Tag Archives: Barbados

02Nov/26

The Legal Architecture of Modern Reparations

From Apologies to Systemic Reform: The Emerging Global and Local Blueprint for Slavery Reparations

Sun, Nov 01 2026 /Mpelembe Media/ — The contemporary discourse surrounding slavery, systemic exploitation, and reparatory justice operates across a dynamic continuum that bridges digital public opinion, international legal doctrines, and concrete policy proposals. In the digital sphere, public debate on social media is heavily polarized between demands for historical restitution—which frame modern racial and economic disparities as the direct legacy of state-sanctioned chattel slavery and colonialism—and counterarguments that prioritize immediate action against modern human trafficking, question intergenerational culpability, or defend sovereign state interests. This online friction reflects foundational tensions within human rights law between universalist approaches focused on immediate harms and historical-contextual frameworks addressing cumulative, structural injustice. Continue reading →

07Jul/23

How holidaying in developing countries affects local inequality

A few years ago, one of us (Alex) went for a vacation to the Dominican Republic. The motivation was similar to millions of other tourists every year: escape the daily routine, enjoy the sun and beaches, and gather some strength to face another cold winter.

Unfortunately, a few things weren’t very conducive to a happy break. The staff at the mammoth hotel were making as little as US$1 (£0.79) for a 12-hour shift. Worse, most of them lived in a shanty town nearby. They had no sewers and no reliable electricity.

The hotel also exploited its power over local farmers to procure food exceedingly cheaply. Schools were overcrowded and many children dropped out to work in businesses like these hotels and farms, perpetuating the cycle.

Continue reading →

05Jun/23

Voices of Preston’s Windrush generation – when I first arrived, I said: ‘Really? I thought there were no slums in this place!’

Alan Rice, University of Central Lancashire and Jack Hepworth, University of Oxford

From the earliest arrivals of what would become Preston’s “Windrush generation”, the status of the Caribbean diaspora was hotly contested in this post-industrial Lancashire town, as elsewhere. Discrimination and prejudice dogged the daily lives of people from the Caribbean who made their home here.

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29Apr/23

France, Barbados, Zambia back new climate finance advocacy campaign

28 April 2023 /Environment/– The Bridgetown Initiative is a proposal to reform the global financial system to help developing countries fight climate change and poverty. It was launched in July 2022 by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, and it has since been endorsed by France, Zambia, and other countries.

The initiative calls for a number of reforms, including: Continue reading →

08Sep/22

Digital nomads have rejected the office and now want to replace the nation state. But there is a darker side to this quest for global freedom

Dave Cook, UCL

A ‘network state’ is ideologically aligned but geographically decentralised. The people are spread around the world in clusters of varying size, but their hearts are in one place.

In June 2022 Balaji Srinivasan, former chief technology officer of the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, published an ebook entitled The Network State: How To Start a New Country. It is the latest in a flurry of utopian visions by self-styled digital visionaries, crypto believers and web 3.0 evangelists who are lining up to declare the death of the traditional concept of countries and nationhood.

Continue reading →