In Jamaica, three children - ages 1, 3 and 5 years old perished in a fire on the afternoon of Friday, April 25th.  The children burnt to death while the mother went to a nearby shop.  The inferno occurred just after 3 o'clock at 38 Crescent Road in the Kingston 13 area.    The mother cannot be found.  The Member of Parliament for the area, Portia Simpson Miller, visited the area and made a special appeal for parents not to leave their children without proper supervision.  The charred remains of the children were found in a corner of one of the rooms.
 

Guyana Safe For Carifesta

Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana has assured the Caribbean Region that it is safe to travel to Guyana for the tenth staging of the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) slated for August 22nd - 31st, 2008.   Jagdeo gave this assurance to an outdoor audience of thousands of Guyanese and a strong contingent of delegates from the region at the official launch of CARIFESTA on Wednesday, April 23rd. He said that the government would leave no stone unturned in ensuring a safe, secure and nurturing Guyana for the staging of the Caribbean’s leading cultural extravaganza, which the president asserted “offers us the opportunity of transcending those things that can blind, limit and divide us as people, as nations and as a Region”.   In unveiling the CARIFESTA Logo and song, the president remarked that staging the Festival for the second time in thirty-six years was both a responsibility and a blessing for Guyana. He said he assumed responsibility to host the Festival because he had full confidence in the strength and capabilities of his people to do in one year, what would have taken two years to stage. CARIFESTA returns to its birthplace, Guyana, after thirty-six years and will be hosted under the theme: One Caribbean; One Purpose - Our Culture; Our Life.

Barbados Strives To Feed Itself

Barbados Agriculture Minister Senator Haynesley Benn has intimated that an “all hands on deck” approach was necessary if Barbados was to achieve food sovereignty -- “which speaks to our ability, not only to feed ourselves, but to produce the food with which to do so."  “We can do it and we will do it, with the assistance of various stakeholders,” he said, during an address prior to the start of a Food Crop Research Field Day, organized by the Ministry’s Central Agronomic Research Station at its Christ Church headquarters.   Benn told those in attendance that there were idle lands across the island, which were “waiting for the stroke of a pen to see them transferred into commercial and residential usage.”   Noting that  he was prepared to take his time before sanctioning or vetoing such prospects, he admitted that his Ministry was keen to see some of those lands transformed to provide a viable livelihood for farmers.   In regard to Barbados achieving food sovereignty, the Minister outlined a proverbial ‘things-to-do’ list for all Barbadians, beginning with members of the farming community.  In addition to becoming more organized, he urged them to start to see themselves as business persons, and as a consequence, he opined, others would also start to view them in that light. He also impressed upon them the need to officially register with the Ministry.   Benn called on suppliers of farming inputs, especially seeds, to provide farmers with high quality products at a good price, charging that much better could be done in this regard. Similarly, he challenged feed producers to continue to maintain the high quality of their feed, while streamlining costs.   Alluding to the perennial problem of praedial larceny, Benn appealed to members of the Royal Barbados Police Force to join with farmers in protecting their livelihood, through the provision of more patrols. He also appealed to supermarkets and hoteliers to join in the fight against crop theft by ensuring that persons who came to their back doors purporting to be farmers were bona fide, by insisting on proof of purchase or production of crops. He also highlighted the need for members of the public to become more vigilant in their purchasing.

Tourist Couple Writing Bad Checks In USVI

In St. Thomas USVI a stateside couple were arrested on Tuesday, April 22nd by detectives of St. Croix's Insular Investigation Bureau and have been charged with defrauding several local businesses by purchasing almost $20,000 in jewelry and other merchandise with invalid checks.   Jason "Jayson" Brooks, 30, of Norwalk, Calif., and Heather Dawn Golden, 26, of Bayou Vista, Texas, have been charged with forgery, obtaining money by false pretenses and grand larceny, among other things. Police are still looking into "the validity" of Brooks' name, according to a V.I. Police Department press release.   Between March 17 and April 7, the couple made purchases from several stores on St. Thomas and St. Croix using checks that were later determined by local banks to be counterfeit, the release says. Local merchants contacted police about the pair -- whom they described as a "friendly tourist couple in their early 30s" -- and shared their information with other businesses. The couple was later apprehended by members of the Christiansted Bike Patrol Unit after being identified by Nichole John, a sales clerk at St. Croix-based Cruzan Gold, where the couple had tried to purchase more than $2,300 in jewelry.

Jamaica Will Not Bow To Threats From Canadian Gay Group

In Jamaica, Prime Minister Bruce Golding has announced that the Island's buggery laws will not be repealed, despite enormous international pressure.  Egale Canada, a human rights group based in Toronto, Canada, recently announced its intention to call for a tourism boycott of the island, as well as a ban on the country's goods and services. The group issued a May 12 ultimatum on the Jamaican Government and threatened to make a public announcement five days later, encouraging the ban if its demands were not met.  The group appealed for the production of public service announcements denouncing homophobia/transphobia, called for a national homophobia/transphobia education campaign and lobbied for the abolition of the buggery law and any other law that stigmatizes or criminalizes consensual same-sex acts.  However, Prime Minister Golding, speaking at his post-budget press briefing at Jamaica House, said he has seen nothing yet to cause him to consider a review of the buggery laws. The prime minister, who has been accused of ignoring the issue by the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays (JFLAG), said: "There is a road down which I'm not going to allow this country to go under my leadership."  He also voiced his opposition to same-sex marriages. "There are people who use the same philosophical kind of basis to seek, for example, legislative changes to redefine marriage so that marriage in law must mean something different from what marriage is now. Once we embark on that express way I am not certain at what point we are going to get off."  He continued, "As far as this prime minister is concerned, marriage means a union sanctified and endorsed by law between a man and a woman. And I don't want to speak with any ambiguity about where this yah prime minister rest."