Posts in category Special Features

The brewing Atlantic storm kept cruisers at bay but the ship still off a lot of fun, entertainment and great food We got back to the ship on time, and as we were getting onto the tenders, the waves were getting bigger and bigger, causing the tender to hit the steps of the ship real hard. A woman screamed, literally cursing at the crew, as she wanted to know if they were trying to get the passengers killed! Other passengers were not listening to the crew at all, trying to jump onto the stairs – one false move and they …

Trinidad All Stars’ Minuet In G at the 1958 Bomb competition Contact Staff Martin Albino’s involvement in the steelpan movement reaches back to well over six and a half decades and still he continues to be relevant and make a difference. This year, the Montreal-based composer, arranger and player extraordinaire celebrated a special milestone in his native Trinidad and Tobago by organizing the 60th Anniversary of Trinidad All Stars performance of Minuet In G for the inaugural Bomb Competition in the 1958 carnival. Needless to say, the ‘tune’ arranged by the legendary Neville Jules, 30 years old at the time, …

From New York City to Antigua Back in 2006 we had our first experience driving to the States to pick up a cruise ship (instead of flying to a set destination), and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only is it considerably cheaper, as we did not have to pay for a flight, we were able to take our time down to New York to visit with family and get onto the lovely Norwegian Dawn. This year would take us through to Boston where I spent two days with my beloved brother-in-law Maxwell Ayoung and his lovely family. The drive through …

A mass of Montrealers will converge on the Ruby Foo Hotel on April 30, for the 2018 JN Group Expo put on by, The Jamaica National Group and the Lynx Canada Foundation. The event was staged here for the first time and was an outstanding success when it was inaugurated at the Pearson Convention Centre in Toronto last year, as more than 6000 people, Jamaicans and friends of Jamaica gathered invaluable information about, “investment opportunities, real estate ventures and relevant services from representatives of government agencies in Jamaica.” Jamaica’s private sector will be well-represented by a cross section of JN …

AFRICA A single currency for all of Africa can be the springboard that launches Africa as an economic power block globally. This ideal is what South African President Cyril Ramaphosa firmly believes in, and he strongly backed the proposal of creating a homogeneous currency for African countries in a bid to attract infrastructure investment and ease intra-African trade. Speaking to journalists on March 21st at the African Union Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, where 44 countries signed a deal to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Ramaphosa said a single African currency was the natural next step. He added …

 Rosie AWORI On April 4, 1968, a chilling shot echoed across Memphis, Tennessee and changed the world forever. A terrorist muzzled the voice that had energized the American civil rights movement. It will soon be 50 years since Martin Luther King was assassinated. Rev. King was in Memphis to support a city sanitation workers strike. The deadly rifle shot was fired at 6:01 pm from the window of a rooming house across the street, striking him on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, just steps outside his room. He died an hour later at a Memphis hospital. His murder set …

10-year-old went missing on Monday, March 12 Contact Staff   The search for 10-year-old Ariel Kouakou is intensifying, as police deploy divers into the Rivière des Prairies, next to the park where he was last seen. The reward being offered to anyone who can help to locate the boy has increased, after boxing champion Adonis Stevenson donated $15,000 to the family. During the early morning of Monday, march 19, six police divers, dove into the river in search of the boy, who vanished after leaving his home in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville district, to visit a friend on March 12. An Amber …

 SOUTH AFRICA Ramaphosa to accelerate land transfer from white owners to Black owners Under the rule of European colonists, South Africa’s Natives Land Act of 1913 stripped most Black people of their right to be property owners. The National Party and its system of apartheid reinforced this policy decades later, and its effects are felt today throughout the nation. On February 27, South African lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in a motion for ‘expropriation without compensation.’ This new law will result in land being seized from the white farmers without giving them any financial compensation. The radical left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) …

Janice Farray Fight! Struggle! Break the harness with might! Show the worth of Black fruits, Carrier of great pride, spirit and more, for out reproduction, you come forth, Courageous, powerful, like the lion Let us hear you, rooooar…  Black Child! Since we are honoring educators, I think it fitting to speak about the role of education: formal and informal or as I call it “learning through the University of life” and its importance in our lives. Education is the foundation upon which we build and nurture who we are; it is the key to opening doors to opportunities; it is …

On a fall evening in 1946, one woman’s act of courage and resilience in the face of racism would prove to be a pivotal moment in Canada’s history. Viola Desmond was a successful Black Nova Scotia businesswoman who defiantly refused to leave a whites-only area of a movie theatre on November 8, 1946, and was subsequently jailed, convicted and fined. While she was unsuccessful in her subsequent efforts to quash her criminal conviction, her story resulted in a milestone human rights case in Canada. Desmond’s court case was one of the first known legal challenges against racial segregation brought by …