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What the World is Reading

November 20, 2008 11:46 AM

By Clark Bentson, ABC News Rome

Caribbean Crime Spree: Sun, Surf, and Sadly, Murder

Crime was the story on the front pages of many Caribbean-based newspapers and Web sites this week. Tommy Turnquest, Bahamas’ national security minister, who spoke during a crime seminar in Nassau earlier this month, is quoted in the Nassau Guardian as saying, “‘Virtually all Caribbean nations are above the internationally accepted threshold for murder, set a five per 100,000 of the population.’ He added that the Bahamas is in the range of 22 to 24 per 100, 000,” according to the report.   While rape and armed robberies declined, the number of murders in the Bahamas increased. During a regional meeting of Anglican bishops in Nassau, church leaders expressed concern for “growing pervasive crime culture” in the region. The Bahamas Journal quoted from the bishops’ report in an article in its newspaper.  "We note that some of the causative considerations arise from social injustice and inequalities in the region, the drug culture and escalating gang warfare, all of which have produced fear and a sense of impotence and hopelessness in our communities." The rise in violent crime across the Caribbean has helped gain support for advocates of the death penalty in the region. Citizens from Trinidad and Tobago to St. Kitts and Nevis have urged their governments to support the death penalty. The B2B Bahamian Web site links to another  article outlining the crime statistics on the rise in many Caribbean island nations.  “Hit hardest is Jamaica, where 3 million people suffered more than 1,240 murders this year. But smaller resort islands are affected too. After two British honeymooners were shot dead in July in Antigua, the government proposed the gallows for crimes involving weapons, even if the victim is not killed.” “Apart from all the smoke screen that has been thrown up about whether the death penalty will reduce crime, the foremost principle is the ability of the state to carry out its laws,” said Elson Crick, a spokesman for the prime minister of St. Vincent, which is preparing to revise its constitution. In response to citizen demands, Crick said it will likely make executions easier.

Liberia: Reflection and Recollections

From The Analyst in Monrovia this week, a front-page story was a call from the labor minister to have the government dismantled.  Testifying before the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Minister Samuel Kofi Woods, who is a human rights lawyer and former student activist, told commissioners that what was now in place is a “caricature of a state and not a real state.” Woods demanded that the Liberian state be dismantled and reconceptualized, saying that the real Liberian state must emerge out of the proceedings of the commission.

Liberia suffered a bloody civil war that ended in 2003 when the rebel army forced then-President Charles Taylor out. Taylor is now in The Hague facing charges.  Liberians are getting an opportunity not only to try to reconcile through the efforts of the commission, but also to examine in detail the bloody period of their civil war. Also in the Analyst there was a story this week on the release of a documentary film titled “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.”   The article calls the film “an extraordinary story of a small band of Liberian women who came together in the midst of a bloody civil war, took on the violent warlords and corrupt Charles Taylor regime and won a long-awaited peace for their shattered country.” The Los Angeles Times reviewed the movie too.   It writes, “Leymah Gbowee, one of the movement's leaders [who] has now taken her work beyond Liberia to co-found Women Peace and Security Network Africa, considers the film a ‘call to action’ whose inspirational message translates to any culture. ‘I think women have the ability to mobilize around every and any issue, especially if that issue touches their heart.’”

“Pray the Devil Back to Hell” has been shown to groups of women in other war-torn countries, including Zimbabwe and Kenya. At a recent screening in Khartoum, Sudan, the documentary sparked a plan by women in a peace studies program to get 1 million Sudanese women to sign a position paper on Darfur. The film has been submitted as a candidate for an Oscar nomination.

Afghanistan’s Panjshir Province Going ‘Green’

The Afghan Online Press web site website  this week linked to an article with some rare good news from Afghanistan. A wind farm opened in the Panjshir province with a capacity to produce 100 kilowatts of energy. The article, which originally appeared in American military publications  including emilitary.org, said that though it may not look like much, it is one component of an energy plan that will make the Panjshir province 100 percent powered by renewable resources. Quoting the article, “Beyond the wind farm, the area relies heavily on micro-hydro electric power plants. The power plants produce energy without the radical changes to the ecosystem that would result from a full-sized dam like the Dahla Dam in Kandahar province. As the nation’s electrical infrastructure grows, Panjshir will be in the position to export its power to less-gifted areas over a grid.”

Ascension Island: Goodbye Freddy, Welcome Zayla

In the most remote corners of the world, the priority of what is news may be a bit different than what most of us are reading but it is still as important in the minds of the local readers. There is no “permanent” or indigenous population on Ascension Island, located in the South Atlantic. Visitors need pre-approval to travel there and access is by either by British Royal Mail boats or by a Royal Air Force flight from England. So the news of an arrival and departure of even one resident is big news in the capital of Georgetown. The Islander writes that Freddy Bennett is leaving Ascension on the next boat out.  He spent 42 years on the island and raised his family there. But as one goes, there is another to replace him; this time the newest arrival, Zayla Henry, born Nov. 1.  Best of luck to both of them and their families.

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November 20, 2008 in Clark Bentson | Permalink | User Comments (1)

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Posted by: The_Mick | Nov 20, 2008 11:49:37 PM

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