Terror in the Caribbean: Phantom or Fact?

Barbados has been grappling with excessive Sahara dust, unprecedented heat, and even an outbreak of dengue fever, disproportionately affecting senior citizens. Barbados faces an existential crisis due to a vulnerable ageing population impacted by climate events; two in every five Barbadians are over fifty, expected to increase to three in every five by 2030. Despite this, healthcare is not a priority in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) climate action plans. Is the Barbadian infrastructure sturdy enough to support an advancing climate crisis?

This podcast series looks at how prepared the Caribbean is for the future and in this episode, we focus on Jamaica. How is the Jamaican economy bouncing back from the pandemic after the past two years?

If there's one lesson Trinidad and Tobago can take away from the pandemic, it's how to build resilience and manage uncertainty. It allowed the government to test its responsiveness to crises and pivot to a constantly changing environment. Insights into the next steps for the twin island Republic.

Like all other countries, Barbados, a Caribbean island nation in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, started its journey into the unknown. In October 2018, after struggling under the burden of debt, Barbados entered into an arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Under its Extend Fund Facility (EFF), the IMF and the Barbados Government developed an agreement called the Barbados Economic Recovery Transformation (BERT) plan. You know what they say about the best-laid plans. COVID-19 put Barbados on a different course.

With an estimated $3 million spent on vaccines in 2021, the government is reaping the rewards of that investment and having fully inoculated more than 60% of its population, it has started to remove COVID restrictions. On August 25, 2022, the Cabinet decided to lift quarantine and testing restrictions for both vaccinated and unvaccinated air travellers. What's next for Antigua?

Even as Caribbean authorities wrestle with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, legislators have been scrambling to formulate appropriate responses to an accompanying growth in unlawful pyramid and Ponzi schemes marketed as financial solutions to the impact of restrictive pandemic measures. Listen to how this current epidemic of financial fraud is finding fertile ground in the region.

Venezuela’s General Election outcome of December 6th 2020 was as expected by many. It is evident that Venezuela’s future truly is uncertain. CIJN’s Investigative piece of November 3rd 2020 remains relevant and paints the bleak picture of the chaos inside a country that seems to be disintegrating CIJN Looks at Venezuela through the eyes of the people who live there and have endured years of corruption and economic hardship. When Asked to describe their quality of life, an overwhelming 82.5% of Venezuelans chose “Life is Chaos” with only 15% saying “Life is Normal” (15.2%)

With the dismantling of ISIS, Trinidad and Tobago faces the issue of its nationals at camps in Syria. Their families want them to come home but what infrastructure must exist for their repatriation? Multiple perspectives on the issue are shared in this podcast.

With the current demise of Venezuela, the desperation of its people to stay alive had increased. Many young women have been caught in the web of human trafficking and sex slavery.

The Hosay Massacre also known as the Muharram Riots of 1884, is an almost lost chapter in the history of Trinidad and Tobago. We recap the history of this event.

Trinidad and Tobago is now faced with the issue of returnees. How will they deal with this? What about women and children

In many countries across the globe, CVE programmes have developed to fight radicalization. There is the constant threat that other terrorist groups will take root and they will be more successful than their predecessors. This is a review of some of the CVE projects implemented in Trinidad and Tobago.

While Trinidad and Tobago holds the record as highest GDP for ISIS recruitment in the Western hemisphere, other Caribbean countries have not gone unscathed. In this episode, we review some of the faces of ISIS and other radical groups.

Over the past few years, experts and civil society have been able to identify the push and pull factors of ISIS. We explore the lure of ISIS in this episode.

In this episode we speak with senior members of the Islamic community about their views on radicalization and what it is like to be Muslim in Trinidad and Tobago.

He became a poster boy for ISIS and influenced several others to join the caliphate. In this episode we tell Shane Crawford’s story.

Radicalization first rear its head in Trinidad and Tobago when the first Islamic militant coup in the Western world was staged in 1990. Years later, recruitment members for ISIS sprung out of this movement. We recap 1990.

The twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago is globally known for its steelpan, calypso and carnival. But it gained another accolade – the infamy of being the number one recruitment ground for ISIS in the Western Hemisphere based on per capita data. It is estimated that over 200 T&T nationals joined the caliphate. This series explores the issues that surround the radicalization phenomena, the facts and the Stories; as well as the strategies for countering violent extremism in a small island nation. This podcast series seeks to lift the veil on what has remained hidden till now and how T&T is dealing with the issue of returnees.