WORLD VIEW: OAS plays significant role for democracy in elections
THERE are intermittent squabbles in the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS), concerning the controversial general elections of October 20, 2019, in Bolivia.
THE KDK REPORT: Over the mountaintop
THE last speech ever delivered by civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr took place on April 3, 1968, and was entitled ‘I’ve been to the mountaintop’. The speech was in support of economic justice for striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee but Dr King Jr also spoke about having personally faced difficult days. It would end up being the final and most memorable of his words. The man who tried to change the world through peace died by violence. He was assassinated the following day.
INSIGHT: The Queen’s passing is a moment of change
THE passing of Queen Elizabeth II was one of those moments that rings across public life. Whatever your opinion of the Queen and the monarchy, her death on Thursday marked a change. Sometimes, when such a moment comes, the best thing to do is to listen to what others have to say – so that’s what I did.
WORLD VIEW: COP-27 failing before it begins
THE most ominous sign of what the forthcoming COP-27 meeting on climate change portends for small states is that officials from a Group of 20 (G20) major economies, who met on August 31, failed to agree a joint statement at the conclusion of the meeting.
THE KDK REPORT: Above all else – PART 2
THERE are certain definitive sink or swim moments throughout our lives that define each and every one of us. Those moments, while outwardly silent but internally screaming, require hope, stamina and strength of character to survive. This necessary strength is bolstered by knowing that someday, over time and as the seasons change, life will once again become bearable and if fortunate enough, happy and fulfilled.
INSIGHT: Holes, bumps and shoddy road repairs
IS it just my imagination or are our roads getting worse and worse again?
WORLD VIEW: Another ban on leaders attending international meetings?
ONCE again, politicians in the US are entangling the internal politics of their country with US obligations to the international community.
THE KDK REPORT: ABOVE ALL ELSE – part one
MANY of us spend so much of our lives consumed by what’s happened in the past or what should or could happen in the future, that we fail to live in the present. Those who fall into this category aren’t truly living, they’re simply surviving day by day and hoping that their next day is fractionally better than the last. But then there are others who live in the moment. Grateful for every second of life, oftentimes because they’ve come so close to losing it.
INSIGHT: Are we really ready to go back to school?
IT’S that time of year when parents will be setting off on the school run again. Children will be wakened early, freshly bought uniforms will be put on, and out the door to school they go, with shoes that might stay unscuffed for a week and bags that parents hope will last.
WORLD VIEW: Haiti sinking deeper into catastrophe - who will save it?
HAITI has never been far from wide-scale human suffering, grave political instability, and grim economic underdevelopment. But its circumstances today are worse than they have been before.
THE KDK REPORT: Beyond the batter’s eye
THERE’S something uniquely American about baseball – its simplicity, the hot dogs and the cheering fans in the stands create what feels like a community connected.
INSIGHT: Will our politicians ever tackle the issue of marital rape?
THE issue of marital rape is one that seems to neither ever go away
INSIGHT: The law is the law - and the government should follow it
IMAGINE if you will the following scenario: You’re driving home, and the police pull you over. When you ask what you did wrong, the officer tells you that you were speeding and so you have broken the law. Not to worry, you say, I’ll change that law when I get home, and off you drive, leaving behind the officer shouting after you that you’ve broken the law right now.
WORLD VIEW: Has CARICOM reached its limits of regional integration?
SO FAR in this attempt to answer the question, “Has CARICOM reached its limits of regional integration”, it has been established that, after almost 50 years, the regional project has failed to deliver the commitments expected from the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas and its Revision in 2001.
THE KDK REPORT: One more day
AT 1AM, my patient receives a phone call from the police. There’s been another car accident. He kisses his wife goodbye, puts on his overalls and grabs his work bag in the garage. Within ten minutes, he arrives at the scene, tonight and often times before the ambulance on call. The road is blocked by at least four police cars and the glare from their flashing siren lights pierces his cornea in the darkness of the hour. After almost 40 years in this profession, he’ll never be fully comfortable with the nightmarish feeling that a night like this elicits.
