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PRESOR TED ST ANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID MIAMI, FL PERMIT NO. 7315 Vol.17 No.6 MAY 2006 Tel: (305 1-800-605-7516caribtoday@earthlink.net ct_ads@bellsouth.net We cover your world INSIDEThe debate over immigra-tion reform inthe UnitedStates isapproachingboiling point.America is trying to protect its borders as undocumented aliens continue to flood in. Yet immigrationactivists like Irwin Claire arewondering if the Caribbeancommunity is doing enough tohelp its own in the struggle,page 6. Basdeo Panday is a powerfulman in Trinidad and Tobago. Butlast month the former prime minister and Opposition leader was con-victed of fraud and sentencedto two years in prison. Could this be the end of Panday’spolitical career or will jail harden an already tough campaigner? The rise and fall of Panday, page 7. Yet another mainstream conglomer-ate hascarved out a big piece of theCaribbean entertainment business, and artistes like Freddie McGregor are asking ques-tions about the move, page 16. News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 FYI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Tourism/Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Arts/Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Banking and Investing . . . . . . . . . .25 Caribbean nationals did not escape a Florida dragnet set by the United States Immigration and CustomsEnforcement (ICElate last month and sent them packing, page 2. May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 1 

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DAMIAN P. GREGORY Months after the United States StateDepar tment threatened Jamaica and 14 other countries with sanctions if they did not take steps to combat cases of human traf-ficking mostly of women and children that has become the focus of international attention, the island’s status on the list of countries involved in the practice has been downgraded. There are between 600,000 and 800,000 persons trafficked acr oss inter national borders each year, the majority of those are women and children, and about 80 percent of those are minors under the age of 18, the State Depar tment estimates. The 256-page annual report is intended to heighten awareness about the problem of human trafficking andencourage gover nments to form new partnerships to fight it. Countries that engage in trafficking are ranked accord-ing to tiers, or categories, according to activities theywer e believed to have participated in.Jamaica was initially ranked in Tier 3 of the report. “Jamaica is a source countr y for children trafficked inter nally for the purpose of sexual exploitation”, the report stated in June 2005 when it was first released. “Jamaica is a transit country for illegal migrants moving to the U.S. and Canada; some may be trafficking victims. Jamaicans ar e also trafficked into forced labor in the United States”. IMPROVEMENT But according to a Feb. 2006 interim report, things have begun to improve for some of the island’s most vulnerable. “The gover nment of United Nations, CMC Caribbean community (CARICOM resentatives at the United Nations say they have been inundated with requests fromother countries to suppor t their individual bids for a seat on the newly-established U.N.Human Rights Council(UNHRC e have been inundated with requests from other countries for support,” said Crispin Gregoire, Dominica’sambassador to the U.N. Gregoire told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC that since the UNHRC is a new entity , “a lot of coun tries want to be founding members of it.” St. Lucia’ s U.N. Ambassador Julian Hunte, said ther e wer e mor e candi dates than available seats on the UNCHR. “This is the level of competition that exists, wher e ther e are more candidates than seats. It’s intense lobby-ing acr oss the boar d,” he said. Hunte’ s Trinidadian counterpar t, Philip Sealy, said canvassing for votes on the 47-member council for the May 9elections has, indeed, been intense. “In most regional groupings, ther e ar e mor e candi dates than vacancies. Member states ar e, accordingly, being appr oached by the candida tures countries seeking support for their respective candidatures,” he told CMC . Last month, the U.N. General Assembly adoptedResolution 60/251 establishing the UNHRC as a subsidiary organ of the GeneralAssembly . The UNHRC, which will be based in Geneva, replaces the U.N. Commissionon HumanRights.Members ofthe Councilwill be elected“dir ectly and individually”by secr et bal lot, Sealy said. Membership will be based on equitablegeographical distribution, withthe gr oups of African and Asian states both getting 13 seats each, the group of LatinAmerican and Caribbeanstates eight, the gr oup of Western European and otherstates seven. The gr oup of Easter n European states will get six seats. Gregoire said the United States, which voted against the UNHRC resolution, is not seeking a seat. “There’s a perception that they would not get enough votes,” he said. GORDON WILLIAMS Caribbean nationals did not escape a Floridadragnet set by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICEof suspects late last month. Several fugitives and immigration violators with links to the region were among the 183 ar rested for crimes ranging from rape – including cases involving minors to drugs and gun possession during a weeklongoperation. There were at least 37 Caribbean nationals among those arrested by detention and r emoval officers and special agents in the statewide operation. They included 16 Haitians, 11 Jamaicans, four from the Dominican Republic,thr ee from Trinidad and Tobago, two Guyanese and one from The Bahamas. Barbara Gonzalez, public relations officer for ICE, told Caribbean Today that the significant presence of Caribbean nationals among the group of those arrested was not an indi-cation that the r egion was a special focus of the agency’s operation. “No country was targeted,” she said. The operation was spearheaded by ICE FugitiveOperations teams in Miami,T ampa, Jacksonville and Orlando, according to a press release issued by the agency. The release stated that the arrests were part of efforts by ICE “to identify and arrestthose who pose a thr eat to our community and who have no legal right to remain in the country”. ICE claimed that “among the arrested were 130 fugitive criminal aliens that were ordered removed from theU.S. by a federal immigrationjudge but failed to complywith their lawful or dersThe remaining 53 arrested were illegal aliens amenable to removal from the UnitedStates. “All have been charged administratively for being inviolation of immigration laws”, the release added. CRIMINAL HISTORY The agency said “many of the fugitives ar r ested during this operation have a histor y of violent criminal activity that includes sexual assault ofa child, driving under theinfluence (DUIaggravated assault, cocaine trafficking and weapons violations”. Among the arrested was Liston Bar tley, a 55-year-old Jamaican who had been con victed of indecent assault after impregnating a 12-year-oldgirl. His subsequent appeal to the Board of ImmigrationAppeals (BIAand he was or dered by an immigration judge r emoved from the U.S. Up to press time Bartley was still in ICE custody awaiting deportation. ICE also reported that its agents “discovered and seizeda SKS 7.62mm assault rifle, a9mm pistol, seven grams ofmarijuana, thr ee scales and $2,200 in U.S. cur rency following a consent search given by Clovis W alber t Pinnock, a citizen of Jamaica”. Pinnock, according to the agency, entered the country in 1997 as a visitor but failed to depart as required by law and was subsequently ordered deportedby a judge. He is a convictedfelon who had been on the run since 2001. Nationals fr om the follow ing other countries wer e also nabbed during the operation which, according to ICE, “wasa combined ef for t between NEW YORK, CMC Influential United States Congressman Charles Rangel has called on Washington andthe Caribbean community(CARICOM “blueprint” that would accel-erate economic and socialdevelopment in the r egion. Rangel said this is now necessary in light of recentef for ts by both par ties to normalize their tattered relations. The dean of New Y ork’ s Congr essional delegation, who represents Harlem, said the “blueprint” would taker egional countries “for war d”. “These islands ar e among our strongest allies, and theydeser ve a better deal fr om its powerful neighbor and trading par tner ,” Rangel said. Rangel said the U.S. has an onus to make the regionmor e “competitive” in this age of globalization and trade lib eralization. e have to extend a helping hand to the islandnations and coastal states in the Caribbean so they can becompetitive. “It must be a blueprint on which everyone can agree as to what has to be done for theCaribbean to be competitive,”he added. ‘COMMITMENT’ “There must be a commitment by the U.S. that it is apar t of our obligation because the Caribbean countries have been our friends and neighbors. We must also look upon this exercise as part of our national security. When we are dealing with the Caribbean, we never have to wor r y about our backs. e may disagree from time to time, as sovereignnations often do, but thestates in the r egion have stood with us as our friends,” he said. Rangel believes the r ecent meeting in The Bahamasbetween U.S. Secr etar y of State Condoleezza Rice and CARICOM for eign ministers was a first step towards the cr eation of the “blueprint”. “The compr ehensive plan should emerge from follow-up meetings between officials ofboth sides and in subsequenttalks between Rice and the foreign ministers,” he said. Rice is expected to meet with the region’s foreign min-isters in September “on the margins” of the United Nations General Assembly.Rangel was instr umental in helping to br oker the recent meeting between then U.S. Special Trade Representative Robert Portman and CARICOM trade ministers in Washington. U.S.warns region over human traffickingDeveloped countries lobby Caribbean for U.N.seatsICE freezes Caribbean nationals in Florida on immigration violationsU.S. Congressman wants ‘blueprint’ for economic and social development NEWS NEWS 2 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 Hunte Rangel (CONTINUED ON P AGE 4) (CONTINUED ON P AGE 4) May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 2 

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GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC Guyana is seeking help from the Canadian and United States governments to helpsolve last month’ s mur der of Agriculture Minister Satyadeow“Sash” Sawh and three others. Accor ding to reports here, the Guyanese government haswritten the twofor eign administrations seeking assistance for local law enfor cement agencies cur r ently pr obing the latest gun-r elated executions her e. Government sources have said the mur ders were politically motivated. Minister Sawh, his br other Rajpat Sawh, sister Pulmattie Persaud and the minister’s personal bodyguard Curtis Robertson, were executed in a hail of gunfire when heavily armed gunmen stormed the minster’s east coast residence at Earl’ s Court, La Bonne Intention. Three others were injur ed during the ar med attack. Government officials, the human rights body, private citi-zens, and or ganizations, over seas-based Guyanese and groups, Opposition legislators and the labor movement herehave condemned the slaying of the minister and the thr ee others. EXECUTIONS Between January and April 22 this year, 42 people have been murdered in theCaribbean community head quar ter state, with 24 of the victims killed execution-style.The majority of the killingshave r emained unsolved. Many Guyanese expressed outrage over last month’ s killings with some calling for vengeance. However , Minister Sawh’ s younger son Dave, in an appeal, advised the aggrieved to “move on and not take revenge as it would not heal the hurt. Revenge could only cause more blood-shed and pain,” the young Sawh counselled. NEW YORK, CMC The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICEnational is among its 12 mostwanted fugitives. The agency said late last month that Robert Anthony Walker, 35, of St. James,Jamaica, has been eluding of ficials since 2001. He is the only Caribbean national on the ICE fugitives list. Officials said he is wanted on inter national drug smuggling char ges. They allege that Walker “is responsible for the importation of at least 100 kilograms of cocaine, smuggled from Jamaica and distributed to central and southern Florida over a thr ee-year -period”. In Feb. 2001, W alker, who also car ries the aliases Ralph Newman, Colin James,Pr eston and Rusty, was indicted in the Middle District of Florida with conspiracy to import cocaine. ICE officials said he is “armed and danger-ous”. WASHINGTON, CMC – In a new r eport released last month, the United States hasgiven five Caribbean countriespoor marks for their human rights record. The report, “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record2005-2006”, complements theU.S. State Depar tment’s countr y report, which was issued last month. It identified Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti,Jamaica and Suriname amongglobal countries with poor human rights records, stating,however , that Caribbean and Latin American democraciescontinue to confr ont challenges of strengthening weak institutions, fighting corruption and redressing social inequality. CUBA On Cuba, the U.S. State Depar tment said the Fidel Castr o government has, for 47 years, “consistently spurned domestic and international calls for greater political tolerance and respect for humanrights. “Cuba’s human rights record remained poor in 2005”, the r eport charged. “The Cuban gover nment ignor ed or violated virtually all of its citizens’ fundamental rights, including the right to change their government. “The Cuban people did not enjoy fr eedom of speech, press or movement, and were denied the right to assemble peacefully or fr eely for m asso ciations”, the report said, adding that the police had broad detention powers and used them frequently, including against those who ques tioned the single-par ty rule. Accused dissidents, some charged with common crimes, received sham trials, and those sent to prison wereoften held in harsh conditions,the r eport said. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC The State Depar tment said though the Dominican Republic has a democratically elected government and a “dynamic” multiparty system, “accountable, democratic gov er nance with appropriate checks and balances is stillnew and fragile, and much remains to be done”. The report said while freedoms of the press, assembly, and religion were respected, problems remain in otherar eas, noting that security for ces carried out unlawful killings and used excessive force. It said, however, thatdeaths at the hands of police officers declined in the secondhalf of last year . HAITI The State Depar tment also said the human rights record of Haiti remains poor. It said while civilian authorities generally maintained control of the security forces,ther e were frequent instances in which elements of the secu-rity for ces acted independently of gover nment authority. The r eport said stateorchestrated abuses ceased under the interim government, but there were “credible allegations” of extra judi-cial killings by members of the Haitian National Police, incidences of retribution killings and politically motivated vio-lence, and kidnappings forransom. “Endemic corruption, a deteriorating judiciary, andworsening economic andsocial conditions exacerbated this situation”, it said. J AMAICA The r eport said while the government of Jamaica generally respected the human rights of its citizens, there were serious problems in some areas. It charged that members of the security forces commit-ted unlawful killings, and thatmob violence and vigilante killings against those suspected of breaking the law remain a problem. “Although the government moved to investigateincidents of police abuses andpunish some of those policeinvolved, continued impunityfor police who commit abuses remained a problem”, the report said. “The judicial system was overburdened and lengthy delays in trials werecommon”. SURIN AME In Suriname, the r eport said pr oblem areas include alleged police mistreatment of detainees at the time of arrest, abuse of prisoners by guards, and overcrowding of localdetention facilities. It said a shortage of judges resulted in a significant case backlog and lengthy pretrial detentions. The r epor t said self-cen sorship by some media continues, and that instances of corruption in the executive branch are more visible. Guy ana asks Canada, U.S. to help solve murder of go vernment ministerJ’can among 12 most wanted U.S. immigration fugitivesU.S.report gives Caribbean poor marks for human rights protection NEWS NEWS May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 3 Sawh Protestors in Canada rally against poor conditions and human rights violations in Haiti. U.S.requests extradition of T&T five on kidnap charges POR T OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC The United States government has requested the extradition of five people,including two soldiers, now before a court in Trinidad on charges of kidnapping and murdering a former U.S. soldier. Washington is seeking the extradition of the people under a violation of Title 18 ofthe United States Code thatstates “whoever , whether inside or outside the United States, seizes or detains and threatens to kill, injure, or tocontinue to detain another person or a governmentor ganization to do or abstain from doing any act as anexplicit or implicit conditionfor the r elease of the person detainedshall be punished by imprisonment for any term of years or for life”. It also warns that “if the death of any person r esults” those accused “shall be punished by death or life imprisonment” if they are convicted. Four of the five, Sargeant Leon Nurse, Private RicardoDe Four , of the T rinidad Defence Force, Kevon Demerieux and Zion Clarke,have been char ged with the murder of U.S. war veteran Balram Maharaj, 62, who wasabducted on April 5, 2005. His remains were found in two containers in the Santa Cruzfor est, west of her e on Jan. 9. The fifth, David Suchit, has been charged like the oth-ers of conspiracy to commit hostage-taking r esulting in death and hostage taking resulting in death in violation of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Attor ney David W est, who represents the U.S. government, said the Grand Juryindictment had been handedlate last month and wanted a60 day period to seek theauthority of the attor ney general to proceed with the extradition. But lawyers forthe accused have labelled theextradition as a ploy and adelaying tactic by the state not to begin the murder case. Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls reserved his rulingon the application by the U.S. government to May 5. May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 3 

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federal, state and local law enforcement agencies”: Brazil, Canada, Peoples Republic of China, Colombia, Costa Rica,Ecuador , Egypt, El Salvador , Ghana, Honduras, India, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Syria,Poland, Ur uguay and V enezuela. Florida law enforcement agencies, including the Orange County SheriffsOf fice; U.S. Customs and Bor der Pr otection (CBP Jacksonville Sheriffs Office; Miami-Dade PoliceDepar tment; City of Miami Police Department; Coral Gables Police Department;Br oward Sheriffs Office; Palm Beach Sherif f s Office; Hialeah Police Department; and Florida Probation and Parole also participated in theoperation. ICE explained that the operation was “part of the second phase of the SecureBor der Initiative (SBI compr ehensive multi-year plan launched by theDepar tment of Homeland Security to secure America’s bor ders and r educe illegal migration”. ICE was formed in Mar. 2003. It is the largest investiga-tive ar m of the Depar tment of Homeland Security in the U.S. Gordon Williams is Caribbean Today’s managing editor. Jamaica has shown clear progress in its efforts to combat trafficking in the country. After Jamaica was ranked at T ier 3 in the 2005 TIP Report, the government stepped up efforts to address the problem and has committed to do mor e in the futur e”, the r eport stated. Among the accomplishments cited are the raids, clo-sur e and ar r est of 39 people believed to be involved in trafficking activities. But the r epor t war ns that more needs to be done in the by the island’ s law enfor ce ment to combat this problem. Thr oughout the month of March, when Caribbean Today tried repeatedly to contact Jamaican government representatives to get them to discuss what specific steps they are undertaking to address this issue, calls went unreturned to both the permanent secretary in the Ministryof Justice and or the Jamaica Constabulary Force. Meanwhile, the problem is causing serious hurt. “The heartbreak of this is that you lose your children,” Katharine Cahn, Univerisityof Por tland graduate social school professor, told Caribbean T oday . “It is an invisible issue. There is a real lack of awareness about it.” For the U.S. State Department, the importanceof this issue is becoming an even greater concern. Estimates ar e that human trafficking is a $9.5 billion industry, which brings about 17,500 people into the U.S. each year. The U.S. can cut off militaryaide and cultural exchange programs and “withholding ofnon-humanitarian, non-traderelated assistance”, to coun-tries deemed to have done nothing to combat trafficking. Damian P .Gregory is Caribbean Today’s deputy manag ing editor . UNITED NATIONS, CMC Jamaica has told the UnitedNations Commission on Population and Development that based on studies the brain drain from Jamaica to NorthAmerica is “quite substantial”. Easton Williams, Jamaica’s representative at the commission’s general debate on population, migration and r emittances, said “some 70 percent of tertiary-level graduates emigrated annually fr om Jamaica to North America and the United Kingdom.” Noting that migrants fr om Jamaica were mainly persons in their “prime r eproductive and productive years,” andwer e predominantly female, Williams added that recent studies indicated that Jamaicaand other countries in theEnglish-speaking Caribbean have the highest loss of tertiary graduates in the world. He said as a result of Jamaicans’ migratory patterns, the gov-er nment has established a special depar tment in the Ministr y of For eign Af fairs. “In recent years, the gover nment had implemented a number of innovative meas ur es for the mobilization of the diaspora for national development,” he said. “The Jamaican diaspora had createdniche markets in all its major destination countries that had great potential for expansion.” COMMUNITIES Williams said given Jamaica’ s long history of emigration, Jamaicans have established lar ge communities in major cities in Nor th America and the United Kingdom, and set up numer ous informal and formal associations and net-works in those cities. He noted that, in the 19th century,Jamaicans had migrated toCentral America and otherCaribbean ter ritories in search of employment opportunities. “Many Jamaicans had died while building the Panama Canal,” he said. oday, many Central American communities r etain Jamaican language, cultur e and genealogical features.” W illiams also said the volume of r emittances channeled thr ough official money transfer networks has been incr easing since the 1990s, currently estimated at some $1.5 billion, or 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP said remittance is currently the lar gest source of foreign exchange available to the Jamaican government. “The r eduction of absolute poverty from an estimated 35 per cent in the early 1990s to the cur rent estimate of below 15 percent is also linked to the incr ease in the flow in remittances,” he said. ICE freezes Caribbean nationals in Florida on immigration violationsU.S.willing to assist T&T fight corruption Several Caribbean-born sex felons were arrestedin New Y ork last month. They include a 60-year -old national of the Dominican, who served time for the sexual abuse of his granddaughter. Another Dominican Republic national nabbed in New York was charged with 13counts of rape, six counts ofsodomy and endangering thewelfar e of a 15-year-old he tutor ed at an after-school tutoring center. He too served jail time. Others picked up late last month in New York, United States immigration officialssaid, included a Guyanese,who was char ged with rape, kidnapping and sodomy of a 12-year-old girl; and a Haitian,who was convicted of fourcounts of rape, five counts of sodomy, nine counts of sexualabuse and endangering thewelfar e of a 12-year-old child. The Haitian man allegedlyabused the young girl over a four-day period. Other migrants nabbed for depor tation in the New Y ork raid included nationals of Jamaica, Trinidad and Cuba, as well as China, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Liberia, Mexico and Norway.Their names had not been released up to press time. “When you think you have seen it all, you find that ther e ar e sex crimes even more heinous,” said New York Special Agent-in-Charge Martin D. Ficke. “As their convictions demonstrate, these predators are the worst of the worst.They pr ey on our children and they have for feited their privilege to remain in this country Martin F. Horn, New York City’s probation commissioner, added: “When the offenders rounded up this morning are deported, New York City willbe a safer place.” Compiled from CMC reports. Caribbean-born convicted sex felons arrested in N.Y.U.S. warns region o ver human traffickingBrain drain to North America is substantial ~ Jamaica NEWS NEWS 4 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 UNITED NATIONS, CMC United Nations Secr etar y General Kofi Annan has appointed a Jamaican among12 members worldwide to the Advisory Group of the U.N.Central Emer gency Response Fund (CERF Barbara Carby, director general of the Office ofDisaster Pr epar edness and Emergency Management of Jamaica, is the only Caribbeannational appointed to the group. Other representatives comprised nationals fr om Canada, India, Egypt, Sweden, United States, Malaysia,United Kingdom, Switzerland, South Korea, South Africaand the Netherlands. The first meeting of the Advisory Group is scheduled for May 23 in New York. POR T OF SP AIN, T rinidad, CMC The United States has of fer ed to assist T rinidad and Tobago fight corruption and terrorism, Attorney General John Jeremie has said. Jeremie returned from the Dominican Republic where he met with his U.S. counterpart Alberto Gonzales during the meeting of the AttorneysGeneral and Ministers ofJustice of the Americas. A statement issued by his office said that he held privatetalks with Gonzales on the issue and was offered assis-tance in the fight against cor r uption and ter r orism. “The of fer of assistance in dealing with cor r uption and ter r orism came in an hour long closed door meeting on (April 24) between Attor ney General Jeremie and his U.S. counterpart, Alberto Gonzales”, said the state-ment. It said that the assistance fr om Washington would come on a bilateral level. The statement said that Jeremie had been elected vice-president of the Attorneys General andMinisters of Justice, a workinggr oup under the auspices of the Or ganization of American States. (CONTINUED FROM P AGE 2) (CONTINUED FROM P AGE 2) U.N.appoints Jamaican to int’l emergency group Gonzalez May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 4 

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May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 5 May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 5 

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The current debate over immigration reform in theUnited States has stirred mixed feelings among Americans and non-U .S.citizens.Irwin Claire,co-director of Caribbean Immigration Services in Queens,New York,is amongthose who have weighed in. Caribbean T oday’s Managing Editor Gordon Williams spoke with Claire two days after his presentation on the issue at a community forum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania late last month based on the theme “Immigration Reform and The Caribbean Community”.The following is an edited version of that inter view . Caribbean Today:The forum must have taken on added significance considering what is going on with the immigration issue in the U .S.What kind of r esponse was there to the forum and what came out of it? Irwin Claire: The response was great. I was one of maybe two speakers who might havespoken on immigration We had a fantastic turnout. Sometimes you have these forums which are too topheavy with speakers, and so speakers don’t get an opportunity, not only to speak on anissue or a point, but they star t dropping sound-bites. That can be ver y dangerous, when people hear piece of the story and it is not properlyexplained. So that is somethingthat we r un afoul of at forums every year, when it becomes top-heavy with flowery stuff, feel good stuff. I made the point in my presentation, as far as where we ar e with immigration, what we need to do. My challenge to the group that evening was to the clergy, because here in Philadelphia it is a ver y powerful group. Community-based organizations also need to recognize that they need to start making sure that theCaribbean face is showing upin the pictur es and in the rallies that are being held, as far as the immigration rallies,because for many people whoar e our friends, when they look at the pictures and don’t seeour pictur es they don’ t believe that we have a pr oblem too. C.T.:Why is that so? E.C.: Complacency. The fact of the matter is that we have a mentality of being secretive and we (Caribbean peoplealways busily workingIt is unfor tunate. There are many among us who have worked diligently , but not in the numbers. When you look at Eastern Parkway (in Brooklyn, N.Y. during theannual W est Indian Labor Day parade) there’s three million people, yet we can’t full 10 buses, when you give them fr ee seats, to go to Washington (to immigration rallies C .T.:Did you sense that there is urgency,coming out of the community forum,with what is going on with the immigration situation now? Is there an awakening or is it still laidback? E.C.: There is an awakening (in the Caribbean community). The problem is though is thatthe people who need it most are not the ones coming out. C.T.:Meaning? E.C .: Meaning it is pr obably the persons who don’t see (immigration reform urgent. Meaning the persons who ar e undocumented, they are not the ones coming out. They are not coming out in thenumbers we need them tocome out, because for some reason they are afraid although they ar e the first ones to take their money to some bogey man who promises them some kind of (immi-gration) benefit. As a Caribbean community we are independently rich and collectively poor. Rich in the fact that we can stand up and show the physical wealth, rich in the fact that we have the collateral to demonstrate that we ar e a force, but collectively it doesn’t make any sense. C.T.:Coming out of the forum, did you get the sense that there is any type of turning point, also in your dealings in New York,from a Caribbean stand-point? E.C .: I think (Caribbean ple need just to reiterate that we have an issue. I don’ t believe that we came out (of the for um) with any kind of platfor m that we ar e going to go out and marshall people. No, I don’t think we achievedthat. C.T.:What is the sense you get,in such alargeCaribbean community as New York,what is the sense you getamong the undocumented? Is there a heightened sense of fear (over upcoming immigration reform? E.C.: Yes, there is a heightened sense of fear when you r ealize that the (U.S. tment of Homeland Security has been doing some work site raids, that they made public, when you see these enforcement measures that have been taking place that are being made public, when you see that you can’t get driver’s license because (of ule changes, when you see that employers are now checking mor e into certain situations. Y eah, ther e is fear. But then people realize they have to sur vive, they’r e sur vivalists and that is the ir ony . They will make sacrifices and expose themselves to certain situations Caribbean not pulling its weight on U.S. immigration reform ~ Irwin Claire 6 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 Claire NEWS NEWS (CONTINUED ON PAGE 11) May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 6 

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PETER RICHARDS POR T OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC When he was prime minister of this oilrich nation, Basdeo Panday said his greatest desire would be to use his tenur e in office to unite the citizens of T rinidad and T obago “so that we might better face the challenges ahead.” But last month, a Magistrate’s Court sentenced the 72-year -old lawyer to two years imprisonment on char ges that he knowingly failed to declar e to the Integrity Commission a bank account he and his wife, Oma, held in London while he was prime minister. In addition, ChiefMagistrate Sher man McNicolls also or dered that the TT$1.6 million($258,000 mer prime minister’s accounts be confiscat-ed. Panday had, during his trial, told thecour t that he knew nothing about the account that was in hiswife’ s name, and Lawr ence Duprey, chair man of the Colonial Life Insurance Company(CLICO Trinidad-based conglomerate, testified that he had indeedgiven over one million dollars ($166,666 cation of their children in London. THE END? The ruling may well spell the end of a political career for Panday, the first indo-Trinidadian to have been elevated to the Office of Prime Minister, when in1995, his UnitedNational Congr ess (UNC coalition with the National Alliance for Reconstr uction (NAR People’ s National Movement (PNM A former trade unionist, and current Opposition leader in Parliament, Panday’s legal battles are far from over. Along with his wife and otherministers of his administration, he is before the courts on other corruption related charges. He was fond of telling his supporters that “if you see me fighting with alion, feel sor ry for the lion,” reflecting per haps his love for drama having graduated from the London School of Dramatic Arts in 1960. Writers Samaroo Siewah and Roodal Moonilal, in their book enti-tled “An Enigma Answer ed”, noted that Panday’ s “mesmeric leadership” has been suf ficient to steer him thr ough the r oughest times adding, “of Panday’ s magnetisability ther e can be no doubt.” F ALLOUT Political scientist and University of the West Indies (UWI.Hamid Ghany once r efer r ed to Panday as “a craft mover,” a “political animal who can’t really be under-rated. “He has been down and then bounced back so many times, his instinct for survival is tremendous.he has that ability to stay on,” Ghany noted. But a former UWI lecturer and political scientist, Dr. John La Guerre, said the guilty verdict againstPanday last month may well spell the end of a charismatic political career that in recent months had beenbogged down by political infightingwithin the UNC and Panday’ s own legal tr oubles. “He would be badly wounded and would be the end of his career he said, adding that the verdict couldalso af fect the UNC’s chances in the next general elections. “What we are witnessing is that it is a very critical stage forthe UNC,” La Guer re said. Married and the father of four girls,Basdeo Panday was born in the southernr ural village of Prince T own on May 25, 1933. He worked as a cane weigher with the stateowned sugar company, Car oni Limited, as a primar y school teacher and also as a civil servant attached to the San Fer nando Magistrate’ s court. His involvement in the trade union movement began in 1956 when he served as legal adviser to the power ful Oilfield W orkers T rade Union (OWTU e head ing of f to London to study law . In 1962, he became a barrister at law, Lincoln’s Inn, and three years later graduated from the London University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. On his return home, Panday entered into private practice, but by 1973 had moved to the top position within the All Trinidad Sugar andGeneral W orkers Trade Union, a position he held until 1995, when her esigned the position because of his elevation to the post of prime minister . FIREBRAND A fir ebrand politician in his early years, Panday’ s biographers r ecalls the many labels that have been used to describe him. To some he was a capitalist/imperialist stooge, commu-nist and socialist Brahmin. Nowadayshe has been dubbed a friend of the “parasitic oligarchy”, a term Panday himself used effectively to describe the capitalist business sector in Trinidad and Tobago in his days as anOpposition politician. His rise to the highest political of fice in the land has been a checkered one. In 1976 he founded and led the United Labour Fr ont (ULF Parliament that same year. He wasLeader of the Opposition during theperiod 1981-86 and led his ULF intothe coalition of opposition for ces to form the NAR that successfully ended the 30-year unbr oken r ule of the PNM. But Panday’s involvement in the new government lasted only two years after public disagreement with The rise and fall of a T&T political giant ~ Basdeo Panday goes from prime minister to prison inmate FEA FEA TURE TURE May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 7 P anday (CONTINUED ON P AGE 8) May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 7 

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the then Prime Minister ANR Robinson erupted in a divi-sion within the Cabinet. Panday left the gover n ment, taking along some col leagues to form Club 88 that later became the UNC. Defeated in the elections of1991, Panday sat as Oppositionleader in the Parliament until1995, when he negotiated his way to the office of prime minister following the historic tie in the general election. ‘SIL VER FO It is perhaps this strength and belief in self that made him prime minister in the first instance. Following the incon clusive 1995 election whenboth the UNC and the PNMgained 17 seats each, Panday , nicknamed the “Silver Fox” for his political acumen, was able to form a coalitionadministration with the NAR, becoming the first Trinidadianof Indian descent to haveattained the highest political office in the land. He consolidated his government’s shaky position by luring two of the Opposition MPs to his side, while his government nominated ArthurNR Robinson, the NAR leader and minister of extraordinaire for the post of president of the oil rich r epublic. Panday came into of fice pr omising to unite the various ethnic gr oups her e under his “National Unity” banner , while pursuing macro-economic policies that would be beneficial to the entire nation. “My greatest desire is that as prime minister, I will be able to use my office andinfluence to bring our peoplecloser together and to unite allof us, so that together we might better face the challenges ahead,” he said. But his desire to unite the nation has been dismissed byhis critics who pointed to anumber of factors, including his government’s attack on almost all institutions in the countr y ranging fr om the judi ciar y to the media. During his ter m in of fice, Panday made it clear that no one who attacks his administration and “escape unscathed” while flippantly being dismissive of charges of corruptionand other allegations levied against his government. He was fond of ur ging those making such accusationsto “take the evidence to thepolice” while insisting that his administration was the “most transparent” in the history of the country. CMC KENTON CHANCE KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – Thursday, April 13, marked 27 years since La Soufrire in St. Vincent last erupted. V incentians were reminded of the national emer gency plan to be implemented if the volcano becomes active again even as residents of Montserrat were warned last month of incr eased dangers as a r esult of the “vigorous resumption of dome growth” within the Soufrire Hills volcano there. Aisha Samuel, volcanologist at the Soufrire MonitoringUnit, said that the 4048-feetmountain is in a “quiet state”and that the aler t level is at “green”, “which means that the volcano is behaving normally Samuel said there are tremorsonce or twice each month withgaseous emissions. “That’s normal behavior, more or less,” she said. BAD FRIDAY It was on a Good Friday morning 27 years ago that La Soufrire belched ash and lava on St. Vincent and neighboring Barbados. And Martin Bernard, recountingthe 1979experience,spoke of thelack of pr eparedness then. “Things were so hectic, peoplewer e really getting hun gr y, so we went back to our little shopin OrangeHill and gotflour and lotsof bananas,” Barnard, a former ownerof the Orange Hill Estate recounted in a Ministry ofAgricultur e publication last month. Bar nard’s efforts were “just to keep the wolf from the door until the government machinery could have kicked in with food from otherplaces.” And, the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO anniversary of the eruption to apprise residents of this multiisland nation of r evisions to the volcano plan drafted in1979. Michele Forbes, acting director of training at NEMO, says the revised volcano plan of 2004 focuses on threats towhich r esidents can be exposed if the volcano erupts. The plan identifies the “red areas” in which evacuation is mandatory in a volcanic eruption. These are the communities on the north east and north west of mainland St. Vincent. Forbes said because of the higher level ofmonitoring since1979, NEMO can start warning resi-dents early of any activity at the vol-cano. At this stage, the plan allows for families in the “redar eas” to identify the shelters to which theywant to r elocate, hence minimizing separation. The planalso identifies theevacuation r outes and r endezvous points, both at the community and national levels. CHALLENGE Forbes said the major challenge to evacuation during a volcanic er uption in St. Vincent would be pyroclastic flow. And, although shesaid this did not occur in 1979, Forbes said the Rabacca “dry” River, in north west St. Vincent, is a natural path for lava flow. This would cut off all the communities north of the Rabacca River, which is essentially a sea of aggregate and a highly unpredictableflow of water making sea evacuation on the rough,Atlantic side of the islandmandator y. Disaster officials also fear and are preparing for tsunamisthat could be generated if the flank of the volcano collapses. NEMO took to communitiesacr oss the nation sensitizing r esidents about the dangers of a volcanic er uption and how they could minimise loss of life and property. Houlda Peters, NEMO’s training of ficer, said the r esponse to the itinerant exhibition was “ver y, very, very, good.” CMC The rise and f all of a T&T political giantLa Soufrire eruption: 27 years on FEA FEA TURE TURE 8 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 La Soufriere erupts. Street Address: 9020 SW 152nd Street, Miami, FL 33157 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 6010 Miami, FL33116-6010. Telephone: (305 (305305 1-800-605-7516 E-mail: caribtoday@earthlink.net Send ads to: ct_ads@bellsouth.net Vol.17,Number 6 MAY.2006 PETER AWEBLEY Publisher GORDON WILLIAMS Managing Editor DAMIAN P. GREGORY Deputy Managing Editor SABRINAFENNELL Graphic Artist DOROTHYCHIN Account Executive SUNDAYSELLERS Account Executive AMANDAECHEVERRI Accounting ManagerCaribbean Media Source Media Representatives TOM JONAS 353 St. Nicolas Street, Suite 200 Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Y2P1 Tel: (514514 E-mail: tom@cmsworldmedia.com Jamaica Bureau MARIE GREGORY (876 P.O. Box 127, Constant Spring Kingston 8, JamaicaOpinions expressed by editors and writers are not necessarily those of thepublisher . Caribbean T oday , an independent news magazine, is published every month by Caribbean Publishing Services, Inc. Subscription rates are: US$20 per year (Bulk . Caribbean Today is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photos. To guarantee return, please include a selfaddressed stamped envelope. Articles appearing in Caribbean Today may not be reproduced without written permission of the editor . A REGION RESPONDS Last month Basdeo Panday, then leader of Trinidad and Tobago’s Opposition United National Congress (UNC and a former prime minister of the twin-island republic, was convicted of criminal char ges. His sentencing dr ew a range of r eactions in the Caribbean. Below ar e some of the responses: “It is a de v el opment thataffects the image of the Caribbean politician Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur reportedly quoted by the Daily Nation newspaper. “I understand that he should be tr eated harshly , but the idea of sentencing a 72-y ear -old man to hard labor,I think it offends amoral tone in a lot of us and for that r eason it was a bit shocking” political scientist Peter Wickham. “By virtue of Section 49 (3 Republic of Trinidad and Tobago,Mr.Basdeo Panday, representative for the Constituency of Couva North,shall forthwith cease to perform his functions as a member of the House of Repr esentativ es” T&T President Professor MaxRic har ds declaring the office of the Leader of theOpposition vacant follo wing the guilty ver dict. P oliticians must begin to understand that to serv e in public service is an honor and is not a route to quick enrichment.One can’t use the opportunities created by the virtue of holding public officeto corruptly or otherwise enrich themselves” Chester Humphrey,who represents the labor mo vement in the Grenada Senate . “Nobody is a bove the la Chairman of St.Lucia’s Integrity CommissionRandolph Evelyn, adding that P anda s conviction should serve as a lesson for St. Lucia and the wider Caribbean. Compiled from CMC and other sources . (CONTINUED FROM P AGE 7) May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 8 

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W ASHINGTONGeorge Washington issaid to havedescribed Congress’sfunctions as the hot tea of the House poured intothe coolingsaucer of theSenate. On the volatile issue of immigra-tion, a saucer may not beenough. A chilled dinner platesounds mor e like it. A taste of how low the debate can go spilled outwhen Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California we give jobs now held largelyby illegal aliens to convicts. “Isay , let the prisoners pick the fr uits!” he said. Ah, yes, involuntary servitude. I think we tried that once before in America. Didn’t work out. Yet, even a remark as memorably goofy as Rohrabacher’s stumbles onto a troubling truth: If we didlook to prison workers to save certain industries, we wouldfind an unfor tunately gr owing labor pool. America’s porous borders and bulging prisons both stemfr om a dir ty little open secr et: Our national desire to live life on the cheap. CHEAPER YET Y es, it’s cheaper, at least in the shor t r un, to lock up people after they commit crimes than to invest earlier inthe lives of poor , under educat ed children, long before they spiral downward into lives ofcrime. And it’s cheaper for consumers to give a wink and anod to massive illegal immi gration, as long as it helps them to avoid paying more forr estaurant meals, pr oduce, home construction and various domestic services like nannies, housekeepers and gardeners. Republicans, notable as they usually are for lockstep party discipline, are dividedover immigration because the countr y always has been deeply divided on immigra tion. We’re a nation of immigrants, voluntarily or involuntarily, who never have been quite sure of how many new immigrants are enough -or what kind of immigrantswill make the best Americans.Even Benjamin Franklin, wholater would enlist Ger man help with our Revolutionary W ar , railed in 1751 against the “swarm” of German immigrants he feared would makePennsylvania “a Colony ofAliens.” In a far mor e relaxed time, the 1986 SimpsonMazzoli law legalized threemillion illegal immigrants in a mass amnesty, accompaniedby new employer sanctions and other get-tough measuresthat didn’ t stay tough ver y long. Now, 20 years later, Congress finds itself grapplingwith an estimated 11 million more illegal immigrants andan unexpected but under standable opposition to President Bush’s proposed plan to allow temporary“guest workers” to take “jobs Americans don’t want.” Again, we’re talking about cheap. If the president were being candid, he would say, “jobs Americans don’ t want at the low wages that illegalworkers will eagerly accept.” REVEALING In a revealing sign of the times, Bush’s plans have run into a stalemate in Congress between its two most powerfulfactions: Republicans vs.Republicans. HouseRepublicans in Decemberpassed a get-tough bill that,among other br eathtakingOh we all long for them, lust after them, womenhate and fear them, many of them hate themselves, but loose women are a perma-nent par t of society . Loose women leave their musk, their perfume and instilfear in other women, mer ely because of their sheer potential to take away their men from them, real or imagined. Loose women are the stuff that legends are made, theyar e the subject of male gossip and the stories and accom plishments last forever. “Say what,she could do what,and for how long,and where?” Every young lad remembers that special girl fr om high school days who left her mark on him, and others, and oth ers, and others. Loose women are the subject of graffiti, the poetry of the streets and bath-r ooms. or a really great time, call Lurline,she can suck agolf ball through twenty feet of garden hose. Now with the Inter net, you can simply log on to www//xxx.com. PURPOSE Loose women serve their purpose and are here to stay.Even in the Bible loosewomen held center court, as when one was about to bestoned, Jesus r ebuked the mob with the now famous line, “He who is without sin,cast the first stone.” Loose women are the object of desire of males of allages, fr om young boys just appr oaching puberty, to middling men, single, married or in between, to the oldermales, who now have thedubious distinction of having dirty placed before theirnames, to wit, Dir ty Old Men. Loose women have them lusting. If it wasn’ t for loose women, many boys would never know what it is to expe-rience sex. Say what you will, but many fathers still intro-duce their sons to sex via ther oute of loose women. Other boys get the experience from girls with a less thanr espectable r eputation. “Hey,just go check Easy Eloise,she will let off for acream. Loose women fill a niche. When a man wants a fling with no commitment, he seeks out aloose woman.After all, agood womanwill want along ter m relationship with all thetrappings,pitfalls andemotional baggage, things he does notneed. If he did, he’d just staywith his wife. Loose womenpr ovide a relief with no strings attached. Loose women are more likely to have one night stands, although many socalled good women have alsoindulged in this practice. The irony is, usually after a onenight stand, a good womaninstantly becomes a ‘loosewoman’. A loose woman does not care about reputation, andmay even juggle two or thr ee men at the same time. GRA TIFICATION Loose women exist for instant gratification; loosewomen appear in por no movies and may even become huge stars. Where would thatindustr y be without loose U.S.border policy: balance,not baloney VIEWPOINT VIEWPOINT May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 9 Long live loose women TONY ROBINSON CLARENCE P AGE (CONTINUED ON P AGE 10) (CONTINUED ON PAGE 10) May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 9 

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provisions, would turn the nation’ s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants into felons and criminalize anyone who assisted them in any way. Just what we need: more convicts. Perhaps they, too, can pick fruits, ifRohrabacher gets his way. Fortunately, that cool saucerof the Senate respondedr ecently with a recipe of measures that return the debate to a realm resembling reason and reality. Their bill would boost border security, but also allowimmigrants who alr eady ar e here to work their way to legal status, temporary or per-manent, depending on how long they’ve been here. Now , the heated process to r econcile the two measures could drag on and on, maybe even past the November elec-tions, which would be just fine with quite a few nervous incumbents in both parties. Yet, Congress should not be allowed to wiggle that easily out of whatmany per ceive to be a growing immigra-tion crisis. Ifnothing else, Congressshould deliver what it promised in the 1986 but failed to deliver: Better border controlsto keep new illegals out andan or derly process to lift those who already here out of the underground economy and into the mainstream workfor ce. I know, I know, neither goal is per fect. Hardliners oppose another amnesty , and, no matter how high we build fences or walls along the border, some new folks will sneak in even if only by overstay-ing tourist or student visas. But we can’t let the pursuit of perfection be the enemy of needed, if imper fect, improvements. Past immigrationr eforms failed not because they were bad laws but because they were not enforced. Our country, includ-ing its many newcomers, deserve better than that. Ourleaders need to come up with balance in our immigration policy , not more baloney. 2006 by The Chicago Tribune.Distributed by Tribune Media Services Ltd. women? And even as society looks down on the porno industry, it still ranks as one ofthe world’ s largest industries. Loose women supply maga zines with photos that have males and even some females,fr om age thr ee to 93, dr ooling at the pages. Without loose women, all that would be zip, zero, nada. Then we have theloose women dancers who fill the strip joints and clubs, hav-ing lascivious men leer andsalivate as they bump, grindand wine. Just mention thename go-go and watch the reaction of some men, menwho ar e hooked on loose women, drawn like the moth to the flame, as the allure and lore of the loose womanexcites and titillates him. Evena tight man will pour hismoney into a loose woman,rather than give it to his wife,or even his child. Loose women have that magnetism. When you watch those HBO documentaries about hookers, you will understand. Men in fancy cars will cruisethe str eets in sear ch of loose women, and the risks that they take are enormous. Thewads of cash that they fork over are huge. Loose women can earn a good living. But it’s not all glory and glamour, even for the high class call girls. The life of the loosewoman isn’ t what it’ s cut out to be, as even though they’re sought after, desired by men,year ned after , it’s not usually for a long term relationship. But loose women need love too. The irony is, menwill say that they want a loose woman, and they really do,but the usual phrase is: “Heyman, only for a good time, remember, some you marryand some you just have fun and run.” The ir ony is, the few men who take the chance and set-tle down with a loose woman often regret it, for loosewomen often do not changeand will exhibit looseness withother men. Why are you bitching, you knew that I was a loosewoman when you met me, didn’t I two time my husbandwith you?” I spoke to some good women (tight as opposed toloose?) who wer e lamenting the fact that they had no men, while others had men but themen seemed bor ed with them, lost interest, had no passionfor them. “He says he wants me to act loose with him sometimes, but I just can’t be what I’m not, I wasn’t brought up that way,” one told me. “I’m a good woman and my boyfriend is always looking at porno and lusting at loosewomen how can I get him tolook at me that way?” anotherone told me. THE TRICK The trick is to be all things to men, a good woman by day, but a loose woman by night. Few women have mas-ter ed that ar t, ver y few . What usually happens is that men will settle with good women,even mar r y them, but have loose women as mistresses. The loose women who I spoke to included multi-partners women, mistresses, plussome generally loose womenwho gave new meaning to thewor d promiscuity, and the one underlying theme from all of them was that they got no love, real love that is. “Oh, the men come, spend time, but always gohome to their wives,” was the common cry. Loose women ar e always left lonely , no matter how often the man visits, whether it’s for a short term fund andfun lay away plan, or a mis tr ess who lets him in, then lets him out before the crack ofdawn, the feeling is the same, unloved and lonely. Men justdon’ t seriously stick ar ound with loose women. So even though they may look hot andsexy , healthy body and lusty, it’ s often a sad lonely life for a loose woman. Damn, damned if they do, and they do so often. Seido1@hotmail.com Long live loose womenU.S.border policy: balance,not baloney VIEWPOINT VIEWPOINT 10 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9) (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9) All the Caribbean has lost a good comrade” P eter David, general secretary of the National Democratic Congress of Grenada on the murder of Guyana’s Agriculture Minister Satyadeow “Sash”Sawh last month. e view this as totally unac-cepta ble and we hold the policecommissioner totally and personally respon-sible for this” a statement issued last month by the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry following Sawh’s murder. “No one no territory,no matter how smallcan hideas these desperate criminalsact globally” Lord Goldsmith, the British government’ s top lawyer warning of the importance of all Overseas Territories pulling together inthe fight against internationalterrorism. “No one should be allowed to walk around with a cutlass; no one has a right to threaten any-one” Grenada’ s PrimeMinister Dr . Keith Mitchell hop-ing to quell the fears of twofeuding communities in his constituency last month. s a blight that will never go awa Bermuda’s National Drug Control Minister Wayne Perinchiefvoicing his support for do wngrading marijuana offenses ina bid to stop criminalizing “victims”of the illegal drug trade. Compiled from CMC and other sources. Hardliners oppose another amnesty,and,no matter how high we build fences or walls along the border,somenew folks will sneak in... May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 10 

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CBA’S BARRISTER’S BALL Frederick Morton, general manager for MTV’sCaribbean Cable ChannelTEMPO, is the scheduledkeynote speaker at the 2006 Barrister’s Ball to be stagedon June 10 by the Caribbean Bar Association’s Central Florida Chapter. The black tie event will kick off the CBA-CF’ s Caribbean American Heritage Month celebrations. Morton was born and raised in St. Croix, UnitedStates V irgin Islands, to Nevisian parents. Before joining TEMPO, he was senior vice president and deputy general counsel of business and legal affairs at MTV Networks. Prior to joining MTV , he practiced law at the fir m of Simpson & Thatcher. Before that, the graduate of Rutgers University School ofLawhe was a corporate coun sel at Johnson and Johnson. For more information about the CBA and the ball, visit www.caribbeanbar.org JAMAICA YOUTH PAGEANT The annual Miss Jamaica Florida 2006 Pageant will be held on J une 25 in South Florida. The pageant, presented by the Partners for Youth Foundation in association with ABI Startime, allows contestants who are either Jamaicanborn or of Jamaican parentage to vie for titles in four age categories: five to eight; nine to12; 13-16 and 17-21. This year’s event is scheduled to be held on at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts. For more information, call June Minto at 954-7396618 or 954-721-6268. STORYTELLING The Miami-Dade Public Librar y System will present its 5th Annual Inter national Art of Storytelling Family Festival Day fr om 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 20 at the Main Library, Miami-Dade Cultural Plaza,101 W . Flagler St. The festival, presented in collaboration with the Rio de Janeiro Public Library, willfeatur e live music, food, Brazilian mar tial arts, games and crafts. Childr en will be treated to a special appearance by PBS characters Arthur & DW, Clifford, Maya& Miguel, and they will also have the chance to win freebooks with stamps collected in their festival passport. The event is free and open to the public. MiamiDade Transit is offering freebus and Metr orail passes (while supplies last For more information, call 305-375-BOOK (2665 , or visit www .mdpls.org PASSPORTS The National Passport Information Center (NPIC the United States Department of State’ s single, centralized public contact center for U.S. passport information, is offering a toll free service and has expanded its service availability/options. Persons with questions or need status checks on pending passport applications can call 1-877-487-2778 . Customer service representatives are available from 8 a.m.to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday , excluding Federal holidays. Automated information is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For e-mail access, visit: npic@state.gov Website of passport and other interna-tional travel infor mation is available at tra vel.state .g ov ‘GREEN CARD’ FILING The United States Citizenship and ImmigrationSer vices (USCIS announced that aliens must mail applications to r enew or r eplace per manent r esident car ds, commonly known as “Green Cards”, directly to theLos Angeles Lockbox. The Lockbox is a processing facility used by USCIS toaccelerate the collection of applications and petitions. The announced change allowsthe agency to impr ove the processing of Form I-90 (Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card) by electronically capturing dataand images and by per forming fee receipting and depositing from one central location,rather than at the local districtof fice, service center, or application suppor t center (ASC Aliens filing a For m I-90, regardless of their state of residence, must mail those appli-cations with an application feeof $185 and a biometrics feeof $70 to one of the following addresses: For U.S. Postal Service (USPS U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, P.O.Box 54870 Los Angeles, CA90054-0870; Or for non-USPS deliveries (e.g. private couriers U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Attention: I-90, 16420 V alley View Ave., La Mirada, CA 90638 Applicants should not include initial evidence and supporting documentation when submitting the Form I-90 to the Los AngelesLockbox. Applicants will receive a notice for a biometrics processing appointment at an ASC and will submit their initial evidence during that appointment. Applicants will receive their biometrics appointment in the mail. VIEWPOINT VIEWPOINT May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 11 Caribbean not pulling... for independent gains, but for collective gains they shudder . C.T.:In terms of the vulnerability of the Caribbean (undocumented) population, you mentioned the ‘bogeyman’who offers them sweet deals and don’t deliver,that will show up more now? E.C .: And is going to show up itself more. I am optimistic that some form of immigration reform will come. I don’t knowwhen, because it cr eates a new industry for fraud. When you star t to put up cut off points (for an undocumented alien to qualify for amnesty) and a man misses the cut off point by two days, do you really think he’sgoing to say ‘I missed the cut off point by two days I’mgonna go back home?’ Hell no, he’s going to make sure he qualifies himself one way or another. That’s why we say any immigration reform that is to be passed has to be wide enough to the largest possible amount of persons are involved. So those who are left out is a mor e manageable gr oup to be controlled. C.T.:Do you think Washington hears the Caribbean? E.C.: No, Washington hears the Latino gr oup, and that’s what is driving it (the protest rallies C.T.:And that’s whose fault? E.C .: I think the answer is self explanatory. Recently, case inpoint, CARICOM met with (U.S. Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice and the sub ject matter they wer e discussing was deportation. Nobody is gonna listen to them when you start with deportation. You speakon immigration, its implication,how we assist the United States,how the United States need to reciprocate. You look at it in ageneral sense. Once you pigeonhole yourself with deportation,the ar gument locks. No one in the (U.S. Congr essional is going to go back to their constituents saying we are going to relax situations so that criminals to remain here.Hell no. C .T .:So Caribbean people are not carrying their own weighton immigration matters? E.C .: W e ar e not car r ying our own weight, no. W e need to take a page from Vincente Fox, (president Vincente Fox, in every opportunity that he gets to addr ess the United States government or services, he mentions his Mexican people. Morton (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6) May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 11 

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Here’s a great treat that’s per fect as a snack or appetizer. It’s one of the many international treats that can be prepared using healthy and flavorful citrus. The new book “Citrus Cookbook: Tantalizing Food & Beverage Recipes from Around the World”, by FrankThomas and Marlene Leopold, lists over 200 citrus recipes that include condiments, sauces and dressings,appetizers, soups and salads,rice, pasta, seafood, and meat entrees as well as breads and desserts. It even includes recipes for over 25 delicious citrusbeverages including tangy strawberry rhubarb lemonade, refreshing mint strawberryCooler , and a super-zesty blackberry lime margarita. INGREDIENTS T wo 15 3/4-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed Two oranges, peeled, seeded and chopped Two mangoes, peeled, pitted and chopped 1/2 sweet red pepper, cored, seeded and chopped Three Serrano chiles, or one large jalapeno chile seeded and thinly sliced Two tablespoons fresh lime juice Two tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro One teaspoon grated fresh ginger METHOD Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Tightly cover and place the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Serve with hot tortilla chips or chunks of Cuban or French bread to please themost finicky of appetites. Yield: eight cups. FeatureSource Everyone likes a barbeque –the simple and hearty fare has uni-versal appeal and isappr opriate for almost ever y gathering. Use these flavorful and simple recipes from “The Dinner PartyCookbook” (MeadowbrookPr ess) to have a fun cookout! For the garlic toast, get one large loaf French bread, sliced, a stick of butter and one teaspoon garlic, minced. Place bread slices on a cookie sheet and toast on one side under the over broiler. In a saucepan or a micr owave-safe container, combine butter and garlic and heat over low hear or in a micr owave until melted. Spread the butter mixture on untoasted sides of the bread and return the bread tothe br oiler , butter -side up, until golden. Serve immediately. T ip: Befor e mincing gar lic, sprinkle the garlic cloves with a little salt. The salt will absorb some of the garlic juice and keep the garlic from stick-ing to the knife. Makes eightser vings. B ARBECUED SPARERIBS INGREDIENTS 1 cup ketchup 1 cup orange juice 1/3 cup honey 1 cup soy sauce 2 cloves garlic 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper 4 to 5 pounds pork spareribs METHOD In a medium bowl, com bine all the ingr edients except spareribs; mix well to make the marinade.Ar range the ribs in a shallow pan and pour the marinade on top. Cover the pan with a lid or aluminum foil and marinate for eight hours or overnight. Remove the ribs from the pan and place them on a pre-heated barbecue grill. Cook slowly, away from high heat,for about 20 to 30 minutes oruntil done, basting continually with remaining marinade. Serve with plenty of napkins. Makes eight ser vings. WATERMELON SORBET 3 cups watermelon chunks, seeded 3 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons lemon juice Thin watermelon wedges for garnish METHOD In a blender, mix together the watermelon chunks, sugar, and lemon until slushy. Pour the mixture into metal bowl and fr eeze for about 30 minutes. Remove the bowl from the freezer and beat the mixturewith an electric mixer . Repeat freezing/whipping process one or two mor e times befor e serving, until mixture reaches the desired consistency. Snack on hot,spicy black beans with mango salsa Celebrate summer with a barbeque feast 12 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 FOOD FOOD www.caribbeantoday.com Barbecue spareribs May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 12 

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NEW YORK, CMC The Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO says it has reached an agreement withthe UnitedStates PostalSer vice (USPS to facilitate application for U.S. passports at CTOorganized events. “CTO has taken this necessaryleadership r ole in appr oaching the USPS to establish a partnership to ensure that the passport application process isquick and convenient for prospective Caribbeanvacationers who will needdocumentation to r eturn home star ting in January 2007”, CTO said in a state-ment late last month. It said the partnership would help “address the new U.S. requirement under theW ester n Hemispher e T ravel Initiative for all travellers entering or re-entering theUnited States star ting December 31, 2006 to be in possession of a valid pass port”. CRUCIAL Caribbean gover nments have said the new requirement could adversely affect the tourism industr y in the region. e see this partnership as a crucial ingredient in our nationwide efforts to infor m consumers about the need to get passports before the December 31, 2006 deadline set by the U.S. government,” said Hugh Riley , CTO’ s director of marketing for the Americas. e support the U.S. Postal Service efforts and appreciate all that they plan to do to help inform and sign upcitizens for U.S. passpor ts. W ith the deadline fast approaching, we don’t want to jeopardize the peak vacation season next winter when vaca-tioners will not be allowed to re-enter the U.S. without avalid passpor t.” CTO said that the USPS had been actively promotingits passpor t ser vices around the country and would have application for ms and a cam era at the Caribbean Fair on June 13, where U.S. citizens can apply for a U.S. passportwithout dif ficulty . CTO to help U.S. citizens get passportsAnalyst identifies four Caribbean tourism hot spots T T OURISM OURISM / / TRA TRA VEL VEL May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 13 HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC A leading international corporate finance companyhas identified four Caribbeanstates as being in the for efront of tourism development activi ty and the focus of investor financing among the international banking community. Simon Townend, partner at KPMG Corporate Finance,told the 10th Caribbean Hotel and Tourism InvestmentConfer ence last month that while several Caribbean coun tries wer e doing well, St. Lucia, Barbados, the Turks and Caicos and The Bahamas were the hot spots. “This we think is a success story of the private sector and governments working closely together ensuring that the corr ect infrastructure is in place, and that the destination is marketed and finding the right investors who are committed to the long term have deeppockets and can make things happen,” the KPMG official said. ATTRACTIVE He said in the case of The Bahamas, ther e were three billion dollar projects underway in the south, one involv ing golfer Tiger Woods, so it was a very attractive location for investment at this time. s something of a mar keting engine, with as many as five million tourists going into The Bahamas each year ,” he said. Townend said St. Lucia was always a very strong product which attracted the highend traveller and tended to be well marketed and there was a lot of construction activity taking place on the island, while the Turks and Caicos, and Grace Bay Beach in particular, was developingquickly . “The development there is huge and prices are skyrocketing, there is a lot happening there so it is all very positive,” he said. He said with the 2007 Cricket World Cup coming up, there were a lot of new projects underway inBarbados, and while the event provided only a short window,and ther e were concerns going for ward as to how this additional capacity would be used,the fact was the event has brought in huge investmentfor a year or two. “The event will surely bring in hundreds of visitorsduring the few weeks who willcome back and by wor d of mouth encourage others tovisit,” he said. The KPMG Partner said CWC provided a lot of posi-tive benefits which would puteach of the host countries onthe map and as a world event, people will now start thinking about Barbados and stop confusing it with The Bahamas or Bermuda. He said while the short term windfall was great, it was important how the investments were managed in the long term to ensure that what was being built up now, would not end up empty inthe years ahead. BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC – St. Kitts and Nevisis bracing for an influx ofvisitors over the next two years as a result of increased visits by theRoyal Caribbean and Celebrity cruise lines, according to junior TourismMinister Richar d Skerritt. He said Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cr uise Lines (RCI med that they will be significantly increasing the number of callsand the size of their ships to the federation starting in Oct.2007. Skerritt last month held talks with executives of RCI in Miami, Florida and said theincr ease in visitor ar rivals would be felt by the local cr uise sector in the 2007/2008 season, when five RCI shipswill be deployed to St. Kitts. He said the five ships carry a total of 11,478 passengers. He said as a r esult of RCI rescheduling their calls, the ships would make an estimated 45 calls here, bringing mor e than 103,000 passengers to the island. He said he is confident that all of the local tourismstakeholders would take advantage of the new challenge to improve the qualityof “our destination’ s products and services while undergoing such significant gr owth.” In the 2005/06 cruise season, which ended last month,St. Kitts had a total of 28 callsfr om the RCI’ s “Empr ess of the Seas” and the Celebrity Cruises “Constellation”. Forthe upcoming 2006/2007 sea son, which begins in October , RCI/Celebrity will again have 28 calls to St. Kitts, but in addition to the “Empress” and the “Constellation”, a third ship, Celebrity Cruises’“Galaxy” will be deployed to St. Kitts. ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC enada Board of Tourism (GBT for the marriage laws of the country to be changed tomeet the gr owing demand from cruise ship passengers who want to get married here. Newly appointed GBT Chairperson Nikoyan Roberts said Grenada is losing out onbusiness oppor tunities since there have been requests from couples about tying the matri-monial knots on the island. “There are other islands that have done their researchand gone ahead and changedthe legislation to make it easi er for their different niches to maximize these economic returns,” Roberts said. “One of our niches is wedding and honeymoons and we’r e not making it avail able for mor e people to come, get married and drive busi-ness.” A visiting couple wishing to marry in Grenada needs to spend at thr ee days on the island befor e taking the marriage vow. But the Grenadian official is hoping that the Marriage Act could be changed to provide marriage for less than one day. St.Kitts prepares for visitor influx 2007-8Tourism officials seeking change to marriage la ws Golfer Tiger Woods is reportedly involved in a Caribbean tourism project. Empress of the Seas May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 13 

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CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC Regional tourism officials, who met here last month, called for the market strategy for the Caribbean to be changed in an effort to come to terms with an increasingly competitive environment. The calls came during a series of professional development meetingshosted by theCaribbean Society of HotelAssociation Executives(CSHAE President of the St Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHT A) Allen Chastanetsent a str ong message to investors inthe r egional tourism indus tr y that they should heed the recent changes in the global travel market as a signthat dif ficulties may lie ahead for the industry. “Right now the competition fr om cruise ships is crucifying us,” he told representatives from 10 hotels and tourismassociations acr oss the Caribbean. “The honeymoon afforded us by 9/11 is over. Asia is on the way back and they are coming back str onger than ever before. The need for a regional marketing campaign is more apparent than ever before,” Chastanet said. The CHA director also claimed that governments tend to shy away from thedevelopment of the tourism sector and focus mor e on local politics. He contended that they needed to change theirappr oach to the tourism industry so they may treat it an expor t. BRAND Pr esident of CSHAE and representative of the Barbados Hotel and TourismAssociation Sue Springer suppor ted the call for a new direction in marketing, noting that although Caribbean gov-er nments have recognized the potential economic impact of tourism, sufficient attention is not being given to the industry. e need to look at the Caribbean as a brand. Somepeople say I am going to Asia.I am going to the Middle East. I am going to the Far East. But peopledon’ t often say I am going to the Caribbean. They say they are going to St. Lucia orJamaica,” she said. Springer said people need to be sensitized that theCaribbean is a brand as a region and thenther e will be individ ual opportunities for each island to alsomarket themselves for their own culture and diversity. President of the CaribbeanHotel AssociationBer thia Parle said the Caribbean Federation ofNational Hotel and Tourism Associationsis the backbone ofthe Caribbeantourism private sector. “Our goal is to str engthen the relationship between national hotel associ ations, CHA and its subsidiaries and explore how togetherwe can drive thetourism private sector to achieve better r esults, enhanced performance and more pro-ductivity at the national level,” Parle said. Guyana gives ‘green light’ to three new air carriersRegional officials want changes to Caribbean marketing strategy T T OURISM OURISM / / TRA TRA VEL VEL 14 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 Chastanet GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC The Guyanese govern-ment has given the go-aheadfor thr ee new international carriers to ply its regional and international routes. Head of the Presidential Secr etariat (HPS Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon told reporters thatCabinet authorized grantinglicenses to Caribbean Air Systems; Travelspan GuyanaInc.; and E-JET Inc. “The three carriers will be establishing escrow accounts and performance bonds prior to commencing opera-tions...which ar e expected to commence by the peak seasonof 2006,” Luncheon said. He said the size of the escr ow accounts lodged depended on the range of service to be offered,among otherundisclosedfactors. It has been agreedthatCaribbeanAir Systems will provide ar egional service to Belem, Cayenne, Paramaribo, Port of Spain, Caracas, Curacao, St. Maartenand Santo Domingo. Travelspan Guyana Inc, a sister company of the existing Travelspan Inc., which cur-r ently provides chartered services between Por t of Spain and Nor th America, would provide direct service to New Y ork, while E-Jet Inc. will fly the Georgetown – New York and Georgetown Toronto routes, the government offi-cial said. In r ecent times there have been dramatic collapses of local carriers, with GA 2000and Universal Airlines folding in the last five years. Universal is still to repay scores of passengers leftstranded in Caribbean andNor th American countries last summer after the business collapsed. Local and overseas officials representing the three new airlines held detailed dis-cussions with the GuyanaCivil A viation Authority (GCAA e their licenses wer e granted. Luncheon May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 14 

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May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 15 May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 15 

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DAWN A. DAVIS Yet another mainstream conglomerate has carved out a big piece of the Caribbean entertain-ment business. Recently, Black Entertainment Television (BET announced changes to its BET Jazz television network. Witha new attitude and name,BET J, the channel will increase its Caribbean musicand cultur e programming in addition to offering news from the r egion. Launching its new format, Cybelle Brown, vice presidentof sales and marketing for Events Production and BET Digital Networks, said “ther e will be a lot mor e Caribbean coverageW e will be a tr ue home for Caribbean artists to present their skills and talent.”Br own added “BET as a company has always recognized the Caribbean as par t of the African American heritage and culture. As a company that targets this demographic(African Americansthat it is critical to include Caribbean programming onour networks.” The BET J executive outlined that the channel has created an entire day of Caribbean programming,adding: “Our audiences loveit, and we generate successfulbusiness par tnerships from the region. There is a lot of demand for this format and we are currently exploring theeconomic advantages of it.” BET’s move is not the first foray into Caribbeanenter tainment by a major media outlet outside the r egion as MTV launched its T empo network late last year with a focus primarily on Caribbean enter tainment and cultural activities. MTV held a series of launches in severalislands, including Jamaica,which set the stage for other serious ventures into theCaribbean market. Certainly not new to BET, the primarily African American-focused networkhas always showcasedCaribbean music festivals,such as the St. Lucia Jazz Festival on its BET Jazz channel. However, this makeover is designed to capture a huge shar e of the Caribbean market in South Florida, New York and most of the region wher-ever BET J is available. P AR TNERSHIP BET Jazz has been working hand-in-hand with its “sister” MTV Digital Networks to help build its Caribbean audiences. According to the company, BET J’s viewership isexpected to shoot to an incredible 21 million households, eight million more than the cur rent channel’s market shar e. These numbers should boost the digital network’ s “relationship with its Caribbean destination par tners,” according to the company . Those destination partners include Barbados, St. Lucia, Anguilla, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Antigua, Trinidad andT obago, and T urks and Caicos. e ar e pursuing other partnerships and look forward toworking with eachisland to successfullyachieve their strategic plans for their destina tion,” Br own under scor ed. Asked about the per centage of Caribbean viewers, Brown said: “We do not have a measure of what percentageof Caribbean viewers watch the channel, however, what I can say is that we are carried in every major U.S. market where there are largeCaribbean communities. In New Y ork for example, where 25 per cent of the population is Caribbean, we ar e carried by Time Warner Cable (Channel 89) and Cable V ision, and we are in 80 percent of the television households in New York, probably greater now with ourDir ectTV launch.” A subsidiary of Viacom, Inc., BET Jazz is a 24-hour channel that provides jazz music, news, and information for primarily a black audience.It car ries live concerts and festivals, in-studio events. MIXED IMPACT Undoubtedly, Caribbean entertainment producers have taken note. How will this seeming trend impact theirbusiness? “The fact that BET is now spotlighting Caribbean cultureand music is only going toenhance it. I think it’ s a wonderful opportunity. They are finally r ealizing that there is a wealth of information and entertainment that has beenuntapped,” said BobbyClarke, chief executive of ficer of New Y ork-based Irie Jam Radio and independent pr o ducer. Clarke welcomes the move by BET J because of the attention it brings to the genre, adding “it exposes whatwe ar e doing globallyI must commend them for finally see ing the light.” He also had good words for Frederick Morton, founder of MTV’s Tempo channel. However, noted reggae artiste and producer Freddie McGregor disagrees. “BET is not doing this because they think theCaribbean has talent, they see the Caribbean as a gr eat market wher e they can make money ,” McGregor explained. “It is all money driven.” Referring to the network as Black American T elevision, McGregor continued, “BET has never helped Caribbean artistes. The few artistes whomanage to be shown on BET is because they are signed to major record labels (artistessuch as Sean Paul and Kevin Little). BET does not respect the Caribbean people.” The outspoken ar tiste stressed that BET does not work with independent artistes whose videos are not on film, citing quality issues. Explaining that the high costs for pr oducing on film is prohibitive, the reggae artiste admonished: “That cuts outthe entir e Caribbean, and to me that is racist!” For those who feel they ar e being squeezed out of the business Clarke had this to say: “It is closed-minded to feel that way. If you are confident in your product and what you are producing, then noth-ing can touch it.” IGNORED McGregor agrees that there is great talent comingout of the Caribbean, butwithout a network of their own few are acknowledged. e yearn for assistance fr om companies like BET , but it never happened. So, ther e is no real interest as far as I cansee. They just see money in the Caribbean,” he said. Although Clarke welcomed BET J, he explainedthat local Caribbean networks are doing a better job. “I have seen better proCaribbean’s top women writers for conferenceP oetr y goes Wilde in JamaicaBET targets Caribbean music,culture markets AR AR TS TS / / ENTER ENTER T T AINMENT AINMENT 16 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 Clarke McGregor Some of the most talented female writers fr om the region will get together for “The Caribbean W oman Writer as Scholar” conferencebetween May 30 and June 3 inSouth Florida. The 10th anniversar y con ference, presented by Florida International University, will be held at the W estin Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood. Haitian American Edwidge Danticat will ser ve as distinguished confer ence host writer, while Jamaican American Sylvia Wynter will be awar ded a special confer ence honor. Jamaica’s Erna Brodber will be the opening plenary speaker. Among the invited writers are Jamaicans Marcia Douglas, Opal Palmer Adisa and Olive Senior. Martinique’sNicole Cage-Flor entiny , and Haiti’s Evelyne, Myriam Chancy, J.J. Dominique andJoanne Hyppolyte have alsobeen invited. They should be joined by T rinidad and Tobago’s Ramabai Espinet,Merle Hodge, Eintou PearlSpringer and ElizabethNunez, along with LelawatteeManoo-Rahming of TheBahamas and others. The confer ence is scheduled to include panel pr esentations, poetry/spoken word presentations and performance art. For more information, visit www .fiu.edu/africana/caribbean.women Some 50 women ar e expected to come together in Jamaica over two weeks beginning next month to exchange literary skills, knowledge and culture as a pre-cur-sor to the publication of ananthology celebrating thebicentennial of the Abolition of Slavery Act 1807. The annual Wilde Summer Poetr y Alliance (W iSP A) will be launched in Negril on June 30 as women from Jamaica and the United Kingdom collaborate in the first International Black Women Writers Retreat. The retreat is expected to take the for m of an explo ration of Jamaican people and cultures, especially those thatstr ongly r eflect their African heritage; and a series of creative writing workshops. It isscheduled to culminate in a free two-day literary festivalfor the public. WiSPA is the concept of two U.K.-based ar ts or ganiza tions – JustWrite, a community writers group andWILDE Network Ltd., whichhave joined for ces with Positive T ourism in Negril. For more information on the event, call 876-381-1591 ; visit www.wilde2000.org.uk or email Shar on Par risChambers at sharon@posi tivetourism.com (CONTINUED ON P AGE 17) May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 16 

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gramming on Jamaica’s RETV, TVJ, and CVM. BET has a ways to go to catch up tothose stations,” he said. They(BET J Eek-A-Mouse is, whereas local producers have a lot more to offer because they live the culture.” McGr egor lauded the efforts of a network station, Caribbean Satellite Network(CSNup to the 1990s. “CSN was our little BET he said. “When Mr . Cowan was str uggling with CSN, none of them (mainstr eam network companies) would help although they saw the potential. Those were the onlytimes Caribbean music had a chance to be aired across the Caribbean. “BET never had any interest. After CSN went down there was no moreCaribbean videos to be seenin the r egion. Ther e was no network that would car r y any thing Caribbean. All they are doing is sucking out what is left from the poor Caribbeanpeople that they car e nothing about,” McGr egor added. “Basically , our industr y has always been supported by us, nobody else.” Winsome “Lady C” Charlton, founder of the ReggaeSoca Music Awards, isone such suppor ter . First pr e sented in 1994, the awards show , sometimes dubbed “Fiwi Grammy”, recognizes reggae and soca artistesthr oughout the region, traditionally left out of the popular American Grammy A war ds. “It has taken them a long time to r ecognize the incr edi ble talent in the Caribbean,” Charlton said. “I hope they will look into other programslike the ReggaeSoca Music Awards as well.” Charlton explained that BET could go way beyondpr oducing Caribbean music pr ograms. e have so much mor e than music,” she said. “There are plays, carnival, jerk festi-val, fashion shows, and other cultural events. These are thekinds of pr ograms our people want to see on channels likeBET However , the fact that mainstr eam media is r ecogniz ing Caribbean music and culture is what’s important,Clarke said. The bottom line for him is that “people are appreciating reggae music for what it is just great musicI’ve seen the music in a slump for so long, and I’veseen it at its worst. Ther e is no way that this move by BETcan be negative. I welcome more people in the market-place because the only way to grow reggae to the level of rap or rock is to expose it.” Dawn A.Davis is a freelance writer for Caribbean Today. DAMIAN P . GREGORY Sitting comfor tably in a leather chair in his Opa Locka, Florida living room, guitarist Roger Lewis casually supervises the goings-on and talks with excitementand confidence about politics -both. Jamaican and American religion, and how the music industry continues to evolve all of which will be reflected in his group’s latest project. Lewis’s Inner Circle, the quintet of Jamaican-bor n musicians which first came to thefor e in 1970s as a regional group, strives to keep the music flowing. The group, fronted by Jacob Miller through many of its formative years, gained commercial inter-national success a few yearsafter Miller s death. The other members ar e Roger’s brother Ian, who plays bass guitar , keyboard player Bernard “Touter” Harvey, lead vocalist Kris Bentley, and drummer/percus-sionist Lancelot Hall. When Caribbean Today sat down with three members ofthe gr oup that became inter na tionally famous more than two decades ago, they were busy at work in their North Miami home. But they remain low-keydespite the opulence of theirr ecording studio and neighboring home, wher e they work on new r ecordings, mentor new up and coming artistes and run their own business. Lewis is happy calling South Florida home. “I have adapted a little bit of Jamaica here,” he said. Though the gr oup has been together for more than 25years, to most of the world they are known primarily for two songs, “Bad Boys” the 1993 hit that is still the theme for Fox television’s “Cops”, and “Sweat (A La La La La Song)”. The group, thoughhappy for the success of both songs, is bor derline indifferent to it. “Just another song,” Roger Lewis told Caribbean Today . e have worked hard for so long and have done so many other songs,” band mate and br other Ian agreed. As for the critical acclaim, the group has received aGrammy A war d. Y et that, too, they take with a grain of salt. Awards are more about popularity thanabout anything else, they say. “Gimme something fr om Jamaica, it mean mor e to me,” Roger said. “Gimme something from my own Jamaica peopleand Jamaican musicians, say bwoy, dem man deh wicked. That mean moreto me.” On the horizon for the group is its next r elease, tentatively titled “The State of the World”, which members say will chronicle its experiencesin the post 9/11 world. Harvey said the album will be less constrained than someof Inner Cir cle’s past efforts. The members plan to distribute the record themselves without the help of a major record label, which they claim makes more financial sense. ou don’t have to sell a lot of records to make back your money ,” he explained. ith the label, they go forbottom line 300 to 400,000 inAmerica and maybe a 500 to600,000 worldwide, to makeback their moneybecausethey look at it this way , ‘if I invest $100,000 in you I have to make back ($400,000 got big overheads.” To avoid that, they hope to ride the wave of success of digi-tal media that has captivatedthe music industr y and sell dir ectly to their fans via their website www.innercircle-reggae.com. The group estimates it gets 200,000 visits to its site from all over the world, and that isenough to make them viable on the scene for a huge internation-al audience. “It is about the process,” Roger Lewis says. “It is about making something from nothing” that still gets him charged up about the future. Bandmembers say both their kind ofmusic and dancehall can co-exist on the musical landscapeand appeal to dif ferent audiences. “Music is always changing,” he adds. “As long as it’sspiritual and meaningful to thepeople.” Damian P.Gregory is Caribbean Today’s deputy managing editor. Inner Circle opens up to a new world of music AR AR TS TS / / ENTER ENTER T T AINMENT AINMENT May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 17 BET targets Caribbean music... Inner Circle members,from left,Roger Lewis,Kris Bentley,Lancelot Hall,Bernard outer”Harvey and Ian Lewis. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 16) May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 17 

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TORONTO, CMC Toronto will not be having its popularCaribana festival this year , but the city will be home to a newsummer festival of calypso,steel band and mas to beor ganized by a new management committee. After months of wrangling between Caribana or ganizers and the Toronto City Council, it has been revealed that a newfestival, to be called the Toronto Caribbean Committee,will be staged instead ofCaribana, which has been a feature of Canada’s cultural landscape since 1967. This year’s Caribana had been slated to run from July 15 to Aug. 7. The 2006 TorontoCaribbean Car nival will run from July 19 to Aug. 7. The newly appointed Festival Management Committee, which is charged with organizing the new festival,is being headed by Jamaicanborn Joe Halstead, a formereconomic development, culturaland tourism commissioner for the City of Toronto. GORDON WILLIAMS It still puzzles many listen ers outside the Caribbean how music so sweet could possibly escape from beating cut off, dented tops of oildr ums. It’s one of those “how do they do that?”mysteries to those uned ucated about the instru-ment that originated in Trinidad over sevendecades ago. Yet, if the promoters of pan those pas sionate Caribbean islanders get their way,listeners – especiallythose in the UnitedStates will be getting far more chances to sat-isfy their tastes andcuriosities. “Pan is now in ever y corner of the globe,” boasts T rinidadian-born Dr. Ajamu Nyomba, a lecturer at Clark AtlantaUniversity and a foundingmember of the “Pan People”steel band, convener of the recent symposium “Pan in the21st Centur y: The Scholarship and Music of Steel Drums” last month in that Georgia city. s growing in leaps and bounds,” Nyomba would tell Caribbean Today laters growing all over the world.” According to Nyomba’s calculations, pan music is a“multi-billion dollar business.” And the instrument is beingplayed not just in balmy climes of tropical regions suchas the Caribbean, but inplaces wher e fur coats would be the clothing of choice during early year carnival time inthe r egion instead of skimpy costumes that show cur ves and paint almost everywhere. LEARNING P AN There are about 250 steel bands in Switzerland, for example. And in the U.S. the instrument is starting to take hold in school curriculums, instates like Illinois, Florida,W est Virginia and Georgia. A company in Ohio r eportedly sells pan instruments for thousands of dollars a pop. The recent symposium, Nyomba explained, was designed to heighten theawar eness of the potential the business of pan can generate. e want to start an intellectual movement for pan,” he said. “We don’t have a forumto discuss pan on that level.” So r epr esentatives fr om various fields gathered at Clark Atlanta University for acouple days to examine thebusiness of pan, how it can be properly marketed and pro-moted, and how to get theyounger generation involved. They came mainly from NorthAmerica and Eur ope. “What came out is like we are well on our way to havingthat for um,” Nyomba continued, “to share with the international community the different aspects of panThe underlying aim is seewhat we can see, how we can make the returns coming out of pan beneficial to the youth and people of Trinidad and Tobago.” T&T, after all, is the home of pan, the only acousticinstr ument invented in the 20th century. But just as how Nyomba described the origi nation of the instrument from African goat skin drums which came with slaves, to the tam-boo bamboo which then led to the idea for the modern day pan instrument, he is also anxious to see the transformation of pan music from a local Caribbean corner to becomeembraced worldwide like its regional counterpart reggae. However, he is careful not tomatch the two. o me, it’s not an appropriate comparison,” Nyomba said. “Pan is a musical instrument. Reggae is a form of music. It’s like comparingapples and oranges. It’ s not a fair comparison.” Yet he readily accepts r eggae’s popularity worldwide, spurred on by the work of icons such as Bob Marley . It is what he would eventually likepan to match. “That’s the level I want pan to reach,” said Nyomba, who formed Pan People some30 years ago. The band was recognized by Georgia legisla-tors last month with a “PanPeople Steelband Day”. But Nyomba’ s wishes would mean getting more young people involved. Heand band members havetaught pan to students in theU.S. for years. But often, heexplained, many youngAmericans will eventuallyembrace their own cultur e and music as they gr ow older. Still, he claims that three steel bands have been started among predominantly white schools in Georgia in the past four years and he is particularly happy that the Trinidad andT obago government recently ear marked some TT$40 million in its budget for pan instruction in school. Hethinks that will have an impact as more students will beexposed to the pan. “Pan is the easiest instrument to learn to play musicon,” Nyomba said. “Pan hasthis natural feel.” LACKING UNDERST ANDING Yet he was not pleased that the T&T government did not send a representative tothe symposium, despite, hesaid, not only being invited,but also of fer ed assistance to make the trip. He said the government “has a little wayto go to understand and appreciate” where pan is going internationally. Nyomba would also like to see the pan movement inhis homeland expand beyondthe infr equent competitions. One of reggae’s advantages, he explained, is that musicianscan easily get their instr uments from one country to the next. For pan, the task is mor e difficult. So tough, in fact, thathis own band is consideringsending a member in advanceof the main par ty for an upcoming overseas gig to get the instruments ready by time the rest arrive. “A r eggae band can leave Jamaica without instr uments and come to the U.S. and per-for m,” Nyomba explained. “Now you have to transport pan instr uments to the U.S.” However , for those wait ing to catch pan in music’s mainstream, the wait mightnot that long. After all, the instrument has that uniquesound, that sweet sound youjust cannot keep locked in apan. Gordon Williams is Caribbean Today’s managing editor. No ‘Caribana’, but Toronto gets new fest May is being celebrated as “Haitian Heritage Month” and the City of Miami has planned several activities in recognition of theevent. City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones of District 5, joined Miami-Dade Commissioner Audrey Edmonson of District 3 and the 2006 Haitian Heritage commit tee members to of ficially kickoff the month of events at a recent press conference at the Freedom Garden on North Miami A venue. This year’s theme is “Celebrating the Past, Building the Future”. During the pr ess confer ence participants announced the activities surrounding the celebration. Those will include Haitian art exhibits, street festivals, book signings, a youth march with the Mayor’s Youth Council /MiamiDade County Public Schools and the first Toussaint L’OuvertureParade and Bir thday Celebration. All Haitian Heritage Month events ar e free and open to the public. Par ticipating or ganizations include the City of Miami Film, Arts, Culture and Entertainment, Miami Parks and Recreation, NET offices, Miami-DadeCounty and Miami-Dade CountyPublic schools. May is ‘Haitian Heritage Month’Pan music ready to ring out in the U.S.,world CUL CUL TURE TURE 18 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 Pan music has spread from the Caribbean to Europe and North America. May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 18 

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GORDON WILLIAMS Caribbean athletes turned in high quality performances during the 112th staging of the PennRelays at Franklin Field inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvanialate last month with Jamaicans once again proving to be a dominant force. In a setting described as carnival-like over the three-day weekend, and the bright sunshine and colorful atmos-pher e generated mostly by the huge number of Caribbean supporters adding to the festive mood, top athletes from schools and the professionalranks alike once again reminded the world that ther egion remains a powerhouse in track and field. W orld record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica turned in an awesome displayin the Olympic Development100 meters dash on the final day. Though his time was a relatively modest 10.10 seconds, it was the easy manner in which he blew away the restof the field that stunned thecr owd. Yet, according to Powell, the race went according to plan. “I did what I wanted to do,” he said after wards. “I ran 30 meters and took it easy. I shut it down about 65 meters in.” Other r egional athletes had to work much harder to earn their success. Holmwood Technical High School ofJamaica girls’ team made a sweep of the three relays they entered, capturing theChampionship of Americatitles in the 4x100 (44.564x400 (3:36.98(9:04.35 Sutherland who ran on all three winning teams. Three others, Annastasia Le-Roy, Bobbi-Gaye Wilkins and Schillonie Calvert were members of two of the three winning relays. Sutherland said the workload was dif ficult, but that she had properly pr epar ed for the meet. e were confident coming here,” said Sutherland, who was named the highschool girls athlete of the meet for relay events. “We know we could win all three relays because we had thefastest times fr om (the beginning of the) season.” Also confident was Camper down High of Jamaica, which scored a double victor y in the Championship of America4x100 (40.13meters (3:11.46Remaldo Rose ear ned the high school boys athlete for the r elays for his ef for ts in both winning relays. Six of the eight schools in the final ofPOR T OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMCBeenhakker last monthannounced the initial 24-man squad to represent Trinidad and Tobago at the FIFA WorldCup Finals in Ger many next month. However , the Dutchman will omit one player before submitting his final 23-man squad to FIFA on May 15 forthe June 9 to July 9 world showpiece. The squad includes most of the players who wer e a part of the historic 1-0 victory overBahrain in the Persian Gulf state last November. “Before making the final choice of 23, we did our home-work the best we could,” Beenhakker said. ”I have to protect the players also whobr ought us to Germany. They have to be credited. And theremust be balance in the team.” The lone omission from the historic squad which qualified in Bahrain is Kansas City Wizards striker Scott Sealy,who is on the standby list. V eteran former captain Anthony Rougier is the one surprise in the squad, butDundee winger Collin Samuelhas been included following agood showing in T rinidad and T obago’ s 2-0 victor y over Iceland in London last month. Beenhakker explained that fr om looking at past footage he realized there were no players in his squad with Rougier’s characteristics andfelt the player had done enough fitness-wise over the last few months to be includedin the squad. Several players will join Sealy on the standby list, including Fulham’s AnthonyW arner, Kiruana’s Nigel Henry, Swindon Town’s Ricky Shakes, Port Vale’s Hector Sam and Anton Pierre of Defence Force. The 24-man squad will go into camp for a May 10 friendly international against Peru inPor t of Spain, after which the squad will be whittled down to 23. T&T will undertake campsin England, Austria and Czech Republic before heading on toGer many. The Soca W ar riors kick off their campaign against Sweden on June 10 before taking on England (June 15and Paraguay on June 20. GOALKEEPERS Kelvin Jack (Dundee (W est Ham United), Clayton Ince (Coventry City DEFENDERS Cyd Gray (CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh), Marvin Andrews(Glasgow Rangers ent Sancho (Gillingham(Gilligham), Atiba Charles (W Connection), Dennis Lawrence (Wrexham), Avery John (NewEngland Revolution). MIDFIELDERS Silvio Spann (UnattachedBir chall (Port Vale), Aurtis Whitley (CL Financial SanJuan Jabloteh), Anthony Rougier (Petrotrin Wolfe (Jabloteh Theobald (Falkirk FORWARDS Carlos Edwards (Luton Town),Dwight Y orke (Sydney FC Russell Latapy (Falkirk John (CoventryJones (Southampon Samuel (Dundee United Jason Scotland (St Johnstone Cornell Glen (LA Galaxy ST ANDBY PLAYERS Anthony Warner (Fulham Nigel Henry (Kiruana FFRicky Shakes (Swindon Town), Hector Sam (PortV ale), Scott Sealy (Kansas City W izar ds), Anton Pier r e (Defence Force (CL Financial San JuanJabloteh). TECHNICAL STAFF Head coach Leo Beenhakker, assistant coaches Wim Rijsbergenand Anton Cor neal, goalkeeping coach Michael Maurice,football manager HansHagelstein, general managerBr uce Aanensen and assistant manager George Joseph. Jamaican stars shine at 112th Penn RelaysW est Indies names Lara captain againT&T names World Cup soccer squad SPOR SPOR T T May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 19 Dwight Yorke will lead T&T. Powell wowed the crowd. NOW YOU CAN PLACE UNLIMITED CLASSIFIEDS WITH PHOTOS oncaribbeantoday.com! YES! YES! YES! FOR JUST $24.00 AYEAR! THAT’S RIGHT, JUST $24.00 AYEAR! YOU CAN PLACE UNLIMITED CLASSIFIED ADS!!! REAL T ORS & MORTGAGE BROKERS AUTO SALESMEN EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES PROPERTY DEVELOPERS RET AILERS AND WHOLESALERS ...EVER YONE WITH ABUSINESS! You must check it out! V isit us at carib beantoda y .com or call 1-800-605-7516 Sounds Good and its T rue! Caribbean Today, Consistently Credible FINALLY! FINALLY! FINALLY!carib beantoda y .com IS HERE!!! .com Batting superstar Brian Lara has once againbeen chosen to captain the W est Indies, marking the third time he will lead the regional cricket team. s a great honor,” Lara told r epor ters after lear ning about the appointment late last month. “It’s the third timeI’m taking the job and I feel I have the necessary support.(For mer captain Shivnarine) Chanderpaul did a wonder ful job under the circumstances. He’ll reap the benefits later inlife. He called me and he said he’d support me and asked that I give it some considera-tion. “The fact that a lot of former players called me washumbling. This was followed up by phone calls from pres-ent team-mates who thought Ishould assume the mantle of leadership at this juncture. Icalled past and pr esent players for an objective view on the matter. They unequivocally thought the same as the others who were trying to influence me.” W est Indies Cricket Board Chairman Ken Gordon said Lara’s appointment was “not for anyfixed periodof time.”Lara first served ascaptainbetween1996-97 and1999-2000.He was againappointed in 2002-03, butwas r eplaced by Chanderpaul in 2005. Lara led the Windies in 40 Test matches, winning 10 andlosing 23. His next assignmentis against Zimbabwe, which is currently touring the West Indies. But the big test will be next year’s World Cup one-day competition which is being played in the Caribbean. (CONTINUED ON P AGE 20) Lara May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 19 

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the 4x100 were from Jamaica, and finished in that order. Inthe 4x400 Jamaican schools took the top three places. Holmwood’ s boys 4x800 team also won in a time of7:43.35 seconds. INDIVIDUAL BRILLIANCE In the individual events, the Jamaicans wer e again, finishing first or in the top thr ee several times. Sherene Pinnock of Edwin Allen Comprehensive clocked a new meet record56.90 to win the 400 meters hurdles. She was named highschool girls athlete for indi vidual events. Other champi-onship winners on the first day were Taniesha Blair of Holmwood Technical in the girls javelin, with a throw of46.08 meters, and Kimberly Williams of Vere Technical inthe triple jump with a leap of12.47 meters. Second in thatevent was Kimona Smith ofMorant Bay . On the final day of the meet, which ran fr om April 27-29, Jason Robertson of Wolmer’s recorded yet another victory for the Jamaicans,winning the 400 meters hur dles in 52.89. Jamaicans also excelled in the field events. Alain Baileyof Kingston College won thehigh school boys long jumpchampionship with a leap of 7.46 meters. The runner-up spots were also taken byJamaican athletes, with Wolmer’s Julian Reid (7.39 and Calabar’s Nicholas Gordon (7.02 ond and third. The high school championship boys triple jump was won by Robert Peddlar of Wolmer’swith 14.73 meters. Thir d was Sean Powell of Munro College. Jamaica College’s Sharif Small finished secondin the boys championship dis cuss throw with 53.44 meters. Several Caribbean athletes also competed for col-leges and clubs at the meet. Gordon W illiams is Caribbean Today’s managing editor. GORDON WILLIAMS Jamaica took a big step towar ds regaining lost inter national soccer credibility last month by battling to a hard fought 1-1 draw with the fancied United States at the SAS Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina. The Reggae Boyz, arguably the top ranked teamin the Caribbean, but for ced to watch r egional rivals Trinidad and Tobago play in this summer’s World Cup in Germany after failing in their own qualifying bid, hadslipped badly following a 5-0 thrashing to Australia late last year . However, on April 11 the Boyz rallied with a r elatively inexperienced team to hold a U.S. team hungr y for a win following its own embarrassing 4-1 loss to Germany recently. The match marked the 17th time the two countries had met and going intothe game Jamaica had neverbeaten its highly rated CON CACAF rivals. The final result still kept the ReggaeBoyz winless against theAmericans, but helped them score valuable recognition as apr ogram to be reckoned with on the international soccer scene. eah, it was a good result for us in terms of the whole marketing of the team,” said a happy W endell Downswell, Jamaica’s technical dir ector , after the game, which was played on a cool night in front of a standingr oom only crowd of 8,093. “Overall the r esult was quite satisfying.” Downswell’ s full squad, assembled for only a singletraining session the evening before the game, and missingseveral experienced and proven performers, snatched an early leadto silence thepar tisan home crowd befor e many had even set-tled in theirseats. Striker TeoforeBennettslipped in behind theU.S.defense in the four th minute to collect a precise pass from midfielder Jermaine Hue and easily beatgoalkeeper T ony Meola, who was making his 100th appear-ance for the American nation al team. Roused by the early setback, the U.S. swarmed all over Jamaica’s half of the fieldand ear ned a 25th minute equalizer when quick thinking captain Landon Donovan passed to Ben Olsen who fireda shot that was deflected by Jamaica’s goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts before settling into the net. J AMAIC A CREDIT From then on the game was marked by steady streamsof attacks by the U.S. andstout defending by Jamaica,spliced in with occasionalattacking forays by the Boyz.Both teams came close to breaking the deadlock, but inthe end the r esult appeared to justify what transpir ed on the field. U.S. coach Bruce Arena, who was expected to name his World Cup squad early this month, expressed disappointment in his team’s surrenderof the early goal, but praised Jamaica’s performance in thematch. “Give Jamaica cr edit,” said Ar ena, who hoped to use the game to assess players vying for spots on his W orld Cup roster. “I thought theydid well with that (scoring opportunity. For the night I think they gave great effortand defended pr etty well.” Jamaica too looked to analyze its young squad, andalthough Downswell said hewould have loved to see the Reggae Boyz break their winless streak against the U.S., her eturned to the Caribbean with a better handle on his tal-ented gr oup. “Overall the game was played in good spirits,” he said. “We have tried a num-ber of young players and afew of them we wer e r eally impressed with. Definitely we have to have another look atthem again in another game.” That chance comes in the next few weeks. Jamaica is scheduled to play World Cup bound Ghana and England in Britain. According to JamaicaFootball Federation Pr esident Crenston Boxhill, the Ghana match is scheduled forLeicester on May 29. TheEngland game is set for June 3 in Manchester. Gordon Williams is Caribbean Today’s managing editor. Jamaican stars shine at 112th Penn Relays Windies players agree to deal After mor e than a year of squabbling, the West Indies Cricket Board(WICB est Indies Players Association (WIPA) finally agr eed to ter ms on the contr oversial r etainer contract for players last month. WICB Pr esident Ken Gordon, announced that a group of between eight and12 players will be contracted. WIPA President DinanathRamnarine, said the players to be retained would be cho-sen by the selectors. Jamaica tops regional U-15 cricket Jamaica ear ned top hon ors in the CLICO West Indies Under -15 cricket tour nament which was played last month in Antigua and Barbuda. Jamaica finished the competition unbeaten to secur e the title with a round remaining, defeating LeewardIslands, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. K.C ., Holmw ood tak e ‘Champs’ titles Kingston College and Holmwood T echnical fin ished on top at the popular and highly competitive 2006VMBS/ISSA Boys and GirlsAthletics Championships lastmonth in Jamaica. K.C. won the boys section with 233.5 points, for a two-point edge over rivals Calabar . In the girls, Holmwood earned 319 points to finish ahead of V er e Technical on 302.5. Compiled from several wire services. BRIEFS Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz salvage pride in soccer draw with U.S. SPOR SPOR T T 20 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 Downswell Pinnock set a new meet record. (CONTINUED FROM P AGE 19) Members of Miami F.C.soccer club take the field last month for an exhibition game against Caribbean champions Portmore United of Jamaica. Miami F .C., which carries a roster tha t inc ludes Caribbean-born players Sean F raser of Jamaica and Haiti’ s Stephane Guillaume,is the city’s newest professional sports franchise.It plays in the United Soccer Leagues (USLwhich began last month. MIAMI GETS A KICK FROM SOCCER May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 20 

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(Featur eSource) What’s an easy, convenient (and freeway to manage day-to-day str ess? Just breathe. Deep breathing can help you relax bylowering your blood pressure, slowing your heart rate andr espiration rates and easing muscle tension. Even as little as five minutes a day of deep breathingcan calm and r efresh you and leave you more alert. The “Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource” monthly publi-cation of fers instructions to achieve relaxation by breath-ing. Sit in a comfortable chair,feet flat on the floor. Close your eyes, or visually focus on something in ther oom. Paying attention to your br eathing, inhale slowly through your nose. Visualize your diaphragm moving down to create more space for yourlungs to expand. Let your lower abdomen relax and expand as it fills with air. When your lungs and abdomen are full, slowly let air out through your mouthand allow your diaphragm tocollapse. Repeat. If your mind wanders, return your attentionto your br eathing. When you are ready to end the session, don’ t jump out of your chair. Slowly start to regain a sense of your surroundings. When you’rer eady, allow your attention to return fully. Practice breathing deeply to reduce anxiety, conserve ener gy, improve sleep, improve concentration and relieve muscle tension. The long-term goal is to reduce theef fects of stress on your life. Author:Mayo Clinic Staff Breathe deeply to manage day-to-day stress Posture ranks at the top of the list for good health. It is as important as eating right, exercising, getting a good night’s sleep and avoiding harmful substances. Unnatural alignment of the body can cause head,shoulder , neck and back pain. It can also compr omise neur ological, digestive, respiratory and cardiovascular functioning. e spend a large portion of our lives sitting, especially during the computer age, so it’s important to learn to sit tall,”says Dr . Mar vin Ar nsdorff, author of “Pete the Posture Par r ot: Dinosaur Dr eams” (Body Mechanics Press, www.bodymechanics.com ). “One of the most common mistakes we make is that when we move into a sitting posi-tion, we tend to aim for the center of the chair. The proper method is to sit deep in your chair Unquestionably , children and adults alike spend more time at computers today than 20 years ago. Arnsdorff offers nine tips to keep your postureper fect when you’r e at the computer: Sit up straight and deep in the seat. Y our feet should be flat on the floor or on a footr est. Keep your lower arms level with the desk and keepyour wrists straight. This helpspr event carpal tunnel syn dr ome. Sit close enough to your keyboard to eliminate stretching but far enough to avoid leaning. Y our shoulders should be back, and your head should be directly over your shoulders. T ap the keyboard lightly. Don’t pound. Place your mouse within easy reach of your dominant hand. Hold the mouse loosely. Place the monitor at eye level, 16 to 24 inches away. T ake shor t stretch breaks every 20 minutes. Exercise your eyes frequently . Look away and focus on distant objects. Periodically look up at the ceiling to give your posture muscles a break. Good posture and body mechanics ar e impor tant for maintaining a healthy spine and nervous system. Theyeven help boost self-esteem. F eatureSource United Nations, CMC – A Haitian family planningpr ovider has won the 2006 United Nations Population Award. The United Nations Family Planning Association (UNFPA) announced last month that Haiti’s Foundation for Reproductive Health andFamily Education (FOSREF and veteran Bangladeshi family planning doctor and Program Manager Dr . Halida Hanum Akhter was awar ded this year’s United Nations Population Award. The awar d goes each year to individuals and institutions for their outstanding work in population and in improving the health and welfare of individuals. UNFPA said the Population A war d Committee, chair ed by Ambassador Judith Bahemuka of Kenya, chose the winners from 27 nominees,including top-level policy mak ers, researchers and health workers from around the world. Avoiding neck,back pain while using the computerHaitian group wins U.N. a ward HEAL HEAL TH TH May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 21 May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 21 

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PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC Attorney KamlaPersad-Bissessar has beenappointedOpposition leaderin T rinidad and T obago, according to an official statement issued herelate last month. The brief statement from the Ministry of PublicAdministration and Infor mation said the appointment of Persad-Bissessar, a former attorney general, “takes effect from April 26”. She becomes the first woman to hold the post in Trinidad and T obago. Persad-Bissessar replaced for mer Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, who was sentenced totwo years imprisonment lastmonth after he was found guilty of failing to declare aLondon bank account to theIntegrity Commission for theyears 1997, 1998 and 1999,while he was prime minister ofthis Caribbean nation. Television reports said that Panday had personally endorsed Persad-Bissessar, a former educa-tion minister . Opposition Chief WhipGanga Singhsaid it was hisunderstanding that Panday gave instr uctions to his Members ofParliament to supportPersadBissessar. “This is what I was told by one sitting MP,” he said. Later in the month Singh r esigned his post as the infighting between the main Opposition United National Congress (UNC turn. DENIAL But UNC Deputy Chair man Vasant Bharat denied that Panday had issued instructions from jail on who should be his replacement. He said however that Panday was informed about allthe developments. Bharat told a news conference lastmonth that “the UNC executive met in emergency ses-sion and endorsed and approved the position taken bythese MPs,” to back Persad-Bissessar . In the letter to Pr esident Richards, the eight OppositionMPs said that Persad-Bissessar “commands our support in the House of Repr esentatives and we kindly request that she be appointed as Leader ofthe Opposition in the House”. Woman replaces Panday as T&T Opposition leader KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC K.D. Knight, Jamaica’s former foreign affairs and foreigntrade minister , will lead a Commonwealth Observer Group for the general electionin the Fiji Islands next month. A statement from the London-based Commonwealth Secretariatsaid that Knight would lead the team from May 6-13. In addition to Knight, who resigned from the Jamaica government inMar ch, the other Caribbean national on the team is Sheila Roseau, executive dir ector , Directorate of Gender Affairs in Antigua. The Commonwealth Secretariat said that the observergr oup would consist of six eminent per-sons, suppor t ed by three members of staff. Last month, the Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon sent a Secretariat AssessmentMission to Fiji, following aninvitation fr om the Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. FOCUS The observer group will focus on relevant aspects of the organization and conduct of the general elections, in accordance with the laws ofthe Fiji Islands. It would alsoconsider the various factors impinging on the credibility ofthe electoral pr ocess as a whole and to determine, in its own judgement, whether the conditions exist for a free expression of will by the electors and if the results of theelections r eflect the wishes of the people, the statement said. The group will submit a r eport at the end of its mission. Caribbean reps to monitor Fiji elections PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC Thr ee political par ties, including the newly formed Movement for NationalDevelopment (MNDannounced a mer ger , saying they ar e confident of winning the next general elections con stitutionally due in T rinidad and Tobago next year. The leaders of the MND, the Democratic Party of T rinidad and T obago (DPTT and the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR joint news conference lastmonth that a legal team would be working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU guide the futur e activities. The NAR, which held power in this oil-richCaribbean nation fr om 198691, has not far ed well in the last two general elections, even though it once for med par t of a coalition gover nment that replaced the ruling People’s National Movement(PNMDPTT , which contested the last general election, the NAR has not been able to command more than five percent of thepopular votes. But NAR Leader Dr. Carson Charles said he was confi-dent that thenew for ce would ber eady ahead of the polls. e will be ready before the elections,” he said, adding “it will be ater rible shame for us to have found that we have so much in common and not proceed together Small Opposition parties merge in T&T POLITICS POLITICS May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 23 BRIEFS U.N. investigating Haiti polls Haiti’s most recent elections are being investigated by the United Nations mission amid accusations that election officialsand other groups had committed fraud during the polls,a U.N. spokesman said late last month. Spokesman Marc Jacque said the inquiry into possible fraud during the April 21 crucial legislative runoff is being conducted throughout the country bythe Major Crime Unit of the U.N. Peacekeeping Mission,known as MINIUTAH. e are investigating possible fraud in the election,saidJacquet saying no time limit was set for the investigation. Guyana’s gov’t seeks extension The Joint Parliamentary Opposition Parties (JPOPte last month said it had been taken by surprise by the Guyana government’s decision to table legislation seeking to extend its parliamentar y life. “The move took us by surprise, Dr . Rupert Roopnaraine said.Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr.Roger Luncheon said that the intention behind the Constitution Amendment Bill was “to extend and provide for anadditional month within which general elections could be held.” He said that the amendment “removes the Aug. 4 da te that has been bandied around as the end of the constitutional authority of the administration to a month later,by which time one antici-pa tes the Elections Commission would be able to discharge their manda te for general elections in 2006.” Privy Council rules Manning’ s f avor The London-based Privy Council has said tha t Prime Minister Patrick Manning did nothing wrong when he delayedcalling another general electionafter the unprecedented 18-18election tie in T rinidad and T oba go in 2001. In an 11-pa ge judgment, the Privy Council,the island’s final court,dismissed a judicial reviewcase brought by two electors,Florence Bobb and Girlie Moses,tha t Manning should ha ve called fresh general elections when the House of Representa tives failed to elect a Speaker in April 2002.It has ordered that they pay costs. The Privy Council found that Manning did everything constitu-tional to resolve the crisis in Trinidad and Tobago,after then ruling Peoples National Movement(PNM National Congress (UNC won 18 sea ts in the 36-seat P arliament. Bermuda premier plays down election Premier Alex Scott has moved to squash specula tion that Bermuda might be heading for ageneral election la ter this year. Speaking during an unscheduled a ppearance at a Progressive Labour Party (PLP meeting in West Pembroke recently,Scott ended a defiant,campaign trail-style speech with the comment:“If some of youthink we are preparing for anelection, you might be right,raising the possibility that govern-ment might soon be planning tocall a sna p vote.But the Premier later warned the population not toread too much into his comments while speaking a t last month’s community forum which was attended by a number of government ministers and other legisla tors. Christians offer election guidelines The Montserra t Christian Council (MCC of proposed guidelines,which it hopes will “serve as guides for political parties and candidates, the electorate and the media forthe upcoming elections”. General elections will be held on May 31 . New political party for Dominica? William “Para”Riviere,the former general secretar y of the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLPsays he will soon launch a new political party in Dominica. “I stand firm in my belief that what is required now is anew political movement to takethis countr y forward into the twenty first century,Riviere told the state-owned Dominica Broadcasting Station (DBSmonth. Prev al likely to win P arliament support The political party of President-elect Rene Preval failed to win a majority in last month’s legislative run-off for the 129 seats in Parliament,but politicalobser vers say he could still receive the backing of a t least 88 legislators. Preval’ s party “Lespwa” won 11 of the 27 Sena te seats already decided and 20 the 85 house seats tallied,according to the results of the April 21 legislative runoff released by the Electoral Council on April 26. Compiled from CMC reports. P ersad-Bissessar Singh Knight Charles May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 23 

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UNITED NATIONS, CMC An economic commission of the United Nations is project-ing that the gr oss domestic product (GDP Caribbean will grow 5.9 percent in 2006, up fr om the 4.2 percent rate achieved in 2005. In a new r eport called “Latin America and the Caribbean: Projections 20062007”, the commission said favorable international eco-nomic conditions ar e spurring growth in 2006. Economic growth in the region is expected to slow slightly in 2007, to about 4.3 percent. Str ong world trade, led by the Asian economies, combined with active domestic demands, ar e the main “driv ers” behind the region’s gr owth, according to the report published released by the U.N. Economic Commission forLatin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC “The principal factor of economic uncer tainty in the region is the possible change in the ‘evolution’ of the econo-my in the United States (U.S.of the U.S. market for expor ts from Latin America and the Caribbean,” ECLAC stated. ECLAC said the sending of money transfers (r emit tances) from the U.S. to the Caribbean and Latin Americacountries is another impor tant factor helping the r egion’s economies. The commission estimated that inflation in the Caribbean and Latin America will remain similar to 2005 levels of five per cent to seven percent throughout the region. ST . GEORGES, Grenada, CMC Caribbean community (CARICOMlooking towards the proposed July2007 UnitedStates-Caribbeanconfer ence as an occasion tohelp mend relations with Washington, according toGr enada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International TradeElvin Nimr od. Nimr od said there has been a “period of r elative coldness” between the U.S. and the Caribbean mainly because of differences on contentiousissues such as the war in Iraq, Haiti and the International Criminal Court. “Many matters directly related to our economic andsocial viability should be high lighted, while the mechanisms to facilitate trade and investment in both parties should be r evisited,” he said as he addressed the Council for Foreign and CommunityRelations (CONFORCARICOM in Gr enada. Nimrod said among immediate matters to be addr essed between the U.S. and CARI-COM was “the vexing issue of criminal deportees with a viewto agr eeing on a better plan to minimize the socio-economic consequences of this practice on our societies.” SUPPORT Giving support to a recent suggestion from KerrieSymmonds, Barbados’ s minister of state in the Ministry ofFor eign Affairs, Nimrod said the issue of a collaborativeappr oach to insurance and burden sharing in natural disasters as well as disaster preparednessand mitigation, including early warning systems, were impor-tant matters for a joint ef fort. “These ideas and several others definitely war rant serious discussions at the appr opriate level with U.S. of ficials. I am confident that the traditional excellent relations that existbetween both sides would be further strengthened as a result,” the minister told hiscolleagues at the meeting. Nimrod also identified the need for CARICOM countriesto r evisit the issue of shared diplomatic r epr esentation in strategically selected countries. “Our extremely limited institutional and technicalcapacity to deal with severaltrade negotiations and the plethora of issues which requireopinions and perspectives on a constant basis, further highlightthe need for mor e collaboration and co-operation in the conduct of our international relations,”he said. U.N. agenc y projects f avorable economic outlook for CaribbeanCaribbean looks to 2007 confab to mend fences with Washington REGION REGION 24 CARIBBEAN TODAYMay 2006 Nimrod BRIEFS Former Jamaican P.M.gets new job Four weeks after demitting office as Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J.Patterson has been appointedsenior adviser to an interna tional consulting compan y,the Gleaner newspaper reported. P atterson,71,has joined GoodWorks International (GWI based in Atlanta in the United States,which was co-founded 10 years ago by Jamaican CarltonMasters and the civil rights leaderAndrew Young,a former U.S. ambassador to the United Na tions and Atlanta mayor. St.Lucia turns to U.K.for crime fighting help The government has turned to the United Kingdom government toassist in improving the St.Lucia’ s na tional security and crime fighting strategy. The announcement was made last month by Governor General Dame Pearlette Louisy in her ThroneSpeech to the mark the opening of a new session of Parliament. St.Vincent remains committed to CCJ The St.Vincent and the Grenadines government last monthsaid it remains committed to theT rinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ However,Prime Minister and Minister of Legal Affairs Dr.RalphGonsalves told P arliament the coun try might not sign on to the appellate jurisdiction of the court before 2008when certain changes are made to the island’s Constitution. St. Kitts looking to Me xico for help The St.Kitts and Nevis government says it is looking to Mexico to help the federation diversify its economy in the wake of the collapseof the sugar industr y. Prime Minister Dr .Denzil Douglas held a meeting with visiting Mexican Ambassador to St.Kitts and Nevis,Sergio Saavedra Melendez last month and thanked that countryfor providing training for locals in the hospital service institutions.Douglassaid with the c losure of the 350year -old sugar industry,the federation faces several challenges as it puts in place a new tourism,financial and services-based economy. Suriname opens new bauxite mines President Ronald Venetiaan has formally launched a $300 millionbauxite project in Suriname fundedby the British and United Staes multinationals BHP-Billiton andAlcoa/Suralco. The new mining operations began with the inauguration of abridge over the Surinameriver andthe authorities said the cross-riverconnection leading to the so-called Successor Mines,Kaaimangrasie and Klaverblad,as well as the accompanying roads,would be handed over to the government at the end of the project. LIAT improves on its finances The cash-strapped regional airline, Leeward Islands Air T ransport (LIAT),has cut its losses in half and has increased passenger load by 20 percent,according to Barbados Minister of Tourism and InternationalT ransport Noel Lynch. Speaking in the House of Assembly last month,as he sought parliamentary approval for a guarantee to a Canadian company of justover $500,000 for each of LIA s 13 planes,Lynch said while the carrier should record small losses in thethird quarter it should register an operational profit by year-end. Decrease in murders in Jamaica ~ police Jamaica police la te last month said there had been a 25 percentreduction in the number of persons killed so far this year,as comparedto the same period in 2005. “In the last couple of months, the police,with the assistance of communities,have been able toreduce murder by a pproximately 25 percent this year ,which in terms of lives, is probably over 200 people less dead this year than there were last year,said Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields.He gave no actual figures,but used figures from the Jamaica Constabulary Force to substantiate his claim. New Cuban ambassador to Antigua Cuba has a ppointed Marcelino Fajardo Delgado as its new representative to Antigua and Barbuda. The Cuban news agency Prensa La tina said tha t F ajardo Delgado had been appointed by the countrs Council of State asextraordinar y and plenipotentiar y ambassador.It said he had been working as major specialist in theforeign affairs department for NorthAmerica. Compiled from CMC reports. May2006 5/4/06 3:27 PM Page 24 

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WASHINGTON, CMC – The Caribbean community(CARICOMStates last month agr eed to reactivate a trade and invest ment council between them, after several years of dormancy, the region’s chief negotiator Ambassador Richard Bernal has said. “This mechanism would be available to discuss anyissue r elating to trade and investment. Whether it is WTO (World Trade Organization), the Free Trade Area of the Americas, or anybilateral trade and investment issue,” Bernal told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC . He said the U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman made the proposal during “frank” and “open” talks with CARICOM trade of ficials here. NO MANDATE However, there is no mandate for CARICOM to raise the issue of a free tradeagr eement with the U.S., Amb. Ber nal said. He added that while no follow up meet ings have been set between the two parties, there was a commitment to continue dia-logue as the need arises. oday, we had a wide ranging discussion which is useful to us because it provides a lot of additional information on a variety of possibilities,” Amb. Bernal told CMC . He noted that the Council would not only pr omote trade and investment between the two sides but would also serve as an early response mecha-nism to any trade disputesthat may arise. It was first setup between CARICOM and the former Bill Clinton admin-istration in the late 1990s. However, after two meetings, it became inactive. ANDREW LECKEY Anyone who uses a computer each daycomes into contact with more attempts at finan-cial fraud than we used toencounter in six months. In 2006, the Internet is the ef ficient, cost-ef fective way to mislead us about investments or steal ourmoney outright. Most of us regularly encounter “phishing”, a scam that employs official-looking e-mails and websites designed to replicater eal or ganizations, most recently even the IRS. These seek to trick us into revealing personal brokerage account numbers, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers,user names and passwor ds. We receive lottery-winning and Nigerian Internetmessages pr omising enor mous sums if we forward financial infor mation and seed money . The son of a prominent Orange County, Calif., psychi-atrist r ecently obtained a cour t order stopping his elderly father from spending more on a Nigerian Internet scam he had already given $3 million. We receive e-mail offers in the guise of personal gr eet ings. In a consent decree, Jumpstart Technologies LLC U.S.tax facts and other myths of a limited liability companyCARICOM and U.S.to re-activate joint trade and investment councilTake action to fight Internet financial fraud B B ANKING ANKING & I & I NVESTING NVESTING May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 25 JOSE NUNEZ & MICHAELROSENBERG For decades, corporations have been the preferred legal entity used to conduct business or hold invest ments in the United States. Lately , however, with the advent of the limited liability company (LLCing and it is possible that thepr eferred legal entity is or would soon be LLCs or ganized under the LLC laws of any state in the U.S. Like the corporation, the LLC of fers limited liability pr otection to its members as each member’s liability is limited to each member s interest in the LLC. Thus, if a liability accr ues within the LLC, the members’ personal assets will be pr otected from a judgment creditor of the LLC provided that the company form is r espected by the members and the cour ts. PRO TECTION An important non-tax difference between the corpora-tion and the LLC r elates to another element of asset pr o tection. In general, in the event a judgment creditor of a member of an LLC (not of the LLC, but of the member per sonally) seeks to satisfy such judgment with such member’s interest in an LLC, such creditor will obtain only the rights of an assignee of such mem ber. This assignee interest would not give a creditor vot-ing rights in the LLC nor the power to for ce a distribution by the LLC. As a result, the LLC and its assets are protected from the judgment credi-tors of its members. Fr om a U.S. tax view point, the LLC may take different forms, but these different tax forms do not affect the LLCs separate existence and liability protection explained in the previous paragraph. However, these different tax forms would greatly affect the ultimate U.S. income, gift and estate tax consequences to theentity and its members, and thus, should be fully under-stood befor e making a choice among them.The different tax forms that an LLC can take ar e as follows: a) Disr egarded entity By default, if a single person or entity forms a domestic LLC, such LLC will be disregarded for all federal tax purposes. In this case, the LLC will be taxed as a sole proprietorship if the sole member of the LLC is an individual, or it will be taxed as a branch or division if the sole member is a business entity. This tax form results in all of the LLC’s items of income, gains, expenses, losses and credits being reported directlyon the sole member s income tax r eturn.As a result, the tax consequences of this LLC depend entirely on the tax sta-tus of the sole member (e.g., ifthe sole member is an individ ual, the tax consequences would be those applicable to individuals directly engaged inthe activity of the LLC). Notwithstanding this, from anIRS viewpoint, even if an LLC is a disregarded entity, the LLCmay still be liable for the tax liability of its single member. b) Partnership By default, if two or mor e single persons or entities form a domestic LLC, such LLC would be considered a partnership.Similar to a Disr egarded Entity, the partners, and not the partnership, include in their tax return the items of income, gains,expenses, losses and cr edits of the par tnership. c) “C” Corporation A domestic LLC may elect to betaxed as an association taxable as a corporation. In this case, the net income earned by the LLC will be taxed in the hands of the LLC at the corporate tax rate and distributions of ear nings will generally be subject to a second round of income tax in the form of atax on dividends or a tax on gains. Fr om an income tax viewpoint, this is probably the most inefficient vehicle to conduct business or hold investments. d) “S” Corporation An LLC may also elect to betaxed as an S corporation. Unlike C corporations, an Scorporation generally avoids double taxation as its shareholders are subject to tax in a similar manner to partners in a partnership. There are, however, some important differences and these differences are the reason corporations are losing their appeal.In the domestic area, an S corporation cangenerally only have one class of shareholders and this can be quite limiting for establish-ing moder n ventur es wher e dif fer ent class of inter ests may be required for example dealing with rights to profit or rights to capital. In the international tax arena, an S corporation is even more limitingas only U.S. citizens or income tax residents (and certain trusts and other S corporations) may be shareholders of ~ A Caribbean Today advertising feature (CONTINUED ON PAGE 27) (CONTINUED ON PAGE 27) Bernal May2006 5/4/06 3:28 PM Page 25 

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the S corporation. Although the LLC is a very flexible business and investment vehicle, anyone considering it must understand the different tax forms it may take. For example, a for eign individual for U.S. income tax purposes consider ing whether to become amember of an LLC engaged in the conduct of a U.S. trade or business must be awar e that by being a member of such LLC, he or she will be consider ed to be so engaged and this would require him or her among other things to filea U.S. income tax r eturns on an annual basis. and likelyexpose his or her estate to the U.S. estate tax upon death. Similarly, a foreign corporation considering becoming a member in the same LLC, will also be consider ed engaged in the conduct of a U.S. trade or business and not only subjectto federal and possibly state corporate income tax but also to the “branch pr ofits tax”. In conclusion any for eign person considering doing busi ness or holding investments in the U.S. should seek the assis tance of competent U.S. tax counsel to ascer tain the U.S. tax consequences of such busi ness or investment. Mic hael Rosenberg and Jose L.Nunez are shareholderswith the Coral Gables law firm of Packman,Neuwahl&Rosenberg and can be reac hed at 305-665 BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC Caribbean countrieshave been advised to seek new and creative businessoppor tunities, in order to survive in an ever -changing business envir onment. The call came from Barbados’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Dame Billie Miller atthe fifth U.K./CARICOM Forum, which ended here latelast month. Dame Billie told the meeting that many countrieswould face serious challenges against the background oftrade liberalization and reformed international rules,and they would need tochange. “This new dispensation is going to impose new economic obligations on the Caribbean and investment promotionwould be the key drivers ofthe economy in the futur e,” she said. e must now effectively manage this new relationship with Europe. We must now reallocate our resources, sometimes away from and sometimes around someof the traditional sectors, tosectors of gr owth, potential and ar eas capable of earning for eign exchange.” NOT ALL BAD With the pending changes to Europe’s sugar regime, St.Lucia’ s For eign Affairs Minister Petrus Compton saidit was not all bad news for the region, and suggested a greater focus on services as ameans of dealing with theanticipated fall out. e recognize that with the vir tual demolition of the old trading patter n and the trade in goods and commodities that has come about as a result of the banana issue and the sugar, we have to look to services and we’re talking specifically tourism services,financial ser vices and we have to develop our capacity inthose ar eas,” Compton said. Compton noted that the region has a competitiveadvantage in the two sectors, and countries therefore needto str engthen their market outreach. U.S.-based firm to invest in Guyana’s energy sector GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC Guyana and Delta Energy and Petroleum Company, a United Statesbased firm, are close to sealing a $500 million deal to establish a refinery in Berbice, east of here, according to an offi-cial statement issued late lastmonth. The Office of the Prime Minister said the facility wouldhave the capacity to handle some 100,000 barrels of crude per day and create 1,000 new jobs. It said the Guyana government and Crab IslandRefineries Incorporatedsigned a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU establishing and operating the refinery. The refinery could help reduce fuel price on the local market. Construction is expected to begin early next year. The statement said that construction would be done in stages “with actual production being realized within a further15 months”. It said that other foreign companies were keen to set up more petroleum refineries in Berbice based on the proximity to the BerbiceRiver and the Atlantic Ocean. of San Francisco recently agreed to pay $900,000 in civil penalties for its FreeFlixTix pr omotion that the Federal Trade Commission said avert-ed spam filters by disguising commercial e-mails as person-al messages and misled con sumers as to the terms involved in the “free” movie tickets promotion. We’re offered money for simple tasks. The Securitiesand Exchange Commission recently froze funds of the collapsed “paid autosurf” site12dailypr o.com of Charlotte, N.C., which promised members a 44 percent profit in 12days for viewing a series ofonline adver tisements. The SEC alleged it was actually a Ponzi scheme, with the catch being a hefty fee running as high as $6,000. COMMON Scams ar e so common place that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has made Internet fraud a priority rank-ing behind only counter ter r or ism and counterintelligence. At the FTC, online incidentsaccounted for nearly half ofall consumer fraud complaintsfiled last year . Cell phone text messages r ecently joined online bulletin boards, e-mails, voice mails and faxes as deliver y vehicles for unscrupulous stock promoters. Messages are shorter,such as: “Hot stock money here!” and the stock name, typically a smaller-cap stock not traded on a majorexchange that is listed on the so-called pink sheets. “The ‘pump and dump’ scams pump up the price of a specific pink sheet listing with a spam message about how great the stock is and thendump it once it hits a high on the hype,” said MichaelByr ne, chief counsel for the Pennsylvania Securities Commission and chairman of the Enforcement TrendsPr oject Gr oup of the Nor th American Securities Administrators Association.Prime bank swindles highyield investment programspr omising to double your money are prevalent, Byrnesaid. Bold criminals make a fast hit, then run off with yourmoney without giving any thing in return. “Fraud today has a technological twist but is r eally old wine in new bottles,” said John Stark, chief of the SECOf fice of Inter net Enforcement in Washington, D.C. “The Internet is a greattool for the con ar tist, though also a tool for law enforcement because it provides atrail.” Nearly 600 Internet-related cases have been br ought by Stark’ s of fice since he began handling them in 1998. As many as 5,000 Internet-relatedcomplaints of suspicious con duct in financial accounts are lodged daily (in the UnitedStates). “The newest thing is fraud that employs an electroniclogging pr ogram to monitor your keystr okes so someone can figure out your broker account password and user name,” Stark said. “They then go dir ectly into your account to remove your assets.” PREVENTION Take these steps to avoid online theft in your brokerage and other financial accounts: Check monthly account statements to be sure balances are what they should be. Make sure your computerhas the latest security patches,and access accounts only on secure web pages using encryption. If a padlock iconis shown, click on it to see ifthe pop-up window shows a certificate with the same sitename. Don’t click on a link provid-ed in an e-mail message, but type the web address into your browser to see whether it represents the true sender. Never give others your pass words, and be aware that wireless networks in publicplaces may not pr ovide as much security as wired Inter net connections. Log out your computer when you’re not around. Type in user name and passwordinfor mation each time, rather than utilizing the “remember” feature because anyone usingyour computer could accessyour financial accounts. Repor t “phishing” and other cyber crime to the FBI at www.ifccfbi.gov. Send your investment-related fraud com-plaints to the SEC by e-mail ing enforcement@sec.gov . For war d deceptive spam you receive to the FTC at spam@uce.gov . oo often, hard-working people want to believe ther e ar e ways other people make money to which they haven’t been privy 2006 T ribune Media Services,Inc. Take action to fight Internet financial fraudU.S. tax f acts and other myths of a limited liability companySeek new opportunities,Miller tells Caribbean B B ANKING ANKING & I & I NVESTING NVESTING May 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 27 ~ A Caribbean T oday advertising feature (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25) (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25) BRIEFS Prepare for free trade,U.S.tells Caribbean A United States diplomat is telling Caribbean counties tha t they need to prepare for a world of free trade. John Maisto,the U.S.ambassador to the Organization of American States said that while his government is committed to assisting Caribbeancountries with trade ca pacity building, the region must embrace change. W orld Bank to cancel Guyana’s debt The W orld Bank last month said Guyana is among a number of the world’s poorest countries entitled to full debt cancellation. The bank said this has become possible because of a pproval of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. e have secured the total votes necessar y to enact the Multila teral Debt Relief initiative,said World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz. Grenada confident in cricket investment Grenada Prime Minister Dr.Keith Mitchell says his country will benefit tremendously from staging World Cup cricket matches next year. Mitchell expressed such confi dence even as Jamaica’s Finance Minister Omar Davies said last monththa t his country will not reap immediate financial reward from the event. “I can’t speak for Jamaica, but I feel confident that,relative to the investment,we’re going to benefit tremendously,Mitchell said. Compiled from CMC and other sources. May2006 5/4/06 3:28 PM Page 27 

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