Caribbean Life News Update – 27 January 2017
Rex Tillerson
GUYANA CLEARS THE AIR
BY BERT WILKINSON | CARIBBEAN
Using their numerical majority in the Senate, Republican lawmakers are expected to confirm Rex Tillerson, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, but his decades of links to ExxonMobil and the company’s huge oil find off the Guyana coast are shining a light on possible conflict of interest issues at the State Department.
Flatbush dentist serves community with pride
BY ALEXANDRA SIMON | HEALTH
A Flatbush dentist serving the Prospect Lefferts-Gardens community for 38 years takes pride in his honest business approach and the dental needs of his predominantly Caribbean community, and has been for the past three decades.
CARICOM gets CDB grant to address gender inequality
BY TANGERINE CLARKE | CARIBBEAN
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has provided CARICOM with a US$500,000 grant towards the development and implementation of a gender sensitive results based Caribbean Community management system, according to the body’s website.
Bolt nominated for world award
BY AZAD ALI | SPORTS
Track and field legend Usain Bolt has been nominated for the World Sportsman-of-the-Year award.
Staff strikes again shutter Haiti’s public hospitals
BY DAVID MCFADDEN | HEALTH
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ Public hospitals that cater to Haiti’s poor are shuttered or barely functioning due to walkouts by nurses, janitors, porters and other personnel months after the troubled country endured a lengthy and punishing strike by resident doctors.
American Foundation to present UWI’s Shirley Chisholm Award
BY VINETTE K. PRYCE | NEW YORK
One month after the exit of the 44th and first Black president of the USA from the White House, the first Black woman who sought the esteemed position 45 years ago will be acknowledged and lauded when the American Foundation for the University of the West Indies (AFUWI) presents the inaugural Shirley Chisholm Award.
Trudy Deans returns as Jamaica’s consul general
BY NELSON A. KING | NEW YORK
Trudy Deans, who had served as Community Relations Officer at the Jamaica’s New York Consulate General, has returned as the new Consul General.
Efforts afoot to help combat crime in Jamaica
BY DAWN PLUMMER
To help dismantle the surging in crime and violence in Jamaica seen in ways as never seen before, a group of highly skilled crime stoppers have galvanized and formed a team called, The Jamaica Diaspora Intervention and Prevention Task Force.
Clarke disappointed with Obama’s non-pardon of Marcus Garvey
BY NELSON A. KING
Brooklyn Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, who had taken the lead, with 17 other members of the United States House of Representatives, in calling on outgoing President Barack Obama to posthumously pardon Jamaica’s first national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, has seemingly expressed disappointment with Obama’s non-action.
Perry swears in – again
BY NELSON A. KING
Hundreds of constituents recently witnessed the community swearing in of Brooklyn Assemblyman Nick Perry for his 25th year in the State Assembly.
Barbados police face abuse allegations
BY GEORGE ALLEYNE | CARIBBEAN
Grenadian Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell, has been seeking to dampen a potential flare-up between his countrymen and officials in Barbados after an alleged rough up and indecent search of nationals of his country.
Pakistan to tour West Indies
BY AZAD ALI | SPORTS
West Indies will face Pakistan in three Test matches, three One-Day Internationals, and two Twenty20s during their tour of the Caribbean in March this year.
Ex-teachers prez welcomes opening of Argyle International Airport
BY NELSON A. KING
Jackson Farrell, the long-standing president of the Brooklyn, New York-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Ex-Teachers Association, has joined the vast number of Vincentians in the Diaspora and at home in welcoming the Feb. 14 opening of the Argyle International Airport (AIA).
REGGAE TRAIN
BY ALEXANDRA SIMON | MUSIC & FASHION
Think of “Soul Train” with Caribbean music and you get the genius of the new and hopeful dance show, “International Reggae Train.”
The Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio at Kumble
MUSIC & FASHION
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College continues its 2016-17 Jazz series on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017 at 8 pm with 2017 NEA Jazz Master Dr. Lonnie Smith.
Whine your way to fitness
BY ALEXANDRA SIMON | HEALTH
Soca whine during your fitness time.
Dance fitness class Wukkout is a soca music-based dance class giving participants a chance to dance to the upbeat genre and break a sweat.
DANCE JAMAICA
ARTS & THEATER
Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College continues its 2016-17 season with the much-anticipated return of National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC) on Saturday, March 18, 2017 at 8 pm and on Sunday, March 19, 2017 at 3 pm.
‘A Shared Dream’ concert wows Brooklyn College audience
BY TANGERINE CLARKE
The powerful message of hope, and the legacy of the civil rights movement, rang throughout the auditorium of the Walt Whitman Theater of Brooklyn College, when Senator, Kevin Parker hosted the 13th Annual “A Shared Dream” celebration, in conjunction with the foundation to honor late iconic leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Chase may keep a man out of prison
BY TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER | BOOKS
Catch me if you can.
You might have said that once, giggling. You may have yelled it at a game one afternoon. You said it, maybe, in a flirtatious manner on some romantic evening. Run, run, run, catch me if you can because, as in “Man on the Run” by Carl Weber, this chase may keep a man out of prison.
Civil disobedience during the prez inauguration
BY TEQUILA MINSKY | NEW YORK
Council Member Jumaane Williams got emotional addressing the press before he and six others sat down in the middle of 5th Ave. at the very moment the presidential inauguration was taking place in Washington DC. on Friday. “My mother is with us,” he said, and they both then hugged.