The origin of the flight is unknown, and what exactly led to the cockpit crew making an emergency landing is yet to be determined by this newspaper.

When contacted for information, LIAT’s Corporation Communications Manager, Desmond Brown, said the airline will issue a statement sometime today.

However, Director of Operations at VC Bird International Airport, Edward Gilkes, did confirm that an emergency landing took place at the country’s main port of entry.

Gilkes said shortly before 5 p.m., the Coolidge Fire Department was alerted of the situation and responded to the call, an international requirement in such circumstances. He did not reveal further information, though, saying it was up to LIAT to do so.

In January, a LIAT flight was forced to abort its trip from Antigua to St. Lucia twice, after a hazard light repeatedly came on in the cockpit.

In that instance, the first time, the captain took the precautionary measure and returned the 25 passengers to the VC Bird International Airport shortly after take-off.

The maintenance crew checked the aircraft, which again departed for St. Lucia later in the day, but once again, the captain had to turn back for the same reason.

Emergency services were on standby on both occasions, and the landings were uneventful. (Antigua Sun)

There needs to be a completely new approach to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and what it does for unemployed Barbadians, a Government back-bencher told the House of Assembly yesterday.

Denis Kellman, Member of Parliament for St. Lucy is convinced that the current way the NIS is used only encourages Barbadians to be non-productive. He made the comment while adding to the debate after the second reading of the national Insurance and Social Security Amendment Bill, 2010.

The bill, when passed, will allow Barbadians businesses to apply to the NIS department to have employee contributions deferred for five years, as a loan, with three per cent interest, once their payments to the NIS are not in arrears.

“The NIS in its original format was tailored for people to stay home and not seek work,” Kellman told the Lower Chamber.

“Instead of encouraging people to become productive, we encouraged them not to  be productive anymore,” Kellman said, adding that Barbadians waiting on their 26 weeks’ worth of contributions had become addicted to watching soap operas on television, instead of seeking ways to develop themselves for getting back into the work force.

“I’ve always said we need to change that approach. I believe they should be paid a lump sum, but at the same time be encouraged to get back into the job circuit,” said Kellman.

He claimed that what made matters worse was that emigrants had been also attracted to Barbados’ job market, filling a number of vacancies once occupied by the workers who were willing to wait and accept 26 weeks’ worth of unemployment contributions.

“In the long run, the only thing that suffers is the country, Kellman added. (BA) (Midweek Nation)

MACARONI PIE; SWEET POTATO PIE

SAUTEED BREADFRUIT; FISH SOUP

BBQ SPARERIBS; BBQ PIG TAIL

BAKED CHICKEN; BAKED PORK

FRIED SNAPPER; FRIED STEAK FISH

GRILLED STEAK FISH; LAMB STEW

VEGETABLE GRAVY; STEAMED VEGETABLES

TOSSED SALAD; COLE SLAW

Dr Wiltshire will have oversight for the CARICOM Gender-based violence programme, which seeks to develop a more co-ordinated and integrated approach to reducing violence in the region. The programme is being funded under the CARICOM/Spain Co-operation Agreement.

Speaking, via teleconference, from CARICOM’s Secretariat in Guyana on Monday, she noted that, despite the achievements to date in bringing greater visibility to violence against women and the legislative and institutional reform, violence against women and children appears to be on the rise.

She said that greater focus will be placed on conducting specialised studies on gender-based violence in the region; raising awareness to the need for further action; and developing and strengthening integrated responses which address the judiciary, law enforcement and social services for the purposes of prevention, provision of services to victims and perpetrators.

She added that research will be conducted and, based on the findings, recommendations will be made as well as proposals on ways of self development for enhancement of policies.

“A major focus will be to encourage the participation of women and girls, men and boys as agents of change,” she said, adding that collaboration among governments and civil society in the region, as well as United Nations agencies, is critical in the process.

“Violence against women is a cancer which is destroying the lives of women, children, boys and girls and spreads out to the school yard and communities,” she added.

In an interview with JIS News, University Director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Barbara Bailey, noted that the appointment of a CARICOM advocate for gender justice is “historic and significant”.

Professor Bailey said that the initiative is timely and will bring greater awareness on cases of abuse, adding that, as important as responses are to the problem, there also needs to be a focus on understanding the root causes.

“A more coordinated approach to this problem can only help to move this agenda forward, and to help us to deal with this urgent and vital problem which not just affects us at the personal level.but has repercussions in terms of the cost to a country, in terms of impact on gross domestic product and so on. So it is something with both social and personal and economical ramifications,” she pointed out.

The CARICOM Advocate for Gender Justice will be required to: coordinate the research on gender based violence within the CARICOM Region; raise awareness of the need for further action to develop and strengthen integrated responses which address all social and legal sectors for the purposes of protection, provision of services; justice; and prevention.

The announcement of the appointee is in line with the observance of International Women’s Day. (Caribnet) ]]> http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/caricom-appoints-gender-justice-advocate/feed/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/turks-and-caicos-civil-service-salaries-to-be-cut-by-10pct/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/turks-and-caicos-civil-service-salaries-to-be-cut-by-10pct/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:58:30 +0000 admin http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/turks-and-caicos-civil-service-salaries-to-be-cut-by-10pct/  
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands — In a letter to civil service staff on Tuesday, chief executive officer of the interim government, Mark Capes, informed all public employees in the Turks and Caicos Islands that public service salaries and wages for all staff, plus certain allowances, excluding housing, will be cut by 10 percent.

Mark Capes

This reduction will take effect, for wage earners, on 16 April and, for salaried staff, at the end of the month. Overtime will now be allowed only in life threatening or other strictly essential circumstances.

“By providing over 5 and 7 weeks’ notice respectively, I hope this will give you time to adjust your personal finances as necessary,” Capes said.

He explained that, in the Turks and Caicos Islands, as in many of regional neighbours and other countries internationally, the global recession continues to have a severe impact on the economy and public finances.

“In addition to the drastic reduction this has caused in the government’s annual revenue, our financial challenges are made much more difficult due to the high level of national debt and unpaid bills accumulated during the years of financial mismanagement and abuse by previous administrations,” Capes said.

He said that, on taking office, the Interim Government found zero financial reserves, sharply declining revenue and therefore, over the last six months, has accorded high priority to reducing the fiscal deficit.

New measures have been implemented to raise revenue while taking immediate steps to cut expenditure significantly across the public service. This has resulted in expenditure reductions of over 30 percent.

At the same time, Government opened negotiations with its bankers for an affordable, consolidated loan facility to allow payment of the many outstanding bills, inject significant funds into the local economy and helped to ease the acute pressure on the monthly cash flow.

However, Capes said, a day or so before the loan facility was to be signed details of the loan were leaked and subsequently published.

“This irresponsible action has undermined our capacity to negotiate with potential investors for the current and any future loan, and impacted on our efforts to close the deal in February,” he said.

According to Capes, the TCI now faces severe and immediate pressures on our cash flow.

“We are working to repair the damage done and reach agreement for the loan to proceed. However, the combined effect of the continuing fiscal deficit and the delay in our ability to repay the outstanding bills leaves Government with no choice but to make further cuts to public spending now,” he said.

Every effort is being made, Capes said, to explore the few remaining options left open - such as reducing the cost of rent paid for government offices – the point has been reached where cuts must be applied to public service staff salaries and wages.

“Clearly that is a decision we would wish to have avoided, especially in the knowledge that some of you are already struggling to meet your financial commitments, but circumstances are such that we have no other option apart from introducing immediate redundancies. As head of the public service I much regret that Government has had to adopt this course of action, and that we have had to do so without having had the time available to discuss the detail with you. Nevertheless, I am sure you will agree that a cut in pay is preferable to making wide spread redundancies across the whole public service, which would have been the only alternative,” Capes said.

Capes pointed out that the TCI is not the only country to have to take this hard decision; others in the region and internationally are in the same position. For example, Anguilla recently cut public service pay by 15 percent, while the Cayman Islands’ government has announced that it is considering cuts to civil service salaries and begun by agreeing a pay cut for elected members of the Legislative Assembly. Similarly, the Greek Government has announced measures to reduce pay for their civil servants.

Currently in the TCI, public service emoluments currently amount to between 60 percent and 65 percent of total annual revenue.

“This is simply unaffordable. Added to government’s other essential bills, it leaves very little indeed for services to the community such as, social services, education and policing,” Capes said.

The Ministry of Finance forecasts that public sector staff costs must be reduced to around 45 percent of revenue over the next 3 - 4 years.

“So, while there are no immediate plans for significant public service redundancies it will be necessary - as part of a thorough programme of ‘right-sizing’ - to review all posts with an overall objective of reducing the size and cost of the public service, while strengthening critical areas of activity,” Capes said.

He added that it is the government’s aim to restore salaries and wages as soon as the fiscal position has improved to a sustainable level.

“These are difficult times for the Turks and Caicos Islands, times which demand difficult decisions. You can all help to ease the financial difficulties we face by taking every opportunity to avoid waste at work in order to further reduce public expenditure. It is only through our combined efforts that we will be able to deliver a sustainable platform from which we can move forward to deliver quality essential services to our community,” Capes concluded. (Caribnet) ]]> http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/turks-and-caicos-civil-service-salaries-to-be-cut-by-10pct/feed/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/haitians-wary-of-us-military-reduction/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/haitians-wary-of-us-military-reduction/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:56:21 +0000 admin http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/haitians-wary-of-us-military-reduction/  
By Marc Burleigh (AFP)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) – A US Navy hospital ship was recalled from Haiti Tuesday as the US military cut its emergency deployment to the quake-hit nation, where aid efforts are now turning to reconstruction.

The USNS Comfort, which had been anchored off Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince for the past seven weeks, was to leave Wednesday for its base in Baltimore, Maryland, US officials in Haiti and in the US Defense Department’s Southern Command said.

More than a quarter of the 11,000 US service personnel currently in and offshore Haiti are to pulled out in the days ahead, according to the Southern Command, bringing the number of those remaining to approximately 8,000.

That figure marked a significant reduction from a peak of 20,000 personnel days after the quake.

The news of the US draw-down was greeted with trepidation by many of Haiti’s residents, especially in camps housing some of the 1.3 million left homeless by the January 12 earthquake.

Milto Belfleur, 21, standing on crutches after losing his right leg in the quake, said US army medics had saved his life.

“US military doctors amputated my leg and gave me medicine and cleaned the wound and gave me these crutches,” he told AFP in one of the camps — a former golf course that is now a tent city watched over by US military police.

In a makeshift store in the middle of the camp, Lucien Samedi, 23, said he feared that, “if the Americans go, there will be many problems afterwards” in terms of security.

“I will be sad if they go, because they do a lot to help the people here, especially in terms of security,” Natascha Sincere, 22, said as she hung out washing between tents in the hot sun.

US soldiers, however, said they had little to do now that the initial urgency of responding to the disaster was over.

With attention now turning to civilian-intensive tasks such as preparing Haiti’s population for the looming storm season, re-opening schools and moving those in the camps to “transitional” settlements outside the capital, there was little need for aid convoy protection and food drops.

The USNS Comfort, which had treated nearly 900 patients in the immediate aftermath of the quake, had been sitting empty without any patients for several days.

“I just want to get out of here as quickly as possible,” said Specialist Michael Bennet, a 21-year-old MP filtering access to a quake survivor’s camp from under the shade of a tree.

“There’s no reason to be here anymore,” he said.

His fellow MP on duty, Specialist Jerald Griffin, 23, said those stationed at camps like this one were reduced to “pulling guard duty and playing cards.” He added, though, that military police were likely to be the last to go.

Private Fernando Rodriguez, a 19-year-old watching over the camp from a chair next to a graffiti-clad water tank with his weapon lying in his lap, said the deployment was worthwhile.

“It felt good being here, helping other people. I felt much better about myself because I actually did something with my life, to help people here in Haiti,” he said.

But if and when his order comes in to return to the United States, the first thing he would do “is go and try a real cheeseburger,” he said.

US troops still cut a high profile in Haiti, driving around in Humvees painted for desert warfare in Afghanistan or Iraq.

But they are far outnumbered on the streets by vehicles with UN and other aid workers.

In a sign of how many are being pressed into service unrelated to earthquake relief duties, a couple of US soldiers were even seen directing traffic in downtown Port-au-Prince. (Caribnet) ]]> http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/haitians-wary-of-us-military-reduction/feed/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/guyana-suriname-meet-to-discuss-cross-border-crimes/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/guyana-suriname-meet-to-discuss-cross-border-crimes/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:54:17 +0000 admin http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/guyana-suriname-meet-to-discuss-cross-border-crimes/  
GEORGETOWN, Guyana — The authorities of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) neighbours on Tuesday, opened bilateral talks in Georgetown, Guyana, to assess their progress in tacking trans-national crimes since the signing of the bilateral agreement “the New Nikerie” between the two nations in May 2008.

Guyana’s Home affairs Minister Clement Rohee

The meeting is being spearheaded by the Home Affairs Minister of Guyana Clement Rohee and Minister of Justice and Police of Suriname Chandrikapersaud Santoki.

Rohee at the opening of the talks on Tuesday said the two countries must collaborate if the ever increasing cross border crime is to be addressed.

“Today’s re-engagement is tangible testimony of the strong commitment made by our two countries in combating crime in all its facets, whether it is in relation to the drug trade, the smuggling of goods, illegal trade in small arms, or the apprehension of those who flee the justice system in either of our states,” Rohee explained.

He also noted the two countries have to collaborate against the international threat of terrorism as many terrorist may want to seek refuge in the small developing states of the Caribbean.

Rohee added that, while Guyana has made all of its communities stronger when it comes to stemming crime, working with its regional and international partners is critical if the issue is to be tackled since “crime is beyond all borders”.

Meanwhile, the Surinamese Justice and Police Minister Chandrikapersaud Santokhi said the two countries have already made significant headway on anti-crime cooperation.

“We have a strong political willingness as two nations for a strong cooperation, we have joint fishing, we have joint strategy, we have a joint commitment to enhance the cooperation and security and nothing, no crime, no criminals and no other issue will divide us in this approach which is beneficial for our both nations and both communities,” Santokhi said.

Santokhi believes though that while the two countries will cooperate in their crime fight, each state is sovereign and should be able to deal uninterrupted when dealing with crimes committed by nationals of either country.

“We do have our responsibility and our own sovereignty as neighboring countries to take actions for our own people and own communities to eliminate the common threats and to increase the common security, we have no other choice,” Santokhi said.

The meeting will assess progress on tackling drugs and firearms trafficking and other cross-border crimes and new strategies that can be implemented.

It will also examine regularizing the back track route between the two countries and smuggling of vehicles.

The two ministers met in May 2008 and signed the new Nikerie agreement which address issues to tackle drug, human and small arms trafficking, smuggling of vehicles across the border and illegal crossing.

Santokhi said his government is moving to regularize the illegal crossing between Molson creek on the Guyana side and Nikerie on the Suriname side, an issue to be discussed at the meeting.

“We (Suriname) are moving to ensure that this crossing is regularized, because on a daily basis you have about 300 to 350 persons crossing there, so we are hoping to ensure that the small vessels that ply the route are licensed and persons crossing go through the immigration procedure, because on both sides we want to know who are entering and leaving our country.” Santokhi explained. (Caribnet) ]]> http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/guyana-suriname-meet-to-discuss-cross-border-crimes/feed/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/un-secretary-general-praises-guyanas-relief-efforts-for-haiti/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/un-secretary-general-praises-guyanas-relief-efforts-for-haiti/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:52:32 +0000 admin http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/un-secretary-general-praises-guyanas-relief-efforts-for-haiti/  
NEW YORK, USA — The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon in a letter to President Bharrat Jagdeo has praised Guyana’s contribution of US$1 million to aid relief efforts for earthquake-devastated Haiti.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. AFP PHOTO

The Secretary General said that “the funds were not only timely, but an example of neighbourly solidarity to a country in dire need. Guyana is a generous donor to Haiti in terms of per capita GDP and I commend you and the Guyanese people, who I understand have separately managed to raise over $266 million to date.”

Additionally, over 15 containers of food items, water and clothing have been shipped to Haiti.

Haiti’s capital was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, killing tens of thousands of people.

The financial contributions of several countries to the Haitian crisis were assessed by the Relief Web, Guardian Datablog: Information is Beautiful, which placed Guyana on top of the list of the most generous countries.

Guyana’s donation was rated as 0.088 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) crediting it the most generous country to have donated to Haiti. Second in line was Ghana with 0.018 percent. (Caribnet) ]]> http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/un-secretary-general-praises-guyanas-relief-efforts-for-haiti/feed/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/power-crisis-to-hit-venezuela-growth-fuel-exports/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/power-crisis-to-hit-venezuela-growth-fuel-exports/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:50:33 +0000 admin http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/power-crisis-to-hit-venezuela-growth-fuel-exports/  
By Joshua Schneyer

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) — Venezuela’s deepening electricity crisis may drag on the economy for several years, dashing government hopes for GDP growth, slashing fuel exports from the OPEC country, and ushering in lengthy rationing.

The power shortages have come since late 2009 when a drought began to empty hydroelectric dams that supply 70 percent of Venezuela’s electricity. Low reservoir levels threaten to shut off 40 percent of the country’s electricity generation.

President Hugo Chavez declared an emergency on Feb. 8, ordering industry to cut consumption by 20 percent, and asking residential and commercial users to follow suit. The power cuts threaten his support ahead of September legislative elections.

Electricity rationing is already in place for up to 14 hours a week in some regions, and could worsen in the second quarter, before Venezuela’s seasonal rains begin, usually around May.

Government officials are still hopeful for 0.5 percent economic growth this year, but many economists now say GDP will fall again after shrinking 3.3 percent last year.

One major local bank is likely to revise its formerly positive GDP forecast to a 2-3 percent contraction, a source at the institution told Reuters on Monday.

Barclays and Citigroup have forecast a 1.7 percent GDP contraction this year, while UBS forecast a 2.1 percent contraction. Local think-tank Veneconomia expects the crisis to reduce 2010 GDP by a crippling 8 percentage points.

Analysts say the crisis may even worsen in 2011, since reservoirs could take more than a year of rains to refill from current critical levels.

“The entire electric system is on tenterhooks,” said Eurasia Group analyst Patrick Esteruelas.

“Heavy rains could bring a situation of temporary normalcy, but the same problems could return next year and be worse.”

A plan to buy new power turbines will cost at least $4 billion, the government says. Burning diesel in the new plants could force Venezuela — where oil makes up 94 percent of export earnings — to slash fuel shipments and import diesel.

Oil fields in Venezuela, the Western Hemisphere’s top crude exporter, are mostly protected by their own generation plants, but power shortages may affect exploration and field maintenance, make oil more costly to pump, and hit other industries and services hard, analysts say.

“It’s going to have a big impact on companies and industries that use a lot of power,” said Pavel Gomez, a public policy professor at business school IESA. “Electricity was so cheap lots of industries were designed to use lots of it.”

Private industry group Fedecamaras has suggested cutting the work week by 20 percent, and the government has already shortened the day for public workers to 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

The rationing, and the potential for blackouts, are bad news for Chavez ahead of legislative elections in September. In recent polls most people blame the government for the crisis.

An El Nino-linked drought is a big factor, but the crisis is also due to power demand growing 6 percent a year this decade, triple the rate of expansion in generation capacity.

Electricity tariffs have been frozen since 2003, with Caracas households paying 2.3 cents per kilowatt hour, around one-fourth of average U.S. residential rates.

Reservoirs are at one-third or less of normal levels. A “collapse” point, which Chavez says could come in June, would close down at least 5 gigawatts of power at the key Guri dam.

National capacity is about 23 gigawatts, but analysts say up to a quarter of it is inoperational due to poor maintenance.

To hedge against a collapse, Chavez is scrambling to add 5.9 GW of new capacity this year, more than the 4.6 GW Venezuela has added in the entire 11 years since he came to power.

The buying spree for thermoelectric power turbines that can run on either natural gas or diesel fuel would be one of the biggest and most hurried the world has seen, U.S. power sector sources said. It would require Chavez to pay huge premiums for turbines that usually take a year or more to be delivered.

“Anyone who walks in the door with a power plant, they’re gonna buy it,” said Russell Dallen of Caracas Capital Markets. “They are in panic mode.”

Government sources estimate that Venezuela will pay up to $1.2 million per MW of capacity, meaning the government may have to shell out $7.1 billion to acquire 5.9 GW of new plants.

The same plants would cost $700,000 to $800,000 per MW for buyers willing to wait for them to be built, sources said. Venezuela is negotiating with General Electric Co., Siemens, Hyundai Heavy and others to acquire and install the plants

With almost no new gas supplies expected from Venezuelan fields this year, new plants would run almost exclusively on diesel fuel, reducing their efficiency by up to a third, a U.S. power industry source said.

Running 5.9 GW of new turbines continuously would require 156,000 barrels per day of diesel, according to a source at a major international power plant supplier. At a typical Venezuelan operational rate of 80 percent, the new plants would burn at least 124,800 bpd.

Cutting fuel exports would be a double-whammy for state oil firm PDVSA. Diesel fuel, which sold on Tuesday for around $91 a barrel on international markets, is heavily subsidized in Venezuela, where it is priced at less that $2 a barrel.

Diesel would be sold to power utilities at local rates.

Venezuela’s heavy industry belt in the southern Guyana region, which accounts for around 3 percent of GDP, is another economic trouble area. It includes steel company Sidor and aluminium-maker Venalum, which together consume up to 10 percent of Venezuela’s power. Sidor has been running at less than 50 percent of capacity, and year-on-year aluminium sales fell more than 40 percent in January. (Caribnet) ]]> http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/power-crisis-to-hit-venezuela-growth-fuel-exports/feed/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/clinton-joins-call-for-quick-haiti-elections/ http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/clinton-joins-call-for-quick-haiti-elections/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:48:47 +0000 admin http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/clinton-joins-call-for-quick-haiti-elections/  
WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined Haitian President Rene Preval Tuesday in calling for new elections in quake-hit Haiti as soon as possible.

Legislative polls, originally set for February and March, were postponed after the January 12 earthquake that demolished the capital Port-au-Prince, killing more than 220,000 people and leaving one million Haitians homeless.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) and Haitian President Rene Preval. AFP PHOTO

Clinton, standing next to Preval at a press conference in Washington, said the Haitian leader “made the very important point that we must work toward elections to ensure the stability and legitimacy of the Haitian government.

“I assured president Preval that the United States would work with the international community to hold elections as soon as appropriate,” the chief US diplomat said.

And Preval told reporters that “before I leave (office), there must be a parliament, there must be a new president before I leave. We have nearly a year to do that.”

The 67-year-old leader, who also served as president from 1996 to 2001, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third mandate. His current term expires in February 2011 and presidential elections are expected in December.

“To have a provisional government in a year would be a catastrophe. This government would not have legitimacy, there would be no parliament, that would really be returning to 2004,” Preval told reporters.

The Caribbean nation — the poorest country in the western hemisphere — has had a long history of dictatorship followed by years of political turmoil and civil unrest.

In 2004, 1,000 US Marines followed by thousands of UN peacekeepers brought order to Haiti after a bloody rebellion against president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s rule. A provisional government was then installed.

Preval underscored that stability was the key to attracting badly-needed foreign investment, while Clinton said “progress has been made but not nearly enough” toward easing the suffering of the Haitian people.

“The United States alone has supplied in this first phase nearly 700 million dollars in assistance,” Clinton said, adding that half of all US households had also contributed something.

As preparations build for an international donors conference in New York on March 31, she said: “We are listening very carefully to president Preval and the voices of the Haitian people as to what our next steps should be.”

Clinton promised US help in ensuring that homeless Haitians get the shelter they so desperately need before the rainy season begins in earnest in a few months.

She highlighted the need to provide farmers with fertilizer and seeds and suggested that other countries join the US in extending favorable tariffs to Haiti to boost struggling Haitian factories.

Preval lamented the “shoddy construction” that was blamed for so many deaths and suggested that the rebuilding effort should focus as well on the long-neglected provinces outside the capital.

“Today, we are faced with a historical situation that will allow us to rebuild, refound this country,” he said.

“In the past, everything had been concentrated and focused on the capital, where the political and economic elites of the country live, and the rest of the country was neglected.

“That?s why so many people came to Haiti, into Port-au-Prince, in the illusory quest for work that did not exist, and that is why there?s so much shoddy construction, which does not comply with standards, and that?s why there were so many casualties.”

“The recovery of Haiti will take a long time,” he added. (Caribnet) ]]> http://blog.moontownbarbados.com/2010/03/10/clinton-joins-call-for-quick-haiti-elections/feed/