CJ Interviews

Interview with Gordon “Butch” Stewart

Interview with Clinton Bush Haiti Fund CEO Gary Edson

Above: Employees at an atelier in Port-au-Prince (Photo: CBHF) By Alexander Britell Soon after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush, at the behest of President Barack Obama, founded a fund aimed at …

Interview with Chef Eric Ripert on Grand Cayman and Caribbean Cuisine

By Alexander Britell In 2008, world-renowned Chef Eric Ripert spearheaded the opening of the Blue restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman. Ripert, whose Le Bernardin in New York City holds the highest-possible three Michelin stars as one of the world’s …

Isadore Sharp, Founder of Four Seasons, on the Caribbean, Social Media and the Future

Above: Isadore Sharp (Photo: Four Seasons) By Alexander Britell In 1961, Isadore Sharp was a neophyte in the hospitality industry who had just opened his first property in Toronto. Fifty years later, the company he founded and built, Four Seasons, …

Economist Dr Michael Witter on Debt, Globalisation and the Jamaican Economy

By Alexander Britell Dr Michael Witter is an economist and senior lecturer at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at the University of the West Indies Mona. He is also one of the Caribbean’s experts on …

Digicel Group CEO Colm Delves on 4G, a Dynamic Haiti and Caribbean Integration

By Alexander Britell Colm Delves has been Digicel Group CEO since 2005, after joining the company as Group Chief Financial Officer in 2004. Delves has overseen a fourfold increase in the number of markets the company reaches, helping to bring …

Interview with Radio Soleil’s Ricot Dupuy on Martelly, Reconstruction and UN Cholera

By Alexander Britell Three months after new President Michel Martelly took office in Haiti, the country is still without a prime minister, and accordingly, without a government. Haiti’s political situation has drawn the attention of a number of world organizations …

Author Matthew Parker on Sugar and the Rise and Fall of the British West Indies

Above: a sugar mill in the 17th century (Photo: www.matthewparker.co.uk) By Alexander Britell The Caribbean was built largely on the success of its sugar crop — and the story of the success and decline of “white gold,” and the wide-ranging …

Interview with Dr Keith Nurse: What Climate Change Means for Caribbean Tourism

By Alexander Britell The Caribbean is continually looking for ways to emerge from the downturn. And with an economy largely dependent on tourism, a changing world economy – and a changing world climate — pose new problems for the region. …

Talking with the Caribbean’s Rum Minister

By Alexander Britell The “noble spirit” of rum has captivated the Caribbean for centuries, and Edward Hamilton has devoted himself to exploring it. Hamilton, who began the “Ministry of Rum” website in 1995 and is a leading rum importer based …

Norman Girvan on Irwin LaRocque and the Necessity of a Caribbean Parliament

Dr Norman Girvan, Professor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies, is one of the foremost experts on Caribbean political economy. Girvan, who was formerly the Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States, was appointed last year as …

Greentech’s James Whittaker on Green Building in Grand Cayman

By Alexander Britell The first residential home certified as part of the US Green Buildings Council’s International LEED programme is in Grand Cayman, the initiative of Greentech Managing Director James Whittaker, who is spearheading the green building movement in Cayman. …

Interview with Tim Hoffman, Owner of Nevis’ Montpelier Plantation and Beach

By Alexander Britell Tim Hoffman is the owner of the historic Montpelier Plantation and Beach in Nevis. Originally a sugar plantation when Nevis’ crop ruled the Caribbean, the property has hosted everyone from Horatio Nelson to Princess Diana. Hoffman, whose …

Michael Schwartz on Grand Cayman, Caribbean Slow Food and Lionfish

By Alexander Britell In just over three years in Miami, Chef Michael Schwartz has risen to the top of the culinary scene and won the top honor for any American chef, the James Beard Foundation award, last year for his …

Interview with Jamaican Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett

By Alexander Britell As the Caribbean’s integral tourism industry has been hurt by the global financial downturn, countries in the region have been forced to looked to new markets and devise new initiatives to spur both new visitors and new …

Partners in Health’s Joia Mukherjee on Haiti, Cholera and the “Free Man”

By Alexander Britell Since 2000, Dr Joia Mukherjee has been the medical director at global healthcare nonprofit Partners In Health, which is active in 12 countries around the world. Dr Mukherjee, a Harvard professor who also consults for the WHO …

Dennis Rahiim Watson Talks Crime

Above: Dennis Rahiim Watson (Photo: Clyde Jones) By Alexander Britell Bermudian motivational speaker Dennis Rahiim Watson has made it his mission, inspired by his mentor, Bermudian pan-Africanist and ecologist Dr Roosevelt Brown (Pauulu Kamarakafego), to help tackle the global problem …