VOL. 5, NO. 1 • November 9, 2011

Canadian-born recordingsongstress Deborah Cox has beeninvited to sing for the First Ladyof the United States, MichelleObama, wife of President BarackObama. Cox will perform at aFundraiser to be hosted next fallby Tracy Wilson Mourning, wifeof Alonzo Mourning and thefounder of a girl’s mentoringProgram. As a multi-platinum selling andmulti-talented entertainer Coxhas conquered the R&B and popcharts. Including six top-20Billboard R&B singles, an im-pressive ten #1 hits on Billboard’sHot Dance Club Play Chart andthe lead role in Elton John andTime Rice’s Broadway musical,Aida. She will be returning toBroadway in 2012 to portray thelegendary Josephine Baker inJosephine.Born of Guyanese parents, shewas raised in Scarborough,Ontario and attended Earl HaigSecondary School. Cox begansinging for TV commercials at theage of 12. In the early 90s she per-formed as a backup vocalist forCeline Dion, then moved to Los

Angeles after little interest fromany Canadian labels.She was signed to AristaRecords in 1995 by mogul CliveDavis and released her self-titleddebut that same year. In 1998 shefollowed up with One Wish,which went platinum. Smash hit"Nobody's Supposed To Be Here"spent fourteen weeks at #1 on theHot R&B Charts, a record heldfor nearly eight years.In 2002 Cox released TheMorning After, and in 2004 s-tarred as Aida on Broadway. Shereleased Destination Moon in2007, and her fifth studio albumThe Promise in 2008. "BeautifulUR" became Deborah's tenthsong to hit #1 on the US Dancecharts, and was certified Gold fordigital downloads.Cox was selected as a Judge forthis year’s Premiere Season of theCanadian TV Reality Show CoverMe Canada. She currently lives inMiami, Florida, with her highschool sweetheart husband andmanager, Lascelles Stephens, andtheir three children, son Isaiah (8),and daughters, Sumayah (5), andKaila Michelle (2).

Trinidad & Tobago's LeonColdero will be the headline actof Toronto's 11th Annual SocaParang Lime. Presented by theJoan Alexander and Friends, theeleventh version of the highlypopular annual event will be heldat Scarborough's MetropolitanCentre, 3480 Finch Avenue, onSunday, November 13, com-mencing at 6:00pm.The 11th Annual ParangLime, will be hosted byToronto's SKF aka "TheChamp". In addition to per-formances by the City's topthree and hottest Parang Bands,Los Pajaraos, Los Parranderroand Los Amigos, the Lime will

also feature deejays Soca Vibes,Sweetness and StretchMcNeilly, as well as Pannist EarlLa Pierre. The Trinidad and Tobago bornColdero started entertaining atthe early age of five. He is nowcertainly no stranger to thestage, having since graced themusic industry with superb per-formances throughout theCaribbean, Canada, the UnitedStates, and Europe, over theyears.In so doing he has held theSoca genre close to his heart, fla-voring it with his own uniquereggae crossover. His outstand-ing talents have touched many

throughout the music communi-ty, including tour and band per-formances with the famed ByronLee and the Dragonaires. Leon Coldero has been nomi-nated for numerous awards in-cluding Soca Male Artist of theYear. Indisputably one of themost versatile artistes in thebusiness, he is well known for hisnumerous contributions to theChutney, Soca Chutney, Parangand Soca Parang genres. WithColdero as its headliner andsuch high class additional enter-tainment on offer, Soca ParangLime 2011 promises to be wellworth the $20 advance and $25at the door price of admission.

Our Deborah To Sing For Michele

It’s Parang Time AgainDeborah Cox

Leon Coldero

CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC

618 Strouds Lane, Pickering, ON L1V 4S9 • Tel: 905.831-4402 • Fax: 416.292.2943 • Email: caribbeangraphic@rogers.com

CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 2 November 9, 2011

Caribbean and Canadian Government representativesare optimistic the two sides can conclude by the end of2012 a Trade and Development agreement that wouldsignificantly enhance business and investment opportu-nities for Caribbean and Canadian companies and gen-erate much-needed jobs in the fifteen member countriesof CARICOM.Both Canada's Minister of State in the Department ofForeign Affairs and International Trade, with responsi-bility for the Americas and Immigration, DianeAblonczy and CARICOM's Chief Trade Negotiator,Ambassador Gail Mathurin signalled their government'scommitment to work towards the 12-month timeframeso the Accord can be effective within two years, with oneyear required for ratification and legal.The third round of talks were held in Ottawa in Aprilthis year, discussions reconvened by video conference lastweek and a fourth round will begin early in 2012.CARIBCAN, which currently facilities duty-free accessfor most Caribbean exports to Canada, expires at the endof this year and a two-year waiver has been sought fromthe World Trade Organization (WTO).The commitments by the high-level Canadian andCaribbean officials were made at a just-concluded two-day Canada-CARICOM Trade Development Forum inMississauga organized by the CARICOM's Office forTrade Negotiations (OTN), Caribbean ExportDevelopment Agency and the Caribbean Association ofIndustry and Commerce (CAIC), in association with theCanadian Government. The Forum provided an opportunity for Caribbean ex-porters, investment agencies and service professionals toprovide input into the trade negotiations and to specifi-cally identify constraints to doing business in Canadaand key areas with significant potential for expandingbusiness between Canada and the Caribbean. TheCaribbean delegates were also afforded the opportunityto interface with officials from Canada's Department ofForeign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), TheCanadian Export Corporation (EDC), the TradeFacilitation Office (TFO), Canadian TradeCommissioners and Canadian-based Caribbean compa-nies. Business match-making was also part of the pro-gram.Delegates identified obstacles to doing business withCanada and potential areas of opportunities to expandbusiness in five key areas: Trade in Goods, Professional

Services, Financial Services, Production, TourismPromotion and Product Development and FilmProduction.A constant theme in all the discussions wasthe importance for development funds to be allocatedunder a new Canada-CARICOM trade accord, assis-tance for capacity building, including competitivenessprograms and training, and clear channels of communi-cation between the Canadian and Caribbean private sec-tor organizations, especially the regulatory agencies inCanada.In the area of trade in goods, Caribbean products iden-tified with good potential in the Canadian market in-cluded condiments such as pepper sauce, jams and jellies,fresh produce and winter vegetables especially plantainsand provisions, watermelons, guavas, mangoes and pa-paws, rum and beer, pork and pork products, water andwaste water treatment, waste management, air pollutionand control equipment suppliers, exploration and pro-duction. Extraction and smelting sub-sectors and down-stream services were also identified.On the other hand, the forum emphasized the impor-tance of regional harmonization and integration within

CARICOM of standards, labelling and packaging andsignificant improvements in trade facilitation, port facil-ities and other CARICOM border agencies.The tourism promotion and product developmentgroup identified as new product areas, Health andWellness, Eco-tourism, Sports tourism, Culinarytourism, Heritage and Cultural tourism, Agro tourismand Edu Tourism. This round table noted thatCaribbean banks were "risk averse" when consideringtourism projects especially large ones. Mechanisms forfinancing suggested were the use of Canadian retirementsavings funds in CARICOM and the management ofCanadian pension funds in the Caribbean.The Tourism panel also called for more investment inhard infrastructure such as transportation and telecomand facilities and soft infrastructure including peopleskills, customer service, strategy development, entrepre-neurship and institutional support for Business SupportOrganizations (BSOs) and Small and Medium SizedEnterprises (SMEs).In the area of financial services, the Forum highlightedregulatory barriers to access such as licensing, profession-al and residency requirements in Canada, high transac-tional costs and taxes as well as overly high capital re-quirements. It recommended that the trade negotiationsaddress issues such as lease financing, factoring, the de-

velopment of vibrant equity markets, a Canada-Caribbean Venture Fund and export credit and financeinsurance.On the cultural side, the Audio-Visual sector groupcalled for increased visibility of Caribbean content inCanada, both for cinema, television and cable and viceversa, increased collaborative projects and upgrading theskills of CARICOM AV workers through scholarships,exchange and internship programs.A major obstaclecited was the absence of a Co-production agreement be-tween Canada and the Caribbean. "Film producers inCanada face difficulties with employing indigenousCaribbean actors because of the lack of a CoproductionTreaty," the final sector report stated.

CARICOM's Chief Trade Negotiator, Ambassador GailMathurin, Director General of CARICOM's Office ofTrade Negotiations (OTN) greets Bali Singh,President of the Canada-Caribbean BusinessCouncil. Looking on from left are Sylvian Fabi,Director for Latin American and Bilateral RelationsDivision in Canada's Department of Foreign Affairsand International Trade (DFAIT) and Pearl Williams,Senior Trade Advisor, DFAIT.

President of the Canada-Caribbean Business Council,Bali Singh, welcomes the Guyana delegation. From leftRoubinder Rambarran, Executive Director of theGuyana Private Sector Commission and ClintonWilliams, President of the Guyana Manufacturing andServices Association.

Caribbean High Commissioners participated fully inthe two day Forum. From left, Phillip Buxo (Trinidad),Edward Evelyn Greaves (Barbados) and Sheila SealyMonteith (Jamaica).

The Canada-Caribbean Trade Development Forum at-tracted many female business representatives. Fromleft Kim Aikman, Director of Member Relations at theBelize Chamber of Commerce, Ria Ramlachan,Technical Advisor to the Caribbean Association ofSmall and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and DebraBlackman, Business Development Officer in the ExportDevelopment Unit of the Organization of EasternCaribbean States (OECS).

Caricom-Canada BusinessOpportunities Explored

Community

CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 3November 9, 2011

The Guyana Christian Charities(GCC) recently received and donated acomplete functioning Dental Office toGuyana’s, Georgetown Public Hospital.The complete Dental office consisted ofX-Ray machines and frames, chair, irri-gation systems, compressor, miscella-neous parts, operating manuals, cabinetwith sink and several other cabinets. Theequipment, valued at approximatelyCDN$25,000, was as received as a dona-tion from the Rev. Daniel Narine, of theBread of Life Humanitarian Ministry , aregistered charitable non-profit organiza-tion and presented to GCC MemberBrian Farnum.The Guyanese-born Rev. Narine andhis Filipino wife, Hattie practice theirMinistry as full-time Missionaries in thePhilippines. Since they could not readily

make use of the equipment in theirPhilippines Ministry they generously of-fered the equipment to GCC.The equipment was presented to HarryNarine Nawbatt, Guyana”s HighCommissioner to Canada and DonaldRamotar, Advisor to the President ofGuyana, during the latter’s recentCanadian visit. Both Messrs Nawbatt and Ramotar ex-pressed their gratitude and a big “thankyou”, on behalf of Guyana, to the GCCand its members for their commitmentand for the Organization’s impressivespectrum of charitable activities, especial-ly to Guyanese. The equipment, carefullypacked by Volunteers of GCC, wasshipped to Guyana during the month ofOctober.

Gorgeous Shanna Armogan is a model, actress and hosting personality who fully believes intaking every opportunity that life presents. Strong minded, passionate and driven, she consid-ers herself to be extremely fortunate to have experienced and accomplished as much as shehas so far in her field. She looks forward to growing more than she already has.

Caribbean Jewel

Complete Dental Office Donatedto Guyana’s Public Hospital

Officials at the Guyana dental office donation

Terry Sawh is perhaps best known in thebusiness community in his capacity aspresident of Toronto 's TopnotchEmployment Services. Topnotch is an a-gency that promotes diversity in all as-pects. As zealous as he is about the serv-ice Topnotch provides, that's not his onlypassion in life. The Guyana-bornCanadian has other business interests; andhe's also involved in a number of commu-nity organizations.That brief introduction might provide

some clues as to why Mr. Sawh was one ofthe people chosen in 2009 when the firsthonors were handed out for the Top 25Canadian Immigrant Awards. Althoughinitially surprised at being among the firstgroup of recipients, he now says, "It hasserved as a catalyst for me to continue toengage activities; to assist new immi-grants, women, and members of all ethnicgroups in the advancement of their careers- and life as a whole." As a people's choice tribute, The Top 25

Canadian Immigrant Awards serves torecognize individuals who have comefrom another country and who are posi-tively influencing their community in

Canada . It recognizes people engaged ina variety of endeavors, whether they arevolunteers or entrepreneurs. Mr. Sawh op-erates in both of those arenas. Besides run-ning a number of business interests, hevolunteers his time with various commu-nity organizations.Perhaps among his lesser known en-

deavors is the fact that he is chair of theCanadian Aboriginal Minority SupplierCouncil's (CAMSC) Supplier InputCommittee. The mission of CAMSC is topromote and facilitate procurement op-portunities between major corporations inCanada and suppliers of all sizes, ownedand operated by Canadian Aboriginalsand Minorities. CAMSC links major cor-porations and institutions with businesseswhose owners are Aboriginal or fromother visible minority groups. CAMSCaims to boost economic development andto create business opportunities for diversesuppliers, especially those that are eco-nomically and socially disadvantaged inCanada . It offers a platform where aboriginals,

women and minorities can have realisticopportunities to exercise their entrepre-neurial character for the purpose of secur-ing contracts in the marketplace. Led bymembers of the private sector, it is com-prised of major multinational corporationsoperating in Canada and is governed by aboard of directors. Having served on theboard for two years, Mr. Sawh says theCAMSC opportunity has given him abetter understanding its mandate.

The experience, he says, has been educa-tional and empowering, motivating him toshare with his peers in Canada the bene-fits of diversity in the corporate world.While most people automatically think ofdiversity in the workplace as the act ofcompanies employing people from variousethnic backgrounds, Mr. Sawh's passionfor diversity goes much deeper. He wantsminority-owned businesses to have accessto good contracts and opportunities thatmatch their abilities so they, in turn, canhire a diverse group of employees.Clearly at home in Canada , the recol-

lection of arriving in Toronto from his na-tive Guyana in 1976, with just $24 in hispocket is a distant memory. At that time,$24 was all that an individual could legal-ly take from Guyana . But instead of see-ing the limit as negative, the entrepreneur- who came seeking, and found a betterlife, says, "Desperation brings out the bestin any human being. There are many otherpeople in similar situations that have doneequally well or better than me, but at theend of the day, all immigrants who haveadvanced our lives and have made a posi-tive impact to society deserve the supportof mainstream Canada ."He adds, "I'll continue the best of my

business life to propagate and solicit sup-port for women, minorities and aborigi-nals. I hope that the next generation of di-verse groups has better access to gainingentry in general procurement within gov-ernment and corporate Canada ."

Helping Youth Achieve Their Educational Goals

‘Diversity’ on his Radar

CaribbeanTalent

CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 4 November 9, 2011

When children from the Caribbeanwere moving to the Greater Toronto Areain the 1970s, they faced some educationalsetbacks that they had not been preparedfor. As anyone who has experience withthe education system in Caribbean coun-tries knows, the teaching methods are dif-ferent. Although English is the main lan-guage in many Caribbean countries, thedialects are different than how CanadianEnglish is spoken. An organization arose to help

Caribbean families address the lack of sat-isfaction that they felt with how their chil-dren were adjusting to the Canadianschool system. The Malton BlackDevelopment Association was founded in1975 by a group of concerned parents whogot together to try to integrate their chil-dren in to the school system. For over 36years, the MBDA has helped children ofCaribbean descent improve their school s-tudies, sponsored up and coming athletes,and fundraised to issue scholarships to s-tudents who are pursuing a college or uni-versity education. The MBDA began in Malton with

adults who were passionate about helpingyoung people. Wesley B. Jones, the organi-zation's current president, is still as pas-sionate about encouraging youth today ashe was when he joined the MBDA in1979. Jones joined the organization be-cause he believed in young people andwanted to help them face the environ-mental problems they were facing, as theywere not accustomed to the pace and for-mat that Canadian teachers were deliver-ing. "The teachers were more impatientwith them because of the brokenEnglish," Jones explained about the chal-lenges that Caribbean children facedwhen they moved to Canada."The kidswould be mocked (by Canadian students)in the way they spoke.

Young students coming from theCaribbean were also more accustomed tothe methods their teachers from backhome used to educate them. "In theCaribbean, the kids learn more detailedinformation. The teachers in theCaribbean have more personal interactionwith the kids. They make sure that the in-dividual learns and they use the black-board a lot, whereas teachers here givethem work and tell them to do it," Jonesexplained. The lack of one on one atten-tion Caribbean-Canadian students werebeing given from their teachers was lessthan motivational. Even more unhelpfulwas that school principals and teacherswere singling out the students. "Theschools started putting Caribbean kids into programs that weren't designed for

them. These kids were smart, but theschools were putting them back a level.Teachers and principals were screeningthe kids and saying that the kids should beput in a class where the teachers were ableto monitor them more," Jones said. The members of the Malton Black

Development Association started a home-work and peer program to help the com-munity's elementary and middle school s-tudents transition to high school. Thehomework and peer program serves tohelp students develop better understand-ing of their school subjects, includingmath and listening skills. The MBDAmembers worked hard to boost the self-

esteem and education of the children inthe homework program. It gained charita-ble status through the federal and provin-cial governments in 1980 and has sincegone on to do great things for Caribbeanfamilies living in the Malton and PeelRegion. The organization currently hasan English Creole program and hosts artsand culture programs, including opportu-nities for children to learn how to play thesteel pan drums. Since the 1990s, the MBDA began issu-

ing scholarships to students pursuingpost-secondary education. To date theyhave issued over 60 scholarships. Theyfundraise throughout the year for thescholarship awards by selling citrus, hold-ing an annual walkathon, an annual fallbrunch and the scholarship awards dinner.In order to qualify for an MBDA scholar-ship, the applicants must have proof ofvolunteer experience within the commu-nity of Malton, proof of financial statusand good school grades. The MBDA alsogives two scholarships per year to studentsliving outside of the Malton area, butwithin Mississauga and Brampton. Theorganization issues about six scholarshipsper year to students of Caribbean descent.Some of the MBDA'S past scholarshiprecipients are now MBDA members whohave been instrumental in building the or-ganization's website (www.MBDA.ca) aswell as its Facebook and Twitter profiles.Many past recipients of the MBDA schol-arship have done well for themselves pro-fessionally, something that Jones is veryproud about. "Those kids really excelledover the years and became productive cit-izens; teachers and business people, edu-cators," Jones praised. Akua Hinds is a journalist, music teacher,dating website owner & home-based businessowner. Please visit www.AkuaHinds.comfor more info.

by Akua Hinds

Born Aubrey Mansfield inGeorgetown, Guyana, to parents SheilaMansfield-Grenardo and father ClemThoma, he later become known asAubrey Mann, as front man and leadsinger for the Guyana based bands"Cosmonauts" "Curtis & the MG's"and subsequently "Des Glasford'sCombo 7".In 1974, he moved toBarbados to join the band Lunar 7 astheir lead singer. Together they record-ed his very first single "I Can't Make ItAlone". Years later Mann made yet anothermove to North America, to expand hisinternational musical career, adding tothe foundation he had already built.

More recordings followed as well as ahit song " Stealing Love On The Side," that sold over a million copies worldwide. During the course of his fortyyear musical career Mann has sharedthe stage with international superstarsand received many awards includingSinger of the year. He has also hosted atelevision show, headlined for severalmajor shows" including "The RoguesGallery Hall of Fame at the O'KeefeCentre, now the Sony Centre inToronto Canada"and much more. None of this came easy. It was veryhard work mixed with blood, sweet andtears and a touch from the hands of theAll Mighty Father. With all this underthe sixty-year-old Mann's belt, thereseems to be no slowing down this hus-band and father. He recently recordedyet another studio album. The verysoulful CD "Forty Years Of Love &Soul", a tribute to his forty years inshow business, has twelve tracks, tencovers and two original songs. Havingalready received rave reviews FortyYears Of Love & Soul promises to beyet another big hit for the Guyanese-born crooner, simply known to most assBREE.To learn more about Mr. Aubrey Mann,visit www.aubreymannmusic.com

by Terry Bacchus

by Beverly Browne

Aubrey Mann:Forty Years of Love & Soul

CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 5November 9, 2011

More Commitment Needed to BoostTrade and Investment with Canada

Immigrants Age Linked to School Success Children who immigrate to Canada have a betterchance of finishing high school if they arrive in thecountry at a younger age, according to a new study pub-lished today by Statistics Canada. The study, byProfessor Miles Corak of the Graduate School of Publicand International Affairs at the University of Ottawa,shows that immigrant children arriving in Canada afterthe age of nine are more likely to drop out of high schoolthan those arriving at a younger age.“The chances of notgraduating from high school are about 15% for boys and11% for girls who arrive in Canada before the age ofnine, which is lower than the overall Canadian dropout

rate of 19% and 14% for comparable groups of boys andgirls,” says Prof. Corak. “But the chances of immigrantsnot attaining a high school diploma increases progres-sively after that age, rising by more than one percentagepoint for each subsequent year. For those arriving in thecountry at age 15, the chances are about 22%, greaterthan one in five.These patterns of success at school stem in part fromthe challenges faced by immigrant children in learningEnglish or French. In fact, for those arriving fromEnglish- or French-speaking countries, the age of arrivalhas no discernible impact on high-school graduation

rates.Changes associated with the onset of puberty andthe challenges of adjusting to a new school system forchildren in their later primary years and in high schoolalso play a role.The age of nine is an important turningpoint in the development of children’s cognitive capaci-ties as they make the transition from “learning to read”to “reading to learn,” adds Prof. Corak, illustrating thechallenges of language acquisition and educational inte-gration, particularly for older children. The study, titledAge at Immigration and the Education Outcomes ofChildren is available under the New Products andStudies tab on the Statistics Canada website.

The just-concluded Canada-CARICIOM TradeDevelopment Forum held just outside of Toronto un-derscored the need for Caribbean exporters, business or-ganizations and the region's governments to adopt amuch more serious approach if they are to reap the ben-efits of a new trade and development accord currentlybeing negotiated between the two sides. The absence ofkey producers from the region was disappointing.Barbados High Commissioner to Canada, Evelyn g-reaves, for example, expressed concern that Barbadianmanufacturers did not participate in the Forum and thatthere was no representation from the BarbadosManufacturers Association(BMA).The lack of commu-nication among private sector organizations and theirfailure to provide input when requested by regional um-brella organizations is also worrying. The Canadian andCARICOM Governments will, through a new Canada-CARICOM agreement set the policy framework andconditions that will provide opportunities to significant-ly enhance two-way trade and investment opportunities.It is the Caribbean producers and service providers whowill do business and they should therefore have a vestedinterest in what the region's negotiators are putting onthe table with their Canadians counterparts.The Forum did come up with detailed and useful rec-ommendations for CARICOM's Chief Negotiator,Ambassador Gail Mathurin, who is Director General ofthe Office for Trade Negotiations (OTN) and her teamin five sector areas - Trade in Goods, ProfessionalServices, Financial Services, Tourism Promotion andProduct Development and Film Production. The tradenegotiations are expected to be concluded by the end of2012 and hopefully CARICOM Governments, afterstalling on the commencement of the talks, will be en-couraged by the recent Forum and be energized to pro-vide the necessary mandates to keep the negotiations ontrack so a new accord can be enforced by 2013, bearingin mind that it takes another 12 months after the agree-ment is signed for the ratification process.It is also worrying to note that some private sector or-ganizations, including those in Guyana, have not had aninput into their Government's official positions on thenegotiations. As with all of Canada's Free TradeAgreements (FTA), this new accord will provide fortwo-way duty-free access for trade in goods and servic-es. CARIBCAN, under which the region was grantedduty-free access for most goods, but did not take advan-tage of, will expire at the end of this year and a two-yearWTO waiver has been sought to allow for the current

negotiations. This means that Canadian goods will becoming into the CARICOM market with duty-free ac-cess and as with CARICOM's Economic PartnershipAgreement (EPA) with the European Union, requestswill be made for sensitive Caribbean industries that re-quire some protection to be phased in.The question of which industries is, of course, some-thing which the private sector needs to identify andtherefore the region's business community ought to en-sure it has a say on this sooner rather than later and notafter the ink is dry on the a new Canada-CARICOMaccord.One protracted issue on the CARICOM side is the

CARICOM Investment Code. I recall making an inputon this during my tenure as Head of the Guyana Officefor Investment (GO INVEST) in the late 1990's and itstill has not come to fruition. The draft Code has beenstuck in the legal department of the CARICOMSecretariat for a while and it is time that this is taken offthe back burner. Canadian investors eying theCaribbean for new business are looking for uniform andconsistent investment policies in the region. The delivery and quality of services at investment a-gencies in the region is another issue that needs to beaddressed with some urgency. The CaribbeanAssociation of Investment Promotion Agency(CAIPA), currently under the aegis of Caribbean Exportin Barbados, is spearheading valuable training and otherinitiatives intended to benefit the region's investment a-gencies. Countries like Guyana that does not participatein these activities should take advantage of opportunitiesto upgrade their services, which is vital if we are to becompetitive when it comes to attracting investment. Aswell, Caribbean governments have to understand thatunderstaffed investment agencies and overseas missions,with limited marketing budgets will not be equipped tosell the region to Canadians as an attractive investment

location. Some of the overseas missions don't even havepromotional material.At the recent Trade Development Forum, one inter-esting proposal in the area of production integration wasthrown out by the Guyana Private Sector Commissionrepresentative who asked why Guyana, with vastamounts of available land and skilled workers, cannotproduce the over $1 million in pork products thatBarbados currently imports from Canada. The thinkinghere is that Canadian and Caribbean companies need toengage in joint ventures and licensing arrangements tofacilitate this kind of joint production that would be costeffective for the Canadians and bring much needed jobsto Guyana. Franchising operations by Canadians in theCaribbean is another area that should be explored oncethe new Canada-CARICOM trade accord is effective.Back in the mid 1980's during a CARICOM Heads ofGovernment Summit, then Barbados Prime MinisterErrol Barrow talked about the need for joint regionalproduction and at that time there was a lot of interest inGuyana and Barbados collaborating on housing projectsin Barbados, using Guyana timber. Needless to say, therewas no follow through.Production integration in the region will only becomea reality if the region's manufacturers are serious aboutworking with each other. At the recent forum, it wasnoted that even within individual CARICOM Memberstates there is a lack of trust among private sector enti-ties. These agencies have to find ways to work moreclosely together and manufacturers should be at theforefront of any discussions that relate to trade in goods,not Chambers of Commerce or umbrella organizations.The recent withdrawal of Barbados ManufacturersAssociation from the Trinidad and Tobago basedCaribbean Association of Industry and Commerce(CAIC) is also cause for concern. Granted, CAIC is notas vibrant as in the days when it was headed by Guyana'sPat Thompson. But, whatever the perceived deficienciesof CAIC, the issue must be addressed and hopefully ef-forts will be made to have the BMA rejoin since CAICis the regional entity that officially collaborates withCARICOM on behalf of the region's business commu-nity and works closely with Caribbean Export and theOTN. The three agencies organized the TradeDevelopment Forum in association with the CanadianGovernment.Despite the many challenges that need to be ad-dressed, the recent Canada-CARICOM Forum madesome positive headway. The Caribbean private sectorrepresentatives that participated recognised the tremen-dous opportunities that will open up to growCaribbean-Canada business once the new trade agree-ment is signed and the steps necessary to equip them-selves to take advantage of this new deal that has the po-tential to contribute significantly to the region's eco-nomic development.The writer is a business consultant and specialist inCaribbean affairs.

by Sandra Baptiste

Barbados High Commissioner to Canada, EdwardEvelyn Greaves in conversation with Canada'sMinister of State, Foreign Affairs and InternationalTrade, Diane Ablonczy.

A statement by the Prime Minister of Britain, DavidCameron, that his government will not provide budget-ary aid to countries that discriminate against homosex-uals and lesbians has angered a number ofCommonwealth governments, including Barbados.Barbados Attorney General, Adriel Brathwaite is re-ported as saying that his government will not be dictat-ed to by Britain or any other when it comes to homo-sexuality laws. He added that Barbados’ position onhomosexuality was not for sale and its legislative agen-da would be determined at home.The strong response by the Barbados Attorney-General may have arisen over a misunderstanding of theCameron statement made in a BBC interview duringthe 2011 Commonwealth Heads of GovernmentMeeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Austria from 28 to 30October. While Cameron did say that his governmentwould not provide general budget support to govern-ments that do not uphold human rights including therights of homosexuals and lesbians, Barbados is not a re-cipient of British Budgetary aid and, therefore, wouldnot be affected. Cameron was clear that other Britishaid would continue as usual.Nevertheless, the policies, laws and practices towardhomosexuals and lesbians is a real and growing issue inthe Caribbean, not only as a human rights issue but as apublic health one too.At the CHOGM in Perth, an Eminent PersonsGroup (EPG) of which I am a member, delivered aReport on ways to reform the Commonwealth to makeit relevant to its times and its people. The Report hadbeen commissioned by the Commonwealth Heads ofGovernment at their Assembly in Trinidad two yearsprior. Included in the Report’s 106 recommendationswas one that governments “should take steps to encour-age the repeal of discriminatory laws that impede the ef-fective response of Commonwealth countries to theHIV/AIDS epidemic, and commit to programmes of e-ducation that would help a repeal of such laws”.Amongst these laws are those that criminalize homo-sexuality.The recommendation proved to be controversial withmany African and Caribbean governments. Of the cur-rent 53-nations of the Commonwealth, 41 of them re-tain laws that criminalise homosexuality in particular.Some of these laws dictate that homosexuals should beflogged and jailed. Of the 41 states with such laws, all12 of the independent Commonwealth Caribbeancountries are included.Remarkably, these laws are relics of the colonial past.They were introduced in the Caribbean by the BritishColonial government. But, while Britain, like the ma-jority of countries in the world, has moved on to de-criminalize homosexuality, the colonial laws remain inmany parts of Africa and the Caribbean.In Britain, other countries of Europe, in Canada andthe United States, many homosexuals and lesbians,freed from the criminalization of their sexual prefer-

ences, have risen to the tops of their careers. Many arecaptains of industries, government ministers, leading s-ports persons and even members of the armed forcesdoing duty in dangerous places such as Iraq andAfghanistan. In the Caribbean, however, homosexualsare marginalised and the majority remain hidden, terri-fied of the consequences of “coming out”.The Churches in the Caribbean are the most unyield-ing on this issue, continuing to describe homosexualityas an “abomination”, while constraining political partiesfrom adopting a more enlightened and modern-dayview of the issue.The facts indicate that 60 million people worldwidehave been infected with HIV and 33.3 million present-ly live with the virus. Over 60% of the people livingwith HIV reside in Commonwealth countries. The re-gion with the highest rate of HIV/Aids per capita is theCaribbean. In this sense, the problem for the Caribbeanis one both of human rights and public health.Homosexuals who live under the risk of flogging andjail are reluctant to reveal themselves if and when theybecome HIV infected. Consequently, they are left un-treated and the disease spreads and eventually they die,although the real cause of death is usually hidden.In any event, the laws criminalising homosexuality aredepriving the Caribbean of the use of remarkably tal-ented people in all fields of life. Some of those whocould be contributing to the development and prosperi-ty of every Caribbean country. Some homosexuals havealready emerged – despite the laws and the stigma – asoutstanding Caribbean citizens, revered not only in theregion but in other parts of the world, but they havebeen persons of great courage and unquestionable abili-ty. Others have simply fallen by the wayside, or are liv-ing lives of lies.On the eve of CHOGM in Perth, Helen Clarke, theHead of the United Nations Development Programmewrote to Commonwealth leaders pointing out that “it isimportant and urgent for the Commonwealth Heads ofGovernment to promote and secure the repeal of thediscriminatory laws which impede effective nationalHIV responses. By committing to legislative initiativesand programmes which will repeal discriminatory laws,the Heads of Government can not only turn back theHIV epidemic, but also improve the health and devel-opment of their citizens”. She concluded her letter byurging leaders “to seize this opportunity for theCommonwealth to turn a corner in preventing and con-trolling HIV by embracing the proposals to repeal lawswhich impede effective HIV responses”. In part, it was to this urging that the British PrimeMinister was responding when he found that manyAfrican and Caribbean governments were reluctant tobudge. They preferred to maintain the old colonial lawseven as they attacked the old colonial ruler for suggest-ing that they repeal them.But the issue will not go away. The British PrimeMinister was bold in saying that he would stop Britishbudgetary aid to countries that continue not to upholdhuman rights including by maintaining discriminatorylaws against homosexuals. Others will follow in differ-ent ways. As the international community sees it, ho-mosexuals and lesbians are entitled to rights too, as longas they do not affect the rights and preferences of oth-ers. The Caribbean will have to face up to that reality, andchange as most of the rest of the world has.

CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC

Welcome to Caribbean Graphic Part 2 (CGII)," ThePeople's Paper". A reintroduction of our formerCaribbean Graphic, the community bi-weekly newspa-per that was published from January 2001- May 2005. As is evident from its content, CGII has incorporat-

ed many of the more popular features of the originalpublication. The Graphic Design however marks afresh, new, bold approach that will hopefully prove sat-isfyingly attractive to its readers and advertisers.Why the reintroduction of Caribbean Graphic, at this

time when there are already six papers purporting to beserving the needs of the Canadian Caribbean communi-ty?The answer to the question is one of value. The ex-

isting publications currently serving the CaribbeanCommunity have done an outstanding job. The topfour SHARE, Indo-Caribbean, PRIDE andCaribbean Camera, collectively have over one hundredyears of service to our community. That's impressive byanyone's standards. Furthermore their respectivelongevity serves as further irrefutable evidence of theirresistible lure of the printed lure to Caribbean-bornpeoples, wherever they may reside.As wonderful a job as they have done as servants of

the Caribbean Canadian community, there are stillhowever many improvements that can be made to thevalue these publications and others now provide. It isGraphic's desire and intention to fill those voids.Pigeon-holed representation of specific ethnicities,

routinely published issues that include more than halfa dozen articles written by a single journalist, grosslylopsided advertising-editorial ratios, shabby page lay-outs and content that is more inclusive of one nation-ality and far less so of others. These are all readily i-dentifiable shortcomings of the well established publi-cations. After so many years of yeoman service, it's as ifthey have reached their desired comfort zone "cruisingaltitude" and have switched on to auto pilot.Again, in the belief that our beloved Caribbean com-

munity deserves much better, CGII aims to provide amore valuable alternative. As Diana became thePeople's Princess, adored, loved and respected by many,our intention is to become the "People's Paper". Acommunity publication that is truly representative ofand respected by its audience. Editorially, we intend to provide our readers with

content worthy of their time and attention. In design,our objective will be to pursue the highest standards inproducing attractive, editorial and advertising balancedpages that will be highly pleasing to the eye.In so doing CGII will be attempting to fulfill the i-

dentical objectives of the former Caribe In-Pulse mag-azine. When InPulse was launched in May 2008, itsprincipals had also hoped that it would have emergedas a catalyst for a greater sense of cohesion amongst allCaribbean peoples. Regrettably, for its lack of econom-ic feasibility at the time, InPulse had to be shelved afteronly five issues and long before it ever fulfilled its loftyambitions.CGII, now intends to pick up where InPulse left off.

As such this and future issues will include many of thecontent features that endeared InPulse to its readers,during its unfortunately brief lifespan. Whether or not Caribbean Graphic II can prove to

be more successful and long lasting than its predeces-sors only time will tell. No less a person than the greatAlbert Einstein is reported to have had thousands offailures before he successfully invented the light bulb.CGII's objectives are so sufficiently worthwhile thatthe effort required for their achievement will be wellworth the prize. . Whatever the outcome and howeverlong it lasts, the journey is definitely worth taking. All aboard!

PAGE 6 November 9, 2011

Publisher/Editor: Tony McWattEditorial Consultant: Malcolm CliffeContributors: Mark Bannister, Sandra Baptiste , Beverly Browne,Terry Bacchus,

Duane DaSilva, Akua Hinds, Sir Ronald SandersGraphic Design: Andrea Simone

EditorialWeee’rre Back!

618 Strouds Lane, Pickering, ON L1V 4S9 • Tel: 905.831-4402 • Fax: 416.292.2943 • Email: caribbeangraphic@rogers.com • www.caribbeangraphic.ca

Homosexuals and Lesbians Rights:The Caribbean Dilemma

by Sir Ronald Sanders

CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC

A tiny island set in warm waters of the LeewardIslands, east of Puerto Rico and just north of St. Martin,with a temperature usually at 25C or above, Anguilla hasmany beaches but only six traffic lights. Anguilla - it rhymes with vanilla - isn't really wellknown. In part that may be due to a kind of culture ofmodesty. Anguillans have been described as being soft-spoken, slightly shy, perhaps not given to aggressive self-promotion. Historically, beginning as far back as in the1820s, they were part of a British arranged alliance withnearby St. Kitts, which meant St. Kitts, population35,000, compared to Anguilla's then only 7,000, man-aged the purse. So, for well over a century, Anguilla suffered greatly, itsmen roaming from the Dominican Republic to Aruba insearch of work. In the late 1960s, fed up, they secededloudly but bloodlessly from the alliance. Getting there is relatively easy. Anguilla's Clayton J.Lloyd International Airport is easily accessible by air,through the main gateways Puerto Rico, St.Maarten/Martin, Antigua and St. Kitts. From PuertoRico, Anguilla is just a one-hour direct flight via CapeAir or Rainbow International Airlines. Once on the island there are many activities availableto visitors. Miles of powdery white sand beaches, dra-matic cliff tops and tropical rainforest trails provide a va-riety of interesting walks for those in search of a leisure-ly stroll or a more energetic hike. On the north coast,there are tracts of land that remain covered in thick veg-etation, providing a rich habitat for wildlife, while trailsthrough the Katouche Valley allow visitors to see the re-maining example of a natural rainforest on Anguilla. Famous for its diving and snorkeling Anguilla has sixmarine parks and nine dive wrecks, plus a huge array ofcoral formations, walls, ridges, canyons and tunnels forboth novice and experienced divers. In addition, the cre-ation of Stoney Bay Marine Park has ensured that arte-facts dating back to the 18th century will continue to bepreserved for future enjoyment. The wreck of the Spanish Galleon, El Buen Consejo,together with cannons, anchors and bronze medals em-bedded in the coral at Stoney Bay, is the island's mostimpressive underwater treasure. Travellers who are intounderwater siteseeing can enjoy an adventure on a glassbottom boat to reefs where they can see turtles, fish and,if lucky, a dolphin or two!Visitors to the island during Carnival and other publicholidays will be able to witness and possibly take part inAnguilla's national sport of boat racing. Featuring the is-land's traditional, unique, hand-crafted wooden sail-boats, the races have taken place around the island for

fifty years and usually culminate in a huge party at thefinish line.Anguilla boasts 33 fabulous beaches, most of whichoffer a calm, safe environment in which to swim, and thewater is so clear that it's perfect for snorkelling. For those with artistic inclinations Anguillian Louise

Brooks showcases her work at her AlaK Gallery at ShoalBay. The Heritage Collection, located in the East End ofthe island next to the Bird Sanctuary, is a display archiv-ing the most important documents, photographs, lettersand objects from the island's past. The collection con-tains artefacts from the Arawak Indians, the 1967Revolution and more recent political history. Anguilla does not have casinos and huge clubs. It's aplace to hang out, kick back and relax with the sounds ofbeautiful jazz, steel pan, guitarists and pianists and localsoca, reggae and calypso bands. There are a number ofbars offering live music and dancing. The most popularareas are Sandy Ground on Thursday to Saturday andlocal beach hot spots on Sunday & Wednesday.Today, tourism is Anguilla's main industry, employing

about two-thirds of a population of about 14,000. Butit's quiet tourism, gracious, and tasteful, not, as on cer-tain islands, where natural beauty is obscured by over-sized yachts and tranquility ruined by intruding noise. As an island Anguilla is far from being a dull bore.Cuisine is a central feature of the Anguillian experience.The island's delectable dishes have the most demandinggourmands clamoring. Anguilla has almost 100 restau-rants, proudly possessing some of the finest kitchens inthe Caribbean, each designed to accommodate touchesthat make dining a superlative experience while the self-taught prepare festive roadside fare. When night falls allroads lead to SandyGround, where rhythmsrock. Jump to calypso.Bounce to reggae. Chill tojazz. Even legendary actorsand celebrated musiciansfor whom privacy is para-mount have found mixingto be easy. Easily recognized by hisbrown hat and laid-backvibe, Bankie Banx is one ofAnguilla's national treas-ures delighting crowds withhis rockin' reggae for nearlythree decades. With twelvecritically-acclaimed albums to his credit, this multi-tal-ented dynamo is also the heart and soul of Moonsplash- the longest running independent music festival in theEastern Caribbean and the island's most popular eventheld every year under the full moon in March.Anguilla has also become famous as a destination forweddings and honeymoons, which make memories thatlast. Intimate affairs, punctuated by romance and rap-ture, allow couples to hide away from the world and losethemselves to each other at the most awesome sunsetIt may not be as well known as other CaribbeanTourist destinations but Anguilla is definitely worth avisit.:www.anguilla-vacation.com; www.ivisitanguilla.com

CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 7November 9, 2011

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BRIDGETOWN, The strong knowl-edge-base of Barbados' workforce makesit unlikely that the international businesssector here will ever see its numbersskewed more in favour of expatriateworkers than locals like some other estab-lished international financial centres inthe region.This was made clear by presentersMelanie Jones and Professor AvinashPersaud during the recently heldBarbados International Business WeekPublic Discussion Forum that tackled thequestion 'Can Barbados Grow andProsper Without International Business?'The presenters noted that unlike inBermuda or The Cayman Islands wherethe expatriate workforce is quite large incomparison to the local populace, the size

of Barbados' local population and capaci-ty of its workforce made it far easier andmore profitable for international businessentities locating on the island to hireBarbadians rather than have to bring inforeign workers who cost a higher premi-um due to things like resettlement com-pensation and living allowances not re-quired for local employees. And this islikely to remain the status quo as moreBarbadians are beginning to recognisethat international business is not somesector bracketed off for foreigners but anarea that they can actively participate inand benefit from, said president of theBarbados International BusinessAssociation (BIBA), Connie Smith, asshe gave an overall assessment of the suc-cess of the week.

CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 8 November 9, 2011

Bajan Workforce Strong Enough

Maximum SentenceA Barbadian dubbed the ringleader of asophisticated drug enterprise that trans-ported illegal drugs between Barbados,other countries and New York faces a 20-year minimum sentence in the UnitedStates.Victor Bourne, who worked as a bag-gage handler at American Airlines, wasconvicted last month of several charges,including running a continuous criminal

enterprise; multiple counts of cocaineimportation and distribution: and inter-national marijuana trafficking. Bourne,35, was charged along with dispatchingcrew chief at America Airlines, MiguelBozza.Bourne's mother Maria Alleyne, 51,owner of a shoe store was also chargedbut found not guilty of conspiring toavoid financial reporting requirements.

Cannabis Plants Seized

Three Nominations andEleven#1s For Rihana

BRIDGETOWN, Cannabis plants,concealed in a canefield, were seized onNovember 2. They were found after ajoint operation led by the members of theDrug Squad and supported by membersof the Special Services Unit, and the

Barbados Defence Force, which was con-ducted at Colleton, St John. A releasefrom the Police stated that 473 cannabisplants were seized, the tallest being ap-proximately nine feet. No arrests havebeen made to date.

Local Films as Cultural ExportsBRIDGETOWN, The production of ahigh quality movie has the ability to in-crease exposure of Barbadian culturethroughout the world.This is accordingto producer of the Barbadian feature film‘Sweet Bottom’, Moussa Absa Sene, whodelivered the closing remarks at the filmscreening which took place at theNovember 4 Walcott Warner Theatre atthe Errol Barrow Centre for CreativeImagination (EBCCI) .He asserted,“One good film is better than an ambas-sador. One good film that goes to filmfestivals in Cannes, Berlin, Toronto orVenice is better than 20 ambassadors.Theproducer, who is from the African coun-try of Senegal, revealed that he had beenliving in Barbados for over 6 years and

had over 25 years of experience in thefilm production industry. He noted thathe was impressed by the outcome of thefeature film, referring to it as possibly thebest contemporary indigenous film with-in the region.“This is the first time inBarbados that I have seen this level ofproduction quality; I have been makingfilms for the past 27 years and this filmmay be the best Caribbean film I haveever seen in the English-speakingCaribbean.“For me, this film was veryimportant because I think it is the firsttime in Barbados, where using theCaribbean skills and talent, we haveachieved a film that is a high qualitywhich could be shown in world-wide cin-emas,” he opined.

Rihanna has been nominated in threecategories at the 2011 American MusicAwards which will be broadcast live fromthe Nokia Theatre LA on November 20.The categories are: POP or ROCKMUSIC: Favorite Album – LOUD;SOUL/RHYTHM & BLUES MUSIC:Favorite Female Artist – Rihanna;SOUL/RHYTHM & BLUES MUSIC:Favorite Album – LOUDVoting ends on November 11 and fansare encouraged to vote as much as theycan. The show will be broadcast live fromthe NOKIA Theatre L.A. live November20 on ABCRihanna also recently celebrated her11th No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100songs chart, as We Found Love, featuringCalvin Harris. The Barbadian-bornsongstress Rihanna became just the sev-enth artist in the Hot 100?s 53-year his-tory to tally at least 11 leaders, joining theBeatles (20), Mariah Carey (18), MichaelJackson (13), Madonna (12), theSupremes (12) and Whitney Houston(11). She passes Janet Jackson and StevieWonder, each with 10 No. 1s.

Among women, Rihanna moved into athird-place tie with Houston for mosttoppers, after only Carey and Madonna.Her Top 10 hits in the United States

have included Pon De Replay (#2); SOS(#1); Unfaithful (#6); Break It Off (#9);Umbrella (#1); Hate That I Love You(#7); Don't Stop The Music (#3); Take ABow (#1); Disturbia (#1); Live Your Life(#1); Run This Town (#2); RussianRoulette (#9); Hard (#8); Rude Boy (#1);Love The Way You Lie (#1); Only Girl(#1); What's My Name (#1); S&M (#1);Cheers (#10) and We Found Love (#1).

Rihana

Bimshire Beat

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Make your plans now for the 2nd Annual Barbados Food & Wine and

Rum Festival on November 18-21, 2011. Taste magnificently prepared

cuisine and sip from the finest wines and Bajan rums. It’s the most

delicious fun you’ll ever experience. To start planning your visit,

go to FoodWineRum.com or call 1-866-280-4482 for ticket information.

TAKE EIGHT WORLD-CLASS CHEFS

ADD ONE ACCLAIMED WINE EXPERT

SPLASH GENEROUSLY WITH RUM

MIX WELL WITH BEAUTIFUL ISLAND SCENERY AND SUGAR SOFT BEACHES

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CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 9November 9, 2011

ST. GEORGE'S, Opposition leaderDr. Keith Mitchell has accused govern-ment of racking up an EC$3 milliontravelling bill within three years, and hasdemanded that the Tillman Thomas-ledadministration immediately announce itspolicy on overseas travel.The formerPrime Minister said this has becomenecessary in light of the fiscal challengesfacing the country.Dr. Mitchell chargedthat "excessive" amounts have been spenton overseas travel and pointed out thatalmost half the number of governmentministers have been out of state in recentdays."Just imagine, this week seven ministersof government were out of state at the

same time," he stated. "The Governmenthas been spending millions of dollars onoverseas travel at a time when childrenare unable to go to school and parents areunable to put food on the table."The op-position leader also blasted the primeminister for attending the recentCommonwealth Heads of Governmentmeeting in Australia. According to him,while some regional leaders, includingthose from Jamaica, St. Lucia and St.Vincent and the Grenadines, opted notto attend, the prime minister spent thou-sands of dollars on that trip which is "notlikely to bear any significant fruits for thecountry."

BASSETERRE, Cruise and airportpassenger arrivals grew during this sec-ond quarter over the 2010 period in spiteof reduced flights.Cruise passengers in-creased by more than 25,000 to 102,682,while the federation achieved 9.6 percentgrowth in visitor arrivals.Recently re-leased figures from the St. ChristopherAir and Sea Ports Authority indicatethere were 118 less flights at the RobertL. Bradshaw International Airport.

American Airlines brought in less thanhalf of the almost 33,000 visitors fol-lowed by LIAT.An estimated 42, 000cruise passengers came in on CarnivalVictory, which made 13 visits to St. Kitts'Port Zante.More than half a millioncruise passengers are scheduled to arrivefor the 2011/2012 Cruise Ship Season,which will see inaugural calls from 11new vessels.

Arrivals Increasing

BASSETERRE, Royal CaribbeanInternational has backed off on its policythat says it won't compensate passengersfor weather events that alter acruise.Royal Caribbean drew criticismafter 130 people booked to sail on theSerenade of the Seas last August were s-tranded in San Juan after the ship de-parted early to avoid Hurricane Irene.The cruise line is keeping mum on theamount of compensation."We are in theprocess of contacting those guests who

were not able to sail with us to informthem of their compensation, and wouldprefer that the impacted guests learn ofthe amount directly from the line beforeit is disclosed publicly," said spokes-woman Cynthia Martinez."We are com-pensating these passengers," she added,"because we understand that this was anunusual situation, and we want to provideour guests with another opportunity tosail with Royal Caribbean Internationalin the near future."

Royal Backs Off

ST JOHN’S, A new wave of staff cutsis planned for LIAT as the financially-be-leaguered airline moves to reign in cost.The Antigua-based carrier has scheduleda meeting for Friday with all the unionswithin its system to discuss the plan.General Secretary of the Antigua andBarbuda Workers Union (ABWU),Senator David Massiah, confirmed theplanned staff cuts but would not say howmany workers or what areas would be af-fected. He did disclose that the airline,which is this year celebrating 55 years ofoperations, is considering outsourcingsome of its operations."They are lookingat one of two areas within their opera-tions to do some further restructuring,"Senator Massiah said. "LIAT is lookingdown the road of outsourcing…we haveto advise our members. The Antigua andBarbuda Workers Union has already metwith the shop stewards and following theFriday 4th meeting, the union will meetwith the entire membership." LIAT lost

EC$21.5 million during the first half ofthis year and reintroduced a fuel sur-charge in August due to the increasingprice of fuel.Earlier this year, workersthroughout the company were offered theoption of voluntary severance and earlyretirement.The airline also closed its CityTicketing Offices across the region tosave US$3 million annually.SenatorMassiah said he would request of theChairman of the Regional NegotiationCommittee for unions, Senator ChesterHumphrey, that unions meet with LIATshareholder governments "to put forwardour case."He insisted that LIAT manage-ment should disclose the full details of itsrestructuring plan to unions rather thanthe current piecemeal approach.He said,too, that the management team should bereduced."We need to look at the entirecompany. If you're restructuring, you can'tjust restructure at the bottom, you have torestore the entire organization…," henoted."We have our concerns and our po-sitions that we would like to put forwardas well"What I would like to continue tocall for is early dialogue and not dia-logue…because consultation on any mat-ter of separation of people should takeplace well in advance to look at othermeasures because any separation of peo-ple should be the last resort for any com-pany," the union representative added.

Further LIAT Cuts Expected

Excessive Spending

CASTRIES, St Lucia's Parliament wasdissolved on November 7 making wayfor general elections on November 28,the same day of regional and generalelections in Guyana.Prime MinisterStephenson King announced the dateSunday night during a rally of his rulingUnited Workers Party (UWP), which isseeking a second consecutive term in of-fice. He said Nomination Day isNovember 17.The UWP won 11 of the17 seats in Parliament in the 2006 gener-al election, but lost two seats following

the resignation of two Members ofParliament.Its main challenger, the St.Lucia Labour Party (SLP), won six. PMKing has said he intends to widen theparty's lead. However, the SLP has pre-dicted that the "wind of change", whichhad seen leaderships toppled in manyCaribbean islands, will also see the in-cumbent removed from office. It hasurged supporters and residents to vote a-gainst the government's failed policies,and high crime and unemployment rates.

November 28 General Elections

Liat CEO Brian Challenger

EC News

CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 10 November 9, 2011

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CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 11November 9, 2011

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CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 12 November 9, 2011

Guyana DigestGuyana 117th inHuman DevelopmentGEORGETOWN, Guyana has scoreda ranking of 117 out of 187 countries onthe United Nations DevelopmentProgramme's (UNDP) HumanDevelopment Report 2011 themed'Sustainability and Equity: A BetterFuture for All'. According to an overviewof the report, this year's Report focuses onthe challenge of sustainable and equitableprogress. "A joint lens shows how envi-ronmental degradation intensifies in-equality through adverse impacts on al-ready disadvantaged people and how in-equalities in human development amplifyenvironmental degradation," theoverview said. It said human development, which isabout expanding people's choices, buildson shared natural resources. "Promotinghuman development requires addressingsustainability locally, nationally and glob-ally and this can and should be done inways that are equitable and empowering.We seek to ensure that poor people's as-pirations for better lives are fully taken

into account in moving towards greaterenvironmental sustainability. And wepoint to pathways that enable people,communities, countries and the interna-tional community to promote sustainabil-ity and equity so that they are mutuallyreinforcing," the overview said. "The2011 Human Development Report offersimportant new contributions to the glob-al dialogue on this challenge, showinghow sustainability is inextricably linkedto basic questions of equity that is, of fair-ness and social justice and of greater ac-cess to a better quality of life.Sustainability is not exclusively or evenprimarily an environmental issue, as theReport so persuasively argues. It is funda-mentally about how we choose to live ourlives, with an awareness that everythingwe do has consequences for the 7 billionof us here today, as well as for the billionsmore who will follow, for centuries tocome," said Helen Clark, Administrator,UNDP.

GEORGETOWN, Members of theMuslim community gathered onNovember 6th at their respective masjids(places of worship) to begin festivities forEid-ul-Adha, a three-day celebrationconsidered a “festival of sacrifice” or a“festival of feast”. All Muslims across theworld observe the holiday with the singu-lar goal of remembering the willingnessof Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son,Ishmael, as an act of obedience to God.Sheik Zakir Khan, representative of theCentral Islamic Organisation of Guyana(CIOG), told local reporters that the sac-rifices that were made were a mere repre-sentation of the sacrifice made by ProphetAbraham, one which indicated his fullobedience to God Almighty. He saidMuslims begin the day with prayer, fol-lowed by a ceremony which expoundsupon the significance of sacrifices andurges people to work towards creatingpeaceful communities. In the afternoon,Muslims join in distributing beef, amongother charitable acts, as part of the festiv-ities of the day.Khan described this year’s turnout asexcellent compared to previous years, andan indication that more persons areshowing keen interest in getting closer tothe Heavenly Father. This year, the or-ganisation sacrificed between 65 and 75animals, to share to the wider communityas part of the celebration of the Muslimholiday.Khan urged the Muslim community to

be continuously aware of its role duringthis festive time. He explained that it istraditional to make sacrifices of animals,and traditional to give away their carcass-es as an act of charity. It is customary forMuslims to give one-third of the meat tothe poor, and one-third to friends andfamily. They keep the remainder.He saidthat soon after Eid-ul-Adha ends, thephysical aspect or slaughtering the ani-mals begins. Animals used for this pur-pose are cattle, sheep and goats mainly.One bull is counted as seven shares, andseven persons benefit from the meat ofone bull. According to the Muslim holybook, Abraham was an old man longingfor a child. He prayed to God for an obe-dient son who would be God-fearing andkind; and after years, his prayers were an-swered. He loved his son more than all hiswealth and possessions. One night in hissleep, some years after his son was born,God commanded him in a dream to sac-rifice the one thing he loved the most.After much thought, he discussed itwith the boy; and being the obedientchild he was, he agreed to be sacrificed.When (Abraham) Ibrahim was about tocommit the act of sacrificing his son, heblindfolded himself and his son. SinceGod saw how much faith the father had,he placed a ram in the place of the son,and this was sacrificed instead. It is as aresult of this sacrifice that Muslims todaycelebrate Eid-ul-Adha as a form of re-membrance of that sacrifice.

EID Celebrated

Aquatice Oral Health Care Service AcquiredGEORGETOWN, Guyana nowboasts of being the only country in theCaribbean, and one of few worldwide,that has an aquatic oral health care serv-ice Guyana's Government, through itsMinistry of Health, has commissioned astate-of-the-art Dental Boat at Charity,Essequibo Coast. Adressing scores of res-idents at commissioning ceremony at theOctober 31 Charity waterfront commis-sioning ceremony, Minister of Health,Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said Guyana is theonly country in the Caribbean, and oneof few in the world that has an aquaticoral health care service. MinisterRamsammy said the state-of-the-artdental boat is a testimony of theGovernment's commitment to provideefficient and quality oral health care serv-ice to every Guyanese living along thebanks of the Pomeroon River, creeks andMoruca River. Minister Ramsammy saidthe state-of-the-art dental boat is a testi-mony of the Government's commitmentto provide efficient and quality oral

health care service to every Guyanese liv-ing along the banks of the PomeroonRiver, creeks and Moruca River.Ramsammy also singled out the late for-mer President Janet Jagan, who was thecountry's first Health Minister, as stillthe country's best Health Minister. Dr.Ramsammy said the Dental Boat Lady 'J'will also serve as a special ambulancealong the rivers to bring emergency casesto the Charity Hospital.The boat is e-quipped with sophisticated dental equip-ment and two dental chairs. Before cut-ting the ribbon on the Lady 'J' to formal-ly commission the boat, the Ministerburst a water coconut as part of the bless-ings on the dental boat, as rain pouredfrom above.Present at the commissioning ceremo-ny were Regional Vice Chairman,Vishnu Samaroo, Permanent Secretary,Hydar Ally, Parliamentarian, ParmanandPersaud, Regional Executive Officer,Sunil Singh and several Government of-ficials, school children and residents.

Since 1992

CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 13November 9, 2011

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KINGSTON, Jamaica has been namedthe "Caribbean's Leading Destination"by the World Travel Awards (WTA) forthe sixth year running.The Caribbean is-land walked off with this honour at theOctober 19 WTA's Caribbean & TheAmericas Gala Ceremony 2011 atSandals Royal Caribbean Resort &Private Island in Montego Bay.Jamaica,which has seen its visitor arrivals rise 5.7percent over the last year, also picked up"Caribbean's Leading Tourist Board"and "Caribbean's Leading CruiseDestination" at the VIP gala ceremony,which saw senior tourism figures, cap-tains of industry and international mediatravel from over 30 nations to attend.Itwas also an evening of travel triumph forother Caribbean countries as St Luciawon the coveted title of "Caribbean'sLeading Honeymoon Destination",while Sir Richard Branson's NeckerIsland was voted "Caribbean LeadingPrivate Island".In the "Caribbean'sLeading Resort" category, Casa deCampo (Dominican Republic) saw offstiff competition from the likes of HalfMoon ( Jamaica), Jumby Bay (Antigua),Four Seasons Resort (Nevis) and SandyLane (Barbados). Meanwhile Caribbean

Airlines picked up "Caribbean's LeadingAirline".The WTAs were launched in1993 to acknowledge and recognise ex-cellence in the world's travel and tourismindustry. Now celebrating its 18th an-niversary, votes are cast by 213,000 travelprofessionals, which include travel agen-cies, tour and transport companies andtourism organizations in over 160 coun-tries across the globe. Votes are cast glob-ally by industry professionals in over1,000 different categories. Jamaica'sDirector of Tourism, John Lynch, said:"We're honoured to be recognized as the'Caribbean's Leading Destination'.Jamaica is committed to providing trav-ellers with an unparalleled experience.We'll continue to develop our infrastruc-ture and tourism product to ensure wemaintain an edge in an increasingly com-petitive landscape."The Caribbean &The Americas Gala Ceremony markedthe fifth and final leg of World TravelAwards 2011 Grand Tour, and followedheats in Dubai, UAE; Antalya, Turkey;Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt; and Bangkok,Thailand. The regional winners progressto the Grand Final, which takes place inDoha, Qatar on December 11, 2011.

KINGSTON, Creator of ReggaeReggae Sauce Keith Valentine Graham,better known as Levi Roots, launched thelocal leg of his products at Devon Houserecently.According to Roots, despite thefact that his estate is valued at over £30million 'if it nuh buss a Jamaica, it nuhbuss yet'.Roots, who is also a reggaeartiste, used his musical skills to markethis product in England so it was quite fit-ting when The Gleaner entered thevenue to the sound of cool reggae musicand the smell of spice in the air.Membersof the huge gathering were treated towine and samples of Levi RootsProducts, while they awaited the speechof the Jamaican Rasta man who survivedDragons in BBC's Dragons Den realityshow.Roots arrived at minutes after7p.m, accompanied by his family.He pro-ceeded to greet his guests, before makinghis way to the stage.After a short and spicy performance byDella Manley, Roots nervously took themicrophone, admitting that a Jamaican

crowd was hard to face.According toRoots, when he first told critics thatReggae Reggae Sauce could outsellHines Tomato Ketchup they laughed athim. Those laughing have diminishedsignificantly."The brand is now thebiggest Caribbean brand in the UK, andthe Caribbean aspect is what makes itmarketable," he said.Roots says thatmusic and food complement each otherand by 'Putting some music in his food'he was able to find his unique sellingpoint; however, there is still Jamaica. "Nomatter how the sauce is successful inEurope, the journey is always to comeback home ... . I am Jamaican and nomatter how big it is in the world, if it nuhbuss a yaad ... it nuh buss yet," hesaid.Peter Vanderleer, spokesperson forOut Ridger Distributors, says that Roots'life story is intriguing."We were caughtby his story and it helps to sell the prod-uct, hopefully Jamaicans will learn aboutLevi and his success and it will inspirethem to achieve," he said.RidgerDistributors will be responsible for thelocal distribution of Levi Roots prod-ucts.Levi Roots Reggae Reggae Sauceand accompanying products will be avail-able in local stores in the comingweeks.Roots also said he would be doinga local production featuring Jamaicandancers that will be released in a matterof months.The reggae artiste and entre-preneur also has an album on iTunescalled Red Hot and a single featuringBeenie Man called Dance Wicked.

KINGSTON, People’s National Party(PNP) supporters overwhelmingly en-dorsed the party's former youth leaderDamion Crawford as its candidate forEast Rural St Andrew in the upcomingelection at a November 6 rally inHarbour View, St Andrew. Most of theparty's top brass led by President andOpposition Leader Portia SimpsonMiller hailed the dreadlocked Crawfordas one of the brightest youngsters on thepolitical scene and predicted that he willcreate history by becoming the firstRastafarian to sit in Gordon House.ButCrawford called on the electorate not tovote for him because of his age, but be-cause the policies of the PNP would de-velop the country's youth."Social changemeans a street sweeper's son can becomea doctor, if he has the ability to become adoctor," he said. He also spoke about hishumble beginnings in paying tribute tohis mother "Miss Darkie" Crawford andhis late father, whom he said worked on acement truck.Meanwhile, SimpsonMiller said she was keeping the party'spolicies close to her chest until after the

election."Why should I give them theideas about JEEP? No way," she told thenoisy crowd of party faithfuls. She wasreferring to the proposed JamaicaEmergency Employment Programmewhich she announced at the party's an-nual conference in September.Several s-peakers rallied the boisterous crowdgathered on the Harbour View PrimarySchool playfield, by consistently asking ifthey were better off now than they werewhen the PNP left office in 2007; ridi-culing the government's failed promise toprovide more jobs; and highlighting whatthey described as Jamaica's fall in staturein the international community becauseof former Prime Minister BruceGolding's opposition to the extraditionrequest for jailed don Christopher'Dudus' Coke. The comrades also charac-terised new Prime Minister AndrewHolness as a younger but identical ver-sion of Golding, who will continue whatthey said were the governing JamaicaLabour Party's failed policies over the lastfour years.

Reggae Reggae SauceFinally Makes it Home

Rasta MP

Leading Destination

Inna D Yard

Reggae Reggae Sauce Creator Levi Roots

CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 14 November 9, 2011

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Trinbago NewsCurfew LiftedPORT-OF-SPAIN, On Monday.November 7 The Trinidad and Tobagogovernment lifted the five hour curfewthat had been in effect on the island sinceAugust 21, but said the state of emerge cy(SOE) would remain pending further re-views by the National Security Council.Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessartold the nation that the SOE and the cur-few had achieved the desired results in

“significantly” reducing crime on the is-land. “I wish to advise that the NationalSecurity Council has recommended andthe government has agreed to remove thecurfew on land and sea in Trinidad andTobago immediately. “The State of emer-gency will remain in effect that this willbe reviewed on a continuous basis,” sheadded. (CMC)

$4 Billion Government Office RepairPORT-OF-SPAIN, Six Governmentoffices, housed in towers in and arounddowntown Port of Spain, will cost anoth-er $4 billion to repair and complete,Works Minister Jack Warner said yester-day. Warner, who was speaking at a luncheonat the Trinidad Union Club at NicholasTowers in Port of Spain yesterday, said the"monuments" of the last regime were inneed of billions of dollars in work beforethey could be inhabited. "Those monu-ments you see there, we have to find $4billion to fix them, to complete them,"Warner said. Urban Development Corporation ofTrinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT)chairman Jearlean John said she did not

know the exact cost of the work but ex-pected the tendering process and the re-quests for proposals to begin within thenext two weeks. John said the buildingswere not in need of a lot of repair work,but right now, the structures were simply"base buildings" and needed to be outfit-ted with drop ceilings, electrical work,plumbing and partitioning before it couldeven accommodate offices. The buildingsin question, according to a senior officialat UdeCOTT who requested anonymity,are the Ministry of Legal Affairs tower onRichmond Street, the GovernmentCampus, the Board of Inland Revenuebuilding, the Customs and Excise build-ing and the Ministry of Education tower.

World Agency to VisitPORT-OF-SPAIN, The InternationalAtomic Energy Agency (IAEA) willsoon be visiting Trinidad to examine 223patients who were allegedly overexposedto radiation at the Brian Lara CancerTreatment Centre in Woodbrook. HealthMinister Dr Fuad Khan made the an-nouncement yesterday, during the post-Cabinet news briefing at the Office ofthe Prime Minister in St Clair. Khan saidthe IAEA submitted a preliminary reportfollowing the situation at the centre inJuly. According to Khan, the report stat-ed "anything above ten per cent is con-sidered over-radiation." He said: "Theyhave promised us to come at the end ofNovember to look at the patients whowere sent to the radiation facility andpossibly look at whether there are any ef-fects of over-radiation." He said T&Twould join the IAEA from January at acost of $1 million. He did not statewhether TT or US currency.Asked if itwere necessary to join, Khan said therewere many benefits. "A simple CT Scanis also covered by the agency's regulationsand they assist the members and membercountries in regulating and assisting thesurveillance as well as treatment plansand protocols for countries and it is nec-

essary because initially, if you look at X-rays that carry a high risk of radiation en-ergy," he said."So if somebody does aboutfour or five X-rays a year for ten yearsand you start at a young age, you have alot of exposure." He said Cabinet had ap-proved a national radiation protectionpolicy document which emerged as a re-sult of a working group for radiation pro-tection. Khan said: "It was taken onboard to develop certain ideas for radia-tion protection; codes of practice; estab-lishing a Radiation Regulatory Authorityto implement and enforce these regula-tions and applications for procedures forregistration and licences of radiationusers; management requirements for safepractices both in the public and privatesector and developing rules, protocolsand procedures pertaining to the han-dling, the storage, transportation and dis-posal of radiation sources." The policyalso outlines protocols for dose limits formedical, occupational, public exposures;development of medical surveillance sys-tems for radiation workers and penaltiesfor non-compliance of radiation protec-tion regulations, Khan said. He said thepolicy was the way forward in keepingwith international standards.

CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 15November 9, 2011

JeopardyA man from country in Jamaica arrived at theNorman Manley Airport in Kingston, burdened downby his luggage, passport, and all the necessary tidbitsfor a prolonged journey. Looking around anxiously hefinally approached a ticket counter and told the agent:"Please do sell mi a ticket fi go a Jeopardy, Miss." Theagent looked confused."Jeopardy, Sir? Where is that?"she answered. The man, ever more nervous and agitat-ed replied: "Mi nuh haf no time fi fool roun'. Jus' gi mia ticket to Jeopardy." The agent searched through herschedules and other directories. "Excuse me, Sir, butthere is no such place! Are you sure that's where youneed to travel?" The man lost his temper and slammedhis fist on thecounter. "Look, 'ooman. Mi done tell youalreddy mi nuh haf time fi fool. Mi hear pon mi radiodis mawning sey 900 jobs inna Jeopardy; so ah deh somi need fi go NOW!"

Dust to DustAfter church, Robbie tells his parents he has to goand talk to the minister right away. They agree and thepastor greets the family. "Pastor," Robbie says, "Iheard you say today that our bodies came from thedust." "That's right, Johnny, I did." "And I heard yousay that when we die, our bodies go back to dust." "Yes,I'm glad you were listening. Why do you ask?" "Wellyou better come over to our house right away and lookunder my bed 'cause there's someone either coming' orgoing'!"

Biblical LogicA man and his wife were having an argument aboutwho should brew the decaf-coffee each morning. Thewife said, "You should do it, because you get up first,and then we don't have to wait as long to get our cof-fee." Then husband said, "You are in charge of cookingaround here and you should do it, because that is yourjob, and I can just wait for my coffee." The wife replies,"No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible thatthe man should do the coffee." Husband replies, "Ican't believe that, show me" So she fetched the Bible,and opened the New Testament and showed him at thetop of several pages, that it indeed says...."HEBREWS"

Family RelationsAn unhappy couple drove down a country road forseveral miles, not saying a word. An earlier discussionhad led to yet another argument and neither of themwanted to concede their position. As they passed abarnyard of mules, goats, and pigs, the husband askedsarcastically, "Relatives of yours?" "Yep," the wifereplied, "in-laws."

Wasted TimeA little boy walks into his parent's room to see hisMom on top of his Dad bouncing up and down. Themom sees her son and quickly dismounts, worriedabout what her son has seen; she dresses quickly to gofind him. The son sees his mom and asks, " What wereyou and Daddy doing?" The Mother replies, " Well youknow how your Daddy has a big tummy?""sometimesI have to get on top of it and flatten it. "You're wastingyour time," says the boy. "Why is that?" asked his mom,puzzled. Well, when you go shopping the lady nextdoor comes over, gets on her knees and blows it rightback up."

Italian SpaghettiA wealthy man had been having an affair with anItalian woman for several years. One night, during oneof their rendezvous, she confided in him that she waspregnant. Not wanting to ruin his reputation or hismarriage, he paid her a large sum of money if shewould go to Italy to secretly have the child. If she s-tayed in Italy to raise the child, he would also providechild support until the child turned 18. She agreed,but asked how he would know when the baby wasborn. To keep it discrete, he told her to simply mailhim a post card, and write "Spaghetti" on the back. Hewould then arrange for child support payments tobegin. One day, about 7 months later, he came home tohis confused wife. "Honey," she said, "you received avery strange post card today." "Oh, just give it to meand I'll explain it later," he said. The wife gave him thecard, and watched as her husband read it, turned white,and fainted. On the card was written: "Spaghetti,Spaghetti, Spaghetti. Two with meatballs, one with-out!!

Brainy BajeA Bajan, a Trini and a Jamaican are all in SaudiArabia, sharing a smuggled crate of rum, when all of asudden, Saudi police rushed in and arrested them. Themere possession of alcohol is a severe offence in SaudiArabia, so for the terrible crime of actually beingcaught consuming the booze, they are all sentenced todeath! By a stroke of luck, it was a Saudi national hol-iday the day their trial finished, and the extremelybenevolent Sheikh decided they could be released afterreceiving just 20 lashes each of the whip.As they werepreparing for their punishment, the Sheikh an-nounced: "It's my first wife's birthday today, and shehas asked me to allow each of you one wish before yourwhipping." The Trini was first in line, he thought for awhile and then said: "Please tie a pillow to my back." This was done, butthe pillow only lasted 10 lashes before the whip wentthrough. When the punishment was done he had to becarried away bleeding and crying with pain. TheJamaican was next up. After watching the Trini in hor-ror he said smugly: "Please fix two pillows to my back."But even two pillows could only take 15 lashes beforethe whip went through again and the Jamaicanwassoon led away whimpering loudly.The Bajan was the last one up, but before he couldsay anything, the Sheikh turned to him and said: "Youare from a most beautiful part of the world and yourculture is one of the finest in the world. For this, youmay have two wishes!""Thank you, your Most Royaland Merciful highness", the Bajan replied. "In recogni-tion of your kindness, my first wish is that you give menot20, but 100 hot lashes.""Not only are you an hon-ourable, handsome and powerful man, you are also verybrave", the Sheikh said with an admiring look on hisface. "If 100 lashes is what you desire, then so be it.And your second wish, what is it to be?" the Sheikhasked, to which Baje responds: "Tie the Jamaican to myback."

Post Office ThievesA man worked in a post office. His job was to processall mail that had illegible addresses. One day a lettercame to his desk, addressed in a shaky handwriting toGod. He thought, " I better open this one and see whatit's all about." So he opened it and it read, "Dear God,I am an 83 year old widow living on a very small pen-sion." "Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had a hun-dred dollars in it which was all the money I had untilmy next pension check." "Next Sunday is Easter, and Ihad invited two of my friends over for dinner. Withoutthat money, I have nothing to buy food with." "I haveno family to turn to, and you are my only hope. Canyou please help me?" The postal worker was touched,and went around showing the letter to all the others.Each of them dug into their wallets and came up witha few dollars. By the time he'd made the rounds, he hadcollected 96 dollars, which they put into an envelopeand sent over to her. The rest of the day, all the work-ers felt a warm glow thinking of the nice thing theyhad done. Easter came and went, and a few days latercame another letter from the old lady to God. All theworkers gathered around while the letter was opened.It read, "Dear God, How can I ever thank you enoughfor what you did for me?" "Because of your generosity,I was able to fix a lovely dinner for my friends. We hada very nice day, and I told my friends of your wonder-ful gift." By the way, there was 4 dollars missing. It wasno doubt those thieving bastards at the post office."

Caribbean HellA man dies and goes to hell. There he finds that thereis a different hell for each continent. He goes first tothe European hell and asks "What do they do here?"He is told "First they put you in an electric chair for anhour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for anotherhour. Then the European devil comes in and whips youfor the rest of the day." The man does not like thesound of that at all, so he moves on. He checks out theAfrican hell as well as the Asian hell and many more.He discovers that they are all more or less the same asthe European hell. Finally he comes to a section calledCaribbean hell and finds that there is a very, very longline of people waiting to get in. Amazed he asks "Whatdo they do here?" He is told "First they put you in anelectric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed ofnails for another hour. Then the West Indian devilcomes in and whips you for the rest of the day." "Butthat is exactly the same as all the other hells - why arethere so many people waiting to get in?" Because thereis never any electricity, so the electric chair does notwork, someone stole all the nails, and the devil used tobe a public servant, so he comes in, punches his time-card and then goes back home..."

Last RespectsAn old man, Mr. Goldstein, was living the last of hislife in a Nursing home. One day he appeared to be verysad and depressed. Nurse Barton asked if there wasanything wrong. "Yes, Nurse Barton," said Mr. Goldstein, "My penisdied today, and I am very sad." Knowing her patients were forgetful and sometimesa little crazy, she replied, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr.Goldstein, please accept my condolences." The follow-ing day, Mr. Goldstein was walking down the hall withhis penis hanging out of his pajamas,when he metNurse Barton. "Mr. Goldstein," she said, "You should-n't be walking down the hall like this. Please put yourpenis back inside your pajamas." "But, Nurse Barton,"replied Mr. Goldstein, "I told you yesterday that mypenis died." "Yes, you did tell me that, but why is ithanging out of your pajamas?" asked Nurse Barton."Well," he replied. "Today's the viewing."

Banna’s Belly Busta Classics

by Mark Bannister

CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 16 November 9, 2011

Studies have shown that having an atti-tude of gratitude can improve our psy-chological, emotional and physical well-being. While ancient Greek and Romanphilosophers extolled gratitude as an in-dispensable human virtue, modern-daysocial scientists are just beginning to un-derstand its effect on our health and e-motional well-being. Studies havedemonstrated that people who display anattitude of gratitude, are less likely to bedepressed, have more energy, are able tohandle stress easier, have more social con-nections, have increased immunity a-gainst viruses, tend to earn more money,sleep more soundly and experiencegreater happiness than those who don’tengage in the practice of showing thanks.A 2003 study by Dr. Robert Emmons andMichael McCullough, published in theJournal of Personality and SocialPsychology, demonstrated the positive e-motional benefits of counting your bless-

ings. The study included more than 100undergraduate students who were dividedinto three groups. The first group wasasked to list five things they were gratefulfor during the last week over 10 consecu-tive weeks. The second group was askedto list five things that annoyed them andthe third group was simply asked to listfive events that had occurred during theweek. The students who were asked tocount their blessings had fewer healthcomplaints over the 10-week study, exer-cised more regularly and generally feltbetter about their lives than the other twogroups.Why does being thankful have such animpact on our overall happiness? Socialscientists argue that being grateful forcesus to overcome our innate “negativitybias” — our tendency to dwell on prob-lems, annoyances and injustices ratherthan the positive events in our lives. Byrefocusing our energy on our blessings,

we can build greater resistance to depres-sion in times of stress. Here are some“Gratitude Strategies” that may help im-prove your health.1 Give thanks all year.National holidays such as Thanksgivingand Christmas present excellent opportu-nities for expressions of gratitude.Showing it on a regular basis throughoutthe year is even more important to expe-rience the resulting psychological, emo-tional and mental health benefits. 2 Start a gratitude journal Keep a daily record of the things you aregrateful for. If you’re tech-savvy, there’s anapp for gratitude journalling and onlinegratitude groups that can help keep youmotivated. Start a gratitude journallingclub with your friends or family and haveeveryone share their recordings.3 Smile often Physical gestures that show apprecia-tion to others can help to cultivate an at-

titude of gratitude. Wave to a driver thatlets you merge on a busy highway, smile atyour co-workers, and share hugs withyour close family and friends.4 Inspiring quotes Post inspiring quotes or phrases on yourrefrigerator, desk or mirror to remind youof the things you have to be grateful for.5 Remember to say thanks Send a thank you note to someone whohas helped you. Whatever the reason,they will appreciate the gesture and youcan feel good knowing you have helped tobrighten someone else’s day. It doesn’thurt as a networking tool, either.6 Give back Volunteering is a great way to demon-strate gratitude. With Christmas aroundthe corner, there are plenty of opportuni-ties to lend a hand and reach out to yourcommunity through holiday toy drives,food banks and soup kitchens.

The extra hour’s sleep provided by therecent turning bcak of the clocks in ob-servation of Daylight Savings Time canthrow one’s body clock off completely.Here are some survival strategies,recom-mended by sleep experts:1. Get lots of light when you wake upJames MacFarlane, director of educa-tion at MedSleep, says the best way to ad-just is to expose yourself to light firstthing in the morning, sending a signal toyour brain that the night’s over. Flipping

on a lamp does the job2. Schedule regular meal timesBreakfast “is your body's cue that thelong fast is over," Dr. MacFarlane says. Ifyour first real nosh isn't until lunch, yourmind and body won't be in full-on awakemode until then. Likewise, late-night eat-ing can confuse and stress your digestivesystem.3. Minimize caffeineIf you need more than two cups a day,it's probably a sign that you're sleep-de-

prived, says David Schulman, the directorof Emory University's sleep laboratory inAtlanta. Depending on stimulants such ascoffee to keep your energy levels upmeans you’re always playing catch-up4. Take a cue from your kidsWhile clocks may rule how adults oper-ate, kids let their bodies do the dictating."They pay strict attention to their ownbody clock, which actually makes themmuch more aware and in tune with thethings that are important," Dr.

MacFarlane says.5. Get up when your alarm goes offStudies suggest the blare of alarmclocks can raise blood pressure and ele-vate your heart rate - so why subject y-ourself to it multiple times by hitting s-nooze? “If you aren't waking up beforethe alarm, you are sleep-deprived,” Dr.Schulman adds.And don't have any nightcaps beforebed. While it might help you fall asleep, itwill just wake you up a few hours later.

Don’t Let DST mess with your body clock

Gratitude can be good for health

Dietician Leslie Beck has identified s-trategies to help those who have lostweight, keep the unwanted pound off.According to Beck, few people success-fully maintain weight loss. Data showthat the majority of people in weight lossprograms regain most of the pounds - andsometimes more - within three to fiveyears.According to a recent New EnglandJournal of Medicine Study, you stand abetter chance of keeping the weight offfor good if you eat a high-protein dietthat contains low-glycemic carbohy-drates. The glycemic index (GI) indicateshow carbohydrate-rich foods affect bloodsugar (glucose) levels after eating. Mosthighly processed grain products (e.g.white bread, white rice, cereal bars,sweets) have a high GI and cause bloodsugar to spike after eating. Minimallyprocessed grains (e.g. brown rice, whole-grain pasta, steel-cut oats, whole ryebread), whole fruits, legumes and vegeta-bles have a low GI. These foods lead to aslower rise in blood sugar after they'reeaten.

Meals with a low GI are thought tocause changes to hormones and metabo-lism that can reduce hunger and preventovereating. Protein-rich foods such aslean meat, poultry, fish, eggs, tofu anddairy products delay the rate at whichfood is emptied from your stomach. Inthis way, including protein at meals low-ers the GI further and keeps you feelingfull longer. Adjusting the carbohydrateand protein content of your diet may in-crease the odds you'll maintain a weightloss, but there are other strategies youneed to consider. Keeping your weightstable requires the same level of commit-ment as when you're losing weight.According to Beck, the following tips willhelp you stay focused, motivated and ontop of your food intake. Include protein Divide your protein intake among threemeals and two snacks. Replace caloriesfrom refined (white) starchy foods withlean versions of protein such as lean meat,fish, chicken, egg whites, tofu andlegumes. Protein-rich snack choices in-clude nuts, soy nuts, edamame, hard-

boiled eggs, part-skim cheese, yogurt andsoy milk. Choose low GI foods Avoid eating refined and sugary foods.Choose low GI foods such as beans,lentils, nuts, pasta, brown rice, sweet pota-toes, steel-cut or large-flake oatmeal, oatbran, Red River cereal, 100-per-cent brancereals, yogurt, milk and unflavoured soymilk. Low GI fruits include apples, or-anges, peaches, pears and berries. Revitalize your focus It's easy to get sloppy after you've hityour weight goal. Portion sizes creep up,extra nibbles sneak in and the motivationto work out can wane. To stay focused, resume keeping a fooddiary for one week each month. Writedown every bite and track your portionsizes. Refresh your memory about servingsizes by measuring and weighing yourfoods again. Step on the scale Permanent weight loss requires makingfriends with the bathroom scale. TheNational Weight Control Registry(NWCR), a continuing U.S.-based study

tracking more than 5,000 people whohave successfully lost significant amountsof weight and kept if off for long periodsof time, reported that 75 per cent of par-ticipants weigh themselves at least once aweek. Check in with a dietitian Research shows that having personalcontact with a nutritionist once a monthis associated with better weight lossmaintenance. If you don't have a person-al nutritionist, ask for support from afamily member, co-worker or friend. Orconsider joining a support group such asWeight Watchers. Exercise regularly Ninety per cent of successful maintain-ers in the NWCR report getting one hourof scheduled exercise each day, often briskwalking. Move past slip-ups The key to long-term weight mainte-nance is nipping small weight gains in thebud - before they accumulate. If a fewpounds creep back on, don't dwell on yourlapses. Take whatever action is necessaryto lose them.

Strategies to Maintain Weight Loss

Health Matters

CARIBBEAN GRAPHICNovember 9, 2011 PAGE 17

Year after year, many Canadians leave a key financialopportunity on the table by not contributing the maxi-mum allowable amount into their Registered RetirementSavings Plan (RRSP). If your annual income tax assess-ment includes a notice from the Canada RevenueAgency that details how much unused contribution roomyou have left in your RRSP from previous years, the timeto act is now. For example, contributing $10,000 into anRRSP that offers a 7% return, compounded annuallycould turn into $76,123 over the span of just 30 years.Plus, contributing the full amount creates a larger incometax deduction that could result in a significant tax re-fund.*Although it may seem difficult to find the money tocontribute into your RRSP every year, there are a numberof strategies to consider that can help accelerate your planusing assets you have readily available and key tax plan-ning benefits.

Know Your LimitsIt's important to know how much contribution roomyou have, prior to developing your RRSP strategy. Eachyear, the Canada Revenue Agency identifies your unusedcontribution room for the upcoming tax year on yourNotice of Assessment. If, however, you are unable to lo-cate your Notice of Assessment, a quick call to theCanada Revenue Agency at 1-800-959-8281 or a visit towww.cra.gc.ca can provide the information you need.

Invest SmartIt may be to your benefit to move money you currentlyhave in savings accounts or other investments into yourRRSP sooner, rather than later. Moving these dollars intoyour RRSP will not only result in a reduction of your an-nual tax bill - but it also allows you to maximize growthinside your RRSP, without generating immediate taxableincome. It's important to remember that interest earnedon savings accounts and both realized and unrealizedcapital gains on non-registered investments will be taxedprior to when they are moved into your RRSP. You can

also withdraw from a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA)to make your RRSP contribution. Any withdrawals fromyour TFSA are added to the available TFSA contributionroom the following year.

Invest RegularlyConsider working your RRSP contribution into yourbudget by using our monthly investment plan that auto-matically deducts a specified amount from your savingsor chequing account on a regular basis and invests it intofunds held inside your RRSP. Monthly investment planscan be customized to work best for you. Your FinancialPlanner should work with you to help determine the ap-propriate dollar amount and frequency.

Consider the Benefits of BorrowingIn many cases, borrowing to take full advantage ofRRSP contribution room makes sense. Maximizing yourRRSP contribution now offers immediate tax savingsthis year and tax-deferred potential growth for manyyears to come. Using this strategy can make it beneficialto borrow for a short period to maximize your Plan. YourConsultant can help you determine whether a loan fitsinto your financial plan by looking at the following fac-tors:

Your Age - The impact of compound growth increas-es depending on the time that money is invested. Whileborrowing to invest may have more impact at a youngerage, bear in mind that it's never too late to save for yourretirement.Your Ability to Repay - You should never borrow morethan you could possibly repay because it could make it d-ifficult to save for future year's RRSP contributions.The best approach would be to try to pay off the loanbalance as quickly as possible and then start a regular in-vestment plan to automatically take care of future RRSPcontributions. In addition, contributing to an RRSP gen-erates an income tax deduction that may result in a sig-nificant tax refund that could be used to help pay down aportion of the loan almost immediately.Your Ability to Borrow - An RRSP Loan or Line ofCredit like any other use of credit, will increase yourDebt Service Ratio (the percentage of your monthly in-come that goes to pay off debts) and lenders rely on thisratio to determine your loan eligibility. When preparingyour plan, we'll be sure to take your complete financialpicture and other monthly commitments into account.Don’t delay determining the best strategy for your per-sonal RRSP plan.

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CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 18 November 9, 2011

KINGSTON, Red Stripe Beer, thenew sponsors of the Jamaica PremierLeague, has promised to elevate theleague to another level while having apositive impact on the communities thatare represented in the league. RenatoGonzalez, managing director of RedStripe, stressed on the point that his or-ganization is eager to reach out to thegrass-roots consumers who are also avidfans. Above any personal or professionalinterests, we put our Jamaica people first.We are forming a partnership with thePLCA (Premier League ClubsAssociation) that will bring a major ben-efit for our football teams, for our con-sumers and most importantly, for ourpeople in the communities across thecountry," said the Brazilian at the launchof his company as title sponsors of theNational Premier League at the SpanishCourt Hotel in New Kingston lastThursday. He continued: "Together, weintend to make the communities acrossJamaica celebrate and benefit highlyfrom it. We want to really elevate the pre-mier league and ensure that the playersand clubs flourish and prosper. Our com-mitment is not only to the PLCA forthree years, but also to Jamaican footballand for the Jamaican people."We intend

to ensure that the quality and integrity ofthe beautiful game of football is properlyrepresented and as title and broadcastsponsors, we commit to delivering thiswith all our partners," he added.RedStripe is no stranger to sponsoring foot-ball in Jamaica. The company was themain sponsor of the senior Reggae Boyzteam and the Red Stripe ChampionsKnockout Cup between 2004-2007.Most recently the beverage company wasan associate sponsor of last season's FlowChampions Cup."This is an excitingjourney that will be extremely positive forall parties. Red Stripe is an iconicJamaican brand and one that we lovedearly. Football is a global passion andthe premier league is deeply loved aswell.Red Stripe will be the fourth titlesponsors in the last six years after long-time sponsors J Wray and Nephew endedtheir association, somewhat abruptly, in2006. The liquor company was replacedby investment entity Cash Plus for thestart of the 2007 season but their associ-ation was cut short after Cash Pluscrashed under a host of investigationsand was deemed to be operating illegal-ly.Digicel took over and their three-yeardeal expired last season.

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PORT-OF-SPAIN, Former Trinidadand Tobago international and currentESPN football commentator and analyst,Shaka Hislop, believes that the currentCaribbean Football Union scandal can, inthe long run, serve the region in a positivemanner.While disappointed that it tookan embarrassing situation for it to occur,the former Newcastle and West Hamshot stopper believes that the removal of'dictatorial' power can only be a goodthing, and that regional administratorsmust now look beyond the current issuesand ensure proper leadership is installed,for the sustainability of Caribbean foot-ball.Several regional football bosses havebeen left with their tails between theirlegs after charges of corruption, sur-rounding a cash-for-votes scheme, whichinvolved now-resigned. CONCACAFand CFU president Austin 'Jack' Warnerand one-time FIFA presidential candi-

date Mohamed bin Hammam, who hassince been banned from all football activ-ities for life.President of the Jamaica FootballFederation ( JFF), Captain HoraceBurrell, who is now serving a three-month ban, with another three monthssuspended for two years because of hisrole in the related incidents, is one of sev-eral other regional football figures, whohave been slapped with charges byFIFA's Ethics Committee. JFF GeneralSecretary Horace Reid also received awarning from the world football bosses.However, though admitting that the re-gion is not being viewed in favourableterms these days, Hislop, who represent-ed his country at the 2006 FIFA WorldCup in Germany, is of the view thatCaribbean football will ultimately comeout of its current state in a better positionthan it was in before, largely because ofwhat he describes as the departure froman over-dependence and reverence to hiscountryman Warner."I felt all along that we needed achange. I never saw it coming as quicklyas it did nor in the manner that it did, soas embarrassing as it as been, as damag-ing as it has been for regional football, Ithink it will have a positive long-term ef-fect if we can deal with the impendingchange in the right manner," said Hislop,

Scandal Can Serve Region

Glen Johnson for once looked his ageand Lucian Bute successfully defendedhis International Boxing Federation(IBF) Super Middleweight Title with adominant unanimous decision when thetwo clashed on November 5. The 43-year-old Jamaica-born Johnson, knownas the 'Road Warrior' because he oftenfights in his opponents' home cities, sawhis ring record drop to 51-16-2 after twojudges scored the title Fight at the PepsiColiseum 120-108 and the other 119-109.The result meant that the 31-year-old Bute, a Romanian living in Canada,made his ninth successful defence of thetitle and improved to 30-0."I thought Iwon the fight," said Johnson, who injuredhis right arm in the fight. "I don't think

he was landing anything."My right armswelled up in about the fourth round, soI couldn't throw my big right hand. I ba-sically beat him with one hand."It'stough to win in your opponent's home-town because as soon as he does one lit-tle thing, the crowd goes crazy instead ofpaying attention to what the punches aretelling you."Johnson looked old and slowwhen the fighters started to engage, afterthey kept their distance for the first sev-eral rounds.He started to attract a succes-sion of power shots from his former spar-ring partner, when Bute moved in closein an attempt to finish the show viaknockout.A crowd of 15,306, however,failed to get that rare spectacle ofJohnson on his back, but Bute cruised tovictory.Johnson refused to pull the triggerand was never able to solve the style ofthe southpaw champion, although he didend Bute's string of six straightKOs.Johnson connected with only 47power shots as opposed to Bute's 123.Caption: Glen Johnson (left) ofJamaica battles Lucian Bute of Romania,during their IBF super-middleweightchampionship boxing fight in QuebecCity on Saturday night. Bute won by u-nanimous decision. - AP

Johnson BeatenThe Diamond Mineral Water

International Indoor HockeyTournament, which was officiallylaunched on November 1 with a simpleceremony at the Georgetown CricketClub (GCC) Pavilion, Bourda, will takeplace December 8-11 at the CliffAnderson Sports Hall (CASH).Attending the ceremony were representa-tives of the major sponsors of the tourna-ment - Demerara Distillers Limited(DDL) through their Diamond MineralWater Brand; Ansa McAl through theirCarib Beer Brand; and Digicel - who allexpressed their willingness to partner withthe GHB.DDL's Marketing Assistant,Larry Wills, stated that his company wasvery pleased to be on-board for the sev-enth running of the tournament andthanked the teams who have participatedin the tournament to make it a success.He also expressed the faith DDL has in

the hockey board for successfully stagingthe event and expects a good tournamentbased on the reviews.Ansa McAl's PRO Dharsnie Yusuf

opined that this tournament is alwayssupported because it is an event whichgives young people and even the older

ones a chance to be active competitive-ly.Also at the ceremony were members ofthe Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) in-cluding the president Philip Fernandes.The President disclosed that teams from

Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, USA andCanada have already confirmed their par-ticipation in this year's edition. The teamswill be battling for a top prize of US$1000 in the male and female categories; thesecond-placers walk away with US$500while the top Veteran prize is US$500.One of the positive characteristics that

come out of the tournament is that teamsfrom regions around the world can comeand participate in the event due to the lowcost of living that Guyana offers so thebudget is very affordable.Good responseshave come in regionally and you find thatafter the tournament the word spreadsaround which causes more teams from re-gions such as Canada, USA and Europeshow their interest to participate" he said.However, not all systems say go for the

tournament. The Cliff Anderson SportsHall (CASH) where the tournament willbe held is currently being renovated andworks are set to conclude by mid-November.

Indoor Hockey Tournament Launched

Sports Beat

Glen Johnson and Lucian Bute

by Duane DaSilva

Founder of TribalRhythm NationSports.

CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 19November 9, 2011

West Indies and T&T Test batsmenDarren Bravo and Kirk Edwards eachmade significant gains in the latest ICCTest Batting Rankings following their re-cent centuries in the second Test againstBangladesh. Bravo moved from 53rd to40th with scores of 12 and 195 whileEdwards (121 and 86) jumped 30 placesto 47th. Shivnarine Chanderpaul (18 &59 n.o.) dropped from eighth to ninth butremains West Indies highest rated bats-man, Marlon Samuels (48) climbed twospots to 67th, and openers KraiggBrathwaite (50 & 0) and Kieran Powell(72 & 12) are 131st and 139th respective-ly.Other West Indians in the top 100 in-clude Chris Gayle (24th), RamnareshSarwan (43rd), Dwayne Bravo (57th),Brendan Nash (59th), NarsinghDeonarine (77th), Adrian Barath (80th),Denesh Ramdin (82nd), Travis Dowlin(86th), Devon Smith (87th) and captainDarren Sammy (100th). South Africa's

Jacques Kallis is the leading batsman inthe world with the rest of the top five oc-cupied by Sri Lankan Kumar Sangakkara,Englishmen Alistair Cook and Ian Belland India's Sachin Tendulkar. Among thebowlers, fast bowler Fidel Edwards (5-63and 1-56) skipped two spots to 18th,legspinner Devendra Bishoo (3-62 and 5-90) jumped from 50th to 40th, mediumpacer Sammy (0-32 and 2-19) climbedfour places to 29th and fast man KemarRoach (0-52 and 1-49) fell from 30th to37th.South African pacer Dale Steyn contin-ued his unbroken streak at number onewhich has lasted since December, 2009.In second and third are England's JamesAnderson and Graeme Swann whileSteyn's partner in crime Morne Morkeland Englishman Stuart Broad round outthe top five respectively.

Shivnarine "Tiger" Chanderpaul's centu-ry during the First Test of the West Indiescurrent Tour of India, was his 24th in Tests.He is now level with Sir Vivian Richards,whose 24 Test hundreds came from 182 in-nings at bat in the 121 Test Matches heplayed. Chanderpaul by contrast reachedthe 24th century landmark during his 231stinnings, played over 136 matches.Only top of the ladder Brian Lara, with

34 hundreds in 130 Tests and 230 innings

and the great Sir Garfield Sobers, 26 hun-dreds from 160 innings in 92 matches, nowstand ahead of Chanderpaul. In terms ofruns scored though he is now ahead of bothSobers and Richards and second only toLara. Chanderpaul's Test aggregate now stands

at 9610 behind Lara's 11,912. Richardswith an aggregate of 8,540 is third amongstall West Indians, with Sobers not far be-hind.

KINGSTON, General Secretary of theJamaica Cricket Association, FritzHarris, has called for a mediator to bebrought in to adjudicate the ongoing dis-pute between Chris Gayle and the WestIndies Cricket Board (WICB). Harrissaid the JCA has been playing a quiet rolein the dispute following inflammatory re-marks from the current Jamaica captainabout the regional governing body duringan interview on a national radio station inMay."The JCA stands ready to assist and wehave done a lot of work behind thescenes," Harris commented the JamaicaObserver,. "We have made suggestions tothe WICB and offered to help and theyhave recognised our offer. We made a re-quest to have a facilitator to assist theprocess and I have to stress that the ex-ternal party is needed to assist from bothsides."He added: "Since both parties are in adeadlock, it's my opinion that a thirdparty be brought in to mediate. We couldlook to the universities or someone fromthe legal fraternity for help."We all agree that this is going on forfar too long. We have to wait and see how(the WICB) responds to what Chris hasasked." Harris said he agreed with Gayle's re-

quest for the WICB to indicate what s-tatements that were made during the in-terview that should be retracted.TheWICB has indicated from the start thatGayle must retract certain statements hemade during the interview before he isconsidered for selection again to the WestIndies team. The board of directors reit-erated their position following a meetinglast month in Antigua, where the matterwas discussed."It's a fair request from Chris because ifyou are going to retract you at least needto know what it is that is of concern tothe other party," said Harris. "There isnowhere that it can be found where theWICB has stated to what they havetaken umbrage."Gayle has not played for West Indiessince he returned from the World Cuplast April in the sub-continent. He playedin last month's Regional Super50 tourna-ment, leading the Jamaicans to the titlefor the first time in four years. Gayle hasremained popular with fans, receivingvocal support from spectators whereverhe played in Guyana.He said he stillwants to play for West Indies and is avail-able for selection. He was not named inthe West Indies 15-member squad forthe tour of India which started during thefirst week of November..

Ratings Climb For Bravo And Edwards Tiger Now Level with Sir Viv for Most Centuries

Cricket legend Brian Charles Lara hasbeen honoured by the University of theWest Indies, St Augustine, and conferredwith a Doctor of Laws for his outstandingcontribution to cricket and country. Lara holds the test cricket world record

for most runs with 400 not out and thehighest score in first class cricket with 501not out. The world record holder and former cap-

tain of the West Indies cricket team dedi-cated his achievement to his FatimaCollege principal Clive Pantin. "Mr Pantin, for giving me the opportuni-

ty to marry my sporting prowess with aca-demic achievement, something I was notdoing before, I stand before you all today,and Mr Pantin was the reason for this,"said Lara. Lara shared the anecdote of his first

meeting with Pantin. "My father got a meeting with Mr Pantin

and started the conversation saying that hehad a future cricket star, to which MrPantin said, 'I don't want just a cricket star.”

Lara, who admitted that he was "a littlenervous", said yesterday's occasion was amomentous day in the Lara family. His sib-lings and daughter were in the audience,but Lara did say he wished he could sharethe day with his parents, Pearl and BuntyLara, now deceased. Lara had some words of encouragement

for his fellow graduates in the class of2011. "We come from different backgrounds

but what unites us is our common drive tomake a positive contribution to the world,"he said. He shared with them his survival toolkit

for life: six lessons he had learnt throughhis experiences. "Set high hopes for yourself and so do

not underestimate your capabilities. Be dis-ciplined and work hard. Have confidence.Be competitive but never compromise yourmorals. Maintain a positive attitude. Andalways remain humble - don't let successchange you," said Lara.

Call him 'Dr Lara'

Mediator Needed

Calypso Cricket

Darren Bravo

Fidel Edwards

CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 20 November 9, 2011