New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks at a news conference
in New York, U.S., June 11, 2019. REUTERS / Mike Segar, fi le
Caribbean Life, December 11-17, 2020 3
By Tangerine Clarke
Alton Aimable, founder and president
of Tropicalfete Inc., a cultural
arts organization in Brooklyn,
is spreading Christmas cheer,
while educating youths and adults
through its recently unveiled, Tropicalfete’s
Caribbean Cultural puzzle,
a 500-piece Classic Edition Jigsaw,
he said, was a group project.
The jigsaw puzzle could be purchased
at the Christmas Fete Holiday
Market, Santa Claus & Toy
giveaway on Saturday, Dec. 19, from
noon to 2 pm, at the Flatbush Caton
Market, 2184 Clarendon Rd. Christmas
caroling by Tropicalfete will
follow.
The St. Lucian-born artistic leader
who founded the online non-profit,
Tropicalfete.com more than 10
years ago, with a mission to develop
arts and social services within the
community, winning prizes at the
Annual Children’s Carnival parade
along the way, said, many aspects
went into creating and launching
the family pastime.
He told Caribbean Life that it
was the brainchild of Paul Dolor
to include a pamphlet on Caribbean
history, geography, economy
and culture, while Reysha Spooner
and Brittany Somerset were involve
in taking professional photos for
packaging and marketing of the
product.
Additionally, Ahmad Srour created
the graphics, as Amiya Falby and
Janeen Pottinger tested the product
before it was available to the general
public. Ava, Deborah and Siva were
hand models.
Available for Christmas, birthday
parties and social gatherings,
the 500-piece jigsaw, made with
premium quality material, with a
finished size of 8 in x 24 in, costs
$19.95, and can be purchased at
www.amazon.com. Proceeds go
towards the organization’s community
programs, which include steel
pan music, costume design, and stilt
dancing instruction.
To learn more, or make a donation,
go to https://tropicalfete.com.
By Nelson A. King
Former New York City Councilman
Donovan Richards was sworn in on Dec.
2 as the first Black man to serve as
Queens Borough President in the office’s
122-year-history.
Richards’s swearing-in ceremony took
place a day after New York City Board of
Elections certified his defeat of Republican
Joann Ariola in the November elections.
In the elections, Richards received
518,840 votes to Ariola’s 205,893.
Richards replaces Sharon Lee, who
acted as Queens Borough President since
January 2020, after erstwhile Queens
Borough President Melinda Katz became
Queens District Attorney.
On his Facebook page, Richards said
on Dec. 2 that he was “honored to have
our fierce New York State Attorney General
Letitia James swear me in as Queens
Borough President.
“I’m ready to fight for all of Queens,”
he said.
A day earlier, he posted: “When
God is in your corner, you’re good. No
evil formed against you will prosper.
Keep praying and seeking wisdom even
through your imperfections.”
Richards also said in a statement, on
Dec. 1, that, “over the last few months,
Acting Borough President Sharon Lee
has taken on the challenges of this pandemic
head on and led Queens with grace
through this difficult time.
“Since the election, she has worked
hard to ensure a smooth transition and
ensure that the Office of Borough President
continues to deliver for Queens residents,”
he said. “I look forward to building
on the foundation she has built to
fight food insecurity and ensure that our
institutions and residents have access
to PPE.
“I thank her again for the great work
she has done over the last few months
and wish her continued success in the
future,” Richards added.
A lifelong resident of Southeast Queens
and the Rockaways, Richards was elected
to the New York City Council in March
2013, representing the 3st District.
That district comprises portions
of Arverne, Bayswater, Broad Channel,
Cambria Heights, Edgemere, Far
Rockaway, Howard Beach, Jamaica, John
F. Kennedy International Airport, Laurelton,
Rockaway Beach, Rosedale, South
Ozone Park and Springfield Gardens.
During the 2014-2017 session, he was
appointed to be the chair of the Committee
on Environmental Protection, which
allowed him to address the decades-old
systemic issue of flooding in Southeast
Queens.
By Nelson A. King
New York Attorney General Letitia
James on Wednesday filed a lawsuit
against Facebook, Inc., alleging that
the company has and continues today
to illegally stifle competition to protect
its monopoly power.
The lawsuit alleges that, over the last
decade, the social networking giant illegally
acquired competitors in a predatory
manner and cut services to smaller
threats — depriving users from the
benefits of competition and reducing
privacy protections and services along
the way — all in an effort to boost its
bottom line through increased advertising
revenue.
Attorney General James leads a
bipartisan coalition of 48 attorneys general
from around the nation in filing
Wednesday’s lawsuit to stop Facebook’s
anticompetitive conduct.
“For nearly a decade, Facebook has
used its dominance and monopoly
power to crush smaller rivals and snuff
out competition, all at the expense of
everyday users,” James said. “Today, we
are taking action to stand up for the
millions of consumers and many small
businesses that have been harmed by
Facebook’s illegal behavior.
“Instead of competing on the merits,
Facebook used its power to suppress
competition, so it could take advantage
of users and make billions by converting
personal data into a cash cow,”
she added. “Almost every state in this
nation has joined this bipartisan lawsuit
because Facebook’s efforts to dominate
the market were as illegal as they
were harmful.
“Today’s suit should send a clear message
to Facebook and every other company
that any efforts to stifle competition,
reduce innovation, or cut privacy
protections will be met with the full
force of our offices,” James continued.
Since 2004, she said Facebook has
operated as a personal social networking
service that facilitates sharing content
online without charging users a
monetary fee, but, instead, provides
these services in exchange for a user’s
time, attention and personal data.
James said Facebook then monetizes
its business by selling advertising to
firms that attach immense value to the
user engagement and highly targeted
advertising that Facebook can deliver
due to the vast trove of data it collects
on users, their friends and their interests.
In an effort to maintain its market
dominance in social networking, the
New York attorney general said Facebook
employs a variety of methods to
impede competing services and — as
chairman, chief executive officer and
controlling shareholder Mark Zuckerberg
has stated — to “build a competitive
moat” around the company.
Youths engaged in putting together
Tropicalfete’s Caribbean
Cultural jigsaw puzzle. Tropicalfete
NY attorney general leads multistate
lawsuit to end Facebook’s monopoly
Donovan Richards creates history in Queens
Tropicalfete’s
cultural puzzle
/Tropicalfete.com
/tropicalfete.com
/www.amazon.com
/www.amazon.com
/tropicalfete.com
