Moontown

ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC:

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) foreign ministers yesterday began a two-day meeting with the host country calling for a review of the effectiveness of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR).

“All organisations from time to time need to review their effectiveness in carrying out their mission in an environment that is constantly in change,” Dr Colin McIntyre, minister of CARICOM affairs, said, adding that the review would also involve “the wider question of the effectiveness and functioning of the Caribbean Community”.

“Some of the questions which we have identified for treatment under this heading include the frequency of COFCOR meetings … and the need for greater sharing of information among member states, a process that should be well facilitated by the CARICOM Secretariat.”

McIntyre said that a “critical item” to be discussed at the meeting is the need to improve the arrangements “that we have in place for greater inclusion and input from member states … of documents required for our meetings”.

He said the timely research of documents that form the basis of the decision making at the COFCOR meeting “continues to be of nagging concern”.

strengthening role

The meeting will discuss, among other issues, ways of strengthening of the region’s role in Haiti’s reconstruction and a CARICOM Secretariat statement said that the foreign ministers will discuss CARICOM’s participation on the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Committee that was established following the international donors’ conference on Haiti in March.

A powerful earthquake on January 12 devastated the French-speaking CARICOM country, killing an estimated 300,000 people and leaving more than a million others homeless.

Apart from Haiti, the foreign ministers will also discuss the “changing geopolitical trends” and the region’s relations with other countries.

The meeting will discuss, among other issues, ways of strengthening of the region’s role in Haiti’s reconstruction. (Jamaica Gleaner)

LIME Jamaica/Cable and Wireless Jamaica corporate headquarters at Carlton Crescent, Kingston. - File

Engineers employed to telecommunications firm LIME Jamaica were working to have full service restored to its main switchboard and customer care centre after a small electrical fire affected portions of the operation.

The fire, which occurred sometime after 1:30 p.m. on Monday, was contained to a small room on the ground floor of the company’s corporate building at Carlton Crescent in Kingston.

“As a result of the incident, customers might experience brief delays getting through to customer-service representatives at the centre,” a press release from the former monopoly provider states.

The call disruptions were still evident Wednesday mid-morning when Thursday Business rang to check.

Although there was damage to some equipment, the company says it was able to activate its recovery plan and re-route most of the calls.

Damage was done to transmission equipment supporting the company’s internal PBX system which affected incoming landline calls to LIME’s head office.

“Customers will, therefore, experience brief delays getting through to customer-service representatives at the centre,” LIME said.

business@gleanerjm.com

Ocho Rios Pier - File

Hall

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Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

OCHO RIOS will lose 20 per cent of its cruise-ship calls in 2011, Sue Morris, a representative of the National Cruise Council of Jamaica, has said.

At the same time, Falmouth, with its soon-to-be-opened pier, is causing jitters in Ocho Rios, as stakeholders fear that a dirty town and the frequent harassment of visitors will drive visitors away from the resort hub of St Ann.

“Ocho Rios has the possibility of losing a lot more calls because of the condition of the town,” Morris told a Gleaner Editors’ Forum last Thursday.

The number of cruise passengers arriving in Ocho Rios slowed from 675,885 in 2008 to 638,276 last year. The trend, however, is in keeping with the overall picture last year, which saw national cruise arrivals declining from just over one million visitors in 2008 to 922,000 last year.

With Falmouth’s $7.5 billion cruise-ship pier due to open in November, St Ann business interests are of the view that the town seems set to benefit from the Ocho Rios fallout. They lament that it could be devastating to business if steps are not taken to tackle the twin evil that now threatens to cripple their livelihood.

Wake-up call

Already, eight of the 19 ships that normally dock in Ocho Rios will be moving to Falmouth when the pier is opened. Morris sees it as not just increased competition, but also a wake-up call for stakeholders in Ocho Rios to improve their offerings.

“Falmouth will be a challenge. The first nine calls come in November for Falmouth. You won’t be having supper in November because you will be eating water,” Morris said. “But today, we need to start to fix our parish to make the Port Authority’s job easier, to make the cruise lines that are still coming to Ocho Rios want to stay in Ocho Rios, and to attract the new ones,” Morris added.

The looming downturn has spurred Horace Wildes, president of the St Ann Chamber of Commerce, to urge that everything be done to sustain the growth of tourism in the resort town.

“It is only in Ocho Rios that you have four of the world’s greatest attractions,” Wildes said of the area that boasts the Mystic Mountain attraction, Dunn’s River Falls, Chukka Cove and Dolphin Cove. “They are world-class. If we can take care of this product, people will come, because if you want to come to Jamaica, you have to come here.”

Wildes said it was in the best interest of Ocho Rios that the problems dogging the quality of its tourism product be addressed.

‘Hustling’ tourism

Robin Hall, representative of Ocho Rios Cruise Ship Port, is among those who can’t wait to have some of the more serious issues addressed. He blames some players in the transportation sector for treating tourism as a “hustling”, and some of the cruise lines for telling their passengers to avoid leaving the ships.

“When I look this month, I had 19 ships, and next month I will be having 14, because we are coming out of the season. Out at that 14, eight were going to Falmouth because they were planning on Falmouth being opened. If Falmouth was opened this month, dog would eat my supper in Ocho Rios in May,” Hall said.

Meanwhile, Kumar Sujanani, vice-president of the In-Bond Merchants Association for St Mary, St Ann and Trelawny, said that members of his association were worried that the tourism pie would be shrinking because of the overall quality of the product being offered.

He said his association had been experiencing a “strong downturn in business because of the global recession” and that the projections for 2010-2011 suggest further decline because Ocho Rios is to lose ships to Falmouth.

“We were finding it difficult, I am told, to find larger vessels to replace the ships that we are going to lose because of the on-shore experience that passengers have, particularly if they walk from the cruise ship to the town of Ocho Rios. It is a very unpleasant experience, if we are to believe the comments we get from the cruise lines,” Sujanani said. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Captain Russell Capleton.

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Captain Russell Capleton, who led the Jamaican Airline Pilots’ Association’s (JALPA) unsuccessful bid to purchase Air Jamaica, died early yesterday morning at Andrews Memorial Hospital in St Andrew.

Captain John Williams, who succeeded Capleton as JALPA president, told The Gleaner yesterday it was believed Capleton died after suffering a heart attack. He was 56 years old.

Capleton was not among the 77 Air Jamaica pilots retained by Caribbean Airlines when that Trinidadian company assumed control of the struggling airline on May 1.

His final assignment for Air Jamaica was last Saturday on the Philadelphia to Kingston flight.

Williams said he and Capleton had been friends for more than 30 years. He said Capleton was not disappointed at being overlooked by Caribbean Airlines.

“He actually felt relief that he was finally moving on. He was looking forward to starting an independent airline. That was his ultimate dream,” Williams said.

Capleton was the high-profile spokesperson for the JALPA, which announced its bid to purchase Air Jamaica last October. The pitch evoked passionate nationalism but was rejected by the Government, which said the JALPA had made its bid too late and did not have an adequate acquisition plan.

In February, Capleton said his organisation had attracted the support of major overseas investors who were prepared to put up US$60 million equity to purchase Air Jamaica.

Capleton was born in Falmouth, Trelawny. He attended Jamaica College and New York University, where he majored in advertising and commercial arts.

He was an advertising executive with McCann/ Erickson for several years before becoming a licensed pilot in 1979. In January 1980, Capleton made his maiden flight for Air Jamaica.

He is survived by his wife and three children.

Since his passing, a number of persons and organisations have come out to voice condolences.

The ground staff at the Montego Bay Airport noted in a release that Capleton cared about what would happen to them there, and that he would be missed.

President of Air Jamaica, Bruce Nobles, and his chairman, Dennis Lalor, also expressing regret over Capleton’s passing issued a joint statement. (Jamaica Gleaner)

President Niels-Erik Andreasen (right) of Andrews University congratulates Governor General Sir Patrick Allen on receipt of his honorary doctorate. Interim Provost Bill Richardson (left) takes a moment to adjust Sir Allen’s gown. - Contributed

Governor General Sir Patrick Allen has been awarded an honorary degree from Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

Sir Patrick was the undergraduate commencement speaker for the graduating class of 2010 on Sunday.

During his recent stay at his alma mater, Sir Patrick and Lady Allen were special guests at a groundbreaking ceremony for Buller Hall, part of the new Undergraduate Learning Center at Andrews University. They also attended a dedication-to-ministry-and-service programme for seminary graduates, as well as paid a bereavement visit to the widow of Denroy Black, a Jamaican student who was studying at Andrews University at the time of his sudden death last month.

In his commencement address, Sir Patrick advised graduates that they “need to decide whether you are part of the group that acts, or are merely those who are actors. Make the decision to go further. Go and change the world”.

On receiving the honorary degree, Sir Patrick said: “Receiving this distinguished recognition is certainly one of the high points of my life. My family and I … we can go nowhere without wearing the banner of Andrews University.”

Founded in 1874, Andrews University is the flagship institution of higher education for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Curtis Rampersad Business Editor

Calder Hart’s resignation from the National Insurance Board almost two months ago has left customers who want to transfer their mortgages unable to do so.

As chairman of the NIB, Hart was the only person who could authorise mortgage turnovers from one owner to another.

The NIB, as well as the Trinidad and Tobago Mortgage Finance Company, the National Insurance Property Development Company and the Home Mortgage Bank, has been without a chairman since March 6 when Hart resigned from special purpose company UDeCOTT.

The National Insurance Act, which governs the NIB, gives authority to the chairman only to sign off on documents related to mortgage transfers.

One of the people affected by Hart’s resignation from the NIB is Errol Pilgrim, former Express political reporter and former head of news at then television station TTT.

Pilgrim and his wife own a home at Trincity which he recently gave to his daughter. The house was mortgaged in the 1970s by now defunct Workers Bank.

When the bank was closed, the mortgage was taken over by the NIB.

It has since been paid off, Pilgrim said.

When his daughter applied for a loan to renovate the house, she was asked to produce the mortgage transfer document by the bank.

Pilgrim said he contacted the NIB to get the mortgage turned over but was told that only the chairman had the authority to sign off on the document.

That was two months ago and Pilgrim has been waiting since then, he told the Express in a phone interview.

’A lot of people may be affected by the non-appointment of a chairman for the NIB,’ he said. ’I have been told by the NIB that my mortgage turnover can’t be processed because there is no chairman. I am frustrated.’

NIB director Rudranath Indarsingh confirmed last week that while a board of directors was still place, the NIB was running ’on autopilot’ without a chairman.

He said the NIB continued to run on a day-to-day basis.

Indarsingh said the National Insurance Act did not allow a director or deputy chairman to sign mortgage transfer documents.

He could not say how many customers were affected.

Apart from Indarsingh, NIB officials could not be reached for comment last week and up to yesterday. (Trinidad Express)

Akile Simon akile.simon@trinidadexpress.com

ACTING DEPUTY Commissioner of Police Gilbert Reyes says that there would be an increase in security in and around political meetings following last Monday’s incident in which a group of protesters stormed a political meeting hosted by the United National Congress (UNC) in St Augustine.

Reyes said incidents of such a nature must not recur and promised those responsible for the protest, if found culpable, would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

He said Senior Supt Joseph Edwards, head of the Northern Division has been directed to investigate Monday’s incident and a preliminary report was expected to be submitted to him by tomorrow.

’As a result of that incident, we have taken a decision to increase security at all political meetings and rallies across the country. This time around we will not be taking any chances and I want to warn anyone who thinks they could breach the law and get away.

’Officers would be out in full force to ensure law and order is prevailed and there are no unnecessary disruptions during the run up to the elections,’ Reyes said. He added that officers who are on vacation leave would be called out one week before the May 24 election to boost manpower across the various polling districts throughout the country.

When questions whether or not the protesters who visited the UNC meeting in St Joseph had violated the Representation of the People’s Act, Reyes said he would have to await on the outcome of the investigation before he could come to such a conclusion.

Reyes also added that a search was being conducted for a suspect who threw a can of red paint on Member of Parliament for Arouca/Maloney Alicia Hospedales during a walk-about at Bon Air Gardens in Arouca on Tuesday afternoon.

He advised MPs who may have received threats to immediately report them to the police so that measures could be put in place to swiftly deal with the situation.

’Before MPs start their walk-about, we want them to liaise with us so we could properly advise them on the level of security needed when going into certain areas,’ Reyes added. (Trinidad Express)