Photo Of The Year

 Photo credit: The Indepedent

The year 2008 ends with a cholera edpidemic in Zimbabwe yet to be brought under control. Infecting nearly 24,000 people and causing some 3000 deaths  so far, the disease has spread across the southern African country. Locked in a bitter power struggle with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe’s country faces a broken sewerage system contaminating known and newly dug wells.

The above photo shows a man pushing his relative in a wheelbarrow to a Cholera Polyclinic, where victims of cholera are being treated in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Cholera is caused by contaminated food or water and can lead quickly to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not promptly given.

Vegetable Oil Fueled Plane Completes Flight

Dried jatropha seeds

Photo credit: The News Pointer

A passenger plane has successfully completed a two-hour test flight partly powered by vegetable oil.

Air New Zealand hailed the flight as a “milestone” in the development of sustainable fuels that could lower aeroplane emissions and cut costs.

One engine of the Boeing 747-400 was fueled by a 50-50 mixture of jatropha plant oil and standard A1 jet fuel.

A Virgin Atlantic test flight in February used fuel derived from a blend of Brazilian babassu nuts and coconuts.

In Auckland on Tuesday, a range of tests were completed both on the ground and during the flight, said Air New Zealand Chief Pilot David Morgan.

He said the oil from the plum-sized jatropha fruit performed “well through both the fuel system and engine”.

Fewer emissions

Air New Zealand said it was the first time a second-generation biofuel had been used to partly power a passenger plane.

Air New Zealand Chief Executive Rob Fyfe said the completion of Tuesday’s flight was “a milestone for the airline and commercial aviation”.

Second-generation biofuels are said typically to use a wider range of plants and release fewer emissions than traditional biofuels such as ethanol.

The International Air Transport Association says it wants a 10th of aviation fuel to come from biofuels by 2017.

Critics of biofuels are opposed to turning farmland over to the cultivation of energy crops at the expense of growing food.

Source: BBC News

Mugabe ‘A Mad Dictator’

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is “a mad dictator” who has lost all sense of reality, a United Nations human rights expert said on Monday [22/12/08].

The only way Mugabe can be removed from power is for Europe to convince his “great protector South Africa” to withdraw all support for him, Jean Ziegler, an adviser to the UN’s Human Rights Council, told Swiss Radio. Mugabe, Ziegler declared, “is a former hero of the liberation struggle who has lost all sense of reality…. and become a mad dictator.” He added: “The horror in Zimbabwe today is absolutely intolerable.”

The comments from the Swiss sociologist, who has little sympathy for the Western countries most critical of Mugabe, reflected the despair over Zimbabwe on the rights council.Four other UN rights experts said Zimbabwe could not control a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 1 100 people.

The four – who report to the Human Rights Council on food, health, drinking water and the situation of rights defenders – said Mugabe’s “violations of civil and political rights” made it difficult to get a united response to the crisis.

But the comments from Ziegler, long associated with left-wing causes and development issues and who has good contacts among African leaders and diplomats, were seen as a sign of the wider gloom over Zimbabwe. While most African governments have been pressing for the formation of a unity government between Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Ziegler said power should go to the MDC.

“After all, they won the elections,” he said, referring to a presidential vote earlier in 2008. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round but then pulled out of the run-off after a wave of violence against his supporters.

Ziegler, whose new book “The Hatred of the West” on attitudes in the developing world, has become a best-seller in France and other French-speaking countries, said UN military action to remove Mugabe was prevente by Russia and China. These two, he argued, would veto any move in the Security Council to despatch UN forces to protect the Zimbabwean people, unless such action was supported by the African Union and above all by South Africa.

South Africa had strong historic links with Mugabe, who provided support during the struggle against apartheid, but was “a deeply civilised country” that would be open to real dialogue with the European Union on the issue, Ziegler said.

“Europe should call on South Africa to abandon its support for this mad dictator so as to open the way to a government of the opposition, which won the elections,” he declared.

In other related news

Businessmen who have been accused by the US Treasury of financially supporting Robert Mugabe were operating freely in Britain, the London Times reported on Monday [22/12/08].

This was in spite of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s declaration that “enough is enough” in Zimbabwe, the newspaper said. Of 21 companies put on a US blacklist by President George W Bush last month, 14 are based in Britain, two in the Isle of Man, one in Jersey and one in the British Virgin Islands.

The other three are based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Florida and Zimbabwe itself, the Times said. Top of the list of alleged Mugabe pals now under sanction by the US Treasury is the British-based businessman John Bredenkamp.
“Mr Mugabe and his henchmen use a number of ploys to stay in power and live in luxury as their countrymen suffer.

“In this they are said to receive the help of white businessmen, several with British passports, and a number of London-based companies,” the Times said.

It added that Britain had failed to take action against individuals and companies while calling for Mugabe to go.

“By contrast, the US Treasury last month named four financier ‘cronies’ – Mr Bredenkamp, Muller Conrad “Billy” Rautenbach, Nalinee Joy Taveesin and Mahmood Awang Kechik – of Mr Mugabe and put them on a blacklist, freezing their US assets and banning American citizens from doing business with them.”

According to the Times, Bredenkamp has been granted indefinite leave to remain in Britain, and operated some of his businesses from an office in Berkshire

Source: Independent Online SA

Madoff Fraud Scheme Snared Regional Interests

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: Reuters

“There is bound  to be  a Caribbean link to the Madoff affair.”

That prediction by a Wall Street analyst a few days after the US$50 billion fraudulent Ponzi scheme masterminded by Bernard Madoff made headlines around the world has become a fact of life.

So far, two Caribbean countries, the Caymans and US Virgin Islands, are known to have suffered losses as a result of Madoff’s scheme which has hurt banks, families, educational institutions, investment funds and individuals around the world.

The largest known loser in the Caribbean is M-Invest Limited, an offshore company in the Cayman Islands that has been hit for hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe as much as US$700 million belonging to private investors who had originally placed their money in an elite private Swiss Bank, Union Bancaire Privée.

UBP, a 39-year-old financial institution founded by Edgar de Picciotto, has more than US$125 billion in assets. On its list of clients are some of the world’s wealthiest people and institutions scattered across Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and elsewhere.

Shortly after the turn of the 21st century, UBP decided to set up an arm called M-Invest Limited and registered it in the Cayman Islands. The main purpose, according to people in Paris, Geneva, New York and London, was to channel hundreds of millions of dollars into various investment houses on Wall Street and in Europe. In the process it would earn hefty returns while keeping the transactions secret, away from the prying and covetous eyes of the United States Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in London, and their counterparts in Paris.

Privileged access

M-Invest, regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, was used by UBP to do two things. First, it enabled the private Swiss bank to put at least US$500 million and as much as US$700 million into Madoff’s company in New York. Secondly, the Caribbean entity gave UBP a cozy financial arrangement with Madoff, so much so that M-Invest and UBP were able to get access to financial assessments and other insights into Madoff’s business that others were routinely denied.

The trouble is that M-Invest and UBP must now explain to their clients how come they didn’t spot the fraud long ago and why they seemingly gave Madoff a clean bill of financial health before the debacle despite the misgivings about the way the Jewish investment management was operating and why he was able to provide his clients with hefty returns at a time when others were losing money.

The British territory in the Caribbean is one of the world’s leading banking centres. Like Geneva, Zurich, Vermont, Ireland and Luxembourg, Cayman Islands allows wealthy corporations and families to park their money out of reach of the tax collectors of industrialised nations.

Now both M-Invest and UBP are trying to find out what happened to their funds.

But they aren’t the only ones in the Caribbean crying foul.

Endowment funds lost

The Roman Catholic Diocese of St Thomas may have to turn away students whose parents can’t afford to pay school fees because the church’s two private elementary schools in St Croix have lost nearly US$2 million it had invested with Madoff. The money was in endowment funds set aside to help finance the education of poor students.

“The schools continue to function,” said Monsignor Jerome Feudjio of the Roman Catholic Church. “However, people who knock on the door looking for financial aid, they may have to look elsewhere,”

According to a published report from Charlotte Amalie, the St Mary’s Elementary School lost US$800 000 while St Patrick’s lost almost US$500 000. US Virgin Islands Roman Catholic Bishop Herbert Bevard said an additional US$800 000 in “rainy day funds” went down the drain, washed away in the massive fraud scheme engineered by Madoff.

The losses suffered by the diocese are expected to affect priests as well. The Madoff fraud depleted some insurance and pension funds meant to provide for priests in their old age.

“Even though our priests are young, it means that in 20 years we will have to start finding way to help them,” said Monsignor Feudjio. But while disappointed, Bishop Bevard is being practical about the loss.

“We’re all taking a very philosophical approach to this,” Bevard said. “The reaction from parishioners has been very supportive. But, of course, everyone is very disappointed with Mr Madoff and the fraud.”

Although the Bahamas, Barbados, and Antigua for instance, are not in the Cayman Islands’ league as far as offshore banking is concerned, there is speculation on Wall Street that investment houses in some of those countries may have suffered some losses.

Source: Nationnews

• Americans Jews hard-hit by Madoff Scandal
• Ponzi scheme
• Charles Ponzi 

Putin: No More Cheap Gas

The price of natural gas is set to rise as the world financial crisis and rising costs hurt production, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday as he presided over a forum of gas-exporting nations laying the groundwork for closer cooperation.

Energy ministers from fourteen gas-rich countries signed an agreement to set up the Gas Exporting Countries Forum headquartered in Doha, Qatar.

The body has been meeting since 2001, but until now had no formal membership or management. Putin said the organization will work “perfectly in line with international norms.”

He predicted the financial crisis will hit the gas industry harder than other energy sectors, because the gas market is more sluggish.

“We can expect the crisis to have a bigger effect on it than on oil business,” Putin said. “Costs of exploration, gas production and transportation are going up — it means the industry’s development costs will skyrocket. The time of cheap energy resources, cheap gas is surely coming to an end.”

Analysts expect prices to drop in the short term — through the spring — as lower global demand hurts prices. Longer-term, however, experts fear the financial downturn may starve the gas industry of the funds it needs to keep production up.

Earlier in the day, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin brushed off suggestions that Russia would dominate the gas exporters’ body.

“All member countries have equal powers,” Sechin was quoted saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency. “It would be wrong to say who would be the leader.”

Russia’s Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko reiterated that Russia does not intend to influence gas prices by curbing production. “Today, we will not be discussing the need to coordinate the level of production,” he told reporters after the talks.

Source: Startribune.com

In related news  

Trinidad and Tobago has joined the world’s other leading gas producers at a meeting in Moscow. The participants have been at pains to emphasise that the purpose of the meeting is to put the finishing touches on a Gas Exporting Countries Forum rather than create a cartel to fix prices.

The 14 member countries currently control about 73 per cent of the world’s gas reserves and 42 per cent of its production.

Trinidad and Tobago is the leading supplier of liquid natural gas to the United States.

Source: BBCCaribbean.com

Sex In The City Gone Local

Would you rather a heterosexual politician that is crooked or a homosexual politician that is honest?

That and similar questions have been raised in response to parliamentarian Patrick Todd’s call for fellow Members of Parliament (MPs) to publicly declare their sexual orientation.

State preferences  

In the House of Assembly on Tuesday, Todd, who is Minister of State in the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, said MPs should state if they were practising heterosexuals or homosexuals, so the public would not consider them as hypocrites.

“How does someone’s sexual orientation affect their ability to perform the task assigned to them in the workplace and what does it really matter . . . ? That is a very private and personal thing,” George Griffith, executive director of the Barbados Family Planning Association, said yesterday.

Veteran trade unionist Caswell Franklyn also joined the debate and said Todd’s comparing of an assets declaration to sexual orientation declaration was ridiculous.

“Comparing a declaration of assets to a declaration of one’s sexuality is ridiculous because personal assets can be gained through stealing and the public can build a strong case as taxpayers; but if a politician steals “piece” on the side from a girl or a fella, it is really nobody’s business,” he told WEEKEND NATION.

Todd’s call also sparked concern from within the church. Reverend Errington Massiah, rector of St Joseph’s Parish Church, said: “Sexuality is strictly something private to individuals and as long as someone declares, they stand to be ridiculed and it really can’t benefit the public. The situation is very much alive in Barbados but it has to be tackled differently.”

Will point fingers

Dr Beverley Lashley, of the Wesleyan Holiness Church, said: “What will happen is that people will point more fingers and the discrimination continues.

“As soon as someone declares his or her preference, all hell will break loose in this country but at the same time, Todd is accurate regarding the expectations and the example leaders must set, walking the straight and narrow.”

Source: Nation News

New 4.5-year low Oil $US35.62

The price of New York crude oil sank on Friday to 35.62 US dollars, the lowest point for four and a half years, as prospects of weak global energy demand overshadowed this week’s record OPEC output cut, traders said.

 At about 0930 GMT on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), light sweet crude for delivery in January tumbled as low as 35.62 US dollars a barrel, which was last seen on June 29, 2004.

“The global recession continues to sap demand,” said BetOnMarkets analyst David Evans.

“Even after OPEC cut production by more then two million barrels, oil prices have fallen below the 40 dollar per barrel level.

“Prices are likely to stabilise between the 35 and 40 dollar levels.”

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which produces about 40 percent of the world’s crude, agreed on Wednesday to cut its daily output quota by 2.2 million barrels a day.

But the move failed to prevent oil diving to multi-year low points as traders also questioned whether all members of the 13-nation OPEC cartel would fully enforce the reduction.

Source: Sidney Morning Herald

Barbados – Stormy Weather Yes Glooom And Doom No

 The economic forcast for 2009 in Barbados may not be the brightest, but the country’s leader, Prime Minister David Thompson, doesn’t see doom and gloom either.

Indeed, Thompson, who is also Minister of Finance, believes Barbados is in better shape than many other places.

For one thing, the banking system is sound. For another, the Government was moving aggressively to boost the day-to-day management of the economy through cabinet reforms, cutting of red tape and other steps.

“Barbados’ economy is not in the same kind of position that many other economies are in,” was the way he put to the DAILY NATION.

“Our banking system generally is in a very healthy position. The Canadian banks which are the owners of (most) of our banking institutions are quite strong and therefore many of the policy responses that other economies have had to introduce are not relevant to the circumstances of the Barbadian situation.”

Take the case of the key pillar of Barbados’ economy, tourism.

“When we discovered what was happening in terms of the tourism market we immediately went off to London and I personally met with the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of British Airways and of Virgin (Atlantic) and received assurances regarding their airlift into Barbados,” Thompson told the DAILY NATION in Miami recently.

“At that time, they were extremely pleased with what they saw so far. Obviously there is a concern about 2009. We are doing reasonably well into this period but we are acutely aware of the major concerns that we face internationally and their impact on Barbados and the region.”

That was why, the administration takes a hard look at the national, regional and international economic pictures “so that our policy responses can be correct,” Thompson explained.

His comments were made before the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Marion Williams, said recently that next year would be a tough period for Barbados as unemployment is expected to rise, tourism receipts should fall and the nation’s foreign reserves could be hit.

But Thompson didn’t ring any alarm bells as he explained that even before the national committee headed by former Central Bank Governor, Winston Cox, now an Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank, had recommended certain steps to deal with the deteriorating global situation, he had taken to step to boost cabinet decision-making by appointing ministerial sub-committees on infrastructure, governance, and social and economic policy to keep close tabs on what was happening.

The Cox Committee has proposed and the Administration has endorsed its recommendations for cuts in red tape, streamlining of the nation’s tourism marketing efforts and paying increasing attention to the operations of such government departments as town planning, immigration and others.

For his part, Cox, a former Central Bank Governor, said that given Barbados past history of success in dealing with economic crises, he was confident the country would weather the looming economic storm, perhaps the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Just as important, he expects the Tripartite Social Partnership involving the public and private sectors and the labor unions to play an increasingly important role in the trying times ahead.

Indeed, the arrangement which was born out of the severe economic troubles of the early 1990s may become a lifeline this time around. The partnership, he points out, “is going to be key to this process” of Barbados responding to the economic challenges that lay ahead.

“It is key to the process of delivering the kinds of messages that are necessary to give confidence to the Barbadian public that the economy is being well-managed, both labor and private sector and certainly the government as well,” Cox said. “It’s an indication that all three parties are paying attention to what is going on. It will be key to helping the public to understand how prices are formed and what’s the impact of the rise in commodity prices on the cost of living in Barbados.”

Source: Nation news

Let us interject here by bringing to mind to our readers the Prime Minister’s decision of  rejecting belt tightening measures in response to the current global financail crisis. Instead, he contends that there needs to be more spending and investments at home to keep the economy going. Some measures designed to achieve that objective includes accelerating the increse in tax credit and increasing pensions.

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Harsher Penalties For Sex Tourists On The Horizon

Tourists who go abroad to abuse children should face the prospect of prosecution in their home countries if they are caught having sex with kids in nations with lax penalties, participants at a U.N.-backed conference concluded Friday.

Sweden already has such a law, and about 3,000 experts plus government representatives from 137 nations backed the concept at the Third World Congress against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents in Rio de Janeiro.

Their final declaration called for nations to establish laws allowing stiffer prosecution of child sex cases for perpetrators who take trips to nations with few or no penalties because they know they’ll face little if any retribution, said Nils Kastberg, UNICEF’s director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Many of these pedophiles tell each other, ‘Oh, don’t worry if something happens to you in that country, the worst that will happen is you’ll pay a fine,’” Kastberg said in a telephone interview. Participants are now expected to go to their home countries and lobby governments for the law changes.

They also supported the creation of detailed sexual abuse databases in nations around the world so that governments can find out the extent of sexual exploitation of children beyond just the sex trade. Armed with that information, they can work to solve problems ranging from child prostitution, sexual abuse of children by people ranging from family and friends to priests. The International Labor Organization estimated at least 1.8 million girls and boys under age 18 were involved in the global sex trade in 2000, and nobody knows how much it has grown since then.

But a recent U.N. survey estimated that 150 million girls and 73 million boys under age 18 were forced to have sexual intercourse or experienced other forms of sexual violence in 2002. “It is very hard to know the true size of the problem, said Geoffrey Keele, a spokesman for UNICEF, a congress co-sponsor. “Only things that are known are budgeted and planned for. We’re going to try to get governments to do in depth studies in this area, might take funding from UNICEF or donors to get it going.”

Brazil is a sex tourism destination with long-standing child prostitution problems involving both foreign and Brazilian clients. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a decree just before the congress began this week that boosts the minimum child pornography prison sentence from two to four years.

Source: TravelDailyNews.com

Report Reveals Poor Planning On Reconstruction Of Iraq

A detailed official history of the U.S. effort to reconstruct Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s overthrow in 2003 blamed its failings on “blinkered and disjointed” prewar planning, a deadly insurgency and wasteful and ill-managed contracting.

The 500-plus page document also asserts that the Bush administration, in early stages of the war, exaggerated the number of Iraqi forces trained to help American troops provide adequate security.

The study, “Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience,” was produced by a special U.S. auditing group that has dug deeply into the multibillion-dollar reconstruction effort since 2004. It is a detailed summation of the findings from many previous audits and reviews by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, led by Stuart Bowen.

Among its central conclusions is the Washington was unprepared and ill-equipped to reconstruct Iraq in the aftermath of an invasion that led to an insurgency, a collapse of government and an economy that “switched off.” The document also suggests that this arose from an ill-fitting U.S. national security structure, which it said could produce an equally ineffective reconstruction effort in future conflicts.

Thus far the United States has spent about $50 billion on Iraq reconstruction.

FULL STORY

• Ottawa Engineer Believe The US Had No Intention Of Heeding Group’sq Advice To Rebuild Iraq

Iraqi Journalist Throws Size 10 Shoes At President Bush

During a farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday, President George W. Bush defended a war that has taken far more time, money and lives than anticipated, saying the conflict “has not been easy” but was necessary for US security, Iraqi stability and “world peace”.

But in a sign of lingering anger against the US military presence, an Iraqi journalist shouted: “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,” and hurled his shoes at the US president during a news conference with prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Throwing shoes at somebody is a supreme insult in the Middle East. One of the shoes sailed over the president’s head and slammed into the wall behind him and he had to duck to miss the other one. Mr Maliki tried to block the second shoe with his arm.

“It’s like going to a political rally and have people yell at you,” said Mr Bush. “I don’t know what the guy’s cause was. I didn’t feel the least bit threatened by it.”

Mr Bush had landed in Iraq under a veil of secrecy for his fourth and presumably final visit as president.

He was scheduled to meet US troops and Iraqi leaders about a security agreement that calls for the withdrawal of US forces by 2011.

After meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani at Salam Palace, Mr Bush hailed the security agreement as “a reminder of our friendship and as a way forward to help the Iraqi people realise the blessings of a free society”.

“The work hasn’t been easy, but it has been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope, and world peace,” Mr Bush said, adding: “I am just so grateful that I had a chance to come back to Iraq before my presidency ended.”

Mr Bush’s praise for the security agreement is particularly remarkable given that the US administration spent years dismissing proposals for withdrawal timelines as dangerous admissions of defeat. The agreement came after months of hard bargaining by Iraqi leaders, who insisted on a firm date for the removal of US troops.

The US president’s visit comes against a backdrop of declining violence across Iraq, which the Bush Administration attributes to a buildup of thousands of reinforcements last year.

But attacks have continued and many areas in Iraq remain unstable, particularly in the north. Last week, at least 57 Iraqis were killed in a suicide attack at a popular restaurant outside of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Mr Bush left Iraq and arrived in Afghanistan late on Sunday, a pool report from Air Force One said. The White House said Bush plans to meet with US troops and Afghan President Hamid Karzai and address US troops.

Source: Financial Times

• Arab World Hails Shoe Attack As Bush’s Farwell Gift

Barbadian Talents Boosting Music Label

WITH SHEER God-given talent, local artistes Rihanna, Shontelle and Hal Linton are helping to build an American music label “empire” and enhance the international music industry in a major way.

This is the word from producer, writer and label owner Evan Rogers, who admitted that while he had paved the way for the three young stars, they were in turn making his label, Syndicated Rhythm Production (SRP) Records, a major force in the industry.

An example of the prestige which the three Barbadians have brought to SRP has been a recently inked deal via SRP involving the 24-year-old Linton, who was personally signed by Universal Motown chief executive officer Sylvia Rhone.

“SRP has done previous joint ventures with Island Def Jam but this is a fully funded label deal,” Rogers explained in a telephone interview from New York. “And Hal is the first signing to that label.

“We’re incredibly excited. Getting our label partnered with Universal Motown is the fruit of having built Rihanna into one of the top artists in the world. We (SRP) are now being seen as label executives as opposed to just writers/producers,” Rogers and SRP co-founder Carl Sturken told the SATURDAY SUN.

“We can’t tell you how happy we are to be able to bring this talent from Barbados to the attention of the elite,” they added.

Both were gung-ho about the most recent signee, Linton. “Hal has such a buzz up here it’s amazing! And he’s so different from Rihanna and Shontelle! He’s being seen here as a true soul singer and writer. And when we tell the executives he’s also from Barbados, they can’t believe that even more talent is coming from there. We’re doing great things. We’re building the empire,” Rogers added jokingly.

Turning his attention to the 23-year-old Shontelle Layne, whose debut T-Shirt – her first Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 – led to an endorsement deal with the Hanes brand, Rogers said it was clear her profile was growing, as exemplified in her performance in the national Thanksgiving Day Parade featured on NBC.

“Only major people get to do that,” was how he put it.

He also informed that she had recorded a duet with Senegalese-American artist Akon, and it will be the theme song to the movie Confessions Of A Shopaholic, set to hit screens in February.

Shontelle, who is jointly managed by SRP, Barbadian Sonia Mullins and Rebel One, will also perform in the Bahamas next month at a Michael Jordan-hosted Hanes event, and will do a 15-city tour of the United States sponsored by Hanes before heading to Europe on a promotional tour.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles-based Rihanna – whom Rogers met while on his annual holiday here four years ago – will meet with “Uncle Evan” and producer L. A. Reid this weekend to discuss her next album – the fourth – due for release in the late summer 2009.

“She did big Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand tours recently, and just finished an endorsement with Gucci,” Rogers said, beaming with joy at her recent three Grammy nominations.

“She is between getting her album started and her movie career. We’ll focus on a major movie between albums ,” he added.

Source: Nation news

Gloomy Tourism Days Ahead

Barbados could see a four to five per cent drop in tourist arrivals next year that could translate into a similar fall in revenue from the country’s largest foreign exchange earner and the loss of thousands of jobs.

But the news could get even worse, according to the country’s Central Bank Governor Dr Marion Williams: “If the global recession is deep and prolonged, tourist arrivals could decline by 20 per cent.”

And while it is still too early to determine whether the reduction will be as drastic as that, Dr Williams has revealed that the Central Bank’s short term outlook for tourism is not rosy.

“The Central Bank has developed various scenarios. A most recent forecast calls for a four to five per cent decline in the long-stay visitors in 2009 and no growth in 2010. Gross expenditure could be nearly down four per cent in 2009 before a small recovery in the following year, and during 2009 our foreign exchange reserves may fall by well over BDS$100 million (US$50 million),” she said as she addressed the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) final 2008 quarterly meeting.

With these challenging times ahead, the Central Bank Governor has urged the industry to be modest in its spending.

“If we cut back sharply on the spending on new projects, we will hasten the recession, which we wish to avoid. If we spend too rapidly, we will deplete our foreign exchange reserves,” she said. “We have to have a compromise situation where we don’t overspend and we don’t under spend.”

The Central Bank Governor also urged hoteliers to get commitments of support from their bankers very early to ensure that when the situation gets rougher, they have financing to help cover operational costs.

Meantime, BHTA Executive Vice-President Sue Springer reported that hotels are already feeling the effects of the crisis.

“The majority of the hotels are seeing a reduction in the pace of bookings – anything from about five to 25 per cent; on average 15 per cent overall,” she said.

The good news, Ms Springer added, is that cruise passenger arrivals are still good.

Source: Caribbean 360

Cuba Alternative To Imports – Plant GM Corn

Cuba could soon authorize the planting of 124 acres (50 hectares) of genetically-modified corn for the first time to help reduce its dependence on costly food imports, Cuban scientists said on Tuesday {2/12/08}.

Regulators are expected to approve this initial crop of biotech corn, which would provide enough seed to expand to 14,830 acres (6,000 hectares) next year, said Carlos Borroto, deputy director of state-run Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

“We expect over the next few days to get the license for those 50 hectares,” he told reporters. “This is very important, because the alternative is to keep relying on imports.”

Cuba imports around 60 per cent of its food, including large amounts of soy, wheat and corn. The United States is the Communist-ruled island’s largest food supplier under an amendment to its trade embargo on Cuba.

Cuban President Raul Castro recently called increased agricultural output a matter of “national security” as soaring international food prices are expected to drain more than $2 billion from the government’s coffers this year.

Some environmental groups oppose transgenic crops because they say the food may hold unknown long-term health dangers. But GMO supporters say the crops carry no health risks and are the only way to reduce world food shortages.

Borroto said biotech corn similar to the Cuban type had already passed strict controls in Japan, Canada and Europe. Cuban laboratories are also in the development stages of producing genetically modified soy, potatoes and tomatoes.

International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, a non-profit group promoting biotech foods, estimates GMO crops are now grown in 23 countries, mostly by poor farmers in developing countries.

“You have a need for more and better food, nutritionally. This technology can provide you with that option,” said the group’s founder Clive James, a British scientist who was invited to Havana by the Cuban institute. “I believe there is an opportunity for Cuba to do so in the near term.”

Cuba’s harvests have been battered this year by three hurricanes that the government estimates caused nearly $10 billion in damages. The storms destroyed 30 per cent of the country’s crops, touching off brief food shortages.

Source: Reuters

Pirates Attack Dutch Ship Off Tanzania

 

 

Heavily-armed  pirates attacked a Dutch container ship with 19 crew off Tanzania, sparking a fire on board but failing to take over the vessel, a global maritime watchdog said overnight.

The fresh attack yesterday came as the European Union prepared to launch its first-ever naval operation, patrolling pirate-infested seas near the Horn of Africa with six warships and three surveillance planes.

“Pirates believed to be from Somalia fired semi-automatic weapons and fired a rocket from a RPG at the Dutch-operated vessel,” said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“The ship caught fire but the captain successfully took evasive action to prevent a hijack. The ship sustained damage but managed to continue its voyage,” he said.

Mr Choong said the ship, flying a Hong Kong flag, was attacked by eight pirates in two speedboats.

The incident happened 450 nautical miles east of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and 350 nautical miles west of the Seychelles, he said.

Mr Choong urged seafarers to be on alert when plying the African coast.

“Pirate attacks are spreading to a wider area down south from the Somalia coast. This is not a good sign. Pirates have become bolder and more dangerous. They are also firing automatic weapons and rockets indiscriminately,” he said.

Mr Choong said the ship’s captain noticed a fishing boat believed to the pirates’ mother ship near the scene of the attack.

More than a dozen foreign merchant vessels and their crew are currently being held by gunmen in the area where the north-east tip of the Somali coast juts into the Indian Ocean.

The pirates, heavily armed and using high-powered speedboats, prey there on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal, through which an estimated 30 per cent of the world’s oil transits.

They hold ships for weeks at at time in a bid to secure large ransoms from governments or owners.

Source: The Australian

• Pirate-Style Attack On Trinidad High Seas

BBC On HIV/AIDS In Barbados

BBC reporter Emma Joseph spoke to Dr Jacobs and  Corey Lane from the National Aids Commission on HIV and AIDS in Barbados. The extract is part of an article on the Barbados and Guyana infection rates and the progress made from 2003 when last the reporter reported on on HIV/AIDS in these countries.

Barbados is renowned for being socially conservative and religious but when it comes to sex, it is a different matter.

“In the Caribbean the infection rate is 1.2% and here in Barbados it’s around 1.8%,” said Dr Carol Jacobs, who is the head of the National Aids Commission.

“We are relatively high but unless we can cut the number of new cases, we still have a big challenge on our hands,” she said.

Woman between the ages of 15 and 29 have the highest infection rates, as a result of having multiple partners as well as anal sex.

“We are just embarking on our five-year strategic plan, paying a lot of emphasis to treatment and prevention, with behaviour change and communication in particular,” said Dr Jacobs.

“It is about men in particular having multiple partners and I think the young women think if you can do it, so can we,” said Dr Jacobs.

Education

The National Aids Commission has just launched what it calls a “Champions Programme,” where they are getting artists and musicians to promote the safe sex message to young people.

However, many of the people engaging in risky sexual behaviour are the parents themselves. Corey Lane, from the Aids commission, feels that adults think young people do not have sex.

“A lot of teachers don’t feel comfortable talking to these children about sex, they feel that they are too young to know about it,” said Mr Lane.

“We have proven in surveys that primary school children are engaging in sex as early as nine. However, the good news is that we have been able to reduce HIV/Aids mortality by over 70%.”

According to Mr Lane, Barbados has also been able to reduce the incidence of new cases as every major public place now offers testing.

Five years ago, when I reported on HIV and Aids in the Caribbean, the big issue was stigma and discrimination. Now, I’ve seen how the quality of life for people living with the disease in Guyana and Barbados has improved dramatically.

People are living longer and huge strides have been made in terms of treatment and care in less than a decade.

Sadly one thing that hasn’t changed is the infection rate, which is only surpassed by the far higher figures in sub-Saharan Africa.

Source: BBC

FULL STORY

Ex Belize PM Charge With Theft

Former Belize Prime Minister Said Musa is declaring his innocence in the face of a charge that he stole US$10 million which the Venezuela government had given his administration to build and repair homes for poor citizens.

Mr Musa appeared in court yesterday accused of illegally diverting the money, half of a US$20 million grant, to a privately owned hospital. He was released on US$100,000 bail and ordered to reappear in court on January 9 next year. If convicted of the charge, he faces a maximum 10-year jail term.

But Mr Musa has insisted that he did nothing wrong, saying that he was acting in good faith when he used the funds to settle a debt owed by Universal Health Services (UHS).

He has been embroiled in controversy surrounding the grant, given by the Hugo Chavez Administration in December last year, since his People’s United Party lost the government to Dean Barrow and his United Democratic Party in the February 7 general elections.

The former prime minister had said earlier this year that the debt he used the money to pay arose out of a government guarantee of a loan made by UHS and had been the subject of litigation that could have resulted in the Belize government having to pay the entire sum due from taxpayer funds.

Following a directive from the country’s Central Bank, the money was returned to the government coffers from the Belize Bank which received the funds to clear the UHS debt.

Source: Caribbean360.com

Recent statements from Prime Minister David Thompson on millions stashed in overseas accounts by BLP members have yet to materialised, confrimed and the wheels of justice rolling.

Waiting to exhale can be a painful process.

Mottley Responds To PM Thompson’s Challenge

Opposition Leader Mia Mottley has responded to Prime Minister David Thompson’s challenge.

In yesterday’s SATURDAY SUN, Thompson challenged the Opposition Leader to tell the public what exactly she has been hinting at, when she talked about the “alleged reason” why he, as Prime Minister, moved a minister from one portfolio to another in the recent Cabinet reshuffle.

Last night Mottley told the SUNDAY SUN:

“The PM ought to be acquainted with the context within which Minister [Denis] Lowe was reassigned. However, we are also aware that two weeks prior to Minister Lowe’s reassignment, both the chairman and deputy chairman resigned from the UDC Board.

“There was no public announcement of these resignations in spite of the Government’s commitment to transparency.

“I raised the matter on the floor of the House the Tuesday before the Cabinet reshuffle as all was clearly not well with the UDC being leaderless and the public unaware.

“The PM chose not to respond.

“This was against the context of the non-performance of Minister Lowe, which has been since supported by the text of his successor’s statement that he would achieve in two months what was not done in ten. That text was not mine, but Chris Sinckler’s.”

Two questions

Mottley also wanted the Prime Minister to answer two questions of her own:

“When will the unemployment statistics which are three weeks late be released?” she asked.

And, “when will the PM tell the public that he has appointed David Estwick as Minister of Economic Affairs in name only, since he has moved IADB, World Bank, CDB, European Union, Public Investment Unit and Planning (to name a few) to the Ministry of Finance and Investment?”

According to Mottley, Estwick has been left with a skeleton of Economic Affairs overseeing Statistics and Research and the Productivity Council.

Source: Nation news

• David Thompson Cabinet Shuffle More Good Than Bad

2O Jamaica Women Assaulted At Airport

More than 20 female passengers who arrived in Barbados on a flight from Jamaica on November 30 are now claiming that they were abused and ‘touched’ on their private parts by immigration officials.

They also say that after going through the abuse, they were sent back to Jamaica without any explanation.

Immigration requirements are that all persons who wish to enter Barbados are required to hold a valid passport and a valid return ticket. But, despite fulfilling these requirements, they were still denied entry.

One passenger, *Angella Bassy, said she was assaulted and disgraced by a policeman. “I felt so humiliated as we sat there for over three hours waiting on Immigration to address us. When the police approached us, one said to me, mi hear seh you have drugs inna your. I said to him ‘excuse me? It’s my husband who sent me on a vacation. I have no such thing on me’. He then said ‘so how youso fat?”

Bassy said the policeman then walked off and a lady came and addressed the group saying they would not be permitted to enter the country and that they would have to board the next flight back to Jamaica in the morning.

Bona fide visitor

Halle Sprint*, another passenger told THE WEEKEND STAR that when she decided to visit Barbados for a month she did not know that she would be treated like an animal.

“The plane arrived in Barbados some minutes after 7 p.m. When we checked in, we were told that immigration needed to speak with us. One lady told me that I don’t look like a bonafide visitor and as a matter of fact she sending us to detention,” Sprint said.

She added that her nightmare started when she was locked up in a cell with three other women. “The cell had one little cot, some of us had to sleep on the floor and I was even denied a shower. That was devastating for me as I practice to bathe twice daily and my skin itched me for the entire night. Trust me, it was horrible and all now I don’t know why I was treated that way,” she said.

In the case of one of the other victims, Lacy, she claims that she was punched in her mouth because she was chewing a gum. “The officer asked me to stop chewing the gum and I didn’t, as me look a him come over and give me one ‘thump’ inna mi mouth, mi shock,” she said.

Like dogs

She said that she was also placed in a room for approximately three hours where an immigration officer questioned her. “… I must say that them treat we like dogs, I didn’t even get anything to eat.”

The women say that no one told them why this treatment was meted out to them and they were not charged for any crimes.

When THE WEEKEND STAR spoke to Herman Lamont, assistant director of the Diaspora and Consular Affairs Department at Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he said that he had no knowledge of this particular incident.

Lamont said that the passengers should however make a formal complaint to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the matter will be investigated. He added that some months ago one passenger had made a complaint that the Bajan immigration department treated him unfairly and that this particular matter is now being investigated.

Efforts to reach the Bajan immigration department proved futile as the numbers were unavailable.

*Names changed on request.
Source: Jamaica Star

• Bajan Airport Assault Should Be Probe

PM Thompson Ask Obama To ReConsider Damaging Policies

David Thompson is urging the United States incoming Barak Obama administration not to pursue policies that would damage the country’s vital offshore financial services sector.

Thompson told a large audience of business executives and government officials in Miami that proposed legislation in the US Congress designed to force US firms to pay more taxes would hurt the Caribbean’s viable and clean offshore financial centers and prove counter-productive.

He told guests at a dinner of the annual Miami Conferenceon the Caribbean: “I urge the President-elect and the Democratic Congress to take another look at the reactionary proposals being made against the use of offshore financial centres and to recognise that the pursuit of financial services business in the Caribbean is a legitimate activity which is mutually beneficial to both the Caribbean and the United States of America.”

The Prime Minister said: “Caribbean governments have taken decisive measures to guard against money laundering, terrorist financing and trans-national crimes.

“We cooperate fully with the Financial Action Task Force and are committed to maintaining jurisdictions of quality and integrity. Our efforts merit recognition and support, not misrepresentation in the legislature of this country.”

“Many countries are involved in the export of a variety of different services, using various incentive regimes as in the case of Delaware and Vermont.

Share of taxes

“Increased United States pre-occupation to ensure that United States taxpayers pay their fair share of taxes to cover the costs of government engineered bailout and to fund two wars should not find expressionin legislative bills that name and shame,” Thompson said.

By focusing attention on a bill before the United States Senate that targets a host of Caribbean and Pacific countries by name and would virtually put United States companies off limits to the offshore financial services centers in those jurisdictions, Thompson took direct aim at Obama, a co-sponsor of the proposed legislation.

During the United Statespresidential campaign Obama vowedto go after United States firms that do businessin such countries in order to force them to pay more taxes.

“It has been proven that such methodologies which have long been abandoned by progressive jurisdictions in favour of bilateral cooperation do more to disadvantage the economies of the region than to bring discipline to the United States or other taxpayers,” Thompson argued.

“Rather than target and destabilise the Caribbean economies, the government and Congress should consider us a special case and work with us to increase cross-border cooperation,” Thompson said

Source: Nation News