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These essays by Brian Meeks, a noted public intellectual in the Caribbean, reflect on Caribbean politics, particularly radical politics and ideologies in the postcolonial era. But his essays also explain the peculiarities of the contemporary neo-liberal period while searching for pathways beyond the current plight. In the first chapters, titled \"Theoretical Forays,\" Meeks makes a conscious attempt to engage with contemporary Caribbean political thought at a moment of flux and search for a relevant theoretical language and style to both explicate the Caribbean's recent past and confront the difficult conditions of the early twenty-first century. The next part, \"Caribbean Questions,\" both retrospective and biographical, retraces the author's own engagement with the University of the West Indies (UWI), the short-lived but influential Caribbean Black Power movement, the work of seminal Trinidadian thinker and activist Lloyd Best, Cuba's relationship with Jamaica, and the crisis and collapse of the Grenadian Revolution. As evident in its title, \"Jamaican Journeys,\" the concluding section excerpts and extracts from a longer, more sustained engagement with Jamaican politics and society. Much of Meeks' argument builds around the notion that Jamaica faces a crucial moment, as the author seeks to chart and explain its convoluted political path and dismal economic performance over the past three decades. Meeks remains surprisingly optimistic as he suggests that despite the emptying of sovereignty in the increasingly globalized world, windows to enhanced human development might open through policies of greater democracy and popular inclusion.

This article examines the impact of neo-liberal global hegemony on perspectives of the role of the intellectual in the English-Speaking Caribbean. It focuses on how neo-liberalism has resulted in shifting the notion of the politically engaged public intellectual to that of the market-driven \"politically neutral\" consultant. Specifically, the article interrogates the question of the role of the Caribbean intellectual around three contending perspectives: the \"Platonic\" view (which sees good government as inextricably linked with the political leadership of intellectuals); the \"Marxist\" perspective (which rejects the idea of a neutral intellectual and sees intellectuals as serving specific classes); and finally the \"neutral\" perspective which suggests a depoliticised role for the intellectual. A central assumption of the paper is that neo-liberalism represents more than a mere \"alternative\" approach, but represents a crisis for the Caribbean intellectual, particularly given the acceptance of its assumptions as inherently self-legitimating.

Many of the nations of the Caribbean that have become independent states have maintained as a central, organizing, nationalist principle the importance in the beliefs of the ideals of sovereignty, democracy, and development. Yet in recent years, political instability, the relative size of these nations, and the increasing economic vulnerabilities of the region have generated much popular and policy discussions over the attainability of these goals. The geo-political significance of the region, its growing importance as a major transshipment gateway for illegal drugs coming from Latin America to the United States, issues of national security, vulnerability to corruption, and increases in the level of violence and social disorder have all raised serious questions not only about the notions of sovereignty, democracy, and development but also about the long-term viability of these nations. This volume is intended to make a strategic intervention into the discourse on these important topics, but the importance of its contribution resides in its challenge to conventional wisdom on these matters, and the multidisciplinary approach it employs. Recognized experts in the field identify these concerns in the context of globalization, economic crises, and their impact on the Caribbean.

This chapter focuses on arguments within the left radical party of the Caribbean social science scholarship. These arguments can be divided in three parts: Brian Meek's written initial statement; Caribbean social scientist Hilbourne Watson's response; and Meek's defense delivered at the 2001 C. L. R. James One Hundredth Anniversary Symposium. The theoretical failure of the Caribbean left was their assumption that history was already overdetermined by the course of accumulated events, by the “world balance of forces” and the strength of “really existing socialism.” The chapter aims to examine human agency as neither simply a subset of economic forces nor a minor aspect in a complex “overdetermination,” but as a revolutionizing factor in modern history.

There was something terribly sad about four teams contesting the women's 4x100m relay final with one of them, Scotland, looking as though they had never been introduced to one another. Their baton changing would have disqualified them from a pass-the-parcel game at a five-year-old's party. Shooting didn't miss the non-starters either. From that mystery world of rapid fires, small bores and skeets, 12 new Games records emerged. Kelly, who else, won the Isle of Man's first shooting medal and all the experts reckoned there had never been such a fine competition. Scotland found new heroes in the 19-year-old postie, Richard Corsie, and the 50-year-old Hawick housewife, Senga - \"It's Agnes spelled backwards, I don't know what my mother was thinking of\" - McCrone. Botswana had a ball and they won their first medal, at anything, as did the women's pair from Guernsey.

I remember, on one of my first visits to Tynecastle as a young hack, and with Mercer once more out on the pitch for some palaver of a presentation, a sports journalist of the time muttering: \"It's incredible how the Hearts chairman never fails to transform these occasions into The Wallace Mercer Show . . .\" Mercer, of course, loved the press, and in the main, the newspapermen loved him back. There was almost something out of 1940s Chicago about the way Mercer, local grandee and city big-wig, would court the press, feeding them titbits of info about Hearts, and on some occasions even plying them with a bitter slug of his own Chateau de Tynecastle. Mercer was physically unmissable, charming, and highly likeable. At one point, when in the very prime of his success, he was evidently devouring such fine steaks and splendid wines that he developed a classic bon viveur's portliness. The truth is, it was hard not to take to Mercer. Sixteen years on I can still hear his distinct, morallyaggrieved voice at a shambolic press conference. \"I've won the economic argument but lost the social argument, \" said Mercer after, among other things, a set of twins called Craig and Charlie had slung their banjoes along to Easter Road and had found the crowd there quite happy to break into chants of \"Mercer, Mercer, get tae f***!\"

The Rev. Daniel G. Groody, who teaches at the University of Notre Dame, will deliver a lecture titled \"Promised Land -- Devil's Highway: The Spiritual Journey of Undocumented Migrants.\" The male driver of the Buick was identified as Brian Meek, 32, of Plymouth. Meek was treated and released after suffering pain to his stomach and pelvis. Police at the scene said he suffered possible life-threatening injuries. The female driver of the Toyota was Hope Halasz, 18, of Lakeville. Halasz had neck and back pain and was treated and released.

Among the politicians from the Tory ranks who arrived to pay tribute to a man who famously attracted the ire of Baroness Thatcher for supporting a Scottish assembly were Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former secretary of state for Scotland, David McLetchie, the Scottish Tory leader, and Lord James Douglas-Hamilton MSP. James Gilchrist, a fellow councillor and the best man at the wedding of Mr [Brian Meek] and Frances Horsburgh, a former journalist at The Herald, who delivered a eulogy, said his closest friend had arguably operated at his best in the opposition benches in local government. He added: \"Even after he was diagnosed as having leukaemia, Brian lost none of his enthusiasm for life and his love of sport and politics. He believed that he could contribute to the national recovery of his beloved Conservative party, and politics is greatly the poorer for his passing.\"