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The previous three volumes in the series on Caribbean geography explored how geographical and cognate research was being applied to address key environmental problems in the Caribbean. The present volume makes a further significant contribution to the literature. It highlights how current research is addressing rapid change in the Caribbean region, both that being forced by global warming and by population growth. The chapters are presented as a series of original, empirical research contributions, which have the common theme of the search for development strategies that focus on the social and economic needs of the people without further deterioration of the region's fragile environmental resource base. The articles have been selected to emphasize the importance of a multidisciplinary focus in this applied research field. Among the subject areas covered are climate change, sustainable food production systems, urban planning and community development, and coastal management. The authors conclude the volume by developing the critical research agenda on these and other issues.

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Landslides and flooding in the Caribbean are destructive, endemic forces that destroy homes, businesses and schools, cost millions of dollars annually and kill hundreds of men, women and children. This book promotes a holistic approach for managing geohazards in the region. It emphasizes a preventive, proactive approach rather than a reactive one. It demonstrates and evaluates the use of current approaches and technologies such as geographical information science, remote sensing and geographical positioning systems for managing geohazards. The book is structured in three parts: the first focuses on landslides; the second on floods; and the third on managing geohazards in small island nations including the development of early warning systems.The book is useful for both undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in geohazards and geohazards management, geographical information science, remote sensing, engineering, geography, geology, hydrology, environmental sciences and management. Decision makers in government, industry and commerce will find in this compact overview of flooding and landslides in the region, the best approaches and technologies for managing them.

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Caribbean firms cope with international competition both in their small domestic economies and as they extend their operations outside their home countries. This volume explores their struggles and successes in fifteen case studies developed from interviews with Caribbean firms at key decision points in their internationalizing processes. The cases ask the reader to offer direction; to evaluate choices made or to opine on paths not taken. The cases feature over thirty countries in the Americas, Europe and the Caribbean. These appear as markets, domiciles or hosts of subsidiaries of the internationalizing Caribbean firm. For example, one of the Barbadian cases describes a food caterer operating in ten countries in South, Central and North America.

The cases cover multiple industries including cement manufacturing, supermarkets, shipping, remittances, banking, tourism, rum production, shrimp harvesting, food manufacturing and airline catering, and reflect the conversations with practising managers, who raised such questions as, How does one define the Caribbean manager? How do we exploit our diaspora markets? How can small firms scale up? Where should we locate headquarters? What should be the role of regional governments? How do we pick allies and manage alliances?

The managerial challenges described are diverse: decision-makers from GraceKennedy, Goddards Enterprises or Trinidad Cement Group share practical experiences including decisions on marketing (e.g., pricing and retail locations); financing and accounting (e.g., alternative financing options); international strategy (e.g., alliances and take-overs); corporate governance; operations and personnel. All fifteen cases add to understanding emerging market multinationals, particularly those domiciled in small island developing states characterized by tiny internal markets, limited international influence and environmental fragility. They add insight to work on Caribbean entrepreneurship, business and economics and to studies of international business in developing countries.

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This cross-sectional study used a purposive sample of 379 high school students from fifteen urban and rural high schools in Guyana and assessed their HIV and AIDS knowledge and stigma-related attitudes, and the relationships among gender, age, religion, and race/ethnicity and HIV and AIDS knowledge. Most of the high school students displayed an overall moderate level of HIV and AIDS knowledge. The students understood the modes of HIV transmission; they recognized the symptoms of HIV and AIDS; nearly half of them believed that a blood donor was at risk of contracting HIV; and about one-fifth of the students embraced myths and misconceptions surrounding HIV and AIDS.

There was no statistically significant difference in the knowledge scores of male and female students. Knowledge scores, nevertheless, differed significantly between the 13 to 15 and 16 to 18 age groups, and among the religious and ethnic groups. Stigma-related attitude scores did not differ significantly for gender and age, but differed significantly for religion and ethnicity among students. The study showed fissures in HIV/AIDS knowledge and substantial stigma-related attitudes. Limited understanding of the myths and misconceptions of HIV and AIDS demands a new focus on how HIV is not transmitted through moving beyond conventional strategies toward a social constructivist approach.

This book is essential reading for medical professionals, policymakers and educators throughout the Caribbean region.

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Canute S. Thompson examines the nexus between the place and scope of the educational enterprise of a country and a country's developmental prospects and experience. His central claim is that the sustainable development of a country is a function of the quality of its education system and the levels to which its citizens are educated. He argues that in this calculus, the quality of post-secondary and tertiary education systems is a determinant of a country's prospects for development.

In examining the issue of underdevelopment facing the Caribbean, Thompson explains that institutions of higher learning in the region face the imperative of finding ways of becoming both more accessible and more relevant to the developmental needs of the region. Taking account of the provisions of the General Agreement on Trades in Services, he points to the disadvantages this trading arrangement poses for higher education institutions in small developing states and suggests ways in which the vulnerabilities these institutions face may be addressed.

While asserting that higher education institutions, including and especially the University of the West Indies, must find ways to remain viable in a highly competitive marketplace, Thompson argues that governments of the region have a duty to ensure the survival and success of these institutions. In this vein, he advances recommendations for the public funding of access to higher education.

Thompson also examines impediments to development  such as crime, the decline in social activism, weak institutional processes and leadership, and public mistrust  and explores their connection to education. He concludes that the path to sustainable regional development is dependent on improving the quality of, and access to, education, and that such improvements will in turn help contain crime, inspire social activism, strengthen institutional processes and leadership, and ultimately restore public trust.

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The contributors to Caribbean Realities and Endogenous Sustainability discuss alternative theoretical perspectives, sustainable growth-inducing economic policies, and special challenges in this era of neoliberal globalization. These perspectives, policies and challenges have to be seriously considered if appropriate interventions towards changing the Caribbean status quo and eliminating social and political ills are to be pursued. The authors evaluate past efforts and policies, criticize failed perspectives, and offer alternative strategies, policies and realistic options to the regions current socio-economic impasse and misery from a distinctly Caribbean viewpoint. The chapters are informed by such important factors as historical legacy, the role of institutions (including market and government), geopolitics and international relations, security, local culture and social psychology, which clearly stand in contrast to the starry-eyed analysis of the current orthodoxy. Overall, the essays not only expand the body of knowledge but, more importantly, provide a rich menu for alternative strategies and policies related to Caribbean international relations and social and governance ills in the twenty-first century.

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Regional integration has emerged as perhaps the most controversial issue within the Caribbean. While some progress in implementing economic reforms, both at the national and regional level are observable, the efforts made by Caribbean policymakers to strengthen regional cooperation and integration have not yielded the envisioned level of economic transformation.

Caribbean Trade and Integration distinguishes itself by combining history with sound economic and policy analysis. Moreover, this book reviews a survey of several key historical studies that have identified the urgent need for a change in policy action among Caribbean Community member states over time and that have outlined many pointed policy suggestions to effect the same. The book culminates by addressing the need to unpause the Caribbean Single = Market and Economy and proposes a number of initiatives to generate this outcome.

While this book is written to appeal to an academic audience, it also provides essential reading for policy practitioners, stakeholder groups, the CARICOM Secretariat and those interested in the dynamics of Caribbean regional integration.