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CONTENTS UNDILUTED pays tribute to John Maxwell by featuring two previous columns by him from the Hot Calaloo UNDILUTED archives:
Not just a book but an invitation to join the Goodwill
Revolution against an unfair, unjust and deceptive system that
keeps the world poor and without hope. Find out how you can join,
quit the rat race, and achieve a happier more meaningful life for
yourself and others through goodwill to all
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For
the Life of Laetitia
by Trinidad -born Merle Hodge
Price: $10.54a wonderful book about a young girl in the Carribean, the first of her family to go to secondary school.
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Heads
of Government reaffirmed their guiding principles of
non-interference and non-intervention in the affairs of
states, respect for sovereignty, adherence to the rule of law, and
respect for human rights and democracy. |
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Heads
of Government reiterated that the long-standing political crisis,
which has been exacerbated by recent events, can only be resolved
peacefully through meaningful dialogue and diplomacy. |
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Heads
of Government called on external forces to refrain from doing
anything to destabilize the situation and underscored the need to
step back from the brink and called on all actors, internal and
external, to avoid actions which would escalate an already explosive
situation to the detriment of the people of Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela and which could have far-reaching negative consequences
for the wider region.” |
Moreover, the Government of Venezuela
(under Chavez and Maduro) has been a magnanimous friend of Jamaica. The
PetroCaribe Agreement, which is the economic centrepiece of Venezuelan
assistance to Jamaica, is built on the principle that we shall have
access to Venezuelan petroleum products at concessionary rates.
(See: Jamaica's
economy gets US$5 billion from PetroCaribe over 13 years
But obviously, that meant nothing to the
Jamaican PM and the other three who met with the hate-ful,
spiteful racist Trump at his private residence to discuss Venezuela.
Racist Trump has been seeking to remove the elected President
Maduro from office in favour of the Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó, who
has declared himself the interim president of the South American
country.
PM Holness described the meeting as ‘promising”. This
seems incredibly naïve and gullible when we consider Trump’s racism,
his reputation for barefaced lying, his smearing of Mexicans as rapists,
his hatred for Muslims and immigrants to America and his disrespect for
countries like Jamaica that he refers to as “shithole countries”. He
is a proven liar as evidenced by the Washington Post fact-checking that
“in 787 days, President Trump made 9,179 false or misleading
claims”.
The vindictive egomaniac Trump must have had a field day barking orders at that meeting. When he said “jump”, I wonder how high Holness did go. However, I fear that Jamaica’s independence and sovereignty has been completely undermined and CARICOM severely damaged.
PRESS RELEASE- A Jamaica Poor No
More
How come developing countries are not developing?
Like Jamaica, they remain mired in poverty despite
the advice, guidance and even
commands of highly respected
financial organisations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the World Bank? Do you
remember how IMF’s Structural Adjustment” policy made conditions
worse for many countries? Distinguished college professors of economics
and other financial experts have
achieved similar results. But, it is even worse, as not only have these
economic policies failed, but there is no indication that the poverty of
these countries will be eliminated in years to come. There is no end in
sight. To make matters even worser, poor countries are usually ravaged
by crime, with crime plan after crime plan failing.
The editor of Hot Calaloo sets out to solve these
problems in his coming book, “A Jamaica Poor No More”. So be on the
lookout for the release of his new book in the coming months.
UWI face
financial woes
Caricom
governments contribute at least half of The UWI's budget.. The question
has been raised whether The UWI tries hard enough to meet the targets
set out in its 2012/17 strategy plan, or if it is simply determined to
continue with the burdensome dependency on the countries in the region.
The
2012/17 strategy plan had recognised that funding the institution was
becoming too much of a burden for these governments, and had projected
improvements in reducing its reliance on their contributions to the
institutions over the next five years.The university was required
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to
restructure its capital base by encouraging more private sector
equity participation |
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to
introduce systems to promote more efficient use of its
resources. |
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to
look at trends and future plans, including: Online distance
programming, both regionally and internationally; franchising
programmes and courses to regional and international institutions,
especially in the areas where it has a competitive edge; |
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to
seek increased partnerships with the private sector; |
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to
encouraging greater use of ICT for its administrative activities to
reduce administration costs. |
To
make matters worse, the Auditor General's Department's most recent
Performance Audit Report on the Student's Loan Bureau's (SLB) Loan
Management revealed more financial woes., According to the report the
SLB has been unable to generate sufficient cash from its core lending
operations in order to fund its loan disbursement obligations.
Consequently, SLB relied heavily on Government subsidy, multinational
borrowing and encashment of investments to fund its activities. For
instance, Government of Jamaica subsidy, as a proportion of total loan
disbursement, rose to 91 per cent or $3.1 billion in 2016/17 from 13 per
cent or $0.4 billion in 2012/13. As a result of Government
interventions, SLB's cash position improved from $234.6 million as at
March, 2013, to $2.1 billion as at March, 2017.”
University
of Glasgow to give UWI over US $250 million for
slavery reparations
The
financially burdened University of the West Indies (UWI) and the
University of Glasgow have to come to an agreement that will see the
Caribbean institution benefit from £200 million (US $256 million) worth
of reparations linked to slavery.
Vice
Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, revealed recently
that his university and the Scottish institution were currently drafting
a memorandum of understanding that would see a combination of cash and
kind support for the programmes of the regional university.
This
action comes two months after the University of Glasgow published the
ground-breaking report “Slavery, Abolition and the University of
Glasgow” that revealed that 16 bursaries, endowments and
mortifications donated to the institution between 1809 and 1937 had a
direct link to profits from slavery. One of the listed benefactors
included a former rector of the Scottish university, Robert Graham, who
was a plantation owner in Jamaica and owned and benefited from slaves
for over 40 years.
The
University of Glasgow, which dates back to 1451, has announced that it
also plans to increase the racial diversity of students and staff and to
reduce the degree attainment gap, while also creating an
interdisciplinary centre for the study of historical slavery and its
legacies, including modern slavery and trafficking
University
of Trinidad and Tobago fires 59
THE University of the Trinidad and
Tobago (UTT) fired 59 lecturers in what they describe as a
restructuring exercise. They claim that :
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the
dismissal of the lecturers was due to redundancy at the Education
Faculty. Other lecturers were being considered to be fired. |
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the
UTT was operating under severe financial constraints and
“management had to look closely at the efficiency and
effectiveness of its operations." |
Some of the things immediately done
was a freeze on hiring new staff and all new appointments needed
board approval. An aggressive recruitment drive was to be developed and
implemented and the review of the organisation structure of UTT was to
be done. UTT also placed a freeze on all travel for lecturers. The
structure of UTT changed from seven vice presidents to three as the
management was reduced by 40 per cent.
Jamaica,
Cuba sign agreement to extend eye-care programme
Jamaicans will continue to
benefit from eye care services provided by Cuban health professionals
for another six months. This is being facilitated under an extended
technical cooperation agreement between the Governments of Jamaica and
Cuba.
Minister of
Health, Dr Christopher Tufton, and Cuba's Ambassador to Jamaica, Inés
Fors Fernández, signed the documents during a ceremony at the
Ministry's New Kingston offices.
The bilateral
agreement, first signed in 2009, provided for the establishment of an
Ophthalmology Centre to treat Jamaican and other Caribbean nations with
eye conditions and for implementation of the Jamaica/Cuba Eye Care
Programme in 2010.
On December
2015, an agreement was signed by the Governments to continue Cuba's
support to Jamaica for a further three years,
No-confidence vote in Guyana
A no-confidence motion filed by Opposition Leader
Bharrat Jagdeo was passed 33-32 in the National Assembly on December 21,
2018. Acting Chief Justice Roxane George ruled in the High Court, on
January 31, that the motion was valid and that regional and general
elections should be held, in keeping with the Constitution, within 90
days of the vote
However, on March 22, Guyana’s Court of Appeal
ruled by a 2-1 majority that
34 votes were needed for the no-confidence motion to succeed. The Court
of Appeal said that 34 represents an absolute majority in the 65-seat
National Assembly which means that contrary to the ruling of Speaker of
the House, Dr Barton Scotland and the Acting Chief Justice, the
no-confidence motion was not properly carried.
But the opposition PPP has filed before the
Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), seeking
a declaration that 33 votes/members constitute a majority of all the
elected members of the National Assembly within the meaning of Article
106 (6) of the Constitution of Guyana. In addition to filing the appeal,
the PPP previously said it would boycott any sitting of the National
Assembly while the appeal is pending at the CCJ.
Barbados
Completes Renewable Energy Project
Barbados is the first in the Caribbean to have
successfully completed its United Arab Emirates (UAE) funded renewable
energy project. Minister of Energy and
Water Resources, Wilfred Abrahams said the UAE Government launched a
US$50 million Caribbean Renewable Energy Fund in November 2017, and this
partnership was an effort to assist CARICOM Member States “to reduce
the high cost of energy, which has been identified as a primary barrier
to growth”.
He added that the objectives of the fund are:
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to “increase the use and resilience of
renewable energy applications in the region, including related
sectors such as water and waste |
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to expand technical experience in designing,
implementing, and managing renewable energy projects and |
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to facilitate faster and lower-cost deployment in
the future”. |
The Minister of Energy stated that these
objectives aligned with government’s goal of becoming a 100 per cent
renewable energy efficient and carbon neutral state by 2030.
The UAE facilitated approximately BDS$7 million
(US$3.5 million) in grant funding to Project Managers MASDAR for the
Barbados Water Authority’s supply and installation of a 420kW ground
mounted solar photovoltaic farm, on 1.5 acres of land at the Bowmanston
pumping station, and the supply and installation of a 350kW solar
photovoltaic carport at the Bridgetown Sewage Treatment Plant.
Reggae
Deemed Global Cultural Treasure By UNESCO
UNESCO,
the United Nation’s cultural and scientific agency has added reggae to
its list of global cultural treasures. At a recent meeting in Mauritius,
the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage, inscribed six elements on the Representative List of
the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Reggae’s
inclusion to UNESCO’s collection of “intangible cultural heritage”
means that it now has protected status, joining a list of more 300 other
cultural traditions like the Spanish art-form flamenco, Mongolian
knuckle-bone shooting, and yoga in India.
Reggae
music’s “functions as a vehicle of social commentary, as a cathartic
experience, and means of praising God remain unchanged, and the music
continues to provide a voice for all,” UNESCO said.
Let us know what you think. Email us at hotcalaloo@yahoo.com