BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (BGIS) — Barbados is 80-90 percent ready to stage the local leg of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Twenty20, West Indies, tournament.

Word of this has come from Events Coordinator and Acting President of the Barbados Cricket Association, Conde Riley. He was speaking Monday at a press briefing and unveiling ceremony at Kensington Oval, of the first of six bats to be placed at strategic locations around the island.

Kensington Oval in Barbados

Riley said that the project management team had been holding weekly meetings and hoped that within the next two months they would only need to be “fine tuning” all of their plans. He mentioned that so far the ICC had completed two inspections, adding “we in Barbados are fairly comfortable.”

Riley indicated that since the competition would involve double-headers, (two matches a day), two additional dressing-rooms were being constructed, as well as an area on the Eastern side of Kensington Oval to seat 500 fans.

Riley emphasised that the tournament was not expected to attract 30,000 spectators as in the World Cup of 2007, since it was not of that magnitude. However, he anticipated that the event would draw large numbers, with some 2,600 fans expected to pack the Party Stand.

Performers at the Twenty20 will include Edwin Yearwood and Krosfyah, Red Plastic Bag and David ‘Ziggy’ Walcott. “There will be entertainers from across the region and the intention is to have a big celebration,” he noted.

During Monday’s ceremony, cricket legend, the Reverend Dr Wes Hall unveiled the first bat just outside Kensington Oval. Other bats will be placed at the Bay Street and Speightstown Esplanades, the Warrens roundabout, the Grantley Adams Airport and Oistins Bay Gardens.

The slogan for the competition is ‘Bring It’ and fans are being invited to bring all the fun and excitement that is synonymous with cricket in the Caribbean. The theme song, performed by Fay Ann Lyons-Alvarez and Vegas, features a ‘ragga soca’ style.

The tournament will start on April 30 and concludes with the finals in Barbados on May 16.

A press release from the international agency said Zelikow recently met with Prime Minister, Bruce Golding and the Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw to congratulate them for actions taken to deal decisively with the country’s fiscal challenges.

Jamaica, in recent months, has executed a voluntary debt swap, reached a Stand-By Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and obtained support from the principal multilateral institutions for its economic reform programme.

“The success of this debt swap is a testament to the investment community’s confidence in Jamaica’s plan for improving debt dynamics,” said Zelikow. “Jamaica is now in a position to stabilise its finances, accelerate its economic recovery, attract increased investment and generate more jobs. The IDB is committed to support this new chapter in Jamaica’s development with one of the largest lending programmes we have ever approved, relative to a country’s GDP.”

Jamaica’s voluntary debt swap registered a participation rate of more than 99 per cent and resulted in a significant reduction in interest rates and extension of debt maturities. Fiscal savings resulting from the swap will exceed over three per cent of Jamaica’s GDP in the first year.

The IDB said it will be supporting several aspects of Jamaica’s reform agenda, including improvements in fiscal management and the introduction of fiscal responsibility legislation, initiatives to enhance information in credit markets and remove distortions in the tax system, and support for safety net initiatives such as the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education’s (PATH) cash-transfer mechanism.

The IDB has already approved some US$200 million in new loans to Jamaica this year, in programmes that will also support reforms in education and boost economic competitiveness.

The Bank plans to approve an additional US$400 million in financing this year as Jamaica continues to progress with the reform agenda and meets the targets set out in the IMF Stand-By Arrangement.

Charisa Coulter, 24, was handed over to US embassy personnel who drove her away from the police station where she had been detained. She made no comment to waiting media.

Her companion and employer, Laura Silsby, 40, remained in detention.

Silsby and Coulter were arrested with eight fellow Baptists on January 29 as they tried to take 33 Haitian children into the neighboring Dominican Republic by bus without the necessary documentation.

The group denied wrongdoing, saying it was only trying to help orphans in the wake of Haiti’s devastating January 12 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people.

Many of the children, though, were found to have living relatives in Haiti.

The other eight Baptists were released mid-February and permitted to return to the United States, but Haitian authorities kept Silsby, who was the leader of the group, and Coulter, who was her live-in nanny.

Scientists from 30 countries focused on how to improve meteorological services in Haiti to prevent further disasters as they began three days of meetings in Bermuda.

“One of the areas they will be looking at will be better communications and dissemination possibilities,” Robert Masters of the World Meteorological Organization told AFP by telephone as the hurricane committee convened.

Masters said about 80 percent of Haitians would normally be informed of any imminent hurricane threat by tuning in to their televisions or radios.

“But now with the earthquake this was reduced to 20 percent because people don’t have electricity, don’t have television and radios,” he said. “So it’s important to find new way to disseminate information to be sure people are warned in the face of severe weather.”

The scientists are expected to recommend to governments providing aid to Haiti that a storm alert system must be created if a new disaster is to be avoided.

Haiti is on the island of Hispaniola in an area of the Caribbean prone to tropical storms.

The hurricane season — from June to November — often brings death and grief to the Western hemisphere’s poorest nation, which has few of its moisture-absorbing tropical forests remaining.

In the 2008 hurricane season, Haiti was pounded by four storms that left more than 800,000 people homeless and devastated its agriculture.

Last year, Haiti, the Caribbean, and the US mainland were spared from major storms during a relatively calm hurricane season.

Haiti’s earthquake flattened most of the capital Port-au-Prince, killing more than 220,000 people and destroying half the nation’s economy, according to government estimates.

Another 1.3 million people have been left homeless since the January 12 quake. (Caribnet)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) — Haitian President Rene Preval plans to tell US President Barack Obama on Wednesday that food aid to the earthquake-devastated Caribbean nation should be stopped because of the risk of damaging its economy.

The two men will meet at the White House in the wake of a Jan. 12 quake that killed 230,000 people, according to Haitian government estimates, crippled the economy and devastated much of the capital Port-au-Prince and other cities.

Donations of food and water have proved a lifeline for more than 1.2 million people displaced by the quake, but Preval told a news conference on Monday the aid could in the long term hurt the economy of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

“I will tell him (Obama) that this first phase of assistance is finished,” said Preval, standing in front of the ruined presidential palace in Port-au-Prince.

“If they continue to send us aid from abroad — water and food — it will be in competition with the national Haitian production and Haitian commerce,” he said.

Preval said the priority should instead be to create employment in Haiti, a country where a high percentage of the population lacked work even before the quake.

The Haitian government, working with the international community, is preparing a master plan for reconstruction that would have ambitious goals, Preval said after a meeting with Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean.

A trust fund with voting and nonvoting board members would manage donor funds, Preval said.

Priorities for reconstruction include strengthening buildings to withstand future earthquakes and rehabilitating the environment, much of which is denuded, to protect against flooding from tropical storms and hurricanes, which last battered Haiti in 2008.

Some $38 million was needed for storm protection, Preval said.

Reopening the country’s schools was also key, Preval said, though he gave no date for when that would happen. Education is considered critical to development in Haiti, where 38 percent of the population is under age 15 and nearly half of those 15 and older are illiterate.

“I will also tell him (Obama) that our vision is to rebuild Haiti and if we don’t take advantage of this historic event to reinvent Haiti, to reinvent Port-au-Prince, we will be making a mistake of historical proportions,” Preval said.

“Our generation has the obligation to shoulder this responsibility,” he said.

Many Haitians have criticized the government’s performance since the earthquake and argued that Preval has not done enough to communicate with the people or to marshal government aid, instead leaving international aid groups to fill the gap.

Jean’s two-day visit is significant because she was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, arriving in Canada as a refugee, and has worked to promote Haiti’s needs since the quake.

“We are here … to say to Haitians that they are not alone … We have suffered with you,” she said in an impassioned speech after her meeting with Preval.

As Canada’s governor general, Jean represents Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, who is Canada’s head of state. (Caribnet)

Jagdeo said on Sunday at an event to mark the 13th anniversary of the death of former President Cheddi Jagan that, despite running with a new presidential candidate, the PPP will continue to govern Guyana.

Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo. AFP PHOTO

“I am sure that whatever we emerge out of with that’s process, because we have a process.. a process that we used throughout and a process that the central committee of the party endorsed again and that process will be sued and whatever emerge out of that process we will have to respect,” Jagdeo said

He noted that, despite this new front runner for the PPP, success is looming at the 2011 polls.

“ I can assure you our party is united and strong ready for the 2011 elections so that we can move forward and win those elections, that the key prize whatever happens, we will emerging stronger from that process,” the president said.

So far, People’s Progressive Party General Secretary Donald Ramotar, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, Central Executive Committee member Moses Nagamootoo, and Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran have all expressed interest in being the party’s candidate for the next general elections, constitutionally due next year.

Jagdeo, meanwhile, added that 60 years after the PPP was formed and after it has consistently led every single struggle that mattered in this country during those years, “The party remains as strong as ever.”

“We remain strong because we have defied every odd; we remain strong because the various attempts to side track us, to get rid of us, have all failed; we remain strong because in spite of the rigging of elections, in spite of street protest, in spite of support for criminals for political purposes – the PPP is in power and will remain in power for a very long time in the future,” Jagdeo declared confidently.

The Guyanese leader, who is serving in his final constitutional term as president, has reiterated his government’s willingness to work with the opposition.

“What we want is closer engagement so that at the political level we can work together in the interest of or people, all the people of this country and there is great scope for that….but let me make it clear that in engagement we are not going to be dominated, that’s one thing that is clear, “ the president asserted.

Jagdeo explained that his government is interested in working with all stakeholders for the good of Guyana.

“We are always open to ideas, we are always open to new partners and the force that’s will be driving us must be the interest of the people of this country … so we will not work with Trojan Horses,” Jagdeo said.

This is not the first time Jagdeo has made this call for partnering with the opposition.

Opposition leader Robert Corbin had indicated his party’s willingness to move in this direction but said the People’s National Congress reform (PNCR) is more interested in shared governance before next year’s general elections.

“The PNCR believes that in the interest of progress in Guyana a system of shared governance should be discussed among all stakeholders and implemented before the 2011 National and Regional Elections,” Opposition Leader Robert Corbin had said. (Caribnet)

“It’s as if the city had been bombarded,” she told a joint media conference with Haitian President Rene Preval.

But, she added: “Being here, what I see is people really trying to overcome that incredible ordeal.”

Haitian president Rene Preval(L) welcoming Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean in Port-au-Prince almost two months of 7.3 magniture Haiti quake. AFP PHOTO

Haiti “is not alone,” she said.

Canada and other members of the international community continued to support it as it sought to recover from the January 12 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people, left 1.3 million homeless and cut Haiti’s economy’s in half.

“Mourning is one thing. Making sure that life triumphs over destruction is the focus,” she said.

Later in the day, Jean visited several locations in Haiti, including Jacmel, a coastal town she knew as a child which was untouched by the quake but whose population has since swelled with residents who fled the broken capital.

Canada’s first black governor general, Jean was born in Port-au-Prince in 1957 and spent her childhood summers in Jacmel. She and her family fled Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s regime when she was 11 years old.

Jean’s trip comes on the heels of Canadian Defense Minister Peter Mackay’s weekend visit to Haiti, where Canada has more than 1,500 troops on the ground. Mackay met with soldiers involved in aid efforts, and visited medical facilities in the country.

On Wednesday, Jean, the viceregal representative of the British throne in Canada, will hold talks with Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez. (Caribnet)

Jensen LaVende

SPECIAL State attorney Sir Timothy Cassel QC has refused to prosecute former prime minister Basdeo Panday in the retrial in his integrity matter.

This was revealed yesterday by State attorney George Busby, who told Magistrate Melvin Daniel that Cassel had refused the brief. Busby, who did not give a reason why Cassel refused, asked for an adjournment as the State was seeking a new candidate, from outside of the country, to lead the State. Busby added that the State would require some time to do so.

Defence attorney Ravi Rajcoomar, who, along with Mickela Panday, is defending Panday, said the State was being oppressive by not having an attorney to prosecute the matter. Rajcoomar said yesterday’s hearing was the third time the matter was called with no prosecutor, saying the court should not be used at ’the whim and fancy’ of the State.

Rajcoomar then asked that the matter be adjourned to September, since he had two High Court matters coming up, which would consume a lot of time.

Daniel refused to adjourn the matter to such a late date, but chose July 26 for an update from the State.

Panday faces a retrial after the Privy Council ruled on April, 9, 2008, that he should face one of the charges of failing to declare a London Bank account to the Integrity Commission, for three consecutive years, while he was Prime Minister.

Panday is before Daniel after a 19-page ruling handed down by Justice Judith Jones on November 24 last year, which ruled that Panday’s request to have Magistrate Ejenny Espinet recuse herself from the case on the grounds that she was hearing evidence in the matter, which she had already heard and committed him on, was valid. Trinidad Express)