Haiti a missed opportunity!

By Jean H Charles:




Haiti, the first and only successful slave revolt experience to become a nation, has been a failed opportunity to polish its raw material and remain the pearl of the islands. After the earthquake of January 12, 2010, Haiti has failed to embark into a mode of development to recuperate the two hundred years of failed opportunity.

Some will say it is too early to tell. Seven months into the process, is not enough for a prediction into the future! Yet it is enough time to indicate the direction of the wind, is it towards change or towards the status quo?

On the ground in Haiti, I am witnessing all the elements are in place for a complete disaster in the coming months as well as the harbinger of years of unrest in the future.

I have developed in this journal, for the past two weeks, the conceptual framework attributing the notion of the failed state business systematically replacing the slaving business. I have also advanced the hypothesis that Haiti was the first nationally and internationally organized failed state entity.

Alexander Petion and his successor Jean Pierre Boyer, in accepting to negotiate the price of French recognition, has set a mortgage so high on the back of the brand new nation, it was designed to fail. When later that mortgage has been renegotiated, it was not to pay the installments but to kill each other in clan politics. This tragedy or that drama lasted two hundred years.

In this modern day era where an event of biblical proportion happened to Haiti, one should expect a new national and international order; it is business as usual in Haiti. Alie Kabbar of the United African organization on CBS today complained that “the American Red Cross that collected 465 million dollars on behalf of the people of Haiti is spending the money on five figure salaries, hotels, car rentals, air-conditioned offices for its staff instead of (or in addition) to spend the money for real people with real needs on the ground.”

Lionel Trouillot, the celebrated Haitian essayist wrote in a piece signed as of today, there is a smell of putrefaction in the air in Haiti. It is the smell of lies, the smell of big salaries of the multinational NGOs mixed with the fetid smell of the camp right across the hotel on the main plaza of Port au Prince.

I would add there is also the smell of resignation, the smell of laissez faire. I was invaded by that smell, because as of yesterday, I could not get myself into writing this essay, I was telling myself, it does not matter to raise the world consciousness about Haiti; things will remain the same.

I have in mind this lady in the camp right across the main hotel of Port au Prince, the Plaza Hotel, who told me not to take her picture. She is tired of people taking her picture and promising to do something for her and for her baby. Nothing has happened.

The machine set by the Haitian government, the United Nations, the OAS and Caricom for a faked election where the three main political parties have been ostracized, with the result, selected by the president, is already in motion. The thousands of NGOs from all over the world faking development initiatives while building mainly latrines and paraphernalia of that sort is suffocating.

The mammoth UN agency MINUSTHA faking support to the people of Haiti with the entire material one can order all over the world used only for its own needs. The city of Port au Prince at night is a ghost town with only the UN complexes lighted as in a developed country.

I am constantly stimulated by the high and down of feeling of anger and bliss – anger, because of the arrogance and the lack of empathy of the UN people vis a vis the displaced Haitians and the populace in general as well as the feeling of bliss for living in a land so lush where the cost of living is so low and the opportunity so plentiful that maybe Haiti is the lost paradise!

Speaking with a an investor friend at the hotel, musing on why Haiti cannot take off, he told me that Haiti needs the creative strength of the United States. I retort that no country in the Caribbean has so many creative people as Haiti! His answer was illuminating:

“They may be creative in arts! They need to be creative in engineering, in machinery, in planting, in soil conservation, in husbandry. Any farmer from the United States can help the Haitian people with those skills you do not need any PhDs for that.

“That is the reason why I am here to show them how to build their own anti-earthquake home. How to recycle the plastic material with scrap wood to produce building blocks stronger and cheaper than the cement block in use in Haiti now.”

He has been looking for an audience with those in authority, so far with not much success. Containers of prefabricated homes have already been secured by those close to the power base!

Will Haiti recover from this devastating earthquake? Or will it surge from its failed state status to an enlightened one? I suspect it will take a critical mass of Haitian people to understand that they have the undeniable right to the pursuit of happiness and to justice in their own land.

The national and international apparatus in place now is ensuring that critical mass of understanding does not occur. I am not optimistic for or about Haiti!

The woman who spoke to me at the Camp right outside the Plaza hotel

August 28, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

Tough time for some Caricom heads

ANALYSIS

RICKEY SINGH




search for a new secretary general and an improved governance system for the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have come at a very challenging time for some Heads of Government of the 37-year-old regional economic integration movement.

Here in Jamaica, Prime Minister Bruce Golding, current chairman of the Community until February 2011, felt compelled to go on the offensive against a new wave of sharp criticisms of his Government's earlier involvement with a United States law firm to help ease pressures in Washington for the extradition of the infamous don of Tivoli Gardens, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.


Faced with an ongoing battle in defence of his credibility as prime minister, Golding has chosen to ignore the call by the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) for an independent commission of enquiry into the Government's involvement in Coke's extradition case and to engage, instead, in country-wide meetings with various communities and stakeholders to correct the misrepresentations.

It is doubtful that having acknowledged mis-steps by the Government in handling the extradition controversy in the first place, Prime Minister Golding can succeed in evading an independent probe into the whole affair. Especially in the wake of recently published e-mail correspondence between Jamaican attorneys and the law firm of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips.

Dominica: Across in the Eastern Caribbean, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and his Education Minister Peter Saint Jean were informed by High Court Judge Errol Thomas that they would each have to face trial on charges claiming why their parliamentary seats won at last December's general election should be declared null and void.

Skerrit is faced with the charge of having contested the December 18 poll in the Vieille Case while holding dual citizenship (with France), which is forbidden by Dominica's constitution.

His education minister, on the other hand, has been advised that the claims made against the results of his election for the La Plaine constituency by the Opposition United Workers Party leader, Ron Greene, "deserve to be heard" in court.

Antiguan scenario

Antigua: As the Dominican prime minister and his Cabinet colleague await a date for their respective court trials, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer, and two of his Cabinet ministers remain quite anxious about their own future in government.

In the case of the Antiguan trio, their political fate hangs on a judgement to be delivered by a panel of judges from the Eastern Caribbean Appeal Court.

The judgement will be in response to a ruling on March 12 this year by Justice Louise Blenman to declare vacant the seats of Spencer; his education minister Jacqui Quinn-Leandro, and that of the tourism minister John Maginley.

Judge Blenman's ruling resulted from a series of petitions filed by the Opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) challenging controversial results of the March 2009 general elections at which Spencer's United Progressive Party (UPP) won nine of the 17 parliamentary seats.

Should Justice Blenman's ruling be upheld by the Eastern Caribbean Appeal Court, there would have to be either three by-elections or, more likely, a new general election.

Barbados: In this community state there continues to be deep national concern over the health of Prime Minister David Thompson. He felt compelled to announce on July 1 a two-month leave from official duties to undergo major surgery in the United States.

Apart from the domestic situation, Thompson's illness is also impacting on progress of Caricom's flagship project -- the Single Market and Economy (CSME) -- for which he shoulders lead responsibility among Heads of Government.

Suriname: Then there is the challenge of dealing with the appointment of a new Caricom secretary general, to succeed the retiring Edwin Carrington.

At the same time, the community is preparing to work in the councils of the community with Suriname's newly inaugurated President Desi Bouterse, a long controversial public figure in the politics and governance of that former Dutch colony.

An immediate concern is whether Suriname's scheduled turn to assume the chairmanship of Caricom in July next year should not be deferred instead to February 2012 to facilitate some perceived needed adjustments for both the incoming new secretary general as well as President Bouterse for the rotating six-month chairmanship.

This issue may be finally determined at the first Caricom Inter-Sessional Meeting for 2012 scheduled for Grenada next February and hosted by Prime Minister Tilman Thomas, who will serve as chairman until the regular annual summit in July 2012.

That, under normal circumstances, would have been Suriname's turn to host and assume chairmanship. It is a matter to be resolved.

Finding new SG

Currently, there remain concerns about the approaches by the community's Heads of Government to find the most suitable successor to replace the 72-year-old Carrington, who has been serving as secretary general for 18 years.

The recent decision to recommend the creation of a nine-member "search committee" to help identify potential candidates, when it is not clear that they have even satisfied themselves about what they are looking for in a new secretary general, is not being viewed as a serious approach.

Questions currently being raised include whether the recent special committee meeting in Grenada on "governance issues" had even a draft outline on a 'job description' for the new secretary general.

Further, there is the more crucial issue of a new administrative structure for effective governance which the Heads continue to avoid like the plague, while they fiddle with band-aid responses.

For instance, the hilarious idea of creating a Council of Community Ambassadors to help improve the governance system in areas such as implementation of decisions.

Since they are part of the 'governance' problems, it is being suggested that the Heads should perhaps consider how best to utilise the vast experience acquired by Carrington, both as secretary general of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states and Caricom, in any serious attempt to significantly change the governance system to respond to the challenges of our time.

August 29, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

The Bahamas cannot afford to "sit and wait" for economic recovery to be driven by the US - says James Smith, former minister of state for finance

Bahamas can't 'sit and wait' for US tide to lift recovery
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor:



THE Bahamas cannot afford to "sit and wait" for economic recovery to be driven by the US, a former finance minister warned yesterday, urging this nation to "fix" its high cost base and structural inefficiencies, given that "unacceptable levels of unemployment" were set to linger post-recession.

Describing the recovery outlook as "fair to overcast", James Smith, former minister of state for finance in the Christie-led administration, told Tribune Business that to escape from arguably the deepest recession since the 1930's Great Depression, this nation needed to long beyond its traditional reliance on a rising US tide to lift the Bahamian boat.

"For us this time around I think we have to go beyond recovery in the US," Mr Smith said. "For us to participate in that recovery, we need to do more things to fix our major industry, addressing the cost, for the simple reason that during this recession our major travel market, the US, had the opportunity to see what was happening in our competitors, Cancun and other, where they have been a little more competitive."

Rival Caribbean destinations, with lower cost structures/bases, had been more competitive with US tourists seeking greater value and better prices, something that was borne out, Mr Smith suggested, by the fact that the Bahamas had - along with Jamaica - suffered the longest period of economic contraction.

The Bahamas had done "worse than other countries", the former finance minister added, pointing to the fact that while this nation had been among the first to slip into recession during the 2008 second half, it was among the last predicted to recover, with economic growth not forecast to resume until 2011.

"We've had two years of negative growth in GDP besides Jamaica. A lot of other countries are more competitive, so it suggests, broadly speaking, that there are other areas of the economy that needs fixing," Mr Smith told Tribune Business.

"One that springs immediately to mind is the cost structure and competitiveness in that area. As we look to recover, we have to do more than sit back and wait for it to happen. We have to address without delay our cost structure and making our main sector more competitive.

"This would be a good time to do it, while all are feeling the pinch and recognising the need to improve, so it would be easier to take the programme forward. They would realise we have to do a better job than we have been doing. We have to take this opportunity to improve the services we give at all levels, and the cost of these services."

Energy and labour were the two critical cost components that had to be addressed, Mr Smith said. While it was not practical to reduce wages, due to the high living cost in the Bahamas as well as the presence of highly restrictive trade union agreements, the former minister suggested that this nation tackle "fundamental issues" - enhanced efficiency, bringing pay in line with productivity, and "getting rid of wastage in the public sector".

"We know what to do, we just have to start doing it," Mr Smith said, describing the persistence of high unemployment levels (last officially measured at 14.5 per cent, but believed to be higher) as a "vexing problem for the Bahamas".

One factor behind the hotel industry's relatively high costs in comparison to rivals was that the Bahamas had "more people employed per room", and during the recession resorts had found ways to operate more efficiently with less staff following the late 2008/early 2009 lay-offs.

"The prospect of a return of jobs at the same level over a short period of time is pretty bleak," Mr Smith said. "Jobs have to be created in other areas, and we may find ourselves with unacceptable levels of unemployment for a long period of time, even after the recession has passed. We're really not seeing any signals out there that there will be a quick turnaround."

The former finance minister also expressed scepticism that the Government's increased taxes would not achieve the objective of plugging the Bahamas' fiscal deficit or reducing the national debt, as they were being impose against a backdrop of reduced national income and economic growth that was sluggish to non-existent.

"The increase has fallen disproportionately on the business sector, so we will not have them expanding and hiring people," Mr Smith said. "We might be in a Catch-22 position. The Government needs revenue, so it raised taxes, but it might not get paid in full because people are not working."

To move the Bahamas forward, Mr Smith said the Government and all economic stakeholders needed to dialogue and come to a consensus on a sustainable development strategy for the Bahamas, ensuring that issues such as public sector investment in education were not impacted when administrations changed - that policy stayed broadly in course, in line with a national plan.

He also warned against "trade offs", where the Bahamas sacrificed future generations - for instance, by compromising the environment - in return for development and foreign direct investment now.

August 27, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International

Lionfish in Jamaican waters

MICHAEL BURKE





About three months ago, Agriculture Minister Christopher Tufton voiced his concerns about the lionfish in Jamaican waters. Many of us looked up the lionfish on the internet and some did so in printed material in libraries. We read that the fish were believed to have got into the Caribbean Sea when damage was done by a 1992 hurricane to a salt-water aquarium in Florida, USA, containing rare fish from all over the world.

Why wasn't the movement of these lionfish monitored as they swam from the north and to the Caribbean in the south before they reached Jamaica after 18 years? Apart from eating smaller fish, the lionfish are said to use their many tentacles to give off a painful and even poisonous sting that affects human beings.

Lionfish live in both deep and shallow water, which is a potential problem on our beaches to Jamaicans and tourists. It is bad enough when advisories are issued to tourists from their home countries concerning violence in Jamaica. It would be most unfortunate if advisories were issued because of the lionfish. It would also be ironic if such advisories came from the USA where it is said the problem started.

It is not a matter of looking out for tourists before looking out for Jamaicans. Indeed, it is the other way around. I am looking out for Jamaicans first in terms of the jobs and the revenue that tourism brings through landing tax, room tax and departure tax. I am concerned because I hope that one day a cooperative will play a pivotal role in the hotel industry.

I am concerned because I run camps for youngsters every summer and we usually go to the beach while at camp. I have been running doctrine camps for Roman Catholics who do not go to Roman Catholic schools since 1992, the very year when it is reported that the lionfish got into the Caribbean Sea, although I heard about the lionfish only about three months ago. I run separate camps, one for boys in July and one for girls in August (more expensive and more tiring to organise and direct two camps but, trust me - far less headache).

This summer the boys' camp was in Black River, St Elizabeth. We took a walk out on to the Black River Bridge. It was the third time in 18 years that we were camping in the Black River area. We were speaking generally about taking a safari up the Black River later in the camp - which we did just as we had done the other two times we camped there.

We spoke about the crocodiles that swim in Black River Bay. (Jamaica's crocodiles swim in either fresh or salt water although their obvious preference is for fresh water.) One boy asked if there were any lionfish at the beach we planned to visit. I opined that they might not have reached as far as the south coast yet.

A passing fisherman overheard our discussion and said "Weh yuh a chat 'bout? Wi ketch lionfish an' chrow dem back inna de sea". That statement by the fisherman was a learning experience for all of us. We still went to the beach, but thank God, we did not encounter any lionfish.

The girls' camp was held at Marymount High School, St Mary. Deacon Terry Gillette of the Highgate Missions invited us to join up with the church's Sunday School picnic beach outing at Robin's Bay on August 18. The invitation was welcome as we were transported and fed courtesy of the organisers of the summer school, which included Deacon Gillette and Mrs Mary Boswell, the sister of Monsignor Robert Haughton James.

I was talking to Deacon Gillette on the beach when a fisherman walked up. He had with him a lionfish and Deacon Gillette was the first to spot it. I called our campers and the Sunday School children to view the lionfish which most of them ran to see. Our camp deputy, Latoya Latibeaudiere, a former paginator at the Jamaica Observer and now a law student, took the photographs.

A lot of the discussion by the youngsters on the beach was about the lionfish that they saw. The fisherman told us that he had shot the lionfish with his speargun in the deep sea, and he has also seen lionfish in shallow waters. We could all eat lionfish until we weigh 500 pounds, but we will not stop the problem that way.The real solution is to cordon off the beach areas with sturdy mesh wire.

Our tourist trade is so vulnerable, especially if we rely only on sun and sea tourism. Earlier this year we had the oil spill in The Gulf of Mexico and many wondered if Jamaica's beaches would be affected. While we hear that we have no need to worry, I prefer to wait until the winter months when the winds change direction before I know for sure.

We need to diversify the tourism product with great speed by introducing nature tourism, sports tourism and conference tourism. But we cannot fully abandon sun and sea tourism because this is where most of the money flows from. We need to cordon off our beaches with great speed.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com

August 26, 2010

jamaicaobserver

Bahamas Blog International

The demise of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery

By Ian Francis:


There was no wake, prayers or visitation when the Heads of CARICOM Governments made the decision in Belize to bury the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) and support the emergence of the Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN), which is now under the direct supervision of the CARICOM Secretary General headed by Ambassador Gail Mathurin.

I must confess my ignorance about Ambassador Mathurin’s permanent location but am extremely aware of her air jaunts between Grantley Adams and Cheddi Jagan airports.

The death of the CRNM was not a surprise. In the first instance, its creation should not have been entertained but the arm twisting of former Prime Minister Patterson by Sir Shridath and his other regional cronies resulted in “PJ’s” agreement for the creation of the CRNM.

It was very clear from the start that Sir Shridath brought forward the creation of the CRNM as he was determined to establish his own beachhead in Barbados and to flex his muscles within the multilateral community as a former secretary-general of the Commonwealth and foreign minister of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.

It worked well for him, which led to the recruitment of key lifeguards, including Richie Bernal of Jamaica and Henry Gill of the Republic of Trinidad. Both individuals are well known within regional circles and have always demonstrated their distinctive qualities, skills and experience.

The exit of Sir Shridath from the CRNM was influenced by many occurrences. Prime Minister Patterson made the decision to demit office; there were couple of general elections held in the region, which resulted in the change of governments.

Sir Shridath saw the death warrant and was not prepared for the sentencing so his only saved-face option was to quietly exit from the CRNM. His clout and influence with some of the CARICOM Heads had dried up, thus making his reliance for survival untenable.

Prior to his departure from the CRNM, he carefully crafted his replacement which resulted in Jamaican-born Ambassador Richard Bernal assuming the direction of the CRNM.

Although Bernal assumed the position with great pomp, the weariness of the CRNM by CARICOM Heads grew, which made it difficult for the ambassador to run and manage an effective institution within the region. With much frustration, Ambassador Bernal saw an opening at a Washington-based international agency and decided to accept a position where he is now based and might be considering a run for the Secretary General position of CARICOM. We will have to wait and see as his cell phone number remains the same.

Bernal’s departure ensured that another lifeguard in the name of Henry Gill was quite appropriate for the position and assumed direction of the CRNM. Unfortunately, Gill’s term at the CRNM was short-lived.

The Heads of CARICOM at the Belize meeting made the firm decision that all trade negotiations should be under the aegis of the Secretariat, which meant that a major part of the CRNM based in Barbados would have to merge within the Georgetown Secretariat, thus bringing Gill under the reporting umbrella of the Secretary General.

As rumours have it, Gill vowed not to re-locate to Guyana and wanted no part of reporting to Carrington. This led to Gill’s demittal from the CRNM where he has now entered the regional lucrative environment of consulting.

In essence, Carrington and his group at the Secretariat won the fight, which led to the Secretary General’s immediate task of creating the OTN within the Secretariat.

Given the entire milieu above, several important trade negotiations between the Caribbean and many Western nations were announced. A famous and active negotiation is known as the CaribCan Trade Agreement, which is now taking place between the Commonwealth Caribbean nations and Canada.

The CaribCan Trade Agreement was first introduced in 1985 by the then Mulroney Conservative government. Unfortunately, much was not achieved in the area of trade and investments between the two regions. Very little was done in Canada to promote the initiative and the Caribbean governments made the tactical error by maintaining the agreement tightly shut in their industry ministries’ closet.

Canada in the last three years announced its intention to re-engage the Commonwealth Caribbean region, not only in bilateral and multilateral assistance but also to promote trade and investments between the two regions by rewriting the trade agreement.

Canada has kept its promise by providing financial assistance to the old CRNM and so far has engaged the OTN in three rounds of discussion with respect to the trade agreement. In addition, there have been other initiatives through the hosting of regional workshops by the (OECS-EDU).

Unfortunately, the participants and players for such events should be exporters, entrepreneurs and other participants that are interested in trade and investments environment. Unfortunately, there is a constant replay of government and state corporations’ representatives dominating these workshops, with exporters and entrepreneurs being left on the periphery.

In a recent conservation with an Ottawa-based senior foreign service official close to the CaribCan trade negotiations, I took the opportunity to share with him a press bulletin, which was issued by the OTN stating that negotiations are moving full speed ahead.

The diplomat known for his tight lips gave a loud laugh and said to me, “The agreement has been redrafted already and we have asked our Caribbean friends to check out full compliance with the World Trade Organization rules and regulations. Once they get back to us, it will be a done deal.”

In conclusion, as we move to finalize this agreement, there is work to be done on both sides, the OTN and its partners need to reach out and build capacities amongst those who will become the key actors in a trade agreement. The government of Canada has a responsibility to work with existing national and provincial trade organizations to get them actively engage in trade and investments dialogue on the Caribbean Commonwealth.

This begs the question. Will the remnants of CRNM remain in Barbados after the CaribCan Trade Agreement is signed or will it be fully integrated into the Secretariat? We will take a wait and see attitude.

Ian Francis resides in Toronto and writes frequently on Caribbean Commonwealth affairs. He is a former Assistant Secretary in the Grenada Ministry of Foreign Affairs and can be reached at info@vismincommunications.org

August 26, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Bahamas Blog International

I am ready to continue discussing

Reflections of Fidel

(Taken from CubaDebate)

TWO days ago I was watching Vanessa Davies on her "Contragolpe" (Counterpunch) program broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión’s Canal 8. She was dialoging with and multiplying her questions to Basem Tajeldine, an intelligent and honest Venezuelan whose face transpired nobility. When I switched on the television my thesis that only Obama could halt the disaster was being approached.

The incommensurable power attributed to him came immediately to the mind of the historian. And that is so, undoubtedly. But we are thinking of two distinct powers.

Real political power in the United States is held by the powerful oligarchy of multimillionaires who govern not only that country but also the world: the gigantic power of the Bilderberg Club described by Daniel Estulin, created by the Rockefellers and the Trilateral Commission.

The military apparatus of the United States with its security agencies is far more powerful than Barack Obama, president of the United States. He did not create that apparatus, neither did that apparatus create him. The exceptional circumstances of the economic crisis and the war were the principal factors that took a descendent of the sector most discriminated against in the United States, gifted with culture and intelligence, to the post which he occupies.

Where does Obama’s power lie at this point in time? Why am I affirming that war or peace will depend on him? Hopefully the interchange between the journalist and the historian might serve to illustrate the issue.

I will say it in another way: the famous little briefcase with its keys and button to launch a nuclear bomb emerged because of the terrible decision that it implied, the devastating nature of the weapon, and the need not to lose a fraction of a minute. Kennedy and Krushchev underwent that experience, and Cuba was at the point of being the first target of a mass attack using those weapons.

I still remember the anguish reflected in the questions that Kennedy suggested French journalist Jean Daniel should put to me, when he found out that Daniel was coming to Cuba and would meet with me. "Does Castro know how close we were to a world war?" I suggested that he return to Washington to speak with him. The story is a well-known one.

The subject was so interesting that I invited him to leave Havana, and we were approaching the issue well into the morning, in a house near the sea at the famous Varadero beach.

Nobody had to tell us anything, because they immediately advised me of the assassination and we tuned into to a U.S. radio station. At that very moment it was announced that a number of shots had fatally wounded the president of the United States.

Mercenary hands had carried out the homicide.

For the right in the United States, including the CIA mercenaries who landed at Girón [Bay of Pigs], he was not sufficiently energetic with Cuba.

Almost half a century has passed since then. The world changed, far more that 20,000 nuclear weapons were developed, their destructive power is equivalent to nearly 450,000 times that which destroyed the city of Hiroshima. Anybody has the right to ask: what is the use of the nuclear briefcase? Could a president possibly direct something as sophisticated and complex as a nuclear war?

That briefcase is something as symbolic as the ceremonial staff that is kept in the hands of the president as pure fiction.

The only significant fact is that in the United States there is a Constitution which establishes that there is only one person in the country who can give the order to start a war, which is now more important than ever, since a world nuclear war could break out in one minute and possibly last one day.

So, I can ask a number of questions. Could somebody other than the president give the order to start a war? Did Kennedy himself need another faculty to attack Girón and then unleash war in Vietnam? Johnson to escalate it? Nixon to devastatingly bombard that country? Reagan to invade Grenada? Bush Sr., on December 20, 1989, to attack the cities of Panama, Colón, to flatten the poor neighborhood of El Chorrillo and kill thousands of poor people there? Did Clinton need it to attack Serbia and create Kosovo? Bush Jr., for the atrocious invasion of Iraq? I have mentioned in their order only some of the best known crimes of the empire to date. Obama has done nothing more than to receive the inheritance.

The old thinking does not adapt easily to new realities.

Well, all right. I have posed the idea, not of Obama being powerful or super-powerful; he prefers to play basketball or give speeches; he has, moreover, been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Michael Moore exhorted him to earn it. Perhaps nobody imagined, him least of all, the idea that, in this final stage of 2010, if he complies with the instructions of the United Nations Security Council, to which a South Korean named Ban Ki-Moon is possibly firmly exhorting him, he will be responsible for the disappearance of the human species.

I am ready to continue discussing the issue.



Fidel Castro Ruz

August 22, 2010

12:26 p.m.

Translated by Granma International

granma.cu

Bahamas Blog International

Bahamas: Who will care for the autistic members of Bahamian society?

Who will care for the autistic members of Bahamian society?
By TANEKA THOMPSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
tthompson@tribunemedia.net:


Most parents fret about their children's future and safety until their offspring reach an age where they are capable of taking care of themselves. Parents are usually overcome with questions of "How are they going to manage when I am gone?" and "Who will take care of them?"

These concerns are born out of love and are generally a mark of a good, caring guardian. Most times these fears never materialise into reality and a parent can breathe a sigh of relief once the children are off to college or have landed good jobs. But think of how terrifying it is when the child is unable to care for themselves even after they are well past their teenage years.

For too many families of children with autism, this is a real concern with no solution on the horizon. Last week I came face to face with some of these parents' struggles during an autism awareness reception hosted by US Ambassador Nicole Avant in conjunction with local autism advocacy group REACH.

REACH was formed 12 years ago to provide a support network for parents of children with special needs and to increase awareness about autism. Since its inception, the group has also raised scholarship money to train Bahamian teachers to better serve autistic children.

The common link in many of those parents' lives is a deficit in adequate and affordable local treatment centres for autistic children and assisted living centres to house those children when they become adults.

"Currently there is one autistic primary school class at Garvin Tynes Primary and one high school class at Anatol Rodgers Secondary School. In the country there are only three therapists that work with the Ministry of Education and there is a very long waiting list.

"A lot of the (autistic) kids are growing older now and we need living assistance for them - we're not going to be here forever and after parents pass away there's a concern of who takes care of the kids," lamented Kim Gibson, public relations officer at REACH, and mother to a seven-year-old autistic son.

Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister Perry Christie - father of 22-year-old Adam, who also is autistic - echoed these sentiments during a recent interview with The Tribune. He added that while there have been notable advancements in special needs care over the last ten years or so, those improvements pale in comparison to what is left undone.

"Every parent's fear is, if they were to die what would happen to this child? That is the most common worry for parents of disabled children.

These parents are so committed to helping disabled children but they know that it doesn't necessarily mean a sibling or other relative will be as committed.

"That is where the state has to recognise that it has not yet put in place the kind of after care to address issues of that kind. Any government that comes to power has a commitment to address the issue but has to take a balanced approach to the allocation of resources so we are ensuring that these special persons get fair treatment.

"Sometimes they are overlooked and even though there is improvement (over the last few years) there is still more to be done," said Mr Christie.

According to American statistics, about one in every 110 children are autistic with boys three times as likely to be autistic than girls.

Local psychologist and autism specialist Dr Michelle Major, clinical director of the Seahorse Institute, thinks the condition is just as prevalent in the Bahamas.

"I don't think that they're that far off from what the national statistics are in the US to be honest with you. When we talk about the whole spectrum (of autism), I do feel that we are pretty much in the same area," said Dr Major when asked to compare Bahamian rates of autism to those in the States.

While autism numbers have grown in the United States over the past few years, something observers attribute to better detection methods, many afflicted children go undiagnosed here - either due to a lack of understanding about developmental disorders, a lack of trained doctors who can make a diagnosis, or because of the negative stigma attached to having a disability.

Dr Major has diagnosed autistic children from Abaco, Eleuthera and Long Island and says while resources are scarce in New Providence they are virtually non-existent in the family islands.

During his travels throughout the country, Mr Christie said he has encountered many children with disabilities who were not receiving proper treatment from state care facilities. He thinks this is because government agencies haven't canvassed the remote areas to identify persons with special needs.

"We have to recognise that some groups have done a lot to help. The Stapleton School (in New Providence) is tremendous asset to the country but I've always felt that we haven't done the kind of national audit that we need to find out in all of the remote areas of the Bahamas where these children are."

Those families who are fighting for social improvements for their autistic children will tell you that there is no simple solution to the myriad of problems they face every day: the stigma of having a differently abled child, the stares, lack of understanding, to the strain on their pocket books and marriages.

However, the parents, educators and physicians who tackle these problems head on and who have organised themselves without any prompting from any public agency deserve much more praise and all the help they can get. They stand as examples of good parenting, concerned and productive members of civil society.

August 23, 2010

tribune242

Bahamas Blog International