Moontown

LENTIL PEAS AND RICE; MACARONI PIE

CANDIED SWEET POTATOES; SAUTEED POTATOES

VEGETABLE CHOWMEIN; BAKED PORK

BAKED CHICKEN; BAKED LAMB

FRIED SNAPPER; GRILLED BARRACUDA

BBQ PIG TAILS; FISH GRAVY; LAMB STEW

STEAMED VEGETABLES; TOSSED SALAD

“You in the SLP have shown extraordinary grace and extraordinary patience. We have warned, we have advised, cajoled, assailed. But we were not listened to for two and a half years.”

“Don’t send your children to school on September 3rd,” one Labour Party constituency chairman told the Gros Islet Conference on Sunday.“Get ready for a protracted battle,” another said. “This is not a one day demonstration.”
Throughout the afternoon, the schedule of a campaign of demonstrations against the government began to emerge.

Sunday’s Gros Islet meeting was just a warm-up. Next Sunday, the Castries North constituency group will meet, five days before the protests are supposed to begin. The Sunday after that, they move to Castries South, then on to Anse la Raye/Canaries and so on.

“Life is going to get very exciting from now on,” promised Ernest Hilaire in his goodbyes as chairman of Labour’s Gros Islet constituency group.

Opposition leader Dr Kenny Anthony admitted that the SLP has been soft-balling the UWP for the last two and a half years: “You in the SLP have shown extraordinary grace and extraordinary patience. We have warned, we have advised, cajoled, assailed. But we were not listened to for two and a half years.”

Now, apparently, it’s no more Mr Nice Guy.

“From September 3rd,” Anthony told the Gros Islet constituency group conference, “there must be no turning back.” At Anthony’s last press conference, he called for the resignations of Attorney General Nicholas Frederick and Tuxedogate bulls-eye Keith Mondesir to resign. Having seen their demands fall on deaf ears, Labour now wants more.
They are calling for heads to roll—all of them. They are calling for the resignation of the entire Cabinet, not just two or three ministers involved in ‘Tuxedogate.’ They are calling for new elections, saying that the country cannot afford to let this government go the full term without a brand new mandate from the people. They want change and they want it now. If the opposition has things their way, the Stephenson King administration will go down in history as the most disastrous government in St Lucia with the possible exception of the ill-fated 1979-82 Labour government. And it will go down before the year is out.

The last time the St Lucia Labour Party addressed its followers on the Castries Market Steps, they left them saying “Forget Flambeau! What’s the plan for Labour to get back in office?”

Last Sunday at the Gros Islet Secondary School, the party left no one in doubt about what the plan was. In mafia terms, Labour is going to the mattresses. And this time, they will not let up until they get results. Or so they hope.

The last time there was protest action in St Lucia, it failed to gather mass support and left the general public divided about who they support less—the government that stupidly agreed to wage increases they could not afford or the unions who were clamoring for higher wages at a time when the country could not afford it.

This time, Labour is leading the charge hoping that the Trade Union Federation will join them in the street when negotiations over new civil service collective agreements fail to be finalized by the mutually agreed, but highly unrealistic August 31 deadline. TUF President Julian Monrose has been promising to play nice with government negotiators and not rush out into the streets for political reasons—but what are the chances that the trade unions that spawned Labour will fail to support the September 3rd protests?

Can the St Lucia Labour Party mobilize enough support to shake the government’s confidence and force the prime minister to admit that fresh elections are necessary to restore faith in his government?

Over the past few weeks, the opposition has been trying to cook up a perfect storm of political pressure. Though the judge in the Tuxedo Villas matter let the UWP off easy by simply quashing the Cabinet conclusion which sought to protect health minister Keith Mondesir from prosecution by Customs, he gave Labour just enough mud to sully the integrity of the entire Cabinet. The prime minister has unwittingly assisted Labour’s cause by not recognizing that he needs to fire a few ministers in order to save the rest of the party. The Attorney General added his two cents by advising the government to appeal the Tuxedo gate judgment even though Mondesir has effectively admitted his culpability by reaching an administrative settlement with Customs.

Now the opposition has more than enough justification to encourage its supporters to march in the streets against the government’s support of at least one Cabinet member’s greed, they need to co-ordinate their affairs so that angry teachers, Customs officers and other civil servants are marching in the streets at the same time, if not with them. And they need to show that traditional supporters of the United Workers Party are so frustrated with their own party that they are willing to don red shirts and sing anthems from an era when communism was cool in order to get the country back on track. They already won over a former prospective UWP candidate, Lorne Theophilus. On Sunday, he wore his red shirt like a new skin, quietly and without fanfare taking his place in the auditorium with former political enemies who are plotting to topple his long time friend, district representative Leonard Spider Montoute as Gros Islet’s representative in parliament. Does it sound like enough to justify protracted, debilitating protest action? Does Labour have enough to win a protracted contest for the heart of the people outside of an election year? Maybe, maybe not.

But what they think they have is enough reason to stop regular work, slow down revenue streams and hit the government where it hurts, at a time when it could seem more like sabotage than patriotism.

“Two years have seen St Lucia turn from one of the pinnacles in the Third World to one of the last in terms of poverty in the hemisphere,” Secra Gibson told the faithful. “It is up to every single soldier to get up and take the responsibility to restore the pride of this country.”

“For me it’s a very simple matter,” said outgoing constituency group chairman Ernest Hilaire. “Customs was about to take action against Mondesir. His colleagues found out. They acted to cast a Cabinet conclusion to absolve you of the violation. The courts have found that the action they took is unreasonable. If you find a police in the process of arresting somebody for a crime, and you stop the policeman from arresting that person, you are an accessory, an accomplice. As far as I’m concerned, Cabinet is as guilty as Mondesir and is Mondesir has to pay because he did something wrong, Cabinet must resign because they are equally guilty. So this talk about Mondesir misled Cab makes no sense.”

Anthony himself had almost two dozen reasons why it was better to join next week’s demonstrations rather than allow the UWP government to finish its term quietly. The Daher building, the transfer of Terrance Leonard from the Customs Comptroller’s office in order to protect health minister Keith Mondesir from stiff prosecution, the leaking of information about another Customs prosecution by the Attorney General to Richard Frederick, the IMF loans, the prime minister’s handing out of $80m in direct contracts – you’ve heard it all before.

Of course, the UWP, as disorganized as it is, is not going to just take it lying down. By the time this story is published, their defenses should have already gone up. The word at the Gros Islet constituency group conference meeting was that at Tuesday’s meeting of the Lower House of Assembly, the long awaited Commission of Inquiry report could be tabled by today, Tuesday, giving Flambeau a chance to blow smoke in Labour’s face and remind the general public of why they turned against Labour in 2006.

“The latest is that they have received the commission report and King announces it is about time he start disciplining people in this country,” Hilaire said, mocking King’s lack of moral authority. “He say it’s about time he put his foot down. So he’s going to take action against the SLP. Not his friends who have been involved in all kinds of things. King will put his foot down from tomorrow and he’s going to discipline the SLP. So the first action he wants to take, he’s going to press some charges against Dr Anthony for the security hut. I will wait to see on Monday when he starts disciplining the SLP.”

In the political battle that is about to take place, the United Workers Party needs to draw first blood and strike some decisive blows before the St Lucia Labour Party even starts fighting. But the Labour Party seems to be prepared for a long siege and is encouraging its supporters to dig into their trenches and not let up until they get the result they want.

For some, it is hard to imagine that frustrations are so high that people will come out in large numbers to topple the government. But given the small margin of victory in the 2006 election, Labour doesn’t need to do much to regain the upper hand. And in the aftermath of Tuxedo-gate, the UWP has missed several opportunities to regain some moral authority and prove that its increasing questionable leadership has the spine to withstand a prolonged onslaught. All it takes now is for a couple more things to go wrong for Flambeau and a couple more things to go right for Labour.

Demonstrators march in the street while protesting the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on April 16 2005.

Is the IMF really the big, bad wolf getting ready to huff and puff and blow our house down?
According to the opposition leader Dr Kenny Anthony, the government is leading St Lucia deeper and deeper into the bowels of the bad guy for the first time in this island’s history. Anthony even compared himself to John Compton, saying, “John Compton and I walk the same path when it comes to the IMF.”But the government position is that the IMF’s Exogenous Shocks Facility has conditions so favourable that it would be remiss—not to say foolish—of them not to take advantage of it.

Anthony points out that in spite of the extremely low interest rate, the IMF is still the IMF and history agrees with him that IMF loans hardly ever leave a country in a better place than where it started. He guided reporters to a statement by the deputy director of the IMF Murilo Portugal who has said that the St Lucia government has already agreed to cut costs and raise taxes as part of a program to get in line with the IMF.

The IMF’s macro-economic policies have, in the past, been questionable at best, and disastrous at worst. In the bad old days, IMF prescriptions for ailing economies often included selling off strategic national assets at bargain basement prices, cutting back on social, health and education programs, slashing jobs and raising taxes. The effect was often exactly opposite to what the countries wanted to achieve. The result was that most countries who signed up for loans with the IMF when they were in dire straits never got out of dire straits. Bad IMF.

That was until the IMF decided to revamp its image and respond to growing international calls for a cancellation of the never-ending debt of the Third World. Over the last decade, pressure from activists and NGOs to stop the deliberate impoverishment of the Third World led to widespread cancellation of the monumental debts of countries which had first taken loans from the IMF in the 1970s and sunk deeper and deeper into debt through-out the 1980s and 90s. Eventually, the IMF gave in. Good IMF.

Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist.

Ever since liberating nations in Africa, South East Asia and Latin America from their debts, the IMF has been working assiduously to change the Third World’s view of what it means to do business with the big, bad wolf.Hence, the ESF. In Africa, at least, it worked. Right now, in some countries in Africa, the IMF has a public approval rating of up to 70 percent.

The ESF was actually in place since November 2005, but like other IMF emergency and compensation funds—like the Emergency Post-Conflict Assistance, Emergency Natural Disaster Assistance, and the Compensatory Financing Facility—much of the money went unused in large part because access not as easy and terms were not attractive. (Compensation facilities have been around for quite some time—but they were rarely used by Developing Countries as the assistance was always very slow, expensive and granted only with certain conditions.)

In September of last year, the ESF was revamped to make it easier for countries in need to have rapid access to emergency funding. In April of this year, when Prime Minister Stephenson King first announced St Lucia was borrowing from the IMF, the shock fund was again revamped to make it easier and faster for low-income countries to get and use the funds.

The truth about the ESF is that it isn’t the old IMF. There’s an unbelievably attractive 0.5 percent interest rate, a five-year grace period and 10 years to pay. The ESF is meant for countries with a per capita income of less that US$895 a month, as long as they have no outstanding payments to the IMF. This made 78 countries eligible for ESF concessionary funding. At first a country could borrow up to 50 percent of its quota in the IMF. After two revamps, a country can now borrow up to 150 percent of its quota.

First the country asks for a specific amount of assistance to deal with an exogenous shock. This amount will be granted without being challenged by the IMF. But there is a ‘but’. The country must show there is a balance of payment problem which is the result of a sudden and exogenous shock; the country must show that no structural adjustment is needed; and the country needs to have submitted a preparation status report, plus an analysis in form of a Joint Staff Advisory Note within the previous 18 months. The need for a country to have a poverty reduction strategy paper in place was dropped after the last revamp.

The IMF alone determines how the requested amount will be disbursed. In case a disbursement took place in the absence of a need, the country is expected to repay the amount plus interest within 30 days. If the country fails to repay within that period, “the Managing Director shall promptly submit a report to the Executive Board together with a proposal on how to deal with the matter.” As for the dreaded structural reforms, the IMF board would only say that they “could be less ambitious than under a PRGF arrangement.” (The PRGF is a kind of predecessor to the ESF. Only countries that qualify for PRGF funds can access the ESF.)

That’s quite a few ‘buts’ for money that is supposed to be disbursed quickly and without being challenged. This raised red flags among development experts who worried that the ESF was just a public relations mask for the same old IMF.

Financial and economic analysts pointed out that several things remain unclear. Consultant Jonas Bunte noted that, “The Fund does not provide a specific definition of what exactly constitutes an ‘exogenous shock’. What happens if the shock is a combination of endogenous and exogenous factors as is often the case?” German NGO Erlassjahr was concerned about the definition of what constitutes a shock, the amount of funds that a country requires to tide it over the shock, and the structural adjustment needed to address the underlying cause of the shock are all left “up to the discretionary assessment of the Fund.” Erlassjahr also questions the appropriateness of the timeframe for assistance, eligibility criteria which would exclude many disaster-prone countries, and the sufficiency of the resources available.

It is apparently solely up to the IMF to say what kind of shock would trigger the mechanism. Similarly, no guidelines are available of when a structural adjustment is needed and what criteria it will be based on. In spite of repeated statements by the IMF that it no longer supports ‘hard’ structural adjustment, to many developing countries, it smelt like ‘Bad IMF.’

“It’s not that the IMF instruments are no good,” said Liliana Rojas-Suarez, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. But public perception of the IMF as a tool of US policy ensures that “Latin American countries are not going there.”

The ambiguity over the amount of Fund conditionality that will accompany the ESF also made some consultants worry that it might, like its predecessors, go largely unused.

But in practice, countries have received money relatively quickly under the revamped ESF rules. While Latin American countries have shied away from the ESF, African countries have eaten it up by the hundreds of millions.

Another problem waits in the wings, however, and it could dog the IMF if the global economic crisis, for some reason, does not let up in the next year or two. ESF loans are supposed to be given only for a year or a maximum of two years with repayment starting after five years of the first disbursement. Shocks tend to last longer than a year. A World Bank staff paper revealed that “the maximum effect of a commodity price shock is typically achieved only after about four years.” Additionally, these findings make it difficult comprehend why only one loan will be given for one shock. The question is: Does a continuous decline of prices constitute only one shock—or will such a drop be reassessed after some time?

The maximum total amount available to all countries under the ESF would be $11.6 bn. With $3bn for India, $1.3bn for Nigeria and $0.7bn for Pakistan that would leave an average of $88m for each of the remaining 75 countries and only once over 4 years.

Interestingly, after the Tsunami of 2005 the first assessment of total assistance needed amounted to $977m for six countries: Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Seychelles, Somalia and Sri Lanka. Under the ESF these countries together would have been allowed to request $515m —for all different kinds of shocks occurring through 2009.

In the end, it might not even matter, as the entire $11.6bn is not actually available. The numbers are only theory. At the moment, only $2.8bn in contributions from industrialized countries has been committed in 2009. That’s only 25 percent of the total amount theoretically available to all countries. So not only are there questions about whether the money is enough, there are questions about whether the money has been secured.

But whether they are the good guys or the bad guys, the IMF has responded quickly to the global economic crisis, with lending commitments reaching a record level of $157 billion, including a sharp increase in concessional lending to the world’s poorest nations. The IMF has doubled of concessional assistance in 2009-10 to $3 billion a year to assist low-income countries in dealing with the fallout from the global crisis. By mid-July 2009, new IMF commitments to sub-Saharan Africa topped $2.7 billion. The Fund is reforming its concessional lending instruments to make them more flexible and tailored to the needs of low-income countries. The new lending framework is designed to reduce the stigma attached to taking IMF money.

In addition to the doubling of member countries’ access to funds, there is a new flexible credit line for strong-performing countries and reforms that promise an end to structural conditionality. Nowadays, the IMF says it focuses more on achieving objectives instead of prescribing specific actions like higher taxes and cost cutting.

A rigorous preparation programme is planned over the next three weeks for the weakened, inexperienced West Indies team to the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa.

With the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) choosing not to pick a host of players who, on the advice of the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), declared themselves unavailable for the recent home series against Bangladesh and the subsequent, unexplained dismissal of head coach John Dyson, interim coach David Williams and his staff have an urgent and difficult task getting the 15 players ready.

The build up starts on Sunday at Kensington Oval in Barbados and goes to the following Friday before the team leaves for South Africa and more intense groundwork over 12 days to the start of the September 22-October 5 event at the North West Academy in Potchefstroom, said to be the best sporting facility in the country.

Warm-up matches, against South Africa and New Zealand, have been planned by the ICC leading to the West Indies’ first match in the Trophy proper, a day-night affair against Pakistan at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.

Their other matches in their qualifying group are on September 26 against defending champions, Australia, who beat them in the final in 2006 in Mumbai, and on September 30 against India, day-night, both also at Wanderers.

The two top teams from the two groups advance to the semi-finals.
The 50-overs-an innings tournament comprises seven other teams. All are ranked on the ICC’s ODI table above even the full strength West Indies in spite of their record of winning the championship in England in 2004, with victory over England in the final, and finishing runners-up in 2006, losing to Australia in the final in Mumbai.

Only four members of the West Indies squad have previously played in South Africa – 37-year-old captain Floyd Reifer on the 1998-99 tour, Daren Powell, Darren Sammy and Devon Smith on the last tour in 2007-08. Seven others are on their first senior overseas tours.

Tony Howard, the WICB’s chief cricket operations officer, was at Kensington yesterday ensuring that all was ready for the start of the Barbados leg of the exercise.
“We want to ensure that, as much as possible, every aspect of the game is covered – technique, physical fitness, the psychological side, the team environment,” he said.

A programme on mental preparedness was being prepared for use at the camp by Dr. June Caddle, lecturer in sports management at the Barbados Community College and part-time lecturer at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, Howard added.

By Tony CozierHe said that plans to have star players from the past add their knowledge and experience to the exercise would be coordinated by Joel Garner, president of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) and himself an outstanding player from the glory days of the 1980s when the West Indies did not lose a single Test series,

These would be informal sessions with the team, rather than any coaching as such, he explained.
The West Indies squad: Floyd Reifer (captain), Darren Sammy (vice-captain), David Bernard, Tino Best, Royston Crandon, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Nikita Miller, Daren Powell, Keiron Powell, Kemar Roach, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge, Chadwick Walton. Manager: Lance Gibbs. Coach: David Williams.

Effective from September 1, 2009 , the High Commission of Canada  will accept only machine readable passports for visa applications.

The Canadian  High Commission in a news release has stated that as of that date, persons desirous of applying for a visa must obtain a machine readable passport issued by the Republic of Guyana before submitting their visa application.
The  High Commission has suggested that for information on applying for a new Guyanese passport, persons consult the website:

http://www.gina.gov.gy/gov’t%20services/howtoobtainpassport.html
The hours of service for the Immigration Section to accept completed visa applications are Mondays to Thursdays, 8:30 am – 11:00am, the release stated.
The High Commission said also that persons may visit the website www.trinidadandtobago.gc.ca   for further information on Canadian visa requirements as well as for application forms which are available to be downloaded.

The government is ready to enforce recent legislation and go after persons engaged in illegal vending in St. John’s.

The Police, Immigration and the Labour departments have been engaged in a joint operation to conduct a regular sweep of St. John’s

The exercise is being led by the St. John’s Development Corporation, which drew particular concern to the CD and DVD vendors.

“There has been a proliferation of new vendors plying their trade illegally in St. John’s. Many of these vendors include CD and DVD vendors who pirate copyrighted music and videos,” a press release from the SJDC pointed out.

It said it cannot continue to condone such activities and every effort must be made to rectify this situation.

“Illegal vending in St. John’s is punishable upon conviction by a fine of $5,000 and the police now have the legal authority under the St. John’s Development corporation (Control of Vendors) (Amendment) Regulations, 2009 to arrest without a warrant and to confiscate goods being traded,” the SJDC statement explained.

“Vending in St. John’s is one area of primary focus and the Corporation will be going all out to regulate this activity. Persons who are vending without licences must cease vending immediately,” the corporation stressed.

The SJDC is also calling on persons who are issued permits to vend in St. John’s to do so “in an orderly and structured manner.” It said tables, chairs, trays, crates, tents and all other structures must be removed at the end of the work day.

“These items, when left behind, create a shanty town appearance and denigrate the cityscape. Vendors are informed that failure to remove these items will result in the corporation moving these items at the expense of the vendor,” the statement advised.

In a few weeks, the government will be rolling out a number of public consultations throughout Antigua and Barbuda to get the input of residents on the establishment of new immigration, work permit and citizenship policies.

Communication Officer within the Ministry of National Security Winston Henry said that the committee, which was established to deal with the matter, is currently meeting with interest groups and various associations to get their perspective on the matter.

“We will be moving to the community into five zones: east, west, north, south and central. From those five zones we would be able to go out into the community to get their feedback and that will give us a more hands on approach,” Henry told the AntiguaSun.

Henry explained that although there was a packed house at the national consultation, they believe that there is need to get feedback from a wider cross section of people.

“A number of persons might have wanted to ask a particular question and didn’t simply because of the setting that we had,” he stated. “Because of that, we have decided to move the consultation in a more interactive way to the various constituencies and villages by way of zones and once we would have accomplished that we would then have a wrap up session on the consultation.”

Henry said once the consultations are finished, the committee will move forward and formulate a policy, which will be presented to Cabinet.

Where it may require some legislative changes or amendment, the committtee expects Parliament will play its role.

“We are looking to have the entire consultation process completed by year-end and presentation to the Cabinet at least by December or very early in January,” Henry added.

Statistics released by the Ministry of National Security show that between 1 September 2008 and 12 June 2009, the Immigration Department approved 14,318 applications from persons seeking an extension of time to remain in the country.

The consultations are being facilitated by a committee, which is chaired by Minister of National Security Dr. Errol Cort.

The other members of the Committee include Reverend Dr. Kingsley Lewis and attorney-at-law, E. Ann Henry.

The committee held its first meeting on 1 July 2009 at the Multipurpose Centre.

Children are pleading with Jamaicans to spare them the burden of exposure to adult material and activity before they are mature, Governor General Sir Patrick Allen has said.Addressing the St Ann Homecoming and Heritage Committee Banquet at the Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios two Saturdays ago, Sir Patrick said he has attended three separate functions in recent times where the theme of proper guidance has been poignantly raised.

“I could hear the heart-rending plea of the children, asking adults to let the children grow up, not to be turned into adults before time,” the governor general explained.

Sad commentary

Sir Patrick said it was a sad commentary when children have to appeal to adults for guidance.

“In essence, what we are doing is destroying our future,” he commented.

Using the adage ‘it takes a village to raise a child’, Sir Patrick said a child living with a single parent, or without parents, required the full involvement in guardianship by the community, the Church, the school and others.

The governor general said the Children of Our Village programme, a St Ann Homecoming initiative which assists at-risk children in St Ann’s Bay and its environs, will have far-reaching benefits.

- C.G.