WASHINGTON, DC – The seven nation Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), which marked its 43rd anniversary on June 18, 2024, is arguably one of the most successful integration projects in the world. It is second only to the 27-nation European Union (EU).

”U.S. student loan debt has ballooned in recent years, outpacing most other forms of consumer borrowing. In 2022 almost two-third of recent high school graduates took out student loans. Students are borrowing more, because college tuitions have grown many times faster than income.” says Council Foreign Relations.

While small island developing states (SIDS) stand in the clashes of climate change, the economic and social impacts of a post COVID-19 quandary, and staggering debt burdens, the international community now congress in earnest on the Caribbean Island of Antigua and Barbuda to review its sustainable development progress.

In 1865, over 159 years ago, the U.S. eliminated or outlawed slavery in the U.S. with the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. One of the promises and pledges to freed slaves was that each would receive 40 acres and a mule. This commitment would help former slaves with building a home, raising a family and growing wealth through land ownership and entrepreneurship. While some Black Americans were able to receive land in the 1860s and 1870s, unfortunately, many former slaves nor their descendants ever received land. In fact, many Black Americans that were given land were chased off their land with force and brutality from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacy organizations. 

WASHINGTON, DC –  In the international arena, small states consistently grapple with existential threats. The structures of the global economy, finance, and trade not only sideline them but are deliberately skewed against their favour.

Access to clean, affordable and reliable energy, for small island developing states constitute a key module for achieving goal # 7 of the United Nations sustainable development goal agenda. (UNSDGs). However high energy costs coupled with the disastrous effects of climate change, are now major issues in providing reasonably priced and sustainable energy for the economic development and resilient prosperity to satisfy the basic economic needs of all.

Based on all the niceties and pleasures that love is supposed to bring, chronicled by great scribes, poets and singers, you’d think that everyone would want to be loved.

WASHINGTON, DC – When considering the economic and development challenges of developing economies in the face of the climate crisis, most people tend to view debt as a complicating factor at best and a source of many of our problems at worst.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – It is 2024. I have been searching the regional media for the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of LIAT (1974) Ltd. Alas, I have not seen even a letter. The truth is that the iconic regional air carrier was unceremoniously shuttered in January 2024 – the beginning of the year that would have marked a historic milestone in Caribbean cooperation. We do not know, and we do not care about either our Caribbean history or our Caribbean achievements.

WASHINGTON, DC – On Friday, 14 June 2024, Antigua and Barbuda and the State of Palestine established diplomatic relations, advancing the step taken in 2011 when Antigua and Barbuda declared its recognition of Palestine as a State.

 “I don’t care how many times they threaten me. I will gladly leave this place knowing I did God’s Work,” says Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Because of this apparent shortage of wife-material-women, many men are left out on a limb, living in limbo, bereft of female companionship because they cannot find a suitable woman to be their wife.