Moontown

FORT COLLINS, Colorado (CMC) — Hurricane forecast experts at Colorado State University have increased their predictions and are now calling for a very active 2010 season in the Atlantic basin with 18 named storms.

The 2010 Hurricane Season in the Atlantic Ocean, which began on June 1and will end on November 30, affects the Caribbean and the eastern and Gulf coasts of the United States of America.

The forecasters base their prediction on much warmer-than-normal tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures and cooling tropical Pacific conditions that will likely transition into a weak La Niña by mid-season.

Of the 18 storms, the team of experts now anticipates 10 hurricanes forming in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and November 30. Five are expected to develop into major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111mph or greater.

The scientists increased their forecast from April’s prediction of 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

Long-term (1950-2000) averages are 9.6 named storms, 5.9 hurricanes and 2.3 major hurricanes per year.

“We have increased our forecast from early April, due to a combination of a transition from El Niño to current neutral conditions and the continuation of unusually warm tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures,” said William Gray, who is in his 27th year of forecasting at Colorado State.

“We anticipate a well above-average probability of United States and Caribbean major hurricane landfall,” he added.

The team said there is a 65 per cent chance of a major hurricane tracking into the Caribbean. The average for the last century is 42 per cent.

“The Caribbean looks to be very active in 2010, with overall tropical cyclone activity approaching levels experienced in 2004 and 2005,” it said.

Lead forecaster Phil Klotzbach said, if this hurricane season occurs as predicted, it could have an impact on the clean-up of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BY TANESHA MUNDLE Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com

HOUSEHOLDERS yesterday reacted with anger at the possibility of an increase in electricity rates this month, with some saying that any such hike would be cruel at this time.

According to the majority of persons polled by the Observer in Cross Roads and New Kingston in the early afternoon, the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), which is to decide on the annual inflation adjustment to non-fuel electricity rates, should not grant the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) an increase.

“That is madness! I don’t think it is fair at this time,” said Sophia Smith, who expressed surprise at the possibility of a rate increase. “I think what they should do is try and stop persons from stealing light, so they can collect more money.”

“I think it is a bit harsh, especially now when the country is trying to increase its productivity,” said David Hobson, who gave his job title as brand manager. “An increase will cause a negative effect on the price of production and manufacturing, which will only result in more price increase for persons. Basically, an increase will cause a negative domino effect right now.”

Christine Blackwood, a merchandiser who was on the job when the Observer spoke with her, said: “I don’t think JPS should increase the light bill at this point. They increased it last year and our pay don’t raise, so I don’t agree.”

The householders’ objections follow those expressed at the weekend by the tourism sector which said the already high electricity rates are crippling its operations.

The sector also urged the OUR to forego the rate adjustment, given that hotel forward bookings have seen a significant decline because of the civil unrest in sections of Kingston last month.

The issue was highlighted by Spanish Ambassador to Jamaica Jesus Silva who pointed out in an address to the Rotary Club of Kingston last Thursday that the high price that local and foreign investors have to pay for electricity is hurting their ability to stay in business.

Silva spoke specifically to Spanish hoteliers in Jamaica, saying that the high electricity costs are threatening their viability.

Last week, the JPS, in a news release, reminded that it cannot unilaterally increase its prices to reflect inflation.

The company said that under its operating licence, it is required to submit an application to the OUR each year for the inflation adjustment. That adjustment, JPS said, “is based on the US and Jamaican annual inflation rates, as the electricity industry is dependent on both imported and local inputs”.

But that was small comfort to Fitzroy Jackson, who was among the more than 20 householders with whom the Observer spoke yesterday.

“I am not in agreement with it,” said Jackson, an information technology manager. “It’s a difficult time now. We are still in a recession, and I don’t think the OUR is working for us. I know their hands are tied, but a least they must be able to say no or ask JPS to defer the request.”

Saleem Clarke, in his response, questioned the need for an adjustment. “I don’t know why they need to increase the light bill every year,” he said. “The light bill is already too exorbitant. JPS needs to find another way to take care of its overhead costs instead of pinning it on the consumers.”

Maxine Jackson, who was shopping in a supermarket in New Kingston, was furious. “I don’t agree; a wicked dem wicked. Light bill a raise too often now,” she fumed.

Taxi driver Sylvern McLeish said: “Is another light company we want, because if JPS did have competition, then the company couldn’t raise the bill so often.”

Thaddeus Nevers, another taxi driver, felt that an increase in electricity rates would make life harder for consumers who are already struggling with the high cost of living.

“Why do they have to turn to us so frequently for an increase?” he asked.

Security guard Pam Williams described the light and power company as “heartless” and said: “Is just last month they boast that they made millions in profits.”

However, Kevin James said he understood the need for an adjustment in the rates.

“I understand why they are seeking this increase, because inflation rises and if their suppliers raise their prices on them, then they have to increase the cost to the consumers to recover the cost, said, James. (Jamaica Observer)

IT seems to be a recurring theme: Jamaican artiste barred from entering Caribbean territory. This time the artiste is deejay and dancer Ding Dong, and the Caribbean island is Trinidad.

Ding Dong, who was scheduled to perform at an event in the twin-island republic on Saturday, did not get very far, as on reaching the Piarco International Airport in Port-of-Spain, he was informed that he would not be allowed to enter the country.

It is alleged that the artiste has been placed on a list of Jamaican artistes who have been banned from performing in Trinidad & Tobago. One Chat! source said these artistes, including Ding Dong, have been deemed a threat to Trinidadian society and therefore cannot be allowed into the country.

Last night, Chat! caught up with the artiste, who was still bewildered by the actions of the Trinidadian authorities. “Fi tell you de truth me can’t even explain wha’ go down a Trinidad… mi can’t tell you,” was all Ding Dong could say. (Jamaica Observer)

PRIME Minister Bruce Golding is among the first set of public officials slated to testify during the Contractor General’s investigation of the government’s proposed sale of its 45 per cent stake in Clarendon Alumina Works, popularly known as Jamalco.

The shares are being sold to Chinese firm Zhuhai Hongfan.

Among others officials down to give sworn testimony are present permanent secretary in the ministry of energy and mining, Hilary Alexander and former permanent secretary, Marcia Forbes.

They will be among the first persons who will be issued with formal Office of the Contractor General (OCG) Statutory Requisitions requiring them to provide sworn testimony.

Later on, other senior public officials and private individuals will also be issued with formal requisitions to assist with the investigations. They will include the energy and mining minister James Robertson, and Howard Mitchell, chairman of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI), the Jamaica Bauxite Mining Ltd. (JBM), the Bauxite and Alumina Trading Company (BATCO) and the National Housing Trust (NHT).

Mitchell and Forbes had met with OCG officials on April 24, last year, to brief them on the government’s then prospective arrangements with Hongfan and its agent, Port Reliant, acting on what they said were the instructions of the Prime Minister.

Immediately after the meeting, Contractor General Greg Christie wrote to the government to express his “grave concerns” about what was told to him and the issues of a conflict of interest and the lack of transparency and competition which were among the issues raised.

The Contractor General’s requisitions will require each respondent to provide sworn testimony to the Contractor General regarding, among other things, their knowledge of the circumstances of the proposed deal and to do so on the pain of criminal prosecution under Section 8 of the Perjury Act and Section 29 (a) of the Contractor General Act. The first requisitions will be issued by the Contractor General’s office by Wednesday.

According to the OCG, it is expected that the investigation will receive the full cooperation of all relevant government officials and respondents since the OCG’s jurisdiction over State asset divestments is well founded in law and in practice over several years.

“The administration’s contention that the OCG does not have jurisdiction over state asset divestment issues is of little concern to the OCG,” Christie said.

“The contention is not only flawed, but it is a clearly misplaced and misguided one, particularly when one considers that the administration has itself previously called upon the OCG to investigate asset divestments which were undertaken by the former government. For this reason alone, the administration’s 180 degree turn posture is likely to be seen for what it appears to be a highly suspicious and dangerous selective application of the rule of law”, Christie said. (Jamaica Observer)

A policeman signs a permit for a resident of Tivoli Gardens, while others wait in a long line for their turn at the community centre yesterday. The permits authorise access to and from the community. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

The people of Tivoli Gardens yesterday woke up to a permit system which was introduced, without prior notice, to monitor movement in and out of the troubled community.

The discomfort was evident as long queues of grumbling residents greeted a Gleaner team at the Tivoli Gardens Community Centre, where the permits were issued.

No one was spared. Old and young waited impatiently with their identification and tax registration number (TRN) - the requirements for the permit.

Residents also faced a barrage of questions from the security forces administering the process.

“It come in like a quiz class,” quipped one woman after a policeman peppered a man, who identified himself as a construction worker, with questions about building blocks.

Frustration

For many, the new permit system has presented a fresh wave of frustration.

The permits must be presented at each checkpoint used by the residents throughout the day. They are also subject to searches, which have invariably become a Tivoli pastime since the army ploughed into the barricaded community after the Labour Day weekend.

A senior police officer sought to appease the peeved residents.

He told The Gleaner that the residents were required to renew the permit each day to prevent criminal duplication.

“Many have been written since morning,” he disclosed.

The residents said they were not opposed to other regulations being enforced under the state of emergency.

“We have no problem with a police post. Stay as long as you want. In fact, we welcome it, but give us some dignity,” declared an infuriated resident.

“If we have to live with the law and order, so be it, but this a madness,” another said.

Some residents also raised concerns about the rules governing the permit - to “facilitate movement within and without the area of operation”.

“This permit is valid for the period of public emergency, but may be withdrawn if the holder threatens or is likely to be a threat to public safety and security,” the document read.

Some complained that the police team administering the process was breaching the provisions of the permit, which clearly stipulated that it was valid for the entire period of the public emergency instead of a 24-hour period.

Claims of hostage-taking

A female resident on her way home told The Gleaner that she had been waiting in line for her permit, but thought about getting one for her elderly mother.

“She can’t manage this (waiting in line), so I am going back for her TRN and ID.”

Another woman chimed in: “They said we were under hostage (under Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke), but a now we under hostage.”

“Instead of coming here every day, why not just show your ID at the checkpoint?” she argued.

She was supported by an angry middle-age man.

“This is communism in every sense of the word.”

A representative of the Child Development Agency rescued a group of young students from the long wait by facilitating their exit from the community.

Students of Tivoli Gardens who are practising for the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s Schools’ Festival Competition have been severely affected by the new system.

A prominent community organiser told The Gleaner that the students - some of whom are not residents of Tivoli Gardens - had been rehearsing during the midday period as the community was under curfew late yesterday afternoon.

However, she said yesterday, the students were hampered by the protracted wait for permits. (Jamaica Gleaner)

gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com

Livern Barrett, Gleaner
Writer

Amid a major drive by the security forces
to neuter gangs and clamp down on violent crime across Jamaica, police
statistics indicate that 752 people were killed in the first five months
of the year.

This means that for the first 151 days of
the year, an average of just under five murders were com-mitted daily.
The staggering figure reflects that 99 more murders have been recorded
in 2010 than for the corresponding period last year.

A member of
the Police High Command, who requested anonymity, said it was too early
to gauge the impact on the crime rate from security sweeps throughout
the Corporate Area. Those operations have resulted in gun seizures, mass
detentions, the surrender of alleged crime lords, and a relentless hunt
for No. 1 fugitive, Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

Police data
obtained by The Gleaner show that 655 of those murdered this year
were men, while the gun featured in 584, or 78 per cent, of homicides.

The
police, however, have not established a motive for 490, or 65 per cent,
of the murders.

Infamous five

Murder
trends held true to form in Jamaica’s five bloodiest parishes -
Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine, St James and Clarendon - which
accounted for 620 of the violent deaths from January to May. St
Catherine and St Andrew both recorded 172 homicides; St James, 110;
Kingston, 87; and Clarendon, 79.

These parishes totalled 524
murders over the corresponding period last year.

St Catherine,
with its two divisions - including the volatile Spanish Town -
registered the biggest jump, skyrocketing from 115 murders for
January-May 2009 to 172 this year.

Several attempts to get a
comment from chief of the police Area Five headquarters, acting
Assistant Commissioner Ray Palmer, were unsuccessful.

All three
divisions in Kingston recorded upticks - ranging from an increase of one
murder in Kingston

Central to 14 in the volatile Kingston
Western zone.

Assistant Commissioner Gervis Taylor, who heads
Area Four, said most of the crime was centred in Arnett Gardens and the
northern belt of the Kingston Western Division.

“It wasn’t a case
where people were being shot in the streets, but people dumping bodies
in these areas,” he explained.

Taylor cautioned that the increases
in the first five months should be viewed against the backdrop of a
significant reduction in Area Four over the past three years.

The
parish of St Mary recorded 12 murders over the period, up from two for
the same time last year, thus recording a 500 per cent jump.

However,
Superintendent Dudley Scott, who is in charge of the parish, said that
while residents should be concerned, there was no need for alarm.

He
said domestic disputes and the activities of migratory criminals were
to blame for the spike.

And if you are interested in finding the
safest harbour, move house and head to Portland. Only five persons have
been murdered there this year. (JamaicaGleaner)

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com

A National Water Commission worker disconnects supply yesterday at a Princess Street, downtown Kingston, establishment for non-payment of charges. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter

Under cover of scores of police and soldiers patrolling the streets, revenue-protection agents from utility companies and the Customs Department swarmed west Kingston communities yesterday in search of cheats.

The Customs Enforcement Team seized several cartons of bleaching cream, counterfeit batteries and illegally imported cigarettes during the operation that focused on the many wholesale stores which operate on Princess Street, Luke Lane, Charles Street and other areas in downtown Kingston.

At least 15 illegal connections to commercial and residential premises were disconnected by the National Water Commission (NWC), while scores of unauthorised electricity connections were cut down by the Jamaica Public Service (JPS), leaving some residents fuming.

“We willing to pay. If them did give we some notice and make some arrangement, we would pay, but them just come cut off the water and light, and these are essential,” said Patricia MacMannus, a resident of Princess Street, told The Gleaner.

“Them could give us a flat rate and give us time to sort it out, but now mi children gone to school and them a go come home to no light and water,” added Suzanne Chamberlain, who also lives on Princess Street.

No mercy

But the teams from the two utility companies were unapologetic as they moved from premises to premises.

“We came in targeting the places which have not been paying their bills for years,” a representative of the NWC told The Gleaner.

“We are cutting supplies to everyone who is not paying, big or small,” added the NWC official, as the team disconnected the water supply to a well-established juice-manufacturing plant on Princess Street.

It was a similar story from the JPS team, which severed the electricity supply to several houses in Matthews Lane.

“We are going to premises and checking for throw-ups and meter bypasses,” a JPS official said, while using an elaborate device to assess the power going into a wholesale on Princess Street.

The NWC and the JPS have, for years, been losing millions of dollars because of illegal connections islandwide, with west Kingston accounting for a large percentage of the thefts.

Last week, a JPS official told The Gleaner that the west Kingston enclave of Tivoli Gardens and seven neighbouring communities were robbing the company of an estimated $271 million in revenue each year.

Hundreds of residents from these communities pay no utility bills, with some persons yet to pay a single electricity bill, although enjoying the service for years.

According to JPS records acquired by The Gleaner, fewer than 30 of the more than 4,000 residents in Tivoli Gardens are registered as customers.

Meter readers have traditionally shied away from these communities for fear that gunmen who abide there will exact retribution.

In the late 1990s, the JPS - as part of its effort to get non-paying persons in inner-city communities to register as legitimate customers - introduced a flat-rate pilot project in Tivoli Gardens, Central Court, Denham Town, Seaview Gardens and Torrington Park.

However, the project was short-lived, as it did not produce the desired results. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Criminal probe into Heights of Guanapo church
Akile Simon akile.simon@trinidadexpress.com

FORMER prime minister Patrick Manning is one of several people expected to be interviewed by police, who have started their criminal probe into the construction of the controversial church at the Heights of Guanapo in Arima.

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner, Gilbert Reyes, told the Express yesterday that a criminal probe into the construction of the church had already begun. Reyes, however, declined to say who the investigators are, and which police unit was mandated to take charge of the probe.

’All I could say at this time is that an investigation (by the police) has started into that (construction of the church) and that is it for now,’ Reyes said during a brief telephone interview.

Reyes also declined to say whether the police probe started after then Opposition Leader, now Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, submitted documents which allegedly linked Manning and former Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) chairman, Calder Hart, to the project, or if it was on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard.

A police source said Manning would be interviewed by investigators, and statements taken, about his role and relationship regarding the project. Among those also expected to be interviewed are Hart, architect Stephen Mendes and Manning’s spiritual adviser Rev Juliana Pena.

On March 15, Persad-Bissessar called a press conference and produced documents purporting to show a direct connection between Manning and Hart in the design and construction of the Lighthouse of the Lord Jesus Christ Church at Cemetery Street, Heights of Guanapo, Arima. At the conference, Persad-Bissessar said she intended to send the documents, together with a request for an investigation into possible criminal conduct by Manning under section 3 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, to Acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) James Philbert and DPP Gaspard. The Integrity Commission has already begun an investigation into the matter.

Manning has categorically denied allegations that State funds were used to assist in the construction of the church, but admitted to visiting the site of the church more than a year before Cabinet approval was given for the land. UDeCOTT has also denied any involvement with the church. (Trinidad Express)