By Martin de Sa'Pinto:
GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Luxembourg could draw hedge funds in their droves as European investors retreat from offshore vehicles and seek to rein in liquidity and counterparty risk in the post-Madoff, post-Lehman environment.
To meet investor demand, managers in Europe's $300 billion hedge fund industry are eyeing Luxembourg listings for eligible funds, even though tough new European Union proposals to only allow EU-registered funds to be sold may be watered down after fierce opposition from the United Kingdom and others.
"It's more the Madoff effect than the legislation effect, funds now want to come onshore, not be dependent on the offshore market," said Martin Kloeck, a director at Zurich-based fund manager Signina Capital, which manages $600 million.
"Asset managers get the Luxembourg-regulated tag, so why wait to see what new laws might tell us to do?" said Kloeck, whose company is already moving funds to Luxembourg from Cayman.
The Grand Duchy has a multi-lingual workforce and high quality fund services, comprehensive investor protection and a vigilant but flexible regulator, said a January report by professional services firm Deloitte.
It is already drawing funds from offshore centers as major asset managers like Brevan Howard and Marshall Wace register eligible funds onshore in regulated structures like UCITS III or Specialised Investment Fund (SIF) to broaden European appeal.
"It is much easier to sell UCITS- or SIF-compliant funds, they are liquid, the strategies are transparent and they provide solid investor protection," said Salvatore Imperatore, head of London-based investment advisory Pareto Capital International.
Investors turned skittish after fraud by US financier Bernard Madoff and the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year, and demand for transparent onshore vehicles has soared, said Hanna Duer, an associate at independent directors' group The Directors' Office.
The Cayman Islands, home to some 80 percent of the world's around 10,000 hedge funds, could be one major loser.
"Hedge funds and other alternative investment vehicles are now more interested in setting up onshore in Luxembourg because strict rules on liquidity and risk management, and strong regulatory oversight are what investors now want," Duer said.
That would also favor Ireland and Malta, which have like Luxembourg set up their regulatory and tax regimes to attract funds, Duer said, but Ireland's financial crisis is an issue, while Malta is still a relatively small financial center.
Despite the Grand Duchy's advantages, Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) data show hedge fund assets administered there fell from $86 billion in June 2008 to under $70 billion a year later. However, the total number of funds actually rose 10 percent to 614. Also, the Lehman/Madoff effect is yet to play out as managers sift through the practicalities of moving funds.
Millennium Global is a Guernsey-based alternative asset manager that may set up several hedge funds on Deutsche Bank's Luxembourg-based funds platform.
"Our systematic macro strategy was packaged offshore and not eligible for many European investors. Now we are moving it to Luxembourg, all Europeans can invest because it is EU-regulated," said Marc Clapasson, a Millennium managing director.
He said the fund is also attracting investors from Singapore and Hong Kong who want liquid funds with transparent oversight.
"The Luxembourg fund has better liquidity and a higher regulatory standard, and it is probable that offshore investors will move onshore in the next five years," Clapasson said.
In a case that will test how robust Luxembourg's rules are, investors are suing UBS over its regulated Luxalpha funds which lost money in the Madoff fraud. They say UBS, custodian, was responsible for the assets.
HSBC faces similar claims over the Thema fund, based in Ireland. Both banks are contesting the claims.
"The responsibility of the depositary bank is quite clear under Luxembourg law, the custodian is 100 percent responsible for the assets even if it uses a sub-custodian," Duer said.
"It is very important that Luxembourg sticks to its guns over the Luxalpha affair, investors will realize the regulator is serious about protecting their assets," she said.
If that hurdle is cleared investors are likely to be even more enthusiastic about Luxembourg-registered funds.
The demands on a fund's directors are also greater than in other jurisdictions, Duer and Kloeck said. The regulator wants to see full background checks, and by law directors must be able to demonstrate good supervision and governance through a wide range of reporting.
Having stopped allocating to hedge funds during the credit crisis, many private and institutional investors say they are ready to get back in, but want safer and more regulated funds.
Says Clapasson: "The move of funds to Luxembourg is accelerating. It's a great opportunity for European asset managers to move assets home, and it's much easier to deal with Luxembourg than with offshore centers."
November 7, 2009
caribbeannetnews
An International Caribbean Online Log about the news and opinions in the Americas and World. This Caribbean Blog of global reach and appeal is maintained by Bahamian Blogger - Dennis Dames with all readers and subscribers in mind.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
A dirty word or a global opportunity?
By Sir Ronald Sanders:
“Migration not infrequently gets a bad press. Negative stereotypes, portraying migrants as ‘stealing our jobs’ or ‘scrounging off the taxpayer’, abound in sections of the media and public opinion especially in time of recession”. That is the opening sentence of the United Nations Human Development Report 2009.
former Caribbean diplomat who publishes widely on small states in the global community. Reponses to: www.sirronaldsanders.com />The report goes on to say that “fears about migrants taking the jobs or lowering the wages of local people, placing an unwelcome burden on local services, or costing the taxpayer money, are generally exaggerated”. The Report asserts, “when migrants’ skills complement those of local people, both groups benefit” and it makes the point that “the policy response to migration can be wanting. Many governments institute increasingly repressive entry regimes, turn a blind eye to health and safety violations by employers, or fail to take a lead in educating the public on the benefits of immigration”.
Little wonder, then, that immigration in most countries has become a political problem. In the absence of factual information on the benefits of immigration to societies, the view prevails that immigration is harmful.
When some governments release figures on the number of migrants who have entered a country, there is seldom, if ever, a simultaneous release of the number of people who have left.
In many places, if the flow of migrants was mostly out and little in, the economies would soon be in trouble as the population shrinks resulting in fewer skills, a smaller labour force, less demand for goods and services and less money circulating in the economy.
The global flow on migrants is also vastly overestimated by the majority of the world’s people particularly because accurate information is not only sparse; it is simply not made available to the public. For example, the UN Report reveals that the global figure for international migrants in the world’s population has stayed at only 3 per cent over the past 50 years.
However, there are some regions of the world where outward migration has a peculiarly negative impact because of the type of people who migrate, and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) is one such region where there is a heavy outflow of tertiary educated people to the developed countries particularly Britain, Canada and the United States. Commonwealth Secretariat figures show that among the CARICOM countries that have lost more than 75% of their tertiary educated graduates are Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
Unless these countries can produce enough tertiary educated graduates to retain a sufficient number for their own development needs, not only will the public and private sectors suffer from a paucity of knowledge-based skills and entrepreneurial insights, but their economies will become uncompetitive and will decline. The case for more investment in education and human resource development is therefore compelling.
It is a case that should be developed by the CARICOM Secretariat and jointly advanced by CARICOM countries to the International Financial Institutions, such as the World Bank, and the developed countries that benefit from this migration, to make a significant grant contribution to education in the region.
There is, of course, another side to the immigration story, and that is remittances sent back home from migrants abroad. In the 53-nation Commonwealth, remittances have become extremely important. They are greater than official development assistance and second only to foreign direct investment (FDI). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reckons that total global remittances in 2008 were $328 billion as against official development assistance of $120 billion.
All CARICOM countries benefit from remittances. The leaders in 2008 in terms of remittances per head of population were Jamaica ($826), St Kitts-Nevis ($760), Barbados ($659), Grenada ($603), Dominica ($412), Guyana ($365) and Antigua and Barbuda ($305). But, it is clear that in 2009, the remittance figure declined indicating that immigrants were among the principal sufferers in the countries to which they had migrated. Many of them lost jobs or were constrained to accept lower wages and, thus, had less money to send back home. In this connection, while remittances are important to the economies of many Caribbean countries, active policies for attracting investment from the Caribbean Diaspora have to be developed for the medium term.
Within CARICOM, the problem of migration has become a vexed one in the context of the current global recession. As the 2009 UN Human Development Report stated: “The current recession has made migrants particularly vulnerable. Some destination country governments have stepped up the enforcement of migration laws in ways that can infringe on migrants’ rights”.
It is a human reaction to try to secure the interests of citizens over migrants at a time of crisis, particularly when the migrant community is substantial as in the cases in CARICOM of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Even though the CARICOM Treaty acknowledges “Freedom of movement of People”, it is impractical to simply rely on that as a justification for migration. CARICOM ought to be considering a more practical and realistic approach to the issue until such time as a Single Market and Economy is fully completed.
One way of doing this would be to develop a regional mechanism under which there would be a partnership between countries of origin and destination, supervised by a Council of appropriate officials, to manage migration based on labour needs with full respect for the rights of workers and their families by the destination countries.
In early November, the former Prime Minister of Jamaica, P J Patterson, quietly began the Chairmanship of a Commission on Migration and Development. The Commission is an initiative of the Ramphal Centre in London, named after the Caribbean’s former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal.
The Patterson Commission is in its fledgling stage and it is still be to be funded fully, but the meeting attended by representatives of the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat and other multilateral organisations displayed every sign of new thinking on the issue.
The task before it is huge, but Patterson has the gravitas in the international community to make the Commission’s report a seminal document in the international discourse on how the issue of migration should be tackled to maximise its benefits.
caribbeannetnews
“Migration not infrequently gets a bad press. Negative stereotypes, portraying migrants as ‘stealing our jobs’ or ‘scrounging off the taxpayer’, abound in sections of the media and public opinion especially in time of recession”. That is the opening sentence of the United Nations Human Development Report 2009.
former Caribbean diplomat who publishes widely on small states in the global community. Reponses to: www.sirronaldsanders.com />The report goes on to say that “fears about migrants taking the jobs or lowering the wages of local people, placing an unwelcome burden on local services, or costing the taxpayer money, are generally exaggerated”. The Report asserts, “when migrants’ skills complement those of local people, both groups benefit” and it makes the point that “the policy response to migration can be wanting. Many governments institute increasingly repressive entry regimes, turn a blind eye to health and safety violations by employers, or fail to take a lead in educating the public on the benefits of immigration”. Little wonder, then, that immigration in most countries has become a political problem. In the absence of factual information on the benefits of immigration to societies, the view prevails that immigration is harmful.
When some governments release figures on the number of migrants who have entered a country, there is seldom, if ever, a simultaneous release of the number of people who have left.
In many places, if the flow of migrants was mostly out and little in, the economies would soon be in trouble as the population shrinks resulting in fewer skills, a smaller labour force, less demand for goods and services and less money circulating in the economy.
The global flow on migrants is also vastly overestimated by the majority of the world’s people particularly because accurate information is not only sparse; it is simply not made available to the public. For example, the UN Report reveals that the global figure for international migrants in the world’s population has stayed at only 3 per cent over the past 50 years.
However, there are some regions of the world where outward migration has a peculiarly negative impact because of the type of people who migrate, and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) is one such region where there is a heavy outflow of tertiary educated people to the developed countries particularly Britain, Canada and the United States. Commonwealth Secretariat figures show that among the CARICOM countries that have lost more than 75% of their tertiary educated graduates are Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
Unless these countries can produce enough tertiary educated graduates to retain a sufficient number for their own development needs, not only will the public and private sectors suffer from a paucity of knowledge-based skills and entrepreneurial insights, but their economies will become uncompetitive and will decline. The case for more investment in education and human resource development is therefore compelling.
It is a case that should be developed by the CARICOM Secretariat and jointly advanced by CARICOM countries to the International Financial Institutions, such as the World Bank, and the developed countries that benefit from this migration, to make a significant grant contribution to education in the region.
There is, of course, another side to the immigration story, and that is remittances sent back home from migrants abroad. In the 53-nation Commonwealth, remittances have become extremely important. They are greater than official development assistance and second only to foreign direct investment (FDI). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reckons that total global remittances in 2008 were $328 billion as against official development assistance of $120 billion.
All CARICOM countries benefit from remittances. The leaders in 2008 in terms of remittances per head of population were Jamaica ($826), St Kitts-Nevis ($760), Barbados ($659), Grenada ($603), Dominica ($412), Guyana ($365) and Antigua and Barbuda ($305). But, it is clear that in 2009, the remittance figure declined indicating that immigrants were among the principal sufferers in the countries to which they had migrated. Many of them lost jobs or were constrained to accept lower wages and, thus, had less money to send back home. In this connection, while remittances are important to the economies of many Caribbean countries, active policies for attracting investment from the Caribbean Diaspora have to be developed for the medium term.
Within CARICOM, the problem of migration has become a vexed one in the context of the current global recession. As the 2009 UN Human Development Report stated: “The current recession has made migrants particularly vulnerable. Some destination country governments have stepped up the enforcement of migration laws in ways that can infringe on migrants’ rights”.
It is a human reaction to try to secure the interests of citizens over migrants at a time of crisis, particularly when the migrant community is substantial as in the cases in CARICOM of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Even though the CARICOM Treaty acknowledges “Freedom of movement of People”, it is impractical to simply rely on that as a justification for migration. CARICOM ought to be considering a more practical and realistic approach to the issue until such time as a Single Market and Economy is fully completed.
One way of doing this would be to develop a regional mechanism under which there would be a partnership between countries of origin and destination, supervised by a Council of appropriate officials, to manage migration based on labour needs with full respect for the rights of workers and their families by the destination countries.
In early November, the former Prime Minister of Jamaica, P J Patterson, quietly began the Chairmanship of a Commission on Migration and Development. The Commission is an initiative of the Ramphal Centre in London, named after the Caribbean’s former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal.
The Patterson Commission is in its fledgling stage and it is still be to be funded fully, but the meeting attended by representatives of the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat and other multilateral organisations displayed every sign of new thinking on the issue.
The task before it is huge, but Patterson has the gravitas in the international community to make the Commission’s report a seminal document in the international discourse on how the issue of migration should be tackled to maximise its benefits.
caribbeannetnews
Thursday, November 5, 2009
New report confirms importance of offshore centres to world economy
LONDON, England -- The positive role that offshore financial centres play in supporting growth around the world is highlighted in a new report, International Finance Centers and the World Economy, published today. The report was commissioned by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) from prominent US economist Professor James R Hines Jr of the University of Michigan and NBER.
Ahead of this weekend’s G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting the report gives a strong indication of the key role well regulated offshore centres now play in the global economy by providing capital to support business activity in neighbouring economies.
The report finds strong evidence from a range of sources that offshore centres play a vital role in the international financial system, improving the availability of credit and encouraging competition in domestic banking systems. The result is a boost in investment in the major economies which ultimately supports job creation and growth.
Professor Hines commented that: “The evidence indicates that offshore centres contribute to financial development and stability in neighbouring countries, encouraging investment, employment, and other aspects of business development. They have salutary effects on tax competition, promote good government, and enhance economic growth elsewhere in the world.”
Chief Executive of STEP Worldwide David Harvey welcomed the report saying: “This report provides further robust evidence of the positive role offshore centres play in the world economy. Post credit-crunch we must ensure capital keeps flowing and Professor Hines’ report demonstrates by every measure credit is more freely available in countries which have close relationships with offshore centres”.
Last week the Foot Review of British offshore financial centres found that they provided net financing to the British banking system of $332.5 billion in the second quarter of 2009.
November 5, 2009
caribbeannetnews
Ahead of this weekend’s G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting the report gives a strong indication of the key role well regulated offshore centres now play in the global economy by providing capital to support business activity in neighbouring economies.
The report finds strong evidence from a range of sources that offshore centres play a vital role in the international financial system, improving the availability of credit and encouraging competition in domestic banking systems. The result is a boost in investment in the major economies which ultimately supports job creation and growth.
Professor Hines commented that: “The evidence indicates that offshore centres contribute to financial development and stability in neighbouring countries, encouraging investment, employment, and other aspects of business development. They have salutary effects on tax competition, promote good government, and enhance economic growth elsewhere in the world.”
Chief Executive of STEP Worldwide David Harvey welcomed the report saying: “This report provides further robust evidence of the positive role offshore centres play in the world economy. Post credit-crunch we must ensure capital keeps flowing and Professor Hines’ report demonstrates by every measure credit is more freely available in countries which have close relationships with offshore centres”.
Last week the Foot Review of British offshore financial centres found that they provided net financing to the British banking system of $332.5 billion in the second quarter of 2009.
November 5, 2009
caribbeannetnews
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Disorganised crime killing Jamaica
By HENLEY MORGAN:
Former Minister of National Security in the PNP administration Dr Peter Phillips was convinced and tried to convince everyone else that organised crime is at the root of Jamaica's crime wave. One can't be sure what the present administration's thinking is, as no overarching policy or informed strategy to fight crime has been communicated to the Jamaican populace. But with the news headlines being dominated by the extradition case against Christopher Coke (Dudus), the feeling is rife that organised crime is the monster.
Globally, a consensus on a definition for organised crime was reached in 2002. The United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime, Article 2, defines "organised criminal group" as follows: A group having at least three members, taking some action in concert, that is, together or in some coordinated manner for the purpose of committing a serious crime and for the purpose of obtaining a financial or other benefit. The group must have some international organisation or structure and exist for some period of time before or after the actual commission of the offence(s).
Based on that broad and somewhat imprecise definition, there can be no doubt that organised criminal networks exist and operate in Jamaica. Starting as politically controlled and paid hacks to ensure non-contamination and non-dilution of voting patterns in political enclaves or garrisons, these groups have evolved to trading in drugs and guns through international connections, extortion from legitimate businesses, bribery of public officials, ingratiating themselves with politicians, intimidation and corruption of law enforcement and the like. Anyone who thinks this is a definition of the Italian mafia or syndicate that does not extend to Jamaica is either naïve or is the proverbial ostrich with head buried in the sand.
Organised crime exists in Jamaica, but to say it is the chief cause of the daily murders that have pushed Jamaica to the top of the murder capitals of the world beg for further refinement of the definition or explanation within the local context. Proper diagnosis of the cause of the crime disease is important for it influences significantly the steps law enforcement and we as a society take to prevent or control it.
The Kefauver Committee, established in the United States at a time when fear was mounting that organised crime was becoming a dominant part of American popular culture, arrived at the conclusion that organised crime was largely under the control of an alien conspiracy, the Mafia based in Sicily, and that the brand of crime practised by this criminal outfit subverted American social structure rather than emerged from it. That conclusion by the high-level committee affected perceptions toward crime in America and directed crime-fighting strategies away from the real issues and root causes for decades.
We are at a similar point in the war against crime and violence in Jamaica. There is serious misdiagnosis of the major cause of crime, especially murder, taking place inside and outside the security forces. By going on about organised crime and the criminal gangs that are its tentacles, both of which I see as peripheral to or offshoots of the central problem, we run the risk of focusing on the war and losing sight of the bigger battle that must be successfully waged.
Outgoing Commissioner of Police Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin put his finger on the problem and his job on the line in his diagnosis of the fundamental issues underlying crime and violence. In its coverage of a news conference called by the then police commissioner, the Daily Observer of October 15 reported aspects of his address to journalists as follows. "The fact of the matter is that we have practised a kind of politics that has had the most divisive effect on this country and the most corrosive and corrupted influence on individuals and national institutions, including the police force. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to the control of organised crime is the tolerance of it, or worse, its social and political facilitation."
It has been known since 1997, the year of the publication of the Report of the National Committee on Political Tribalism, that in the same way that cocaine in Colombia and apartheid in South Africa are the major causative factors driving the unprecedented levels of homicide, the formation and facilitation of political garrisons in Jamaica is the focal problem. Argument done!
If there is something called organised crime, then it follows that there must be a form of crime that is unorganised or disorganised. In my humble opinion it is the latter - unorganised or disorganised crime - that puts the Jamaican citizen at greater risk of being randomly shot in the normal course of going about our business or relaxing in our homes.
Organised crime and criminal gangs play a role, but thanks to Operation Kingfish which has kept the leadership under pressure and because of an emerging one-order between former combatants, the criminals are not killing each other in pitched battles to the degree that they once did. This has left foot-loose, fancy-free gunmen who take orders from no one free to go on a rampage.
Born out of the socio-political milieu of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and nurtured in the fertile soil of the garrison subculture which glorifies badness, rudeness and crudeness, crime in Jamaica has evolved into a national phenomenon that is self-fuelling. Until we understand this, until we face the truth and do something to reverse the trend, there is no chance, not even if we change the police commissioner every day, of us ever addressing the problem of crime and violence.
hmorgan@cwjamaica.com
November 04, 2009
jamaicaobserver
Former Minister of National Security in the PNP administration Dr Peter Phillips was convinced and tried to convince everyone else that organised crime is at the root of Jamaica's crime wave. One can't be sure what the present administration's thinking is, as no overarching policy or informed strategy to fight crime has been communicated to the Jamaican populace. But with the news headlines being dominated by the extradition case against Christopher Coke (Dudus), the feeling is rife that organised crime is the monster.
Globally, a consensus on a definition for organised crime was reached in 2002. The United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime, Article 2, defines "organised criminal group" as follows: A group having at least three members, taking some action in concert, that is, together or in some coordinated manner for the purpose of committing a serious crime and for the purpose of obtaining a financial or other benefit. The group must have some international organisation or structure and exist for some period of time before or after the actual commission of the offence(s).
Based on that broad and somewhat imprecise definition, there can be no doubt that organised criminal networks exist and operate in Jamaica. Starting as politically controlled and paid hacks to ensure non-contamination and non-dilution of voting patterns in political enclaves or garrisons, these groups have evolved to trading in drugs and guns through international connections, extortion from legitimate businesses, bribery of public officials, ingratiating themselves with politicians, intimidation and corruption of law enforcement and the like. Anyone who thinks this is a definition of the Italian mafia or syndicate that does not extend to Jamaica is either naïve or is the proverbial ostrich with head buried in the sand.
Organised crime exists in Jamaica, but to say it is the chief cause of the daily murders that have pushed Jamaica to the top of the murder capitals of the world beg for further refinement of the definition or explanation within the local context. Proper diagnosis of the cause of the crime disease is important for it influences significantly the steps law enforcement and we as a society take to prevent or control it.
The Kefauver Committee, established in the United States at a time when fear was mounting that organised crime was becoming a dominant part of American popular culture, arrived at the conclusion that organised crime was largely under the control of an alien conspiracy, the Mafia based in Sicily, and that the brand of crime practised by this criminal outfit subverted American social structure rather than emerged from it. That conclusion by the high-level committee affected perceptions toward crime in America and directed crime-fighting strategies away from the real issues and root causes for decades.
We are at a similar point in the war against crime and violence in Jamaica. There is serious misdiagnosis of the major cause of crime, especially murder, taking place inside and outside the security forces. By going on about organised crime and the criminal gangs that are its tentacles, both of which I see as peripheral to or offshoots of the central problem, we run the risk of focusing on the war and losing sight of the bigger battle that must be successfully waged.
Outgoing Commissioner of Police Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin put his finger on the problem and his job on the line in his diagnosis of the fundamental issues underlying crime and violence. In its coverage of a news conference called by the then police commissioner, the Daily Observer of October 15 reported aspects of his address to journalists as follows. "The fact of the matter is that we have practised a kind of politics that has had the most divisive effect on this country and the most corrosive and corrupted influence on individuals and national institutions, including the police force. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to the control of organised crime is the tolerance of it, or worse, its social and political facilitation."
It has been known since 1997, the year of the publication of the Report of the National Committee on Political Tribalism, that in the same way that cocaine in Colombia and apartheid in South Africa are the major causative factors driving the unprecedented levels of homicide, the formation and facilitation of political garrisons in Jamaica is the focal problem. Argument done!
If there is something called organised crime, then it follows that there must be a form of crime that is unorganised or disorganised. In my humble opinion it is the latter - unorganised or disorganised crime - that puts the Jamaican citizen at greater risk of being randomly shot in the normal course of going about our business or relaxing in our homes.
Organised crime and criminal gangs play a role, but thanks to Operation Kingfish which has kept the leadership under pressure and because of an emerging one-order between former combatants, the criminals are not killing each other in pitched battles to the degree that they once did. This has left foot-loose, fancy-free gunmen who take orders from no one free to go on a rampage.
Born out of the socio-political milieu of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and nurtured in the fertile soil of the garrison subculture which glorifies badness, rudeness and crudeness, crime in Jamaica has evolved into a national phenomenon that is self-fuelling. Until we understand this, until we face the truth and do something to reverse the trend, there is no chance, not even if we change the police commissioner every day, of us ever addressing the problem of crime and violence.
hmorgan@cwjamaica.com
November 04, 2009
jamaicaobserver
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Cuba slams book by Castro's sister
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) -- Cuba's state-run media on Monday condemned a just-published book in which Fidel Castro's sister admits she spied for the Central Intelligence Agency.
The country's media added that the expose proves that the former Cuban leader was a "victim" of decades of US targeting.
"The truth is in full view: Fidel Castro is the victim, the offended person, the individual against whom they conspired," wrote the government-run La Jiribilla magazine, saying the relentless effort to target the Cuban leader was in "bad taste" and "low moral standing."
In acknowledging the cloak-and-dagger story, "the enemies of the revolution for once were casting a spotlight on their misdeeds," the periodical said.
The condemnation by the Havana government follows the admission by Juanita Castro, 76, in her Spanish-language book "Fidel and Raul, My Brothers. The Secret History" that she worked with the US spy agency.
In the book, which went on sale last week, Juanita, the fifth of seven Castro siblings, writes that she aided the CIA during the 1960s, at a time when the United States was plotting to assassinate her brother and replace his Communist regime.
Now a resident of Miami, Juanita Castro wrote that she was contacted in 1964 after she broke with Fidel and Raul, the current president of Cuba, and collaborated with the CIA both inside Cuba and when she went into exile later that year.
November 3, 2009
caribbeannetnews
The country's media added that the expose proves that the former Cuban leader was a "victim" of decades of US targeting.
"The truth is in full view: Fidel Castro is the victim, the offended person, the individual against whom they conspired," wrote the government-run La Jiribilla magazine, saying the relentless effort to target the Cuban leader was in "bad taste" and "low moral standing."
In acknowledging the cloak-and-dagger story, "the enemies of the revolution for once were casting a spotlight on their misdeeds," the periodical said.
The condemnation by the Havana government follows the admission by Juanita Castro, 76, in her Spanish-language book "Fidel and Raul, My Brothers. The Secret History" that she worked with the US spy agency.
In the book, which went on sale last week, Juanita, the fifth of seven Castro siblings, writes that she aided the CIA during the 1960s, at a time when the United States was plotting to assassinate her brother and replace his Communist regime.
Now a resident of Miami, Juanita Castro wrote that she was contacted in 1964 after she broke with Fidel and Raul, the current president of Cuba, and collaborated with the CIA both inside Cuba and when she went into exile later that year.
November 3, 2009
caribbeannetnews
Monday, November 2, 2009
Caribbean Red Cross societies step up H1N1 response
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- In response to the H1N1 pandemic, Red Cross societies around the Caribbean are supporting their statutory health care systems in preparing communities to respond to H1N1. Thanks to funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Red Cross staff and volunteers have been working directly with community members to share information on how to reduce the transmission of the virus.
The Red Cross has for many years trained Community Disaster Response Teams (CDRTs) to respond to emergencies whether they be natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and floods or health emergencies as is the case with H1N1. Currently, these CDRTs are helping persons, particularly in remote and vulnerable areas to understand the H1N1 virus better; its incubation period and the personal hygiene practices required to reduce the spread of the disease.
To cite a few concrete examples of the work being done by the Red Cross across the Caribbean, the Aruba Red Cross gave assistance to the Department of Healthcare of Aruba in the screening process of passengers and crew members of a cruise ship. In response to requests from their Ministry of Health, the Grenada Red Cross was able to mobilize specially trained volunteers known as National Intervention Teams (NITs) to assist Port Health workers at the airport and cruise ship port within half an hour of being asked to do so. Saint Lucia Red Cross was able to activate its volunteers to distribute 30,000 flyers at the Jazz Festival earlier this year.
In addition to community work, the Guyana, Jamaica and Belize Red Cross have been working with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to raise awareness on hygiene and prevention of H1N1 within institutions such as elderly homes, orphanages and prisons. These activities are only undertaken with the support of the health authorities to reinforce national preparedness and prevention.
The Dominca Red Cross is gearing up for an influx of international visitors to two major music events: World Creole Music festival and ‘Creole in the Park’. They are working along with the event organisers to spread the word to visitors and locals alike on how to protect themselves and their families from contracting the H1N1 virus and what to do if they have symptoms. Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross volunteers are assisting the South West Regional Health Authority to triage patients with H1N1 symptoms.
These are just a few of the ways that Red Cross volunteers have been invaluable in assisting their communities in an emergency. The Red Cross continues to have the support of donors for its community and volunteer development programmes, which have ensured this timely response.
November 2, 2009
caribbeannetnews
The Red Cross has for many years trained Community Disaster Response Teams (CDRTs) to respond to emergencies whether they be natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and floods or health emergencies as is the case with H1N1. Currently, these CDRTs are helping persons, particularly in remote and vulnerable areas to understand the H1N1 virus better; its incubation period and the personal hygiene practices required to reduce the spread of the disease.
To cite a few concrete examples of the work being done by the Red Cross across the Caribbean, the Aruba Red Cross gave assistance to the Department of Healthcare of Aruba in the screening process of passengers and crew members of a cruise ship. In response to requests from their Ministry of Health, the Grenada Red Cross was able to mobilize specially trained volunteers known as National Intervention Teams (NITs) to assist Port Health workers at the airport and cruise ship port within half an hour of being asked to do so. Saint Lucia Red Cross was able to activate its volunteers to distribute 30,000 flyers at the Jazz Festival earlier this year.
In addition to community work, the Guyana, Jamaica and Belize Red Cross have been working with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to raise awareness on hygiene and prevention of H1N1 within institutions such as elderly homes, orphanages and prisons. These activities are only undertaken with the support of the health authorities to reinforce national preparedness and prevention.
The Dominca Red Cross is gearing up for an influx of international visitors to two major music events: World Creole Music festival and ‘Creole in the Park’. They are working along with the event organisers to spread the word to visitors and locals alike on how to protect themselves and their families from contracting the H1N1 virus and what to do if they have symptoms. Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross volunteers are assisting the South West Regional Health Authority to triage patients with H1N1 symptoms.
These are just a few of the ways that Red Cross volunteers have been invaluable in assisting their communities in an emergency. The Red Cross continues to have the support of donors for its community and volunteer development programmes, which have ensured this timely response.
November 2, 2009
caribbeannetnews
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Obama, Buju & gays
Ian Boyne
Jamaica's President of choice in the United States, the deeply loved Barack Obama, facilitated an historic and far-reaching victory for gays on Wednesday when he signed the first major piece of gay-rights legislation into federal law, an act seen as path-breaking as the 1960s civil rights legislation.
Large numbers of Jamaicans, who share a cult-like adoration of Obama and an even more vehement aversion to homosexuals, must be in what the psychologists call cognitive dissonance. It's just hard to hold those two things together in one heart. Rationalisation is usually the way out. What seems undeniable, though, is that Obama is the most gay-friendly president the United Sates has had - at least publicly.
From his presidential campaign he made it clear that he would advance the cause of gays as part of his overall mantra of inclusiveness. He had promised to support this new legislation, labelling as 'hate crime' violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people, putting it on par with crimes against persons for racial, religious and ethnic reasons. Gay-rights activists see this as a major victory on the road to full integration in American society.
For a crime is a crime and violence is violence, so if someone gets murdered, for whatever reasons, the law has provisions to deal with that. As well-known homosexual columnist Andrew Sullivan has written: "The real reasons for the hate crime laws are not a defence of human beings from crime. There are already laws against that - Matthew Shepard's murderers were successfully prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law in a state with no hate-crimes law at the time".
The amendment made into law on Wednesday was partially in honour of Matthew Shepherd, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming, who died after a 1998 beating targeting him because he was gay. His parents led the struggle for this legislation. "This hate-crimes bill is the proverbial foot in the door or camel nose in the tent that makes possible - indeed inevitable - all future laws involving 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity', screams the Harvard and Princeton-educated theologian Robert Gagnon, who has written the finest theological work critiquing homosexuality (The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics).
Gagnon, in a paper titled, 'Why a sexual orientation and gender identity hate crimes law is bad for you', posits that this legislation "ensconces in federal law the principle that homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality are as benign as race, gender and disability - an aspect of human diversity that must be affirmed and celebrated. Those who refuse to go along with this principle then become encoded in law as hateful, discriminatory bigots."
The founder of the gay rights advocacy group Equality Forum, Malcolm Lazin, was not unmindful of the significance of the Obama-signed legislation on Wednesday. He was quoted in the media as saying, "This is really the first federal gay-rights bill. So it is a literally historic moment. This is America acknowledging homophobia as a social problem". For Republicans and conservative religious folks, this is a major retreat for America, morally, as the gay lobby advances in its mission of gaining full acceptance - and even persecuting those who would beg to differ.
Fears are being expressed that free speech could be endangered by this legislation, in that strong opposition to homosexual behaviour could be construed as incitement to violence. For example, if someone quotes the Old Testament which says homosexuals are to be killed (and it does say that) and a homosexual gets killed nearby afterward, could that person be charged with inciting violence? Or if one preaches that homosexuality is an "abomination", which the Bible says, could he be prosecuted for a hate crime?
In 2007 two 16-year-old girls were arrested on hate-crime charges for distributing about 40 fliers on cars in the student parking lot of their school, featuring two boys kissing. The pamphlets also contained what was considered anti-homosexual slur. The assistant state attorney for the county, Thomas Carroll, stated then: "You can be charged with a hate crime if you make a statement or take an action that inflicts injury or incites a breach of the peace based on a person's race, creed, gender or perceived sexual orientation." And another Assistant State Attorney, Robert Windon said, "We do not feel this type of behaviour is what the First Amendment protects". Hate crimes are now part of federal law and the rub is, what can be deemed to be incitement or inducement to violence?
Preachers and ordinary Christians fear that they might soon not be able to as speak out against homosexuality at all. There was an important protective clause in the legislation which was subsequently taken out and which would have given more solace to conservatives. When the Bill was originally introduced in the US House of Representatives, it contained this provision: "Noting in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise of the First Amendment to the Constitution".
cause of concern:
But House Democrats deleted the following words: "the free speech or free exercise clauses of the First Amendment to". That these words were omitted is a cause of concern to conservative religious people, particularly the Christian Right. There are already disturbing indications that hate crimes legislation can lead to an abridgement of free speech. In a number of European and Scandinavian democracies, verbal opposition to homosexuality has been punished.
Gagnon cites some examples from neighbouring Canada where free speech infringements have been flagrant as a result of simple opposition to homosexuality. For example, a Roman Catholic priest who writes for Catholic Insight magazine has been fined and threatened with imprisonment for speaking out against homosexual behaviour. One Roman Catholic activist, Bill Whatcott, has been fined for producing pamphlets calling homosexuality immoral. Pastor Stephen Boisson was ordered to desist from expressing his views on homosexual behaviour in any public forum after he wrote a letter to the press denouncing homosexuality as immoral.
Says Gagnon expressing fears about the impact of the passage of this new federal law : "The argument that free speech protections in the US constitution will prevent such abuses from taking place rings hollow in view of the inducement to violence provision in Title 18.2 and in view of the fact that even Supreme Court justices have taken to citing precedents in foreign law (e.g. the Lawrence sodomy decision). Moreover, we already have instances in the US where 'sexual orientation' laws led to abridgements of other liberties".
Most Jamaican Obama lovers would be deeply disturbed by a speech he gave at the Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month Reception at the White House. They would be alarmed that the President could even welcome homosexuals with open arms to the White House. But the President welcomed the gays by saying "Welcome to your White House".
In this speech delivered on June 29 this year, President Obama made this frightening statement (as it would be to fierce, visceral opponents of homosexuality here) : "I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."
In this speech (what does Betty Ann Blaine think?), Obama spoke, some would say, patronisingly about those who "hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes". Obama pointed to things already achieved for the gay community - his signed memorandum requiring all agencies to extend as many federal benefits as possible to LGBT families and his commitment to ending the ban on the entry of gays to the military.
slain homosexual student:
He said: "My administration is working hard to pass an employee non-discrimination bill". He then promised to sign a hate-crimes bill in honour of slain homosexual student Shepherd, whose parents were at the reception. (President Bush had previously refused to sign this bill)
Said Obama: "Someday, I'm confident, we'll look back at this transition and ask why it generated such angst." But he pledged to the homosexuals gathered at the White House to celebrate Gay Pride Month that: "We must continue to do our part to make progress - step by step, law by law, mind by changing mind." This is what frightens conservative people about the passage of this federal law last week.
The first black US president went on: "And I want you to know that in this task I will not only be your friend but I will continue to be an ally and a champion and a president who fights for you". Jamaicans who are said to be homophobic will have a problem with that commitment, although, happily for them, the vast majority won't see these words hidden in long-winded columns.
Buju Banton is feeling the pressure of the gays. Even he was strategically forced to meet and greet them, posing uneasily with them. But their demands were hard: He should hold a town hall meeting declaring his love of homosexuals, sing songs urging love for our gay brothers and as though that were not enough, donate some funds to the gay cause through their local organisation. Buju declined, though he is getting flack for even meeting and greeting.
It is almost impossible to have a rational, dispassionate discussion about homosexuality in Jamaica for, on both sides - the enraged anti-gay Jamaican majority and the embattled, defensive gay community - reason is expendable and emotions are at a premium. But the time is past due for a serious discussion of the issues. I am ready for the discourse. Are you -without the abuse, prejudice and name-calling?
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at iboyne1@yahoo.com or columns@gleanerjm.com.
jamaica-gleaner
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