David Jessop

Trying to understand what is happening to the billions of dollars donated by private individuals and governments for post earthquake relief in Haiti is far from easy.

Some time this year, Caribbean heads of government will appoint a new Caricom Secretary General.

Will 2011 be the year that the languishing Doha development round finally moves forwards; or will it mark the point at which the members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) quietly accept that negotiating a single global undertaking on trade liberalisation is unlikely in the foreseeable future?

For the last few weeks the virtual organisation Wikileaks has been selectively making available classified US State Department reporting.

Some years ago, I heard the late Michael Manley, the former Prime Minister of Jamaica, deliver a speech on the Caribbean’s changing place in the world.

Encouraging the Caribbean private sector to become more dynamic is far from easy.

Who will breathe life into the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe: government, the private sector, regional institutions?

Cuba’s economy is in a bad way. There is a widespread sense of social discontent and a deep concern among many groups in society including some of those who are committed to Cuba’s communist system.

It is not often that the Caribbean can say it is leading global thinking on an issue, but that it what happened this week when the Caribbean Tourism Organi-sation (CTO) released a detailed report on the damaging effect on tourism that the UK government’s controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD) is having.

Once again global food prices are spiralling upwards. On November 2 the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) announced that its global food price index had climbed for the fifth month in a row and had reached its highest level since its index peaked in July 2008.

On Monday, October 25, EU member states will review their common position towards Cuba.

One of the stranger aspects of the Caribbean is the disjunction between the many reports and studies produced by academic or multilateral institutions and the thinking of those intimately involved in the industries concerned.

A week ago a letter was sent from the British Defence Secretary Liam Fox to the British Prime Minister David Cameron.

On October 3, over 100m of Brazil’s 194m people will vote for a successor to that nation’s hugely popular and successful President,  Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

A week or so ago, six tourism ministers visited London as a part of a group co-ordinated  by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).There

What future for Caricom? Recent developments in the form of concern about Trini-dad’s commitment to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and the appointment of a new Secretary General suggest that the coming months may well determine its future trajectory.

Is it possible to bridge the gulf in the understanding that exists between the Dominican Republic and the English speaking Caribbean?

– but little forward movement by private sector   It is unlikely that you have ever heard of Christofer Fjellner from Finland or Peter Sratsny from Slovakia.

Britain has a new foreign policy. Its coalition government has begun to enunciate a more pragmatic approach that recognises the ways in which the world has changed, political and economic relationships overlap and new centres of power are emerging.

By David Jessop The Doha Round at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is deadlocked.