jan-2018

4 5 JAN. - FEB. 2018 Opening Lines IF YOU SPENT 2017 INTHE CARIBBEAN, THIS WAS THE KINDOF YEARYOU HAD E veryyear has its ups and downs; however,2017was a bit like a roller coaster for the Caribbean archipelago,completewith incredible highs and stomach-churning lows.Here’s a lookbackat some of the issues the regionwrestledwith this year,and howit both failed and tri- umphed in themidst of change: THE HIGHS THE ENVIRONMENT While the environment tooka huge hit because of the harsh 2017Atlantic hurricane seasonwhichwreaked havoc inmany island territories,nature also won big thanks to the efforts of dedicated environmentalists. Firstoff,the restof the regionralliedtotheaidof the territories thatwere the worst affected—a trendthatwasevident evenwhensmaller scaledisasters like floodinghappenedona local level before thehurricaneseasonbegan. Just as hearteningwas theway that good news and stories of resilience began to surface after Hurricanes Irma andMaria devastated the region, countering the“disaster porn”narrative that was beginning to take shape on international mainstreammedia.Therewere also glimpses of hope as badly batteredDominica began to rebuild,and the region’s birds,whose habitats had been destroyed,weremaking a post-hurricane comeback. The icing on the cake came in the formof a landmarkvictory for environ- mentalists in Jamaicawhomanaged,after a long and hard-fought campaign, to convince the government to create awild- life sanctuaryon the Goat Islands.The area, once threatened bya transshipment port development,isnowasanctuaryfor thecrit- icallyendangered Jamaican Iguana,which had initiallybeenthought extinctbutwas rediscovered inthePortlandBightProtect- edArea’sHellshireHills in1990. WOMEN FINDING THEIR VOICES It was a tough year for Caribbeanwomen, with often fatal incidents of gender-based violence dominating the headlines.Adding