CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Caribbean
Progress has been made in reducing
new infections and AIDS-related deaths,
but these gains appear weak.
This is according
to a new report titled
“Communities at the
Center-The response to
HIV in the Caribbean”,
which was released ahead of World Aids
Day 2019 on December 1 with the theme
“Communities make the difference.”
According to the study, national
responses are highly dependent on
donor funding, especially for programs
focused on key populations.
The study noted that the financial
resources available for HIV responses
in the Caribbean have fluctuated over
time, reaching the same level in 2018
as in 2010.
In total, US$326 million was available
for the Caribbean’s HIV programs in
2018, considerably less than the US$600
million needed to achieve its Fast-Track
Targets by 2020.
Figures released show that an estimate
416,000 people acquired HIV in
the Caribbean last year, 16 percent fewer
than in 2010.
Belize is the only Caribbean country
to have recorded an increase in HIV
incidence between 2010 and 2018.
All other countries reported declining
incidence, with the decline in the Bahamas
and Cuba exceeding 20 percent.
There has been a 38 percent decreased
in the annual number of Aids-related
deaths since 2010 with 6700 deaths in
2018, according to the report.
Guyana
The Guyana government says the
country stands to benefit from its production
sharing agreement signed with
the US-based oil company, ExxonMobil.
According to the agreement, the
average range for countries is between
45 and 70 percent, and
in the case of Guyana
and ExxonMobil, the
government has a take
of 59 percent.
Natural Resources Minister, Raphael
Trotman has dismissed suggestions that
the country would not benefit as much
as it should as a result of the agreement,
insisting that this is not the case.
He said it the maximum is 70 percent
and the minimum is 45 percent and
Guyana finds itself taking in 59 percent,
he asked, “how is it that I could be
accused or the government accused of
giving away the wealth for less”.
Quoting various international reports
on the deal, Trotman reiterated that
Guyana will benefit regardless, even at
a low price of oil Guy $10,000 per barrel,
Guyana will still earn approximately
US$51 billion.
Trotman explained further that this
Caribbean L 4 ife, December 13-19, 2019
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In this Dec. 4, 2019 photo, street vendors sell their produce in Petion-Ville, Haiti. A growing number of families across Haiti can’t afford
to buy food since protests began in Sept., with barricades preventing the fl ow of goods between the capital and the rest of the
country. Associated Press / Dieu Nalio Chery
was projected by an independent energy
research company, RYSTAD Energy, in
2018, not taking into account future
discoveries by ExxonMobil.
Guyana is due to begin commercial
exploration of its oil next year.
Grenada
Grenada Prime Minister, Dr. Keith
Mitchell has denied media reports that
his ruling New National Party (NNP)
received campaign financing from Grenada
Sustainable Aquaculture (GSA), a
failed Citizenship by Investment (CBI)
program.
The Qatar-based Arabic news and
current affairs satellite TV channel, Al
Jazeera, in a one hour
program recently,
alleged that Caribbean
countries with CBI
programs were also
selling diplomatic passports to person
who make significant financial contribution
to political parties.
The television station named Dominica,
St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada
among the countries that had
benefited from the sale of foreign diplomatic
passports.
Under the CBI, Caribbean countries
provide citizenship to foreign investors
who make a significant contribution
to the socio-economic development of
these islands.
In the television program, a man
identified as Leo Ford is seen and heard
saying that the prime minister requested
funds for the 2018 general election.
But Mitchell told reporters that the Al
Jazeera program “is totally false.”
He said the NNP did not receive a single
cent from these people.
Last year, the Grenada Citizenship
by Investment Committee announced
it had “suspended the acceptance of
applications in respect of the approved
project, Grenada Sustainable Aquaculture,
until further notice.
St. Vincent
A high court judge in St. Vincent and
the Grenadines has jailed two men to
10 years after they were found guilty of
using a cutlass to chop a United States
couple aboard their yacht near the
southern Grenadines island of Union,
more than six years ago.
Justice Brian Cottle sentenced Enard
Douglas,21 and Jerome Jordan, 23, on
the charged of aggravated
burglary to five
years for grievous bodily
harm and five years
for unlawful wounding.
The sentences are to run concurrently.
The court heard that Christina Curtin
received a massive gash to her left cheek
when she and her boyfriend Mark Beiser
were attacked and chopped about their
heads and hands with cutlasses aboard
their yacht Rainbow on the evening of
Oct. 3, 2013.
A nine-member jury found them
guilty of the charges and as the judge
sentenced them to jail, Justice Cottle
said the view was expressed that the
crime had affected not only the two victims
but had serious impact on the economic
livelihood of many islanders.
He said that the impact on the tourism
industry in the Grenadines was
another important factor that took the
case out of the class of regular aggravated
burglary.
Douglas was 16 while Jordan was 17
at the time of the crime.
St. Lucia
The St. Lucia government has signed
a contract with the Light Detection and
Ranging (LIDAR) for data collection of
the island’s entire landmass and coastal
zone.
The agreement was signed under the
Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project
(DVRP) as one of the
highlights of the oneweek
World Vabk’s
project supervision
mission last month.
LIDAR is a remote sensing technology
that uses light in the form of a pulsed
laser to measure variable distances to
the earth.
A government statement said LIDAR
data can be used to create high-resolution
3D models and maps of landscapes
Continued on Page 24
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