Daily Archives: November 22, 2023

Jervon Sands, a 21-year-old from The Bahamas was chosen as a Rhodes Scholar to represent the Commonwealth Caribbean during a presentation by Barbados President Dame Sandra Mason at the State House in Barbados on Tuesday, Nov. 14.

Based at Englands University of Oxford since 1903, the Rhodes Scholarship is not only the worlds oldest graduate fellowship, but is also considered to be among the most preeminent. Its recipients include former President Bill Clinton, author Naomi Wolf and current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, as well as winners of the Nobel Prize.

Each year, one Rhodes Scholarship is available for the Commonwealth Caribbean, which covers Anguilla, Antigua, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, St Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Jamaican citizens are not eligible for the Scholarship for the Commonwealth Caribbean but may apply instead for the Scholarship for Jamaica.

Sands, who graduated summa cum laude from St. Johns University Collegeville, Minnesota and the College of Saint Benedict, will study for the Master of Sciences (MSc) in Environmental Change and Management, and MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment beginning in October 2024 at Oxford.

Sands is the fourth Bahamian Rhodes Scholar. Dr. Desiree Cox was awarded the scholarship in 1987, Dr. Christian Campbell became a Rhodes Scholar in 2002, and Dr. Myron Rolle became the countrys third Rhodes Scholar in 2009. Dr. Rolle, a former professional football player in the NFL, currently is a neurosurgery resident at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

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Jervon Sands chosen as Rhodes Scholar for Commonwealth ... - The Washington Informer

Brian Lewis, the former president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee and the Association of National Olympic Committees of the Caribbean (CANOC), has expressed that the Commonwealth Games Federation should establish a Reparations Fund to assist with financing the sports development of Commonwealth sports in the Caribbean.

Within the framework of the themes of the International Decade for People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice, and Development (proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 68/237 of December 2013) and being in the final year of the mentioned decade, Mr. Lewis called for the fulfillment of the parameters of Recognition, Justice, and Development for oppressed peoples. He also emphasized that slavery, an outrage and a crime against humanity, is the foundation of the enrichment and generational wealth of slave owners and plantation owners and their descendants.

Regarding the functions of the Commonwealth Games Federation (The CGF), in his view, it should be at the forefront of the dialogue on repairing the legacies of empire, imperialism, colonialism, and slavery.

The CGF has control and responsibility for the Commonwealth Games. To atone for and overcome its undeniable history, The CGF must lead in unraveling, freeing, and unlearning the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and empire. Those who benefited (and enriched themselves) from slavery and the system and its brutal and inhuman institutions that fostered transatlantic slave trade should now provide a framework for solutions. They have destroyed millions of lives and generations; now is the time to repair it.

The Commonwealth Games are a symbol and legacy of the colonialism of the British Empire. The CGF has control and responsibility for the Commonwealth Games; it must lead in unraveling, freeing, and unlearning the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and empire.

To achieve the goals of recognition and respect, justice and non-discrimination, and social, cultural, and economic development for people of African descent, enabling their full and active participation in society, a Reparations Fund should be established. This is a necessary and unavoidable step in the right direction.

Source: https://trinidadexpress.com/

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The Commonwealth should establish a Reparations and Aid Fund ... - Insidethegames.biz

Antigua and Barbudas Ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Dr Clarence Henry, has reiterated a call for an independent and comprehensive analysis of claims being made by regional paint manufacturers who have been calling for an increase in the tariffs on paint imports from the United States.

Henry met with local manufacturers on Tuesday to discuss the issue, and said that the analysis must be done independently of the manufacturers.

The local manufacturers are insisting that when the government implemented Article 164 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, while they had experienced some tough times, they were still able to survive.

They called for the Antiguan government to maintain vigilance against the creation of monopolies, which they claim would result from the support of the regional paint manufacturers request.

Henry had in a September 26, 2023 letter to Trade Minister, E.P. Chet Greene,said that the so-called study cannot be taken at face value since it was not conducted by an independent consultant.

The veteran trade official, said it had not been coordinated by the CARICOM Regional Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) and for this reason, the document cannot be relied on as one that provides a transparent and fair comprehensive analysis.

In their September 20, 2023 letter to Greene, and signed by Marguerite Desir, the CARICOM Paint Manufacturers, said they were seeking the support of the Gaston Browne administration for remedial measures via an alteration of the Common External Tariff (CET) on paints.

The CET isa single tariff rate agreed to by all CARICOM members on imports of a product from outside the CARICOM, and informed sources told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that when the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) presented the study to the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), almost all of the member states of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) did not support the request.

In their letter, the regional manufacturers said the study was commissioned by them and its conduct has been coordinated by the CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO), at the invitation of the CARICOM/Regional Paint Manufacturers.

The regional paint manufactures argue that the CARICOM market for paints has suffered major incursions on account of substantial under-pricing of paints from the United States.

Individual regional paint producers have raised this matter, with their national Governments, on numerous occasions, over the past several years. While a few Governments haveattempted to address the issue, the actions have fallen short in their efficacy, having regardto the need for a whole of community response, via the Council for Trade and EconomicDevelopment (COTED) (i.e. a CET alteration, rather than an individual country response, via a CET suspension).

They said that member of the OECS and the paint industry in the lesser developed countries (LDC) are beneficiaries of Article 164 and has shown tremendous promise as a successful Community enterprise.

The incursions from the US have acted to stymie the success of OECS producers, by significantly eroding price competitiveness and market share within both LDC and MDC markets. By this measure, left unaddressed the under-pricing will completely nullify the intended benefit of Chapter Seven and Article 164 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC), which governs the regional integration movement.

Prior to now, the Paint Manufacturing Industry has been unable to have the complexanalytical work undertaken to justify the approach to the COTED. The advent of the CPSOand the Caribbean Manufacturers Association (CMA) has facilitated the coming together ofthe all the Regional Paint Manufacturers around this single issue, which has severelyharmed their market share, investment, intra-regional trade in paints and employment.

An opportunity to present the Study, will highlight the egregious extent of under-pricing toan extent that now threatens innovation, industry expansion, and for some manufacturers,even their business continuity as producers, the regional paint manufacturers wrote.

During the meeting on Tuesday, the local manufacturers maintained their call for the increase in tariffs on paints coming into the region from North America warning that consumers could be adversely affected in the future.

They argued that the implication of the study is market dominance by a few paint companies in the region.

Henry has maintained that the study is self-serving favouring regional manufacturers adding that they are aware that the threshold to prove their case would be tough to pursue a country by country approach and would also call into question the implications of setting the tariff at 50 per cent for extra-regional paints.

He said the study failed to prove that there was injury to paint manufacturers in the region, adding there was no evidence to show loss in profits or inability to compete or any sort of loss in the market.

Henry also recommended that there must be national stakeholder consultation by the Cabinet to determine whether to support remedying action.

He also wants the CROSQ to be consulted and involved in the independent study, noting there was an absence of information to show where CROSQ and its standards for paints intersected with this body of work.

Henry also wants the Suriname-based CARICOM Competition Commission (CCC) to be integrally involved in the investigation of unfair competition claims.

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Regional paint producers want increased tariffs on imported ... - Loop News Caribbean

A U.S. tourist died in the Bahamas after an excursion boat carrying more than 100 people sank while traveling to a private island, police said Wednesday.

Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings told The Associated Press that the unidentified 74-year-old woman from Broomfield, Colorado, was on a five-day vacation with her family when the boat sank late Tuesday morning.

The rest of the passengers and crew members were rescued. Two other unidentified people were taken to a medical facility, police said, but their conditions were not immediately known.

It wasnt immediately clear how the 74-year-old woman died. Police said in a statement that the woman was found unresponsive as they helped pull the passengers and crew members from the water. They said she was given CPR and then taken to a dock where she was declared dead.

A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean confirmed that the woman had been a passenger on one of their ships and was participating in a shore excursion.

"We are saddened to hear that one of our guests passed away following an accident on a shore excursion in Nassau, Bahamas," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Our hearts are with the families involved and our Care Team has been activated to support them during this difficult time."

Kelly Schissell, a passenger on the catamaran, recalled the moments the ferry went down.

"So we were on a two tiered ferry to Blue Lagoon. We were almost there. We started to stop and turn to go into the Blue Lagoon area. And we kind of, I kind of thought like the captain was trying to be silly and like whip a shootie because we all kind of went forward, and the water kind of splashed up. And then all of a sudden, we stayed leaning forward," Schissell said.

Schissell also said that people didn't jump into the water right away as they were awaiting instructions from the crew, but never got them.

"You wonder why people didn't jump in right away. We were kind of waiting for the staff to tell us what to do, which they never did because they were too busy crying and freaking out," Schissell added.

Life vests were available, and those aboard were wearing them, according to authorities.

Police said the double-deck catamaran began taking on water after departing Paradise Island with a group of tourists headed to Blue Lagoon Island, a popular destination located just northeast of the capital of Nassau.

A video posted on social media showed some passengers yelling as the catamaran began listing on its right side, prompting tourists to slowly start jumping into the water as they swam toward nearby boats.

Police said the Royal Bahamas Defense Force also helped with the rescue, as well as nearby pleasure craft.

Authorities said the investigation is ongoing.

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Royal Caribbean passenger dies after excursion boat sinks on way to private island in Bahamas - NBC 6 South Florida