Moontown

By Mike King

The forthcoming infrastructural transformation of St. Lucy should bring about services that could take the ease off the demands now facing Warrens.

Chief Town & Country Planner Mark Cummins told the Daily Nation yesterday that the massive housing development project targeted for St. Lucy would raise the profile of the north and would translate into housing solutions, employment and shopping for Barbadians, in particular those from western St. Andrew and eastern St. Peter.

“This is going to be the catalyst for the future development of the north. The people of Belleplaine, Walkers, Shorey Village and Lakes will not only come to this area for services, but many of those people may get employment opportunities in this area and similarly eastern St. Peter (Whitehall, Mile-And-A-Quarter, Diamond Corner, Mount Brevitor, Boscobel).

“That is not exhaustive, as I think you will have people from all over Barbados coming to Pickering because I think it offers another option, not only housing and employment, but shopping,” he said.

There will be major road improvement and access with a four-lane road on the stretch leading to Northern Lumber Company. And, according to Acting Senior Town Planner Rudy Headley, 350 000 gallons of water would be pumped per day and the development would also increase the energy demand by two percent. However, the Barbados Light and Power expects to meet this from its expansion by way of the implementation of the (30 megawatts) generating station at Trents.

A few weeks ago in a ministerial statement in the House of Assembly, Prime Minister David Thompson announced that a group of local, Caribbean and United States entrepreneurs and other interests, operating under the name North Ridge Development Company Limited, were scheduled to commence the project on 200 000 square feet of land at Pickering this year.

The major initiative will involve the construction of 1 161 residential units. Cummins said the project had national spin-offs. “The spin-offs are huge. Barbados on the whole will benefit and it will certainly enhance the profile of St. Lucy and the north of Barbados.

Importantly, and this is something we will obviously have to monitor, it may also take some of the pressure off Warrens. The man who lives in St. Lucy may decide that instead of stopping at Super Centre on my way home, I will stop at the supermarket a little closer to home,” he said.

The project, which will see the transformation of 220 acres of agricultural land, will have a major sewage treatment plant. “The benefit of that sewage treatment plant is that it will treat water to a tertiary level which is a level you can drink but we don’t treat it in Barbados. St. Lucy is one of the driest parishes in Barbados and we have an opportunity to look at best practices where the water from the sewage treatment system can be used for irrigation purposes.”

The project will include a 200-unit hotel, a private day care centre, a primary school to accommodate 350 pupils, recreational amenities, heritage parks, greens, lakes, three-lined boulevards, an amphitheatre and a bus terminal.

Close[X]

IN HAPPIER TIMES! West Indies captain Chris Gayle (left) and Sulieman Benn celebrating during the third ODI in Windsor Park.()

By: EZRA STUART in Dominica

THERE IS NO RIFT in the West Indies team and the players aren’t partygoers.

Embattled captain Chris Gayle made this clear here last weekend following their sixth straight defeat - two Twenty20s and four One-Day Internationals - at the hands of South Africa in the 2010 Digicel home series.

“I’m basically disappointed that we’ve lost so many games but generally, everyone gets on well with each other,” Gayle said at a post-match Press conference.

Gayle made the remark after sending off left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn for his reluctance to change his bowling approach during South Africa’s successful run-chase which gave them a 4-0 lead in the five-match One-Day series.

“The one downside is to get that win but we’ve worked extremely hard, preparation-wise. It’s just unfortunate that we are not getting the results out there in the middle,” Gayle said.

“It’s a mental situation we’ve actually reached now but we’ve got to come out of the situation as quickly as possible, because, unfortunately, losing is becoming a habit and it’s a bit difficult to get out of.

“That means that you don’t know how to win games anymore, so we need to try and turn things around,” he remarked.

But Gayle denied the run of losses had resulted from late-night partying by some players.

“Those days are over, to be honest with you. We are playing so much cricket (that) we don’t really have time to do that,” Gayle added.

“But guys need to be free. We don’t want to put any burden on anyone.

“They are big men and we don’t want to treat them like kids, but at the same time the conditions are very hot and you don’t expect anyone to be partying. We’ve passed that stage,” the 30-year-old Jamaican contended.

“We’ve been criticised for that over the last couple of years and we are just trying to turn things around. We are making a lot of sacrifices in every department,” he noted.

Despite the losing streak, Gayle, who has led the Windies to 17 wins with 29 losses and six no-results in 52 ODIs said he was keen to continue leading the side and would be giving the job his best shot.

“At the end of the day, the way I look at it, I’m not going to be captain for ever. At some stage, you are going to have a new captain but I’m going to look at the situation,” said Gayle, who also had three wins, seven losses and seven draws in 17 Tests as captain since he took up the job in 2007.

“It’s just one of those things and I’m sure they will be looking to groom someone at some given time. I’m not sure when (but) I’m really all for it and giving it my best shot,” Gayle said.

“You still got to put out the effort and keep working and keep striving and trying to make progress for the West Indies,” the captain concluded.

SOME STAFFERS openly cried yesterday as Leroy Parris bade farewell to CLICO International Life Insurance Limited (CIL).

The top insurance executive officially stepped down as executive chairman of CIL and spent from about 10:15 a.m. meeting with financial advisers and life insurance underwriters at the company’s Whitepark Road, St Michael headquarters.

Parris praised his staff for building the company into the major enterprise that it had become, and for assisting the institution in diversifying its operations into areas such as agriculture and housing.

The company was also the first to have a commercial banking institution, the former Caribbean Commercial Bank (CCB), forerunner to RBTT Bank.

Several workers paid tribute to Parris’ more than 30 years with the company, expressing regret that he was leaving at this stage.

Others suggested he still had much to offer CLICO and hoped he would continue to contribute his significant expertise to the industry.

One senior executive acknowledged that despite the financial difficulties facing the company, CLICO had been a success story here and the Eastern Caribbean under Parris’ leadership.

Parris, who is executive chairman of CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited, will remain on the boards of some of the company’s other subsidiaries. (WG) (Nation News)

By: John Sealy

ST JOHN’S - Antigua and Barbuda’s Opposition Leader Lester Bird has called on Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer to apologise for remarks he made in parliament questioning the competence of three Caribbean prime ministers.

This stand by Bird came in a Press release yesterday and based on a broadcast statement Spencer made in parliament last Friday when speaking about “success in borrowing US$68 million (BDS$136 million) from the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA to purchase 75 per cent shares of the West Indies Oil Company (WIOC) currently in the hands of National Petroleum Ltd (NPL)”.

The Antigua Labour Party leader and former prime minister said that not only did the prime minister “mislead” the parliament on the facts of the financial transaction but he also chose the occasion to misrepresent the prime ministers of St Kitts and Nevis (Denzil Douglas); Dominica (Roosevelt Skerrit) and St Vincent and the Grenadines (Ralph Gonsalves).

Prime Minister Spencer had said that his government was borrowing US$68 million from PDVSA to buy 75 per cent of WIOC, then sell 40 per cent to a subsidiary of PDVSA, with the government having control of the company.

But Bird pointed out that since PDVSA would be holding a “note” for 60 per cent of the shares of WIOC as well as owning the remaining 40 per cent, it was the Venezuelan company that would be in control of the company, and not the Antigua and Barbuda government.

In his presentation, Spencer called on Prime Minister Douglas “to take note of how a government which truly puts people first goes about protecting the interests of its citizens”. Spencer was referring to a transaction in which, he said “St Kitts signed an agreement which gave Venezuela 55 per cent equity in the joint venture company”.

He claimed that the governments of Dominica and St Vincent “also yielded control to the Venezuelans under similar share structures”.

However, Bird said yesterday that Spencer’s remark “about the three prime ministers” was “offensive, and entirely inaccurate. Their arrangements with Venezuela were far better to benefit those three countries than that negotiated by the Spencer government”.

Bird said that the full terms of the agreement with PDVSA and WIOC should be made public for scrutiny. (PR) (Nation News)

GUYANA’S Deputy Chief Immigration Officer Carol Primo is in Barbados to assist Guyanese nationals with renewing their passports and to conduct any other business related to their status.

She will be available at the Amaryllis Hotel, Hastings, Christ Church, today and tomorrow from midday.

This two-day temporary service is being offered following the sudden passing of Norman Faria, honorary consul for Guyana.

Primo is accompanied by Elisabeth Harper, Guyana’s High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. (PR) (Nation News)

Donna Phillips (right) and O’Shane Campbell preparing fresh flying fish for sale. (Picture by Gregory Waldron)

THE FISH ARE all gone - sold out.

It was a different story at the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex yesterday from the one carried in last Thursday’s DAILY NATION.

Boat owner and fish vendor, Donna Phillips, said all the fish which had been kept on ice had been sold - not just hers but everybody else’s.

“When people saw the papers, people came with bags and buckets - in here was ‘ram’. By the next day, there was no fish left; it was clean, all the containers were empty. I want to thank the NATION for the good work they did,” she said.

In the previous story, Phillips complained it was taking more than three days to clear a boatload of fish, forcing her to keep more than 200 000 flying fish on ice. (CA) (Nation News)

By: Wade Gibbons

WILLIAM LAYNE IS BEING RIDICULOUS, says former CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey.

That’s his response to Layne’s call for executive chairman of CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited (CHBL), Leroy Parris, to return all monies obtained from subsidiary, CLICO International Life Insurance (CIL).

On May 18, Layne wrote CHBL’s president Terrence Thornhill requesting that money paid to Parris and his private company, Professional Financial Services (PFS), for management services, be repaid with interest. Layne also instructed Thornhill that money given to Parris by CIL as vacation pay be repaid with interest.

But in a letter dated May 30, sent to Layne and copied to Thornhill, Duprey said Layne’s request was without “substance or foundation” in law or fact. Duprey also indicated that Layne clearly did not understand what was going on in the matter. Layne is head of an Oversight Committee born out of a memorandum of understanding between Government and CHBL to manage the sale of three subsidiaries: CIL, CLICO Mortgage & Financial Corporation (CMFC), and CLICO International General Insurance Limited.

“In all the circumstances, I suggest that you have wholly misunderstood the relationship between Leroy Parris and PFS on the one hand, and both CHBL and CIL on the other, and that you will, upon receipt of this letter, recognise that position and thereafter confirm in writing to Mr Thornhill that you withdraw this ridiculous claim for repayment,” Duprey said.

Parris has come under the committee’s radar after withdrawing more than $250 000 in deposits from CMFC. A payment of $876 000 by CLICO to another of Parris’ company’s, Branlee Consulting Services, has also been the subject of recent public debate.

Clarifying the relationship between CLICO and PFS, Duprey said that through PFS, Parris provided management services from as early as February 1, 1989, when the company entered into a contract with CLICO Barbados.

He said this relationship extended to all of CLICO’s businesses in the Eastern Caribbean.

He said the contract between CLICO and Parris’ PFS was “without limitation of time” and subject to changes in the level of payment.

He noted that additional benefits for the delivery of such services remained unchanged until a CHBL board decision to terminate the contract.

He added that termination even raised compensation issues.

Duprey’s announcement followed a decision by CHBL’s board to stop making further payments through CIL to PFS on the grounds that PFS was not in a direct employment/services contract with CIL.

“Although I doubt that this issue would ever arise, there is no doubt that any court forced to determine a claim by CIL against CHBL that would then necessarily include PFS and possibly Leroy Parris being joined into such an action would be defeated on a quantum meruit [reasonable value of services] basis,” Duprey said.

He added that PFS delivered services for 21 years and would be entitled to receive compensation for those services.

CLICO’s local operations have been faced with financial difficulties over the past 17 months, following the near collapse of CL Financial, its parent company in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Trinidad and Tobago government took full control of CL Financial, removing Duprey from the helm of the insurance and real estate conglomerate.

He had transformed CL Financial from a small Port-of-Spain insurance group to a multibillion-dollar conglomerate that owned 65 companies in 34 countries.

wadegibbons @nationnews.com

International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn speaks during a news conference in Brasilia last Wednesday. - AP

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Mone-tary Fund (IMF), says that the effect of the global economic crisis on the region has been uneven.

Addressing the Third Meeting of Finance Ministers of the Americas and the Caribbean, Strauss-Kahn said that countries that followed sound policies “fared rather well - better than countries in other regions and better than in the past.

“On the other hand, countries in Central America took longer to recover, and the tourism-dependent Caribbean countries are still suffering,” he said.

Strauss-Kahn said regional countries with good performance were generally associated with “a good starting position”, stating that these countries did not make the mistakes of many advanced countries by going on a “debt-fuelled spending binge or using complex financial engineering to magnify risk”.

“Rather, they learned from past mistakes, and embraced cautious and prudent macroeconomic policies,” the IMF official said.

“Here, when the storm arrived, the levies were firmly in place. Countries had saved for a rainy day, so they could use fiscal policy to cushion the downturn and support employment,” he said.

Policies implement

Strauss-Kahn said, for the first time in history, many countries in the region were able to implement counter-cyclical monetary and fiscal policies, and that many also benefited from flexible exchange rates, significant international reserve buffers, and “a more credible monetary policy than before”.

He said, for emerging markets in Latin America and the Caribbean, a natural starting point would be to remove temporary fiscal stimulus.

“Fiscal correction can take some heat off monetary tightening, which in turn can dampen excessive capital inflows,” he said.

Strauss-Kahn said the key issue of direct relevance to the region is the challenge of rebounding capital inflows.

He said countries with strong fundamentals will likely receive large and sustained capital inflows over the coming years, but stated that the challenge will be to “absorb these flows effectively and avoid the build-up of vulnerabilities”.

A pragmatic response

“Any policy response must be pragmatic,” he said, noting that a range of tools can be deployed, including exchange rate appreciation, reserve accumulation, tighter fiscal policy and macro-prudential measures.

“Capital controls can sometimes play a role too, but should not be used to avoid needed adjustment,” he added.

But the IMF warned that as unemployment stays high, an economic crisis can quickly turn into a social one.

Strauss-Kahn pointed to specific labour market policies that he said can help limit the damage, stating that adequate unemployment benefits can support confidence, protect household incomes and avoid increases in poverty.

In addition, he said education and training programmes can help, but called for more international cooperation “than ever before”, since the challenges are becoming more complex. (Jamaica Gleaner)

A Jamaica Defence Force soldier digs up an unpaved sidewalk in Denham Town, west Kingston, as the hunt for illegal weapons deepened yesterday. The armed forces have so far seized three dozen illegal guns.

Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter

Jamaica Defence Force soldiers yesterday continued their painstaking search of west Kingston for the illegal guns believed to be among the arsenal amassed by the makeshift militia loyal to accused drug baron Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

Since last week, the security forces have reportedly seized 36 illegal guns and 9,241 rounds of ammunition in the communities.

Most of the weapons and ammo were seized after fierce gunfights in Tivoli Gardens and its outskirts had abated last Wednesday. The cops believe there are many more to be found.

“What we have found so far are the loose guns. We have not yet found where the majority of the weapons are being stored,” a soldier told The Gleaner, as his team did house-to-house searches on Bread Lane in Denham Town yesterday.

No stone unturned

The soldiers yanked manhole covers, moved old appliances, and rummaged through rubbish and dug up unpaved sidewalks as they probed every conceivable spot where criminals might have hidden their weapons.

Vehicles travelling into and out of the area were also searched, while residents and even journalists, were subjected to frisks as they moved through the community.

The security forces have taken up strategic positions in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town since last Tuesday after they beat back a hodgepodge of gunmen who had turned the communities into battleground fortresses.

“The people of Tivoli have been under the stranglehold of a criminal gang for too long.

“I think what we have done in recent days is to disrupt the capacity of the gang and we have displaced significant leadership and membership,” Police Commissioner Owen Ellington told the Jamaica Information Service during a tour of west Kingston on Sunday.

“We intend to continue on this mission to completely disarm the gang,” Ellington added. (Jamaica Gleaner)

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com

Dorothy Lightbourne(center), attorney general.

Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke

1 2 >

Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

In an apparent about-face in the extradition fight over west Kingston enforcer Chris-topher ‘Dudus’ Coke, Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne said she had taken into account evidence besides the contentious wiretapping information in signing the request for proceedings to begin.

There are also conflicting reports as to who made the final call. Lightbourne, who also shoulders responsibility of attorney general, has insisted that “it is not true that I acted under the direction of the prime minister”, a clear response to inferences that Bruce Golding had ordered her to sign the extradition request.

The disclosures were made in court documents filed by the minister in response to Coke’s application for his warrant of arrest to be stayed. He is seeking leave to go to the Judicial Review Court to have the authority to proceed with his warrant of arrest quashed.

Coke’s application was set for hearing yesterday before Chief Justice Zaila McCalla in chambers at the Supreme Court but has been put off until tomorrow. An adjournment was granted after Coke’s lawyers Paul Beswick and Don Foote said they had received the minister’s affidavit on the weekend and needed time to study it and respond.

The Government had, for the last nine months, refused to comply with the request from the United States government on the basis that that country needed additional information because the evidence sent was in breach of the Interception of Communications Act.

However, Lightbourne did not state why the non-wiretap evidence had not prompted the extradition pursuit in the first place; or if that information had not been in her hands from the very beginning.

Coke, 41, is wanted by the US government to face charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana and illegally trafficking in firearms.

Lightbourne, who is being represented by Queen’s Counsel R.N.A. Henriques and attorney-at-law Allan Wood, has said in the affidavit filed on May 28 that it was wholly untrue for Coke to assert that she had not independently exercised her discretion under the Extradition Act.

The minister and the director of public prosecutions are the defendants.

Coke is alleging in his affidavit that the minister acted under the direction of the prime minister when she issued the authority to proceed, but the minister claims that is not true. She said she advised the prime minister and the Cabinet at a meeting held at 11 a.m. on May 17 that she would be signing the authority to proceed, and the prime minister made the announcement later that day in an address to the nation.

Lightbourne said when she signed the authority to proceed, she had also taken into consideration the public interest, which included that the Government “not be placed in a position where it could be accused of having breached its solemn obligations under the extradition treaty with the government of the USA”.

Lightbourne is not proceeding with the motion she had filed on April 17 seeking declarations as to her powers under the Extradition Act. She said in the affidavit that she had no contesting party and the United States government had declined to appear in the matter.

Leader of the Opposition, Portia Simpson Miller, and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica were the defendants, but they were released by Supreme Court judge Roy Jones. Coke was a defendant, but he was not served as it was reported that it was not possible to locate him. (Jamaica Gleaner)

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com