CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Antigua
The University of the West Indies’
new Five Islands Campus in Antigua
and Barbuda crossed yet another milestone
when its council recently met for
the first time, in a virtual meeting setting,
members of the Campus Council,
chaired by Aziz Hadeed, heard a report
on the campus’ accomplishments since
its opening in September 2019.
The report, which
was presented by
the Interim Pro-Vice
Chancellor and Campus
Principal, Professor
Stafford Griffith, highlighted many
firsts for the campus and an overall
success in operation to establish a fully
functional UWI campus to better serve
the Organization of Eastern Caribbean
States (IECS).
During his presentation Professor
Griffith reported that over the past
seven months the campus started its
first matriculation ceremony, conducted
its first end-of-semester examinations,
hosted its first international seminar;
installed its first student guild and
president and celebrated its first official
student guild.
He also noted that in the campus’s
first year of recruitment, a total of 200
students were enrolled and that the aim
is to double enrollment each year, over
the next three years.
Bahamas
Police in the Bahamas are reporting
that crime is down in the country.
National Security Minister Marvin
Dames said there is still a concern of
someone being murdered or getting
injured, adding that he has been hearing
from the police commissioner on a
regular basis and expressed confidence
that the top brass in the police force are
on top of those crimes.
He also said recent
lockdown and curfew
measures may have
reduced incidents, but
criminals were still
looking at ways to break the law.
“As you know, crime is down. We
started the year with crime being down
They may be reduced because it reduces
the opportunity for persons to commit
crime, but you know a criminal all of a
sudden doesn’t move away from crime
because there’s a lockdown and there
are curfews,” he said.
A man was recently shot dead and
another left hospitalized with injuries,
while a man and a woman were killed in
Freeport, pushing the murder count to
26. At the same time last year there had
been 29 murders, according to police
statistics.
Last year crime declined by seven
percent overall, yet there was a four
percent increase in murders and a 12
Caribbean L 4 ife, May 29-June 4, 2020
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley speaks with children as an excavator prepares the beach for the arrival
of Tropical Storm Dorian in Speightstown, Barbados Aug. 25, 2019. Recently she raised concerned about the
country’s low birth and fertility rates. REUTERS / Nigel R Browne, File
percent in armed robberies.
Barbados
Barbados has been warned that the
current low birth rate may push the
island into a major labor shortage in the
immediate future.
Putting citizens on notice, Prime
Minister Mia Mottley revealed that the
recent National Population Commission’s
report painted a shocking picture
of the island’s birth and fertility rates.
She noted that the
island’s birth and fertility
rates have continuously
declined
since the 1960s, reaching
below replacement levels in the
l980s. The country’s aged population
has become a cause of concern, as the
declined labor force will burden the
National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
In 2014, former minister of Education,
Science and Technology, Ronald
Jones urged women to make more
babies, saying the population needed
to increase to approximately 325,000 in
10 years so that the island’s workforce
would not be compromised.
Jamaica
A Canadian man who was sentenced
to two years and six months in jail for
attempting to smuggle 20 pounds of
cocaine from Jamaica has been granted
an early release by Governor General,
Sir Patrick Allen.
A news release from King’s House,
the governor general’s office residence,
said the man, John Edwards, left Jamaica
recently under special conditions
and at a cost to the Canadian Government.
Edwards had appeared in the St.
James Parish Court in November 2016
after being arrested in September when
he was caught attempting to export the
cocaine to Canada.
A mandatory twoyear
sentence was
among the penalties
handed down to
Edwards and he was
fined J$1million or six months’ imprisonment
or cocaine possession and
J$2million or six months for attempting
to export the illegal drug.
The sentences were to run consecutively
to the mandatory sentence if the
fine is not paid.
King’s House said Edwards was
scheduled for release in July 6, 2020.
However, he maintained a record
of discipline and good behavior with
no breach of rules since his imprisonment.
According to King’s House, the current
COVID-19 pandemic and its uncertainty,
particularly as it relates to travel,
also influenced the governor general’s
decision to exercise the prerogative of
mercy.
St. Lucia
The St. Lucia government announced
it would begin the gradual reopening of
its borders on June 4, after indicating
that the island had been able to curb
the spread of the coronavirus that had
infected at least 18 people so far.
Prime Minister
Allen Chastanet told
the nation “as of June
4, 2020 we will begin
to gradually open our
borders to regional and international
travel” after health authorities had
shared “our strategic plan to reopen
our economy and country in phases
after weeks of a partial shutdown due
to COVID-19.”
He said the five-phased strategic reopening
focuses on health, safety and
the general well-being of the public
and has taken into account advice from
public health experts and feedback from
various stakeholders.
The strategies also provided the
requirements for businesses and organizations
across each sector to operate
based on national Covid-19 protocols.
Chastanent said he believes that St.
Lucia is in a “fairly good position to
do so” based on the number of reasons
including the fact that all “18 of our
confirmed cases of COVID-19 have successfully
recovered.”
He said as St. Lucia re-opens its borders
in the coming weeks, “we will be
increasing the protocols for anyone who
intends to visit our island.”
THE NEWS FROM BACK HOME
Barbados warned about labor shortage
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