Monthly Archives: July 2017

The notorious hate group World Congress of Families (WCF) began its fourth regional Caribbean conference in St. Johns Antigua. The conference will wrap up today.

The misleading theme of the rabidly anti-LGBTQ hate groups regional conference is Building Strong Caribbean Families Upholding Marriage, the Family and the Sanctity of Human Life.

Notorious American exporters of hate such as Sharon Slater, Brian Brown, Don Feder, Sharon Slater and Scott Stirm are listed as featured speakers for this event. The foreign minister of St. Lucia is also scheduled to appear at the conference.

WCFs fourth Caribbean gathering comes a little more than a year after anti-LGBTQ exporters of hate descended on Barbados in April 2016.

WCF is one of the most active American organizations involved in the export of hate. Since 1997, it has organized events around the world that foster homophobia and transphobia under the guise of protecting the "natural family." WCF's activities range from holding conferences in Nigeria on denying rights to LGBTQ people to working to silence Russias LGBTQ community.

HRC stands in solidarity with LGBTQ activities in the Caribbean as this toxic gathering of exporters of hate meets this week. Read more about our work on countering the export of hate here.

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World Congress of Families Caribbean Meeting Underway - Human Rights Campaign (blog)

The pirates will no longer be saying We wants the Redhead in Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland after the auction scene undergoes a modification in 2018.

The Walt Disney Company plans to make changes to the auction scene in the attraction at Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris in the coming year, according to Suzi Brown, spokeswoman for the Disneyland Resort.

While the scene has long been a favorite of many Disney fans, it has been the brunt of criticism for what some believed to be a sexist approach to women. Years ago, the scene that comes after the auction scene, which used to have pirates chasing women, was changed to pirates chasing women for food, and one where a woman was chasing a pirate.

Disney officials declined to comment about the sexism question.

In the auction scene, the Redhead will become a pirate, helping the Auctioneer gather valuables from the townspeople to auction off to the pirates.

Potential brides will no longer be offered at the auction to the pirates either, once the change is made; expected to take place during a refurbishment of the attraction in 2018.

We believe the time is right to turn the page to a new story in this scene, consistent with the humorous, adventurous spirit of the attraction, Brown said in a statement.

The first version of the attraction to receive the new scene will be at Disneyland Paris next month, with the two domestic parks receiving it within the next year or so.

The park announced the changes in a blog post by Kathy Mangum, senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering, who also released this statement: Our team thought long and hard about how to best update this scene. Given the redhead has long been a fan favorite, we wanted to keep her as a pivotal part of the story, so we made her a plundering pirate! We think this keeps to the original vision of the attraction as envisioned by Marc Davis, X Atencio and the other Disney legends who first brought this classic to life.

This is not the first time the venerable Disneyland attraction has undergone modifications. The first was in the mid-1970s when a scene with a drunken pirate and some cats was added. In 2006, characters from the film franchise, including Jack Sparrow, Captain Barbosa and Davy Jones, were added. In 2011, Blackbeard was added for a while.

Changes to Disneyland attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and others have always taken place since it opened. Just a couple of years ago the Haunted Mansion added a headless ghost to that classic attraction.

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Marty Sklar, the former vice chair of Walt Disney Imagineering, who worked alongside Walt Disney for many years, said that Walt always wanted Disneyland to grow and change, with some of those changes starting right after the park opened in 1955.

The Imagineers are simply reflecting what Walt started the day Disneyland opened making changes that create exciting new experiences for our guests. I cant think of a single attraction that has not been enhanced and improved, some over and over again. Change is a tradition at Disneyland that todays Imagineers practice, Sklar said in a statement.

He went on to say, Pirates of the Caribbean has always represented great Disney Park storytelling; it has set the standard for the theme park industry for half a century. But its a story you can continue to add fun to, with great characters in new performances. Thats what the Imagineers have done with this new auction scene its like a theatre show with a new act.

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Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride will stop auctioning brides - The San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Royal Caribbean Blog (blog)

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Royal Caribbean offering 50% off second guest, plus discount for kids - Royal Caribbean Blog (blog)

Environment According to tourism officials, the Caribbean tourism industry faces significant future threats related to both competitiveness and climate change impacts.

CTO Secretary-General Hugh Riley (left) and CDB President Dr. Warren Smith share a light moment during the signing of a partnership agreement at CDB headquarters. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

Bridgetown, Barbados:The tourism industry is the key economic driver and largest provider of jobs in the Caribbean after the public sector. Caribbean tourism broke new ground in 2016, surpassing 29 million arrivals for the first time and once again growing faster than the global average.

Visitor expenditures also hit a new high, growing by an estimated 3.5% to reach35.5 billion dollars. And the the outlook for 2017 remains rosy, with expected increases of 2.5 and 3.5% in long-stay arrivals and between 1.5% and 2.5% in cruise passenger arrivals.

But tourism officials say Caribbean islands are significantly affected by drastic changes in weather conditions and they fear climate change could have a devastating impact on the industry.

They note that the Caribbean tourism sector faces significant future threats related to both competitiveness and climate change impacts. And for a region so heavily dependent on coastal- and marine-related tourism attractions, adaptation and resilience are critical issues facing Caribbean tourism.

The impact of more severe hurricanes and the destruction of our most valued tourism assets, our beaches and coral reefs, and the damage to our infrastructure threaten to reverse the developmental gains that we have made, Dominican Senator Francine Baron said.

Our efforts to attain the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations cannot be achieved without dealing with the causes of climate change.

Baron, who serves as Dominicas Minister of Foreign Affairs, made the comments as she addressed a forum on the issue of climate change at the general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) held in Mexico recently.

In the face of these threats, the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the Caribbeans tourism development agency, has received a much-needed boost with a 460,000-euro grant from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to implement a project to increase the Caribbean tourism sectors resilience to natural hazards and climate related risks.

Global climate change and its impacts, including the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events, pose a significant risk to the Caribbean region and threaten the sustainability of Caribbean tourism, the CTOs Secretary General Hugh Riley said.

The CTO is pleased to have the support of the CDB to implement this project which will contribute to enhancing the resiliency, sustainability and competitiveness of the regions tourism sector. Mainstreaming climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk management (DRM) strategies in tourism development and planning is our duty to our member countries.

The CDB/CTO partnership was formalized at a signing ceremony held on June 22 at CDBs headquarters in Barbados.

Speaking at the event, CDB President Dr. Warren Smith noted that the tourism sector makes an enormous contribution to the regions socioeconomic development.

Tourism generates high levels of employment, foreign direct investment and foreign exchange for our borrowing member countries and, given its multi-sectoral nature, it is a very effective tool for promoting sustainable development and poverty reduction, Dr. Smith said.

However, maintaining this critical role calls for adequate safeguards to be erected against the enormous threats that climate change and natural hazards pose to the sustainability of our region.

Funding is being provided under the African Caribbean Pacific-European Union-Caribbean Development Bank-Natural Disaster Risk Management in CARIFORUM Countries programme, which aims to reduce vulnerability to long-term impacts of natural hazards, including the potential impacts of climate change, thereby achieving national and regional sustainable development and poverty reduction goals in those countries.

During the 19-month project implementation period, the CTO will support the regions tourism entities with policy formulation, the promotion of best practices in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, and the development of tools to enhance the tourism sectors knowledge and awareness of disaster risk reduction strategies and the potential impacts of climate variability and climate change (CVC).

A training component will also be included to strengthen the ability of public and private sector tourism stakeholders to undertake adequate mitigation and adaptation actions to CVC. The CTO secretariat will also benefit from institutional strengthening to help provide technical assistance and ongoing support for tourism-related climate services.

The project is in keeping with 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, which has been designated by the United Nations General Assembly.

At the CDBs Annual Board of Directors meeting held in Turks and Caicos Islands last month, Governors noted the acute environmental vulnerability of the Region and urged CDB to continue to play an important role in helping its Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) build resilience.

Smith said CDBs commitment to this role was evidenced during the meeting, at which CDB signed an agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the second Climate Action Line of Credit (CALC).

This will facilitate increased climate proofing of critical infrastructure in the Caribbean. The Line of Credit for Euro 100 million is the largest single loan made by EIB in our region. We are very encouraged by the strong statement of confidence in CDB that this line represents, he said.

Eligible investments under the Climate Action Framework Loan II include climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency, road transport, water infrastructure and community-level physical and social infrastructurethat reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve resilience to the impacts of climate change.

We are delighted to be signing this new climate action loan with CDB, which is the result of a fruitful partnership that lasts for almost four decades, to support new projects in the Caribbean, said Pim Van Ballekom, EIB Vice President.

This partnership is currently supporting CDBs efforts to mainstream climate action to help its borrowing member countries (BMCs), which are all considered Small Island Developing States, to adequately tackle risks related to climate change. Caribbean countries face economic and social challenges which must be addressed whilst ensuring resilience to climate change, he added.

To date, CDB has committed the total resources under the ongoing Climate Action Line of Credit (50 million euro), for nine projects. This co-financing is associated with total project financing of approximately 191 million dollars (from CDB loans/grants, EIB CALC, counterpart and other sources of financing).

(IPS)

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The Caribbean Islands Are Looking to Climate-Proof Their Tourism Industry - The Wire