UK - Belize Association (UKBA) 15th Annual meeting

UK - Belize Association (UKBA) 15th Annual Meeting
28 September 2012

Lecture Theatre
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE)

Programme

11.00 Arrival and registration (Coffee)

11.30 Welcome with some personal reflections on Belize – – Prof Stephen Blackmore, RBGE

11.45 Opening remarks - HE Ms Perla Perdoma, Belize High Commissioner, London.

12.15 Upper Raspaculo Reunion Expedition 2011 – Jim Hamersley, JSSEUR

12.30 The Savanna Environments of Belize - Some Preliminary Ideas on Priority Areas for Conservation. Dr Neil Stuart & Prof Peter Furley, University of Edinburgh

13.15 Buffet Lunch – walk around gardens

14.00 Live Update from Las Cuevas and the Chiquibul Forest – Rafael Manzanero, FCD & Chris Minty, RBGE

14.15 The demise of the Cayo West Special Development Area – Dr Mick Day, University of Wisconsin

14.45 The Superbond Issue – Prof Victor Bulmer Thomas, Institute of the Americas, University College London.

15.15 Coffee

15.30 Belize's forests: a carbon source? Insights from the permanent plot network - Percival Cho, Belize Forest Department & University of Lancaster

15.50 The Development of Freshwater Monitoring and Assessment in Belize' Rachael Carrie

16.10 Wick High School Expedition 2013 – Irene Bews & Ally Sangster, Adventura Scotland

16. 30 Discussion on the way forward for UK Belize Association and any other business.

17.00 Close

Everyone is invited to an informal beer - details of venue will be announced on the day.

29th September

11.00 Tour of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh by a team of RBGE hosts


For registration and further details please email: c.minty@rbge.org.uk

United Kingdom - Belize Association (UKBA) 15th Annual Conference

United Kingdom - Belize Association (UKBA)
Presents the 15th Annual Conference

Research in Belize
Friday 28th September 2012, 12.00 -17.00 hrs
at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

The annual meeting of the UK Belize Association will be held in Edinburgh on Friday 28th September, 2012, from noon to 5pm. There will be an informal gathering following the seminar presentations on the Friday evening, and accommodation can be arranged for those who wish to stay overnight. The venue will be at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh - a buffet lunch, refreshments and afternoon coffee/tea will be offered, with a small charge of c. £20 to cover all costs.

Full details of the programme will be made available shortly, including registration and optional accommodation details.

** If you would like to present your research on Belize at this meeting, please contact Chris Minty (email: cminty@rbge.org.uk) by 31 August 2012 at the latest, with your name, affiliation and a provisional title for your presentation **

World Bank Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean

The World Bank Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean


Available at http://sedlac.econo.unlp.edu.ar/eng/statistics.php the World Bank Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean is maintained by CEDLAS (Universidad Nacional de La Plata)

Content covers themes including poverty, trade and finance, education and health, and the millennium development goals, and the database contains information from over 200 household surveys carried out in 25 countries: Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Most data covers from 1980 onwards.

The site also has a good selection of poverty maps for individual Latin American countries. 

New podcast available: Decriminalising Homosexuality In The Caribbean: The Belize Case In Commonwealth Perspective And Beyond

http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/videos-and-podcasts/decriminalising-homosexuality-in-the-caribbean/

The link above provides access to the Caribbean Studies Seminar held on 3rd February 2012 with speaker,  Lord Goldsmith QC of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, replacing the originally intended Godfrey Smith, who unexpectedly had to return to Belize. The packed event was held late on a Friday afternoon and is now made available to anyone who was unable to attend in person.

Panel: Small Territories, Global Issues: Governance and Corruption in the Caribbean

You are warmly invited to the following panel on Governance and Corruption in the Caribbean jointly hosted by the Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies on Weds 29th February:

Time: 5.30pm
Venue: Room 261, Senate House, Malet St, London, WC1E 7HU

Panel: Small Territories, Global Issues: Governance and Corruption in the Caribbean

Speakers:
Peter Clegg, UWE: The Turks and Caicos Islands: Can the cloud be banished?
Dylan Vernon, ISA: Our Turn to Feed: Big Implications of Rampant Political Clientelism in Small State Belize



Peter Clegg, UWE: The Turks and Caicos Islands: Can the cloud be banished?

The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) is one of 14 Overseas Territories (OTs) still overseen by the United Kingdom (UK). Underpinned by tourism, property development and financial services, its economy experienced growth amongst the highest in the world during the early to mid-2000s. However, it now appears that this economic success was built on a political, economic and social system that was seriously compromised, and which created ‘a national emergency’ that potentially threatened the very future of the territory. The paper considers the report of the 2009 UK government-appointed Commission of Inquiry into alleged corruption in the TCI, and draws comparisons with a similar Commission of Inquiry undertaken in 1986. Indeed the title of the article derives from a quotation from the first inquiry overseen by Louis Blom-Cooper which said ‘… I am driven to the conclusion that the time has come to disperse the cloud that hangs like a brooding omnipresence in a Grand Turkan Sky’. It is clear that this did not happen, and the paper investigates why. The paper considers the UK government’s system of oversight and the characteristics of the TCI, and whether these help to explain recent events and those in the mid-1980s. A final assessment is then made as to whether the TCI is particularly prone to breakdowns in good governance, what is being done to repair the territory’s reputation, and whether the cloud hanging over the TCI can be banished.

Dr Peter Clegg is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of the West of England in Bristol, and in 2009/2010 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He has published widely on the Caribbean, and teaches a range of courses on Latin American and Caribbean Politics.

Dylan Vernon, ISA: Our Turn to Feed: Big Implications of Rampant Political Clientelism in Small State Belize

The disproportionate expansion and prevalence of political clientelism in Belize since independence in 1981 have worrying implications for its democratic governance and development. From the ‘cultural normalcy’ of open vote-buying in local constituencies, to blatant patronage in the public service, to the backroom high finance deals for the ‘big boys’, the trading of political favour for political support is no longer just election addenda but a permanent state of affairs in daily political relationships of exchange and influence. Although intense party competition and high rates of poverty have jointly fuelled this political phenomenon, small state scale, highly personalised politics, and demographic shifts have also contributed significantly in the Belize context. The paper focuses on the ‘big’ governance challenges that pervasive political clientelism present for small Commonwealth Caribbean states such as Belize in terms of its relationship to political corruption, the disincentive effect on policy reform, the undermining of welfare delivery, and the creation of a mutually damaging dependency between people and their political leaders. Is this path of entrenched political clientelism inevitable for these small states?

Dylan Vernon is a United Kingdom Commonwealth Scholarship Fellow currently in his third year of completing a PhD in Caribbean Politics at the Institute for the Study of the Americas at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London. The presentation is based on his thesis (in progress) on the nature and implications of rampant political clientelism in Belize. Prior to ISA, his career included directing the Society for the Promotion of Education and Research in Belize (1994-1998), chairing the Belize Political Reform Commission (1999-2000), managing the United Nations Development Programme in Belize (2000-2005), chairing the Advisory Council on the Guatemalan Claim (2005-2009), lecturing at the University of Belize, and private consulting in the development sector.

Seminar and Book Launch: George Price: A Life Revealed, by Godfrey P. Smith

Seminar and Book Launch: George Price: A Life Revealed, by Godfrey P. Smith

Wednesday 1st February
18.00-20.00

The Beveridge Hall
Senate House
London WC1E 7HU

The Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies cordially invite you to a seminar and book launch to celebrate the publication of the authorised biography of Belizean Prime Minister and father of the nation, George Price, by Godfrey Smith.

Speaker: Godfrey P. Smith
Commentator: Lord Michael Ashcroft

George Price, who died in 2011, was one of the last of the generation of Caribbean leaders whose political careers were moulded by the struggle for independence. The story of Price is inseparable from the story of the modern political development of Belize, involving the birth of nationalist politics; the formation of political parties; the struggle for independence and maintaining the territorial integrity of Belize against claims by Guatemala. Godfrey Smith examines the life and career of Price within the broader Caribbean context, critically appraising his place within the canon of Caribbean nationalist leaders and the legacies for Caribbean politics today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Godfrey Smith is a former member of the Belize House of Representatives for the Pickstock Division previously held by George Price. He served as a cabinet minister in the PUP administration of Said Musa from 1999-2008, holding various positions including Attorney General and Foreign Minister. Smith is a practicing attorney and writes an online blog www.flashpointbelize.com.

Please RSVP to Olga Jimenez on olga.jimenez@sas.ac.uk

ABOUT THE BOOK:

George Price: A Life Revealed, by Godfrey P Smith Ian Randle Press, 2011

An ascetic and failed priest, a stoic, father of the nation, prime minister and first national hero of the Central American nation of Belize, George Price remains one of the most enigmatic leaders of the 20th century. Nothing in the early years of Price’s life gave any indication that he would become the most uncompromising adversary of the British government in the struggle, first for self-government and later for Belizean independence, and in the process dominate Belizean politics for over 40 years. An indifferent scholastic career, failure to complete studies for the priesthood followed by a decade as the right-hand man for one of the colony’s most astute businessmen, were less than impressive a track record for a future national leader and political firebrand.

Yet for close to 50 years, the story of George Price was inseparable from the story of the modern political development of Belize, involving the birth of nationalist politics; the formation of political parties; the struggle for independence and the national objective of maintaining the territorial integrity of Belize against claims by Guatemala. Here is the story of a man who never married or raised a family, who never had a romantic liaison with a woman and who up to the time of his death at the age of 92 had remained celibate all his life. Price’s first and only lifelong love, his sweetheart, wife and family were Belize and its people.

In this even-handed and revealing authorized biography, Godfrey Smith does not attempt to canonize Price or denigrate his rivals and detractors. Rather, he exposes the contradictions that were a feature of Price s life and career. On the one hand the reader is shown Price as the ardent nationalist and a man of uncommon discipline and tenacity who pursued his vision of an independent Belize with clear-minded focus, courage and determination, yet who by his own admission, had secret relations with Guatemala whom most Belizeans regarded as the enemy.

On a personal level, Smith paints a picture of Price as one who beneath his pious exterior could often be found to be petty, secretive and vindictive, and a man who did not suffer slights lightly. Few political leaders from the region have recorded their memoirs or, like Price, given access by way of interviews or opened their personal papers to researchers or biographers. As one whose political career spanned both the colonial and post independence eras, the information, experiences and insights Price has freely given to his biographer will make this work an important contribution to the study of the political personality, the development of political parties and party politics in the Caribbean at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

In addition, the book sheds new light on Price’s adversarial relationship with local British governors and officials of the Colonial Office in London, and on the central role that the Guatemalan claim on Belize and Price's controversial affiliations with Guatemala played in both the negotiation and timing of Belizean independence. The value of Godfrey Smith’s work as the biographer of George Price lies in the fact that it is at once the revealing story of an important and controversial political leader, and at the same time, a history of the anti-colonial struggle and the modern political development of Belize.

CARIBBEAN SEMINAR SERIES

CARIBBEAN SEMINAR SERIES



SPRING PROGRAMME: JANUARY-MARCH 2012

The Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies are part of the University of London, located in Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU.

Series convenors: Kate Quinn (ISA); Mary Turner (ICwS)

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

“The most completely political Negro": The convergence of George Padmore’s pan-Africanism and Marxism in the West Indian Labour Revolts, 1935-1939
18th January 17:30 Room 349 (Third Floor, Senate House)
Leslie James, LSE

Born in Trinidad in 1903, George Padmore is best known either as one of the 'fathers of Pan-Africanism', or as the Communist International's most important 'Negro communist.' These categories have diminished his interest in, and support for, resistance in the West Indies. The Caribbean labour revolts, which began in British Honduras in early 1935 and culminated in the strikes, marches and demonstrations across Jamaica in 1938, became a major subject of George Padmore’s journalism and a key action point for his London-based International African Service Bureau (IASB). The IASB became heavily involved in West Indian affairs and although many see this period as Padmore’s stronger identification as an ‘African,’ it was also the period in which he was most involved in West Indian politics. This paper will show that Padmore's continued Marxism and his persistent encouragement of pan-African unity came together in his support for Caribbean workers.

Bio: Leslie James is a PhD candidate in the International History Dept, London School of Economics and Political Science. She is working on a biography of George Padmore.

Seminar and Book Launch: George Price, A Life Revealed: The Authorised Biography, Ian Randle Press (2011) by Godfrey Smith
1st February 18:00 The William Beveridge Hall (Ground floor, Senate House)
Speaker: Godfrey P Smith
Commentator: Lord Michael Ashcroft

"An ascetic and failed priest, a stoic, father of the nation, prime minister and first national hero of the Central American nation of Belize, George Price remains one of the most enigmatic leaders of the 20th century. Nothing in the early years of Price’s life gave any indication that he would become the most uncompromising adversary of the British government in the struggle, first for self-government and later for Belizean independence, and in the process dominate Belizean politics for over 40 years. An indifferent scholastic career, failure to complete studies for the priesthood followed by a decade as the right-hand man for one of the colony’s most astute businessmen, were less than impressive a track record for a future national leader and political firebrand. Yet for close to 50 years, the story of George Price was inseparable from the story of the modern political development of Belize, involving the birth of nationalist politics; the formation of political parties; the struggle for independence and the national objective of maintaining the territorial integrity of Belize against claims by Guatemala.

Here is the story of a man who never married or raised a family, who never had a romantic liaison with a woman and who up to the time of his death at the age of 92 had remained celibate all his life. Price’s first and only lifelong love, his sweetheart, wife and family were Belize and its people. In this even-handed and revealing authorized biography, Godfrey Smith does not attempt to canonize Price or denigrate his rivals and detractors. Rather, he exposes the contradictions that were a feature of Price’s life and career. On the one hand the reader is shown Price as the ardent nationalist and a man of uncommon discipline and tenacity who pursued his vision of an independent Belize with clear-minded focus, courage and determination, yet who, by his own admission, had secret relations with Guatemala whom most Belizeans regarded as the enemy.

On a personal level, Smith paints a picture of Price as one who beneath his pious exterior could often be found to be petty, secretive and vindictive, and a man who did not suffer slights lightly. Few political leaders from the region have recorded their memoirs or, like Price, given access by way of interviews or opened their personal papers to researchers or biographers. As one whose political career spanned boththe colonial and the post independence eras, the information, experiences and insights Price has freely given to his biographer will make this work an important contribution to the study of the political personality, the development of political parties and party politics in the Caribbean at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition, the book sheds new light on Price’s adversarial relationship with local British governors and officials of the Colonial Office in London, and on the central role that the Guatemalan claim on Belize and Price’s controversial affiliations with Guatemala played in both the negotiation and timing of Belizean independence. The value of Godfrey Smith’s work as the biographer of George Price lies in the fact that it is at once the revealing story of an important and controversial political leader, and at the same time, a history of the anti-colonial struggle and the modern political development of Belize"

East Indian Civil Society in the Pre-Independence Caribbean
15th February 17:00 S264 (Second Floor, Senate House)

Speakers:
Feriel Kissoon, King’s College London: "How East Indians became West Indians": the Indigenization of East Indians in Trinidad and Tobago 1910-1930
Clem Seecharan, London Metropolitan University [title TBC]

Panel: Small Territories, Global Issues: Governance and Corruption in the Caribbean
29th February 17:30 S261 (Second Floor, Senate House)

Peter Clegg, UWE: The Turks and Caicos Islands: Can the cloud be banished?
Dylan Vernon, ISA: Our Turn to Feed: Big Implications of Rampant Political Clientelism in Small State Belize
The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) is one of 14 Overseas Territories (OTs) still overseen by the United Kingdom (UK). Underpinned by tourism, property development and financial services, its economy experienced growth amongst the highest in the world during the early to mid-2000s. However, it now appears that this economic success was built on a political, economic and social system that was seriously compromised, and which created ‘a national emergency’ that potentially threatened the very future of the territory. The paper considers the report of the 2009 UK government-appointed Commission of Inquiry into alleged corruption in the TCI, and draws comparisons with a similar Commission of Inquiry undertaken in 1986. Indeed the title of the article derives from a quotation from the first inquiry overseen by Louis Blom-Cooper which said ‘… I am driven to the conclusion that the time has come to disperse the cloud that hangs like a brooding omnipresence in a Grand Turkan Sky’. It is clear that this did not happen, and the paper investigates why. The paper considers the UK government’s system of oversight and the characteristics of the TCI, and whether these help to explain recent events and those in the mid-1980s. A final assessment is then made as to whether the TCI is particularly prone to breakdowns in good governance, what is being done to repair the territory’s reputation, and whether the cloud hanging over the TCI can be banished.

Bio: Dr Peter Clegg is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of the West of England in Bristol, and in 2009/2010 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He has published widely on the Caribbean, and teaches a range of courses on Latin American and Caribbean Politics.

The disproportionate expansion and prevalence of political clientelism in Belize since independence in 1981 have worrying implications for its democratic governance and development. From the ‘cultural normalcy’ of open vote-buying in local constituencies, to blatant patronage in the public service, to the backroom high finance deals for the ‘big boys’, the trading of political favour for political support is no longer just election addenda but a permanent state of affairs in daily political relationships of exchange and influence. Although intense party competition and high rates of poverty have jointly fuelled this political phenomenon, small state scale, highly personalised politics, and demographic shifts have also contributed significantly in the Belize context. The paper focuses on the ‘big’ governance challenges that pervasive political clientelism present for small Commonwealth Caribbean states such as Belize in terms of its relationship to political corruption, the disincentive effect on policy reform, the undermining of welfare delivery, and the creation of a mutually damaging dependency between people and their political leaders. Is this path of entrenched political clientelism inevitable for these small states?

Bio: Dylan Vernon is a United Kingdom Commonwealth Scholarship Fellow currently in his third year of completing a PhD in Caribbean Politics at the Institute for the Study of the Americas at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London. The presentation is based on his thesis (in progress) on the nature and implications of rampant political clientelism in Belize. Prior to ISA, his career included directing the Society for the Promotion of Education and Research in Belize (1994-1998), chairing the Belize Political Reform Commission (1999-2000), managing the United Nations Development Programme in Belize (2000-2005), chairing the Advisory Council on the Guatemalan Claim (2005-2009), lecturing at the University of Belize, and private consulting in the development sector.

Recent Elections and Communal Strife: Trinidad and Guyana
14th March 17:30 Room 349 (Third floor, Senate House)
Ralph Premdas, University of the West Indies, St.Augustine

In two Caribbean states that are ethnically plural, this seminar compares the persistence/disappearance of the ethnic factor through the prism of the last two elections in Trinidad and Guyana.

Bio: Ralph R. Premdas is Professor in the Sir Arthur Institute of Social and Economic Research (SALISES) at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. He holds PhDs in Political Science (Illinois 1970) and Comparative Religion (McGill1991). His research focuses on issues of democratic governance and public policy in ethnically divided states. His publications include many books among which are Identity, Ethnicity and Culture in the Caribbean (2000); Ethnic Conflict and Development: The Case of Guyana (1997) and Trinidad and Tobago: Identity and Ethnicity in Public Sector Governance (2007).

George Price

George Cadle Price, leader of Belizean independence and the country's firtst premier died earlier this month (19th September 2011).

Price's political career started with winning a seat in the Belize City Council in 1947, as part of a growing nationalist movement. Price was a founder member of the People's United Party (PUP), and vice-president of its key ally, the General Workers Union. He served as the Mayor of Belize City from 1958 to 1962 and was the leader of the People’s United Party from 1956 to 1996. He became First Minister on April 7th, 1961 and Premier on January 1st, 1964, under the system of internal self-rule. George Price headed the team that negotiated full independenceand on Belize attaining independence on September 21st, 1981 become Belize’s First Prime Minister (and Foreign Minister).

The People's United Party lost the 1984 election, to the United Democratic Party, but returned to power under Price in 1989 for another four years.

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies holds a number of pamphlets from the People's United Party in its political pamphlets collection and also holds in its colections copies of a number of published speeches made by Price.

Collections of speeched by Price held include:
 
Price, George, The premier speaks. [Belize City, Belize] : Government Information Service, [1963]
F1443 BRI REFERENCE ONLY

Price, George Belizeans unite to build our nation : [a collection of important speeches by Premier George Price]. Belize City, British Honduras : Government Printer, [1965]
F1443 PRI REFERENCE ONLY

14th UK-Belize Association Meeting Friday 23rd September, 2011

14th UK-Belize Association Meeting Friday 23rd September, 2011

To be held at: Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Room: G37 Bedford Room (Ground floor).

Provisional Programme.

13:00 Registration
13:15 Welcome

13:30 Session 1
Dylan Vernon, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London
Big Game, Small Town: Exploring the Origins of Modern Political Clientelism in Belize.
Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London
The Belize Economy since Independence.
Anne Burns, The Belize High Commission in London
Barrier Reef Conservation initiatives: Reforesting coral beds.
Elizabeth Graham, Institute of Archaeology, University College, London
Residual waste in the past and its impact on modern environments

15:30 Tea & coffee

16:00 Session 2
Holley Moyes, University of California
The Archaeology of Las Cuevas
Percival Cho, Lancaster Environment Centre, University of Lancaster
Hurricane impact assessment on the Forest Dynamic Plots in the Chiquebul and Colombia Forests: Implications for Forest conservation.
Christopher Minty, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh & Charles Britt, New Mexico State University.
Monitoring the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) in the Chiquebul Forest: Update.
Barbara Bulmer-Thomas, Independent Researcher
Origin Myths: The curious case of Peter Wallace the vanishing pirate.

UK-Belize Association Business

18:00 Close of meeting

ALL WELCOME
Contact: bbulmerthomas@gmail.com

Caribbean Seminar Series

Caribbean Seminar Series

jointly hosted by the Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.

You are warmly invited to attend these events. Please note the time and venue in each case. The programme can also be found on http://americas.sas.ac.uk/events.php?aoi_id=79

INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF THE AMERICAS AND INSTITUTE OF COMMONWEALTH STUDIES CARIBBEAN SEMINAR SERIES AUTUMN 2010

20th October, Ben Bowling, King’s College London PANEL & BOOK LAUNCH Policing the Caribbean: Transnational Security Co-operation in Practice Oxford University Press, 2010

VENUE: Chapters, King’s College London, Strand, London WCR 2LS
TIME: 6PM

Panel: Ben Bowling, Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice, King's College London Robert Reiner, Department of Law, LSE Amanda Sives, Department of Politics, Liverpool University
Chair: Philip Murphy, Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Policing the Caribbean examines how law enforcement is migrating beyond the boundaries of the nation state. Perceptions of public safety and national sovereignty are shifting in the face of global insecurity and as the police respond to transnational threats like drug trafficking and organised crime. Transnational policing is one of the most significant recent developments in the security field and is changing the organisation of criminal law enforcement in the Caribbean and other parts of the world. Drawing on interviews with chief police officers, Customs, coastguard, immigration, security, military and government officials, Policing the Caribbean examines these changes and provides unique insight into collaboration between local security agencies and liaison officers from the UK and USA. This book considers the impact of a restructured transnational security infrastructure on the safety and wellbeing of the Caribbean islands and beyond. It concludes that as the “war on drugs” has been fought, transnational law enforcement has displaced drug trafficking to new locations across the north Atlantic rim and with it, the associated harms of money laundering, corruption and armed violence.

Bio: Ben Bowling is Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at King's College London. He has published widely in the fields of policing and international criminal justice. His books include Violent Racism (OUP 1998) and Racism, Crime and Justice (with Coretta Phillips, Longman 2002). He has served on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Criminology and Policing and Society. He has been a consultant to the United Nations and Interpol, and regularly addresses senior security sector practitioners from around the world.

Hosted in collaboration with the British Society of Criminology

3rd November SEMINAR: Clara Rachel Eybalin Casseus, Université de Poitiers ‘Trans-national Associative Practices: The Case of Haitians in France’

Venue: G32, Senate House, ground floor
Time: 5pm

Abstract:
This paper examines the empirical data collected on a less-visible segment of the population residing in Metropolitan France: migrants of Haitian origin referred to as trans-national entrepreneurs. Three elements in this study help us to understand how migrants transformed themselves into development actors: their ability to cultivate cross-border transactions and exchanges on a regular basis; an engagement with the local community in activities likely to lead to long-term development and sustainability; and an overall approach to empower locals to break the poverty-trap triangle. In the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Haiti, this paper attempts to look differently at the ongoing practices of a diasporic community and its possible impact on local development.

Bio: Originally from Haiti, Clara Rachel’s journey abroad begins at age of four due to political turmoil. Her travels took her to different parts of the globe: from Zaire to Miami, from Mexico to Jeddah. A long-time tourism specialist (FL/GA, 1988-1992) and former Healthcare worker in the US and Jeddah, she holds a BA in International Politics and a MAIA/MPA in Strategic Public Policy from The American University of Paris. She also holds an MA joint-degree with the Institut Catholique de Paris in the Sociology of Conflicts. She is currently working on her PhD on Migration & Development Studies at the Université de Poitiers (France), focusing primarily on the evolution of trans-nationalism and Caribbean diasporic communities throughout the European Union.

17th November, Natalie Zacek, University of Manchester SEMINAR & BOOK LAUNCH Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670-1776, Cambridge University Press, 2010

Venue: G27, Senate House, ground floor
Time: 5pm

Abstract:
Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670-1776 is the first study of the history of the federated colony of the Leeward Islands - Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, and St Kitts - that covers all four islands in the period from their independence from Barbados in 1670 up to the outbreak of the American Revolution, which reshaped the Caribbean. Natalie A. Zacek emphasizes the extent to which the planters of these islands attempted to establish recognizably English societies in tropical islands based on plantation agriculture and African slavery. By examining conflicts relating to ethnicity and religion, controversies regarding sex and social order, and a series of virulent battles over the limits of local and imperial authority, this book depicts these West Indian colonists as skilled improvisers who adapted to an unfamiliar environment, and as individuals as committed as other American colonists to the norms and values of English society, politics, and culture.

Bio: Natalie Zacek is Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Manchester. She received her PhD from Johns Hopkins University, and has published essays on aspects of the social, cultural, and gender history of the English West Indies in Slavery and Abolition, the Journal of Peasant Studies, Wadabagei and History Compass, as well as a number of edited volumes. She has received funding awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the British Academy, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Earhart Foundation, and is currently working on a history of horse-racing in 19th-century America.

1st December PANEL: CRIME & DEMOCRACY IN CONTEMPORARY JAMAICA

Speakers: Amanda Sives, Liverpool University; Rivke Jaffe, Leiden University
Followed by book launch of Elections, Violence and the Democratic Process in Jamaica, 1944-2007 by Amanda Sives (Ian Randle Publications, 2010)

Venue: G27, Senate House, ground floor
Time: 5pm

Amanda Sives, ‘A calculated assault on the authority of the State?’: Crime, Politics and the Extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke’
In this paper, I use the extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke as a starting point for analysing the relationship between criminality and politics in 21st century Jamaica. Based on secondary sources and previous research, I analyse this example to explore connections between criminal networks, political parties and the State. I argue the ‘Dudus’ case was inevitable given the historical relationships between criminal actors and politicians and that this extradition could provide a turning point if the State, and agents of the State, prove to be genuinely committed to breaking the connections between politics and crime. In addition, I want to explore other factors which can influence the direction of the process. First, I question how far civil society can be involved in the ‘renewal’ process and where the potential barriers to their engagement could arise and secondly, I want to explore the international dimension, critically important given current economic realities in Jamaica and the trans-national nature of the ‘problem’.

Rivke Jaffe, ‘Hybrid States and Complementary Governance: Crime and Citizenship in Kingston, Jamaica’
Nation-states worldwide face a situation where different governance structures compete for citizens’ allegiance. In marginalized urban areas, new, informal governance structures may provide access to crucial urban services and resources, and offer a framework for social inclusion and belonging. In Kingston, Jamaica, criminal organizations, led by so-called ‘dons’ have taken on these functions of the state. Rather than understanding these non-state governance structures as ‘parallel states’, this presentation explores the idea of ‘hybrid states’ in which criminal organizations and the state are entangled as they share control over urban spaces and populations. Seen from perspective of inner-city Jamaicans, this does not result in a situation where the dons replace the state and entire neighbourhoods become non-state spaces. Rather, it entails a form of ‘complementary governance’ by which citizens utilize informal systems of rule in conjunction with formal state structures.

Bios:
Amanda Sives is a Lecturer in Politics. Her main research expertise lies in the politics of the Caribbean with a particular emphasis on Jamaica. She has worked on a number of research projects in a variety of countries including Jamaica, Botswana, Guyana, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the United States and the UK. Successfully completed projects have focused on election observation, political violence and migration. She has held posts in the University of Nottingham, the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. She has been working in the School since September 2005.

Rivke Jaffe is a Lecturer in the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, the Netherlands. She previously held teaching and research positions at the University of the West Indies, Mona and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV). She has conducted fieldwork in Jamaica, Curaçao and Suriname on topics ranging from the urban environment to the political economy of multiculturalism. Her current research, in Jamaica, studies how criminal organizations and the state share control over urban spaces and populations, and the alternative governance structures and fragmented sovereignty that result from this.

15th December, Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Professor Emeritus, London University
SEMINAR: The Rise, Decline and Fall of the Belize Economy before Independence

Venue: G32, Senate house, ground floor
Time: 5pm

Abstract: At the close of the Napoleonic Wars, the small population of Belize had the highest average income in the Caribbean. This was due to its specialisation in high value timber products and a very profitable entrepot trade with Central America. By the time Belize became a British colony in 1862, this privileged position was starting to erode due to the decline of the re-export trade and severe difficulties in the mahogany industry. Crown Colony rule did nothing to reverse this, the efforts to diversify the economy towards agricultural exports were both too little and too late, and the Belize economy entered a long period of relative decline. When the Great Depression struck in the 1930s, the material basis of the economy was undermined and the economy endured a sharp fall.

Bio: Professor Victor Bulmer-Thomas is Professor Emeritus of London University and Senior Distinguished Fellow of the School of Advanced Studies. He served as Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies between 1992 and 1998 and recently served as Director of Chatham House. He is currently Visiting Professor at Florida International University where he is working on an economic history of the Caribbean since the Napoleonic Wars.

Society and Environment: new research in Belize

Society and Environment: new research in Belize

13th Annual Meeting of the United Kingdom - Belize Association (UKBA)
Friday 24th September, 2010

12.00 noon - 5.00 pm

Rewley House
1 Wellington Square
University of Oxford

PROGRAMME

12.00 Lunch - Mawby Pavilion, Rewley House

12.45 Session 1: Politics and Society
Neil Pyper, Oxford Analytica: Narcos and Maras: encroaching on Belize?
Dylan Vernon, University of London: The Making of a Patronage Democracy: concepts and issues for a case study of post-independence Belize
Steven R. Brechin, Syracuse University & Osmany Salas: Government-NGO Networks & Nature Protection in Belize: examining the theory of the hollow state in a developing country context

2.45 Tea and coffee

3.00 Session 2: Environment and Society
Patrick Doncaster, University of Southampton: The Darwin Initiative wildlife corridor project in Belize
Christopher Minty, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh & Charles Britt, New Mexico State University: Illegal poaching and habitat loss on an isolated sub-species population of Scarlet Macaw's (Ara macao cyanoptera) in the Chiqubul Forest, Belize
Elizabeth Rushton, University of Nottingham: Lamanai, Belize: an environmental history
Jaimie Henthorn: Life in the Tree: arboreal architecture for both art and research

5.00 Meeting close

5.30 Informal drinks at Jude the Obscure, Walton Street

7.30 Dinner at Al Andalus, Little Clarendon Street

Conference fee: £20

Onsite accommodation available - further details on the registration webpage below.
To attend the conference, please register online via the following link before 20th September, 2010 http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/details.php?id=O10C556F2J