Stories about Caribbean from December, 2023
Year in review: In 2023, the climate crisis was top of mind for the Caribbean
Of the many stories Global Voices Caribbean covered this year, the lion's share have been linked to global warming, and the importance of climate justice to the region's survival.
How Caribbean ‘Black Cake’ can help the region transcend its traumatic past
"Black Cake" (the book and series) naturally brings to mind the Caribbean Christmas dessert, but the linkages the delicacy shares with the literacies of enslaved Africans are often obscured.
COP28 delivers ‘death certificate’ for island nations
The Global Stocktake is meant to be the big outcome of the climate negotiations this year, but we have significantly deviated from restricting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
SIDS chart vision for energy transition at COP28, advocating tripling renewable energy initiatives and global decarbonisation efforts
To maintain the 1.5 degrees Celsius target by 2030, developed nations must prioritise addressing heavy-emitting industries. This requires, among other things, collaboration with Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like the Caribbean.
Why I am exercising my right to protest in Trinidad & Tobago
This particular march is not merely a protest of alarm; it is also a gesture of mourning. Many of our people have died this year as victims of violence.
As Venezuela postures on reclamation of the Essequibo region, Guyana prepares for ‘worst case scenario’
Prior to the referendum, Venezuela had only alluded to its intention to annexe the Essequibo; by December 5, Maduro's social media showed him holding up a new “official” map of Venezuela.
Benjamin Zephaniah, a unique British poet with Caribbean roots and a wide appeal in a multicultural society, passes on at age 65
He became a beloved artist and performer who crossed all boundaries and sought to heal the fractured society engendered by colonialism, racism and social injustice.
How climate change is affecting mental health in some of the Caribbean's Indigenous communities
"Climate change events [cause] a disconnection through displacement and loss of our homes, our land, and our ways of doing things. Having to relocate and start over is traumatic."
Steelpan virtuoso Earl Rodney dies at 85, leaving ‘quality’ music and questions as to whether Trinidad & Tobago could be doing more to honour its cultural icons
He was always pushing musical boundaries [...] contributing to a new representation of local music in which he fused African rhythms and American funk, merged with pan and percussion.
As COP28 launches a Loss and Damage Fund, devastating rains highlight Caribbean islands’ increasing vulnerability to climate change impacts
The picture in Jamaica is similar to elsewhere in the Caribbean, where there are fears about food security as a result of repeated “natural disasters” caused by human-induced climate change.
It's the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and Trinidad & Tobago still has a long way to go
The most effective way to deal with the attitudinal and systemic barriers many people with disabilities experience on a daily basis in Trinidad and Tobago, is through legislative implementation.
A movement is growing across Africa and diaspora demanding reparations for the impacts of slavery and colonialism
"The demand for reparations is not an attempt to rewrite history or to continue the cycle of victimization. It's a call to recognize the undeniable truth and rewrite the wrongs ..."
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