The William Skinner Blog

  by William Skinner Since the abolition of slavery, the Caribbean region has been heading toward a date with destiny. Many of us have hailed events as defining moments. In most cases those moments lingered a while and then faded into historical reference. The abolition of slavery was a significant moment for our physical being but the scars of mental slavery still shackle us to a belief that we have reached the apex of our civilization. The rise of the working class in the 1930s and onward to individual state independence, would have further cemented that we had arrived at a stage of development that was almost miraculous. It is a remarkable feat, that we went from slavery to independence in a historically short time. We should therefore be forgiven if we thought : The Strife    Is O’er, The Battle Won.” We were skillful with our limited resources and those countries within the region with more bountiful resources than others, were generous in their assistance toward the...

  Spokesman for Savvy on the Bay, Sarah Taylor, pointing out where the excavator had begun digging on their property.  More By William Skinner However, history is the greatest teacher, and when one has been exposed, to some of the most genuine progressive Caribbean minds, of the last six decades, their perspective tends to look inward because nothing that is happening now on the global scene would hold any deep fascination . Most of it was predicted by progressive thinkers at least one hundred years or more ago. Many of the academics today are still grounded in irrelevant eurocentric thinking and we find ourselves promoting and reading so-called scholars , who are very cleverly regurgitating what was written long before they graduated from university. When stripped of all the fancy talk , the truth remains that those who condemn the emerging Caribbean civilzation are still, intellectually speaking, slaves. Unfortunately they have abandon Marley for eurocentricity. So, we will ...

  by William Skinner I don’t think that it can be seriously argued that a Bajan(Barbados) Tuk Band performing in any other country, will automatically turn them into Bajans. That being said, the truth remains that it is ironic that we seldom see the promotion of authentic African culture on our island . We tend to restrict it to dancing and so on and this often degenerated into wukking up and almost pornographic vulgarity, that really may be our culture but has nothing to do with Africa. In other words while other cultures within our community tend to produce elements of their culture, we often display that we are not that knowledgeable about our African culture. This then, in my humble opinion, means that in order to counter this obvious ignorance of our authentic culture, we ought to teach our children from very early( primary schools) about their African heritage. Quite frankly, regardless of what is said, in a country with a population that is 95% African, we have determined th...

  A s rampant gang violence displaces hundreds of thousands of Haitians and leaves millions on the brink of famine, the temptation to call on the United States to intervene is compelling. But, we must learn from history – US intervention in Haiti, whether through outright military force or imposing an outside economic agenda, has done tremendous harm and contributed immensely and directly to today’s instability. This pattern cannot be repeated. The path forward must be charted by Haitians themselves, with international support channelled into uplifting homegrown efforts to restore peace, democracy and development from the ground up. It is for this reason that the latest statements from powerful ganglord Jimmy  Barbecue  Chérizier are so concerning. Chérizier has expressed a willingness to potentially disarm his forces – if gangs like his are allowed to have a seat at the table in negotiations to establish Haiti’s interim government. Legitimising armed criminal militias in...