Cuba: We have a youth prepared to give continuity to the Revolution

• Confirms José Ramón Machado Ventura during the 9th UJC Congress Evaluation Assembly

Freddy Pérez Cabrera

SANTA CLARA.—The certainty that Cuban youth will know how to continue the work of the Revolution until its ultimate consequences, was confirmed in the this "city of Che" by José Ramón Machado Ventura, member of the Political Bureau during the course of the 9th UJC Congress Evaluation Assembly.

"We have a strong and well-prepared youth, who are in a position to give continuity to the revolutionary process, under present and future conditions. This is the commitment made by young people, and we are certain, firmly convinced, that they will carry this commitment to its ultimate consequences," stated the Cuban first vice president during his speech to the plenary.

"There are problems and difficulties everywhere, but we cannot say that this is because of the youth," commented Machado Ventura, who made a call to continue working with young people who are not demonstrating a firm commitment to fulfilling the tasks mentioned.

In another part of his speech, Machado called on UJC members and young people in general to support the election process that has been recently initiated throughout the country.

Yulián García Zayas Bazán, UJC secretary at the Valle de Yabú Mixed Cultivation Enterprise, highlighted the problems affecting the internal workings of the organization, and emphasized that young people cannot only see themselves as activists when meetings take place, an opinion that was shared by Machado Ventura, who acknowledged that we still lack creativity when it comes to planning youth meetings.

Liudmila Alamo Dueñas, first secretary of the UJC National Committee, highlighted the need to eradicate bureaucracy in the work of the organization, and to solve problems resulting from a lack of information and arguments from certain members and local committees, rather than wait for a Congress to take place.

Julio Lima Corzo, first secretary of the party in Villa Clara, commented on this issue and stated that young people need to create the debates, not with empty slogans but with solid arguments, in a way in which they can rise to the historic challenge of preserving the socialist homeland for present and future generations.

The assembly elected the delegates who will represent that area at the UJC national congress and confirmed Richeliet Calderón Acea as the first secretary of the UJC’s Municipal Committee.

Translated by Granma International

January 11, 2010

granma.cu

Bahamas caribbean Blog International

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The Young Communist League (Spanish: Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas, UJC) is the youth organisation of the Communist Party of Cuba.

EU must be 'demanding' with Cuba, says Spain

MADRID, Spain (AFP) -- Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called Friday on the European Union to be "demanding" with Cuba even while pushing for dialogue with the island's communist regime.

Spain, which assumed the rotating EU presidency for six months on January 1, is at the forefront of efforts to boost relations with Cuba, a former Spanish colony.

"We must be demanding with Cuba but always keep the door open to dialogue," Zapatero said at a press conference with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and the EU's new president, Herman Van Rompuy.

Spanish media have reported that Madrid wants to establish a new agreement on EU-Cuba ties in the first half of 2010 but has lowered its ambitions to avoid objects from other EU nations.

Asked about the reports, Zapatero said that "for the entire EU, Cuba is not a priority, even if for Spain it is very important".

"Today we had a long meeting and among the foreign policy topics which we discussed, we did not touch on Cuba," said Zapatero, referring to his talks with Van Rompuy and Barroso.

Van Rompuy said he has had "little time to think about Cuba" since he assumed office on December 1.

Spain wants to see an end to the European Union's position on Cuba, adopted in 1996, which calls for improvements in human rights and democracy on the island as a condition for normal relations with the 27-nation European bloc.

But this is opposed by other EU nations, including the two previous holders of the bloc's presidency -- Sweden and the Czech Republic -- as well Cuban human rights groups.

Spain's policy on Cuba shifted in 2005 after Zapatero, a socialist, came to power the previous year. His conservative predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, had adopted a policy of isolating the Communist island.

In 2007 Spain and Cuba renewed ties damaged by Havana's jailing of 75 dissidents in 2003.

January 9, 2010

caribbeannetnews

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

Bahamas: Reducing the government 'only way' to long-term fiscal security

By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor:


Reducing the size of government is "the only way" to set the Bahamas' public finances back on the road to fiscal sustainability, a leading accountant said yesterday, arguing that the private sector was not large enough to generate the tax revenues needed to pay for ever-expanding public services.

Raymond Winder, Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) managing partner, also criticised the "average Bahamian" for putting pressure on politicians to continually increase public spending through the mistaken belief that "government can solve all our ills and problems without it costing money".

Acknowledging that Bahamian political, religious and other community leaders "in teaching the average Bahamian that there is nothing free", Mr Winder told Tribune Business that people needed to take more personal responsibility and realise that the country and economy, not just the Government, needed to grow.

"We're not educating people to let them know you can't continually increase the size of government, or have the government continually provide new services, without having that money come from somewhere," he explained.

Raising taxes or introducing new ones was not the long-term answer, Mr Winder added, because the Bahamas - given its relatively small size and population - could only bear this rising burden to a certain point.

And given the recession, which had caused business activity and international trade to contract, and a subsequent decline in government revenues, Mr Winder said companies and households were in no position to absorb new and/or increased taxes and fees.

"We don't have a private sector that is big enough to pay for all these services," the Deloitte & Touche (Bahamas) managing partner said. "The majority of the private sector is unable to meet their obligations, so how do you expect to get all this without paying for these services. It's just not there.

"We need to tighten our belts and take personal responsibility for some of the things we ought to."

Backing the position adopted by Rick Lowe, an executive with the hawkish Nassau Institute economic think-tank, Mr Winder told Tribune Business: "For the size of our country, the Government is too big and has to be reduced. That's the only way to right our fiscal responsibility [position]."

Bahamians had been led to believe that growing the Government could fix all this nation's problems and social ills, without realising that the economy and country as a whole needed to grow to.

"The reality is our problems will not be solved if government continues to grow without the wider country growing with it," he added.

Yet Mr Winder said any politician who preached the message of personal and fiscal responsibility, and that the Bahamas should not keep increasing the size of government, was unlikely to find themselves a politician for too much long because it was not something the majority of voters were attuned to or accustomed to hearing.

"I blame the average Bahamian, who believes the Government can solve all our problems and ills without it costing money," Mr Winder said.

He added that "ministers of the Gospel also need to do a better job", as many were "continually pushing" for the Government to provide new services and cure all the Bahamas' problems.

Tribune Business revealed yesterday how the Bahamas' national debt stands at almost $3.8 billion, between $11,000-$12,000 per resident. Data from the Central Bank of the Bahamas' latest statistical digest showed that at the 2009 third quarter end on September 30, 2009, this nation's national debt stood at $3.675 billion. Some $3.236 billion of that was directly owed to creditors by the Bahamian government, along with a further $438.486 million worth of borrowings it had guaranteed on behalf of public sector corporations and agencies.

In downgrading the Bahamas' long-term sovereign credit rating, Standard & Poor's (S&P) had warned: "Overall, the general government deficit is projected at 4.8 per cent of GDP in 2009-2010 (ending June 2010) from an estimated 4.1 per cent of GDP in 2008-2009.

"During 2010-2012, we project general government deficits on the order of 3.5 per cent of GDP, compared with deficits of 1.5 per cent of GDP in 2003-2007."

The Wall Street credit rating agency said the Bahamas' net general government debt had risen to 30 per cent of GDP, compared to 22 per cent in 2008, and it added: "We project that it will continue rising to 35-39 per cent of GDP in 2010-2012.

"Gross general government debt is higher at 46 per cent of GDP in 2009, up from 37 per cent in 2008. The Commonwealth's share of external to locally issued debt is 20 per cent, which is relatively low but up from 10 per cent in 2007."

January 08, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

Bahamas: Attorney voices concern over retired politicians on bench

By TANEKA THOMPSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
tthompson@tribunemedia.net:



ATTORNEY Damian Gomez contends that the number of retired politicians who are taking up positions on the bench makes it harder for lawyers to find a sitting judge without an apparent conflict of interest in civil suits against the AG's office.

Mr Gomez claims this has created a court backlog contributing to deteriorating public confidence in the legal system.

His comments add to the growing concern that the anticipated appointment of former MP Malcolm Adderley to the Supreme Court bench will undermine the independence of the judiciary from the influence of the executive branch of Government.

"It's just an impossible situation and now we have another person (who may be appointed to the bench) which may add to the difficulty in getting a judge who may or may not have a conflict.

"What it does is lend credence to the critics of our court system, who say all it is, is politics. I'm not prepared to say it's political interference, I don't know, it doesn't have the right smell. It undermines the public confidence of the (court), " he said when contacted yesterday for comment.

Mr Adderley is 64 years old, just shy of the mandatory retirement age of 65 for a judge. It has been rumoured in political circles that Mr Adderley will be offered an extension past the normal retirement age from Government.

Mr Gomez thinks Mr Adderley is qualified for the job but said this reported arrangement would suggest that the ex-MP "will not be as conflict-free in public law matters as he ought".

"I happen to like Malcolm Adderley as a person but I'm just saying that I just find it strange that on the eve of the age of ordinary retirement, he would be given a post which would, in order to make sense, would require him to be extended beyond two years," he continued.

There is also a cry for constitutional reform in order to limit the control a prime minister has over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

Pushing for such reform is fringe political group, the National Development Party, which questioned if Mr Adderley used his political leverage as a bargaining chip to secure a judicial post. The NDP argued that his resignation from the House was proof that the constitution is "vulnerable to abuse."

"It is because our constitution was not designed to protect the citizenry from the abuse of power by the Prime Minister, that Mr Malcolm Adderley is today causing the public to question whether he used his elected office as a bargaining chip in this game of political poker that has been played between the FNM and the PLP since May of 2007," the NDP told the press in an impromptu press conference on the steps of the House of Assembly yesterday morning, after Mr Adderley resigned from Parliament.

This comes after speculation that Government wooed Mr Adderley away from the PLP with promises of a post within the Supreme Court in exchange for his seat.

The NDP said the country must institute constitutional safeguards to limit a prime minister's "absolute power", if the Bahamas plans to escape being categorised as a "Banana Republic."

tribune242

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

Cuba rejects inclusion on blacklist

AS WE GO TO PRESS…

WASHINGTON.—The Cuban Interests Section in this capital assured this January 5 that the island government is cooperating in the international fight against terrorism, and it condemned its inclusion on the list of states described by the U.S. administration as sponsors of terrorism, EFE reports.

Alberto González, spokesman for the Cuban mission in Washington, stated that Cuba "has complied with, is complying with and will comply with the internationally recognized security measures in these cases," and he noted that the Cuban people "do not recognize in any way the moral authority of the U.S. government to certify their inclusion on this kind of list."

González unequivocally stated that "Cuban territory has never been utilized to organize, finance or execute acts of terrorism against the United States or any other state," and suggested that this latest attack on the island is politically motivated.

On the contrary, he continued, Cuba has been the victim of violence and terrorism on the part of individuals such as Luis Posada Carriles, who remains at large in the United States and has not been brought to justice.

Translated by Granma International

January 6, 2010

granma.cu

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

Bahamas: Criminal justice in crisis

IN A few weeks time the Prime Minister will give his state of the nation message, which will deal with many subjects of importance. Crime will obviously feature high on his agenda.

This will be the deciding year -- either the criminals will get control or the community, the police and the judiciary will unite to return law and order to the nation.

Today the criminal seems to have the upper hand. In other words he is literally getting away with murder.

The judge who returns a person to the streets on remand is not doing that person a favour. Some would have been safer behind bars for whatever length of time they would have had to await trial. In the interim several of them have been killed.

But let's look at it from the point of view of the accused. Recently we were told by one -- a tinge of sarcastic bitterness in his voice -- "Man I just working for my lawyer!"

Translated that comment meant that he fully realised that with a criminal record he had no hope of finding a job once he was returned to the streets on remand. The reality of life was that he had to eat, secure lodging and in many cases try to support a family. Unable to work, he had to continue a life of crime, and the crime had to be lucrative enough to provide lawyer's fees against the day he was caught and had to again plead "not guilty" before the bar of justice. His future depended upon that lawyer using his debating skills and the knowledge of the law to keep him out of prison. And so for him -- and the community -- the cycle of crime continues.

There is then the even more frightening phenomenon of the intimidation of witnesses. Even from behind their prison bars witnesses are being intimidated by certain accused persons. Witnesses have often recanted through fear.

A person who has nothing to lose, but everything to gain by using his wits will go to criminal lengths to secure his freedom. And some of these men, sitting in a jail cell, are going to those criminal lengths to intimidate a community.

We have heard of a case of an accused, in jail, using a cell phone to contact a leading witness in his case to say what would happen to him if he testified. Imagine in prison with a cell phone. Imagine what would happen to trials if witnesses are silenced through fear. No one would go to prison and justice would have to take its course on the streets.

For prisoners to have cells phones in prison -- and this has been reported on many occasions in the past -- there has to be a severe breach of security at the prison. The police should do a thorough investigation and get to the bottom of this. From what we understand, this particular prisoner is not the only one who is managing his affairs from a prison cell with the aid of a cell phone.

There was another instance, which we are told took place not too long ago during a hearing in the Nassau Street magistrate's court. The accused is said to have lifted his hand showing his palm to the witness in the box. The number 186 was written on the palm.

Later the witness asked the significance of 186. The reply was that in "street language" 186 meant that the accused planned to instruct his "boys" to shoot up the witness and all his family in a "drive by."

And then there are the lawyers. Much of the case backlog is caused by lawyers, either because they are not prepared, have too many cases going on at the same time and need postponements, or are just using delaying tactics in hopes that the case will fall off the court calendar for want of many things, not the least among them the absence of witnesses. The court system not only needs an overhaul, but on the part of lawyers a return to discipline, efficiency and respect for the court's time.

As for some of the judges -- that's another story. Sometimes we wonder if they live on the same planet and are aware of what they are doing to the community when they return, not once, but twice and in a few cases three times, murder accused to the community to await trial. There have been occasions when these accused have killed each other and saved the court time, but there also have been occasions when an innocent bystander has been caught in the cross fire.

Last year Dame Joan Sawyer, Appeals Court judge, ruled that in bail decisions if a judge has to warn the bail applicant not to interfere with witnesses, then that applicant should not be granted bail.

We understand that one of that august body retorted that if that were the case then he would not give such warnings in the future for fear of the Attorney General's office applying to revoke the bail.

These are the problems that the Prime Minister and parliamentarians have to face, because legislation is obviously needed to deal with some of them.

January 04, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International

Trinidad and Tobago: Incest A very big problem

Incest has been described as “a very big problem” in Trinidad and Tobago, which needs to be seriously addressed.

“It is a huge problem. People do not want to face what is really going on. Most perpetrators are well known to the family. They can be a stepfather, uncle,” said Glennis Hyacenth, executive director of Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity (ASPIRE).

She said this was a difficult situation for families to face and they prefer to keep it quiet. They also ignore the pregnancy. In an interview with Newsday, Hyacenth said children from 11 to 14 years go to hospitals and have their babies and no reports are made to the police stations.

Statutory rape–sex with someone under the age of 16 is also a problem which ASPIRE said had to be addressed. Hyacenth said the fathers of the babies being born to young girls were men who were “quite older”.

She described the draft gender policy as “a total disappointment” with respect to sexual and reproductive health of women and youths. ASPIRE has spent years lobbying for reform of TT’s abortion laws but has not been able to get discussion on the government agenda.

Hyacenth said for the past two years, the focus has been on the development of policies and protocols for safe and legal terminations of pregnancy. abortions are legal under certain circumstances such as saving a life, preserving the mental and physical health of the woman.

“Many health care professionals and policy makers are not very clear on what the law is. We are pushing that message that abortion is legal therefore policy guidelines and policies are needed for that legal ambit of the law.”

ASPIRE has been lobbying through education and heightening awareness with different interest groups.

Hyacenth said many people prefer to not face the issue of abortion but her group deals with it and wanted to see unsafe abortions eradicated. Reducing the number of abortions taking place is a goal of ASPIRE. The group also wants comprehensive sexual education in schools.

“Many young people are engaging in things that they have no knowledge about. There are also many myths about terminating pregnancy like drinking a hot Guinness. It is important that the Government and Ministry of Education look seriously at that.”

Hyacenth said abortion was the end stage but something had to be done to prevent this.

ASPIRE held its annual general meeting a few weeks ago and featured speaker, Diana Mahabir- Wyatt, addressed the theme, “The Cycle of Sexual Violence Against Women Rape and Incest, Unwanted Pregnancies and Abortion”. Mahabir-Wyatt highlighted the female secondary school students who were prostituting themselves to support their households.


January 3 2010

newsday.co.tt

Bahamas Caribbean Blog International