Jaundiced voters all over send politicians messages

Keeble McFarlane





The severe economic crunch of the past few years has left millions of people from Athens to Atlanta in deep financial distress and frightened about the dismal prospects they face. The result has been a miasma of frustration, confusion and unfocused anger which is having an unsettling effect in the political sphere. In short, voters are feeling like the central character in the mid-1970s movie, Network: "Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!"

Australians voted in June after the then-governing party, Labor, suffered a palace coup. Its leader, Kevin Rudd, had fallen out of public favour and the party held a convention, dumped him and replaced him with his deputy, Julia Gillard, who then called an election. Disenchanted voters rewarded them with Australia's first hung parliament in 70 years. Both Labor and a coalition of the Liberal and National parties each won 72 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. That's four seats short of what's required for a majority government. The balance of power now lies with two minority party members and four independents. Labor retained power by gaining the support of four cross-benchers.


The next month, grumpy British voters trekked to the polls and denied the ruling Labour Party a fourth term in office. The party, which had had an extraordinarily successful run under the telegenic Tony Blair, was now run by his very competent but totally underwhelming finance minister, Gordon Brown. He was one of the architects of the efforts by the G8 and G20 to use government stimulus to buffer the worst effects of recession but citizens were not happy about the sluggish response of the economy and the huge debts and deficits piling up. So they gave the traditional Labour and Conservative parties less than enthusiastic support but opened up to the traditional outsiders, the Liberal Democrats.

No party had a majority, so rounds of feverish negotiations began and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats fashioned a workable deal. David Cameron of the Conservatives became prime minister and he appointed Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats as his deputy, while bringing several members of Clegg's party into his Cabinet. They immediately began slimming down the government, social programmes and the armed forces.

Voters are in a cantankerous mood even in well-off Sweden, one of the few countries in the world running a surplus in its national budget. The country is one of the models of the welfare state, paid for, it must be noted, by high taxes. This framework was built by the Social Democratic party, which has formed the government for 65 of the past 78 years and has never before lost two elections in a row. Well, even though they had allied themselves with the relatively new Green Party, they lost the election last month to a centre-right coalition which formed the last government under Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

The Social Democrats have lost their magic touch to the Swedes of today, who are more focused on the economy and question their country's generosity to outsiders, like the flood of refugees escaping the misery of war in Iraq. The election brought the spotlight on the Sweden Democrats, a xenophobic, anti-immigrant group some describe as racist, which managed to pick up 20 seats and for the first time gain a foothold in the national Parliament.

Just this week, voters in Canada's largest city, Toronto, displayed their anger. A man who runs a lucrative label-printing business with his two brothers accurately captured the dyspeptic voters' mood and ran with it to a very convincing victory for the mayor's chain of office. Rob Ford, the wealthy man who nevertheless personifies Joe Lunch Pail, ran on the mantra Stop the Gravy Train. Ford had been a city councillor for 10 years and always boasted that he never touched the discretionary allowance every councillor gets to help run their constituencies. He constantly criticised his fellow councillors for their spending as well as attacking such practices as having people on staff to water the plants in the multi-storey City Hall.

Newspapers had a field day digging up his record of bad behaviour, such as calling a fellow councillor "a waste of skin" and another of Italian origin the derogatory "Gino-boy"; verbally abusing fellow spectators at a sports arena and being busted for drunken driving and possessing ganja while on a visit to Miami. But the voters liked his simple message which he stuck to during a very disciplined and focused campaign and forgave him for being himself.

What resonated was his focus on the lack of respect for taxpayers' money and taxpayers themselves displayed by councillors and city staff even as taxes and levies kept going up. In his acceptance speech on Monday night, Ford summed up his approach: "The party with taxpayers' money is over!" Of course, the real task now begins, as this lone wolf former councillor who never made any alliances even with like-minded colleagues will now have to learn to work with others and forge alliances in order to wield his cost-cutting cutlass.

Perhaps the most grumpy voters around are those in the United States, and they vote on Tuesday in what the Americans call the off-year elections. They will choose a new House of Representatives, one-third of the Senate, one-third of the state governors and a host of state, county and city officials as well as numerous referendums.

Much of the frustration and anger is focused on President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats. A movement taking its cue from a protest in formative years of the nation's history has been making noise from one end of the US to the other. It calls itself the Tea Party and masquerades as a grass-roots movement but most of its supporters are well-off older white men. They clamour for a return to the past, but their detractors point out that the past was one in which discrimination was the order of the day against people who were poor or black, or both. There's considerable overlap between members of the Tea Party activists and the Republican Party, but the mainstream party has an uneasy relationship with the Tea Partiers, some of whom come out with the most ludicrous of suggestions.

Underlying all the dyspepsia and frustration, the bleating about socialism and freedom from big government are real problems: the hollowing out of the country's mighty industrial base, the atrocious behaviour of the big financial institutions causing millions of people to lose their houses and way of life and the growing realisation that, as happened to Britain a half-century ago, their country is losing its pre-eminent place in the world.

Tuesday's vote will significantly change the political picture in Washington, with Republicans regaining control of one, and possibly both, houses of Congress. Then the US will be right back where it was halfway through Bill Clinton's first term, when the leader of the House Republicans, Newt Gingrich, brought the business of government to a grinding halt. Then the fun began.

keeble.mack@sympatico.ca

October 30, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

Sex, scandal and society

Barbara Gloudon




THERE'S nothing we love more than a juicy scandal. Bring it on, especially if politics and politicians are in the mix-up and blenda. Our adrenalin gets going when the talk turns to corruption and any kinda ruption, which can prove what we believe -- that politics and politricks walk hand in hand. A recent survey says corruption is diminishing a bit, but let's see before we break out the champagne.

Up North, the three-letter word (S-E-X) is part of the scandal equation not only for errant politicians but for sports persons and entertainment superstars. There's nothing to boost ratings in the media like news of a headliner caught with pants down. (Remember President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky?) Efforts to take the US economy out of its tailspin paled in significance to the lurid coverage of Tiger Woods' dalliance.

Now that he's handed over a hefty chunk of his fortune to his ex-wife and is fighting a slump in his golf game, interest in him has waned considerably. He is not the first US hero to crumble under the crushing weight of a sex scandal. It's happened before and will happen again, so long as women are drawn by the aphrodisiac of fame, athletic physiques, and the possibility of a pay-off.

The groupie phenomenon is prevalent in the entertainment world but somehow, if we're to go by reports, entertainers do not seem to crash as spectacularly as sporting heroes. In our territory (the Caribbean), we are not as concerned about the romantic life of our superstars, not even when they mistreat women. Sadly, very often their staunchest defenders, willing to forgive, are women... The boys pretty much do what they want, thanks to the culture of — "Man haffe do wha a man haffe do — yuh nuh". The word for the boys: "If you can afford it, go for it. Nutten wrong wid gal inna bungle."

On the occasions when we do get a glimpse of the dark side of a hero, we don't quite know what to make of it. The recent exposé by England's notorious SUN tabloid of the alleged boudoir exploits of our Number One name-brand runner-boy, may have excited comment Up There but has barely evoked a whisper Down Here. In some quarters, there seems to be nothing but admiration among "the boys" for our young hero's achievement of having two hot young women fighting over him and the drama played out in the media.

The claim of one of the women that she has received text messages to participate in...shall we say, group activities... is definitely TMI — Too Much Information — for some, but not everyone. I met one person who responded, "All that stuff about threesomes and foursomes, who can prove that he really said it? Who knows if the girl is telling the truth?" Another view was, "So what? If he can manage it, why should anybody be concerned?" Then there are the many variations on the theme: "Youthful exuberance, that is all it is. What do you expect of a 24-year-old, with all that money and all that fame?" Not surprisingly, the foregoing responses came from men. One woman's response was, "I don't believe he would do that."

Should it matter really what this young man or any of our other young achievers do with their private time? Why shouldn't an athlete, an entertainer or anyone else who has attained success, be free to enjoy the benefits of their efforts in whatever permutations they choose? So long as no laws are being broken, should the rest of the community have any right to pass judgement on their private conduct? Not everyone is comfortable with that. What about moral values, role model and all that? Shouldn't we expect a certain level of conduct from people whom we hold up as icons?

Let's face it — arguments based on morality don't get very far here. Check the debates on lewd lyrics, slackness in dancehall and in the electronic media. A popular response is that people should be allowed to do what they want to do. "Leave us alone, thank you, please". That is for everybody except the politicians. So far nobody seems interested in their sex life. We leave that to those Up North. But back to the super-heroes, should they care if we find out what they do when the lights are turned off?

They need to be reminded that it doesn't take much for the cheers to stop. It is not such a long way from today's super-hero to tomorrow's "super-who"? The feeling is that we should not be too hard on "the youths". It's not such an easy thing to go overnight from pickney looking a lunch money and a bus fare, to platinum-card millionaire. It seems almost ungracious to warn about the potholes which can develop along the way.

Since Beijing, many of our young athletes have gained worldwide fame, and with it, healthy financial returns. They have become our new standard-bearers representing the best of JA. We've proclaimed them to be our Brand Jamaica. Should we expect any more of them? For the most part, they have been doing so well. Perhaps it is time for a little word of caution, however, that juvenile over-indulgence is to be avoided at all costs, especially too much information on bedroom olympics.

MR CLINTON CAME TO TOWN: Billed as an evening of intellectual challenge, it could not escape, however, being another high society event. It's the times! How could a former President of the United States of America come to town and we didn't play dress-up and nibble on gourmet delicacies? (Never mind that he spoke about poverty.)

The promoters apparently had their own reason for confining it to a high-end audience with an entrance fee of J$13,000 for regulars and US$1,000 for VIPs, I'm told. That was guaranteed to exclude those who wrestle every day with the soaring cost of chicken and flour. Corporate sponsorship more than took care of both the Bill and the bill. Not surprisingly, the event was an overwhelming success, fully sold out.

Feedback is that some thought the speech was the best thing since sliced bread. Others said they'd heard it all before. Some asked, why did it have to take a visitor (no matter how presidential) to make us sit up and listen to what we've been told often before (for example, urgency of solar energy) but haven't been interested enough to hear? Most said just to be in Bill Clinton's presence was worth it all.

DIS-COVER-UP: Did you see the disguises of the new millionaire winners in the Lotto Jackpot advertisement this week? Talk about Halloween! There's no limit to which some people will go to keep friends and relatives from beggie-beggie!... SING ON, COOL RULER... Gregory Isaacs moves on to the Ultimate Engagement. Another page is turned... The vintage list is getting shorter.

gloudonb@yahoo.com

October 29, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

Human smuggling in the US and the Caribbean: A vile and dangerous trade

By Rebecca Theodore

Given the clandestine but booming nature of human smuggling operations in the US and the Caribbean and the enormous social and economic problems that accompany unrestrained immigration, it becomes necessary to understand the context and the factors from whence they evolve.

While human smuggling is considered a covert, illicit activity, it must be seen that the flourishing business of people smuggling in the US and the Caribbean is not only to be understood in the context of globalization and migration or the push and pull factors of escaping poverty, natural disaster, seeking opportunities abroad, economic marginalization for women or conflict and persecution, but also from a combination of weak legislation and lax border controls, to corrupt immigration officials and the power of organized crime. The smuggling of human beings across international borders is growing rapidly and is now a multimillion-dollar activity that is global in scope.

If national security is a protection of a way of life compatible with the needs and genuine interests of others and includes freedom from military attack or coercion, freedom from internal sedition and freedom from the erosion of political, social and economical values, then defending a country’s borders is one of the top responsibilities of any government to its citizens. Tensions over the issue of human smuggling reaching a crescendo, now call for regional co-operation and intelligence sharing between US and Caribbean officials to counter the new and sophisticated criminal threat that is rapidly eroding the borders of the US and the Caribbean.

On the correct supposition that security is one the foremost important social service that a government can deliver to its people, America’s failure to do so is not only dangerous, but is now regarded as a sign of weakness around the world; for to surrender a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Phoenix, Arizona, and San Diego to drug gangs is analogous to going ashore at Normandy on the 6th June 1944 and driving around sightseeing and leaving the enemy the opportunity, flexibility and iniative to attack you when they want.

Edward Luttwak, counterterrorism expert with the Pentagon’s National Security Study Group, says the tri-border is “the most important base for Hezbollah outside Lebanon itself”, proving that terrorist groups such as Hezbollah are now working with drug cartels and the business of human smuggling continues through Central America and across the border without much difficulty. The discovery of tunnels equipped with lights, air-conditioning and railroad tracks, and semi-submersible vessels that evade radar between Tijuana and San Diego not only brings billion dollars worth of drugs into the US, but is the route used by the cartels to smuggle people and begs the question how important is border security and whether it should be taken seriously and also confirms that America has simply lost control of miles of its borderland.

In the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago is the most active country of origin and transit point for regional and extra-regional irregular migration to North America and Europe. Information garnered by authorities in the US and the UK have now resulted in Trinidad and Tobago being placed on a Tier Two Listing by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the US Department of State.

The infant government of Kamla Persaud-Bissessar should be particularly concerned about the vulnerability of its borders to transnational organized crime networks and the risk of being exploited by terrorists and its own immigration officials, as the country is not only one of transit and destination, but the growing evidence of the abuse of immigration stamps, issuance of birth certificates, bribery and government passports to foreign nationals, should provoke immediate actions into tabling legislation to deal with the problem of human smuggling.

On this note, if Trinidad and Tobago is to achieve its declared aim of becoming a developed society by the year 2020 and maintain its reputation as the most prosperous country in the Caribbean with the highest level of direct foreign investment and an expanding tourist industry, then the very creed of national security, and all its code of ethics of the public service will be ceaselessly undermined by the corruption of its own immigration officers and some of its notorious elites, as many who are smuggled also belong to the educated middle class from India, the Philippines, and Nigeria and the pattern proceeds like an aggressive cancer as far north to Wisconsin, Alaska, and Canada thus making human smuggling a reality.

In this regard, The Palermo Protocols are also open to scrutiny because, while the trafficking protocol establishes a useful framework for intervention in the enhancement of human rights protection for trafficked persons, implementing measures to provide for the psychological, and social recovery, including cooperation with NGOs, provision of housing, counseling, material assistance, and employment and training opportunities, by contrast, the smuggling protocol contains minimal reference to the protection needs of smuggled persons.

The preamble to the smuggling protocol does not set out the need to provide migrants with humane treatment and full protection of their rights because they have no rights. There are no provisions regarding medical, psychological, or social recovery, as human smuggling is deemed the procurement for material gain, of the illegal entry of someone into a state of which they are neither citizen nor resident, a meeting of the minds and a contract between the smuggled and the smuggler and a criminal activity.

But if one takes the perceptions of the smuggling protocol seriously then, in that context, anyone can participate directly or indirectly in sustaining the trade in humans by turning a blind eye to the injustices they suffer in domestic servitude, forced labor, torture, rape, and all those who at the time of this writing are presently living in hostage-like conditions in drop houses in Canada and the US until their debts are paid.

For this reason, I believe that the smuggling protocol is oxymoronic and duplicitous because if equality is fundamental to democracy, then the protocol tramples upon the very value that it tends to uphold and obscures more than it illuminates because the lives of humans are not mere digits and cannot continue to go by unnoticed. Smuggled people are living, breathing individuals who committed a crime and should be dealt with accordingly by the authorities.

It is therefore imperative to reassess human smuggling and the smuggling protocol in the US and the Caribbean both as a necessary sense of urgency and a calculated framework that guides overall planning. The open hostility and slave-like conditions that smuggled immigrants are presently facing and the authenticity it lends to hecklers abroad, constitute a great danger to our continued existence as a civilized people and political system.

October 26, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Nassau - NP - The Bahamas: The City of New Providence

The City of New Providence
by Simon

Nassau is often used as a shortcut or synecdoche for New Providence. There is a logic and history behind this: For most of its history the majority of its residents lived in the City of Nassau and its immediate environs. Understandably, they more easily identified with the town in which they lived rather than the expanse beyond the actual and imagined town-limits.

We call residents of Nassau, Nassuvians. Yet, unlike Abaconians, Cat Islanders and Inaguans, what is the demonym for those of us who live at New Providence?

During the 20th century the population of Nassau climbed significantly through a combination of high birth rates among Bahamians and an influx of immigrants from Haiti who also tended to have high birth rates. The influx of Family Islanders also boosted the capital island’s numbers.

Beginning around the middle of the last century, the mutual forces of majority rule and black economic empowerment ignited an urban expansion. With considerable rapidity, the majority of the island’s population shifted beyond Nassau.

Urbanization has engendered many benefits as well as significant challenges for New Providence. These varied challenges include ongoing infrastructural needs in the areas of housing, ground transportation networks, public services and facilities, and reliable utilities, among others.

There are also a complex of sociological challenges including increased crime and violence, social alienation by some and the changing nature of social networks such as neighbourhoods. The environmental and health challenges related to urbanization are also significant.

What we are continuing to get our hands and collective imagination around are a broad variety of interrelated challenges cum master questions. The questions have been provoked by the transition from the City of Nassau to the City of New Providence, a geographical reality and an idea that is coming of age. To face the challenges of urban development, design and renewal, we have to think and plan in terms of an extended city.

URBAN ADVENTURE

A fitting metaphor for this transition is those motorists on New Providence’s roads who drive at a pace more appropriate to some of our more leisurely Family Islands. We can extend the metaphor to those who recklessly go way beyond the speed limit.

Our task is to get the speed and tempo of New Providence right, maintaining much of an island flavour and the capital island’s historic identity while embracing necessary change. In this urban adventure we might borrow a question from I.M. Pei, one of the masters of modern architecture: “Can we make the past serve the present?”

The journey from Carmichael to Saunder’s Beach may now take as little as 15 minutes courtesy of the new road corridor connecting north to south. Many residents from the eastern end of the island commute daily to jobs on the western end and vice versa.

This road network is one of many networks, which, over several decades resulted in New Providence developing into a highly integrated city. This integration will continue to intensify. It will do so in ways not immediately expected.

Even as more of their grandparents and parents retire to the Family Islands, a younger generation of Bahamians, excited about city living, will imagine, design and build the City of New Providence.

Their enthusiasm will extend to Nassau, Over-the-Hill and areas such as Chippingham and the Fort Hill. They will be joined by Bahamians returning home, who, after living abroad, often in cities, may find city living in Nassau more to their taste.

All of these city enthusiasts will not only play and recreate in downtown Nassau’s hotspots, restaurants and other entertainment venues. They will also begin to live in apartments, condos and cooperatives in historic Nassau and its environs.

Imagine, a group of young Bahamian professionals investing in a cooperative housing development somewhere in historic Nassau and its environs. Of course, this gentrification will be driven by more than a passion for city living. It will also be driven by economics, by supply and demand.

As prices continue to climb for suburban property and the amount of that land decreases, younger Bahamians will look to available land in unexpected areas. This will carry over to long-term investments, with younger Bahamians buying real estate in currently lower income areas of New Providence. Over time a number of these areas will be redeveloped.


COMMUNITY GARDENS

As we only have so much land at New Providence, we will have to think creatively about how it is developed over time. Critical to that development is the use of urban design to respond to two long-term challenges: crime and urban poverty.

Of course, these challenges will require a myriad of responses from economic empowerment to education. But, the way we refashion and redesign New Providence will make an enormous difference.

Take for example the idea of community gardens. Not only do they provide open green spaces, they also have the potential to renew community life while providing young people opportunities for positive alternative activities.

What if, for example, the government made available to a community association part of the large track of land east of Market Street where City Market once had a store?

The idea would be to use the allocated space as a community garden, where residents from Grant’s Town and Bain Town might grow vegetables and other produce for their own consumption and possibly for sale. Students form C.R. Walker may also be granted some space for that school’s agricultural programme.

Similarly, space for community gardens throughout New Providence may have various beneficial effects. So might land set aside for the development of community centres. These centres would host a variety of functions, including space for the development of local government councils and community development associations.

OPEN SPACES

The centres may also host a broad variety of activities related to the arts, youth development, health and well-being, after-school homework and mentoring programmes and parenting classes, among others.

Of course, all of the aforementioned would have to be properly conceptualized and managed. But if we are interested in genuine urban development and community renewal the way we build will help to determine what we build in terms of community life and a shared future.

Our multifaceted approach to crime and violence will have to include preventing such crime, including through various social programmes and alternative sentencing avenues. These programmes need space in our urban landscape, both imaginative and physical.

Despite the number of gated communities we have built, crime has not abated, and we all remain at risk even in some of the supposedly securer areas of New Providence. In that light, in addition to our protective fortresses, we may consider also using open spaces and community gathering places as crime prevention measures.

The contours of the new City of New Providence are emerging. It will include a blend of historic Nassau and the concept of town centres built during a previous administration of Prime Minister Ingraham. It will also include the unprecedented infrastructural investment undertaken by the current Ingraham administration.

As importantly, it will include the reimagining of New Providence by its residents inclusive of various community-based groups, artists and businesses, all working to fashion at New Providence a city with an outstanding quality of life. If we work hard at it, that quality of life will make New Providence one of the more liveable, coolest, funkiest, and safest cities in the Caribbean.

bahamapundit

OAS/Caricom Challenges in Haiti

Facing up to broken aid promises and interferences in Nov 28 poll
By RICKEY SINGH



LAST Wednesday's (October 20) annual Eric Williams Memorial Lecture, delivered in Miami, Florida, by Jamaica's former Prime Minister PJ Patterson, would have served to further underscore the urgent need for the international community to cut the talk and walk the walk in delivering pledged reconstruction aid for earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Questions raised among the hundreds in attendance for the lecture pointed to the horrors of life for the people of Haiti, the "mother of freedom in this hemisphere".

Hopefully, the concerns expressed at the event would also serve as a reminder why both the Caribbean Community and the Organisation of American States should speak boldly to the reconstruction aid problem, among other things.

There is also the dangerous politicking that has already led to the unilateral exclusion of some 14 parties from contesting the upcoming November 28 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Before returning to the aid and political problems affecting Haiti, readers should know that the topic for this year's lecture was "The Renaissance of Haiti: A Template for Caribbean Integration".

It was organised by The Eric Williams Memorial Lecture Collection (EWMC), headed by Erica Williams-Connell, daughter of the late historian prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago who led the country into independence and headed governments over a quarter century until his death in office in 1981.

Patterson's assessment


Patterson, known for his deep commitment to regional integration, was chosen as the Caribbean Community's special envoy for Haiti in the wake of last January's unprecedented earthquake disaster.

He knows only too well about the prevailing "words game" over the distressing gap between aid pledges by donors and lack of deliveries in the face of immense suffering of Haitian earthquake victims, and in general the entire population of Haiti. In the circumstances, Patterson was the perfect choice for this year's Eric Williams Memorial Lecture.

He is well aware of the influence of Williams' pan-Caribbean vision that had significantly contributed to the inauguration of the Caribbean Community at Chaguaramas in 1973; and why today's 37-year-old Caricom must remain firmly committed to being a strong voice in the mobilisation of international support for the reconstruction of Haiti.

With respect to the current challenges facing the Haitian people and what functions as their "government" amid the ruins and squalor in Port-au-Prince, it may be useful for the region's public to learn of Patterson's latest assessment as Caricom's special envoy on Haiti.

Two critical issues


It is certainly time that the secretariats of Caricom and the OAS communicate with the region's public, either separately, or through a joint statement, their own concerns over the two very critical, agonising problems affecting the Haitian people -- one economic, the other political.

Desperately struggling to survive amid choking poverty long before their country was devastated by an unprecedented earthquake disaster, Haitians are today anxious to know why it is taking so long -- nine months after their worst natural disaster - for just US $732 million of the promised US$5.03 billion in "reconstruction aid and debt relief" to trickle down to them.

Of particular concern is, why has the administration of President Barack Obama, which had committed itself to an initial US$1.15 billion of the original US$5.03 billion, not yet delivered even a portion of its pledge?

Both United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and former President Bill Clinton, the UN special envoy to Haiti, continue to openly lament the failures to honour aid pledges in the face of the horrible daily problems of Haitians, who languish in tents where criminality, sickness, hunger and a loss of dignity for many remain a way of life.

The second, and related question, is why are donor nations, among them the USA and Canada, yet to condemn the arbitrary exclusion by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) of candidates from 14 political parties?

Among the parties is Haiti's largest and most popular Fanmi Lavalas, whose founder-leader, ex-President Bertrand Aristide, remains in exile. What would justify this most strange action by the Electoral Council?

With presidential and legislative elections just about six weeks away, there needs to be a proper explanation from the Council, a constitutional and supposedly independent body, which is being funded by the international community to ensure free and fair elections in the interest of democratic governance.

That's why neither the OAS nor Caricom can fail to share their positions on the sensitive issues of lack of aid delivery and the arbitrary exclusion by the CEP of more than a dozen parties from contesting the forthcoming elections.

After all, both Caricom and the OAS have teamed up to monitor the conduct of the Novermber 28 elections.

October 24, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

Baha Mar agreement/Labor issue: China putting the squeeze on The Bahamas; Your country may be next...

China putting the squeeze on The Bahamas; Your country may be next...
By Anthony L. Hall


The Bahamas is having a precedent-setting dispute with China over a development agreement that calls for Chinese men to comprise the vast majority of workers on a $2.5 billion project (Baha Mar) that China is funding.

(FYI: Baha Mar is to comprise six hotels with approximately 3,500 rooms and condominiums, a 100,000-sq-ft casino, 200,000-sq-ft of convention space, twenty acres of beach and water parks, an 18-hole golf course, and a 60,000-sq-ft retail village. Just what the already overdeveloped island of New Providence needs...)

Specifically, China is demanding that this small Caribbean nation issue permits for 8,150 foreign workers, which would amount to 71% of the labor force needed for this project; notwithstanding that The Bahamas is teeming with unemployed men (and women) who are willing and able to do the work.

Of course, for over a decade now, China has been buying up influence throughout the Caribbean to enable it to exercise its economic, political, and, perhaps, even military power to further its national interests without question... let alone challenge. And nothing demonstrated its modus operandi in this respect quite like the way it allegedly bribed (or attempted to bribe) every nation in the region to sever ties with Taiwan: almost all of them, including The Bahamas, duly complied.

But the leaders of every one of these nations knew, or should have known, that, sooner or later, China would seek to use its influence in ways that were inimical to their national interests. And, lest anyone thinks I’m making too much of this, here’s the alarm I felt compelled to sound (again) earlier this year -- in a February 19 commentary entitled World beware: China calling in (loan-sharking) debts. In this case, China was having a dispute with the most powerful nation on earth, the United States, over its relationship, not with Taiwan or any other country, but with a powerless Buddhist monk, the Dalai Lama:

“This episode should serve as a warning to all countries around the world that are not just lapping up China’s largesse, but are heralding it as a more worthy superpower than the United States. Because if the Chinese can spit such imperious and vindictive fire at the US over a relatively insignificant matter like [President Obama] meeting the Dalai Lama, just imagine what they would do to a less powerful country in a dispute over a truly significant matter.

“I anticipated that the Chinese would be every bit as arrogant in the use of their power as the Americans. But I never thought they would use it for such a petty cause. In point of fact here, in part, is how I admonished countries in the Caribbean and Latin America in this respect almost five years ago [in a February 22, 2005 commentary entitled “China buying political dominion”]:

‘What happens if China decides that it is in its strategic national interest to convert the container ports, factories, and chemical plants it has funded throughout the Caribbean into dual military and commercial use? Would these governments comply? Would they have any real choice? And when they do comply, would the US then blockade that island -- the way it blockaded Cuba during the missile crisis? Now, consider China making such strategic moves in Latin America where its purportedly benign Yuan diplomacy dwarfs its Caribbean operations. This new Cold War could then turn very hot indeed...’

“It clearly does not bode well that China has no compunctions about drawing moral and political equivalence between its beef with the US over the Dalai Lama and the US’s beef with it over internet espionage, unfair trade practices, and support for indicted war criminals like President Bashir of Sudan. Because irrational resentment in a regional menace like North Korea is one thing; in a global power like China it’s quite another.”

This brings me back to the dilemma in which The Bahamas now finds itself. To his credit, though, Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham seems determined not to sell out his own people quite as blithely as The Bahamas sold out the Taiwanese. For here’s the defiant note he sounded only this week:

"We told the China State Construction Engineering Corporation from the first time we saw them more than a year ago that it was not possible to have that number of foreign workers on a job site with the Bahamian content being so low. Nothing has changed. We've been telling them that for more than a year. It appears that some people either don't take us seriously or they apparently think that we are so desperate that we will do whatever we are asked to do. But our strength is not weakened." (The Nassau Guardian, October 20, 2010)

As we used to say in the schoolyard, “them is fighting words”. It’s just too bad that Ingraham’s principled stand is being undermined by media speculation in The Bahamas that he’s taking it, not to further the interests of the Bahamian people, but to preserve the veritable tourism monopoly now being enjoyed by another foreign developer, Kerzner International.

Never mind that Kerzner’s Atlantis resort happens to be the country’s largest private employer; or that the Baha Mar agreement is fraught with all kinds of other provisions that make a mockery of The Bahamas’s national interests.

More to the point, whatever personal benefits Ingraham may derive from his evidently cozy relationship with Kerzner, there’s no gainsaying the principle at issue; namely, that no matter the developer or financier, the percentage of local to foreign workers on all development projects should be at least 70:30; i.e., in favor of local workers, not the other way around.

It would be one thing if this untenable percentage of foreign workers that China is attempting to impose were limited to the construction period. But we Caribbean natives are now painfully aware that developers have enjoyed such adhesive leverage in negotiations with our government officials that provisions allowing them to stack permanent staff positions with mostly foreign workers as well have become rather boiler plate.

This is why Ingraham’s challenge to China is so precedent setting. And, as the title to this commentary indicates, it behooves all leaders in our region to support, and be prepared to emulate, the stand he’s taking: for together we stand, divided we fall.

In fact, since this is now a very public dispute, I urge regional leaders to publish an open letter of support to show solidarity with Ingraham when he addresses this labor issue with Chinese officials later this month, in China no less...

Finally, to those who may have thought that China would be a more benign hegemon than the US, I offer yet another instructive cliché: better the devil you know than the devil you don’t...

October 22, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas 2010 Census: The Bahamas' population has increased by 16.48 percent over the past decade

POPULATION GROWS 16%
By NIKIA DEVEAUX
Guardian Staff Reporter
nikia@nasguard.com

The population of The Bahamas has increased by 16.48 percent over the past decade compared to 19 percent growth during the 1990 to 2000 period, according to preliminary results coming out of the 2010 Census.

Statistics show that the country's population went from 303,611 in 2000 to 353,658 in 2010.

Director of Statistics Kelsie Dorsett revealed yesterday that growth declines in the main population centers-New Providence and Grand Bahama-played a significant role on the slowing of the country's population growth rate.

New Providence saw an increase of roughly 28 percent during the period of 1990 to 2000, but recorded only an 18 percent increase over the last decade.

The island's population currently stands at 248,948 compared to the previous decade's population of 210,832.

Grand Bahama dropped from a 15 percent increase in the previous census period to a 10 percent increase between 2000-2010.

"Even though these two islands still account for a substantial percentage of the population, the growth on these islands has slowed significantly,"Dorsett said.

According to the statistics director, the greatest population decline was found on Cat Island, which recorded a nine percent decrease.

San Salvador saw a major change in its population, going from over a 100 percent increase in the 1990s to a four percent decline over the past ten years.

The director said she believes that significant turnaround is due to the closing of the Club Med resort on that island.

"During the decade of 1990 to 2000 Club Med was up and running, hence all the auxillary services like car rentals, restaurants, etc., and it opened opportunities for people to have businesses and attracted people there. But with the closing, that meant that many people were no longer employed and they sought work elsewhere,"Dorsett said.

Exuma's population has more than doubled in the past decade.

The island's population grew from 3,571 in 2000 to 7,314 in 2010.

Dorsett attributes this population boom to the opening of the new Emerald Bay Sandals resort, among other developments on the island.

She said the trends in Exuma and San Salvador clearly demonstrate the role that economic development plays in population growth.

Acklins and Abaco also saw noteable increases in their populations.

According to Dorsette, statisticians worked painstakingly to ensure the accuracy of the numbers; however, the numbers are still subject to change because of several factors.

The numbers were tallied by hand, and do not yet include necessary adjustments.

"We as statisticians have adjustments to make, because unfortunately there are people out there who do not cooperate, and there are people who may have been away for the entire exercise,"she explained.

"The second and hopefully final round[of counting]will be done electronically when we have actually processed all of the data."

Dorsett said statisticians are currently in the process of coding the data, and no additional details will be available until the entire process is done.

Once the extensive and arduous coding process is done, the director said, information on population by age group, occupation, industry, religion, country of birth, country of citizenship, etc., will be made available.

The director said that the department's goal is to have all the information available within a year at the earliest.

"We will be very far ahead of previous years if we can get it all done within a year. We have set high goals for ourselves and we are hoping that within a year's time we will have all this done,"said Dorsett.

10/20/2010

thenassauguardian