BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - At last some sense has emerged between the leaders of Sudan and South Sudan who have agreed to a set of proposals outlined by former South African President Thabo Mbeki and envoy of the African Union (AU) to bring about a settlement to their dispute.
Relations between these two neighbours have also been tense since the independence of the South in July 2012. Nonetheless, it is a good development that both the flanks of Sudan have responded to diplomacy.
Member
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Jamaica's former contractor general Greg Christie has been brought on board by a coalition of private sector and civil society groups in Trinidad and Tobago to advise it on draft legislative proposals now before the twin-island republic's parliament.
Christie has been engaged by a private and civil society group headed by the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry in Trinidad and Tobago.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Two international airlines have committed scheduled flights to Antigua, increasing total airlift to the country, Tourism Minister John Maginley reported.
German airline Condor and Italian airline Blue Panorama both have scheduled flights to Antigua for the current winter season.
Maginley, speaking during the Budget debate in Parliament yesterday, was responding to charges by the opposition that arrivals to Antigua have been falling.
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.
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.
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.
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.