Moontown

Also joining the impressive musical line-up for Saint Lucia Jazz is 22-year old R&B singing sensation, Laura Izibor; the music of popular Cuban ensemble Buena Vista Social Club; the electrifying Haitian kompa band T-Vice; reggae veteran Maxi Priest, along with singing greats Jeffrey Osborne, Freddie Jackson, and Saint Lucia’s own Teddyson John and Ronald “Boo” Hinkson.

Saint Lucia Jazz, considered one of the leading music festivals in the Caribbean and the world, is marking its 19th anniversary this year.

“Saint Lucia Jazz is a spirit-filled experience and we are so happy to add this year’s stars to the long list of international artistes who have previously graced the stage here like John Legend, George Benson, Patti LaBelle, Anita Baker and so many others,” said Saint Lucia’s Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Allen Chastanet. “We are ready to host travelers from all corners of the globe who come to Saint Lucia to experience our legendary spot in paradise,” he added.

The rich dusky tones of jazz, sensual soul, cool calypso, reggae, kompa music and world rhythms gently fuse at Saint Lucia Jazz which features some of the greatest artistes in the music industry.

Saint Lucia Jazz schedule highlights include:

Wednesday, May 5: Fresh on the scene and described as one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s “Artists to Watch”, Irish singing sensation Laura Izibor raises the standard with her self-taught piano skills and sensual vocals. Izibor’s vocals have been compared to greats like Aretha Franklin and Alicia Keys and her writing to that of Carole King and Joan Armatrading. She will perform at Gaiety in Rodney Bay, the island’s epicenter of musical entertainment, featuring local clubs, lounges and restaurants. Laura Izibor will appear on the same stage as renowned guitarist Earl Klugh, who returns to Saint Lucia Jazz after five years; and the Saint Lucia School of Music Jazz Band (Black Ants), a group of young and extremely gifted music students whose repertoire consists of swing, funk, reggae, calypso, salsa, bossa-nova, and other genres.

Thursday, May 6: After a very successful U.S. tour in November, Jean-Luc Ponty, a pioneer and undisputed master of violin in the arena of jazz and rock, is poised to light up the stage at Gaiety. Born in France into a family of classical musicians, Ponty, who has collaborated with the likes of Sir Elton John, has recorded numerous albums which have reached the Top 5 on the Billboard jazz charts and sold millions of copies. He is widely regarded as an innovator who has applied his unique visionary spin to expand the vocabulary of modern music.

Friday, May 7: Three-time R&B Grammy winner Ne-Yo, who has had several Top 10 songs and albums on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 respectively, is preparing for a show stopping performance, which will undoubtedly feature hits “Because of You”, “Closer” and “Miss Independent.”

Saturday, May 8: Having just released her new and popular album, The Sea, British-born singer Corinne Bailey Rae, who won an Album of the Year Grammy, is gearing up to entertain with new hits as well as chart topping favorites like “Put Your Records On” and “Like a Star”.

Sunday, May 9: The eclectic sounds of crooners Jeffrey Osborne, Freddie Jackson, Phil Perry and Howard Hewett will caress the souls of Pigeon Island patrons, before Jamaican and Caribbean music greats Maxi Priest and Shaggy bring Saint Lucia Jazz to an upbeat and memorable conclusion with their incredible repertoire of hits.

Saint Lucia Jazz 2010 will feature a dynamic line-up of other world class musicians, including the young and gifted bassist and vocalist, Esperanza Spalding, and talented African musician Dobet Gnahoré from Côte d’Ivoire. (Caribnet)

Carnival Miracle (right) and Carnival Victory at Port Zante (Photos by Erasmus Williams)

Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Richard Skerritt, who is leading the public sector delegation to the 26th Annual Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention in Miami, Florida, said the four-day event provides an important platform for networking and public relations with those key industry executives who can make a difference to the future of St Kitts’ cruise tourism business, which will pass the half-million passenger mark for the first time this season.

At this year’s show St Kitts joins numerous other ports-of-call and cruise service providers from the Caribbean and around the world, to showcase the island’s wealth of attractions to the global cruise industry.

Top executives from various cruise lines and organizations, including Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Silversea Cruises, Holland America, NCL, Seabourn, the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), among others, are expected to attend the conference.

During the event numerous show attendees are expected to visit the St Kitts booth where representatives of the St Kitts Tourism Authority will provide a first-hand experience of true Kittitian hospitality, offering useful information and answering any questions asked about the island and what it can offer cruise passengers.

Participants will also be attending various seminars, workshops and roundtable discussions covering the state of the industry and related issues, including how destinations can best work with the cruise lines to create improved vacation experiences for cruise passengers, and greater economic impact for cruise destinations.

Public sector officials from St Kitts attending the event are Ministry Advisor, Cedric Liburd; Chairman of the Board of Directors for the St Kitts Tourism Authority (SKTA) – Alphonso O’Garro; Chief Financial Officer of the St Christopher Air and Seaports Authority (SCASPA), Marcellus Phillip; Head of Corporate Affairs and Public Communications of SCASPA, Delcia Bradley-King; Product Standards Manager of St Kitts Tourism Authority, Melnecia Marshall and Product Standards Officer, Vincent Branch.

The Seatrade Cruise Shipping Miami Convention is the cruise industry’s leading annual exhibition and conference. Now in its 26th year, the show serves all service sectors involved in the global cruise industry from shipbuilding through suppliers, technology, operations and Ports-of-call. Its annual Miami location is a vital element in the success of the show, as the city is the primary home port and hub of the cruise industry. In 2009, the show attracted over 10,000 attendees and nearly 1,000 exhibiting companies from over 119 countries. (Caribnet)

“When we think about it, however, the marshalling of our water resources is even more important than the marshalling of oil, gas, mineral or other resources. Civilizations flourished for millennia without fossil fuels, and without natural gas. However, LIFE is not possible without water,” said Douglas during his weekly radio programme “Ask the Prime Minister” which is syndicated on several radio stations.

A 10 inch casing at the mouth of a new well which when put into operation next month will produce 230,000 gallons of water daily

Pointing out that the Caribbean region has many brilliant young minds, Douglas said no matter where one lives in the world, the management of the states’ water resources will continue to be of ever-increasing importance.

“I certainly hope that young people throughout the Caribbean, whose minds gravitate to matters scientific, will consider careers in the area of water engineering, sustainable water management and so on because, when all is said and done, the most valuable resource on earth is that which we, in St Kitts and Nevis, have, for so long, been least dazzled by. Water,” Douglas said.

He added: “Water is needed for industry. Water is needed for agriculture. Water is needed for basic health and survival. Water is needed for everything.”

The St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister said it is anticipated that global warming will issue in periods of longer droughts, followed by periods of excessive and unrelenting rains.

“Not only do we have an obligation to get global warming under control, then – and this is something that Heads discussed in Roseau – but we must, in anticipation of the challenges that lie ahead globally, begin to see water with fresh, informed, and visionary eyes. It is a resource with which we are abundantly blessed – and we must marshall and manage it very carefully,” said Douglas.

He disclosed that the issue of water security was discussed at last weekend’s CARICOM Inter-Sessional by Caribbean Heads of Government.

“The irony is that for most of us in the Federation, who have been used to plentiful supplies of water all our lives, water may seem to be the least valuable of resources. As we know, however, nothing can be further from the truth. Not only is water the basis of all life – but it is well understood at the highest levels of Government all throughout the world, that water in the 21st century will be what oil was in the 20th. It will be a source of great tension and conflict and wars will be fought over it and a mad scramble is on, both within nations and between nations, to establish the rights to it,” said Prime Minister Douglas.

He noted that Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Egypt, are experiencing serious tensions over water. In the United States, relations between California and Arizona are very tense, precisely because of water – ownership of it, access to it, and so on.

Douglas also noted that the Caribbean has been experiencing a drought for several weeks now and although St Kitts and Nevis has received bountiful rains of late, “the challenge of water security is one that we – and all nations – must now view with new eyes.” (Caribnet)

Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo. AFP PHOTO

The Guyanese leader and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Chairman was at the time speaking at a closing press conference of the CARICOM Heads of Government two-day conference in Dominica last Friday where the leaders committed to ‘lead from the front’ with assistance directly to the Haitian Government. This is according to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

The Haitian crisis took centre stage in the discussions as the CARICOM Heads rapped with presidents of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, Inter American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno, and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn Thursday and Friday in Roseau, Dominica.

Speaking to reporters at the end, Jagdeo expressed the belief that it would be careless to urge the multilateral financial institutions and bilateral donors to respect the sovereignty of Haiti and the Region itself is not leading by example.

Hours following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, on January 12, Jagdeo organised a meeting of various stakeholders, which included the opposition political parties, religious and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), at the Office of the President to coordinate a national effort by Guyana to render assistance.

A multi-stakeholder committee was formed, chaired by Minister of Human Services, Priya Manickchand, to oversee the relief effort for the CARICOM country. Jagdeo pledged US$1 million toward the effort.

At that time, Jagdeo had stated that, “Haiti as the poorest country in the western hemisphere is now severely challenged to cope with this tragedy. Haiti needs all countries, including the small developing countries to come to its aid urgently.”

Since then Guyana has sent several containers of donations including items such as rice, biscuits, water, clothing and footwear to the earthquake ravaged country that left about 230, 000 people dead and numerous others homeless.

Many organisations, religious groupings, NGOs and Guyanese citizens have come forward and extended their generosity.

The National Relief Committee has since collected millions, the majority of which came from kind hearted Guyanese.

The committee organised two telethons on the National Communications Network and a television channel in Berbice, while the Women’s Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Human Services in collaboration with other women’s bodies held a walk-a-thon that garnered a significant amount of donations in cash and kind.

CARICOM Heads at the conclusion of the summit agreed on a number of important issues including a call to the international community to show more respect for the Haitian government by providing direct financial assistance to Port-au-Prince, CMC reported.

Ky-Mani Marley’s “Dear Dad” hit booksellers’ stands February 6, when the late reggae icon would have turned 65.

Ky-Mani Marley (AFP photo)

It has quickly become a major headache for this 34-year-old son of Marley.

The author, aware of the family squabbling it could unleash, tried to delay its release, and to tweak the content — but he failed.

Now there is a dispute between Ky-Mani Marley and his editor Farrah Gray, a young businessman of 24 over the veracity of content of the book. Their clash could end up in court, both told media in the United States and Jamaica in recent days.

“The book was not an attack on my family. I love my brothers and sisters more than anyone can know,” Ki-Mani Marley, a Jamaican actor and musician who is a son of Bob Marley and table tennis champ Anita Belnavis, said in a statement on his MySpace page.

The book says on its cover that it contains the “story the Marley family apparently didn’t want you to know.”

Among other themes, the book claims its author was kept from accessing his fathers’ fortune by Marley’s widow Rita. It also claims Rita Marley tried to keep the money for her children with Marley while denying financial support to his children with six other women.

“I did not expect that Dr Gray would have been unprofessional and malicious in twisting my words or using things that were discussed in confidence to create controversy in an attempt to sell a book,” Ky-Mani Marley added.

“During the final edit of the book, I spoke with my sister, Cedella, and I advised Dr Farrah Gray that some changes had to be made and until the changes were made, I was not willing to do any promotion for the book,” the author added.

But the editor was unmoved by what he said was the younger Marley’s backtracking.

“His denials have thrown me and the publishing company under the bus. I didn’t write his book, I published it. This is his story; these are his words and now I have to prove it,” Gray argued.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) – Two months after arguably the worst natural disaster of modern times, Haiti faces further calamity as more than 200,000 quake survivors camp in putrid tent cities at risk of major flooding.

Water is distributed to young Haitians in a camp in Port-au-Prince. AFP PHOTO

The full number made homeless by the January 12 earthquake is far higher, some 1.3 million, but as the rainy season approaches the United Nations regards 218,000 people in 21 Port-au-Prince camps as those most at risk.

“The problem with the rainy season is it is a very indefinite deadline,” Kristen Knutson, a spokeswoman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AFP.

The government is struggling to buy land to set up emergency camps outside the capital, but these fields would take up to six weeks to turn into viable sites and Knutson said moving people outside the capital was a “last resort.”

“Relocation is what people focus on because it’s very visual, you can see the site, and because of all the dynamics of identifying the land, buying the land,” the UN spokeswoman said.

“It’s dramatic. But there are other choices that are available for people and if they are better for people and they are available we want them to take them. We want people to be where they want to be.”

Those with houses still standing are being encouraged to return home, but many are still traumatized by what happened and engineers and architects have to painstakingly assess which buildings are structurally sound.

Others are being advised to move back home and camp if a safe plot can be found, while some 600,000 people have already opted to move in with host families.

Only when those possibilities have been exhausted and no closer site can be found are those at risk in Port-au-Prince flood plains being recommended to relocate outside the capital.

Santo 17, a first planned site with an initial capacity of 1,400 opened Saturday at Croix-des-Bouquets, a town eight miles (13 kilometers) northeast of the capital.

Heavy rains poured fresh misery on Port-au-Prince early Monday and mother-of-six Berta Romelus told AFP she spent a miserable night sleeping on her feet as the rain gushed under her tent.

Even if rain had turned the camp of more than 4,000 homeless in a former football stadium in the suburb of Petionville into a giant latrine, Romelus scoffed at the idea of moving.

“They cannot decide for us, we want to see first where they want to move us. We don’t want to go to Croix-des-Bouquets, it is too far. We want to live close to here. We are going to stay here whatever happens.”

Behind Romelus were the only tents capable of resisting the rains, but these were reserved for children and babies — one was born overnight during some of the heaviest rains since the quake, which killed more than 220,000 people.

Here, anger and discontentment appeared to be growing against the aid workers who the Haitians said paid few visits and asked many questions without providing solutions.

Back at the UN logistics base, though, coordinators were positive they could stave off a second disaster and said they were very confident they would meet a self-imposed May 1 deadline to provide tarps and tents to all in need.

“In terms of shelter we are right on target with the distribution to date,” said OCHA spokeswoman France Hurtubise. “We have covered 63 percent of the people affected, 163,000 households have received tarps or tents for a total of 814,620 people.”

As teams from the International Organization for Migration laboriously trawled the camps to register the particulars of each family, emergency plans were being finalized for flood and hurricane prevention.

But Knutson admitted that all they could really do was provide alternatives and that it would be largely up to the Haitians themselves when the deluges come.

“When the rain starts the population will start making their own decisions about where they want to take themselves. Individual families will make their own choices about where they want to go.

“You have to give them options and try to help the largest amount of people.

“We have time. We don’t have much, but we have some time to prepare better and inform people of what their choices are.” (Caribnet)

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) — Venezuela is not planning to censor the Web or to shut down social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, officials said on Monday, after President Hugo Chavez called for regulation of the Internet.

Opposition leaders, bloggers and media freedom groups are worried Chavez’s socialist government is preparing to clamp down on the networking sites or install tight controls such as those used by Cuba, Iran and China.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. AFP PHOTO

Chavez last week said authorities should act against news and opinion site Noticerodigital after it published user comments claiming that a senior minister had been assassinated. He said the OPEC nation’s laws must apply to the Internet.

The government is also planning to change the structure of the Internet in Venezuela by installing a “unique connection point.” It says such a system is more efficient and provides faster access, but critics worry it will lead to censorship.

“They say the government is looking to control what appears on the Internet, its not like that — but those who use the Internet have to be responsible,” said Manuel Villalba, president of the science and technology commission in the national assembly.

He said the assembly was not planning to change the law to increase state control of the Internet. Attorney General Luisa Ortega, who on Monday opened an investigation into Noticiero Digital, said the assembly should create new legislation.

Under Venezuelan law, owners of media outlets can be punished with jail sentences for publishing incorrect information, Villalba said, but added the government had no intention of banning sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

“That is made up; they are looking to generate opinion. This has never been planned. It’s not true,” Villalba said.

Users of such social networking sites, which are popular in Venezuela among opponents of Chavez to organize protests and disseminate political views, say the government is trying to force the sites to censor members.

“President Chavez…wants speech on this site, or any other via Internet, to be previously censored. It’s like making Twitter, Facebook, or other networks and Internet forums responsible for their users’ messages,” Noticierodigital said, adding that it has over 120,000 contributing members.

Freedom of speech advocates Reporters Without Borders published a global report last week warning of a growing trend toward government attempts to control the Internet in countries from Turkey to Australia.

“Applying restriction to the Internet will not resolve the problem of the diffusion of false news stories. This case serves as a pretext for the government to regulate a space it has not controlled up until now,” said Benoit Hervieu of RSF in a statement about Venezuela on Monday.

In 2007, Chavez refused to renew the license for television station RCTV after it openly supported a coup against him. RCTV is now battling to survive as a cable-only operator.

The government has also put pressure on opposition TV network Globovision to soften its editorial line and last year closed dozens of radio stations for administrative breaches.

“I want to categorically deny that the government wants to put the muzzle on. To say that is just to continue an international campaign to say Venezuela attacks free speech and closes the media,” said Aristobulo Isturiz, a leader of Chavez’s Socialist party.

“This is not about covering anybody’s mouth. It’s about the media acting responsibly.” (Caribnet)