10 News Climate change a priority area for new Caricom chairman P www.caribbeantimesinternational.com |
rime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, said Monday he would use his six-month term as chairman of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) grouping to deal with the deleterious effects climate change is having on the socioeconomic future of the 15-member bloc. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Dominica are now emerging from the effects of a weather system that left a trail of death and destruction over the Christmas holidays. Caribbean countries have also had to deal with the annual hurricane season and in many cases, like in Haiti, unseasonal rains that cause
week ending January 9, 2014
widespread devastation. “The big issue…is global warming, climate change. We are having systems affecting us outside, of the normal rainy season and the normal hurricane season,” he said making reference to the floods in April last year and the Christmas Eve rains that resulted in the deaths of nine people and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Diplomacy
“There are lots of monies which countries talk about for adaptation and mitigation to climate change. But I haven’t seen the money yet and we have to use our diplomacy as a region, and
Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Ralph Gonsalves
we have to be aggressive with our climate change center in Belize. “In my term as chairman of Caricom this is one of the issues, which you will recall I said earlier on…I want dealt
with during my term in a continued serious and structured way, (and it) has to deal with the deleterious effect of climate change and to get the requisite responses from the international community in relation to this matter”. Gonsalves told a news conference that the region does not contribute “anything to these manmade weather systems, these problems with putting so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. “We are…on the front line,” he said, adding that “this is an issue which is big”. Gonsalves said that efforts were now underway to stage an international donors’ conference
to help the three affected islands recover and rebuild their battered infrastructures.
International donors’ conference
He said he had already received a letter from Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, who is also chairman of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), outlining plans for an international donors’ conference. The St. Vincent and the Grenadines prime minister also told reporters that an insurance scheme organized through the World Bank, to which all the Caribbean countries contribute, does not go far
enough. “To the extent that the monies you get from the Catastrophic Relief Insurance System is fairly minimal, but of course every little bit helps,” he said. Gonsalves said he had already written to the leaders of several countries and was now waiting to see “what kind of grant assistance we can get because we really need grants preferably. “The World Bank will give soft loan monies, the CDB (Caribbean Development Bank) will give soft loan monies, the European Union will give grants, Venezuela will give grants, (and) Taiwan will give grants”. (Caribbean News)
TT’s AG suggests death penalty for Shaggy encourages sexual offences against children blood drive to curb shortage in Jamaica
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Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj. (TT Newsday file photo)
wo prominent attorneys and a former high court judge say they do not agree with a suggestion by TT’s Attorney General Anand Ramlogan for the death penalty to be enforced for sexual offences against children. They warned that such a measure will do more harm than good. In an interview with TT media a few weeks ago, Ramlogan said he has been toying with the idea for several months and will approach the Opposition early this year to get their consensus. He spoke about the matter just weeks after the body of six-year-old Keyanna Cumberbatch was found in a barrel at her Maloney Gardens home. An autopsy showed that the child was struck unconscious and raped. “The first thing I intend to do is raise with the Opposition as part of our ongoing joint anti-crime talks to see what position they have on the matter,” Ramlogan said. He noted that if the PNM supported the idea, the measure could form part of the
Constitution Amendment (Capital Offences) Bill. In 2011, the Opposition refused to give support to an earlier version of the legislation also known as the hanging bill. “The various natures of crimes against our innocent children have caused me to think that we should consider the introduction of the death penalty for sex crimes against children. It could be a sentencing option that the court or judge will have and he or she can impose it in, appropriate cases, where the facts and circumstances are so extreme that it shocks the conscience of the court in terms of imposing the sentence of death,” said the AG.
Appropriate cases
“We can leave it as a sentencing option to the judge so that in appropriate cases...it can be imposed.” Ramlogan explained that if violence was inflicted on a child under age 14 and the circumstances were outrageous, the court should have the option of imposing the death penalty. He said, while there
TT’s Attorney General Anand Ramlogan. (TT Guardian file photo)
is an ongoing debate on whether punishment of any form—including the death penalty—reduces crime, something has to be done to deter criminal elements. “There are arguments that can go both ways. If someone is a beast in human form and stalks our land, then the issue is whether they have forfeited their rights to life,” he said. Ramlogan said an issue to be considered is whether victim of sex crime victims should be entitled to personal retribution in the court. In some countries they have the option of presenting a victim impact statement to the judge. This gives victims a chance to tell the court what the offence has affected in their life, whether they were required medical or mental health treatment and what they wished to be done at sentencing. He said while the death penalty was proposed for the most heinous crimes “it has never been imposed for anything other than murder, treason, piracy and hijacking”.
Thoroughly studied
However, former at-
torney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, said before capital punishment is introduced, it should be thoroughly studied. He warned against introducing legislation merely to promote public emotions or sensationalism. Senior counsel Israel Khan, said he would not support the measure. “What will happen is after a child is raped, the criminal would kill the victim so there would be no witnesses. Criminals think a certain way. The death penalty should really be reserved for the most serious offences, which are murder or treason,” he said. Former high court judge and justice minister Herbert Volney, said introducing additional legislation “would not help anything, any government, anybody or any cause.” Instead, the government should provide the judiciary with more resources, courts and staff. Volney said the law already states that the death penalty is available to anyone who kills a child. (Excerpted from TT Guardian)
nternational artiste Shaggy, the man behind the Shaggy Make a Difference Foundation that is geared towards raising funds to offset some of the needs of the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston, said recently that a shortage of blood is another major problem affecting Jamaica. Since 2009, Shaggy whose given name is Orville Burrell, has raised US$2 million in support of the children's hospital through a charity concert. Just last weekend, the latest installment of the charity concert was held, and though the final numbers on how much was raised are still out, the number of patrons who attended the event and the ticket sales are indications of just how well the event did this year. But, according to Shaggy, another problem that should be addressed is the shortage of blood affecting the island. "We have a very bad blood problem in Jamaica," Shaggy told a group of reporters at a Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange meeting held at the newspaper's headquarters on Beechwood Avenue in Kingston, recently. "Pickney a dead, people a dead, because dem nuh have blood." "We need this, we need blood," he said. The entertainer, who is known for hits like ‘Boombastic’ and ‘It wasn't Me’, said he will
support anyone who is willing to take on the challenge to raise awareness surrounding this problem. Shaggy admitted that he has been toying with the idea for a while, but would not be able to spearhead such an initiative because of his current obligations with his foundation's effort to continue contributing to the Bustamante Hospital for Children. "I guarantee that if people do a blood drive and really mobilise Jamaica, the problem can be fixed," Shaggy said, while adding that another problem is that many Jamaicans are afraid of needles, which is a deterrent to blood donation. Igol Allen, blood donor organiser for the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), more popularly known as the Blood Bank, told Jamaican media Monday that there may be other ways to do tests, but the needle is the only way to draw blood from donors. He, however, welcomed the idea of partnering with an entertainer or anyone who would be willing to assist the NBTS, because the shortage of blood is a problem that the institution is constantly trying to remedy. Allen also supported Shaggy's claim that people have died simply because they did not have enough blood. (Excerpted from Jamaica Observer)