The 5 Health Benefits of Mountain Sop

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PRESS RELEASE: The Rastafari Coral Gardens Committee (RCGC) is now The Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society (RCGBS)

PRESS RELEASE:

Yannick Pessoa (RCGBS- PRO) · June 30, 2015

The Rastafari Coral Gardens Committee (RCGC) isnow The Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society (RCGBS).

As our world becomes smaller, indigenous communities are gaining increasing international awareness. Local groups and societies are evolving to serve their members, and communities, and in doing so, have come to reconsider their roles,their images, their identities, their “branding,” and, consequently, their names. This is such an occasion for The RastafariCoral Gardens Benevolent Society (RCGBS) as it embarks on its continuing journey.

The Rastafari Coral Gardens Committee’s primary role has been to spread awareness of the Coral Gardens atrocities of 1963, to foster dialogueon the subject and prevent any further atrocity from taking place by implementing proactive administration for the preservation of the Rastafari community. In light of this broad aim, the activities of the Committee included the following:

1. Give cash, donate food items, purchase furniture and equipment for needy elders who are victims of the Coral Gardens atrocities
   
   
2. Organise health clinics and transport sick elders to the doctor
   
   
3. Assist with funeral expenses of elders
   
   
4. Develop a scholarship program in partnership with the Western Jamaica Campus of the University of the West Indies for youth from the Rastafari community.
   
   
5. Produce a newsletter called “Chimurenga” which means “Revolutionary Struggle”

As the RCGC's role evolved into socio-economic directions, the Committee began to face challenges because of the magnitude ofassistance needed and the small amount of human and financialresources at its disposal. The Executive bodyconsequently recommended to its members that they seekregistration as a Benevolent Society. This move is intended to garnerthe support of the Jamaican State and society, target local and international agencies that are established to assist the needy, andstrengthen the efforts of the organisation at improving transparencyand accountability. 

The Society was registered as a Legal Entity under the Friendly SocietiesAct on April 23, 2015. On Sunday, June 21, 2015, the InauguralGeneral Meeting was convened at the University of the West IndiesOpen Campus in Montego Bay. The new name and status simply reflect current reality and remove previous limitations. The Rastafari Coral Gardens Benevolent Society can now move forward to become a self sustaining entity in a global environment.

Haile Selassie is the Esteemed World Ruler!

7 Health Benefits of Jackfruit!

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A Modern Girl with an Old Fashion Kind of Loving!

10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
Proverbs 31:10-31King James Version (KJV)

 "no real man can live without her".
Garvey's writing, the Universal Negro Improvement Association stating about women

1930 she wear the crown of Empress

She is the highest, the best, the greatest goddess

~History Man: Empress Menen

The imagination of the world, not just that of Africa, has been haunted by the great women of the continent. African Goddesses and Queens have been a  prominent feature of European mythology and African reality. And it is from this rich ancestory and lineage which Our Empress descends. The vine that brought forth Goddesses like Andromeda, Isis, Maat, Inanna... Queens such as the Nyahbinghi, Nefertiti, Nefertari, the Candaces, Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba. She is wrought from an iconic class of women, women who have shaped the course of civilization, in a continent not fastened to the system of Patriarchy that now dominates western civilization and culture.

Africa as a continent is unique in its disposition to women. Our traditions of female identity and feminity are unique in its reverence for the female deity and feminity. His Imperial Majesty maintains this tradition of revernce for the feminine energy and female aura. This  is established and symbolized in his  November 2, 1930, dual coronation. His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie and Her Imperial Majesty Empress Menen were crowned at the Cathedral of St George in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Abbaba.

In times like these, whenever the struggle for Black self-determination is discussed or examined, the spotlight is usually on the brave and heroic men who gave their lives for the betterment of their people. However little attention is paid to the women who also played a vital role in this struggle. The Black woman's role in the struggle for freedom and equality cannot be overstated or re-iterated enough. Every great man in history has come into the world through the womb of a woman, and historically the Black woman has been a pillar of strength throughout Africa and the Diaspora. Without looking at the contributions made by Black women throughout the ages, the full story of the Black experience and struggle cannot be told. While there are countless Black women worthy of having their stories told, this article focuses on the life and works of the last Queen of Queens of Ethiopia, Empress Woizero Menen.

As we rescue ourselves, the parts of us as a people lost to history, so too myst we resurrect the Black Woman and Black Goddesses from antiquity. The rich, complex and challenging life of Empress Menen has remained obscure for decades. We must once again become reacquainted with the life of the Empress and her great contribution to her faith, her country and her family. We must understand her as Woman in revolutionary times, playing exceptional roles. Her virtue is not tied to immaculate conception, virgin births or sexuality, her greatness is defined in the facts and acts that embodied her in her part of history, a royal figure coronated with her King, a woman given exceptional esteem, in a western world dominated by the ancient system of Patriarchy. Where man's rule is absolute and can have cruel consequence for the life carrying gender, a system that created a society of gender inequality, unfair wages based on gender and race. Put on a pedestal before the world, she never succombed to pride or vanity but held her post as Queen with serene grace.

We need to rescue these ideas of femininity in an age where anything goes, where gender roles and lines are blurred, when American notions of white feminism have perverted the notion of womanhood, created disdain for the home and childrearing.... issuing out a machine factory of career women, who believe in cosmopolitan and air-conditioning, than sweat and the idea of any muscle intense activity... creating an era of eros... a woman is today defined in the black community by her vagina. It is time we as a the Rastafari community divorce completely from European victorian notions of sex and sexuality, we must do away with the Christian Patriachy that killed the mother in the hily trinity and made her a Holy Ghost, it is time we divorced the Judeo-Abrahamic system of patriarchy, of Eve is evil and the afterthought of creation... We must restore Isis to her rightful place, as the Savior of Osiris her husband, to make her the Mother of Horus again, to let the Black Woman know herself as the Black Madonna, mother to the Black Bambino, it is time the Black community and in particular this generation see themselves as Empress Menen, Queen Omega and the lineage of Black Goddesses she personifies. It is time the Black Woman of today re-personifies herself as Queen Omega and Isis.

Virtuous wife

We as a people struggle with the definition of a virtuous woman as simply one who has never had sex. In divine theatre Empress Menen shatters this image, as she had previous marriages and borne children before the royal union. According to both published and unpublished reports, the then Woizero Menen Asfaw was first given in marriage by her family to the prominent Wollo nobleman, Dejazmach Ali of Cherecha at a very young age, as was the prevailing custom. She bore him two children, a daughter, Woizero Belaynesh Ali, and a son, Jantirar Asfaw Ali. This first marriage ended in divorce, and her natal family then arranged for Woizero Menen to marry Dejazmach Amede Ali Aba-Deyas, another very prominent nobleman of Wollo. She bore her second husband two children as well, a daughter, Woizero Desta Amede, and a son, Jantirar Gebregziabiher Amede. Following the sudden death of her second husband, Woizero Menen's grandfather, Negus Mikael arranged her marriage to Ras Leulseged Atnaf Seged, a prominent Shewan nobleman, who was considerably older than Woizero Menen in late 1909 or early 1910. It is unclear whether Woizero Menen was married to the aged nobleman (and secured a divorce shortly afterwards to marry her royal groom) or whether there was only an engagement between them which was broken without ado. She would later meet Dejazmach Tafari Makonnen (later the Emperor Haile Selassie). Isn't it interesting and unusal that the King in his divine wisdom saw fit an unconventional woman, with a history and lineage steeped in as much mystery as the King himself?

Hence we have an imperative to break the mold the colonial masters ha put on our minds, no longer must we conform to the colonial and judaic notions of womanhood, we must access a womanhood and femininity more ancient than that of our colonisers!

Role of a woman

Woman is here to complement man, she is our equal, even if nature has made her different in function, there are more differences between apples and oranges than between man and woman. Within the Rastafari context we must strive to affirm the inclusion and equality of the woman in Rastafari's Royalty. We must pursue the lead set by our Black King, for Empress Menen Asfaw, the Mother of the Ethiopian Nation, was a far-sighted woman well ahead of her time.

The Empress, a mother of ten, she balanced a stable family life ruled by her benevolent King and husband, she became his most trusted advisor in national and international affairs, and built up the confidence of millions of women by educating them and giving them opportunities to shine.

She established childcare centers and handicraft schools, as well as a School for Girls, the first of its kind to offer education to young women of Ethiopia. She visited the Holy Land four times and built a church and monastery on the banks of the Jordan River. Our Queen was active in promoting women's issues in Ethiopia, was Patroness of the Ethiopian Red Cross, and the Ethiopian Women's Charitable Organization. She was also patroness of the Jerusalem Society that arranged for pilgrimages to the Holy Land. She founded the Empress Menen School for Girls in Addis Ababa, the first all-girls school which had both boarding and day students. Girls from all over the Empire were brought to the school to receive a modern education, encouraged by the Empress who visited it often and presided over its graduation ceremonies. The Empress gave generously, as well as sponsored programs for the poor, ill and disabled. She truly was a devoutly religious woman who did much to support the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. She built, renovated and endowed numerous churches in Ethiopia and in the Holy Land. Prominent among these are the St. Raguel Church in Addis Ababa's Merkato district, the Kidane Mehret (Our Lady Covenant of Mercy) Church on Mount Entoto, and the Holy Trinity Monastery on the banks of the River Jordan in the Holy Land. She gave generously from her personal funds towards the building of the new Cathedral of St. Mary of Zion at Axum, but did not live to see it completed and dedicated.

During the Italian Invasion of 1936-1941, she assumed the administrative responsibility of Ethiopia while the Emperor was on the battlefield. A woman of great faith, she was a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church and constructed and upgraded many churches throughout her country. When the Empress was exiled from Ethiopia during the Italian occupation, she made a pledge to the Virgin Mary at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, promising to give her crown to the church if Ethiopia were liberated from occupation. The Empress made numerous pilgrimages to Holy Sites in then British-ruled Palestine, in Syria and in Lebanon, during her exile to pray for her occupied homeland. Following the return of Emperor Haile Selassie I and his family to Ethiopia in 1941, a replica of the crown was made for future Empresses, but the original crown that Empress Menen was crowned with at her husband's side in 1930 was sent to the Church of the Nativity inBethlehem. Empress Menen, although often seen wearing a tiara at public events that called for it, would never again wear a full crown.

Empress Menen performed perfectly in the role of Empress-consort. In her public role she fused religious piety, concern for social causes, and support for development schemes with the majesty of her Imperial status. Outwardly she was the dutiful wife, visiting schools, churches, exhibitions and model farms, attending public and state events at her husband's side or by herself. She took no public stand on political or policy issues. Behind the scenes however, she was the Emperor's most trusted advisor, quietly offering advice on a whole range of issues. She avoided the publicly political role that her predecessor as Empress-consort, Empress Taytu Betul, had taken, which had caused deep resentment in government circles during the reign of Menelik II.

The citizens of her nation knew Empress Menen for her kindness and humanitarian outreach.During her life she also experienced a great deal of sorrow and hardship, enduring the loss of seven of her ten children, five years as a refugee of war in exile, plus the everyday struggle of on-going health problems.

Hail Empress Menen

Because of her role in the education of women, work with the poor, commitment to her spiritual beliefs, and her quiet strength in the face of tribulation, Empress Menen has secured a place for herself in Ethiopian and World history as a powerful Black woman. In these times, where it seems to many that the Black woman's worth lies solely in her appearance, it is nice to know that there are Black women who challenge such popular misconceptions. Although Empress Menen was a powerful force in the empowerment of women in Ethiopia and world wide, she did not fit the stereotype of the modern day feminist. She stood for education and women pursuing the highest degree of education possible, yet always put her family first. She showed great strength through humility and never sought out the limelight, but preferred to let her words speak for her. Yet when it mattered, she raised her voice to speak out against injustices facing her people. Empress Menen was truly deserving of the title Queen of Queens, and although she left flesh, in 1965, she will always be remembered in the hearts of Africans, both at home and abroad. Empress Menen, we salute your greatness, Queen Omega, Mother of Creation.

I close with Haile Selassie's address to the Ethiopian nation on February 15, 1962. In his documented speech, he makes two profound statements about his wife... The first of these utterances was when he said, “During the memorable days of our companionship, we never had differences that needed the intervention of others.” The next thing was that he gave thanks “to the Almighty” for being blessed with a “long and uninterrupted union, which is not very common in the world today.”

PRESS RELEASE: Thank You from The Rastafari Coral Gardens Committee

The Rastafari Coral Gardens Committee thanks Speakers, Sponsors, Artistes, Well-wishers and the Rastafari Community for participation in the 52nd Commemoration of the atrocity against Rastafari 1963 “Bad Friday” and the recognition of Empress Menen Earthstrong Success.

Empresses receiving the Menen Award

Over 25 Rastafari Elders, Matriarch and Patriarch were given an entire day of royal treatment on the cozy grounds of Montego Bay Cricket Club , Jarrett Park on April 3rd 2015 at the annual Coral Gardens “(Bad Friday)” Commemoration. The day commenced with the Elders, many of whom are victims of the atrocities of the Coral Gardens incident being given medical checkups by Dr. Jodine Jacto - Tafari and the medical team, doing blood sugar test, blood pressure test, nutritional and other medical advises. Later in the afternoon the seated elders were treated to a scrumptious banquet of wine, cake, sip and food by the culinary team, a running lap of honor that turned into many laps were done by Jackie Roots and her Children on the ground during the banquet.


The event then turned its attention towards the recognition of Empress Mennen 125th Birthday and awarded certificates of recognition to nine Rastafari Matriarchs for their continued struggle in the development of the Rastafari Community. Special attention given to posthumous awarded Ivorine Walsh (Mama Ita) a great warrior for the upliftment of women and mother of popular reggae Artiste Queen Ifrica.




Patrons were moved by the messages from out of the Speakers Corner of the event. Maureen Minto, Clinton Hutton, Bunny Wailer, Ras Iya-V, Michael Barnett, Maxine Stowe, inspired the audience with messages about our struggle as Rastafari and pan-Africanist in the 21st century, reaffirming that the struggle continue even as it is passed from generation to generation.



The cultural presentations were filled with energetic performances from poets, singers, drummers and the empresses Sis Isis , Sis Isha and Sis Jackie Roots marshalled the proceedings with Jah Mike Sound System to a prompt after 2:00am closure making way for the spiritual Nyahbhing Chanting till around 8:00am in the Saturday morning.

Information about the Committee’s full range of programs and services will soon be available on-line as we seek to broaden our outreach and education of the public of our missions, aims and progress in the struggle.

The Rastafari Coral Gardens Committee is a Rastafari / Pan African non-aligned organization centred around the Coral Gardens Incident, attending to the Rastafari Community, elders and survivors of the atrocity also the youths.

Beckles Address on Reparations

Beckles Address on Reparations (SOUNDCLOUD AUDIO)

ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR SIR HILARY BECKLES, CHAIRMAN OF THE CARICOM REPARATIONS COMMISSION, HOUSE OF COMMONS, PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN, COMMITTEE ROOM 14, THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2014, 9:00 P.M.

Madam Chair, the distinguished member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Diane Abbott, other distinguished members of the House of Lords, and House of Commons, Excellencies of the Diplomatic Corp, colleagues at the head table, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I speak this evening, in this honourable chamber of the House of Commons, as Chairman of the Caricom Commission on Reparations. My colleagues of the Commission are tasked with the preparation and presentation of the evidentiary basis for a contemporary truth: that the Government of Great Britain, and other European states that were the beneficiaries of enrichment from the enslavement of African peoples, the genocide of indigenous communities, and the deceptive breach of contract and trust in respect of Indians and other Asians brought to the plantations under indenture, have a case to answer in respect of reparatory justice.

The case of genocide is not only in respect of our decimated native community. It is also important to recognise the genocidal aspect of chattel slavery in the Caribbean.

British slave ships brought 5.5 million enslaved Africans into their Caribbean colonies over 180 years.

When slavery was abolished in 1838 they were just 800,000 persons remaining. That is, a retention/survival rate of 15%.

The regime of enslavement was crafted by policies and attitudes that were clearly genocidal.

Jamaica received 1.5 million Africans. Only 300,000 remained at Emancipation (20%).

Barbados received 600,000 Africans. Only 83,000 remained at Emancipation (14%).

This case is for the Caricom governments to present on behalf of its citizens. I am sure that in its presentation there will be due regard for the principles of diplomacy and development cooperation - for which they have long distinguished themselves. This process will bring honour and dignity to the people of the Caribbean as well as to the people of Great Britain and Europe.

Caricom governments, like the government of Great Britain, represent nations that are independent and equal. As such, they should proceed on the basis of their legitimate equality, without fear of retribution, in the best interest of humanity, and for a better future for us all.

I am honoured to be asked to speak in this historic parliament of the people of Great Britain. Like you I am aware that this Parliament prepared the official political basis of the crimes that defined the colonial past. It is here, in this House, that the evil system of slavery, and genocide, were established. This House passed laws, framed fiscal policies, and enforced the crimes that have produced harmful legacies and persistent suffering now in need of repair.

This House also made emancipation from slavery and independence from colonialism an empowering reality. It is in here, we now imagine, that laws for reparatory justice can be conceptualized and implemented. It is in here, we believe, that the terrible wrongs of the past can be corrected, and humanity finally and truthfully liberated from the shame and guilt that have followed these historical crimes.

We must believe in the corrective power of this Parliament to respond positively to this present challenge, and in the process free itself from the bondage of its own sins and crimes. Without this belief our journey here this evening would be lacking integrity, and without a doubt, would be a useless exercise.

But I speak in this honourable House this evening, not only as chairman of a rightfully constituted commission that is peopled by some of our finest Caribbean citizens, and who have been selected by our distinguished Presidents and Prime Ministers, but as a Caribbean person with an affinity for this country. I was raised and educated here. I came from the Caribbean to this country as a child; I grew to maturity here; and was educated here in a fine university that has distinguished itself in the Liberal-Progressive pedagogy of the nation.

Great Britain, therefore, is my second home and I care for it as I care for my first home, the Great Caribbean. I wish for Great Britain, as I do for the Great Caribbean, peace and prosperity. I wish that their shared past, painful though it has been, will be transformed into a moral force of mutual respect and development cooperation.

It is for these reasons that I have joined the Caribbean and global movement for reparatory justice. I believe we can settle this case within the context of diplomatic initiatives that are consistent with our status as equal nations.

The crimes committed against the indigenous, African, and Asian peoples of the Caribbean are well documented. We know of the 250 years of slave trading, chattel slavery, and the following 100 years of colonial oppression.

Slavery was ended in 1838, only to be replaced by a century of racial apartheid, including the denigration of Asian people. Indigenous genocide, African chattel slavery and genocide, and Asian contract slavery, were three acts of a single play – a single process by which the British state forcefully extracted wealth from the Caribbean resulting in its persistent, endemic poverty.

I wish to comment, as a result, on the 1833 Act of Emancipation, and how this august Parliament betrayed the enslaved people of the Caribbean by forcing them to pay more than 50% of the cost of their own emancipation. This is an aspect of the history long hidden from public view.

We know, for example, that this Parliament in 1833 determined that the 800,000 enslaved people in the Caribbean were worth, as chattel property, £47 million. This was their assessed market value.

We know that this Parliament determined that all slave owners should receive just and fair compensation for the official taking away of their property.

We know that this Parliament provided the sum of £20 million in grants to the slave owners as fair compensation for the loss of their human chattel.

And we know that this Parliament determined that the enslaved people would receive none of this compensation. The argument made in this House was that ‘property’ cannot receive property compensation. This Parliament, in its Emancipation Act, upheld the law that black people were not human, but property.

What this Parliament has hid from the world is that it also determined that the remaining £27 million would be paid by the enslaved people to their enslavers, by means of a 4 year period of free labour called the Apprenticeship.

This period of additional free labour by the emancipated represented the enforced extraction of £27 million by the state. It was a cruel and shameful method of legislating Emancipation by forcing the enslaved to pay more than 50% of the financial cost of their own freedom. The £20 million paid the enslavers by this Parliament was less than the £27 million paid by the enslaved to the enslavers as dictated by this House.

I wish now to engage the argument of the British Government that the slavery and other colonial crimes were ‘legal’, and that they took place ‘a long time ago’, and are beyond the border of adjudication.

Allow me, madam Chair, to breach protocol and to interject myself into the discourse, in order to demonstrate how very contemporary and current this exploitation of the Caribbean people is and has been.

Upstairs this chamber sits the Earl of Harewood. He is an honourable member of the House of Lords. But does Lord Harewood know that my grandfather after Independence in Barbados in 1966 laboured on his sugar plantation, as did his father and forefathers, going back to the days of slavery? Does the goodly Lord know that as a child I took lunch for my grandfather into the canefields of his sugar plantation? Lord Harewood, and my family, go back a long way, from slavery right into the present.

Take also the very aristocratic and very distinguished Cumberbatch family. It has now produced the brilliant young actor, Benedict Cumberbatch [who I would love to meet one day]. Benedict’s grandfather owned the estate on which my beloved great grandmother worked all her adult life. They enslaved my family on their Cleland plantation in the parish of St. Andrew. My great grandmother, who helped to raise me, and who we all called ‘mammy’, carried the name Adriana Cumberbatch. The actor and academic are joined therefore by a common past and present, and maybe, common blood!

My case is but one of ten thousand such cases. Everywhere across the Caribbean the presence of our enslavers can be identified in our daily domestic lives. This history is not remote. It is alive and pressing upon our daily affairs.

And what have our people and governments been doing with respect to this legacy since we have gained national independence? The truth is, the people of the Caribbean have been very courageous in their effort at self-development and self-help in respect of this terrible history and enduring legacy.

Our citizens have faced this past head on, and have established a vibrant culture of community self-help and sustainable regional development mobilization. We are not beggars! We are not subservient! We do not want charity and handouts! We want justice! Reparatory justice!

When all is said and done, our governments these past 50 years have been cleaning up the mess left behind by Britain’s colonial legacy. Our finest Presidents and Prime Ministers have been devising projects to clean up the awful mess inherited from slavery and colonisation. They must be commended for this effort, but the fact is, this legacy of rubble and ruin, persistent poverty, and racialised relations and reasoning, that continues to cripple our best efforts, has been daunting.

Britain, and its Parliament, cannot morally and legally turn their back upon this past, and walk away from the mess they have left behind. This Parliament has to return to the scene of its crimes, and participate as a legitimate parliament, as a legal parliament, in the healing and rehabilitation of the Caribbean.

We cannot, and should not, be asked to do this by ourselves. We have done our part. This Parliament must now return, and do its part, within the context of reparatory justice, and within the framework of development cooperation.

I wish to give two examples of how this reparatory justice can work:

(1)   Jamaica, Britain’s largest slave colony, was left with 80% black functional illiteracy at Independence in 1962. From this circumstance the great and courageous Jamaican nation has struggled with development and poverty alleviation. The deep crisis remains. This Parliament owes the people of Jamaica an educational and human resource investment initiative.


(2)   Barbados, Britain’s first slave society, is now called the amputation capital of the world. It is here that the stress profile of slavery and racial apartheid; dietary disaster and psychological trauma; and the addiction to the consumption of sugar and salt, have reached the highest peak. The country is now host to the world’s most virulent diabetes and hypertension epidemic. This Parliament owes the people of Barbados an education and health initiative.

It is the same for all our countries; the Bahamas, the Leewards, the Windwards, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, and beyond.

The Caricom Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice addresses these development issues that are central to the case Britain has to answer.

It is an invitation to Great Britain to demonstrate leadership within the legal, moral, and diplomatic culture of the world, within the Commonwealth, and within its relations the Caribbean.

There can be no escaping the importance of this exchange of views about the matter before this honourable chamber tonight.

It took all of the 19th century to uproot slavery from the Caribbean; from Haiti in 1804 to the Spanish sub-region in the 1880s. It took another 100 years to create citizenship, nationhood, and democracy across the Caribbean as a development framework. We have helped ourselves.

This 21st century will be the century of global reparatory justice. Citizens are now, for the first time since they were driven into retreat by colonialism, able to stand up for reparatory justice without fear. Their claim, their just claim for reparations, will not go away. Rather, like the waves upon our beautiful shores, they will keep coming until reparatory justice is attained.

Madam Chair, we call upon you, and all members of this House, to rise to this challenge and to assist Great Britain to be truly worthy of the title “Great”. I urge you to do the right thing, in the right way. There is no other right time, other than right now, in our time. There is so much to gain from your leadership. The Caribbean is counting on you.

In 1823, the honourable Thomas Buxton, M.P. for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, presented a bill to this House calling for an Emancipation Act with compensation for the enslaved people. His bill and vision were defeated. Instead, ten years later, an emancipation bill was passed, not with compensation for the enslaved, but with handsome and generous compensation for enslavers. Some 40% of the national expenditure of the country was handed over to slave-owners as reparations.

The enslaved people of the Caribbean got nothing. Indeed, they were then called upon by the said Emancipation Act to give £27 million in free labour to their enslavers. The injustice and the cruelty of that Emancipation Act, remain today like a fish bone stuck in our throats.

We urge you, madam Chair, and other members of this Parliament, to rise up and bring the Buxton vision to life. He was a noble warrior for reparatory justice; his spirit can return to this House, in both places, and the 21st Century will be ours to forge a new moral order for our collective wellbeing.

On behalf of the Caricom Reparations Commission, all my colleagues across the Caribbean who have worked with our governments in order to bring this case before you, I ask that you respond with humility and openness when your government receives an invitation to meet with our governments in summit in order to discuss this matter.

May the values and the spirit of development cooperation and mutual respect guide us all.

Thank you madam Chair.