RICE AND PEAS; LAMB PELAU
MACARONI PIE; STEAMED PUDDING AND SOUSE
CORN MEAL COU COU; BBQ SPARERIBS
BBQ PIG TAIL; BAKED CHICKEN
BAKED PORK; FRIED SNAPPER
FRIED STEAK FISH; GRILLED STEAK FISH
STEAMED FLYING FISH; LAMB STEW
STEAMED VEGETABLES; TOSSED SALAD; COLE SLAW
BY HORACE HINES Observer staff reporter hinesh@jamaicaobserver.com
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Fire yesterday gutted the barracks at Montego Bay’s Barnett Street Police Station, leaving some 30 members of the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) without accommodation.
Thirty-three firefighters from the Freeport and Ironshore fire stations worked over an hour using seven fire units to extinguish the blaze that started shortly after 8:00 am — the origin of which was not determined up until late yesterday.
Dolphin Doeman, acting superintendent of the St James division of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, praised his charges for confining the blaze to the barracks, popularly called “Fourteen”, and courageously putting out the blaze.
However, he complained that his team was challenged by two defective fire hydrants near the scene, as well as curious motorists who parked in close proximity to the blaze, hampering the firefighters’ mobility.
No one was hurt, but police lost their uniforms and personal belongings. One policeman said the blaze claimed over half-a-million dollars which he had borrowed from a bank to purchase a motor car.
He said that the vendor had sold the car in question to another buyer early Monday afternoon, causing him to hold on to the money with the intention of purchasing another car.
Commandant in charge of the St James ISCF Rupert Rushton noted that the displaced personnel will have to be relocated to the Freeport Police Station where they were originally located before recently moving their operations to Barnett Street.
Montego Bay Mayor Charles Sinclair used the opportunity to reiterate his call for the construction of a fire station in the second city, as well as the replacement of a fireboat, which has not worked for years.
“We have been without a fire station for some time,” said the mayor. “The fire station must be constructed. Must! There are no two ways about that. We can’t have firemen and women operating in two separate locations — part of it operating in Fort Street and the next set operating out of Freeport. That cannot continue to work!”.
He also expressed the need for a fireboat, not only for the cruise ships that call on Montego Bay, but for the vessels that are docked in the city.
“I have called on the Office of the Prime Minister, ever since I assumed the position. The fireboat must be brought back into service,” he said. (Jamaica Observer)
WASHINGTON, USA (AP) — The United States government is refining its terror-screening policy to focus on specific terror threats and not travellers’ nationalities.
The new policy replaces a security requirement put in place after the attempted bombing of a jetliner en route to Detroit on Christmas Day that singled out people from 14 countries that have been home to terrorists. It also expands the pool of foreign travellers targeted for extra screening beyond those whose names are on a US terror watch list.
The changes, announced yesterday by the Homeland Security Department, come after a three-month review of counterterrorism policies ordered by President Barack Obama in the wake of the near miss attack.
Under the refined policy, a person travelling to the US would be stopped if he or she fits a specific description of a potential terrorist provided by US intelligence officials — even if the suspect’s name is unknown.
Currently, passengers’ names are compared to names on US terror watch lists. If air carriers have a potential match to a watch list, the passenger is either banned from flying to the US or subjected to extra screening such as a full-body pat-down before boarding the airplane.
For example, if the US has intelligence about a Nigerian man between the ages of 22 and 32 whom officials believe is a threat or a known terrorist, under the new policy all Nigerian men within that age range would receive extra screening before they are allowed to fly to the US.
If intelligence later shows that the suspect is not a terrorist, the extra screening for others matching the description would be lifted. (Jamaica Observer)
HORACE HINES Observer staff reporter
MONTEGO BAY, St James –The St James police yesterday said they found a hit list with the names of 32 civilians and four cops on the body of an
alleged gangster.
According to the St James Police Divisional commander, Superintendent Merrick Watson, the alleged gangster was one of two men killed by members of the security forces between Holy Thursday and the wee hours of yesterday.
“For security purposes we cannot show the list here… the intention is to find these individuals (on the list) and question them and inform them that their names are on a hit list,” Superintendent Watson told members of the media at a press conference at the Freeport Police Station late yesterday.
The two men killed by the police have been identified as Richard Lawn, aka ‘Richie Blacks’, and Anthony ‘Bolo’ Christie.
According to Watson, the police were conducting an operation in the Rose Mount Meadows section of the parish at about 9:30 pm Thursday when Lawn, who was described as a “top-tier” member of the reputed Stone Crusher Gang, traded bullets with them.
After the shooting subsided, the list and one Beretta 9mm pistol, loaded with six 9mm cartridges were recovered from his body.
Christie was also killed in a shoot-out yesterday with members of the security team that was conducting an operation in the gritty inner-city community of Bottom Pen. A SIG Sauer .45 pistol loaded with five .45 cartridges was allegedly taken from him.
But in the wake of the killing, family members and other members of the Bottom Pen community staged a demonstration in the community in protest over what they said was the cold-blooded murder of Christie by the police. (Jamaica Observer)
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
THE Government said yesterday that its failure to get nearly $500 million to borrow from the National Housing Trust caused the setback of its drought mitigation programme.
“Because of legal impediments, that money was not forthcoming from the NHT and that has caused a major shift in terms of how we had wanted to address the drought situation,” Daryl Vaz, the minister with responsibility for information, told yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
According to Vaz, plans delayed under the drought-mitigation programme included the cleaning of silt from the Mona Reservoir to adequately prepare the facility to receive adequate water when the rain comes.
“That was part of the plan with the $500 million we were trying to get but I am not sure now, based on financial constraints (if the project can go ahead). But I will speak with Minister Horace Chang and ask for details in terms of the action plan going forward,” Vaz said.
“Minister Chang will give some information on that because they are in the final stages of devising what is going to happen,” Vaz said.
In the interim, the minister said parish councils have received funding to alleviate the drought situation in their respective parishes.
“Cabinet will continue to monitor this matter (drought); all available options are being explored at this time,” Vaz said.
Late last year, the water ministry announced that it was finalising arrangements to borrow $477 million from the NHT to finance its drought-mitigation initiative.
The programme, which would to be jointly undertaken by the ministry and the National Water Commission, would include a $17-million public education programme, aimed at highlighting the impact of the drought, and encouraging efficient water use.
Other measures considered in the national water plan include transporting potable water across the island in trucks and the restoration of five wells in Kingston and St Andrew.
Some $279 million — the bulk of the $477 million — was to have been channelled into the coffers of the NWC.
In the meantime, the NWC said the water crisis affecting much of the Corporate Area could get worse.
According to the NWC, the Hope Water Supply System was receiving more than three million gallons of water less than what it needs; the Hermitage/Constant Spring Water Supply System was short by 12 million gallons, while the Mona Water Supply System was short by eight million gallons.
The NWC said attempts at drilling or rehabilitating additional wells as part of the drought-mitigation programme have met with mixed results as some other previously considered wells have proved to be either contaminated or are much more challenging to bring back into operation. (Jamaica Observer)
Holness
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
THE TEACHERS’ professional revolving loan fund, which dried up in the last fiscal year, will be revitalised with an allocation of $95 million.
Education Minister Andrew Holness told Parliament’s Standing Finance Committee early Thursday morning that the Government had made provision for $45 million to be placed in the fund. This is in addition to $50 million set aside in the current Estimates.
While more funds were being made available to teachers to upgrade their skills at the tertiary level, university students should expect increases in tuition fees of a little more than eight per cent.
Trying to keep fees low
This was disclosed by Holness who told the committee that the Government was trying to keep the fee hike below the inflation rate.
“There will be an impact on our students, we recognise that … . Within the Budget, we have made some changes to accommodate students who will be at risk of being deregistered,” he said.
And the ministry is moving to introduce a minimum-qualification requirement of a first degree to enter the teaching profession.
“We have already started the process of examining all the teachers’ colleges and working along with them,” said Holness
On another matter, the education minister divulged that a decision would be made shortly on the proposed merger of the University Council of Jamaica with the Jamaica Tertiary Commission, creating one body to regulate the tertiary-education sector.
He said a Cabinet submission had been prepared and would be sent to Cabinet for discussion. A decision is expected in another two weeks. (Jamaica Gleaner)
The Haiti Art and Fashion Project, an initiative of the Pulse Foundation, has received the formal endorsement of CARICOM. The project will be held during Caribbean Fashionweek (CFW) June 8-14 at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
Recently, trustees of the foundation, chaired by Lois Sherwood, presented the project to former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who now serves as the special representative of CARICOM on Haiti. Patterson, who had been advised of the project from inception, lauded the initiative as a key tool for the redevelopment of the cultural and creative sector in Haiti.
Said Patterson’s office in a statement released this week, “Culture represents the ethos and strength of a people, and Haiti has much to offer in this regard.”
Patterson emphasised Haiti’s rich cultural legacy and the need to restore and preserve it. He expressed the hope that Haiti would not only be rebuilt, but would be built better than it was before the devastating earthquake on January 12. Patterson further noted that the creative industry was a fairly new sector which had strong commercial and economic impact for countries such as Jamaica and Haiti, given the countries’ diversity.
Pulse Chairman Kingsley Cooper indicated that as the executive producer of Caribbean Fashionweek, and as chairman of the Caribbean Fashion Industry Association (both entities are partners in the Haiti Project), he believes that Haiti’s creative and cultural reconstruction will ultimately be part of, and a catalyst for, a wider development of these industries in the greater Caribbean.
Special night for Haiti
In attendance at the project’s presentation and endorsement at Patterson’s New Kingston office were Cooper, Pulse general manager Romae Gordon and director of the office of the special representative, Maureen Vernon.
The proceeds of a special night of CFW dedicated to Haiti (June 10) will go to the Haiti Art and Fashion Project. Several designers, entertainers and celebrities have indicated an interest in participating in this effort. The initiative will support the rehabilitation and further development of Haiti’s creative arts, fashion and creative business over a five-year period. Many everyday Haitians earn a living from this industry.
Pulse said it intends to work in tandem with CARICOM, as well as the international body charged with the responsibility of planning the reconstruction of Haiti. It also said the Haiti Art and Fashion Project would be more focused on medium-to long-term reconstruction and development in that country, and more specifically the creative arts and business sectors. (Jamaica Gleaner)
Lewis-Fuller
Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
THE MINISTRY of Health has launched an investigation into an outbreak of gastroenteritis at a primary school in rural Jamaica to determine if it was spawned by the trucking of bacteria-laced water to the institution.
The gastro outbreak left dozens of students and at least one member of the teaching staff with diarrhoea and other symptoms associated with the water-borne disease.
Public-health officials investigating the matter have determined that the water trucked to the school was from an untreated source - a spring.
As a result, they have handed a ‘Notice to Abate the Nuisance’, issued under the Public Health Regulations (1995), to the operator of the trucking service to cease and desist from distributing water from any unsafe sources to the school or any other institution.
The health ministry’s investigation comes on the heels of a Sunday Gleaner special investigation, which revealed that truckers were taking water from untreated sources, which had elevated levels of faecal and total coliform, and selling it to unsuspecting residents as potable.
NWC now supplying water
The National Water Commission (NWC) has since been called in by the health department, and the state-owned company has “taken over the task of supplying water to the school”.
In a written response to Gleaner queries, Dr Eva Lewis-Fuller, director of health promotion and protection in the Ministry of Health, said the ministry’s investigations had not yet identified the cause of the outbreak.
“Laboratory testing has not isolated any specific aetiological agent so far, (and) results of tests on water samples and other environmental specimens are still pending,” Lewis-Fuller said.
“The ministry responded in accordance with standard procedures to the report of an outbreak of gastro-enteritis in a rural all-age school. The report was received by the local health department on March 18, 2010, and a report was made to the Surveillance Unit at head office on March 20, 2010,” read a section of the ministry’s response.
34 children affected
The ministry also noted that its investigations revealed that a total of 34 children in the five to 12 age group and a teacher had the symptoms.
“The cases have all been mild, none requiring hospitalisation, and there have been no deaths,” the ministry added.
Lewis-Fuller also noted that information gleaned from the local health team looking into the circumstances surrounding the outbreak revealed that for many years, the school had received water through a trucking arrangement managed by the parish council.
While not ruling out the possibility of a link between the outbreak and the suspected trucking of contaminated water, Lewis-Fuller sought to downplay the likelihood.
“The ingestion of contaminated water as a common source of the outbreak would be expected to be more explosive, affecting a larger proportion of the school population,” she said.
Lewis-Fuller highlighted unsanitary findings at the school, some of which were apparently by-products of the chronic drought conditions choking the island’s formal water supply system, while others were seemingly the result of unhygienic practices.(Jamaica Gleaner)
Aretha Welch awelch@trinidadexpress.com
If you were a manager at State-owned Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) in 2005 your bonus would have been an estimated $18,000. Within just four years it would have increased to an estimated $169,000.
For the average worker in Trinidad and Tobago, salaries have barely budged, however.
Though the representative union, the Communications Workers Union (CWU) is up in arms about these bonuses, the telecoms company is remaining mum on the issue, apart from saying the documents were submitted before the Industrial Court in an ongoing dispute with the CWU.
The company has declined to comment on their decision to increase the bonuses they pay out to managers and executives by some 12 fold in the last four years.
Documents obtained by the Express showed that TSTT’s management bonus bill for 2009 stands at an estimated $72 million, up from $6 million in 2005, when the company first decided to pay management bonuses. The company only employs 25 per cent more managers than it did in 2005, that is the equivalent of 124 persons. While TSTT did verify that the documents were legitimate, the company said it would not comment as it did not want to jeapordise any of their matters before the Industrial Court.
The documents which the Express obtained last week, also showed that TSTT’s revenue has increased by an estimated 20 per cent since 2005, up from $2.5 billion, to just over $3 billion in 2009. This shows a disconnect between revenue increases and bonus increases.
While economists and labour leaders have said the recent increases in inflation have eroded citizens’ buying power and unionists have pounded the pavement for significant salary increases, statistics from the Central Statistical Office show inflation has only increased by a total of 42 per cent in the last four years.
However, economist Jwala Rambarran explained, ’A bonus is not to compensate for purchasing power. These bonuses are supposed to show that persons have performed above and beyond what was expected of them.’
When asked to comment on the significant increases which were doled out to their managers, despite the fact that TSTT’s revenue increase was not as significant and the company has said they have frozen managers salaries since 2005, the company declined to comment, saying only TSTT’s official position is that it is not in a position to respond.
TSTT declined to respond as to whether or not the company’s productive capacity and service to consumers had increased enough to justify the 12 fold increase it paid to managers in their bonus packages.
The CWU, representing many lower and mid level employees at TSTT, described the paying out of these funds to executives as ’gross mismanagement.’ Union president Joseph Remy also said it was irresponsible for TSTT to take this decision while they still had outstanding negotations regarding terms and conditions for workers.
Figures show that TSTT employed 328 top level professionals, department heads and executives in 2005. The amount of money the company forked out in bonuses at that time was $6,005,277. This equates to an average of $18,308 per manager.
However, by 2009 with 452 top level professionals, department heads and executives on the payroll, the company found itself forking out some $72,299,447.
This works out to an average bonus of $159,954 per manager. The average bonus paid increased eight fold in 48 months.
Though contacted early last week, Public Utilities Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, had up to press time yesterday declined to comment on whether or not any studies into TSTT’s productivity had been conducted. While TSTT is not run on taxpayers funds it does fall under Abdul Hamid’s purview and is 51 per cent State-owned.
Akile Simon akile.simon@trinidadexpress.com
ALCOHOL continued to be served at the ground floor bar of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Port of Spain yesterday, even though the Liquor Licensing Committee at the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court struck out an application which authorised the sale of spirits at the business place on Thursday.
The application was dismissed by Senior Magistrate Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan after Neelanda Rampaul, the person who requested the application for an extension of the licence, failed to appear in court on two consecutive occasions or have someone present to represent her interests.
Rampaul, the former Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) chief operating officer, resigned hours after Prof John Uff presented the report of the Commission of Enquiry into UDeCOTT and the construction sector to President George Maxwell Richards on Monday.
Rampaul is also registered as the person who was granted the licence to sell alcohol under a Special Hotel’s Licence. The hotel, which was constructed by UDeCOTT, is the centre-piece of the multi-billion-dollar Waterfront project and was opened for business since January 2008.
However, when the Express visited the hotel yesterday, it was business as usual at the bar on the ground floor, as alcohol beverages were sold to customers.
When the Express queried why was alcohol being served when the licence was struck out by the courts, the staff member said, ’Don’t worry, everything has been sorted out already. My job would have been at stake here, but I’m not worried now, and therefore, you should not,’ the employee said.
The hotel’s previous licence, which was valid for one year, expired on Wednesday, March, 31, at midnight.
Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Gilbert Reyes assured that the police would investigate the matter and take the appropriate action.
Police are authorised to visit the hotel and request a copy of the licence and also have the authority to seize all the alcoholic beverages if one is not produced.
Attempts to contact the hotel’s manager Russell George and the marketing manager Neema Persad-Celestine for a comment on the matter proved futile as calls to their cellphones went unanswered up to late last evening. (Trinidad Express)