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WORLD VIEW: 1.5°C is upon us - are we prepared?

THE report on May 17, from the World Meteorological Organization, (WMO) that global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years should have sent all Caribbean institutions, such as the CARICOM Secretariat, the Caribbean Development Bank, and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, into overdrive to explore further ways in which the region could accelerate efforts to avert this calamity.

WORLD VIEW: Decimation of vulnerable nations inevitable if global warming continues on present trend

JOHN Kerry, former US Secretary of State and current US Special Envoy on Climate Change matters, told the world’s Ambassadors at a meeting in Washington, on May 10, that “there is no way” of keeping the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius unless CO2 emissions are drastically reduced.

WORLD VIEW: Objective journalism threatened by fake content and false media platforms

MEDIA freedom in the Americas, from Canada in the North to Argentina in the South, with the Caribbean in between, did not rank very well in the 2023 World Press Freedom (WPF) Index.

WORLD VIEW: What future, Venezuela?

THE President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, hosted a Conference on Venezuela in his nation’s capital, Bogota, on April 25. The European Union (EU) and 19 countries from the Americas, including the Caribbean, attended, but it is doubtful that they all had the same goals in mind.

WORLD VIEW – Vacancy: Leadership to unite the global South

I was astonished recently to be told by one of the representatives of the Caribbean on the Board of the World Bank (WB) that Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, St Kitts-Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago, should not expect any change in the bank’s policy not to make concessional loans to them because, supposedly, they are “high income” countries.

WORLD VIEW: UN climate justice success should encourage small states to act together

EFFORTS by small states to seek justice for damage and existential threats to their countries, caused by the world’s major environmental polluters, moved a step further at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on March 29.

WORLD VIEW: Development crisis threatens small states

“THE world is facing a crisis of development.” Those are the first words of a paper from officials of the World Bank Group (WBG), setting out a proposed roadmap for “urgent action” to tackle the “growing crisis of poverty and economic distress, and global challenges, including climate change, pandemic risks, and rising fragility and conflict”.

WORLD VIEW: Can political parties agree social contract for national progress?

AUTHORITATIVE international bodies – among them, the respected Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) – have concluded that “democracy is under both literal and figurative assault around the world.” The countries of the Caribbean have not been exempted from this judgement which is based on more than a decade of studies.

WORLD VIEW: A third way for global peace

IF DEVELOPING countries, especially the small and vulnerable states, expected meaningful attention by the G20 to the myriad economic and financial challenges that confront them, their hopes were dashed by failed meetings of Finance and Foreign Ministers in February and March.

WORLD VIEW: The war on Ukraine is now a global war

THE people of Ukraine are the principal victims of the unjustified and unprovoked war, launched against them by Russia on February 24, 2022. But in the year since then, it has become clear that other victims - on a different scale - have been all the nations of the world, particularly the small, poor and powerless.

WORLD VIEW: End sexual violence against women for the sake of all mankind

RAPE, and other forms of sexual violence against women in war and conflict, represent one of the great silences and suppressed issues in modern-day history.

WORLD VIEW: Haiti at the tipping point of becoming fully hostage to criminals

HAITI continues to occupy the concerns of nations around the world, especially its closest neighbouring states.

WORLD VIEW: Haiti and Peru biggest worries as democracy in Americas in decline

ALL the countries of ‘the Americas’ ie, those in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean are experiencing political, social and economic trials to some extent.

WORLD VIEW: Being homosexual is not a crime - Pope Francis

“BEING homosexual is not a crime. We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity.” Those words were spoken by Pope Francis, easily the most radical pontiff that the Roman Catholic Church has ever had.

WORLD VIEW: Peru troubles highlighting unease across South America

MANY countries in South America are now in a state of troubling unease. Recent events in Peru have catapulted it to the forefront of security concerns in all its dimensions. But worry also exists about other countries which are tiptoeing through political minefields that could explode overnight.

WORLD VIEW – Abolition of work permits: an example for regional integration

IT HAS been interesting to read the responses in Editorials and Opinions in some regional media, concerning the decision by the two main political parties in Antigua and Barbuda to abolish work permits for nationals of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries and the Dominican Republic.

WORLD VIEW: The fallacy of ‘President’ Juan Guaidó is now over

THE pretender, Juan Guaidó, is now finally gone. The myth that he was the President of Venezuela and had the capacity to act and speak for the country, has now evaporated.

WORLD VIEW – NO TIME TO WASTE: Protecting school children and ending gang violence

GANG violence, particularly in schools, and directed at school children, is fast becoming a grave concern throughout the Caribbean.

WORLD VIEW: Higher cost of living demands competent governments

THROUGHOUT the world, people and their governments and Central Banks are worrying about inflation, or the rate of increase in the cost of living. In many countries, this concern about the cost of living has become a prime consideration in general elections because electorates want competent governments in whose hands they commit their expectations.

WORLD VIEW – Not a moment to waste: Small island states must defend themselves

CALL me a cynic, but years of participation in negotiations between developed and developing countries have schooled me to be cautious about grand announcements and promises. The devil is usually in the detail. Experience has taught me to remain hopeful, but to be vigilant in ensuring the commitments, pledges and promises are kept.

WORLD VIEW: Fearless fight for climate fairness

SHOWING all the frankness that he demonstrates in his domestic politics, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, marched fearlessly like Daniel in the Lion’s Den, when he made several demands in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt where COP 27 is being held.

WORLD VIEW: America’s Democracy not trumped in mid-term vote

IN my commentary last week entitled, US Mid-term elections: a defining moment for the World, I pointed out that no less a person than Joseph R Biden Jr, the President of the United States of America, proclaimed that democracy is at stake in his country.

WORLD VIEW: US Mid-term elections - a defining moment

DEMOCRACY is at stake in the country that proclaims itself as the world’s bastion of democracy.

WORLD VIEW: No trust in Truss - general elections should be called

THE present Conservative party in Britain has now established a remarkable list of records; none of them good.

WORLD VIEW: Support for Juan Guaidó has dwindled

AT the height of Donald Trump’s presidency of the United States (U.S.) when, on January 23, 2019, he anointed Juan Guaidó as the “Interim President” of Venezuela, as much as 50 countries joined him in a folly that persisted until October 6, 2022.

WORLD VIEW: Join the international fight for climate justice

ON September 23, at the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, made a clear and unequivocal statement, concerning the impact of Climate Change.

WORLD VIEW: President Putin - The world should say ‘no more’

“EVERY bullet, every bomb, every shell that hits a target in Ukraine, hits our pockets and our economies in Africa.” Those were the words of the President of Ghana, Akufo-Addo, at the UN General Assembly on September 21.

WORLD VIEW: OAS plays significant role for democracy in elections

THERE are intermittent squabbles in the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), concerning the controversial general elections of October 20, 2019, in Bolivia.

WORLD VIEW: COP-27 failing before it begins

THE most ominous sign of what the forthcoming COP-27 meeting on climate change portends for small states is that officials from a Group of 20 (G20) major economies, who met on August 31, failed to agree a joint statement at the conclusion of the meeting.

WORLD VIEW: Another ban on leaders attending international meetings?

ONCE again, politicians in the US are entangling the internal politics of their country with US obligations to the international community.

WORLD VIEW: Haiti sinking deeper into catastrophe - who will save it?

HAITI has never been far from wide-scale human suffering, grave political instability, and grim economic underdevelopment. But its circumstances today are worse than they have been before.

WORLD VIEW: Has CARICOM reached its limits of regional integration?

SO FAR in this attempt to answer the question, “Has CARICOM reached its limits of regional integration”, it has been established that, after almost 50 years, the regional project has failed to deliver the commitments expected from the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas and its Revision in 2001.

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