RICE AND PEAS; MACARONI PIE
SHEPHERD’S PIE; SAUTEED BREADFRUIT
BBQ SPARERIBS; BBQ PIG TAIL
BAKED CHICKEN; BAKED PORK
FRIED SNAPPER; FRIED STEAK FISH
GRILLED STEAK FISH; TURKEY STEW
FISH GRAVY; STEAMED VEGETABLES
TOSSED SALAD; COLE SLAW
Caricom Secretariat, Guyana – “The time has come to consider a change in our approaches to the global fight against drugs. We must act now to find new remedies.”
This was the essence of the challenge made by Dr. Edward Greene, Caricom Secretariat’s assistant secretary-general for human and social development to the Drugs Summit of the Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean which opened in Spain last Wednesday morning.
The summit was convened to address threats to security within the Latin American and the Caribbean regions and to make appropriate recommendations in dealing with those threats.
In providing a context for his recommendations, Dr. Greene enumerated a plethora of security issues affecting the Caribbean, chief of which was crime and violence, which he said posed a “clear and present danger’ to the Caribbean. Others include drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings; trafficking in firearms; smuggling of migrants; money laundering and murder.”
He explained further that the enormity of the situation had prompted Caricom heads of government to place security alongside economic integration, foreign policy co-ordination and functional co-operation as a main pillar of the integration movement. In this regard, he explained that the Community had established a new architecture for crime and security which included a ministerial body – the Council for National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE) – and an Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) to focus specifically on challenges and solution to crime and violence in the region.
Dr. Greene pointed out however that notwithstanding the mechanisms in place, there was still an urgent need for further action, and called for new remedies for crime and security within the Caribbean Community.
He implied further that interdiction and eradication efforts had failed to decrease the global supply of drugs and that punitive methods had reaped very little success in lowering drug use. The assistant secretary-general proffered a three-pronged policy driven approach that the Caribbean had adopted in fighting illicit drugs and illicit trafficking. These are: the adoption of a multidimensional approach, international cooperation and capacity building and research.
The multi-dimensional approach acknowledges that security of the hemisphere include political, economic, social, health and environmental factors and is rooted in the Declaration of Bridgetown 2006, which recognises the “inextricable link between economic disenfranchisement, poverty, conflict, apathy and disillusionment of our citizens,” and agrees that those risk factors could produce “the root causes of terrorism.”
According to Dr. Greene, the multi-dimensional approach to security for Caricom now encompassed “extreme poverty and social exclusion of broad sectors of the population, natural and manmade disasters, HIV/AIDS and other health risks and climate change in all its manifestations.” Inherent in all those challenges, he explained, was the risk of social instability which in turn provided a platform for security concerns.
The second policy approach, according to Dr. Greene, emphasised international cooperation. In this regard, he underscored the need to establish comprehensive strategic partnerships with extra-regional forces as a deliberate regional security strategy.
Thirdly, Dr. Greene pointed to the work of the Caricom Secretariat in tandem with National Drug Councils and the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) to enhance the Region’s capacity in developing anti-drug strategies and plans, as an example of how capacity building through training could assist in drug demand reduction.
He added that Caricom had also agreed on the development of a regional human resource strategy for crime and security, which would consist of two components: one was the establishment of a Caribbean Institute of Security and Law Enforcement Studies (CISLES), and a proposal by the University of the West Indies (UWI) to establish an Institute of Criminal Justice and Security (ICJS). (Antigua Sun)
GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders and Brazil’s President, Luis Inacio ‘Lula’ Da Silva on Monday signed a wide-ranging technical cooperation agreement at their first ever summit held in Brasilia.
Addressing the opening session on Monday, the Chairman of CARICOM, and Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit described the inaugural summit as a “new chapter” in their relationship. He announced that the CARICOM- Brazil Technical Cooperation Agreement was expected to be signed at the end of the one-day summit and would cover 16 areas including agriculture, health, tourism and transportation. “We welcome the new chapter in our relationship which will be heralded by the conclusion at this historic meeting,” Skerrit said, adding that the Technical Cooperation agreement would be “given impetus” by a memorandum of understanding in five priority areas. Noting that Brazil was the bridge between CARICOM and Latin America, the leader of the English-speaking Dominica also announced that CARICOM member-nation St Kitts and Nevis plans to join the Guyana-Brazil Partial Scope Trade Agreement which will allow the twin-island federation to take advantage of trade opportunities across the Takatu River Bridge that links northern Brazil with southern Guyana. “I have no doubt that this physical link will expand economic benefits to the CARICOM region. This bridge will help make available a trade route which will further the efforts of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which is intended to provide the springboard to facilitate CARICOM’s integration into the hemispheric and global environment through more competitive production thereby enhancing our trade relations,” he added. Meanwhile, Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo commended Lula for his strategic leadership under which Brazil has seen extensive development and through which Brazil’s profile has been considerably enhanced in the international community. He expressed his appreciation for the keen interest that Brazil has demonstrated in building relations with the Caribbean Community. He thanked President Lula and the government and people of Brazil for the assistance given to the people of Haiti after the earthquake and for sustaining Brazil’s intervention of technical and financial support in the reconstruction of Haiti. Pointing to the challenges being faced by CARICOM Member States, Jagdeo said that it was important for the bureaucratic institutions of Brazil (the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Trade) to understand the magnitude of these challenges which in essence threatened the ability of CARICOM Member States to survive. “In the face of these existential threats therefore, it was necessary to understand the model of development that CARICOM countries were proposing - special and differential treatment for trading arrangements, new financing features that is open access to global financing structures that are intermediated on different term and a focus on functional cooperation,” Jagdeo said In understanding these challenges Jagdeo said, Brazil would be better able to advocate on behalf of the Community in the G20, the IMF and all other fora and key bodies where CARICOM Member States were not represented. With regard to CARICOM’s engagement with MERCOSUR, in order to progress further in this matter, Jagdeo said that it would be important for the broad principles of negotiating an arrangement with that bloc to be defined. “Critical amongst these would be the recognition of MERCOSUR of the peculiarities of the countries of CARICOM.” Jagdeo added He requested that as Brazil sought to rightfully fight for its positions in liberalizing global trade, that it would do so understanding the nature of the challenges of CARICOM and thus prevent the distortion of global trade. (Caribnet) |
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| ST JOHN’S, Antigua — The Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ALP) has strongly condemned what it referred to as a threat issued publicly against High Court Judge Louise Blenman by United Progressive Party (UPP) government Minister Hilson Baptiste.
Speaking at a public meeting Baptiste, is said to have stated: “I don’t know about this judge and this judgement, because I know if this judge had passed this judgement in Jamaica, she could not walk out the court”. He then reportedly repeated: “If this judge had passed this judgement in Jamaica, she could not walk out the court.” The ALP declared: “This attack on the judiciary and a grave threat against a High Court Judge are part of a pattern of public statements by the leadership of the UPP regime beginning with a declaration of ‘war’ by its leader Baldwin Spencer against anyone who disagrees with him”. The Labour Party said that Spencer called for “war” within days of Justice Blenman’s judgement that he and two other UPP ministers should vacate their seats in Parliament following petitions by the Labour Party. The ALP said that it is writing to the Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Court and to the Secretaries-General of the Commonwealth, the Organization of American States and the CARICOM Secretariats drawing their attention to the attack on the Judiciary and the specific threat against Justice Blenman. “We expect the Chief Justice and the Secretaries-General to make their displeasure known immediately to the illegal UPP regime, for if they fail to act decisively the UPP leadership will continue this lawless behaviour with chilling consequences,” the ALP said. The Labour Party also denounced Baptiste’s smearing of Jamaica. “We know of no instance where any judge in Jamaica was unable to walk out of a court after delivering a judgement unfavourable to a political party. The illegal and desperate UPP regime must send an immediate apology to the people of Jamaica through its government.” The ALP said: “Even though we are certain that the police have a recording of the threatening statement by Hilson Bapiste, we are forwarding a copy to them and urging appropriate action.” “The rule of law has been overturned by the desperate UPP regime, and we call on the international community to join us in being vigilant to the excesses of the illegal Baldwin Spencer government which has intensified intimidation and promotion of violence,” the ALP concluded. (Caribnet) |
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — The US woman at the center of a major scandal here after she and several fellow missionaries tried to spirit dozens of Haitian children into the Dominican Republic is to be tried in Haiti, her attorney told AFP on Monday.
Laura Silsby, one of a group of missionaries from the western US state of Idaho, was detained at the border with the Dominican Republic on kidnapping charges following the devastating earthquake in Haiti. She now will stand trial on the charge of arranging “irregular travel,” according to her attorney, Louis Ricardo Chachoutte, who spoke to reporters following a court hearing Monday. Silsby and her fellow Baptist missionaries were arrested on January 29 as they tried to take the children into the neighboring Dominican Republic by bus without the necessary documentation. Haitian authorities later determined that all 33 children that the US missionaries tried to remove from the country illegally had parents, with whom they were eventually reunited. The members of the New Life Children’s Refuge missionary group denied wrongdoing, saying they were only trying to help orphans in the wake of Haiti’s devastating January 12 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people. The other nine missionaries were all released and allowed to return to the United States, but Silsby, the leader of the group, remained detained in Port-au-Prince. (Caribnet) |
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The Media Association Jamaica Limited (MAJ) has called for defining steps and robust action to be taken to tackle the huge crime problems facing Jamaica.
The group, representing media organisations, was responding yesterday to the murder of Mark deFreitas, son of Gleaner Overseas Publications Editor Paget deFreitas.
“Young deFreitas is another of the country’s youth deprived of realising his full potential in a country that has so much promise of good, but which is over-shadowed by ugly violence,” the MAJ said in a statement released yesterday.
“For the sake of all Jamaicans, we must act now, act together and act decisively to halt the drenching of our land with the blood of our people.”
Woman escaped unhurt
Last Friday, the younger deFreitas was reportedly standing beside his Honda Civic motor car on Montgomery Drive in St Andrew, speaking with a woman, when two men rode up on a motorbike and opened fire.
DeFreitas died on the spot after being hit multiple times. The woman escaped unhurt.
The MAJ said the killing of Mark deFreitas has reminded media managers and media workers in general that while they report the news of murders across the island, no one, including those within the industry, was spared the trauma, the grief and the loss these killings bring.
“Very often, members of the public think the reporting of crime and violence is something people in media glorify and are happy to do,” the MAJ said. “However, we know that we are not immune to the violence, and instances like this one remind us that we are all as vulnerable to the onslaught of criminals as any other Jamaican.” (Jamaica Gleaner)
Karl Samuda (right), minister of industry, investment and commerce, shows journalists housing that was stripped of its wires, while Michael Stern, state minister in the industry ministry, looks on during a press conference held at their New Kingston offices yesterday. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer
A BAN has been placed on almost all scrap metal export as Government yesterday moved to put a stop to rampant criminality that has laid seige to the industry.
Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Karl Samuda said yesterday that only manufacturers who generated their own material and did not buy from other sources would be allowed to export scrap metal as of tomorrow.
Samuda, who made the announcement during a press conference at his ministry’s New Kingston offices, said the decision was taken in the wake of the theft of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure across the island, and most recently, at the Colbeck irrigation pumping station in St Catherine where scrap metal thieves vandalised critical agricultural equipment, with losses estimated at some $5 million.
“(This is) denying the oppor-tunity to a number of farmers of having water supply that they have not had in the area for some 25 years,” Samuda lamented.
Containers to be inspected
The ban does not apply to containers that are already in the ports. Other containers, which have already been packed, will be inspected by a special team comprising the Jamaica Customs Department, the police and other stakeholders, and then repacked.
The minister said the Customs Department has committed to having the process completed by Friday.
Last Wednesday night, thieves made off with material from a section of the still-incomplete stands being erected at the G.C. Foster College of Physical Education and Sport in Spanish Town, St Catherine. The damage is estimated in excess of $1 million.
“This scrap metal industry is sick and needs to be stabilised, and that is what we are going to do,” the minister said.
Samuda said the decision to institute the ban came after scrap metal dealers, who pulled in an estimated $100 million last year, failed to provide him with satisfactory information during a meeting held earlier yesterday morning.
“We’re talking about serious theft of important infrastructure,” Samuda said.
Guidelines to come
Effective immediately, there will be no further export of copper.
“No metal that is smelted prior to being packed will be permitted for export,” Samuda said. “The metal must be in its original state. It may be compacted, it may be cut up into pieces, but it must remain in its original state, and that is particularly in respect of certain types of metal. They must not be processed in any way at all.”
The minister said he would outline the new guidelines for the scrap metal industry during a presentation in Parliament on May 4.
While the export of scrap metal will now be prohibited, manufacturing companies that produce their own scrap metal are excused, as long as they can provide sufficient evidence of their production to Customs officials. Smelted metal will not be permitted for export, only metal that is in its original state.
Copper may no longer be exported, and this was made effective yesterday.
Containers at the port before tomorrow will be exported. Other packed and sealed containers will be unpacked and inspected by Customs officials, police officers and stakeholders before being repacked. (Jamaica Gleaner)
Mounting pressure from a number of leading media entities in the United States on the extradition request for Tivoli Gardens strong-man Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke is doing serious damage to the Bruce Golding administration’s legitimacy, the Opposition has declared.
Reacting to the latest article published by an American newspaper, Opposition Spokesman on National Security Peter Bunting said yesterday that “it really has some sinister implications”.
Bunting’s comments came against the background of a New York Times article published online Sunday, which identified Coke as a “powerful player in Jamaican politics, so much so that the US State Department’s attempt to extradite him has rattled relations between the United States and Jamaica”.
Bunting has also insisted that the prime minister “come clean” on the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips affair, which has remained a thorn in the flesh of the administration. “I don’t think he can run from this issue forever, and we will continue to up the ante in Parliament,” Bunting said.
The New York Times joined a number of other respected media entities in North America, such as The Washington Post and The Economist, and the Toronto Globe and Mail in Canada, to weigh in on a story that has ignited a flaming debate on the Coke extradition and Manatt sagas.
Golding is expected, two weeks from now, to answer questions in Parliament on the reported contractual arrangement between the Government and the US law firm, which had been posted on the US Department of Justice website. Manatt pulled out of the contract in February, indicating that it no longer represented the Government of Jamaica in treaty matters.
Government to respond
General secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party and senior government minister, Karl Samuda, in a terse comment yesterday, said the administration would respond to the issue shortly.
In a related matter, Bunting told The Gleaner yesterday that the legal team of the People’s National Party (PNP) was ready to address the motion filed by Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne seeking a decla-ration on the handling of the extradition request for Coke. The attorney general wants the court to declare what she can take into account in deciding to issue the authority to proceed in extradition matters.
In her capacity as president of the PNP, Portia Simpson Miller was named as the third defendant because she reportedly ques-tioned the minister’s authority to decline the extradition request.
Coke has been named as a defendant because he is the person in the extradition request, while Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica President Joseph M. Matalon has been named as second defendant because the organisation he represents questioned the right or authority of the minister to decline the extradition request. The hearing has been set for May 5. (Jamaica Gleaner)
West Indies skipper Chris Gayle said yesterday he favoured his side’s chances of winning the World Twenty20 Championship, especially with the return of key strike bowler Jerome Taylor and highly-rated batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan.
Both players are returning to the April 30-May 16 tournament following long spells out of the game due to injury.
Gayle said their presence for the global event would be tremendous, as they clash in Group D of the first round here beginning on Friday with a day/night encounter against Ireland.
’I am confident we will pull off the tournament. We have a balanced team and that is why I am so optimistic of having the prestigious cup stay here,’ the Jamaican told reporters.
’With the return of Taylor and Sarwan, I think that will give us a big advantage as well.’
Gayle added that the likes of big-hitting Kieron Pollard, versatile all-rounder Dwayne Bravo and veteran left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul would further strengthen the team.
Coupled with home advantage and crowd support, along with the momentum from the one-day series win against Zimbabwe, Gayle said he believed West Indies would be formidable opponents.
’Everyone knows [their] role. Bravo, Taylor, Pollard, myself, Sarwan, Chanderpaul are players who have done well for West Indies, and should be taking up the responsibility again of making the Caribbean proud in this tournament,’ the languid 30-year-old pointed out.
’We would have learnt a lot from our previous one-day series against Zimbabwe right here, and winning that series has also helped build the momentum up for this competition.’
Gayle said that both departments were very strong and he wanted each player to make an impact. He said he expected rookie pacer Kemar Roach and Ravi Rampaul to be at their best, while noting that slower bowlers like himself, left-arm orthodox spinners Sulieman Benn and Nikita Miller and off-spinner Narsingh Deonarine would provide variety.
’We have varieties in the bowling department and I know Kemar and Ravi have delivered with precision in this version of the game, and with the support from the slower bowlers, I think we will bowl well,’ Gayle said.
’We will go out there and play hard cricket, just try to build a good team morale, let everyone get a feel and try to correct any mistakes. We just can’t underestimate any team, it is Twenty20 cricket and a team can be dangerous on a given day.’
West Indies will be hoping to better their outing in last year’s tournament when they reached the semi-finals in England before losing to Sri Lanka.
The hosts will play warm-up matches against Afghanistan and New Zealand today and tomorrow, respectively, at the National Stadium at Providence. -CMC
