Caribbean Headline
News...
Updated Saturday, July 5, 2008
`CaribID2010,` a movement initiated by
Felicia Persaud, is a gigantic effort to secure a category for
Caribbean people from the English, Dutch and French-speaking
Caribbean, onto the U.S. Census form. The movement is lobbying
for a bill to be introduced in Congress to push for a single
line to be added to the U.S. Census form while the Institute of
Caribbean Studies of D.C. and the Caribbean Research Center
works with the U.S. Census Bureau to raise the community’s
concern. Nationals who number millions across the U.S. and
are from English, Dutch and French-speaking Caribbean nations
are now forced to choose between checking the box misidentifying
themselves as either African American, Asian American or
Hispanic or simply as other. The `discriminatory` move
keeps the community undercounted, under empowered and
disrespected, says Persaud, as thy remain invisible to
mainstream Americans. Every year the census data directly
affects how more than 300 billion dollars is allocated to
communities across the U.S. so the CaribID2010 movement is
critical to determining the economic futures of Caribbean
communities. Every Caribbean national is urged sign and
fill out the confidential petition form at
www.caribid2010.com
and pass on the information to others.
July
3 - There has been an outcry in New York over
the death of a Jamaican woman in a hospital.
Hospital surveillance video footage show she was left to die
after falling from a chair and lay convulsing on the floor
for over an hour without any attention from medical staff.
The woman, who has been identified as Esmin Green, was
waiting in the emergency ward of the Brooklyn-based Kings
County Hospital for nearly twenty-four hours.
Miss Green's death occurred in mid June but the matter is
only now receiving attention after the video was circulated
around the world on the internet on July 3. Mental
health campaigners say what's particularly shocking about
the graphic video, is that no one at the hospital bothered
to assist her in what was apparently a painful ordeal.
Donna Lieberman the executive director of the New York Civil
Liberties Union, says the nature of Miss Green's death is
exactly the sort of neglect that her legal action was
lashing out against: She told BBC Caribbean, "Even though a
number of hospital employees saw her, they did absolutely
nothing. "Nobody tried to ... revive her after she
fell, for over an hour. Just to put things in
perspective, there is an observation window just about three
feet from where she fell. "It's just horrific," she
declared. Esmin Green was living in New York for some
eight years after going there to seek a better life for
herself and her family whom she left back in Jamaica.
She was admitted to the hospital after reportedly suffering
a nervous breakdown. Her sister Brenda James,
says that the family is very distraught. "I think this
is a wicked act. You don't treat people this way." She
said the family in Jamaica are preparing to file a lawsuit
against the hospital in Brooklyn. Donna
Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union says Miss
Green's death has already served as a catalyst for change as
health officials in New York have promised to reduce
hospital waiting times for patients in a similar situation.
Six of the hospital staff have been fired over the affair.
July
3 - The mothers of two US soldiers who disappeared from
military installations on the US mainland have confirmed
that they are hiding in Puerto Rico. However,
the two women say their sons should be left alone and have
asked Puerto Rican police to stop searching for them.
The mothers argue that while desertion from the US military
may be a federal crime, enforcement should not be up to
local officials. The Puerto Rican police chief,
Pedro Toledo, has vowed to uphold federal law - he said his
officers would work jointly with federal authorities to find
and arrest any deserters.
July
3 - There is to be a meeting later this year to look into
hiccups with the free movement initiative launched by
Caricom. Speaking at the heads of government
summit in Antigua, the Barbadian Prime Minister, David
Thompson made it clear that his country does not have the
resources to deal with the free movement plans at this
stage. Guyana's president called for better treatment
of his people and others from the region who have been
treated unfairly at various airports. The leaders were
also continuing talks on differences over the EPA trade
agreements reached between Cariforum and the European Union
last year. Trinidad and Tobago has said it is
ready to sign on the dotted line while Guyana has expressed
reluctance. Caricom heads also agreed to try again to
spearhead the creation of a fund to jointly market the
Caribbean as a single destination.
Trinidad and Tobago's economy has been
going so well that US President George W Bush has informed
Congress the country is now a "high income" one and
therefore no longer qualifies for duty-free access for
exports effective January 1, 2010. Unfortunately
for local exporters, however, the "high income" designation
comes with a downside to them, as Bush has issued a
presidential proclamation that terminates the country's
preferential treatment under the Generalized System of
Preferences (GSP) to export a range of products duty-free
into the American markets, in the next two years.
According to the Office of the United States Trade
Representative, the GSP is a program designed to promote
"economic growth" in the developing world and provides
preferential duty-free access for the entry of more than
4,500 products from 131 designated beneficiary countries and
territories. The GSP was created in 1974 by the
United States Congress, which is comprised of the House of
Representatives and the Senate. It came into force in 1976.
And while Minister in the Ministry of Finance Mariano Browne
says the new development will only affect about "two per
cent" of the country's exports, he acknowledged it is
something that the Government is not ignoring.
In
Jamaica, the St Andrew facilities of the Salvation Army School
for the Blind and Visually Handicapped were turned upside down
during the early hours of Monday morning, June 30th when three
masked gunmen entered the compound, robbing 39 members of an
overseas missionary team of cash, cell phones and other
valuables.
Major Ward Matthews, secretary for business administration
at the Salvation Army, said that at about 2:30 a.m. an officer
of the Christian organization was awakened by noises coming from
outside his sleeping quarters. He went to
investigate and found two men attempting to dig away the
concrete below his grille. The officer raised an alarm and the
men fled, only to move to another section of the campus where
they entered through an unlocked door and held, at gunpoint, the
almost 40 students visiting from the United States (US). The
students, who are linked to the Christian organization,
Adventures in Missions (AIM), were in Jamaica
for a week-long trip of missionary work and evangelism. The
matter has been reported to the police and the Constant Spring
Criminal Investigations
Bureau (CIB) has commenced an investigation. The
incident has, however, raised concern over the safety of not
just the close to 100 visually impaired and orphaned students
who are resident at the facility, but also visitors who come to
the island to assist individuals in need. The majority of the
students have since returned to the US and the others have moved
off the campus. A return trip to the island, originally planned
for mid July, was also cancelled.
In
Jamaica the accumulation of hundreds of thousands of dollars of
unexplained credit card debt by managers at key government
agencies dominated the Tuesday, July 1st sitting of the Public
Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC)meeting. PAC members
scolded the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC),
Caribbean Engineering Corporation Limited and the Jamaica Urban
Transit Company as the agencies' misuse of credit cards and
other financial problems came to the fore. Officials from
the Ministry of Water and Housing and the Ministry of Transport
and Works were in the hot seat as they answered questions from
the Auditor General's Department and PAC members on financial
irregularities from 2004-2007. It became apparent as the
meeting went on, however, that none of the government
representatives was equipped with information to satisfy the
queries. An audit conducted by the Auditor General's
Department in 2005 showed that a former Chairman of the NHDC
accumulated $314,000 in credit card debt in the space of three
months. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Housing,
Genefa Hibbert told the PAC that there were no receipts or
invoices to prove that the sum spent was for company business.
It was also revealed that a Corporate Manager at Caribbean
Engineering Corporation Limited had accumulated more than
$500,000 in unexplained credit card debt and it became apparent
that no attempt had been made to find out what the charges were
for. The issuance of Corporate Credit Cards in the Housing
and Water Ministry was discontinued after the 2005 audit.
The Jamaica Urban Transit Company's overpayment of statutory
deductions did not escape the PAC's notice. It was
revealed that eight employees, two of whom are still employed to
the company, had been overpaid.
In the
Bahamas, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has announced a Cabinet
reshuffle confirming speculation that a juggling of ministers is
on the cards. The changes include the Prime Minister
taking over the portfolio of Lands and Local Government
following the resignation of the Member of Parliament for the
Blue Hills constituency. The change has also seen the
former Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization
Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace taking on the role of Minister of
Tourism and Aviation. Mr. Ingraham also announced that two
new ministries will be created, a Ministry of Youth, Sports and
Culture and a Ministry of Environment.
In
Jamaica, as the authorities continue their crack down on the
resurgence in drug trafficking, the Narcotics Police have
launched a manhunt for an airport worker suspected to be behind
a drug trafficking ring at the Norman Manley International
Airport. The airport worker reportedly fled from the job
two weeks ago after the Narcotics Police seized 40 pounds of
ganja in a bathroom at the airport. Head of the
Narcotics Police, Senior Superintendent Carlton Wilson said a
search is now on for the worker. He said corrupt airport
workers who are bent on smuggling drugs onto aircraft are using
the cover of the multi-million dollar construction project at
the Norman Manley International Airport to get narcotics in and
out of the island. SSP Wilson said the police are now
carrying out regular checks of the bathrooms after another 18
pounds of ganja was seized in a bathroom at the airport
recently. SSP Wilson said that the Narcotics Police have
also observed a resurgence in cocaine trafficking. He said
over the past several weeks a number of persons have been
arrested trying to smuggle liquid cocaine in and out of the
country. He said following a drop in 2007, smugglers have
again stepped up trafficking of the drug since the start of this
year. At the end of May this year 46 kilograms of cocaine
had been seized by the local police, this compared to 98
kilograms seized for all of 2007. The narcotics chief
warned that his men will be more vigilant over the summer
holidays as traffickers try to use the cover of the holiday rush
to smuggle illicit drugs through the airport. At the end
of May, nearly 3,000 persons had been charged with drug
trafficking, more than 100 of them foreigners.
In
Jamaica, a 35-year-old medical doctor employed to a corporate
area hospital and a 29-year -old co-accused who have been
charged with sexually molesting a man, have been released on
bail. Dr. Dwight Pusey and Paul Wright who are jointly
charged with buggery, assault at common law and illegal
possession of a firearm are to return to court on July 18th.
It is alleged that on the night of June 29, the complainant went
to the doctor's home where it is reported that the doctor and
three other men sexually molested him. The following
day the man reported the incident to the Spanish Town Police and
this led to the arrest of the doctor and another man. In
court on Tuesday, July 1st it was revealed that the doctor was
previously charged with buggery and is scheduled to face the
Half Way Tree court on this charge. Dr. Pusey is out
on $250,000 bail while Mr. Wright was granted $150,000 bail.
