CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Barbados
Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley
has pledged to address violence in
schools by introducing several initiatives
to stem what she says is “a public health
condition.”
She made the disclosure following
a recent meeting with Police Commissioner,
Tyrone Griffith, Barbados Defense
Force Chief of Staff, Colonel Glyne Grannum,
and education officials.
The meeting was
held in response to the
scourge of violence in
the school system.
Mottley said her
administration is taking
a stance of no-tolerance in violence in
schools across the island.
“There can be no tolerance in this
country for any child to believe that they
are in a position to threaten or attack any
teacher or their parents or any adult in
this country. If we allow this to happen
we will be surrendering our country to
lawlessness and to young people who
will not come to appreciate that their
behavior is unacceptable in every form,”
she said.
The prime minister announced that
the government will be creating a residential
facility, which will cater for troubled
children, adding that within the
next two weeks, the government will be
forming a group or committee that will
assist in stabilizing and managing risk
children.
Caribbean
A new report by the Pan American
Health Organization (PAHO) says Caribbean
countries are moving towards the
elimination of mother-to-child transmission
of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B.
But the report also
notes that progress in
the Americas has been
uneven.
The report, titled
“New generation free of HIV, syphilis, and
hepatitis B disease in the Americas 2018,”
includes data from 52 countries and territories
in the Americas.
It noted that since 2010, an estimated
30,800 children were born without HIV
as a result of the interventions to prevent
mother-to-child transmission.
In 2017, PAHO said 20 countries
reported data indicating the elimination
of mother-to-child transmission of HIV,
seven of which received validation from
the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, it is estimated that each year,
3,500 children are either born with HIV,
or contract HIV from their mothers in
Latin America and the Caribbean.
PAHO said 73 percent of pregnant
women in the Caribbean underwent at
least one HIV test, 73 percent of those
that tested positive on to access treatment.
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Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley makes pledge to deal with increasing violence in schools. Photo by George Alleyne
“This is an increase from 2010 but still
lower than 95 percent testing and treatment
goal”, PAHO said.
Cuba
The Cuban government recently
announced that it is launching widespread
rationing of chicken, eggs, rice,
beans, soap and other basic products in
the face of a grave economic crisis.
Commerce Minister Betsy Diaz
Velaquez told the state-run Cuban News
Agency that various forms of rationing
would be employed
in order to deal with
shortages of staple
foods.
She blamed the hardening
of the US trade
embargo by the Trump administration.
Economists have given greater blame
to a plunge in aid from Venezuela, where
the collapse of the state-run oil company
had led to a nearly two-thirds cut in shipments
of subsidized fuel that Cuba used
for power and to earn hard currency on
the open market.
Cuba imports about two-thirds of its
food at an annual cost of more than US$2
billion and brief shortages have been
common for years.
In recent months, a growing number
of products have started to go missing
for days or weeks at a time and long
lines have sprung up within minutes of
the appearance of scarce products like
chicken for flour.
Caribbean L 4 ife, May 31–June 6, 2019 BQ
Cayman Islands
A new digital forensic hub will be
established in the Cayman Islands to help
tackle increasingly sophisticated cyber
criminals in the territory and across
other British overseas territories.
This was revealed by
Police Commissioner,
Derek Byrne who said
the Cayman Islands
and other territories
were currently ill-equipped to deal with
the growing threat and the new hub,
partly-funded by the United Kingdom
government, would help address a skills
and equipment shortage.
The police commissioner said police
have been working with the UK National
Crime Agency and will open the new lab
in Grand Cayman in July.
He said all territories will have an
input, but the Cayman Islands will have
the manpower and the technology to take
the lead on more complex cases.
The Royal Cayman Islands Police Service
currently has five members on staff
with relevant qualifications, or in existing
training programs and will be recruiting
up to four new employees later this year.
Bryne said the expertise of police officers
has to keep up with that of the criminals
they are trying to catch.
Jamaica
Prime Minister, Andrew Holness has
outlined several initiatives aimed at
reducing the impact of the prolonged
drought on Jamaica.
He said the government is seized of
the impact of the current water situation
on all aspects of the country’s development,
and is very aware if immediate and
urgent action is not taken, the shortfall is
expected to worsen.
The prime minister told legislators
that the low water outputs are a direct
result of the low river flows into various
reservoirs and other infrastructural
problems.
Holness said the National Water Commission
(NWC) capacity
is 63 million gallons per
day but only 37 million
gallons are available.
He said that NWC
has been directed to make appropriate
arrangements to give effect to the declaration
of an emergency, to facilitate the
earliest possible replacement of the existing
pipelines along Spanish Town road.
Jamaica is among several Caribbean
countries facing a severe drought with
the Barbados-based Caribbean Institute
for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH)
urging regional countries to “closely
monitor water resources and try to conserve
as much as possible, at least until
June / July” as the drought situation in
the region worsens.
Guyana
The Guyana Parliament has approved
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Barbados focuses on school violence
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