Moontown

This important Pan-Caribbean gathering of civil society representatives – farmers, workers, women activists, artistes, students, scholars, youth and representatives of political parties, trade unions, cooperatives and other community based organisations will assemble at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies to brainstorm the many challenges and problems confronting the Caribbean at this time.

The Assembly of Caribbean People could not have come at a more appropriate time, for it is clear that the Caribbean – like much of the world – is facing what is perhaps the most daunting existential challenge since the dark days of the 1930s!

Make no mistake about it, our civilisation has come to a critical crossroads, and is facing a crisis of monumental proportions. Put simply, we are now in the early phase of a profound international economic and financial crisis, an energy crisis, a food crisis, an ecological and environmental crisis, and a moral and ethical crisis – a veritable system of multiple crises, creating one single systemic crisis of our civilisation.

With commendable boldness, the Regional Executive Committee of the Assembly of Caribbean People has responded by issuing a challenge to the Caribbean people to “seize the time”, and to “boldly step forward and take firm control of the future agenda of our Caribbean region”.

This, therefore, will be the spirit in which delegations from Haiti, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Martinique, St Lucia, Dominican Republic, St Vincent, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Anguilla, Dominica, Guadeloupe and Barbados will assemble in Barbados to tackle 10 pointed and crucial questions.

The first question to be addressed will be: “How is the international financial, economic and debt crisis impacting on the Caribbean, and how should the Caribbean respond?”

Caribbean farmers will lead discussions on the question of – “What does the Caribbean need to do in order to reform the rural sector, develop agriculture and achieve food sovereignty?”

Leading Caribbean economists, will lend their expertise to answering the question of: “How can the Caribbean so harness, organise, combine, process and exchange its own resources?”.

The plight of the remaining colonies of the Caribbean will also be addressed when the Cuban delegation gives guidance on the question of: “What are the components of a comprehensive strategy to achieve the total de-colonisation of the Caribbean?”.

Of special importance to the CARICOM countries will be the discussion of: “What would be the components of new and more appropriate people-centred models of governance for Caribbean states, and how could the nations of the Caribbean utilise all of the available opportunities for integration and political union?”

And of course, the critical issues of education and health will be addressed. In fact, Dr Didacus Jules of the Caribbean Examinations Council will lead off the discussion on – “What are the best practices that exist in the Caribbean in the field of education, and how can we ensure that they are extended to all Caribbean societies?”.

The social and racial problems of the Caribbean will also come under the microscope via the question of: “What measures can the Caribbean take to address the socio-cultural defects of illegal drugs, crime, racism and moral and cultural degeneration?

Completing the agenda will be questions relating to intra-Caribbean migration, the environment, the US blockade against Cuba, and the current plight of the nation and people of Haiti. — David Comissiong (Barbados Today)

Scaffolding was being erected and tightened, tents erected, platforms put is place, fences run and every little hole blocked and secured as the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) prepares for Sunday’s Party Monarch and Sweet Soca Royale competitions.

Even the road leading to the venue is now covered in fresh barber-green.

But rain or sun the NCF has indicated that the event, dubbed the biggest party of the year, will go on. (DB) (Barbados Today)

In a project being funded by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the EPD will be joining the resources of its department to others within Government, and maybe even volunteer groups, in an attempt to inventory all the obsolete chemicals on the island by November 30.

Senior environmental protection officer, Mark Welch said, given the size of the project and the ground they had to cover within a few months, it would take considerable resources to get the job done.

“This is a regional initiative that they [FAO] are undertaking. This is the first phase, an inventory among the different islands to see what the levels are like. This includes not only the obsolete pesticides but any contamination of soil that might have happened over the time whether the container has corroded because it was left outdoors and therefore has contaminated the soil; if the empty containers that may be contaminated as well.

“So once the initial island-wide inventory is done, it will be input into a data base and then a decision on the next phase will be made in terms of how to properly collect it; having central locations on each island and then doing a mass collection and shipment for final disposal,” he explained.

Welch said the process of identifying the possible holders of such chemicals had begun and they would shortly be contacting those individuals or companies to get the inventory going.

“The inventory will involve working in teams of approximately three to four persons going physically to the site and doing a thorough interview and inventory, including picture taking, diagramming the layout of the facility,” he said, adding that this information will then be input into the FAO’s larger database.

A number of personnel from the Ministry of Agriculture, he noted, were trained in Suriname to provide training for persons here under the FAO guidelines in the procedures that will be necessary to collect the relevant data as well as to carry out the other phases of the project.

“Most chemicals have an expiration date. After that they are no longer as effective and therefore that is what we are looking to analyse, because once that happens people are just content to store them in some corner and they are forgotten,” Welch stated.

The Pesticide Control Board, which operated under the ministry, he said, was taking a lead role in the process, so there is continuation and guidance for future collection and disposal. This will also help stakeholders access accurate information on the storage of chemical, not ordering in quantities that cannot be used effectively before expiration, as a way to cut down on having to repeat the process every few years. (LB) (Barbados Today)

This was the position of Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) president Colin Jordan as he made a case for the local hotel plants to maintain their current status, rather than being converted to condos and villas.

But alternative views are being put forward as to whether this is in the best interest of Barbados.

In recent years the closure of some hotels in St. Lawrence, Christ Church and in other areas to make way for condos or villas has been the source of debate, but for Jordan it is a cause for concern.

Speaking during a telephone interview with Barbados TODAY this morning, Jordan said the conversion of hotels to villas and condos would result in a loss of jobs, reduced available rooms and marketability of the country.

Of greater concern to the BHTA head is the reduced variation of hotels for visitors to choose from.

“Each hotel has its own characteristics. For instance, Sandridge has its own appeal, and that would be one less place for visitors to choose from,” he said, adding it would also affect the country’s marketability.

He stressed that every hotel converted to a villa or condo was another property that was out of the marketing mix, reducing the number of hotels available for visitors to choose.

“I prefer for hotel rooms to stay as hotel rooms,” Jordan said.

The president also called for a tourism master plan so officials could have a clear idea on what hotel, condo and villa mix the country really needed. “We can’t just keep building villas, condos and hotels. A study needs to be done,” he emphasised.

Jordan also called on the Ministry of Tourism to pull out the Tourism Development Act and re-examine it.

“They need to create something that will provide a framework that hotels will be profitable…,” he said. (Barbados Today)

In general there are some serious unanswered questions the island’s economic stewards need to answer.

That’s the assessment of the Barbados Economic Society (BES), which, in a commentary on the Central Bank of Barbados’ recent six-month review of the economy, also urged authorities not to “stifle the potential of the economy to recover”.

“Consequently, as it attempts to attain fiscal equilibrium, emphasis should be placed on reductions in current expenditure rather than the introduction of new taxes. Revenue, as a percentage of GDP, is already quite high. Prominence should now be placed on enhancing the efficiency of the delivery of services by the public sector,” the representative body of local economists urged.

The organisation said the Central Bank of Barbados’ press release published last week provided “some interesting insights regarding the progress of the Barbadian economy”.

“Having been in a recession since 2008, the economy seems to be making a slow but steady exit… After a decline of almost eight per cent for the first six months of last year, economic activity contracted by just one per cent in 2010. Nevertheless, there are still some worrying signs in the economy,” it stated.

Among the main areas of concern highlighted was the major drop in Net International Reserves (NIR) between January and June this year. They also suggested it was puzzling that even though the country was in a recession imports increased.

“For the first six months, the NIR decreased by about $68 million. Taking a closer look at the BOP statistics provided in the report suggest that most of the blame for this reduction should be attributed to the deterioration in the current account (the capital and financial account actually improved by more than $300 million, albeit due to a one-off account entry),” the economists noted.

“In particular, imports, which should be declining during a recession, actually rose by $42 million. The report does not go into detail as to why imports expanded. However, a look at the bank’s Economic and Financial Statistics indicate that this growth was largely due to higher fuel imports.”

The BES was concerned that even though the Central Bank report implied government was attempting to rein in the fiscal deficit, some glaring questions were left unanswered.

“First, property tax receipts fell by almost $40 million; it is not particularly clear as to why this might be the case. Without this drastic drop in property tax receipts, government’s fiscal position would have shown significant improvement over last year,” it stated.

“Government’s current account balance, at five per cent of GDP is still too high. For there to be any meaningful fiscal adjustment it must emanate from the current account. The expansion in VAT receipts should not be viewed as trend, as it is most likely related to the many one-off events hosted by the island during the first half of the year.”

Overall, the economist grouping noted, the indicators for the financial system “still suggest significant weakness”.

“The Bank’s Economic and Financial Statistics indicate that business firm’s deposits were down slightly while the deposits of private individuals were up by just $50 million after increasing by $122 million one year prior. In addition, credit to the non-financial private sector has been flat for most of the year,” it said. (SC) (Barbados Today)

The company which owns and operates the historic resort, The Crane, is preparing to spread its development elsewhere in the parish and is also contemplating expanding its investments beyond that part of the country for the first time.

Millennium Investments Limited (MIL) headed by long-standing Canadian investor Paul Doyle, is borrowing $40 million from World Bank affiliate the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as part of funding for a three-part venture that includes the construction of 50 apartments and development of a back beach area at the existing resort, building of a new residential venture at Whitehaven near popular areas like Culpepper and Skeete’s Bay in St. Philip, and is also looking for new “opportunities” elsewhere in the country.

The group is also planning to complete a major new sewerage treatment system by this time next year, and has developed a 622,000 gallon capacity water storage system to collect rain water for use in the existing resort’s laundry.

This was all revealed in a project proposal obtained by Barbados TODAY and confirmed in an assessment of The Crane’s plans by the IFC, which noted that once its full board in Washington D.C. approved the project, the two parties would sign an agreement allowing the necessary funds to flow into Barbados.

In recent years the resort, which started in 1887 as an 18 room cliff-top hotel overlooking Crane Beach, has been rapidly expanding its facilities on 38 acres of land, but officials believe, with plans to develop Whitehaven, the eastern part of the country will receive a much needed lift, more jobs will be created, and hopes of the construction sector playing a major role in Barbados’ economic revival will come true.

“The new development at Whitehaven will be low density and low rise, with single story residential units, and is planned on what is currently animal grazing land that was acquired on a willing buyer/willing seller basis from the previous owner and which will impose only readily mitigable environmental impacts,” a recent project outline stated.

It said these impacts would be “reviewed by environmental and social impact assessment at an appropriate stage of the project development cycle, and management plans developed accordingly”.

For its part, the IFC noted that the proposed new development would only be undertaken after completion of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment examining the development’s compliance with local planning requirements and its own performance standards. Also necessary was a management plan enabling compliance with these requirements.

The financial institution said it had already held meetings with Doyle and his team, including project planning and construction staff, engineering, human resources and security staff and the general manager of The Crane.

Its officials have also visited Barbados and inspected the existing Crane site while also journeying to the proposed project site at Whitehaven.

But even before they get to the new project, MIL’s principal’s are moving ahead with the plans to expand The Crane further.

“Development of the coconut grove area behind Crane Beach will be in consultation with all relevant local planning authorities and stakeholders, including the Coastal Zone Management Unit and Barbados Sea Turtle Project,” officials noted in the proposal.

“However, the resort has completed construction of a sewerage piping network which will collect kitchen and sanitary waste water from virtually the entire resort, and transport these wastes to one point where a sewerage treatment system will be built. Design options for this treatment system are currently under review. The company expects to complete this review, construction and commissioning by May 2011.” (Barbados Today)