FIND THE LATEST NEWS UPDATED EVERY DAY AT CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM
Vol. 32, Issue 37 QUEENS/LONG ISLAND/BRONX/MANHATTAN September 10-16, 2021
CARICOM
PRAISES
AFRICA
Region thanks AU for Covid
vaccines and agreeing to
jointly fight for reparations
By Bert Wilkinson
In the past year, Caribbean
Community nations have
moved to foster closer relations
with Africa, figuring that such
collaboration could help them
form a powerful international
bloc to fight for several issues
including climate change,
reorganizing international air
routes to make travel easier
and to confront former European
slave trading nations to
make them pay reparations.
The two sides have held
several rounds of meetings at
the United Nations and other
forums and leaders including
Prime Minister Mia Mottley of
Barbados have traveled to Africa
for talks with continental
counterparts as they laid the
groundwork for a new era of
Africa-Caribbean cooperation.
On Tuesday, all the preparations
and groundwork came
together in the form of a threehour
virtual summit chaired
by Kenya’s President Uhuru
Kenyatta.
Surprisingly, collaborations
on reparations and other issues
did not take center stage-at
least from the perspective of
Caribbean nations- as most
thought it best to thank the
African Union( AU) for helping
them to acquire life-saving
Covid-19 vaccines when they
were struggling to obtain from
western nations like the US
and Britain which had bountiful
supplies but were hoarding.
The summit was billed as the
first and most formal conference
setting the two have had
in recent memory. Leaders are
to meet on Sept. 7 next year as
they move to make such sessions
as annual ones.
“Thank you Africa,” bellowed
Trinidad’s Prime Minister Keith
Rowley during his brief presentation.
“As chairman of CARICOM
during the first half of
this year, I can attest to the
value of closer collaboration
between our regions,” he said,
referring to the hoarding, calling
it “vaccine apartheid.” He
made it clear that the region
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as New York Governor Kathy Hochul looks on, during
the visit at a neighbourhood impacted by fl ood damage from the remnants of Hurricane
Ida in the Queens borough of New York City, U.S., Sept. 7, 2021. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Hochul, Biden visit storm-damaged
neighborhood in Queens
By Nelson A. King
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday
joined President Joe Biden
in visiting a storm-damaged
neighborhood in East Elmhurst,
Queens.
The area, along 88th Street,
was among the worst hit in
the city last week by the remnants
of Tropical Storm Ida.
“Ladies and gentlemen,
that is the definition of a climate
crisis,” Hochul told a
press conference. “We’re experiencing
a climate crisis as we
speak, but. more than talking
about that, it’s a humanitarian
crisis.
“And you only have to walk
down this street, as I have
many times with our elected
officials who care so deeply
about the people who live here
and throughout Queens and
all the other effected communities,
to know that people
that we represent, who
put their faith in us, are in
pain right now,” the governor
added. “They’re hurting. They
look into our eyes and they
ask us to help and we will not
abandon them.
“Every one of us here, our
elected leaders down from our
president, to our senators,
our congress members, our
assemblymembers, our mayors,
everyone, including our
council members, we are here
to help,” she continued.
“I’m so proud to say that
we’ve never seen a response
like we’ve seen from President
Continued on Page 12 Continued on Page 12
/CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM