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September 2015

Rowley leads T&T’ opposition PNM to election victory

The main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) won the Trinidad and Tobago  general election  defeating the coalition People’s Partnership (PP) of Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar that came to power in 2010.

The PNM, led by Dr Keith Rowley, had won 23 of the 41 seats with the remaining 18 going to the PP that had won 29 seats in the 2010 general election.

The 66-year-old volcanologist, one of the longest serving legislators, said the election proceedings “have gone down relatively smooth.

Both Persad Bissessar and Rowley easily retained the seats they had in Parliament over the past two decades. However, a number of government ministers including Roger Samuels, Lincoln Douglas, attorney general Garvin Nicholas, as well as the former president of the Senate, Raziah Ahmed, were among the casualties of the poll.

Controversial Leader of the Independent Liberal Party and indicted COCCACF FIFA official Austin Jack Warner, who said his party would have been a major factor in determining the new government, failed to win the Chaguanas East seat he switched to after successfully contesting the Chaguanas West seat in 2010 and 2013. But, he took credit for pushing Persad-Bissessar out of government.

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Pandemonium ruins Haiti's first election in four years

The recent elections in Haiti was almost a complete failure. The Caribbean nation of about 10 million people has struggled to build a stable democracy ever since the overthrow of the dictatorship of the Duvalier family, which led Haiti from 1957 to 1986, and ensuing military coups and election fraud.

For this election  men armed with rocks and bottles attacked polling stations in the capital of Port-au-Prince and about 50 of 1,500 voting centers around the country were "affected" by a mixture of violence and bureaucratic problems, according to Haiti's official Electoral Council. Voting was extended two hours at some polling stations that opened late or were forced to suspend voting.

Haiti's parliament dissolved in January after scheduled legislative elections in 2011 and 2014 were canceled. Since January, the 119-member Chamber of Deputies has sat empty, and the Senate, with only 10 of its 30 members, has failed to field a quorum. President Michel Martelly, who cannot run for re-election, has dozens of candidates running throughout the country under the so-called Haitian Tet Kale (Bald Headed) Party (PHTK), named after his famously smooth scalp. The Vérité (Truth) Party of former president René Préval and the Lavalas Family party, linked to twice-deposed former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, are also running candidates.

Following a violent campaign, the election was a test for the Haitian National Police, which has taken full control of security during election season from a downsized U.N. peacekeeping force.

The National Network for the Protection of Human Rights reported five election-related assassinations in the month prior to the elections and 26 people wounded.

Police intervened in some voting centers to control overly aggressive political party officials monitoring the vote, according top election observers.

Balloting in this recent violent, chaotic legislative elections will be rerun in 25 constituencies nationwide, including in the Artibonite Valley where the vote for several seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies has to be redone because of violence at the polls.

Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) made the announcement  while also declaring a number of corrective measures it plans to take for the Oct. 25 runoff to prevent a repeat of the violence, late starts and voters’ list problems that marred the Aug. 9 legislative election. Among them: the campaigning period will extend beyond a month for candidates in the runoff and credentials for political party monitors will be available 15 days before the vote.

Officials also announced that voter turnout was a measly 18 percent countrywide with the West department, which includes Port-au-Prince, posting the lowest with 10 percent. Election officials didn’t go into specifics about who among the 1,855 made the cut for the 139 legislative seats that were up for grabs. But according to local radio reports, results show that none of the candidates for 20 Senate seats managed to be elected in the first round. Meanwhile, only four out of 1,621 candidates vying for the entire 119-member lower Chamber of Deputies managed to avoid a runoff.

Among the senatorial candidates headed into a runoff: Guy Philippe, the rebel leader who led the 2004 coup that toppled then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A former top police official, Philippe is wanted in the United States on a sealed drug-trafficking indictment. Though blocked from running in the 2009 senatorial elections, Philippe and dozens of others were allowed to run this time around because of an omission in the electoral law that allowed candidates to qualify without having to produce police criminal records. Several of those candidates are headed into a runoff, scheduled for Oct. 25.

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Tropical Storm Erika ravages Dominica

Erika was not a hurricane, only a storm, but it did as much damage as any hurricane. Streets across Dominica turned into fast-flowing rivers that swept up cars as tropical storm Erika pummeled the eastern Caribbean island, unleashing landslides and killing at least four people.

The storm  knocked out power and water supplies on Dominica as it dumped 15 inches of rain on the small island and headed west into the Caribbean Sea. An elderly blind man and two children were killed when a mudslide crashed into their home in the southeast of the island. Another man was found dead near his home in the capital of Roseau after a mudslide.

Five days after Erika hit, efforts were on in earnest to evacuate residents from Petite Savanne — the area hardest hit by the storm. The residents  are being relocated to other family homes or hurricane shelters in schools. Also, landslides posed a very big threat to residents in Petite Savanne, as well as in the areas of Roseau Valley and Good Hope.

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Disaster aid transparency

Natural disasters like hurricanes and, of course tropical storms, are no stranger to the Caribbean. Disaster relief from other countries often follows.  But, is that disaster relief administered effectively, efficiently and honestly?

A social entrepreneur named Bibhusan Bista might have the answer. As the CEO of Young Innovations, a Nepali technology company that developsinnovative solutions for social impact, Bista sprang into action within 24 hours of the earthquake to build the OpenNepal Earthquake Portal, a data-sharing platform that brings greater transparency to people, organizations, and countries pledging money to Nepal.

OpenNepal aggregates and publishes international and national earthquake relief pledges to the country. The site promotes aid transparency and accountability by empowering citizens to access the raw data behind the headlines, dig deeper for analyses, and independently verify claims. For example, the United States pledged $130 million to Nepal’s earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction projects; the OpenNepal platform breaks down which NGOs and government agencies will receive this money, with links to relevant press releases and news articles for more details.

Aid transparency has improved in recent years. Soon after the Haiti earthquake in 2010, more than 40 countries adopted the International Aid Transparency Initiative standard for publishing data on their development activities, including budgets, annual reports, and strategic documents for country plans. Now all organizations, from government donors to private-sector organizations and NGOs, use a consistent data format known as XML, which allows for better analysis of aid data.

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Jamaica’s RJR, Gleaner announce merger

Jamaica’s largest newspaper and its largest radio station have announced a merger.  Radio Jamaica Limited (RJR) and The Gleaner Company Limited (Gleaner) announced the signing of an agreement which will see their respective media operations merging. RJR News is reporting that the transaction, “which is to be pursued through a court approved scheme of amalgamation, will be a stock for stock deal” where it “will issue and exchange 1.2 billion shares on a one-for-one basis to shareholders of The Gleaner Company Limited for 100 per cent of a newly formed subsidiary Gleaner Company (Media) Limited (GCML), which will hold the assets of the media entities of the Gleaner Company”.

“This will result in the shareholders of the Gleaner Company Limited owning 50 per cent of Radio Jamaica Limited’s common stock and existing RJR shareholders owning the remaining 50 per cent of the combined business,” the RJR report said.

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Puerto Rico default underway

Puerto Rico defaulted on some of its debts this weekend after years of battling to stay current on its obligations, signaling the start of a long and contentious restructuring process for the US commonwealth’s $72bn debt pile.
The territory, which successfully scrambled to make a $169m payment on debts owed by the Government Development Bank on Friday, did not make a $58m payment on Public Finance Corporation bonds, according to Victor Suarez, chief of staff for Puerto Rico’s governor.
  “We don’t have the money,” he said on Friday, according to newswire reports. “The PFC payment will not be made this weekend.”

This just happens to be the largest muni bond default in the history of the United States.

 According to a new investigation, many of those same billionaires demanding payment from Puerto Rico have also profited from the debt crises in Greece, Argentina, and Detroit. These hedge funds specialize in buying up “distressed” assets and pushing governments to take on debt they can’t afford under predatory rates and conditions. At the same time, the groups are lobbying Congress to not allow the island to declare bankruptcy, as doing so would cut into their profits.

 A cadre of Wall Street hedge funds have been making a bundle off of Puerto Rico's woes for years.

 The Wall Street Journal recently reported that in 87 bond deals since 2006, Puerto Rico sold $61 billion of bonds which resulted in fees to Wall Street firms and their cohorts of $1.4 billion. The fees charged were higher than those assessed on other financially troubled US states and cities. In fact, according to Reuters, banks such as UBS, were paid gross spreads averaging 31% higher than spreads charged to Detroit.
Washington's apparent desire to feed Puerto Rico to the Wall Street wolves. If this was a typical U.S. municipality, Chapter 9 status would be available to them. But it's not. Then there are the considerations provided to states such as California, that have been provided by the feds to other U.S. entities in the past. Essentially, a captured Washington is allowing this to happen, and it's an exceptionally pathetic example of how when Wall Street cash is involved, and collecting that cash or subjecting citizens to extreme poverty are the issues at hand, Wall Street wins every  time.

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Jamaica to retire $3 billion in oil debt to Venezuela

 Jamaica has forged a deal to retire $3 billion in oil debts to Venezuela thanks to bond sales. It has issued roughly $2 billion in bonds on the international capital market that will pay down the debt it accumulated through Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan program that provides fuel to countries at market prices but under generous credit terms.

Officials say a negotiated settlement with Caracas will dismiss about $3 billion in long-term debt in exchange for $1.5 billion. It was not immediately clear Friday if Jamaica's deal will retire all of its Petrocaribe debt.

The finance ministry said this bond issue transaction was "the largest capital markets fundraising ever undertaken by the government of Jamaica."

Jamaica's Petrocaribe settlement is similar to one the Dominican Republic negotiated with Venezuela earlier this year. That Caribbean country dismissed $4 billion in Petrocaribe debt in exchange for $2 billion.

IMF Communications Director Gerry Rice said the organization supports Jamaica's debt buyback. "It's an important step in reducing the value of the country's public debt and will help to put debt firmly on a downward trajectory," Rice told reporters.

Jamaica is in the third year of a four-year $930 million loan package with the International Monetary Fund and it has passed consecutive tests without shortfalls.

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Over 500 Jamaica sugar workers to lose jobs

More than 500 people who cultivate and harvest cane for the Seprod-owned Golden Grove sugar factory in St Thomas are scheduled to lose their jobs. Confirmation of the redundancies came at a recent meeting between the trade unions and Seprod, and a list of the more than 500 workers to be affected was presented to the unions.

The workers will receive notice pay of 14 weeks in August, while payment of severance will be made in September. Workers at the factory will not be affected by the redundancies.

The unions involved - the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), the National Workers Union (NWU) and the University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU) -- will meet with the workers at the factory on Wednesday to explain the details of the severance agreement.

Golden Grove which, according to Seprod, has lost approximately $2 billion on a $3-billion investment it made in 2012, is to contract out its sugar cane cultivation and transportation sections to a private firm, which speculation suggests is the Fred M Jones company in St Thomas. But the unions have expressed concern that, while the majority of the workers are likely to be taken on by the new contractor, the terms of their working aragements could be severely altered, to their detriment.

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Women help Rwanda bounce back

The small, landlocked Central African nation has topped the Swiss by two ranks to come in seventh in the world in government efficiency, according to the World Economic Forum. The U.S. doesn't make the top 10.

Through a rigorous look at dozens of factors, the not-for-profit global organization credits Rwanda's low level of waste in government spending and a factor called labor market efficiency for the country's overall high ranking—noting that the nation of 10.6 million has seen dramatic improvements in economic life: A GDP that hovered at around $200 per capita in 2000 rose to nearly $700 in 2013. 

Something perhaps even more remarkable about Rwanda is buried in these stats: It ranks third out of the 144 countries scored for the ratio of women in the labor force. For every man working in Rwanda, 1.02 are women employed. To boot, Rwanda is also the only country on Earth where more women than men serve as elected officials. 

In part that's because the country created a constitutional quota in 2005 that women must make up at least 30 percent of leadership in decision-making organs. That means women compose about 64 percent of the nation's lower parliament and 38 percent of its senate. By comparison, the U.S. has never elected a Congress that's more than 20 percent women.

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Jamaica losing athletes to Bahrain

In the wake of news that three Jamaican athletes have made requests to represent Bahrain, Commonwealth Games 100-metre champion Kemar Bailey-Cole is calling on the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association, (JAAA) corporate Jamaica and the Government to do more for its athletes.

Olympic and World Championship silver medallist Shericka Williams and emerging sprinters Andrew Fisher and Kemarley Brown are reportedly in the final stages of completing the process of representing Bahrain at the next Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil, next year, in a move that is seen as being mainly about securing financial security in a sport where pickings are slim for all but a few elite athletes.

Citing the challenges that athletes like him face on a daily basis, Bailey-Cole believes that if more is not done Jamaica could stand to lose more of its elite athletes to countries willing to pay for their talents.

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Is Red Stripe really Jamaican beer?

Two individuals represented by the law firm of Robbins Arroyo have filed a suit in federal court against Diageo, the makers of Red Stripe, according to the San Diego Reader, claiming that the company has committed unfair and deceptive practices and has been unjustly enriched by marketing and selling beer in a way that misleads consumers into believing that the beer is made in Jamaica.

Red Stripe beer is not brewed in Jamaica but Diageo uses clever phrasing in its promotion calling Red Stripe a “Jamaican Style Lager” that contains the “taste of Jamaica.”

The bottle structure is short, squat, and brown — closely associated with Jamaican beer bottles, says the complaint. In 2012, Diageo moved production of the U.S. supply of Red Stripe from Jamaica to the U.S.; City Brewing Co. in La Crosse, Wisconsin and in Latrobe, Pennsylvania is producing the supply. Desnoes & Geddes will still make Red Stripe for Jamaica, Brazil, Canada and Europe.

Meanwhile in St. Croix rum
The plaintiffs contend that this disclaimer is in “obscure white text,” and the consumer can’t see those words until after he or she has purchased a six-pack or twelve-pack. It comes as the US Virgin Islands’ environmental agency is also planning to file a violation order against Cruzan Rum and Diageo USVI – a subsidiary of Diageo PLC, which produces Captain Morgan – following complaints from residents of various communities on St Croix.

Citizens of St Croix claim a “sooty-looking” fungus has been growing in their neighborhoods, including on water cisterns and fruit trees, due to the ethanol from the nearby rum facilities.

Residents believe the mould is “Baudoinia” and are pursuing a class action lawsuit requiring both companies to install technology to capture ethanol emissions and pay damages to homeowners.

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Spicy food good for your health

 New research published in the medical journal The BMJ (formerly The British Medical Journal) found that enjoying a spicy meal at least once a week just might save your life.

Scientists from Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Oxford, Peking University Health Center, and various departments of public health throughout China, explored the relationship between eating spicy food and the risk of death from all causes as well as specific causes like cancer and heart disease. The study examined 288,082 women and 199,293 men aged 30 to 79 from ten geographically diverse regions throughout China to determine possible links. People with cancer, heart disease and stroke were excluded from the study.

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