WHOEVER thought voters in England would have voted for something — and then turn back and say they didn’t know what they voted for? Or that the British would ever have voted to leave the European Union (EU)? Or that move would ever have had the sort of implications the Caribbean is being warned about today?
Brexit caught the Caribbean by surprise, but not more than Britain itself. The EU – and all of Europe – were equally dumbfounded after Britons delivered their exit poll..
When it became clear just what the British majority had voted for, millions signed signatures and took to the streets demanding their votes back. But it was too late. Britain was already in a bind.
Now, hot-tempered EU bureaucrats in Brussels are begging Britain to get out quickly, while cooler heads like German Chancellor Angela Merkel are asking that they not rush the brush.
Meanwhile, the alarm bells are ringing across the Caribbean today. Politicians and economists, diplomats and analysts, all predict the Brexit blowout will have a serious backlash for the region, thanks in particular to its age-old links with Mother England.
Now that Britain has opted to leave the EU, even before London signs its divorce papers, the 12 CARICOM member-states that grew up singing God Save the Queen have lost all status in the eyes of the EU.
The only status CARICOM has had with the European Union since London accessed the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 was through Britain. With Britain now out, the
With the bulk of CARICOM and Commonwealth Caribbean trade with the EU going to and through Britain, Caribbean leaders will have to strike a new balance in terms of trade with the EU.
region has no more legitimate standing whatsoever with the EU. All its dealings with Britain have been conducted through the EU. Britain is also CARICOMS main export and source market in the EU. Most European visitors to most Caribbean states come from the UK. And all CARICOM banana exports are also to Britain. But as of Black Friday, the day after the Brexit Vote, none of the above is the same anymore.
The British can actually see London Bridge falling down. While the two camps at Westminster have been playing the Blame Game since the exit poll, Britains Triple A (AAA) rating was downgraded by Standard & Poors. The Pound (sterling) also slid down to its lowest low in 31 years.
The political landscape is just as uncertain across the UK. Prime Minister David Cameron was back-stabbed by Boris Johnson, who was in turn back-stabbed by Michael Gove. Veteran Home Secretary Theresa May, touted as having a pair of safe hands and who quietly backed the Remain campaign, is emerging as the next woman likely to be Prime Minister – and her main rival is also a woman. And now, UK Independent Party Leader Nigel Farage has dropped his own bombshell, announcing he is giving up the leadership of the party after leading it to Brexit victory. (He has now opted to spread the exit word across Europe, promising to lead the charge to eventually break-up the EU – and also hoping the next UK PM will find a role for him.)
An early British general election also looms — and seems most unavoidable. Scotland and the two Irelands are also seeking their own ways out of Brexit, the Scots – who recently claimed Independence from the UK – now wanting to stay with Brussels.
While the Leave campaigners are all but admitting they duped the voters – and with the leading figures scurrying for cover — racism is again rearing its ugly head against immigrants across Britain.
As it stands today, a new sort of English ethnic cleansing is emerging. These days, anybody appearing not to have been born in Britain — Blacks and Indians, Africans and Asians, Latinos and Caribbeans, as well as British citizens of non-European ancestry, are all, once again, under attack by Brexit Britons.
Fellow Europeans, especially Poles whose parents fought to save Britain during the wars, are being attacked, insulted and told to leave the land many were also born in — and to go back home.
The EU wants to avoid the unavoidable by pressing Britain to press the emergency exit button. However, London is in no hurry to invoke the Brexit clause.
But then, even though Brexit brouhaha caught the Caribbean unawares, until Britain actually exits the EU, there will still be time to get the Caribbeans act together.
The European Partnership Agreement (EPA) concords signed by CARICOM member-states will also have to be reviewed now that the Commonwealth Caribbean has no more locus standi in Brussels.
But realism must first prevail.
Britain may be down, but not yet out. US Secretary of State John Kerry says London is actually ready to do all it can to roll back the Brexit vote. As such, Washington will construct new bridges, both to Brussels and London.
Britain has to renegotiate its ties and terms of trade with each of the 27 remaining EU member states. Britons will no longer be able to use their EU passports to go to neighbouring France — or any other EU member state.
With things in such a state of flux, the Commonwealth Caribbean will be the last thing on the mind of the lame duck British government today.
The region got its first chance to measure the possible effects and plan for them, when CARICOM Heads of Government met in Guyana for three days this week (July 4-6) for their 37th annual summit.
The advice from the regional sages is that CARICOM should immediately set-up its own direct ties with the EU. However, CARICOM can only proceed with caution, as uncertainty only breeds more uncertainty.
Not all the broken pipes can be fixed between Britain and the 27 EU member-states in just two years. But the trade pipelines will certainly be affected by the Brexit – and there will also be innumerable other consequences for all aspects of bilateral trade between CARICOM member-states and Britain, as well as every remaining EU member-state.
There will be consequences for Caribbean nationals in Britain — and those holding EU passports – when immigration laws are modified to suit the xenophobic expressions in England since the Brexit vote. Undocumented Caribbean parents of British citizens are living in real fear. The current moves by British and European banks to reduce risks have implications for everything from trade to remittances to the Caribbean from Britain and the rest of Europe.
The Caribbean has no idea what tomorrow will bring in and for Britain and Europe. But the collective wisdom of the CARICOM Heads of Government and the region’s diplomatic corps will have had to come to the fore in Georgetown this week, as they discuss how many pipes can be broken and what new pipes can be laid in the new dispensation most likely to develop.
The UK can break-up. The EU can be dismantled. London Bridge can come crashing down. But then, its also possible that none of that might happen, that the EU and Britain can tomorrow find a way to live separately and in peace, with mutual respect, after their dirty divorce break-up.
Anything can happen between London and Brussels tomorrow – and the day after. That’s why the Caribbean – OECS, CARICOM, Commonwealth Caribbean and their associated institutions — must not wait for more of the unexpected. Instead, they must start gathering the tools to fix the Brexit damage today!
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International House Negroes Defend European Union
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
“They like the house that slavery and genocide built, and where global capitalism now rules.”
We can be sure that the British exit from the European Union represents a profound crisis for the global capitalist order. We know this because the Lords of Capital and their political minions and media all over the world are in panic over Brexit. The capitalist order is built on five centuries of European plunder, enslavement, and extermination of the rest of humanity. Blood oozes from every edifice of the European Union – and yet, the victims, and the descendants of the victims of this horrific and ongoing capitalist carnage, often behave as if they have some kind of stake in keeping the old order intact. Like Malcolm X’s house Negroes, their first instinct when they see the master’s house on fire, is to put the fire out. If the master gets sick, they start sneezing. And, when the referendum went against Britain staying in the European Union, house Negroes of all colors on both sides of the Atlantic acted like their own worlds were coming to end.
On Comedy Central’s Daily Show, this week, host Trevor Noah interviewed Cynthia Erivo, who plays Celie in the Broadway production of “The Color Purple.” Noah lampooned those Brits that voted to leave the EU as a bunch of Donald Trumps with Cockney accents. He said nothing about the EU’s pro-corporate, pro-banker austerity policies – maybe because there’s nothing funny about those policies, or maybe because he works for a rich corporation. Noah drew Ms. Erivo into the Brexit discussion. She was born in London to parents who emigrated from Nigeria. She explained her opposition to Brexit, saying, “If my mom didn’t get to the UK, I probably wouldn’t be here right now, on that stage on Broadway.”
“By colonizing Nigeria, the Brits saved her from being born an African.”
Cynthia Erivo is grateful that her West African parents were allowed into Britain, so that she could be born in London and pursue a successful career. Her parents were permitted to settle in Britain because Nigeria was a British colony, and later became part of the British Commonwealth. It actually had nothing to do with the European Union. By Cynthia Erivo’s logic, it was a good thing that Britain invaded, plundered, enslaved, and stole her parent’s homeland. By colonizing Nigeria, the Brits saved her from being born an African. The millions who died in the British conquest of Nigeria, and in the Middle Passage to the America’s, or on the plantations of Virginia or Jamaica, or in forced labor to the British in Nigeria, or who die today in the oil soaked wasteland of the Niger River Delta – all of this past and present suffering and human degradation is balanced out by the fact that a daughter of Nigeria gets to star in a Broadway show. This super-exploitation of Africa made Britain and France and Spain and Belgium and the Netherlands and other members of today’s European Union rich – but Cynthia Erivo and Trevor Noah, the South African, come to the defense of the European Union.
They like the house that slavery and genocide built, and where global capitalism now rules. They fear anything that might create disorder in the House of Europe, just as their counterparts in Black America fear anything that might disturb the tranquility of the U.S. ruling class and its institutions. The House Negroes are truly international, always ready to put out fires in their masters many houses around the globe.
Eid prayers in Albania
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words recited in first Raka:
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ (١)
ٱلۡحَمۡدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ (٢) ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ (٣) مَـٰلِكِ يَوۡمِ ٱلدِّينِ (٤) إِيَّاكَ نَعۡبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسۡتَعِينُ (٥) ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ (٦) صِرَٲطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنۡعَمۡتَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ غَيۡرِ ٱلۡمَغۡضُوبِ عَلَيۡهِمۡ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ (٧)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful (1)
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, (2) The Beneficent, the Merciful. (3) Owner of the Day of Judgment, (4) Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. (5) Show us the straight path, (6) The path of those whom Thou hast favoured. Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray. (7)
سُوۡرَةُ الاٴعلی
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
سَبِّحِ ٱسۡمَ رَبِّكَ ٱلۡأَعۡلَى (١) ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ فَسَوَّىٰ (٢) وَٱلَّذِى قَدَّرَ فَهَدَىٰ (٣) وَٱلَّذِىٓ أَخۡرَجَ ٱلۡمَرۡعَىٰ (٤) فَجَعَلَهُ ۥ غُثَآءً أَحۡوَىٰ (٥) سَنُقۡرِئُكَ فَلَا تَنسَىٰٓ (٦) إِلَّا مَا شَآءَ ٱللَّهُۚ إِنَّهُ ۥ يَعۡلَمُ ٱلۡجَهۡرَ وَمَا يَخۡفَىٰ (٧) وَنُيَسِّرُكَ لِلۡيُسۡرَىٰ (٨) فَذَكِّرۡ إِن نَّفَعَتِ ٱلذِّكۡرَىٰ (٩) سَيَذَّكَّرُ مَن يَخۡشَىٰ (١٠) وَيَتَجَنَّبُہَا ٱلۡأَشۡقَى (١١) ٱلَّذِى يَصۡلَى ٱلنَّارَ ٱلۡكُبۡرَىٰ (١٢) ثُمَّ لَا يَمُوتُ فِيہَا وَلَا يَحۡيَىٰ (١٣) قَدۡ أَفۡلَحَ مَن تَزَكَّىٰ (١٤) وَذَكَرَ ٱسۡمَ رَبِّهِۦ فَصَلَّىٰ (١٥) بَلۡ تُؤۡثِرُونَ ٱلۡحَيَوٰةَ ٱلدُّنۡيَا (١٦) وَٱلۡأَخِرَةُ خَيۡرٌ۬ وَأَبۡقَىٰٓ (١٧) إِنَّ هَـٰذَا لَفِى ٱلصُّحُفِ ٱلۡأُولَىٰ (١٨) صُحُفِ إِبۡرَٲهِيمَ وَمُوسَىٰ (١٩)
n the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Praise the name of thy Lord the Most High, (1) Who createth, then disposeth; (2) Who measureth, then guideth; (3) Who bringeth forth the pasturage, (4) Then turneth it to russet stubble. (5) We shall make thee read (O Muhammad) so that thou shalt not forget (6) Save that which Allah willeth. Lo! He knoweth the disclosed and that which still is hidden; (7) And We shall ease thy way unto the state of ease. (8) Therefore remind (men), for of use is the reminder. (9) He will heed who feareth, (10) But the most hapless will flout it, (11) He who will be flung to the great Fire (12) Wherein he will neither die nor live. (13) He is successful who groweth, (14) And remembereth the name of his Lord, so prayeth, (15) But ye prefer the life of the world (16) Although the Hereafter is better and more lasting. (17) Lo! This is in the former scrolls. (18) The Books of Abraham and Moses. (19)
Second Raka
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ (١)
ٱلۡحَمۡدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلۡعَـٰلَمِينَ (٢) ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ (٣) مَـٰلِكِ يَوۡمِ ٱلدِّينِ (٤) إِيَّاكَ نَعۡبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسۡتَعِينُ (٥) ٱهۡدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٲطَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ (٦) صِرَٲطَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنۡعَمۡتَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ غَيۡرِ ٱلۡمَغۡضُوبِ عَلَيۡهِمۡ وَلَا ٱلضَّآلِّينَ (٧)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful (1)
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, (2) The Beneficent, the Merciful. (3) Owner of the Day of Judgment, (4) Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. (5) Show us the straight path, (6) The path of those whom Thou hast favoured. Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray. (7)
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
هَلۡ أَتَٮٰكَ حَدِيثُ ٱلۡغَـٰشِيَةِ (١) وُجُوهٌ۬ يَوۡمَٮِٕذٍ خَـٰشِعَةٌ (٢) عَامِلَةٌ۬ نَّاصِبَةٌ۬ (٣) تَصۡلَىٰ نَارًا حَامِيَةً۬ (٤) تُسۡقَىٰ مِنۡ عَيۡنٍ ءَانِيَةٍ۬ (٥) لَّيۡسَ لَهُمۡ طَعَامٌ إِلَّا مِن ضَرِيعٍ۬ (٦) لَّا يُسۡمِنُ وَلَا يُغۡنِى مِن جُوعٍ۬ (٧) وُجُوهٌ۬ يَوۡمَٮِٕذٍ۬ نَّاعِمَةٌ۬ (٨) لِّسَعۡيِہَا رَاضِيَةٌ۬ (٩) فِى جَنَّةٍ عَالِيَةٍ۬ (١٠) لَّا تَسۡمَعُ فِيہَا لَـٰغِيَةً۬ (١١) فِيہَا عَيۡنٌ۬ جَارِيَةٌ۬ (١٢) فِيہَا سُرُرٌ۬ مَّرۡفُوعَةٌ۬ (١٣) وَأَكۡوَابٌ۬ مَّوۡضُوعَةٌ۬ (١٤) وَنَمَارِقُ مَصۡفُوفَةٌ۬ (١٥) وَزَرَابِىُّ مَبۡثُوثَةٌ (١٦) أَفَلَا يَنظُرُونَ إِلَى ٱلۡإِبِلِ ڪَيۡفَ خُلِقَتۡ (١٧) وَإِلَى ٱلسَّمَآءِ ڪَيۡفَ رُفِعَتۡ (١٨) وَإِلَى ٱلۡجِبَالِ كَيۡفَ نُصِبَتۡ (١٩) وَإِلَى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ كَيۡفَ سُطِحَتۡ (٢٠) فَذَكِّرۡ إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مُذَڪِّرٌ۬ (٢١) لَّسۡتَ عَلَيۡهِم بِمُصَيۡطِرٍ (٢٢) إِلَّا مَن تَوَلَّىٰ وَكَفَرَ (٢٣) فَيُعَذِّبُهُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلۡعَذَابَ ٱلۡأَكۡبَرَ (٢٤) إِنَّ إِلَيۡنَآ إِيَابَہُمۡ (٢٥) ثُمَّ إِنَّ عَلَيۡنَا حِسَابَہُم (٢٦)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Hath there come unto thee tidings of the Overwhelming? (1) On that day (many) faces will be downcast, (2) Toiling, weary, (3) Scorched by burning fire, (4) Drinking from a boiling spring, (5) No food for them save bitter thorn-fruit (6) Which doth not nourish nor release from hunger. (7) In that day other faces will be calm, (8) Glad for their effort past, (9) In a high garden (10) Where they hear no idle speech, (11) Wherein is a gushing spring, (12) Wherein are couches raised (13) And goblets set at hand (14) And cushions ranged (15) And silken carpets spread. (16) Will they not regard the camels, how they are created? (17) And the heaven, how it is raised? (18) And the hills, how they are set up? (19) And the earth, how it is spread? (20) Remind them, for thou art but a remembrancer, (21) Thou art not at all a warder over them. (22) But whoso is averse and disbelieveth, (23) Allah will punish him with direst punishment. (24) Lo! unto Us is their return (25) And Ours their reckoning. (26)
Bad analysis. Britain is a multi cultural society. Overwhelming EU immigration was stressing all social services with no security checks. The British wanted their sovereignty back. St. Lucia would not tolerate rule by St. kitts, so why should Brussels rule the UK. Earl is lost with his comprehension.
……..remember: Rule Britannia; Britannia Rule the World!?…..well,……for centuries the British people fucked every indigenous people in every part of the World………now with a token of immigrants in their midst;…….they want their country back!!
………Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to the British: how can you come to my country and tell me that I stole your land?…….
SAMJ:
Who wrote these opinions for you, or are you schizophrenic?? Multiple Personality Disorder ? What I am really asking you is, Why are you rejoicing at the last days of your Caucasian Empire and these pirates who you love so much?