Summit of the Americas hit home: Our
How fitting that the United
States hosted the Ninth Summit of the americas in
June, when we celebrate caribbean american Heritage month.
Through a coincidence of timing, the Summit of the Americas took place at the same time as my own, long-planned family reunion in Barbados. This confluence of events led me to reflect on my history and the generations of ancestors that led me to the summit in Los Angeles.
My paternal grandfather,
Charles Nichols, was born in
Saint George, Barbados, in 1877. He worked on the Panama Canal with others from the Caribbean, particularly 75,000 Bajans, the largest nationality group to labour on this great engineering project. Through this work, he earned enough money to emigrate to the United States with his wife, Julia King, and their children. My father was born in Brooklyn, the youngest of 11 and the second to be born in America. As the youngest son of a youngest son myself, I am proud that my roots connect me so strongly to the Caribbean.
Events like the Summit of the Americas recognise the ties that bind our hemisphere together, and I feel grateful to reflect on the values and the heritage that we share with our Caribbean neighbours. I count myself as a member of the Caribbean diaspora that helped build the United States. Our country continues to benefit from this community’s many contributions. We will rely on this support, ingenuity, and energy in implementing the promises of this summit. We are committed to supporting our Caribbean kin and neighbours, and to implementing the ambitious goals that President Joe Biden and Vicepresident Kamala Harris have set for us. We have already begun this work and it will continue in the weeks and months.
During the summit, the president and vice-president co-hosted their Caribbean counterparts for an in-depth and substantive meeting that will further strengthen our partnerships with the region. Our Caribbean neighbours spoke of their economic challenges stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic, the impact of climate change, food and energy insecurity, and lack of access to low-cost
The views expressed on this page are not necessarily those of the Jamaica Observer. financing.
Seized with these challenges, President Biden and Vice-president Harris committed to working with the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the Dominican Republic to form three high-level committees tasked with developing immediate and concrete, joint, and near-term solutions.