6th of March , 2011
Page 8
Caribbean News
CARICOM Heads meet in Grenada Fire at Bahamas shantytown leaves 700 homeless
Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas said “some of these issues are new and some are ongoing, but in need of executive oversight and refinment BASSETERRE, St Kitts, Fri- Ahead of today’s Heads of Govday February 25, 2011 – As Ca- ernment meeting, several sessions ribbean Community (CARICOM) were held with various sub-comleaders meet in Grenada for their mittees. Inter-Sessional meeting today, one The Sixth Meeting of the Ministeregional leader says the matters rial Sub-Committee on the CSME before them require timely discus- was held yesterday while the Fifth sion, analysis, and action. Special Meeting of the Communi“Some of these issues are new and ty Council, which began Wednessome are ongoing, but in need of day afternoon, continued yesterexecutive oversight and refine- day morning. ment. What they all share, howev- The Community Council looked er, is a centrality to CARICOM’s at the focus and direction of the overall quest for cohesion and Community including the operastability: Haiti. The Permanent tions of the CARICOM Secretariat Committee of CARICOM Ambas- and approving its 2011 Work Prosadors, the Caribbean Court of Jus- gramme and Budget. tice, British American and CLICO The Community Council is CARIand the constitutional dimensions COM’s second highest decisionof the Turks and Caicos situation,” making organ consisting of the said St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Ministers responsible for CARIMinister Dr. Denzil Douglas. COM Affairs in the 15 Member Caribbean leaders will also ad- States. dress the CARICOM Single Mar- The meeting of the Prime Ministeket and Economy (CSME), and rial Sub-Committee on the CSME, specifically the progress in free under the chairmanship of Barbamovement so far and the public dos’ Prime Minister Freundel Stueducation and buy-in for the initia- art, the country with lead respontive; regional health and develop- sibility for implementation of the ment issues, particularly as they CSME in the CARICOM quasipertain to the establishment of the cabinet, looked at outstanding isCaribbean Public Health Agency; sues towards a more effectively and climate change. functioning CSME.
Regional Integration stalls over governance ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, Monday February 28, 2011 (By Peter Richards) - For the first time in years, none of the Caribbean leaders appearing at the Caribbean Community’s end-of-summit news conference uttered the words, “We had a very good meeting.” The two-day gathering here last weekend was intended to agree on mechanisms to govern the regional integration movement that the leaders have always touted as being one of the oldest in the world. But when they emerged from their closed door-huddle, there was little, or as some commentators have observed, no progress to announce. They did not even name the successor to Sir Edwin Carrington, the Trinidad and Tobago-born veteran regional public servant who retired at the start of the year after 18 years as secretary-general of the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) grouping. His retirement had long been signaled. At the end of Caricom’s summit in Jamaica last July, Carrington - no doubt aware of the private comments about the need for a new head at the top, and in some instances, newspaper editorials urging him to call it a day - made it clear that he never came to the job with the intention of staying forever. There are at least six people vying for the post. Grenadian Prime Minister and Caricom Chair Tillman Thomas says the exercise to replace Carrington is “a work in progress”
and the new top public servant would be selected through a transparent process. His Jamaican counterpart, Brice Golding, said they hope to have a new secretary-general in place by the time the leaders gather in St. Kitts in July for their annual summit. “One has to be careful you don’t preempt the outcome of those interviews, we just have to wait for that process to be completed. We would have expected to receive the report of the interview committee and to have deliberated on that by that time [July],” he added. But as they wing their way to their respective Caribbean countries, regional leaders have done little to alter the growing public perception that Caricom is failing in its mission. Acting Caricom Secretary-General Lolita Applewhaite admitted that the integration movement has “fallen short in a number of areas” and that it was important for the leaders to make a “determination of our priorities which would give a clear indication of the focus and direction that the integration movement must take”. Prime Minister Thomas concedes that many Caribbean people are somewhat fed up with the state of “implementation impotence” - particularly as it relates to the march towards the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, services, skills andlabour across the region.
NASSAU, Bahamas – A fire has destroyed a shantytown in the Bahamas, leaving nearly 700 people homeless, most of them Haitian migrants, authorities said Thursday. Dozens of aid workers struggled to register the victims and the government assured that it would not arrest illegal immigrants affected by Wednesday’s blaze. No deaths or serious injuries were reported. It is unclear what caused the fire, although Superintendent Jeffrey Deleveaux, who oversees the island’s fire department, said he is not ruling out arson. Lines for food vouchers and emergency assistance kept growing at the Department of Social Services as crews erected large tents and portable toilets at a nearby church. But nearly 200 people preferred to remain on the outskirts of the charred heap of homes on Fire Trail road, looking for any possessions they could find. The victims lived on a roughly oneacre (half-hectare) parcel of land in southwest New Providence, near the island’s capital, said emergency management director Stephen Russell. The majority of them are illegal immigrants, according to Immigration Director Jack Thompson. Only
two months ago, about 200 people also became homeless after a smaller shantytown less than a quarter mile (kilometer) away burned to the ground the day after Christmas. Most of the victims moved into the shantytown that was destroyed on Wednesday. “These people will now likely move into another shantytown and increase the population there,” Russell said. “That situation will become unsafe, and we’ll have another fire, and this will repeat itself over and over again.” The government has considered shutting down at least 35 other shantytowns filled with Haitian migrants on the main island of New Providence. Several government agencies are consulting about the problem, Thompson said. Meanwhile, Haitian migrants continue to arrive. On Tuesday, authorities apprehended 257 migrants aboard two overloaded sloops near the southern Exuma chain of islands. The government expects to deport them by the weekend. The Bahamas had temporarily halted deportations of Haitian immigrants following the earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people last year, but resumed them in recent months.
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