There's another must read piece from Lynne Winfield in today's Bermuda Sun. In order to understand the social makeup of Bermuda today, we have to understand our history.
Lynne Winfield outlines two hypothetical experiences that reflect the stories of many white and black Bermudians. While everyone's stories are certainly unique, stories like these are all too common across our island. The White Experience:
You are a first generation Bermudian male, your father/mother having arrived in the late 1960s or 1970s as part of a large influx of whites from the U.K. responding to increasing opportunities in international business and the ongoing general Government policy of encouraging whites to settle in Bermuda. Your parents were working/middle class and they arrived with barely a penny in their pockets and a high school education. Unknowingly your parents jump to the top of the hiring pool, not understanding that at the time of their arrival segregation had only just ceased to exist, and that negative white attitudes/perceptions towards black Bermudians were still firmly entrenched.
Within seven years your parents achieve Bermudian status which opened doors and provided more advantages. They moved up in their organizations, perhaps achieving positions of power and influence. They worked hard, bought a home and sacrificed and saved to send you to private school and then you were the first one in your family to go to university. This was possible because your parents were able to get a loan against the equity in their house. With solid pensions built up over the years and their home fully paid for your parents are now retired. Their major medical is still covered due to an arrangement with their ex-employers to continue to keep them on the company's medical plan at the lower rate.
At 21 you have graduated and are now living in an apartment under your parent's house paying a low rent, while you save towards the down payment on your first house and the knowledge that your parents will more than likely help you secure your first mortgage in a couple of years. You have a terrific job in the international business sector. The sky's the limit.
This is a story of opportunity, and, that opportunity was created by a combination of individual initiative and historical and social circumstance. Now, let's examine a very different story - The Black Experience:
Compare this to the black Bermudian experience in the 1960s and 1970s with a similar high school education. By and large jobs in the service industry were open to them with the concomitant low pay. Due to continued racist attitudes and stereotypes, there were minimum opportunities to move into higher paying jobs with a future or management training progammes.
Mortgages were virtually unavailable due to continued racism, low incomes, and the stereotypes about blacks being high credit risks. Your father had excelled at high school but because of the times could only obtain work in the construction industry and your mother was a domestic. Both industries provided inadequate to non-existent pensions. However, your parents worked hard, saved hard and held down two jobs. Through sheer effort and sacrifice they saved enough to buy a small piece of land in Pembroke, and through the help of friends and neighbours bit by bit built a home, but money was scarce and despite your graduating near the top of your class at high school, there was nothing to spare for further education.
Your parents would like to retire but cannot afford to do so. The government pension combined with the little private pension they have accumulated since 2000 is just insufficient to meet their needs. They only have HIP insurance because they cannot afford Major Medical insurance. A long term illness would be catastrophic for the whole family, financially. You live at home; you've been working full-time since you were 16 and now at 21 realize that you need to take evening classes at the Bermuda College if you want to move up into management.
You hope to be able to eventually save enough to complete your degree overseas or at the very least get a business degree by correspondence courses. This all depends on your parents' ability to keep working and maintain their health, as otherwise you would need to continue to work full time in order to help support them. With luck it will be five years before you graduate and you'll be 26, but then you still have to find a job and get experience in the field before you can start making some 'real' money.
Two life experiences just a few miles apart. Both families with similar values, beliefs and attitudes towards hard work, family and trying to get ahead, but with widely disparate outcomes with regard to education, employment, housing and health!
The PLP Government is committed to promoting opportunity for all Bermudians. We're addressing these social and historical concerns through initiatives such as the Big Conversation. We're also committed to improving education and creating job opportunities for all Bermudians.
These historical and social injustices will take time to heal. We all believe in moving toward equality. That's why we must not be complacent. We must learn from the past lest we be doomed to repeat it.
PLP Blog site http://www.plp.bm/blog
Monday 15 December 2008
Friday 12 December 2008
Business Exodus Warning
More companies are considering jumping ship to Switzerland, as the "quiet drain" of money and personnel from Bermuda appears to be gathering pace. Industry insiders said yesterday most Bermuda-based insurance firms have one eye on moving their headquarters to Europe - following the route taken by three separate companies on Wednesday. The news comes as the industry continues to digest the "implosion" of XL, a company once considered a barometer for the health of Bermuda's economy as a whole. XL's share price crashed through the floor on Wednesday amid rumours the company is up for sale. And the Bermuda Sun has learned that the company has already shed up to 70 jobs - far higher than the official number of layoffs. Golden era over?Former premier Sir John Swan said yesterday that the "golden era" of international business on the island now appears to be over. He said even a modest decline in big business will affect every Bermudian, with taxi drivers, restaurateurs, house painters and anyone with an apartment to rent feeling the "trickle down effect." Minister of Finance Paula Cox struck a calmer note, saying recent developments are "cause for close monitoring" but insisting the island is in a strong position to endure economic turbulence. (See page 6 for Ms Cox's comments). Sir John urged all Bermudians, from the man on the street to the leaders of the country, to try harder to make international business feel welcome. "Unfortunately, when things were going really well, when things were at their best, we were at our worse: making more noise about race and about term limits," Sir John said. "We thought: 'we don't need to think about these people; they [international big business] will always be here.'" Referring to Government's announcement this week that they will review the six-year work permit limit law that proved so unpopular with big business, Sir John said: "Now things have started to slow down we are thinking about those things. Six months ago you couldn't get anyone to talk about work permit limits. But now it may be too late; you have to make your friends before you need them."Changes to tax lawsSir John said many of the factors affecting big business are out of the island's hands, including the global economic downturn and moves in the U.S. to change offshore tax laws. However, making the island more welcoming is up to everyone. He said: "It requires a sacrifice from all Bermudians. If you want to have a loose tongue and tell people [ex-pats] where to get off; if you want to think only what is best for you; if you want to be that arrogant then we all suffer the consequences." Don Kramer, head of Ariel Re, is an ex-pat and long term resident. He agrees that subtle messages have been sent out making international business leaders feel less welcome. He said: "For example, at the airport, there used to be a line for residents and non-residents. Now it is Bermudians and non-Bermudians. The Government is in a difficult position: it has to pander to a segment of their constituency that considers ex-pats a waste of oxygen on their island. On the other hand, I have to believe that Government is intelligent enough to know where the wealth comes from." Mr. Kramer - who oversees around 60 employees at Ariel Re - said he has had a serious look at moving his own headquarters to Switzerland, although he has decided that option is currently "not on the radar." He believes all insurance firms have been obliged to consider such a move. The reason is increasing "aggression" from lawmakers and tax inspectors in the U.S. No longer preferredShadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons said that recent moves to Switzerland are symbolic and prove Bermuda is no longer the "preferred jurisdiction" for companies considering a move. He said: "There should be serious concern in the community about the health of our international business." Mr. Gibbons believes Government has squandered its goodwill with big business by obsessing about race. He said Premier Ewart Brown's recent remarks in Parliament about white Bermudians not supporting Barack Obama was just the latest example of Dr. Brown sending out the wrong message. Mr. Gibbons said: "The PLP needs to think long and hard about its leadership at this present time." Describing the consequences to the country if big business declines, Mr. Gibbons said: "Most directly, 60 per cent of employees in those companies are Bermudians. If jobs are lost, Bermudian families suddenly find themselves without a breadwinner. Then there is the huge amount of money Government makes directly from payroll tax - that goes. Business people take taxis, eat at restaurants; they work in offices that have to be built and maintained. They stay in apartments that will soon be empty if we are not careful." Officially, XL announced it had shed 47 jobs. However, insiders say at least 70 of around 320 staff have moved on, with many jumping ship before being pushed. One insider said parts of XL's offices now resemble "a ghost town" with desks empty and morale low. The entire operation could fit inside one of the company's two towers and XL has lobbied Government to try to rent out its second tower, the insider said. However, when XL and ACE were granted special permission to buy property in Bermuda it was done on the proviso they would not rent out any office space.The Bermuda Sun called XL spokeswoman Carol Parker-Trott for comment yesterday but received no reply by press time.XL’s decline: should you be worried?As a long-standing powerhouse of Bermuda's insurance industry, XL has long been seen as a barometer for the health of the economy. So does its rapid decline forebode a similar collapse for the island's other firms? No, experts say; XL's problems are individual and tied to specific investments. Peter Everson, a consultant for Schroeder's asset management, said: "The factors affecting XL are related to that company and that company alone. General Motors, one of the most prestigious companies in America, has had to go to the Government for help; that does not mean all American automotive companies are in trouble." David Ezekiel, chairman of the Association of Bermuda International Companies, agrees XL's problems are specific. However, he said the decline of such an "iconic" local company was still a psychological blow for everyone in the industry. Mr. Ezekiel said: "The [local] industry has been defined by Ace and XL. It's a blow to the psyche."by Tim Hall
Thursday 4 December 2008
Global War for Talent
Article published December 4. 2008 01:10PMIsland in a 'global war for talent' says BEC study By Alex Wright
The number of Bermudians filling jobs in the domestic market will not be enough to sustain the Island's economic prosperity over the next two decades.
That was the stark message from the Bermuda Employers' Council (BEC) survey entitled 'The Shift: An Examination of Employment Trends in Bermuda', which reveals there is an impending labour market shortage due to a falling birth rate and a low projected population growth for the country in the next 20 years.
The study, which was carried out in June 2008 and presented to delegates at the BEC's Annual General Meeting held at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel yesterday, also shows a shift to a more knowledge-based economy which has created additional pressures on the private sector to secure the level of skilled resources needed to sustain and grow their businesses.
Allied to this there is already some evidence of offshoring jobs to other jurisdictions due to the shortage of certain skilled workers in Bermuda, a trend which is set to continue and accelerate in the future as worldwide demand for talented employees increases.
The report found that even at modest growth rates in the economy of one percent per year, the projected rise in the amount of jobs will lead to an inevitable drop in the percentage of Bermudians in the total workforce, with the percentage of working black Bermudians expected to decline to less than half the workforce over time.
"Even conservative economic growth will lead to a higher demand for workers than Bermuda can produce domestically," it read.
"Public policy must recognise this and should focus on efforts to maximise the employment opportunities for all Bermudians, with strong emphasis on training and education to prepare future generations, especially for the higher level knowledge-based job opportunities that are being created."
The survey called on employers to think about repatriating Bermudians working overseas, while it said Government's "disproportionate employment" of available Bermudians should also be considered given the negative impact it has on the availability of Bermudians in the private sector in a bid to mitigate the need to import additional workers.
"Bermuda is faced with a significant dilemma: the need to maximise the job opportunities for its citizens, balanced with the need for continued economic growth that is insufficient to meet economic growth even at modest levels," the report continued.
"Government policy really must recognise and focus on this reality and develop strategies that will prepare the next generation of Bermudian workers with the necessary skills and education to take full advantage of an increasingly sophisticated job market.
"At the same time Government must recognise that it is a global war for talent that is becoming more competitive with each passing day and work hard to ensure that Bermuda remains a place of choice for those willing to relocate to the Island to help build the country's long-term prosperity."
The report concluded that the reality of a growing economy and the need for more workers than the Island can produce was that Bermudians were increasingly likely to be a minority group in a range of occupations and professions, dating back to 1994 and set to continue.
It said Government needed to ensure that Bermudians are well-prepared to take on the highest level of employment and the most desirable jobs in the economy, using a long-term strategy focusing on training and education to maximise job opportunities for Bermudians.
"Bermuda's economy has outgrown Bermuda's domestic workforce and both the country and its citizens must adjust to this reality if economic prosperity is to continue," it said.
The number of Bermudians filling jobs in the domestic market will not be enough to sustain the Island's economic prosperity over the next two decades.
That was the stark message from the Bermuda Employers' Council (BEC) survey entitled 'The Shift: An Examination of Employment Trends in Bermuda', which reveals there is an impending labour market shortage due to a falling birth rate and a low projected population growth for the country in the next 20 years.
The study, which was carried out in June 2008 and presented to delegates at the BEC's Annual General Meeting held at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel yesterday, also shows a shift to a more knowledge-based economy which has created additional pressures on the private sector to secure the level of skilled resources needed to sustain and grow their businesses.
Allied to this there is already some evidence of offshoring jobs to other jurisdictions due to the shortage of certain skilled workers in Bermuda, a trend which is set to continue and accelerate in the future as worldwide demand for talented employees increases.
The report found that even at modest growth rates in the economy of one percent per year, the projected rise in the amount of jobs will lead to an inevitable drop in the percentage of Bermudians in the total workforce, with the percentage of working black Bermudians expected to decline to less than half the workforce over time.
"Even conservative economic growth will lead to a higher demand for workers than Bermuda can produce domestically," it read.
"Public policy must recognise this and should focus on efforts to maximise the employment opportunities for all Bermudians, with strong emphasis on training and education to prepare future generations, especially for the higher level knowledge-based job opportunities that are being created."
The survey called on employers to think about repatriating Bermudians working overseas, while it said Government's "disproportionate employment" of available Bermudians should also be considered given the negative impact it has on the availability of Bermudians in the private sector in a bid to mitigate the need to import additional workers.
"Bermuda is faced with a significant dilemma: the need to maximise the job opportunities for its citizens, balanced with the need for continued economic growth that is insufficient to meet economic growth even at modest levels," the report continued.
"Government policy really must recognise and focus on this reality and develop strategies that will prepare the next generation of Bermudian workers with the necessary skills and education to take full advantage of an increasingly sophisticated job market.
"At the same time Government must recognise that it is a global war for talent that is becoming more competitive with each passing day and work hard to ensure that Bermuda remains a place of choice for those willing to relocate to the Island to help build the country's long-term prosperity."
The report concluded that the reality of a growing economy and the need for more workers than the Island can produce was that Bermudians were increasingly likely to be a minority group in a range of occupations and professions, dating back to 1994 and set to continue.
It said Government needed to ensure that Bermudians are well-prepared to take on the highest level of employment and the most desirable jobs in the economy, using a long-term strategy focusing on training and education to maximise job opportunities for Bermudians.
"Bermuda's economy has outgrown Bermuda's domestic workforce and both the country and its citizens must adjust to this reality if economic prosperity is to continue," it said.
Friday 28 November 2008
Wednesday 19 November 2008
Island aims to lead with GIS technology
Bermuda is aiming to become a world leader among small island nations in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), according to Telecommunications Minister Terry Lister.
Police and Fire Services use the technology to quickly determine the locale of an incident, while Government uses it in planning applications, land valuation and protecting the Island's healthy coral reefs, the Minister said.
Speaking at a press conference marking International GIS day, Mr. Lister said: "GIS in Government is a collective and co-operative effort driven by a number of departments.
"The Government has made exceptional progress in the use of Geographic Information and Bermuda is well positioned to become a worldwide leader among small island nations in the use of GIS. Our main challenge now is to effectively meet and manage the increasing demand for GIS services as more Government departments and businesses begin to realise the value of GIS.
"As Bermuda's environment becomes more complex, emergency services are becoming increasingly dependent on the ability to access multiple layers of geographic data, which can be provided by several departments as for instance, roads, addresses and buildings are provided by the Ministry of Works and Engineering.
"The GIS Committee created the following vision statement as part of its strategy. It states that: 'The Bermuda Government will be, and will be recognised as, a world class provider and user of geographic information and services. With our collaborative, accessible and reliable spatial data infrastructure, we will enhance efficiency and promote integrated decision making to positively impact Bermuda's society, environment and economy.'
"I am confident that the collective efforts of the Government departments on Government's GIS Committee and the strategy we are now embarking upon will make this vision a reality and will position Bermuda to take advantage of the many opportunities and services that can be provided by this technology."
Demonstrations of GIS in surveying, habitat mapping, conservation, planning, archaeology and tourism will take place at Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo on Monday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
By Tim Smith
Police and Fire Services use the technology to quickly determine the locale of an incident, while Government uses it in planning applications, land valuation and protecting the Island's healthy coral reefs, the Minister said.
Speaking at a press conference marking International GIS day, Mr. Lister said: "GIS in Government is a collective and co-operative effort driven by a number of departments.
"The Government has made exceptional progress in the use of Geographic Information and Bermuda is well positioned to become a worldwide leader among small island nations in the use of GIS. Our main challenge now is to effectively meet and manage the increasing demand for GIS services as more Government departments and businesses begin to realise the value of GIS.
"As Bermuda's environment becomes more complex, emergency services are becoming increasingly dependent on the ability to access multiple layers of geographic data, which can be provided by several departments as for instance, roads, addresses and buildings are provided by the Ministry of Works and Engineering.
"The GIS Committee created the following vision statement as part of its strategy. It states that: 'The Bermuda Government will be, and will be recognised as, a world class provider and user of geographic information and services. With our collaborative, accessible and reliable spatial data infrastructure, we will enhance efficiency and promote integrated decision making to positively impact Bermuda's society, environment and economy.'
"I am confident that the collective efforts of the Government departments on Government's GIS Committee and the strategy we are now embarking upon will make this vision a reality and will position Bermuda to take advantage of the many opportunities and services that can be provided by this technology."
Demonstrations of GIS in surveying, habitat mapping, conservation, planning, archaeology and tourism will take place at Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo on Monday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
By Tim Smith
Tuesday 18 November 2008
Distinctive districts for revitalised Hamilton quarter
Published: November 18. 2008 09:45AM Distinctive districts for revitalised Hamilton quarter
By Matthew Taylor
Court Street: The hub of the North Hamilton Economic Empowerment Zone.
Exciting plans to transform North East Hamilton have been unveiled by Minister of Finance Paula Cox, detailing how the area will change over the next ten years.
Revitalisation will include creation of open spaces, expanding pedestrian areas, the introduction of more public art and more street lights.
Ms Cox said the neighbourhood varies dramatically from one block to the next so it was not possible to create a general set of policies and regulations.
"Therefore the innovative and creative solution is to capitalise upon the existing micro-neighbourhood structure of North East Hamilton and create 13 distinct districts."
It's hoped the redevelopment will attract more locals and tourists, improve and increase the housing stock, provide community facilities, protect areas of cultural value, consolidate neighbourhoods, increase commercial opportunities and inspire investor confidence.
The area became the Island's first Economic Empowerment Zone in November 2005.
Legislation will now be introduced to usher in the North East Hamilton Land Use Plan, to be known as the EEZ Local Plan, and see the establishment of an Economic Empowerment Zone Agency.
The next phase of the initiative will be to create a Local Plan for North East Hamilton which will contain specific, detailed land use policies and design regulations for each district.
The draft EEZ Local Plan will be subject to at least two months of public consultation and can be revised before it is brought to the House for final approval.
Ms Cox said: "North East Hamilton is an area steeped in tradition. It is an area in Hamilton that was once a hub of activity, full of vitality and energy.
"Yet regrettably over the years this area has not always reaped the economic benefits of other more recognised areas in the City of Hamilton.
"For this reason the Government determined to focus on North East Hamilton and its talented entrepreneurs in a bid to jumpstart much needed attention and capital to this multi-faceted section of our community."
To date stakeholders in the zone have taken advantage of :
• Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation guarantees on business loans.
l EEZ business loans and grants, available up to a maximum of $10,000 each.
l Reduction in payroll tax rate up to nine tax periods for new businesses established in the EEZ.
l Wealth building and financial management courses for EEZ residents.
l Grants provided to EEZ community organisations to undertake direct grassroots initiatives in the zone.
l Duty exemption for retailers on imported items for capital improvement and refurbishment projects.
By Matthew Taylor
Court Street: The hub of the North Hamilton Economic Empowerment Zone.
Exciting plans to transform North East Hamilton have been unveiled by Minister of Finance Paula Cox, detailing how the area will change over the next ten years.
Revitalisation will include creation of open spaces, expanding pedestrian areas, the introduction of more public art and more street lights.
Ms Cox said the neighbourhood varies dramatically from one block to the next so it was not possible to create a general set of policies and regulations.
"Therefore the innovative and creative solution is to capitalise upon the existing micro-neighbourhood structure of North East Hamilton and create 13 distinct districts."
It's hoped the redevelopment will attract more locals and tourists, improve and increase the housing stock, provide community facilities, protect areas of cultural value, consolidate neighbourhoods, increase commercial opportunities and inspire investor confidence.
The area became the Island's first Economic Empowerment Zone in November 2005.
Legislation will now be introduced to usher in the North East Hamilton Land Use Plan, to be known as the EEZ Local Plan, and see the establishment of an Economic Empowerment Zone Agency.
The next phase of the initiative will be to create a Local Plan for North East Hamilton which will contain specific, detailed land use policies and design regulations for each district.
The draft EEZ Local Plan will be subject to at least two months of public consultation and can be revised before it is brought to the House for final approval.
Ms Cox said: "North East Hamilton is an area steeped in tradition. It is an area in Hamilton that was once a hub of activity, full of vitality and energy.
"Yet regrettably over the years this area has not always reaped the economic benefits of other more recognised areas in the City of Hamilton.
"For this reason the Government determined to focus on North East Hamilton and its talented entrepreneurs in a bid to jumpstart much needed attention and capital to this multi-faceted section of our community."
To date stakeholders in the zone have taken advantage of :
• Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation guarantees on business loans.
l EEZ business loans and grants, available up to a maximum of $10,000 each.
l Reduction in payroll tax rate up to nine tax periods for new businesses established in the EEZ.
l Wealth building and financial management courses for EEZ residents.
l Grants provided to EEZ community organisations to undertake direct grassroots initiatives in the zone.
l Duty exemption for retailers on imported items for capital improvement and refurbishment projects.
Saturday 8 November 2008
My Inspiration
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. —Ralph Waldo Emerson —
Tuesday 4 November 2008
OBAMA WINS!!!!!
YES WE HAVE! OBAMA IS PRESIDENT ELECT AND I SAW IT LIVE. HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE AND THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN.
A Day the World Will Smile
I am so stoked on seeing Obama rise to the occasion. It is sad to hear that is inspiration (Grandmother) will not be there to share it with him.
'Hail to the Chief'
Tuesday 12 August 2008
Sailing and Fighting for Freedom
Following the recent celebration of the Cup Match holiday, which recognises the emancipation of slaves in Bermuda, it is worth examining the largely untold story of the small yet significant contribution that many Bermudians of African descent made in the fight for freedom on behalf of millions of enslaved Americans. This epic struggle for freedom culminated in the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. In the second in a two-part series, Kevin Grigsby looks at the role of black Bermudians in the Union Navy. On Saturday, he looked at their role in the Union Army.
According to the National Park Service's Civil War archives, at least 18,000 men of African descent served in the US Navy, which was about 15 percent of the total enlisted Union naval force. They served on nearly every Union naval vessel.
By its very nature the Union navy was more integrated and socially progressive than the Union Army as there were no segregated ships. From the start of the war the Union army had engaged in great debate whether to allow the enlistment of black soldiers. Unlike the army, blacks had been serving in the navy from the onset of the war. Full participation of blacks in the army had been delayed by nearly two years into the war. Despite its more progressive nature, the Union Navy still had strong elements of racism as blacks were prevented from becoming commissioned officers during the war.
A small percentage of the sailors of African descent that served in the Union navy came from Bermuda, Canada, as well as South American, European and Caribbean nations. Canada and Jamaica had the highest number of foreign sailors of African descent.
Military records reveal that at least 40 Bermudians of African descent served in the Union navy. Despite its small size, Bermuda was among the foreign nations with the highest number of black sailors in the Union Navy. Bermuda's numbers exceeded many South American and Caribbean nations that had larger African descent populations. In comparison to Jamaica and Canada, Bermuda had a higher representation of sailors per each country's population size.
Many of the Union foreign sailors of African descent like those from Bermuda were already experienced seamen prior to their enlistment. As evident by Union naval records, at least half of the 40 Bermudian sailors reported having nautical occupations at the time of their enlistment. Some may have already been in the American Navy prior to the outbreak of the war so their enlistment may actually have been a re-enlistment. It is worth noting that of the known Bermudians who served in the Union Army, most were sailors prior to their enlistment.
Blacks were engaged in a variety of roles in Union Navy. Many were recorded in skilled roles such as seamen, while many others were recorded in roles like cooks, stewards, cabin boys and other roles of servitude.
The bravery and courage of those in roles of servitude should not be doubted. Aboard a naval vessel every member of the crew remained in harm's way and was expected to defend the ship if called upon.
In fact two African-American Medal of Honor recipients, who served the Union Navy, were recorded in unskilled and non-combat roles. James Mifflin was recorded as cook, while Robert Blake was recorded as contraband. Blake later officially enlisted in the navy.
Contraband was the term used to describe a slave located in the Confederate territory, who after becoming liberated by Union forces and was temporarily kept under the protection of Union forces. The Medal of Honor is the highest award of bravery bestowed to a person in the American military.
It is remarkable that virtually all of the forty Bermudian sailors in the Union navy were recorded in skilled roles such as seamen and landsmen. They were not recorded in roles of servitude.
Understandably, the only Bermudian recorded in a role of servitude was a twelve year old Charles Hudson, who was recorded as a cabin boy. Even Hudson's story is quite amazing given his young age and being aboard a vessel that was involved in combat during the war.
There were many reasons why so many Bermudians may have served in the Union Navy. According to 1860 US census and enlistment records it was evident that many of the sailors were already living in the United States prior to Civil War.
The number of years the sailors had been in United States greatly varied. Some had immigrated to the country as children and others had immigrated to the country shortly before or during the war.
In addition to possibly having a sense of patriotism towards their adopted homeland, some of the Bermudian sailors may have been driven by deeper and more personal reasons for their service.
Slavery was abolished in Bermuda in 1834, just 31 years before the Union victory in the Civil War finally brought an end to slavery in the United States.
Despite Bermuda's early abolition of slavery, Bermudian sailors of African descent were well aware of the hardships of slavery as their parents, grandparents and even a few of the sailors themselves may have once been enslaved in Bermuda.
The sailors would not have been immune to the reality that in the years following emancipation, Bermudians of African descent still faced racial injustices and second class citizenship.
Still, while they may have enjoyed greater liberties in Bermuda, or in the free northern American states; or on the high seas as sailors, Bermudians of African descent, like free American blacks, understood that the vast majority of the black population in America was still in enslaved. Those troops were driven by a calling higher than any rank, patriotic duty or paycheck. They were driven by the desire to bring an end to the nearly 250 years of slavery that had been inflicted upon people African descent in the United States.
Black soldiers and sailors faced added dangers of war. There were countless incidents where it was claimed that Confederate forces refused to recognise black soldiers as prisoners of war (i.e. The Massacre at Fort Pillow).
Black soldiers and sailors were well aware of the potential consequences if being captured by Confederate forces. Potential risks involved being executed or forced into slavery. This was more than just a threat as the Confederate government passed a law, which called for the execution or enslavement of black Union soldiers and sailors. White Union officers in command of coloured regiments also faced possible execution if captured. For these reasons many soldiers and sailors of African descent were prepared to fight until the death rather than surrender.
Bermudian Union soldiers and sailors would have been well aware that their Bermudian birth would likely have no bearing on how they would have been treated if captured by Confederate forces. This makes their service to Union all the more heroic.
A testament to the bravery and valuable contributions of black Union sailors was the fact that nearly a third of the Medal of Honor recipients, who were black during the Civil War served in the Union Navy.
Four of the sailors, who were awarded the Medal of Honor for acts of bravery during the Battle of Mobile, served alongside Bermudian sailors during the battle. John Henry Lawson and Wilson Brown served aboard the USS Hartford along with Bermudian Augustus Simmons; and James Mifflin and William H. Brown served aboard the USS Brooklyn alongside Bermudian John Tucker.
Listed on this page are the names of some of the brave men of African descent who served in the Union Navy during the Civil War. Their names were obtained from military records on file with the United States National Park Service. It is possible that were other sailors who also served in the Union Navy, whose names were not officially recorded. So this chart should not be considered a complete list.
Behind the names of these sailors are most likely fascinating and powerful stories of bravery and honor. These are the type of stories that Bermudians and Americans of today can take great pride in. Some of these men served aboard ships that were involved in the fiercest and most famous battles of the Civil War. I hope that the names of these men will be remembered and honoured.
Hopefully, more extensive research can be done on all of the Bermudian sailors and soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Union military and pension records are available to the public and can be purchased from the United States National Archives. These records would be a great resource in learning what became of the Bermudian soldiers and sailors following the war.
These records would also be a valuable addition to local history museums and organisations.
Kevin Grigsby is an American who has worked and lived in Bermuda for the past nine years with his wife April and their two children. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree in social work.
He is the author of a book entitled, Howardsville: The Journey of an African-American Community in Loudoun County, Virginia, which is due to be published near the end of this year.
Royal Gazette
Aug. 11, 2008
According to the National Park Service's Civil War archives, at least 18,000 men of African descent served in the US Navy, which was about 15 percent of the total enlisted Union naval force. They served on nearly every Union naval vessel.
By its very nature the Union navy was more integrated and socially progressive than the Union Army as there were no segregated ships. From the start of the war the Union army had engaged in great debate whether to allow the enlistment of black soldiers. Unlike the army, blacks had been serving in the navy from the onset of the war. Full participation of blacks in the army had been delayed by nearly two years into the war. Despite its more progressive nature, the Union Navy still had strong elements of racism as blacks were prevented from becoming commissioned officers during the war.
A small percentage of the sailors of African descent that served in the Union navy came from Bermuda, Canada, as well as South American, European and Caribbean nations. Canada and Jamaica had the highest number of foreign sailors of African descent.
Military records reveal that at least 40 Bermudians of African descent served in the Union navy. Despite its small size, Bermuda was among the foreign nations with the highest number of black sailors in the Union Navy. Bermuda's numbers exceeded many South American and Caribbean nations that had larger African descent populations. In comparison to Jamaica and Canada, Bermuda had a higher representation of sailors per each country's population size.
Many of the Union foreign sailors of African descent like those from Bermuda were already experienced seamen prior to their enlistment. As evident by Union naval records, at least half of the 40 Bermudian sailors reported having nautical occupations at the time of their enlistment. Some may have already been in the American Navy prior to the outbreak of the war so their enlistment may actually have been a re-enlistment. It is worth noting that of the known Bermudians who served in the Union Army, most were sailors prior to their enlistment.
Blacks were engaged in a variety of roles in Union Navy. Many were recorded in skilled roles such as seamen, while many others were recorded in roles like cooks, stewards, cabin boys and other roles of servitude.
The bravery and courage of those in roles of servitude should not be doubted. Aboard a naval vessel every member of the crew remained in harm's way and was expected to defend the ship if called upon.
In fact two African-American Medal of Honor recipients, who served the Union Navy, were recorded in unskilled and non-combat roles. James Mifflin was recorded as cook, while Robert Blake was recorded as contraband. Blake later officially enlisted in the navy.
Contraband was the term used to describe a slave located in the Confederate territory, who after becoming liberated by Union forces and was temporarily kept under the protection of Union forces. The Medal of Honor is the highest award of bravery bestowed to a person in the American military.
It is remarkable that virtually all of the forty Bermudian sailors in the Union navy were recorded in skilled roles such as seamen and landsmen. They were not recorded in roles of servitude.
Understandably, the only Bermudian recorded in a role of servitude was a twelve year old Charles Hudson, who was recorded as a cabin boy. Even Hudson's story is quite amazing given his young age and being aboard a vessel that was involved in combat during the war.
There were many reasons why so many Bermudians may have served in the Union Navy. According to 1860 US census and enlistment records it was evident that many of the sailors were already living in the United States prior to Civil War.
The number of years the sailors had been in United States greatly varied. Some had immigrated to the country as children and others had immigrated to the country shortly before or during the war.
In addition to possibly having a sense of patriotism towards their adopted homeland, some of the Bermudian sailors may have been driven by deeper and more personal reasons for their service.
Slavery was abolished in Bermuda in 1834, just 31 years before the Union victory in the Civil War finally brought an end to slavery in the United States.
Despite Bermuda's early abolition of slavery, Bermudian sailors of African descent were well aware of the hardships of slavery as their parents, grandparents and even a few of the sailors themselves may have once been enslaved in Bermuda.
The sailors would not have been immune to the reality that in the years following emancipation, Bermudians of African descent still faced racial injustices and second class citizenship.
Still, while they may have enjoyed greater liberties in Bermuda, or in the free northern American states; or on the high seas as sailors, Bermudians of African descent, like free American blacks, understood that the vast majority of the black population in America was still in enslaved. Those troops were driven by a calling higher than any rank, patriotic duty or paycheck. They were driven by the desire to bring an end to the nearly 250 years of slavery that had been inflicted upon people African descent in the United States.
Black soldiers and sailors faced added dangers of war. There were countless incidents where it was claimed that Confederate forces refused to recognise black soldiers as prisoners of war (i.e. The Massacre at Fort Pillow).
Black soldiers and sailors were well aware of the potential consequences if being captured by Confederate forces. Potential risks involved being executed or forced into slavery. This was more than just a threat as the Confederate government passed a law, which called for the execution or enslavement of black Union soldiers and sailors. White Union officers in command of coloured regiments also faced possible execution if captured. For these reasons many soldiers and sailors of African descent were prepared to fight until the death rather than surrender.
Bermudian Union soldiers and sailors would have been well aware that their Bermudian birth would likely have no bearing on how they would have been treated if captured by Confederate forces. This makes their service to Union all the more heroic.
A testament to the bravery and valuable contributions of black Union sailors was the fact that nearly a third of the Medal of Honor recipients, who were black during the Civil War served in the Union Navy.
Four of the sailors, who were awarded the Medal of Honor for acts of bravery during the Battle of Mobile, served alongside Bermudian sailors during the battle. John Henry Lawson and Wilson Brown served aboard the USS Hartford along with Bermudian Augustus Simmons; and James Mifflin and William H. Brown served aboard the USS Brooklyn alongside Bermudian John Tucker.
Listed on this page are the names of some of the brave men of African descent who served in the Union Navy during the Civil War. Their names were obtained from military records on file with the United States National Park Service. It is possible that were other sailors who also served in the Union Navy, whose names were not officially recorded. So this chart should not be considered a complete list.
Behind the names of these sailors are most likely fascinating and powerful stories of bravery and honor. These are the type of stories that Bermudians and Americans of today can take great pride in. Some of these men served aboard ships that were involved in the fiercest and most famous battles of the Civil War. I hope that the names of these men will be remembered and honoured.
Hopefully, more extensive research can be done on all of the Bermudian sailors and soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Union military and pension records are available to the public and can be purchased from the United States National Archives. These records would be a great resource in learning what became of the Bermudian soldiers and sailors following the war.
These records would also be a valuable addition to local history museums and organisations.
Kevin Grigsby is an American who has worked and lived in Bermuda for the past nine years with his wife April and their two children. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree in social work.
He is the author of a book entitled, Howardsville: The Journey of an African-American Community in Loudoun County, Virginia, which is due to be published near the end of this year.
Royal Gazette
Aug. 11, 2008
Sunday 10 August 2008
8-8-08 8:08 Olympics in China
The Opening Olympic Ceromony was wonderful. The Chinese should be very proud of the introduction to the greatest international sporting event. I was very impressed and wished I could have been there. I will have to make the effort and go with my fiance. The first time I went was during the '84 L.A. Olympics as a kid. Everyone should go at least once.
Friday 8 August 2008
Tiger Shark Caught off Challenger Banks
Published: August 7. 2008 09:21AM
The Royal Gazette
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By Robyn Skinner
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Bathers and boaters have nothing to fear from this fourteen and half foot, almost 900pound tiger shark and not just because it's dead on the dock.
This shark was caught more than 12 miles from Bermuda's shores at Challenger Bank by Michael Barnes and his son Scott.
Not just off Spanish Point in Pembroke as e-mails shooting around the Island would have the public believe.
Mr. Barnes, a professional fisherman, said yesterday he had been inundated by phone calls and emails, but wanted to assure the public the only reason it is photographed at Spanish Point Boat Club was because that was where he brought it in.
He said: "They (tiger sharks) come up this time of year and in July and August there's quite a lot of them out there (on Challenger Banks).It took me almost two to three hours to bring him in to the boat club, cause I am a member of the Spanish Point Boat Club.
"I go get them (sharks) when I need them. People want the shark for shark hash. I might catch four or five a year and every piece got sold. "We don't throw anything away. I got him at four o'clock and didn't get into Spanish Point Boat Club till 6.30 or 7 p.m." Caught almost two and a half weeks ago the tiger shark was so heavy at 847 pounds, in fact, the professional fisherman could not hoist it into his boat Vitamin Sea and instead dragged it next to his boat into the dock.A crane on shore helped lift it out of the water where it was photographed and is how Mr. Barnes suspects, the photos began circulating the Island.Once on shore, Mr. Barnes carted the shark away in his truck and after opening the shark found a whole turtle weighing about 80 pounds, another 60 pound shark, a turbot and a mackerel.It was one of the largest tiger sharks, Mr. Barnes said, he had ever caught before.The tiger shark, which is the second largest predatory shark other than the great white, has a voracious appetite and will frequently feed on turtles, squids, seals among other sea animals. They are common in tropical and sub-tropical waters throughout the world.Large specimens can grow to as much as 20 to 25 feet in length and weigh more than 1,900 pounds.Almost the same time last year, there was an 800 pound tiger shark also caught in the same area by fisherman Darrell Steynor.
Sunday 3 August 2008
Wednesday 30 July 2008
Boozing Mammals Drinks "Beer" Every Night, Study Finds
Brian Handwerkfor National Geographic News
July 29, 2008
A taste for naturally fermented palm "beer" has turned a tiny Malaysian mammal into a chronic boozer, a new study shows. The pen-tailed tree shrew is the first non-human mammal known to display alcoholic behavior.What's more, the rat-size animal never gets drunk during its nonstop jungle jamborees. (Read: "Elephants Drunk in the Wild? Scientists Put the Myth to Rest" [December 19, 2005].)Because the species is considered similar to the ancient ancestors of all primates, its 55-million-year bender suggests that our own taste for alcohol might predate the known advent of brewing some 9,000 years ago. "The circumstances in which these tree shrews consume alcohol could be similar to past scenarios of human evolution in pre-primate or early primate stages [and] could somehow be a link to human alcohol consumption," said study lead author Frank Wiens, a biologist at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Wiens and colleagues' findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.High ToleranceThe flowers of the bertam palm produce nectar which naturally ferments—with the aid of several yeast species—to a 3.8 percent alcohol strength, similar to that of many beers. Because the plant flowers nearly year-round, its rain forest bar is always open, and the pen-tailed tree shrew—along with several other local mammal species—are regulars. The animals spend an average of two hours per night sipping the nectar, which appears to be their primary food source. To test the animals' alcohol consumption, Wiens and colleagues tested the animals' hair samples for ethyl glucuronide and found that the tree shrews consume alcohol at rates that would be dangerous to most mammals. The tree shrews appear to have more efficient ways of metabolizing alcohol than humans, so they avoid getting drunk. Inebriation would be dangerous for small, potentially tasty mammals, Wiens said. "This is a stable ecological relationship for millions of years, and it doesn't make sense to have inebriation in this system. Inebriation would increase the risk for these small animals to be killed by a predator." But Wiens notes that just because the animals are not drunk doesn't mean that their boozing has no consequences. "If [they] avoid inebriation, I still suspect that alcohol has some very specific effects on their brain and behavior," he said. To Your Health?Wiens also suggests that the 55-million-year binge probably confers some advantages to both the tree shrew and plant. Alcohol production appears critical to the palms' reproduction because it entices tree shrews to pollinate their flowers. "If alcohol is crucial for an ecological relationship [like the pollinator relationship], then it should also exert some sort of beneficial effect to the animals and we can only speculate on those effects," Wiens said. Robert Dudley, a physiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, also suggested several hypotheses. "We know that alcoholism is very detrimental," Dudley said."But there are some positive features of low-level alcohol consumption, like protection against cardiovascular risk," he said."Another [possibility] is the aperitif effect that has been well described in humans. It may stimulate feeding and increase overall caloric intake." Evolutionary HangoverThe tree shrew's drinking habits could cast human alcohol use in an entirely new light. Despite their name, tree shrews are thought to be similar to the ancient ancestors of all primates, including humans, which existed some 55 million years ago. It's often assumed that humans did not drink alcohol—or had only a bit of low-dose naturally fermented brew—before the believed advent of brewing about 9,000 years ago. (Read: "9,000-Year-Old Beer Re-Created From Chinese Recipe" [July 18, 2005].)But it's possible that our ancient ancestors were chronic drinkers, like the tree shrew, very early in primate evolution, experts say."There [may be] some evolutionary background to human drinking that goes much farther back than the invention of brewing," Wiens said. Dudley of UC-Berkeley agreed."If we look at human ancestors [and recent relatives] like chimps and gibbons, they are all eating fruit [and nectar] much of the time," Dudley said."So we may have inherited an ancestral association of ethanol intake with caloric gain that would predispose us to drink alcohol."
July 29, 2008
A taste for naturally fermented palm "beer" has turned a tiny Malaysian mammal into a chronic boozer, a new study shows. The pen-tailed tree shrew is the first non-human mammal known to display alcoholic behavior.What's more, the rat-size animal never gets drunk during its nonstop jungle jamborees. (Read: "Elephants Drunk in the Wild? Scientists Put the Myth to Rest" [December 19, 2005].)Because the species is considered similar to the ancient ancestors of all primates, its 55-million-year bender suggests that our own taste for alcohol might predate the known advent of brewing some 9,000 years ago. "The circumstances in which these tree shrews consume alcohol could be similar to past scenarios of human evolution in pre-primate or early primate stages [and] could somehow be a link to human alcohol consumption," said study lead author Frank Wiens, a biologist at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Wiens and colleagues' findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.High ToleranceThe flowers of the bertam palm produce nectar which naturally ferments—with the aid of several yeast species—to a 3.8 percent alcohol strength, similar to that of many beers. Because the plant flowers nearly year-round, its rain forest bar is always open, and the pen-tailed tree shrew—along with several other local mammal species—are regulars. The animals spend an average of two hours per night sipping the nectar, which appears to be their primary food source. To test the animals' alcohol consumption, Wiens and colleagues tested the animals' hair samples for ethyl glucuronide and found that the tree shrews consume alcohol at rates that would be dangerous to most mammals. The tree shrews appear to have more efficient ways of metabolizing alcohol than humans, so they avoid getting drunk. Inebriation would be dangerous for small, potentially tasty mammals, Wiens said. "This is a stable ecological relationship for millions of years, and it doesn't make sense to have inebriation in this system. Inebriation would increase the risk for these small animals to be killed by a predator." But Wiens notes that just because the animals are not drunk doesn't mean that their boozing has no consequences. "If [they] avoid inebriation, I still suspect that alcohol has some very specific effects on their brain and behavior," he said. To Your Health?Wiens also suggests that the 55-million-year binge probably confers some advantages to both the tree shrew and plant. Alcohol production appears critical to the palms' reproduction because it entices tree shrews to pollinate their flowers. "If alcohol is crucial for an ecological relationship [like the pollinator relationship], then it should also exert some sort of beneficial effect to the animals and we can only speculate on those effects," Wiens said. Robert Dudley, a physiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, also suggested several hypotheses. "We know that alcoholism is very detrimental," Dudley said."But there are some positive features of low-level alcohol consumption, like protection against cardiovascular risk," he said."Another [possibility] is the aperitif effect that has been well described in humans. It may stimulate feeding and increase overall caloric intake." Evolutionary HangoverThe tree shrew's drinking habits could cast human alcohol use in an entirely new light. Despite their name, tree shrews are thought to be similar to the ancient ancestors of all primates, including humans, which existed some 55 million years ago. It's often assumed that humans did not drink alcohol—or had only a bit of low-dose naturally fermented brew—before the believed advent of brewing about 9,000 years ago. (Read: "9,000-Year-Old Beer Re-Created From Chinese Recipe" [July 18, 2005].)But it's possible that our ancient ancestors were chronic drinkers, like the tree shrew, very early in primate evolution, experts say."There [may be] some evolutionary background to human drinking that goes much farther back than the invention of brewing," Wiens said. Dudley of UC-Berkeley agreed."If we look at human ancestors [and recent relatives] like chimps and gibbons, they are all eating fruit [and nectar] much of the time," Dudley said."So we may have inherited an ancestral association of ethanol intake with caloric gain that would predispose us to drink alcohol."
Saturday 26 July 2008
Cuba's New Law of the Environment: An Introduction
Tulane Institute for Environmental Law and Policy By Oliver Austin Houck
On July 11, 1997 Cuba adopted a "framework" environmental law and vested primary responsibility for its implementation with the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA), an agency that was itself created only in 1994. Sweeping in its scope and detail, the Law of the Environment provides a blueprint for environmental programs that are now emerging, and will play a central role in Cuban economic development and in the management of natural resources unique to the Caribbean and, indeed, the world. The English translation which follows is the first undertaken by United States scholars and Cuban officials responsible for the passage and implementation of the new Law. This introduction offers to put the law in the context of its history, its administration and its emerging implementation.
History
The natural environment of Cuba, one of the most altered in the western hemisphere, retains unusual biological significance. Native forests that blanketed ninety percent of the island two centuries ago were decimated by tobacco and sugar production and cover roughly twenty percent today. These alterations notwithstanding, Cuba's remaining natural landscapes host nearly 7000 species of plants, roughly one-half of all those identified in the Caribbean and more than one third the number of plant species identified in America and Canada combined. Equally rich in animal life, the island supports twelve times as many mammal species per hectare as the United States and Canada, 29 times as many amphibians and reptiles, 39 times as many birds. In short, this is an environment where accidents of geography and development have concentrated rare life forms in pockets across the landscape, the highest rate of species endemism in the hemisphere. It is also an environment, unlike those of other Latin American countries, where these resources are relatively well known to science and whose protections began at a relatively early time.
Cuba approaches environmental protection with considerable scientific expertise. Its living resources were initially described in the 1830s by the German naturalist and geographer Alexander Von Humbolt, whose works remain a benchmark in the field. At the turn of the century, following Cuba's independence from Spain, Cuban and American scientists began extensive surveys of Cuban biological resources. Cuban plant specimens from that era form the backbone of collections of the New York Botanical Garden. Until the 1960s Harvard University's Botanic Station at Cienfuegos contained the largest living collection of tropical plants in the western hemisphere, and was a leading center for educating US students in tropical biology. The University of Havana has trained natural scientists for the Caribbean and Latin America for more than one hundred years. In 1962, the Cuban Academy of Sciences was formed, birthing, in turn, specialized institutes and quasi-governmental scientific societies. These scientific interests would stimulate efforts in conservation, and provide a foundation for environmental protection to come.
Environmental policy began in Cuba, much as it did in the United States, from efforts to protect natural areas. A decree in 1930 established the Pico Cristal National Park, and succeeding years saw the addition of nearly a dozen similar refuges. In spite of these additions, and the adoption in 1976 of a constitutional provision committing the government "to protect the environment and natural resources," Cuban natural areas remained largely without management until 1981 with the enactment of a Law for the Protection of the Environment and the Rational Use of Natural Resources. Long on objectives, this law, too, was short on implementation and, while the 1980s saw some advances in the coordination of agencies with disparate environmental responsibilities, the absence of a coherent program became increasingly apparent. Internally, Cuba was experiencing obvious pollution as near to its capital as the Port of Havana and development pressures from investments in tourism and mining. At the same time, Cuba was participating in international agreements calling for increased management of hazardous materials, wildlife and other natural resources. In 1992 Cuba attended and signed the Rio Convention on Biodiversity; tracking the Convention, it amended the Cuban Constitution to include an article committing the government to "social and economically sustainable development." In 1993 Cuba formally adopted the environmental principles of the United Nations Agenda 21.
All of which created momentum for the more important and difficult domestic task, the creation of a meaningful environmental authority and a meaningful law.
CITMA
The authority came first. In 1994 Cuba incorporated many of the functions of its environmental bureaus and institutes into a central authority, the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment (CITMA). While the environment is but one mission of this Ministry, the reorganization made it a placeholder among the more than two dozen ministries that make up Cuba's executive branch. CITMA co-exists, for example, with a separate Ministry of Agriculture, (and a separate Ministry of Sugar); a Ministry of Planning and the Economy, and the Ministry of Finance and Prices, which functions somewhat analogously to the US Office of Management and Budget as an instrument of fiscal control. While the full extent of CITMA's authority viz a viz these other ministries has yet to be tested, it is clear that the influence of this new agency will extend far beyond that of its predecessors. CITMA will be the prime mover in environmental planning and law.
CITMA itself is composed of several primary directorates and related institutes and agencies, outlined in an appendix to this introduction. Of most note to this inquiry are the Environmental Policy Directorate and the Environmental Agency. The Directorate has overarching responsibility for developing policy initiatives and for coordination with other agencies. It was, for example, the prime mover in the creation and approval of the new Law of the Environment, and is the lead entity in developing its implementing laws and regulations. The Environmental Agency, while also participating in legislation and policy, is primarily responsible for the implementation of environmental laws including inspections and permitting, environmental impact assessment, and the management of protected areas.
CITMA's authority is external as well. Included in its organic decree are the following mandates:
Steer and control the implementation of the policy aimed at guaranteeing the protection of the environment and the rational use of natural resources, integrated with the sustainable development of the country. Propose and establish the national strategies required for the protection of the specific natural resources and biodiversity. Draw up and control the implementation of the programs that will allow for a better environmental control, an adequate management of agricultural and industrial wastes and the introduction of clean production practices.
Supervise and demand from the corresponding institutions the fulfillment of the regulations established for the protection, conservation and rational use of natural resources. Settle the disagreements between the Institutions and other entities concerning environmental protection and the rational use of natural resources, adopting the pertinent decisions or submitting to the Government the proposals of measures relevant in such case...
CITMA would begin exercising this authority at once.
The National Environmental Strategy
As CITMA was evolving, personnel who would direct its environmental agencies were also drafting a National Environmental Strategy, coordinated and negotiated for more than a year with other ministries and government bodies. Formally adopted in 1997, the Strategy is a consciously-aspirational document, identifying the full range of Cuban environmental problems (e.g. soil degradation, deforestation), potential solutions (e.g. "apply poly-cultivation and an adequate crop rotation in a consistent manner"), and potential mechanisms to achieve these solutions (e.g. "enforcing differentiated duties for the import of products detrimental to the environment"). The strategy also presents frank criticism of the status quo.
[T]here have been mistakes and shortcomings, due mainly to insufficient environmental awareness, knowledge and education, the lack of a higher management demand, limited introduction and generalization of scientific and technological achievements, the still insufficient incorporation of the environmental dimension in the policies, development plans and programs and the absence of a sufficiently integrative and coherent juridical system.
... and recommends a number of specific actions, (e.g. television programs for environmental education, a National Environment Fund to fund projects for environmental protection) the execution or failure of which will, among other things, be capable of measurement.
The National Environmental Strategy launched a process of implementing strategies that will continue for years. Following adoption of the national program, CITMA personnel met with other ministries to draft, approve and begin the execution of subsequent "daughter" strategies for all government agencies, game plans for achieving their more specific environmental goals. As of this writing, plans for the Ministries of Basic Industries and Fisheries have been concluded. At the same time, CITMA began work with provincial governments towards the development of regional and local strategies, and expected to play a larger role in a projected, less-centralized Cuban government.
Related to these strategies and as important to their implementation has been the participation by CITMA staff with other agencies in the Cuban Annual Plan, a process and document similar to the US budget but with more specific description of government activities and goals. CITMA personnel consult with each agency on its budget and targets for environmental protection, which can be as specific as remedies for discharges from a particular production facility. These same personnel gather to review progress with the plan, in effect a continuing process of jawboning towards environmental goals.
As influential as CITMA's involvement in these planning activities may (or may not) prove to be, however, the ultimate authority of this new Ministry and its effectiveness in environmental management would hinge on the next step in the process, the new Law of the Environment.
The Law of the Environment
With CITMA established as Ministry-in-fact and with its goals provided by the National Strategy for the Environment, the stage was now set for the adoption of a new framework law. Commensurate with the importance Cuba accorded this initiative, the Law of the Environment was coordinated for more than two years among CITMA, other ministries and local officials prior to its passage in 1997.
The Law is more ambitious in its goals and its details than any comparable legislation in the United States or Western Europe because, among other reasons, it was starting relatively de novo. Its 163 separate articles embrace what would be, in the United States and the European Union, separate programs in air, water, waste, noise, toxic substances, historic preservation, biological diversity, national parks, forests, and wildlife refuges, coastal zone management, education, research and technology, and environmental impact assessment and planning. Additional chapters deal with the authorities of sister ministries in, for example, energy and agriculture. The translation that follows this introduction speaks to this comprehensiveness for itself. This is a sweeping initiative. It is hard to think of a significant environmental issue omitted. Which makes the task ahead, the implementation of these provisions, all the more daunting.
The Law of the Environment also empowers CITMA in ways new to Cuba. The first is to elevate to the status of law an environmental impact review process managed by CITMA itself that will, on its face at least, include both individual projects and, as in for example the United States, the plans and programs of other agencies. To the extent that CITMA approves the environmental impact review process for all agencies and the adequacy of the reviews themselves, the Ministry's authority is, obviously, considerable. The second authority, also elevated to law, is an environmental license required by CITMA for specific proposals affecting the environment, in addition to whatever approvals are required by other agencies (e.g. for facility siting by the Ministry of Planning, and for pollution permits by the Institute of Water Resources). Environmental impact assessment in Cuba, therefore, as in many developing countries, has a strong substantive element; it is not, as in the United States and Europe, a purely procedural requirement. This difference may have significant consequences.
Implementation
Environmental programs around the world, and with particular relevance those of Latin America, combine vigorous promises of environmental management with markedly less vigorous performance. Implementation will be a severe test of the Cuban government's commitment to the law it has enacted and the reader is about to examine.
Implementation of Cuba's new Law of the Environment will take place through several legal instruments, in accordance with the Cuban legislative and administrative process. At the top are full implementing Laws (Leys), presented to and approved by the Cuban National Assembly. This was of course the process described above for the Environmental Law, and it offers the highest degree of consensus and authority to the measures adopted. Several programs implementing the new environmental law, such as those for coastal zone management and environmental impact review, will go through this extended process. A second instrument is the Decree Law (Decreto Ley), which may be proposed by CITMA or another ministry but is presented to and approved by the Counsel of State (Consejo de Estado), the executive body of the Assembly which sits in permanent session. Third in order authority is the Decree (Decreto), proposed by a single ministry but approved by the Council of Ministers (Consejo de Ministro), a body composed of the executive agencies themselves. Last in order is a Resolution, adopted by an agency on its own initiative and with, as a rule, effect limited to the agency itself or to issues within the agency's legislated jurisdiction. While proceeding by Resolution has advantages in moving expeditiously on specific issues, particularly on an interim basis, given the government-wide impacts of environmental management and the obvious need for buy-in from affected parties, CITMA can be expected to opt for the more formal, if more time-consuming, instruments as it sets the new Law in motion.
Early in motion, and targeted for presentation to the Counsel of Ministers in 1999, are Decree Laws related to the management of protected areas and administrative sanctions and responsibilties. In earlier stages of drafting and review are programs for Coastal Zone Management, Biological Diversity Protection, Terrestrial Water and Administrative Process. It is an ambitious agenda and its implementation will involve a process of give-and-take among government agencies, trade unions and other affected parties that will be familiar to anyone involved in the development of environmental policy and law.
Issues and Reflections
While it is premature to evaluate or predict the success of Cuba's new Law of the Environment and its initiatives, several issues critical to their success will arise in the months ahead. Among them is the Cuban administrative process and the questions of participation, review and compliance endemic to all environmental law. Broader issues stem from particular conditions of the Cuban economy and governance and their impact on environmental management. While obviously related, these issues bear separate attention.
Environmental law imposes difficult responsibilities on all who touch it and are touched by it including, on the part of government, the responsibility for open and rational decision-making. For some countries, this responsibility alone is sufficient reason to resist the adoption of environmental laws; for many countries, ineffective administrative procedures are a serious impediment to their execution. Permit systems based on poor information, little public participation and outright political favor are not, unfortunately, uncommon. Nor are environmental impact systems without standards and the means to ensure objective review. The challenge here is not substantive law, but process.
In the United States, federal environmental decision-making is guided by the Administrative Procedure Act, the Freedom of Information Act and other open meeting and disclosure laws. It is supplemented by the provisions of individual environmental statutes and enforced by government agencies, states and by ordinary citizens (including affected industries and development interests) who are specifically empowered to participate in and to appeal government decisions administratively, and through courts of law. The United States system is time-consuming, and has been criticized as adversarial and inefficient as well. On the other hand, it tends to produce decisions that are at least cognizant of the facts and responsive to citizen and environmental concerns.
The idea of environmental administrative law is relatively new to Cuba. Environmental permitting and licensing is new. Concepts of citizen participation and of administrative and judicial review of agency decision-making are likewise new. The enormous volume of rules which will need to be adopted in coming years to implement the various sections of the Law of the Environment law will put unprecedented burdens on CITMA's rule-making process. It is both a challenge and an opportunity for CITMA to define how these systems will work, including the important elements of access by all affected elements of Cuban society, and of the transparency that will ensure their credibility.
These are new burdens, but not impossible ones. Environmental law is raising these same questions throughout Latin America and, indeed, the world. While each legal regime contains its own history and direction, it is fair to say that minimum levels of open disclosure, public participation and dis-interested review are becoming accepted principles of national and international environmental law. As they will need to become in Cuba.
Also new to Cuba through the Law of the Environment and related developments will be new concepts of governance. For the past thirty years the Cuban administration has been highly centralized. Cuba is now looking to decentralize authority in many sectors, including the environment, and here CITMA may lead the way. The Ministry maintains sub-units of environmental protection in each of the fourteen provinces of Cuba, specialists in certain media and liaisons between Havana and the field. CITMA is now placing environmental specialists in each of the 169 municipalities, a project still at an early stage. These decentralization efforts and the appropriate role of local governments in decisionmaking raise questions of federalism that confront administrators and scholars in the European Union and the United States on a daily basis, and will present the same issues in Cuba as well.
Another challenge to environmental management is the relationship of the Cuban government to industry and business which for the past thirty years have been state-operated and state-owned. While this ownership may relieve CITMA of some of the difficulty faced by, for example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency in meeting the objections of private industry, it presents special problems of incentives and sanctions as well. Recent world history teaches that it is at least as difficult to bring state-owned enterprises into compliance with environmental requirements as it is to assure compliance in the private sector, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is enforcement. The U.S. experience, for example, with Hanford, Fernald and other government-owned nuclear facilities, with the federal Bonneville Power Administration, or for that matter with locally-run municipal sewage treatment plants, has been difficult and only partially successful. In dealing with these same types of government enterprises, CITMA has few obvious mechanisms to encourage compliance, and few obvious sanctions such as injunctions or fines. The problems of achieving acceptable environmental performance in government industries become most acute when these enterprises are losing money or are only marginally profitable. Cuba, with its heavy concentration of aging, state-owned enterprises, has a significant task ahead.
At the same time, and in part for these reasons, Cuba is taking steps to put its public enterprises on a more independent footing and to encourage new private-sector development. Questions of equity will here arise over the allocation of resources and pollution loadings with the older, state-owned facilities. The answer may lie in the same compromise reached on these questions in United States and European environmental laws, imposing stricter standards and requirements on new sources and new development.
A final, obvious, and indeed controlling factor in the success of any environmental program in Cuba is the Cuban economy itself, long supported by the Soviet Union and now struggling to find a new base in the face of its abrupt demise and of significant United States trade restrictions. Capital investments needed for sewage treatment, clean transportation and the basic infrastructure of pollution control are massive and will require resources beyond those of Cuba itself to address. Cuba's environmental policies will need to encourage and accommodate new public and private development through predictable zoning, technology requirements, market incentives and other measures that provide investor security and assurances of where and how this development may take place. Cuba, as many developing countries, will not often have the luxury of saying "no."
On the other hand, these same conditions of the Cuban economy have had the unintended effect of retaining a landscape largely intact, biological resources of great variety and scientific importance, a coastline where rational planning can still make a difference, and cities relatively free from auto emissions and smog. Cuba has been spared by the very fact of its economic isolation the devastating effects of industrial pollution and the irreversible impacts of Florida-style suburban sprawl, albeit at the expense of the economic growth which is clearly an aspiration of the Cuban people. The temptation to jump-start this economy with the type of short-term and unsustainable projects that have plagued the developing world is all but overwhelming. For perhaps only a short time - but for a time of critical importance in which both CITMA and the new Law of the Environment have appeared - Cuba has the opportunity to set things straight for sustainable development at the front end of a wave of investment that is coming, indeed, that is literally hitting the beach.
It is this author's hope that Cuba will rise to the challenge of environmental protection, and that the reader will be better able to understand Cuba's responses through this introduction and the translation which follows.
Tuesday 15 July 2008
British Passports
Bermudians gain British citizenship today
By Ayo Johnson
July 10,2008
Bermudians can now apply for British passports.
As of today Bermudians can apply for a full British Citizen passport.
All British Overseas Territories Citizens (BOTC) automatically become full British citizens today - the commencement day of the British Overseas Territories Act.
With citizenship comes the right to live and work in the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Bermudians will be able to use their Bermuda passports as proof that they can live in the United Kingdom for the next 12 months.
And while citizenship is automatic, Bermudians do not have to apply for the British passport and can keep their Bermudian passports. Applications, with accompanying documents and an $80 fee, will be accepted by the department of Immigration for the British Embassy in Washington D.C.
“Applications will require accompanying documents and a processing fee of $80 in addition to the cost of the passport,” according to a Government Information press statement.
“The turnaround time may extend several weeks. In order to reduce the inconvenience for Bermuda residents, while passports are being processed, the UK Immigration Service has agreed that for the 12 months from (21 May 2002), holders of BDTC (British Dependent Territories Citizens/BOTC) passports will be allowed to present their Bermuda passports as evidence that they have the right to reside in the United Kingdom. Thus holders of Bermuda-issued passports will be able to enter the UK as if they held BC passports and will be able to use the UK Immigration channel.”
But GIS warned that entering European Union countries might be difficult with the BOTC passport.
British lawmakers have been actively mulling the British Overseas Territories Bill since 1998. A 1999 White Paper on a modern partnership with the colonies promised that full citizenship rights will be restored to the colonies.
The Bill became law earlier this year.
By Ayo Johnson
July 10,2008
Bermudians can now apply for British passports.
As of today Bermudians can apply for a full British Citizen passport.
All British Overseas Territories Citizens (BOTC) automatically become full British citizens today - the commencement day of the British Overseas Territories Act.
With citizenship comes the right to live and work in the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Bermudians will be able to use their Bermuda passports as proof that they can live in the United Kingdom for the next 12 months.
And while citizenship is automatic, Bermudians do not have to apply for the British passport and can keep their Bermudian passports. Applications, with accompanying documents and an $80 fee, will be accepted by the department of Immigration for the British Embassy in Washington D.C.
“Applications will require accompanying documents and a processing fee of $80 in addition to the cost of the passport,” according to a Government Information press statement.
“The turnaround time may extend several weeks. In order to reduce the inconvenience for Bermuda residents, while passports are being processed, the UK Immigration Service has agreed that for the 12 months from (21 May 2002), holders of BDTC (British Dependent Territories Citizens/BOTC) passports will be allowed to present their Bermuda passports as evidence that they have the right to reside in the United Kingdom. Thus holders of Bermuda-issued passports will be able to enter the UK as if they held BC passports and will be able to use the UK Immigration channel.”
But GIS warned that entering European Union countries might be difficult with the BOTC passport.
British lawmakers have been actively mulling the British Overseas Territories Bill since 1998. A 1999 White Paper on a modern partnership with the colonies promised that full citizenship rights will be restored to the colonies.
The Bill became law earlier this year.
Monday 14 July 2008
Friday 11 July 2008
Tuesday 8 July 2008
Bermuda's 11th Road Victim for 2008
Che Hollis and his family pose for a picture on older sister Stephanie's 16th birthday (pictured left). His younger sister Chelsea is in the middle with his mother Melanie on the right.
I remember working with this young man when he was a summer student. We took a liking to one another. He was very polite and interested in working. He also carried this bright smile that announced his presents. Che you will be missed.
Friday 4 July 2008
Soon to be Reunited
After a full day of cleaning and sorting out things at work, I'm ready for the weekend. My Lover arrives in a few hours time.
Wednesday 2 July 2008
Impatience
In a few days my fiance arrives. It has been while, since we have seen one another. Since she has been gone I have been unable to get a proper nights rest. Is it love? When she arrives she is in for the biggest hug and kiss from me.
Having been off the pill for some time now, we must be extra cautious while, you know. She mentioned to me the other day that she has gotten use to being celibate. I guess I'll find out when she arrives if that was a joke or if she is just trying to tease me. She knows that I have this incredible appetite for her all the time.
In the mean time there is some preparation due for her arrival. She can be a drill sergeant when it comes it comes down to house cleaning. Today I'll tackle the bedroom and take out the recycling.
Having been off the pill for some time now, we must be extra cautious while, you know. She mentioned to me the other day that she has gotten use to being celibate. I guess I'll find out when she arrives if that was a joke or if she is just trying to tease me. She knows that I have this incredible appetite for her all the time.
In the mean time there is some preparation due for her arrival. She can be a drill sergeant when it comes it comes down to house cleaning. Today I'll tackle the bedroom and take out the recycling.
Tuesday 1 July 2008
Proud Harvest
Deep in the Tanzanian bush, David Robinson, the 53-year-old son of baseball legend and civil-rights hero Jackie Robinson, has exchanged his uneasy compromise with U.S. culture for a tribal adoption, an arranged marriage, and an economic crusade. Through the farmers' cooperative he founded, he is using the world's second-most-valuable natural resource—coffee—to spur social change. In the latest chapter of a great American family saga, the author learns about Robinson's childhood in lily-white Connecticut, his father's lessons, and the pride he has found in Africa.by Brett Martin May 2005
One morning last year, David Robinson woke up early on Sweet Unity Farms, his 280-acre patch of land deep in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. At that peaceful hour, Robinson stood outside the mud-brick farmhouse and prepared a cup of instant coffee, a somewhat tragic irony given that he was looking out on row after row of trees bearing some of the best arabica coffee beans in the world—so good, in fact, that at that very moment, half a world away, someone may well have been enjoying a cup of Sweet Unity Farms coffee at one of New York's finest restaurants.Robinson had arrived at the farm the previous night, and as he stirred his coffee (the good stuff would be roasted much later, in Brooklyn), he remembered that he had been greeted in the village with the news that a lion had been spotted nearby. "But then I remembered that it was a spirit lion, sent by somebody in the village as a hex on an enemy. So I think, I wasn't even here. It couldn't have been sent for me, right? And then I think, What the hell am I doing here, thinking about spirit lions?"It's a reasonable confusion for a man who straddles two worlds—routinely traveling between the farm, which has no water and only enough solar electricity to power a few lightbulbs and a radio, and an office in a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper. To get to Sweet Unity Farms, which lies in the agriculturally rich Mbozi District, you first take a 12-hour bus ride from Dar es Salaam, on the coast, to the small town of Mbeya, near the Zambian border. The next morning, you jump on a packed minivan, or dalla-dalla, for a careening hour-and-a-half ride to a dusty intersection called Mlowo. From there, you hire a Land Rover or pickup for the skull-jouncing trip to yet another, even smaller crossroads. Then you walk for three hours—past grass-roofed huts, grazing cattle, and neat plots of peanuts, corn, and coffee.It's a long trip from almost anywhere. It's far from the sleek confines of Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe, in downtown Manhattan, where Sweet Unity Farms coffee is sipped by customers almost certainly not preoccupied by lions, spirit or otherwise. It's far from the leafy, lily-white streets of suburban Connecticut, where Robinson grew up. And it's far from the Brooklyn blocks where Ebbets Field once stood and where David's father, Jackie, changed the course of American history more than half a century ago.The most immediate answer to his question—What the hell is he doing here?—has to do with those rows of spindly green trees. Coffee is one of the world's most ubiquitous and problematic commodities; among legal natural resources, it has an annual trade value second only to oil. The world drinks some 2.25 billion cups of coffee a day, with the U.S. accounting for a fifth of that. And yet—from Central America to Brazil to Indonesia to Africa—the actual producers of coffee consistently rank among the poorest in the world. "We have always been the donkey in the chain," Robinson says. "Getting only enough money and food to go back to work, never developing the community."The last 10 years of globalization and trade liberalization have only made things worse. For years, coffee prices had been kept stable by international compacts known as the "green-bean agreements." In the mid-90s these agreements collapsed, allowing prices to plummet from a two-decade average of $1.29 per pound to a low in 2001 of 46 cents. It's all but impossible to grow good coffee for less than a dollar a pound.What David Robinson is doing in Africa is attempting to use his unique position to make things better. He's formed a cooperative of approximately 300 small coffee farms which, rather than selling its raw coffee to multi-national buyers in Tanzania, is marketing it directly in the United States. Against enormous odds, he's trying to create a model of progressive economic development that both links his two worlds and carries on his father's legacy. In theory, it's a model that could change the way the world does business. But, like his father, Robinson is taking on enormously powerful foes. And this could be his make-or-break year.Even without Jackie Robinson's well-recounted trials and triumphs, the Robinson-family story is a great American saga—one that parallels, nearly step for step, the progress of African-Americans in the 20th century. Jack Roosevelt Robinson, the son of sharecroppers, was born in Cairo, Georgia, in 1919. When he was still an infant, his mother, Mallie, joined the great migration out of the South, settling her family in the growing middle-class black community of Pasadena, California.Seeing athletics as a way to improve his lot, Jackie became a stellar all-around athlete. (Baseball may well have been his fourth-best sport, after football, basketball, and track.) Like millions of other black Americans, he served in the army during World War II, a participation that would prove the spark of much of the civil-rights tumult to come. Though he would become famous for "having the guts not to fight back," in Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey's famous phrase, he was court-martialed after an altercation with an officer who had asked him to sit in the back of a public bus. (He was cleared of all charges.) Later, he would travel to Birmingham to give a speech with Martin Luther King Jr. And in between he racked up a Hall of Fame career in the face of vicious verbal assaults, death threats, and almost unimaginable pressure.Jackie and Rachel Robinson already had two children—Sharon and Jackie junior—when David was born, in 1952. Five years later, Jackie left baseball and accepted the job of vice president at Chock Full o'Nuts. The family moved from the upper-middle-class black suburb of St. Albans—where their neighbors had included Count Basie, Leontyne Price, and Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella—to a big house surrounded by woods in the mostly white community of Stamford, Connecticut.
On the surface, the move provided a suburban idyll for the Robinson children. And of the three children, David, gregarious and easygoing, seemed to have the smoothest adjustment to life in white society. He put on a blazer and khakis to attend posh New Canaan Country School, where for eight years he was the only black student. He had his own horse, a gift from a neighbor, which he would ride through the Robinsons' extensive wooded property."I was actually a little annoyed by him," says Sharon Robinson, who chronicled her own difficulties adjusting to Stamford in the memoir Stealing Home. "It seemed to me like he had really bought into the whole white, private-school thing. It wasn't until later that we learned about the struggles he'd gone through."David's class pictures from New Canaan Country School are strikingly reminiscent of his father's early team photos—one dark face surrounded by pale ones. At first, he fought with kids who hurled racial epithets. That changed when a classmate named Michael Colhoun stood up and defended him, unwittingly re-enacting an episode from Jackie Robinson's first season in the majors—the time when, in the midst of vicious jeering from the opposite dugout, the Dodgers' southern-born shortstop Pee Wee Reese sent a silent message to the major leagues by throwing his arm over Jackie's shoulder."Any struggle David had, he internalized it," says Rachel Robinson, who, at an extraordinarily youthful 83, is still the presiding spirit of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Despite friendships with Colhoun and others, David's primary memories of childhood are of being alone in the thick woods behind the family house. In the first grade, David, a precocious writer, composed a poem he called "The Tree": "It stands there like a soldier not at all at ease / while children play around it in the summer breeze." Later, he would play a game. He'd leave instructions to release the family dog at a certain time and then hide deep in the woods, waiting for his pet to come searching. He called the game "Runaway Slave.""You can assimilate and you can compromise," says the son of Jackie Robinson, "but integration is not really an honest word."There are more than 36 million people in Tanzania, and it often seems as though David Robinson knows every one of them. On the streets of Dar es Salaam, cabbies shout out greetings. Outside his rented home, on a deeply rutted road on the city's outskirts, there's always a small group gathered to exchange news or ask advice. His family alone represents a fair-size constituency: Robinson has 10 children, ranging in age from 41 to one year (3 from his first marriage, in the States; a daughter, Meta, born to a Namibian girlfriend in 1985; and 6 with his Tanzanian-born wife, Ruti). Another child, Jack, died of malaria at age six. Plus there is an extensive network of in-laws working on the farm.At 53, Robinson is tall and powerful. A white, woolly beard creeps from below the collar of his khaki shirt to his cheekbones. His bright eyes are clearly inherited from his father, as are the large hands with a slight crook in the middle finger. Robinson has a habit of running them over his head when deep in thought. He is a serious man (he's reluctant to smile for photographs, saying, "I don't want to give the impression that I take the work I'm doing with any amount of frivolity"), but he'll sometimes flash the dry wit and crooked-toothed grin that his mother and sister remember marking the funniest member of the Robinson clan. He looks every inch the African Elder—a vaunted role he clearly relishes.Robinson first came to Africa at 14, on a trip with his mother, and was entranced. "It wasn't any kind of major political analysis," he says. "But subconsciously there had to be a joy at being on a black continent and seeing that many black people." Rachel remembers her son learning the ropes at a market in Addis Ababa. "The jewelry stalls were run by young boys and you're supposed to bargain," she says. "Every day, he would go out there and get better at it. On the last day, they all came out and congratulated him like a brother."The lessons stuck. When I visit Robinson, he takes me to Dar es Salaam's central fish market, where he once operated a fishing boat. We are immediately surrounded by vendors calling him by name, and the pack goes ranging back and forth past stalls caked with scales and fish viscera. When Robinson finds a suitable specimen for a dinner party that night, it's the starting gun for 20 minutes of negotiation. He calmly holds his ground in fluent Swahili. At one point he turns to the most persistent haggler—a short man wearing a blue ski cap despite the equatorial heat—and gathers him in a sidelong bear hug at once threatening and affectionate. Shortly afterward, the deal is done. Robinson, it's clear, is a formidable businessman.The few other African-Americans living in Dar es Salaam think Robinson is a bit nuts for living the way he does on his farm. At dinner, Clark Arrington regales the small group of guests with a description of the epic trip needed to get to Sweet Unity Farms. Arrington, who is from Philadelphia and wears a mustache and black, thick-rimmed glasses, was a founding board member of Equal Exchange, one of the first fair-trade coffee companies in America. The fair-trade movement was started in the 1980s by Dutch liberals aiming to promote equitable and developmental agriculture in the Third World by appealing to Western consciences. As Arrington puts it, "Some cats in Holland thought, Damn, we fucked over some motherfuckers. How can we, as a society, begin to rectify that?"Arrington currently works as the representative to Tanzania of the U.S. government's African Development Foundation (A.D.F.) and recently helped secure a $210,000 loan for the farmers' collective. Still, having been to Robinson's farm once, he has zero interest in a return visit."It's not just country," he says, shaking his head. "It's bush."
Truth be told, many native Tanzanians think Robinson's a bit nuts, too. Another dinner guest, a young lawyer working with the Rwandan-genocide tribunal in Arusha, is driven to ever heightening fits of hilarity as Arrington describes the journey. Convincing Africans, many of whom have struggled mightily to get off the farm and to Dar, to return and take up the plow is one of Robinson's biggest challenges.Indeed, it's less than 100 percent encouraging when Robinson assures visitors that there's been only one lion (the flesh-and-blood kind) spotted near the farm in recent memory, and that there are fewer and fewer cobras every year. But Robinson believes strongly in Pan-Africanism, which posits that the best way to address the problems of both Africans and the African diaspora is to build cultural and especially economic ties between the two groups. And he's committed to assimilating almost entirely into African culture."There's this bridge into Zimbabwe from Zambia," he says. "And the bridge is embedded in this rock; the support buttresses are so far in that rock that you don't see them. That's the part of the span that I want to function as. The part that's deeply ingrained and embedded in African society."Nowhere is this commitment more striking than in his traditional, arranged marriage to Ruti. In 1990, having been in Tanzania for eight years, Robinson decided it was time to remarry. He found a family to adopt him into the Wanyamwezi tribe and went calling on families with daughters of marrying age. When he came to Ruti's he was presented from afar with the family's three girls. Their brothers sat Robinson down and asked which he wanted to marry. "It didn't seem like an 'I'll get back to you later' situation," Robinson says. "All I could think of to ask was which was the youngest—because I didn't want the youngest. And the oldest was the shortest, so I chose the middle one."The Robinsons seem by all measures to have built a loving and respectful relationship, and Robinson has declined to take further wives, unusual for a man of his stature. But there's no denying that it's a very un-Stamford arrangement."I tried to talk him out of it," says Rachel Robinson, who has since developed a warm relationship with Ruti. "I couldn't believe he was going to do that. And yet, he's David. That's what we say about everything he does: he's David, and if he says he's going to do it, he really means it."On the endless bus ride from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya, with Nigerian romantic comedies blaring from the video monitor and his long legs folded into the too small seat, Robinson sits stoically. He makes the trip about once a month and will spend the entire harvest season in Mbozi. This time, he's traveling with a worn canvas-and-leather bag, a pair of beat-up desert boots, and a U.S. Postal Service sack filled with small solar panels. Bringing cheap solar energy to the village is one of the ways in which branding and selling coffee in the U.S. improves the lives of the members of his cooperative—along with setting up a system of farm credits, building a school, establishing a pharmacy, founding a multi-media entertainment-and-education center, and bringing in pure water.All of these initiatives require shockingly small amounts of money (reliable light after the sun goes down, effectively a thousand-year technological leap forward, can be had for the price of a $95 solar kit), but money is a constant problem. Although Robinson has not sought official Fairtrade certification (it's a way of "draining off" the sympathy of liberal buyers, he says) and prefers the term "direct trade," the concepts are much the same. Both are essentially exercises in public relations. It's the "story"—of sustainable agriculture, decent labor practices, and, in Robinson's case, a unique family heritage—that adds value to the product. (Though Sweet Unity's sales materials include references to the "tradition of Jackie Robinson," David refuses to use his father's image on the coffee's packaging: "This isn't going to be 'Grinning Jack's Coffee,'" he says.)Telling the story—to gourmet buyers, "green" investors, and socially conscious businesses—requires a dedicated sales-and-marketing force in the States. When he started Sweet Unity Farms, Robinson had a U.S. partner to handle this end of the business. But the partner went bankrupt, and for the past 10 years, except for one or two associates working on a volunteer basis, the job has been his.At the same time, just as it wasn't enough for Jackie Robinson to simply be the first black major-leaguer—he also had to be a fantastic ballplayer—Sweet Unity Farms coffee has to be competitive in both quality and price."Everybody's got a conscience," Robinson says. "But they also have calculators."Constant vigilance and ready cash are important here, too: to make sure the crop is harvested at its peak, to provide credit for fertilizer and machinery, and to hold off the influence of multi-national buyers, who are none too happy about what the success of Sweet Unity Farms would portend. Thanks to trade liberalization, those buyers (and, by extension, the retail coffee powerhouses) are now allowed to come directly into the village, lowballing struggling farmers with the promise of quick payment.To keep pace, Robinson crisscrosses the globe, pitching C.E.O.'s in gleaming, air-conditioned American offices, and then dashing home to repair hand-cranked pulping machines.Things aren't all grim: Robinson has made inroads with Cendant, a travel-and-real-estate giant that controls millions of cups of coffee drunk by Americans each day. On the gourmet side, his coffee is available at Union Square Cafe and at Fairway markets, in New York, and through the Sweet Unity Farms Web site. He has been seeking investors for a sales infrastructure in the States, and the A.D.F. loan would help relieve the pressure in Mbozi. But Robinson is a man all too familiar with how bureaucracies work. And, like farmers all over the world, he knows the coming harvest never waits for checks to clear.
After New Canaan Country School, Robinson left home to attend boarding school at the Northfield and Mount Hermon Schools, in western Massachusetts. There was unrest in the Robinson household. Jackie junior had volunteered to serve in Vietnam and returned home with an addiction to heroin. In 1968 he was arrested for gun and drug possession and ordered into rehab.Away at school, David found himself among black classmates for the first time. It was the late 60s, and in keeping with the era, he joined the black student union. Similar movements were sweeping the nation, as Martin Luther King Jr.'s integrationist philosophy began to give way to the more militant, identity-based politics of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, making for an interesting dynamic within the Robinson family.After baseball, Jackie had increased his role in politics, vocally supporting King and the N.A.A.C.P. through his newspaper columns in the (then liberal) New York Post and The New York Amsterdam News. He kept up an exhaustive schedule of fund-raising appearances around the country, and he and Rachel instituted an annual jazz concert on the family's front lawn to raise money for civil-rights causes. Only by the feverish light of the 60s could the ex-ballplayer have been considered conservative.And yet Jackie was firmly a Republican. He had supported Nixon in 1960 (a decision he later regretted) and worked for Nelson A. Rockefeller's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns, even getting a summer job in the New York governor's office for David—the last time, says the younger Robinson, that he owned a suit.In 1949, Jackie had been summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee and become caught up in a public dispute with Paul Robeson over whether blacks should serve in the U.S. military. Now he engaged in a similar debate with Malcolm X. After Robinson upbraided Malcolm in his column, Malcolm wrote an open letter to Robinson that read, in part, "You became a great baseball player after your white boss lifted you to the major leagues. You proved that your white boss had chosen the 'right' Negro by … bringing much money through the gates and into the pockets of your white boss.… You never take an interest in anything in the Negro community until the white man himself takes an interest in it." David Robinson says that nobody ever used the term to his face, but Sharon remembers hearing people describe her father as an "Uncle Tom."Though it never soured their regard for their father, Jackie's children clearly were attracted to the more militant wing of the movement. In her book, Sharon writes that the most furious her father ever got at her was when she placed a poster of Black Panthers founder Huey P. Newton over her bed. It was quickly taken down.Jackie also had little interest in Africa or in dwelling on the legacy of slavery. "Jack would probably say, 'All right. We came here as slaves. Get over it. Move on,'" says Rachel. "David's answer is 'I can't get over it.' He believes that some part of him has been damaged by slavery and that he won't be whole until he can rejoin that part of himself."As he moved through Mount Hermon and on to Stanford University, David became more and more political—influenced in part by the writings of Julius Nyerere, Tanzania's intellectual socialist leader. He describes his year at Stanford as consisting of "playing poker, smoking reefer, and throwing rocks [during demonstrations]. Even I knew that wasn't positive educational development."That summer, Jackie junior was killed in a car accident while driving David's 1969 MG Midget. With his mother and father devastated, it was David who went to identify the body. "His strength was magnificent," Jackie wrote in his autobiography, I Never Had It Made. Several months later, David took the insurance money from the car and went back to Africa.An open-bed truck filled with sacks of grain passes the Dar es Salaam–Mbeya bus as it rolls through a stretch of game preserve, past stout baobab trees and grazing elephants. "That," says Robinson wistfully, "is the finest ride in all of Africa. You're up high, looking out and just rolling through the countryside."When Robinson returned to Africa he went hitching across the eastern half of the continent. He spent a month in Dar es Salaam, which, at the height of the Pan-African movement, was home to a large number of expatriate African-Americans drawn by Nyerere's progressive politics. These included Black Panthers Pete O'Neal and Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, fleeing gun charges in the States. On the way to Greece to pick up money Jackie and Rachel had wired, Robinson arrived broke and shoeless in Khartoum (he can't fathom what may have happened to his shoes). Someone saw him hopping down the hot, dusty streets and took up a collection to get him sandals, robes, and food. "They carried me all the way to Athens," he says, still amazed.After nine months, Robinson found himself in a traveler's hut in Kenya. Someone had left a copy of Newsweek there and Robinson picked it up. On the cover was news of the Attica prison riots. "It was the realization that my brother could have been in Attica—that my brothers were in Attica—that had me thinking I had not resolved my life or work or issues in America. That had me thinking, It's time to get back home."It was 10 years before Robinson returned to Tanzania. Back home, Jackie's health was deteriorating—the result of advancing diabetes and, perhaps, a lifetime of stress. David worked for his father as a driver, and then as a writer and photographer for a film company. On October 24, 1972, Jackie Robinson died at the age of 53. The funeral in Harlem was packed with 2,500 people, and mourners lined the route of the blocks-long motorcade to Cypress Hills National Cemetery, in Brooklyn.David got married. He adopted his wife's two children, and the couple had another daughter of their own. The family moved to 136th Street in Harlem and, with two partners, David co-founded an alternative-housing company, United Harlem Growth, dedicated to reclaiming the neighborhood.
But David had also returned from Africa in a state of turmoil. "There was a definite difference in him. You could see the anger and frustration," says Sharon Robinson. "He was with a group of men that was really angry, and I was always worried that it would erupt in a negative way." David's daughter Susan's classmates called him G.I. Joe for the army fatigues he always wore. He fought frequently, both with members of the Harlem community and with the police.After a childhood spent compromising with white culture, Robinson says, "I wasn't so much in a 'bend' mode. And a black male in America really has to be in a bend mode or plan to go to jail or the graveyard."Above all, the decade in Harlem was a lesson in lost opportunities. "We could have acquired 80 percent of Harlem at the rate of $500 a brownstone," he says. "But we weren't psychologically prepared. We were hard-core, but we were too hard-core." With Africa constantly on his mind, he swore not to let the continent's vast resources slip away as easily. In 1982, amid divorce proceedings, Robinson made plans to go to Tanzania again, this time for good.It's hard to ignore the apparent irony that the son of one of America's greatest icons of integration has found it more fulfilling to live as a black man outside of the United States, but Robinson takes exception to that analysis."Yes, there's a degree of intolerance in American society that creates some natural factors for wanting to say good-bye," he says. "We've been abused."But Jackie Robinson's objective was not to integrate America. Jackie Robinson's objective was to create black progress and pride. My grandmother got on a train, leaving Cairo, Georgia, in 1924, and I think it took her longer to get to California than it takes me to get to Tanzania. And it was the same journey—looking for progress."There was a time when the resources available to us were moving up from the South. My father saw an opportunity in baseball and went for it. Coffee is a medium like baseball was a medium. This is completely linear progress."‘A coffee-plantation is a thing that gets hold of you and does not let you go," wrote Isak Dinesen, in Out of Africa. The living quarters at Sweet Unity Farms—four low mud structures arranged around a packed-dirt courtyard—overlook rolling green hills lined with trees. In a corner of the compound lies the tidy grave of David and Ruti's son Jack. You can almost see relief wash over Robinson as he breathes deeply and we climb the final hill to his home.Dinesen also wrote, "Coffee growing is a long job." Robinson first arrived in Mbozi in 1989, after years spent in Dar es Salaam selling everything from fish to refrigerators to Ethiopian jewelry. He requested land from the village council in exchange for his help in bringing in a better price for the local coffee. Just to see the 280 forested acres they offered, he had to climb the highest nearby tree. "I think the village odds on our sticking out the first year were like 1,000 to 1," he says.Robinson and his eldest son, Howard, spent two years clearing the area by hand and ox, then four years waiting for the first plantings to sprout. The first beans appeared in 1994. The next year, men with machetes and trucks pulled up to the local warehouse and stole half of the crop. Now Robinson and his partners spend the harvest season patrolling with shotguns and pistols.Under the farmhouse's lone lightbulb, we sit down for a spare meal of ugali (stiff corn porridge) and stewed peanut greens. Though he's just arrived, Robinson's thoughts are already a hemisphere away. At our stop in Mlowo, he had pointed to a pair of gleaming, brand-new Land Rovers in the midst of all the broken-down and cobbled-together local vehicles. "The big boys are in town," he said, referring to the multi-nationals. He's looking ahead to a series of meetings in New York with venture capitalists who specialize in matching entrepreneurs with socially conscious investors. To make it through the harvest and serve his current customers, Robinson figures he'll need a half-million dollars, and fast."We're talking about human development, quality products, progressive trade, fairer distribution," he says, and then trails off. "This is it for me. I know I've said I'm at the end of my rope before and then always found more rope, but the mix is so good here that if I blow it I have to go to God and ask what sins I've committed. I mean, do I have bad breath?"Three weeks later, back in Manhattan, Robinson sits over sushi in a Midtown restaurant and says the outlook is guardedly sunny. The first installment of the A.D.F. loan has reached Tanzania and is being put to use buying fertilizer. On the negative side, the meetings about raising money in the States have produced little result.But, once again, Robinson has found another bit of rope. On April 13 of this year, 58 seasons after Jackie made his first appearance in Dodgers blue, the Robinson family name returns to Major League Baseball—this time on the beverage menu at Dodger Stadium, one of five ballparks that will serve Sweet Unity Farms coffee this seasonLast year, Rachel Robinson called her son on his birthday. "Happy 53rd," she said. "Mom, I'm 54," David replied. "No," said Rachel. "You're 53." And so David Robinson was granted an extra year.Robinson told me this story while walking through rows of trees, their thin branches beginning to sag under the weight of bright-red berries destined to end their lives as a bridge to the other side of the world. "I always thought it was funny that my father's team's motto was 'Wait till next year,'" Robinson said. "And that's always been the reality of my life. Well, I'm 53 again. Maybe next year is finally here."
One morning last year, David Robinson woke up early on Sweet Unity Farms, his 280-acre patch of land deep in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. At that peaceful hour, Robinson stood outside the mud-brick farmhouse and prepared a cup of instant coffee, a somewhat tragic irony given that he was looking out on row after row of trees bearing some of the best arabica coffee beans in the world—so good, in fact, that at that very moment, half a world away, someone may well have been enjoying a cup of Sweet Unity Farms coffee at one of New York's finest restaurants.Robinson had arrived at the farm the previous night, and as he stirred his coffee (the good stuff would be roasted much later, in Brooklyn), he remembered that he had been greeted in the village with the news that a lion had been spotted nearby. "But then I remembered that it was a spirit lion, sent by somebody in the village as a hex on an enemy. So I think, I wasn't even here. It couldn't have been sent for me, right? And then I think, What the hell am I doing here, thinking about spirit lions?"It's a reasonable confusion for a man who straddles two worlds—routinely traveling between the farm, which has no water and only enough solar electricity to power a few lightbulbs and a radio, and an office in a Midtown Manhattan skyscraper. To get to Sweet Unity Farms, which lies in the agriculturally rich Mbozi District, you first take a 12-hour bus ride from Dar es Salaam, on the coast, to the small town of Mbeya, near the Zambian border. The next morning, you jump on a packed minivan, or dalla-dalla, for a careening hour-and-a-half ride to a dusty intersection called Mlowo. From there, you hire a Land Rover or pickup for the skull-jouncing trip to yet another, even smaller crossroads. Then you walk for three hours—past grass-roofed huts, grazing cattle, and neat plots of peanuts, corn, and coffee.It's a long trip from almost anywhere. It's far from the sleek confines of Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe, in downtown Manhattan, where Sweet Unity Farms coffee is sipped by customers almost certainly not preoccupied by lions, spirit or otherwise. It's far from the leafy, lily-white streets of suburban Connecticut, where Robinson grew up. And it's far from the Brooklyn blocks where Ebbets Field once stood and where David's father, Jackie, changed the course of American history more than half a century ago.The most immediate answer to his question—What the hell is he doing here?—has to do with those rows of spindly green trees. Coffee is one of the world's most ubiquitous and problematic commodities; among legal natural resources, it has an annual trade value second only to oil. The world drinks some 2.25 billion cups of coffee a day, with the U.S. accounting for a fifth of that. And yet—from Central America to Brazil to Indonesia to Africa—the actual producers of coffee consistently rank among the poorest in the world. "We have always been the donkey in the chain," Robinson says. "Getting only enough money and food to go back to work, never developing the community."The last 10 years of globalization and trade liberalization have only made things worse. For years, coffee prices had been kept stable by international compacts known as the "green-bean agreements." In the mid-90s these agreements collapsed, allowing prices to plummet from a two-decade average of $1.29 per pound to a low in 2001 of 46 cents. It's all but impossible to grow good coffee for less than a dollar a pound.What David Robinson is doing in Africa is attempting to use his unique position to make things better. He's formed a cooperative of approximately 300 small coffee farms which, rather than selling its raw coffee to multi-national buyers in Tanzania, is marketing it directly in the United States. Against enormous odds, he's trying to create a model of progressive economic development that both links his two worlds and carries on his father's legacy. In theory, it's a model that could change the way the world does business. But, like his father, Robinson is taking on enormously powerful foes. And this could be his make-or-break year.Even without Jackie Robinson's well-recounted trials and triumphs, the Robinson-family story is a great American saga—one that parallels, nearly step for step, the progress of African-Americans in the 20th century. Jack Roosevelt Robinson, the son of sharecroppers, was born in Cairo, Georgia, in 1919. When he was still an infant, his mother, Mallie, joined the great migration out of the South, settling her family in the growing middle-class black community of Pasadena, California.Seeing athletics as a way to improve his lot, Jackie became a stellar all-around athlete. (Baseball may well have been his fourth-best sport, after football, basketball, and track.) Like millions of other black Americans, he served in the army during World War II, a participation that would prove the spark of much of the civil-rights tumult to come. Though he would become famous for "having the guts not to fight back," in Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey's famous phrase, he was court-martialed after an altercation with an officer who had asked him to sit in the back of a public bus. (He was cleared of all charges.) Later, he would travel to Birmingham to give a speech with Martin Luther King Jr. And in between he racked up a Hall of Fame career in the face of vicious verbal assaults, death threats, and almost unimaginable pressure.Jackie and Rachel Robinson already had two children—Sharon and Jackie junior—when David was born, in 1952. Five years later, Jackie left baseball and accepted the job of vice president at Chock Full o'Nuts. The family moved from the upper-middle-class black suburb of St. Albans—where their neighbors had included Count Basie, Leontyne Price, and Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella—to a big house surrounded by woods in the mostly white community of Stamford, Connecticut.
On the surface, the move provided a suburban idyll for the Robinson children. And of the three children, David, gregarious and easygoing, seemed to have the smoothest adjustment to life in white society. He put on a blazer and khakis to attend posh New Canaan Country School, where for eight years he was the only black student. He had his own horse, a gift from a neighbor, which he would ride through the Robinsons' extensive wooded property."I was actually a little annoyed by him," says Sharon Robinson, who chronicled her own difficulties adjusting to Stamford in the memoir Stealing Home. "It seemed to me like he had really bought into the whole white, private-school thing. It wasn't until later that we learned about the struggles he'd gone through."David's class pictures from New Canaan Country School are strikingly reminiscent of his father's early team photos—one dark face surrounded by pale ones. At first, he fought with kids who hurled racial epithets. That changed when a classmate named Michael Colhoun stood up and defended him, unwittingly re-enacting an episode from Jackie Robinson's first season in the majors—the time when, in the midst of vicious jeering from the opposite dugout, the Dodgers' southern-born shortstop Pee Wee Reese sent a silent message to the major leagues by throwing his arm over Jackie's shoulder."Any struggle David had, he internalized it," says Rachel Robinson, who, at an extraordinarily youthful 83, is still the presiding spirit of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Despite friendships with Colhoun and others, David's primary memories of childhood are of being alone in the thick woods behind the family house. In the first grade, David, a precocious writer, composed a poem he called "The Tree": "It stands there like a soldier not at all at ease / while children play around it in the summer breeze." Later, he would play a game. He'd leave instructions to release the family dog at a certain time and then hide deep in the woods, waiting for his pet to come searching. He called the game "Runaway Slave.""You can assimilate and you can compromise," says the son of Jackie Robinson, "but integration is not really an honest word."There are more than 36 million people in Tanzania, and it often seems as though David Robinson knows every one of them. On the streets of Dar es Salaam, cabbies shout out greetings. Outside his rented home, on a deeply rutted road on the city's outskirts, there's always a small group gathered to exchange news or ask advice. His family alone represents a fair-size constituency: Robinson has 10 children, ranging in age from 41 to one year (3 from his first marriage, in the States; a daughter, Meta, born to a Namibian girlfriend in 1985; and 6 with his Tanzanian-born wife, Ruti). Another child, Jack, died of malaria at age six. Plus there is an extensive network of in-laws working on the farm.At 53, Robinson is tall and powerful. A white, woolly beard creeps from below the collar of his khaki shirt to his cheekbones. His bright eyes are clearly inherited from his father, as are the large hands with a slight crook in the middle finger. Robinson has a habit of running them over his head when deep in thought. He is a serious man (he's reluctant to smile for photographs, saying, "I don't want to give the impression that I take the work I'm doing with any amount of frivolity"), but he'll sometimes flash the dry wit and crooked-toothed grin that his mother and sister remember marking the funniest member of the Robinson clan. He looks every inch the African Elder—a vaunted role he clearly relishes.Robinson first came to Africa at 14, on a trip with his mother, and was entranced. "It wasn't any kind of major political analysis," he says. "But subconsciously there had to be a joy at being on a black continent and seeing that many black people." Rachel remembers her son learning the ropes at a market in Addis Ababa. "The jewelry stalls were run by young boys and you're supposed to bargain," she says. "Every day, he would go out there and get better at it. On the last day, they all came out and congratulated him like a brother."The lessons stuck. When I visit Robinson, he takes me to Dar es Salaam's central fish market, where he once operated a fishing boat. We are immediately surrounded by vendors calling him by name, and the pack goes ranging back and forth past stalls caked with scales and fish viscera. When Robinson finds a suitable specimen for a dinner party that night, it's the starting gun for 20 minutes of negotiation. He calmly holds his ground in fluent Swahili. At one point he turns to the most persistent haggler—a short man wearing a blue ski cap despite the equatorial heat—and gathers him in a sidelong bear hug at once threatening and affectionate. Shortly afterward, the deal is done. Robinson, it's clear, is a formidable businessman.The few other African-Americans living in Dar es Salaam think Robinson is a bit nuts for living the way he does on his farm. At dinner, Clark Arrington regales the small group of guests with a description of the epic trip needed to get to Sweet Unity Farms. Arrington, who is from Philadelphia and wears a mustache and black, thick-rimmed glasses, was a founding board member of Equal Exchange, one of the first fair-trade coffee companies in America. The fair-trade movement was started in the 1980s by Dutch liberals aiming to promote equitable and developmental agriculture in the Third World by appealing to Western consciences. As Arrington puts it, "Some cats in Holland thought, Damn, we fucked over some motherfuckers. How can we, as a society, begin to rectify that?"Arrington currently works as the representative to Tanzania of the U.S. government's African Development Foundation (A.D.F.) and recently helped secure a $210,000 loan for the farmers' collective. Still, having been to Robinson's farm once, he has zero interest in a return visit."It's not just country," he says, shaking his head. "It's bush."
Truth be told, many native Tanzanians think Robinson's a bit nuts, too. Another dinner guest, a young lawyer working with the Rwandan-genocide tribunal in Arusha, is driven to ever heightening fits of hilarity as Arrington describes the journey. Convincing Africans, many of whom have struggled mightily to get off the farm and to Dar, to return and take up the plow is one of Robinson's biggest challenges.Indeed, it's less than 100 percent encouraging when Robinson assures visitors that there's been only one lion (the flesh-and-blood kind) spotted near the farm in recent memory, and that there are fewer and fewer cobras every year. But Robinson believes strongly in Pan-Africanism, which posits that the best way to address the problems of both Africans and the African diaspora is to build cultural and especially economic ties between the two groups. And he's committed to assimilating almost entirely into African culture."There's this bridge into Zimbabwe from Zambia," he says. "And the bridge is embedded in this rock; the support buttresses are so far in that rock that you don't see them. That's the part of the span that I want to function as. The part that's deeply ingrained and embedded in African society."Nowhere is this commitment more striking than in his traditional, arranged marriage to Ruti. In 1990, having been in Tanzania for eight years, Robinson decided it was time to remarry. He found a family to adopt him into the Wanyamwezi tribe and went calling on families with daughters of marrying age. When he came to Ruti's he was presented from afar with the family's three girls. Their brothers sat Robinson down and asked which he wanted to marry. "It didn't seem like an 'I'll get back to you later' situation," Robinson says. "All I could think of to ask was which was the youngest—because I didn't want the youngest. And the oldest was the shortest, so I chose the middle one."The Robinsons seem by all measures to have built a loving and respectful relationship, and Robinson has declined to take further wives, unusual for a man of his stature. But there's no denying that it's a very un-Stamford arrangement."I tried to talk him out of it," says Rachel Robinson, who has since developed a warm relationship with Ruti. "I couldn't believe he was going to do that. And yet, he's David. That's what we say about everything he does: he's David, and if he says he's going to do it, he really means it."On the endless bus ride from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya, with Nigerian romantic comedies blaring from the video monitor and his long legs folded into the too small seat, Robinson sits stoically. He makes the trip about once a month and will spend the entire harvest season in Mbozi. This time, he's traveling with a worn canvas-and-leather bag, a pair of beat-up desert boots, and a U.S. Postal Service sack filled with small solar panels. Bringing cheap solar energy to the village is one of the ways in which branding and selling coffee in the U.S. improves the lives of the members of his cooperative—along with setting up a system of farm credits, building a school, establishing a pharmacy, founding a multi-media entertainment-and-education center, and bringing in pure water.All of these initiatives require shockingly small amounts of money (reliable light after the sun goes down, effectively a thousand-year technological leap forward, can be had for the price of a $95 solar kit), but money is a constant problem. Although Robinson has not sought official Fairtrade certification (it's a way of "draining off" the sympathy of liberal buyers, he says) and prefers the term "direct trade," the concepts are much the same. Both are essentially exercises in public relations. It's the "story"—of sustainable agriculture, decent labor practices, and, in Robinson's case, a unique family heritage—that adds value to the product. (Though Sweet Unity's sales materials include references to the "tradition of Jackie Robinson," David refuses to use his father's image on the coffee's packaging: "This isn't going to be 'Grinning Jack's Coffee,'" he says.)Telling the story—to gourmet buyers, "green" investors, and socially conscious businesses—requires a dedicated sales-and-marketing force in the States. When he started Sweet Unity Farms, Robinson had a U.S. partner to handle this end of the business. But the partner went bankrupt, and for the past 10 years, except for one or two associates working on a volunteer basis, the job has been his.At the same time, just as it wasn't enough for Jackie Robinson to simply be the first black major-leaguer—he also had to be a fantastic ballplayer—Sweet Unity Farms coffee has to be competitive in both quality and price."Everybody's got a conscience," Robinson says. "But they also have calculators."Constant vigilance and ready cash are important here, too: to make sure the crop is harvested at its peak, to provide credit for fertilizer and machinery, and to hold off the influence of multi-national buyers, who are none too happy about what the success of Sweet Unity Farms would portend. Thanks to trade liberalization, those buyers (and, by extension, the retail coffee powerhouses) are now allowed to come directly into the village, lowballing struggling farmers with the promise of quick payment.To keep pace, Robinson crisscrosses the globe, pitching C.E.O.'s in gleaming, air-conditioned American offices, and then dashing home to repair hand-cranked pulping machines.Things aren't all grim: Robinson has made inroads with Cendant, a travel-and-real-estate giant that controls millions of cups of coffee drunk by Americans each day. On the gourmet side, his coffee is available at Union Square Cafe and at Fairway markets, in New York, and through the Sweet Unity Farms Web site. He has been seeking investors for a sales infrastructure in the States, and the A.D.F. loan would help relieve the pressure in Mbozi. But Robinson is a man all too familiar with how bureaucracies work. And, like farmers all over the world, he knows the coming harvest never waits for checks to clear.
After New Canaan Country School, Robinson left home to attend boarding school at the Northfield and Mount Hermon Schools, in western Massachusetts. There was unrest in the Robinson household. Jackie junior had volunteered to serve in Vietnam and returned home with an addiction to heroin. In 1968 he was arrested for gun and drug possession and ordered into rehab.Away at school, David found himself among black classmates for the first time. It was the late 60s, and in keeping with the era, he joined the black student union. Similar movements were sweeping the nation, as Martin Luther King Jr.'s integrationist philosophy began to give way to the more militant, identity-based politics of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, making for an interesting dynamic within the Robinson family.After baseball, Jackie had increased his role in politics, vocally supporting King and the N.A.A.C.P. through his newspaper columns in the (then liberal) New York Post and The New York Amsterdam News. He kept up an exhaustive schedule of fund-raising appearances around the country, and he and Rachel instituted an annual jazz concert on the family's front lawn to raise money for civil-rights causes. Only by the feverish light of the 60s could the ex-ballplayer have been considered conservative.And yet Jackie was firmly a Republican. He had supported Nixon in 1960 (a decision he later regretted) and worked for Nelson A. Rockefeller's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns, even getting a summer job in the New York governor's office for David—the last time, says the younger Robinson, that he owned a suit.In 1949, Jackie had been summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee and become caught up in a public dispute with Paul Robeson over whether blacks should serve in the U.S. military. Now he engaged in a similar debate with Malcolm X. After Robinson upbraided Malcolm in his column, Malcolm wrote an open letter to Robinson that read, in part, "You became a great baseball player after your white boss lifted you to the major leagues. You proved that your white boss had chosen the 'right' Negro by … bringing much money through the gates and into the pockets of your white boss.… You never take an interest in anything in the Negro community until the white man himself takes an interest in it." David Robinson says that nobody ever used the term to his face, but Sharon remembers hearing people describe her father as an "Uncle Tom."Though it never soured their regard for their father, Jackie's children clearly were attracted to the more militant wing of the movement. In her book, Sharon writes that the most furious her father ever got at her was when she placed a poster of Black Panthers founder Huey P. Newton over her bed. It was quickly taken down.Jackie also had little interest in Africa or in dwelling on the legacy of slavery. "Jack would probably say, 'All right. We came here as slaves. Get over it. Move on,'" says Rachel. "David's answer is 'I can't get over it.' He believes that some part of him has been damaged by slavery and that he won't be whole until he can rejoin that part of himself."As he moved through Mount Hermon and on to Stanford University, David became more and more political—influenced in part by the writings of Julius Nyerere, Tanzania's intellectual socialist leader. He describes his year at Stanford as consisting of "playing poker, smoking reefer, and throwing rocks [during demonstrations]. Even I knew that wasn't positive educational development."That summer, Jackie junior was killed in a car accident while driving David's 1969 MG Midget. With his mother and father devastated, it was David who went to identify the body. "His strength was magnificent," Jackie wrote in his autobiography, I Never Had It Made. Several months later, David took the insurance money from the car and went back to Africa.An open-bed truck filled with sacks of grain passes the Dar es Salaam–Mbeya bus as it rolls through a stretch of game preserve, past stout baobab trees and grazing elephants. "That," says Robinson wistfully, "is the finest ride in all of Africa. You're up high, looking out and just rolling through the countryside."When Robinson returned to Africa he went hitching across the eastern half of the continent. He spent a month in Dar es Salaam, which, at the height of the Pan-African movement, was home to a large number of expatriate African-Americans drawn by Nyerere's progressive politics. These included Black Panthers Pete O'Neal and Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, fleeing gun charges in the States. On the way to Greece to pick up money Jackie and Rachel had wired, Robinson arrived broke and shoeless in Khartoum (he can't fathom what may have happened to his shoes). Someone saw him hopping down the hot, dusty streets and took up a collection to get him sandals, robes, and food. "They carried me all the way to Athens," he says, still amazed.After nine months, Robinson found himself in a traveler's hut in Kenya. Someone had left a copy of Newsweek there and Robinson picked it up. On the cover was news of the Attica prison riots. "It was the realization that my brother could have been in Attica—that my brothers were in Attica—that had me thinking I had not resolved my life or work or issues in America. That had me thinking, It's time to get back home."It was 10 years before Robinson returned to Tanzania. Back home, Jackie's health was deteriorating—the result of advancing diabetes and, perhaps, a lifetime of stress. David worked for his father as a driver, and then as a writer and photographer for a film company. On October 24, 1972, Jackie Robinson died at the age of 53. The funeral in Harlem was packed with 2,500 people, and mourners lined the route of the blocks-long motorcade to Cypress Hills National Cemetery, in Brooklyn.David got married. He adopted his wife's two children, and the couple had another daughter of their own. The family moved to 136th Street in Harlem and, with two partners, David co-founded an alternative-housing company, United Harlem Growth, dedicated to reclaiming the neighborhood.
But David had also returned from Africa in a state of turmoil. "There was a definite difference in him. You could see the anger and frustration," says Sharon Robinson. "He was with a group of men that was really angry, and I was always worried that it would erupt in a negative way." David's daughter Susan's classmates called him G.I. Joe for the army fatigues he always wore. He fought frequently, both with members of the Harlem community and with the police.After a childhood spent compromising with white culture, Robinson says, "I wasn't so much in a 'bend' mode. And a black male in America really has to be in a bend mode or plan to go to jail or the graveyard."Above all, the decade in Harlem was a lesson in lost opportunities. "We could have acquired 80 percent of Harlem at the rate of $500 a brownstone," he says. "But we weren't psychologically prepared. We were hard-core, but we were too hard-core." With Africa constantly on his mind, he swore not to let the continent's vast resources slip away as easily. In 1982, amid divorce proceedings, Robinson made plans to go to Tanzania again, this time for good.It's hard to ignore the apparent irony that the son of one of America's greatest icons of integration has found it more fulfilling to live as a black man outside of the United States, but Robinson takes exception to that analysis."Yes, there's a degree of intolerance in American society that creates some natural factors for wanting to say good-bye," he says. "We've been abused."But Jackie Robinson's objective was not to integrate America. Jackie Robinson's objective was to create black progress and pride. My grandmother got on a train, leaving Cairo, Georgia, in 1924, and I think it took her longer to get to California than it takes me to get to Tanzania. And it was the same journey—looking for progress."There was a time when the resources available to us were moving up from the South. My father saw an opportunity in baseball and went for it. Coffee is a medium like baseball was a medium. This is completely linear progress."‘A coffee-plantation is a thing that gets hold of you and does not let you go," wrote Isak Dinesen, in Out of Africa. The living quarters at Sweet Unity Farms—four low mud structures arranged around a packed-dirt courtyard—overlook rolling green hills lined with trees. In a corner of the compound lies the tidy grave of David and Ruti's son Jack. You can almost see relief wash over Robinson as he breathes deeply and we climb the final hill to his home.Dinesen also wrote, "Coffee growing is a long job." Robinson first arrived in Mbozi in 1989, after years spent in Dar es Salaam selling everything from fish to refrigerators to Ethiopian jewelry. He requested land from the village council in exchange for his help in bringing in a better price for the local coffee. Just to see the 280 forested acres they offered, he had to climb the highest nearby tree. "I think the village odds on our sticking out the first year were like 1,000 to 1," he says.Robinson and his eldest son, Howard, spent two years clearing the area by hand and ox, then four years waiting for the first plantings to sprout. The first beans appeared in 1994. The next year, men with machetes and trucks pulled up to the local warehouse and stole half of the crop. Now Robinson and his partners spend the harvest season patrolling with shotguns and pistols.Under the farmhouse's lone lightbulb, we sit down for a spare meal of ugali (stiff corn porridge) and stewed peanut greens. Though he's just arrived, Robinson's thoughts are already a hemisphere away. At our stop in Mlowo, he had pointed to a pair of gleaming, brand-new Land Rovers in the midst of all the broken-down and cobbled-together local vehicles. "The big boys are in town," he said, referring to the multi-nationals. He's looking ahead to a series of meetings in New York with venture capitalists who specialize in matching entrepreneurs with socially conscious investors. To make it through the harvest and serve his current customers, Robinson figures he'll need a half-million dollars, and fast."We're talking about human development, quality products, progressive trade, fairer distribution," he says, and then trails off. "This is it for me. I know I've said I'm at the end of my rope before and then always found more rope, but the mix is so good here that if I blow it I have to go to God and ask what sins I've committed. I mean, do I have bad breath?"Three weeks later, back in Manhattan, Robinson sits over sushi in a Midtown restaurant and says the outlook is guardedly sunny. The first installment of the A.D.F. loan has reached Tanzania and is being put to use buying fertilizer. On the negative side, the meetings about raising money in the States have produced little result.But, once again, Robinson has found another bit of rope. On April 13 of this year, 58 seasons after Jackie made his first appearance in Dodgers blue, the Robinson family name returns to Major League Baseball—this time on the beverage menu at Dodger Stadium, one of five ballparks that will serve Sweet Unity Farms coffee this seasonLast year, Rachel Robinson called her son on his birthday. "Happy 53rd," she said. "Mom, I'm 54," David replied. "No," said Rachel. "You're 53." And so David Robinson was granted an extra year.Robinson told me this story while walking through rows of trees, their thin branches beginning to sag under the weight of bright-red berries destined to end their lives as a bridge to the other side of the world. "I always thought it was funny that my father's team's motto was 'Wait till next year,'" Robinson said. "And that's always been the reality of my life. Well, I'm 53 again. Maybe next year is finally here."
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