difficult to find people who looked like me, especially in terms of services.”

That’s why she’s opening a chapter of her not-for-profit organization Future Black Female at 105 James St.

Chimbganda started Future Black Female in response to her feeling that black women and girls between the ages of 16 and 22 can often fall through the cracks.

The organization focuses on helping these women and girls with their mental health. It also provides career and education strategies and has a focus on financial well-being, starting with financial literacy.

“I started this organization just based on my own experiences at around that age,” she said, explaining that she moved to Canada from Zimbabwe at 21 years old. “In my own experiences, I was a newcomer, I was an immigrant. I never heard of anything called a credit score, and by the time I properly understood that, I had messed up my credit.”

Chimbganda said Future Black Female is focusing on areas that are perceived as predominantly white to give the Black community an option of where to go to for help.

“Something we always do is we ask potential partners, collaborators within the community ‘How many black youth or black families, black people, have you served in the last six months?’ And we often get ‘well Niagara is predominantly white. We haven’t really seen any black people in a while’, but we’re here. So where are we going for services?” she said.

Chimbganda said her organization hasn’t set out to “reinvent the wheel.” Instead, they want to partner with organizations that already have resources and programs and bridge the gap between communities.

While Future Black Female has a focus on elevating the Black community, Chimbganda said everyone is invited.

“We’re not here to wag a finger or to say we do things better or anything to isolate or exclude … One of our principles and something that we’re really focused on is community. We want to be considered as part of the community and we want to consider other people as part of our community. So, we welcome anyone who you have questions because that’s what we often get from non-black people.”

Although the agency just had their grand opening on Saturday, June 11, Chimbganda said they already feel welcome.

“We have made a lot of great connections and so it does feel like we are part of the community,” she said. “We invite anyone interested in the work that we’re doing to pay us a visit, to drop in, we’re here and we’re here to stay.”

The post CANADA: New organisation aims to support Black women and girls in St. Catharines appeared first on NewZimbabwe.com.

Diaspora

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A Commonwealth for the 21st Century

admin — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 19:20:01 +0000

A Commonwealth for the 21st Century

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admin Sun, 06/19/2022 - 19:20

Friday, June 17, 2022

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Searchlight

Original Article

A Commonwealth for the 21st Century

The long delayed (on account of COVID-19) Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), 2022 takes place 20-25 June 2022, in Kigali, Rwanda. According to the Commonwealth Secretariat, its leaders will travel to Rwanda to reaffirm their common values and agree actions and policies to improve the lives of all their citizens.

For some, the Commonwealth represents a colonial past and is a reflection of what the world used to be when the United Kingdom (UK) was a superpower, not what the world is now. The unresolved mystery presented by the Commonwealth is why a group of nations that struggled to win their independence from the UK, reconstituted themselves in an organisation that is closely patterned after its former colonial master. Critics have also called the Commonwealth institutions outmoded and ineffective.

The United Kingdom, with its monarchy as the titular Head of the Commonwealth, is navigating its own place in the world since its exit, (Brexit) from the European Union (EU). Post-Brexit, London has pushed for a vision of a more outward-looking foreign policy, known as “Global Britain.” Key to this goal of revitalizing the UK on the world stage is the Commonwealth.

Brexit supporters, skeptical of deeper integration with the EU have for a long time, seen the Commonwealth as a more natural forum for the UK, due to historical ties, a common language, and similar legal traditions. Therefore, some policymakers in the UK advocate that the UK’s post-EU future should lie in deepening trade and immigration with the Commonwealth.

It is certainly not lost on these policy makers that amongst the Commonwealth’s members are India, the world’s second most populated country and fifth largest economy; Canada and Australia,advanced economies; Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and an emerging economy; South Africa, the most dynamic economy in Africa; as well as several emerging economies in Asia. These are economies with which the UK can grow vital trade, economic and investment relations.

As far as the UK is concerned, it must also contend with a small, but not insignificant number of countries increasingly decoupling themselves from the British monarchy. This leaves in doubt the future leadership of the body when Queen Elizabeth’s reign ends.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, it is a misnomer to reduce the Commonwealth to a body which primarily caters to the needs of the UK. It is an organisation comprising 54 members with a combined population of 2.5 billion people. It is also instructive that 32 Commonwealth members are small states. Therefore, the Commonwealth has to be seen through the lens of how it can deliver benefits for all its Members.

Is the Commonwealth relevant? This question has to be answered in the context of prevailing global realities. The threat of climate change and natural disasters, the demands of the digital age, democratic backsliding and global exogenous shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic all suggest that bodies which encourage cooperation between and amongst countries remain vitally important.

There is also much scope for the Commonwealth to take concrete actions to pursue trade and economic development initiatives which can deliver real benefits to its peoples. In a context of fractured multilateralism, it might be a useful exercise to Commonwealth Members to create a Commonwealth-wide trade and economic partnership agreement. This might be seen as too far-fetched and difficult a task. However, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Steps can also be taken to pursue concrete actions on climate change, particularly as it relates to supporting the many Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Commonwealth to build resilience to the threat of climate change and natural disasters.

Other important discussions taking place outside of the Commonwealth can also be tested within the Commonwealth. For example, issues such as debt forgiveness and alternative financing mechanisms for SIDS can be usefully pursued by Commonwealth members.

The Commonwealth is not irrelevant. It still has an important role to play as a norm shaper in international affairs and in delivering real benefits to its Members. However, maybe there is scopeto reimagine how to make it more meaningful and effective.

Joel K Richards is a Vincentian national living and working in Europe in the field of international trade and development.
Email: joelkmrichards@gmail.com

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Grabba Finesse plans to turn over the place with Soca

admin — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 18:40:01 +0000

Grabba Finesse plans to turn over the place with Soca

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admin Sun, 06/19/2022 - 18:40

Friday, June 17, 2022

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Grabba Finesse plans to turn over the place with Soca

It’s never about the competition for soca artiste, Keith ‘Grabba Finesse’ Charles, but rather the vibe and energy that is generated whenever he performs.

Nonetheless, it would mean a lot to the ‘Place Tun Ova’ singer if he won the national Soca Monarch title this year.

“It would mean a lot to me and a lot to the people, and a lot to Vincy culture. Right now, everybody has been supporting me to the fullest, saying ‘boy Grabba, you should’ve gotten something from since so long’ so they’re always pushing so it would be a good vibe for the culture, good vibe for the people and good vibes for me,” Charles told SEARCHLIGHT in an exclusive interview this week.

Grabba was recently crowned Soca Monarch at the Georgetown Rural Soca Monarch competition, and placed second in the Soca Monarch competition in Barrouallie some weeks prior — both with his hit soca song, ‘Place Tun Ova’.

The artiste, who pens all his lyrics explained that the song he hopes to take to the national competition is an amalgamation of two thoughts; the changes that have and are taking place both locally and internationally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s volcanic eruption, and also the changes an individual goes through by taking part in the revelry that comes with the carnival season.

Charles has advanced to the national competition on two previous occasions and should he advance all the way through once again this year, he is trusting that God will “make something happen” that will allow him to add the title to his name.

But Jean-Claude ‘DJ Jeanie’ Patterson, producer of the Pandemic Road Riddim, which features ‘Place Tun Ova’, and one of two managers responsible for Grabba Finesse expressed with more certainty that his artiste has what it takes to be crowned the 2022 Soca Monarch.

“I’m very confident in his ability to win Soca Monarch. He just needs to go out on that night and execute as he always does. When Grabba touches a stage, you can see his passion for the art form, for performing, his presence on stage,” he said. “He’s at a pinnacle right now where he can transcend the local boundaries of St Vincent and the Grenadines and become a regional and international household name, so I have all faith and confidence in his ability to perform.”

DJ Jeanie, who has produced several popular songs, including ‘Leg up deh’ by Problem Child, ‘Never Forget’ by Skarpyon, and ‘Remove yuhself’ by Blaxx, described Charles as one of the most prolific writers in St Vincent and the Grenadines to date.

“He’s also very headstrong and difficult because the original format of ‘Place Tun Ova’ is not what you’re hearing on the radio today,” he told SEARCHLIGHT, adding that he worked his ‘genie’ magic on the track.

D.J Jeanie noted however that it took nothing away from what Grabba initially sent him.

The producer also took the opportunity to thank everyone who has been supporting both Grabba Finesse and the DJ- DJ Jeanie Digital Empire Studio brand through the years.
To the other artistes hoping to stake claim to the 2022 Soca Monarch title, Grabba Finesse says, “rock and come een”.

“It’s a different kind of movie, different kinda mas when we reach the stadium so lewwe play the mas. We need some competition, we need some challenge…so send in your music and lewwe touch down. Who mek it, mek it, and who aint mek it, next year we go ketch it,” the soca artiste said.

Persons looking to vibe with Grabba during Vincymas can find him performing at several events throughout the season, including H20 Soca, Brunch and Soca, Dirty Sexy Soca, Pumpin’ and the Flow Monday Band.

He is also scheduled for appearances in Grenada, Canada and the UK for Nottinghill Carnival later this year.

Promoters looking to work along with the artiste can send booking enquiries to d.empirebookings@gmail.com or contact his manager, DJ Jeanie via whatsapp number 1(264)235-9579 or Grabba himself at 1(784)431-7084.

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