Messiah told the 17^th biennial conference of the Waterfront and Allied Workers Union (WAWU) that such a system, will among other things “provide information to members and others about the availability of jobs advertised within” the island of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts-Nevis, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands (BVI), members of the  economic union.

“What role can the union play in assisting members who wish to establish themselves with CARICOM (Caribbean Community) certificates as skilled workers or as contractors,” which is a requirement under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) allowing for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the region.

The CCL president also questioned the role of sub-regional trade unions “in the relation to the quality of governance that will be acceptable in the OECS union.

“The time will come when super nationalism will be a major feature of our existence, when the logic of small size  will force us to ask whether we need so many governments, so many ministers, so many cabinets, so many civil service, so many police services in such a small geographic, demographic  and economic space,” said Messiah.

Earlier this month, former secretary general of the Barbados-based CCL, Kertist Augustus, who is also WAWU’s secretary treasurer, said the trade unions need a greater voice within the OECS.

“In the sub-region, the unions in the OECS, we are seeking to have status at the OECS summit similar to what used to be the case similar to what used to be the case in relation to the CCL at the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) annual heads of government conference where the CCL had an opportunity to speak to and to address the heads of government on issues that were considered important by the trade union movement in the Caribbean.
“So we are seeking to have a similar status at the level of the OECS and of course it is the OECS unions within the CCL that are spearheading that effort since we believe if we have such a status…then it is going to strengthen the case that we are going to have at the wider region,” he added.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Julian Robinson, addressing the 12^th International Conference on the Social Impact of Computers in Developing Countries, that ends here on Wednesday, that in Jamaica, oversight of the ICT sector is shared among several agencies including the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA), the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica (BCJ) and the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).

He said the Portia Simpson Miller government is seeking to create a single regulatory agency with ICT-specific functions, arguing that the process of going through three regulators slows investments and so the intention is to simplify the regulatory environment.

“As you can imagine, if you are an investor in the ICT sector, it means that you have to interface with three separate organisations and in many cases, they operate independently of each other. It is an inefficient way to operate, it slows our ability to get goods and services to market.

“The (single regulator) will ensure that we operate more efficiently and effectively, and in a more cost effective manner,” Robinson said, adding that the government is also creating the legislative environment to facilitate investment in ICT.

“We are about to table Data Protection legislation, which will be tabled in this calendar year,” he informed.

He noted that the 2010 Cyber Crimes Act is also being reviewed to make it easier to prosecute persons, who use technology to commit criminal activities.

“Cyber crimes are now becoming a feature of transnational crimes. We, here in Jamaica, have suffered at the hands of cyber crimes. We have held a number of consultations, we have established a joint Parliamentary committee, and we have gotten submissions from stakeholders, both within and outside of Jamaica, and those amendments will be made shortly,” he stated.

Robinson said the government has received support from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to establish a cyber emergency response team, which will be up and running in another six months.

The conference, organized by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), brings together policy advisors, academics, practitioners from the private sector, non-governmental organizations and the public sector, who are involved with ICT and development in developing countries.

It is being held under the theme “Into the Future”.

The police said that a 40-year-old man and a 17-year-old youth were shot and killed by unidentified men who left the scene in a stolen vehicle.

The names of the men killed were not disclosed and the police said that following the killings, three other men were shot and wounded.

“Preliminary reports indicate that the victims were sitting outside a business establishment on Mt. Pleasant Avenue along with others, when they were approached and subsequently shot multiple times by a group of males” who fled the area in the same stolen vehicle, the police said in a statement.

The police said the men, ages 56, 37 and 27 years remain in serious condition at hospital.

The authorities said they later engaged the occupants of the vehicle in a shootout and that an 18 year-old male had been shot and injured and a high powered weapon confiscated.

They said acting on information, they went to a house in the capital, “where they arrested the suspects and confiscated a handgun”.

Last week, the United States issued a warning to its nationals to The Bahamas to be wary of the crime situation in the country after a U S citizen was shot and killed during an armed robbery.

The US Embassy here said that so far 40 people had been murdered here since the start of the year and that US citizens “residing in and travelling to The Bahamas, to be aware of their surroundings and remain on heightened alert to avoid being a victim of crime”.

It said that “armed robbery remains a major threat facing US citizens in The Bahamas” and that since the start of the year “a number of US citizens have fallen victim to armed robbery with some having been seriously injured in the commission of these crimes”.

It said the local police have warned of the increased number of armed robberies in the capital, quoting the police as indicating that for January 1 to April 15 “there have been 328 armed robberies, 111 robberies, and 660 house break-ins.

Reporters Without Borders

PARIS, May 21, CMC – The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RWB) Tuesday said it hopes that the authorities will soon disclose the reasons behind the murder of radio journalist Pierre-Richard Alexandre, who was shot last weekend.

A correspondent for the national radio station Radio Kiskeya and the host of a daily political discussion programme on local Radio Delta, Alexandre died of his injury two days after being shot on May 17.

The 40-year-old journalist was shot at his home and questioned whether it was a hit or a stray bullet.

“Alexandre’s professionalism as a journalist was widely acknowledged and we express our full support for his wife, two children and colleagues,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“Following his alleged killer’s arrest, the police should be able to quickly establish whether or not his death was linked to his work as journalist. In either case, journalists’ safety continues to a matter of concern in Haiti, where the political climate is a source of intermittent tension.”

Alexandre’s death follows the murder in March of  journalist Georges Honorat, a former member of the management of the weekly Haïti Progrès who had of late been working for the press department at the prime minister’s office.

Although Haiti is ranked 49th out of 179 countries in the latest Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, its journalists still experience recurring security problems.

“Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for the truth about the April 2000 murder of Radio Haïti Inter director Jean Dominique, noting that Radio Télé Ginen journalists were attacked in Port-au-Prince on 8 May, the day that a judge questioned former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide about the Dominique murder.”

Cameron on Monday wrote to Bermuda, along with the rest of Britain’s OTs and Crown dependencies such as Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

The call for continued partnership with the UK came just weeks before Britain hosts the next G8 summit on June 15.

With tax avoidance a priority for the gathering, Cameron wrote: “This is the critical moment to get our own houses in order.”

Last month’s visit to Bermuda by UK Minister for the Overseas Territories Mark Simmons saw cabinet vow that Bermuda would “lead jurisdictions” in transparency, and enforcing beneficial ownership regulations.

Cameron’s letter underscored the point, however — especially on the latter.

Noting that some jurisdictions had committed to producing action plans on beneficial ownership, he added: “I hope those of you who have yet to can do so as quickly as possible.”

The letter, which did not specifically single out by name any of the 10 territories to which it was addressed, emphasised  Cameron’s respect for their right to be “lower tax jurisdictions”.

Bermuda has already pledged to provide UK authorities with tax information automatically.

“There is a critical mass building,” Cameron wrote, saying Britain aimed to set “a global standard in tax transparency”.

Police said the body was later found several metres away in an open field at Carapo in eastern Trinidad.

The police have been appealing to citizens whose male relatives have gone missing recently to visit the Forensic Science Centre, to view the body.

Over the weekend, Acting Commissioner of Police, Stephen Williams, admitted that the service is struggling to deal with rampant murders in Trinidad and Tobago.

According to the Police Service’s crime statistics database, there were 166 murders at the end of May 2012, in comparison to 143 murders so far this year.

“We are progressing and we have been receiving the support of law-abiding citizens as we tackle crime and criminality across this nation. That is the reason why there is a clear direction in the reduction of serious crimes in 2013, but we need to do something more.

“We need even more support from the public as we are still struggling around violent crimes, especially shooting incidents where people are dying,” Williams said after attending the funeral service of a 39-year-old police corporal who was shot and killed last week.

“Most of the murders are centred around shooting incidents so it is really about an issue of firearms in the country. By way of a clear strategic approach, our target is to get as much guns off the streets, but also to find the mechanism to limit guns coming in the country,” he added.

Williams said he was also to the move to allow off-duty officers to go home with their guns.

“As the leader of the organisation, I am committed to facilitating the officers in arming them. I have made it clear to all the officers that it is my thrust and my intention, but it has to be done in a responsible manner because the very said public is questioning the issue of corruption and criminality within the police organisation.”

The Wall Street-based Moody’s Investor Service said on Monday that it expects sovereign credit quality to “continue deteriorating in the region.

“We see the defaults of Belize (Caa2 stable), Jamaica (Caa3 stable) and Grenada (unrated) over the past year as being part of a broader debt crisis in the Caribbean,” it said in a report.

“Moreover, we expect the risk of sovereign default in the region to persist as countries continue facing a combination of solvency and liquidity pressures and are increasingly unable, and unwilling, to service debt.”

Moody’s said the Caribbean’s debt overhang is a “legacy of debt accumulation that started in the 1990s, as governments accelerated borrowing, often from external commercial sources, to finance public-sector investment.

“At its core, the Caribbean’s debt crisis is the result of a combination of poor fiscal discipline and unproductive investment that failed to significantly raise potential growth rates,” it said, resulting in “low and declining long-term growth”.

Moody’s warned that an increasing number of Caribbean countries are likely to renege on their debts, stating that they are running out of options in addressing ?limp economic growth and dismal state finances.

“At the moment, we see a high probability that Belize and Jamaica will relapse into default,”  Moody’s said, adding that said some countries, such as Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname, are more economically stable than others.

It said Jamaica has a debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of more 100 per cent, and the Cayman Islands and Bermuda have ratios of 23 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively.

Referring to International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, Moody’s said most small Caribbean states have debts-to-GDP ratios of more than 70 per cent and a current account deficit of 23 per cent.

The rating agency said the “policy toolkit for reducing debt in the Caribbean is limited”, adding that many countries cannot devalue their currency because exchange rates are usually fixed or managed.

In light of big budget deficits, Moody’s said many Caribbean countries are unable to stimulate growth through spending and investments.

“The lack of options has left debt restructuring as an attractive tool to reduce public sector debt,” said Edward Al-Hussainy, the report’s author and a Moody’s senior analyst.

“As new restructurings unfold, we expect governments to be more aggressive in seeking principal haircuts to achieve lower debt loads,” he added.

The report noted that the region has also been adversely affected by extreme weather that has often resulted in humanitarian and economic woes, stating that the adverse conditions range from small storms and floods that cause some damage, to hurricanes that ravage some of the territories.

The Washington-based IMF said that since the early 1960s, the Caribbean has experienced losses equivalent to almost 1 percent of GDP on average in weather damages annually.

Two major parties, the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) – which has branded itself as “The Progressives – under the leadership of attorney Alden McLaughlin and the United Democratic Party (UDP), led by former premier McKeeva Bush, are fielding slates of 15 and 12 candidates respectively.

The People’s National Alliance (PNA), a breakaway faction of the UDP, which has formed a “lame duck” government since the ouster of Bush in a lack of confidence vote last December, is running a ticket of five candidates.

Another grouping, Coalition for Cayman (C4C), has endorsed a slate of seven candidates. However, C4C insists it is not a party but a political advocacy group promoting “independent leaders who will always put country first”.

Add to the mix a plethora of other independent candidates, which brings to total of 56 candidates vying for the 18 seats in the Legislative Assembly, the parliament of this British Overseas Territory where there are 18,492 registered voters.

Nowhere is the race more intriguing than in George Town, the capital of this financial services jurisdiction, where there are 21 candidates on the ballot for the six available seats.

There is no history of consistent scientific opinion polls in the lead up to elections in the Cayman Islands, although some of the parties and groups have commissioned their own surveys this time around – the results of which they have kept out of the public domain.

However, unscientific polls by the various media houses indicate there is a chance of no party securing an outright majority, meaning a coalition government could be a distinct possibility.

Efforts to prognosticate the outcome are further muddied because of the system of electing Members of the Legislative Assembly.

Voters in George Town can vote for as many as six candidates, whereas residents of the quaint districts of East End and North Side can only cast one vote each. In West Bay and Bodden Town, voters in those two districts can vote for as many as four candidates in each instance, whereas in the dual riding of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, voters on the outlying islands can only elect two representatives.

With this system, there is the possibility of a single resident to vote for representatives of each party or grouping. In West Bay, where the PPM, UDP, PNA and C4C all have candidates, it means someone in that district could vote for people with four different political affiliations.

Nonetheless, all camps are expressing varying levels of confidence ahead of the vote.

Bush, who has led the UDP since 2001, has signalled to his rivals that he remains a factor on the islands’ political landscape.

The ex-premier, who has had an antagonistic relationship with some British officials both here and in London, has a cult-like following especially in his home district of West Bay, where he polled 71.6 per cent of the votes cast at the last general election in 2009.

However, his popularity as the man to lead the government has been put to the test with his arrest last December and subsequent criminal charges for alleged breaches of the anti-corruption law. Members of his own party sided with the parliamentary opposition to remove him from office. Those who broke ranks have splintered off into the PNA.

“(There should be) zero doubt as to whether or not I would return to the UDP or form a government with them, the answer is no, no, no,” said former UDP colleague and present Deputy Premier Rolston Anglin – a PNA candidate.

Meantime, the C4C-endorsed candidates issued a joint statement a week ahead of the poll, indicating “we will not form a Cabinet with the United Democratic Party”.

Bush insists his party is in the lead and labels the C4C candidates as unworthy candidates.

“None of the C4C (candidates) have led any country and certainly they have not displayed any goodness of heart to people in this country,” he said.

On the other hand, the PPM, which formed the government from 2005 to 2009 – bookended by Bush’s UDP on either side, is cautiously optimistic that it can retake the reins of power.

The Progressives leader, Alden McLaughlin, a former education minister, has dismissed any talk of the need for a coalition during the campaign.

“We have a team of 15, the biggest team in the race,” he told supporters at a recent rally on the outskirts of the capital.

“Any of those others who get elected are going to have to make a deal with somebody if they are going to form a government… don’t know who the C4C people are talking to. I don’t know who the PNA people are talking to. I don’t know who the other independents are talking to – but they aren’t talking to us.”

He has also dismissed the notion of working with the UDP.

“I have no doubt that the worst period that the Cayman Islands have ever endured has been the past four years under the UDP administration.”

Forming a government is a numbers game and the people of the Cayman Islands are aware that neither the UDP nor the PPM may get 10 candidates elected. That scenario plays into the hands of the C4C, PNA and independent candidates like Ezzard Miller and Arden Mclean – both popular nationally and likely to be returned in North Side and East End respectively.

With so much riding on this election, an election observer mission from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association headed by veteran Maltese legislator Mario Galea is on the ground to monitor the poll. A local observer team has also been appointed.

The UDP won the last general election by a margin of nine seats to five by the PPM, with Mr Miller as the lone independent in the Legislative Assembly. Mr McLean left the PPM last August to sit as an independent member.

With the past two elections being won hands down by either the UDP or the PPM, people here and abroad are likely watching with bated breath to see if the proverbial winds of change are blowing or what form the government will take after Wednesday’s vote.

SKNLP leader and Prime Minister, Dr Denzil Douglas, told the party’s 81^st annual conference that he was optimistic about the future of St. Kitts-Nevis given the policies of his administration.

“Our country has been navigating the worst global economic environment since the great depression of 1929 and yet under the leadership of labour, we have been moving forward steadfastly and holding fast to our goal of progress and prosperity for all of our people.”

He said the government had lowered the national debt, reduced inflation, crime and had been able to attract new investments to the country.

“We have given them a dose of hush,” he said with regards to the opposition critics, saying that they had now changed their strategy by launching full scale personal attacks on him.

Dr. Douglas said in addition to the global economic crisis, the party has had to deal with “some of the most divisive forces” and it is now ready “to root and throw out the seeds of disunity that have been sown among us,” a clear reference to his former Cabinet colleagues Dr. Timothy Harris and Sam Condor, the former deputy prime minister and deputy political leader.

“We the delegates here and of course the supporters of Labour; we must leave this conference with a tremendous sense of unity and fraternity as we ward of yet again all threats to our great party and move on to resoundingly to defeat the opposition at the polls because you know and they know they cannot defeat us”.

Dr. Douglas was returned unopposed as party leader with Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Earl Asim Marin replacing Condor as deputy leader and legislator  Marcella Liburd replacing Harris as party chairman.

Describing the two former ministers, who have publicly aligned themselves with the opposition in supporting a vote of no confidence in the government, as “betrayers”, Dr. Douglas said that they had sought to oust him from office since 2010.

 “They knew of the policy decision that we were pursuing. They read the relevant cabinet papers. They have listened to the presentations of the minister of finance and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). They have studied ever investment project that came to our cabinet and they had concluded that if this government were allowed to serve out its term in office, then the people’s well-being would be so advanced that it would be impossible to move Douglas and he would stay in office indefinitely,” Dr. Douglas said.

He said the IMF had concluded a review of the economy last week and “the conclusion is the same as other assessments in recent years.

“St. Kitts-Nevis, it continues to meet or surpass the economic and financial targets it has set for itself and agreed with the IMF. In deed almost every economic indicator is moving in the right direction,” Dr. Douglas told supporters.

He told them to continue building the party as it moves into the general election “with a view of repeating that great victory we secured in January of 2010.

“Let us continue the work of building and transforming our society…that offers a plethora of opportunities for our people,” he said.

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, May 20, CMC – Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley has dismissed moves by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to have a court declare him bankrupt over the non-payment of legal fees.

Last week, Ramlogan initiated court proceedings against Rowley to recover the TT$12,000 (One TT dollar = US$0.16 cents) owed to him from a court order made on January 14 this year.

But Rowley told the Trinidad Express Monday that the move by the attorney general is designed as a “pre-emptive strike to try and intimi­date me in the motion of no confidence” that comes up for debate on Monday.

Rowley has filed a motion of no confidence in the Kamla Persad Bissessar-led coalition People’s Partnership government, and he told the newspaper “remember he (Ramlogan) is one of the persons named in the motion of no confidence.”

Under the Constitution, a Member of Parliament who is declared bankrupt has to vacate his seat.

Ramlogan has in recent months , filed defamation lawsuits against Rowley on a number of issues ranging from statements made regarding the extradition of two financiers of the ruling United National Congress (UNC) party -Steve Ferguson and Ish Galbaransingh – to Ramlogan abusing his powers as the Attorney General to seek private banking information details about citizens.

Rowley told the newspaper that when Ramlogan filed the lawsuits, he had warned the country the intention was to intimidate him through some fear of bankruptcy by forcing him to generate legal bills.

“My lawyer, only on Friday, was trying to talk to the Attorney General’s lawyers about setting off the costs. Next thing he knows is that Gerald Ramdeen, the Attorney General’s lawyer, is filing suit for bankruptcy, “Does he (Ramlogan) really think that the country would take that seriously? That I would bankrupt myself for $12,000,?” Rowley asked.