GEORGETOWN, Guyana - As the old year turned, new regimes took hold in both the United States and China, acknowledged by most people in the Caribbean and elsewhere as the countries most likely to determine the international frameworks within which our countries will find it necessary to function. There was undoubtedly some relief as President Obama was re-elected in November with a majority that seemed to indicate some degree of confidence in him on the part of the American people.
News
ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – The Dominica government has confirmed that experts are being brought into the country as it seeks to allay the health concerns of the residents in the Roseau Valley where most of the geothermal projects are being undertaken.
Minister for Employment, Trade, Industry and Diaspora Affairs Dr. Collin McIntyre, who is also the parliamentary representative for the area, said Wednesday that Cabinet had met earlier to discuss the health and other issues raised by the residents.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The main opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) has unveiled a “rescue plan” for the island that it says will generate an additional EC$100 million (One EC dollar = US$0.37 cents) annually.
Opposition Leader Gaston Browne responding to the 2012-13 tax free national budget presented to Parliament last month by Finance Minister Harold Lovell, said the additional revenue would come as a result of consolidating ministries and legislating a mandatory investment in the country by offshore financial banks.
PROVIDENCIALS, Turks and Caicos Islands, CMC – The family of former Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) premier, Michael Misick, has launched a local and international appeal for the former head of government who is in a Brazilian jail to be allowed to return to the British Overseas Territory.
Misick, 46, was arrested last December as a result of an international arrest warrant issued by INTERPOL and a further warrant issued by Brazilian Supreme Court.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Judging from last Sunday evening's hunky-dory speech by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, our Government may not have noticed that Jamaica is hanging precariously over, according to the American coinage, a fiscal cliff.
Or, the PM has deliberately chosen to ignore the reality and sell Jamaicans a false sense of security. In the absence of ignorance of the facts, that can be the only explanation of the prime minister's failure to engage Jamaicans frankly on the difficult choices facing the country.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - YESTERDAY the Chicago Tribune (President Obama's major hometown newspaper and one of the top five newspapers in the US) wrote an editorial with the title "Jamaica's Debt Hurricane", subtitled "The Greece of the Western Hemisphere". The editorial argued that Jamaica, like Greece, "illustrates the catastrophic effects of borrowing way too much, and the painful choices that follow".
KINGSTON, Jamaica - AN editorial in the Chicago Tribune — one of the largest and most respected newspapers in the United States — which described the Jamaican economy as being in worse shape than that of Greece and an example of what could happen to countries that continue to pile up debt, has been viewed as inaccurate from representatives of both sides of the political divide.
CHICAGO, CMC – A leading United States newspaper Tuesday said that Jamaica’s debt crisis is in a worse financial shape than Greece and suggested that the Portia Simpson Miller administration consider a bailout plan with significant debt relief.
The Chicago Tribune in an editorial said that Jamaica has more debt in relation to the size of its economy than any other country and warned against the Caribbean island becoming what it labelled “The Greece of the Western Hemisphere”.
CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – Trade union officials were keeping mum on Tuesday, one day after Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony indicated that while his government is anxious to bring closure to the wage and salary negotiations involving public servants it is not going to endorse salaries that would force the island into the clutches of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Anthony met with the members of the Trade Union Federation (TUF) after the trade unionists met in an emergency session on Monday.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Barbados’ largest telecommunications company, LIME, has taken the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) to task for threatening to call a national strike over job redundancies at that company.
The union on Monday called on LIME to withdraw the 97 letters of termination issued to workers by today or face industrial action. On January 2 LIME announced the laying off of 97 workers.