Moontown

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (BGIS) — Barbados cannot seriously talk about sports tourism unless the necessary infrastructure is in place.

This view was expressed last Friday by Minister of Sports, Stephen Lashley, when several members of the Barbados Cycling Union (BCU), namely, its President, Keith Yearwood; First Vice President, Keith Simmons; Secretary, Glendene Boyce; Racing Secretary, Charles Pile; and Assistant Racing Secretary, Charles Lynch; met with him at his Constitution Road, St. Michael, office.

Lashley said: “There is huge potential to bring teams here during the year and that brings in foreign exchange. The sports tourism pull is one we are interested in and we need to focus on having infrastructure that is modern and meets international standards.”

He admitted that the National Stadium had its own shortcomings, while reiterating that Government had begun looking at different facilities across the island.

The Minister reminded the group that Barbados was in the middle of a recession and the economy was not robust enough to do all the things required.

Lashley argued that sports had the potential to grow the island’s entrepreneurial base, and suggested that it should be seen and treated as an industry.

Yearwood said the Cycling Union was doing its best to develop the spor t, but stressed that government assistance was needed in some areas.

The officials also discussed several other issues, including the cycling track at the National Stadium, value added tax on sporting equipment, various programmes being undertaken by the BCU, and cyclist Barry Forde’s development. (Caribnet)

“Jamaica is one of our main trading partners and senior fellow member of state of the CARICOM and, therefore, it is essential to speak with you on issues which are pertinent to the development of the economies of Jamaica and of Trinidad and Tobago,” she said.

She noted that one of the immediate tasks that both countries need to tackle was the cushioning of international pressures on their economies, as their manufacturing sectors have not been immune to the impact of the financial crisis.

“The challenge now facing our companies is to introduce new processes and increase investments, and to engage in such activities as are necessary to ensure that businesses will be in even better shape to overtake their competitors, when the global economic climate improves,” she asserted.

Persad-Bissessar also said that one of the realities that businesses in operation in 2010, and beyond, must face is the global nature of markets.

“Competition is a fact of life and knows no geographical boundaries. I think this fact is quite known in your business community, and the real challenge lies in the response we make,” she said.

She argued that, in her view, the implementation of protective measures, at a national or regional level, would not help the region’s cause, unless such action is targeted in the context of a well thought-out development strategy for the medium to longer term period.

“In the case of the manufacturers in (Trinidad and Tobago) they have their own challenges, as they struggle with the issue of competitiveness. The relative competitive edge, demonstrated over some other regional producers, certainly cannot be attributed solely to the utilisation of the benefits associated with oil and natural gas,” she explained.

Persad-Bissessar also noted that over the last two decades the region has negotiated a number of trade agreements, including with the European Union (EU). She advised that it was time that CARICOM ensure that its business community rise to overcome the challenges preventing them from making use of some of these agreements.

“As we strive for an expanded market space, it is necessary that we look in those arrangements, which our exporters have utilised over the years to bear significant business relationships, and ensure that our negotiations obtain development support provisions geared to improving our supply capacity,” she said.

Supported by the JCC, the “Meet the Prime Ministers” series is the brainchild of Strategic Corporate Interventions Limited and the law firm Samuda and Johnson. It provides an opportunity for business leaders and professionals to interface with Prime Ministers of the region, on critical social, political and economic matters affecting the Caribbean economies and community.

Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of Barbados, David Thompson, and Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Denzil Douglas, have been guest speakers at previous editions. (Caribnet)

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared on state-run television for the first time in nearly a year on Monday, looking alert and healthy but with a wavering voice that betrayed his advanced age.

Castro, 83, appeared animated as he discussed for an hour his views on the Middle East and North Korea in a recorded interview with the anchor of the “Round Table” news and analysis show.

The interview marks something of a return to form for Castro, who turns 84 next month.

Wearing a blue jacket and a checkered shirt, Castro sat at a small desk in an undisclosed location for the interview. A portrait of Cuban independence hero Jose Marti hung in the background.

In the interview, the Cuban revolutionary spoke of an “imminent” US and Israeli attack on Iran, and blamed the United States for secretly sinking a South Korean warship in March, then accusing North Korea of being behind the incident.

Castro has made only sporadic appearances — either on television or in public — since emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006 drove him to hand power to his younger brother Raul.

Castro’s voice could be heard from television sets in homes along the narrow streets of Old Havana. In bars where there were no tourists, workers switched to watch El Comandante.

“We’ll have Fidel for a long time,” said housewife Xurien Cala, 38. “He’s a bit thin. We haven’t seen him in movement for a long time,” she told AFP.

The Monday interview appeared to be taped, as were two previous Castro appearances on the program in June and September 2007. Castro was last seen on local TV in August 2009, where he was filmed at home in an animated conversation with law students from Venezuela’s University of Carabobo.

The TV interview was widely promoted in state media, including front-page announcements in the Communist Party mouthpiece Granma.

Political columns in Fidel Castro’s name are published regularly in state media, but the columns have focused for the past year on international affairs and largely ignored domestic politics.

Fidel Castro was photographed at a public function at a science center on Wednesday, believed to be his first public outing since December, when he left his residence to meet visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Five photos were published over the weekend of Castro wearing a track suit — his customary attire since relinquishing the presidency — greeting well-wishers at Havana’s National Center for Scientific Investigation.

The bout of Castro appearances comes at a delicate time politically for Cuba as it begins releasing dissidents under a landmark deal brokered with the Catholic Church last week.

If all 52 activists are freed as the government has promised, it would be the largest prisoner release of Raul Castro’s tenure.

Guerrilla revolutionary and communist idol, Castro held out against history when he turned tiny Cuba into a thorn in the paw of the mighty capitalist United States.

Famed for his rumpled olive fatigues, straggly beard and the cigars he reluctantly gave up for his health, he kept a tight clamp on dissent at home while defining himself abroad with his defiance of Washington.

Castro and a band of followers launched their revolt in earnest on December 2, 1956 when they landed in southeastern Cuba on the ship Granma.

Twenty-five months later, against great odds, they ousted president Fulgencio Batista and Castro was named prime minister.

After leading the Americas’ only one-party communist country through nearly half of the 20th century and into the 21st, he still serves as first secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party. (Caribnet)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — Haitians marked a sad anniversary on Monday, mourning the hundreds of thousands killed six months ago in a massive earthquake and eyeing a precarious future amid the slow trickle of aid.

In the ruins of the presidential palace toppled by the January 12 quake that measured 7.0 in magnitude, international supporters joined Haitian President Rene Preval and other leaders in a poignant remembrance ceremony.

“We are going to continue to help the people in the camps, but today we want to officially launch the reconstruction phase,” said Preval, stressing the difficulties of even clearing away the debris to start rebuilding.

“We need some 1.5 billion dollars to get rid of 20 million cubic meters of rubble. Before we can rebuild, we need to clean up,” he added.

Former US president Bill Clinton, who is heading up the UN effort, promised greater transparency in using the funds sent to help rebuild the impoverished Caribbean nation. And he praised the work that had been done so far.

Some 250,000 people were killed and 1.5 million left homeless when the earth briefly convulsed on January 12, unleashing a trail of destruction on the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Tent cities have sprung up in and around the ruined capital of the poorest country in the Americas, with little sign that those left homeless and destitute will move into more permanent housing any time soon.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive called for better coordination in the reconstruction phase. “The NGOs need to sit down with the government to draw up and carry out, one single plan for the reconstruction of Haiti,” he said.

Three months after an international conference in New York where world powers pledged more than 10 billion dollars over five years, only a fraction of the promised aid has materialized.

The US Center for Strategic and International Studies calculated Monday that just two percent or about 50 million dollars had actually arrived.

Private donations raised some 1.6 billion dollars for non-governmental organizations, but only 20 to 40 percent of the funds they have received have been disbursed, the CSIS said.

“In spite of this outpouring of generosity, the challenge of aid delivery remains a central issue,” it wrote.

The United States vowed however it still stood by Haiti.

“Six months later, our resolve to stand with the people of Haiti for the long term remains undiminished,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Cheryl Mills, a senior adviser to Clinton, said there have been successes in Haiti: no major disease outbreak, improved access to banking and — unlike after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami — little local inflation as aid pours in.

Interior Minister Paul-Antoine Bien-aime used Monday’s remembrance to thank the international community for its help, saying the “situation would have been much worse” without its assistance.

But Haitians are growing impatient at the slow trickle of aid and the crawling pace of reconstruction, with experts predicting it could take 20 years just to clear the rubble from the streets.

“We have moved 250,000 cubic meters of rubble, which sounds like a lot, until you realize there’s 20 million cubic meters of rubble here,” UN spokeswoman Imogen Wells told CNN.

USAID chief Rajiv Shah said the amount of rubble still lying on the streets “is probably more than 20 times that which existed in other tragedies such as the World Trade Center” destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Shah said one of the challenges was teaching local builders to make stronger cement “so that bricks stick together,” adding some rebuilt homes in the Delmas slum were now two to three times stronger than before the quake.

According to the United Nations office in Haiti, nearly 4,000 small homes have been built in a project that anticipates building some 10,000 houses.

And the French Red Cross, which has vowed to build some 30,000 temporary homes with the American Red Cross, has launched construction of the first 500 outside the capital.

But with hurricane season already underway, the UN has warned that another tragedy may be looming.

It has identified 130 tent cities as at risk from rains and winds that could further worsen conditions for the most vulnerable — including thousands of orphaned children. (Caribnet)