CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
LIAT is partnering with Antigua and
Barbuda Festivals Commission to sponsor
Antigua Carnival 2019.
The airline is the official Regional
Airline of the festival which runs from
July 25 to Aug. 6, 2019.
Chief Executive Officer of LIAT, Julie
Reifer-Jones noted that the relationship
between Antigua and LIAT has always
been a unique one with Antigua being
the airline’s homebase.
She reiterated
LIAT’s commitment to
Antigua and Barbuda
and its partnership
with the Antigua and Barbuda Festivals
Commission.
She also commended the Antigua and
Barbuda Festivals Commission for the
growth of the festival over the years as it is
now one of the most anticipated festivals
in the Caribbean.
The airline will provide sponsorship
through transportation of regional
artistes, festival partners and the media
fort the festival. The airline will also operate
its daily schedule to provide connections
for visitors who wish to participate in the
festivities.
Barbados
Barbados National Terminal Company
Limited (BNTCL) says it
is now getting its supply
of oil from Petrojam in
Jamaica following the
closure of the Trinidad
and Tobago stateowned
Petrotrin oil refinery in Trinidad
and Tobago.
BNTCL Chairman, Alex McDonald said
that the new agreement with Petrojam has
resulted in Barbadians paying much less
for fuel after the company received several
quotations and was able to negotiate a
better deal.
He said it was a much more competitive
than the Petrotrin deal.
The Trinidad and Tobago government
shut down the island’s refinery last year
after complaining of billions of dollars in
losses annually.
It has since established Heritage
Petroleum Company and Paria Fuel
Trading Company that are undertaking
exploration as well as handling fuel
logistics and the energy trading aspect of
the business, respectively.
Grenada
A Grenadian attorney, Brendon La
Touche is in the United
States participating in
the US Department of
State’s International
Visitor Leadership
Program (IVLP).
He is taking part in a three-week project
on “Combating Trafficking in Persons.”
La Touche is a crown counsel in
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the Office of the Director of Public
Prosecutions (DPP) in Grenada. The office
of the DPP is responsible for the effective
prosecution of all criminal related matters
in Grenada.
During the program, he and other
participants will review US government
strategies to combat international
trafficking in persons, including crimes
against women and children, by examining
the formulation, administration and
enforcement of US policy on national,
state and local levels.
Jamaica
The Jamaica-based Global Tourism
and Crisis Management Center will
collaborate with the
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) co
conduct research on
the potential threat of
sargassum to the Caribbean.
Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett
said the center will be partnering
with MIT, one of the leading research
institutions in the US to explore the best
possible strategies that Jamaica and the
Caribbean can implement to be proactive
and prevent sargassum from populating
the beaches.
Sargassum is a type of brown seaweed.
Numerous species are distributed
throughout the temperate and tropical
oceans of the world, where they inhabit
shallow water and coral reefs.
The tourism minister said the issue of
managing sargassum has become more
urgent since large quantities of different
species of the algae accumulated along
Caribbean L 4 ife, July 26–Aug. 1, 2019 BQ
the shores of many of the countries on the
Caribbean Sea in 2015.
The Global Tourism Resilience and
Crisis Management Center, which will
open its doors in October at the University
of the West Indies (UWI) is being tasked
with assessing research and monitoring
of the situation, plan for, forecast, mitigate
and manage risks related to tourism
resilience and crisis management.
St. Vincent
The St. Vincent and the Grenadines
government has approved several cannabis
cultivation licenses recommended by the
Medical Cannabis Authority (MCA).
Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves
speaking on a local radio program said the
MCA made the recommendations after
examining some of the
applicants received so
far and conducting due
diligence.
He said the authority,
through its chief executive officer Jerrol
Thompson and Minister of Agriculture,
Saboto Caesar, would provide the details.
Dr. Gonsalves said for traditional
cultivators, 21 licenses which were
recommended have been approved, eight
of them are for groups and these eight
groups have between them about l00
persons.
He said there are three nationals who
have been granted traditional licenses
who are not traditional cultivators and 10
companies have been registered that are
owned, in the majority, by non-nationals,
while others have nationals involved with
them.
The prime minister said a license costs
a non-national EC$100,000 and allows for
the cultivation of up to one acre of land
and is valid for one year.
Trinidad
Parliamentarians in the
Commonwealth Caribbean recently
attended their 44th annual Caribbean,
Americas and Atlantic (CCA) conference
at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of
Spain, Trinidad.
The three-day conference
brought together presiding officers,
parli ament ar i ans ,
clerks and youth
pa r l i ament a r i ans
to discuss matters
affecting the Caribbean
region.
The broad theme of the conference
was “Globalization and Nationalism: Quo
Vadis (where it is heading)? - Impacts on
Commonwealth Parliament.”
Under the umbrella of this general
theme, the topics of discussions included
Migrants and Refugees: Human Rights of
the Disabled; and Digital Information.
Participants included presiding
officers and parliamentarians from
several Caribbean countries, including
Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica,
St. Lucia, Turks and Caicos Islands and
Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad & Tobago President, Paula Mae
Weekes delivered the opening address.
Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister, Dr.
Keith Rowley also gave remarks at the
opening ceremony.
— Compiled by Azad Ali
Best Beach
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