Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer

#UnitedKingdom, April 15, 2024 – Upcoming African Caribbean Diaspora artists are being given the opportunity to live and work at King Charles 18th century Dumfries House in Scotland for three months, to hone their skills, reportedly due to an “artist in residence programme” being launched through King Charles’ charity.

This is an opportune development for aspiring Caribbean artists and comes after a collaboration between the King’s charity, that is the King’s Foundation and Maro Itoje, English rugby player and co-founder of Akjoe Residency, a charity that gives opportunities to artists from Commonwealth countries.

The programme will offer up to eight funded residencies annually and during the artists stay, they will be able to share their artistic views with exhibitions, open studios and talks; this is in line with Itjoe’s view that “art has the…ability to bring communities together.”

Featured in reports, Itoje describes the programme as providing a “haven” for established and upcoming artists, adding that the environment at Dumfries will be conducive to their development.

“They will benefit from being surrounded by the enriching ecosystem that Dumfries House provides as well as being a contributor to the growth of African art worldwide.”

Simon Sadinsky, executive of the King’s Foundation mirrors Itoje’s idea of the environment’s impact, while highlighting additional benefits of the programme saying, “The residencies, each lasting for three months, will give international artists the opportunity to gain inspiration from our beautiful Dumfries House headquarters while also benefiting from access to The King’s Foundation’s wide range of specialist workshops, expertise, and skilled craftspeople.”

Dumfries, used for education and training programmes, is open to the public all year round.

Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer 

#YellowFever#Caribbean, April 10, 2024 – Reports say there is an outbreak of Yellow fever in the Caribbean according to the Department of Health and official government advice website, Travel Health Pro, and travelers are being warned to be vigilant. The authorities say the outbreak is also in parts of Africa, and Central and South America.

Guyana and Peru so far have seen two cases. Brazil reports the disease in monkeys, an indication that it is spreading across the ccounty. Colombia has seen 3 cases.

In South America, between January 1 and March 18 2024, there have been seven confirmed cases, four fatal.

Yellow fever is spread by mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) and can cause potentially fatal hemorrhagic illness. Fortunately, it can be prevented with vaccination and so the World Health Organisation (WHO) is advising people ages nine months and older, traveling to the affected areas, to get vaccinated.

Garfield Ekon

Staff Writer

The last Falcon 9 lift off was on Friday morning at 5:12am.  The rocket dramatically pierced the dark skies of Cape Canaveral on April 5 as space exploration enthusiasts watched the live blast off and report “the Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1069 in the SpaceX fleet, launched for a 14th time.”

But what is the origin story of these missions, which residents of The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos often witness from their quiet islands not too far off the coast of Florida.

SpaceX was founded on March 14, 2002, by United States (US) billionaire, Elon Musk, with a huge dream of building reusable rockets, commercial spacecraft, and a number of other sophisticated technology, now it is adding great benefits to normal live, and playing a dominant role in tourism.  

Two decades later, SpaceX is quietly leading in many spheres, with the building of 2,000-satalite, Starlink Internet constellation, for the holding of 30,000 spacecraft. It is advanced in ramping up an orbital space tourism programme, and for crewed missions to the International Space Station.

It is now regularly launching and landing rockets while carrying payloads for a wide range of customers, from private companies to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), while also making leaps for The Bahamas tourism industry, and cruise tourism.  

From a strategic collaboration, involving Space Exploration Technologies Corp, an exploration is being undertaken for a mission design, where one of the company’s autonomous drone ships will serve as a Falcon 9 landing location east of the Exumas, offering a spectacle that will be visible only in The Bahamas.

In August 2023, Royal Caribbean Group, disclosed plans to for implementation of SpaceX Starlink, making the entity the first in the cruise industry to adopt its high-speed, low-latency connectivity for a better onboard experience for guests and crew fleet-wide.

Deployment of the Starlink technology across the fleet, leveraged the awareness obtained from the trial onboard from Freedom of the Seas, which received tremendous positive feedback from guests and crew. 

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, designated AV-085, will launch Boeing’s CST-100 Satrliner spacecraft on its first mission with astronauts, known as the Crest Test Flight, to the International Space Station, by the end of April. The rocket will fly in a vehicle configuration, with two solid rocket boosters, and a dual-engine Centaur upper stage.