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CONTENTS
bulletJLP wins general elections in Jamaica
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644 T&T steel workers fired

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Puerto Rico bankruptcy goes before US Congress

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Jamaica leads C’bean countries on rights of children

bulletCaribbean crime stats among highest worldwide
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Jamaica leads the world in number of women bosses

bulletCARICOM pushes for reparations from Britain
bulletT&T prison guards file motion against the State
bulletJamaica’s Norman Manley International Airport  wins top award
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Bauxite company in Jamaica files for bankruptcy

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Red Stripe comes back home to Ja

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Windies Under-19s win cricket Youth World Cup

UNDILUTED pays tribute to John Maxwell by featuring two previous columns by him from the Hot Calaloo UNDILUTED archives:

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Hot Calaloo's Undiluted Vol. 15, "The Audacity of Hopelessness"

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Hot Calaloo's Undiluted Vol. 14, "Cuba's Benevolence versus US Belligerence"

 
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by Michael I Phillips

List Price $11.95 (paperback)
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Not just a book but an invitation to join the Goodwill Revolution against an unfair, unjust and deceptive system that keeps the world poor and without hope. Find out how you can join, quit the rat race, and achieve a happier more meaningful life for yourself and others through goodwill to all.  
For more book info see
     goodwillie.org

Buy through Paypal or  send check for $5 + $3 (shipping) to 
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cover River Woman by Donna Hemans ... $16.10
  The Rio Minho in Jamaica provides much more than a setting for this potent, accomplished debut by Jamaican-born Donna Hemans.

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cover  For the Life of Laetitia by Trinidad -born Merle Hodge  Price: $10.54
a wonderful book about a young girl in the Carribean, the first of her family to go to secondary school.

 

 

March 2016

  JLP wins general elections in Ja

Andrew Holness of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has succeeded Portia Simpson-Miller as Prime Minister. This came about because general elections were held on 25 February 2016. The result was a narrow victory for the Jamaica Labour Party, which won 32 of the 63 seats. Previouly the Portia Simpson-Miller led PNP held 42 seats to the JLP’s 21. The 43-year old Holness  previously served as Prime Minister from October 2011 to January 5, 2012. He had succeeded Bruce Golding as Prime Minister.

The winning vote share of the Jamaica Labour Party was the lowest vote-share for a winning party since 1962, when the JLP won 50.0% of the vote.

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644 T&T steel workers fired

A day after laid-off workers at ArcelorMittal won a wage dispute case in the Industrial Court in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the multi-national steel company has fired every single employee.

The company's Point Lisas plant has been closed and its 644 workers sent home. The company gave several reasons why it was no longer economical, in the short or long term, to carry on doing business in Trinidad.

It cited the increase in cheap steel from China and the international decrease in steel prices as well as the plans locally to increase gas and electricity prices, port rental, property tax and business levies as reasons why the company could not sustain its business.

The employees have little to go home with as the company yesterday announced it will be liquidating its assets and employees will lose their pensions and gratuities but would be paid one month’s salary and their vacation.

 

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Puerto Rico bankruptcy goes before US Congress

There was testimony before the US Congress on the human impact of Puerto Rico's debt crisis and Congress was urged to act on clear solutions to protect the 3.5 million Americans living on the island.  At the hearing, it was  noted that:

bulletnearly half of Puerto Rico's population lives in poverty
bulletsome special education teachers on the island aren't being paid
bullet200 schools have closed
bulletfunding for law enforcement is declining
bullet10% of the population has left in the last ten years. 
bulletPuerto Rico even slashed its health budget, and is now more vulnerable to the Zika virus that is spreading on the island. 

 

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Jamaica leads C’bean countries on rights of children

Jamaica has led Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries in how effectively children can use the law to challenge violations of their rights. In the first-ever global study on children’s access to justice undertaken by the London-based Child Rights International network (CRIN) showed that Belgium topped the 179 countries surveyed with 213 points out of a maximum 261 while Equatorial Guinea placed last with a score of 30.

CRIN’s director Veronica Yates points out that.  “Access to justice is about challenging the perception of children as just victims or somehow less worthy of justice than adults. It is about recognising that children, like adults, have human rights and that when these rights are infringed they should be able to trust and use the legal system to get justice.”

The research takes into account whether children can bring lawsuits when their rights are violated, the legal resources available to them, the practical considerations for taking legal action, and whether judges apply international law on children’s rights in their rulings

Jamaica is the highest placed CARICOM country at 65, with a score of 154.5 followed by Grenada at position 90 with a score of 137

Ranking

Country

Rank

Score

Belgium

1

213

Jamaica

65

154.5

Grenada

90

137

Trinidad and Tobago

92

136.5

Barbados

99

133

Guyana

100

132

St. Lucia

110

123.5

Belize

111

122

Bahamas

111

122

Antigua and Barbuda

129

107.5

Haiti

138

103.5

Dominica

145

93.5

Surinam

163

91.5

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

173

82.5

St. Kitts and Nevis

178

79

Equatorial Guinea

179

30

 

 

 

 

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Caribbean crime stats among highest worldwide

ALTHOUGH all the categories of serious and violent crimes have been on a decline locally, Jamaica still records some of the highest crime stats worldwide. Despite efforts to curb these numbers, the Caribbean and Central America continue to top the charts in violent crimes, adding that the problem isn’t only one of law enforcement.

Violent crime is largely a youth-based phenomenon in terms of the perpetrators and in terms of the victims The Caribbean and Central America, is the region with the highest level of violent crimes in the world.

One contributing factor that needs to be addressed in the “most urgent and profound way” is the impact of ‘fatherlessness’ on our children. Based on research done in the United States, United Kingdom and the Caribbean, fatherless children may be the reason for the crime epidemic. It indicates that fatherless boys, for example, that’s 50 per cent of  boys in Jamaica, are 11 times more likely to display violent behaviour, nine times more likely to run away from home and become victims or perpetrators of crime, twice as likely to drop out of school, nine times more likely to become gang members, and six times more likely to end up in prison.

Fatherless girls are more than twice as likely to experience teenage pregnancies and nine times more likely to be victims of sexual abuse.

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Jamaica leads the world in number of women bosses

Jamaica is the country where you’re most likely to have a female boss. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), just under 60 percent of the Caribbean island nation’s management force is female, the highest level anywhere in the world.

Fifty three percent of Colombian managers are female, placing it second, while another island nation, Saint Lucia, rounds off the top three. Just over 52 percent of management there is female. Overall, the United States is in 15th place – 43 percent of all American managers are women.

Pakistan and Yemen are at the very opposite end of the scale with 3 and 2.1 percent respectively.

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CARICOM pushes for reparations from Britain

The 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have sent a formal letter of complaint to Britain seeking reparation for slavery. The letter, which was written by Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, and sent to the British Foreign Office, calls on London to formally acknowledge the region’s demands for payment for the transatlantic slave trade.

CARICOM has said it will not release the contents of the letter, which was sent last week, by Mr. Stuart, who is the chairman of the CARICOM sub-committee on Reparations, until there is a reply by the British Prime Minister David Cameron.

But CARICOM has warned that it is prepared, as its next option, to refer the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Netherlands for a ruling. CARICOM has said it prefers a negotiated settlement of the matter.

Sir Hillary Beckles at Harvard on on Reparatory Justice for Global Black Enslavement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C53rq9iRCEQ

 

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T&T prison guards file motion against the State

The Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) government has been accused of failing to fulfil its preventative and investigative duties to the country’s prison officers.

Speaking at a media conference attorney representing the prison officers and their association Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said the State has not been conducting adequate investigations to prosecute individuals behind death threats against the officers or bringing measures to protect their lives.

This, as a constitutional motion was filed against the State in the High Court in light of recent murders of prison officers.

Recounting the deaths of 14 second division prison officers since 1998, Maharaj lamented that the rule of law has been suspended in favour of those who murder and threaten them, adding that requests for measures to protect them including service-issued firearms and specialised housing have fallen on deaf ears.

Investigations have been ineffective to bring anyone to justice or even identify a suspect, the lawyer stated, as he said that in a number of cases where prison officers have been murdered files have gone missing, the original investigating officers have retired and no updates on the course of the investigation are available.

Maharaj said the officers are attacked by inmates and threatened on and off duty with various crimes committed against them. A number of those cases remain underreported, the attorney noted, revealing that at least 81 officers have been threatened. A major issue Maharaj identified was the fact that prison rules are archaic and not enforced, as at present, he says, prisoners have not been held accountable for such breaches. He claims that proper disciplinary measures are not taken by the Commissioner.

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Jamaica’s Norman Manley International Airport  wins top award

The Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) is to be awarded the prestigious Airports Council International (ACI) — Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Award for the Most Improved Airport in Latin America and the Caribbean Region for 2015.

Airports Council International recognises the world’s airports which have achieved the highest passenger satisfaction ratings in the ASQ survey, the world’s premier passenger service benchmark measure of airport excellence.

 

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Bauxite company in Jamaica files for bankruptcy

Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp, a producer of primary aluminum and rolled aluminum coils, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy .The Franklin, Tennessee-based company said challenging market conditions for the aluminum industry and recent disruptions in its primary business operations led to the decision.

This could spell trouble for its bauxite mining in Jamaica. In mid-January it initiated workforce reductions, disclosing that the filing of a case under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code by a significant bauxite customer, Sherwin Alumina Company, LLC, could result in material reductions to both alumina production and bauxite mining plans. The company had indicated planned cutbacks might be mitigated if it could negotiate meaningful and substantial fiscal regime relief with the Government of Jamaica – including tax and production levy relief.

 

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Red Stripe comes back home to Ja

DESNOES and Geddes Limited, which trades as Red Stripe, will be employing 300 additional staff come September as part of plans to repatriate the production of exported Red Stripe from North America to Jamaica.

Managing director of the beverage-producing company, Ricardo Nuncio stated that the company will be investing five million euro this year to have production operations shifted from the United States to Jamaica.

 In 2012, Red Stripe moved the production of beer destined for North America from its plant in Kingston to City Brewing in Pennsylvania, USA, under a licensed production model for the North American market, similar to one operated in the United Kingdom for more than 30 years. As part of the agreement, Red Stripe was guaranteed royalties on each bottle sold.

This new decision also means that Red Stripe will increase its current beer production by 30 per cent to meet the 48,000 tonnes required to supply the export market. The Jamaican beer is supplied to more than 25 markets around the world.

Following the acquisition of a controlling stake by Heineken in Desnoes and Geddes, there is renewed confidence that repatriating beer production to the local market will allow for more competitiveness and consistent high-quality production. What’s more, the company believes that Jamaica’s improvement in macroeconomic conditions are enough to re-establish the country as the global hub for the iconic brand.

 

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Windies Under-19s win cricket Youth World Cup

West Indies cricket needed a big boost and they got it from their under-19’s. Underdogs West Indies Under-19 stunned favorites India Under-19 by five wickets in a low-scoring final of the ICC Youth Cricket World Cup to crown themselves world champions for the first time in their history.

Chasing 146 for victory at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, the Caribbean side were reduced to 77 for five in the 29th over, before they were bailed out by a brilliant unbeaten half-century by Man-of-the-Match Keacy Carty to get home in the last over with a mere three balls to spare.

 


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