Moontown

A doctor at the hospital in the central city of Santa Clara said Guillermo Farinas was conscious and receiving fluids intravenously. But he was being examined for possible kidney problems in the 17th day of his hunger strike demanding the release of 26 political prisoners in Cuban jails.

Guillermo Farinas (R) stands up helped by doctor Ismel Iglesias at his home in Santa Clara, Cuba, on March 10 (AFP photo)

It was not clear when he could leave the hospital, where he was rushed on Thursday after fainting at his Santa Clara home.

Farinas, 48, an opponent of Cuba’s communist government, stopped eating and drinking liquids a day after the Feb. 23 death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo in an 85-day hunger strike for better prison conditions.

Zapata’s death provoked international condemnation of Cuba’s government and demands that it release its estimated 200 political prisoners.

Farinas’ fellow dissidents have urged him to abandon his hunger strike, but he has said he is prepared to die if Cuba’s authorities do not accede to his demand.

The Cuban government has said it will not be “blackmailed” by Farinas nor take the blame if he dies, but it likely wants to avoid a repeat of Zapata’s death.

At Cuba’s request, Spain this week offered asylum to Farinas, but he refused.

On Thursday, the 27-nation European Union’s parliament overwhelmingly voted to denounce the “avoidable and cruel” death of Zapata and expressed concern at Farina’s “alarming state.”

Cuba’s National Assembly responded with a statement accusing Europe of “great cynicism.” It vowed to resist international pressure for political change.

On Friday, Communist Party newspaper Granma said the European Parliament had aligned itself “directly with the current ferocious political and media campaign against Cuba, which seeks to make patriots of mercenaries and criminals.”

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, addresses the Jamaica-United Kingdom Investment Forum staged by Jamaica Trade and Invest today, March 11, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London. (JIS photo)

He made the revelation on Thursday at the Jamaica Trade and Invest (JTI) UK-Jamaica Investment Forum in London.

Shaw, who is in London attending a series of investment and finance events, said he met with representatives of Tate and Lyle on Wednesday (March 10) and will be holding follow-up meetings tomorrow (March 12), to advance discussions.

Shaw told JIS News that the interest from Tate and Lyle comes against the background of a European revival of interest in cane sugar.

He said any partnership struck with the company, which has been involved in the processing and marketing of sugar for over 200 years, would be an exciting one.

“They are looking at some kind of partnership with local entities. They have been the final processors and marketers of much of the sugar that comes from Jamaica. I think it would be very interesting as they would bring to the investment their own technology and their marketing expertise, which would work well with local investors in Jamaica,” he stated.

He said any proposal by Tate and Lyle would be considered within the overall competitive arena when the final decision is to be made.

“We have interest from and we have been doing business with Eridania in Italy and strong private sector entities in Jamaica. We welcome the interest from Tate and Lyle as they have had a long history with Jamaica’s sugar industry and when we get to the appropriate stage they will be considered among all others,” the Minister stated.

Declaring that “sugar in Jamaica is not dead,” he said that Jamaica’s sugar industry offers exciting prospects for the future and it is encouraging to see the major players in the industry showing renewed interest.

He said two of the five government-owned sugar estates that have already been divested have been showing strong improvements and transformation under new private sector ownership. He expressed confidence that with the interest being shown by Tate and Lyle and others, the sugar industry would return to profitability once again becoming a major source of jobs and a leading foreign exchange earner for the Jamaican economy.

Long Pond in Trelawny and Duckenfield in St Thomas have already been sold while the Government is eagerly seeking to ink deals for the divestment of Frome, Westmoreland; Monymusk, Clarendon, and Bernard Lodge in St Catherine.

The sugar divestment programme is being spearheaded by Aubyn Hill of consultancy firm Corporate Strategies Limited. It is expected to remove billions of dollars in expenditure from the public purse while modernising the industry and securing the jobs of workers.

Shaw was the main presenter at the UK-Jamaica Investment Forum. Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Brian Wynter and Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce,  Michael Stern also made presentations.

Shaw will address the Jamaican community in London at a specially organised meeting at Westminster on Friday evening. He returns to the island on Saturday. (Caribnet)

UNITED NATIONS, USA (Reuters) — The United Nations is struggling to provide support to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, as donor nations have been slow to hand over much-needed aid, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said on Thursday.

The UN launched a “flash”, or emergency, appeal for $562 million from member nations days after the magnitude 7.0 quake on Jan 12., nearly half of which was to be spent on food.

A revised appeal was launched in February to raise a total of $1.4 billion in order to continue to finance emergency relief work, also to fund recovery and reconstruction work in the country.

“We did extremely well on raising funds for the initial flash appeal, but we are struggling, I’m afraid, to raise resources for the revised appeal,” Holmes told.

“We have got 49 percent of what we need for the whole year and we are appealing to donors to come forward with more resources for that relief operation,” he said.

UN officials have said they would reiterate the urgent need for more money at a donors conference on Haiti in New York later this month, which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend.

Haiti is facing the upcoming threat of both the rainy and hurricane seasons, while trying to recover from the earthquake, which killed thousands.

The UN has a mandate to provide security in Haiti and is taking over humanitarian relief as US and other foreign troops depart.

Acting UN mission chief Edmond Mulet said earlier this week it would probably be impossible to know exactly how many people died, but he believed the toll was not less than than 220,000 or 230,000. (Caribnet)

Kristy Ramnarine kramnarine@trinidadexpress.com

last resort: Residents of Lachoos Road, Penal, during their protest for water recently. -Photo: KRISHNA MAHARAJ

In a quiet neighbourhood in the heart of Petit Valley, residents have been tapping into a natural water source for many years. It’s a water source they guard jealously, especially now so in the middle of T&T’s current water woes.

’Do not take any pictures of that spring,’ yelled one angry resident when the Sunday Express, trying to find out how people were coping with water shortages, discovered this ’open secret’.

Another resident questioned: ’Who send allyuh, WASA (Water and Sewerage Authority)? WASA…send allyuh, so that they could come and take our water?’

Francis Williams, a joiner living in the area, said the spring has caused controversy for years now.

’People always trying to come and take our water,’ he said. ’The spring does have bachannal. Leave the spring alone. We don’t want to lose our water supply. We are supposed to have water on Fridays and Mondays but sometimes, we don’t have water for two to three weeks. People in this area rely on the spring to do everything, and it have people who trying to get the spring.’

While these residents in Petit Valley rely on a spring to supply them with water, at Lachoos Road in Penal, villagers depend on water from a pond. Only protest action gets them pipe-borne water, and then only for as long as the protest lasts.

The area last got water on February 26, said resident Tara Deodath; the last time residents protested the lack of water. ’We have no water since. Thank God for the nearby pond where we can go and get water,’ she said.

’We bathe, wash and flush toilets with the pond water, but we can’t cook with it. We have to buy bottled water to do that.’

Newly appointed WASA CEO Dr Jim Lee Young said in an interview two Fridays ago the utility was working on improving its schedule to ensure reliability and predictability in its service.

Trinidad and Tobago’s reservoirs recorded less than 25 per cent of the forecast rainfall for February. The latest data provided by WASA showed only 9.9 mm of rain was recorded in Arena (Dam), 3.20 mm in Navet, 6.9 mm in Hollis and 4.43 mm in Hillsborough.

Lee Young said surface water, which accounts for 60 per cent of WASA’s production, will last until the end of May to June.

’We also get 30 per cent of our water from our groundwater sources, and the remaining ten per cent is desalinated water. Our projections are that once we continue to see a reduction in demand/ consumption by members of the public, we continue to aggressively go after the leaks in our system and our focus on winning new water, we will remain in a favourable position when compared to our neighbours in the region,’ he said.

Extreme drought weather conditions being experienced in the Eastern Caribbean are expected to continue during March says Adrian Trotman, chief of Applied Meteorology and Climatology at the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology.

In a telephone inter

view from Barbados, Trotman said:

’We had an absolutely horrific February when it comes to rainfall, so the region is really, really in serious trouble right now. March has not started any better. I expect the same conditions to continue in March.’

Trotman said most of the countries in the Eastern Caribbean have been experiencing extreme drought conditions since October 2009.

’When you look at the Eastern Caribbean as a whole, from October, we started to get below-normal rainfall,’ he said.

’In the Eastern Caribbean, October is traditionally the wettest month in the year. Over the three-month period, October to December, there were very dry conditions.

From January and February, which is during the dry season, rainfall was also below average. The situation has even spread further north in the region.’

El Nino-one of the weather conditions contributing to the present dry spell in the region-is expected to continue through March to May.

’The El Nino conditions may not subside until about May, but that’s not the sole parameter we look at in forecasting the weather; it’s one of them. We have to now compare this to what is going on in the Northern Atlantic,’ said Trotman.

’Within the next few days, we will be working on the latest weather models for the region. We will be producing the rainfall outlook for the next three months. We do it every two months. The last one was done for January to March. We’ll have a new one for March to May. After this is done, we’ll be in a better position to say whether there will be an improvement in the next three months.’

Trotman said the region experienced similar weather conditions in the periods 2002-2004 and 1997-1998. (Trinidad Express)

Kevin Baldeosingh

acclaimed psychic: Yesenia Gonzalves

’The gift of prophecy and the office of prophet no longer exist,’ says Pastor Amresh Semurath of the Reformed Evangelical Church. Similarly, Pastor Afzal Ali of the Faith Centre holds that while his church believes in prophecy, they do not believe in prophesying. ’You can’t rely on a man’s voice, for how do you know he’s speaking the truth?’ he asks.

However, Pastor Ethelbert Charles, the assistant bishop of the Pentecostal Assembly of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, has an opposing view. ’Prophets are part of the ministry of Jesus Christ,’ he asserts.

In a telephone interview, Ali explained while the Old Testament backed prophets, this was no longer necessary in the New Testament. ’In Old Testament times, nothing was written down,’ he says. ’But in the New Testament, we can rely on the written word. There is no longer any need for prophets because you can read God’s word for yourself.’

Semurath went further, saying, ’Anyone who claims the office of prophet is making an unwarranted claim.’ However, both men emphasised they were speaking only for their particular churches. ’I can’t speak generally for all evangelicals,’ Semurath explained, ’because some views are changing.’

The Pentecostals, according to Charles, believe prophets are ’anointed by the Holy Spirit’ to give ’words of exaltation’ (edifying the church) and ’words of correction’ (to guide the society). Charles emphasises though that everything a prophet says must be assessed by the members of the church and must align with the Bible.

Ali and Semurath asserted the Bible was the only reliable source of prophecy (See sidebar). Ali said, ’We are foretelling events using God’s word, rather than being inspired by some feeling. When people speak from some inspiration, that is not it.’

And what about persons who claim special insights to offer advice to persons in public office? Semurath responded: ’The Bible gives us no warrant for that. A person who is a Christian must have some basis for their claims in the Bible. If it’s not in the Bible, it has to be rejected.’ But Charles says the Bible has prophets who advised kings. ’I believe that political leaders should be guided by someone spiritual,’ he says, ’because a man or woman of God hears from God.’

So what about the secular equivalent to prophets-psychics? ’They are not influenced by the Holy Spirit,’ says Charles, ’and what doesn’t come from God is sin.’ However, most psychics in Trinidad and Tobago claim their gift is given by God. But can they really predict the future?

The best-known individual in T&T is Venezuelan Yesenia Gonzalves, who is typically described as ’known for her accurate predictions’.

In August 2001, in an article in the Sunday Express, she made 13 statements or predictions for the following year. None came true, Among Yesenia’s wrong predictions for 2002 were:

1. The prime minister will be placed under

house arrest.

2. A new Constitution will be filed that will change the whole political arena.

3. A high United National Congress official will

seize power by constitutional means.

4. The president will have more power than

the prime minister. He will dictate to the

prime minister.

5. The presidency will be by force and the

people will be afraid of this dictator.

6. Politicians will not ascend to power through voting.

7. There will be massive protests, buildings will burn.

8. Someone high in government will die in what appears to be an accident.

9. The image of the People’s National Movement

changing politically to a more positive point.

10. There would be an attempt to kill Panday

on his way to a court matter.

Yesenia thus had an accuracy rate, if we count the general statements as not wrong, of just 14 per cent. She also said in a November 7, 2007 Express article the Third World War will begin between 2008 and 2010, and there would be a disease worse than AIDS which would kill millions of people.

In scientific tests of ESP, even if a person guesses the shapes on cards 50 per cent of the time, this is rated as no more than chance (in the same way as if you flip a coin a thousand times, it will land on heads or tails about half the time). However, human beings suffer from what psychologists call ’confirmation bias’: they remember the accurate predictions and forget the wrong ones, even though the latter are always more (See sidebar).

It should be noted that Yesenia’s specific predictions are almost always wrong. Other well-known local psychics such as Solomon Babu or Sean Harribance have no better records. One individual who has recently become popular, largely because he has been featured in the print media, is businessman Winston Ragoo, who now has a talk show on 91.1 FM. Last Wednesday (March 10), one caller to the programme who claimed to be an ex-worker accused Raghoo, who owns a trucking company, of owing him money. Ragoo denied this and told a story of continuing to employ a driver who had wrecked a truck. ’It cost me thousands of dollars, but I still sent him back out the next day. You know, he get into another accident, and I still kept him on.’

The story was intended to illustrate how well Ragoo treats his employees: but as a psychic, didn’t he see these accidents coming? (Trinidad Express)

Several rivers which feed into the Water and Sewerage Authority’s Caroni-Arena System are now off limits to the public.

In a release, the Authority said that with the Meteorological Services declaring on Friday that T&T was now officially in a drought, the abstraction, drawing, diversion, using or otherwise taking of water from these rivers was strictly prohibited, effective immediately. These rivers are: Tumpuna River, Talparo River, Guanapo River, Arima River, Caroni River, Carapo (Manical) River and Mausica River.

The Authority is empowered to take this step under the Water and Sewerage Act Chap.54:40 and the Waterworks and Water Conservation Act Chap. 54:41.

The Caroni Reservoir, which provides 35 per cent of T&T’s water needs with estimated capacity of 8.5 billion gallons of water, is now at 45 per cent of its capacity; and this is steadily falling due to the lack of rainfall, high rate of evaporation and the level of illegal abstractions, WASA said.

WASA also strictly prohibits the abstraction, drawing, diversion, using or otherwise taking of water from other rivers, the release said. These rivers are: Tompire River, Aripo River, North Oropouche, Caura River, Acono River, Lluengo River, Naranjo River, Maraval River, Tyrico River, Las Cuevas River and Blanchisseuse River

The Authority noted that to ensure the protection and long term sustainability of the country’s diminishing water resources, all individuals, organisations and companies are required by law to obtain a licence to abstract water from any surface water or ground water source in Trinidad and Tobago. This licence can be obtained from the Water Resources Agency at 179-181 Eastern Main Road, Barataria. The Agency can be reached at telephone 662-2302 ext. 6649. (Trinidad Express)

Sunday, March 14th 2010

angry: Karen Nunez Tesheira

Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira on Friday night lashed out at Opposition MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh, claiming that he, Gopeesingh, said that she, Tesheira, killed her husband for insurance money.

As Nunez-Tesheira wound up the Finance Bill, 2010 just before 9 p.m, she sought to justify an attack by the Government on Gopeesingh through Works Minister Colm Imbert who had raised a past matter regarding Gopeesingh’s tenure at the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA). The matter has been dismissed in court.

Nunez-Tesheira said Government needed to remind the population of the conduct of Opposition members. As she continued her contribution, she paused, saying:

’Madame Deputy Speaker, I’m going to have to ask, even though it was said with me standing, I have to say that Caroni East said that I killed my husband for his insurance money.’

Gopeesingh immediately denied the charge but Nunez-Tesheira shouted, ’You did say that, you said that, Caroni East!’

Angrily, she continued:

’They want to be on this side and so every woman and every wife and every mother and every child is disgusted by you Caroni East. Imagine, I am a widow and he sit there and say I killed my husband for the insurance money. They are the ones who want to be on this side, Madame Deputy Speaker!’

The Chamber erupted in crossfire with Government members shouting ’Shame!’

Deputy House Speaker Penelope Beckles interjected:

’Honourable Members, would you all like me to suspend the sitting so we can cool down for a little while. Honourable Member for Caroni East, I did not hear the allegation but if you did say it you are saying you did not say that?’

’Madame Deputy Speaker, I heard it,’ immediately shouted Imbert, Leader of Government Business in the House.

Opposition MPs defended Gopeesingh saying he did not make the comment.

Said Nunez-Teshiera: ’I’m not surprised that he would deny it and I would not detain the sitting of the Parliament on that, I know what I heard and I will move on.’

Nunez-Tesheira’s husband, Russell Tesheira died on April 13, 2004, shortly after undergoing surgery.

He was CLICO’s vice-president of sales and agencies’ administration.

The Finance Minister had taken legal action against Gulf View Medical Centre claiming $20 million in compensation, alleging that her husband was put at risk when doctors performed transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) surgery on him. (Trinidad Express)