NEWS
Girl, 3, stung by scorpion
A three-year old Belmont girl remains warded in serious but stable condition at the Wendy Fitzwilliams Paediatric Hospital Ward of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) after being stung by a scorpion at a relative’s home in Maraval on Tuesday afternoon. Nicola Dyer was being treated symptomatically for intense vomiting and other ailments associated with the sting. Anxious relatives were told there is no scorpion anti-venom to treat little Nicola and therefore medication is being administered to treat reactions to the venom such as acute vomiting. Nicola’s mother Annie Arietas remained at her bedside all of Tuesday monitoring her condition. Yesterday, doctors said the child’s condition has improved but she is still in a serious condition as her little body continues to fight the effects of the venom. Arietas said that Tuesday there was a power outage at her Belmont home so she decided to take the child to Maraval to spend the day with relatives. Read more…
Duprey angry at CLF mishandling: ‘I’m not to blame for this fiasco’
CL Financial’s (CLF) majority shareholder Lawrence Duprey, as well as a new group called the Clico Stakeholders’ Alliance (CSA), are formulating legal action to block Government’s proposed sale of CLF assets. This was confirmed by Duprey’s spokesman, Claudius Dacon, on Tuesday, following failed bids by Duprey to meet with Government to discuss Duprey’s plan to recover his former companies and repay the outstanding debt owed to Government from the 2009 bailout following CLF’s collapse. This week’s development marks the culmination of efforts by Duprey, 82, over the past year to regain his former company. Action has been brewing in the last few weeks since Duprey wrote Finance Minister Colm Imbert on March 23 offering an outline proposal to settle the Clico/CL Financial debt. The proposal had already been sent on March 22 to Central Bank Governor Dr Alvin St Hilaire. Read more…
‘We can’t postpone pain’
Eight years after being established, the Victim Support Unit (VSU) of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service remains severely under-staffed and without facilities to conduct some of its more sensitive duties. Director Margaret Sampson-Browne said yesterday, however, that despite these challenges she uses the resources she has as best she can, because “we can’t postpone pain”. Sampson-Browne was part of a team appearing before the first Public Meeting of the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, Equality and Diversity at the Office of the Parliament at the Port of Spain International Waterfront Centre. Also appearing with their teams were Gillian McIntyre, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education; Jacqueline Johnson, acting PS at the Office of the Prime Minister; Jacinta Bailey Thomas, PS at the Ministry of the People and Social Development; Superintendent Odette Lewis and head of the Child Protection Unit of the TTPS. The JSC was chaired by Culture Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly. Sampson-Browne, who was the last to be called upon to present to the committee, expressed annoyance at the late-coming, saying she was wondering if she was in the room. Read more…
POLITICS
Govt’s $1M ‘gift’ to Integrity Commission
Opposition Senator Wade Mark yesterday asked why was $1 million ‘gifted’ to the Integrity Commission (IC) by the Government ahead of any public consultation on what exactly are the needs of the Commission. Mark, a former House Speaker, sat on Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) to probe an IC team led by Registrar Jasmine Pascall. The PAAC learned of $500,000 being given for the IC to set up a ‘Whistleblower Unit’ and another $500,000, to review the Integrity in Public Life Act (IPLA). Independent Senator Melissa Ramkissoon initially asked Pascall the cost to set up the Whistleblower Unit, but Pascall could not answer as there had been no consultation with stakeholders and no discussion on costs. An incredulous Mark then asked, “You said no consultation on Whistleblower legislation, yet allocations are there for $500,000 to establish a Whistleblower Unit?” Minister of Public Administration Maxie Cuffie also queried the two allocations, asking if the Whistleblower sum should be defined as recurrent expenditure or PSIP, and if the IPLA sum is to pay attorney fees. Pascall agreed that the latter was for attorney fees and public consultations. Cuffie interpreted a remark by Pascall to mean the IC has no system to ensure its own compliance in transparency of expenditure. Pascall said she had misinterpreted that question and promised a written reply to follow. Read more…
Integrity body in dark on its whistle-blower role
While Government has promised to effect whistle-blower legislation this year to aid in the crime fight, the Integrity Commission which is supposed to be the body to house this unit is in the dark as to the role it will play. This was revealed yesterday as members of the Integrity Commission (IC) answered questions from members of the Public Accounts Enterprises Committee (PAEC) chaired by House Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George. Read more…
BUSINESS
More market share for Southern Sales
Southern Sales and Service Company Limited has increased its share of the T&T’s car market from 17 to 23 per cent and brand director Shiraz Ahamad said this achievement during 2015 came about even as other automotive companies were reporting declines. In addition to the popular Kia range for which Ahamad has specific responsibility, Southern Sales also sells the Audi, Mazda, and Isuzu brands locally. He said the company’s growth is the result of its leadership model where its owners are involved in the company’s daily operations. He told the T&T Guardian: “Southern Sales, started from very small and humble beginnings in San Fernando. there we grew to three generations strong with over 60 years of continuous successful business and now proudly represents four strong international brands—Mazda, Isuzu, Audi and Kia—all very widely accepted and successful in both T&T and internationally. Read more…
Browne: T&T must look to increase export potential
More conversations need to be held on how this country can increase its export potential instead of increasing expenditure, former minister in the Ministry of Finance Mariano Browne has advised. Read more…
REGIONAL
Caribbean countries urged to focus on tourism value
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published its Regional Economic Outlook: Western Hemisphere and recommends that tourism economies like The Bahamas use what the fund deems a “tourism upswing” to push through structural measures that would ensure that tourists get value for money from high-end destinations. Given that, in the Caribbean, only in Antigua and Barbuda is a holiday more expensive than The Bahamas, these recommendations resonate in this jurisdiction. The April 2016 Regional Economic Outlook: Western Hemisphere was prepared by a team led by Hamid Faruqee and S. Pelin Berkmen. It reports that economic activity in Latin America and the Caribbean has been hard hit and is likely to contract for the second consecutive year in 2016. The regional recession, however, masks the fact that most countries continue to grow, modestly but surely. Read more…
Growth Council Seeking 5% GDP Growth In Next Four Years
Business mogul Michael Lee Chin, who was yesterday named chairman of the Government's Economic Growth Council (EGC), has pledged to work tirelessly with council members and other Jamaican stakeholders to achieve economic growth of five per cent over the next four years. "I am going to make the first pledge, but I'm going to ask all stakeholders in Jamaica also make a public pledge as to what their involvement in GDP (gross domestic product) growth is going to be," Lee Chin said. "I pledge as the chairman of the EGC that the EGC will work tirelessly and passionately to achieve a GDP growth rate of five per cent over the next four years, which is 10 times more than what we have seen for the last 20 years, which is 25 times more than we have seen over the last 10 years," he added. "That's our pledge. We are going to work tirelessly to achieve that goal," Lee Chin said at the official launch of the council at Jamaica House. He said he was taking on the challenge because firmly etched in his mind were the opportunities that Jamaica has missed over the years. Read more…
INTERNATIONAL
Trump's 'America First' has ugly echoes from U.S. history
"My foreign policy will always put the interests of the American people, and American security, above all else. That will be the foundation of every decision that I will make. America First will be the major and overriding theme of my administration." It is extremely unfortunate that in his speech Wednesday outlining his foreign policy goals, Donald Trump chose to brand his foreign policy with the noxious slogan "America First," the name of the isolationist, defeatist, anti-Semitic national organization that urged the United States to appease Adolf Hitler. The America First Committee actually began at Yale University, where Douglas Stuart Jr., the son of a vice president of Quaker Oats, began organizing his fellow students in spring 1940. He and Gerald Ford, the future American president, and Potter Stewart, the future Supreme Court justice, drafted a petition stating, "We demand that Congress refrain from war, even if England is on the verge of defeat." Their solution to the international crisis lay in a negotiated peace with Hitler. Other Yale students -- including Sargent Shriver, who served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and Kingman Brewster, the chairman of the Yale Daily News, future president of Yale and ambassador to the Court of St. James -- joined their isolationist crusade. Read more…
Syria conflict: MSF says deadly air strike hit Aleppo hospital
28th April 2016