The Caribbean: Global Enduring Paradise or crossroads of the Global Enduring Disorder?
And: The Houthis, Gaza and the battle for narratives in a disordered world
Welcome to a doubleheader of Disorder. We started the week with the Caribbean:
Beneath the Caribbean’s idyllic seafronts and sandy beaches lies a darker truth. Illicit money flows, corruption, and organised crime leave these small states hollowed out and open to state capture. In fact, the failure of Caribbean states to provide services to their populations and to generate income has led some of them to sell their sovereignty to their highest bidder.
In this episode, Jason Pack is joined by our returning champion Arthur Snell, host of the Behind the Lines podcast and former British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago to discuss the multiplicity of interconnected roles Caribbean nations play within the Global Enduring Disorder. The pair discuss: Haiti’s recent gang uprising, the high homicide rates throughout the Caribbean, the historical role of the Caribbean as the first truly globalized region in human history, why former British colonies like the British Virgin Islands are increasingly turning to money laundering and drug trafficking, and how the legacy of the sugar trade has left societal scars in the region that are still felt to this day.
Listen to the Episode here.
For More on the very fluid situation in the Caribbean right now here is some extra reading:
Read the report, ‘Homicide and Organised Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/2023/GSH_2023_LAC_web.pdf
Read more about Haiti https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/04/trouble-in-paradise-corruption-in-the-caribbean-has-become-normalised
Discover more about Andrew Fahie’s drug case https://insightcrime.org/news/former-premier-british-virgin-islands-guilty-drug-case/
Read ‘The Crime Conundrum in the Caribbean’ https://globalamericans.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/The-Crime-Conundrum-in-the-Caribbean-Ivelaw-Griffith.pdf
Buy Arthur’s: How Britain Broke the World: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Britain-Broke-World-Afghanistan/dp/1912454602?ref_=ast_author_mpb
And for the second part of our double header:
Oh Yeah-Woman: who is winning the narrative battle in Yemen, the Red Sea, and Gaza?
Description: A decisively new kind of maritime terrorism has now emerged. Last weekend, two more British-linked ships were attacked in the Red Sea by Houthi pirates. This comes after the sinking of the Rubymar on March 2nd, which released 21,000 metric tons of ammonium, constituting a major ecological disaster.
Jason is joined by Laura Cretney: a Yemen expert and founder of Pink Jinn, an online marketplace focused on supporting small businesses and communities affected by conflict in the MENA region.
The pair provide a primer on how we got to here: Who are the Houthis and how did this ‘rag tag militia’ from the mountains end up with so much leverage over the global economy?
They also unpick the implications of the Houthis: Are the attacks on global shipping actually changing the course of the conflict in Gaza? And what does the ongoing conflict in the Red Sea and the competing social media narratives emerging around it, tell us about the regional and global order (or lack thereof)?
Lastly, the pair try to Order the Disorder by debating the role Diaspora communities in the US and UK can play in providing expertise and human networks to help improve Western policymaking towards the ongoing conflicts in Yemen, Gaza, and throughout the MENA region.
This episode is out tomorrow (Thursday April 11th where ever you get your podcasts and listen to disorder)
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Fore more background on the situation in Yemen, the maritime terrorism in the Red Sea, and how it is or is not effecting the Gaza War check out these links:
To hear our previous episode on Yemen, visit https://pod.link/1706818264/episode/ecfc666aeba628e60a6770d158d60eff
Background on the Dawning of a new age of eco-terrorism: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/18/houthis-environment-rubymar-maritime-terrorism
To Find out about the recent attacks on British shipping: https://www.spacewar.com/reports/Missile_attack_misses_ship_off_Yemen_coast_UK_agency_999.html
For the impact on Israel: https://maritime-executive.com/article/houthi-attacks-force-port-of-eilat-to-lay-off-half-its-staff
And the impact on the global economy: https://apnews.com/article/red-sea-undersea-cables-yemen-houthi-rebels-attacks-b53051f61a41bd6b357860bbf0b0860a
And why designating the Houthis as terrorist may backfire: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/01/redesignating-houthis-terrorist-group-not-bad-policy-it-no-policy-all