Energy is 'incredible opportunity'
EXCLUSIVE By PACO NUNEZ
Tribune News Editor
pnunez@tribunemedia.net
Nassau, The Bahamas
THE Bahamas has an "incredible opportunity" to improve on energy security while also increasing the safety of its citizens, a top US official said.
Acting Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson said the entire Caribbean is well positioned to get involved in the energy industry - whether in terms of pursuing renewable energy or developing traditional hydrocarbon products.
This potential can in turn be used to create economic opportunities that erode the underlying causes of crime and violence, she said.
Ms Jacobson, who is in Nassau to take part in the second Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) Dialogue, explained that while combating the trafficking of drugs, guns and people is a cornerstone of the initiative, true regional security can only be attained if citizens feel their everyday lives have been impacted.
She said: "One of the reasons we talk now about citizen security and considerably less about just counter-narcotics is because it's so obvious that the phenomenon is broader than just drugs.
"It is in fact about whether people feel personally safe, secure, and we all know that in many respects that's a government's first duty - to keep its citizens safe. But when you start to look at the problem and you disaggregate it, it isn't just about where drugs or gangs may come from and the supply, it isn't just about the demand - it's about the socio-economic causes that underlie crime and criminality.
"If you go about fixing it only by trying to attack the symptoms and not the underlying causes, you're never going to get more than half way there."
A lack of economic opportunities - particularly for young men - is often significant among these root factors, and this is where energy diversification can come in, Ms Jacobson said.
"It isn't just economic opportunity," she said, "there are other things that have to come with it, but certainly if people don't feel they have an opportunity to progress economically, to have a life that holds promise for them, it makes it easier for gangs, for drug cartels to recruit."
Once a country accepts that crime prevention starts with social and economic opportunity, Ms Jacobson said, the next step is to identify the emerging fields that Bahamians can be prepared for.
"Obviously, there's a lot that's going on in the Bahamas that speaks to some of the, perhaps, more traditional areas of economic growth - there are building projects for new hotels, there are lots of industries related to tourism - but the fact of the matter is, as you look ahead, the issue of energy production, energy self-sufficiency, is also one in which you can really significantly generate jobs.
"Now, the kinds of jobs you are going to generate are also going to be fairly well paying jobs, but they may also be jobs where fairly specialised training is necessary."
In recognition of the region's potential, Ms Jacobson said, President Obama launched the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) in the Caribbean - at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009.
The ECPA, a relatively small agency, helps create pilot projects in countries where either private or public sector entities are interested in breaking into the energy industry.
"Our focus," she said, "has been heavily on how we work with countries on energy security, on clean energy, on renewables."
At the moment, the ECPA is involved in around 40 projects throughout the hemisphere.
Asked how the Bahamas could qualify for an ECPA pilot project, Ms Jacobson said: "The way that you have to look at that is, how do we develop the market for renewable energies? Because until those are really economically viable and there is a structure in place for those industries, they're not going to be developed by the private sector.
"I think in the end, obviously, every government has to make its own decision on how they proceed on this, but I think the more you look towards diverse sources of energy, the more governments are going to realise that they need expertise from those in the private sector and, hopefully, will work in partnership with them."
November 10, 2011
tribune242
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.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Bahamas: ...the Bahamian democratic experience and the rationale underpinning parliamentary democracy in The Islands
Celebrating the Bahamian democratic experience
Front Porch
By Simon
Nassau, The Bahamas
Some of the frustrations with our political life are understandable, many of which are shared by those in frontline politics who daily manage the complex matters of state with which most of us would prefer not to contend.
Parliamentary debates are sometimes sterile and unimaginative. The lack of preparation by some parliamentarians is an embarrassment for themselves and those they represent.
Yet, we need to place our frustrations within context, historically and geographically. Familiarity often breeds contempt. Yet, it is unfamiliarity with our parliamentary system that has bred contempt for the institutions and practices that provide for democratic stability.
Many in academia and journalism, and even in Parliament, are woefully ill-informed about the fundamentals of our parliamentary system. There is a great deal of erroneous information transmitted by these opinion leaders.
The lack of knowledge by those who should know better by virtue of their profession helps to fuel the pining for certain elements of the American system of government despite the lack of in-depth familiarity with why that system was developed and how it functions.
This unfamiliarity has spawned wistfulness for a system that even some of its founders may have come to believe is in need of significant reform in light of a different America today than at its founding.
Filibuster
The accretion of powers within the United States Senate which allows a single senator to place lengthy holds on or filibuster certain legislation are profoundly undemocratic practices in what is often self-servingly called the world’s greatest deliberative body.
The American founders might also be horrified by the army of corporate lobbyists who have been adept at finagling gigantic tax loopholes, outsized subsidies, lax regulation and wink and nod legislation. This system has cost America trillions at the expense of social protections such as an infant mortality rate of which the world’s greatest power should be embarrassed.
Both the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government refused despite warnings to provide oversight – including legislation – that would have regulated OTC derivatives and other fanciful financial instruments. This historic failure helped to ignite a global economic meltdown, crippling the housing market, life savings and prospects for millions in the middle class in the U.S. alone.
Most of those who helped create this disaster escaped responsibility. It is baffling when so-called progressives at home call for the adoption of a more America-styled system supposedly to check the abuses of power. Politicians do not have a monopoly on such abuse. Unchecked financial interests are also toxic to the political system.
If America is the prime model for those Bahamians who want a reformed political system based on that model, they have some explaining to do in light of the failures of that country’s political system.
Despite the common misperception, ours is really not a Westminster system of government. We have a written constitution which Britain does not, and a number of the customs and traditions used in the much larger British parliamentary system are not germane to and are unworkable in our context. With a 650-member House of Commons compared to our 41-member House of Assembly, our practice of parliamentary democracy is necessarily different.
However, our system is derived from the British parliamentary tradition which has enjoyed significant success including stability and resourcefulness over many centuries. With not even a half a century of majority rule we are still familiarizing ourselves with our parliamentary system and democratic politics.
The Bahamian system
Still, we have done quite well as a democracy since 1967. In rapid succession we produced a number of firsts having thrown the major parties out of office after 25 then 10 then five years. We have done so including surviving two elections with questionable results – 1962 and 1987 – with little to no violence.
Our system is resilient, anchored in a constitutional framework and a rule of law stronger than the personalities and parties who may hold legislative and executive power for a period. We often confuse the current occupants of high office with the actual nature and powers inherent in those offices.
Some of this confusion takes the form of asking whether the prime minister has too much power as granted by the constitution. Interestingly, this school of thought gains currency when more powerful leaders are in office such as Sir Lynden Pindling and Hubert Ingraham. This was much less a concern during the weaker prime ministership of Perry Christie.
Curiously, many of those who have advanced this line of thinking while in opposition did not act on their convictions during their time in government.
The question about the prime minister’s power is a part of a larger question about the scope and nature of the powers granted to officeholders, particularly in the executive and legislative spheres. It is often discussed in the language of the balance of power and checks and balances.
Our constitution provides numerous checks such as the provision that executive authority is held by the cabinet of The Bahamas, not singularly by the prime minister, a fact that seems to escape many commentators. It also provides for the removal of a prime minister by his parliamentary colleagues.
All democratic systems wrestle with how much power to afford elected leaders, balancing sufficient power to get things done with checks on those powers to limit potential abuse. That singular democratic impulse borne from the experience of time and various places has given rise to varying systems such as those of Britain and the U.S.
Before being mesmerized by the supposed greater genius of the American political enterprise, more of us may well examine the Bahamian democratic experience and the rationale underpinning parliamentary democracy. Then we may more fully appreciate the genius of our system, which, while always in need of reform, has gotten the essentials right and offers more flexibility and built-in resources of which many remain blissfully ignorant and blithely uninformed.
Nov 08, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Haiti: Rebel daughter of Africa
By Jean H Charles
I was in Cape Haitian over the weekend, en route to Grand River for the gédé celebration on November 1. There, I was invited at the posh hotel of Cormier Beach to meet with a group of wholesale travel agents from Germany, Great Britain, Spain and the United States. They were lamenting to the fact that their own governments are putting obstacles in the way of their goal of selling Haiti as a tourist destination by placing the country on the list of the most dangerous places to visit, while the reasons for such a classification are spurious at best, discriminatory at worst.
Haiti, as an emerging democracy, has no political prisoners; its people, with no clannish tradition, refuse to fight amongst themselves, while surviving with resilience in the most difficult economic situation. Compared to other nations in the Caribbean and in Latin America, its crime rate is low, it has none of the at risk indices that plague the nations that comprise the so called pestiferous countries. It includes Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, DR Congo, Syria, Libya (I am sure will be off the list soon) and Haiti.
Que vient faire Haïti dans cette galère? It is the French translation of the English language term that cannot be printed in this essay.
When you are included in that league, the insurance companies refuse to provide the umbrella of protection for damages, injury and medical coverage. The travel agents have both hands tied, unable to pour into Haiti the million travelers that cannot wait to visit the last vestiges of pre-industrialization, where the McDonalds and the K-Marts are not king and queen in a bland post modernization culture where Bergen Norway is undistinguished from Bergen New Jersey.
Haiti’s descent into hell started with a quarantine imposed on the young republic in 1806 by the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. In between there was gunboat diplomacy and plenty of ostracism from Europe and from the United States. Closer to us Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States in 1987, told the tourist industry to avoid that country because AIDS is rampant and maybe endemic to the country. Yet AIDS was brought into Haiti by Canadians and Americans who found a fertile niche in the country with young boys with parents too poor to provide them with education and sustenance.
As a plague when it is affixed on your back, the characterization is difficult to be removed, and the governments of the western countries blindly follow the lead of the United States. As a self prophecy Haiti has been sinking since, into the abyss of renegade and predatory governments that were too corrupt to lead the proper fight to facilitate the removal of the country from the list of the most dangerous nations on earth.
Worse, one of its own governments invited the United Nations peacekeeping force to set up shop in the country justifying the alibi that the nation is at war. Yet the only harm endured by any soldier of the United Nations in Haiti is the wearing of military fatigues that multiplies the centigrade temperature on the body by two from the year-round summer temperature.
In the chain of the Caribbean islands, Haiti occupies the pendant with pearls, gold and diamond that made that nation the reservoir of wealth for Europe in general, France in particular for three hundred years. Why was that reservoir tarnished and stopped in the last two hundred years, when nation building took hold under the command of the Haitians?
It is a story of self flagellation of course but it is also a story of discrimination against a nation that for the rest of humanity dared to stop the world order of slavery of man by man.
The last manifestation of that discrimination is in the placing without proper justification of the Republic of Haiti in the list of one of the most dangerous place on earth to visit. I have with the detached professional lens of a foreigner visited the four corners of the country. I have found a nation and a people at peace with itself, labouring every day with meager buying and selling to send the children to school, to eat every day, one day at a time with no protection from and no security in a police presence, yet they are living as though the police presence was everywhere.
While in Cape Haitian, I heard a big commotion in the middle of the night, it was a large crowd yelling, “Baré! Baré!” -- Take hold, take hold! They were in pursuit of a thief, the stronger ones holding the night intruder until the police arrived to take him to jail. Haiti’s cultural background that has its roots in the fear of authority, the Catholic Church and the voodoo syncretism offers a natural barrier against hooliganism, criminality and social disruption.
I am in awe every day at two manifestations that would fray the patience and endurance of any other population. In the midst of the extreme misery of the large part of the people, they do not take up arms against their successive predatory governments and they do not succumb to desperation leading to suicide or pathological behaviours.
Even the earthquake of January 12, 2010, that destroyed life and limb on a large scale did not produce a nation in constant mourning unable to recoup but one that keeps moving forward in the struggle for daily survival. The noblesse oblige attitude sort of national social security net that bonds the poor with the rich that was disrupted under the Lavalas regime is being replaced by an engaging president who believes hospitality for all must be the ultimate goal of its government.
Tourism is to the Caribbean what oil is to the Middle East. Haiti, well positioned in the Caribbean Sea, is unable to reap its share of the green gold bonanza because the Western nations have declared it should not do so!
Aside from good governance, Haiti needs no help or grants from the rest of the world, it needs the lifting of the embargo against tourism in the country. It has a large population (10 million people), a young population, resilient and very creative that needs to be educated and oiled with the rudiments of sophistication.
Bill Clinton, the nemesis of Ronald Reagan, albeit not from the same party, the Cardinal Richelieu of Haiti imposed by the United Nations, has bread on the ground; he must undo the harm done to Haiti by Ronald Reagan! He should start the worldwide campaign against the listing of Haiti as one of the most dangerous place on earth, starting with his own government, the United States of America!
November 7, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
I was in Cape Haitian over the weekend, en route to Grand River for the gédé celebration on November 1. There, I was invited at the posh hotel of Cormier Beach to meet with a group of wholesale travel agents from Germany, Great Britain, Spain and the United States. They were lamenting to the fact that their own governments are putting obstacles in the way of their goal of selling Haiti as a tourist destination by placing the country on the list of the most dangerous places to visit, while the reasons for such a classification are spurious at best, discriminatory at worst.
Haiti, as an emerging democracy, has no political prisoners; its people, with no clannish tradition, refuse to fight amongst themselves, while surviving with resilience in the most difficult economic situation. Compared to other nations in the Caribbean and in Latin America, its crime rate is low, it has none of the at risk indices that plague the nations that comprise the so called pestiferous countries. It includes Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, DR Congo, Syria, Libya (I am sure will be off the list soon) and Haiti.Que vient faire Haïti dans cette galère? It is the French translation of the English language term that cannot be printed in this essay.
When you are included in that league, the insurance companies refuse to provide the umbrella of protection for damages, injury and medical coverage. The travel agents have both hands tied, unable to pour into Haiti the million travelers that cannot wait to visit the last vestiges of pre-industrialization, where the McDonalds and the K-Marts are not king and queen in a bland post modernization culture where Bergen Norway is undistinguished from Bergen New Jersey.
Haiti’s descent into hell started with a quarantine imposed on the young republic in 1806 by the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. In between there was gunboat diplomacy and plenty of ostracism from Europe and from the United States. Closer to us Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States in 1987, told the tourist industry to avoid that country because AIDS is rampant and maybe endemic to the country. Yet AIDS was brought into Haiti by Canadians and Americans who found a fertile niche in the country with young boys with parents too poor to provide them with education and sustenance.
As a plague when it is affixed on your back, the characterization is difficult to be removed, and the governments of the western countries blindly follow the lead of the United States. As a self prophecy Haiti has been sinking since, into the abyss of renegade and predatory governments that were too corrupt to lead the proper fight to facilitate the removal of the country from the list of the most dangerous nations on earth.
Worse, one of its own governments invited the United Nations peacekeeping force to set up shop in the country justifying the alibi that the nation is at war. Yet the only harm endured by any soldier of the United Nations in Haiti is the wearing of military fatigues that multiplies the centigrade temperature on the body by two from the year-round summer temperature.
In the chain of the Caribbean islands, Haiti occupies the pendant with pearls, gold and diamond that made that nation the reservoir of wealth for Europe in general, France in particular for three hundred years. Why was that reservoir tarnished and stopped in the last two hundred years, when nation building took hold under the command of the Haitians?
It is a story of self flagellation of course but it is also a story of discrimination against a nation that for the rest of humanity dared to stop the world order of slavery of man by man.
The last manifestation of that discrimination is in the placing without proper justification of the Republic of Haiti in the list of one of the most dangerous place on earth to visit. I have with the detached professional lens of a foreigner visited the four corners of the country. I have found a nation and a people at peace with itself, labouring every day with meager buying and selling to send the children to school, to eat every day, one day at a time with no protection from and no security in a police presence, yet they are living as though the police presence was everywhere.
While in Cape Haitian, I heard a big commotion in the middle of the night, it was a large crowd yelling, “Baré! Baré!” -- Take hold, take hold! They were in pursuit of a thief, the stronger ones holding the night intruder until the police arrived to take him to jail. Haiti’s cultural background that has its roots in the fear of authority, the Catholic Church and the voodoo syncretism offers a natural barrier against hooliganism, criminality and social disruption.
I am in awe every day at two manifestations that would fray the patience and endurance of any other population. In the midst of the extreme misery of the large part of the people, they do not take up arms against their successive predatory governments and they do not succumb to desperation leading to suicide or pathological behaviours.
Even the earthquake of January 12, 2010, that destroyed life and limb on a large scale did not produce a nation in constant mourning unable to recoup but one that keeps moving forward in the struggle for daily survival. The noblesse oblige attitude sort of national social security net that bonds the poor with the rich that was disrupted under the Lavalas regime is being replaced by an engaging president who believes hospitality for all must be the ultimate goal of its government.
Tourism is to the Caribbean what oil is to the Middle East. Haiti, well positioned in the Caribbean Sea, is unable to reap its share of the green gold bonanza because the Western nations have declared it should not do so!
Aside from good governance, Haiti needs no help or grants from the rest of the world, it needs the lifting of the embargo against tourism in the country. It has a large population (10 million people), a young population, resilient and very creative that needs to be educated and oiled with the rudiments of sophistication.
Bill Clinton, the nemesis of Ronald Reagan, albeit not from the same party, the Cardinal Richelieu of Haiti imposed by the United Nations, has bread on the ground; he must undo the harm done to Haiti by Ronald Reagan! He should start the worldwide campaign against the listing of Haiti as one of the most dangerous place on earth, starting with his own government, the United States of America!
November 7, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Caricom division on Palestine in UNESCO
By RICKEY SINGH
Jamaica and T&T among five abstentions in historic vote
LAST Monday when history was created with an overwhelming vote to admit Palestine as a full member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), there was division among member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) with five — among them Jamaica — abstaining.
Since this was a momentous decision by the General Assembly in the 53-year history of UNESCO -- a virtual household name in all regions of the world, and consistent with the Palestinian Authority's courageous quest to secure statehood status at the UN -- governments of Caricom that opted to abstain perhaps have a moral obligation to explain to their respective jurisdictions why they chose such a political route.
This seems all the more necessary, given the frequently stated commitment of Caricom countries to the Palestinian Authority's Herculean international campaign for statehood status, with sovereign territorial borders alongside Israel.
Having secured overwhelming endorsement at the recent UN General Assembly for its status as a full member — a matter that is expected to come before the UN Security Council later this month, possibly in a week's time — it was logical that the Palestinian Authority would have intensified efforts to gain maximum international support in seeking membership of the 16 UN agencies.
It chose UNESCO as the first hurdle, in the face of aggressive warnings from the Obama administration as well as retaliatory threats from Israel, but went ahead.
More UN agencies
Now, with membership status in UNESCO, and in the face of Washington's likely resort to using its veto weapon in the Security Council to frustrate its strategy to become a full UN member state with voting rights, the Palestinian Authority has already signalled its intention to access membership in all other UN agencies.
These would include specialised agencies such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); the World Health Organisation (WHO); and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
A question of relevance is that, since prior UN membership as a sovereign state was not a requirement to secure admission to UNESCO, why did the five Caricom countries choose to abstain rather than be counted among the affirmative votes?
President Barack Obama's administration and, not surprisingly, the Israeli Government, reacted swiftly in demonstrating their opposition. Washington announced the immediate suspension of its estimated US$60 million annual funding to UNESCO, while Israel lost no time in responding with plans to engage in further illegal construction of "settler homes" in Palestinian territory.
Within 24 hours of the admission of Palestine as a UNESCO member, the Obama administration was again talking about recourse to its veto weapon in the Security Council to block Palestine's statehood membership bid, which was already massively approved by the UN General Assembly.
How they voted
As reported by international news agencies, thunderous applause erupted when it was announced on Monday that of 173 countries that participated in the historic UNESCO decision, 107 voted in favour of Palestine's membership; 14 against and 52 abstained.
Among the Caribbean countries that endorsed the historic decision were Belize, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Grenada, Suriname, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
The USA had the company of Canada and Panama in voting against, while five Caricom countries — The Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago — abstained. Antigua and Barbuda and Guyana were absent.
However, while the USA and Israel are continuing their diplomatic lobbying efforts to frustrate the Security Council vote, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Guyana, Suriname, St Vincent and the Grenadines have already officially recognised Palestinian statehood.
Other Western Hemisphere nations that voted in favour of Palestine's membership in UNESCO were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The United States' annual funding of approximately US$60 million, represents about a quarter of UNESCO's annual budget and it would be of much interest to learn that since the nations in the Middle East enthusiastically voted for Palestine's membership in that body, they -- particularly the oil-rich ones -- would now be disposed to help UNESCO in overcoming its coming budget deficit problem.
Funding concerns
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, in expressing his concerns about threatened loss of financial support for UNESCO by retaliatory measures (mostly from USA, but also including voluntary contributions from Canada), said it was the responsibility of all of the UN's 193 member states "to ensure that all the agencies receive political and financial support".
Washington's quick suspension of further financial support for UNESCO is located in a 1990 decision by the US Congress -- that was largely influenced by pro-Israeli representatives -- authorising the State Department to prohibit funding the UN "or any specialised agency thereof, which accords the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) the same standing as a member state".
Further, by 1994, the US Congress voted to ban funding to "any affiliated organisation of the UN which grants full membership as a state to any organisation or group that does not have the internationally recognised attributes of statehood".
Therein lies the hurdle that President Obama needs to overcome to give effect to his own claimed commitment to a two-state solution to the age-old Israel/Palestine conflict. To date, successive Washington administrations have anchored themselves in rationalisations of support for Israel while engaging in promising gestures towards the Palestinian people.
Questions of immediate relevance, therefore, are: First, will the oil-rich Arab states that voted for Palestine's UNESCO membership now step up to the plate to help meet the agency's budget deficit?
Secondly, does any or all of the five Caricom countries that surprisingly chose to abstain from the vote feel any obligation to offer a public explanation, considering, for a start, that even nations deeply beholden to Washington — like Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait as well as the "new" post-Gadhafi regime in Libya — voted in favour?
Let's wait and see!!
November 06, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Looking in Greek mirror and seeing Jamaica
Jamaica, West Indies
Yesterday, Greece's prime minister, George Papandreou, shelved his proposed referendum on the austerity package that is to accompany the European Union's (EU) latest €$100-billion bailout for his debt-riddled country.
According to Mr Papandreou, he did so because the opposition has given its tacit support to the programme. He, therefore, has authority to push through the measures, against which Greeks have, for months, engaged in street protests.
The Greek case, including, if it holds, the opposition's support for reform, has especial relevance to Jamaica - not the least that the economies of both countries are gravely ill and attendance on which has for far too long been tardy. Their survival demands invasive surgery.
A few economic facts about Greece are worth recollecting: for instance, its €350-billion (US$485 billion) debt, which represents around 152 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Last year, the Greek government paid out 12 per cent more than all revenue it collected to service its debt.
Borrowing to provide basics
The government, therefore, had to borrow to meet its other expenses, the effect of which is to push up the cost of borrowing - not only to the state, but also the private sector. A consequence of this debt crisis is the collapse of the Greek economy. It declined 15 per cent in three years; unemployment is 16 per cent.
Greece's crisis has been building for years, but the Greeks paid little attention. Luckily for them, the eurozone has a stake in giving Athens a lifeline. But the Greeks still have to take the bitter medicine, including public-sector wage cuts, the lowering of state pensions, lowering the threshold at which workers have to pay income tax, and a rise in the value-added tax, among others.
Peel away Jamaica's façade and it reveals an economic situation similar to Greece's. For instance, our debt-to-GDP ratio of around 130 per cent appears lower, but doesn't capture many off-book obligations. For years, the revenue collected by the Jamaican Government has been insufficient to service its debt. Our Government borrows for basic housekeeping.
Jamaica's politicians sometimes allude to the problem, but not often in tones that invoke the depth of the crisis and the magnitude and toughness of the decisions to be taken. On the hustings, they, essentially, are Greeks bearing gifts.
engage middle class
Now, though, the crisis is upon us and the politicians must not be allowed to distract people with rhetoric and campaign razzmatazz. That, as the country heads into a general election, is the critical responsibility of the thinking middle class, without which either major party, playing to its Pied Piper-led base, can win, but whose support is important for effective government and governance.
While the thinking middle class must insist on having the critical policy issues as a central part of the campaign discourse, it must also demand that implementation start now. It must penalise those who would play fast and loose with the truth and demand a post-election economic agenda from the parties.
It may be that Jamaica's politics is insufficiently mature for a national unity government to manage the onrushing crisis, but the thinking middle class can demand that the parties agree on the framework for enhanced cooperation and consensus, once the people have voted. They should know that if Mr Papandreou falls in Athens, the Greeks are considering a former VP of the European Central Bank, Lucas Papademos, to lead a unity government.
November 4, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
...the death of former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner last year was probably the best thing that could have happened to the political career of his wife and current president Cristina Fernández
Cristina, magnanimous in victory?
By David Roberts
It may sound like a cruel thing to say, but the death of former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner last year was probably the best thing that could have happened to the political career of his wife and current president Cristina Fernández.
Without a doubt, the sympathy that the passing of "Mr K" generated for his widow, along with her communication skills in nurturing that sympathy and courting popularity, played a major role in her overwhelming reelection at the polls on October 23. Of course it wasn't the only factor. The failure of the fractured opposition to put up a strong candidate also weighed in, as did the strong economic growth Argentina has enjoyed in recent years. But the turning point was Kirchner's death, and immediately afterwards Fernández's ratings in opinion polls shot up and have stayed there since.
The country's economic success - growing at some 8% annually in recent years - has been largely consumer and export-driven, especially by agricultural exports such as soy for animal feed and vegetable oil, along with natural resources. Perhaps ironically, it has been the initially highly unpopular export taxes on agricultural products, which a few years back led to large-scale protests against the Fernández government, that have provided the funds for social programs which in turn have helped her gain popularity.
Winning a second term in office is, however, only the beginning for Fernández. She now faces major challenges in solidifying Argentina's economy, introducing the structural changes that are needed to ensure long-term stability and wealth that flows, rather than trickles down, to the general population and thereby develops a strong domestic market. There is still far too much poverty, and lack of basic services, in Argentina, a country with so much unfilled potential for so long.
The underlying jitters facing the economy are reflected in the high level of capital flight, estimated at US$3bn a month as more Argentines move their assets abroad, perhaps fearing another economic meltdown. This was something recognized by the government in ordering foreign oil, gas and mining companies to repatriate 100% of export revenues, and in the measures being taken to prevent speculative foreign exchange transactions.
Another major challenge for Fernández is political - she needs to cut out the cronyism, not to mention corruption, we all know riddles Argentina's political scene, among the multitude of both pro-government and opposition parties and all their factions. This seeps through to the country's social fabric and creates the potential for instability, and carries with it the threat that Argentina will once again suffer the "boom to boost" scenario.
But now that Fernández and her allies also have control of the country's congress, the opportunity to face these challenges is there for the taking. A good place to start is to reach out to the opposition and strive to form a national consensus, which she can now do from a position of strength, even dominance. The first signs from the reelected president were positive in this sense, as she appeared to be changing her abrasive "kirchnerista" style to a more conciliatory tone in her post-victory remarks.
bnamericas
By David Roberts
It may sound like a cruel thing to say, but the death of former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner last year was probably the best thing that could have happened to the political career of his wife and current president Cristina Fernández.
Without a doubt, the sympathy that the passing of "Mr K" generated for his widow, along with her communication skills in nurturing that sympathy and courting popularity, played a major role in her overwhelming reelection at the polls on October 23. Of course it wasn't the only factor. The failure of the fractured opposition to put up a strong candidate also weighed in, as did the strong economic growth Argentina has enjoyed in recent years. But the turning point was Kirchner's death, and immediately afterwards Fernández's ratings in opinion polls shot up and have stayed there since.
The country's economic success - growing at some 8% annually in recent years - has been largely consumer and export-driven, especially by agricultural exports such as soy for animal feed and vegetable oil, along with natural resources. Perhaps ironically, it has been the initially highly unpopular export taxes on agricultural products, which a few years back led to large-scale protests against the Fernández government, that have provided the funds for social programs which in turn have helped her gain popularity.
Winning a second term in office is, however, only the beginning for Fernández. She now faces major challenges in solidifying Argentina's economy, introducing the structural changes that are needed to ensure long-term stability and wealth that flows, rather than trickles down, to the general population and thereby develops a strong domestic market. There is still far too much poverty, and lack of basic services, in Argentina, a country with so much unfilled potential for so long.
The underlying jitters facing the economy are reflected in the high level of capital flight, estimated at US$3bn a month as more Argentines move their assets abroad, perhaps fearing another economic meltdown. This was something recognized by the government in ordering foreign oil, gas and mining companies to repatriate 100% of export revenues, and in the measures being taken to prevent speculative foreign exchange transactions.
Another major challenge for Fernández is political - she needs to cut out the cronyism, not to mention corruption, we all know riddles Argentina's political scene, among the multitude of both pro-government and opposition parties and all their factions. This seeps through to the country's social fabric and creates the potential for instability, and carries with it the threat that Argentina will once again suffer the "boom to boost" scenario.
But now that Fernández and her allies also have control of the country's congress, the opportunity to face these challenges is there for the taking. A good place to start is to reach out to the opposition and strive to form a national consensus, which she can now do from a position of strength, even dominance. The first signs from the reelected president were positive in this sense, as she appeared to be changing her abrasive "kirchnerista" style to a more conciliatory tone in her post-victory remarks.
bnamericas
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The Bahamas: ...it must be made clear that there will be zero tolerance for police brutality in any form going forward, and all officers must be made to understand they will be held accountable for their actions
Time to tackle police brutality
By PACO NUNEZ
Tribune242 News Editor
Nassau, The Bahamas
A young man is at the wrong place at the wrong time. He walks into a grocery store right after it's been robbed and the cashier shot.
Overturned carts, frantic shoppers running about aimlessly, a pool of blood spreading across the floor; the shock of it all sends him bolting back through the door - right into the arms of a responding policeman.
Three hours later, the young man finds himself tied to a metal chair in a small, hot room, trying desperately to suck in air through a taught plastic bag as a burly officer pulls it taught yet again, while his colleague demands to know the name of the accomplice, the one who made off with the gun and the money.
In the end, terrified and exhausted, the young man signs a confession.
Such scenes are the stuff of a thousand detective novels and suspense movies. They are also a regular feature of the real life drama unfolding every day in our court system.
As a staff reporter I spent a year on the court beat, but can't bring to mind a single murder or armed robbery trial where the accused hadn't signed a confession while in police custody.
But when the court date came, they almost always pleaded not guilty. Their explanation? They are innocent, but the confession was beaten out of them.
As grim as violent crime trials can be, the presence of the same two officers, fingered by virtually every alleged victim of police brutality, waiting on the witness bench to tell yet another jury that, no, they didn't beat the accused, became the joke of the day among the Bank Lane press corps.
Of course, we knew that most of the sob stories were pure fiction. But we also knew that some of them had to be true.
Everyone knows suspects are beaten while in police custody; this country is far too small for that kind of thing to remain a secret. And I don't mean officers using force to secure a prisoner who lashes out or attempts to escape, I mean the use of violence to extract a confession, or sometimes just for fun.
Now, many Bahamians don't have a problem with this. This is a society plagued by crime and violence at unprecedented levels and many feel the justice system is just too soft on offenders; someone has to give them what they deserve.
The police are up against men who are little more than animals, and understand only violence, the argument goes.
And, we can be confident the right guy is taking the beating, because we have faith in the integrity of our police force.
But were the people who hold this attitude to pause and really think about it for a moment, they might come to some different conclusions.
Let us leave to one side for the moment abstract ideas of justice, lofty notions of human rights and the presumption of innocence, psychologists' arguments about how violence begets violence, and look at the matter the way a seasoned police officer would: in terms of good old-fashioned law and order.
CONSIDER:
* that while some of us, usually those with more to lose, do have confidence in the integrity of the police, a large and growing segment of the population doesn't - the very segment that concerns us: young men from inner city neighbourhoods, roughly between the ages of 15 and 35.
* that this is probably due in part to the fact that the victims of interview room beatings are usually drawn from this same demographic.
* that these young men, their relatives and friends are precisely the social group the police are taking great pains to reach out to as they continue to push the message that they can't solve crime alone.
* that if your son, nephew or family friend tells you horror stories about their treatment at the hands of police, you're probably less than likely to want to help officers with an investigation.
* that police are competing for the hearts and minds of inner city communities against a host of contrary influences, among them: a drug trade that promises money, popularity and power; a ghetto gun culture imported from the inner cities of our neighbour to the north; and various Caribbean subcultures that see the police as an instrument of oppression.
* that information secured by beatings or under torture is unreliable, as people will say anything to cause the pain to stop. Therefore, it is inevitable that sometimes the police will get a confession from the wrong man, leaving the real violent criminal loose on the streets.
With all this in mind, it isn't difficult to see how police brutality does far more harm than good, promoting the very culture of lawlessness and antagonism towards authority that are at the root of our crime problem in the first place.
Perhaps even more significant is a secondary effect: it erodes the faith in the police of the "majority in the middle", those who are neither the fans of "tough" policing of this kind, nor friends of the criminals.
Do countless suspects name the same two or three tormentors and describe an identical torture room in the bowels of CDU headquarters because they are telling the truth, or because there is a vast conspiracy amongst criminals?
Will officers really beat a man they suspect might be innocent, just because they're under pressure to get a confession?
Questions such as these muddy the waters of right and wrong, and lead many a law-abiding citizen to wonder if it isn't better to just avoid becoming involved at all - which, in turn, leaves the police with even fewer allies in the fight against crime.
How far this attitude can be justified is hard to say.
Senior officers do acknowledge that beatings happen, but put it down to the work of a few "bad apples."
Rogue cops certainly exist, but it is also true that fear and violence are considered important tools of the trade in certain units of the force.
A few years ago, the lead officer in a murder trial admitted to me that the case would be difficult to crack, because unlike most of the matters he handles, the witnesses and suspects were from wealthy families, came to police interviews with expert lawyers on hand, and therefore couldn't be questioned in the normal way.
"We can't beat 'em," he said when asked to elaborate.
Speaking to this officer at length, I got the impression that he genuinely wanted to do all he could to protect the public from criminals, but simply lacked the skills to conduct an investigation in any other fashion.
Officers
Yet police officers around the world employ a variety of reliable, efficient, methods of detection and interrogation that do not involve violence.
The government has made its move in the war against crime, bringing a raft of anti-crime Bills to parliament for debate this month.
It is high time the police force followed suit and acknowledged that a dramatic change is necessary if they want to win the confidence of the public and unite all facets of this society against crime.
The top brass should move immediately to identify the cutting-edge tools and techniques used in other countries that would be best suited to the Bahamas, and either send Police College staff to learn these methods, or bring the appropriate trainers in from overseas.
Most importantly, it must be made clear that there will be zero tolerance for police brutality in any form going forward, and all officers must be made to understand they will be held accountable for their actions.
What do you think?
pnunez@tribunemedia.net
October 31, 2011
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