According to the airline’s Vice President of Marketing, Claudio Buncamper, the specials that are being offered is geared towards further demonstrating the airline’s commitment, determination and appreciation for the islands that they serve. He noted that serving these islands for some decades now they have recognized that constantly giving back will serve in further boosting the excellent relationship that they share with their brothers and sisters in these islands.

“We though it best to have a special implemented for these events as we are cognizant of the level of support and patronage that we receive. As such, we have decided to have this sizzling special which I am sure is a true demonstration of our continued commitment,” Buncamper said.

He disclosed that fares will start as low as US$4 one-ways to Saba, US$11 to St. Maarten and US$16 to St Eustatius. He however noted that seats are very limited urging the traveling public to make full and advantageous use of the special which he said has special conditions. In giving an insight into the special conditions that applies, Buncamper said that fares are flight specific, seats are limited while he noted that they can be purchased at Winnair sales offices in St Maarten, Saba, St Eustatius and On-line.

He added that fares are non changeable, non refundable pointing out that airport taxes and surcharges have been excluded along with service fees. Boasting about his company’s impressive track record of being a community oriented airline, Buncamper said that they recognizes that to forge a lasting relationship such as his a company certainly needs to ensure that they play a pivotal role in the community development of the various islands.

“It is a partnership and therefore we do not only seek to maintain a business but rather we seek to maintain a relationship as we strongly feel that it will help in enhancing our service while ensuring that we can make a meaningful contribution to the island’s growth and development,” he noted.

Buncamper also joined with the airline’s Managing Director, Edwin Hodge in wishing residents and citizens of these islands a joyful and safe celebration of their annual day urging them to continue seeking ways in boosting the relationship between themselves and the airline.

“Migration not infrequently gets a bad press. Negative stereotypes, portraying migrants as ‘stealing our jobs’ or ‘scrounging off the taxpayer’, abound in sections of the media and public opinion especially in time of recession”. That is the opening sentence of the United Nations Human Development Report 2009.

Sir Ronald Sanders is a business executive and former Caribbean diplomat who publishes widely on small states in the global community. Reponses to: www.sirronaldsanders.com

The report goes on to say that “fears about migrants taking the jobs or lowering the wages of local people, placing an unwelcome burden on local services, or costing the taxpayer money, are generally exaggerated”. The Report asserts, “when migrants’ skills complement those of local people, both groups benefit” and it makes the point that “the policy response to migration can be wanting. Many governments institute increasingly repressive entry regimes, turn a blind eye to health and safety violations by employers, or fail to take a lead in educating the public on the benefits of immigration”.

Little wonder, then, that immigration in most countries has become a political problem. In the absence of factual information on the benefits of immigration to societies, the view prevails that immigration is harmful.

When some governments release figures on the number of migrants who have entered a country, there is seldom, if ever, a simultaneous release of the number of people who have left.

In many places, if the flow of migrants was mostly out and little in, the economies would soon be in trouble as the population shrinks resulting in fewer skills, a smaller labour force, less demand for goods and services and less money circulating in the economy.

The global flow on migrants is also vastly overestimated by the majority of the world’s people particularly because accurate information is not only sparse; it is simply not made available to the public. For example, the UN Report reveals that the global figure for international migrants in the world’s population has stayed at only 3 per cent over the past 50 years.

However, there are some regions of the world where outward migration has a peculiarly negative impact because of the type of people who migrate, and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) is one such region where there is a heavy outflow of tertiary educated people to the developed countries particularly Britain, Canada and the United States. Commonwealth Secretariat figures show that among the CARICOM countries that have lost more than 75% of their tertiary educated graduates are Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

Unless these countries can produce enough tertiary educated graduates to retain a sufficient number for their own development needs, not only will the public and private sectors suffer from a paucity of knowledge-based skills and entrepreneurial insights, but their economies will become uncompetitive and will decline. The case for more investment in education and human resource development is therefore compelling.

It is a case that should be developed by the CARICOM Secretariat and jointly advanced by CARICOM countries to the International Financial Institutions, such as the World Bank, and the developed countries that benefit from this migration, to make a significant grant contribution to education in the region.

There is, of course, another side to the immigration story, and that is remittances sent back home from migrants abroad. In the 53-nation Commonwealth, remittances have become extremely important. They are greater than official development assistance and second only to foreign direct investment (FDI). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reckons that total global remittances in 2008 were $328 billion as against official development assistance of $120 billion.

All CARICOM countries benefit from remittances. The leaders in 2008 in terms of remittances per head of population were Jamaica ($826), St Kitts-Nevis ($760), Barbados ($659), Grenada ($603), Dominica ($412), Guyana ($365) and Antigua and Barbuda ($305). But, it is clear that in 2009, the remittance figure declined indicating that immigrants were among the principal sufferers in the countries to which they had migrated. Many of them lost jobs or were constrained to accept lower wages and, thus, had less money to send back home. In this connection, while remittances are important to the economies of many Caribbean countries, active policies for attracting investment from the Caribbean Diaspora have to be developed for the medium term.

Within CARICOM, the problem of migration has become a vexed one in the context of the current global recession. As the 2009 UN Human Development Report stated: “The current recession has made migrants particularly vulnerable. Some destination country governments have stepped up the enforcement of migration laws in ways that can infringe on migrants’ rights”.

It is a human reaction to try to secure the interests of citizens over migrants at a time of crisis, particularly when the migrant community is substantial as in the cases in CARICOM of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Even though the CARICOM Treaty acknowledges “Freedom of movement of People”, it is impractical to simply rely on that as a justification for migration. CARICOM ought to be considering a more practical and realistic approach to the issue until such time as a Single Market and Economy is fully completed.

One way of doing this would be to develop a regional mechanism under which there would be a partnership between countries of origin and destination, supervised by a Council of appropriate officials, to manage migration based on labour needs with full respect for the rights of workers and their families by the destination countries.

In early November, the former Prime Minister of Jamaica, P J Patterson, quietly began the Chairmanship of a Commission on Migration and Development. The Commission is an initiative of the Ramphal Centre in London, named after the Caribbean’s former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal.

The Patterson Commission is in its fledgling stage and it is still be to be funded fully, but the meeting attended by representatives of the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat and other multilateral organisations displayed every sign of new thinking on the issue.

The task before it is huge, but Patterson has the gravitas in the international community to make the Commission’s report a seminal document in the international discourse on how the issue of migration should be tackled to maximise its benefits.

Following a first successful implementation phase, the European Union and the ACP Group of States agreed to set aside 200 million euros to continue activities to improve access to sustainable and affordable energy services for the poor, while contributing to the fight against climate change by focusing on renewable energy solutions and energy efficiency measures.

European Commissioner for Development, Karel De Gucht. AFP PHOTO

Karel De Gucht, European Commissioner for Development, declared: “If we are going to see real economic and social development for the world’s poorest, there must be access to reliable energy services. The Energy Facility will contribute to helping to reach this goal whilst also encouraging greater energy efficiency and clean energy solutions which are critical as developing nations also take-up the fight against climate change.”

In most of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, access to sustainable and modern energy services is as low as 10% in rural areas. Besides, the use of traditional fuels, which generate indoor air pollution, may cause health problems and death. It also leads to environmental degradation as a consequence of deforestation due to the misuse of natural resources used for these fuels.

The new Energy Facility will tackle these issues by co-financing projects to increase access to improved energy services for the rural poor in ACP countries. In line with the fight against climate change, the Energy Facility will give priority to projects encouraging the use of renewable energy sources, such as solar systems, wind farms, hydro power, biomass (bio-fuel and biogas) and geothermal systems as well as promoting energy efficiency in public and private buildings, for example the replacement of energy-consuming light bulbs with more efficient ones.

The Energy Facility will also fund operations in support of governance and capacity building in the energy sector at local, national and regional level. The new Energy Facility will co-finance projects through calls for proposals, the first one being launched in November, and two new co-financing instruments, namely a pooling mechanism involving financing institutions and the private sector as well as financial support to energy governance through the EU Energy Initiative- Partnership Dialogue Facility.

The Energy Facility has already proven its efficiency in leveraging millions of co-financing from the private sector, NGOs, EU Member States and international financial institutions. Almost 7 million people have benefitted from the 74 projects financed from the ACP-EU Energy Facility for a total amount of 196 million euros out of the total project costs of 430 million euros, while mobilising more than 230 million euros of co-financing from the public and private sectors. 97% of the funded projects focused on energy generation based on renewable sources and hybrid solutions. The new Energy Facility, empowered with new co-financing instruments, is expected to reach even more beneficiaries living in rural and peri-urban areas.

The figures were quoted in the ‘Outlook for the Global Economy and Caribbean Tourism’ which was done by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company in England. The report places Guyana above other countries with over six percent increase for the period. Jamaica and Cuba recorded under four percent increase while other countries including the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Dominica, Curacao, Martinique, Puerto Rico, United States Virgin Islands, Belize and St Lucia recorded significant decreases.

Guyana Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manniram Prashad. GINA Photo

Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Manniram Prashad noted that Guyana is now number one in the Caribbean in terms of increases in tourist arrivals over 2008.

“We have been vindicated in what we have been saying all along that Guyana has seen an increase in arrivals for 2009. At the end of October we had figures close to nine percent and at the recent meeting held in St Lucia, (the CTO meeting), Guyana came in for high praise in terms of having increased its arrivals over 2008. Most of the countries have suffered a decline in tourist arrivals up to October,” the Minister said.

According to the report, “The Caribbean has borne the brunt of the economic downturn with double-digit declines in visits across the majority of destinations. Only Guyana, Jamaica, Cuba and Saba have registered increases for the year.”

He expressed his gratitude for the work of stakeholders in the industry including tour operators and hotel and resort owners, in facilitating the improvements in the sector. He pointed out that what remains to be done is to concentrate on the quality of the service provided since Guyana has been ranked highly in the report.

The Minister pointed out that there has been much work in ensuring that Guyana’s tourism sector is diversified to offer alternative avenues including birding, sport fishing, town days, and regattas.

“We are happy with the growth in tourism, we are happy with the quality and the improvement that we have seen in tourism,” the Minister said.

Expanding tourism

New areas have been developed in recent times to include birding which has opened a new horizon for Guyana facilitating a steady flow of visitors. The Ministry in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Guyana Trade and Investment Support (GTIS) programme a birding programme was developed.

“Birding has taken off, there are a lot of birders came this year and last year and we expect more and more to come next year,” Prashad said.

Birding is now one of the main attractions in the sector with visitors from Europe and other parts of the world coming to enjoy the 800 species of birds in Guyana.

Guyana has been featured in birding magazines which have touted the country as one of the best birding tourism destinations in the world.

“We would need to have more resorts in the birding areas especially in that corridor where we have the Iwokrama field station, Surama, Rock View and Karanambo. Most of those resorts are booked until 2010,” the Minister said.

Staycation

Prashad pointed out that to encourage more local tourism; private sector has been getting involved in promoting the idea of ‘Staycation’.

“Recently we saw the Aracari Resort launching their Staycation concept which we have been talking about. President Jagdeo at the tourism summit some time ago made the call for affordable domestic tourism, that is what staycation is all about, we are encouraging Guyanese instead of going abroad to travel within Guyana, see all the beautiful locations that we have,” Prashad said.

Increased air travel

The increase in visitors and returning Guyanese has prompted several changes in the airline industry with several airlines putting on additional flights.

“There will be additional flights by Delta throughout the Christmas season, they would have a flight per day, and Caribbean Airlines would be increasing sometimes two to three flights per day,” the Minister said.

He also pointed out that Titan Tours would be continuing on December 7 with their one-hop non-stop flight from Toronto every week until the end of the holiday season. Sky Service will also be offering once weekly flights from Toronto to Guyana, the Minister said.

Meanwhile, the Minister said that the Ministry is looking forward to welcoming visitors during the upcoming Christmas season.

“We expect this to be one of the biggest and brightest Christmas ever. We are assured that the electricity supply will be good, that’s an area of concern, we are assured that we will have a bright Christmas,” Prashad said.

He was speaking at a Food and Agriculture Organization forum convened to review the draft report on the Rapid Assessment of the Agricultural Sector, which was carried out in October by the FAO.

Cartwright confirmed that The Bahamas imports 80 per cent of its food.

Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Resources Minister Lawrence ‘Larry’ Cartwright. (BIS photo/Letisha Henderson)

“It is important that a development plan be drawn up to guide our efforts in increasing food production in the country,” said Cartwright. “Therefore, the importance of this meeting cannot be over-emphasized.”

A goal of the FAO assessment is the drafting of a five-year plan for the growth and development of agriculture.

“It is important that this plan should be the result of actual studies conducted in the major farming communities across the country,” he said. “It is important that you, the stakeholders, play an integral part in writing this plan.

”Your views and comments are essential to making this one that has been generated by and responds to the actual needs, rather than the assumed needs of the farming community and one that represents a cross section of the views, opinions and aspirations in the agricultural sector.”

Attending the discussions included representatives from Government ministries dealing with food, nutrition and agriculture, local governments, private sector organizations, and individual experts.

FAO was invited to undertake a rapid assessment of the agricultural and fisheries sectors within The Bahamas, with a view to providing a thoughtful response to the food crisis.

Although international food prices have come down from their 2008 peaks, they are still higher than they were in 2006 and are likely to remain volatile, Cartwright explained.

While net exporting countries will benefit and experience higher terms of trade and more income, he noted, net importing countries like The Bahamas will face lower terms of trade and have to pay a larger food import bill.

The FAO’s Soaring Food Prices and Rapid Assessment Initiatives allowed many countries to respond adequately and competently to the crisis, he said.

Last month’s assessment exercise included a review of the policy and program documentation, an environmental scan, and area inspections throughout The Bahamas.

Five assessment teams, headed by FAO consultants, interviewed farmers and agri-business persons in New Providence, Abaco, Andros, Eleuthera, Exuma, Grand Bahama and Long Island.

”The drafting of a five-year plan for growth and development in the agricultural sector is…the work, responsibility and business of all involved in food production,” he said.

It could be argued, he said, that the present status of agriculture in The Bahamas and the many challenges the sector faces “are the result of a lack of any planning at all, over several generations,” said Cartwright.

”Ad hoc and crisis management of the agricultural sector is not sustainable. The state of the sector today requires the prudent and efficient use of resources.

“If we are to get anywhere in agriculture in the medium term, that is, in the next five years or so, we have to decide, today, where we are going and the path that we must take to get there.

“The tasks you perform are essential to our formulation of a comprehensive and thoughtful policy on agriculture. The immediate and medium term issues that are to be addressed are matters of greatest urgency. You are the most important actors in this process. Your role is not only pivotal, it is a historic one.

“Depending on the outcome of your deliberations today, this convocation could be a watershed for agriculture, a positive turning point in our fortunes.”

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (Reuters) — Hurricane Ida weakened to a tropical storm as it churned through eastern Nicaragua on Thursday after cutting power and ripping roofs on little-developed Caribbean islands.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from flimsy homes on the Corn Islands, near the port of Bluefields, as Ida drenched the remote Miskito coast with heavy rain. The US National Hurricane Center warned of floods and mudslides.

View of a house knocked down by Hurricane Ida in Corn Island, Nicaraguan Caribbean. AFP PHOTO

At 7 p.m. EST Ida’s maximum winds slowed to near 40 mph and the storm is expected to become a tropical depression Thursday night. “Ida is now barely a tropical storm,” the Miami-based NHC said, though it warned that heavy rainfall was a major concern.

“These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides,” the center said.

The storm was heading north-northwest about 55 miles north of the port of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.

Ida is expected to regain strength after it moves back over the Caribbean sea on Saturday, and could enter the oil and gas-rich Gulf of Mexico next week.

General Mario Perez-Cassar, Nicaragua’s civil defense chief, said strong winds ripped roofs and knocked out power in Big Corn Island and Little Corn Island, home to shrimp and lobster fishermen.

“They are without power, all the electric lines are down, there are trees on the roads and no running water,” Perez-Cassar told local television.

The NHC said Ida could produce up to 20 inches of rain as it moves over eastern Nicaragua and into Honduras.

Nicaragua and Honduras are important coffee exporters, and harvesting has been under way since October, but farms are mainly in mountainous areas further inland.

Persistent heavy rain could knock ripe cherries off coffee trees if the storm moves inland, however, and mudslides could cut off roads to coffee farms, Luis Osorio, technical director at the national coffee council, said on Wednesday.

Nicaragua is also a key sugar grower, but plantations are nearer the Pacific coast, well away from the storm’s path, and growers did not see a serious impact on production.

At worst the harvest, due to start on November 11, could be delayed a few days by rain, said Mario Amador, head of the national sugar producers’ association. He added that Nicaragua should have no problem filling its sugar export quotas to Mexico, which faces a shortfall this year.

Nearly 2,000 people in the Corn Islands and Sandy Bay were evacuated to shelters before Ida hit. “We are expecting serious impact on infrastructure,” Perez-Cassar said.