Black Immigrant Daily News

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is hosting an HIV/AIDS estimates and projections workshop with government data experts from 13 Caribbean countries in Kingston (Jamaica) from January 23-27.

The workshop’s purpose is to train the staff of Caribbean national authorities responsible for the estimates and projections of the HIV pandemic using the methods and procedures recommended by UNAIDS.

HIV estimates are generated with the support of country teams generally comprised primarily of epidemiologists, demographers, monitoring and evaluation specialists and technical partners.

The software Spectrum is the main program used to produce the estimates such as HIV prevalence, new HIV infections, AIDS-related deaths, and the need for treatment for adults and children.

During these five days, national staff will be trained to obtain country-specific estimates by the end of March 2023. These estimates are the basis for regional and global HIV estimates and national and regional planning and decision-making. They are published in the UNAIDS global reports, generally launched every July.

Data have long served as the bedrock of the Global AIDS Response. Timely, accurate data also inform HIV policies and programmes, strategic planning, and resource allocation to maximize the impact of the response. Data on HIV and its innovations are also integral to the United Nations Decade of Action for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote gender equality, protect human rights and accelerate UN Reform.

Efforts to reduce HIV-related inequalities are guided by two primary documents: the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS `Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030′ and the Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026 ‘End Inequalities, End AIDS’. Both documents call on countries to improve the collection and use of data to accelerate progress towards the global targets for 2025.

“UNAIDS is grateful to the Government of Jamaica, especially the Minister of State for Health, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, for the continued strong partnership with the UN system and for hosting the regional workshop”, said Luisa Cabal, UNAIDS Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “As the old saying goes, ‘what is not measured is not treasured`, and therefore not taken into account. So, we need data! And beyond that: quality and disaggregated data to address inequalities and reach the most vulnerable to HIV.”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The Nevis Island Administration (NIA) has revealed several initiatives it intends to pursue in the new parliamentary term that will assist nationals from other Caribbean countries living on Nevis.

The initiatives were announced via the Throne Speech delivered by Hyleeta Liburd, Deputy Governor-General for Nevis, during the opening session of the Nevis Island Assembly on January 19.

“Caribbean nationals who are legally resident in Nevis will be able to buy real estate without having to pay the ten percent Alien Landholding License Fee; we will lobby the Federal Parliament to pass legislation to reduce the time limit required for a non-national to be eligible for citizenship; reduce the Work Permit and Annual Residency Fee paid by non-nationals who are not members of the legal, medical, accounting, engineering, land surveying, management or actuarial professions.”

The government will also move to make it easier for non-nationals legally migrating to Nevis from the Dominican Republic to assimilate into the local economy by provide tutoring in English for 12 months. This will especially benefit children entering the island’s school system, while ensuring that there are bilingual personnel in the public service so as to better aid the delivery of government services to its non-English-speaking residents.

Additionally, the NIA committed to implementing programs whereby children of non-nationals who are legally residing on Nevis will pay the same rates for school and other educational opportunities as Nevisian students.

The Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM)-led administration has consistently demonstrated its inclusive approach with respect to the development of Nevis and improvement of the lives of citizens and residents alike. Under the leadership of Premier Hon. Mark Brantley, the Nevis Island Administration has on several occasions implemented amnesty on arrears of payment for Work Permits, Annual Residency and Visa Extensions for non-nationals, the most recent coming in July-September 2022. In addition, the regular fee of $2,500 for Work Permits was reduced to $1,000 and the regular fee for Annual Residence was reduced to $750.

“My government recognizes the contributions that our sisters and brothers from our Caribbean neighbours have made to the development of Nevis. We continue to welcome non-nationals to aid in our development as we are a government of inclusion. We will continue to advocate for a managed migration approach in which non-nationals can join our labour force as our development needs dictate. We are fully aware that many of our own citizens reside in Caribbean countries and elsewhere and we expect them to be able to live comfortably and have their rights respected,” according to the 2023 Throne Speech.

The NIA continues to urge all non-nationals living in Nevis illegally to legalize their status.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The government of Barbados launched a planning process to set the foundations for its marine management, in an exercise supported technically and financially by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

This MSP process builds upon Barbados’s longtime work on marine ecosystems and environmental governance. It is also part of Barbados’ commitments under the debt conversion for nature transaction that the Caribbean country signed in September 2022, backed by a US$150 million guarantee from the IDB and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

A Marine Spatial Planning process involves a holistic vision for ocean governance and the participation and inclusion of all key stakeholders. The outcome provides direction to balance development and conservation interests and address the cumulative effects of various human uses of the same space.

In this sense, an MSP goes beyond conservation planning and ocean zoning. It also seeks to balance economic and social development with environmental conservation while enabling dialogue and collaboration between stakeholders. It also considers social and environmental change by monitoring continuously.

The Minister of the Environment and National Beautification of Barbados, the Hon. Adrian Forde, said, “Having the full participation of all stakeholders is essential to this process. We need them to share information about our marine space to ensure that equitable consideration is given to all relevant sectors. We recognize that climate change is real and the impact it has for Barbados, especially along its coastal corridors. Life started with biodiversity – and it will die without it.”

With the leadership of Barbados’ Coastal Zone Management Unit, the MSP will provide planners and decision-makers in Barbados with accurate, current data to inform their decisions. The initial stage of the MSP entails the creation of institutional, financial, legal and policy frameworks.

This MSP process shows Barbados’ commitment to continue strengthening the country’s ownership of this exercise. The MSP also highlights the importance of collaborative work in organizing the use of marine space, balancing demands for development with the need to protect marine ecosystems, conducting planning processes to achieve social and economic objectives, and alleviating pressures on ocean resources.

The IDB is committed to these efforts and will provide technical and financial cooperation. IDB Country Representative, Viviana Alva Hart, said, “We are honored by the trust placed in the IDB by the Government of Barbados to support them in their Marine Spatial Plan, a knowledge driven exercise to protect Barbados’ ocean space. Ensuring that global biodiversity remains rich and brings benefits to everyone will require reducing inequalities and strengthening the work being done by island states. With this launch, we are celebrating an important milestone towards achieving Barbados’ sustainability commitments.”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Every day when Daniel Marie Carmel’s husband put on his flak vest and walked out the door for another day of fighting Haiti’s gangs, she wondered if he would come home that night.

Friday was the day her smiling spouse of 18 years, Ricken Staniclasse, didn’t.

One of the country’s nearly 200 gangs ambushed his police unit that morning, sending gunfire echoing through the streets in an unexpected area — a mansion-lined stretch of the country’s capital, Port-Au-Prince.

A gang lead by Lionel Lazarre battled the police patrol under the sweltering Caribbean heat as officers desperately called for backup. But help never came, the country’s police union said.

The fighting killed three officers, hospitalised a fourth with bullet wounds and left the 44-year-old Staniclasse missing.

Carmel, meanwhile, was terrified for herself and their three children.

“My husband was fighting a lot with the gangs, and we don’t know what could happen to us,” Carmel, 43, said while curled up on her red couch surrounded by neighbours. “I can’t sleep at the house anymore because I don’t know what could happen to us.”

The firefight was just the latest example of how Haitian gangs have grown in power and expanded in reach, leaving much of the population terrorised.

While the United Nations estimates that 60 per cent of Port-Au-Prince is controlled by the gangs, nowadays most Haitians on the street reckon that number is closer to 100 per cent.

Haiti has struggled with endemic gang violence for years, but the country spiraled into lawlessness after the 2021 killing of former President Jovenel Mo?se.

Powerful gangs have taken advantage of the political chaos and discontent with the current government led by Prime Minister Ariel Henry to further consolidate their control.

The government has failed to ease the violence, forcing many to flee their homes. News of rapes, kidnappings and ambushes on police have become the new norm.

Jolicoeur Allande Serge, director of the police unit that was attacked, said the Friday blitz in the Petion-Ville neighbourhood was a sign of that. He noted that moving into upper class areas “benefits (the gangs’) economic interests.”

Kidnappings and ransoms as high as $1 million have been a key part of the financing for such armed groups.

Meanwhile, police units struggle to keep up.

While Canada and the United States have sent armored vehicles and other supplies to Haiti, law enforcement officials say it is just a fraction of what they really need.

Tensions remained high Saturday, and in the afternoon Serge stood among a pack of armored trucks dented with bullet strikes. Officers holding automatic weapons, their faces covered by black masks, bustled about.

A group of 50 officers was returning to the area where they fought Friday night to try to break a gang blockade and search for the missing officer, Staniclasse.

“I lost three men … We’re not scared. We’re frustrated because we don’t have enough equipment to fight,” Serge said as he watched a convoy of police trucks roll out from the station. “We need ammo, helmets, armored vehicles.”

Analysts expect the bloodshed to get worse, especially after Haiti’s final 10 elected officers ended their Senate terms in early January, leaving the parliament and presidency unfilled because the government has failed to hold elections.

Critics say that has turned Haiti into a “de-facto dictatorship.”

Meanwhile, people like Daniel Marie Carmel feel hope drain for their country. Carmel said her husband always hoped he could help clean up his city. Together, they built a home and a life together. Their 11-year-old son dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps.

“He loved people, he loved to help people,” she said of her husband.

But two years ago, violence began to get so bad in their neighbourhood that they applied for a visa to migrate to the United States, hoping to join an exodus of people leaving Haiti. They never got a reply.

“I don’t know if he’s alive or dead, but I’m worried,” she said. “If we were able to leave the country, my husband would be alive.”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

By Sir Ronald Sanders

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.

Although the causes of these conditions of dysphoria are ascribed to hostilities between political parties in their constant battles to control power, the root of the problem lies in inequality, injustice and racial and ethnic discrimination.

The dispossessed, throughout Latin America, found a voice and a champion among left-leaning parties which demand change. The elite and the privileged, including the military, maintain their economic and social advantage through right wing political parties and alliances with powerful multinational companies from North America and Western Europe. The two sides are persistently in conflict.

These conditions have been portrayed in the poetry of Pablo Neruda, the novels of Isabelle Allende, Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa among others; and in the painstaking research and raw descriptions in the works of Marie Arana and Eduardo Galeano.

In his seminal work, Open Veins of Latin America, in one sentence, Galeano poignantly describes the structural divide in many Latin American societies – “The system has multiplied hunger and fear; wealth has become more and more concentrated, poverty more and more widespread. That is recognized by the documents of specialized international organizations in whose aseptic vocabulary our oppressed territories are ‘countries in the process of development’ and the pitiless impoverishment of the working class is ‘regressive income distribution’.”

And, inasmuch as the judgement may seem harsh, there is a sobering truth in Marie Arana’s assertion in, Silver, Stone and Sword, that “… extractive societies such as Latin America’s are built on social injustice. They are designed and maintained by a ruling class whose primary goal is to enrich themselves and perpetuate their power. They thrive when absolute privilege reigns over absolute poverty”.

None of this is to say that, over the years, progressive elements in Latin America have not succeeded in pushing for institutional change. They have been aided in the work of the United Nations Human Rights bodies, and in the efforts of the Inter-American Commission and Court on Human Rights. Authoritative external organizations have been hugely instrumental in pushing governments to adopt international treaties on human rights and non-discrimination.

But adherence to treaties and laws is only as good as effective implementation of their values. In this connection, not all law enforcement agencies and governments have been as dutiful as they could have been. Thus, inequality has continued and the desire by the disadvantaged to overturn it has escalated.

The role of the military has also not been neutral or respectful of their constitutional requirement to be apolitical servants of the executive branch and subordinate to their civilian commander-in-chief, the President. As social unrest escalated throughout Latin America in the decades between 1964 and 1985, military dictatorships took control in several countries including Brazil, (1964), Chile (1973), Uruguay (1973), and Argentina (1976).

It was the military that pressured Evo Morales in November 2019 to abandon his disputed Presidency in Bolivia. The same military acted heavy-handedly to subdue street protests over the controversial installation into the Presidency of the right-wing, opposition representative Jeanine A?ez.

While in Argentina and Chile, the return to democratic regimes was “accompanied by transitional justice, a reckoning with the past and a recognition that the armed forces had strayed from their constitutional mission”, as one political commentator put it, the role of the military in Brazil and Peru remains questionable.

Brazil’s President Lula da Silva dismissed the country’s army chief, General Julio Cesar de Arruda, in the aftermath of the storming of several government buildings by the supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro on January 8. Lula said he suspected collusion by “people in the armed forces”.

In Peru, where elected President, Pedro Castillo, was ousted on December 8, after an ill-advised and clumsy attempt to suspend the Congress, which was seeking to impeach him, his vice-president, Dina Boluarte, was sworn in to replace him. He was carted off to prison at a police base that triggered protests in the rural areas and poorer neighbourhoods in the capital.

In response, police raided San Marcos University, detaining hundreds of protestors. This was part of a violent crackdown on the protestors which has left many dead or seriously injured. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Peru condemned the Peruvian administration over the violence used to curb the protests.

But the fundamental problems, driving the unrest remains ignored – a huge gap between rich and the poor, particularly the people in the South of the country who feel neglected by its institutions and, most of all, its hugely unpopular congress, which is largely viewed as a tool of the rich and powerful.

Hemispheric institutions, such as the Organization of American States (OAS), should seek a constructive role in Peru, and they must keep a watchful eye on the military and right-wing forces in Brazil which may yet turn on President Lula.

It is difficult to see what practical role the OAS can play in resolving the political issues in Peru, but, at the very least, the member states must let the Peruvian government know that further brutality against protestors will receive the strongest condemnation; and, instead, they should seek meaningful dialogue to address the deep-rooted issues in the country.

In the meantime, Caribbean governments and political parties should ensure that, in their own countries, economic inequalities must be discouraged. Dissatisfaction is fuelling the fire of unrest in Peru and other Latin American countries; it must not spread to the Caribbean.

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