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Vol. 31, Issue 17 QUEENS/LONG ISLAND/BRONX/MANHATTAN April 24-30, 2020
DOUBLE
TROUBLE
Corona, low oil prices
double whammy for some
Caribbean countries
By Bert Wilkinson
Caribbean governments continued
their battle against the
corona virus pandemic this week
but for those producing and
exporting oil such as Trinidad,
low global oil prices have only
served to double the headaches
for economies already on lockdown
from the health crisis.
“I want to tell you, there’s
been no time like this and even
in a bad dream we couldn’t
anticipate this. I knew when I
came in here the price of oil was
$5 a barrel. It has just gone to
one dollar. Ladies and gentlemen,
one dollar a barrel per oil
did not exist in my adult life,”
Trinidadian Prime Minister,
Keith Rowley said this week.
Rowley’s sentiments also held
true for Guyana and Suriname –
the Caribbean Community’s two
largest and most resource rich
countries- as an oversupply of
crude linked to withering price
and production war between
giants Russia and Saudi Arabia
and weak demand because of
the virus have pushed prices
into a nosedive.
For example, neighboring
Guyana was expecting to earn
about $300 million from five
shipments of a million barrels
each in 2020.The money would
have come as part of its sharing
arrangements with ExxonMobil,
Hess Oil and China’s
Nexen which are operating some
giant oil wells offshore Guyana.
If prices hold at their current
depressed levels for the remainder
of this year, the country
could end up earning less than
half of the projected amount
said Finance Minister Winston
Jordan.
Rowley said Trinidad must
now plan its recovery with the
depressed prices in mind as well
as from the fallout from the
Covid-19 pandemic. The current
situation he said, could
represent “the new normal at
least until such time that a vaccine
is developed and tested
which could take between 12-18
months.”
To the north of the block in
The Bahamas, a group of Florida
Congressmen and woman have
written to Trump Administration
urging it to exert pressure
on The Bahamas to abandon
plans to drill for offshore oil and
gas this year.
Contending that a major oil
spill could wreck economic life
with The Bahamas being so
close to Florida and other southern
states, the letter to Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo urged
action by Washington to prevent
any exploratory drilling by The
Bahamas Petroleum Corpora-
Tribute to a fallen hero
Caribbean Life will like to pay tribute to Grenadian-born Registered Nurse Gladys
E. Cadore-Williams, a Caribbean Life 2019 Healthcare Awardee who died recently.
James: Trump uses Caribbean immigrants
as ‘scapegoats’ in temporary green card
By Nelson A. King
New York Attorney General
Letitia James says United
States President Donald J.
Trump is using Caribbean and
other immigrants as “scapegoats”
in temporarily halting
the issuance of permanent resident
cards, otherwise known
as green cards.
Trump on Wednesday
signed a proclamation that
halts the issuance of green
cards to immigrants for at
least 60 days, citing the economic
fallout of the coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic and
the nation’s increase in unemployment
under his administration.
“This proclamation is antithetical
to everything we
believe as Americans and only
uses immigrants as scapegoats,”
said James in a statement
Wednesday night.
“Immigrants are on the
front lines of the fight to battle
the coronavirus, and are
providing the essential services
that are keeping our nation
and our economy moving forward,”
she added, stating that
Caribbean and other immigrants
provide America with
health care, care for the elderly,
prepare and deliver food,
clean hospitals and public
spaces, “and take on so many
other essential roles in our
society.”
“We will not allow President
Trump to usurp Congress’s
authority by presidential proc-
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