Fearful Cuba watches, waits for BP oil spill
By Jeff Franks:
HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Red flags went up on beaches in western Cuban this week, closing them briefly to swimmers amid rumors that the BP oil spill in the US part of the Gulf of Mexico was forcing sharks into Cuban waters.
The government, through state-run press, quickly denounced the rumors as false and the beaches were reopened, but the incident reflected fears that the massive spill will reach Cuba and wreak havoc on an island still relatively untouched by modernity's environmental ills.
"Cuba, like all the countries in this area, is worried about the situation in the Gulf," said Osmani Borrego Fernandez, a director at the Guanahacabibes National Park at Cuba's western tip.
So far, he said, there has been no evidence of the oil, but "we are alert."
A trip along Cuba's coastline is like a trip back in time where vast stretches of palm-fringed beaches sit undeveloped and sea life abounds in the crystalline waters.
While rampant development and overfishing have damaged coastlines and depleted seas around the world, communist-led Cuba has been largely preserved by its slow economic pace.
As a result, scientists and environmentalists view Cuban waters as a place where they can see how the world's oceans were decades ago.
"Many areas along the coast, and thousands of small keys, are in rural areas or are remote and have simply been left alone," said Dan Whittle, senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund.
"Ernest Hemingway set up a fish camp on Cayo Paraiso (about 90 miles west of Havana) in the 1940s and the area has not really changed since then. If he were still alive, he'd still recognize it today," he said of the US writer who lived in Cuba for two decades.
Cuba's northwest coast is considered most in danger from the oil. It is there that coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves provide major breeding grounds for many fish and sea creatures, including endangered migratory species like sea turtles, sharks and manatees, Whittle said.
All that is at stake if the BP oil finds its way to Cuba. It could also damage Cuba's tourism industry, which is centered on beaches and to a lesser degree eco-tourism.
Tourism brought in more than $2 billion to Cuba last year, or about 20 percent of Cuban's foreign exchange income.
The good news for Cuba is that the spill is still centered about 300 miles northwest of the island and BP may finally be gaining control over the massive leak.
Officials for the oil giant said on Friday their so-called "top kill" solution of plugging the gusher by pumping in "drilling mud" was showing signs of success.
But even if that happens soon, Cuban officials are concerned that the oil already in the water could be swept south by gulf currents.
Cuba is separated from the Florida Keys by just 90 miles of water and despite their disparate political histories, the United States and Cuba are inextricably linked ecologically.
Another rumor that supposedly contributed to the Cuban beach closures this week was that lionfish, which have venomous spikes and have invaded Cuban waters in recent years from Florida, were poisoning swimmers. The government said that rumor also was false.
The United States and Cuba have been at odds since Fidel Castro took power in a 1959 revolution, but they held talks last week about the oil slick, officials said.
Cuba expert Wayne Smith at the Center for International Policy think tank in Washington said he met with Cuban authorities this week in Havana and that they are "fully open" to cooperation with the Americans to stop the oil.
Standing in the way is the longstanding US trade embargo against Cuba, which prevents the use of much US technology in Cuba.
At a conference this week in Washington, oil experts and environmentalists said it was time to allow cooperation with Cuba in oil safety practices.
"We are not talking about a transfer of technology. All we are asking is that, if there is an accident, the Cubans can pick up the phone and call American experts who can bring resources within 24 hours," said oil expert Jorge Pinon.
The issue is becoming a bigger one as Spanish oil giant Repsol prepares to drill for oil off Cuba's ecologically rich northwest coast perhaps later this year. It has contracted for use of an Italian-owned drilling rig now being completed in China.
While the spill is a disaster, it might have one positive result, Smith said.
"It actually could help improve (US-Cuba) relations if we cooperate in the right way and we have the right attitude," he said.
May 29, 2010
caribbeannetnews
An International Caribbean Online Log about the news and opinions in the Americas and World. This Caribbean Blog of global reach and appeal is maintained by Bahamian Blogger - Dennis Dames with all readers and subscribers in mind.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Jamaica's business is the Caribbean's business
By Sir Ronald Sanders:
The widely publicised bloody clashes over the last few days between law enforcement agencies and armed gangs in Jamaica are as bad for the economic and social well-being of the people of Caribbean countries as they are for Jamaicans.
While the members of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) see themselves as a “Community of Independent Sovereign States”, most of the rest of the world regard them as one area. Only the most knowledgeable make a distinction between them. So, events in Jamaica impact all other CARICOM countries whether they like it or not.
In meaningful terms, therefore, Jamaica’s business is CARICOM’s business. Neither CARICOM governments nor the people of CARICOM can sit back and pretend that events in Jamaica in which criminals defy the authority of the State are not relevant to them. CARICOM countries are tied together and none can deny cross-border relationships in trade, investment and people.
Jamaica is the biggest of the CARICOM countries in population terms and it impresses and influences the world far more than other CARICOM countries. Of course, the impression and influence have been both beneficial and inimical to Jamaica and the wider region.
On the positive side, the vibrant music of Jamaica and its musicians, led by the iconic Bob Marley, have clearly given Jamaica global recognition. So too have its holiday resorts which are playgrounds for tourists from all over Europe and North America. Jamaican agricultural products, such as its Blue Mountain Coffee, and many of its manufactured goods have been able to penetrate foreign markets more deeply than those from other regional countries.
And, CARICOM’s negotiations with large countries and groups of countries would be much weaker and far less effective without the participation of Jamaica. Its relatively large population of close to three million people makes Jamaica a more attractive market than the majority of CARICOM countries which, with the exception of Trinidad and Tobago, each number less than a million people. Because of the size of its population, even with the limitations of educational opportunities, Jamaica also has more qualified technical people for bargaining internationally than its partner countries in CARICOM. Therefore, the participation of Jamaican negotiators in CARICOM teams is extremely valuable.
Jamaicans also constitute the largest number of the West Indian Diaspora in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. To the extent that the West Indian Diaspora is a group whose votes are wooed by political parties in these countries, much is owed to Jamaicans for the attention paid to Caribbean concerns.
On the negative side, Jamaica’s internal crime, and organised crime that its gangs have exported to Britain, Canada and the United States have created an unwholesome image for the country and severely damaged it economically. In the process, CARICOM has been weakened economically as well, for an economically weak Jamaica is unable to serve as a dynamo for economic activity and growth throughout the area.
Jamaica’s high crime level has been bad for business and bad for its economy. A 2003 study found that the total costs of crime came to J$12.4 billion which was 3.7% of GDP, and a 2007 UN report projected that if Jamaica could reduce violent crime to Costa Rica’s low level, the economy would grow by 5.4%. In a World Bank survey, 39% of Jamaica’s business managers said they were less likely to expand their businesses because of crime, and 37% reported that crime discourages investment that would have encouraged greater productivity.
Apart from scaring away investment, high crime in Jamaica has also caused many of its professionals and middle-class families to flee the country seeking safer environments abroad. More than 80 per cent of Jamaica’s tertiary educated people have migrated to the world’s industrialized nations.
It doesn’t take much imagination to work out how much more socially and economically developed Jamaica would have been today had it not been plagued by over 30 years of escalating crime and its debilitating consequences.
From time to time, outbursts of violent crime have affected the country’s tourism which contributes about 10 per cent of the country’s GDP. It is only because of expensive and extensive advertising and public relations campaigns in the main tourist markets that Jamaica has managed to keep its tourism arrivals by air fairly stable.
This latest, globally-publicized, bloody confrontation between security forces and criminal gangs protecting a Drugs Don, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, from being served with an order for extradition to the United States and arrested, will damage the tourism industry harshly, and, again, once it is over, Jamaica will be forced to spend large sums repairing its image and assuring tourists of its safety.
Other CARICOM countries will not be immune from the Jamaica disturbances. On the basis that tourists see the Caribbean as one place, other Caribbean destinations will also have to spend more on promoting themselves.
The fact that “Dudus” could be protected by well-armed, criminal gangs who have neither respect for, nor fear of, Jamaica’s security forces or the authority of the State, is a direct consequence of governance gone badly wrong. From the mid-1970s the two main political parties in Jamaica, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the Peoples National Party (PNP) have formed alliances with gangs that have been well-armed and in many cases are involved in the drugs trade. Having taken that step that renders politicians beholden to criminals, the political hierarchy began an inexorable downward spiral to disaster.
In effect, part of the State has been captured by leaders of criminal gangs to whom political parties are obligated. Nothing else but this sense of obligation to “Dudus” Coke can explain why Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding, as Leader of the JLP, would have intervened at party level to influence a law enforcement matter between his government and the government of the US.
The Jamaican government now has to assert the authority of the State over “Dudus” and his gang, and it must be done if Jamaica is to be freed from the captivity of criminal gangs.
And, when this particular confrontation is over, Jamaica must start the gruelling process of openly and transparently dismantling all party political connections with gangs, reasserting the supremacy of the State, and weeding out gangs that are the scourge of the society. Any alternative scenario is too terrifying to contemplate but it does include Jamaica being plunged into the status of a failed State.
This is why it behoves the current party political leaders to set to the task of recovering the State from the influence of criminals and establishing broad based institutions empowered by law to oversee public services and political practices. Jamaica will be economically stronger, socially better and politically more stable than it has been for decades and, as a consequence, CARICOM will benefit.
May 28, 2010
caribbeannetnews
The widely publicised bloody clashes over the last few days between law enforcement agencies and armed gangs in Jamaica are as bad for the economic and social well-being of the people of Caribbean countries as they are for Jamaicans.
While the members of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) see themselves as a “Community of Independent Sovereign States”, most of the rest of the world regard them as one area. Only the most knowledgeable make a distinction between them. So, events in Jamaica impact all other CARICOM countries whether they like it or not.
In meaningful terms, therefore, Jamaica’s business is CARICOM’s business. Neither CARICOM governments nor the people of CARICOM can sit back and pretend that events in Jamaica in which criminals defy the authority of the State are not relevant to them. CARICOM countries are tied together and none can deny cross-border relationships in trade, investment and people. Jamaica is the biggest of the CARICOM countries in population terms and it impresses and influences the world far more than other CARICOM countries. Of course, the impression and influence have been both beneficial and inimical to Jamaica and the wider region.
On the positive side, the vibrant music of Jamaica and its musicians, led by the iconic Bob Marley, have clearly given Jamaica global recognition. So too have its holiday resorts which are playgrounds for tourists from all over Europe and North America. Jamaican agricultural products, such as its Blue Mountain Coffee, and many of its manufactured goods have been able to penetrate foreign markets more deeply than those from other regional countries.
And, CARICOM’s negotiations with large countries and groups of countries would be much weaker and far less effective without the participation of Jamaica. Its relatively large population of close to three million people makes Jamaica a more attractive market than the majority of CARICOM countries which, with the exception of Trinidad and Tobago, each number less than a million people. Because of the size of its population, even with the limitations of educational opportunities, Jamaica also has more qualified technical people for bargaining internationally than its partner countries in CARICOM. Therefore, the participation of Jamaican negotiators in CARICOM teams is extremely valuable.
Jamaicans also constitute the largest number of the West Indian Diaspora in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. To the extent that the West Indian Diaspora is a group whose votes are wooed by political parties in these countries, much is owed to Jamaicans for the attention paid to Caribbean concerns.
On the negative side, Jamaica’s internal crime, and organised crime that its gangs have exported to Britain, Canada and the United States have created an unwholesome image for the country and severely damaged it economically. In the process, CARICOM has been weakened economically as well, for an economically weak Jamaica is unable to serve as a dynamo for economic activity and growth throughout the area.
Jamaica’s high crime level has been bad for business and bad for its economy. A 2003 study found that the total costs of crime came to J$12.4 billion which was 3.7% of GDP, and a 2007 UN report projected that if Jamaica could reduce violent crime to Costa Rica’s low level, the economy would grow by 5.4%. In a World Bank survey, 39% of Jamaica’s business managers said they were less likely to expand their businesses because of crime, and 37% reported that crime discourages investment that would have encouraged greater productivity.
Apart from scaring away investment, high crime in Jamaica has also caused many of its professionals and middle-class families to flee the country seeking safer environments abroad. More than 80 per cent of Jamaica’s tertiary educated people have migrated to the world’s industrialized nations.
It doesn’t take much imagination to work out how much more socially and economically developed Jamaica would have been today had it not been plagued by over 30 years of escalating crime and its debilitating consequences.
From time to time, outbursts of violent crime have affected the country’s tourism which contributes about 10 per cent of the country’s GDP. It is only because of expensive and extensive advertising and public relations campaigns in the main tourist markets that Jamaica has managed to keep its tourism arrivals by air fairly stable.
This latest, globally-publicized, bloody confrontation between security forces and criminal gangs protecting a Drugs Don, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, from being served with an order for extradition to the United States and arrested, will damage the tourism industry harshly, and, again, once it is over, Jamaica will be forced to spend large sums repairing its image and assuring tourists of its safety.
Other CARICOM countries will not be immune from the Jamaica disturbances. On the basis that tourists see the Caribbean as one place, other Caribbean destinations will also have to spend more on promoting themselves.
The fact that “Dudus” could be protected by well-armed, criminal gangs who have neither respect for, nor fear of, Jamaica’s security forces or the authority of the State, is a direct consequence of governance gone badly wrong. From the mid-1970s the two main political parties in Jamaica, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the Peoples National Party (PNP) have formed alliances with gangs that have been well-armed and in many cases are involved in the drugs trade. Having taken that step that renders politicians beholden to criminals, the political hierarchy began an inexorable downward spiral to disaster.
In effect, part of the State has been captured by leaders of criminal gangs to whom political parties are obligated. Nothing else but this sense of obligation to “Dudus” Coke can explain why Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding, as Leader of the JLP, would have intervened at party level to influence a law enforcement matter between his government and the government of the US.
The Jamaican government now has to assert the authority of the State over “Dudus” and his gang, and it must be done if Jamaica is to be freed from the captivity of criminal gangs.
And, when this particular confrontation is over, Jamaica must start the gruelling process of openly and transparently dismantling all party political connections with gangs, reasserting the supremacy of the State, and weeding out gangs that are the scourge of the society. Any alternative scenario is too terrifying to contemplate but it does include Jamaica being plunged into the status of a failed State.
This is why it behoves the current party political leaders to set to the task of recovering the State from the influence of criminals and establishing broad based institutions empowered by law to oversee public services and political practices. Jamaica will be economically stronger, socially better and politically more stable than it has been for decades and, as a consequence, CARICOM will benefit.
May 28, 2010
caribbeannetnews
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Christopher 'Dudus' Coke is next to God
'Dudus next to God'
By Pastor Devon Dick:
On Thursday last, an unnamed woman expressed solidarity with Christopher 'Dudus' Coke by stating that "Dudus next to God." This affirmation portrays how she perceived both God and Dudus.
Some Christians might find it an affront to God. And it is hardly likely that the churches that will be observing Trinity Sunday in three days time will have such a formulation as they try to explain God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But it appears to me that this woman was mouthing a concept of God, to which some sections of the church have unwittingly ascribed. Obviously, for her, God is someone who destroys the enemies, dispenses justice quickly without going through legal human channels, provides for them and protects them. And apparently, Dudus has similar attributes. One woman proclaimed that she has six children and Dudus is the godfather, while another testified that she can leave her door open and her children are not raped.
This concept of God is not empowering and definitely one-dimensional. Rather it makes people passive, expecting handouts only. It is a mentality in some sections of the church in which the main philosophy is to give a fish rather than teaching the person to fish. It is a mendicancy syndrome. Therefore, some churches take pride in announcing what they can hand out to persons on the margins rather than challenging the economic system which impoverishes those on the periphery. And there is a similar mentality in our political system in which politicians boast in Parliament how much handouts are given for school fees, to bury dead and to feed people through the Constituency Development Fund.
Hiding behind prayer
Some sections of the church use prayer in this passive role of doing nothing but only waiting on God to do everything. Therefore, as we listen to the prayers to God about our crisis, it is always telling God what to do, as if God does not know the gravity of the crisis, rather than seeking the will of God concerning our role in confronting the tribulations.
So we would rather pray for more rain than build more dams, and channel more rivers to dams and engage in better stewardship of water. We would rather pray to God about the high murder rate rather than have God induce courage to telephone Crime Stop.
And most of our gospel music is not wrestling with issues of economic justice and equality of all. Not even Rastafarian singers will chant, "Get up, stand for your rights".
The Church has largely moved away from an activist role in society. In Rebellion to Riot: The Jamaican Church in Nation Building (2002), I showed that pre-Independence (1962) the Church was leading in nation building in the areas of economic empowerment, educating the people and holistic concept of evangelism, etc. And in the concluding chapter I suggested that we need to return to that activist role.
The Church needs to admit that the theologising that claimed that "Dudus next to God" is a reflection of the failure of sections of the church to present the proper attributes of God. God must be shown also as a God of justice who rewards the righteous and empowers persons to live a life of service and sacrifice, as well as punishes the wicked for their evil deeds.
Let us not blame so much the unnamed woman for the affirmation "Dudus next to God", but perceive it as an indictment on the church which often engages in cowardice and inaction rather than confronting evil and turning the city upside down (Acts 17:6), and serving God rather than man (Acts 5:29).
Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'The Cross and the Machete: Native Baptists of Jamaica - Identity, Ministry and Legacy'. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.
May 27, 2010
jamaica-gleaner
By Pastor Devon Dick:
On Thursday last, an unnamed woman expressed solidarity with Christopher 'Dudus' Coke by stating that "Dudus next to God." This affirmation portrays how she perceived both God and Dudus.
Some Christians might find it an affront to God. And it is hardly likely that the churches that will be observing Trinity Sunday in three days time will have such a formulation as they try to explain God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. But it appears to me that this woman was mouthing a concept of God, to which some sections of the church have unwittingly ascribed. Obviously, for her, God is someone who destroys the enemies, dispenses justice quickly without going through legal human channels, provides for them and protects them. And apparently, Dudus has similar attributes. One woman proclaimed that she has six children and Dudus is the godfather, while another testified that she can leave her door open and her children are not raped.
This concept of God is not empowering and definitely one-dimensional. Rather it makes people passive, expecting handouts only. It is a mentality in some sections of the church in which the main philosophy is to give a fish rather than teaching the person to fish. It is a mendicancy syndrome. Therefore, some churches take pride in announcing what they can hand out to persons on the margins rather than challenging the economic system which impoverishes those on the periphery. And there is a similar mentality in our political system in which politicians boast in Parliament how much handouts are given for school fees, to bury dead and to feed people through the Constituency Development Fund.
Hiding behind prayer
Some sections of the church use prayer in this passive role of doing nothing but only waiting on God to do everything. Therefore, as we listen to the prayers to God about our crisis, it is always telling God what to do, as if God does not know the gravity of the crisis, rather than seeking the will of God concerning our role in confronting the tribulations.
So we would rather pray for more rain than build more dams, and channel more rivers to dams and engage in better stewardship of water. We would rather pray to God about the high murder rate rather than have God induce courage to telephone Crime Stop.
And most of our gospel music is not wrestling with issues of economic justice and equality of all. Not even Rastafarian singers will chant, "Get up, stand for your rights".
The Church has largely moved away from an activist role in society. In Rebellion to Riot: The Jamaican Church in Nation Building (2002), I showed that pre-Independence (1962) the Church was leading in nation building in the areas of economic empowerment, educating the people and holistic concept of evangelism, etc. And in the concluding chapter I suggested that we need to return to that activist role.
The Church needs to admit that the theologising that claimed that "Dudus next to God" is a reflection of the failure of sections of the church to present the proper attributes of God. God must be shown also as a God of justice who rewards the righteous and empowers persons to live a life of service and sacrifice, as well as punishes the wicked for their evil deeds.
Let us not blame so much the unnamed woman for the affirmation "Dudus next to God", but perceive it as an indictment on the church which often engages in cowardice and inaction rather than confronting evil and turning the city upside down (Acts 17:6), and serving God rather than man (Acts 5:29).
Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'The Cross and the Machete: Native Baptists of Jamaica - Identity, Ministry and Legacy'. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.
May 27, 2010
jamaica-gleaner
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Bahamas: Sea food industry eyes oil slick
Sea food industry eyes oil slick
By INDERIA SAUNDERS ~ Guardian Business Reporter ~ inderia@nasguard.com:
One of the country's largest lobster exporters - holding Olive Garden and Red Lobster contracts - is taking a wait and see approach to the oil spill shifting to The Bahamas, a stance spurred by the current closed season.
It means many local companies like Ronald's Seafood in Spanish Wells will not be in a position to fill any immediate demand for lobster or crawfish until September when the season is opened again. The spill shift, however, could materialize into bad news for other fishermen who depend on the marine life to put bread on the table.
Co-owner of Ronald's Bill Albury said the company would take things one day at a time, monitoring the effects of the oil spill's shift into Bahama waters as millions of gallons of oil still gush into the Gulf following an oil rig explosion on April 20.
"It's not having an effect on us right now because the season is closed for this period," Albury told Guardian Business. " But we don't want anything bad to happen."
It's a statement that comes as a top local meteorologist confirms a shift in wind patterns will most likely slide the oil slick into Bahama waters by the weekend. The surface winds are expected to propel the slick in a more easterly direction to the Cay Sal banks, Bimini and Western Grand Bahama area.
The degree to which Bahamian fishermen - a multi-million dollar industry in The Bahamas - will be affected is yet to be determined. However, for many businesses the oil spill couldn't have come at a worse time, given tough economic conditions already slicing into sales for those in the industry.
"We're already finding it hard to sell what little we could catch now because people just don't have the money to be buying like how they used to," said Marcian Dean, a Potters Cay fish vendor, in an interview with the Nassau Guardian. "Now imagine if this oil spill comes and contaminates the water and kills off the marine life.
"We wouldn't have anything to fish for and that would mean thousands of people would be out a job."
It's a situation currently playing itself out in.
May 26, 2010
By INDERIA SAUNDERS ~ Guardian Business Reporter ~ inderia@nasguard.com:
One of the country's largest lobster exporters - holding Olive Garden and Red Lobster contracts - is taking a wait and see approach to the oil spill shifting to The Bahamas, a stance spurred by the current closed season.
It means many local companies like Ronald's Seafood in Spanish Wells will not be in a position to fill any immediate demand for lobster or crawfish until September when the season is opened again. The spill shift, however, could materialize into bad news for other fishermen who depend on the marine life to put bread on the table.
Co-owner of Ronald's Bill Albury said the company would take things one day at a time, monitoring the effects of the oil spill's shift into Bahama waters as millions of gallons of oil still gush into the Gulf following an oil rig explosion on April 20.
"It's not having an effect on us right now because the season is closed for this period," Albury told Guardian Business. " But we don't want anything bad to happen."
It's a statement that comes as a top local meteorologist confirms a shift in wind patterns will most likely slide the oil slick into Bahama waters by the weekend. The surface winds are expected to propel the slick in a more easterly direction to the Cay Sal banks, Bimini and Western Grand Bahama area.
The degree to which Bahamian fishermen - a multi-million dollar industry in The Bahamas - will be affected is yet to be determined. However, for many businesses the oil spill couldn't have come at a worse time, given tough economic conditions already slicing into sales for those in the industry.
"We're already finding it hard to sell what little we could catch now because people just don't have the money to be buying like how they used to," said Marcian Dean, a Potters Cay fish vendor, in an interview with the Nassau Guardian. "Now imagine if this oil spill comes and contaminates the water and kills off the marine life.
"We wouldn't have anything to fish for and that would mean thousands of people would be out a job."
It's a situation currently playing itself out in.
May 26, 2010
Political fraternization with drug gangs come home to roost in Jamaica
By Anthony L. Hall:
Given the way Jamaican celebrities like Bob Marley have glorified ganja (marijuana), foreigners can be forgiven for thinking that it is the national crop of Jamaica. And Jamaicans can be forgiven for making folk heroes of men who defiantly use marijuana, or even profit from the sale of it. After all, it has undisputed medicinal benefits and is arguably no more anti-social than alcohol.
On the other hand, despite foreign media reports, I doubt there’s more than a handful of Jamaicans who glorify the use of cocaine or, even worse, make heroes of men who peddle this inherently destructive and anti-social drug. This is why it must have incited national shock and dismay when gun battles erupted on Sunday, right in the heart of the capital Kingston, between security forces and thugs associated with a reputed cocaine kingpin. How did it come to this…?
Well, it began many years ago when Jamaica’s main political parties began relying on gangs to cultivate grass-roots support amongst the many poor people who live on their turf. This explains why successive Jamaican governments have been loath to intervene over the years in the gang-related activities that led the BBC in 2006 to designate this island paradise, paradoxically, as the murder capital of world.
In any event, it is in this context that the now governing Jamaica Labour Party (JPL) established a Faustian alliance with the aptly named Christopher “Dudas” Coke. More to the point, the JPL knew full well that Coke was a drug kingpin who ruled one of the major “political slums” (Tivoli Gardens), where white-shoe politicians dare not tread, like a feudal lord.
But all Jamaican political leaders must have known that the American government would not turn a blind eye to the activities of anyone involved in trafficking drugs wholesale into the United States. Indeed, given its open and notorious efforts to extradite Columbian and Mexican drug lords (not to mention even invading Panama to arrest that country’s president Manuel Noriega on suspicion of narco-trafficking), it was only a matter of time before Coke’s operations became too big to ignore.
And so the inevitable came some nine months ago when the Obama administration submitted an extradition request -- after labeling Coke, 42, as one of the most dangerous drug lords in the world and indicting him on a battery of cocaine trafficking and gun-running charges.
Of course, notwithstanding being in bed with Coke, regard for national sovereignty dictated that Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the leader of the JPL, put up legal challenges to this request. After all, even with no such political ties to Bahamian drug kingpin Samuel “Ninety” Knowles, the government of The Bahamas fought a similar extradition request for almost six years before being legally and politically compelled to hand him over to US authorities.
Therefore, it was hardly surprising to learn - as reported on Monday by the Associated Press, that:
“Prime Minister Bruce Golding had stalled Coke’s extradition request for nine months with claims the US indictment relied on illegal wiretap evidence.”
What is surprising, if not stupefying, is that Golding misled the Jamaican people about the extent of his efforts to stave off Coke’s extradition. Frankly, given his party’s well-known association with Coke, one wonders what political fallout he feared from this revelation. For here’s how Jamaican information Minister Daryl Vaz alluded to his country’s record of cross-party political fraternization with the likes of Coke, which implies that any party leader caught in Golding’s position would have done the same thing:
“As far as I’m concerned, the prime minister did what he had to do, and the fact is that those who are calling for the prime minister to resign and for the Government to resign have no moral authority to call for anybody to resign based on their past and their history.” (Caribbean360, May 13, 2010)
Golding did not demonstrate a profile in courage, however, when he agreed last week to hand over Coke after only nine months of … stalling. Especially since he seemed to cave in not to legal and political pressure from US officials but to plainly partisan carping from local politicians over his furtive efforts in this respect. (To be fair, though, the fact that Jamaica is looking to the US-controlled IMF to bailout its economy once again might have softened Golding’s spine….)
Unfortunately, this made a mockery of his protestations of standing on constitutional principles and smacked of a betrayal of his party’s long-standing association with Coke.
Evidently, it is this perceived betrayal that provoked gangs from other turfs across the island to join Coke’s “Shower Posse” (so named for their menacing inclination to unload their firearms) in a battle to defy any attempt to arrest him pursuant to an extradition warrant. And thousands of slum dwellers in his Tivoli Gardens - who regard Coke more as a latter-day Robin Hood than as a murdering drug dealer - are not only serving as human shields but also providing very vocal moral support.
Here’s how Caribbean Net News quoted one of them in a report yesterday protesting their misguided loyalty:
“He is next to God. Just like how Jesus died on the cross for us, we are willing to die for Dudas.”
Or is that Judas…?
Anyway, so far police stations have been torched and 60 people, including two police officers, have been killed in a frenzy of violence that shows no signs of abating. And things are bound to get much worse. Not least because, thanks to the JPL giving a wink and a nod over the years to Coke’s gun-running enterprise, local gangs now have just as much fire power as the security forces.
“If Coke is somehow able to hold out and formally establish his community as a state within a state, then Jamaica’s future is bleak.” (Brian Meeks, a professor of government at Jamaica’s Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, London Guardian, May 25, 2010)
The JPL created this monster. And given that Coke’s domain of Tivoli Gardens is located in his constituency, Golding must feel particularly responsible.
All the same, it’s clearly far better now, for obvious reasons, to seize this opportunity to kill Coke (and all others like him) than to extradite him. And Golding seems determined to do just that:
“The threats that have emerged to the safety and security of our people will be repelled with strong and decisive action. The state of emergency will remain in effect for a period of one month… This will be a turning point for us as a nation to confront the powers of evil that are penalizing our society and earned us the unenviable label as the murder capital of the world. We must confront this criminal element with determination and unqualified resolve…
“I appeal to all law abiding citizens to remain calm and support these necessary measures.” (PM Golding addressing the nation on Sunday evening, Agence French Presse, May 24, 2010)
I wish my many friends and the rest of the people of Jamaica well.
NOTE: This violence affects a very small area of Jamaica that is far removed from most hotels and tourist sites. Therefore, despite the pro forma travel advisory the U.S. State Department issued on Monday, it remains as safe as ever to travel there….
May 26, 2010
caribbeannetnews
Given the way Jamaican celebrities like Bob Marley have glorified ganja (marijuana), foreigners can be forgiven for thinking that it is the national crop of Jamaica. And Jamaicans can be forgiven for making folk heroes of men who defiantly use marijuana, or even profit from the sale of it. After all, it has undisputed medicinal benefits and is arguably no more anti-social than alcohol.
On the other hand, despite foreign media reports, I doubt there’s more than a handful of Jamaicans who glorify the use of cocaine or, even worse, make heroes of men who peddle this inherently destructive and anti-social drug. This is why it must have incited national shock and dismay when gun battles erupted on Sunday, right in the heart of the capital Kingston, between security forces and thugs associated with a reputed cocaine kingpin. How did it come to this…? Well, it began many years ago when Jamaica’s main political parties began relying on gangs to cultivate grass-roots support amongst the many poor people who live on their turf. This explains why successive Jamaican governments have been loath to intervene over the years in the gang-related activities that led the BBC in 2006 to designate this island paradise, paradoxically, as the murder capital of world.
In any event, it is in this context that the now governing Jamaica Labour Party (JPL) established a Faustian alliance with the aptly named Christopher “Dudas” Coke. More to the point, the JPL knew full well that Coke was a drug kingpin who ruled one of the major “political slums” (Tivoli Gardens), where white-shoe politicians dare not tread, like a feudal lord.
But all Jamaican political leaders must have known that the American government would not turn a blind eye to the activities of anyone involved in trafficking drugs wholesale into the United States. Indeed, given its open and notorious efforts to extradite Columbian and Mexican drug lords (not to mention even invading Panama to arrest that country’s president Manuel Noriega on suspicion of narco-trafficking), it was only a matter of time before Coke’s operations became too big to ignore.
And so the inevitable came some nine months ago when the Obama administration submitted an extradition request -- after labeling Coke, 42, as one of the most dangerous drug lords in the world and indicting him on a battery of cocaine trafficking and gun-running charges.
Of course, notwithstanding being in bed with Coke, regard for national sovereignty dictated that Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the leader of the JPL, put up legal challenges to this request. After all, even with no such political ties to Bahamian drug kingpin Samuel “Ninety” Knowles, the government of The Bahamas fought a similar extradition request for almost six years before being legally and politically compelled to hand him over to US authorities.
Therefore, it was hardly surprising to learn - as reported on Monday by the Associated Press, that:
“Prime Minister Bruce Golding had stalled Coke’s extradition request for nine months with claims the US indictment relied on illegal wiretap evidence.”
What is surprising, if not stupefying, is that Golding misled the Jamaican people about the extent of his efforts to stave off Coke’s extradition. Frankly, given his party’s well-known association with Coke, one wonders what political fallout he feared from this revelation. For here’s how Jamaican information Minister Daryl Vaz alluded to his country’s record of cross-party political fraternization with the likes of Coke, which implies that any party leader caught in Golding’s position would have done the same thing:
“As far as I’m concerned, the prime minister did what he had to do, and the fact is that those who are calling for the prime minister to resign and for the Government to resign have no moral authority to call for anybody to resign based on their past and their history.” (Caribbean360, May 13, 2010)
Golding did not demonstrate a profile in courage, however, when he agreed last week to hand over Coke after only nine months of … stalling. Especially since he seemed to cave in not to legal and political pressure from US officials but to plainly partisan carping from local politicians over his furtive efforts in this respect. (To be fair, though, the fact that Jamaica is looking to the US-controlled IMF to bailout its economy once again might have softened Golding’s spine….)
Unfortunately, this made a mockery of his protestations of standing on constitutional principles and smacked of a betrayal of his party’s long-standing association with Coke.
Evidently, it is this perceived betrayal that provoked gangs from other turfs across the island to join Coke’s “Shower Posse” (so named for their menacing inclination to unload their firearms) in a battle to defy any attempt to arrest him pursuant to an extradition warrant. And thousands of slum dwellers in his Tivoli Gardens - who regard Coke more as a latter-day Robin Hood than as a murdering drug dealer - are not only serving as human shields but also providing very vocal moral support.
Here’s how Caribbean Net News quoted one of them in a report yesterday protesting their misguided loyalty:
“He is next to God. Just like how Jesus died on the cross for us, we are willing to die for Dudas.”
Or is that Judas…?
Anyway, so far police stations have been torched and 60 people, including two police officers, have been killed in a frenzy of violence that shows no signs of abating. And things are bound to get much worse. Not least because, thanks to the JPL giving a wink and a nod over the years to Coke’s gun-running enterprise, local gangs now have just as much fire power as the security forces.
“If Coke is somehow able to hold out and formally establish his community as a state within a state, then Jamaica’s future is bleak.” (Brian Meeks, a professor of government at Jamaica’s Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, London Guardian, May 25, 2010)
The JPL created this monster. And given that Coke’s domain of Tivoli Gardens is located in his constituency, Golding must feel particularly responsible.
All the same, it’s clearly far better now, for obvious reasons, to seize this opportunity to kill Coke (and all others like him) than to extradite him. And Golding seems determined to do just that:
“The threats that have emerged to the safety and security of our people will be repelled with strong and decisive action. The state of emergency will remain in effect for a period of one month… This will be a turning point for us as a nation to confront the powers of evil that are penalizing our society and earned us the unenviable label as the murder capital of the world. We must confront this criminal element with determination and unqualified resolve…
“I appeal to all law abiding citizens to remain calm and support these necessary measures.” (PM Golding addressing the nation on Sunday evening, Agence French Presse, May 24, 2010)
I wish my many friends and the rest of the people of Jamaica well.
NOTE: This violence affects a very small area of Jamaica that is far removed from most hotels and tourist sites. Therefore, despite the pro forma travel advisory the U.S. State Department issued on Monday, it remains as safe as ever to travel there….
May 26, 2010
caribbeannetnews
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Haiti... how soon we forget
jamaicaobserver.com/editorial:
With our own troubles at home, it is easy to forget the pain and suffering a few steps from our door in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. But that we must not allow.
The reconstruction of Port-au-Prince is an opportunity for the global community to help boost the economic development of Haiti by the delivery of the enormous amount of aid which has been promised. There are three important and interrelated aspects to this reconstruction.
First, is the humanitarian relief for what was already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Second, the physical and institutional reconstruction of the largest city and economic and political capital of Haiti. Third, the opportunity to set in motion a process of sustainable economic development which will lift Haiti permanently from the ranks of the world's most destitute and poverty-stricken people.
The economic reconstruction of Haiti will, of necessity, involve a massive infusion of development assistance for infrastructure and human resource development. An indispensable mechanism is the provision of preferential trade arrangements which will allow Haiti to earn its way by exporting to global markets. These preferential trade arrangements also serve to attract direct foreign investment, thus enabling Haiti to be an economic platform capitalising on the global market.
Haiti has been the sleeping giant of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) regional economic integration process. It has been a part of Caricom only in name and spirit. Differences in language and poor logistics have contributed to Haiti's isolation among its Caribbean brothers. However, a major cause has been the insularity and xenophobia of the English-speaking Caribbean whose engagement has been more patronising than genuine.
The earthquake was also a political tremor in Caricom and the region reached out in a meaningful way for the first time, nowhere more magnificently than Jamaica's truly noble humanitarian mission in the immediate aftermath of the devastation. Caricom has appointed former Jamaican prime minister Percival Patterson as its special envoy to help Haiti to articulate its needs in the international arena and to be interlocutor at the highest political levels. All of this is commendable, but it really does not integrate Haiti into Caricom in an economic sense.
The means for integrating Haiti into the Caricom economy is at hand. The enormous expenditure of development assistance and humanitarian aid will create a demand for goods and services which Caricom is ideally suited, by location and comparative advantage, to supply. Haiti's imports from Caricom would not only link the markets but be a stimulus package for the struggling Caricom economies. This would create a multiplier effect as Caricom in turn purchases products, eg handicrafts, apparel from Haiti.
The development assistance expenditure can simultaneously boost the economies of Haiti and the rest of Caricom, and significantly increase the size of the regional market, at last reaching a critical mass that can offer economies of scale in production, making exports internationally competitive.
Governments can encourage a market-driven process by having the international community earmark a certain share of development aid procurement to be sourced from Caricom-made products and services.
To be convinced, we need just look at the miraculous transformation underway in formerly dirt poor China.
May 25, 2010
jamaicaobserver
With our own troubles at home, it is easy to forget the pain and suffering a few steps from our door in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. But that we must not allow.
The reconstruction of Port-au-Prince is an opportunity for the global community to help boost the economic development of Haiti by the delivery of the enormous amount of aid which has been promised. There are three important and interrelated aspects to this reconstruction.
First, is the humanitarian relief for what was already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Second, the physical and institutional reconstruction of the largest city and economic and political capital of Haiti. Third, the opportunity to set in motion a process of sustainable economic development which will lift Haiti permanently from the ranks of the world's most destitute and poverty-stricken people.
The economic reconstruction of Haiti will, of necessity, involve a massive infusion of development assistance for infrastructure and human resource development. An indispensable mechanism is the provision of preferential trade arrangements which will allow Haiti to earn its way by exporting to global markets. These preferential trade arrangements also serve to attract direct foreign investment, thus enabling Haiti to be an economic platform capitalising on the global market.
Haiti has been the sleeping giant of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) regional economic integration process. It has been a part of Caricom only in name and spirit. Differences in language and poor logistics have contributed to Haiti's isolation among its Caribbean brothers. However, a major cause has been the insularity and xenophobia of the English-speaking Caribbean whose engagement has been more patronising than genuine.
The earthquake was also a political tremor in Caricom and the region reached out in a meaningful way for the first time, nowhere more magnificently than Jamaica's truly noble humanitarian mission in the immediate aftermath of the devastation. Caricom has appointed former Jamaican prime minister Percival Patterson as its special envoy to help Haiti to articulate its needs in the international arena and to be interlocutor at the highest political levels. All of this is commendable, but it really does not integrate Haiti into Caricom in an economic sense.
The means for integrating Haiti into the Caricom economy is at hand. The enormous expenditure of development assistance and humanitarian aid will create a demand for goods and services which Caricom is ideally suited, by location and comparative advantage, to supply. Haiti's imports from Caricom would not only link the markets but be a stimulus package for the struggling Caricom economies. This would create a multiplier effect as Caricom in turn purchases products, eg handicrafts, apparel from Haiti.
The development assistance expenditure can simultaneously boost the economies of Haiti and the rest of Caricom, and significantly increase the size of the regional market, at last reaching a critical mass that can offer economies of scale in production, making exports internationally competitive.
Governments can encourage a market-driven process by having the international community earmark a certain share of development aid procurement to be sourced from Caricom-made products and services.
To be convinced, we need just look at the miraculous transformation underway in formerly dirt poor China.
May 25, 2010
jamaicaobserver
Monday, May 24, 2010
A vile attack on the Jamaican State
jamaicaobserver editorial:
The obviously co-ordinated strikes on four police stations in West Kingston by criminal gunmen yesterday represent a vile attack on the State that this newspaper strongly condemns.
That the lumpen gunmen also torched one of the police stations -- that in Hannah Town -- and fired on policemen who were clearing roadblocks in West Kingston demonstrate their utter disregard for law and order, and flies in the face of the very responsible and tolerant approach that the police have so far taken in their effort to execute an arrest warrant on Mr Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
Based on police reports that gangsters from other communities outside of Kingston and St Andrew have gone into Tivoli Gardens, supposedly to give support to Mr Coke and his defenders, it is clear that his tentacles spread far and wide, and his influence is very strong.
But that influence, we maintain, resides with the minority of Jamaicans, and as such the majority, law-abiding among us need to make a united stand against the terrorism that these riffraffs seek to unleash on the country.
It is against that background that we endorse the limited State of Public Emergency that has been imposed on Kingston and St Andrew by the Government.
While we support the measure giving the security forces additional powers of search and arrest, we caution the law enforcers to utilise these powers with responsibility. For just one case of abuse of a citizen will erode the gains the security forces have made over the past few days with the way they have handled this extradition matter.
However, we urge the security forces to use this opportunity to clean up the mess that has stained this country for too many years. And in doing so, they need to ignore the politicians -- on both sides -- who have more than proven to us that they have no idea, if any desire, to deal effectively with crime.
May 24, 2010
jamaicaobserver
The obviously co-ordinated strikes on four police stations in West Kingston by criminal gunmen yesterday represent a vile attack on the State that this newspaper strongly condemns.
That the lumpen gunmen also torched one of the police stations -- that in Hannah Town -- and fired on policemen who were clearing roadblocks in West Kingston demonstrate their utter disregard for law and order, and flies in the face of the very responsible and tolerant approach that the police have so far taken in their effort to execute an arrest warrant on Mr Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
Based on police reports that gangsters from other communities outside of Kingston and St Andrew have gone into Tivoli Gardens, supposedly to give support to Mr Coke and his defenders, it is clear that his tentacles spread far and wide, and his influence is very strong.
But that influence, we maintain, resides with the minority of Jamaicans, and as such the majority, law-abiding among us need to make a united stand against the terrorism that these riffraffs seek to unleash on the country.
It is against that background that we endorse the limited State of Public Emergency that has been imposed on Kingston and St Andrew by the Government.
While we support the measure giving the security forces additional powers of search and arrest, we caution the law enforcers to utilise these powers with responsibility. For just one case of abuse of a citizen will erode the gains the security forces have made over the past few days with the way they have handled this extradition matter.
However, we urge the security forces to use this opportunity to clean up the mess that has stained this country for too many years. And in doing so, they need to ignore the politicians -- on both sides -- who have more than proven to us that they have no idea, if any desire, to deal effectively with crime.
May 24, 2010
jamaicaobserver
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