VOL. 7, NO. 06 • March 20, 2013 618 Strouds Lane, Pickering, ON L1V 4S9 • Tel: 905.831-4402 • Fax: 416.292.2943 • Email: [email protected]Specializing in: Hair Extension Braiding & Weaving Cut & Colour 416.261.0073 [email protected]3180 Eglinton Ave E, Scarborough (At Markham Rd) www.PassionHairCreations.com PASSION Hair CREATIONS Style done by Passion Hair Creations TORONTO, Canada, Scotiabank has pledged CAN$1 million, through its global philanthropic program, Bright Future, to support the Caribbean-SickKids Paediatric Can- cer and Blood Disorders Project. In a March 14 statement the bank said funds will be used to support the project’s telemedicine programs in Barbados, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas. It said the telemedicine element of the project will allow physicians in the Caribbean to connect directly with leading paediatric cancer and blood disorder experts at SickKids, a foundation that raises funds on behalf of The Hospital for Sick Children and is the largest charitable funder of child health research, learning and care in Canada. Scotiabank said physicians specializing in areas other than cancer and blood diseases can also connect with both Caribbe- an and international colleagues, enhancing their ability to di- agnose and care for Caribbean children. The bank said the goal of this project is to expand access to world-leading medical pro- fessionals, allowing children to get the best care possible in their Scotiabank Pledges $1 Million For Caribbean SickKids Scotiabank Pledges $1 Million For Caribbean SickKids Scotiabank Pledges $1 Million For Caribbean SickKids Jamaica’s Opposition Spokesman on Tourism, Mr. Edmund Bartlett, has raised concerns about the declining tourist arrivals from some of Jamaica’s key markets. In calling for a strategic plan for the recovery of arrivals and earnings lost from the tourism product, Mr. Bartlett noted the decline in arrivals from Canada of 14 percent; United Kingdom of 12 percent and flat growth of 0.3 percent from the United States as troubling, particularly when there has been no pick up in the winter season, Jamaica’s most important period. “It is alarming that over the last quarter we have seen such signifi- cant declines from our key markets and yet we have heard nothing from the Minister of Tourism on what is the strategy to stop this decline. The United States is our main Market. ” Mr. Bartlett said. He expressed his concerns that the hard-fought gains made in the growth of tourism over the last few years are being lost and more money will have to be spent to recover what is clearly a slump. Bartlett comments are in contrast to the optimism recently ex- pressed by CTO Chairman and the US Virgin Islands Commission of Tourism Beverly Nicholson-Doty, in the State of the Industry Report. Nicholson-Doty’s Report had suggested that Caribbean tourism was bouncing back to pre-recession levels, with visitors from Can- ada and the U.S. giving a boost to tourist arrivals. The Caribbean welcomed 25 million tourists last year, a near 5.5 per cent rise over 2011, outpacing the rest of the world, which saw arrivals increase by four per cent. The Region reportedly saw its largest number of stay-over visitors in five years, with overall hotel occupancy increasing by more than seven percent and total room revenues up nearly nine per cent. This, the CTO chairman had said, gives the sector reason to be optimistic. “This optimism is based on the positive signs of growth following earlier down years. We are optimistic because we see arrival numbers rising, particularly out of North America; we see hotel revenues mov- ing in the right direction, albeit with moderate acceleration and we see tourist spend on the increase. o w n country. The Caribbean- SickKids Paediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Project includes a five-year plan to address the region’s gaps in research, care and education in order to advance the diagnosis and management of paediatric cancer and blood disorders. Conflicting Reports On Caribbean Tourism Conflicting Reports On Caribbean Tourism
TORONTO, Canada, Scotiabank has pledged CAN$1 million, through its global philanthropic program, Bright Future, to support the Caribbean-SickKids Paediatric Can-cer and Blood Disorders Project. In a March 14 statement the bank said funds will be used to support the project’s telemedicine programs in Barbados, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and The Bahamas.
It said the telemedicine element of the project will allow physicians in the Caribbean to connect directly with leading paediatric cancer and blood disorder experts at SickKids, a foundation that raises funds on behalf of The Hospital for Sick Children and is the largest charitable funder of child health research, learning and care in Canada.
Scotiabank said physicians specializing in areas other than cancer and blood diseases can also connect with both Caribbe-an and international colleagues, enhancing their ability to di-agnose and care for Caribbean children. The bank said the goal of this project is to expand access to world-leading medical pro-fessionals, allowing children to get the best care possible in their
Jamaica’s Opposition Spokesman on Tourism, Mr. Edmund Bartlett, has raised concerns about the declining tourist arrivals from some of Jamaica’s key markets. In calling for a strategic plan for the recovery of arrivals and earnings lost from the tourism product, Mr. Bartlett noted the decline in arrivals from Canada of 14 percent; United Kingdom of 12 percent and flat growth of 0.3 percent from the United States as troubling, particularly when there has been no pick up in the winter season, Jamaica’s most important period.
“It is alarming that over the last quarter we have seen such signifi-cant declines from our key markets and yet we have heard nothing from the Minister of Tourism on what is the strategy to stop this decline. The United States is our main Market. ” Mr. Bartlett said. He expressed his concerns that the hard-fought gains made in the growth of tourism over the last few years are being lost and more money will have to be spent to recover what is clearly a slump.
Bartlett comments are in contrast to the optimism recently ex-pressed by CTO Chairman and the US Virgin Islands Commission of Tourism Beverly Nicholson-Doty, in the State of the Industry Report.
Nicholson-Doty’s Report had suggested that Caribbean tourism was bouncing back to pre-recession levels, with visitors from Can-ada and the U.S. giving a boost to tourist arrivals. The Caribbean welcomed 25 million tourists last year, a near 5.5 per cent rise over 2011, outpacing the rest of the world, which saw arrivals increase
by four per cent.The Region reportedly saw its largest number of stay-over visitors
in five years, with overall hotel occupancy increasing by more than seven percent and total room revenues up nearly nine per cent. This, the CTO chairman had said, gives the sector reason to be optimistic.
“This optimism is based on the positive signs of growth following earlier down years. We are optimistic because we see arrival numbers rising, particularly out of North America; we see hotel revenues mov-ing in the right direction, albeit with moderate acceleration and we see tourist spend on the increase.
o w n country.
The Caribbean-SickKids Paediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Project includes a five-year plan to address the region’s gaps in research, care and education in order to advance the diagnosis and management of paediatric cancer and blood disorders.
Conflicting Reports On Caribbean TourismConflicting Reports On Caribbean Tourism
Patricia J:
Work is not work for P a t r i c i a
Jaggernauth, widely known as Patricia J. It’s instantly recogniz-able that she loves do-ing what it is that she’s doing. The effervescent, always glow-ing woman seen reporting the weather on CP24 - Toronto’s Breaking News for the GTA is precisely the same person off camera as well.
Born to a Guyanese mother and a Ja-maican father, Jaggernauth knew from an early age that media and broadcast-ing was a mandatory career path to pursue. For well over a decade Jag-gernauth has graced numerous public speaking events, television, social me-dia, and magazines with her no small degree of charm, elegance of style and the genuine passion she has for con-necting and creating positive relation-ships with people.
One of the ways she connects with others is through fashion. Fashion has become the crux of our culture and it is used as a form of communication to either impress or express. Jaggern-auth has an impeccable sense of style and shows all the signs of a confident woman who uses fashion to her ad-vantage. “Fashion is another element of self expression and it’s a way for me to show my savvy modern take on what I’m doing. My whole thing is to stay current, stay modern and to stay Patricia J so I will only wear things that emulate me. I won’t ever wear some-thing because a celebrity is wearing
CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 2 March 20, 2013
Christine
Reid
Patricia J: it or if someone says ‘that’s what’s in.’ “ex-plained the PJ Glam-girl who immensely enjoys experimenting with sundry fashions.
When Jaggernauth came into the world
her mother was 16 years of age and with the help of Humewood House which is an amazing resource for pregnant and parenting women, they assisted in providing a stable environment for them both. “I was a gift to her and she will always be my gift and Humewood House is a place that really shares that platform and allows me to understand that what happened wasn’t a mistake. Life is what you make it; no obstacle is an obstacle and nothing can stop you in this life.” explained the President and CEO of Patricia J Productions. Jag-gernauth’s mother is now employed by Humewood House as a Relief Worker where she has the opportunity to im-part the same dignity and decency to women who are in a similar situation that she once was in.
With the profuse amount of acco-lades attached to Jaggernauth’s name, the leading one would be her current position as CP24’s Weather Specialist. “I think every single opportunity has brought me to CP24 and has brought me to where I am today. It’s been the outlet that I needed to really reach out to the community, especially the West Indian community.” explained Jaggernauth.
Unlike other reporting that requires one to take on a more austere pos-
ture, weather is the one ele-ment where you can make an exhibition of your enthusiasm. “What I love about weather, especially with Bell Media and CP24 is that it is literally the one position where you can be you. What you see is what you get” said Jaggernauth. “90 percent of the time I can be Patricia J and I can have fun with weather.”
Being the highly motivated and goal oriented individual that Jag-gernauth is, her five year plan to become Canada’s sweetheart will move from an aspiration to actual-ity. “I want to continue to be at CP24 and continue making the community proud and be one of the main reasons why you want to watch CP24.” said the com-mercial actor and YAHOO! Web Host. Rather than going abroad like many others who seek to build international names for themselves, Jaggernauth has every intention to remain here in Cana-da and stay on a national level. Jagger-nauth’s commitment towards the West Indian community and representing its interests through the various media platforms she utilizes is unswerving.
Working in the media can be a re-warding career opportunity but there are certainly many hiccups along the way. Jaggernauth is frequently asked by those who wish to embark upon this vocation on how to go about it and overcome the inevitable challeng-es. “If you really want something, do everything in your power that it takes to get there and don’t worry about col-
laborating with the huge companies to start; you have to build a foundation and you have to start somewhere.” ex-plained the host, producer and writer of Hot Wheels Live. “Don’t give up, definitely get your education in it, def-initely connect with mentors, never be afraid to ask questions and don’t be afraid to fail. You have to fail in order to learn the lessons that will take you to the next step towards your success.”
For the past two years Jaggernauth has been working diligently to create a program that is geared towards youths and new immigrants to Canada, par-ticularly those from the Caribbean. This educational television show will be premiering fall 2013 and that’s just one of the many promising projects Jaggernauth is working on.
Patricia J: What You See is What You Get!
CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 3
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Guyanese-born Indira is a Registered Nurse. She is currently pursu-ing an educational goal of Workplace Wellness Program certification, while encompassing her love of jewellery. As the Customer Service
Manager for the Ajax-based Raphael Jewellers, her effervescence will certainly leave you bejewelled
March 20, 2013
The final preparations for the April 7 Charm’s Beauty Works Hair Show are slowly but surely falling into place. Owner and Promoter, Charmaine Barnes has expressed her satisfaction with the progress made to date to at-
tract vendors, performers and spon-sors for the Show, which will take place at the Ajax Convention Cen-tre (550 Beck Crescent).
Charm Beauty Works Hair Show
El Dorado 6 Year Old Deluxe Silver Rum Now At LCBO
There will be much to see and do at the Show. Attendees will be treated to lots of giveaways from participating sponsors, while DJ Killowatt will be on hand to provide musi-cal entertainment. Doors open at 3:00 pm. Showtime will be from 4:00 – 8:30 pm.
Deluxe Silver RumDeluxe Silver Rum
LCBO shelves in the GTA have been graced with El Dorado’s 6 Year Old Deluxe Silver Rum. As a revolu-tionary new rum, El Dorado 6 Year Old Deluxe Silver Rum is the first super-premium white rum on the mar-ket. It was specially created by DDL to raise the stan-dard of white rum, to show that a white rum can be smooth, complex and flavourful. The result is an amaz-ingly smooth white rum that makes superior mixed drinks.
It is a double-filtered 6 Year Old White Rum with a unique flavour and creamy smoothness.
This exceptional luxury aged white rum with a con-temporary image is designed to offer the younger more adventurous spirit drinker a more flavourful alterna-tive to vodka, backed by the heritage and provenance of the El Dorado brand.
It is a blend of selected light to medium bodied aged rums from Demerara Distillers’ 200 year old wooden Coffey still (the last of its kind operating in the world today) and the company’s French continuous Savalle still. Its unique texture and smoothness results from the skillful balancing of flavours, followed by further age-ing and double filtering through natural charcoal. It is the unique charcoal filtering system that takes an am-ber rum and makes it crystal clear.
The end result is a superb rum with a soft, sweet
mouth feel with traces of creaminess and but-ter toffee. Its light to mildly flavoured body and complex soft fin-ish makes it the perfect mixer for the most so-phisticated cocktails.
DDL has once again proven itself to be an innovator and leader in the world of fine rum.
If white rums are your preferred choice, give this one a try and ask for it at your local LCBO.
in t r i g u i n g in d i r a
CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 4 March 20, 2013
Publisher/Editor: Tony McWattEditorial Consultant : Malcolm CliffeContributors: Sandra Ann Baptiste, Beverly Brown, Akua Hinds, Christine Reid, Sir Ronald Sanders,Legal: Oumarally and BaboolalGraphic Design: Susan Zelinski
Fellow citizens of Saint Lucia, fellow Caribbe-an citizens, members of our Canadian fam-ily, I am honoured by this opportunity to ad-
dress you on this special occasion. This event always serves as an opportunity for our community to dis-play its best attributes. It is an occasion to celebrate our common spirit, and engage in a communal nos-talgia trip, back to our beautiful homeland. Not even a harsh Canadian winter can interfere with that. I hope everyone has a wonderful time.
Before the music starts however, I want to engage you in thinking about why we are so happy to cel-ebrate Saint Lucia’s anniversary of independence. What does independence mean to us as Saint Lu-cians? In particular, what does it mean to us resid-ing in Canada? What kind of relationship should we have with our homeland?
I invite you to consider these questions in the con-text of the theme for this year’s celebration, unlock our creativity and transform our world. I urge you, as you consider these questions, to break away from the usual patterns you have used, to think about these issues. Let’s accept the challenge to be cre-ative. I think it will be fun.
No one can doubt our love for Saint Lucia. We are the best sales persons the tourist industry can have. We promote our island to our friends and colleagues as the best vacation spot in the world. We are proud when we receive good news from home, and we hurt when the news is bad. Yet our relationship with our homeland can be complicated.
Sometimes, it’s even a love hate relationship. To-night, I invite you press the rest button. I want you to move forward with only love for Saint Lucia. It will be tough at times but I think we can do it.
In a message on February 22nd to Saint Lucians living abroad, Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony made the following statement. “I know many of you come to Saint Lucia on vacation, or plan to return to live in the future, whether after your professional development, maybe to invest or perhaps later for retirement. We welcome you to play your part, and to continue to love your island home.”
I know the Prime Minister’s sentiment is genuine, but everyone in this room knows of the large num-ber of obstacles, encountered by returning nationals. That’s why I say we need to be bold and creative.
We must not be put off, by people who think we have no say. We must not allow anyone to bully us away from contributing to the development of our island and region. We, who live overseas, have a great deal to offer, and we need to find a way to play a role – even a leadership role. We cannot back down from that responsibility.
Think about it. Think about what we do here in Canada. Many of us are in leadership and respon-sible positions. We are skilled and experienced in many fields. We are bank managers; we are master plumbers and electricians; we are accountants, law-
yers; we are nurses and teachers. We are making real contributions to the development of Canada.
And someone will say we should have no say in the development of the land that gave us birth? I re-ject that view and ask you to do the same.
We are educated and informed people. We follow current events. We are often better informed about the civic issues in Saint Lucia than some who live there. By living overseas, we are often more sensi-tive to where our island fits in the world. We are able to offer a different perspective. I say we must insist on playing our part.
I am not suggesting that we must all return home. That is neither necessary or practical. I’m talking about making our contribution from wherever we reside. There are many ways to contribute. I ask you to be creative as you consider how you can make your contribution.
Saint Lucia, like the rest of the world, is facing fi-nancial difficulties. I believe the present situation of-fers an opportunity for us living in Canada, to take up the Prime Minister’s offer to play our part in mak-ing Saint Lucia, as he puts it, “a great place to live for all.”
It is no longer enough for us to simply pass reso-lutions and send letters to the government of Saint Lucia with policy ideas. It is now time for us to pull our resources and skills, and come up with a plan for us to contribute to the future well-being of our lovely island. It is time for full contact engagement.
I offer one idea for your consideration. I hope you will agree it’s a good and sensible one; one that we should pursue.
I have long held the view that full and sustained economic development for Saint Lucia, can only be achieved, if our island is part of a bigger country. As I was thinking about this issue earlier this week, I recalled a comment made some time ago by India’s first Prime Minister, Lawahar Lal Nehru. I para-phrase: the world can only sustain a certain amount of fragmentation, he said.
It is obvious to me that the kind of fragmentation represented by the Caribbean island countries is un-sustainable. Take the OECS group of countries for example; Antigua, St Kitts/Nevis, Dominica, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Montserrat, Anguilla and the BVI.
The population of these islands is about 636 thou-sand people , yet there are six Prime Ministers and three Chief Ministers. They spend millions of dollars competing with each other for development money and projects. We cannot continue along this road. It is not sustainable. I say it is time for us to be creative and smart to secure our future. One positive step we can take in that direction is for the OECS countries to become one country immediately.
Yes, I can hear the naysayers and doubters. This can never happen, they are saying. Have you for-gotten what happened in 1958-62? I answer in a
couple ways. The 1958 federation was a creation of the British government which perhaps was not fully thought out. We now have the chance to create our own country, to suit our needs.
I can also invoke an old saying, If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.
I say as well, when we invoke history, we should also look at the history of other countries, and other parts of the world. Canada provides a good lesson in this regard. Canada’s origins are rooted in a de-sire of the provinces to protect their economies.
The Charlottetown conference, which produced the country, in which we are so happy to live, start-ed as a meeting of the Atlantic provinces, looking to protect themselves from the neighbouring American states. Premier John A. MacDonald of Ontario and the Premier of Quebec, essentially crashed the meet-ing. They too were concerned about the economic dangers posed by the Americans. The result was the country-Canada.
I think Caribbean states face a similar threat to their survival. Big countries such as Canada and the United States of America are busy forming economic alliances all over the world. Yet the Caribbean coun-tries continue with the fragmentation. The Carib-bean needs to understand this reality, and do some-thing sensible about it.
Caribbean people need to take bold steps to over-come these threats. We need to start thinking out-side the box and take concerted, and creative actions or we will perish. This is where we come in.
We West Indians, who live overseas, must step up to the plate and provide some leadership in this area. Think of the possibilities of the OECS as one coun-try. Most of the infrastructure is already in place. We have one currency – the EC dollar; one court; a common external tariff regime, and more. The main piece missing is the political piece I recommend, we spearhead a process to move this idea forward. We must find ways to persuade our political leaders to agree and take the necessary actions to achieve that goal.
We have a vested interest in the future of Saint Lu-cia. We must use all our skills and resources to se-cure its future. I believe Saint Lucia will have a bet-ter future as part of a country made up of the OECS states. I recommend that we, Saint Lucians who live in Canada, resolve to begin an organized conversa-tion about how we can be at the forefront of making Saint Lucia “a great place to live for all.”
We owe it tour relatives and friends back home, to help ensure that the Caribbean countries do not become failed states. Saint Lucia has done relatively well in the past 34 years. But the future is looking increasingly challenging.
We have the skills to assist. Let’s agree that we will become fully engaged in the process of securing Saint Lucia’s future.
Happy independence Saint Lucia. Thank you.
A Case for Full EngagementAddress by Honourable Justice Gregory Regis,Regional Senior Justice, Ontario Court of Justice at the Saint Lucia Toronto Association’s Celebration of Saint Lucia’s 34th, Anniversary of Independence on March 2, 2013
In his recent, March 2, address to attend-ees at the St Lucia Toronto Association’s Celebration of their country’s 34th An-
niversary of Independence, the Honourable
Justice Gregory Regis, cited “A Case For Full Engagement.”
Finding ourselves in full and complete agree-ment with Justice Regis arguments, we are
pleased to forego our usual Editorial page con-tent in favour of publishing this full version of his speech for the benefit and enjoyment of all our readers.
Publisher’s Note: Worth Sharing!
CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 5March 20, 2013
CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 6 March 20, 2013
Barbados BeatBarbados Beat
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BRIDGETOWN, Expedia Inc, the world’s largest online travel company, is exposing Caribbean small and inde-pendent hotels to the more than 50 mil-lion travellers that visit Expedia group travel sites each month.
And, according to released data from the first nine months of 2012, this part-nership with a larger number of small hotel partners (defined as hotels with 50 rooms or less) has resulted in an in-crease in net transactions from this sec-tor by nearly 30 percent year-on-year for that period.
Small hotels represent about half of those in Expedia’s direct global inven-tory, make up more than half of the Ex-
pedia group’s Caribbean portfolio, and were 74 percent of all Caribbean acqui-sitions in 2012.
Moreover, Expedia exposes ho-tel partners on more than 135 mo-bile booking sites around the world, through its mobile apps, which have been downloaded more than 20 mil-lion times by consumers in more than 220 countries and territories at a rate of 40 downloads per minute.
Hotel partners also benefit from ex-posure resulting from Expedia Inc’s sizeable strategic marketing invest-ment, which totaled $1.5 billion in 2011. These investments reap big re-wards for small hotels.
Expedia Exposure For Small Hotels
BRIDGETOWN, Nearly $1 million in gold has been seized and a repre-sentative of a cash-for-gold business is expected to appear in court shortly following a March 15 police raid. Ac-cording to police, Scott Goodman, a di-rector of Barbados Gold Buyers, locat-ed in the James Fort Building, Hincks Street, Bridgetown, has been warned of intended prosecution under the Pre-cious Metals And Second Hand Metals Act 2013.
He was warned that between Febru-ary 25 and March 15 his company was engaged in the trade of precious metals without a licence. The police executed a search warrant at the business place and removed the gold, along with doc-uments. The 35-year-old Goodman, in his capacity as a director, was subse-quently interviewed and warned.
This is the second time that the po-lice have exercised their powers under the act as they intensify their efforts to enforce the new law.
The first time was also on March 15, when Andre “Pug” Payne, the own-er of the Roebuck Street, Bridgetown store Brooklyn’s Finest, appeared in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court. Payne was not required to plead to the indictable charge that he breached Sec-tion 4 (1) of the new act, and was re-leased on bail of $50 000.
Gold Seized
He will reappear in court on May 16.Under the new legislation, which
was passed on January 28, anyone who operates as a precious metals dealer, or as a second hand metals dealer, with-out a licence is liable, on conviction at the High Court, to a fine of $50 000 or imprisonment up to ten years. If the of-fender is a business or a company, the fine is $50 000.
Police public relations officer Inspec-tor David Welch said that the action was part of the two-pronged attack the force was engaged in to effectively manage the impact the cash-for-gold business was having on the society.
The other was the establishment of a special squad which was making in-roads on the snatch-and-grab robber-ies against locals and tourists, some with violence.
CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 7March 20, 2013
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, The Ca-ribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) is developing a comprehensive strategy for improving the CARIFORUM Region’s export po-tential. This was stated by the agency charged with the task of promoting export-led growth for the Caribbean and facilitating increased exports to re-gional and international markets when it announced the launch of the first Ca-ribbean Export Week, which opened on March 17.
Caribbean Export stated that the week of activities was aimed at raising the level of awareness about Caribbe-an Export, and in particular the work being under-taken as part of the 10th EDF Regional Private Sector Develop-ment Programme.
A key activity in the week will be a March 20 to 21 colloquium in Barba-dos on the status of the regional export platform. Speakers at the colloquium being held at the Hilton Barbados in-clude Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Min-ister for St Vincent and the Grenadines, who will give a keynote address on the first day of the event.
SYDNEY, Australia, Rumours of Barbadian superstar Rihanna’s fabled year-long break from music abruptly bit the dust on March 13 when pro-moters Live Nation confirmed that the “Talk That Talk” girl will be taking her Diamonds World Tour to Australia and New Zealand in September and October.
Gossip-circuit buzz that the 25-year-old entertainer was due to take some lengthy downtime “to unwind” had gained added credibility when Ameri-can Idol host Ryan Seacrest indicated that fans would be seeing less of the “Unapologetic” girl after her final show of the tour on July 28 in Finland. But, as the March 13 news confirmed, the “We Found Love” girl can look forward to a break of less than two months before she’s on the road again, headed for her first gig “down under” in September.
The six-time Grammy Award-win-ning singer will hold five concerts in Australia, starting at the Perth Arena on September 24. She will then play Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney before flying to New Zealand for her show at Auckland’s Vector Are-na on October 6.
“RiRi” kicked off her latest world
Caribbean Export Week Launched
No Break For RiRi
tour March 15 in Buffalo, New York, to an enthusiastic reception from a sold-out audience. She has since had to can-cel two shows because of a bout of flu and laryngitis.
Ahead of her lies a demanding schedule that will see the “Stay” star deliver the goods in about 30 more shows in North America before mov-ing on to the European leg of the tour in late May, which will take the hard-working pop diva to Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Britain and Finland. Less than two months later, she’ll be showing the Aussies and Kiwis that cricket isn’t the only thing the Caribbean has to offer.
“Diamonds” is the singer’s fourth major world tour, following “Good Girl Gone Bad,” “Last Girl On Earth” and “Loud,” the latter of which pre-miered in Barbados.
Organisers said this initiative is pre-mised on the rationale that regional trade integration can serve as a dynam-ic catalyst to economic growth. At the same time, there is acknowledgement of the numerous challenges preventing Caribbean countries from capitalizing on the benefits of.
BRIDGETOWN, The Barbados government says it intends to invest BDS$600 million (One BDS dollar = US$0.50 cents) as part of a new stimu-lus to improve the local economy and create at least 1,000 new jobs. The new financial year starts on April 1.
Sinckler told legislators that work is ready to begin on phase one of the new cruise pier at the Bridgetown Port with full financing by July and providing for another $70 million in civil works over the next 12 months.
The recently re-elected minister
said that work on the Pier Head Ma-rina will begin later this year with fi-nancing now being finalized resulting in BDS$60 million in additional work in the Barbados economy for the first nine months of the project schedule.
Sinckler said that the ministry will
soon sign off on the lease for the work at Bushy Park where the Barbados Mo-toring Federation is involved in laying down a new track. The project which will also start this year will result in an additional $10 million injection to the economy.
$300 Million Boost For Economy
CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 8
EC ReviewEC Review
March 20, 2013
CARPENTERS’ UNION
We support an Integrated
Development for Toronto! Also, send your Councillor a message of
An Integrated development will create 6,000 construction jobs over three years
An integrated development will create 10,000 permanent jobs
An integrated development will bring in millions of new tourists and over $1 billion in annual spending, as well as new tax revenue for the City of Toronto... Which will be used to drive even more infrastructure projects
An integrated development will create many opportunities for related new investments and economic activity driven by a new convention facility and casino
An integrated development will be lasting and enhance and enrich Toronto’s entertainment district
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ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, Eight years after its last debt swap, Grenada is still struggling with its debt repay-ments and it has asked creditors to give it leeway to restructure US$193 million in debt that it says it cannot af-ford to repay.
According to Bloomberg, yields for Grenada’s dollar bonds surged to 17.35 percent on March 8, the highest among 12 Caribbean and Central American nations tracked by JP Morgan Chase & Co’s CACI index. The government was due to make a coupon payment on March 15, which if missed, would be the second after having already missed one in September, leading investors to worry that the nation is heading for a default. The government paid inves-tors before the end of the grace peri-od after the last missed payment, but Bloomberg reports the country’s dol-lar bonds have lost 5.2 percent over the past year.
The 4.5 percent coupon on the bonds was set to climb to 6 percent in Septem-ber and reach 9 percent in 2018 as part of a restructuring agreement reached with creditors in 2005.
Grenada would be the third Carib-bean country to restructure its debt
Grenada To Restructure Debt
this year. Jamaica said on March 1 that about 99% of bondholders agreed to swap JAM $860 billion (US$9.1 billion) of higher interest local debt for lower yielding bonds. Belize is finishing ne-gotiations on its second restructuring in five years, after missing a US$23 mil-lion coupon payment in August 2012.
Grenada had been rated CCC+ by Standard & Poor’s, placing the country of 109,000 in the same category as Ja-maica and Cyprus.
Marla Dukharan, an analyst with RBC Financial Caribbean Ltd in Trini-dad and Tobago is reported to have said that Grenada’s economy faces weak growth this year after suffering a 5.1 percent drop in tourism and an 82 percent reduction in grants in 2012.
“The prospects for growth revival in Grenada are slim in 2013, and given se-vere fiscal and liquidity constraints, the proposed debt restructure announced last week seemed inevitable. It would come as no surprise if this proposed restructure involves a haircut,” Bloom-berg quoted Dukharan as stating.
ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Chris-topher Nelson, has said that the State is considering its legal options after a High Court dismissed manslaughter charges against five police officers ac-cused of causing the death of a Cana-dian visitor in December 2011.
Lawyers for the accused men - Con-stables Kenton Hazzard, Wendell Syl-vester, Edward Gibson, Shaun Ganness and Ruddy Felix – had filed a motion claiming that the DPP acted against the Coroner’s Act which mandates that an inquest must be held for persons who died in a public place, such as a prison.
But Nelson says he believes it’s the first time the act has taken precedence over criminal proceedings.
The officers were accused of beat-ing Oscar Bartholomew, 39, into a fa-tal coma on Boxing Day, 2011 while he was in a cell in the rural village of St. David’s. He later died at the General Hospital. Relatives said he had been arrested after he hugged a plainclothes policewoman whom he had mistaken for a friend and she yelled, “Rape”.
Bartholomew lived in Toronto but was in Grenada to visit family with his wife of 10 years, Dolette Cyr.
A post mortem carried out by the State as well as an independent pathol-ogist hired by the family
Attorney Derrick Sylvester, who rep-resents the family of the dead man, described the ruling as “a short term victory.
CASTRIES, St Lucia, Two Domini-can nationals are due to appear in court after police said they had seized more than 1,400 pounds of marijuana on a pirogue south of the island over the March 16 weekend.
In a March 18 statement, the police did not give the street value for the 1, 487.2 pounds of marijuana seized
or the names of the two Dominican nationals.
It said that members of the Marine Unit had intercepted the blue, orange and black pirogue named “Von Von” on March 16 about 8.2 nautical miles south of Gros Piton in Soufriere. The police said they also seized the pirogue and that “charges are expected.
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CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 9March 20, 2013
KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is calling on Caribbean countries to establish a regional reparations committee, pledg-ing to spend the rest of his life seek-ing compensation from the British for land, genocide against the Garifuna, and slavery. Prime Minister Gonsalves said Cabinet will soon name its repara-tions committee
Gonsalves, who turns 67 in August, noted that the average lifespan of a Vincentian male is 74 years. Gonsalves reaffirmed the position of his gov-ernment as stated at the United Na-tions and other for a that it is making a case and a claim for reparation from the British. He noted that in the 18th Century the British took 90,000 acres of land from the Garifuna, the origi-nal inhabitants of St. Vincent. He noted that at Emancipation the British gave slave owners in the British Caribbean
20 million pounds One British Pound =US$1.38 cents).
Prime Minister Gonsalves said a re-cent study by a British scholar con-cluded that 20 million pounds then is about 16.58 billion pounds now.
Last month, Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Sir Hilary Beck-les, called on Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to begin ef-forts aimed at seeking some form of reparation from Western countries for slavery.
Speaking at the first of a series of lectures to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the 1763 Berbice Slave Revolt, Sir Hilary said an ongoing dis-cussion was needed to address the is-sue and called for an “informed and sensible conversation” on what has been described as the, “Worst Crime against humanity”.
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A leading Guyanese-born academi-cian has been promoted to a top posi-tion at a major university in the United States.
Dr. Leon C. Wilson, formerly the dean of Alabama State University (ASU) College of Liberal Arts and So-cial Sciences, has been promoted to ASU’s interim provost and vice presi-dent for Academic Affairs, according to ASU’s president, Dr. William H. Harris.
Wilson had served as dean of ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sci-ences since 2011. Founded in 1867, ASU is a historically black university located in Montgomery, Ala.
Wilson, who was born in West Coast Berbice, Guyana, told the media that “any career elevation of any sort is
never a singular effort. In making the announcement, Dr.
Harris also praised the work of inter-im associate provost and vice presi-dent for Academic Affairs, Dr. Sharron Herron-Williams, who “has helped to provide administrative leadership and support to the mission of the provost’s office for several months.”
Dr. Wilson received his Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D) in sociology from the Universi-ty of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1986 and 1989, respectively.
He also holds an M.A. in religion and counseling from Andrews Uni-versity, Berrien Springs, Mich., and a Bachelor of Theology from Caribbean Union College (now University of the Southern Caribbean), Trinidad.
Guyanese Appointed
GEORGETOWN, AFC Chairman Nigel Hughes, 49, will require heart bypass surgery and arrangements are being made to fly him to a hospital in the Caribbean. Family sources say the decision was taken following angiog-raphy which showed severe blockage of an artery.
Sources say his condition has been investigated at the CHI and blockage was detected in a key artery. The plan had been to insert a stent into the ar-tery to open it up but sources say that this is no longer under consideration as the blockage of that particular artery may be as much as 75%.
Hughes was admitted to the Carib-bean Heart Institute, around 7:30 am on March 17 having suffered a heart attack the previous evening during a visit on to South Rupununi. Hughes, said to be in his 50s, appeared alert as he was being wheeled out of an ambu-lance to the CHI which is housed in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corpora-tion (GPHC) complex. He was accom-panied in the ambulance by his wife, Cathy Hughes.
Shawna Kimbrell, who was born in Lafayette, Indiana on April 20 to Guya-nese parents, has become the first ever African-American female fighter pilot in the US Air Force’s history. Kimbrell currently holds the rank of Major.
Shawna initially wanted to be an as-tronaut, but decided it would be more fun to fly a fighter jet. She knew she “had what it took” and following grad-uating from the Air Force Academy in 1998, she went on to complete intense pilot training receiving her pilot wings in August, 1999 at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas.
She then completed Fighter Funda-mental training and graduated from F-16 training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. From that point, she liter-
ally soared, with her first operational assignment in Misawa, Japan. Between 2001 and 2003, she was deployed to Turkey and Saudi Arabia for Opera-tion Northern and Southern Watch. Her flights in Northern Watch marked her as the first female pilot to fly com-bat missions for Misawa’s 35th Fight-er Wing, and the first African-Amer-ican woman to employ ordinance in combat.
While serving in the 8th Operations Support Squadron in Korea, she flew with the 80th Fighter Squadron, Juvats. Shawna also served for three years as the A-Flight Commander, 1st Brigade Air Liaison Officer, and as 2nd Brigade Air Liaison Officer in support of Op-eration Iraqi Freedom.
Nigel Hughes Hospitalized After Heart Attack
Guyanese Becomes A USAF Female Fighter Pilot
A team of doctors including a num-ber of other heart specialists were on standby to receive Hughes.
His arrival at the hospital was de-layed for over four hours because the vehicle that was bringing him out of Marudi Mountain developed mechani-cal problems, according to sources.
Eventually, another vehicle collected and took him to Aishalton Hospital where he was stabilized. The Rorai-ma Airways flight departed Aishalton around 5 AM.
Those aboard included a heart spe-cialist, a nurse and two Guyana De-fence Force soldiers.
Hughes had gone to Lethem, Aishal-ton and Marudi to meet with residents, including gold miners who the police and Guyana Geology and Mines Com-mission had two weeks ago sought to evict from a concession granted to the Canadian company, Romanex.
CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 11March 20, 2013
GEORGETOWN, The European Union is providing Euro 8.6 million (One Euro =US$1.30 cents) to boost ag-riculture in the Caribbean.
The funds are being provided un-der the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) Intra-African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Agriculture Policy Programme for the Caribbean between the European Commission and the In-ter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
The agreement was signed by Guy-ana President Donald Ramotar, who has lead responsibility for agriculture within the quasi-Caribbean Commu-nity (CARICOM) cabinet, the Delegate of the European Union (EU) to Guy-ana, Ambassador Robert Kopecky, Co-ordinator of IICA’s Regional Integra-tion for the Caribbean Region, Gregg Rawlins and CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque.
IICA is the principal implementing agency of the Programme on behalf of the Caribbean Forum (CARIFO-RUM), with the Caribbean Agricultur-al Research and Development Institute (CARDI) and the CARICOM Secretari-at as implementing partners.
LaRocque said the implementation
of the programme “comes at a time of significant challenges for the Carib-bean in general, and the 16 states of CARIFORUM in particular. He said the essence of the programme’s inter-ventions is informed by the results of a series of consultations with the key players in the agricultural sector in CARIFORUM including the Carib-bean Farmers Network (CAFAN); the Caribbean Network of Rural Women Producers (CANROP); Caribbean Ag-riculture Business Association (CABA) and the Caribbean Forum for Youth in Agriculture (CAFY).
The four year programme is specifi-cally planned to further strengthen policy regimes and incentive schemes for agricultural smallholders across the region that form the bulk of pro-ducers. It would also improve food security by increasing production and productivity of selected commercially and nutritionally valuable agricultural produce.
A CARICOM Secretariat statement said that in the execution of the pro-gramme, there is a specific bias to women and youth as these groups have been identified as important to the sustainability of the sector.
GEORGETOWN, A Barbados com-pany is pushing ahead with a mega farm in Region Nine which will have rice as its centre piece.
The Government Information Agen-cy last night said that along with the cultivated areas, Santa Fe has almost completed a state-of-the-art rice mill with huge silos which will be used to store the paddy harvested from the large fields. GINA said that the project – operated by the Simpson family of Barbados – will be expanding the cur-rent cultivation by an additional 980 acres by the end of June this year. This will make it a total of 1000 acres of up-land rice being cultivated with the zero tillage technology/method. Thus far 120 acres of rice are under cultivation.
Recently, Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, Minister in the Ministry Alli Baksh and a team from the Ministry visited Region 9 (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) where they interacted with the Blue Wave inves-tors and staff.
GINA said that the project is being managed and supervised by Guyanese
Richard Vasconcellos.The venture is being undertaken
through a combination of local and in-ternational expertise, GINA said. Of the 60 employees on the site, 57 are Guyanese from Region 9 and the re-mainder are Brazilian consultants.
Ramsammy thanked the Simpson Family from Barbados for responding to Guyana’s call for agricultural invest-ment. He noted that the project is in-tended to be extended and will see not only the cultivation of rice, but soya beans, rearing of cattle, sheep, aqua-culture and pigs in the future.
GINA said that the Santa Fe Project which is taking an Integrated Mega Farm approach is expected to utilise the savannahs for soya beans, as well as corn cultivation. This will help the Caribbean reduce its total import of these essential foods from North America and other Regions and al-low for trading and expanded markets within the Region. It is also cultivating cassava, watermelons, passion fruit and other cash crops as well as some other perennials.
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KINGSTON, Opposition Spokes-man on Tourism, Mr. Edmund Bartlett, is raising concerns about the declining tourist arrivals from some of Jamaica’s key markets. He’s calling for a stra-tegic plan for the recovery of arrivals and earnings lost from the tourism product. Mr. Bartlett says the decline in arrivals from Canada of 14 percent; United Kingdom of 12 percent and flat growth of 0.3 percent from the United States is troubling, particularly when there has been no pick up in the winter season, which is Jamaica’s most impor-tant period.
“It is alarming that over the last quarter we have seen such significant declines from our key markets and yet we have heard nothing from the Min-ister of Tourism on what is the strategy to stop this decline. The United States is our main Market. ” Mr. Bartlett says.
He’s concerned that the hard-fought gains made in the growth of tourism over the last few years are being lost and more money will have to be spent to recover what is clearly a slump.
“While I was in office we increased the intake from the Tourism Enhance-ment Fund for the said purpose of in-
creasing the marketing power of the brand. I would like the minister to ex-plain to the nation what strategies are being put in place to combat the de-cline,” Mr. Bartlett recalls.
He says this situation is interesting, especially when there has been cred-ible growth in many other markets in the Caribbean. He notes that, “Cuba is seeing significant growth move to 17 percent for 2012, and Cayman and Guyana also showed double digit growth last year.
Not only that, but violence-plagued Cancun has seen a 13 percent growth. Yet we here in Jamaican are seeing a decline, which is not typical of our tourism market. Clearly there is a lead-ership crisis in tourism.”
The Opposition Spokesman says the tourism dollar is extremely important to the Jamaican Economy and the de-cline in tourism arrivals and earnings is having a negative impact on the sta-bility of the Jamaican Dollar.
Bartlett says he wants a full disclo-sure from the portfolio Minister to al-lay fears within the industry as, based on his information, enough is not be-ing done.
KINGSTON, More than 10,000 ille-gal taxi and bus operators across the island are the targets of a huge drag-net being cast by the police, insurance companies and potentially, the coun-try’s tax authorities acting together over the next few weeks.
The joint operation, to be led by the Police Traffic Department, could see scores of motorists losing their insur-ance coverage and their licences. And, if things go according to plan, they could be forced to pay over hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax arrears, as well as face prosecution and jail time for failing to properly register their vehicles and running them ille-gally as taxis.
Head of the Police Traffic Division Senior Superintendent Radcliffe Lewis said police officials had met with the Insurance Association of Jamaica (IAJ) on March 11 to chart a new course of
action. They came up with a plan, the first phase of which will target motor-ists operating their vehicles without proper PPV licences.
Lewis said the aim was to get the IAJ to block these operators when they at-tempt to renew their insurance poli-cies. The hard-nosed senior policeman said his department had already start-ed to search the database at the traffic headquarters to compile a list of the motorists who would be targeted.
Orville Johnson, executive director of the IAJ, said recently that his organ-isation was ready and waiting to work with the police and were awaiting this list of illegal operators. He said that once the IAJ was provided with evi-dence and the names of persons who were engaged in the illegal activities, the association would not hesitate to block the renewal of insurance policies by the rogue operators.
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NEW YORK, The Jamaican-born mother of a 16-year-old youth, who was shot and killed by police, is ap-pealing for an end to the violent pro-tests in the predominantly Caribbean district of East Flatbush, Brooklyn.
“I don’t condone any riots, any loot-ing, any shooting, anything against any police officers,” said Carol Gray, whose son, Kimani “Kiki” Gray was killed on the night of March 9.
Police claimed that Kimani, whose father is Guyanese, had pointed a gun at two plain clothes officers. Gray de-nied reports that Kimani was a mem-ber of the Bloods street gang, adding, however, that he wasn’t “everybody’s angel.
Police said that nearly 50 people were arrested as fights between law enforcement officials and angry youth
erupted for the third consecutive night over Kimani’s killing.
Police said they had struggled to control an irate crowd that broke away from a planned peaceful vigil after at-tendees learned that Kimani was shot in the back.
Protesters hurled bricks, bottles and garbage at cops in the furious clash on Wednesday night, police said.
Cops said Kimani’s sister, Mahne-feh, were among those arrested along Church Avenue in East Flatbush in the heart of the Caribbean community here.
New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesman Paul Browne said a policeman suffered a cut in the face after hit by a brick and that a window of a police inspector’s car was smashed in the melee.
KINGSTON, An early morning fire at the Wyndham Hotel in the business district of New Kingston on March 14 led to the evacuation of scores of guests staying in the 300 room hotel. There were no reports of injury, how-ever several guests and employees were exposed to the heavy blanket of smoke that covered the ground floor of the building.
Jeff Lesker, General Manager of the Wyndham Kingston told reporters that the fire was “contained to the kitchen area” and all guests had been evacu-ated from the main building.
KINGSTON, The Jamaica govern-ment says it will make available more than US$850 million to financial insti-tutions that participated in the recent-ly concluded National Debt Exchange Programme (NDX), if they encounter temporary financial difficulties. Infor-mation Minister Sandrea Falconer told a March 13 news conference that the money, being provided by the Interna-tional Monetary Fund (IMF), is being made available through the Financial Systems Support Fund.
She said Cabinet had given the go ahead for the Fund to begin operations and that the Portia Simpson-Miller ad-ministration would be pumping an additional US$10,000 into the Fund which support general financial sys-tems stability in light of the National Debt Exchange.
The Financial Systems Support Fund was established in 2010, following the initiation of the first Debt Exchange Programme (JDX), to provide funding to eligible financial institutions regu-lated by the Bank of Jamaica and the Financial Services Commission.
Mother Of Slain Youth Appeals For Protests To End
Aid For Financially Troubled Companies
Guests Evacuated
But Falconer told reporters that the company was not put into operation as there was no call for its resources fol-lowing the JDX. She said the Financial Systems Support Fund will be admin-istered by the Bank of Jamaica.
In February, the Portia Simpson Miller administration announced the introduction of Jamaica’s second debt exchange offer, as a prerequisite to the signing of a deal with the IMF.
The NDX is aimed at reducing the country’s stock by $17 billion (One Ja-maica dollar =US$0.01 cents) by 2020.
Last month, the IMF said it had reached a “staff-level agreement” with Jamaica on the key elements of an eco-nomic programme that can be sup-ported by US$750 million four year ar-rangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
During Wyndham Fire
He said all the guests had been ac-counted for and were relocated to nearby hotels.
An assessment was to be carried out later to determine how the fire will af-fect operations at the hotel.
PORT-OF-SPAIN, On Sunday March 17, President George Max-well Richards spent his last full-day as Head of State by attending a Fare-well Parade by the Trinidad and To-bago Defence Force (TTDF) outside “Knowsley”, Queen’s Park Savannah. The following evening, President- elect Anthony Carmona took over as the na-tion’s fifth President in a swearing-in ceremony at the Hasely Crawford Sta-dium, Port-of-Spain.
The 45-minute affair began with members of the Regiment, Coast Guard, Air Guard and Reserve stand-ing on parade, to await Richards. His presidential car was escorted to the venue by about 14 horsemen of the Police Service Mounted Branch whose steeds trotted as the officers held lanc-es with pennants fluttering gaily in the soft Savannah breeze.
Richards and his wife, Dr Jean Ram-john-Richards, were welcomed by a steady drum-beat, and a fanfare from trumpeters in the Regimental Band.
The National Anthem played. He was invited to inspect the servicemen and women. This formality was accom-panied by the introspective song by the late Garfield “Ras Shorty I” Blackman, “Who God Bless No Man Curse”.
Defence Force chaplain, Rev Canon
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Insufficient sup-port from the political leadership of Trinidad and Tobago has caused the fight against narcotics in this country to be more challenging, the United States Department of State’s 2013 In-ternational Narcotics Control Strategy Report has stated. The report was also critical of several other Caribbean coun-tries, particularly Jamaica and Guyana in their war on drug trafficking.
“The entities and individuals work-ing to combat narcotics in Trinidad and Tobago face considerable challenges and insufficient support from politi-cal leadership,” the report stated in its conclusion for this country’s review.
“Additional reforms are necessary to expedite case prosecution, revise outdated laws, and establish an evi-dence-based criminal justice system as fundamental prerequisites for raising conviction rates and deterring traffick-ers,” it stated.
The US Department of State not-ed that beside the lack of support by the political heads there are also con-
Max Bows Out Twin Islands Failing In War Against Drugs
Major John Rohim, gave the invocation. Under the blue sky and the gold of
the evening sun, Richards was sere-naded with the song “Going Home”, played by saxophonist, Staff Sergeant Bishop, of the Regimental Band.
Then came gift presentations. Ma-jor Mc Clean presented flowers to Ramjohn-Richards. Maharaj presented Richards with a decorative horse and a framed montage of photos of Richards and the TTDF.
As the TTDF members offered a presidential salute, the Regimental Band played a sad song of farewell as its “Sunset Ceremony”.
Richards made a last inspection of the guard of honour, bowing thrice at the grouping of TTDF standards or “colours”.
He went to his car, shook hands with Maharaj, and was driven off west-wards escorted by his initial guard of mounted police officers. A small air-craft from the Air Guard deftly flew over, followed by two noisy helicop-ters. The cohort bearing the TTDF co-lours followed in Richards’ wake, fol-lowed by the Regiment Band, and then the whole TTDF Parade, all as the band played Bunji Garlin’s hit, “Differentol-ogy”, whose lyrics say, “We ready for the road”.
cerns that there is “insufficient inter-agency co-operation and information sharing”.
This country was described as hav-ing “porous borders” with direct transportation routes to Europe, West Africa, Canada and the United States making it an “ideal location for cocaine and marijuana transshipment”.
Law enforcement entities in this country seized 146.3 kilogrammes of cocaine and 2.26 metric tonnes of mari-juana last year and made five major seizures at seaports during the year, the report stated. The US Department of State reported that narcotics pros-ecutions, convictions and extraditions were low in relation to the scale of drug trafficking in this country. The report stated that the Government did not en-courage nor facilitate the production and distribution of drugs. The US De-partment of State, however, called on the government take “concrete steps” to address the country’s narcotics con-trol efforts.
CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 15
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PORT-OF-SPAIN, Legislators voted strictly along party lines on March 16 as the Parliament gave the green light to the coalition People’s Partnership government’s crime fighting strategy allowing soldiers to have powers once the sole preserve of police officers.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bisses-sar insisted that the Defence (Amend-ment) Bill 2013 does not violate the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution de-spite the opposition contention that the legislation “represents the first step in the “institutionalisation of the involve-ment of the military in matters of civil-ian government”.
Legislators voted by a margin of 29-11 to support the measure, with the only person not casting a vote being former prime minister Patrick Man-ning, who has not been to parliament since January last year while he recov-ers from a stroke that has left him part-ly paralysed.
The Persad-Bissessar government said that the new legislation forms part of a string of legal measures it intends to bring to the parliament - including a bill to deny bail to people accused of bloody crimes - as it deals with the up-surge in murders in the oil rich twin is-land republic.
Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar told legislators that the government had received legal advice from former in-dependent legislator Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal and prominent Guya-
Soldiers Given Green Light For Increased Powers
nese born jurist, Sir Fenton Ramsahoye that the legislation to give soldiers po-lice powers is not in violation of the Constitution.
Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar said that the police powers to soldiers stop when they detain anyone or seize something, and at that point would hand the person or the item to the ac-companying police officer or at the nearest police station.
She said soldiers would not inter-rogate, lay charges or go to court to prosecute individuals, neither would they be able to carry out criminal investigations.
But the opposition described the leg-islation as a “half-picked duck” that is unworkable and represents the
“institutionalisation of the involve-ment of the military in matters of civil-ian government.
“If we start this trend, we would start breeding a culture of military in-volvement in the day-to-day affairs of this country. This is not what the coun-try voted for,” said Opposition Chief Whip Marlene McDonald.
PORT-OF-SPAIN, A 16-year-old secondary school student was stabbed to death during an argument over a Blackberry cellular phone, his relatives said.
Relatives told local reporters that Lester Richards, a Form 3 student at the Gasparillo Composite School, south of here, was on his way to buy bread on March 17 when he was accosted by a man, who the day earlier had stolen his
phone.Reports said that the man stopped
the vehicle in which Richards was a passenger and cut the teenager on his neck with a knife. The two got into an argument and Richards was stabbed once to his chest. Couva police said the unidentified man remains at large.
Richards’ killing brings to 92, the number of people murdered here so far this year.
16 Year Old Killed Over Cell Phone Row
PORT-OF-SPAIN, National Security Minister Jack Warner says the Emper-or Valley Zoo in Port-of-Spain did the right thing when its management team decided to deny entry to men inappro-priately dressed in sagging trousers that expose their jockey shorts or other choice of underwear.
“The zoo has my full support,” War-ner declared. “In fact, any institution, public or private, which chooses to in-stitute a similar ban would also have my support because many times the guys who wear their pants that way are involved in deviant behaviour.”
Warner’s views came after News-day’s front page story in its March 18 edition headlined “Zoo bans ‘saggy’ pants”, in which President of the Zo-ological Society of Trinidad and To-bago, Gupte Lutchmedial, explained
the ban was implemented after the zoo received numerous complaints from senior citizens and families about their discomfort in the presence of young men who sported low-slung pants that exposed their underwear.
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Let’s say you own a retail business and
someone comes into your store one day and steals something and flees. Assume fur-ther that the thief has the nerve to return a short while later and attempts to steal from you again. If you were to chase him down , catch him, tie him up and call the police, you would be deserving of some sort of medal or award, right? After all you captured a thief and ensured he would be dealt with by the law. Unfortu-nately such was not the case for David Chen, the owner of the Lucky Moose Food Mart on Dundas Street in Toron-to. You may recall this case as it was reported by all the news media.
In May 2009, Mr. Chen apprehend-ed Anthony Bennett for stealing from his store. Bennett pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. The facts are interesting because Bennett stole from the store and re-turned the same day. He was chased and caught by Mr. Chen and two of his employees. Mr. Chen tied up Ben-nett and placed him in a delivery van and called the police. The Toronto Police arrived and took Bennett into custody. Mr Chen did not receive any medals or commendations. Instead he was charged under the Criminal Code with forcible confinement and assault. According to the law at the time, May 2009, a property owner could only make a citizen arrest if the criminal was caught in the act. In Mr. Chen’s case the authorities felt the arrest was improper for the following reasons:1. Bennett had committed the theft
sometime before and later re-turned to the store.
2. Mr. Chen and his employees chased Mr. Bennett and then apprehended him.
The crux of the Chen case was es-sentially that Ben-nett was not caught
red handed. The charges against Mr. Chen seem to fly in the face of common sense. After all one would assume that one has a right to protect yourself and your property. On the other hand the Toronto Police, by laying the charges against Chen, may have been trying to send a message to individuals to dis-courage chasing and apprehending criminals by civilians. Mr. Chen was tried and found not guilty in October 2010.
Perhaps one of the most positive outcomes of the Chen case is that our legislature was compelled to take a closer look at the laws with respect to Citizen’s Arrest. The final outcome is Bill C-26 the Citizen Arrest and Self-Defence Act. This new Act surfaced on March 11, 2013. According to this new legislation an individual is allowed to make a citizen’s arrest within a “rea-sonable time” after witnessing a crime. Of course what exactly is a “reasonable time” is something that might have to be determined according to the cir-cumstances in each individual case. In my opinion this new legislation is wel-comed, especially if it would prevent people like Mr. Chen who defend their property by taking action without be-ing subjected to criminal charges.
The foregoing is intended for information purposes only and you should consult a lawyer if you need
legal representation or a legal opinion.Selwyn R. Baboolal is a partner at Oumarally Ba-
boolal practicing in the area of litigation for the past 18 years.
Home Affairs
Selwyn R.
Baboolal
Bianca
Aziz
CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 16 March 20, 2013
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Your home is your most im-portant investment and you will want to do everything
you can to make it the best. Consider this your home oil change to do every 6 months to 1 year. Similar to a physi-cal, take a look at the checklist below and the more of these steps you can check off, the better your mortgage health will be. Accelerate your mortgage payments - For many of us, mortgage payments represent our largest monthly ex-pense and making your payments more frequently (bi-weekly as op-posed to monthly) can reduce interest costs over the long term.Choose a shorter amortization period - Another way to reduce the total interest you pay is to reduce your amortization (the length of time it takes to pay off the mortgage). Selecting a shorter amortization (20 years instead of 30, for example) will mean higher monthly payments but could save you thousands in interest costs over the life of the mortgage.Take advantage of mortgage pre-payments - Many mortgages offer prepayment privileges, allowing you to pay up to 15% of the original value of the mortgage each year. This money goes directly to reducing the principal, which can also lead to large savings over the life of the mortgage.Make a lump-sum payment when you renew - This can lead to greater savings on interest charges over the life of your mortgage.You may be thinking of refinancing
or be up for renewal. First, you may want to consider what your short-term plans are? If your mortgage is coming up for re-newal and you are thinking of moving shortly afterwards, an open mortgage can give you the flexibility you need. An open mortgage may also be a good idea if you will be coming into a lump sum that can be used to pay down your mortgage (ex. Sale of assets, in-heritance, bonus).Consider a blended-rate renewal - If your existing mortgage rate is high-er than current rates, you could save money with a blended rate. A blend-ed renewal or “blend and extend” extends your mortgage beyond your existing term at a rate that averages what you are paying now with cur-rent mortgage interest rates.Factor in potential costs when refinancing - If your mortgage is closed (that is, you cannot pay it ahead of schedule), you may face a penalty when you renegotiate. However, it may still be worthwhile to refinance. The key is to determine whether the savings in interest costs outweigh the penalty. That’s why it’s important to think of the longer-term benefits in the form of total interest savings.
*The information in this article is not intended as specific investment, financial, accounting, legal or
tax advice for any individual.
Citizen’s Arrest Law
Your Mortgage Health Check
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CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 17March 20, 2013
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‘You jerk,’ yells the husband, ‘my wife’s having a heart attack and you’re running around with no clothes on scaring the kids!’
A Sunday school teacher of pre-schoolers asked the students to learned one fact about Jesus by the following Sunday. The following week she asked each child in turn what he or she had learned.
Susie said, “He was born in a manger.”
Bobby said, “He threw the money changers out of the temple.”
Little Johnny said, “He has a red
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Curious, the teacher asked, “And where did you learn that, Johnny?”
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‘Jesus Christ! Why don’t you learn how to drive?’”
A man approached a very beau-tiful woman in a large supermar-ket and asked, “You know, I’ve lost my wife here in the supermarket. Can you talk to me for a couple of
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The winners of the 2013 Laureus World Sports Awards were unveiled at a globally televised March 11 Awards Ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Bolt was acclaimed Laureus World Sportsman of the Year after his re-markable performance at the Olympics when he repeated his success in Beijing by winning gold medals in all three sprint events in London – 100 metres, 200 metres and 4 x 100 metres relay.
Bolt was not there in person to re-ceive the award at Rio’s Theatro Mu-nicipal but appeared via a hologram. British heptathlete Jessica Ennis won
Bolt Named Laureus Sportsman Of The Year
the female equivalent for which Bolt’s countrywoman, double Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was nominated.
Minister of Sport Anil Roberts is con-fident that Trinidad and Tobago will be successful in their bid to host the US Olympic swim team ahead of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games at the under construction George Bovell Na-tional Aquatic Centre.
The Minister was among the officials touring the facility, currently under construction in Couva, on March 14. The site was one of several stops by of-ficials of USA Swimming.
The team comprised Candi MacCo-naugha, national team director Frank Busch, national team managing direc-tor and Lindsay Mintenko, who visited Trinidad and Tobago to gauge its suit-ability to host the US Olympic swim team ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Roberts feels T&T is capable of meet-ing all the team’s requirements, and was happy with the US officials’ “posi-tive” responses.
He also said apart from the econom-ic benefits to be gained by having an 80-strong US squad coming to T&T for one week, the fact that the number one swimming team in the world would choose this country as its location for its final training camp before the pres-tigious games would be an endorse-ment of the George Bovell Aquatic
Roberts Confident Of Trinidad Hosting US Swim Team
Trinidad and Tobago FIFA refer-ees Joel Davidson and Rodphin Har-ris, along with assistant referee Caleb Wales have earned appointments for the 2013 Dr Pepper Dallas Cup which takes place in Dallas, Texas from March 24-31. The Dallas Cup has been around for the past three decades and is one of the most celebrated youth tournaments, even attracting top clubs out of giant footballing nations like Spain, Brazil, England, Germany and Argentina.
T&T have been represented at the Dallas Cup in the past by clubs such as Alcons, St Ann’s Rangers and SKHY FC who participated in the invitational tournament which attracts the youth
teams of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Arsenal and oth-ers. Over 180 teams from 13 countries, forming various age groups, will par-ticipate in the 2013 edition and for the first time, FIFA is co-sponsoring the referee events surrounding the tourna-ment which is earmarked for talented young referees and assistant referees.
Dion Neil, a FIFA assistant referee for the past six years, said the Dallas Cup represented a big opportunity for the trio of T&T officials.
Trini Referees For Dallas Cup
Centre and by extension this country as a preferred venue for elite sport and training activities.
The Aquatic Centre is to be complet-ed by September 2014 and will boast of state-of-the-art training and competi-tion spaces for swimming, diving, wa-ter polo and synchronized swimming.
The Centre is expected to achieve several objectives in the development of high performance sport including provision of top class training facili-ties for local and regional athletes, as well as the creation of a sport-related income generator through hosting of competitions and the spin-off of do-mestic, regional and international sport tourism.
T&T, as the only English-speaking territory being considered for this ven-ture, expects to learn by the end of March whether USA Swimming will take up the offer to make this country their base camp before they head off to Rio.
CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 19March 20, 2013
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has announced his participa-tion in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), becoming the first internation-al player to be involved in the newly formed T20 league.
The CPL is scheduled to begin July 29, and will run till August 26. It will in-volve six franchise countries: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamai-ca, St. Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago. So far there are six confirmed West In-dian players for the tournament: Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samu-els, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine, and West Indies captain Darren Sammy. As of now, no decision has been made as to which franchise Ponting will be as-sociated with. This is now Ponting’s fourth international T20 team, as he is already a part of the Mumbai Indians in the IPL, Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, and Surrey in Eng-lish county cricket.
The CPL will contract a total of 90 players, with each franchise team se-lecting 15 players. Just like the IPL, there are quotas regarding players playing under a certain age, and how many international players a team can field at one time. Each team can field a maximum of four international play-ers, and must have at least four play-ers under the age of 23, with the rest of the squad comprising of local regional players.
“The West Indies has always been one of my favourite cricket destina-
Rev Sir Wesley Hall and Charles Griffith formed one of the famed le-thal, opening bowling partnership for the West Indies in the 60s and on March 14 the Cricket Legends of Bar-bados honoured these two great fast bowlers at a Museum exhibition. The museum exhibition is aptly titled ‘Pace Like Fire’.
The Hon. Richard Sealy, M.P., Min-ister of Tourism and International Transport, official opened the exhibi-tion which featured photos, some his-tory on the two players, and a record-ing of a commentator on a game which would be played in a corner through a preserved radio fusion speaker. There was also clothes each player would have worn at different stages of their career among other things.
The fast bowlers of the West Indies have been said to hunt in packs and this was the case with Sir Wes and Griffith and the legendary fast bowlers
have been remembered for their love of the game and not only for their role on the field, but off as well.
Griffith, who started as wicket-keep-er before moving to spin and, in his late teenage years, fast bowling, sent down a delivery which rose quickly and awkwardly and cracked Indian batsman Nari Contractor’s skull, pre-maturely ending Contractor’s interna-tional career. Griffith feared for his toe-crunching yorkers as well, went on the coach Barbados among other things.
Sir Wes is said to have had one of the longest run up in the history of the game and bowled one of the long spells unchanged as well, which he re-minded the large audience gathered during one of his memorable speeches filled with highfalutin words which always brings a smile to the captivat-ed audience. The two legends gave a snapshot of their careers before head-ing off to open the exhibition.
Ponting Signs AS CPL’s First International Player
Hall and Griffith Honoured
tions,” Ponting said. “The mix of enter-tainment and cricket is the perfect reci-pe for West Indian cricket fans, as well as the rest of the world. The format and concept is fantastic, and I am sure it will be a huge success right from the start.”
Windies, Zimbabwe Get ICC Funding
The WICB and Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) have been given a financial boost by signing an agreement with the ICC under the Targeted Assistance and Per-formance Programme (TAPP), which is aimed at developing more competi-tive teams in international cricket. Un-der this programme, the WICB will be awarded US$3 million and Zimbabwe Cricket US$1.5 million over the next three years.
The funding will aim to provide enhanced support to the current elite West Indian players and future gen-erations. For Zimbabwe, on the other hand, the amount would be used to support an expansive schedule of their ‘A’ team and identify and support fu-ture international players. Wilfred Mu-kondiwa, the ZC managing director, said the funding would help them be-
come more competitive at internation-al level.
David Richardson, ICC chief execu-tive, said he was eager to see the im-pact of the funding on the two teams. “It is very important to the long-term prosperity of international cricket that we have competitive teams at the high-est level and both the West Indies and Zimbabwe have been very clear in identifying the factors that will sup-port improved performance,” Richard-son said. “The TAPP agreements pro-vide an opportunity for both Members to increase their investment in high performance and we look forward to witnessing the impact of these pro-grammes.” The agreements with the two boards were similar to the ones signed by the ICC with Ireland, Neth-erlands and Scotland.
