WikiLeaks, wiretapping and democracy

By Rebecca Theodore


All eras contain words that more or less accurately define them. There is very little doubt, in my opinion, that democracy and national security are the words that characterize our present time. Democracy is an internal form of government within states and gives the power of the government to the people.

National security, on the other hand, maintains the survival of the nation state through the use of economic, military and political power and the exercise of diplomacy. However, the trend appears to be moving towards a new communication revolution, leaving critics in contemplation as to whether it is an obvious good and positive sign.

If democracy is a government that includes the right to free press, and allows for individualism and freedom of opinion among its citizens, then democracy’s natural place is civil society, as it interprets democracy more as a civic culture of association, participation and mobilization.

To state, as Kamla Persad Bissessar has done, that “the SIA's wiretapping operations in Trinidad and Tobago without the people’s consent is contrary to democracy, is representative of dictatorship and illustrate the dark and sinister side of any government,” ignores the fact that there must be a useful criticism of democracy in a constructive way, which is something the system needs in order to keep growing to produce an honest transmission of the truth.

Government diplomats and high ranking government authorities, who knowingly tell lies to influence serious events, and who misrepresent the trust and honour given to them as public servants, threaten the very process of democracy because, to start with, democracy was born out of the reality of res publica, public issues, or public life.

If we are going to evolve within the realms of democracy, then we should start by acknowledging that our interest in public life and common good is a long way from that of the fathers of democracy, as everything seems to be shrouded in private life rather than public life. Today, our current democracy is much different from the Athenian model, which was concerned with knowledge, wisdom, debate, and discussion and possessed a civic culture that we just simply lack. Citizens actively participated in the public life of the polis -- thus the origin of the word politics.

Not only do I join the chorus with Texas congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul on the WikiLeaks debacle that in “a free society we are supposed to know the truth and if truth becomes treason, then we are in big trouble,” but also share the thoughts of social scientist Alexis de Tocqueville in evaluating human society, as he provides us with a simple, clarifying, and thought-provoking parameter that the future of humankind is linked to democratic society and not to aristocratic society.

Democratic society promotes the level of human development, emphasizes individualism and the pursuit of personal happiness. Since it favours equality before freedom, a democratic society favours public sector expansion, which will provide government with the resources it needs to equalize conditions between classes or income. Ministers of government, members of the judiciary, trade unionists, editors, journalists and businessmen are not all that constitute the people. Everyone should be involved in the decision making process.

In the court of public opinion, the alleged actions of former prime minister of Trinidad, Patrick Manning, and WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange are drowned in a sea of terrorism and dictatorship, whereas if we examine the dubious coin carefully, we will at once notice that they have made the Caribbean and the world a better place for democracy.

It is important to understand that spying on law-abiding citizens, under the guise of battling crime and ensuring national security, is something that has been happening all the time. How doomed could we have been to the Owellian drama? It just got out of control in Trinidad and Tobago.

On the other hand, Assange’s imprisonment for publicizing secret cables, exposing crimes and conspiracies carried out by US officials is nothing more than a psychological protective mechanism loaded with political overtones. There is no evidence that either Mr Assange or Mr Manning committed a crime in Australia the US or Trinidad and Tobago.

The wiretapping and WikiLeaks has not comprised the national security of Trinidad and Tobago or the US because the public right to know should not be censored. If the debates over the wiretapping and WikiLeaks are about the role of secrecy then, while most world governments would argue that they must be allowed to conduct their dealings with a certain amount of secrecy, it is my contention that full transparency is also a better way to cure the ails of a democratic society as it determines who the biggest law-breakers are and also encourages democracy in the public interest.

It cannot be doubted that the advancement of new technological changes emboldens civil society with ways to act in which our forefathers could not and this might very well be a new challenge in information technology. As to whether the instigators of the wiretapping and Mr Assange have boldly gone where no one has gone before, it is clear that they have empowered conspirators with new means to conspire a new wave of literacy and trigger a communications revolution regardless of Trinidad and Tobago’s Communications Bill 2010 or Assange’s imprisonment.

One way or another, the communications revolution is upon us. It has already exploded and the only real question is whether we will realize it in time to stop another WikiLeaks controversy or another wiretapping saga.

Richard Holbrooke in Foreign Policy has admitted “The chances of catastrophe grow as organizations grow in number and in size and internal communications become more time-consuming, less intelligible, and less controllable...” Hence, we must be prepared for the coming of the communications revolution.

December 22, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

Caribbean narco-triangle: The US-Cuba-Jamaica connection

By Norman Girvan


Among the most fascinating documents to come out of the WikiLeaks revelations is a cable allegedly sent by the head of the US Interests Section in Havana, Jonathan Farrar, on August 11, 2009.

The document is a virtual diplomatic bombshell. It could prove a source of embarrassment to all three governments concerned—the US, the Cuban and the Jamaican.

The Americans are believed to have made determined efforts to keep the WikiLeaks cables out of the regional media, especially those originating in their Caribbean embassies. The content of the despatch, however, has been splashed all over the Jamaican media.

In Jamaica’s domestic politics, it will be another embarrassment for the Bruce Golding-led Administration, whose credibility in fighting narco-trafficking is already on the line. Earlier this year there was a huge uproar of the government’s reluctance to extradite to the US an alleged drug lord entrenched in the Prime Minister’s own political constituency, with strong ties to the ruling Jamaica Labour Party. The Opposition People’s National Party has already weighed in on this point.

The cable details a number of instances where the Cuban anti-drug police and Ministry of Interior officials report a less than enthusiastic response from the Jamaican authorities to their appeals for cooperation in stemming the use of Cuban airspace and territorial waters for shipments of narcotics -- notably marijuana -- from Jamaica.

Jamaica’s Minister of National Security has angrily denounced the accusations of non-cooperation. According to the published report, however, he did not deny that the specific incidents mentioned in the leaked cable actually took place.

For the US authorities, the implications of the content of the cable are intriguing.

Cuba has been consistently demonised by US government officials and media, to the point where it has been officially designated as a state that sponsors terrorism.

Yet the U.S. Coast Guard Drug Interdiction Specialist assigned to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana is reported as having had multiple meetings and conversations with Cuban Ministry of Interior officials over a period up to August 2009.

The contact included a two-day trip to Camaguey, where the senior US official received a briefing on a Jamaican drug flight en route to the Bahamas which had to make an emergency landing. The crew of three were in detention by the Cubans.

US officials held individual and collective conversations with up to 15 officials of Cuba’s Interior Ministry, including on provincial trips outside of Havana. US officials appear to have been granted generous official and physical access to Cuba.

A recurring complaint of the Cubans was lack of Jamaican cooperation in information sharing. On one occasion a meeting was arranged between Cuban and Jamaican anti-narcotics officials. The meeting was reportedly arranged by the UK Defence Attaché and held on a British naval vessel assigned to drug interdiction duties, which was then in the Port of Havana. The cable says that at the meeting, the Jamaican officials “just sat there and didn’t say anything”.

On another occasion in May 2009, the Cuban Border Guard, acting on real-time information supplied by the Americans, intercepted a Jamaican go-fast vessel and seized 700 kg of Jamaican marijuana. This operation is actually referred to as a “joint-interdiction”.

Joint interdiction? The US and Cuba? Is this the terrorist state that poses a threat to the national security of the United States?

(A separately leaked memorandum recently published in the United States shows US military strategists expressing grave concern about US security should there be a ‘regime change’ in Cuba. One can now see why. To begin with, the kind of cooperation now taking place could not be counted on.)

Cuba, with one of longest coastlines in the island Caribbean, has probably the best system of coastal border security in the region.

The reason is straightforward. The island has lived for the past 50 years under constant threat of invasion from the United States. The Cubans never let their guard down.

There is considerable irony that it is this very system that is now proving to be an asset in protecting the security of the US against narco-trafficking.

As far as the Cubans are concerned, the revelations in the cable are a double-edged sword.

The Cuban government has always maintained that it is utterly opposed to narco-trafficking; and does everything in its power to prevent the use of Cuba for the trade and to cooperate with the US authorities.

The US does not deny this. But the extent and intimacy of the cooperation may surprise many in both countries. To that degree, the revelations are unlikely to harm Cuba.

There may be some, embarrassment, however, in its relations with the Jamaican government, which have in recent years been very cordial.

Just recently (December 8), Cuba-CARICOM day was simultaneously celebrated in Havana and in several CARICOM capitals with diplomatic receptions and speeches.

To be seen to be complaining to the US -- presumably in the hope that US pressure on Jamaica would succeed where Cuban pressure had not -- might not fit the image of friendship that Cuba has so carefully cultivated over the years.

Still, if the facts reported in the US cable are true, the Cuban frustration is understandable.

Why take the rap from the US for Jamaica’s inaction, especially when the stakes for Cuba are so high?

As for this coming to light, the Cubans have the perfect response.

Don’t blame us, blame WikiLeaks.

December 20, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

With friends like the UN, OAS and CARICOM, the Republic of Haiti needs no enemies!

By Jean Herve Charles

The Republic of Haiti was present at the baptismal fountain at the creation of the United Nations in 1946.   Its active and diligent diplomacy facilitated the emergence of several countries from colonialism or occupation to nationhood -- we can mention amongst others Libya, Ethiopia, Belgium and Israel as the direct beneficiaries of Haiti’s international leadership.

The Human Rights Charter was drafted by none other than the Haitian delegate Mr Emile St Lot, the Rapporteur of the 3rd Commission of the 94th Session.

Yet, in 1957, some ten years later, when the Duvalier dictatorship established its grip into the country, the UN did not come as a friend to help Haiti liberate itself from that repression, instead it spirited to Africa the best minds of the nation (those who could have forced a change of the status quo) for a nation building project in the Congo as that nation was emerging from its colonial status.

Those Haitian doctors, lawyers and teachers did such an efficient job in helping the Congolese to become nation builders that they were soon declared persona non grata by the same UN that cancelled their contracts.   From there, the Haitian pioneers went to Quebec, Canada, where they helped the land of Cartier to become fully developed.   They went also to the United States where they established themselves in Flatlands and Flatbush, New York, renovating and stabilizing the neighborhoods fled in haste by the Italians and the Jews.

In the meantime, in Haiti, successive governments, whether dictatorship, militarism or populism, have continued to engulf Haiti into an abyss where a return to the homeland could not be organized.

Against the good advice of learned veterans of the UN operation overseas, not to invite the UN into your country -- “the UN does not leave a country, once it has been invited in; nor the fate of that country will be improved” -- the government of Ertha Pascal Trouillot introduced the UN into Haiti to supervise the election.

The UN has managed since to remain in the country under different acronyms for the past twenty years. It is now under MINUSTHA -- a mammoth operation involving more than seventy countries.

With no concern for the environmental impact, MINUSTHA has flooded the Haitian capital with cars and other vehicles going and coming to and from no specific destination, with no specific purpose.   The real concerns of the country in food and personal security, political stability and social integration have remained unattended.   Yet the UN has stated as its purpose: “to be a critical factor in the consolidation of social peace stability and the rule of law in Haiti”.

Mr Edmond Mulet, the UN resident, has monitored against the advice of the Haitian civil society an election flawed in its conception and unacceptable in its final delivery.   When the Haitian masses went on a rampage to manifest their anger at the outcome of the election that does not reflect the popular vote, the UN retreated to its barracks instead of protecting life and limb.

The lowest rank of the MINUSTHA professional draws a tax free salary of $81,508 per year while the senior staff commands a minimum of $166,475 annually.

To add insult to injuries, the French scientists have just proven that the UN Nepalese contingent was indeed the carrier of the cholera germ into Haiti, killing 3,000 people, sending 40.000 to hospitals and exposing the entire nation to the contagion.

The only compensation that Haiti may derive from the UN experience will be to benefit at the UN departure, of the war equipment, the cars and the trucks brought into Haiti, for the building of the country’s own army in the future.   Haiti will need, though, a responsible and nationalist government to negotiate such an important and sensitive deal!

The UN stabilization force has not been a positive experience in the rest of the world either. After forty -- 40 -- years of regretful engagement in the Congo, the UN has been disinvited from that country.

President George W. Bush did try to reorganize the UN to make it more relevant to the pressing needs of the world poor, but Mr. Bush engulfed himself prematurely and regretfully in Iraq, compromising his credibility and aborting the American-led UN reorganization project.   Le Monde, the French newspaper has recently described Haiti as the Waterloo of the UN Stabilization force!

May it rest in peace for the emergence of an effective UN nation-building force that will help poor nations of the world to educate their citizens, rebuild their infrastructure and create relevant institutions for their people!

The Haitian experience with the OAS and CARICOM has not been any better.   Bundled together for the first time and only in Haiti, the joint operation was commissioned by the Preval government to supervise, monitor and tabulate the result of the election. The United States has offered a purse of 12 million dollars for the operation. The coffer was handed to a veteran of Haitian Affairs, Colin Granderson, who enforced the OAS imposed embargo that destroyed the flora and the Haitian economy some fifteen years ago.

He is now pushing the Haitian political crisis to another abyss.   Mr Granderson, back in Haiti, embedded with the predatory Haitian government, is at the heart of the tabulation that provided the contested figures in the last election.   He has been described as an opportunist chameleon who sought to sleep with the military when they were in favor, with the populist when the tables have been turned; he is now Preval’s best hope of legitimizing a criminal fraud.   The delegation of a forensic international auditing firm will certainly shine light on the dirty hands who falsified the tabulation of the ballots.

Hopefully this time around, his stint in Haiti will be the last one!

The OAS has also taken on the responsibility of providing the Haitian people with electoral identification cards and the electoral lists.   The operation has been conducted with such inefficiency, chaos and disregard for elementary safeguards that it seems it was pre-arranged to provide the snafu of the November 28 election day.

The combination UN, OAS, Caricom is instrumental in facilitating the negative Africanization process of Haiti where rival tribes have been killing each other for decades, while the spoils went to the former colonizer.   With the vast majority of the Haitian people determined to bring about fundamental change in the country, the old guard loaded with the national and the international purse at its disposal will maintain the fight with all its might, even igniting and perpetuating a civil war in Haiti.

With friends like the UN the OAS and CARICOM, Haiti indeed needs no enemy!

Stay tuned for next week’s essay on “Deconstructing the latest Haitian political crisis”.

December 18, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

...the health of the tourism industry and its myriad of impacts on The Bahamas

Surviving in These Hard Times
The Bahamas Journal Editorial


As in the case of any number of professionals working in the tourism industry, Robert ‘Sandy’ Sands has his finger on the pulse of this aspect of the nation’s economy; and here as everyone knows, tourism provides the very life-blood of this nation’s economy.

In good times, very many Bahamians flourished and prospered; thus that situation where today’s taxi drivers, straw vendors, jet-ski operators, hoteliers and a host of others are today parents and family to so very many of this nation’s professional classes.

Evidently, while this pattern might be maintained for a while yet, there are indicators suggesting that the industry will become more competitive; that it will demand more from those who work in it; and commensurately, that the government and its social partners should – as a matter of the most urgent priority – see to it that, this industry remains well-maintained.

Here we sincerely believe that, when all is said and done, Bahamians can and should be given a crash course in tourism; with the subject matter being focused not only on the safety and well-being of the tourist; but on the fact that, the tourist need not visit the Bahamas.

This is the fact that must be drummed in day and night and until such time as the vast majority of Bahamians get it that no one owes them anything; and that, they are obliged to work for every penny they take home.

This point is today being underscored by none other than, outgoing Bahamas Hotel Association (BHA) President Robert ‘Sandy’ Sands.

This man –as we learn – “… is calling the year“ a mixed bag of revenue gains, higher operating costs, and global uncertainty”, even as most tourism indicators inched up in 2010…”

Sandy Sands goes on to note that, “Indicators in general moved closer to our 2008 pre-recession benchmark…”

Here we note – albeit in passing- that, he made these remarks while addressing members of the BHA at its 58th annual general meeting on December 3rd at the Wyndham Nassau Resort.

As he explained, “Projections for next year show continued marginal growth as we slowly pull out of one of the most difficult economic periods in decades.”

This is the unvarnished truth about that matter currently concerning the health of the tourism industry and its myriad of impacts on the Bahamas.
But ever the optimist, Sands suggested that, despite the current slew of challenges, BHA members could and should be optimistic about the future; this due to the fact that, “foundational steps which have been and are being undertaken,” [are taken together] leading or tending in the direction of an “…emerging interest in tourism investments in The Bahamas…”

Here take note that, Sands also indicated that, measures that were put in place in 2010 by the public and private sectors should steer the industry out of the doldrums quicker than many of the nation’s competitors.

As he also pointed out, “These include major airport infrastructure improvements well underway in Nassau and Abaco and the liberalization of the telecommunications industry…”

And so, the conclusion beckons that, despite much of the noise in the market, things are trending in a positive direction for our country.

But for sure, this is not to suggest for even a moment that things are set to bubble up and that happy days are somewhere right around the corner.

Indeed, every indicator – social and otherwise- suggests that, the Bahamian people are in for a fairly rough ride as they adjust their life-styles and expectations to what is being termed in the United States, the New Normal.

In this regard, and as in the case of so very many other Bahamians, we can attest and affirm that this has been a very difficult year; and that, it has also been a time when one’s faith has been tested.

But as in all things human, we give thanks not only in good times, but also in these times of trouble. As we have been taught – and so do we believe- hard times bring with them very important life-lessons.

Among the lessons that are there to be remembered is the one that suggests that we should lay aside some of what we have earned or harvested so that when the hard times roll in; we need not trouble ourselves with unnecessary despair.

But even as we take note of the truth inherent this nostrum, we know it for a fact, that very many Bahamians are today mired in distress precisely because they dared yield and cling to the illusion that, things would always be good.

In the ultimate analysis, then, the times are changing; and as they do, some of our people will gird up their loins, take pattern after other industrious people and thereafter make some things happen.

This they must do if they are to prosper in conditions where the New Normal is the pervading reality.

December 16, 2010

The Bahamas Journal Editorial

Bahamas Blog International

Economic prosperity in The Bahamas and the Overseas Territories

By D. Markie Spring
Turks and Caicos Islands


The Bahamas and the overseas territories, especially the British Territories -- British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos islands -- have always declined the idea of regional integration -- sometimes from an individual prospective and at times from governmental concerns.

In fact, The Bahamas is mostly dependent upon tourism to grow its economy. This country’s proximity to North America has placed it in an ideal position, which ignites, propels and escalates the tourism industry there. Furthermore, its tourism industry accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), whilst other important sectors of the GDP, such as tax and the financial sectors, make up the other 40 percent of GDP.

Let me stress that, although the economy there seemed vibrant hitherto, in years to come The Bahamas tourism industry will not be able to sustain its economy. From an economic prospective, The Bahamas economy is not diverse enough for future sustainability.

Recently, the global economic downturn has resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs in The Bahamas alone. Because its economy relies heavily on visitors’ arrivals, which experienced a sharp decline, hoteliers were then forced to lay off workers. Some hotels had more employees than guests in-house.

The government of The Bahamas has an obligation to further diversify its economic environment through regional integration. When the tourism sector is affected, whether by natural disasters or by an act of terrorism or by challenges derived from social, environmental, political and economic factors, The Bahamas must be able to turn to an alternative sector for economic sustainability.

Similarly, the overseas territories -- especially Britain’s -- have also illustrated lack of support for regional integration. With much focus on the Cayman Islands, this country’s economy relies heavily on its humongous financial services industry, which is ranked fifth in the world’s banking centers. In addition, the government also piled up revenues from its taxation system. This together has placed the Cayman Islands at the top in the region, relative to the standard of living.

Looking at Cayman’s economic environment allows me to conclude, hitherto, that this country’s economy is not diverse enough to maintain viability in the long run. With the financial challenges faced by the United States and the European Union, the financial sector there is gravely affected.

Additionally, the Cayman Islands were forced to regulate its banking operations under the principles of the European Union Savings Directives (EUSD), coupled with intense pressure from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to prevent Cayman Islands’ offshore financial centers from becoming a tax haven. In addition to this, the current US president has disclosed his intention to exert severe pressure of the use of Cayman’s financial centers by multinational corporations.

Moreover, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has set up programs that regulate the money laundering regime, and the country’s banking, securities and insurance industries. Similar environments exist in the other overseas territorial states.

Constructively, I looked at the lack of interest in regionalism from a Bahamian and from the prospective of the overseas territories and I understand the reason. Picturing the many people who would move from countries with weak economies and high unemployment rates to seek jobs in those places; figuring the movements of other Caribbean national – creating mass migration – I do understand. However, if the situation is being looked from a wider prospective then it should be known that there will be many benefits to gain and that rules and other stipulations will be in place, which would govern the movement of foreign citizens, such as having an assigned job before taking up residence in another country where more jobs are available.

The Bahamas and the Caymans Islands along with the other overseas states must join the rest of the Caribbean to integrate their efforts in making the Caribbean a region a region to reckon with. I stress that individually we won’t be able to sustain our economy and these countries’ economies are not diverse enough to stay strong for much longer. Some citizens purported that too many Caribbean countries are economically disabled to have successful integration; this does carry some concerns; however, the EU has successfully integrated with only the countries in Western Europe having strong economies.

Interestingly, the US, the world economic power, has established many regional bodies to enhance the country’s economic sector.

December 15, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

Nassau's immigration detention centre versus Guantanamo Bay detention camp

Our Gitmo?
Tribune242 Insight
Nassau, Bahamas


There are few places in the world more notorious today than the detention camp attached to the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Described by Amnesty International as "the gulag of our times", it has become a symbol for arbitrary detention, abusive treatment, degradation, torture. For many who esteem America's role as a promoter of human rights, it also represents betrayal and hypocrisy.

To draw a comparison with Nassau's immigration detention centre might seem a bit far fetched. One was for several years at the very heart of the global War on Terror, a testing ground for the acceptability of new "interrogation" techniques, and a powerful challenge to the standard interpretation of the Geneva Convention. The other is a modest facility on a little island, designed to hold a few hundred illegal immigrants until they can be repatriated.

But as I considered the latest accusations of abuse and poor conditions at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre, it occurred to me that they are both underwritten by the same fundamental attitude toward human rights - that they are optional, and can be dispensed with in certain situations or for certain people.

Consider Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette's response to last week's reports of overflowing and stinking toilets, insufficient food and bedding, and sexual assault at the Detention Centre. Promising he would investigate only some of the allegations - specifically, the part about the toilets - Mr Symonette added that "if conditions are uncomfortable then people shouldn't break the law."

Then consider Dick Cheney's 2005 comment that no other country would treat people "determined to kill" its citizens as well as America had treated Guantanamo detainees.

The assumption in both cases was that the people in these camps are guilty as charged - despite the fact that not a single one of them had actually been formally charged with anything and certainly hadn't been convicted.

The Bahamian constitution establishes that all persons accused of a crime are innocent until proven guilty. It also says every accused person has the right to a public trial. Yet every suspected illegal immigrant detained in this country is denied both these rights, and subjected instead to the murky procedure known as "processing" - which, if it entails anything at all beyond immediate deportation, is presumably even less impartial than, and certainly just as secret as, Guantanamo's much vilified military tribunals.

In assuming the guilt of detainees at their respective camps, Messrs Cheney and Symonette not only ignored the law in their own countries, but also long established international law - not to mention the tradition of individual rights that stretches back to the very foundations of western civilisation; presumption of innocence was enshrined in ancient Greek and Roman law, and established in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Biblically inclined readers will know this is also the book which established retributive justice, the concept that the punishment should fit the crime - another cornerstone of our ethical heritage. Mr Symonette's seems happy to ignore, unless he actually believes those guilty of fleeing terrible conditions - including, in Haiti, a cholera outbreak - have committed a crime heinous enough to deserve the alleged conditions at the centre, including hunger, severe beatings and rape.

Mr Symonette again echoes the former US vice president in his insistence that conditions are better than we have been led to believe. When last interviewed, he said there are "no outstanding issues at the detention centre." According to Mr Cheney, Guantanamo detainees were "living in the tropics. They're well fed. They've got everything they could possibly want."

Both men could feel safe in making these claims, even in the face of sustained condemnation by international human rights groups, as there was no way for average citizens to uncover the definitive truth for themselves.

What cannot be hidden so easily, however, is the fact that both facilities trample on another right of historical pedigree: namely habeas corpus, the right of an imprisoned person to demand that the legality of his or her incarceration, and in particular its length, be examined by a court.

DIFFERENCES

So much for the similarities between Guantanamo Bay and the Carmichael Road Detention Centre; what of the differences?

One particularly telling distinction concerns the reaction of the public in each case. The Bush administration suffered a huge backlash over the treatment of Guantanamo detainees, as many Americans agreed with-soon-to-be president Barack Obama that it represented a "sad chapter in American history."

In the Bahamas, by contrast, the public seems to have no problem whatsoever with the way immigrant detainees are allegedly treated.

Whenever claims of abuse or neglect are raised, they are either met with silence, or worse, with cheers of approval.

This explains the attitude of virtually every local politician who ever fielded questions about detainee treatment. The public's reaction leads them to believe the average Bahamian is petty, insular and viscous enough to actually enjoy the brutalisation of another human - man, woman or child - provided that person is a foreigner.

It also explains why, of all the claims that surfaced last week - underfed detainees being offered vermin-infested porridge, overcrowding and lack of beds, rapes and denial of medical treatment - the only one which animated Mr Symonette into promising an investigation was our source's "horrifying experience" in the men's bathroom, where faces was "everywhere".

"There just looked like so much potential for disease to spread throughout the place," the detainee told us.

The minister's reaction was presumably influenced by the outbreak in Haiti of a strain of cholera so potent that if untreated, victims can die in as little as two hours.

Overflowing toilets in an area shared by many people is exactly the kind of situation in which cholera is spread. If this were to happen, it is unlikely the disease could be contained at the centre.

Now that would be a real political disaster with a general election approaching, unlike a handful of foreigners being mistreated.

Those sensitive to spiritual explanations might feel a plague of Biblical proportions could indeed be on the cards - a just punishment for our callous disregard for our fellow man.

To the more practically inclined, it should be obvious that all those who are unwilling to accept this characterisation of the Bahamian people must stand and be counted, must make our politicians aware we will not accept the stain on our collective conscience which the detention centre represents.

We must demand the release of a report on conditions at the centre commissioned more than a year ago but never made public, and push for the establishment of a truly independent investigative commission that includes journalists and human rights activists, and is empowered to inspect the facility and speak with detainees.

What do you think?

email: pnunez@tribunemedia.net

December 13, 2010

Tribune242 Insight

Bahamas Blog International

...the revenue losses The Bahamas will suffer from signing on to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe...

WTO to force 50% Bahamas tariff reduction

By ALISON LOWE
Business Reporter
alowe@tribunemedia.net

A CARICOM trade specialist warned yesterday that the revenue losses the Bahamas will suffer from signing on to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe will be little compared to the "much more significant impact" that will be felt from new free trade deals with the US and Canada.

Sacha Silva also suggested that the most significant revenue loss to the Government under the EPA will not come from dropping tariffs on imports coming into The Bahamas from Europe, but on those imports from the Caribbean and Dominican Republic.

The economist, a consultant with Caricom's Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN), argued that between $2 million and $3.8 million each year in tax revenues from trade with the Caribbean could be lost by this nation on the 5,000 tariff lines that will become duty free not only for Europe but for the Caribbean community, too, under the EPA.

"The Bahamas is for the first time liberalising trade with CARICOM and the Dominican Republic under the EPA - the same 5,000 lines to be liberalised with the Europeans," said Mr Silva.

"The fiscal implications here are a little more significant (than with respect to losses stemming from droppin tariffs on trade with Europe). There is relatively speaking quite a bit of trade (between the Caribbean and the Bahamas)."

Meanwhile, Mr Silva warned that while the loss of revenue from tariff reductions on imports from Europe is "highly unlikely to have a significant impact, given the Bahamas' small trading relationship with Europe", another development which will have "a much more significant impact on development" will be the Bahamas' accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and deals soon to be signed between Caricom, Canada and the US on trade between our nations.

He was addressing a technical workshop on the EPA organised jointly by the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce, Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) and the Caricom EPA Implementation Unit yesterday.

Speaking of the WTO accession and the Canada/US trade deals, Mr Silva said: "These are things that the Chamber and the Government need to keep a very close eye on because there is likely to be a much more significant impact. Those coming in (to the WTO) at this late stage pay a very high price. Tariffs will have to come down in the Bahamas by about 50 per cent. And the people on the other side, particularly in the US, negotiate very, very hard.

While Europe, which held Caribbean states as former colonies, has a "special understanding" of the region, which may make it more prone to offer concessions in trade negotiations, "this does not exist anywhere else - the Canadians and the Americans do not have this understanding," contended Mr Silva.

Challenged on the premise that Canada would take a harder stance with the Caribbean in its ongoing negotiations over a new trade deal with the region, Mr Silva said his position is based on analysis of previous trade deals Canada has struck.

"When I look at what they have granted and what Europe has granted, the difference is enormously large. If you look at the negotiating stances Canada has taken in free trade agreements it's not appreciably different from the US. Traditionally, they ask for liberalisation of agricultural items and a lot of non-agricultural items. The EPA did not go this far," said the economist.

Mr Silva added that while the EPA will be a "spur" to the process of internal tax reform in the Bahamas, "the WTO will be a more serious kick to that", as the Bahamas seeks to finds means to replace the revenue sources that will be phased out with the tariff reductions the two trade-related processes demand.

December 10, 2010

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