Millions in the Caribbean Survive on Less Than $2 a Day
An eye-opening report revealed that millions of people in five Caribbean nations are surviving on less than $2 a day, Caribbean Net News reports. The affected citizens are from the Dominican Republic (with 15 percent attempting to live on that small wage), Haiti (72 percent), St. Lucia (41 percent), Guyana (17 percent), Trinidad and Tobago (14 percent) and Suriname (27 percent), according to the recent Population Reference Bureau’s 2009 World Population Data Sheet. News from the bureau, based in Washington D.C., doesn’t get much better. It estimates that the population will rise in the Caribbean, as well as poverty-stricken areas in Africa, Latin America and Asia, by a little less than 50 percent between now and 2050, the news service reports. “This scenario assumes that fertility in less-developed countries will decline smoothly to the low levels observed in today’s more developed countries: about 1.8 children per woman,” the report states. “For fertility to fall to those low levels, many factors are key, including significant increases in the use of family planning in many less-developed countries.”
 

Thousands Protest Mali’s Marriage Law
Thousands of people in the west African nation of Mali have been protesting a new law that provides more rights for wives, reports the BBC. The law, which was adopted weeks ago but has not been signed by the nation’s president yet, decreed that married women are no longer required to obey their husbands. In addition, the legislation allows for stronger inheritance rights for mothers and children who are born out of wedlock, the news service reports. “We have to stick to the Koran. A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband,” Hadja Sapiato Dembele, a spokeswoman from the National Union of Muslim Women’s Association, told BBC recently. Only a certain segment of the population supports the law, she says. “It’s a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law – the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country – the real Muslims – are against it,” she said.

Kenyan President Denies Rumors of Secret Wife

In what’s been called an unusual move, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki called a news conference solely to combat rumors he has a second – secret – wife, reports the BBC. During the conference Kibaki threatened to sue anyone spreading the rumor, which even after constant denials, have persisted since he took office in 2002. “I want to make it very clear that I have only one dear wife, Lucy, who’s here, and I do not have any other,” he said. “Anybody who knows me and knows my family and knows how I live – they know I have only one wife.” As one would expect, Mrs. Kibaki was not pleased with the “secret wife” talk and also lashed out at the media. “You keep tormenting us; I don’t know what you get out of it,” she said. “I almost came to your station last night to attack you,” Mrs. Kibaki told one Kenyan station, NTV. If she had, it wouldn’t have been the first time she’s clashed with the media face to face. In 2005, she angrily went to the offices of The Daily Nation newspaper to confront journalists there on how they portrayed her family in a report. She also slapped a cameraman who filmed the exchange. In 2007, she slapped an official who accidentally called her the name of the woman rumored to be her husband’s mistress.  

Trinidad and Tobago Running out of U.S. Dollars 
The Caribbean’s Trinidad and Tobago is running out of U.S. dollars due to increasing demand, reports Caribbean Net. Some business owners are afraid that their inability to pay for imports from North America and Asia will leave them unable to refill their shelves. The nation’s Central Bank has infused the market with $280 million to help with the demand just in the first two months of this year. Richard Young, managing director of Scotiabank, attributes the shortage to people wanting to use U.S. dollars to buy property in the United States (taking advantage of the lower prices due to the economic recession). The shortage might also be due to there being less U.S. dollars in the system because of reduced energy taxes. Since the companies have cut down on production, the taxes might have also gone down, Young speculated.

World Lens: Tina Turner lit up the stage in Europe; the cast of “Notorious” appears in Germany. See pics!
 

Trinidad and Tobago Will Focus on Gangs

Due to the nation’s growing murder rate, police in the Caribbean’s Trinidad and Tobago will focus on gangs, reports the BBC. Police Commissioner James Philbert says that out of the nation’s 87 murders so far this year, 77 of them have been gang-related. “It is very challenging regarding the rise in gang violence for January and to some extent February. This is where we will put our resources, actually coming face-to-face with gang activities to reduce crime significantly,” he said.  And the police presence will definitely be felt with Carnival celebrations coming next week, Philbert said.
 

Toxic Trash from the West Dumped in Africa
An investigation by Greenpeace has uncovered a dirty toxic secret. Tons of waste from the United Kingdom, most of it poisonous, is being dumped illegally in West African nations. Broken TVs and computers are sold to dealers, but under European Union law, those items must be taken apart or recycled since they contain poisonous pieces. When they get to Africa, people working in the waste dumps strip the appliances for metals. The young workers face exposure to chemicals such as mercury, lead and cadmium. “We basically managed to track a TV going from the UK allegedly as second-hand equipment to Nigeria,” a member of the group told the BBC.