KINGSTON, Jamaica - BURDENED as they may be with their respective domestic, social, economic and political challenges, it is becoming increasingly evident that the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) has a moral obligation to ensure more focused attention by the international community on the widening problems and challenges facing the people of Haiti.
When Haiti was hit by the devastating earthquake in 2010, its island neighbour, the Dominican Republic, rushed to help. It was among the first to send rescue workers, food and water, and also allowed overseas relief agency flights to land at Santo Domingo airport.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - From her busy schedule of travel and other obligations, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar must make time for an ugly crisis engulfing two member states of Cariforum, which shares membership with Caricom, of which she also serves as chairman. The crisis has been triggered by a Dominican Republic constitutional court ruling that threatens a devastatingly disparate impact on many thousands of people in that republic, descended from Haitian immigrants.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – Haitian officials on Saturday expressed strong disagreement with a Dominican Republic court ruling that denies citizenship to children of Haitian migrants.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs deeply regrets that Haitians and their Dominican descendants who have contributed significantly to the current progress of the Dominican Republic for their work and sacrifice are now treated as foreigners in transit,” said the Haitian foreign ministry in a brief statement.
Georgetown, Guyana - The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have launched a new joint project to help developing countries, particularly fragile states, manage public investments in small-scale agriculture more effectively.
The UN food agencies will co-finance the US$2.6 million initiative focusing on countries where a lack of strong national governance means development projects can face serious challenges in delivering results.
Georgetown, Guyana - The poor state of livestock and crop production in the Caribbean is due in large measure to the low priority given to agricultural research by regional governments, according to Dr Leslie Ramsammy, Guyana's minister of agriculture.
During Friday's opening of the 2013 Caribbean Week of Agriculture, Ramsammy said that the plan to make the Caribbean hunger-free by 2025 was unrealistic in light of the absence of a regional research agenda and that there was no evidence that things were likely to change anytime soon.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Businessman Claude Clarke, in defence of Jamaican manufacturing, said last Thursday that Jamaica should suspend the Common External Tariff, no matter the legal consequences.
His appeal comes amid rumblings from critics of Caricom who want Jamaica to break away from the bloc, citing unfair competition especially from oil-economy Trinidad.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - JAMAICA loses $15 billion in revenues from subsidising imports from the Caribbean Community (Caricom), according to former industry minister Claude Clarke.
Clarke, who is managing director of Richmond Valley, made the declaration during his keynote address at the Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA) 45th Annual Awards Banquet on Thursday.
He suggested that Government collect the revenue by suspending Caricom trade subsidies, at least during the island's lending arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
GEORGETOWN, Guyana - IT WHAT could well be viewed as a pleasant coincidence, the Governments
of Guyana and Barbados on Friday agreed on a joint declaration about a coming formal accord on improved immigration arrangements between the two CARICOM countries.
This initiative, resulting from a meeting of the Guyana-Barbados Joint Commission, coincided with a landmark judgement the same day by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - The Caricom Secretary General came to town last week and managed to deliver a lecture distinguished mainly by its silence on two of the most explosive issues in the Caribbean.
Within 24 hours of his lecture, one of them broke wide open. The Caribbean Court of Justice’s decision delivered last Friday in Port of Spain in the Shanique Myrie case has made integration more real to Caribbean people than all the decades of communiqués and Heads of Government meetings put together.