|
 |
|
From June Hot Calaloo update
|
August 2001Partisanship, loyalty and politicsMenace to their countries Non-partisan More violence flares in JamaicaThe violence which propelled Jamaica adversely unto the world stage from July 7 to 10 continues to smolder. On the week starting July 23, fear and panic have again gripped sections of the Hannah Town, Wilton Gardens (Rema) and Denham Town communities in Kingston's west end following another outbreak of gun violence which has claimed the lives of six more persons. At least it has not grown to the proportions as earlier in the month. 3 days of near-anarchy and mayhem
Commission of Enquiry Seaga plays the "don" JLP official help police restore order Seaga continues to milk the unrest How much longer will Mr. Seaga continue to milk this unrest. Will he fan the smoldering embers into a conflagration again. Will the JLP let him? Will the people of Jamaica let him? Seaga has got to go. US to boycott World Conference against RacismThe conference The question of compensation for slavery will be one of the most controversial topics. Led by groups like Human Rights watch there is strong support for these reparations to counter the most severe continuing effects of slavery, segregation, and other extreme forms of racism. "Groups that suffer today because of slavery or other severe
racist practices should be compensated by governments responsible for
these practices," said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human
Rights Watch. "Those most seriously victimized today by past
wrongs should be the first priority for compensation to end their
victimization." US threaten boycott if reparations on the agenda
Slavery at its worst The fact is the case for black reparations right here in the US is very strong. On the contrary, the arguments against are very weak. I think the real reason for the opposition is the severity of the problem. The damage done is so great, the number of people affected so numerous, and the duration of the injustice so long, that full compensation would literally bankrupt this mighty country. No one wants that, so full compensation is out. But, let there be reasonable compensation. It is a very complex and complicated problem. It is not just a question of "how much", but "how" and "who". But no compensation or denial is wrong and only perpetuates the injustice of slavery. CARICOM Secretary General re-appointed to 3rd termCaribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government have unanimously agreed to grant Edward Carrington a third 5-year term as CARICOM Secretary Gerneral. Carrington has built up an impressive record in the service of the region over some three decades. . IMF praises T&T for strong economic performanceThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised Trinidad and Tobago for its strong track record of economic performance in recent years, as evidenced by robust output growth, low inflation, and a strengthening of the external position. Output grew by just under five per cent in calendar 2000, inflation remained at about three and half per cent, and the balance of payments strengthened. Unemployment fell slightly, but remained high at 12.5 per cent at mid-2000). Indicators through the first quarter of 2001 suggest that economic performance continues to be favorable. Jamaica’s 3rd Party, NDM, gets new leaderJamaica’s third political party, the National Democratic Movement (NDM), has elected a new leader. Moreover, the new leader is a woman, Hyacinth Bennett. She succeeds the founder of the party, Bruce Golding. She was elected by a landslide at the party’s 6th Annual conference. She has an uphill fight as the party has failed to get much voter support. It is this failure which forced previous president, a former vice-president of the JLP and once considered the heir-apparent to JLP leader Eddie Seaga, to resign. Cruise liner company pulls out It seems Jamaica is not the only Caribbean country to lose cruise ship line because of unsatisfactory port experiences. This time a United States cruise-liner company has dropped Antigua and Barbuda from its list of destinations, resulting in a loss of over 6,000 visitors each month. The company, Holland America Lines, cited the unsatisfactory behaviour of taxi-drivers, uncertainty about dredging operations and unsatisfactory berthing facilities. But at least one taxi association on Tuesday rejected the allegations made public by Prime Minister Lester Bird based on talks he held with the Antigua and Barbuda Cruise Tourism Association (ABCTA). Jamaica health minister supports HIV testing for pregnant womenJamaica's Health Minister, John Junor, has supported the idea of compulsory HIV testing of pregnant women, in an effort to reduce mother-to-child transmission of the virus that leads to the deadly AIDS disease. After returning from a United Nations conference on AIDS held in New York in mid-July, Junor said that he was intrigued to discover that in New York, pregnant women were compulsorily tested for HIV. Junor said that he would like to introduce a pilot project in Jamaica dealing with pregnant women and AIDS to include testing. Jamaica policeman brutally killedOne month before he was to go on pre-retirement leave, Jamaica police Inspector Everett Daley was gunned down at his home by killers a recent early Sunday morning. Police reports say that Inspector Everett Daley, 59, was shot several times in the chest by an undetermined number of gunmen around 1:30 a.m. just after he arrived home from a function with his wife and foster son. Inspector Daley was attached to the Half-Way-Tree police station's traffic division, and is the ninth policeman to be killed this year. This killing took place before the unrest in west Kingston so the number of policemen killed has increased since this. It seems the policeman in Jamaica is up against some of the most brutal vicious killers in their execution of their vital role to that society. No other group come even close to the peril that they face and II wonder how many in Jamaica even realize or appreciate that. Two St. Lucia Hotels to closeMore than 300 workers jobs have been jeopardised by Rex Resorts International ‘s decision to close two of its St. Lucia hotels. The 140-room all inclusive Papillon Hotel and the five star Royal St. Lucian which has 96 rooms will close in July until December because of what the owners say is a slowdown in business. There has been no official word from the hotel group, whose headquarters are in Britain, about the termination arrangements being put in place for the 330 employees who have however been promised re-employment when the hotels reopen December 15 for the usually lucrative winter season. West Indies win Test seriesFor the first time in 6 years, the West Indies cricket team have won an away Test series. They defeated Zimbabwe by 1-0 in the 2-game series. Mention must be made of Zimbabwe's 17-year old player, Hamiolton Masakadza. He launched Zimbabwe's fightback with 115 runs in the 2nd innings of the 2nd Test to establish historic firsts .
Scoreboard Test 2 (draw, rain stopped play)
Jamaican sprinter tested positiveElation is fading. Last month Patrick made history by defeating
invincible Olympic 100 meter champion Maurice Green. Now, he has tested
positive for the banned anabolic steroid , stanozolol. Brazil to give away 800,000 condomsThey must have read Hot Calaloo’s article "Save the world – Use a Condom", originally written in the September 1996 edition of Hot Calaloo and reprinted here in the March 2001 update. Of course if you read my article, you will see that Brazil does not go far enough, but it’s a good start. Brazil's Health Ministry and a business organization are giving away 800,000 condoms for lovers' day - June 12 - the South American nation's version of Valentine's day. Promoted as an effort to stop the spread of AIDS, the focus of the campaign are heterosexuals, who account for 43.5% of all new HIV infections in Brazil. The Health Ministry wants to triple the number of condoms used in Brazil each year from a current 600 million, Paulo Teixeira, head of the government HIV/AIDS task force, said at the launch of the campaign in Sao Paulo. The condoms are to be distributed between Saturday and Tuesday in cinemas, at newspaper stands and by companies associated with the National Business Council to Prevent HIV/AIDS, the group financing the campaign. "Dead-hustlers" invade the funeral business in JamaicaAt the Spanish Town morgue in Jamaica two men, armed with cell phones, are seen talking in hushed tones to the mourners. They are drumming up business. This and the Kingston morgue are popular hangouts for these "businessmen". These are informal undertakers and they are doing a flourishing business throughout the island disposing of the dead at the expense of regular funeral operators. Through a supporting network of grave diggers, independent hearse owners, coffin and vault makers, they have set up a system that allows them to provide service for funerals, although the majority lack hearses or even cold rooms to store the deceased until burial. These informal unlicensed undertaskers are taking away lots of business from the traditional funeral operators complain bitterly that these "dead-hustlers have an unfair advantage and are taking away a lot of business from them. Some of the advantages these so called "dead-hustlers undertakers have are:
These informal undertakers are perfectly legal because no license is
required to operate a funeral parlor. But, the Funeral Directors
Association (FDA) is trying to change that. Privy Council quashes Grenada murder convictionThe London-based Privy Council Tuesday quashed a 1998 murder conviction in Grenada of one man and sent the case of another back to the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court for consideration of a re-trial. The men were convicted and sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1996 murder of an elderly woman who was found with her throat cut. Both men claimed that police beat confessions out of them and contended that the evidence should have been inadmissible. Jamaica, UK police in new co-operation pactThe British police have accepted Jamaica's request for a new relationship to deepen and strengthen an existing agreement with the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Jamaica government sources have said. This was reached at a meeting in London recently, with Jamaica's National Security and Justice Minister, K.D. Knight and senior officers of the Metropolitan Police, led by Assistant Commissioner, David Vaness, and Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Michael Fuller. The Jamaican team also included Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security and Justice, Elaine Baker and Jamaica's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, David Muirhead. Whaling Conference ends in Dispute.Six Caribbean nations are in the middle of the dispute which flared in the International Whaling Commission meeting in London. The conference ended without a vote on whether to overturn a 15-year old moratorium on commercial whaling. This is a very contentious issue with Japan and Norway leading the anti-moratorium pro-whaling forces. The meeting was clouded by allegations of vote-buying, with conservationists suggesting that Japan used foreign aid to pressure poor countries for their support. Many of the poor nations - including six in the Caribbean - voted with Japan on nearly every motion, including two that blocked the creation of special whale sanctuaries in the southern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Japan denied the allegations. The Caribbean countries are Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Grenada and St. Lucia, which is quite a strong block of votes on the 41-member commission. Dominica has just been granted a US9.8 million grant from Japan to finance their Coastal Fisheries project. Antigua Prime Minister Lester Bird admitted that his administration was supporting whaling because his country was getting aid from Japan but also because he claimed that research showed that the minky whale was no longer an endangered species. U.S. religious group lands in CubaA religious group opposed to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba arrived there recently in advance of its delivery of 80 tons of humanitarian aid. The Rev. Lucius Walker, founder of Pastors for Peace, said the 90 people in his group - most of them Americans - planned on returning home with Cuban products to demonstrate its opposition to U.S. restrictions on such imports. The aid - including medical equipment, tools for bicycle repair, school materials, computers, and food - left the Mexican port of Tampico on a Havana-bound ship on Wednesday and is expected to arrive later this week. The group that arrived in Havana aboard a commercial flight from Mexico on Wednesday had accompanied the shipment in a caravan of buses across the U.S. border into Mexico. This is the 12th visit to Cuba by Walker, who founded Pastors for Peace in 1988 to deliver aid from Americans to the Cuban people.
|
