Caribbean Women's Network Congratulate Baroness Scotland

Photo from www.theindependent.com

Sharing congratulatory letter below to

Baroness Scotland, first woman to be appointed Commonwealth General Secretary

from the Caribbean Regional Network of Organizations and Individuals

Working on Women's Rights and Gender Equality

1 December, 2015

Dear Baroness Scotland,

We are a network of Caribbean feminist and women's rights activists, policy-makers and scholars, and we are delighted with your recent election as Commonwealth Secretary-General and offer our warm congratulations to you.

We feel a deep sense of pride in your achievement as the first woman, and representing the Caribbean region, to have been elected to this pivotal leadership position in the Commonwealth family of nations, an institution with great potential for contributing to global development and peace.

As a virtual network of over 100 members based across the Caribbean region and diaspora, our members include organizations and individuals working actively on women's empowerment and gender equality in a broad range of fields including: accountability and good governance, agriculture and rural development, arts and culture, economic development and poverty eradication, education and training, enterprise and trade, environment and climate change, health and well-being, human rights and the law, leadership and decision-making, LGBTQI rights, religion and spirituality, sexual and reproductive rights, violence and citizen security, among others.

As you are aware, in the Caribbean, our small island developing states are increasingly vulnerable as we face the global economic downturn, high levels of national debt, the loss of preferential trade agreements for primary exports such as bananas, and hurricanes and other disasters exacerbated by climate change and global warming. These are playing themselves out in increasing poverty particularly among women heads of households, and gender-based and other forms of violence and insecurity. Despite Caribbean women's much vaunted educational achievements, the region is marked by women's under-representation in the labour market, in the entrepreneurial class, and in leadership and decision-making, which serve to undermine its economic, social and political development.

We sincerely hope that the Commonwealth Secretariat will continue to prioritize support for Caribbean small island developing states, and increase resources for promoting women's empowerment and gender equality across the Commonwealth.    

We offer you our very best wishes as you prepare to assume the post of Commonwealth Secretary-General, and look forward to welcoming you to the Caribbean and dialoguing with you to advance our shared interests in the coming period.

Kind regards,

Joan Grant Cummings,

Caribbean Regional Network of Organizations and Individuals

Working on Women's Rights and Gender Equality

Caribbean Regional  Network of Organizations and Individuals

Working on Women's Rights and Gender Equality

ORGANIZATIONS

Ø  Association of Women's Organization of Jamaica (AWOJA) – Hermione McKenzie

Ø  Bahamas Crisis Centre – Sandra Patterson

Ø  Barbados YWCA – Paige Bryan

Ø  Business and Professional Women's Club of Barbados – Marriane Burnham

Ø  CAISO – Colin Robinson

Ø  Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (St. Lucia) – Flavia Cherry

Ø  Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA T&T) – Tara Ramoutar

Ø  Caribbean Development Activists Network of Women [Caribbean  DAWN] – Shakira Maxwell

Ø  Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership (CIWIL)

Ø  Caribbean Network of Rural Women – Mildred Crawford

Ø  Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) – Shantal Munro-Knight

Ø  Caribbean Women's Association, (CARIWA) Barbados – Marilyn Rice-Bowen  

Ø  Caribbean Youth Environment Network – Shashian Thomas

Ø  Christian Aid – Haiti

Ø  Directorate of Gender Affairs Crisis Centre, Antigua and Barbuda

Ø  Dominica National Council of Women – Vanya David

Ø  Equality Bahamas

Ø  Eve for Life : Emma "Petchary" Lewis – Joy Crawford

Ø  Firecircle – Nicole S. Hendrickson

Ø  Fifty-One Percent Coalition – Jamaica

Ø  Foundation Ultimate Purpose [UP] – Suriname

Ø  Guyana Association of Women Lawyers

Ø  Help & Shelter, Guyana – Josephine Whitehead; Danuta Radzik

Ø  Hollaback! Bahamas

Ø  Jamaica Community of Positive Women – Olive Edwards

Ø  Jamaica Civil Society (Coalition) Forum

Ø  J-FLAG – Karen Lloyd

Ø  JFLAG – Women's Empowerment for Change (A  JFLAG Subsidiary) – Latoya Nugent

Ø  Jamaica Household Workers' Union – Shirley Pryce

Ø  Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers (JNRWP) – Mildred Crawford

Ø  Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network – Monique Long

Ø  Grenada National Organization of Women (GNOW)

Ø  GROOTS – Jamaica – Lana Finikin

Ø  GROOTS – Trinidad & Tobago [formerly of T& T ASPIRE] – Delores Robinson; Nicole Hendrickson

Ø  National Council of Dominican Women – Vanya David

Ø  Network of NGOs Trinidad & Tobago – Terry Ince

Ø  PANOS Caribbean – Indi McLymont Lafayette

Ø  Projekta Suriname – Sharda Ganga

Ø  Quality of Citizenship Jamaica – Angeline Jackson; Jalna Broderick JAMAICA

Ø  Institute of Gender and Development Studies – IGDS, UWI- Mona – Dr Leith Dunn; Nadeen Spence JAMAICA

Ø  Red Thread, Guyana – Vanda Radzik, Indigenous  & Rural Women Advocate

Ø  Saint Lucia Crisis Centre – Antonia Jean

Ø  Save Foundation – Liesel Daisley, BARBADOS

Ø  SISTREN Theatre Collective (Jamaica)

Ø  United and Strong, St. Lucia – Kenita Placide

Ø  Women's Committee of the G2K  (Jamaica Labour Party Youth Arm)

Ø  WMW {Formerly Women's Media Watch} (Jamaica) – Hilary Nicholson

Ø  Woman Inc. (Jamaica) – Joyce Hewett

Ø  Womantra – Stephanie Leitch

Ø  Women's  Resource and Outreach Centre (WROC- Jamaica) – Dorothy Whyte; Lorna Lee; Linnette Vassell

Ø  Women's  Issues Network of Belize (WINBELIZE) – J. Carolyn Reynolds

Ø  Women  Against Rape Inc. – Antigua & Barbuda

Ø  World Merit Bahamas

Ø  Young Women's Leadership Initiative – Jamaica,  Ayesha Constable

INDIVIDUALS

Ø  Andaiye – Human Rights and Gender Equality Activist, GUYANA

Ø  Beverley Anderson-Duncan – Gender Advisor, People's National Party Executive Committee, JAMAICA

Ø  Dr. Peggy Antrobus – Author, Researcher, Gender Equality and Human Rights Activist, BARBADOS

Ø  Dr. Rawwida Baksh – Activist, Researcher, Writer, Policy Adviser on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

Ø  Sue Ann Barratt – Graduate Student, Volunteer, BARBADOS

Ø  Prof. Eudine Barriteau – Principal, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, BARBADOS

Ø  Marion Bethel – Gender Specialist, BAHAMAS

Ø  Grace Boschman – HAITI

Ø  Nicole Brown – Environment and Development Practitioner, JAMAICA

Ø  Crystal Brizan – Gender Equality Practitioner and Activist, Lawyer, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

Ø  Roberta Clarke – Regional Director, Asia/Pacific, UN Women, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO and BARBADOS

Ø  Joy Dillon

Ø  Imani Duncan-Price – Senator, Gender Activist, JAMAICA

Ø  Joan French – Women's and Human Rights Activist, JAMAICA

Ø  Dr. Marcia Forbes – Media & Communications Specialist, University Lecturer, JAMAICA

Ø  Honor Ford-Smith – Artiste, Gender & Human Rights Activist, Educator, JAMAICA & CANADA

Ø  Sue Goffe – Journalist, Media & Communications Expert, Blogger, Human Rights Activist & Defender JAMAICA

Ø  Florence Goldson – Gender and Development Specialist, Human Rights Activist, BELIZE

Ø  Joan Grant Cummings – Gender and Development Specialist, Caribbean DAWN, WROC, JAMAICA

Ø  Eunadie Johnson – Women's Equality, Health and Community Development Activist, JAMAICA & DOMINICA

Ø  Emma Lewis – Independent Blogger, JAMAICA

Ø  Georgia Love – Gender Equality Activist, CatchAFyah Network, Entrepreneur, JAMAICA

Ø  Jean Lowrie-Chin – Communications Expert, JAMAICA

Ø  Shakira Maxwell, Gender and Development Specialist, JAMAICA

Ø  Sharene McKenzie – Expert in Project Management, Community Development, Policing and Mobilization Strategies, Children & Youth Rights, Gender Equality; Governance, JAMAICA

Ø  Carol Narcisse – Educator, Communications, Gender Equality Practitioner and Human Rights Activists, JAMAICA

Ø  Adwoa Onuora – Researcher/Educator; Gender and Human Rights Activist, JAMAICA

Ø  Tamika Peart – Women's Committee G2K, JAMAICA

Ø  Kimalee Phillips – Co-Director Groundation Grenada, Educator, Researcher, Consultant, Writer, Unionist, GRENADA & CANADA

Ø  Prof. Rhoda Reddock – Deputy Principal, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

Ø  Audrey Roberts – Researcher, Human Rights, Gender and Development Activist, BAHAMAS

Ø  Dawn Marie Roper – Researcher, Entrepreneur, Gender Equality Activist

Ø  Maggie Schmeitz – Gender and Youth Development Specialist, SURINAME

Ø  Kai Small – (Ph. D. student) Researcher/Activist in Gender, Sexuality, Blackness and State & Colonial Violence, JAMAICA & USA.

Ø  Danielle Toppin – Gender and Development Specialist, BARBADOS

Ø  Prof. Alissa Trotz – Author, Gender Equality and Human Rights Activist, Educator, GUYANA & CANADA

Ø  Linnette Vassell – Gender & Community Development Specialist, JAMAICA

Ø  Judy Wedderburn – Gender Equality Practitioner, JAMAICA 

Ø  Latoya West-Blackwood – CEO, iPublish Consultancy, Chair, Book Industry Association of JAMAICA

Ø  Dr. Mariama Williams – Feminist Economist, Researcher, Gender Equality Activist, JAMAICA; and Senior Research Fellow, South Centre, SWITZERLAND

Ø  Elaine Wint – Communications and Gender Specialist, JAMAICA

Ø  Dr. Rosina Wiltshire – Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership (CIWiL), BARBADOS

Ø  Alexandria Wong – RN, Gender Equality Activist, ANTIGUA

Food for the Poor Calendars - Delicious!

Friends of Food for the Poor, led by Michele and Frank Chalifour and a group of talented artists, have turned out mouth-watering 2016 calendars – each page features a fruit of vegetable, with a delicious recipe.  Please call or email Marsha Burrell at Food for the Poor to order – marshab@foodforthepoorja.org or (876) 984-7317;618-0141. Only J$1,500 each with discounts for larger numbers – ALL proceeds go to housing for Jamaica's indigent.  

Hatred is endangering our world

Observer column for MON 16 NOV 2015 by  Jean Lowrie-Chin

Aung San Suu Kyi - from BBC.com website

This horrifying attack by the so-called “IS” against France, is a powerful reminder to leaders everywhere of the danger of hatred.  Psychologists are still trying to unravel how a state became so convinced that Jews were their enemies, that six million children, women and men were systematically murdered by the Hitler-led administration less than a century ago.

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar’s (formerly Burma) National League for Democracy, told the media, after her party’s recent landslide victory that the deep-seated divisions in her country will take time to heal. Suu Kyi had been kept under house arrest for ten years by the country’s military, after campaigning for democracy.  In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her principled activism, described by the Nobel Chairman as “an outstanding example of the power of the powerless.” Suu Kyi’s victory proved what she had written years before: “love and truth can move people more strongly than any form of coercion.”

This leads me to appeal to our Jamaican leaders, to remove the vitriol from their campaigns.  If you have enough accomplishments and solid plans for Jamaica, why use your campaign platform for these personal attacks against each other?  PSOJ President William Mahfood remarked recently that he had hoped to see greater political maturity from our leaders as they gear for the upcoming General Elections.  With the world in such a state of fear and disarray, how wonderful it would be if we could say of Jamaica, “We speak peace in every corner of our country” and mean it!  Then communities would not be so divided that people cannot cross certain roads, just a few metres from their homes.

We are still proud that we have come a far way through the establishment of our Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), preceded by the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC).  Both political parties are represented on the Commission and they should work to make this political maturity a reality.  Who knew that as members of the ECJ, Senator Tom Tavares-Finson and Minister Peter Bunting have travelled together to regional electoral conferences to share Jamaica’s electoral best practices?

The next great step would be full adherence of all political representatives to the Political Code of Conduct that bans any association with corrupt and violent practices. Hatred feeds on negative behaviour, and endangers the lives of the innocent.  Let every pastor who preaches the love of God, rebuke any anti-social behaviour they see from our leaders and their party faithfuls.  Let them engage our politicians in church services and prayer meetings, to cool their tempers.

Similarly let all religions of peace lead the world away from those that are purveyors of intolerance and violence. In France, and in too many other states, we see the danger of hatred. Thank goodness, we also see in the hundreds who lined up in Paris on Saturday to donate blood for the victims, and those who gathered at the sites of the bombings, their undying fidelity to their motto, “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” – liberty, equality, fraternity.  Out of our shared grief, let us find the courage to make this a safer, better world.