By Ray Chickrie
Caribbean News Now contributor
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Guyana and Suriname, both members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), participated in the third Arab-South America (ASPA) culture ministers meeting last week between the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Arab League members in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The meeting ended on Wednesday.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) “We [CARICOM Secretariat] operate as a family so all staff members from Executive Management to Office Assistants and Office Attendants made a contribution….” This is the explanation of the CARICOM Secretariat Staff Association President, Timothy Odle, on the US$1800 donated by the Association to two homes in Paramaribo, Suriname on 3 May 2014.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – The ruling MegaCombination coalition government has booted out one of its members after accusing it of playing “blackmail politics.”
Leader of Pertjajah Luhur (PL) party, Paul Somohardjo, confirmed that his organization, which had six seats, was no longer a member of the coalition, leaving President Desi Bouterse with just a slender one seat majority in the 51-member National Assembly.
Ministers belonging to the PL party have been asked to vacate their ministerial portfolios.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – Police Monday confirmed the arrested a 24-year-old woman after a “cocaine ball” had been found in her vagina as she was preparing to board a flight to Amsterdam.
Police said the cocaine weighed 2, 317 grammesand was discovered after members of the Anti-Narcotics Brigade carried out the search on Sunday.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Approximately four hundred teachers in Suriname will be trained on the operations of the Caribbean Community and CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). The sessions begin on Monday 3 March, 2014 at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Paramaribo and will run until 24 March, 2014. The activity in Suriname falls under the CARICOM Trade and Competitiveness Project (CTCP) and its Information Flows component. The CTCP is executed by the CARICOM Secretariat with the assistance of Canada.
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Tuesday February 25, 2014, CMC – UNAIDS Caribbean said Monday that eight regional countries have finalised specific strategies aimed at strengthening their HIV programmes by making them more responsive to human rights.
It said that the representatives from Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago met her last week for a three-day workshop hosted by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and supported by the Ford Foundation.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC - President Desi Bouterse Wednesday fired his Finance Minister, Adelien Wijnerman, according to an official statement issued here.
“This is part of the Reconstruction of Financial Management … and the seriousness with which Government intends to bring improvement to this matter,” the President’s Cabinet said in the statement.
Wijnerman, an economist and career civil servant, was appointed in June 2011.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – Opposition legislators have defended their decision to walk out on a speech being delivered by President Desi Bouterse on Monday saying he had not been showing respect to the Parliament in recent years.
Member of the NPS/New Front party, Ruth Wijdenbosch, said she participated in the walkout because it was time a clear message had been sent to Bouterse who has made it a habit of coming to Parliament once a year instead of fulfilling his constitutional duty of giving regular accounts of his administration’s plans.
PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC - It seems “open season” has been declared on President Bouterse following the arrest by US authorities of his son Dino. A sharp-penned columnist on Wednesday described attempts at damage control by Bouterse and his aides as “clumsy”.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be here with all of you at the Closing Ceremony of the Eleventh Caribbean Festival of Arts and to deliver these brief remarks on behalf of the Secretary General of the Caribbean Community, H.E Mr. Irwin LaRocque. This has been a very vibrant and exciting ten days of sharing and showcasing the many dimensions of our rich Caribbean culture, and that of our many visiting contingents of artists from UNASUR and other friends from outside our region.