Key support for
Guyana sugar battle
By Renu Raghubir and Chamanlall Naipaul
GUYANA yesterday clinched vital support in its battle to stave off the crippling impact of proposed European price cuts on its lynchpin sugar industry on which thousands of families depend.

The firm backing for this country’s cause came from a team from the African, Caribbean and Pacific/European Union (ACP/EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly which flew here Friday for a firsthand look at the sugar industry and for talks with government and other stakeholders.

Co-President of the assembly, Ms. Glenys Kinnock, told reporters in Georgetown that the team has a broader understanding of what sugar means to Guyana and why such a substantial proportion of the agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (57 per cent) depends on the industry.

The delegation yesterday visited Albion sugar estate in Berbice where a $164M modernization project is under way to diversify the industry and came away with a holistic picture of the situation.

“We have had a first hand look at the impact the proposed reform will have on people’s livelihood and the communities, and I believe that they are feeling a sense of betrayal and would like more reassurance that there is indeed, a real understanding of what sugar means to thousands of livelihoods”, Ms. Kinnock said.

In Georgetown yesterday afternoon, she told International Trade and Cooperation Minister Clement Rohee, “We want to support your efforts in this country in doing whatever you can to withstand the pressure that you’re under and I have every faith in you doing that”.

Kinnock commended Guyana for doing “very well” in diversifying and modernizing the industry, pointing to the state-of-the-art factory to be built at Skeldon, Berbice, which she said will be a leading example of a developing country’s work in the sugar sector.

According to her, the best ladder out of poverty is trade and if that ladder is kicked from under Guyana, the country will become poorer.

Additionally, she stressed, sugar paves the way for sustainability that does not come from other products such as pineapples and avocadoes.

Kinnock, a British Labour Party Member of Parliament who also sits in the European Union Parliament, said it is excellent that Guyana fully understands that it must diversify outside the sugar industry.

She said the team also has a clear picture of how much is being invested in the industry and promised that she and Mr. Michael Gahler, another member of the delegation who is from the European Parliament, will meet European Commissioner, Mr. Peter Mandelson next week to discuss their visit here and to brief him on how people here feel.

Mandelson flew here earlier this year to meet government and industry officials on the proposed reform of the EU sugar regime and promised support to cushion the impact of the change on Guyana and other ACP countries.

Industry officials say the proposed 39% cut in the price the EU pays for sugar from Guyana and other ACP producers would have a devastating impact on the economy of those countries.

SEVERE BLOW
Sugar accounts for the livelihood of some 125,000 in Guyana and President Bharrat Jagdeo last week said the proposed sugar price cuts announced by the European Commission (EC), if implemented, will not only deal a severe blow to the economies of ACP sugar producers, but will also raise the important question of whether Europe can be trusted.

Kinnock yesterday told Rohee, who is also the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) ministerial spokesperson on sugar, “I share your worry that there isn’t sufficient understanding and sensitivity of this dependency on sugar. And not just that but also your willingness to fight for what is yours and what you do well.”

“And I think what people in Guyana understand is that sugar is about generating the economy, making sure you can deal with poverty, meet the Millennium Development Goals (set by the United Nations to cut poverty by 2015), build your communities and small businesses”, she added.

Kinnock said there is not enough sensitivity to the needs of countries like Guyana and the EU has a duty not to walk away from the social and economic difficulties which they would face if the proposed reforms are implemented.

Acknowledging that a 39 per cent cut in the EU sugar price is enormous and the implementation time is short, she noted that it is necessary to ensure that “things are not done which will destabilise developing economies.”

The team includes ACP Secretariat Representative, Guyanese Mr. Neville Bissember; members of the assembly, Mrs. Sharon Hay Webster (Co-President), Mr. Gahler, Mr. Youssouh Moussa Dawelh and Mr. Joeli Nabyku. They are here on a sugar fact-finding mission to assess the impact the EU proposed reform of the longstanding sugar regime would have on the economy.

Rohee called Kinnock a “principal ally” and said the presence of the team in Guyana was very timely.

He said Guyana made a wise decision to set up a subcommittee of the Cabinet to closely monitor the issue.

Members of the Task Force set up by Cabinet to finalise Guyana’s preparation for an action plan were also at the meeting.

FRIEND OF THE CARIBBEAN
At Albion, Kinnock told the Chronicle that she has a better grasp of the crucial importance of the sugar industry to the socio-economic fabric of the Guyanese society and this will make her a stronger advocate against the proposed sugar cuts.

“I am totally supportive of the ACP’s position on the issue and I don’t mind being referred to as being a friend of the Caribbean,” she said.

She noted too that the proposed price cuts would also raise political tensions and threaten the existence of democracy here which has been under pressure and this would obviously affect the developmental process.

She praised Guyana for the steps it has taken to meet the challenges of trade liberalisation which would see the erosion of preferential commodity prices.

Asked about the likelihood of adjustments to the proposed reformed sugar regime, Kinnock said these are good and already the EU Agriculture Committee is proposing a 25% cut instead of 39%.

She feels that political pressure and a greater awareness on the part of Europeans of the implications of the price cuts to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands in the ACP countries, as well as the social dislocations it would create, will help influence a change which would see less drastic price cuts and a longer period of implementation to give the affected countries a chance to adjust.

She felt that visits such as this by her delegation would help build the greater understanding and awareness that is needed.

She added that the ACP group is a powerful voice in the struggle against the proposed sugar regime.

AMMUNITION FOR BATTLE
Referring to her discourses with sugar workers at Albion/Port Mourant Estate, Kinnock assured them that their “words will be used as ammunition” in the battle against the proposed cuts on her return to Europe

Webster, from Jamaica, told the Chronicle that the visit here has helped to widen the perspective in which the struggle against the proposed price cuts is being waged because even though the methods of harvesting and production are different in Guyana, the issues are the same as those of other ACP sugar producers.

She also assured sugar workers that on return to Europe the battle against the “draconian” price cuts will be intensified on all fronts.

Acting Chief Executive Officer and Financial Director of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO), Paul Bhim told the Chronicle that visits such as the one yesterday help to expose the realities of what the price cuts would result in if these are implemented in their present form.

“The more they come, the better,” he opined, adding that he is impressed with Kinnock’s stance on the issue and is optimistic that she would use her influential position to advance Guyana’s and the ACP’s case which is important in the struggle against the proposed reformed sugar regime.

Chairman of the GUYSUCO Board of Directors, Ronald Ali said the visit was “meaningful” and a learning experience with respect to historical facts as Guyana’s association with sugar began more than 300 years ago.

He also reiterated the ACP’s position on the price cuts pointing out that if implemented these will be an obstacle in GUYSUCO’s push towards greater modernisation and movement into value-added production which needs large scale investments.

The visiting team is expected to pay a courtesy call on President Jagdeo at State House today.

President announces:
More state $ to boost city drainage
By Delana Isles
THE government has allocated $30M to install 100 culverts in South Ruimveldt Gardens to help ease flooding in that section of the city, President Bharrat Jagdeo announced yesterday during a visit to the community.

His announcement came as he continued a hectic round of visits to communities in the city after a packed tour to the West Demerara on Friday when he addressed pressing concerns of residents.

His visits in the city yesterday took him to several wards in west, south and east Georgetown, culminating in a check on pumping stations central to draining flood waters from the capital.

In South Ruimveldt Gardens, he informed the residents that the money will be made available to the Mayor and City Council and works will commence in a month’s time as the rainy season is fast approaching.

Residents raised concerns over the state of their playfield and were further reassured when Mr. Jagdeo declared that he was prepared to give the money to them to repair the ground if they can come up with a plan and present it to him.

With him on the round of visits were several City Council officials, including Deputy Mayor, Mr. Robert Williams, Town Clerk, Ms. Beulah Williams and City Engineer, Ms. Beverly Johnson.

Also on the tour was President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Mr. Gerry Gouveia.

Mr. Jagdeo announced that $2.5M has been allocated to begin drainage works in South Ruimveldt, and added that more works from Penny Lane to Greenheart Streets will be done at a total cost of $7.5M.

Deputy Mayor Williams also reassured residents that the council has already drafted a plan for several projects to be done in south Georgetown and informed them that the municipality will be holding a meeting Saturday at 15:00 h in the compound of the Shopping Plaza on Aubrey Barker Road.

He said the first phase of the plan will look at drainage works in the community that will include installing seven culverts in South Ruimveldt Gardens.

The residents also complained about a bridge recently built in Cane View Avenue which has cracked in certain sections and appears to be sinking.

The President went to check on the bridge and told the City Council members that something should be done about the structure as well.

The entourage then toured El Dorado Street, also in South Ruimveldt Gardens, where it was observed that on the northern half of the road, huge trees and thick bushes have taken over what used to another playfield in the area.

Mr. Jagdeo and the Deputy Mayor discussed what would be placed in the empty lot after it has been cleared away and the President advised residents that whatever is eventually built there, the key element will be in keeping the surrounding areas clean and well maintained.

The Head of State also visited the Shopping Plaza where the drainage systems were banked up behind one complex.

The tour commenced yesterday afternoon at Guyana National Industrial Company Ltd. (GNIC), on Lombard Street, where the President first examined the ship yard leased to a private fishing company by the company, and is the centre of a lengthy court battle between the two.

Mr. Jagdeo said he will have the Minister within the Ministry of Local Government, Mr. Clinton Collymore write the council concerning the issue.

Next on the agenda was the wharf, near where the Trinidad Cement Limited is constructing a cement bagging terminal/cement plant.

Plant Manager, Mr. Mark Bender explained the progress of the work to the President.

Bender told the Sunday Chronicle the company employed Guyanese for the construction of the plant and intends to hire more locals to work in the plant when it is completed.

He estimated that the plant should be completed in March or April next year and so far two silos have been completed.

Muslims continue restaurant protest
THE protest action being led by the executives of the Met-en-Meer-Zorg East Ahlul Sunnah Wal Jama’a Masjid against the opening of a ‘restaurant’ in the West Coast Demerara village continued yesterday.

Secretary to the mosque, Halim Khan, told the Sunday Chronicle, it was clear that Premnauth Persaud, owner of West Side Plaza was intent in showing his disregard for the Muslim place of worship.

Khan said that yesterday he placed four calls to the Leonora Police Station to complain about the noise coming from Premnauth’s place but when this newspaper called last evening, there was still loud music playing in the background.

According to Khan, worshippers at the masjid were at evening prayers at the time.

Responding to allegations that the real reason for the protest was about West Side Plaza being in competition with his Medina Restaurant, Khan said that this was untrue. He said that his restaurant caters for families, and decent people.

He said that the type of entertainment that Premnauth provided – as evidenced by yesterday’s opening – was not for his loyal customer base.

He added that most of the profits from Medina go back into charity, a fact that is well-known within the Muslim community.

Contacted yesterday for his comments, Chairman for NDC Interim Management Committee, Raymond Mandall still believes that the protest action is unwarranted.

He believes that the protest – specifically calls for him to resign – is fuelled by political opposition to him as the IMC Chair.

He stated that if Persaud cannot live up to NDC expectations, action will be taken against him.

He added that so far, however, there has been no clear evidence that Persaud has contravened any rules.

The protest continues this afternoon, Khan said.

T&T police detain Muslimeen leader after explosion
From Linda Hutchinson-Jafar
PORT of Spain, Trinidad, - Leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, Yasin Abu Bakr and five teenagers including a female have been detained by police for questioning into an explosion Friday night which left 10 people injured, Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul said yesterday.

"We have reasons to detain the persons we have detained," said Paul, refusing to disclose any further information which led to the detention of Bakr, a former coup leader and the teenagers, said to be members of the Jamaat al Muslimeen.

The six were taken away by police following a midnight raid on the Jamaat al Muslimeen headquarters in the western township of St James, not far from where the explosion took place.

Paul said an explosive device was placed between two public telephone booths outside the popular Smokey and Bunty's pub, a regular after-work hangout and persons were injured when shrapnel from the explosion flew in all directions.

Friday night's explosion was the fourth in as many months.

In the first incident in July, at least 13 people were injured when the explosion ripped open a metal garbage bin in downtown Port of Spain.

No one was hurt in the second explosion when a device was placed in a garbage bin but a KFC employee suffered ear injuries when an explosive device in a garbage bin in the third incident was set off.

No arrests have yet been made in what the case of what local media have dubbed the "dustbin bomber”.

Paul said the police force will continue to work closely with its international partners to ensure that the matter is resolved in the shortest possible time.

Outlining a nationwide drive to reassert the rule of law and order, Paul whose police service is facing severe criticism over rising crime, called for the full cooperation and the trust of the public.

"This situation is intolerable; the population has demanded that we treat it in a much more aggressive manner. Law enforcement (agencies) have resolved that nothing will stop us from digging out criminals from where ever they may be and bring them to justice."

He also promised that the full brunt of the law will be brought upon the criminal elements in the country.

"The measures being implemented will no doubt cause inconvenience to the public; however the public need not fear. Only those who are criminally minded will be the object of our focus and attention.”

"We will be relentless in our pursuit of all criminals. There will be zero tolerance for any misdemeanor as the police will be enforcing the authority of the law in every aspect of national life. The life of a criminal will become very difficult as law enforcement agencies and the defence force will be very aggressive in dealing with these unruly elements.”

"Miscreants who believe they can walk this nation free to disrupt the society and destabilise the country will be dealt with the full extent of the law", he promised.

During the 1990 coup attempt led by Bakr and 113 followers, then prime minister ANR Robinson and members of the Parliament were held hostage during a six-day siege. Television workers at a now-defunct government-owned television station were also held hostage during the insurrection which left at least two dozen people dead including one government parliamentarian.

Bakr and his followers were freed on treason, kidnapping and murder charges when a local high court judge ruled that an amnesty given to them by an acting president during the insurrection was valid.

The London-based Privy Council, this country's highest court later overturned the ruling. Bakr and the former accused were never rearrested and brought to trial.

Taxi driver dies in Happy Acres accident
A TAXI driver on his way home Friday night, died shortly after he reportedly lost control of his motor car in the vicinity of Happy Acres, East Coast Demerara.

Dead is Omesh Puran Charran also called Rat Back, 28, of Lot 25 Pigeon Island, East Coast Demerara.

The lone passenger, Hirandai, 26, (only name given) of Lot 5-6 Felicity, East Coast Demerara, who was in the front seat, escaped with minor injuries.

She was treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and sent away. Charran died before he was conveyed to the GPH.

According to eye witnesses, the vehicle was proceeding east along the East Coast Highway when the driver reportedly lost control. The car toppled several times before it ended up under a parked hymac on the southern side of the Happy Acres Public Road. The duo was trapped in the motor car for sometime before public-spirited residents armed with a blow torch managed to free them.

Relatives of Charran told the Chronicle yesterday that he had left for work as usual early Friday morning in his motor car PHH 4537 at PY Taxi Service, Good Hope, East Coast Demerara. His grieving aunt said that shortly after 22:00 h they received a telephone call about the accident. When they rushed down to the GPHC they were told that he had died.

The badly damaged motor car was seen parked outside the Sparendaam Police Station minus its top.

Cuban eye care programme:
More than 1,700 Guyanese benefit
MORE than 1,700 Guyanese have so far benefited from the eye care programme Cuba has opened to Guyana, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported yesterday.

Cuban President Fidel Castro told President Bharrat Jagdeo during a visit to that country that the programme was open to Guyanese to allow patients with visual impairments to undergo surgery through the Cuban ‘Milagros Mission’.

Since then, hundreds have since returned to their homeland with improved vision.

GINA said the Ministry of Health yesterday reported that on an average, two flights leave each week with patients to Cuba for surgery for common eye illnesses such as cataract, ptergium and extopia.

When they return here, patients get post-surgery care at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) by two Cuban Ophthalmologists, who are available on Mondays and Tuesdays, the agency said.

Maria Hutson, a patient, said, “I was not able to see before but now, I am seeing much better. I know I would be able to read better than before and I am glad for that.”

A parent said the surgery on her daughter was successful. “Before my daughter’s vision was cloudy and since the laser surgery her sight has improved”, she told GINA.

The Cuban eye specialists here on Friday concluded a three-day screening exercise at the Enmore Polyclinic, East Coast Demerara, where more than 300 persons received attention, the agency said.

There were many referrals for surgeries in Cuba and patients were helped with their travel documents by an Immigration Officer on site.

Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy had indicated earlier that the government will ensure that every Guyanese who needs surgery to improve his/her vision will have the opportunity in Guyana and in Cuba.

“Even as we are sending people out, we are doing more in Guyana,” he said.

More Berbicians benefit from charitable organisation
FOOD For the Poor (FFP) is reaching more needy persons in Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice) with the recent fine-tuning of its operations there.

The assertion was made Friday during the organisation’s presentation to West Berbicians of 65 beds and 15 mattresses, sports gear and stationery for schools and food items for soup kitchens in at least six schools.

The venue was the complex of the Josliet Missionary Outreach Health Project (JMOHP) at Golden Fleece West Berbice and the distribution was done by the Number Two Committee of the FFP in Region Five, one of three Committees recently established, with responsibility for work in villages between Profitt and Mon Choisi.

The occasion was the weekly distribution at the JMOHP Complex which had commenced from July 19 last.

Head of JMOHP and Chairman of the Number Two Committee, Dr. Rhonda Archer disclosed that the flow of items from FFP had increased in recent weeks, but the distribution to the poor and needy on Friday had been unprecedented in terms of the value of the items.

She expressed satisfaction with the growing number of eligible persons between Profitt and Mon Choisi who were benefiting from the FFP’s charitable efforts since the election on July 19 of the Number Two Committee.

The Number Two Committee comprises seven members and each member had been assigned geographic areas for which they are expected to spearhead relief efforts for the poor and needy within them.

Dr. Archer identified Committee members and their areas of responsibility as follows: Teacher Joy Gonsalves (Profitt to Lichfield); Pastor Pauline Wade (Number 37 village to Onverwagt); Mr. Marlon Fraser (Onverwagt to Hopetown with the exception of Bush Lot) Secretary Rajendra Tribhawan (Bush Lot); Teacher Constance McAlmont (Fort Wellington to Mon Choisi with the exception of Bath Settlement) and Pastor Garrett (Bath Settlement).

Dr. Archer urged social organisations who help the needy, as well as needy persons who had not yet accessed help available from the FFP to approach the Number Two Committee or individual members and make their needs known and receive help.

The JMOPH now carries out distribution of FFP inputs at the Complex at Golden Fleece on a weekly basis.

Groups and organisations which serve as conduits to the needy are merely required to make monetary contributions to pay for the transportation costs incurred in the weekly trucking of materials from

Georgetown to Berbice.

Chlorine gas leak sealed
THE Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) has assured that the chlorine gas leak which occurred last Tuesday at its Fellowship Water Treatment Plant on the West Coast of Demerara has been rectified and poses no further health threat to anyone.

GWI’s Health and Safety Officer, Christopher Cathro told the Chronicle a cylinder that was in storage sprung a leak and affected two persons who are living nearby. They suffered from mild throat irritation and coughing as a result of inhaling the escaped gas.

However, Cathro said a check with them has revealed that they are back to normal health.

However, the kitchen garden of the two persons suffered damages, Cathro said, adding that GWI is prepared to offer compensation for the losses incurred, but only when an ongoing investigation into the incident is completed.

Cathro noted that there have been similar incidents in the past at different locations caused by varying circumstances.

Chlorine is used in the purification of water at Water Treatment Plants.

Poor public attendance at Education Act consultation
NOT more than a handful of persons attended the public consultation on the Education Act, which started after the scheduled time Friday afternoon at the St. Joseph High School in Georgetown.

Ministry of Education officials were forced to push back the 16:00 h start time to almost an hour later because members of the public were hardly there.

The few persons present blamed the poor attendance on insufficient advertising.

Nevertheless, Mr. Hector Patterson and Mr. Orin Perry, both from the ministry, chaired the talks and the discussion was healthy.

The interaction dealt with governance of schools, discipline of students in schools, the curriculum, school attendance, teacher performance and standards, school inspection, parental involvement, rights of the child and students’ welfare, and school placement.

Students, private schools, teachers, parent/teacher groups, religious bodies and government ministries are being targeted for their inputs to rewrite the act to better regulate the education system in Guyana.

Consultations are also earmarked for today, October 21 and 23 in other Georgetown areas.

At these meetings, citizens are being encouraged to air their views on pertinent issues affecting the education system.

Officials said this participatory approach will help the task force established to oversee the consultations obtain vital information needed to prepare realistic documentation responsive to today's educational needs.

Some of the issues to be addressed in the rewriting of the act are how to regulate the merging of private and public schools, school management, discipline in school, and loans for tertiary education.

The Education Ministry is serving as the policy-making and monitoring body for the new bill.
(RENU RAGHUBIR)

LEAF operations not in danger
-- EC adviser
EUROPEAN Commission (EC) Delegate here, Mr. Per Eklund, says the decision to continue the financial arrangement between the Linden Economic Advancement Fund (LEAF), which is part of the larger Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP), and the Guyana Fire and General Insurance Company Limited (GuyFlag) rests solely with the government.

He told the Chronicle that while the EC is providing the funding for LEAP, the government has a contractual arrangement with GuyFlag and as such the EC cannot make any decision whether to continue doing business with GuyFlag.

Commissioner of Insurance, Ms Maria Van Beek, earlier this month ordered the firm to cease all operations “on the grounds that it has not been able to satisfy the Commissioner of Insurance with regard to its application.”

GuyFlag reportedly attempted to collect $400M from a Barbados-based re-insurer on behalf of a policy purportedly made out in the name of the Catholic Church in Guyana, the registered owner of the Sacred Heart Cathedral which was destroyed in a fire late last year. The church was not insured.

According to the Guyana Information News Agency (GINA), the EC Economic Adviser to Guyana, Ritba Sallman has stated that while there were obvious concerns with the ongoing investigations at GuyFlag, nothing indicates that LEAF is in danger of halting its programme.

“We have in place an action plan, which is in keeping with international standards and procedures for financial operations of this nature,” GINA quoted Sallman as saying.

The insurance company – in operation since 1997 – had a meteoric rise on the local corporate scene, sponsoring cricket matches and securing important contracts including the management contract of the $418M LEAF.

It a year ago announced a US $5M investment in the country’s cement importation sector in order to counter the then crippling cement shortages affecting Guyana, an initiative that won plaudits from members of both the government and the private sector.

January flood lessons:
Red Cross calls for disaster management, planning blueprint
By Renu Raghubir
THE disastrous January floods along the Guyana coastal belt threw up the need for a disaster management and planning programme and more training for volunteers, the head of the local Red Cross has said.

Secretary General of the Guyana Red Cross Society (GRCS), Ms. Dorothy Fraser, is also calling for partnerships between Non governmental organisations (NGOs) and the private sector, support for the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) and linkages with other countries to help Guyana better cope with natural disasters.

Planning should be strengthened and awareness about disasters should also be raised, she said last week.

Fraser also made a special appeal for more volunteers and thanked the people and companies rallying to the organisation’s relief efforts after the floods earlier this year.

Her calls came as Guyana observed International Natural Disaster Reduction Day on Wednesday when the Red Cross presented certificates of appreciation to volunteers and donors who helped during the floods which triggered the country’s worst natural disaster.

Flood waters from the record January rains blanketed much of Georgetown and several villages on the East Coast and East Bank Demerara, leaving families battling to hold back the rising waters from their bottom flats, some stacking sandbags at doors.

Areas and streets in the capital city were under several inches of water and municipal markets were among business places swamped.

President Bharrat Jagdeo set up a task force to determine the cause of the flooding and it found that it was because of a lack of monitoring and maintaining of the city’s drainage system.

The United Nations estimated some 200,000 people were affected by the floods and several countries responded to the government’s appeals for help in the wake of the floods.

The GRCS met Thursday at the Kenneth DeAbreu Auditorium in Kingston, Georgetown to review the lessons from the floods and to look at the World Disasters Report 2005.

GRCS Board Member Mrs. Debbie Ramsay recalled that for its flood relief programme, the organisation received assistance from the donor community, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, local businesses, individuals and Red Cross societies throughout the world.

She explained that an in-depth assessment was carried out to find the vulnerable people, adding that the organisation subsequently conducted a lesson learning exercise and a satisfaction survey, which revealed a high level of appreciation for the Red Cross assistance.

However, Ramsay said, the Red Cross experienced its own share of problems during the relief efforts and found that it needs vehicles with megaphone systems to advertise health talks as well as vehicles for relief operations.

BLANKETS TOO HEAVY FOR GUYANA
It was also discovered that the blankets distributed were too heavy for the Guyana climate, while the clean-up kits were distributed too late, she reported.

At the same forum, Dr. Peter DeGroot said a major problem during the floods was the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans, including leptospirosis.

He said that in the event of future flooding, one recommendation would be for people to avoid swimming and wading in the water. But he noted that this advice could be difficult to adhere to, since in many instances, homes and shacks are under water, as was the case in the January floods.

“There was nowhere to keep the animals and the owners were forced to release them on the road. That caused traffic problems…Many animals starved because there was no food and all the pastures were flooded out,” he recounted. “People were seen butchering animals on the roadsides and then selling without refrigeration. That has got to be addressed.”

DeGroot further pointed out that removal and burial of dead animals was a major problem that also has to be addressed.

In preparation for future natural disasters, evacuation of people has to be well-planned and once that is done, plans must be made to ensure that they are fed properly and that all sanitary facilities are provided, he said.

He noted that people are always reluctant to leave their homes and so security measures must be in place for the evacuated houses.

DeGroot stated that during the flood period, farmers at Mahaica lost millions of dollars because water was released from the Demerara Conservancy into Mahaica. This could have been avoided if the infrastructure was properly maintained, he said.

Fraser said people need information as much as water, food, medicine or shelter; and for those who don’t know, information can save lives, livelihoods and resources as well. It may be the only form of disaster preparedness that the most vulnerable can afford, she said.

The right kind of information leads to a deeper understanding of needs and ways to respond, while the wrong information can lead to inappropriate, even dangerous, interventions, she added.

THE POWER OF INFORMATION
Fraser stressed that information bestows power and lack of it can make people victims of disaster, noting that the latest World Disasters Report calls on agencies to focus less on gathering information for their own needs and more on exchanging information with the people they seek to support.

The report features the role of information in disasters; hurricane early warning in the Caribbean; locusts in West Africa - early warning, late response; the information black hole in Aceh; sharing information for Tsunami recovery in South Asia; humanitarian media coverage in the digital age; radio in Afghanistan - challenging perceptions, changing behaviour; disaster data - key databases, trends and statistics.

The report, now in its 13th publication, was released on October 5 by the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies, and underlines that the right kind of information leads to a much deeper understanding of people’s needs and the best ways to meet those needs.

Fraser quoted IFRC President Juan Manuel Suárez del Toro as saying, “Early warning is the most obvious way that information can help save lives. In the Caribbean, during the 2004 hurricane season, most countries in the region successfully alerted their populations of approaching storms and many lives were thus saved. The key to this success was putting people, and not only technology, at the centre of warning systems.”

At Cubana disaster anniversary service
Calls made for Posada to be tried in Venezuela
“SEND him back to Venezuela to be tried!”

That is the call by the Cuban Ambassador to Barbados with regard to the continued presence in the U.S. of Posada Carriles, a terrorist who helped blow up a Cuban airliner 29 years ago killing all 73 persons on board including 11 Guyanese.

Speaking at a church service last Sunday in the Eastern Caribbean island to mark the anniversary of the bombing, His Excellency Jose Alvarez Portela described the downing of the airliner off the west coast of Barbados as a “cruel and repulsive act of terrorism” and a “premeditated and heinous crime”.

He said: “The main culprits, Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosh, have never been brought to trial or sanctioned. Mr. Posada Carriles, a self confessed and convicted terrorist who had entered US territory secretly and illegally is now in that country installed in a comfortable and privileged location in El Paso, Texas, in collusion with the authorities….The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has requested his extradition…”

Mr. Portela referred to the unjust detention of five Cuban nationals in the U.S. for struggling against terrorism as “an example of double standards”.

The Cuban Ambassador continued: “On this occasion, I want to make a call to all men and women who dream of a better world, a world of justice, peace and freedom to demand the immediate and unconditional release of the five Cubans and to call for the extradition of Posada Carriles to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela so that he may be tried for his crimes which have so far gone unpunished.”

Honorary Consul of Guyana to Barbados, Mr. Norman Faria represented the Guyana government at the service, which was held at the Paynes Bay Methodist Church. In his remarks, Faria said: “Terrorism, which targets innocent people, must be condemned by all progressive and democratic opinion. Since the bombing of the Cubana flight, there have been other inhumane acts including the blowing up of the World Trade Centre, the Bali bombings and most recently the placing of bombs in the London Transport system. The perpetuators of such horrendous crimes against humanity must be held to account and suitable punishment rendered.”

With regard to Guyana, Consul Faria alluded to “terrorist-like crimes… including robbery, and the murdering of innocent working class people” by what he described as “organised elements”. He said the disciplined forces, working against a backdrop of a government which represents the will of the majority of Guyanese through fair and free elections, will continue to ferret out the criminals.

He said those remembering such crimes as the Cubana bombing didn’t mean they lacked the Christian ideal of forgiveness. Remembering them served to assist in preventing a similar occurrence in future.

“Those who committed those evil crimes must be punished,” he reiterated.

He added that to compare the mass murder of a plane load of people with a quarrel between neighbours that could be settled with apologies was absurd and trivialised a grave issue.

Both Ambassador Portela and Consul Faria later laid wreaths at the `Cubana Monument’ across the road from the church in the Paynes Bay district of St. James parish on the island’s west coast.

Both thanked the government and people of Barbados for their kind and generous action of designing and building the monument. It is a pyramid design with the names of all those who perished, including the 11 Guyanese who were travelling to Cuba to study, inscribed on it.

TCL’s Cement Packaging Terminal
Foundation for storage silos completed
THE foundation for storage silos of TCL’s cement packaging terminal has been completed.

The completion of that foundation by construction firm R. Basoo and Sons Limited and Readymix Concrete Ltd. moves the cement packaging facility closer to commissioning.

A release from TCL said that workers of the two firms worked through the night on three weekends to pour the concrete for the foundation.

Each of the three sections of the foundation required that concrete be poured non-stop for more than 12 hours. It is believed to be one of the largest continuous pouring of cement in Guyana’s construction history. About 50 truckloads of concrete were required for each of the three sections. The concrete was mixed to have strength of 4,000 psi, TCL said.

The three storage silos are currently under construction by Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) and will be erected on this foundation in the coming weeks. The silos will stand over one hundred feet tall and will each hold 2 000 tonnes of cement for the bagging facility. In addition to the bulk cement in the silos, the terminal will be able to store 2 000 tonnes of bagged cement at a time.

Penta Engineering Corporation of St Louis, USA designed the packaging terminal and both Guyanese and Trinidadian firms have been contracted to carry out construction. Lee Young and Partners of Trinidad and Tobago and local firm E and A Consultants Inc. are supervising the construction. Prior to the foundation work, BK International carried out the site preparation activities including excavation, pile driving and sand filling.

TCL said that when completed, the packaging terminal, in addition to improving supplies of cement to the Guyana market, will create more than 100 direct and indirect jobs.

The construction of the terminal is a key component of TCL’s commitment to Guyana, which it has served faithfully for the past 16 years.

GUYANA'S CSME-READINESS
CLEAREST indication of the Guyana Government's commitment to push ahead with the creation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) - even in the face of trading problems encountered with some CARICOM states - came last week from the Programme Manager of the CSME Unit, Ivor Carryl.

Faced with recurring failures by some member states of the Community to have mechanisms and procedures in place for CSME-readiness, CARICOM leaders had accepted a suggestion by Prime Minister Kenny Anthony for an audit on compliance by member states.

Amid reports that Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, would be CSME compliant by the first quarter of this year, came indications that a number of other CARICOM states would not be on board by year end, as originally expected.

Some CARICOM states within the sub-region of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), felt obliged to link access to the single market component of the CSME dependent on progress for creation of a long promised Regional Development Fund (RDF) to help disadvantaged economies.

President Bharrat Jagdeo, who has always made known Guyana's anxiety to have the RDF in place, nevertheless chose to encourage preparedness for the country's access, before year end, to the Caribbean single market.

Last week, Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, Clement Rohee, was optimistically pointing to Guyana's compliance readiness for the single market by December the latest, if not in November as likely.

It is particularly encouraging that both the Guyana Government and the private sector remain strongly committed to help make the CSME a reality, despite the continuing difficulties this country experiences in competitive intra-regional trade.

As, for instance, in the marketing of its rice to some CARICOM states that give preference to subsidised rice imports from extra-regional sources.

There is also the recurring problem of discrimination and even hostility that Guyanese continue to experience at a few CARICOM airports on arrival, best known being  Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

As President Jagdeo recently observed, following his official tour last month of the new CARICOM Headquarters at Liliendaal, this country's gift to the Community with the help of Japan:

"It is not an easy task to sell CARICOM to Guyanese as an integrated community with many benefits to be derived, when they are treated better outside CARICOM than at regional airports of entry".

The President had made clear that Guyanese immigration officials would not be allowed to discriminate or extend unfair treatment to any national of CARICOM on arrival in Guyana and he expected this to be the norm across the Community.

The Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, is continuing to pursue his mandate to have dialogue with a number of identified CARICOM states on challenges they face on CSME compliance as well as efforts to establish the Regional Development Fund.

In the circumstances, it is to be hoped that the CSME Unit would soon be in a position to say of other CARICOM countries that, like Guyana, they are "in pretty good shape" on single market treaty compliance.

Khan’s Chronicles
Free up the Rasta!
By Sharief Khan
LISTEN up, people! I and I not feeling so righteous and I want to chant my feelings with you today.

I man feeling a bit down and when I man feeling down my vibrations affect other people, including those close to me and I don’t like those kinds of feelings.

I don’t like affecting people man, not me. I man on the straight and narrow and I don’t like being on any stupidness. That not for this dread.

So I chanting with you and looking to the Most High to lead us out of this latest patch of trouble.

I remember the late great Brother Bob Marley raising some mighty chants down in a government yard in Trench Town, Jamaica, and pouring forth with that sweet, mighty and moving voice of his.

That brother had some real powerful messages and he helped raise the consciousness of brethren and sistren spread all over the world so that today I and I and you are able to see things in the proper perspective.

Praise Jah, the Most High.

I remember Brother Bob and Georgie making the fire light in that government yard in Trench Town as if it was love burning through the night; and then they would cook some meal porridge of which they would share with others.

And I man see some people in this country moving along on some pretty strange stupidity and I man want to chant them down. I want to raise some fires on them and ask them to stop the foolishness.

Remember how Brother Bob appealed to us to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery? Well brethren and sistren, a lot of us still tie up tight, tight, tight with some mental slavery chains and we got to shake them off.

We got to shake off the nonsense.

As you know, I man am a scribe – I write for a living.

My job is journalism and the greater part of it is for righteousness for all and to help lead us all into the Promised Land where we can find a better life. That’s putting it in a coconut shell and I spend a lot of time chewing on stuff like what being a scribe means when I sit down with my calabash of ital from time to time.

Ital is good meditation food but the other night I saw a dread looking longingly at two sweet-looking women and I reminded him that meat is forbidden to Rastas.

He looked at me, then even more longingly at the two good-looking women, smiled, winked and said, “That’s good halaal meat and that’s not forbidden to Rasta!”

Right on, Rasta! Praise to the Most High who works His wonders in so many wonderful ways for us to behold.

But back to where I was chewing on my ital and meditating.

I remember when I was at the Stabroek News (the other newspaper I helped to bring to birth and watch grow into a sturdy tree), the late President Desmond Hoyte didn’t really like us talking to his key government officials.

He probably was afraid of information leaking out to nosy brethren like me who would not waste time spreading the news and so he put a clamp on them.

As I recall it, some kind of law or edict was passed banning government officials from giving out information without the express permission of the top guys. In other words, it was now up to those who felt they were the `Most High’ to decide what the rest of us should or should not know.

So, in a flash, those who were affected were told in no uncertain terms that if they spoke to others about matters they were not supposed to talk about without permission from the `Most High’, they faced a fine of $10,000 and a jail term.

Needless to say that put the fear of death in a lot of people who no longer felt safe talking to reporters from the Stabroek News. Many were scared but a few held their ground, including Dr. Barton Scotland, Mr. Winston King, Dr. Cecil Rajana and the late Dr. Cedric Grant, who never failed to see or speak to me in the course of my job. This Rasta says `Hail up, brothers! Glory to the true Most High!’

Those brothers have moved on and so have I and I had thought that with the dawn of a new day, that that kind of fear wrought by the stupidity of a time bygone had drifted into the dank corners where evil dwells.

But I have found that the fear is alive and well and this Rasta wants to break those chains, man.

Listen to this reasoning and tell me what you think. One of our reporters last week was doing a story on how good the new-look Cheddi Jagan International Airport looking. Nothing controversial -- nice, simple story; but when she checked with a senior man at the airport, the reporter was told that he could not speak to her without permission from his Permanent Secretary!

We dug further and it became apparent to us that a lot of officials around the place are under the distinct impression that they can give out information only through a certain government agency, which shall not be named for the time being.

I couldn’t believe the stupidity we were picking up and it seemed like even more foolishness when another reporter approached a Government Minister on a story and she suggested to him that she would talk to someone at the unnamed government agency who would eventually put out the information. Thankfully, that minister pulled back from going that route and gave our reporter her telephone number to pursue the matter with her.

See the dothishness, people? We are not after the crown jewels here – just simple information so that we can keep the public better informed and on the straight and righteous. But some people seem to want to keep us in the land of darkness until they decide how much light we can see.

Now, I man am not on that kind of foolishness and I chanting it down. I don’t yet know how far the rot has spread but this Rasta fighting it down.

This Rasta raising a chant against this backwardness and I hope all the righteous brethren and sistren join me to bring fires on those who want to keep us in mental bondage.

Hear me – the days for that done and fires pon anyone who want to take us there!

Free the Rasta! Hail up, people. Praises to the Most High.

I and I gone to find a good calabash bowl of ital to meditate on the two good-looking sistren that other halaal meat-loving Rasta was feasting his eyes on the other night.

In the more time, people.

RICKEY Singh column
GLIMPSE OF TEXAN TYCOON BANKROLLING OUR CRICKET              
Big money for 2006 tournament, but is there more in the mortar than the pestle?
THERE'S a lot of shouting for joy as well as sharp criticisms over the proposed US$28 million `20/20 cricket tournament’ in 2006 announced at a lavish media launch on October 3 by Texan billionaire Allen Stanford at his Pavilion Restaurant in Antigua.

If celebrated West Indies cricket legends earmarked to share in the Stanford cricket payout are exuberant, that is understandable. To rationalise, as Clive Lloyd, one of the legends behind the `20/20 initiative’, noted at the launching ceremony, our cricketers have too long been "grossly underpaid".

But is this American tycoon, whose dominant investments and influence in Antigua remain a source of controversy in that CARICOM state, really out to "revolutionise" West Indies cricket, or is he on a new market blitz, on behalf of the "Stanford empire", reputedly worth some US$21 billion with multiple business interests in approximately 79 countries?

In contrast to the exuberance of icons like Garfield Sobers, Wes Hall and Clive Lloyd for the Stanford-sponsored tournament, there are questions, from various quarters, pertaining to the rationale, organisation and management at this time of the 2006 tournament with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) still seemingly left in the dark. 

Granted that the Board lacks the confidence it needs from players and public, it still stands as the principal mechanism for organising cricket tournaments with its territorial affiliates. Yet, according to, for example, Ellis Lewis, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board, also a WICB director, he knows of NO consultation for the Stanford originated 20/20 tournament.

On the other hand,  as he said to me last week, Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, has different concerns that would not have him "jumping for joy over Stanford...I am not having any historical amnesia about Stanford who is keen on taking LIAT out of operations with his 'Caribbean Star' and 'Caribbean Sun'.."

Others in governments, including Antigua, Stanford's primary operational base in this region, are also rhetorically asking what has become of the Texan entrepreneur's much publicised originally proposed "Stanford Caribbean Investment Fund"?

That Investment Fund 
Announced with much media fanfare over two years ago, Stanford had pledged to pump some US$2 billion in economic development projects through that Fund. 

An estimated US$900 million had been identified to come from foreign investors; another US$700 million borrowed on the basis of conventional financing and approximately US$300 million to be raised through non-cash concessions from Caribbean governments.

Immensely successful an entrepreneur Stanford certainly is. But the 55-year-old American entrepreneur and bossman of the Stanford Group of Companies, known to have had his share of clashes with governments, including some within CARICOM, is certainly no philanthropist.

He makes no secret that he is in business to make money, and is on record as boasting of being in the habit of getting what he wants.

Well, his range of investments and level of influence in Antigua over a relatively short period - check his investments profile spread across sixty acres at VC Bird International Airport -point to his success in achieving what he wanted to have located in that CARICOM state, once jeeringly deemed "the Birds estate".

Those jeers, in reference to the political grip and enormous influence of the family of the late VC Bird, including sons Vere Jnr and Lester, were to give way to current jokes about "Stanfordville" as a new name for Antigua.

Stanford had no real problems in quickly securing the support he needed from Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer's United Progressive Party administration, following the defeat, finally, of the Birds' Antigua Labour Party at the March 2004 general election, after a long spell in government.

The UPP was vehemently opposed to the investment tentacles of the Stanford Group reaching into an off-shore Guiana islands project for an estimated US$1 billion luxury tourism resort.

Prime Minister Spencer, who had recruited as his experienced and well-paid public relations handler the Trinidadian national, Roy Boyke, and now has him attending cabinet meetings to the discomfort of some of his political colleagues, was to make a rapid transformation.

Spencer's Transformation   
One from being a robust, hostile opponent of Stanford to a relationship friendly enough to publicly greet him by first name, "Allen" - just as he did at the billionaire's lavish launching party for the 20/20 cricket tournament.

Stanford originally became involved in financial investment in Antigua through acquisition of a then financially threatened Bank of Antigua.

Following a fierce exchange with the government of the British dependent territory of Montserrat in the 1990s, resulting from a decision to revoke licences granted him for what was then his `Guardian International Bank’ (GIB) in Plymouth, Stanford was to considerably raise his profile in Antigua.

Before his move to Antigua, with the surrendering of his licences to preempt revocation as ordered for May 31, 1991, Sandford's GIB off-shore banking operations had grown enormously in just two years from a deposit base of US$2 billion at the end of 1987 to US$55. 5 million by the end of 1989, reaching some US$100 million by November 1990 - according to Federal Bureau of Investigation monitors in Texas and records of the Montserrat and British governments.

Once the Bank of Antigua was under his control for domestic commercial operations, the Texan tycoon did not lose time in securing from the then Bird administration a licence for off-shore operations by his Stanford International Bank, the largest such banking business in that Leeward Island state, with an expanding South American clientele.

Today, he is quite proud and comfortable in Antigua and Barbuda - or is it "Stanfordville"- wielding the critical influence that goes with his investments as part of the "Stanford empire".

From Digicel to Stanford
Earlier, as is well known to both past and present ruling parties in St. John's, he had threatened to shift significant business operations away from Antigua to St. Kitts unless his demands were met for ownership acquisition of  60 acres of land he currently occupies at VC Bird International Airport.

There are located the offices of the Texan tycoon's banking, construction, airline and media businesses, the Stanford cricket ground and stadium, 'Sticky Wicket' restaurant, a private members-only spa and an Olympic-size swimming pool.

Stanford has repeatedly dismissed as false and politically inspired allegations against him involving inquiries from US Treasury and other agencies relating to off-shore banking operations and influence-peddling, and remains confident about the legitimacy of his business dealings. He certainly has influential backers.

But is there more than just a claimed "love" for West Indies cricket that has this Texan billionaire in shining armour investing US$28 million for a 20/20 cricket tournament and a star-studded team?  

I guess whether or not the financially-strapped, confidence-afflicted WICB endorses Stanford's `20/20 tournament’, the show will begin.

So, from Ireland's Digicel, as sponsor of the West Indies cricket team, we have now moved to a Texan tycoon's sponsorship, with very big money, for the proposed 20/20 tournament in 2006. Is there more in the mortar than the pestle? Time will tell.

GUYANA’S DEMOCRACY QUESTIONS (II)
Weekly viewpoint by Robert Persaud
(The following is part two of excerpts of a presentation made to a `Democracy Symposium’ held at the University of Guyana Tain Campus, Berbice)

I intend this brief presentation by answering four basic questions that are relevant to the theme and purpose of this public symposium: 1. What is democracy? 2. What has been the impact of our brief experience with democracy? 3. Is our democracy threatened? 4. Why is democracy critical for our prosperity and stability?

Is our democracy threatened?
Given the nature of this form of Government, there will be perpetual threats. Threats even exist in the world’s largest democracy - India - and also in one of the most dynamic democracies - the USA. Guyana is no different. Today, the more prominent threats to our democracy are: crime, poverty, corruption and political instability.

The singular or combined manifestations of these can undermine our democratic gains. For example, we all know the feeling that is created when there is rampant criminal activities and even criminal terror such as the disappearance of the sugar workers on the East Coast of Demerara. Crime can cause all sorts of reactions by the public that can harm our democracy. Also, it can lead to governments rolling back some of the democratic features as a society more focused on security is forced to sacrifice some of its freedoms. The criminals also limit the ability of the population to fully tap all the gains of democracy. The criminals who pillage, commit murders and terrorise are hitting directly at the backbone of democracy.

The second threat is poverty. This has been cut in half since the return of democracy. But the presence of poverty means the presence of a dangerous threat. People instinctively give bread and butter issues priority. Democracy for them is meaningless if it cannot answer their daily needs and fulfil their dreams. Poverty serves to inhibit people’s faith and belief in democracy. A view strongly held by the late President Cheddi Jagan when he observed (August 6, 1996): "Democracy can only prosper in an environment of economic, social and ecological development…If left unattended the expansion of poverty with hunger and the hopelessness it engenders will undermine the fabric of our civilisation and the security of the democratic state….”

The third is corruption. This is like a cancer that can eat away at the fabric of any democracy. The on-going battle by the Government to confront corruption can be seen as an effort to forestall this dangerous threat to our democracy. The tentacles of corruption can undermine our democracy and even have a demoralising effect on our citizenry to build their country and earn an honest living. There are instances where democractic governments have fallen under the millstone of rampant corruption, a fact of which the PPP/C is fully aware. In Guyana, people had to engage in corrupt activities just to get food. The culture of smuggling flour, potatoes, spilt peas, cooking oil and sardines, which were once banned, added to rigged elections led to the genesis of monstrous corruption in our society. This monster must be eliminated to preserve our democracy.

Sadly, in this day and age, there are those who still do not believe in the power of our people to choose their leaders. We see the fourth threat - political instability - and violence – manifested in after elections results, and even in court rulings. Those who promote political instability now have the audacity to seek foreign support for a non-elected government instead of a government that is freely and fairly-elected by all the people. Political instability is the Achilles heel of any democratic State.

Having identified these threats, there must be firm and decisive action by the Government and all stakeholders, Opposition political parties included, which is consistent with the principles of democracy to crush the various threats to democracy.

Is democracy critical for our prosperity and stability?
The survival of this nation hinges on a lasting democratic environment. We do not have the luxury to experiment with any non-democratic arrangement to find out the consequences. The experiences of the 1964-1992 period tell the sordid story of destruction, deprivation and economic spoliation resulting from the absence of democracy.

This point was made by President Bharrat Jagdeo in his last Independence address to the nation: “In many respects, Guyana lost decades in terms of development. October, 1992 marked another important milestone in our country’s history. With the rebirth of democracy and the return to office of a freely elected government, a new phase in our national journey began. As in any journey with a destination in mind, we must know where we are heading if we are not to become lost en route, or to become diverted from our goals.”

It would also be useful for us to examine the indicators of progress since 1992 which will answer the question about the essentiality of democracy for our individual and collective survival. These evidence of progress are redounding to the prosperity and stability of this country.

While we reflect on the struggles to win democracy and celebrate the gains, we must not lose perspective of its critical importance locally and internationally as an agent of world peace. We must not take our democracy for granted as the enemies of freedom and democracy are lurking outside our doors. At times, commentators observe that we are too liberal with our democracy. But this is a price we must pay. We must prepare to fight to defend this democracy as our ancestors and freedom fighters did when they stood for what was good for them and the generations to come. Also, let us count ourselves fortunate as there are still many millions struggling to attain a basic democratic State.

And now I end on a provocative note: any democracy runs the risk of perishing by the abuse of democracy.

The Greater Caribbean This Week
MEASURING TOURISM SUSTAINABILITY
Jasmin Garraway
THE development of standards and indicators as a means of measuring tourism sustainability is one of the primary recommendations of Agenda 21.

Standards and indicators are a process, which is based on the premise that by following a certain set of procedures and principles, acceptable outcomes will result.

Tourism practitioners agree that indicators are a practical instrument that measures progress of sustainable tourism development. They act somewhat as a compass to present a picture of the direction in which a destination is travelling as it journeys on the path to sustainable tourism.

They also convey information about the progress that a destination is making in achieving targets that are desired or that have been set. On the other hand, indicators give warning signals about a situation that is emerging, or an area of concern in a destination. In this way, preventative or corrective action can be taken, before the situation deteriorates to a level where it cannot be easily remedied.

These tools are used not only to conceive developments, but are also a practical way to actually achieve improvements in the tourism industry.

Agenda 21 identified 12 priority areas in which sustainability can be measured for the tourism industry. These include design for sustainability, partnerships for sustainable tourism, waste minimisation, reuse and recycle, management of fresh water resources, as well as staff, customers and community involvement in environmental issues.

The Association of Caribbean States' Convention establishing the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Greater Caribbean and its protocol also outlines areas for measuring sustainability in tourism.

These include security, as measured by the number of crimes committed against tourists in a destination per year, child prostitution as measured by the number of cases detected involving tourists, and employment which can be measured by the number of persons employed in the tourism industry.

Other priority areas for measurement are quality of water, energy and water consumption, tourist satisfaction, and environmental management. In fulfilling its mandate to establish the zone, the ACS embarked on the process of developing indicators of tourism sustainability. The process started with the pilot study of a tourist destination in Guadeloupe, followed by the development of a manual for trainers on sustainable indicators development.

The ACS' theoretical approach to indicator development was coupled with the practical methodology designed by the World Tourism Organisation.

A field test of the combined methodologies resulted in several lessons learnt, including the importance of information gathering as the basis for indicators use, and the need for cooperation amongst all stakeholders in the process.

The latter is particularly important in multi-use destinations where the resources are used by several users and stakeholders. The development and use of indicators require a high level of commitment by the community.

This can present a major challenge especially as it relates to getting consensus or agreement on the units of measurements, or the actual benchmarks for each of the priority areas identified.

Another constraint is that existing tools are often inadequate in light of the diverse nature of the tourism product, and the broad range of issues and activities, which the industry embraces. It is often easier to find tools for measuring physical and environmental impacts rather than those for measuring social and cultural impacts, as these are more challenging.

In beginning the process, the tourism sector can seek guidance by examining standards both voluntary and mandatory, which have been set. Mandatory standards encompass physical and national policies, development plans and tourism master plans amongst others while voluntary standards include codes of ethics, industry guidelines for compliance, and best practices that have been identified.

Ms. Jasmin Garraway is the Sustainable Tourism Director of the Association of Caribbean States. The opinions expressed are not necessarily the official views of the ACS. Comments and reactions can be sent to mail@acs-aec.org

Preventing Pandemics
By Gwynne Dyer
IT WOULD be funny if it were not so serious.

As migratory birds carry the avian influenza virus west across Europe, Britain is following in the footsteps of Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Turkey and asking hunters to shoot down as many incoming ducks and geese as possible. They have been issued with bird-flu testing kits to see if their victims are carrying the dreaded virus, but they really have little to worry about: all the cases of direct bird-to-human infection, now over a hundred in total, have occurred on family farms in South-East Asia.

The panic over bird flu is not wholly misplaced. If the H5N1 strain that is currently ravaging wild bird flocks learns to pass between human beings easily while retaining even a tenth of its current lethality -- the death-rate among people who catch it directly from birds has been as high as 50 percent -- the world would face an influenza pandemic as grave as the one in 1918-19. That one, known as the "Spanish influenza", killed between fifty and a hundred million people at a time when the world's population was only a third of what it is now.

Recent research has shown that the 1918 virus was also a purely avian strain that jumped to human beings, but then changed enough to become highly infectious between people. Its peculiar pattern of mortality, with a much higher death rate than usual among healthy young adults (half the victims of the Spanish flu pandemic were between 18 and 40 years old), is reappearing in the cases of direct bird-to-human transmission of the past two years. If the current avian virus also develops the ability to move easily between people, the world is in trouble.

IN THE WILD
Only in the past couple of decades has it been widely understood that almost all the quick-killer infectious diseases that have emerged to ravage human populations since the rise of civilisation come from our own domestic animals.

Human beings in the wild, like other predators that live in small, isolated groups of a few dozen individuals or less, would rarely have fallen victim to the quick-killer viruses and bacteria whose natural habitat is animals that live in large herds.

Even if such a disease did jump from some prey animal to the hunters who killed it, and even if it then adapted enough to infect the other members of the hunter-gatherer band, the new, human-infectious form would usually die out when it had run through those few dozen people.

Only when civilisation brought people together in large groups, and those people began living in constant close contact with domesticated versions of herd-dwelling animals, did the quick-killer diseases that often devastate those species begin to adapt permanently to the human species.

Over the past three or four thousand years this process has given us a whole range of highly infectious new human diseases, including quite lethal ones like smallpox, cholera, typhoid, and the Black Plague.

Influenza, which colonised civilised human beings via their flocks of domesticated birds, is usually a relatively mild member of this family of diseases, but the flu virus mutates with great ease, and occasionally it assumes a highly lethal form.

As our population has grown into the billions and the volume and speed of travel have soared, we have become more vulnerable to these "emergent" diseases, but they are unlikely to emerge on a British or even a Russian farm. Eighty years ago the "Spanish influenza" virus probably made its way from wild ducks into chickens and thence into human beings on a Kansas farm, but modern commercial farming does not involve people and their animals sharing the same living spaces. Moreover, if some disease does cross the species barrier anyway, its human victims are far more likely to get early treatment (and, if necessary, quarantine).

The places where the style of farming and the density of human and animal populations still favour the easy movement of diseases from animals into people are mostly in Asia, particularly in South-East Asia. That is where all the new flu viruses have emerged in the past half-century, where the SARS virus came from two years ago, and where other emergent diseases are most likely to appear. As a first step, it would make sense to create a network of trained observers who would report on any unusual disease patterns among the local farm families or their animals.

This is being done in Thailand, and much poorer Vietnam is making a start, but Indonesia has done little, the Chinese refuse to say what they are doing, and some of the smaller countries have done nothing. The developed countries would be wise to support these reporting networks, since they offer the best chance of stopping a new disease before it reaches the rest of the world.

In the longer run, farmers throughout the region must be encouraged to change their long-established ways of raising poultry, pigs and other animals. That is a tall order, but similar shifts in farming practice have already happened elsewhere, and at least the region's economy is developing fast enough that it can provide markets for a more commercial style of farming and non-farm jobs for those no longer needed on the land.

The countryside wouldn't be nearly so picturesque at the end of the process, but the world wouldn't be facing so many new diseases, either.

** (Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.)

Turning Caribbean migration to advantage
By Sir Ronald Sanders
(The writer is a former Caribbean diplomat, now business executive, who publishes widely on Small States in the global community)
IN A report that should deeply trouble the Caribbean, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reveals that a majority of Caribbean countries have lost more than 50 per cent of its people who have been educated beyond secondary school.

They have migrated to the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the world’s richest nations.

The report says, for example, that the tertiary educated labour force (people with more than 12 years of schooling) has been reduced by 89 percent in Jamaica and 82 per cent in Guyana.

Almost all the Caribbean countries are among the top 20 nations in the world with the highest tertiary-education migration rates,

It is significant that even oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago has a high number of tertiary-educated people who migrate. Indeed, Trinidad and Tobago ranks fifth in the region behind Haiti, Suriname, Jamaica and Guyana.

This is a truly troubling situation for the Caribbean. For not only does it mean that the region is losing a very large number of its most educated people, it also shows that the richest nations are the beneficiaries of the scarce financial resources that Caribbean countries, particularly Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica, spend on the education of their brightest people.

This is yet another form of resource transfers from developing countries to developed countries that are not taken into account in the uneven relationship between rich and poor countries.

And, the problem is about to get worse.

Two of the three major immigrant-receiving countries are Australia, Canada and the United States. Of those three, Caribbean people emigrate to Canada and the US.

In mid-October, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Pierre Pettigrew, declared that Canada’s population of 32 million must reach 40 million within “the next few years” if Canada is “to maintain its quality of life”.

Mr Pettigrew was reflecting the concern that Canada’s population is ageing with more demands on the social welfare system. There is, therefore, an urgent need for a younger and bigger work force to contribute financially to the system.

But, since the Canadian population grew by only 1 percent between 1994 and 2004, it would not reach 40 million until 2026 if it relied on natural growth.

Canada, therefore, will encourage migration to its shores, and given the proximity of the Caribbean and the traditional links between the two areas, it is obvious that the Caribbean will be one region to which Canada will look for fresh immigrants. And, those immigrants will be the best qualified.

To add to the problem, over the last few years, the United States and the United Kingdom have been actively recruiting skills that are required in a number of fields including teaching, health care and computer technology. Both Guyana and Jamaica have already lost a large number of nurses and teachers to the US and Britain.

While, now and in the future, the largest number of such skills will come from Asian countries, the largest number as a percentage of the population will come from the Caribbean. In other words, the Caribbean will continue to be the region that will lose the largest number of its qualified people.

There should be no doubt about it: it is not the poor, the wretched and the unskilled that will be accepted as migrants into the OECD countries. The drive is for qualified and skilled people who can fill a void in the work force, contribute to the creation of new jobs and new businesses, buy property, spend in the economy and pay into the social security scheme.

The loss of a significant number of its ablest and brightest people clearly has a negative impact on the social and economic development of the Caribbean.

When this loss of talent is combined with the erosion of preferential markets for the area’s traditional exports, the decline in official development assistance, and the slow down in the growth rates of national economies, it is very likely that both poverty and unemployment will increase.

There are, of course, two factors contributing to the migration of skills from the region.

First is the “pull’ factor, among them better salaries and wider opportunities to work in a chosen field.

Second is the “push” factor which includes political discrimination and victimisation, lower s