MIXED PELAU RICE; MACARONI PIE
STEAMED GROUND PROVISION; VEGETABLE PASTA
BAKED SALMON IN A CREAM SAUCE; BAKED CHICKEN
BAKED PORK; FRIED SNAPPER
GRILLED STEAK FISH; BEEF STEW
FISH GRAVY; STEAMED VEGETABLES
TOSSED SALAD; COLE SLAW
| HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Ignoring a blast from Barack Obama, Cuban leader Fidel Castro said Thursday he had nothing against the US president even though he sometimes says “silly things” about Cuba.
Castro made no mention in his widely published message of Obama’s attack on Cuba’s communist regime late Wednesday — his strongest to date — that called for an “end to the repression” and the release of all political prisoners. “Barack Obama is a fanatical believer in the capitalist imperialist system imposed on the world by the United States,” wrote Castro, 83, in a message published by all official Cuban newspapers.
“The militaristic policy, the pillage of natural resources, the current administration’s unequal exchange with Third World countries is no different from that of his predecessors. “Despite that, we have no dislike of Obama, and still less of the people of the United States. We consider health care reform an important battle and a success for his government,” he continued, referring to the landmark health care coverage legislation Obama signed into law on Tuesday. Castro said Obama was “intelligent” and “well-informed” and he hoped that “the silly things he sometimes says about Cuba do not cloud his intelligence.” But Castro added that “the immense economic, technological and scientific power of the United States cannot survive the tragedy that threatens the planet.” The powerful earthquakes that struck Haiti and Chile earlier this year were “eloquent proof of the dangers that threaten so-called civilization,” he said. “President Obama should search on his computer for the pertinent figures and discuss them with his most eminent scientists, and he will see that the country is far from being the model for humanity that it claims to be.” Obama took office in January 2009 pledging to seek improved ties with Cuba, and reportedly sought to urge President Raul Castro to step up efforts to improve relations with Washington. Last month, Obama sent his highest-ranking envoy yet to Havana to hold fresh talks on migration issues. But on Wednesday, he described recent events, including the death of hunger striker Orlando Zapata, crackdowns against female protesters known as Las Damas de Blanco (the Ladies in White) and “intensified harassment” of other activists as “deeply disturbing.” Recent events “underscore that instead of embracing an opportunity to enter a new era, Cuban authorities continue to respond to the aspirations of the Cuban people with a clenched fist,” Obama said. “I join my voice with brave individuals across Cuba and a growing chorus around the world in calling for an end to the repression, for the immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners in Cuba and for respect for the basic rights of the Cuban people.” (Caribnet) |
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| By Esteban Israel
HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) — A replica of the 19th century slave ship Amistad, made famous in a Stephen Spielberg movie, sailed into Havana Bay on Thursday with US and Cuba flags flying side by side in a hopeful display of friendship. The double-masted, black-hulled schooner arrived at a stormy time in US-Cuba relations, but it cruised through smooth waters before tying up at a pier opposite Old Havana, the Cuban capital’s historic center.
The US-built Amistad arrived on the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery as part of UNESCO’s Slave Route Project to remind the world of the consequences of slavery and to promote cultural exchanges. The original Amistad set sail from Havana with captives from Sierra Leone in 1839 en route to Haiti. The Africans killed the captain and took over the ship but ended up at Long Island in New York. They were sold as slaves before abolitionists took up their cause, paving the way for their freedom in 1841. Spielberg made a 1997 film — “Amistad” — about the saga. The ship takes its name from the Spanish word for “friendship,” and its crew members said that was the point of the visit. “The significance of this vessel is to dramatically illustrate the common bonds in culture and history that bring all nations together, whether it is West Africa, United States or Cuba,” said Quentin Snediker, who led the design and construction of the ship 10 years ago. Its arrival coincided with a negative turn in US-Cuba relations, which warmed for a while after US President Barack Obama took office last year and said he wanted a “new beginning” with the Communist-led island. But on Wednesday, Obama denounced Cuba for the recent death of dissident hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo and its sometimes rough treatment last week of the dissident group Ladies in White during protest marches. He said the events showed that “Cuban authorities continue to respond to the aspirations of the Cuban people with a clenched fist.” Obama’s statement followed the December detention in Havana of a US contractor accused by Cuba of involvement in espionage. The contractor, Alan Gross, remains in jail but has not yet been officially charged with a crime. The United States has said he was in Cuba to help set up Internet services for Jewish groups and it demanded his release. (Caribnet) |
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| By Marc Frank
HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) — Cuba may open sugar production to foreign investors for the first time since the 1959 revolution as it seeks to reverse the once proud industry’s relentless decline, business sources said this week. Talks between investors and the government have come and gone with little result for years, but what is shaping up as perhaps the island’s worst harvest in a century has increased interest in bringing foreign partners, the sources said.
Their money and management know-how could help revive a sugar industry that has collapsed from neglect and the decapitalization of mills and plantations, local experts and foreign traders said. President Raul Castro, who took over from ailing brother Fidel Castro two years ago, is trying to right communist Cuba’s cash-strapped economy by increasing exports and cutting imports. Sugar, once the driver of Cuba’s economy, now accounts for less than 5 percent of Cuba’s foreign earnings, but prices have been driven up by ethanol demand, so Cuba is turning to it once again. A Cuban source with knowledge of the sugar industry said the government has been seriously exploring foreign participation for several months. “The executive Committee of the Council of Ministers approved plans to pursue talks last November, and again this year to sign administrative agreements,” the source said. Foreign banking and other business sources confirmed talks were advancing toward agreements that would have investors jointly administer several mills and share in the production for a limited number of years. The sources would not name the various companies involved or provide further details. Similar agreements already exist in the citrus industry, where Panama-based Israeli investors jointly operate juice plants with the government. Theoretically, the state-run sugar industry has been open to direct investment since 1995, but in practice there has been little interest on the government’s part except in a few joint ventures making sugar derivatives such as alcohol and parts used in sugar processing, the sources said. A big obstacle is the US Helms-Burton law, which penalizes investment in properties expropriated from US owners and contains a yet-to-be implemented chapter allowing Cuban-Americans to sue investors who “traffic” in their expropriated properties. All but eight of Cuba’s mills were built before the revolution and therefore nationalized, and most plantations are lands expropriated by the government after Fidel Castro took power in 1959. Foreign investors are forbidden by law to own land in Cuba, and do not need to own anything for the proposed sugar ventures, said a local economist. “There is little need for investors to own land. In fact, it is in their interest to simply administer mills, provide farmers with technology packets and process the cane,” he said. Cuba was once the world’s biggest sugar exporter with raw output reaching 8.1 million tonnes in 1989, but the industry went into decline after Cuba’s top ally for 30 years, the former Soviet Union, collapsed in 1991. The Soviet Union paid padded prices for Cuban sugar to boost the island’s economy, so its demise hit Cuba and the sugar industry hard. Cuba shut down and dismantled 71 of 156 mills in 2003 and relegated 60 percent of sugar plantation land to other uses. More mills have closed since then, with just 44 mills open this season. Another 20 have been maintained in working condition for future use. Only 1.7 million acres (700,000 hectares) of the over 5 million acres (2 million hectares) once controlled by Cuba’s Sugar Ministry are currently dedicated to sugar cane. Cuba planned to produce 1.3 million tonnes of raw sugar this season, but milling problems and low yields have resulted in a shortfall of more than 100,000 tonnes to date. With the harvest scheduled to end by May, Cuba is in danger of reaching its lowest output since 1908, when 1.2 million tonnes of sugar were produced. (Caribnet) |
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| By Andrew Gully
JACMEL, Haiti (AFP) — Among the cracked colonial houses and shattered dreams that litter the beautiful Haitian beach resort and carnival city of Jacmel, a resilient people dare to hope as they rebuild for the future.
Disaster struck just as Haiti, a popular jet-set destination in the 1960s and 1970s for rich Americans and Europeans, was beginning to get back on the tourist map after years of political turmoil. A Conde Nast Traveller piece in September boasted of its “ravishing natural assets, thrilling history, and magnetic culture,” and there was talk of opening up direct flights from Miami to Jacmel, the jewel in Haiti’s tourism crown. The January 12 earthquake ended all that, killing more than 220,000 people, leaving 1.3 million homeless and relegating Haiti to near the bottom of anyone’s travel list. Jacmel was hit particularly hard. Almost 500 people out of a population of 40,000 perished. The quake struck during the southern city’s vital January-March carnival, devastating the local economy. “During the carnival period we normally make enough money for the rest of the year, for our children, for our families,” said Jules Andre, an artisan who fashions the exquisite papier-mache masks and decorations Jacmel is famous for. Locals, who call themselves Jacmellians and are fiercely proud of the city’s reputation as Haiti’s cultural heart, had created a safe atmosphere here that was in marked contrast to the crime-ridden streets of the capital. The city was largely unaltered from the 19th century when wealthy coffee merchants lapped up luxury in their mansions, looking out over wrought-iron balconies forged in Spain and France. But many facades now lie in ruins and it is hard to imagine that this haven of relative tranquility, less than three hours by car or a 15-minute hop by plane from Port-au-Prince, will ever be restored to its pre-quake splendor. A quarter of Jacmel’s 700 hotel rooms were destroyed and some establishments, like the optimistically named Peace of Mind, were completely flattened. Other attractions did emerge unscathed. At Cyvardie beach, turquoise Caribbean waters lap a natural lagoon ringed by soft white sand. A death-defying drive into the hills reveals Bassin Bleu, a secret world of stunning waterfalls and shady rocks to plunge from.
“Jacmel is very important for tourism because we have a lot of places to visit, the architecture, nice beaches, nice people,” said Georges Metellus, who grew up here and runs an art foundation for children. “My dream is to see Jacmel as I knew it before, to see a lot of tourists come, to rebuild our beach communities, our houses.” Unlike the painfully slow progress that is hard to measure in the capital, Jacmel is making strides down the road to recovery, harnessing all its Jacmellian spirit to dream that a future is still possible. Energized by an ambitious young mayor who has created cash-for-work programs, teams in green hard-hats busily clear the river-beds where debris was dumped after the quake. Culture ministry officials say they still hope those Miami flights will one day roll in and that Jacmel can add substantially to the 25,000 tourists it saw in 2009. For Annie Nocenti, an American journalist and filmmaker who teaches in Jacmel at the Cine Institute, where students have collaborated on remarkable post-quake film clips, the key is safeguarding the architecture. “The draw of the tourism was because of these beautiful buildings. If they don’t restore at least those facades, that’s really going to hurt tourism here.” Jacmel residents reacted furiously when the local authorities put red dots on all the buildings they wanted to tear down because they were considered structurally unsafe. “There’s a certain paranoia that someone is going to take advantage of the leveled areas to put in monster hotels,” said Nocenti. “I doubt it because who would invest in Haiti right now considering there has just been an earthquake. “The local economy has been devastated. It’s going to take years to get people to feel safe enough to come to Haiti again,” she said, pointing out that the rich weekend crowd from Port-au-Prince had deserted Jacmel’s beaches. Bayard Jean-Bernard, a 28-year-old student at the Cine Institute who worked as a tour guide before the quake, said the spirit of Jacmel was dying without the carnival, which was canceled because of the disaster. “We like to have that feeling, we like to have that atmosphere. We are missing this atmosphere this year.” (Caribnet) |
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The Finance ministry, whose needs traditionally have been the greatest driver of central government budget increases, will operate this coming fiscal year with $80 billion less than it spent in the 2009-10 period.
From a budget of $370 billion, Finance Minister Audley Shaw will run the treasury with just under $290 billion, starting April 1, a 21.6 per cent cut in allocations made possible by the forced recall of domestic bonds that have spliced tens of billions off debt-financing charges.
Interest payments have long been the ministry’s top expenditure item, and remain so in the 2010-11 Estimates of Expenditure. But at $140 billion for debt servicing, Shaw this year forecasts that he will pay out $46 billion, or 25 per cent less, to Jamaican and overseas creditors than the previous $186 billion, bucking the trend of annual increases amounting to tens of billions of dollars that characterised previous budgets.
Amortisations, or principal repayments on domestic government securities, have been cut by more than half, from $147 billion to $70 billion; but rise on the external debt from $24.6 billion to $27 billion.
In total, interest charges and principal repayments are down by $122 billion in this budget - the Jamaica Debt Exchange programme, replacing expensive domestic bonds with average 12 per cent issues, had forecast savings of $42 billion.
Some of the savings on the debt, however, have been netted off by other commitments of the finance ministry, including a $22.5-billion bill for redundancy and other closing-down costs for Air Jamaica, whose operations cease April 12.
The total budget covering all ministries and departments is $499 billion, down from $593 billion. (Jamaica Gleaner)
Armadale girls who have had a rough year settle into their home at the former hotel Diamond Crest Villa, near Alligator Pond, Manchester. The inmates are housed six girls to a room in a dormitory setting, each room also has its own bathroom. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
GOVERNMENT HAS backed up its talk about an intention to build and refurbish suitable remand and correctional facilities for juveniles by allocating $174 million to the refurbishing of the Montpelier facility in St James.
This comes after seven girls perished in a fire at an overcrowded Armadale facility in St Ann last year.
A subsequent commission of enquiry into the events of Armadale found “negligence on the part of the State and dereliction of duty, administrative errors, unlawful conduct and indifferent and insensitive actions on the part of some public officials who were responsible for the operation of the centre or who were involved in the events preceding, during and after the fire in which seven girls aged between 15 and 17 perished”.
The Government was then taken to task by interest groups as well as the United Nations special rapporteur on torture who lashed it for the unacceptable conditions in which it houses children in need of care.
An examination of the 2010-11 Estimates of Expenditure tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday indicated that although the Government’s capital spending on national security was cut from $534 million to $491 million, the State plans to spend $321 million on the construction and renovation of these facilities.
No money was spent in these areas last year.
Other beneficiaries
Meanwhile, it is not just Montpelier that is set to benefit from government spending. One hundred million has been budgeted for Cape Clear in St Mary and Diamond Crest in Manchester has been allocated $47 million.
In a statement to Parliament earlier this month, Prime Minister Bruce Golding indicated that Cape Clear, a former youth camp, will be converted into a juvenile remand centre to house boys who are to be taken before the court or who are awaiting a decision of the court.
He also said that the boys being housed at the St Andrew Remand Centre in Stony Hill will be transferred to Cape Clear and the Stony Hill facility will then be designated a juvenile remand centre for girls.
In that statement to Parliament, Golding noted that there were three juvenile correctional centres and one juvenile remand centre with a total capacity of 311.
He said, however, that these facilities, up to February, accommodated 325 children, 286 of whom were the subject of correctional orders issued by the courts and 39 who were being held on remand.
He also said that an additional 124 children were being housed at other facilities.
In the throne speech delivered earlier yesterday at the start at the ceremonial opening of Parliament, Governor General Sir Patrick Allen said new juvenile remand and correctional centres would be established this year so that the practice of children being held in police lock-ups cease.
The governor general said the focus on these areas would mean that “those ordered to correctional facilities will be properly accommodated and exposed to appropriate programmes to address their behavioural challenges and development needs”.
Earlier this week, Peter Bunting, the opposition spokesman on national security, told The Gleaner that he hoped sufficient allocation would be put aside in the Budget “to ensure that what happened at Armadale never happens again”.
No allocation has been made for the construction or improvement of adult correctional facilities. (Jamaica Gleaner)
Audley Shaw, minister of finance. - file
Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter
Finance Minister Audley Shaw has taken the carving knife to the Government’s spending plans with sharp cuts in the budgets of most ministries.
But there is no change in the fact that the lion’s share of the money, 48.5 per cent, will be spent on debt payments.
Shaw yesterday presented the 2010-2011 Estimates of Expenditure, reflecting a $94-billion reduction in the amount of money the Government plans to spend this year.
That is slightly less than the $100-billion cut Shaw had projected and will leave many ministries struggling to implement their programmes.
The Estimates of Expenditure, tabled in Parliament yesterday afternoon, show the Government planning to spend $499 billion in the new fiscal year, down from the $593 billion allocated in the second Supplementary Estimates for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
This is a 15 per cent cut in nominal terms but, with inflation expected to end the year about 13 per cent, it means that in real terms the ministries will have to survive with much less for recurrent and capital projects.
On the recurrent side, Shaw has sliced $46 billion off the Budget, moving it to $339.6 billion for the new fiscal year.
This reflects lower interest payments based on the successful Jamaica Debt Exchange (JDX) which cut rates and extended the maturity on domestic bonds.
However, ministries such as education, youth, sports and culture, transport and works, tourism and the local government division in the Office of the Prime Minister will all have less money to pay their bills.
On the capital side, the Government plans to spend $159 billion, or $48 billion less than it projected to spend for this year.
Again, savings related to the JDX allow Shaw to cut a big chunk from the amount allocated to the finance ministry.
Other ministries, including agriculture, national security, and industry, investment and commerce, will also get much less for capital projects.
The Standing Finance Committee of Parliament will meet next week to examine the estimates before Shaw tells the country how they will be financed on April 8. (Jamaica Gleaner)
MUMBAI
West Indies all-rounders Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo played small cameos but Indian batting wonder Sachin Tendulkar plundered another breathtaking half-century to fire Mumbai Indians to a five-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings yesterday.
Playing at Brabourne Stadium, 36-year-old Tendulkar scored a 52-ball 72 as Mumbai overhauled Chennai’s challenging 180 for two with an over to spare, to win their fourth match in five games and roar to the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) standings.
Pollard smashed 20 from nine balls with three fours and a massive six over long on, while Bravo lashed a four and a six in an unbeaten 14 from seven balls.
Tendulkar added 92 from 53 balls for the first wicket with Shikhar Dhawan, whose 56 required 34 balls and was decorated with five fours and three sixes.
Mumbai lost three quick wickets, however, to slip to 120 for three in the 14th over, still requiring a further 61 from 40 balls.
Pollard whacked the third ball he faced to wide mid-wicket for four and struck successive boundaries off medium pacer Thissara Perera two overs later, as he proceeded to add 39 from 20 balls for the fourth wicket with Tendulkar.
He had just whipped magical Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for a maximum when he played on to the next delivery at 159 for four in the 17th over.
Tendulkar fell in the 19th over at 172 for five, but Bravo saw his side safely home, striking a six and a four off the last two balls of the over.
Earlier, Chennai benefited from an unbroken 142-run third wicket stand between Suresh Raina, who slammed an unbeaten 83 from 52 balls, and Subramaniam Badrinath, whose 55 came from 45 balls.
-CMC
