Moontown

CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez decreed three extra days off in the week before Easter to save electricity and water amid an energy crisis that is threatening to collapse the power grid.

“The objective isn’t for people to be lazy, rather to save energy,” Chavez said on Wednesday on state television. “Don’t forget to turn off the lights and close the faucet.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. AFP PHOTO

Chavez declared a national power emergency Feb. 8. He implemented rolling blackouts in most of the country and threatened to suspend power to businesses that don’t curb consumption by 20 percent.

A severe drought is draining the South American country’s reservoirs that supply hydroelectric plants. Venezuela, the largest oil producer in Latin America, depends on hydroelectric power for more than two-thirds of its energy needs.

Chavez didn’t say whether next week’s extra holidays would be given to the whole country or only government workers.

Water levels at the Guri dam, which provides water to three hydroelectric plants with an installed capacity to generate 10,000 megawatts of power, fell 14 centimeters on March 23 to 251.37 meters above sea level, or 27 percent of its volume, according to the country’s grid operator.

If the water level drops below 240 meters, the country may lose 5,000 megawatts of generation, Electricity Minister Ali Rodriguez said on March 18. (Caribnet)

Regional Security Co-ordinator, Grantly Watson (right) briefs Chairman of the Regional Security System (RSS), St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas late January. (Photo by Erasmus Williams)

Director of Plans, Intelligence & Law Enforcement for the Regional Security Coordinator, St Kitts and Nevis’ Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ian Queeley, said the meeting will be held at the St Kitts Marriott Resort and Royal Beach Casino.

He said the Chairman of the Regional Security Council of Ministers, St Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Denzil Douglas will preside over the meeting.

The Regional Security System (RSS) comprises the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Council of Ministers is the supreme policy making body of the System and is made up of the Ministers’ responsible for Defence and Security in each Member State.

Regional Security Coordinator, Grantley Watson visited St Kitts late January to discuss regional security matters with Douglas.

Douglas was updated on administrative as well as operational matters of the RSS and assured him of the commitment of the RSS to assist with the crime fighting initiatives of the security forces.

While in the Federation Watson held discussions with the Security Chiefs and members of the High Command of the Police and Defence Forces on several security issues. (Caribnet)

Dr Singh was representing Guyana, The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) Annual Meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

Dr Ashni Singh

He noted on Monday that for the Caribbean to cope with the global economic crisis, policies must go beyond individual per capita income of regional economies which basically focus on macroeconomic fragility and the pockets of poverty in the region.

“The recent global financial crisis continues to be a stern test to the resilience of our economies, straining our social safety nets, and threatening to erode the gains we have made in poverty reduction….the global crisis has highlighted the acute vulnerability of our small developing economies to the external economic environment,” Dr Singh explained.

He highlighted that the combination of declining export demand, tourism receipts, remittances and foreign investment flows have severely affected economic growth in the Caribbean and “this crisis has cost some of our economies as much as eight percentage points of real growth and a return to better days in the near term is not likely for many of our countries.”

Singh said that the Caribbean is equally susceptible to economic hardship as it is with climate change and urged that the IDB devise the right policies to help the region.

“The small middle-income, developing economies of the Caribbean require policies formulated specifically in response to their unique structural and institutional characteristics and economic circumstances. If this is to be achieved, it is important to look beyond the illusion of our per capita income, which masks both the extent of our macroeconomic fragility and the existence of persistent pockets of poverty in our countries,” the Guyanese Finance Minister added.

“We seek a lasting transformation in our economies; one that reduces fragility and vulnerability, promotes sustained growth and prosperity, and improves the lives of all our people. The IDB has a vital role to play in helping us to achieve this Caribbean transformation.” Singh said, adding the region is particularly vulnerable due to economic size and the limited policy responses and options available.

Meanwhile, Dr Singh said the reduction in investment flows have severely affected economic growth across the Caribbean and urged that the bank help design regional programs to advance trade and integration processes.

“We urge continued efforts by the IIC to increase its operations in the Caribbean.. We also welcome the clear focus of the Multilateral Investment Fund and we see the new Access Approach Framework as a positive step to overcome challenges to productive economic activity…as part of our effort to promote the development of a competitive and responsive private sector, the Caribbean is pleased to be hosting for the first time the 8th Annual Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in November this year, “Singh highlighted.

Turning his attention to climate change, Dr Singh noted that many Caribbean countries have its population, economic activities and infrastructure on narrow low-lying coastal zones that are at risk from rising sea level.

He noted that devastating impact climate change has sectors like tourism and agriculture which are severely affected by extreme weather events, pointing to the recent series of hurricanes and floods and the current dry spell hitting the region

The finance minister said he added that while Caribbean governments are implementing measures to preserve pristine forests, biodiversity, and coastal fisheries, and to convert our energy supply to more renewable sources these unpredicted weather changes are ruin the gains

Singh also commended the bank for its efforts to help Haiti following the January 12 earthquake which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions in the French-speaking Caribbean island.

“We welcome the arrangements which the Bank is making to scale up and frontload the immediate delivery of development support to Haiti, and to sustain that support over the medium and long term. As neighbours and member states of CARICOM, interventions will involve collaboration with the Bank and other international organizations,“ Singh said. (Caribnet)

A recent World Bank report called for collaboration to stem what it said was an exodus of qualified nurses from the English-speaking Caribbean to countries such as the United States, Canada and Britain.

However, Peters said the only nurses leaving the system in Grenada are those who have reached retirement age.

“There is no exodus,’’ she told reporters at a news conference in St George’s. “We cannot say that we are experiencing any serious effects of migration by our nurses at this point. I don’t know if that is going to happen later down the road. But at this point that is not necessarily our reality.’’

Peters, however, admitted that the training and retention of nurses are a “burning issue’’ that requires a regional approach.

In Grenada, nursing education is handled by the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development.

Peters, a nurse by profession, said her Ministry of Health “consumes the end product of the training programme. So, we work together.’’ (Caribnet)

Solicitor General, Oscar Ramjeet, has given notice to the Chairperson of the Council of Legal Education (CLE), E Ann Henry, of the move, and indicated that he intends to raise the issue at Saturday’s Executive Council meeting of the Council of Legal Education which will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Kingston, Jamaica.

Oscar Ramjeet is an attorney at law who practices extensively throughout the wider Caribbean

In a letter to Henry, Ramjeet said that, pursuant to an agreement signed by the CARICOM countries, candidates who passed the LLB examination at the Univertsity of the West Indies (UWI) at Cave Hill in Barbados, and Guyanese nationals who attended the University of Guyana (UG) gain automatic entry to Law Schools, in order to complete their legal studies, but non Guyanese who secured their degree from UG are not allowed entry.

Ramjeet added, “Since the year 2000, nearly 40 Belizean students have graduated from UG with their LLB degreee, but unfortunately, according to the agreement, they are subjected to taking a written entrance examination in order to gain entry to pursue the CLE programme.”

According to the letter, only seven students have passed the qualifying examination although nearly all have written the exams, some as many as four or five times.

The students complain that the system is unfair because it is based primarily on the availability of space at the Law School, the Solicitor General stated in his correspondence, and that they argue why should they be required to take a written entrance examination to gain entrance since it tantamount to testing their qualifying law degree from the University of Guyana, which has been second marked by UWI.

Now that steps have been taken to introduce an Evening Stream at the Norman Manley Law School and the first batch will be Jamaicans, Ramjeet is urging that Belizan students who passed the LLB examination be given priority in future intakes at the Law School on the Evening Stream or even in the morning programme.

He added that “those students who gained the LLB degree from UG, after spending thousands of dollars, cannot complete their legal studies for years, and are very frustrated’ He is urging the Executive Committee of CLE to assist in some way or the other to ease the plight of the students, if possible to make representations to amend the Treaty to have the words ” Guyanese Nationals” be deleted and insert “UG students” instead, in order for all LLB graduates from UG to have automatic entry to the Law Schools. (Caribnet)