St Lucia: Who needs a plane or a boat to travel from one Caribbean territory to another when you could simply swim it? That must have been the question in the head of South African, Cameron Bellamy, last Friday as he stood on the beach in St Peter’s Bay, Barbados, looking west at St Lucia, then wading into the water and swimming the 94 miles beach-to-beach distance from one beautiful island to the other in 56 hours and 36 minutes. Comment

St Kitts and Nevis: BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Sept. 20, 2019 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – Four officers of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force departed the Federation earlier today (Friday, Sept. 20) destined for the Commonwealth of The Bahamas where they will help to provide much needed security assistance to that country, as well as relief for officers there who are overstretched since the catastrophic Hurricane Dorian struck the island chain early September. Comment

Brooklyn: Sen. Roxanne J. Persaud on Monday announced a series of NYS Department of Education grants for schools and non-profit organizations serving constituents in her 19th Senatorial District in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. Comment

Bahamas: Council Member Mathieu Eugene, in partnership with local organizations, has launched a relief effort at the District Office to provide aid to the Bahamas in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. The resulting devastation of the storm has resulted in 51 deaths, with thousands of residents missing and without food, and nearly 70,000 left homeless. Comment

Belize: Our country of Belize received its independence from Great Britain on Sept. 21, 1981. Yet, many of our people are living in a state of dependency, our government keep borrowing money from several countries and institutions to survive making us more financially dependent and our nation’s independence is still haunted by the Guatemalan claim to our territory. Comment

Guyana: Repsol, the Spanish oil major could soon be next in line to announce a major oil find if its Carapa-1 well that is now being drilled yields up commercial quantities of oil and gas. If this is the case, it will not only join ExxonMobil and Tullow Oil of the United Kingdom with wells yielding large amounts of oil and gas, but it will also mean oil has been found in yet another or a third concession block in the much-heralded Guyana Basin. Comment

St Kitts and Nevis: Nationals of St. Kitts and Nevis were in ecstasy last Friday as the country’s flag was raised for the very first time at Philadelphia City Hall. Philadelphia resident Kylla Herbert — whose late father, Nkem Tshombe, hailed from St. Kitts and Nevis — told Caribbean Life that she was honored to lead the historic initiative. Comment

Bahamas: The Washington, D.C.-based Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) says that “all hands (and paws) are on deck” in relief efforts in wake of the ravages caused by Hurricane Dorian. Comment

For all the talk about how important it is for all of us to vote, Queens continues to perform lousily when it comes to participating in her democracy, with a reported 13 percent turnout in February’s public advocate special election and a similar rate in June’s district attorney primary. Comment

Jamaica: Tasked with the primary responsibility of promoting and safeguarding the interest of Jamaican nationals residing in 33 United States, Bermuda and Puerto Rico, Jamaica’s newest Consul General Alsion Roach Wilson recently announced reforms she intends to implement in order to improve relations with diasporans during her tenure at the New York consulate. Comment

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Sen. Roxanne J. Persaud said on Monday that she will hold next week a shredding event at her 21st Senatorial District Office in Canarsie, Brooklyn for members of the community to “safely recycle their unwanted confidential documents, free of charge.” Comment

National: Members of the Congressional Tri-Caucus — which includes the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) — have filed amicus briefs opposing the Trump administration’s public charge rule aimed at legal Caribbean and other immigrants who wish to remain in the US but whose dearth of financial resources are deemed likely to make them a burden on US taxpayers. Comment

Viewpoints: KUALA LUMPUR and PENANG, Sept. 17 2019 (IPS) - Rapid financial globalization is due not only to financial innovations, but also to choices made by national policymakers, often with naïve expectations, trusting promoters’ promises of steady net inflows of financial resources. Comment

Sports: Fired West Indies head coach, Richard Pybus, believes he and former Cricket West Indies President, David Cameron, had the right tools and vision to transform the embattled regional team into a successful side again. Comment

New York: Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams congratulated the Guyana Cultural Association (GCA) on its 19th season, stating that Brooklyn is the Georgetown of America, and if it were not for the contributions made by the Caribbean diaspora, “we would not be who we are, in Brooklyn, or New York, or America.” Comment

Trinidad and Tobago: Trinidad and Tobago sprint queen and Commonwealth Games 100-meter champion Michelle-Lee Ahye has been provisionally suspended by the world track and field governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) for a violation of the IAAF Anti-Doping Rules. Comment

Sports: West Indies Women slumped to an eight-wicket defeat and a 3-0 whitewash in the ICC Women’s Championship ODI series in Antigua last week. Comment

Books: With a book in your hands, you can do almost anything. Grab a cookbook and make a meal. Pick up a how-to book and fix a toilet. Take a trip to the past or the future, learn to knit, meet a new friend, you can do it with a book. Or, with a book like “A Death in Harlem” by Karla FC Holloway, you might solve a crime. Comment

Music: It was billed as “An Afternoon of Great Music” and the billing, clearly, lived up to expectations — even exceeding them — as three Black internationally-acclaimed singers on Sunday brought Carnegie Hall to St. Paul’s Church in the Village of Flatbush, Brooklyn. Comment

Music: At least one entertainment media outlet thought that Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley drew attention equal to that Rihanna at the pop superstar’s annual Diamond Ball, but when interviewed the island’s leader gushed only about the child of the soil who now entertains the world. Comment

Trinidad and Tobago: Trinidad and Tobago Independence Day was commemorated at Queens Borough Hall for the very first time, and expatriates applauded their accomplishments, during a Citations of Honors presentation, on Sept. 12 in the Helen Marshall Cultural Center. Comment

People: The American Caribbean Maritime Foundation (ACMF) announced that it will honor three outstanding leaders in the maritime sector in the Caribbean at its annual Anchor Awards to be held Friday, Oct. 11 at the New York Yacht Club. Comment

Environment: Cameron Diver is deputy director-general, the Pacific Community (SPC) New Caledonia, Sept 13 2019 (IPS) - In less than 10 days, countries from around the planet will come together in New York for the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit. I look forward to representing the Pacific Community (SPC) at this important event, and throughout “Action Week” during the upcoming UN General Assembly. Comment

Books: “Keep this to yourself!” That’s the way big dreams start: don’t tell anyone, because telling makes them more delicate. Sharing makes it hurt more when what you want doesn’t happen. As in the new book “More to Life” by ReShonda Tate Billingsley, it’s even worse when your dreams are ignored. Comment

Trinidad and Tobago: Antigua The Antigua and Barbuda government said negotiations with Barbados to become the majority shareholder in the cash-strapped regional airline, LIAT, “have been put on hold.” Comment

Sports: Veteran opener Chris Gayle slammed his 22nd Twenty20 century but Evin Lewis unleashed the fastest half century in Caribbean Premier League history, as St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots completed the highest-ever run chase in franchise cricket, to stun Jamaica Tallawahs by four wickets in St. Kitts last week. Comment

Arts & Theater: On the heels of a very successful medical mission to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the United Vincie Cultural Group of Brooklyn (UVCGB) two Saturdays ago conducted another very successful cultural show at the Meyer Levin (I.S. 285) Intermediate School in Brooklyn. Comment

Bahamas: Consul General of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Lawrence S. Cartwright, expressed special thanks to the CARICOM Consular Corps for the outpouring of support, after Hurricane Dorian ravished parts of the island nation. Comment

Books: Brooklyn is the destination for anyone who enjoys turning a page to enlightenment when the borough’s 13th annual book festival return for a week of literary harvest. Comment

Barbados: Guard Theo Greenidge scored a game-high 29 points to ensure Spartans beat Blackbirds 86-76 and catapult his team into the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association’s (BABA) Premier League for the first time. Comment

Arts & Theater: A Brooklyn Supreme Court judge on Wednesday sentenced an East New York, Brooklyn, man to five months in jail and five years’ probation for stealing and attempting to sell the home of his 85-year-old neighbor, a diabetic man for whom the defendant was a part-time caretaker. Comment

Arts & Theater: NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County on Tuesday announced that The Commission on Cancer (CoC), a quality program of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), has granted three-year accreditation to the hospital’s state-of-the-art Cancer Care Center. Comment

Food: Vincentian fashion designer Donna Weekes and her son, Jamane, had plans of opening up a business together for years, and their vision turned into reality recently with the grand opening of Lips Café in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Comment

Arts & Theater: When it comes to his latest work, fashion designer Glenroy March said he wanted to create something “to stay within his DNA.” Comment

Bahamas: Authorities in The Bahamas are stepping up aid and relief efforts to Grand Bahama and Abaco islands and have deployed nearly 1,000 law enforcement officers to quell a spate of looting that has dampened recovery efforts in the wake of the devastation from Hurricane Dorian. Comment