Azad Ali

Barbados

Barbados-based low cost carrier REDjet has canceled more than 50 flights until March amid reports of financial problems.

But the airline says it is on budget and on track to deliver new routes and services.

The airline’s customer service manager Roy Norville said that 56 flights would be canceled “for commercial reasons.”

The affected flights included stops to Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica and Barbados.

REDjet CEO Ian Burns said the reasons for the cancellations were to accommodate three new routes to be launched later this year and also to improve flight times for customers. He said the changes will take place from March 1 and will have increased capacity, better flight times and frequency.

Ralph “Bizzy” Williams, the company’s largest investor, had accused the Barbados government of sabotaging the airline’s progress through excessive delays and Bds $8 million, which was invested for operating expenses in the initial months of the business had to be used elsewhere.

Dominica

High Court Judge Gertel Thom recently ruled that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and his Education Minister Petter Saint Jean were qualified to contest the 2009 general elections.

The judge handed down her ruling in the case brought against Prime Minister Skerrit and his Education Minister Saint Jean by the leader of the United Workers Party (UWP), Ron Greene and Maynard Joseph.

The two opposition politicians had asked the court to declare that both Skerrit and Jean were illegally nominated to contest the December 2009 general election because they held dual citizenship at the time.

Grenada

A Grenadian attorney has alleged there has been a gradual increase in police brutality in the Spice Island in recent times.

While stopping short of saying the pattern has developed since the elevation of William Thompson as commissioner of police last August, Derick Sylvester praised Thompson’s predecessor James Clarkson, whom he said sought to do his best in restricting or limiting police officers from beating civilians in their custody.

“In recent times we have seen the shooting death of an alleged mentally incapacitated man, then we have seen riot gear being used against peaceful demonstrators and now we see the death of a young man. So what I’m seeing here is a gradual increase in police brutality,” he said.

Addressing the media on the alleged beating of Grenadian-born Canadian resident Oscar Peter Bartholomew at the hands of police officers attached to the St. David’s Police Station on Boxing Day, Sylvester said he feared that police brutality was raising its ugly heads on the island once again.

Five police officers, one of whom had just graduated from the Police Training School, have been charged with manslaughter in connection with Bartholomew’s death.

Guyana

Guyana rice production increased ll percent last year to reach its highest-ever level of 401,904 tons, earning the country more than US$169 million, the government said.

The steady increase in production was due to continued investment in programs and initiatives aimed at supporting rice farmers through agencies such as the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).

The GRDB has been credited with the successful launch of five new rice varieties for commercial cultivation, two of which were launched in 2011.

Another 14 strains are being tested and studied across the country to identify additional varieties in Guyana, the government said in a statement.

Last year, Guyana and Venezuela signed a US$54 million agreement for the supply of rice. More than 160,000 tons of Guyana’s rice exports went to the neighboring country.

Jamaica

Jamaica Police Commissioner Owen Ellington has warned police officers to be careful when handling weapons.

Speaking in a recent force orders the commissioner cited recent cases of cops suffering injuries due to careless handling of service weapons.

“It has been observed in recent times that a number of our members have been injured as a result of accidental discharge of the glock pistols issued for the performance of their duties,” he said.

Ellington said weapons should not routinely be carried with a round in the chamber and all unloading of weapons should be conducted into a sand pit or in a quiet area with the weapon pointing into soft soil.

Jamaica

Jamaica says it will appoint more Supreme Court judges and build new courtrooms in an effort to expedite a backlog of cases.

Chief Justice Zaila McCalla says that an unidentified number of new judges will be named by May.

The island’s Supreme Court currently has 27 judges and three acting judges. Jamaica has long been criticized for its backlog of cases, deteriorating courtrooms and outdated records.

Trinidad

State-owned Caribbean Airlines Ltd. (CAL) is increasing its North American and regional routes to Trinidad for Carnival 2012.

To accommodate the expected demand for the season, Toronto, New York, Orlando and Miami routes the airline has increased seating capacity and additional non-stop flights have been added to and from Barbados and Kingston, Jamaica.

In a release, CAL said an additional service between New York and Trinidad will also be opened by a wet-lease Boeing 747 jet. The double-decker aircraft has a capacity of 23 business class seats and 451 economy class seats.

“This will increase our offer to as many as five daily departures,” CAL said.

Additional flights have also been added to the Miami and Orlando to Trinidad routes, operated by CAL’s Boeing 737 fleet.

“As the official airline of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, CAL is well positioned to meet the travel demands of both international and regional passengers,” the airline said.

Trinidad

A raging controversy over “silk” being given to two sitting judges - Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Court of Appeal Judge Wendell Kangaloo - on New Year’s Day has forced the two eminent jurists to return the instruments, which granted them the title senior counsel status to President George Maxwell Richards last week.

A statement from the Judiciary read “Both the chief justice and Justice Kangaloo remain firm in their view that no wrong was committed in their acceptance of silk from the president and that their actions are very defensible and breached no protocol which was previously adhered to.

“However, they are deeply concerned that the heightened controversy has the potential to impact negatively on the Judiciary of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the relations its treasures with its stakeholders.

“Their action was also taken in the interest of preserving the integrity and dignity of the Judiciary which is one of the fundamental pillars of democratic Trinidad and Tobago and which they are committed, not only to robustly defend, but also to scrupulously uphold,” the statement said.

The Law Association had distanced itself from the controversy, saying that it was not consulted on the silk appointment.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Attorney General Anand Ramlogan were among 16 attorneys who were awarded “silk” (SC title) for 2012. The recommendations were made by the prime minister to President Max Richards.

U.S. Virgin Islands

Three local businessmen have been sentenced for their roles in a credit card fraud scam in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A U.S. District Court judge recently sentenced brothers Saker and Jad Shalhout, owners of a specialty supermarket in St. Thomas, to 44 months in a federal prison for wire fraud for scamming American Express out of more than a million dollars.

The brothers were convicted of using their store’s electronic check-out system to run up phony expenses on credit cards and funneling the money into their personal bank accounts.

A co-defendant who pleaded guilty in March was ordered to one month in jail.

The three were turned over to U.S. marshals at the end of the hearing.

Compiled by Azad ALi

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By Fabiola Sanchez

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez bowed out of Venezuela’s presidential race on Tuesday, saying he will support his leading rival as the opposition seeks to field a single candidate to challenge President Hugo Chavez.

The announcement gives a significant boost to Henrique Capriles, the youthful 39-year-old state governor who has a commanding lead in the polls ahead of the Feb. 12 opposition primary. It also shakes up the field of five remaining contenders in the primary, which will choose a unity candidate to face Chavez in the Oct. 7 election.

“You will be the next president,” Lopez said at a news conference with Capriles. The two embraced and raised their arms before a cheering crowd

“In me, he will have a great ally,” said Lopez, who is on a list of hundreds of politicians barred from holding office in the past decade due to corruption investigations. He calls the probe politically motivated.

Recent polls show Chavez’s popularity slightly above 50 percent, down from the 63 percent support he received in 2006 elections, emboldening Venezuela’s opposition, which in the past has been splintered and disorganized in its challenges to the socialist president.

Pollster Luis Vicente Leon said the opposition is seeing its “best moment” politically. Capriles’ support has been above 40 percent among likely opposition voters in recent polls, and will likely pick up a significant share of Lopez’s support, Leon said.

Lopez, a former mayor of Caracas’ Chacao district, had been trailing among opposition contenders in recent polls, with one recent survey giving him 16 percent support. Lopez said that with his departure, “unity is strengthened” within the opposition.

The athletic Capriles has captured support among Venezuelans by presenting himself as a capable manager and pledging to solve problems such as rampant crime, unemployment and 27-percent inflation.

Capriles has tended to avoid direct verbal confrontations with Chavez and has described his politics as center-left. He likens his approach to that of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who promoted pro-business policies while funding social programs that made him popular among the poor.

Capriles is currently the governor of Miranda state, which is the country’s second-most populous state and includes parts of Caracas as well as largely impoverished towns in the surrounding hills. He served as mayor of Caracas’ Baruta district before he was elected governor in 2008, defeating a close ally of Chavez. He is also a former congressman.

“We need all your good ideas here,” Capriles told Lopez during the news conference. “We both have the same dream.”

“You have to look for a wife for me,” Capriles, who is a bachelor, joked to the married Lopez.

Capriles said that from now on Lopez will coordinate his campaign, but he denied that their alliance had anything to do with doling out potential future positions.

According to recent polls, Capriles’ top rival in the race is Pablo Perez, the governor of western Zulia state, who has been trailing in the surveys.

Perez shrugged off the alliance between his rivals, but also said he thinks voters dislike such political deals. “Votes can’t be endorsed. In politics, two plus two isn’t four,” Perez told reporters, expressing confidence.

A December survey by the Caracas-based pollster Datanalisis found that 33.6 percent supported Perez, while 44.9 percent favored Capriles.

Capriles said he aims for a “break with the old way of conducting politics,” and that remark seemed to irritate some within the group of parties that back Perez.

“One thing is breaking with the bad of the past, and it’s something else to generalize,” said Omar Barboza, a leader of Perez’s party. “I think it’s immaturity,” Barboza said, apparently referring to Capriles’ remark.

Others running in the Feb. 12 primary include congresswoman Maria Corina Machado, Diego Arria, a former Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, and Pablo Medina, a leftist former union leader.

Chavez has been in office for 13 years and is seeking another six-year term in the October election. He has sought to portray his opponents as allies of the wealthy and the U.S. government.

“The candidate of the counterrevolution, whoever it is... is going to be the candidate of the Yankees,” Chavez said in a speech Tuesday night, without referring to any of his potential challengers by name. “He’s going to be the candidate of the bourgeoisie.”

Lopez had gone ahead with his presidential bid despite a Supreme Court ruling in October that had upheld a ban on him holding office.

In its decision, the Supreme Court upheld a decision by the country’s top anti-corruption official disqualifying Lopez from holding office until 2014, yet also said he could be a candidate. The Supreme Court dismissed as “unfeasible” a decision by the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights that had sided with Lopez and said his political rights had been violated.

“Lopez was running far behind in the polls, and the Supreme Court’s defiance of the decision by the Inter-American Court left a big cloud of uncertainty over Lopez’s future, even if he were to come out ahead,” said Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin America program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. “Capriles has been the front-runner for some time, so the endorsement will continue to bolster his campaign.”

Capriles called his relationship with Lopez “an alliance with a view fixed on Oct. 7.”

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Azad Ali

Antigua

Police are investigating the discovery of four tons of stolen copper wire and air-conditioning parts in a container at the St. John’s Harbor bound for China.

A Chinese man, 56 and his son were detained for questioning after police received reports that one of them was seen packing the 40ft container with copper believed to have been stolen.

But they were later released after providing proof they purchased the items for around EC$30,000.

Several pieces were identified as the property of the state-owned Antigua Public Utilities Authority, police said.

Telecommunications company, LIME also said some of the items were stolen from its facilities across the island.

The container in which the stolen items were stored arrived from St. Kitts recently containing 12 tons of similar items and stainless steel materials.

Dominica

Former Prime Minister Edison James is once again at the helm of the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP), replacing Ron Green, who opted against re-election less than a week after he lost a dual citizenship case against the prime minister and education minister.

James, 68, who served as prime minister from 1995 to 2000, said he was ready to lead the party into general elections in 2014.

The UWP leader also appealed to supporters to help fund the party’s campaign to appeal last week’s high court ruling, which found that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit legally contested the 2009 general elections.

Grenada

Minister of Tourism Peter David says that Grenada remains an “extremely safe destination” for visitors, adding that government intends to keep it that way. He made the comment in response to questions about the potential impact on tourism of the death of Canadian citizen Oscar Bartholomew.

The 39-year-old Grenadian-born, who was visiting his homeland with his Canadian wife, died at the St. George’s Hospital where he was taken following an altercation with officers at the St. David’s Police Station.

Five police officers have been charged with manslaughter in connection with Bartholomew’s death.

“This is a tragedy on all counts, especially for the Bartholomew family,” said Minister David.

“Like all Grenadians, including all my colleagues in government, we would have preferred this not to have happened to anyone, particularly to a national who was visiting with his wife,” the minister said.

“But from the perspective of visitor safety, and in comparison to other tourist-dependent nations of the world, Grenada still is — and will continue to be — an extremely safe destination for travelers around the world,” he added.

Prime Minister Tilman Thomas visited the grieving mother to express government’s condolences on the death.

Guyana

Guyanese authorities are in favor of paving a dirt road that runs through the Amazon rain forest to Brazil to make the journey safer and more accessible.

Minister of Transportation Roberson Benn said a two-year study by the Inter-American Development Bank on the multi-million dollar project has been completed and its details will be shared with Brazil.

Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said that completing the project would be a priority.

The 350-mile jungle road connects both countries, but drivers are often left stranded when portions of it are routinely washed away during Guyana’s rainy season, which runs from April to August.

Haiti

Investigations are continuing in a vehicular accident in Haiti which claimed the lives of 26 persons and injuring 56 others.

Police said the driver of a truck loaded with rubble from Haiti’s earthquake two years ago, lost control of the vehicle in a hilly area of the impoverished Caribbean country near the capital Port-au-Prince killing the people.

The accident came less than a week after the second anniversary of the quake that killed more than 300,000 people and leveled much of the capital.

Highway Police Chief Will Dimanche said between 26 and 30 persons were killed after the accident in the Delmas district recently.

The truck reportedly sped down a divided two-lane roadway and plowed past parked cars, motorcycles and mopeds. There were no immediate reports of the accident but speculation centered on brake failure.

Jamaica

Trade unions and the government have begun talks on critical issues in the public sector.

Union leaders met recently with Horace Dalley, the minister without portfolio with responsibility for the Public Service.

Describing the meeting as introductory talks, Vice President of the Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) Helene Davis-Whyte said unions put forward their main areas of concern.

Among the matters are the implementation of the health sector reclassification, the 2010-2012 wage claims and the public sector transformation and modernization program.

Jamaica has agreed to, among other things, bring down the public sector wage bill to nine percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and to develop a new wage format for negotiations.

St. Lucia

Five murders were recorded in St. Lucia for the first two weeks in 2012.

Kendy John Charles of Ciceron community, Kyle Innocent of Bocage, who lived at Grass Street, Denroy Moise of Cacao Babonneau, Elisheus Louis from Bisse and Anthony Polen were all victims of gun violence.

Trinidad

The United States government says it is “disappointed” by Trinidad and Tobago Attorney General Anand Ramlogan’s decision not to pursue an extradition appeal of businessmen Ishwar Galabaransingh and Steve Ferguson.

Ramlogan, who had 42 days to appeal Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh’s decision to quash extradition orders against the businessmen, had opted not to appeal recently.

In a statement issued via the U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain, the U.S. stated, “We are disappointed in the outcome of the Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson extradition case.”

“The two were first indicted in 2005 in Miami Federal Court on numerous fraud and money laundering charges stemming from alleged bid rigging between l996 and 2005 on contracts for the Piarco International Airport. The U.S. has pursued extradition since 2005.

“The extradition is a powerful tool for fighting transnational crime and is used by countries all over the world including the United States and Trinidad and Tobago. The government of the United States and the government of Trinidad and Tobago have had a bilateral extradition agreement treaty in place since l996. Our governments work together closely to extradite suspects to both countries,” it said.

The judge ruled in a constitutional motion brought by the two businessmen that the local courts in Trinidad and Tobago is the right forum for both accused to be tried.

Trinidad

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said recently that at least 10 Indian companies were expected to invest in Trinidad and Tobago following her two-week visit to that country by a T&T government delegation led by her recently.

She made the announcement at a news conference at Piarco International Airport shortly after her arrival from India.

Persad-Bissessar said a ministerial committee would be established to monitor the implementation of several of the agreements signed between the two countries.

She said while in India the Trinidad officials met with some 100 Indian companies with a view to seeking their investment in T&T.

The prime minister said the new state-owned company, Invest TT, signed five Memorandums of Understandings “and more than 15 percent of them are expected to be in T&T within the next three months to conduct discussions and the necessary feasibility studies and submit proposals.”

She said the business discussions were in ICT, waste management, ship-building and repair, business process out-sourcing, the film industry, fashion, plastic and agriculture.

Compiled by Azad Ali

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By Vinette K. Pryce

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller announced in Parliament that Dudley Joseph Thompson, the island’s “dedicated politician and public servant” will be given an official send-off by the government.

According to reports, on Feb. 10 the former parliamentarian will be afforded an official burial ceremony with rites celebrated at the Most Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Kingston.

During a recent session of Parliament, the leader said the much-revered comrade would be afforded the highest honor barring those bestowed to governor generals and prime ministers with state funerals.

Thompson celebrated his 95th birthday in Florida and was set to share the sentiments of his milestone anniversary by travelling to New Jersey to join friends when he suffered a stroke and died there. The revered Oxford University Rhodes Scholar, lawyer, flight officer, politician, ambassador, Pan-African advocate, negotiator, father and husband died on Jan. 20. Two days after his passing, the Panama-born Jamaican was regaled by his colleague Dr. Leonard Jeffries who invited him here to join him for a birthday celebration marking his 73 years.

Thompson was no stranger to the Garden State or the Big Apple. He travelled often to talk about his life as an attorney for accused Mau Mau leader who became Kenya’s President Jomo Kenyatta. Thompson represented his country as ambassador to Namibia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Ghana.

He is reputed for his vociferous advocacy for reparations.

In Jamaica, stalwarts of his rival political Jamaica Labor Party still will recall Thompson’s comment after five men were allegedly gunned down by soldiers near a military base.

“No angels died at Green Bay,” Thompson allegedly said in defiance.

In death, it remains a mention in this and other obituaries.

From 1972 to 1976, Thompson served his government in the senate and was tasked to execute the duties of minister of state in the ministry of foreign affairs from 1975 to 1977.

He also served as minister of mining and energy from 1977 to 1978 and minister of national security from 1978-1980.

Thompson was vice president and later chairman of the People’s National Party.

While in that position, Thompson and his opposition party leader Edward Seaga were regarded as fierce combatants both competitors for the West Kingston seat of government. The Jamaica Labor Party leader took the nod in 1962 and Thompson declared him “necessary for Jamaica.”

Throughout the years, the two developed a pleasant and personal friendship.

“While we did not meet frequently, when we met it was in friendship. He was accustomed, when he travelled, to bring back a little gift for my wife, a token which we appreciated,” Seaga reportedly said.

“At times, as minister of national security, he would call me to visit trouble spots in West Kingston together when there was an outbreak of violence. This was naturally satisfying to us both,” the former prime minister added.

In recent years, Thompson has shuttled to the African continent. In 2005, he headed a delegation from the USA/Jamaica to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in order to address a symposium celebrating the life of Bob Marley. At the United Nations there, he explored and exalted the lyrics penned by the reggae singer and explained in detail the “Africa Unite” mantra which he is known to promote as a member of the Africa Union.

Thompson’s alliances with Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Trinidad’s George Padmore and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie as other world leaders are well documented.

The Caribbean is now grieving another pioneering politician whose negotiating skills helped the nation become an independent country.

One week after Thompson’s passing this columnist inquired about an obituary book nationals might sign at the Jamaica Consulate. A spokesperson said she was unaware of any such book but would inform the public if or when such a book is placed in memory of the Hon. Dudley Thompson.

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela repatriated a final shipment of gold from foreign banks Monday, saying the country has withdrawn a total of $9 billion in its gold reserves and moved it to the country’s Central Bank.

The shipment of 14 metric tons (15 tons) brought the total amount of gold shipped to Venezuela since November to 160 metric tons (176 tons), Central Bank President Nelson Merentes said.

President Hugo Chavez in August initially announced a plan to retrieve about 211 metric tons (233 tons) held in U.S. and European banks.

Merentes didn’t explain the change, but said about 85 percent of Venezuela’s gold reserves are now held in the country.

State television showed images of a convoy of armored trucks guarded by soldiers as the gold was ferried from Caracas’ airport to the Central Bank.

Merentes did not say from where the shipment had arrived, nor in which foreign banks Venezuela still has gold.

While some economists have questioned the move, Chavez has said having the gold in Venezuela will help protect the oil-exporting country from economic troubles in the U.S. and Europe.

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By Nelson A. King

By Nelson A. King

The Brazilian government said on Jan. 25 said it was granting visas to hundreds of Haitians seeking employment.

The Brazilian National Immigration Council said it has begun a program to not only grant visas to Haitians who have already crossed Brazil’s borders illegally but also to permit about 100 Haitians per month to enter Brazil to work legally.

The Council said it will issue 1,200 permanent visas annually, at its embassy in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, to earthquake-ravaged Haitians.

Paulo Sérgio de Almeida, president of Brazil’s National Immigration Council, said the special work program will permit Haitians to remain in Brazil for five years.

In addition, he said the program does not require participants to show proof of education and labor skills nor that a job is waiting for them.

De Almeida, however, said if the Haitians want to remain in Brazil permanently, they will be required to show proof of employment before the end of the five-year period.

Antonio Patriota, Brazil’s minister of foreign relations, said he hopes the Haitian government will “start to improve job conditions for the Haitian population.

“As Haiti establishes a pattern of sustainable development and economic growth, Haitians will no longer feel the need to seek out a better life abroad,” he said.

Brazil has the largest contingent of U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti, and was one of the first donors to contribute to Haiti’s earthquake reconstruction fund.

“Brazil, as an emerging power, has made Haiti one of its critical countries where it is trying to make a major difference,” said Lionel Delatour, a Haiti-based consultant who has sought to attract Brazilian garment and textiles investments to Haiti.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is expected to make her first official visit to the French-speaking Caribbean country on Feb. 1.

Brazilian officials said they are in dire need of workers as the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games here approach.

Officials said unemployment is at historic lows, adding that labor shortages have increased around the country.

Meantime, Brazil authorities said they have granted a tourist visa to Yoani Sánchez, a dissident Cuban author and blogger.

The visa comes ahead of a visit this month to the Spanish-speaking Caribbean country by Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff.

Sánchez, 36, who appealed personally to President Rousseff for the visa, said she plans to screen a documentary in Brazil.

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Azad Ali

Caribbean

There is concern over the transportation of hazardous nuclear waste and other hazardous material through the Caribbean Sea, which are potential threats to lives, health, the environment and the environment.

This comes from Jamaican Ambassador Raymond Wolfe, speaking recently on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to the General Assembly’s Social Humanitarian and Culture Committee.

He said that the focus on shipping and maritime commerce must also include improved measures, regulations and standards governing maritime safety, the training of seafarers and the safety of navigation at sea, including the safety of shipping vessels.

According to Ambassador Wolfe, CARICOM countries continue to work in partnership with the U.N. Environment Program in the implementation of the regional seas convention and action plans.

He said the region welcomed the establishment of two new working groups on reviewing lists under the protocol relating to Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife to the Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the wider Caribbean.

Cuba

Cuba says island banks have approved $150,000 in loans for 500 borrowers in the first month of a lending program that aims to support homeowners, small-business people and farmers.

The effort is part of President Raul Castro’s economic reform package and took effect on Dec. 20, 2011.

Central Bank Vice-President Francisco Mayobre says 3,100 loan applications were received and 526 approved.

Mayobre says 90 percent of the loans were for building materials or to pay for construction labor. Cuba has a severe housing crisis that some of the reforms attempt to address.

The rest went to agricultural producers and entrepreneurs starting their own businesses.

Mayobre’s comments were published recently in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

Haiti

Haitians still have much to do more to recover from the 2010 earthquake, President Michel Martelly said recently and he conceded to having made political blunders.

His remarks came as he presented his first government report since taking office in May and took on the task of rebuilding from a disaster that officials say killed more than 300,000 people and flattened the capital and surroundings areas.

“We need to help (Haitians) build back better communities, give them more support, bring them water, infrastructure, electricity, drainage and police,” Martelly said.

But the president conceded he made mistakes in his first few months in office, saying he was “young in power.”

The 30-minute report Martelly presented spelled out the many challenges his government faces as Haiti enters the third year of recovery. It noted the need for improved security, more jobs and children in school and help for the country’s farmers.

Haiti

The U.N. is investigating two new allegations of U.N. police abuse and “sexual exploitation” of children in Haiti.

Spokesman Martin Nesriky said one case involves U.N. police officers in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. They have been removed from duty while under investigation, he said.

The second case involves one or more members of a police unit in the northern city of Gonaives.

“The United Nations is outraged by these allegations and takes its responsibilities to deal with them extremely seriously,” Nesirky said.

The new charges of abuse come just months after six Uruguayan troops with the U.N. peacekeeping force in the Caribbean country were accused of raping a young Haitian man.

Jamaica

Jamaican authorities say the country ended 2011 with the lowest yearly murder toll in about a decade.

Police Commissioner Owen Ellington said recently that 1,125 slayings were reported in 2011, a nearly 22 percent drop from the 1,442 killings in 2010.

A record 1,683 people were killed in 2009. Ellington said the drop in murders is a result of police aggressively patrolling gang-infested communities in Kingston and in rural parishes including Clarendon and St. James.

Police say in the first two weeks of January 30 murders were recorded.

Jamaica has one of the world’s highest homicide rates.

Trinidad

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said recently that India’s largest private company, Reliance, plans to invest $1 billion in Trinidad and Tobago.

The company, she said, is looking at setting up an ammonia plant in Trinidad.

This is one of the proposals for Indian investment in T&T by private companies when she met with business officials during her two-week recent visit to India with a delegation of government officials and businessmen.

In the field of natural resources, the GAS Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) and the Oil and Natural Gas Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago. As a result Trinidad will help India in this sector with its technical expertise.

The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, signed an agreement with the Indira Gandhi National Open University to introduce distance learning courses to Trinidad and Tobago.

Trinidad

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves paid a visit to his close friend former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning who is slowly recuperating from a mild stroke at the San Fernando Hospital.

Gonsalves told reporters after visiting Manning that he spoke to the former prime minister who was happy upon his visit.

“His eye lit up. He smiled. I wouldn’t tell you what I spoke about. The bond is there, there was a lot of joy. He will get better,” said an emotional Dr. Gonsalves.

‘I should tell you that I love Patrick. He has been my friend since university. We played pan together. We worked well when he was in government and I have remained his friend through all the ups and downs in politics,” he added.

Trinidad

A Russian company wants to invest US$600 million (TT3.84 billion) in Trinidad and Tobago.

International steel producer Severstal wants to create history by becoming the first Russian company to make a billion-dollar investment to set up an iron and steel facility in the southern part of the country.

The plan will provide 3,500 jobs during construction and 400 permanent jobs.

It would take between three to five years to establish the plant.

Through its North American subsidiary, Severstal – Russia’s second largest steel producer with plants around the world – recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Metaldondum of the Dominican Republic, the National Gas Corporation and Neal & Massy Holdings of Trinidad and Tobago to set up the facility.

Severstal International’s Chief Executive Officer, Sergei Kuznetsov and Metaldom board member Rafael Velez were in Trinidad to meet with officials of the local companies.

Kuznetosov said he was happy to be creating history by bringing the first Russian investor to Trinidad.

The complex in La Brea will consist of an iron plant with a capacity to produce 1.5 million tones of steel a year and with a production capacity of 300,000 metric tons of steel billets a year.

U.S. Virgin Islands

One of the world’s largest oil refineries, Hovensa in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands will close in February, the company announced recently.

More than 2,000 workers are expected to go on the breadline.

Industry analysts say the closure is unlikely to have a major effect on the global oil market, but Governor John de Jongh described the loss of the territory’s largest private employer as “a complete body blow” for the U.S. territory of about 108,000 people.

He said Hovensa generated a minimum of $60 million a year in revenue for the government, which recently laid off hundreds of public workers due to a budget crisis.

Losses at Hovensa, a joint venture of U.S.-based Hess Corp and Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, have totaled $1.3 billion over the past three years and were projected to continue due to reduce demand caused by the global economic slowdown and increased refining capacity in emerging markets, said Brian L Lever, president and chief operation officer of Hovensa.

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By Bert Wilkinson

Chaos and disorder loomed large for the game of cricket in Guyana this week as government seemed determined to arbitrarily move aside the elected governing board, replace it with its own political appointees and take over operations generally but if the Antigua-based West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has its way, Guyanese won’t see an international match for months or years to come.

Since December, Guyana authorities had made no secret of their intentions to take over managenent of the game, even asking cricket superhero Clive Lloyd -- the former Guyana and West Indies captain, to fly home and accept the position of chairman of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) that would replace the board and take over the sport until government determines if and when to return administration of the sport to elected bodies.

But given events in recent weeks, no one will be surprised if Lloyd who has made it plain that he is back home because he cares about and wants to help a nation that gave him everything, packs up and leaves quietly out of frustration over the worsening situation that peaked during the past week.

First, government padlocked the offices of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) for weeks until executives mustered the gumption to counterpunch by winning a High Court ruling ordering removal of the locks.

For the cricket governors at WICB headquarterts in Antigua, such moves by government were way out of order and deserved punishment.

By the end of last week, the WICB had let it be known worldwide that Guyana was off the list of countries and territories where matches previouisly sanctioned by it would be played, including the Dubai-based International Cricket Council (ICC).

It moved the scheduled third test between Australia and the West Indies in April at the Guyana National Stadium to Dominica, which has in recent years upgraded its facilities as an option for international games sponsored by the WICB.

Hours before such a move, it became clear that authorities thought that the WICB was bluffing, saying that “no threats” to move matches from Guyana will stop the takeover of cricket by the IMC. They appeared to have been caught off guard by the announcement.

Government also apparently had not paid heed to a big hint from Antigua late in January, when all of its team’s matches in the four-day regional competition that started across the West Indies last week, were also moved to Dominica, where the local team is now based.

From all indications, government will look bad if it backs out now, so Guyanese are bracing for more fallout from the current mess.

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By Robert Elkin

The Blackbirds’ basketball team at Long Island University-Brooklyn is having one of its finest season during recent years and maybe in the school’s history if the wins continue the way they have been.

With less than a month left on their remaining regular season schedule, the Blackbirds could be headed to the NCAA Division I post season tournament just like they did last year. At press time they have the best record in their Northeast College Conference, and in the met area for league games.

Led by Julian Boyd and Jamal Olasewere, both of whom went over the 1,000 point mark this season during their careers, and the work of their backcourt, the Blackbirds, who were the favorites to win the title before the campaign started, took nine straight games at one stage of the season.

Jim Ferry, in his tenth year at the helm of the team, employs a three-guard offense comprising backcourt players CJ Garner, Jason Brickman and Michael Culpo. The latter is their only senior starter. There are two seniors on their roster. The rest are all under classmen.

Brickman is the best point guard in the Northeast Conference, according to the veteran coach. “He controls games. He lets the game come to him, He can make the three-point shot. If a lay-up shows, he can do that, too. And he’s a great passer.”

“Last year, the Blackbirds had so many good players,” said Ferry. “We were bringing in Culpo and Brickman and Kenny (Onyechi) off the bench. This year we don’t have much depth. It was hard to keep so many good players. Now our returning players are better than we were last year, but we don’t have so many as we did.”

Olasewere and Boyd have been playing tremendous basketball, and have been starting almost every game. They put the ball into the hoop and guard Brickman is doing a great job in setting them up and passing off for those assists. Ferry said that Boyd and Olasewere are the cornerstones of the team. But Brickman can’t be left out.

“They are two monsters,” Ferry said. “The reason we are really good is because we have Brickman at the point and those two guys at the forward positions. We are staying together as a group. We have good chemistry.”

Good coaching and outstanding players usually produce a winner and that’s just what the team has been doing.

“Coach Ferry has done a tremendous coaching job this year,’ athletic director John Suarez said. “Going into the year we lost key players but had a lot of players coming back.

“Since our depth has been up and down a bit, we relied a lot on our first five players. Jimmy’s got them playing on all cylinders again. We need everyone for support.”

The Blackbirds still have to get better, and hopefully they can capture the regular season title, win the conference tournament, and go deep into the NCAA tourney.

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Azad ALi

Bahamas

Despite the region spending millions of dollars to secure airlift to the Caribbean, ticket prices are still too high and remain insufficient to sustain the industry, according to Josef Forstmayr, president the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA).

He was at the time addressing at the opening of Caribbean Marketplace at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Forstnayr estimated in 2010 the Caribbean governments “collectively paid $45 million – only to find that our airlift is still inadequate and way too expensive for our visitors,”

The CHTA president noted intra-Caribbean tourism “once represented 13 percent of the region’s tourism, as much as Canada, The combined population of Caribbean countries is 40 million.”

Bahamas

Authorities in the Bahamas say a 26-year-old U.S. tourist died aboard a Carnival cruise ship and the cruise was delayed pending the investigation.

Police said in a statement that a man from South Carolina apparently jumped from one floor to another aboard the Carnival Fantasy that had docked in Nassau recently. He was declared dead at the scene.

Carnival issued a statement saying the guest apparently fell.

Officials did not release his name or home town.

The ship had departed Charleston, South Carolina for a five-day Bahamas cruise.

Barbados

The brother of Opposition Leader Owen Arthur, a former candidate for the main opposition Barbados Labor Party (BLP) was recently remanded in prison on ammunition charges.

Richard Seymour Arthur, 50, was taken before a magistrate in the Bridgetown court charged with having 102 rounds of ammunition on Jan. 31, without permission and in breach of the Firearms Act.

He was not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge and was remanded to jail by Magistrate Barbara Cooke-Alleyne.

He is due to reappear in court on Feb. 27.

His attorney Randall Belgrave said he would be applying to the High Court for bail for his client.

Arthur contested the St. Lucy seat, next door to his brother’s constituency of St. Peter in the 2003 general election and lost.

Grenada

An inmate facing a murder charge has been found hanging in his cell, Grenada’s Prison Commissioner Don McKenzie said.

He said that Joel Lendore’s body was lifeless when found recently in his cell.

The prison chief said it appears that Lendore died from an apparent suicide.

Lendore was a former athlete who represented the tiny Grenadian island of Carriacou in cricket, soccer and track and field. He was accused of killing his wife in 2009 by slashing her throat.

A coroner’s inquest will be undertaken to determine the cause of Lendore’s death and whether or not someone should be held responsible.

Haiti

Haitian authorities will rule soon on whether the prosecution of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier moves to trial or gets dropped, the investigating judge Carves Jean said.

The announcement came after a closed hearing during which he admonished the former dictator known as “Baby Doc” for violating the terms of his conditional release by leaving the capital at least twice in recent weeks.

Jean said he told Duvalier that, “he’ll be going straight to the national penitentiary” if he leaves again without authorization.

Since he made an unexpected return a year ago, Duvalier has traveled the country and had been spotted dining with friends at high-end restaurants in the capital. He recently delivered a commencement speech to law school graduates in the coastal city of Gonaives and attended a memorial for quake victims outside the capital last month.

The defense argues that Duvalier is free to go where he pleased because no law exists to restrict his movements.

Jamaica

United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has congratulated new Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller on her recent election victory.

Clinton spoke of “warm” relations between Jamaica and the U.S. and offered to get a team together to visit Jamaica to explore areas of potential assistance, including security, education and poverty reduction.

According to the Prime Minister’s office, Simpson-Miller thanked Clinton for the offer, saying those areas would be of great help to Jamaica.

She also said that the women of the world drew inspiration from Clinton’s “strength and achievements,”

The telephone call followed a similar one from U.S. President Barack Obama in her first week in office.

Suriname

Suriname is reporting a dengue outbreak.

The Health Ministry said recently that more than 300 dengue cases have been reported in the South American country of 491,000 people. Among those affected was Parliament Speaker Jennifer Simons. She was hospitalized recently and has since been released.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease that can cause fever, headache and pain in muscles and joints and be fatal. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for it.

Trinidad

January was a bloody month in Trinidad and Tobago as police recorded some 38 murders in 31 days.

While there were nine killings less last month, compared to January 2011, police officials admit it is still worrying statistics.

However, the police say they are committed to the fight against crime.

While statistics of 38 murders in 31 days are alarming, police figures show that the January 2012 slayings are lower than those recorded last January when 46 people were killed.

For January, the Port of Spain Division recorded the highest number of murders with 10 killings. The combined statistics for Central and Southern Divisions were 14 murders.

Police say that most of the killings were gang-related.

Works Minister Jack Warner has launched a campaign calling for the death penalty.

Warner said he will be collecting signatures across the country for the enforcement of hanging after three fishermen were murdered in his constituency. The petition, he said, will be laid in Parliament and give to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

Trinidad

A ban has been put on Carnival revelers drinking from bottles. They can face a fine of $1,000 or three months in jail.

This was revealed by Port of Spain Mayor Louis Lee Singh who has sent out a warning to people coming into the city on Carnival Monday and Tuesday they would not be able to drink from glass bottles.

Lee Sing said that the “no glass bottles for carnival” measure is a real and proceeding apace.

He said people who want to drink will have to use plastic cups.

The mayor said he held discussions with key stakeholders in the glass bottle beverage industry and it was already decided that no glass bottles with be sold in Port of Spain on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

Lee Sing said the measure is one which, he envisions, can save lives. He noted that it was a broken bottle which was used during the only killing in the revelry last year.

The Borough of Chaguanas has also announced that no glass bottles will be allowed on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

Compiled by Azad Ali

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By Bert Wilkinson

No one, including expatriate Trinidad and Tobago Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs seems to know exactly why a battery of police officers invaded the offices of Trinidad’s Newsday newspaper in Port of Spain last week, spent several hours searching computers, files and other company property before carting away computer hard drives and flash drives, as well as other material in a move that shocked all across the island’s political divide.

The hitherto unprecedented move forced the administration of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to condemn the action of the police, distance itself from passing any orders to the effect and to demand explanations from the already beleaguered police chief, under fire for a series of administrative gaffes including the force’s inability to stem gang-related murders.

“The execution of a search warrant on a media house by police officers is an extreme act,” said a clearly embarrassed office of the prime minister. “As such, it must be proportionate to the nature of the offence under investigation and the circumstances of alleged crime. The government does not know what prompted such strong action but expects a mature, disciplined, professional and responsible use of force by the police in the execution of their duties,” Persad-Bissessar said.

That it is the second time in weeks detectives had invaded a newsroom stunned nearly everyone in the media fraternity across the Caribbean, triggering widespread condemnation and calls for the head of the police chief and explanations as to why police had felt compelled to violate the newsroom of a media house in a non-criminal matter.

Opposition PNM leader Keith Rowley said the action of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service in this matter, was “hopelessly misguided and an abuse of the rights of citizens to know what is being done to them and in their name.”

“If this is allowed to become an acceptable way of doing investigations in this country, then the very essential freedom of the press which is enshrined in our Constitution will be effectively destyroyed and the population will be at the mercy of the Executive, which would always want to keep embarrasing information from the knowledge of the public.”

Prakash Ramadhar, leader of the minority opposition faction, COP said the police action ”is an atrocious attack on the freedom of the press,and we must all be vigilant to ensure that this is not repeated in the almost callous way it has been.”

“If you don’t have confidentiality of your sources you have nothing,” he added. “And this is an arrow in the heart of the responsibilities and authority of the media.”

At center of issue is the belief among members of the national integrity commission that reporter Andre Bagoo had had an inside track to commission members, allowing him to carry newspaper stories based on leaks from commission insiders.

Frustrated with the continuing reportage, police obtained search warrants and brushed aside internal security to carry out their search, seize property and later took Baggo to his city home to conduct a further search and confiscation of private property.

Both PNM and COP opposition groups also demanded answers from the police high command in 24 hours, while the umbrella Trinidad-based Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) said the “actions of the police reek of intimidation and can be interpreted as an attempt to put a damper on media efforts to get to the bottom of a matter of great public interest and concern.” Additionally, it said that “we are not comforted by government claims of ignorance in the face of this threat to press freedom in Trinidad and Tobago and call on the administration to clearly state its specific position on the actions of this arm of the national security infrastructure.”

From all appearances the invasion of newsrooms is becoming a habit. Last December, a contingent of 18 officers marched into the office of TV-6 in similarly intimidatory fashion searching for tapes of a crime program the station had aired a few days earlier.

Again, as condemnations continue to pour in. the country’s top cop said he had no prior knowledge of the raid.

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By Robert Elkin

Last year the Long Island University-Brooklyn basketball team under the coaching of Jim Ferry captured 13 consecutive games, including the Northeast College Conference post-season tournament, defeating Robert Morris in the title game.

Jamal Olasewere captured the Most Valuable Player award of the conference tournament. He scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against Central Connecticut State, tallied 18 points and grabbed the same number of rebounds against St. Francis of Pennsylvania.

Olasewere exploded for 31 markers and grabbed 11 caroms against Robert Morris in the contest that decided their automatic bid into the NCAA tournament where they lost to North Carolina University in the opening round. He is a tough rebounder, can really go in there and even put the ball into the hoop.

Teammate Jason Brickman, who turned in an excellent freshman year at the guard position, returned to the team as did Olasewere, Julian Boyd, C.J. Garner, and Michael Culpo. These players can give any of their rivals ‘fits’ better known as trouble in winning.

They all prepared very well for the current season. With many of the returnees and not such a deep squad they felt confident coming into the season that they would go deep into the NCAA tournament. But first, they must make it.

Ferry thus began his 10th season as head coach of the Blackbirds, located in downtown Brooklyn.

They started the season rather slow and lost at Hofstra, Old Dominican and Penn State, all on the road. After losing to Iona College to drop their record to 2-4 , and with the same starters-Brickman, a tremendous back court player, and a candidate for an all-league spot at the season’s end, Culpo, Olasewere and pre-season North East Conference player of the year Boyd, Ferry’s team went on a tremendous role winning nine straight games at one stage of the season.

After losing to Robert Morris, and then taking five in a row including two over neighborhood rival St. Francis College, including one at Madison Square Garden, their first place record read 19-7 and only one league setback.

And most important of all, they clinched a spot in the Northeast Conference tournament. The other teams standing hasn’t been determined at press time as the schedule is still going on.

Credit must go to the whole team, especially to Olasewere, who puts on quite a show both on offense and defense from the forward position until he fouled out with 30 seconds left against St. Francis College of Brooklyn in the Battle of Brooklyn.

Teammate Boyd connected on a jump shot with about 20 seconds left in the second half to put the Blackbirds ahead 79-78. Garnes’ two free throws put the icing on the cake or for LIU in a game that went right down to the end and thrilled the near capacity crowd. Despite the setback in the Battle of Brooklyn, the Terriers still remains in contention for a playoff spot, with the home court advantage going to the top four colleges.

Olasewere put on some show to be named Most Valuable Player of the Battle of Brooklyn schools to climax rivalry week in college basketball.

“I don’t think it’s pressure to repeat,” Ferry said. “The top four teams get the home court advantage.”

And credit must go to Brickman, who makes those passes, plays a tremendous game in the backcourt, has great court vision, and assisted 12 times in the Battle of Brooklyn at the LIU Wellness Center.

“Brickman had a special season as a freshman and has gotten quicker than (last year), added Ferry. “He’s taken on the role as a leader. And he has done a fantastic job for us.”

Coupled with Culpo, the only senior starter, they are two unselfish players, and they team very well together in the backcourt. Culpo is a very good ball handler. And there’s also a key reserve in freshman Brandon Thompson, who has been averaging in double figures as far as minutes are concerned. Coach Ferry is very high on him.

“He can handle the ball and has a great feel for the game,” added Ferry.

While the Blackbirds have to focus on one game at a time during the regular season in preparation for the league’s post-season tournament, the St. Francis College Terriers, trying to have a turn around season, are also doing very well in their drive to pull an upset or two in the stretch run. They are also in the running for a playoff spot which at press time is not clinched as yet.

St. Francis’ head coach Glenn Braica, whose team has been doing just great, said that the Battle of Brooklyn has always been interesting. The season has been going to form-the way it should be.

“We still have to improve on our defense,” said Coach Braica, who is in his second season as head coach of the Terriers. “I’m proud of my team. It’s been a good season and a fun year. We have a good group of guys. (Against Long Island University) we gave a decent account of ourselves and we’re proud of our players.”

Home court is an advantage and makes a big difference to a team during any game; with a tournament no exception.

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By Bert Wilkinson

Guyana’s government’s public pledge to dismantle the elected Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) because of alleged widespread corruption and take over the administration of cricket by installing its Interim Management Committee (IMC) took a new turn over the weekend when local police arrested board secretary Anand Sanasie on suspicion that he was part of an organized ring that sold visas to ordinary Guyanese by passing them off to Western embassies as bona fide cricketers.

Sanasie who was indicted on treason charges by the previous PNC administration more than 20 years ago and is also one of the GCB’s representatives on the Antigua-based West Indies Cricket Board, was released by police after hours of questioning on Friday but was told in no uncertain manner that police are now reviewing visa support letters he and board members wrote to the U.S., Canadian and UK embassies years ago to determine how many non-cricketers had profited from the scheme.

Senasie, a former military officer, is one of Georgetown’s leading businessmen. Digicel rents its headquarters building from him, while the elections commission has two of its key offices under lease from Senasie. It is widely believed that police are acting on the instructions of government in the latest effort to dismantle the board and install its own preferred faces.

In all, investigators say that more than 80 such letters were sent to embassies over the years and some had included people who never properly held a bat or had bowled a ball in any recognized form of cricket. Sanasie has denied the charges.

Police say they are looking at two specific cases that might prove their case. Letters were written for Marvin Munroe and Wasin Haslim as youngsters who were senior national cricketers but after checks it was easily proved that both were not. Director of Sports and Member of Parliament Neil Kumar was also listed as a match scorer on a team traveling to Canada. Police say this one is also suspicious as well.

Senasie was due to revisit police headquarters as the work week began. Government has brought in former Guyana and West Indies Captain Clive Lloyd to help lead the charge aimed at “reorganizing cricket in Guyana.”

The effort has so far had both some farcical and devastating moments for local cricket as the WICB scrubbed Guyana off the list of venues for the Australia Test match in April and has moved the Guyana team from its local base to Dominica from where it has already won two of the four-day matches in the annual regional competition. Farcically, the IMC had also named a separate national team

The government putsch is continuing despite the fact that the regional umbrella board has warned that next year’s international matches might also be taken away. Lloyd argues that cricket is in the doldrums and he can no longer stand idly by and so he is dedicating time to helping to restructure the game and its chaotic administration in Guyana.

His critics, however, say that he has so far made the fatal mistake of siding with authorities and the IMC instead of placing himself in the middle as a mediator, using the influence, respect and credibility to help solve problems that have been around for years.

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By Nelson A. King

United States authorities said on Jan. 16 that 26 Cubans came ashore near Newfound Harbor in the Florida Keys in what authorities described as a possible migrant-smuggling operation.

Federal officials said the refugees, who arrived Jan. 13, were taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol during an operation that also involved the U.S. Coast Guard.

The fact that the Border Patrol handled the arrival means the migrants will be able to stay in the United States under the “Wet Foot-Dry Foot” policy, which allows Cubans who reach U.S. soil to stay while those intercepted at sea are returned to Cuba.

Cubans who reach U.S. soil, even without immigration papers, can apply for permanent residence after spending more than a year in the country, officials said.

Coast Guard officials said the group is the largest to reach the Florida coast so far in the New Year.

Coast Guard figures show that in the past four months at least 316 Cuban migrants have been intercepted in the Florida Straits.

Officials said the latest arrival of more than two dozen might indicate that the flow of Cuban migrants is increasing.

During fiscal year 2010, 422 Cuban migrants were intercepted by Coast Guard cutters and 409 reached land.

But the number of arrivals and interceptions increased in fiscal year 2011, which ended on Sept. 30, to 985 intercepted at sea and 696 reaching land, the Coast Guard said.

Most Cuban migrants arrive across the Mexican border. In fiscal year 2011, more than 5,000 Cubans arrived at the border, a number similar to that of fiscal 2010, officials said.

The Coast Guard said it sent two vessels to the area where the migrants came ashore on Friday, and a reconnaissance aircraft flew over Big Pine Key and the surrounding area. Newfound Harbor is between Ramrod Key and Little Torch Key.

A speedboat was seen leaving the area shortly after 7:30 a.m. The boat probably belonged to migrant-smugglers, according to federal officials.

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By Azad Ali

Trinidad and Tobago and India have signed a bilateral agreement, which will establish air links between the two countries.

The air services agreement was signed by Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi during her 10-day official visit to India.

The agreement allows designated carriers to operate flights connection destinations in each country.

Speaking after the signing ceremony, Singh said he and Persad-Bissessar also decided to vigorously pursue the thrust areas for bilateral trade and investments identified by the Inter-Governmental Joint Commission.

“These include hydrocarbons and renewable energy, agriculture, IT and communications, hospitality, health, pharmaceuticals and tourism, the Indian prime minister said.

Singh said the signing of the air services agreement will help in the further development of trade and tourism links.

They also agreed to enhance bilateral technical cooperation through exchange of experts, according to a joint statement by the two leaders.

During the talks, Singh also highlighted the interest shown by Indian companies –both public and private sector – to invest in the energy sector and it was decided that Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy would visit T&T in the near future “to future concretize areas of mutually beneficial cooperation.”

Singh said India’s growing energy needs would be met only through imports and would explore ways and means to source LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) from T&T.

Persad-Bissessar also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on setting up a Chair on Ayurveda at the University of the West Indies; a program of cultural exchanges and a technical cooperation agreement in the field of education.

India has promised to support the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) in the areas of film production, drama, Indian art, and art craftsmen exchange programs.

The Union Minister of Culture in India, Kumari Selja gave a commitment to send a small team to T&T by March this year, to finalize a plan of action in support of the Technical Cooperation Agreement in Culture and Education.

T&T’s Minister of Tertiary Education Fazal Karim promised to have a steelband from T&T sent to India to promote the playing of the country’s national instrument in India.

Brian Lara and Darren Ganga were part of Bissessar delegation, which returned to Trinidad on Jan. 14.

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By Nelson A. King

The United Kingdom-Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Forum concluded in Grenada on Sunday with both sides agreeing to establish a new strategic partnership.

Officials said in the “Final Action Plan” that both parties would promote prosperity and build economic resilience through the development of practical mechanisms, “which will enhance growth in investment, employment, production and trade opportunities to the benefit of the Caribbean and the UK (United Kingdom)”.

The parties also agreed to explore all avenues, including the reporter (EPA), which was signed between Europe and the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) countries in 2008, to improve access for Caribbean exports of goods and services to Britain.

In addition, the UK agreed to aid the region in improving food security and the “resilience of their food and agricultural sectors, through measures aimed at enhancing the efficiency of production and distribution systems and the economic security of producers”.

On the controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD), officials agreed “to continue dialogue in the spirit of cooperation and in the context of the importance of tourism to the economic development of the Caribbean, with a view to assisting the region in mitigating any deleterious effects that the application of the APD may have on its economies”.

Last year, the U.K. government announced that the APD rates to Caribbean destinations will continue to be considerably higher than those to some competitor destinations.

The detailed tax tables show that the tax on economy long-haul flights of more than 6,000 miles will rise from £85 (US$132) to £92 (US$143) per person. The new measure goes into effect in April this year.

“We always have to be hopeful, this is a matter we are always looking for some adjustments on and we do not believe it is cast in stone,” said St. Kitts-Nevis Foreign Minister Sam Condor.

“We are aware that the British government has their own fiscal responsibility to their own country, (but) we believe that this is a new partnership, a new beginning which we hope to see a different attitude in how they relate to the Caribbean,” he added.

Condor told reporters that during the talks Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, Hague said he understood the position of the region.

“One of the points we were making is that, as it is applied it (APD), is discriminatory, and we hope that there will be an adjustment, not in the tax itself but how it is applied there will be some relief,” he said.

“We raised it, we understood what the foreign secretary said, but we could not do anything but raise it and to hope we will get a reaction and reply in terms of this,” he added.

Officials also agreed to the develop this year, “effective coordination mechanism to help take forward our partnership in the fight against drugs and international crime, including through the establishment of a UK-Caribbean Expertise Exchange Mechanism to promote best practices on security issues across the region”.

In addition, they agreed to establish with the “full collaboration of the United States, a regional network of land-based law enforcement units trained and equipped to a common standard.

“These units would provide a fully interoperable regional resource to conduct land based surveillance and interdiction operations”, they said.

The officials agreed to remain “engaged in negotiations to conclude an Arms Trade Treaty in 2012 and for the successful outcome of the Review Conference of the The UK and CARICOM officials agreed to collaborate closely on climate change issues, “recognizing that current business as usual trends are likely to lead to catastrophic climate change, including warming, since the pre-industrial period of four degrees centigrade or more.

“Preventing this is an imperative we share,” they said.

Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister for the Caribbean, Jeremy Browne, said the parley was “fruitful and productive.”

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PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — The man who led the resource-rich Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago for nearly 15 years has been hospitalized after an apparent stroke.

Patrick Manning’s office says the former prime minister was taken to a hospital early Tuesday. A statement says he apparently suffered a “mild” stroke and is undergoing tests.

His wife Hazel-Ann said on the radio that he is conscious and understands what is being said to him. She called on people to pray for the former leader.

The 65-year-old Manning was prime minister from 1991-1995 and from 2001-2010.

His People’s National Movement lost general elections in May 2010. Manning kept his seat in the House of Representatives but was ousted as party leader.

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By Azad Ali

A Jamaican woman, Shanique Myrie who claimed that she was sexually violated, verbally abused, locked up and thrown out of Barbados by immigration officials last March has filed an action in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

The law firm of Hylton Brown, in a press release said this is the first case of its kind that will be filed in the CCJ in its original jurisdiction.

“The critical issue for determination is: What is the minimum standard of treatment to be given to CARICOM nationals moving within the region under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and its goal of hassle-free travel?” the release said.

Before seeking leave from the government of Jamaica to file this action, the firm said it allowed sufficient time for both the Jamaican and the Barbadian governments to attempt to settle the matter.

“After obtaining leave of the government of Jamaica, this firm also attempted to engage the Barbadian government in discussions, but to no avail. Ms Myrie was therefore left with no recourse but to bring an action before the CCJ to have important issues raised adjudicated,” the release said.

This matter will set the precedent for how persons move throughout the region, the firm said.

“This case is also important in that it will build awareness among Jamaican and CARICOM citizens of the obligation of member states of the CARICOM community to provide a minimum assurance of free movement or hassle-free travel. It is also a unique opportunity for Hylton Brown, as a law firm, to contribute to our vision of building community law and thereby providing the guidance needed for ordinary citizens and persons doing business in the region,” the release stated.

Myrie, who said she was traumatized by the incident, is seeking redress, including monetary damages, since she believes she should be compensated for the harm caused by the Barbadian government who acted in their official capacities as either immigration, customs or police officers.

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By Nelson A. King

The Toronto-based Solamon Energy Corp. said on Jan. 24 that it plans to build the largest solar power plant in the Caribbean.

The solar company said that the program, to be built in Jamaica, will cost in the region of CAN$450 million.

When completed, the farm will “enhance and improve the nation’s energy infrastructure, as well as serve as a beacon to attract additional investment in the ICT (Information Communications Technology) and greentech sectors.”

Ainsley Brown, Solamon’s senior vice president, said the farm will represent one of the region’s first strategic private-public partnerships.

“In order to implement a solution of this magnitude sites, several parishes are being considered as future homes of one of three 50-acre plots that when conjoined will provide the Jamaican people with 60MW of clean electricity,” he said.

“This program represents a comprehensive approach to renewable energy development, energy diversification, job creation and training for the 21st century,” Brown said.

“Its success will necessitate a level-headed and like-minded approach at the table, as we are offering to tackle and deal with all elements of risk cooperatively and openly examine the implications of carbon credits, fuel or foreign exchange savings, in order to share the greater benefits of solar with our partners, and the communities they serve over the lifetime of this deal,” he continued.

Brown said the mega-project will create many new jobs for Jamaicans, and with the completion of a requisite light manufacturing plant, will establish the island as a “bona-fide greentech hub.”

In addition to generating solar electricity and, thereby, reducing for future generations of Jamaicans an “imposing reliance” on fossil fuels, he said the new revenue from the sale of carbon credits will be directed toward establishing employee training and certification programs, “required to build this and many other similar facilities across the Caribbean.”

“I believe the utility should not be the only one to benefit from the nation going green,” Brown said.

“JPS, as it currently stands, benefits from green initiatives, from not having to produce that energy, as well as the fuel-saving and foreign exchange saving, without passing anything onto the green investor or the customer at large,” he said.

“We here at Solamon Energy believe that should end and fairness be brought to the nation,” he added.

Brown said Solamon provides a fully managed solution for its Apollo Acre™, a turnkey process from beginning to end, including site inspections, project design and development, as well as addressing requisite environmental and local permitting, 3rd party engineering, procurement and construction, as well as system testing and eventual commissioning, security and maintenance.

The company said it is “excited” to deliver turnkey power plants using renewable solar energy as a resource to Caribbean and Central American countries, and develop mutually beneficial and long-term relationships around the world.

“It’s no secret, our executives are certainly looking for local partners to manage each new Apollo Acre™ array,” Solamon CEO Graeme Boyce said.

“However, our partners must also be willing to establish and operate a suitable post-implementation maintenance program, especially in collaboration with government agencies who’ve offered to provide standards and training certification criteria especially in the growing Carbon Credit market.”

Boyce said Solamon typically offers a ground-mounted solar array of integrated photovoltaic cells over 5 acre packages of land, which is called the Apollo Acre™.

He said the company now also designs and installs custom solutions with local partners to provide roof-mounted and parking lot systems that could be easily augmented by micro wind turbine technology and other innovative features.

Solamon Energy Corp. sells integrated arrays of ground-mounted and rooftop photovoltaic cells.

These solar power plants are connected by cable to varied transmission equipment, including converters, inverters and batteries, utilizing 5 acres of land per unit; each unit is called an Apollo Acre™.

Additionally, Boyce said the company’s business activities are expected to spin-off many jobs locally, given engineering requirements, construction, unit commissioning and subsequent maintenance.

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By Azad Ali

Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague says eliminating or modifying an airfare tax is not a priority even though his government understands its implications on the Caribbean’s tourism business.

He made the comment during a brief talk with reporters ahead of a recent two-day British-Caribbean forum in Grenada.

The Caribbean has long sought to get Britain to change its 2009, which charges passengers according to how far they fly as part of efforts to curb carbon emissions.

Caribbean leaders have long complained that the tax is unfairly higher on flights to the Caribbean than those to other destinations and that it drives away visitors from the tourism-dependent islands.

Minister of State in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Jeremy Brown also defended the Air Passenger Duties (APDs) tax implemented by the British government saying that it is to aid in the reduction of the country’s massive budget deficit.

Brown, who was in Trinidad recently told an audience at the Institute of International Relations, University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus that the current government “inherited a massive budget deficit. We inherited that deficit as a government and we are determined to balance it,” he said.

He said most people do not understand the reason for taxation adding that the British government is borrowing every single day, about US$500 million just to meet our spending obligations.

“We have to bring our budget deficit under control. That means we have a range of taxes that we would rather not have, but rather reduce,” Brown said.

In response Trinidad and Tobago Ambassador to CARICOM and former secretary general of CARICOM Dr. Edwin Carrington argued that it was not so much an unwillingness on the part of the Caribbean to pay the duties, but the system implemented “was discriminatory.”

In the system, countries are placed in bands from A to D. Caribbean countries, he said, are placed in band C, which is for people who are traveling between 4,000 to 6,000 miles away from England.

Brown noted that Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, which are heavily reliant on tourism have made representation for a review of the APD.

He said that were Britain to abolish APD tomorrow, it still would not reduce the need for some parts of the Caribbean to look at the whole tourism experience and to make it more competitive.

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By Azad Ali

A fast ferry service between the Eastern Caribbean islands is soon to start sailing.

This was revealed by Trinidad and Tobago Transport Minister Devant Maharaj who told a post Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, Port of Spain recently that the company managing the service, Fast Caribbean Ltd., has agreed to provide 100,000 seats per year at a special price of $10 a ticket but the average price for citizens of T&T would be between $25 and $35 a seat.

The ferry will also transport goods.

Maharaj said a Cabinet appointed team is in negotiations with the company to set up the ferry service.

He stressed that the initiative was a private sector one and that government would be putting no cash in the service.

He said the fast ferry proposal, which the team would be reviewing proposes to launch the service in 2012 and it would be based in Port of Spain.

Phase one of the service, he said, would offer trips to the islands of Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Barbados.

Maharj said Fast Caribbean Ltd, Barbados-based consortium, will charter from owners Montrose Global a 112-meter wave piercing catamaran similar to those operating on the Trinidad to Tobago route.

The minister said a minimum capital start up of $12 million was required for the service.

But he noted that the private sector team was proposing to raise $20 million.

The catamaran would leave Port of Spain at 6:00 a.m. and arrive in Barbados (the last stop on its route at 6:00 p.m.)

Maharaj said once commercially viable in phase one of the project, additional routes will be added.

Foreign Affairs Minister Suruj Rambachan said the ferry would help promote tourism, while Trade and Industry Minister Stephen Cadiz said it would bring cheaper freight charges for business in the region.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar first announced its intention to have a ferry service linking Trinidad and Tobago and the Eastern Caribbean in September last year and invited proposals from suitable investors in October 2011.

Five companies responded and Fast Ferry Caribbean Ltd was selected.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has welcomed the plan for a ferry service to the four southern Caribbean islands.

He said he does not see the initiative competing with either Caribbean Airlines Ltd or Liat, However, he said it provides an opportunity for the discussion on one Caribbean air carrier.

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By Nelson A. King

Canada’s Minister of International Cooperation Beverley J. Oda, announced on Feb. 10 her country’s support for local economic development in the Caribbean to the tune of CAN$20 million.

Through a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded project, Oda said the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) will assist local Caribbean municipalities build and strengthen their local economies.

She said the Caribbean Local Economic Development (CARILED) project will help to “improve local communities, establish business environments to support small and medium-sized enterprises.

“Canada’s local municipalities not only work to provide Canadians with safe, vibrant and prosperous communities, for 25 years they also shared their expertise with other in developing countries around the world,” Oda said.

“Canadians can take pride in the membership of the FCM and in the work they will undertake to help local Caribbean communities strengthen their local economic development and increase business opportunities in 6 different countries,” she added.

The Canadian Minister of International Corporation said CARILED will support up to 50 local governments and agencies, which, in turn, “will reach up to 500 small enterprises in six countries.

“By working directly with local governments, local authorities, and a wide range of stakeholders, this project will use local resources and create new jobs, stimulating local economic growth,” she said.

The announcement took place at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ annual Sustainable Communities Conference, in Ottawa, Canada, with the participation of the FCM President, Berry Vrbanovic, and the High Commissioner of the Bahamas and Dean of the CARICOM Diplomats, Michael D. Smith.

“Since 1987, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has successfully delivered high-quality international programming through the involvement of Canadian municipal experts in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and the Middle East,” Vrbanovic said.

“This has been possible with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency and the contribution of municipalities from across Canada that shared and continue to share their expertise in municipal services, public participation, local governance, gender issues, disaster relief, and sustainable local economic development,” he added.

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By Azad Ali

The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHT) is calling on the Caribbean media to maintain pressure on the British government to repeal its controversial Airline Passenger Duty (APD), which, it says is damaging the economies of the region’s countries.

CHTA President Joseph Forstmayr of Jamaica contended the tax had reduced the number of British visitors to the Caribbean by some 90,000 a year in contrast to other European countries without such levies.

He said economic damages leveled by the tax on the islands were even more damaging because U.K. visitors stayed between l0 and 14 days in the Caribbean, which was a considerable amount of revenue lost to regional communities and businesses.

Alec Sanguinetti, director general and CEO of CHTA agreed none of the British government’s aid programs in the region approached the value of tourism to local economies.

He called for innovative ways of protesting the punitive U.K. taxes such as slogans on Caribbean athletes competing in the Olympics in London this summer.

Cash-strapped regional airline LIAT lost US$46 million last year and US$26 million more than in 2010.

And the airline is considering suing Trinidad and Tobago-owned Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) over “unfair competition” under CARICOM protocols.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, chair of the shareholder governments told news conference in Kingstown that while shareholder governments are committed to keeping the airline afloat and recognizes its necessity and desirability, they would have to take some “serious decisions going forward.”

Gonsalves, who is also the CARICOM spokesperson on air transportation, said LIAT would seek legal advice on how CAL “is conducting its business by providing subsidies and coming on the routes, competing with us.”

“They pay just US$50 a barrel for aviation fuel. We pay US$110, $120. Obviously that can’t be correct. I have no problem with CAL coming in our routes, none whatsoever. The competition is fine but the competition has to be on a level playing field,” Gonsalves said.

Gonsalves, along with his Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda counterparts Freundel Stuart and Baldwin Spencer, met recently in Barbados with LIAT’s board and management and unions representing the airline’s workers.

The meeting mandated Gonsalves to communicate concerns about the fuel subsidy to Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s government, owners of CAL.

“It is our contention that such unfair competition is subversive of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and also of the Common Air Services Agreement in CARICOM and we must address it,” the St. Vincent and the Grenadines prime minister said.

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By Nelson A. King

The United States have called on all political parties and legislators in Haiti to work closely together in order to avert a political crisis in the French-speaking, earthquake-ravaged Caribbean country.

“Haiti’s executive and legislative branches need to rise above their interests and work together in the spirit of compromise to overcome their common challenges,” said Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, who led a 15-member delegation of the U.N. Security Council on a visit to Haiti last week, calling on the legislative and executive branches to stop the wrangling.

“The president and prime minister have prioritized investments to create jobs to build a brighter future,” she told reporters at the end of the four-day mission to Haiti.

“But we also understand that improvements in the rule of law, in institution building, fighting corruption and removing other barriers to growth are key to attracting and retaining the quality and quantity of investments that Haiti needs,” Rice continued.

Other United Nations’ diplomats expressed fear about worsening post-carnival political crisis in the impoverished country.

“From what we heard, there is a risk of political confrontation,” said Philip Parham, the United Kingdom’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, who was among Security Ambassadors on the Haiti trip. “Some people think it is really significant.

“One vital ingredient in moving forward is going to be clear and inclusive leadership from the top,” he added.

Parham said Haitian legislators have complained about “political differences with the President, with whom the opposition-dominated parliament is at loggerheads.

“It would have been good to hear more of a positive vision for Haiti and the role of the parliamentary leadership in that,” he said.

On Feb. 17, Haiti’s National Palace blamed “trouble makers” near the Champ de Mars for attacking the president’s motorcade.

Reports indicated that President Michel Martelly was hit by a rock but not seriously injured as he walked in a Carnival procession.

Haiti’s political stalemate has reportedly hit fever-pitch after Prime Minister Garry Conille said he would audit US$300 million in contracts awarded by his predecessor during the 18-month emergency period after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. The contracts were financed by a Venezuelan fund.

Tensions further rose after Conille ordered his ministers this week to cooperate with a Senate commission that is investigating the nationalities of several members of the government, including himself, the president and several ministers. Martelly had, however, said that the commission lacked authority.

Conville was the only one who appeared in parliament on Feb. 16 with his passports.

Some Haitian legislators have charged that some members of government hold foreign passports, which would make them ineligible to lead the country under Haiti’s Constitution. All have denied the accusations.

“It’s a mess,” said Kesner Pharel, one of Haiti’s leading economist and political analysts. “We are waiting for the carnival break to see what will happen – very scary situation.”

He said there are vast disagreements between parliament and the executive, and between the prime minister and some of his Cabinet members.

“The executive team doesn’t exist. Does [the Prime Minister] have a team,” Pharel said. “We don’t know where we are going with all of these maneuvers.”

Simon Desras, president of the Haitian Senate, told lawmakers that ensuring security and stability in Haiti remains elusive.

“Failure is already knocking at our doors while the authoritarian impulses of the presidential executive are showing their tentacles,” he warned.

“The gap deepens, day by day, between the main actors, director, representatives of these two powers,” he added.

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By Nelson A. King

Former Grenada Prime Minister George Brizan, a co-founder of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC), died on Feb. 18 at the General Hospital in St. George’s, the Grenada capital, following a prolonged illness. He was 69.

Brizan, an economist and educator in training, was the “Spice Isle’s” sixth prime minister since independence, serving for four months in 1995 on the resignation of Nicholas Brathwaite.

His party was defeated by Dr. Keith Mitchell’s New National Party (NNP), a successor to another party Brizan formed, the National Democratic Party (NDP).

In 1987, Brizan and former Attorney General Francis Alexis founded the NDC, now led by Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, who returned the party to government in 2008 after 13 years in opposition.

Brizan served in the 1990-1995 Brathwaite administration as finance minister and later agriculture minister. He was also minister for trade, industry, production and energy.

In addition, he was a consultant to successive Grenadian governments on economic affairs since the late 1960s, including that of his successor, Prime Minister Mitchell.

Born George Ignatius Brizan, on Oct. 31, 1942, in the southeastern parish of St. David’s, he was educated at Catholic schools, St. Dominic’s Primary and Presentation Brothers College.

He was trained at the Grenada Teacher’s College, where he earned a certificate in Education from the University of the West Indies before pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies in Canada.

A prolific writer and speaker on Grenadian history, Brizan wrote “Grenada: Island of Conflict”, published by Macmillan Caribbean in 1998 and considered a seminal work on a turbulent island’s past, from the 17th Century European settlement to the 1983 coup and invasion.

He also wrote “Brave Young Grenadians: Loyal British Subjects”, on the island’s role in the two world wars, and an architectural study, “St George’s: Prettiest Town in the West Indies”.

“I remember him as a friend and statesman, a man committed to his family,” said Prime Minister Thomas in a statement in Canada, on the night of Feb. 18, where he joined nationals there in celebrating Grenada’s 38th independence anniversary.

He said said Brizan’s was a “patriotic Grenadian whose love for country was exceptional.

“Although afflicted by sickness, he still found opportunities to contribute to discussions on national development. He kept himself informed about the activities of those he loved,” Thomas added.

“Grenada has lost a great stalwart, who gave selflessly as a teacher, author, politician, historian, minister of government and prime minister,” Thomas continued.

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GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s human rights office has sharply criticized a Haitian judge’s recommendation against trying former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier for alleged crimes against humanity and other rights abuses.

A spokesman for the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights says Duvalier must be tried for “very serious human rights violations” during his 15-year reign that were “extensively documented.”

Rupert Colville said Tuesday the U.N. is “extremely disappointed” by Investigative Magistrate Carves Jean’s decision Monday to recommend that the ruler once known as “Baby Doc” face trial only on corruption charges.

He says that under international law there is no statute of limitations for crimes such as torture, false imprisonment and murder.

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By Kenton Kirby

A bill aimed at ending insider trading in Washington headed to the floor of the Senate Tuesday, as New York’s junior senator renewed the push for additional reforms aimed at making the U.S. Congress more transparent and accountable.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the first member of Congress to post her official daily schedule, all of her earmark requests, and personal financial reports online, on Tuesday announced a new reform agenda to make Congress more transparent, accountable and responsible.

Following up on President Barack Obama’s call for more transparency in Congress in his State of The Union address last week, Sen. Gillibrand introduced her “Transparency, Accountability Hallmark” plan that would end insider trading in Congress, curb special-interest influence, increase online accessibility and allow broadcasting of Supreme Court proceedings.

The Gillibrand Plan would start by passing the bipartisan STOCK Act, commonsense legislation she helped write and push through committee passage to make insider trading in Congress clearly and expressly illegal.

On Monday the legislation overwhelmingly passed a key procedural vote in the Senate 93 to 2, sending the bill to the Senate floor to begin formal debate. The Gillibrand reform agenda also takes on special interest influence, makes all public government documents available online, and would allow U.S. Supreme Court proceedings to be televised.

“I haven’t been in Washington long, but it doesn’t take long to know exactly what’s wrong with it,” Senator Gillibrand said. “Middle class families deserve to have more faith in their representatives in Washington, and trust that our only interest is what’s best for them, not our own interests.

“It’s time to make members of Congress play by the same rules as everyone else, and to give all Americans a chance to make their voices heard rather than drowned out by the special interests that have too much power and influence. To solve the problems we face, and for our economy to thrive, we need to change the way Washington fundamentally works.”

Go to Caribbeanlifenews.com for more on the Gillibrand Reform Agenda.

THE GILLIBRAND REFORM AGENDA

1. Pass the Bipartisan STOCK Act to Ban Insider Trading in Congress

Currently, insider trading by members of Congress and their staff is not clearly prohibited by the Securities Exchange Act or Congressional rules. In addition to revising the statute to enable the Securities and Exchange Commission to prosecute cases of insider trading by members of Congress, the STOCK Act would also make it a violation of the rules of the House and Senate to engage in such activity. This creates more accountability so anyone who uses their role as a member of Congress to enrich themselves would be accountable not only to the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, but also to Congress’s own ethics rules.

The version of the STOCK Act being voted on by the full Senate this week bars a member of Congress from engaging in insider trading or otherwise using nonpublic information for their own personal benefit, and clarifies that this provision constitutes a sufficient basis for the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate and prosecute members of Congress engaging in insider trading - including the “tipping” of non-public information. By incorporating feedback from witnesses at the December 1 committee hearing, the legislation directly corrects the ambiguity in existing laws to ensure that members of Congress, their families and their staffs are fully covered by insider trading laws. The legislation is carefully crafted to not alter existing insider trading law, but to simply ensure that members of Congress, their families, and their staff are fully covered by it.

Additionally, the most current version of the legislation further enhances disclosure requirements by requiring that members of Congress report stock and other major financial transactions within 30 days, and make that information available online, dramatically less than the current annual reporting requirement, and reduced from the 90 days proposed in the original draft of the legislation.

Lastly, the legislation directs the Congressional Ethics Committees to write rules to enforce this provision. As a result, the legislation would empower the Ethics Committees, as well as the SEC, to enforce rules against insider trading by members of Congress and Congressional staff, but would not require the 67 vote threshold required to directly amend Senate rules in mid-session.

The STOCK Act is supported by at least seven government reform groups, including: Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, Democracy 21, Public Citizen, Sunlight Foundation and U.S. PIRG. The legislation has also garnered the support of legal experts like UCLA Professor Stephen Bainbridge.

2. Reduce Special Interest Influence

In the age of Citizens United, corporations and special interests have all but drowned out the voices of the average citizen. Super PACs are free to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on advertising to influence elections, and take advantage of disclosure loopholes so few can determine who’s paying for this influence or what their agenda is.

To make elections more fair and honest, Senator Gillibrand is cosponsoring legislation that would give Congress the authority to regulate the raising and spending of money for federal elections, including super PACs and independent expenditures, and give states the authority to regulate spending at their level.

3. Post Public Information Online

Too much of the information that guides legislation is inaccessible to the people it will affect the most. And when requested through the Freedom of Information Act, citizens too often to have to wait for prolonged periods of time to get the information they deserve access to, held up by needless bureaucracy.

To make government more accessible, Senator Gillibrand is cosponsoring the Public Online Information Act, legislation to make public records permanently available on the Internet at no taxpayer cost.

Under the bill, each federal agency must publish a comprehensive, searchable, machine-readable list of all records it makes publically available. The bill would also require a public catalog of all records released by the executive branch, and establish a Public Online Information Advisory Committee that would:

Guide the government’s efforts to make information from all three branches available online; and

Issue and update guidelines on how the government should make public information more available.

4. Broadcast U.S. Supreme Court Proceedings

Some of the most significant and far-reaching Supreme Court cases, such as Citizens United, Heller, Lawrence and Hamden, were all argued behind closed doors. Transcripts of arguments and audio recordings are posted online each week by the Supreme Court, giving Americans access to the justices’ rationale and questions for lawyers only in hindsight.

To make America’s highest court more transparent and accountable, Senator Gillibrand is cosponsoring legislation that would allow Supreme Court proceedings to be televised. The bill would require the Supreme Court to allow coverage of all open sessions, unless decided by majority vote that such coverage in a particular case would violate the due process of any party involved.

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Photo credit: Bert Wilkinson

In what is a clear case of political spitefulness against its critics, members of Guyana’s ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP) administration, used its majority on the University of Guyana’s board in the past week to publicly fire longstanding political science lecturer Freddie Kissoon, as sweet revenge for years of criticism and helping the opposition unearth startling facts pertaining to race relations and discrimination in Guyana and PPP governance of the country.

Kissoon, 61, for years has been the country’s leading government critic on social and political issues and of course has never been a favorite of the administration.

Kissoon wrote a column in the daily Kaieteur News newspaper for years until editors in recent months clipped off two days of his submissions each week. But this did not deter or discourage Kissoon from examining various aspects of life in Guyana, with an intense focus on widespread corruption and excesses by the previous Bharrat Jagdeo administration.

His firing came just hours before Jagdeo, President Donald Ramotar and a close circle of wealthy friends dined at Jagdeo’s 49th birthday at a leading Chinese city restaurant.

For those in authority, Kissoon’s dismissal was sweet vengeance and a ‘fitting birthday gift’ for Jagdeo who had been labeled “an ideological racist” by Kissoon in a Kaieteur News article. The two are bitter enemies.

That racist label obviously put the two together in a memorable libel case brought by Jagdeo against Kissoon late last year when it became clear, based on evidence, that Kissoon had scored an important political point about Jagdeo and his policies after 12 years as president.

Giving testimony on behalf of an absent Jagdeo Cabinet secretary and former close confidant, Roger Luncheon was forced to tell the court and nation by extension, that no Guyanese of African descent was worthy or “qualified” to represent the country as an overseas ambassador; hence the fact that all barring one of European extraction was an Indo Guyanese. Two Blacks have since been made foreign envoys.

Luncheon’s stunning remarks came during withering if not humiliating cross examination from the country’s leading attorney, Nigel Hughes.

Hughes also forced out facts pertaining to widespread preferential treatment of Indo Guyanese by the Hindu-led administration especially in the area of infrastructural development. In one such bizarre case, the sports ministry decided to place the national athletic track in an Indian dominated area on the west coast, far from the city where many Blacks and acclaimed sportsmen and women reside.

Indians traditionally, hardly participate in track and field disciplines as Luncheon was forced to admit as it became clear that race and politics were the main reasons for locating the track there. The same is true for the national Olympic swimming pool on the east coast, located in an Indo enclave.

What is clear in the case of Kissoon, Jagdeo and the government, is that they are blaming him and the evidence emerging from the ongoing libel case that the facts about race might have energized and angered voter apathetic Blacks into coming out in record numbers at the November 28 general elections to help the PPP lose its parliamentary majority to the main opposition APNU and AFC. Government now can’t do much in the assembly unless the two decide to give it a pass.

Kissoon, seen as a national hero in opposition quarters, has said that he is waiting to see how the opposition and civil society whose causes he so brilliantly championed, react to his dismissal. So far, University lecturers have staged demonstrations on campus but it is unclear what will happen this week when the semester begins.

Ironically, President Ramotar, his wife and many of those in power and business influence and their children were taught political science by Kissoon. Few complained about his abilities or that be had blurred the line between good academic work and politics in the classroom.

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BAMcinématek kicks off its full 2012 calendar year with New Voices in Black Cinema, the second annual festival presented by the Fort Greene-based ActNow Foundation. Reflecting the wide spectrum of views and themes within the African diasporan communities in Brooklyn and beyond, the series features six New York premieres and special guests at nearly every screening.

Home to ActNow programs since August 2009, including last summer’s New York premiere of Kenneth Price’s documentary The Wonder Year (2011) -- “A fascinating portrait of a man consumed with the love of creating music.” (Michael Hewlett, Winston-Salem Journal) about Grammy Award-winning hip-hop producer The 9th Wonder.

Aaron Ingram, executive director of the ActNow Foundation, says of the partnership with BAMcinématek: “Giving filmmakers the opportunity to present their stories in BAM’s beautiful cinemas and in our home borough of Brooklyn allows us to engage movie lovers of all walks of life in the diversity, beauty, and complexity of films of the African diaspora.”

Opening the festival on Friday, Feb. 17 at 6:50 p.m. is the New York premiere of Russell Costanzo’s powerful feature debut, The Tested, starring Aunjanue Ellis (The Help, Ray) as a mother coping with the death of her son by a white police officer (Armando Riesco), who also struggles with the emotional aftereffects of his tragic error. Winner of the Grand Prize at the American Black Film Festival in Los Angeles and a selection of the Woodstock Film Festival, it marks the acting debut of Michael Morris Jr., as the young Dre, who sets out to avenge his brother’s death.

Closing the series on Monday, Feb 20 at 6:50 p.m. with the director in person is festival favorite and Locarno prize-winning The Furious Force of Rhymes (2010), a documentary on the global reach of hip-hop from the South Bronx to Senegal, the West Bank, and Paris and its banlieues, featuring Grandmaster Caz of seminal hip-hop pioneers the Cold Crush Brothers, Busy Bee, Dead Prez, French rappers Les Nubians, German performers Joe Rilla and Kool Svas, Israeli and Palestinian rappers Omri Gershon and Ramallah underground, Senegalese rappers Waterflow and Alif, among many others.

French daily Le Monde called it “a fascinating examination of the sound of rage, highly recognizable from one country to the next, and at the same time impregnated with local languages and cultures.”

On Saturday, Feb. 18 at 9:30 p.m. is the New York premiere of Infiltrating Hollywood (2011), which chronicles the story behind the making and repression of the 1973 Black militant film The Spook Who Sat by the Door, about a Black CIA operative who leaves the agency to form and lead a group of Black revolutionaries in Chicago. Adapted from Sam Greenlee’s controversial novel and helmed by prolific actor and director Ivan Dixon (Nothing But a Man).

Continuing ActNow’s “New Black Classics” sidebar (last year, the festival screened the cult favorite Chameleon Street) is Theodore Witcher’s critically lauded romantic comedy Love Jones (1997), starring Nia Long, Larenz Tate, Bill Bellamy, and Isaiah Washington as a group of young Chicagoans exploring relationships. Winner of Sundance’s Audience Award, this modern classic still resonates years later.

In 2006, sneaker manufacturer Nike’s marketing budget was larger than the entire gross domestic product of Ghana. Vérité documentary Sneaker Stories, screening on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 2:00 p.m., connects this economic disparity while exploring the hoop dreams of three individual basketball players: Karl in Vienna, Adrian in Brooklyn, and Aziz in Ghana.

German director Katharina Weingarten lets the three 20-somethings speak for themselves, resulting in an incisive exploration of their everyday struggles as well as their place in the greater machinations of the global sports-industrial complex.

Also in a New York premiere, screening Friday, Feb. 17 at 4:30 p.m., is DEFORCE, the feature debut of Daniel Falconer. This beautiful, meditative film explores the city of Detroit—and its economic, social and anthropological struggles—as a once-thriving metropolis, now a fraction of what it once was.

“An essential study of an iconic industrial aftermath. The ceaseless trials of Motown are brought to light as never before” (Ken Burns). And on Friday, Feb. 17 at 2:00 p.m., The American Dream—Jamil Walker Smith’s debut feature—follows aspiring filmmaker Luis (Smith) as he documents his last 36 hours in his hometown of Los Angeles before shipping off to Afghanistan. Shot in cinéma vérité style, this poignant drama takes “audiences from comedic highs to tragic lows in telling its story of two teenage best friends whose dreams are rent when they join the Marines” (Tim Rhys, MovieMaker Magazine).

Since its inception, the ActNow Foundation has presented stories about race, love, family, cultural differences, self-empowerment, the corporate world, and the toils and aspirations of the working, middle, and upper classes, with a declared mission statement to “show that although human life experiences can be very different, we all share the same human struggle for survival, and no matter what our race or creed, we are all one.”

Subway:2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue.

Train:Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal

Bus:B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM.

Car:Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM

For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

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By Tony Fraser

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — Rising crime across the Caribbean threatens the region’s tourism-based economy and has exposed a weak and ineffective judicial system, according to a sweeping U.N. study released on Wednesday.

Every Caribbean nation except Barbados and Suriname reported a spike in homicide rates and gang-related killings over the past 12 years even as violent crime has fallen or stabilized in most other places across the globe, according to the 2012 Caribbean Human Development Report.

The U.N. said it was the largest survey ever to focus on crime in the Caribbean.

U.N. officials singled out Jamaica and Trinidad for alarming levels of gang-related homicides that almost doubled from 2006 to 2009.

Jamaica has the world’s third-highest murder rate, with about 60 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, while Trinidad reported a fivefold increase in its murder rate over the past decade and now has 36 killings per 100,000 people.

“The report challenges governments of the English and Dutch Caribbean to action,” said Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, adding that she supports the report’s recommendations.

The Caribbean Community trade bloc found that gang-related crime costs member countries as much as 4 percent of their gross domestic product.

Jamaica loses $529 million a year, according to the report.

“Violence limits people’s choices, threatens their physical integrity and disrupts their daily lives,” said Helen Clark, the U.N. Development Program administrator who unveiled the report in Trinidad.

The report recommended that Caribbean nations reduce access to illegal firearms, create youth programs to prevent crime and provide jobs for the urban poor. Local governments also should ensure that law enforcement is accountable and more respectful of people’s rights, the report said.

“The criminal justice system still faces challenges,” according to the report, which cited delays, low conviction rates and prison overcrowding across the Caribbean.

“Caribbean correctional systems are far from being able to balance protection of the public against the need for efficiency and fiscal prudence,” it said.

The report’s recommendations are based partly on a survey of 11,555 people in seven countries: Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad.

Nearly half of those surveyed said they worried about being crime victims, and nearly 80 percent said they feel criminals should receive harsher punishments.

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By Kingsley Dougan

Church Avenue will have five new colorful and vibrant additions to the neighborhood in Spring 2012.

The Church Avenue Business Improvement District (Church Avenue BID) is pleased to announce the designs selected for Uncover Church Avenue, a public art program to install murals on commercial gates along Church Avenue.

The program engages local artists, residents, children, and merchants to take an active role in deciding the look of their neighborhood.

Uncover Church Avenue received over 50 submissions from artists throughout Brooklyn, including students from Erasmus Hall High School. After months of community voting, brochures distributed, and an exhibition at the Flatbush Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library (ending on February 24), when the votes are finally in.

The participating Uncover Church Avenue artists include:

Bruce Zeines for Bonnie Youth Club (1221 Church Ave.), Rudjessy Secours for Richie Rich (1219 Church Ave), Sherry Ginsberg Davis for Iglesia Pentecostal (1115 Church Ave.) Nu for Children’s Corner (1101 Church Ave.) Catherine Rutgers for Drive Time Radio (1111 Church Ave.)

The artists are a mix of local residents: Bruce Zeines, Sherry Ginsberg Davis, and Catherine Rutgers, a newcomer to Church Avenue, Nu and Erasmus Hall High School student Rudjessy Secours.

“This part of Church Avenue is a very interesting zone, with stores on one side and homes on the other,” states 20-year resident Catherine Rutgers. “My goal was to enhance a wonderful and complex environment, and bring eye-catching, refreshing brightness to the storefronts.”

“The Church Avenue BID applauds the vision of these artists and their commitment towards creating a positive and dynamic streetscape on Church Avenue.”

For more information on Uncover Church Avenue, visit www.uncoverchurchave.wordpress.com.

Uncover Church Avenue is sponsored by AvenueNYC, a program from the NYC Department of Small Business Services, Astoria Federal Savings Bank, and the Brooklyn Arts Council.

The program is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. In Kings County the Decentralization Program is administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc.

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By Nelson A. King

Former State Comptroller and erstwhile gubernatorial candidate, H. Carl McCall, has received SUNY Downstate Medical Center’s first Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Leadership Award.

The medical center and University Hospital of Brooklyn bestowed the prestigious award on McCall, the current chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees, at a special ceremony in commemoration of Martin Luther King Day, on Jan. 12.

The award, sponsored by the medical center’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, recognizes individuals who have an “exemplary record of service in government, business, and education, and who have a distinguished record in molding consensus to shape solutions to important societal challenges.”

“It’s a privilege to share this celebration of the life and dream of Dr. King with men and women who are in many ways caretakers of his legacy;” McCall said at a recent SUNY Downstate ceremony in his honor attended by President Dr. John LaRosa, hospital CEO Debra Carey and Kevin Antoine, Esq., chief diversity officer.

“Dr. King implored all of us to uplift the least of us. He saw poverty and social inequality not as inevitable consequences of free market conventions but as blights on the American soul, matters of simple justice,” McCall added.

“Decades after his passing, the impact of poverty and inequality are sharply painfully apart in all facets of American life, especially when it comes to issues of health. It is healthcare professionals like you, and community institutions like SUNY Downstate that are working to fill an urgent need,” he continued.

“Yes, Dr. King’s dream lives here at SUNY Downstate. So it means a great deal for me to be recognized by those who exemplify this compassion to good healthcare,” McCall said.

In telling his audience “something about Dr. King and his influence” on him, on Downstate Medical Center, “and what he did for so many of us,” McCall said it was an event that ended up on the front page of the New York Times on July 23, 1963.

He said he and 200 picketers were arrested that day in a demonstration, at Downstate Medical Center, for minority jobs.

McCall said then Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who created the SUNY system, “was putting a lot of money to the development and the expansion of the system.

“He committed millions of dollars to the construction of new facilities here at Downstate Medical Center. Maybe, this building we’re in today was one of those,” he said.

“The problem was that spending millions of tax-payer dollars, right here in Brooklyn, in the midst of a minority community, there was not one African-American or Latino worker on the site here at Downstate Medical Center,” he added.

“So a group of people from a group called Brooklyn CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality), they came here and they demonstrated. They picketed, they walked around with signs saying we want jobs, we want economic opportunity. Nobody paid any attention,” he added.

“So, they reached out to the ministers and asked the ministers to come and help. So I was the person who had to bring together the ministers. So I gathered some ministers, we came here, and we walked around and we picketed, and we had signs. We said we want jobs, nobody paid any attention.

“So that night, we had a meeting at Bethany Baptist Church, and we said, ‘What shall we do to have some impact to make some change here?’ and we talked about the things that Martin Luther King and other ministers were doing in the South,” continued McCall to rapt attention.

“So we came back the next day, on the 23rd of June and, instead of walking around and picketing, we sat down. We sat down in the entrance to this construction site. We didn’t let any trucks in. We didn’t let any workers in. We stopped the work. We said, ‘If we can’t work here, nobody’s going to work here,” he said. “So the police came, they picked us up. They arrested 200 people. The largest mass arrest they had in years, and we went off to jail. I went off to jail. But we felt that’s what we had to do.”

As a result, McCall said, in “a couple of days,” Gov. Rockefeller called and said “Let’s sit down and talk.”

After meeting with the governor, McCall said “immediately some people were put to work here.

“But, more importantly, we formed an organization called JOB (Job Opportunities for Brooklyn) to begin to train people to prepare them to take the test that the unions were using to exclude them from participation in the work force,” he said. “And we trained people who eventually got jobs.”

McCall said JOB started a movement that soon replicated across the country.

“So that’s what Dr. King did for me. That’s what he did for Downstate. This is what he did for Brooklyn,” he said.

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By Nelson A. King

As part of what it describes as a “broader effort” to improve on its immigration enforcement process, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced on Dec. 29 new measures that would ensure that Caribbean and other nationals are properly notified about immigrants’ potential removal from the country and are made aware of their rights.

“The new measures include a new detainer form and the launch of a toll-free hotline – (855) 448-6903 – that detained individuals can call if they believe they may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime,” said ICE in a statement.

“The hotline will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by ICE personnel at the Law Enforcement Support Center,” it added.

“Translation services will be available in several languages from 7 a.m. until midnight (Eastern) seven days a week. ICE personnel will collect information from the individual and refer it to the relevant ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Field Office for immediate action,” it continued.

The new form also includes a request that the law enforcement agency (LEA) provide the subject of the detainer a copy of the detainer form and includes a notice advising the subject that ICE intends to assume custody.

According to ICE, the notice informs these individuals that ICE has requested the LEA to maintain custody beyond the time when they would have otherwise been released by the state or local law enforcement authorities, based on their criminal charges or convictions.

“It also advises individuals that if ICE does not take them into custody within the 48 hours, they should contact the LEA or entity that is holding them to inquire about their release from state or local custody,” the statement said.

An immigration detainer (Form I-247) is a notice that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issues to federal, state and local LEAs to inform them that the immigration agency intends to assume custody of an individual in the LEA’s custody and to request that the LEA notify the immigration agency as soon as possible prior to the time when LEA would otherwise release the individual.

“Detainers help ensure that individuals who are convicted of criminal charges or have previously been removed are not released back into the community to potentially commit more crimes,” the statement said.

“Detainers are critical tools in assisting ICE’s identification and removal of criminal aliens, immigration fugitives, illegal re-entrants, recent border crossers and others who have no legal right to remain in the United States,” it added.

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By Kam Williams

When choir director Bernard Sparrow (Kris Kristofferson) passes away unexpectedly, Pastor Dale (Courtney B. Vance) finds himself on the horns of a dilemma. Should he promote the dearly-departed deacon’s deserving assistant, Vi Rose Hill (Queen Latifah), or award the position to his grieving widow, G.G. (Dolly Parton)?

After agonizing over the decision, the good reverend settles on the former, potentially risking the survival of Sacred Divinity, since the well-to-do Sparrow family is the cash-strapped church’s major benefactor. By comparison, life’s a struggle for Vi Rose and most of the other citizens of Pacashau, Georgia.

The economic recession has turned the once-thriving town into a decaying metropolis marked by foreclosure signs, a soup kitchen packed with the homeless, and a business district dotted with vacant storefronts.

G.G.’s grudgingly ratifying the appointment of Vi Rose is the answer to the prayers of Pastor Dale who is desperate to avoid creating a rift in his tight-knit congregation. For, he hopes that the choir might restore a measure of pride to the beleaguered Pacashau community by prevailing at the upcoming National Gospel Competition.

That unlikely feat is the raison d’etre of Joyful Noise, a faith-based mix of modern morality play and musical numbers. The soulful singing performances are the film’s forte, from Dolly Parton and Kris Kristofferson’s heartfelt duet on “From Here to the Moon and Back” to Keke Palmer and Jeremy Jordan’s equally-evocative interpretation of “Maybe I’m Amazed” to Ivan Kelley, Jr.’s spirited rendition of “That’s the Way God Planned It.”

As for the pat plotline, the point of departure finds Vi Rose with her hands full and dividing her time from trying to raise two teenagers alone because her husband (Jesse L. Martin) abandoned the family for the military on account of the lack of local jobs. Their son, Walter (Dexter Darden), is in need of help handling his Asperger’s Syndrome while boy-crazy daughter, Olivia (Palmer), sure could use a more appropriate suitor than the thug (Paul Woolfolk) who’s been courting her lately.

Everything changes the day G.G.’s Prodigal Grandson Randy (Jordan) rolls back into town from New York City unexpectedly. Although a little rough around the edges, the misunderstood young man is just the answer for everybody’s malady.

First, he falls in love with Olivia at first sight. Then he serves as a surrogate big brother to Walter. And when he joins the choir, it’s only a matter of time before he mends the fences between Vi Rose and his granny on the road to the finals at the “Joyful Noise” contest in Los Angeles.

A modern parable that’s fun for the whole family with an uplifting message about the power of cooperation. Can I get an Amen?

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By Vinette K. Pryce

South Africans will travel to Jamaica next month to attend an educational tour and to explore the island’s pioneering community tourism initiative.

Representatives of Countryside Community Tourism Network, South Africa plan to journey from the continent in order to learn from the nation’s “Villages as Businesses’ Model,” which the Caribbean is credited with successfully executing.

In addition, participants will attend a special tribute honoring Marcus Mosiah Garvey on Feb. 19 when the nation celebrates its golden anniversary and the memory of its first national hero.

“We are particularly excited to have been invited by the Jamaican organizers of the annual Marcus Garvey celebrations to showcase South Africa and its cultures and communities to Jamaicans,” Mapula Thlange of CCTNSA said.

Thlagale said “it will be particularly interesting to meet with Jamaica’s academic institutions to learn more about their learning programs to support community tourism development projects. We hope to apply relevant and successful learning programs from Jamaica to help local communities with skills needed to make community tourism and community development projects sustainable in South Africa.”

Reportedly documents for the Jamaican study tour will be showcased at SA’s tourism Indaba later in the year.

“It’s our intention to learn about the successful Jamaican model and to apply it to a South African context,” Nikki De Pina also of CCTNSA said. She said the network has already “committed itself to guiding tourism project at Onverwacht in Tshwane which will be a first beneficiary of the learnings from CCTNSA’s studies of South African, Jamaican and other world models.”

“All community stakeholders including local government, private enterprise, and the community are being invited to be involved in this project.”

Don Leffler added that “the educational tour to Jamaica will be included in a comprehensive handbook and educational DVD entitled “Community Tourism: Creating Footprints,” which references tourism models and practices in the Caribbean, South Africa and other countries.”

“CCTNSA and the Tourism Centre of Excellence invite all community tourism stakeholders to share their stories so that we can include relevant current case studies in our educational material,” Leffler said.

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By David Mcfadden

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Jamaica’s month-old government on Wednesday launched the first phase of an emergency jobs program that was the centerpiece of its winning election campaign.

The government formed by the People’s National Party said some 700 jobless people will be hired to clear vegetation and trash in the short- and medium-term along a northern coastal highway in the first phase of the Jamaica Emergency Employment Program.

Governing party officials have not announced how many other jobs will be created in following phases of the initiative. But the party has said its job-creating plan will be developed around agro-processing, manufacturing, communications, small business development, and cultural and community development projects.

Local human rights group Jamaicans for Justice said it is concerned that the governing party will disproportionately employ its partisans since members of parliament will choose the islanders who work under the initiative.

Historically, most poor Jamaicans have affiliated themselves with a party, relying on political patronage for jobs, houses and land.

“This approach of MPs deciding who gets work on the basis of party affiliation has contributed to the wastage of tax payer’s money over many decades and divided us along tribal political lines. It is completely unacceptable and must be stopped,” the rights group said in a statement.

Civic groups are also calling on the debt-burdened government to explain how much money will be needed for the jobs initiative, citing the opposition’s disclosure that the initial phase will be funded by a loan the previous government arranged with the Inter-American Development Bank last year.

Opposition officials contend the emergency employment plan will not meaningfully decrease the official 12.8 percent unemployment rate.

During her inaugural speech earlier this month, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said her administration will use “state resources” to stimulate employment.

The 66-year-old Simpson Miller’s People’s National Party won 42 seats in Jamaica’s 63-seat Parliament in the Dec. 29 national election.

Her People’s National Party said it would try to renegotiate roughly 25 percent of a troubled $400 million road program financed by China in order to transfer some of the money to the jobs program as a way to kickstart the economy.

But Transport, Works and Housing Minister Omar Davies said in Parliament that $188.5 million has already been committed by the previous government. He said his ministry will “ascertain where it would be possible to make alterations to the scope or to stop them.”

Last week, Simpson Miller called on the private sector to hire at least one qualified, jobless islander under another job-creating initative she dubbed Jamaica Employ. She estimated some 40,000 people could resume working if businesses comply.

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By Tequila Minsky

On Martin Luther King Day, President Barack Obama painted walls at the Browne Education Center in Washington DC along with wife Michelle and daughter Malia. To honor King in the same spirit, 80 volunteers from 14 faith groups worked with Habitat for Humanity- NYC during their 13th annual “Building on a Dream” Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. A key principle of King Day is public service.

Like the president, Tanya Purcell, a workers compensation case manager, wanted to help the community. Along with members from Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York in Jamaica, Queens, she helped paint the Saratoga Senior Center in Bed-Stuy rolling large swaths of lime paint on a pillar with finesse. Tanya had never painted before her last volunteer project with Habitat’s “Brush With Kindness” program. “It’s rewarding. I’m having a good time and I’m part of a bigger cause even though I’m only painting one pillar,” she shared with pride.

Her friend Kimberly Shen has ‘painting experience’ with the pre-schoolers she works with. “I wanted to do something for Martin Luther King Day and give back to the community,” she said as she added bright orange and yellow paint to leaves on a tree, part of the Center’s mural.

Just down Halsey St., more volunteers worked alongside future Habitat-NYC homeowners to renovate a six-unit building. On her knees, pounding slats with a rubber mallet, family partner Raphaleeta Dias snapped flooring together. She was putting in her sweat equity hours and was completing about half of the required 200 hours of work. Previously, she installed insulation and worked with sheet rock.

Bed-Stuy resident Dias lives with her three children in overcrowded conditions and is waiting for a three-bedroom unit to become available. “We look forward to more space,” she said, hoping to move in the vicinity. Habitat-NYC’s “100 Homes in Brooklyn” program is about half complete.

Following the morning of work on Saturday, rewarded by a tasty lunch, the Building on the Dream event to further celebrate King’s life and legacy, a program of music, poetry, and remarks by housing activists and elected officials, was held at the Metropolitan Baptist Church.

The New York City Housing Authority Youth Chorus with coordinator Carmen Roman opened the program singing musical selections that included Lift Every Voice and Sing, Up Where We Belong, Thank-you for One More Day and Put a Little Love in Your Heart.

Advocacy Manager of Habitat-NYC Matt Dunbar emphasized the need for affordable housing. “Build Louder” is a new motto for Habitat, he relayed and for those sawing, pounding, and nailing on this day, these words really resonated. “We must speak out against policies that keep people in poverty,” he said and challenged the notion that low-income families make better renters than owners.

Assembly Member Karim Camara, who is Senior Pastor at Abundant Life Church and Chair of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, delivered the keynote speech. He spoke of “servant leadership”, faith inspired activism. “There is a lot of work to do,” he said of pervasive poverty exploitation, racism, sexism, and the challenges for children who do not have the proper resources in their schools. “We still have to fight for Dr. King’s dream. Until everyone reaches their potential, we haven’t reached the promise land.”

A surprise visit and speaker was Haiti’s Minister of Haitians Living Abroad Daniel Supplice whose presence was a “thank-you” for the housing work Habitat is doing in Haiti.

The program ended on a high note with former Bed-Stuy resident College Hall of Famer Thabiti Boone, now of the White House Fatherhood & Mentoring Initiative. Thabiti overcame challenging personal circumstances as a single teenage father and college basketball player, balancing sports stardom, and academic and parenting responsibilities. He sacrificed his NBA Dream to raise his daughter. He ended his presentation by calling upon young men from the Youth Chorus to read a letter from President Obama to Habitat and the Family Partners.

During the King weekend, Habitat-NYC launched its 2012 Housing Covenant, the organization’s annual housing advocacy agenda that includes a call for 2013 Mayoral Candidates to produce comprehensive affordable housing plans that address the full housing continuum, from ownership and rental to supportive and emergency housing.

Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindus and Jewish volunteers participated in Habitat’s weekend devoted to Martin Luther King.

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By Tequila Minsky

For the past six years during the month of January, the Haitian community has joined Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer in paying tribute to Haiti’s Independence, which in fact is celebrated every Jan. 1. The first and only successful slave rebellion, Haiti’s independence was an inspiration for independence for many Latin American countries.

At past commemorations, the Borough President’s office in the Municipal Building was bursting its space with celebrants. This year on Jan. 24, the program was held in the fitting auditorium of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the former customs house at the foot of Manhattan. A stellar line-up of Haitian and Haitian-American New York City notables received Special Recognition Awards.

Haitian-community sponsor Sam Pierre of the Haitian American Caucus and Yves-Merry Telemaque of the Haitian Roundtable, and event underwriters George Hulse of Healthfirst and Cassandra Pierre of Essence, greeted the packed auditorium followed by remarks from the Borough president.

“I’m an honorary Haitian,” Stringer proclaimed to a welcoming crowd. It helps that Stringer’s deputy Borough president is Haitian-American Rosemonde Pierre-Louis.

The first to receive an award was a ‘fairly newly minted’ judge–March 2010– Honorable Raymond Lohier, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. (He filled the seat of Sonia Sotomayor, now a Supreme Court Justice).

Judge Lohier has a decade of experience as senior counsel of Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force (including Bernie Madoff investigation and prosecution) and Narcotics. He’s also served as trial attorney with the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice.

His thank-you was particularly moving as he paid tribute to three men who influenced him, first mentioning Frederick Douglas, first ambassador to Haiti. Then he spoke of W.E. B. Dubois, “who was a Haitian-American, people don’t know that,” he said. Du Bois was a founder of the NAACP and a proponent of Pan-Africanism. Then he spoke of his father. “He was from Jacmel,” he said, “and was proud of being Haitian and proud of being an American.”

Second to be recognized was educator Carole M. Berotte Joseph, PH. D, who is president of Bronx Community College, CUNY, and the first Haitian to head a college. A long-time educator in the CUNY /SUNY system–she was a dean at Dutchess Community College and VP of Academic Affairs at Hostos, and recently returned to New York State from Massachusetts where she served as president of MassBay Community College.

She is an expert in the field of socio-linguistics and has authored, translated and edited articles on educational policy issues facing Haitian communities and is one of the founding members of the Haitian Studies Association.

She recently co-edited the book “The Haitian Creole Language: History, Structure, Use and Education” (2010).

The award program then shifted its spotlight to recognize those in the arts. Haitian diva from Gonnaives, the always-glowing Emeline Michel was the next to be honored. Known as the ‘queen of Haitian music’, she captivates. She is versatile as a vocalist, a dancer, songwriter and producer.

With four CDs out, the musician combines traditional rhythms with social, political and inspirational content, singing in French and Haitian Kreyol. Her themes are complex with conscious lyrics and a broad spectrum of styles that includes compas, twoubadou and rara along with jazz, rock, bossa nova and samba.

Also honored was photographer and philanthropist Marc Baptist. Baptiste moved to New York from Haiti with his family when he was nine-years-old. “I received my first camera from my godmother,” he told attendees, which started him on his eventual career path as an image-maker.

Baptiste has been published in all the major fashion magazines and has photographed a list of popular Hollywood and music personalities. Partnering with Donna Karan’s Urban Zen to curate a silent auction of photos, he helped raise money on the one-year anniversary of the earthquake.

Baptiste’s message to those in attending, “Visit Haiti, go visit!” He knows by going, visitors will spend money there, so important in this country trying to build its economy. A visit will also expresses solidarity through action.

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By Vinette K. Pryce

Grenadians continue their milestone achievement this week and were acknowledged by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who dispatched this correspondence about their independence celebration this week.

“On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am delighted to congratulate the people of Grenada as you celebrate your 38th anniversary of independence this Feb. 7. Grenada has shown a deep commitment to protecting its democratic traditions and delivering educational and economic opportunities to its citizens. The people of the United States have been committed to helping Grenada build a brighter future through business and higher education partnerships. Together, we are upholding our common values through partnerships like the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, the Partnership Framework for HIV and AIDS, the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, and the Caribbean Youth Empowerment Program.

‘The United States remains steadfast in our commitment to strengthening the ties of friendship between our countries as we face the challenges of our region together.

“As you celebrate your independence with family, friends and loved ones, know that the United States stands with you as a partner and friend as we work toward a more peaceful and prosperous future for all of our people.”

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Verlene Cheeseboro, director of Public Affairs of the Church Of Scientology Harlem was ordained as a minister on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012.

Pastor Rev. Phyllis Mack performed the ceremony during Sunday services, enabling Cheeseboro to carry forth the message that Scientology, the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life, offers a pathway to greater freedom by giving the individual the data to solve his own problems, accomplish his goals and gain lasting happiness.

The ordination, the first for the Church of Scientology, was conducted during Sunday Services in which parishioners and non-parishioners alike took part.

Reverend Cheeseboro, was given the honor of closing the services by reading the Scientology Prayer For Total Freedom.

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By Chudi Chukwudi

The Rainbow PUSH Wall Street Project will host the 15th annual gathering of the Wall Street Economic Summit from January 25-27, 2012 at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, 811 Seventh Avenue at 53rd Street, New York City. This year’s summit, “We Are One World: Bringing Everyone to the Table” focuses on access to capital, industry, and technology for American families and businesses facing economic disparities. This year’s honorary chair is Terry J. Lundgren, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Macy’s Inc.

Reverend Jessie L. Jackson Sr., one of the nation’s most influential civil rights activists and religious leaders, created the Wall Street Project to spur access to capital, industry and technology for minority businesses and communities. Each year the Wall Street Economic Summit brings together many of the nation’s foremost commerce, business-minded, and entrepreneurial agents to discuss the economic, social justice, community interests, concerns unique to men, women and children of African American, Hispanic and diverse cultures.

“Middle-Class America is vanishing,” says Rev. Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and organizer of the Wall Street Project. “In order to maintain its existence, we need to expeditiously reinvigorate our economic equality. There is no time to waste, we are at risk. American households and small businesses are threatened to make ends meet. Now, is the time if we want to start reshaping our families, businesses, and economy,” adds Rev. Jackson. “Immediate action and participation will create a solid foundation for the nation’s economic security. This year, we are expanding the opportunity for access to capital, industry, and technology. Celebrating our 15th anniversary, the summit will continue to provide participants with information and resources needed to restore confidence and financial stability going forward.”

Highlights of the three-day summit will include:

• Wall Street Project Career Development, Retraining, and Retooling Panel and Breakout Sessions: Highlights of empowering tools, resources and insights on the new dynamics of how Americans are going to work in the future.

Small Business Institute: The Small Business Association and leading business leaders outlines how to maintain your business in this economy.

Youth Summit: Wells Fargo sponsors an interactive panel to help students understand the financial basics and smart money management. As well as a Macy’s sponsors a panel on key strategic business areas to discuss the business behind the business of retail.

Minister’s Roundtable: Discussion on home and church foreclosures, jobs, prison population, and student debt – what are the solutions?

•Legislator Talk: Notable legislators discuss how their respective states are dealing with the current fragile economy and share insights on promising solutions for the vast economic disparities.

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a progressive organization protecting, defending and expanding civil rights to improve economic and educational opportunity.

Sponsors include: Allstate, Ariel, American Express, AT&T, Bank of America, Bartech Group, Boeing, Blaylock, the Caraway Group, Inc., Center for Responsible Lending, Cabrera Capital Markets, LLC, Clear Channel, Citi, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Loop Capital, Kodak, McDonald’s USA, PepsiCo, Morgan Stanley, UPS, The Home Depot, Macy’s, Mercedes-Benz, MR Beal & Company, Rice Financial Products Company, State Street, UPS, Verizon.

To register, visit: www.rainbowpush.org or call (646) 599-9216.

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By Bert Wilkinson

Opposition parties, civic groups and other government critics had warned against the company from the very beginning so when Transport Minister Robeson Benn announced at the weekend that government had pulled the plug on a Florida firm’s $15.4 million jungle road construction contract, virtually no one in the country but the firm’s management was surprised.

Before it had appeared on the scene more than a decade ago and before its 2010 contract award to build 80 miles of roads, bridges and boat crossings in the harsh southwestern rain forest, Synergy Holdings of West Palm Beach had no previous heavy duty engineering experience. In fact, one of its principals sold Hindu saris in Florida and had owed the feds $25,000 in back taxes. Still it was awarded a job worth $15.4M.

Despite all these troubling warning signs, the previous Bharrat Jagdeo administration went ahead with a contract to clear hundreds of 100-foot trees and build bridges over jungle rivers to prepare for the $800M, 140-megawatt Amalia Hydro project that is supposed to provide cheap electricity to the Caribbean trade bloc nation and end periodic rolling blackouts.

Unable to put up any longer with delays, Works Minister Robeson Benn called a news conference to cancel the project and vindicate all what local media houses such as the Kaieteur News had been reporting all along that the company was never up to it and that the contract appeared to have been a sweetheart deal for those in power to make easy money.

Benn says only 40 percent of the project target had been completed. Fip Motilall, Synergy’s chief, blamed bad weather, changes to designs and engineering specifications as reasons for sloth, saying government paid him about $8M but still owes him another $1M.

To make for the anticipated shame authorities will face from the opposition and a gloating media, Benn said daily fines will be imposed, the company will lose millions in performance bonds and more than 50 pieces of heavy duty equipment will become state property.

What Benn did not say was that authorities only went along with the project because it was so close to ex president Bharrat Jagdeo but now that he is out of reckoning, those still in cabinet appear to be moving slowly to dismantle his powerful and very rich empire of close friends running several high-priced projects in the country that he built in the past 12 years.

Nearly 100 workers including engineers will lose jobs but Benn vowed that replacement companies will be found to build the access roads and bridges for the hydro falls in the near future.

He also said that local financial institutions were unwilling to provide cash for performance bonds, calling it “the main issue, a fatal flaw.”

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By Paul Haven

HAVANA (AP) — Fidel Castro lambasted the Republican presidential race as the greatest competition of “idiocy and ignorance” the world has ever seen in a column published Wednesday, and also took shots at the news media and foreign governments for seizing on the death of a Cuban prisoner to demand greater respect for human rights.

Castro’s comments came in a long opinion piece carried by official media two days after Republican presidential hopefuls at a debate in Florida presented mostly hard-line stances on what to do about the Communist-run island, and even speculated as to what would happen to the 85-year-old revolutionary leader’s soul when he dies.

Cuba has become an important issue as the candidates court Florida’s influential Cuban-American community in an effort to win the biggest electoral prize so far in the primary season.

Castro said he always assumed the candidates would try to outdo each other on the issue of Cuba, but that he was nonetheless appalled by the level of debate.

“The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalized and expansive empire is — and I mean this seriously — the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been,” said the retired Cuban leader, who has dueled with 11 U.S. administrations since his 1959 revolution.

Castro also disputed international media accounts about the Jan. 19 death of Wilman Villar, a 31-year-old Cuban prisoner, saying the man was not a dissident and not on a 50-day hunger strike as human rights groups and the island’s opposition claim.

Castro reiterated the government’s contention that Villar was a common criminal sent to prison for domestic violence, and that he received the best medical attention possible. Washington and several European governments have condemned Cuba for his death, and Amnesty International says it was about to put Villar on a global list of prisoners of conscience.

Villar has become a cause celebre for opponents of the Cuban government, but he was not a well known figure, even among island dissidents, before his death.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney said during Monday’s debate that Villar died “fighting for democracy” and that his death highlighted the need to remain firm on Cuba. Washington has maintained a near-50-year trade and travel embargo on Cuba.

Another Republican candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said he would authorize increased covert operations to bring down the Cuban government. And at another moment of Monday’s debate, Romney and Gingrich sparred over whether Castro’s soul would go to heaven or hell.

When asked what he would do as president if he found out Castro had died, Romney said he would first “thank Heavens” that the bearded revolutionary had finally “returned to his maker,” to which Gingrich replied “I don’t think Fidel’s going to meet his maker. I think he’s going to go to the other place.”

Castro didn’t refer to the comments specifically in his opinion piece, saying that he was too busy with other things to waste any more time analyzing the Republican competition.

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By Eric T. Schneiderman

WASHINGTON, DC (Jan. 24) --New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman released the following statement Wednesday on President Obama’s State of the Union address:

“I would like to thank President Obama for his leadership in the creation of a coordinated investigation that marshals state and federal resources to bring justice for the victims of the misconduct that caused the mortgage crisis.

“In coordination with our federal partners, our office will continue its steadfast commitment to holding those responsible for the economic crisis accountable, providing meaningful relief for homeowners commensurate with the scale of the misconduct, and getting our economy moving again.

“The American people deserve a robust and comprehensive investigation into the global financial meltdown to ensure nothing like it ever happens again, and today’s announcement is a major step in the right direction.”

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Guyana’s Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has condemned the termination of University of Guyana (UG) lecturer Frederick Kissoon’s contract, calling the action a violation of his academic and press freedoms.

APNU regards the action against Kissoon, an outspoken political scientist and newspaper columnist, as a violation of his right to freedom of expression as a columnist, his academic freedom as a lecturer and his civil rights as a citizen.

APNU issued a statement criticizing the The People’s Progressive Party/Civic and its president, Donald Ramotar, for using its voting power on the UG Council to terminate the lecturer’s contract in the middle of an academic year, a few months before it would have come up for review.

APNU said that this move has come at a time when the University of Guyana is already in crisis and has been finding it difficult to attract lecturers in several academic departments and added that Mr. Kissoon has a natural right to be informed of the reasons for the termination of his contract and called for the lecturer’s re-instatement.

APNU said it has closely monitored the PPPC’s hostile attitude towards columnists and journalists who criticized President Bharrat Jagdeo over the past 12 years.

“The Partnership expressed regret that, so early in his tenure as president, Mr Donald Ramotar would take such a retrograde step by allowing such an incident to occur.”

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By Vinette K. Pryce

City College will host an annual Black History Month symposium focusing on the criminal justice system and how it impacts on society. Hosted by the Black Studies Department, the Feb. 14 event is expected to highlight some of the concerns inmates face when confined to State prison facilities during two two-hour panel discussions.

Entitled “Confronting the Carceral State II” invited activists, scholars and exonerated individuals will discuss topics relevant to some of the most controversial trials in the USA.

Beginning 1:00 p.m. at Shepard Hall and the Great Hall at City College, Convent Ave. at 140th St. various panelists will spotlight specific topics and issues. The first will be moderated by Prof. Yohuru Williams, Fairfield University, who will speak on the theme “I am Troy Davis: The execution narrative and the politics of race in 21st century America.”

During that same period, Prof. Donna Murch, Rutger’s University will discuss “Towards a social history of crack: Drugs and youth culture in the age of Reagan.”

Also on the agenda, Prof. Heather Thompson, Temple University will speak on “Ending today’s carceral crisis: Lessons from history.”

And the topic of “Occupied Blackness: Urban policing and the inevitability of stop and frisk,” will be addressed by Khalil Muhammad, director, Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture.

Later that afternoon, the historical perspectives of the initial theme will unite activists and exonerated individuals to recall the Central Park Jogger Trial, The on-going case involving Mumia Abu-Jamal and similar felonious trials.

Prof. Johanna Fernandez, Baruch College will discuss “The New Phase in the Struggle to Release Mumia.” Prof. Javier Cardona, arts & education director whose focus on rehabilitation through the arts will speak on the topic: “Doing Hope: Applying the Arts to Rehearse and Re-Create Life Within and Outside Prison.” Prof. Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Graduate Center, CUNY -- “The Popular Front Against Mass Incarceration: Movement, Perils, Prospects;” Vanessa Potkin, Senior Attorney, The Innocent Project -- “Addressing Wrongful Convictions;” King Downing, Program Analysts, American Friends Service Committee --“Doing Justice Work;” and Raymond Santana and Kairey Wise who were wrongly convicted in the controversial Central Park Jogger’s case are slated to speak.

Shabazz Center To Exhibit “Freedom’s Sisters”

Dr. Betty Shabazz is one of 20 women featured in a new exhibition slated to open on Feb. 2 at the cultural center named in honor of her martyred husband El Malik Shabazz AKA Malcolm X.

The national exhibit features 20 African-America women ranging from key 19th century historical figures such as Ida B. Wells to contemporary leaders such as poet and activist and Harlem native Sonia Sanchez. Their stories of courage, commitment and struggle in the name of freedom helped shape the spirit and substance of civil rights in America.

The exhibition is an extraordinary multi-media and interactive presentation celebrating the lives and contributions of 20 exceptional African American women of the late 19th and 20th centuries and, their contributions to the cause of Civil and Human Rights in the United States of America.

“It is our great privilege to bring the exhibition to the Shabazz Center. The women honored in Freedom’s Sisters are an inspiration to people of all ages and backgrounds” Pamela Alexander, director, Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services said.

“Through this collaboration we celebrate the accomplishments of an outstanding group of women who profoundly impacted our country and our world.”

“The Shabazz Center is extremely honored to host this powerful exhibition,” Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, Zead Ramadan said.

“The life stories of these extraordinary women embody and exemplify the struggle for civil and human rights in late 19th and 20th century. These stories will come to life anew for people of all ages when visiting the center early in 2012.”

*who was widowed when her husband was slain in the south while working for the NAACP is also included in the exhibition.

“These 20 women left not a footnote but a footprint on American history,” Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service Director Anna R. Cohn said. “Many of their stories may not be well known, but their roles and contributions were monumental in shaping our country and its conscience.”

Catch You on The Inside!

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By Nelson A. King

After approval from United States authorities, offshore oil drilling has begun off Cuba, officials in Havana and the U.S. said.

The U.S. Coast Guard and environmental safety officials said they inspected and approved the drilling platform under an unusual arrangement designed to allay concerns about a possible spill that could foul the U.S. coastline.

U.S. officials said personnel from the Coast Guard and the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) inspected the Scarabeo-9 platform off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.

“The review is consistent with U.S. efforts to minimize the possibility of a major oil spill, which would hurt U.S. economic and environmental interests,” the U.S. Interior Department said.

Jorge Piñon, visiting research fellow at the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, said the Scarabeo 9 giant, semi-submersible rig finished its months-long trek from China and is now visible from the shores of Havana, Cuba.

He said the Spanish energy company, Repsol, is conducting the drilling.

U.S. officials said Repsol is the first of several international companies that will use the Scarabeo 9 to look for oil in the Florida Straits.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates about five billion barrels of oil sit under the ocean floor between the U.S. and Cuba.

The Interior Department said inspectors “reviewed vessel construction, drilling equipment, and safety systems – including lifesaving and firefighting equipment, emergency generators, dynamic positioning systems, machinery spaces, and the blowout preventer.

“The review compared the vessel with applicable international safety and security standards as well as U.S. standards for drilling units operating in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf,” it said.

“Personnel found the vessel to generally comply with existing international and U.S. standards by which Repsol has pledged to abide,” it added.

Cuba’s plans to drill for oil in deep waters off its northwestern coast have sparked fears among some environmentalists and some U.S. Congress members that oil spilled in Cuban waters could reach U.S. waters and coastlines.

The accident last year at the Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling rig similar to the Scarabeo platform, killed 11 workers and spilled hundreds of millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.

Repsol has contracted with the Cuban government for the right to explore in a section of the Straits of Florida that is generally deeper than the area where the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank.

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By Tangerine Clarke

Concerns raised by Guyanese parents in the New York area about the side-effects of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine that was launched among school-age girls in Georgetown, was quickly quelled by Guyana-born gynecologist, Dr. Mahendranaugh Sohan during a recent interview in his downtown Brooklyn office.

Dr. Sohan shot down claims that Gardasil is a danger to the lives of young girls, by stating that the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the side effects, which he added are similar to the effects of a stomach virus.

A Board Certified obstetrics and gynecology specialist, Dr. Sohan argues that contrary to reports, the HPV Vaccine is not controversial, adding that since the CDC approved the vaccine in 2009, it has shown to be quite beneficial, combating more than 30 types of HPV viruses.

According to a Demerara Waves Online News report, there was an up-roar in Guyana when parents were told that Gardasil was being administered to girls to counter Types 6 and 11, that cause genital warts, and Type 16 and 18 that cause cervical cancer.

“The only way someone could contract the HPV virus is from sexual activity, so pretty much the majority of the population is at risk, said Dr. Sohan, chief of the Brooklyn Women’s Pavilion, at 44 Court Street.

Stating that any medical professional, not necessarily a cancer specialist could administer the drug, Dr. Sohan explained that the vaccine is a preventative medicine, that was initially approved for girls, age 11 to 12 only, but subsequently approved by the CDC for boys from age nine to 26.

“There is a lot of misconception about vaccines in the Guyanese community, said Dr. Sohan who feels the population is not educated enough about the effectiveness of these health measures.

Dr. Sohan, who completed his education at Albany Medical College and St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center, supports the Ministry of Health’s lead in administering the vaccine, from a public health concern. And according to him, the drug has to hold a lot of weight because the FDA approved it for use in the USA.

He insists that the health department of Guyana should educate the nationals about the dangers of cervical cancer. Women are diagnosed with this form of cancer at a very high rate in third world countries such as Guyana because of the lack of screenings and vaccination.

However, Dr. Sohan who provides OB/GYN care to women from teenage to golden age despite their economic status, argues that most women should get a yearly pap smear. And more so for women in Guyana who are at greater risk because of the lack of regular screenings. “Gardasil could prevent someone’s daughter from getting cervical cancer,” he said.

“The fact that the FDA approved Gardasil to prevent the spread of the HPV virus in the U.S. should convince the Guyanese population and the rest of the Caribbean, and Latin America that it is an effective preventive medicine.

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Ida Eisenstein

Saturday, Feb. 11

BAMcafe Live

BAMcafe Live! presents Mo Beasley’s LoveStorm featuring spoken word, music & dance 9:00 p.m. (Happy Hour: 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.), at BAM, Peter Jay Sharp Bldg., 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn. Admission free. For additonal event information, visit www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=4006.

Valentine Concert

Jammins Entertainment presents Closer to You: The Concert with Maxi Priest performing live at Pulse 48, 1020 E. 48 St., corner of Farragut Road, Brooklyn. Doors open 10:00 p.m.; Showtime 12:30 a.m. For information & tickets, contact (718) 282-8041, (646) 434-5930.

Dads & Daughters Ball

The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave., hosts Circle of Love, Dads & Daughters Ball, 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Be a debutante for a day on your date with Dad (or Mom) & enjoy a memorable evening of dance led by Curious George & a dance instructor & featuring light refreshments by Dunkin Donuts & live guest DJ from WBLS 107.5 radio, corsage, Valentine’s card & keepsake photo. Separate admission tickets required for the dance. Tickets on sale now. For general & ticket information, call (718) 735-4400 or visit www.brooklynkids.org.

Clifford the Big Red Dog

BMCC Tribeca PAC, located in the lobby of the Boro of Manhattan Community College, 199 Chambers St., N.Y. presents Clifford The Big Red Dog Live!, 1:30 p.m., celebrating his 50th anniversary & featuring his friends from Birdwell Island embarking on a new adventure. Tickets can be purchased at tribecapac.org. (single tickets only) or by calling Ticketing Services at (212) 220-1460.

Pre-Valentine Bash

Jammins Entertainment presents Anthony B, Love, Peace & Soul, pre-Valentine bash, at Pulse 48, 1020 E. 48 St., corner Farragut Rd., Brooklyn. Doors open 6:00 p.m. For information & tickets, call (718) 282-8041, (347) 529-2911, (347) 414-3581.

Calendar Auditions

CNS presents Kids Calendar 2013 Auditions for kids 3 to 13 years of age (photo ID or birth certificate required for kids selected), 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the 32 St., Manhattan location. For detailed information & to make an appointment, call (212) 539-6020.

Jazzy Mondays

Jazzy Mondays presents Tori Gee singing in the language of love at For My Sweet, 1103 Fulton St., Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Doors open 6:00 p.m.; Showtime 7:15 p.m. & 9:15 p.m. For information, call (718) 857-1427, (917) 757-0170, (718) 753-3302 or visit jazzymondays@gmail.com.

Art & Culture

SocietyHAE.com, Social Media Week & Big Fuel will host Meet the Afropolitans: Digital Media + Culture in Africa, a multi-sensory presentation on digital media and cutlure in Africa featuring leaders on African culture, media & music & offering complimentary African cuisine & chocolates from Ghana, 6:30 p.m. at Big Fuel, 40 W. 23 St., Flatiron District, N.Y. The event is free. To attend, RSVP to socialmediaweek.org/event/?event_id_1291.

J@LC

J@LC presents Monday Nights with WGBO Ulysses Owens Quartet w/Christian McBride, Christian Sands, & Nicholas Payton, 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, 5th Fl., Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th St., N.Y. For tickets & information, call (212) 258-9595 or visit jalc.org.

Tuesday, Feb. 14

Homebuyers Seminar

NHS of East Flatbush presents a seminar for first time homebuyers intertested in buying a foreclosure property featuring information on buying bank owned homes as well as general homebuying topics, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at the Crown Heights Library, 560 New York Ave., between Maple St. & Lincoln Rd., Brooklyn. To reserve space, call (718) 469-4679.

J@LC

J@LC presents Rene Marie: Valentine Swing, Tues. - Sun., 2/14-19, 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. plus 11:30 p.m. on Friday & Saturday at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, 5th Fl., Frederick P. Rose Hall, Broadway at 60th St., N.Y. For tickets & information, call (212) 258-9595 or visit jalc.org.

Dinner & A Movie

BAMcinematek presents Valentine’s Day Dinner & A Movie featuring the romantic comedy The Shop Around the Corner (1940) with James Stewart, Margaret Sullivan & Frank Morgan, 6:00 p.m. & 8:30 p.m., at BAM, Peter Jay Sharp Bldg., 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn. Check BAM.org for details on dinner. For information, call (718) 636-4129.

Comedy Show

The Coca-Cola Concert Series presents the Valentine’s Day Comedy Show featuring Cedric the Entertainer, 7:30 p.m. at the Beacon Theatre, 2124 Broadway, N.Y. Tickets available at ticketmaster.com. Tickets for people with disabilities can be purchased thru Ticketmaster, the theater’s Box Office or the Disability Services Dept. at (212) 465-6115.

Thursday, Feb. 16

Sickle Cell Awareness

The Sickle Cell Awareness Foundation Corp. invites you to be a part of starting the New Queens Sickel Cell Disease Support Group, Health Is Power, for invidiuals & families coping with Sickle Cell Disease and Sickel Cell Trait, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at The South Jamaica Library, 108-41 Guy R. Brewer Blvd., Queens. No pre-registration - just come. Refreshments will be served. For information, call (917) 373-8434, (347) 233-1069.

New Plays

Brooklyn Reading Works presents New Plays by Brooklyn Playwrights bringing together five playwrights presenting excerpts from their latest works-in-progress, 8:00 p.m. at The Old Stone House, 336 Third St., Brooklyn. Donation includes refreshments. For information, call Ms. Crawford at (718) 288-4290 or log onto louise_crawford@yahoo.com.

Film, Music, Discussion

Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65 St., N.Y. presents Better Mus’ Come, 7:00 p.m. a film about passion, politics & poverty in 1970’s Jamaica. Tickets available in advance or at the door. Call (212) 875-5600.

Black History Month

Radical Women commemorates Black History Month with the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander, 7:30 p.m., at Freedom Hall, 113 W. 128 St., Harlem, between Malcolm X Blvd. & Seventh Ave. Southern supper with vegetarian option served at 7:00 p.m. for donation. Childcare provided. For information, call (212) 222-0633.

Black History

Circuit Productions producer Susan Goldbetter celebrates Black History with World Beat: A Study of Diverse Cultures in NYC Through Dance & Music with Wo Famatou - African Dance Co., 1:15 p.m,. - 2:00 p.m. & 2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. at Camp Friendship, 339 8 St., Brooklyn. Entrance thru side doors. Please RSVP to (718) 638-4878.

Friday, Feb. 17

Comedy/Variety

No Name Comedy Variety celebrates their 12th anniversary with comedian Liz Miele, actress/comic Marilyn Torres & illusionist Lee Alan Barret along with the house band, The Summer Replacements, 7:00 p.m. at Ottos, 538 E. 14 St., between avenues A & B. No cover. No minimum. For information, call (212) 228_2240 or visit www.ottosshrunkenhead.com/

J@LC

J@LC presents the Stan Kenton Centennial featuring The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis & guest Lee Konitz, 2/17 & 18, 8:00 p.m. at The Rose Theater, Broadway at 60th St., N.Y. Tickets can be purchased thru jalc.org, CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500 or at the Lincoln Center Box Office.

ONGOING

Black History Month

The African Burial Ground National Monument is celebrating Black History Month with an array of activities throughout the month of February at 290 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, close to Foley Square & just north of City Hall. The visitor center is open Tues.-Sat., 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. All activities are free & open to the public. Reservations are required & can be made by calling (212)737-2019 or visit www.nps.gov/afbg for schedule of events.

Improv Comedy

The Magnet Theater, 254 W. 29 St., ground floor, between 7 & 8 avenues, N.Y., presents a variety of performances & special events, throughout the month of February, by improv masters & visiting international artists, Mon. - Sun., 6:30 p.m. - Midnight. A detailed schedule & description of each night’s line-up can be found at www.magnettheater.com. Ticket prices vary; reservations are recommened & can be made by calling (212) 244-8824.

Compiled by Ida Eisenstein

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By Tequila Minsky

For those who think that Occupy Wall Street has petered-out, they are quite mistaken. Occupiers, supporters and sympathizers packed Housing Works Bookstore in Manhattan last week for the discussion “Where We’ve Gone and What to Expect from Occupy in 2012.”

Artist and journalist panelists with Andy Stepanian moderating and community activists discussed ‘where Occupy has taken us, where it can bring us.’ They spoke in solidarity, nearly all, the prefaced disclaimer: I speak for myself, not for the Occupy movement.

Seasoned activist, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, co-founder of Occupy the Dream was a featured guest speaker.

The civil rights leader, a former director of NAACP, met Martin Luther King as a young boy. “I’ve been an activist since I was 12, now I’m 64, “ he said. “Occupy is an affirmation of the work I’ve been doing.” Chavez was also the director of the Million Man March and founded Hip-Hop Nation with Russell Simmons.

He pointed out that there is something wrong with the economic order and praised Occupy for “raising before the world the question of income inequality, the 99% and the 1%.” “I was ready to declare solidarity,” said Chavis when he heard these values.

Chavis dismissed the notion of a ‘leaderless’ movement, “I think the Occupy movement has many leaders. If Martin Luther King was alive, he’d be front and center in the Occupy movement.” Chavez mentioned that (previously) people were not comfortable (in their lives) but not vocal about it. He said that movements for change are those that are affirmational, those that rise from the aspirations of the people. And, contrary to some opinions, the Occupy movement was getting stronger and that diversity was adding to it.

African-American faith members joined OWS on MLK Day demonstrating at Federal Reserve Banks.

“We’re looking to the American spring, summer and fall, to see not just what we’re against, but what we’re for.”

On April 4-12, Occupy the Dream, picking up the mantle of MLK’s dream, will mobilize in Washington D.C. (In 1968, King organized the Poor People’s Campaign. The mobilization on Washington, “Resurrection City,” continued its plans in spite of King’s death. Starting one month after, almost 3,000 camped out on the Mall for nearly six weeks, culminating in a Solidarity Day march with 50,000.)

Chavis said this is “the next round of the struggle.” To the packed room of many up to 40 years his junior, he concluded, “I’m very pleased, even in my elder state, to spend time with you.”

Also on the panel was Malik Rhasaan initiator of Occupy the Hood, which is active on the ground in communities, providing food, access to resources and fighting land and building grabs. Occupy the Hood has grown to be a national community organizing movement.

The evening ended with lively discussion and the distribution of copies of The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City, a kind of Occupy manifesto, now in its second and expanded content edition. About 100,000 copies were printed.

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Ida Eisenstein

Saturday, Feb. 18

Motown Queensboro Performing Arts Center presents Las Vegas Tribute to Motown featuring the music of The Temptations, The Supremes & The Four Tops, 8:00 p.m. at Queensboro Community College, 222-05 56 Ave., Bayside. Buy tickets online at www.visitqpac.org or at the box office at (718) 631-6311, Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Tap & Jazz Circuit Productions’ Susan Goldbetter presents Tap & Jazz Masters featuring Broadway dancer & performer Calvin Booker & Friends at The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, 145 Brooklyn Ave. For information & directions, call (718) 735-4400.

Mardi Gras Sts. Simon & Jude Church presents the 2012 Family Mardi Gras Celebration featuring a hot buffet dinner, hot & cold beverages & dessert in the church’s lower level, 185 Van Sicklen St. at Ave. T, between Van Sicklen & Lake streets, Gravesend, Brooklyn. All encouraged to wear festive costumes. Doors open 6:00 p.m. Tickets on sale in the church lobby after weekend masses. For tickets & general information, call (718) 375-9600, Mon.-Fri., 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 20

J@LC J@LC presents Eric Reed & The University of Wyoming Jazz Ensemble, 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, 5th Fl., Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, Broadway @ 60th St, N.Y. For tickets & information, call (212) 258-9595 or visit jalc.org.

Tuesday, Feb. 21

J@LC J@LC presents Cyrus Chestnut Quartet, Tues. - Sun., 2/21-26, 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. plus 11:30 p.m. on Fri. & Sat. at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, 5th Fl., Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, Broadway @ 60th St, N.Y. For tickets & information, call (212) 258-9595 or visit jalc.org.

Jazz Meets Flamenco J@LC presents Jazz Meets Flamenco featuring jazz guitarist Doug Wamble accompanied by tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith & flamenco guitar virtuoso Nino Jesele accompanied by flamenco dancer Juan De Juan, Friday & Saturday, 2/24 & 25, 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. in The Allen Room at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Lincoln Center, Broadway @ 60th St., N.Y. Tickets can be purchased thru jalc.org or CenterCharge, (212) 721-6500 or at the Lincoln Center Box Office.

Saturday, Feb. 25

People’s Voice Cafe People’s Voice Cafe presents a great night of music, dance, magic, comedy & storytelling featuring James Cannings, NYC Streetsingers & Pearls of Widsom Storytelling, 8:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m,. at the People’s Voice Cafe, Community Church of N.Y., 40 East 35 St., between Park & Madison avenues, N.Y. For information, call 212-787-3903.

Fashion Show The People of the Sun Middle Passage Collective will hold a Fashion Show & Annual Fundraiser for the Tribute to Our Ancestors of the Middle Passage & honoring Dr. Michael Wiltshire, principal, 6:30 p.m. at the Medgar Evers College Auditorium, 1650 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn. For information contact Akeem at (718) 270-4902.

Community Cafe The Eastern Queens Alliance, Inc. invites you to particiapte in its Comnmunity Cafe, a neighborhood conversation about life in Southeast Queens featuring the topic combating the youth violence epidemic, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at York College, CUNY, Faculty Dining Room, 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd. Breakfast served. To RSVP & for information call (347) 824-2301 or visit info@easternqueensalliance.org.

ONGOING

Black History Month The African Burial Ground National Monument is celebrating Black History Month with an array of activities throughout the month of February at 290 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, close to Foley Square & just north of City Hall. The visitor center is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. All activities are free & open to the public. Reservations are required & can be made by calling (212)737-2019 or visit www.nps.gov/afbg for schedule of events.

Improv Comedy The Magnet Theater, 254 W. 29 St., ground floor, between 7 & 8 avenues, N.Y., presents a variety of performances & special events, throughout the month of February, by improv masters & visiting international artists, Monday - Sunday, 6:30 p.m. - midnight. A detailed schedule & description of each night’s line-up can be found at www.magnettheater.com. Ticket prices vary; reservations are recommened & can be made by calling (212) 244-8824.

Free Tax Preparation The Bethex Federal Credit Union is offering free tax preparation every Wednesday, 12 noon - 7:00 p.m. & Fri., 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m,. at Bronx Independent Living Services, 4419 Third Ave, Ste. 2C, Bronx. For more information & necessary paperwork, call (718) 515-2800 ext. 111 or for an ASL interpreter, call & make appointment with Ms. Saldana at (866) 882-3244.

Free Tax Help The Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union & the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program will be offering free tax help to low- to moderate-income residents of Bedford Stuyvesant & Bushwick. In addition to providing free, high-quality tax preparation, the program gives Central Brooklyn residents an opportunity to open credit union accounts. For more information, call (212) 505-EITC (3482).

Adoption “You Gotta Believe!,” a community based older child adoption agency is looking for families (regardless of age, marital status, gender or income) who would be willing to provide love & nurturing to a child in the foster care system. Classes held on Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church, 2801 W 8 St., in Coney Island & Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. at Church of the Holy Redeemer, 2424 Linden Blvd. in East New York. For information, call (718) 372-3003.

Foreclosure Prevention If you’re interested in obtaining a modification or just concerned about your mortage, come in for free services, counseling & assistance every Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. Open House sponsored by NHS of East Flatbush. To RSVP or more more information, call (718) 469-4679.

Home Improvement Did your roof collapse? Does your boiler need replacement? Do you need major repairs done? NHS of East Flatbush can assist you. Ask about the 5-3-5 program & Emergency Repair Program. For more information on Home Improvement Programs call (718) 469-4679.

Winter Aches & Pains Jamaican Fountain Pimento Oil is an all natural, chemical & preservative free herbal medication that relieves sore muscles, stiff joints, nerve damage, circulation issues, fluid retention amongst a host of other ailments. Call Sandra at (866) 223-2414 to book a free massage appointment for your place of worship, senior citizens group or nursing home. For more information, visit www.pimentooil.com.

Tai Chi Stop. Breath. Relax. Join Tai Chi Easy, a wellness practice combining Tai-chi, Qigong, meditation & Chinese healing, taught by Daniel Weicher, certified teacher in Integral Qigong & Tai Chi, every Sunday, 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. at the Moore Street Market, 110 Moore St., entrance on Humbolt St., Brooklyn. Donations are appreciated. Call (914) 673-6016 for information.

Vendor Registration Black Christmas 2012, A Holiday Season with a Purpose, will be held on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan. For details & fees on early, regular & late vendor registration call Norman Cole at (212) 714-4531.

Compiled by Ida Eisenstein

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MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. government says plenty of evidence supports a federal jury’s conviction of Jamaican reggae star Buju Banton on cocaine conspiracy and trafficking charges.

Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, is appealing the February 2011 conviction. Defense attorney David O. Markus says his client was relentlessly pursued by a government informant, resulting in improper entrapment.

Federal prosecutors filed their response Friday in Atlanta’s federal appeals court.

Prosecutors say Banton’s words and actions, in recorded conversations and a videotaped meeting in a Sarasota, Fla., warehouse where Banton tasted some cocaine, revealed the singer “eagerly brokered” a drug deal between a friend and undercover government agents.

They also asked the appeals court to reverse a judge’s decision to toss a related gun charge.

Banton is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

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The government of Grenada has assured its citizens and visitors to the island that the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA) will remain in full and effective operation.

This assurance came following a U.S. court order for airlines and ships doing business with Grenada to pay their fees due to Grenada into a special account in the U.S.

This situation arose as result of the EXIM Bank of Taiwan obtaining judgment against the government of Grenada for outstanding loans in a suit filed in the United States.

Information Minister Senator Glen Noel on Monday said the administration will make the necessary financial arrangements for the Grenada Airports Authority to ensure the facility remains open to daily traffic.

“The government will do whatever is necessary to ensure the airport remains operational. The MBIA is vital to our economy and we will ensure that the daily operations of the facility are not compromised,” Senator Noel said.

He said, while it is a fact that the airlines servicing Grenada have been directed to pay monies due to the Airports Authority into a special account, the government of Grenada will act “promptly and decisively,” to ensure that the Authority continues to service the airlines, visitors and the travelling public.

The government is expected to give a complete update on the status of efforts aimed at bringing a resolution to the debt with EXIM Bank of Taiwan, during the presentation of the 2012 budget in March.

The Grenada Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation in a release states, “The St. George’s Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation is working with other government departments, particularly the Attorney General’s Chambers and the Ministry of Finance, to arrive at a solution to the current financial difficulties being experienced by the Grenada Airports Authority (GAA).

The Taiwanese have made a claim for all monies owing to the government of Grenada and its agencies to be paid against the loan. Consequently, a request was made to airlines operating on the Grenada route to pay monies owed to the Grenada Airports Authority to the Taiwanese.

An escrow account has been established, and carriers such as Virgin Airlines, British Airways, and Delta Airlines have begun to deposit monies owed to the Airports Authority into the said account. This has placed the Airports Authority in a very precarious financial position.

“Mr. Rodney George, chairman of the Grenada Airports Authority, has alerted us in the government about the situation facing our airport. The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation will continue to work with other government departments to ensure this matter is resolved quickly and does not severely disrupt airport operations, which would directly impact the economy at a time when it can be least afforded.

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By Nelson A. King

The newly-elected government of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in Jamaica has begun initial discussions on the country’s transition to republican status, a government statement issued in New York on Feb. 16 said.

The Jamaica Information Service (JIS) said Sandrea Falconer, Minister with responsibility for Information, made the disclosure at a press briefing on Wednesday.

“She said the talks are being led by the ministry of justice and the attorney general’s department, spearheaded by a ministerial committee, which is to make recommendations to cabinet before talks with the opposition begin,” JIS said.

The statement said the same ministerial committee is spearheading discussions for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to become Jamaica’s final court of appeal.

It said the justice ministry and the attorney general’s department are also “playing lead roles in these discussions.”

“It was advised that the two matters (Republican status and CCJ) are to be kept separate,” Falconer said.

In her inaugural speech in January, Simpson Miller indicated that the government intended to begin the process of removing all ties with the British monarchy in becoming a “truly independent nation.”

Currently, under the Jamaican constitution, the country’s head of state is Queen Elizabeth II. The prime minister is formally appointed into office by the governor-general of Jamaica, who represents the Queen.

Simpson Miller also signaled the administration’s intention to establish the CCJ in its final appellate jurisdiction and “end judicial surveillance from London.”

The CCJ was established as a regional judicial entity, about 11 years ago, to be the final appellate court for member-states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

While Jamaica is a signatory to the establishment of the CCJ, it does not yet use the court, as local cases are still referred to the London-based Privy Council, JIS said.

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The legendary St. Lucian artiste and philanthropist Taj Weekes has been selected for the St. Lucia House Foundation’s Humanitarian Award for his selflessness and dedicated humanitarian efforts.

Weekes will receive this prestigious award at the 33rd Anniversary of Independence Gala scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Grand Prospect Hall, located at 263 Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.

A release from the Foundation states that it is honored to recognize Weekes, who is one of island’s most creative musical artistes. He has inspired many through his artistic and humanitarian endeavors.

In 2007, Weekes founded a charity—They Often Cry Outreach (TOCO)—aimed at improving the lives of underprivileged Caribbean children through a variety of sports, health, and enrichment programs.

Weekes was named a Goodwill Ambassador by the International Consortium of Caribbean Professionals and recognized by a division of the United Nations. Through his music, Weekes addresses several crucial issues, including global warming, casualties of war, domestic and youth violence, diabetes and health, poverty, and the welfare of children.

In 2011, the internationally celebrated artiste returned home to participate in the World-Renowned Saint Lucia Jazz Festival for the first time. Later that year, TOCO collected generous donations of balls, uniforms, shoes, socks, and gear, as well as money to fund its mission trips. TOCO also collected 5000 shoe donations from various elementary schools. The shoes were sent to Haiti as earthquake recovery aid. In addition to their annual collection of soccer equipment, TOCO has expanded its program to include an annual toy drive and educational workshops.

In December 2011, Weekes returned to St. Lucia to launch TOCO’s First Annual Holiday Toy Drive, distributing toys to children in need and feeding the elderly at community center in Castries, Saint Lucia. In 2012, TOCO plans to expand to other Caribbean islands, with stops in Trinidad, Tobago, and Haiti; the group also plans a lecture tour targeting high schools and colleges across the Caribbean.

The upcoming Independence Gala marks the end of activities in New York to celebrate St. Lucia’s 33rd Anniversary of Independence from Great Britain. The activities were organized by the Saint Lucia House Foundation, an umbrella group of St. Lucian organizations based in New York City, Connecticut, and New Jersey in collaboration with the St. Lucia Consulate General in New York.

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By Tequila Minsky

Many events in the New York area marking the second anniversary of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti took place last week.

Haitians and Friends of Haiti of 1199SEIU gathered at the 1199SEIU building on W. 42nd St. to commemorate the date and formally acknowledge those who pitched in during Haiti’s greatest need. The earthquake took almost 300,000 lives and devastated thousands more. Two years later more than 500,000 are still living in tents and thousands of others have moved back into damaged homes.

Additionally, the evening of Remembrance Celebration of Life was billed as the 1st Annual “We Care for Haiti Gala,” promoting the Survival Kit Drive for the Women of Haiti.

Following the earthquake in the spring of 2010, the Kit Drive was developed to provide women and girls in Haiti urgent and essential toiletry items – items often overlooked in crisis relief drives. The SEIU199 community joined UNICEF and established the “We Care for Haiti Campaign.”

Schools and colleges, religious and professional organizations and others have supplied kit items. Efforts from SEIU1199 members, staff from the union and Family of Funds, retirees and the community continue their support for women and girls in Haiti.

A kit contains underwear, sanitary napkins, liners, soap, washcloth, a toothbrush, toothpaste, hand sanitizer, lotion, deodorant, and a comb packaged in a 1-gallon plastic bag.

A silent auction took place to help raise funds for more Survival Kits.

Minister of Haitians Living Abroad Daniel Supplice traveled to New York from Haiti specifically for this event and presided over the awards presentation. Along with public figure dignitaries like New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Councilman Mathieu Eugene and those known in the celebrity world like Wyclef Jean and Marc Baptiste, long-time activists 1199SEIU VP Estella Vasquez and Secretary Maria Castaneda and Links members including Hazel Dukes of the NAACP and Merriette Pollard from the Brooklyn Chapter were recognized.

This was also a chance for members of the community to meet the new Haitian Consul, Forbin Charles Antoine.

Award recipient Rocky Robinson, retired Captain FDNY EMS of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corporation, gave one of the most moving responses on receipt of his award. He told of how days after the earthquake, he wrote on the Internet that he wanted to go to Haiti to help and Yele responded, helping to send him. Post-earthquake, Robinson returned many times to Haiti many times to help.

Vicki Sylvain of the 1199SEIU/Employer Child Care Corporation is the project coordinator of the Survival Kit Drive. The Kit Drive continues with a goal of 50,000 kits. (If you want to help, contact: 646-473-8371, email vicki.sylvain@1199funds.org or haitiwskd@gmail.com).

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The Collegiate Chorale presents Tippett’s A Child of Our Time and Bruckner’s Te Deum on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue, NYC.

The performance features Nicole Cabell, Marietta Simpson, Russell Thomas, John Relyea and the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Bagwell.

Sir Michael Tippett’s “A Child of Our Time (1941)” is a unique oratorio, structured in three parts to emulate Handel’s Messiah and using traditional African-American spirituals in a form similar to Bach’s use of the chorale in his “Passions,” all with a decidedly twentieth-century musical language.

The text of this stirring work reflects Tippett’s pacifism and belief that people contain both “shadow and light.”

Soprano Nicole Cabell has performed this work to great critical acclaim and has made it a signature piece. She will be joined by Marietta Simpson, mezzo-soprano, Russell Thomas, tenor, and John Relyea, bass-baritone. Paired with this riveting work will be the powerful Te Deum by Anton Bruckner and conducted by James Bagwell.

The Collegiate Chorale’s 70th season began with “Moïse et Pharaon” and continues with Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado” on April 10, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. at Carnegie Hall, featuring Chuck Cooper, Jason Danieley, Christopher Fitzgerald, Kelli O’Hara, Brad Oscar, Lauren Worsham, and Amy Justman, directed and conducted by Ted Sperling.

The season will conclude with a program entitled “Contemporary Voices” led by Maestro Bagwell on May 21, 2012 at St. Bartholomew’s Church. Highlights of the program include Copland’s In the Beginning - which The Chorale premiered under its founder Robert Shaw - the Poulenc Gloria, and the New York premiere of a setting of Psalm 67 by the young and celebrated Israeli composer, Avner Dorman.

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By Gary Axelbank

Culinary and pastry students from the Monroe College School of Hospitality Management and the Culinary Arts won 10 ACF (American Culinary Federation) medals at the annual Winterfest held at SUNY Delhi on Saturday, Jan. 21.

Cuauhtemoc Cortez, Dwight Duvoll, Tihelia James and Gabriela Grande chain-sawed, chiseled, and torched their ways through the ice carving competition while Jessica Johnson and Stephanie Cardenas showcased a flair for design in the occasion cake competition.

Freshman Kimani Hines, earned a silver medal and the distinction of “Best in Show” in his first cold food competition. Silver medals also went to Shamel Donigan, Jessica Johnson, and Kareem Meade. Bronze medals were awarded to Taibat Amusa, Stephanie Cardenas, Cuauhtemoc Cortez, Dwight Duvoll, Jessica Gil, and Victor Vives.

“We’re very proud of the students’ accomplishments,” said Dean Chef Frank Costantino, “and along with my colleagues Chef Eric Pellizzari and Chef Gerard Molloy, who accompanied the students to Delhi, we’re looking forward to the competitions that are coming up. We’re optimistic that we’re going to continue to do well.”

The Monroe Culinary Program is now selecting the students who will represent the college on the junior varsity and varsity teams in the 2012 New York State Championships on March 17 in Delhi, N.Y.

Monroe came in second (by .10 of a point) in the State Championships, which was hosted in the college’s state-of-the art Culinary Arts Center, in New Rochelle, N.Y.

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By Tangerine Clarke

St. Kitts & Nevis Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Sen. Ricky Skerritt praised a proposed 20-acre Agro-Tourism Demonstration Farm during a recent groundbreaking ceremony, stating that the project, while poised to be entertaining, will also be educational, and will represent a unique marriage between agriculture and tourism.

Calling this newest tourism product unlike any other in this part of the Caribbean, Skerritt added that St. Kitts is committed to sustainability, and as such, the farm will incorporate various green elements in its construction and upkeep.

During the Jan. 31, ceremony, the senator added that the farm will ‘feature local indigenous fruits and vegetables alongside crops originating from Taiwan, so that visitors can appreciate the crop diversity of both countries.

The farm which is scheduled for completion in two years on Sir Gillies - a former sugar cane plantation, is a collaboration between the St. Kitts & Nevis government and the Republic of China.

A release by Cathy A. Preece of Adams Limited, stated that the botanical garden would have medicinal herbs from both St. Kitts and Nevis and China. A traditional tea room will also adorn the garden.

According to Preece, a visual highlight of the farm will be a ‘Sugarcane Labyrinth” in shapes of St. Kitts and Taiwan, commemorating the sugar industry that was once an economic boom in both nations.

Once operational, the farm will conduct workshops and seminars for local youth who aspire to careers in agriculture.

The statement said that Taiwanese landscape and architecture experts who traveled to St. Kitts to compose a blueprint for the project also created the design for the farm.

The Eastern Caribbean island of St. Kitts was named one of the “Top 12” Spots of the Caribbean to visit in 2012, by Caribbean Travel & Life Magazine. While Brimstone Hill Fortress topped USA Today as one of the great places to explore, and the world’s best-kept secret.

Nestled in the northern Leeward Islands of the Caribbean, St. Kitts also boosts tourism attractions such as hiking in its tropical rainforests, riding the scenic railway that connects the islands’ former sugar plantations, and the Cabibelle Batik factory to name a few.

To learn more visit www.stkittstourism.kn.

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By Nelson A. King

Leaders of the eight-nation Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) on Feb. 5 approved a new economic integration system, called ECOALBA, admitted Haiti to the bloc and heard membership requests from two more Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states.

The grouping, whose formation was inspired by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, concurred on ECOALBA the day before, despite concerns by St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, one of ALBA’s three CARICOM leaders.

Suriname and St Lucia, whose leaders are attending the summit, have also asked to join the grouping. Haiti was admitted Sunday as ALBA’s ninth member and the fourth CARICOM member state to join the bloc.

Gonsalves described the plan for creating a “single economic space” as a “possible way forward”, through “a dangerous phase” of the world economy.

He urged the grouping, however, to work out legal and administrative details before proceeding with ECOALBA.

ECOALBA, which is being promoted as an alternative to trade and economic links dominated by the United States, emphasizes bartering and payments among ALBA members through a virtual currency, the Sucre.

“What we are proposing here is a possible way forward – not the only way forward, but, at least, a possible way forward,” Gonsalves told the summit in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, attended by his two CARICOM counterparts in ALBA, Dominica’s Roosevelt Skerrit and Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda, along with five Latin American nations.

But Gonsalves said ECOALBA required a “significant juridical framework” taking into account other regional economic and monetary arrangements, including the newly-formed Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) economic union and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

St Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominica – recipients of Venezuelan aid and members of the Petrocaribe oil trade agreement with Caracas – are ALBA members.

The three CARICOM member states are dwarfed by five Latin American member nations - Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua - with a combined population of 71 million people and Gross Domestic Product of US$588 billion.

Gonsalves said he welcomed ALBA’s “excellent provisions” for “special and differential treatment,” noting that “the world economy has entered a dangerous phase,” referring to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its world economic outlook.

“My observation (is that) the IMF program is nothing more than a continued life-support system with no capacity to take the patient off life support,” he said.

Chavez has been pushing the ALBA system as a center-piece of Venezuelan foreign policy and regional integration that relies heavily on a form of pan-American cooperation that posed an alternative to an international economic and political system dominated by the US.

Skerrit said ALBA was “transparent” and “ a practical problem-solver.”

“In ALBA, we talk about practical means for solving our problems,” the Dominican leader said.

“It is not an institution that conspires against anyone, there are no secrets, no hidden agendas; everything is done publicly in front out of our people; we are the most transparent organization in humanity that exists today,” he added.

“No one has a veto power that makes one feel less than the other,” Skerrit continued. “We respect our points of view, our history (and) the size of our nations.”

He said ALBA is “a vision unlike that of such institutions, as the United Nations or the Organization of American States, where the matters on the table have nothing to do with the fundamental problems affecting our people.

“In ALBA, we take on board practical themes, and we search for practical solutions to these problems. It is for that reason that we do not want to promote a mass of documents, the practical themes are addressed with few paper,” the Dominica prime minister said.

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Stabroek News

Facing a criminal charge of rape, embattled Police Chief Henry Greene has secured a temporary court order barring junior officers from charging him as he challenges the recommendation from the state prosecutor’s office to indict him on the felony charge, saying the evidence in the complaint is too weak to secure a conviction.

Greene, through a battery of lawyers on Tuesday, Feb. 10, was able to persuade Chief Justice Ian Chang to hold off the charge until Feb. 20, when the court hears the motion for a second time.

Government last month asked Greene, 57, to step aside while it investigates a complaint from a 34-year-old married mother of two that he took her to a city hotel and raped her after she had approached him for help in a separate police matter.

If he is indeed charged, he would be the first commissioner and highest ranking member of the disciplined services to be hauled before the courts on a charge of such a nature. It will also signal his certain dismissal from a force he has served since the 1970s.

Greene made it clear in his arguments presented to the court on Tuesday that the sex was consensual and followed social time together before when the two had “beverages” at senior police officers club and later went to the motel consensually.

His lawyers want the court to rule that the chief state prosecutor should “quash her advice” to local police that he should be charged with the offence saying that “the applicant ought not to be prosecuted for the offence as the realistic prospect of conviction’ was not met.”

The scandal has stunned the Caribbean trade bloc nation and the case has attracted widespread coverage on a daily basis.

In 2006 on the day he became chief, the US government revoked his visa, suggesting that he had benefited directly from the drug trade, charges he has denied.

Several senior current and former officers with whom Greene served over the decades, including predecessor and legislator Winston Felix, recall several less than consensual sexual encounters Greene has had with junior female ranks, many of whom have remained quiet because of the shame and embarrassment.

It is unclear whether any of them will step forward to give evidence on behalf of the woman if he is charged. Lawyers say the effort to prevent the charge being instituted is rather novel and look forward to the final court ruling.

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BY Nelson A. King

After concluding Article IV consultation with government authorities and other officials in Trinidad and Tobago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says “there is concrete evidence” that the twin-island republic’s economy is “turning the corner.”

Judith Gold, head of the IMF mission, which visited Trinidad and Tobago from Feb. 1-10, said on Feb. 10 that economic growth will resume in 2012, “notwithstanding the ongoing technical disruptions in the energy sector.”

She said real economic activity is projected to increase by 1.7 percent in 2012, “as private sector credit expansion gains momentum; the resolution of a large failed insurance company (CLICO) proceeds; the faster pace of government investment continues; and energy production returns to normal, as the maintenance work is completed while energy prices remain high.”

Still, the mission head said there are downside risks to the forecast, stemming from the global economic environment, uncertainty in gas prices, and possible delays in the implementation of the public sector investment program.

“The economic slowdown that began with the global financial crisis has been more profound and lasted longer than anticipated,” said Gold, adding that the economy is estimated to have contracted by 1.3 percent in 2011, after recording no growth in 2010 and a significant decline in 2009.

She said ample buffers, including savings in the Heritage and Stabilization Fund, low public debt, and high international reserves, have cushioned the impact of the crisis, including the failure of CLICO.

Gold said while unemployment has increased during this period, it remains low at 5.8 percent.

She said inflation, despite its recent resurgence, due to volatility in food prices, also remains moderate at 5.3 percent.

Gold, however, said the 2011/12 budget seeks to provide further support to the economic recovery by maintaining the high level of public capital expenditure, strengthening the business environment, and enhancing the social safety net.

“The mission agrees that the near-term focus of fiscal policy should be on reviving economic activity, and the timely implementation of the investment program should be a priority,” she said.

“The completion of the restructuring of CLICO claims will also be important to defuse remaining uncertainties,” she said.

Over the longer term, Gold said a shift in the fiscal trajectory will be needed to continue building net savings for future generations while maintaining public investment to support diversification and growth of the non-energy sector.

She said such a strategy would focus on containing increases in transfers and subsidies while better targeting social benefits to vulnerable groups.

It would also include a strengthening of the tax effort through ongoing improvement of tax and customs administration and a broadening of the tax base, she said.

The mission head said the financial system has not been immune to the prolonged economic downturn, stating that while commercial banks remain “well capitalized, profitable, and liquid,” the banking system’s non-performing loans (NPLs) have increased and provisioning has declined.

Given financial vulnerabilities, the mission agrees that “continued intensified monitoring and surveillance of the financial system is warranted” and urges accelerating the strengthening of the regulatory and supervisory framework, including the enactment of legislation on insurance, credit unions, and securities.

Gold said the mission concurs with the central bank’s “accommodative monetary stance” to support the revival of private sector credit.

She said key challenges in the energy sector are the projected depletion of oil and gas reserves and the uncertainty in the gas market as a result of the shale gas production in the United States.

Gold said the industry has been successful in redirecting its exports to new markets in view of the falling gas prices in the United States.

Looking forward, however, she said adapting the sector’s investment framework and the fiscal regime to ensure its competitiveness will be “essential.”

Just as critical, Gold said, will be the continued effort to diversify the economy, welcoming the government’s focus on improving the regulatory and administrative framework for private sector activity, and fostering investment, including the planned divestment and public/private partnership programs.

“It will also be important to strengthen public administration and the public service to ensure effective and efficient delivery of public goods and services,” she said.

“The mission wishes to express its gratitude for the exceptional collaboration of many government and non-government representatives, and for their kind hospitality,” she added.

During its visit to Trinidad and Tobago, the Washington-based financial institution’s mission met with senior government and central bank officials, a broad range of private sector representatives, and political and business leaders.

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The McDonalds Corporation honored 12 persons during their Living Media Legends Program at New York City’s Plaza Hotel on Feb. 1.

The premier event initiating the start of Black History Month was nothing less than star-studded with New York’s African American movers, shakers and decision makers in attendance.

McDonalds, which host the annual event had their prior honoree media legends in addition to this year’s honorees, totally encompassing the media pioneers of New York’s African American community.

This year’s honorees were: Jeff Burns, Jr., vice chairman of John H. Johnson School Of Communications, based at Howard University; Alkelee Daughtry, ENG/ EFP photographer – Fox 5; Elise Finch, meteorologist – CBS2 News; Nicole Johnson, reporter, Fox 5 New / WNYW; Stephen G. Lucas, director of NBC News; Dean Meminger, anchor/Criminal Justice Reporter for NY1 & NY1.com.; Carol Owens, talent coordinator, NBC 4 New York; Miatta Haj Smith, co–publisher of The New York Beacon News and The Philadelphia Observer; Elinor Tatum, publisher and editor-in-chief, New York Amsterdam News; Anne Tripp, news director/announcer for radio stations WBLS and WLIB; William J. Wright, manager of Digital Productions, NBC News; and Tom Joyner – Hall Of Fame Radio Personality of the Tom Joyner Morning Show.

Joyner was issued the McDonalds Hal Jackson Vanguard Award.

Living Legend Gil Noble, producer and host of WABC’S “Like It Is” received The McDonalds Harold Dow Lifetime Achievement Award.

This special award was presented by Noble’s mentor, the trail blazer for most of today’s African American leaders – William “Bill” Mccreary. Mccreary will be the main honoree of the Black History Month’s culminating event, The Bill McCreary Tribute Eventon Feb. 29 from 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. This event is being sponsored by The Greater New York Chamber Of Commerce.

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Ida Eisenstein

Saturday, Feb. 25

Prayer Breakfast People Moved With Compassion (PMWC) presents a Prayer Breakfast (8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.) & Conference (10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) featuring Speaker Min. Marva Thomas at Calvary Cathedral of Praise, 45 East 8th St., Brooklyn. Admission free. There will be a free will offering. Call to register at (347) 267-2654 or (718) 435-2731.

Urban Agriculture EcoStation:NY & Bushwick Farmer’s Market present a community celebration of urban agriculture, 3:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. featuring the Bushwick Campus Farm & Greenhouse, Putnam Ave. at Irving Ave., Brooklyn including a tour of the working organic farm & for the adults, a party featuring drinks, snacks live music, networking & slideshows, 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. at Brooklyn Fire Proof, 119 Ingraham St. RSVP to (646) 393-9305 or visit www.BushwickFarmersMarket.org.

J@LC J@LC features The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad presenting Legacy’s hip hop sound influenced by West African percussion music, jazz, break-beat & more, 2:30 p.m. at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, 5th Fl., Frederick P. Rose Hall, Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th St., N.Y. Free admission. Seating is first come, first served. No tickets required. For information, call (212) 258-9595 or visit jalc.org.

Sunday, Feb. 26

Film Screening Commemorating Black History Month, The Freedom Socialist Party is featuring a screening of “Standing on My Sisters’ Shoulders,” documenting the battle, led by women at the 1964 Democratic Party Convention, demanding equal representation in the Mississippi delegation, 3:00 p.m. at Freedom Hall, 113 W. 128 St., between Malcolm X Blvd./Lenox Ave. & Seventh Ave. Admission free. Brunch served at 2:00 p.m. for donation. Childcare provided. For information, call (212) 222-0633.

Henry & Mudge BMCC Tribeca PAC & Theatreworks USA presents “Henry & Mudge,” a story about the Adventure of Henry & Mudge, his canine buddy, when they move to a new house in the country, 3:00 p.m. at Borough of Manhattan Community College located at 199 Chambers St., N.Y. For ages 3 - 8 years. For tickets & information, call (212) 220-1460 or visit wwwtribecapac.org.

Cultural Explosion In celebration of Black History Month St. Gregory the Great RC Church Heritage Committee (a division of St. Matthews) presents their 6th Annual Cultural Explosion, 5:00 p.m. at St. Teresa of Avila, 563 Sterling Place at Classon Ave., Brooklyn, starring Quake USA, Art In Motion, fashion, music, comedy & raffle drawing. Light refreshments will be served. For ticket information, contact Lennox Calder at (347) 583-2936.

Monday, Feb. 27

BAMcinematek BAMcinematek presents a Brooklyn close-up double feature featuring Nelson George & Diana Paragas’ Brooklyn Boeheme a salute to Ft. Greene in the 80s, the epicenter for forward-thinking black culture & paired with Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It,” a sex comedy addressing Black sexuality, 7:30 p.m., at BAM, Peter Jay Sharp Bldg., 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn. For information, call (718) 636-4129 or visit BAM.org.

Love, Hope & Destiny St. Francis College, Founders Hall, 189 Remsen St., Brooklyn Heights, presents “Love, Hope & Destiny: A Reading of Poetry and Prose” by senior citizens, 12:30 p.m. - 1:40 p.m. Free & open to the public. For information, call (718) 489-5200.

Tuesday, Feb. 28

Boxing Pulse 48, 1020 East 48 St., corner of Farragut Rd., Brooklyn is hosting Golden Gloves Tuesday Night at the Fights. First fight begins 7:00 p.m. & features five - eight fights for the night. Doors open 6:00 p.m. For more information & to purchase tickets, contact (718) 282-8041 & (646) 434-5390.

Wednesday, Feb. 29

Juilliard Jazz The Juilliard School invites you to attend a special evening of “The Gerry Mulligan Tribute Concert” featuring the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra with guest artist, Gary Smulyan celebrating the creation of the Gerry & Franca Mulligan Scholarship & announcing the first recipient, saxophonist Jordan Pettay, 8:00 p.m. at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, The Juilliard School, 155 West 65th St., N.Y. For tickets & more information, call (212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu.

Saturday, Mar. 3

Education Program Family-to-Family Education Program will be offering a series of 12 weekly classes structured to help caregivers understand & support individuals with serious mental illness while maintaining their well being, starting 3/3/12 at Kings County Hospital Center, 451 Clarkson Ave., between New York Ave. & E 34 St., Room 3022, Brooklyn, 10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Free for family members, partners & significant others. Registration is required. Call (718) 512-5269.

ONGOING

Free Tax Preparation The Bethex Federal Credit Union is offering free tax preparation every Wednesday, 12 noon - 7:00 p.m. & Fri., 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m,. at Bronx Independent Living Services, 4419 Third Ave, Ste. 2C, Bronx. For more information & necessary paperwork, call (718) 515-2800 ext. 111 or for an ASL interpreter, call & make appointment with Ms. Saldana at (866) 882-3244.

Free Tax Help The Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union & the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program will be offering free tax help to low- to-moderate-income residents of Bedford Stuyvesant & Bushwick. In addition to providing free, high-quality tax preparation, the program gives Central Brooklyn residents an opportunity to open credit union accounts. For more information, call (212) 505-EITC (3482).

Adoption “You Gotta Believe!,” a community based older child adoption agency is looking for families (regardless of age, marital status, gender or income) who would be willing to provide love & nurturing to a child in the foster care system. Classes held on Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church, 2801 W 8 St., in Coney Island & Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. at Church of the Holy Redeemer, 2424 Linden Blvd. in East New York. For information, call (718) 372-3003.

Foreclosure Prevention If you’re interested in obtaining a modification or just concerned about your mortage, come in for free services, counseling & assistance every Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. Open House sponsored by NHS of East Flatbush. To RSVP or for more information, call (718) 469-4679.

Winter Aches & Pains Jamaican Fountain Pimento Oil is an all natural, chemical & preservative free herbal medication that relieves sore muscles, stiff joints, nerve damage, circulation issues, fluid retention amongst a host of other ailments. Call Sandra at (866) 223-2414 to book a free massage appointment for your place of worship, senior citizens group or nursing home. For more information, visit www.pimentooil.com.

Tai Chi Stop. Breath. Relax. Join Tai Chi Easy, a wellness practice combining Tai-chi, Qigong, meditation & Chinese healing, taught by Daniel Weicher, certified teacher in Integral Qigong & Tai Chi, every Sunday, 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. at the Moore Street Market, 110 Moore St., entrance on Humbolt St., Brooklyn. Donations are appreciated. Call (914) 673-6016 for information.

Vendor Registration Black Christmas 2012, A Holiday Season with a Purpose, will be held on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan. For details & fees on early, regular & late vendor registration call Norman Cole at (212) 714-4531.

Compiled by Ida Eisenstein

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By Tequila Minsky

Immersing yourself in the Caribbean spirit through arts is a wonderful way for the family to warm up an early March afternoon.

For the second year, in what will probably be an annual event, the Children’s Museum of the Arts (CMA) is having its Caribbean Day when the museum will gear all art activities toward art traditions from the Caribbean. The day will draw special attention to Haitian arts.

From 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, CMA’s light-infused brand- new location will offer opportunities for children to use a variety of art media while CMA’s teaching artist staff will be creating several fine arts and media lab workshops that highlight traditional Caribbean arts. Workshop rooms for painting, clay, multi-media, and music- making provide comfortable working space; the museum provides the materials. Noise is not discouraged.

During the year, teaching artists went to PS 115 in Canarsie and worked with the children to create an animated film sharing traditions and their Caribbean heritage. Their children-made film will screen at noon, kicking off the Caribbean Day programming.

The spacious gallery, hub of the new art-making center, is where returning Haitian master drummer Bonga will perform his traditional drumming, song and dance starting at 1:00 p.m. Bonga always brings a large array of percussion instruments for children to use—rattles and drums, small bells, a cowbell, and rhythm sticks. Kids and parents will accompany him. His dancer adds color and movement to the engaging rhythms and melodies.

In the fine arts studio, children will have a chance to make puppets and backdrops, starting at 1:00 p.m. with puppet maker Boo followed by the realm of storyteller Lily Cerat who paints pictures in words for the imagination as she shares tales from her childhood.

Meanwhile, children can explore all the creative centers at CMA as the artist-led workshops help students recreate Caribbean arts.

The techniques the Museum explores with children are as broad as the history of art itself. They include exploring color, recycled object sculpture, the grid for painting like artist Chuck Close, silhouettes, collaborative sculpture, pointillism, pop up books, monochromatic drawing, earthenware clay, wearable art, twigs and plaster, mask making, papier-mâché, ink blots, and more. Many of these will be used on Caribbean Day.

The Children’s Museum of the Arts officially opened its new location – 103 Charleton St., one block below Houston between Hudson and Greenwich, in October to much fanfare. A record crowd with parents and children from all the boroughs attended.

The fee for entrance on Caribbean Day is $10 per person–– adults and children. Infants and seniors are free.

This new space for creativity is a configuration of art labs and studios, a media lab, and clay room. Much fun is to be had here. There are morning classes for children under age five and semester-long after-school classes. On Thursday afternoons, from 4:00-6:00 p.m., the fee is “pay as you wish.” For more info: cmany.org.

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By Les Slater

No apologies necessary for our continuing fascination with the new profile one has come to expect every other week in this drawn-out extreme fighting (don’t they know this “sport” is long defunct?) exhibition that has become the Republicans’ road to a presidential nominee. Political rivals from the same party beating up on each other in pursuit of some special prize is nothing new, but this has gotten to be really awkward. There’s a famous photo-op routine that is a nomination-night staple after one of these bruising battles – that of the erstwhile combatants hugging in a show of unity. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in a warm embrace after the Republican challenger for 2012 has been duly anointed should make for good theater.

The peculiar thing about this slugfest of a nominating process is how un-Republican it has been. Not that Republicans aren’t used to some sparring bouts along the way, but they tend not to get down and dirty the way this one has. Pitched battles tend to be more on the Democratic side. The ’08 Obama-Clinton tussle, if not exactly of pitched battle proportions all the way, had its moments. The appearance of absolute bedlam in the Democratic ranks when they famously convened in Chicago in 1968 probably had a lot to do with Richard Nixon’s nosing out Hubert Humphrey in the general election. This time around, though, it’s Republicans in the pit, going at it hammer and tong.

Gingrich was supposed to be dead in the water a few months back, his staff having abandoned ship and just about everything else happening that would suggest a campaign on life support. Supposedly because of his performances in the litany of GOP debates, Gingrich’s campaign got reinvigorated to the extent of being targeted for a grand old beat-down from the others for the first test in Iowa. The strategy worked; Gingrich finished down the field. But what a mess of weird stuff since the candidates had that first taste of how an electorate would behave!

The dogfight has been confounding pundits every which way. The only result that had been a fairly easy call to make was that Romney would win in New Hampshire, a result which, had it been any different, Romney could have surely considered himself cued to pack it in, New Hampshire being pretty much home turf for him. Everything else about what has gone down so far should make the so-called experts gun-shy about telegraphing how the race will develop and likely finish (of course we know that some of them, never mind by how much they’ve been off the mark, aren’t about to let up with the “informed” drivel).

Romney came out of Iowa with what was reported to be an eight-vote win over Rick Santorum. Immediately, his win in New Hampshire catapulted him into “can’t be stopped” territory, said those with knowledge of these things. Although there remained the knock on him as a holder of false conservative papers, because of the stack of competitors more appealing to the GOP’s conservative bloc, the divvying up of support among them would just cut Romney a clear path. It all sounded logical enough…until stuff started hitting the fan. Romney would find out he didn’t defeat Santorum in Iowa, after all. And he would suddenly find himself on the defensive trying to withstand some blistering attacks from Gingrich and others about how he amassed his millions, what taxes he has paid, etc. And he wasn’t exactly smooth in responding to the blitz when it came. Upshot of all of which was that the lead he held in polls in South Carolina, next stop on the road show, began dissipating and, sure enough, come primary day he received a fairly solid whipping from Gingrich. Suddenly, the aura of invincibility surrounding Romney has given way to a “What have we here?” state of puzzlement settling over these White House wannabes.

Romney’s superiority in funding and organization may be enough to stanch this early hemorrhaging. But the Florida primary is coming right up, and if the “bogus conservative” label plays havoc with him there, the road ahead could get to be more troubled than his campaign coffers could repair. Gingrich, meanwhile, running on empty a good part of the way, found himself the beneficiary of a $10 million boost to his campaign from a single donor, reportedly because he is perceived by the donor as outstandingly pro-Israel. Conversely, the view from that quarter (and others, assuredly) is that President Obama has an anti-Israel charge to answer. What else is new?

Having been brought back to earth, after flirting with an “above the fray” thing while lesser lights battled for secondary space, Romney has now gone into full attack mode and is evidently prepared to throw everything he can at Gingrich. One of which is what has long been the conventional wisdom on the GOP side – that Romney is the only contender with a shot at beating Obama. That little nugget is part of the Romney camp’s advertising arsenal in the Florida stakes.

Of course there’ll be time yet for Romney, Gingrich or whoever to take aim on the president about everything under the sun. In the process of getting there, though, Romney and Gingrich would have involuntarily contributed quite a lot to the Obama arsenal. Bare-knuckled politics is not without a price.

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Ida Eisenstein

Saturday, Feb. 4

Comedy/Variety Comics Jim Mendrinos, Nancy Lombardo & Hilary Schwartz will be among the performers featured at the No Name Comedy/Variety show at The Pipers Kilt, 4944 Broadway, between 207 & Isham streets, N.Y., 10:00 p.m. No cover; must be 21+. For information, call (212) 569 -7071.

Spoken Word The Harlem Library, 9 West 124 St., N.Y. presents A Versified Voyage featuring spoken word artists Beverly Chavies & Bob McNeil sharing poems & songs celebrating MLK, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela & more, 2:30 p.m. Come & hear empowering words. For information, call the library at (212) 348-5620.

Coat Drive Brooklyn Clarendon Meadows Lions Club & PS 399 will sponsor a Community Outreach Project: Coat Distribution, providing coats for those in need, 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. at PS 399, 2707 Albemarle Road., corner of Albermarle Rd. & Rogers Ave., Brooklyn. For information, call Ms. Hobson at (718) 285-5669 or Ms. Eccleston at (718) 693-3023.

Black History Month In celebration of Black History Month, The People of the Sun Middle Passage Collective, MEC Student Gov’t Assn. & Office of Student Life & the Sons & Daughters of Jamaica will hold a cultural extravaganza that will include remembering Dr. Charles Jones, Prof. Yvonne Bennet & Mr. Dudley Thompson & will also feature an Open Mic, cultural drumming & dance performances at Medgar Evers College Auditorium, 1650 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. For information, call Akeem at (718) 270-4907.

Monday, Feb. 6

J@LC J@LC presents Michael Rodriguez Quintet w/Alan Broadbent, Adam Larson, Kiyoshi Kitagawa & Rodney Green, 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, 5th Fl., Broadway @ 60 St., N.Y. For information & reservations, call (212) 258-9595 or visit jalc.org.

Tuesday, Jan. 7

J@LC J@LC presents Charles McPherson/Tom Harrell Quintet - Bebop Is The Future, Tues.-Sun., 2/7-12, 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, 5thlFl., Broadway @ 60 St., N.Y. For information & reservations, call (212) 258-9595 or visit jalc.org.

Black History Month Lincoln Center celebrates Black History Month with Drop Me Off In Harlem: An Evening of Ellingtonia featuring Loren Schoenberg & The National Jazz Museum All Stars exploring the music of “The Duke”, 7:30 p.m., at The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Broadway, between 62 & 63 streets, N.Y. Admission is free. Seating is limited & available on first come, first served basis. Parking available. For information, visit LincolnCenter.org/Atrium.

Wednesday, Feb. 8

Cocktail Reception The Greater New York Chamber of Commerce is holding an Open House Cocktail Reception featuring networking among business & civic leaders, at Greater NY Chamber, 20 W 44 St., between 5 & 6 avenues, N.Y. For information & to RSVP, call (212) 686-7220 or register online at www.ny-chamber.com.

Thursday, Feb. 9

Home Maintenance NHS of East Flatbush is holding an open house to register for the Home Maintenance Training to learn carpentry, basic electrical, tool usage, wood framing & more in six-week courses. Electrical & Plumbing course begins Tues. 2/14, 6:00 p.m.; Basic Carpentry course begins 2/15. For more information, call (718) 469-4679.

Comedy American Candy, a Brooklyn homegrown, comedy group, presents American Candy: Love is Magic!!!, a hilarious sketch comedy that takes a look at insatiable love & its provocative & irresistible ties to magic, Thurs.-Sat., 2/9-11, 8:00 p.m. at South Oxford Space, 138 S. Oxford St., (Atlantic/Hanson), Brooklyn. For more information, call (646) 281-0652 or visit hollie@americancandytv.com.

Saturday, Feb. 11

Elections Elections for the Friends Board of Directors of Cambria Heights Queens Library will be held at 4:00 p.m. at the Cambria Heights Library at 218-13 Linden Blvd., Queens. For more information on elections & schedule of monthly general meetings, call (718) 528-3535.

ONGOING

Black History Month The African Burial Ground National Monunment is celebrating Black History Month with an array of activities exploring the African Burial Ground’s connection to its African roots & how those roots have & continue to influence life in N.Y. & beyond throughout the month at 290 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, close to Foley Square & just north of City Hall. The visitor center is open Tues.-Sat., 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. All activities are free & open to the public. Reservations are required & can be made by calling (212)737-2019 or visit www.nps.gov/afbg for schedule of events.

Auditions FSF Community Theatre Group, 41-60 Kissena Blvd., Flushing is holding auditions for the musical “Gypsy,” Tues. & Wed., 2/7 & 8, 7:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Callbacks Tues., 2/14. Performances 5/12, 13, & 19, 2012. Looking for dancers & singers ages 10 thru adult; Stage Crew 16+. For information, call (516) 354-5210. Log on to www.spotlightonstage.com/fsfctg.htm or email fsfctg@yahoo.com.

Free Tax Preparation The Bethex Federal Credit Union is offering free tax preparation every Wed., 12 Noon - 7:00 p.m. & Fri., 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m,. at Bronx Independent Living Services, 4419 Third Ave, Ste. 2C, Bronx. For more information & necessary paperwork, call (718) 515-2800 ext. 111 or for an ASL interpreter, call & make appointment with Ms. Saldana at (866) 882-3244.

Free Tax Help The Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union & the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program will be offering free tax help to low- to moderate-income residents of Bedford Stuyvesant & Bushwick. In addition to providing free, high-quality tax preparation, the program gives Central Brooklyn residents an opportunity to open credit union accounts. For more information, call (212) 505-EITC (3482).

Adoption “You Gotta Believe!,” a community based older child adoption agency is looking for families (regardless of age, marital status, gender or income) who would be willing to provide love & nurturing to a child in the foster care system. Classes held on Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church, 2801 W 8 St., in Coney Island & Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. at Church of the Holy Redeemer, 2424 Linden Blvd. in East New York. For information, call (718) 372-3003.

Winter Aches & Pains Jamaican Fountain Pimento Oil is an all natural, chemical & preservative free herbal medication that relieves sore muscles, stiff joints, nerve damage, circulation issues, fluid retention amongst a host of other ailments. Call Sandra at (866) 223-2414 to book a free massage appointment for your place of worship, senior citizens group or nursing home. For more information, visit www.pimentooil.com.

Tai Chi Stop. Breath. Relax. Join Tai Chi Easy, a wellness practice combining Tai-chi, Qigong, meditation & Chinese healing, taught by Daniel Weicher, certified teacher in Integral Qigong & Tai Chi, every Sunday, 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. at the Moore Street Market, 110 Moore St., entrance on Humbolt St., Brooklyn. Donations are appreciated. Call (914) 673-6016 for information.

Compiled by Ida Eisenstein

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By Vinette K. Pryce

A three-day festival in Trench Town, Kingston will mark three significant milestones in the nation’s history.

From Feb. 3 to the Feb. 6 birth date of reggae icon Robert Nesta ‘Bob’ Marley the 11th annual community festival in Trench Town will commemorate his 67th anniversary, 50 years of reggae music and the jubilee year of the island’s independent status.

Throughout the years, the annual festival has served to build pride and self esteem in the residents with showcases that present the positive aspects of the community.

According to Sonia Whyte, long-time resident and administrator of the Trench Town Peace & Justice Centre, “the community sees the festival as a means of honoring the work of the great reggae icon Bob Marley and the place that inspired him.”

In addition, she said, the residents want to preserve the Culture Yard (Marley’s former place of residence in Trench Town) and make it into one of the best community-based tourism products in Jamaica. Booths by exhibitors and vendors will provide necessary information related to healthcare, financial services, birth certificate and issues pertinent to enhancing the livelihood of residents of the community.

A symposium is also slated to highlight the best of the area.

On Marley’s special birthday anniversary, “Trod the Trod that Marley Trod” fun run/walk will kick-off the day’s activities from the location now known as Culture Yard.

Friends of the community, athletes, entertainers, political figures, diplomats and tourists are expected to converge at the First Street address for the activity, which will launch an entire sports day incorporating competitive and exhibition events including, football, Brazilian capoeira, a netball rally, Twenty20 cricket, domino tournament and other sporting activities.

Rastafarians from Trench Town and other communities are expected to gather to chant, drum and observe practices in their tradition around a tabernacle.

Recording and creative artists led by Stephen Marley will also participate by honoring Marley’s legacy and Trench Town’s contribution to reggae, the globally recognized music of Jamaica.

Other activities include a church service, a fun day of activities for children, a mini Miss Trench Town competition and a “Pepper Sunday” potpourri of music featuring local sound systems operators and artists.

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The New York State Senate this week voted unanimously in support of legislation to protect children by deterring abuse through strengthening penalties for those who sexually abuse a minor under the age of 14.

Authored by Senate Democratic Leader John L. Sampson (D-19th SD) the law would help create safer environments for children and protect them from abusers.

“Victims of sexual abuse will remember and relive the horror and trauma of their attacks for the rest of their lives,” said Senator Sampson. “My dream is for no child to ever have to go through such an experience, but until that becomes a reality we need common-sense laws that will deter abusers from committing crimes.

Sexual abuse in the first degree is a D felony, however, this statute is only applicable where there is force, where the victim is incapable of giving consent or where the victim is less than 11 years old.

Victims of sexual abuse in the second degree are, by definition, incapable of giving consent under the age of 14.

Therefore, perpetrators who abuse or otherwise come into sexual contact with victims between the ages of 11 and 13 are only eligible for up to one year in prison.

“This sentence is simply inadequate to deter this conduct or punish offenders who may repeatedly engage in this crime,” Sampson said.

“A single year behind bars is simply an unacceptable sentence for such an abhorrent crime. By creating stronger penalties, we hope both first time and repeat offenses will significantly decline.”

Under current law, the crime of sexual abuse in the second degree is punishable by up to one year in prison. “The human toll, however, is extremely damaging as being fondled or touched in such an inappropriate manner is humiliating and degrading,” Sampson said.

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By Vinette K. Pryce

During his diamond jubilee tour of commonwealth nations from March 2 to 8, Britain’s Prince Harry will visit Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas.

On his visit to Jamaica, the royal representative plans to stop into numerous locales there; regale the island’s 50th anniversary of independence and meet with two significant personalities – Portia Simpson-Miller, the first, elected, female leader of the country and Usain Bolt, its Olympic champion.

Amidst plans announced by the prime minister to remove his grandmother as sovereign head of Jamaica, 27-year-old Harry is slated to meet her when he visits.

On the day of her inauguration Simpson Miller expressed a desire to “detach from the monarchy” to make way for a republic form of government.

A goodwill ambassador for the Olympics slated to be held in his country this summer, Harry also wants to visit with the world’s fastest man at his training camp.

Soon after his itinerary was announced rumors circulated that the prince might challenge the athlete to a race when he visits him at his training facility at the University of the West Indies.

“We’re hoping he (Bolt) will teach him (Harry) how to start,” Prince Harry’s private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton told a U.K. publication, The Daily Mail.

“I don’t think they will hare off round the track together, thankfully,” she added.

USPS Unveils Black Heritage ‘Forever’ Stamp

The United States Postal Service issued a new postage stamp to kick-off Black History Month and also commemorate the life of publisher John H. Johnson.

On Feb. 1, USPS added the Chicago-native as the 35th honoree in the Black Heritage stamp series.

The stamp, priced ‘forever’ to fulfill delivery despite postal rate increases compliments the Black Heritage series which debuted in 1978 and is among the postal services’ most popular.

This month, post offices will be stocked with stamps bearing the likeness of the Chicago-native who founded Johnson Publishing Company and introduced Ebony and Jet magazines, two national publications which highlighted the achievements of Blacks throughout the world.

Johnson lauded athletes, actors, activists, politicians, scientists, celebrities, and average individuals whose efforts enhanced the profile of Africans throughout the globe.

The monthly and weekly publications attracted audiences previously deprived of positive images focusing on Africans, African-Americans and Caribbean nationals.

Many readers reflect reading stories and reflecting their first images of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, W.E.B. Dubois, Nelson Mandela and others on the pages of those two publications.

Photo-stories detailing the lifestyle of athletes such as Arthur Ashe, singer Mahalia Jackson, Muhammad Ali, and others were given unprecedented coverage and attention when traditional media limited space and frequency in recognizing Black achievers.

“John Johnson’s unyielding commitment to journalistic excellence and his unparalleled reporting on African-American culture have distinguished him as one of America’s greatest publishers,” USPS Chicago Senior Plant Manager Anthony Vaughan said.

“I’m immensely proud that my father and his life’s passion are being recognized in such a high honor as the Black Heritage Stamp,” Linda Johnson Rice.

“His legacy lives on in all whom he touched and in the work we continue to do daily.”

Roy Betts, a USPS communications officer, said Americans nominate between 40,000 to 50,000 people and events each year for consideration for commemorative stamps.

A citizen review committee considers the requests and pares them down to a list of 20 to 25 nominees, and those recommendations are sent to the postmaster general, who makes the final decision.

Past honorees in the series,: Harriet Tubman, Duke Ellington, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Madam C.J. Walker, Jackie Robinson, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbara Jordan among others.

Catch You On The Inside!

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Continuing Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Visionary Voices series, Grammy-winning vocalist Dianne Reeves performs in Rose Theater, Feb. 24-25 at 8:00 p.m.

A season highlight, Reeves will be joined by Peter Martin as music director and on piano, Reginald Veal on bass, Terreon Gully on drums, and Romero Lubambo and Peter Sprague on guitar. Repertoire will include favorites from Reeves vast songbook.

Reeves is the pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world today. As a result of her virtuosity, improvisational prowess and unique jazz and R&B stylings, Reeves received the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for three consecutive recordings—a Grammy first in any vocal category.

Reeves appeared in George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck,” the Academy Award nominated film that chronicles Edward R. Murrow’s confrontation with Senator Joseph McCarthy. The soundtrack recording of “Good Night, and Good Luck” provided Reeves her fourth Best Jazz Vocal Grammy in 2006.

Reeves has recorded and performed extensively with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. She has also recorded with Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim and was a featured soloist with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. Reeves was the first creative chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the first singer to ever perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Reeves worked with legendary producer Arif Mardin on the Grammy winning A Little Moonlight, an intimate collection of ten standards featuring her touring trio. When Reeves’ first holiday collection “Christmas Time is Here” was released in 2004, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times raved, “Ms. Reeves, a jazz singer of frequently astonishing skill, takes the assignment seriously; this is one of the best jazz Christmas CD’s I’ve heard.”

In 2007, Reeves was featured in an award winning documentary on the all-too-brief life of Billy Strayhorn. Her first solo album in several years, “When You Know,” was released in 2008. She has been touring the world in a variety of contexts including “Sing the Truth,” a musical celebration of Nina Simone which also featured Liz Wright and Angelique Kidjo. Reeves began 2011 performing at the White House State Dinner for the President of China, Hu Jintao.

Rose Theater at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center is located on Broadway at 60th St., Manhattan.

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By Paul Haven

HAVANA (AP) — A lawyer for five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms for spying in the United States said Wednesday he is preparing a last-ditch appeal, arguing that one of the men received bad counsel and that the jury for all five was prejudiced because the U.S. paid several journalists who covered the trial.

Attorney Thomas Goldstein said he would submit the appeal Feb. 15 before U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard, who can either rule on the matter, ask to hear arguments or order a full evidentiary hearing.

Four of the men have been jailed since 1998. The fifth, Rene Gonzalez, was released last year after 13 years in jail, but has been ordered to remain in the United States while he serves out his probation.

Gonzalez’s lawyer, Phil Horowitz, said he would also appeal that probation decision shortly. He said the 55-year-old dual Cuban-American citizen is working as a caretaker at a private home, but would not reveal the location out of concern for his client’s security.

The lawyers were interviewed by The Associated Press in a restricted area of Havana limited to government activities and hosting visiting foreign dignitaries.

While the agents’ case is largely forgotten in the United States, it remains a cause celebre in Cuba, where the government hails the “Cuban Five” as heroes who were only trying to detect and prevent violent attacks against their country by exile groups. Cuban state-run media publish near daily accounts of solidarity from around the world, and images of the men stare down from billboards along rutted country roads.

Goldstein said he will argue that inadequate counsel from his lawyer resulted in a murder conviction and life sentence for one of the agents, Gerardo Hernandez, and he said all of their cases were prejudiced by a U.S. government program that was paying thousands of dollars to key journalists while the high-profile trial was going on, a fact that only came out later.

The journalists were paid for appearances on U.S.-funded Spanish-language radio and TV broadcasts primarily aimed at Cuba but available in Florida, while also publishing critical reports in local media.

Advocates for the five also say the trial court was wrong to reject their request for a change of venue from South Florida, which is home to a large Cuban exile community.

“I don’t think anyone can deny that it is a serious issue when you try supposed Cuban agents in a Miami court ... and that it obviously is going to be a very political, very fraught trial,” Goldstein said. “On top of that, to learn that the media is being paid by the U.S. government, we think raises a serious issue.”

Goldstein, a Washington-based Supreme Court litigator, said he would take the case all the way to America’s highest court if necessary, and that if the appeal fails, it will mean “the end of the road” for the legal process in the case. After that, he said, the only hope would be a political solution.

That is the same situation facing Maryland native Alan Gross, who was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in jail after being caught bringing satellite phones and other equipment into Cuba illegally while on a USAID-funded democracy program. His appeal to Cuba’s top court was denied last year, so Gross’s only chance at release rests on a humanitarian pardon by Cuban President Raul Castro or some form of prisoner exchange.

Cuba has stopped short of linking the cases, but senior officials have said no one should expect the island to free the 62-year-old American in a “unilateral gesture.”

Goldstein rejected any attempt to compare the cases legally, but that the symmetry of the two cases presented a political opportunity. He stressed, however, that he was a private lawyer and not privy to the thinking of the Cuban government on Gross.

“Alan Gross is entitled absolutely to individual justice,” he said. “I would never encourage anyone to link what happens to him to what happens to my clients. You can’t hold someone literally hostage,” he said. “But it strikes me that to the extent that there are political solutions to both sets of cases, then there could end up being linkage ... on the political front.”

Goldstein said the politically charged atmosphere in the lead-up to the U.S. election in November complicated any efforts to find common ground, particularly given the importance of Florida in presidential politics and strong feelings about the agents’ case among many Cuban-Americans.

But he said he hoped President Barack Obama would ultimately see that freeing the men was good politics, and something that would likely lead to reciprocal gestures from Havana.

“If the president of the United States were to release the Five and nothing else happens, then it kind of falls like a dud,” he said. “If, on the other hand, Cuba releases Alan Gross, the president releases the Five, the Cuban government, whatever ... it would allow the Cuban government to do a number of things.”

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The “One Love” island of Jamaica will spread the love to commuters in SoHo this Tuesday, Valentine’s Day with roses and a chance to win a trip to sunny Jamaica!

WHAT: Jamaica Tourist Board representatives will be in SoHo in front of two new Jamaica “Wallscapes” – Lafayette and Prince Street and Lafayette and Spring Street – giving roses tagged with a special card that provides commuters with a chance to win a 4-day/3-night trip to Jamaica, compliments of the Jamaica Tourist Board and Jewel Dunn’s River Beach Resort & Spa.

2012 marks Jamaica’s 50th Anniversary of Independence with celebrations planned year-around!

WHO: Jamaica Tourist Board representatives

WHEN: Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012

8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Lafayette and Prince Street and Lafayette and Spring Street in Soho.

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By Azad Ali

A High Court judge in Guyana has allowed the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) to resume control of the sport in the South American country.

Justice William Ramlall gave government officials 24 hours to remove the padlocks placed on the GCB office in Regent Street following which representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports handed over the keys to the locks to GCB Operations Manager Robin Singh in the presence of the media and the Guyana Police Force.

Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) President Raj Singh said he felt the ruling now allows the DCB to get on with its programs. He said there was room for the government to be involved such as assisting in getting the various associations functioning properly through the exchange of expertise and also in supporting the clubs in getting their respective grounds in order to facilitate the playing of proper cricket.

The International Cricket Council had strongly condemned the actions by the Guyana government, which was to intervene in the running of cricket in the country and reiterated at its recent meeting in Dubai its stance on government interference in the operations of the sport in any country.

The government had dissolved the GCB and replaced it with an Interim Management Committee (IMC) headed by former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd. The action was taken due to a dispute over its July 2011 elections.

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By Azad Ali

Soca superstar Machel Montano scored a double when he took the International Power Soca Monarch and the Groovy Soca Monarch titles on Fantastic Friday night at the Hasley Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.

He sealed the victory in the Power Soca Monarch with his road march contender “Pump Yuh Flag” to take TT$2 million, the most lucrative prize this year’s Carnival.

He will cash in TT$500,000 for winning the Groovy category with is performance of “Mr Fete.”

Dressed in gold, Montano appeared on stage pulled in a chariot accompanied by comedienne Rachael Price who he said was his Mrs. Fete.

Also taking the stage during his presentation was mas man Peter Minshall’s “Tan Tan” and “Sagaboy” who Montano referred to as Mr and Mrs Fete.

Iwer George for the second year running had to settle for second place in the Power category. Destra Garcia placed third. Kees Dieffenthaller, who won the Groovy category last year placed fifth with his rendition “Stress Away.”

And on Carnival Saturday night Neal & Massy All Stars retained its National Panorama title at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain with its rendition of Leon “Smooth” Edwards arrangement of “Play Your Self.”

Playing in sixth position the defending champions were confident they would retain their title.

This was the seventh Panorama title the band has won over the past decade.

In second place was, Petrotrin Phase 11 Pan Groove and third PSC Silver Stars in the large conventional bands category.

Duane O’Connor dethroned Karen Asche to take the Calypso Monarch title at the Dimanche Gras show on Sunday night at the Queen’s Park Savannah.

O’Connor, who a week before had won the Young Kings title beat 11 other contestants to take the TT$1 million first prize.

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It will be a star studded event featuring the legendary Mighty Sparrow and the Queen of Soca Calypso Rose as the Bartlett Brothers kick off their third decade of producing top entertainment on the high seas.

This season they have booked passage on the much talked about Norwegian Gem leaving New York Jan. 29 and returning to New York on Feb. 8, 2012.

This excursion will dock in St. Thomas, Antigua, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten and Tortola. The Bartletts have spared no expense as their “Celebration At Sea” offers another phenomenal season of music, fun and Caribbean cruises.

The Bartletts entertaining line up will also present (in costume, song and verse) the cast from the “SS Nirvana” (a salute to jazz legends).

The ship’s guest will hear the music of Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.This dynamic show will also feature Fran Jaye, Arlee Leonard and Carolyn Holmes. In their portrayals, these talented performers will cover some of the legends most popular tunes.

Fans of the musical spectacular say “you will instantly connect and sing along for the entire show.” As each songstress steps onto the stage, patrons will become reminiscent of your fondest memories.

In addition to several great shows, you will enjoy delicious food, a pre-carnival Jump-up Contest, a Bowling Contest, party lounges, luxury swimming pools, Sunday morning worship and more delicious food.

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By John Marrast

R&B and Gospel stars Bebe & Cece Winans will perform in concert at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College in Flushing on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012, at 8:00 p.m. in its Colden Auditorium.

The brother and sister powerhouse, who were awarded their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last October, have not scheduled any other concerts together in the New Year.

After two decades of hits, Bebe & Cece Winans have another huge success with “Still,” their first album together in 15 years, which has been nominated for two Grammy Awards and 11 Stellar Awards and is approaching gold sales status. The album features the Billboard chart-topping single “Close To You,” as well as the Grammy-nominated “Grace.”

In 2011, Bebe & Cece appeared on “Oprah,” “Good Morning America” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

As a duo, BeBe and CeCe Winans’ accolades include three Grammy Awards, nine Dove Awards, two NAACP Image awards, two Soul Train Music Awards, numerous Stellar Awards, three gold albums, and one platinum album.

“The music of Bebe & Cece Winans represents a rich cultural heritage that is alive and well in Queens as well as the metropolitan area,” said Vivian Charlop, director of Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College. “We are thrilled to present this concert.”

Kupferberg Center for the Arts is located on the Queens College campus between Exits 23 and 24 on the eastbound service road for the Long Island Expressway in Flushing.

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Six teenagers participating in a unique after school program that brings together young people to study and propose solutions to the issues affecting teenagers were the guest speakers at Assemblyman William Scarboroughs’ 29th A.D. Task Force Meeting recently.

The Youth Justice Board (YJB) was founded eight years ago to give young people a credible voice in the public debate about juvenile justice policy.

The group studies a different issue during each two-year program cycle, with the current issue being “Reducing Youth Crime in New York City and Improving Relationships between Police and Teenagers.” The group researched youth cime across the city, focusing on Brownsville in Brooklyn and as a result produced a report with ideas on how to reduce youth crime in Brownsville and neighborhoods that face similar challenges.

In 2011-2012, the Youth Justice Board will be working to implement many of the ideas contained in their report in conjunction with developing a new community justice center in Brownsville.

Over five months, the YJB conducted interviews with people involved in the city justice system and the Brownsville community. They visited four community justice centers and conducted three focus groups with young people involved in the justice system to learn more about their experiences and perspectives. As a result, the group developed recommendations designed to reduce youth crime in Brownsville and make the community a safer and more supportive place for youths to grow up in. They also developed a comic book poster: I got arrested! Now What - A Guide to the Juvenile Justice System.

The YJB presented their recommendations to young people living in the community at a roundtable discussion in Brownsville. They also shared their ideas with policymakers, police officers, probation officers and other relevant stake holders with Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes delivering the keynote address at an event.

These six teenagers are part of a group of 20 young people from all five boroughs that meet twice a week for two hours in Manhattan. The teens receive Metro cards and a small stipend. Each year, new teens are selected, with applications due in the spring. Teens are asked to join who have experiences and personal interest in the topic of study and the commitment to working on a long-term project.

A four-phase curriculum builds YJB members teamwork, research and presentation skills to help members develop substantive and actionable policy recommendations. More information about this program is available at www.courtinnovation.org/youthjusticboard.

Assemblyman William Scarboroughs’ 29th A.D. Task Force Meetings are held the last Saturday of each month at the Robert Ross Johnson Family Life Center located at 172-17 Linden Blvd. (near Merrick Blvd) in St. Albans at 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon. The public is invited. For additional information, call Assemblyman William Scarborough’s District Office at 718-723-5412.

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The world’s tallest professional basketball player, Paul “Tiny” Sturgess, will add 7-feet 8-inches to the New York City skyline when he leads the Harlem Globetrotters into New York City for six games from Feb. 17-20, including one game at Madison Square Garden.

Facts and figures about 7-8 Tiny Sturgess:

- Tiny was officially recognized on Nov. 17, 2011, by Guinness World Records as the World’s Tallest Professional Basketball Player

- Born and raised in Loughborough, England

- Wears a size 20 shoe

- Grew a foot between the ages of 16 & 17

- Father is 6-9 and mother is only 5-5

- Excellent soccer player (or football as he would call it)

- Loves to play golf with his custom-made clubs and crushes 360-yard drives

- Played college basketball at Mountain State University in West Virginia (class of 2011)

- Helped Mountain State to two regional championships

- Made the dean’s list in college three times

- Enjoys swimming

- Wants to be a physiotherapist after his basketball career

Tiny will team up with Jonte “Too Tall” Hall, the shortest Globetrotter ever at 5-2. Other rookies on the Globetrotters include the top three finishers from the 2011 College Slam Dunk Contest. They join Globetrotter veterans such as Flight Time Lang – a two-time competitor on “The Amazing Race” and the team’s showman Special K Daley.

Sponsored by Howard Johnson Hotels, Greyhound Lines, Spalding, and Russell Athletic, the Original Harlem Globetrotters will celebrate their 86th consecutive year in 2012, continuing a world famous tradition of ball handling wizardry, basketball artistry and one-of-a-kind family entertainment that continues to thrill fans of all ages.

Throughout their history, the Globetrotters have showcased their iconic talents in 120 countries and territories on six continents, often breaking down cultural and societal barriers while providing fans with their first-ever basketball experience.

Proud inductees of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Globetrotters have entertained hundreds of millions of fans—among them popes, kings, queens, and presidents—over more than eight thrilling decades. NYC area games include:

Friday, Feb. 17 at 7:00 p.m. IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ

Saturday, Feb. 18 at 1:00 p.m. Prudential Center in Newark

Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. Madison Square Garden

Sunday, Feb. 19 at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y.

Monday, Feb. 20 at 1:00 p.m. IZOD Center.

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More than 500 coats were distributed to the East Flatbush community at P.S. 399 as part of the Annual Coat Drive held on Sat., Feb. 4 at P.S. 399, 2707 Albermarle Road, Brooklyn.

This event was sponsored by P.S. 399, Brooklyn Clarendon Meadows Lions Club and Affinity Health Plan.

The Brooklyn Clarendon Lions Club is a community service oriented group and their motto is “We Serve.”

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As Saint Lucians in New York prepare to commemorate their country’s 33rd anniversary of National Independence, the Saint Lucia House Foundation has announced that Bay Gardens Beach Resort & Spa and Jet Blue Airways are major donors to this year’s Independence Gala on Feb. 25.

The gala will be held at Brooklyn’s Grand Prospect Hall, located at 263 Prospect Avenue Brooklyn, New York.

Bay Gardens Beach Resort has donated a five-night stay in a one-bedroom luxury suite, while Jet Blue Airways has donated two tickets. These gifts will be raffled during the Independence Gala.

Mrs. Berthia Parle, general manager of the Bay Gardens Beach Resort & Spa, notes that her support of the Independence Gala in New York is her establishment’s way of giving back to Saint Lucians in the Diaspora who have patronized the Bay Gardens properties over the last 18 years.

“They are a very important market segment,” said Mrs. Parle. “They promote our properties to friends and family, and they use Bay Gardens Resorts as their preferred accommodations when visiting their island home. This is our way of saying ‘thank you’ for their support and patronage.”

The Saint Lucia House Foundation is extremely grateful for and humbled by the generosity of the two donors. “It is the commitment and support of Bay Gardens and Jet Blue and other like-minded citizens that make it possible for the Foundation to celebrate this milestone,” said Mathias Wilkie, the Foundation’s president, “and, most importantly, continue with its mission in the Diaspora.”

The 33rd Anniversary Independence Gala will follow this year’s theme of “One People, One Nation, Limitless Possibilities,” and feature the best of Saint Lucian music and dance. Saint Lucia’s own Michel Aubertin, DJ Eryk,and Natural Sounds will entertain attendees for the evening. Other gala activities include dinner, a raffle, and a special awards presentation.

For more information, please contact Jeremiah Hyacinth at 917-539-1607 or jeremiah.hyacinth@gmail.com.

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The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center will host two events to commemorate the life and legacy of Malcolm X/ El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Both events will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m.: The Legacy of Malcolm X:Live streamed debate from London between Professor Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University and Professor Paul Gilroy of the LSE.

7:00 p.m.: From the Audubon to Africa and Beyond: The International dimensions of Malcolm X: A discussion with A. Peter Bailey.

Malcolm X, courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, Pan Africans, and all oppressed peoples, was assassinated here at the Audubon Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965. His message of speaking truth to power lives on to this very day. The purpose of the event is to remember his life and his enduring legacy as a champion of Human Rights and Social Justice.

The events will be held in the lobby of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, 3940 Broadway, cross st. 165th in Washington Heights. (Take A, C, 1 to 168th St.)

Those in attendance may also view Freedom’s Sisters, an exhibit celebrating 20 African American women who fought for freedom and changed the course of history.

Minimum suggested contribution for each event, $10

Please RSVP (212-568-1341)

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By Vinette K. Pryce

Perhaps it was less than a surprise when Bob and Rita Marley’s youngest son Stephen took the best reggae album category at the recent Grammy awards.

Annual predictions often submit to a notion that in any given year any nominated Marley will be favored by voting music insiders at the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

The six-time Grammy winner won this time for his CD “Revelation Pt. 1 – The Root Of Life.”

The recording won over Monty Alexander’s “Harlem – Kingston Express Live:” Israel Vibration “Reggae Knights;” Shaggy – “Summer In Kingston” and “Wild & Free” by his big brother Ziggy Marley from the same parents.

The most–winning member of the Marley family previously won as a solo artiste in 2008 with “Mind Control” and again in 2010 for the acoustic version of the same album. He also shared success collaborating with his siblings who recorded as Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers.

The family group triumphed with “Conscious Party” in 1989, “One Bright Day” the year after and again in 1998 for their recording of “Fallen Is Babylon.”

He leads in winning the most Grammy awards in the sole category dedicated to the Jamaica-popularized beat.

Ziggy has won five Grammy awards while the youngest of the Marley recording clan, Damian AKA ‘Junior Gong’ follows behind with three.

Damian is the only reggae artist to win two Grammy awards on the same night.

In addition to scoring a win in the reggae category in 2006 for his mega-hit “Welcome to Jamrock,” Damian also won in the best urban/alternative performance category for the same track.

It should be noted that every son of Bob Marley who pursued a career in music has been nominated for a Grammy award.

Other Marley off-springs to be nominated include Julian and Ky-Mani.

Kymani was nominated in 2001 for his “Many More Roads” but lost to his younger brother Damian’s “Half-way-Tree.”

Julian’s “Awake” CD lost out in 2010 when his brother Stephen won for his acoustic follow-up to “Mind Control.”

Brothers Robert and Rohan Marley bypassed the entertainment industry to pursue unrelated careers.

In another category, British singer Corinne Bailey Rae won another Grammy for her interpretation of Bob Marley’s “Is This Love.”

She took the miniature, gold, gramophone in the best rhythm and blues performance category beating Charlie Wilson, Ledisi, Kelly Price & Stokely and Marsha Ambrosius.

The Marley name has been associated with winning recordings for several recording artists.

Bunny Wailer, who as a member of the Bob Marley’s Wailing Wailers began his music career as a member of the trio with Peter Tosh, is the recipient of three Grammy awards.

Two are tributes to his time-honored, legendary collaborator.

In 1990, he won for “Time Will Tell: A Tribute To Bob Marley” and six years later he scored again with “Hall of Fame: A Tribute to Bob Marley.”

The acclaimed king of reggae did not win a Grammy award in his lifetime.

He died May 11, 1981 before a reggae category was established.

However, in 2001 Bob Marley received a posthumous lifetime achievement honor from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, presenters of the Grammy awards.

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By Robert Elkin

Could Jeremy Lin, a first year backcourt man on the New York Knickerbockers, be a great one and rank among the top guards in the National Basketballl Association? The rate that he is going even though he was not drafted shouldn’t stop him by any means. He has almost all the ingredients to be a future Hall of Famer.

Game afer game he is almost fantastic. Some of his plays don’t even appear in the box score. When he drives into the basket or down court, he has the ability to go right through the opponents.

The 23-year-old Lin who was claimed by the Knicks last December impresses the fans tremendously. After they saw him perform on the court both offensively and defensively they speak very highly about him.

“I love him because when he came off the bench nobody recognized him as a good player,” said 21-year-old Aubrey Hendricks, a product of a charter school, Brooklyn Bridge Academy before a recent Knicks-New Orleans game outside of Madison Square Garden. “Now he is showing everybody what he’s made of.”

‘Linsanity’ appeared in 29 games as a reserve with the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association last year and 18 overall contests, including making eight starts during the first 32 contests with the Knicks this season.

But there is a question mark whether ‘Linsanity’ and Carmelo Anthony, an established hoopster could play together the 1 and/or 2 positions at the same time.

“I don’t know if they could jell in the backcourt,” continued Aubrey Hendricks, who intends to go to college come next year. “It depends if Carmelo changes his style of play and shares the ball more than he usually does.”

Hendricks resides in the Starrett City section of Brooklyn. Aubrey’s father Loxley Hendricks and the basketball follower’s grandfather Aubrey Hendricks, both come from Jamaica, West Indies.

“Since Lin came aboard to the NBA with the Knicks, they are a great team,” Aubrey continued. “It’s New York. We love our teams regardless if they lose or win. Right now everybody is a Knick fan because of Lin.”

Everyone agrees that Lin is a very good point guard and makes the team better. He has good eye sight for the game knows when to take those shots, and tries to play excellent defense, as well. Be he as to cut down on his turnovers. It’s still early and he has to progress.

“Lin is great for the team,” added Jake Reighenbar of Purchase, New York during half time of a recent game.

“I like the whole big picture (that Lin has to offer),” said Greg Cochrane of upstate New York. “I watch the games on TV; now it’s my first time here getting to see game (in person). They (the team) will catch on.”

Cochrane attended Durhamn High School, located south of Albany.

Meanwhile, Dave Luckey feels that Lin will work together with Carmelo Anthony. “When they put all the talent out there with Carmelo, they’ll be fine,” Luckey said. “I’m a native of the Bronx. I think that he’s a very good poiunt guard, good distributor of the ball, and knows when to shoot the ball, and make the team better.”

Luckey, a former player at The Bronx’s Lehman High School now resides in Somerset, New Jersey.

“It’s still early and Lin has continually progress,” added Robert Brice, who played high school at Dodge of The Bronx. “He has a lot of raw talent and has to fine tune that talent. The Knicks are my favorite team.”

Lin has all the moves for a second year NBA player and he is making a name for himself and impressing all the fans and is the talk of the basketball world.

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The third bi-monthly New Day New Opportunity networking event will be held on Thursday, Feb. 23, at Eve’s Lounge 769 Washington Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11218.

Ashea Management & Entertainment, is the organizer of networking event.

Nolan Baynes, marketing director of the multi-platform video and music network, “Music Choice” will be the special guest of honor. Baynes is also the former music marketing director of MTV/MTV2 and president of branding agency, JBF Entertainment.

At Music Choice, Baynes is responsible for the strategic marketing efforts for all MC properties including SWRV TV, its 24-hour, interactive music video network; MC On Demand, the #1 On Demand Network; and MC Music Channels, 45 digital audio music channels distributed to over 52 million households nationally.

He joined MC in Spring 2011 and in a short time has activated key strategic partnerships for the company with independent artists, record labels, and music festivals.

During his stint as president of JBF Entertainment, a partnership with Former NFL QB stand out Jay Fiedler, Baynes provided creative and operations leadership for the agency that consulted for BET Networks and worked with clients such as MTV, Jane Carter Solutions, Greater Than Campaign and talent management agency Chris Smith Management (Nelly Furtado, Tamia, etc.)

Before joining JBF Entertainment, Baynes served as the director of Music Marketing for MTV Networks where he oversaw the creation and execution of live concerts, music marketing initiatives and selected channel tune-in campaigns including Sucka Free Sundays.

Baynes also played an important role in the formation of MTV’s first venture into Caribbean market with creation of Tempo. He was responsible for spearheading campaigns such as MTV2 $2 Bill Concert Series (Kanye West, Green Day), The TRL Tour (Destiny’s Child, Nelly), VMA Block Party Miami, Campus Invasion Tour, and more.

He will be presented with a plaque of achievement, and appreciation for his support and being a positive role model.

Baynes is a Guyanese native (Caribbean decent), who migrated to Flatbush, Brooklyn, and never forgot where he came from. He has been actively giving back to the community that supported him in his endeavors on the road to achieving success.

Baynes will take the ‘New Day New Opportunity’ platform to share his experience with entrepreneurs, business owners, executives, employers, and community residents.

New Day New Opportunity is Ashea Management’s vision to empower young men and women within the community and to provide an inspirational resource for business owners to cross-promote and build their network. During these challenging economic times, we are banding together to create a better solution.

Ashea Management is a consulting and entertainment management company, expanding opportunities for innovative talent, and also committed to giving back and building a better community.

The visionaries of Ashea Management are James Frazier and Ashton Robertson, who have over 20 years of combined experience in marketing, promotion, artist management and event planning.

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By Nelson A. King

A United States federal judge on Jan. 13 sentenced to life in prison a Trinidadian man who was convicted of plotting to blow up fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

“No one can doubt the seriousness of this crime,” said Judge Dora L. Irizarry of U.S. Federal District Court in Brooklyn, who compared the bomb plot to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States as she handed down the maximum sentence to Kareem Ibrahim, 66.

Ibrahim was one of four men accused in 2007 in what U.S. federal authorities said was a plot to cause a chain reaction along a pipeline that would damage vast areas of New York City.

Prosecutors presented evidence at trial that Ibrahim, an imam and a leader of the Shiite Muslim community in Trinidad, had provided operational support to the group plotting the attack.

Ibrahim was extradited from Trinidad and Tobago for the trial.

Prosecutors said crucial evidence came from a convicted drug dealer and paid informer who contributed financial and logistical support to the plotters and secretly recorded their conversations.

Two of the conspirators, Russell M. Defreitas, a Guyanese immigrant and former cargo handler at the airport who prosecutors said was the mastermind behind the scheme, and Abdul Kadir, a former member of the Guyanese Parliament, were convicted in 2010 and were sentenced to life in prison.

Another Guyanese man, Abdel Nur, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Ibrahim’s lawyers said they planned to file an appeal on his behalf.

“Kareem Ibrahim abandoned the true tenets of his religion and plotted to commit a terrorist attack that he hoped would rival 9/11,” said Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “But law enforcement detected and thwarted the plot, saving lives.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Miller told Judge Dora L. Irizarry that if the plot had not been thwarted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the group might have launched “a potentially devastating terrorist attack” and “would have caused catastrophic harm - both personal, in terms of lives, and economic damage.”

The group’s “stated goal was to take out all of Queens. This was a dangerous situation,” Miller said.

But defense attorney Michael Hueston stressed that while Ibrahim served as a Muslim cleric, he bore no ill will to those of other faiths.

He said Ibrahim’s open-mindedness was evidenced by his “interfaith marriages” - he had been divorced several times - and he has “children who are Christians.”

Hueston told the judge there is a “dramatic difference” between Ibrahim and cold-blooded fanatics intent on killing untold number of innocents.

“He is not on equal footing with any hardened terrorist,” Hueston said.

But Judge Irizarry rejected that claim.

“Mr. Ibrahim is a smart man. I think he understood exactly what he was getting into,” she said.

In the months leading up to his trial last year, federal prison hospital doctors testified that Ibrahim was deeply depressed and was refusing to eat.

They said they put him on a diet of 40 milligrams of Prozac and eight bottles of Boost energy drink a day.

The doctors said Ibrahim was suffering from “self-inflicted starvation and dehydration,” suggesting that “electroconvulsive therapy” - also known as electroshock therapy - might be a helpful treatment.

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As part of its Centennial Celebration Saint Gregory The Great Catholic School in collaboration with The Caribbean American Chamber Of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (CACCI) cordially invites you to attend a Community Bazaar, Saturday, Jan. 28 starting at 1:00 p.m.

The event will take place at the Saint Gregory the Great School, 2520 Church Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. - School Cafeteria (Between Bedford and Rogers Avenues).

The bazaar will include exhibition, business networking, food and Small Business Workshops

For vendor information, call 718 774-3330.

Workshop Topics

Use of Technology to Enhance Small Business Growth, Business Services Available for Small Business Owners, Financing Available for Small Owners, Job Development, Doing Business with NYC: How to Prepare for MWBE Certification.

Hands-on interactive workshops and technical assistance are provided in order to complete the MWBE certification application.

For CACCI Small Business Workshops, please RSVP to: CACCI: Telephone: 718-834-4544.

This event is sponsored by the Saint Gregory the Great Catholic School and is co-sponsored by the NYC Department of Small Business Services (NYC DSBS).

Special thanks to: Rudolph Cyrus-Charles, principal, Saint Gregory the Great School, Eugene Saunders, event coordinator and Dr. Roy A. Hastick, Sr., president and founder, CACCI.

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From an initial field of more than 10,000 girls and young women from all over the East Coast, 210 of the nation’s best athletes have persevered through four preliminary meets and a semi-finals at Pratt Institute to earn spots in the Madison Square Garden finals of the Colgate Women’s Games to be held this Saturday, January 28 beginning at 10:00 a.m.

The 38th annual series featured some of the nation’s top talent from every age/grade division, with returning champions and local newcomers sharing the spotlight, including several who remain undefeated headed to Madison Square Garden.

In the shot put finals held earlier this week, Egypt Parker of Learning Tree Prep in the Bronx had her best toss of the year, 10.04M. The 13-year-old newcomer to the Colgate Women’s Games dominated the Mid School division shot put all series.

Returning mid school champions who finished undefeated after Saturday were: Jameelah Muhammad of Philadelphia’s Harambee Institute of Science and Technology, won the 55 meters in 7.39; Tia Livingston of Quibbletown Middle School in Piscataway, took the 55-meter hurdles in 8.6; Brooklyn Broadwater, from Philadelphia’s AMY Northwest School, won the 400 Meters in 59.04; and Shayla Broughton of IS 202 in Brooklyn, cleared 5’2” to win the high jump.

An Elementary B high jump record was set this year when MyKhiyah Williams of Brooklyn’s Ocean Hill Collegiate Charter School cleared 4’8” in the second preliminary. Williams, who repeated 4’8” in the final preliminary, and again at the semi finals, has raised the bar by six inches since last year when her best jump of 4’2” made her the Elementary A champion.

In the Elementary A division, Briana Brown of PS 6 in the Bronx had a perfect season, scoring double wins in the 55 meters and 200 meters each meet. Her fist place finish in the 200 meters at the semi finals was also her season’s best, 29.72.

In the High School division, returning freshman Sandreeka Bancroft of Cardozo High School in Queens who holds the mid school record in the 55-meter hurdles, crossed the tape in 8.25 on Saturday. Teammate Latisha Philson, a senior at Cardozo and the high school 55-meter hurdles record holder, chose the 55-meter dash this year and also finished undefeated after her 7.21 performance at the Semis.

Kenae Taylor, another former mid-school champion, now a freshman at Philadelphia’s Engineering and Science High School, remained undefeated after finishing with her best race of the year in the 800 meters, (2:20.34).

Other notable high school leaders include Brooklyn’s Sandrae Farquharson of Medgar Evers College Prep, who won the 400 meters in 58.09; and the Bronx Strunkey twins, Ariel and Arianne of Holcombe Ruckers High school, who finished in first and second place in the 200 meters, in 25.74 and 25.77 respectively.

In the College/Open division, Amber Williams of Parsippany, NJ made it a perfect season scoring double wins each week in the 200 and 400 meters. She won the 400 meters Saturday in 57.04.

Fred Thompson says the number of returning champions and promising newcomers that finished in first place this season are nearly perfectly balanced.

“This is a great sign that the sport is alive and well, and that our meets are still attracting top talent, with performances that remain the national benchmarks to beat. The Madison Square Garden finals will spotlight some of the nation’s best athletes from every division.”

Thompson also thanked the parents and coaches of all the participants for their support. “Every parent and coach that supported their kids by bringing them to Brooklyn each week, including hundreds that travelled great distances, should know that they’ve made an outstanding contribution to these kids that will have a positive impact throughout their lives,” he said.

During the finals of the 38th annual Colgate Women’s Games trophies and educational grants-in-aid from Colgate-Palmolive Company will be awarded to top place finishers in each age/grade division.

The Big Apple Circus will provide entertainment during the intermission/track reconfiguration, at approximately 1:00 p.m.

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Clinton Hill Simply Art Gallery

NYC’s oldest independently owned African American custom and specialty picture framing gallery, Clinton Hill Simply Art & Framing Gallery (CHSAFG) in Brooklyn is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Prior to opening CHSAFG, founder and curator Lurita “LB” Brown (center) a former advertising executive. is congratulated by past colleagues, Wayne Sobers (far left) formally of Black Enterprise Magazine and Jeff Burns, Jr. formally of Ebony Magazine for her entrepreneurial milestone.

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As Jamaica celebrates its 50th Anniversary of Independence, multi-platinum international superstar Celine Dion delivered a golden performance to the more than 20,000 people at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium on Friday, Jan. 27.

The show was entitled “16th Annual Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival -- The Art of Music.”

With an outstanding showcase to bring the curtains down on the second night of a stellar three-day festival, sponsored by the Jamaica Tourist Board, Dion delivered a set, which included favorites such as “I Drove All Night,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Prayer,” “Where Does My Heart Beat Now” and “Treat Her Like A Lady” featuring a special appearance by Jamaican singer/songwriter Diana King.

In a show lasting more than an hour, Dion closed with “My Heart Will Go On,” the soundtrack from the blockbuster film Titantic, leaving patrons wanting more.

The Friday night lineup included Jully Black, Nicole Henry, Tami Chynn & Tessane Chin, and Richie Stephens & Gentleman.

Jamaica’s musical greats Richie Stephens and Shaggy were recognized by festival organizers Art of Music Productions for their contribution to the island’s music.

Chairman of Art of Music Productions Walter Elmore presented Stephens with an award to recognize his nearly two decade-long contribution to Jamaican music. Shaggy was honored for promoting Jamaica’s culture internationally.

Also, sharing the occasion on Friday, Jan. 27 at the Jamaica Tourist Board sponsored event was German reggae artist, Gentleman, who shared the stage with Stephens earlier that evening.

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By Rhea Smith

Phoenix Francisco realized her love for the performing arts at the tender age of six.

Being the third daughter of Dr. Slinger Francisco a.k.a the Mighty Sparrow, Calypso King of the World, Phoenix grew up in a household surrounded by rhythm and talented musicians.

As a result, her life revolved around the stage and learning from the many legends her father worked with. Through these experiences she developed and cultivated her love for all genres of music and for her Trinidadian heritage, including her father’s many musical contributions.

For 11 years Phoenix performed as a vocalist in the annual National Music Festival (Trinidad and Tobago). She also studied under great artists such as classical pianist, the late Treasure LaChapelle (concert pianist), Ava Agarde (folk musician) and renowned opera singer & Harlem based choir teacher, Lorna Mae Myers.

Migrating to New York City at 19 years old, Phoenix pursued a degree in Film Production with a concentration in screenwriting at Brooklyn College (New York).

During her first semester, she quickly made an impression on her teachers when she landed roles in two major plays, an opportunity traditionally offered to acting majors. As a junior she was asked to design costumes for a play in Brooklyn College by the Theater Department; the result was a complete success adding the title costume designer to her many talents.

After graduating cum laude, she revisited her first love, singing, and accepted an offer to do background vocals for a reggae group called, “The Fingees.”

To date, Phoenix continues to write her own material while pursuing her singing career. Writing credits also include Wine in De Place (co-written for Alison Hinds and Uncle Sam – released August 2008.

Recently, Phoenix debuted at Club Maracas (Queens, N.Y.) with her original single track entitled “So Twisted” (Produced by Phillip Nichols - Currently she is preparing to release the highly anticipated Groovy Soca tune “Tipsy.”

Currently she is booked for several appearances for Trinidad & Tobago Carnival 2012.

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Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM) honored former Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, president & CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Inc. (NBCLA), at an event on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at the Harlem medical school in commemoration of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

The New York City Council presented a proclamation to Ms. Fields and TouroCOM gave her an award for her leadership in fighting HIV infection and AIDS through her leadership of the NBLCA.

In the United States, where the epidemic began in 1981, more than 1 million are living with HIV/AIDS with approximately 28 percent unaware of their infection. African-Americans are most affected.

“On behalf of the city and of TouroCOM, we are extremely proud to recognize the hard work and dedication Ms. Fields has demonstrated in raising awareness of HIV infection and AIDS and paths to treatment and prevention,” said Robert Goldberg, D.O., dean of TouroCOM.

“As millions fight this epidemic worldwide, including many in our own community in Harlem, it is a privilege on this national day of awareness to extend our gratitude and in so doing, further educate our community about what needs to be done to stem this crisis.”

Ms. Fields was one of several community leaders and TouroCOM faculty members who addressed a gathering of medical school students, staff and community members about HIV/AIDS and the importance of education, testing, and treatment.

In expressing her gratitude, Ms. Fields spoke directly to the students in the audience, reminding them that they can play a crucial role in reducing HIV/AIDS as they enter the workforce.

“Patients will listen when there is trust and when they believe you have their best interests at heart. We need you as students and instructors to raise the conversation even if they don’t,” Ms. Fields said. “You’re in a pivotal position to help patients know how to remain [HIV] negative and what to do if they are positive. We need everybody in this fight.”

Esquire Anthony, D.O., an instructor in primary care at TouroCOM, presented an overview of the crisis with statistics from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) showing that HIV infection/AIDS is a global pandemic with cases reported from virtually every country in the world.

In 2009, the latest year for which data is available, 33.3 million were living with HIV - 95 percent of whom were residing in low and middle-income countries, 50 percent of whom were female, and 2.5 million of whom were children under 15 years of age. In 2009, 2.6 million people became newly infected and 1.8 million deaths were attributed to HIV/AIDS, according to the data presented.

According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the city is home to the largest number of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S., with 110,000 New Yorkers known to be living with HIV/AIDS. There are also an estimated 21 percent additional HIV positive New Yorkers who are not aware of their status and could be unknowingly transmitting the virus to others, according to the city, which says Black New Yorkers, who make up 25 percent of the city’s population, comprise the greatest proportion of residents living with HIV/AIDS, at 45 percent.

The Health Department announced recently that new HIV data shows a 41 percent drop in deaths among black persons living with HIV/AIDS between 2001 and 2010. Still, blacks disproportionately accounted for almost half of all new HIV diagnoses in 2010, a figure the city said has remained almost unchanged for the past five years.

TouroCOM advances the osteopathic profession and serves its students and society by providing a firm educational foundation that encourages research and scholarly activity and participation in community service.

Osteopathic medicine is a distinct form of medical practice in the U.S. that provides all of the benefits of modern medicine including prescription drugs, surgery, and the use of technology to diagnose disease and evaluate injury. It also offers the added benefit of hands-on diagnosis and treatment through a system of therapy known as osteopathic manipulative medicine.

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By Azad Ali

Trinidad and Tobago mystery spinner Sunil Narine, who shot into the cricket limelight last year was purchased by Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (ILP) for the fifth highest price behind India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene, India pacer Vinay Kumar and New Zealand batsman Brendan McCullum.

Narine was the biggest shock of the auction when he was snapped up for US$700,000 from a starting base price of US$50,000.

He made his international Twenty20 debut last year.

Emerging West Indies batsman Darren Bravo and all rounder Kevin Cooper were also picked up by the IPL franchises.

Bravo, who was in ESPN Circifino’s Test XI for 2011 and is now ranked in the top 20 of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test rankings, was picked up by Deccan Chargers at his base price of US$100,000, while Cooper, who like Narine, gave a good performance at both the Champions League last September and last month’s Caribbean T20 series where T&T retained their title was secured by Rajasthan Royals at his base price of US$50,000.

The Trinidad and Tobago players were just three of four new West Indians to play in the IPL. The other player bought was the dynamic Jamaican all-rounder Andre Russell, who was purchased for US$450,000 by the Delhi Daredevils from a base price of US$50,000.

The four will now join Chris Gayle (Royal Challengers Banglagore), Kieron Pollard (Mumbai Indians) and Dwayne Bravo Chennai Super Kings) as West Indians in the IPL.

This year’s IPL will run from April 4 to May 27, which will coincide with both the three-Test series against Australia (April 7-27) and the subsequent tour to England (May 5-June 24).

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By Dr. Rani Whitfield

The current state of our economy has raised questions about whether today’s kids will be better or worse off than their parents. But, as a physician and father, I question whether they will be healthy enough to even live longer than their parents.

Today, more physicians than ever are treating children for “adult” diseases like diabetes, hypertension and even heart disease. So, we should be equally concerned about the future of their health as we are about their wealth.

This Black History Month and Heart Health Month, I decided to write an open letter to African American parents, urging you to start a family legacy of good health. The future of our children depends on it.

It’s no secret that heart disease, obesity and diabetes are taking a toll on our families and our communities at a rate higher than any other ethnic group in the country. And it is mostly preventable. As a father to a six-year-old, I know “Do as I say, not as I do” doesn’t work when kids are watching and mimicking your every move. Therefore, as parents, we have to take the first steps toward building a healthy, active lifestyle for ourselves with hopes that our kids will “do as we do.”

Contrary to what you might think, taking those steps doesn’t mean cutting out the things you enjoy - doing that can actually lead to weight gain. To be honest, I’m not giving up my favorite foods and beverages, and neither should you. It’s really about making better decisions. If you use two sticks of butter in your famous peach cobbler, use one or a healthier butter substitute. If you use salt pork in collard greens, try smoked turkey instead. Or, if you love soda, try a low- or no-calorie version or drink from a smaller cup.

Another problem I often see in my practice is the idea that kids need to “clean their plate.” This was once a good rule, but now that we are feeding our children adult-sized portions, it can be dangerous. With my daughter, I allow her to decide when she’s full - clean plate or not - because kids are good at saying when they’ve had enough. So, next time you sit down to dinner, put a little less on your child’s plate and listen when they tell you they’re full. It might also help you rethink the amount on your plate, too.

Lastly, family time shouldn’t only be TV time. Get up and be active together. If your kids are jumping around with their Wii game, join them. If they’re playing tag in the backyard, be “it.” One thing I love to do with my daughter is dance because it’s good exercise and lets us be silly together. Leaving a legacy of good health doesn’t have to be serious and boring, so have fun with it.

This isn’t a letter of “shoulda, coulda, wouldas” because I understand food is a cultural and satisfying experience. Rather, it is a challenge for you to take inventory of your family’s health habits and make small adjustments that could bring about big changes. Studies show that just a small weight loss can reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other diseases.

So this month and year round I’m taking a pledge, and I hope you will too: I pledge to leave my daughter with better health habits than the generation before her. I will leave her with less risk for heart disease, diabetes and obesity. I will be active for her and with her. And I will make decisions that set her on the path to good health for the rest of her life.

Good luck creating your family’s good health legacy for this generation and the next.

Dr. Rani G. Whitfield, known best as “Tha Hip Hop Doc,” is a board certified family physician with a private practice in Baton Rouge. He uses hip-hop music to educate teens and young adults on health issues and is a consultant for several organizations including The Coca-Cola Company. He can be reached at www.h2doc.com.

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By Christine Armario

MIAMI (AP) — At a park in downtown Miami, alongside a statue of their country’s liberator, Venezuelans gathered Saturday to protest the closing of their consulate, an action they say will cause major problems for the thousands of Venezuelans living in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Children, students, worried parents and elderly persons held up signs denouncing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s decision to close the Miami office following the expulsion of Consul General Livia Acosta Noguera.

“Issuing passports is an obligation, not a caprice,” read one sign.

“Chavez: How will I vote for you now?” read another.

“The measure they took is not affecting the United States, but the Venezuelans,” said 23-year-old Mario Di Giovanni, an economics student at Florida International University who helped organize the protest.

Washington ordered Acosta to leave the U.S. after an FBI investigation into allegations she had discussed a possible cyber-attack on the U.S. government while working at the Venezuelan Embassy in Mexico. The allegations were detailed in a documentary aired by Spanish-language broadcaster Univision and based on recordings of conversations with Acosta and other officials. The documentary alleges Cuban and Iranian diplomatic missions were involved.

Chavez has said there is no proof Acosta was “going around carrying out espionage,” and that the South American government decided on an “administrative closing of the consulate while we study the decision.” Consulate workers were then quickly withdrawn after the foreign ministry alleged personnel had been threatened by exiles with links to terrorism. The accused exiles reject the charges.

Di Giovanni and others said the closure will be highly disruptive for the estimated 160,000 Venezuelans living in Florida, where the largest community of those living outside the country is located. The growing population here depends on the consulate to renew passports, receive pensions, and transfer Venezuelan bolivars into dollars to pay U.S. university tuition, among other activities.

“There are a lot of things necessary for the day-to-day life of Venezuelans here that cannot be done now that we don’t have the consulate,” Di Giovanni said.

Venezuelans here are also concerned about how they will register to vote and participate in the coming presidential elections, in which Chavez is seeking another six-year term. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council has guaranteed that Venezuelans living in Florida will be able to vote in the Feb. 12 opposition primary, though protesters said they had not been given any information.

About three-fourths of the 15,800 Venezuelans in the United States who voted in the last presidential election did so at the Miami consulate.

“I want to vote and I don’t have a place to register,” said Helen Avila, 32, who went to the protest carrying her two young children in a stroller.

Brigitte Jaffe said she’s worried she won’t be able to travel back to visit family in Venezuela. Her passport needs to be renewed this year.

“It’s very sad not to be able to go,” she said.

There are other Venezuelan consulates in the United States, but the nearest ones to Florida are in New Orleans, Houston and Washington — a distance some said would be cost-prohibitive.

More than 100 protesters gathered at the downtown Bayfront Park, where a statue of Latin American hero Simon Bolivar was decorated with a Venezuelan flag. A sign that said “More than 160,000 affected” was placed at his feet. Pieces of white paper with the words “Your Rights” were taped to the ground.

“This is not against the government or supporting any types of political parties, but asking for our rights as Venezuelans to be defended,” Di Giovanni said.

For Maria Luisa Valery, the closure marks one more tie that will be strained as she attempts to keep her family united. Valery sent her two daughters to study abroad because of insecurity back home. She still lives in Venezuela, but was visiting them in Miami during Saturday’s protest.

Boarding the plane back to Venezuela will be “incredibly painful,” she said.

“It’s one of the hardest things,” Valery said.

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By Sheldon Richman

A growing group of individuals and organizations has designated Saturday, Feb. 4, as a “National Day of Action” aimed at preventing a war against Iran. The manifesto is simple: “No War, No Sanctions, No Intervention, No Assassinations.”

Nothing is more urgent than stopping the march to war now underway. Economic warfare has begun already. Sanctions and embargoes are belligerent acts under international law; such policies goaded the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor in 1941. The U.S. State Department recently reassured Israeli leaders, who along with their American lobby are in a bigger hurry for war than President Obama is, that the sanctions will devastate the Iranian economy — more precisely, the Iranian people.

U.S. officials also say that Iran’s economy will be throttled by the crippling of that country’s central bank. Sanctions authorized by Obama in late December aim to stop the rest of the world from doing business with the bank, which would amount to isolating the Iranian people from world commerce. If successful, this would create indescribable misery for average Iranians. (Rulers always find a way to get by.)

The demanded oil boycott is accompanied by a U.S. suggestion that Iranian oil be replaced with Libyan oil, which sheds new light on the Obama administration’s intervention in the Libyan civil war and the regime change it accomplished. Not all nations can be counted on to boycott Iranian oil, but those that do not will still be in a position to demand lower prices from Iran’s government.

Meanwhile, Iranian scientists are being assassinated, and various Iranian facilities are mysteriously exploding. This is surely the work of the CIA or the Israeli Mossad or both of them in conjunction with Iranian groups with histories of violent activity. The covert war is on.

The national day of action, with events planned in many cities, is intended to bring all of this to the attention of a complacent American people. Americans are said to be war-weary after an eight-year occupation of Iraq (in fact, 20 years of hostilities) and a decade-long and continuing war in Afghanistan, a quagmire if there ever was one. You’d think a war-weary people would be demanding no war against Iran, but Americans seem not to be paying attention.

George W. Bush famously botched the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” The American people were fooled once by unsubstantiated claims about Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, and his readiness to use them on short notice. There were no such weapons, of course — as many informed authorities said before the U.S. invasion — but those who want to bomb Iran appear to believe that this method of spreading war fever among Americans will work one more time.

Hence the incessant propaganda about Iran’s nuclear-weapons program — for which there is zero evidence. America’s dozen-and-a-half intelligence agencies have twice reported that Iran scrapped its initial program more than eight years ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency regularly inspects the country and certifies that its uranium has not been enriched to weapons-grade. What Iran has done is consistent with developing nuclear medicine and electrical power.

Yet Iran is now subjected to low-level but deadly warfare and threats of a massive bombing campaign because it will not — and cannot — prove a negative: that it is not developing nuclear weapons.

Does Iran represent a serious nuclear threat? Israel’s defense minister and several former Mossad directors say no. “Defense” Secretary Leon Panetta, like Israeli intelligence, is not convinced Iran has decided to build a weapon. Even leading American neoconservatives acknowledge that a nuclear Iran (if such came to be) would not attack Israel, which has its own nukes, much less the United States.

Then why the march to war? The U.S. and Israeli governments will not tolerate limits on their hegemony in the Middle East. Iran is a big, populous, and long-existing country that inevitably will be a major force in the region. Therefore, U.S. and Israeli dominance requires a subservient Iran — like the brutal U.S.- and Israeli-sponsored Shah’s regime was until it was overthrown in the Islamic revolution of 1979.

To repeat: nothing is more urgent than stopping this march to war against Iran. Let’s make February 4 the day it was reversed.

Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org) and editor of The Freeman magazine.

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By Kit Schackner

What will your children breathe? Environmental issues are on the rise. Parents are advised to heed the call to embrace the green revolution.

Most times as citizens we focus on the larger scale of pollution, but most families neglect to examine their homes for other forms of toxic waste. We owe it to ourselves, our children and the earth to do our part to create a healthier and safer place to live.

Did you recently look at the labels on your household cleansers and other products you have at home? Not to mention, when last did you consider the effects these unsafe and synthetic brands we purchase from our local stores have on our health. Now is the right time to consider green and make that first step to converting your homes into a green home.

According to one author “In order to “go green”, one must conserve the earth’s resources and prevent environmental issues such as pollution, waste and ozone depletion with a focus on lowering carbon footprints”. This strategy can begin in our homes then more people will become involved in the nationwide awareness of saving our planet. Our children deserve a better place to live, we must discontinue buying cheaper products and look for an affordable way to bring home safer and better quality products. They should not be a store brand that contains chlorine bleach, ammonia or formaldehyde. The question is, where can you find products that delivers safety, effectiveness and comes at an affordable price, I have a few suggestions for you.

Many of us will choose the everyday used products, even if it kills us, mainly because of the price. Going green is quickly overlooked since we view this idea as expensive or for some it creates a new bill. However, I found a company that offers a club membership, where you can use the same dollars you spend every month at your local stores.

The company offers green products at a 30-40 percent off with a 90 days money back guarantee policy. The idea is you are going to shop for these products each month anyway, so why not get better quality and safer items in your home at an affordable price and use the same old dollars you throw away at the local stores.

No more choosing Toxic over Green. SWITCH STORES go GREEN and SAVE.

Visit: www.nonewdollarsneeded.com or email nonewdollarsneeded@gmail.com

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By Azad Ali

Jeff Webb, the man spearheading the rebuilding of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), has been tipped to take over as president of CONCACAF.

Webb, president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, has been identified by the website insideworldfootball.biz as a leading candidate for the post left vacant following Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Works and Infrastructure Jack Warner’s tumultuous departure.

“Right now, we are trying to stabilize Caribbean football because we’ve lost sight of our core focus which is football,’’ Webb reportedly said. “We’ll have new statutes in March ahead of full elections in May,” he added.

“But CONCACAF needs an overhaul as well and I do think I would have a contribution to make,” he said.

Alfredo Hawitt of Honduras has been the interim head of CONCACAF since last June and American Ted Howard has recently been elevated to the post of general secretary following the resignation of fellow American Chuck Blazer.

Webb is also chairman of the nine-member normalization committee charged with restoring the CFU’s reputation and a member of one of the four task forces created to reform FIFA.

He said he would like to see CONCACAF restructured in a way to provide greater technical help to its members and share more of its revenues.

“I’d like to see more of that money helping some of the grassroots programs in smaller countries, both in the Caribbean and Central America,” Webb said.

Webb has not drawn into commenting too much on the cash-for-vote scandal which rocked the CFU and led to Warner vacating the posts of president of the CFU and CONCACAF.

“I’d just like to see it resolve so we can call move on,” said Webb.

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By Suzanne Button, Ph.D

Macy’s celebrates Black History Month with special events honoring the legacy of famed artist Romare Bearden.

In celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Romare Bearden’s birth, select Macy’s stores nationwide will highlight some of the artist’s most important works via special exhibitions and events.

This February, a unique American master returns to the spotlight as Macy’s celebrates Black History Month with special events and exhibits dedicated to famed artist Romare Bearden. In conjunction with the Romare Bearden Foundation, Macy’s honors the rich history and legacy of the incomparable artist, writer, and musician in celebration of this year’s 100th anniversary of his birth.

Romare Howard Bearden’s life was marked by the pursuit of art in all of its forms. A prolific creator, Bearden’s work encompassed art, music, design, history, and literature. During his lifetime (1911-1988), Bearden experimented with many different mediums and artistic styles, but is best known for his richly textured collages. However, his diverse interests included costume and set design for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Nanette Bearden’s Contemporary Dance Theatre, music composition and literary work such as his famed children’s book Li’l Dan, The Drummer Boy: A Civil War Story.

“Macy’s is thrilled to partner with the Romare Bearden Foundation in celebration of the life and work of one of America’s preeminent artists,” said Dineen Garcia, Macy’s vice-president of Diversity Strategies. “Every year, as we honor the contributions of African-Americans with our Black History Month events, we hope to empower a new generation, through a look back at some of our nation’s most important leaders. Throughout his life, Romare Bearden brought his exceptional talents to a wide range of interests, cementing his unique place in history and blazing a trail for those who followed.”

“The Romare Bearden Foundation is pleased to partner with Macy’s on the occasion of the centennial celebration. This is a wonderful opportunity to promote to a wider audience the accomplishments of Bearden and his gifts to society,” said Co-Directors Johanne Bryant Reid and Diedra Harris Kelley. “Through our traveling shows, archives, and publications we aim to make Bearden’s artistic legacy accessible to all.”

The Romare Bearden Foundation was established in 1990 as a non-profit organization by the estate of Romare Bearden (1911-1988) to preserve and perpetuate the legacy of this preeminent American artist.

The fgoundation is one of the oldest foundations established by an African American visual artist. For more information www.beardenfoundation.org

To celebrate the artist’s centennial, Macy’s will spotlight Mr. Bearden’s work through special exhibitions featuring watercolors, prints, oil on paper and dramatic black and white photostats that date from 1964 to 1984, when Romare Bearden was at the peak of his artistic power. These satellite exhibits will showcase some rarely displayed works loaned by private collectors, in addition to works on loan from local galleries.

Taking place at eleven Macy’s locations nationwide including stores in New Orleans, New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Washington, DC and Miami, the exhibits will be supplemented by works from artists influenced and inspired by Bearden.

Opening receptions will further highlight Bearden’s artistic endeavors including music, highlighted by performances from a new generation of jazz musicians playing his compositions, which have been previously recorded by masters including Branford Marsalis, Tito Puente and Billy Eckstine.

Additional in-store celebrations will include children’s collage making events, special readings of Bearden’s children’s book, Li’l Dan, The Drummer Boy: A Civil War Story, as well as cooking demonstrations from local chefs featuring Bearden’s favorite recipes and Caribbean dishes from the out of print cookbook, Ma Chance’s French Caribbean Creole Cooking, which he illustrated.

At the opening receptions, customers will have the opportunity to receive a 15 percent off community shopping pass, and a $10 Macy’s gift card. Additionally, with a purchase of $50 or more, while supplies last, customers can receive a printed scarf featuring Romare Bearden’s most revered work, The Lamp.

From February 2-23, Macy’s will also offer the opportunity to enter for the chance to win a trip for two to Paris, Romare Bearden’s beloved city and the inspiration for his work on the project Paris Blues Revisited. Courtesy of American Airlines, the prize includes round-trip coach air travel, hotel and a $500 Macy’s shopping spree. American Airlines is a proud partner of Macy’s Black History Month celebration. (Please visit www.macys.com/celebrate for complete entry rules or visit the event store for more information)

New York’s centennial celebratioins kicked off Thursday, Feb. 9 at Macy’s Herald Square at 6:00 p.m. The exhibit will be on display until Feb.12.

The Romare Bearden Foundation was established in 1990 as a non-profit organization by the estate of Romare Bearden (1911-1988) to preserve and perpetuate the legacy of this preeminent American artist.

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By Kevin Williams

World champion Kirani James of Grenada won the men’s 400 meters in 45.96 seconds — the fastest in the world so far this year in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Saturday night.

American Josh Scott was second in 46.54; 3, Renny Quow, Trinidad & Tobago, 46.70; 4, Tabarie Henry, Virgin Islands, 46.88; 5, Michael Tinsley, United States, 47.38 and 6, Johnny Dutch, United States, 48.86.

During the celebration of Grenada’s 38th anniversary of Independence on Saturday at the Grand Prospect Hall in Brooklyn, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas made the announcement of James’s victory and the audience reacted with great applause.

Thomas said at age 38, “we have gained the world’s attention and admiration as a world player in athletics, with two finalist and a 400M world champion in Kirani James. I can still recall our collective pride and spontaneous celebration. We applaud our athletes’ efforts and commend their success.”

James who became a world champion last year will be making a run for top honors at the 2012 London Olympics. He is also representing the Caribbean’s LIME telecommunications company.

LIME, the Caribbean’s largest cellphone provider, announced recently that James had signed a three-year deal to represent the company in the Caribbean.

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It’s possible you or a loved one could be suffering from one of the most common and often misdiagnosed heart conditions, and not know it. According to the Heart Failure Society of America, five million Americans are affected by heart failure and many more may have the condition but are unaware. February is National Heart Health Month and it’s a great time to learn about heart failure and its symptoms, and what to do to stay heart healthy. Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood. Blood can back up in areas of the body and vital organs eventually shut down.

Common Causes

The most common cause of heart failure is coronary artery disease, a narrowing of vessels that deliver blood to the heart, therefore reducing oxygen levels and impairing the heart’s functionality. Other contributors include infection in the heart muscle, valvular heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and age. Adults over 65 are more at risk, as well as those with a history of heart attack or cardiac arrest.

Know the Symptoms

Heart failure symptoms vary by age, population and gender, and can start gradually or suddenly. Common symptoms include shortness of breath while active or at rest, fatigue, persistent coughing, heart palpitations, and swelling of the ankles, feet or abdomen. Symptoms become more prominent as the condition advances. Men typically have a higher incidence rate, but it is common for women to downplay symptom severity, leading doctors to under-treat them. “It’s important to report any symptoms or changes in health status to your physician, no matter how minor you feel they may be,” says Dr. Kevin R. Campbell, a cardiac electrophysiologist who cares for a large population of heart failure patients at Wake Heart & Vascular in North Carolina. “You may not see a correlation between symptoms, but they can signal worsening heart failure to a physician which could be life threatening.”

Reduce Risks

Simple lifestyle changes can help reduce your risks. Daily exercise, a diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grain and low-fat proteins, quitting tobacco, and regular health screenings are all helpful. When lifestyle changes aren’t enough, medicine may help treat symptoms and prevent heart failure from worsening. In some cases, a medical device may help improve a patient’s quality of life. Certain kinds of pacemakers can resynchronize a failing heart to improve heart function, while implantable defibrillators can prevent sudden death. As a last resort, a heart transplant may be necessary. “Heart failure is the most common cause of hospitalization for patients over age 65 in the U.S. and is the first-listed diagnosis in more than 875,000 hospitalizations each year,” said Dr. Mark Carlson, chief medical officer in the Cardiac Rhythm Management Division at St. Jude Medical. “Current device therapy and future devices will improve quality of life for patients, and address an important clinical and health economic problem.” St. Jude Medical is a leading manufacturer of devices that treat heart failure, including cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD). A CRT pacemaker helps each side of the heart contract simultaneously to restore pumping ability. An ICD sends an electrical pulse to stop life-threatening heart rhythms and prevents cardiac arrest. If you believe you have heart failure, make a doctor’s appointment to start monitoring symptoms and determine treatment.

Courtesy of State Point Media

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By Vinette K. Pryce

There was a time when few television programs showcased the talents of African-Americans.

While nightly viewers of the popular Johnny Carson Show were bombarded with any number of white, dancers, comedians, poets, mimes, jugglers, musicians, acrobats and circus acts introduced by the host, only the most accomplished Blacks were invited for national exposure.

Dick Clark provided a similar opportunity to teenagers with an attempt at integrating “American Bandstand” with a handful of African-Americans.

Simultaneously, decades of Sundays were reserved for the Ed Sullivan Show and the variety spectacle that almost immediately spiraled unknowns into a sphere that encompassed the globe. And while those shows occasionally featured African-Americans, not a single television variety show focused primarily on the myriad of talented individuals residing throughout the nation’s Black communities.

Not until Ellis Haislip spotlighted the all-encompassing “Soul” on a local PBS Channel.

Later Don Cornelius narrowed the field with entertainment but opened the lens to a national program called “Soul Train.”

Born Sept. 27, 1936 in Chicago, Cornelius first distinguished himself with Black radio audiences working at the historic WVON radio station.

There he highlighted the music of numerous Black entertainers, including James Brown, Aretha Franklin, The Jackson Five, the Main Ingredients, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and many others.

The show opened with an animated, smoke-spouting, chugging locomotive that signaled the dawn of a new era and broadened the spectrum of America’s rainbow reality.

Nationalized from Los Angeles, California in 1971, the show had been a local Chicago hit when Cornelius took it to Hollywood.

The theme, producer Kenny Gamble of Philadelphia International said was enhanced from a whistle and instrumental to a musical chord sung by the Three Degrees.

What many of us now know is that the serious-minded, Afro-wearing, Cornelius was reluctant to change the theme. According to Gamble, he was apprehensive to surrender the winning soundtrack. However, when the recording by the Three Degrees launched “The Sound Of Philadelphia,” ‘Don called me and said I messed up.”

The hit track was another successful aspect in the history of the trailblazing presentation.

That Cornelius singlehandedly internationalized African-Americans in a positive and unprecedented fashion became evident when Europeans, Latin Americans, Asians and whites in America vied to be included.

The show introduced Caribbean artists and their reggae music. He and Bob Marley’s manager were long time friends. But who in Los Angeles did not know Don Taylor? Taylor supported Cornelius’ brainchild and at many awards presentations at the Shrine, would hold court with the likes of Danny Sims, and other record company elites. On occasion, groups such as Third World would make appearances. Later on a category dedicated to reggae was added to the roster of achieving Black talents.

Cornelius shone his spotlight on Asians, as well as others wanting to showcase talent ignored on other mainstream outlets.

His business acumen enabled him to convince Sears & Roebuck and George Johnson who made Ultra Sheen and other products to initially back his proposition is nothing short of genius.

Where Afro hairstyles were considered revolutionary, militant and intimidating to whites, Cornelius placed “bushy, nappy hair” in homes to promote the biggest and boldest hairstyles of the era.

There was no negative association to his ‘Gang.’

The Soul Train Gang was the most admired, fashion-savvy assembly in the entire United States. Each week they would line up, face a camera capturing their creative body movements and many would set the trend for America’s next dance craze.

The dancers would free-style down a path divided by two lines of supportive, uninhibited, creative and anxious dancers. As each pair of dancers move down the path, partners on each side of the line take turns to show-off individual routines which were often unique and challenging but mostly stylish. Among the young talents were M.C. Hammer, Jody Wattley, Pebbles, Vivica Fox, The Lockers, Cheryl Sung (Asian) Damita Jo Freeman, Rosie Perez (Puerto Rican), Toni Basil, Fred “Rerun” Berry, Pat Davis and Jeffrey Daniels.

Daniels is alleged to have taught the technique of moon walking to Michael Jackson.

And while showcasing new and developed talent formed the centerpiece of the weekly presentation, an interview segment, unscrambling a Scrabble board, and Cornelius’ introductions were unsurpassed.

“The way he introduced talent and made us appreciate them by saying ‘put your hands together for …’ is what made him special,” r&b singer Roberta Flack said in tribute to the visionary television presenter.

Since reports of his death on Feb. 1, the entertainment industry has been mourning his untimely passing. Nostalgic fans grouped in Chicago and here in Times Square last Saturday to respond to a flash mob tribute recalling the legacy and life of the trend setter.

Radio tributes to Cornelius dominated programming at KISS-FM and WBLS.

The news shocked many who heard in breaking news reports that the 75-year-old music pioneer had allegedly died from apparent self-inflicted gun-shot wounds.

Allegedly Cornelius was found dead in his home in Sherman Oaks, California home.

He will be remembered for initiating the Saturday morning television show that defined Black style and entertainment and ultimately helped create a medium regaled as Music Television (MTV).

After the success of the variety, music show, Cornelius established two award shows which laud the hit-sellers and producers -- The Soul Train and Lady of Soul Awards.

“Soul Train” is the longest running syndicated show in television history.

Reportedly, that record will not be erased until 2016, when game-show “Wheel of Fortune” and the celebrity-driven, daily “Entertainment Tonight” reach the mark.

Cornelius was known for his smooth style and catch phrases, one of which signaled the end of the show and his exit. After thanking his guests he would invite viewers to tune in the following week because it was guaranteed entertainment: “… and you can bet your last money, it’s all gonna be a stone gas, honey!”

Simultaneous to raising the peace sign and a fist he would continue: “I’m Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!”

Catch you on the inside!

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By Kam Williams

When the Pruitt-Igoe housing project opened to considerable fanfare back in 1956, its 33 high-rise towers were hailed as a proud symbol of the future of American urban renewal. Located on a 57-acre tract on St. Louis’ north side, the federally-funded development had been created to house 12,000 African-American refugees from the city’s crumbling slums.

However, the federal government only built Pruitt-Igoe, but subsequently declined to underwrite its maintenance. Abandoned by the public sector, the costly burden of the premises’ upkeep was immediately shifted to the shoulders of its poor and working-class tenants.

Consequently, it was merely a matter of time before the same host of ghetto woes they had just escaped began to manifest again around Pruitt-Igoe, since its modest tax base inexorably led to a rapid deterioration of infrastructure and support services. Spiraling from a utopian oasis into a neverending nightmare, the apartments’ vacancy rate escalated as the place became infested with drugs, prostitution and violent crime.

The upshot is that, less than two decades after it was built, Pruitt-Igoe was reluctantly ordered flattened via planned detonation, once the bureaucrats, architects and politicians were forced to face the fact that their grand experiment had failed. All of the above is recounted in captivating fashion (including the iconic video of the project’s implosion by dynamite) in The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, a chilling documentary directed by Chad Freidrichs.

What makes the movie oh so engaging are the earnest reminiscences by former residents, most of whom recount a similar sorry story about how their initial enthusiasm about the complex had ultimately been supplanted by a deep bitterness and distrust of the establishment. Today, courtesy of 20-20 hindsight, it is easy for them to see that Pruitt-Igoe was never really given a chance to blossom once it had been marginalized by polite society as a haven for crooks, cheats and Welfare Queens deserving of their lot.

A thought-provoking, cinematic picking of the bones of the scattered exoskeleton of a once-promising “poor man’s penthouse.”

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By Tequila Minsky

“I wanted to do something located more in the jazz idiom,” says Buyu Ambroise on how his third CD, “Jazzpora,” differs from his last ones. With the core Blues in Red Band–his musical companions since the first CD, Ambroise reveals his musical influences, Haitian, African and North American, all places Ambroise has called home.

Lou Rainone is on keyboard, Paul Beaudry-bass, and Markus Schwartz, a “militant” Haitian percussionist, is one who ensures that a Haitian presence through rhythms is in the fabric of the music. Many guest musicians add to the breadth of this CD. Ambroise underscores that Willie Martinez, drums and percussion on seven tracks, adds hues of Latin music to the collection.

Ambroise composed half of the 12 cuts, inspired by people he knows, his son, his two daughters, a woman he admires. “Just in Caze” (just in case), the second cut, features Jean Caze on trumpet in a long solo, a piece written with him in mind.

The multi-genre musician, talented Melanie Charles, sings in Kreyol with an English intro on “En Vacances,” the third cut. It’s the only piece with vocals on the album. “Haiti is a singing culture and another way to connect musically with the audience,” says Ambroise. “I’m inclined to use more vocals in the future.”

The “soft” CD release and performance at Five Myles Gallery in Crown Heights wrapped up ArtQuake a month-long exhibition/installation paying tribute to those who perished during the earthquake and included workshops and other events. Included in the exhibition were 10 original prints that make up the ArtQuake portfolio (available for sale, individual prints, too, with proceeds of sales going to Haiti. The month of events were in collaboration with Haiti Cultural Exchange.

In late October in Haiti, Ambroise performed with electronic percussionist Val Jeanty for the first time. “She brought a sound that became new parameters for the band,” he said.

One of their two performances was on the grounds of Sans Souci, the extraordinary ruins of the palace of Henri Christophe. Ambroise was practically speechless about the experience, “How can I find words to express how I felt? There you can hear, smell and visualize history unfolding. It renewed my sense of being Haiti and I’m so proud.” People traveled from Cape Haitien and flew from Port-au-Prince to partake of the fist time ever a band was part of a public performance on the grounds of Sans Souci.

The name of Buyu Ambroise’s just released CD, “Jazzpora,” references Haitians living in the United States, in the Diaspora (a word that means scattering of language, culture or people). Sometimes a similar sounding term, “djaspora,” flung from homeland Haitians about their U.S. kinsmen is used very disparagingly. The saxophonist wants to confront this conflict in his CD. By choosing this name, he says, “I would like to change the dialogue and begin to say we (those living in the U.S.) are part of the same people.”

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By Robert Elkin

The track and field coaches at Uniondale High School are very proud of the efforts turned in by the athletes in the Section VIII or Nassau County championship meet in winning their 30th overall championship.

It was teamwork, led by Nyder Chardonette, a native of Haiti, in the 55-meter high hurdles with a winning time of 7.82 in the semi-final round and 7.79 clocking in the finals, and by running an opening leg of the third place 1600-meter relay team during his last year at Uniondale High. Chardonette thus defended his title in the hurdles.

A two-sports athlete, Chardonette helped to pace Uniondale to the team crown and in the process earned all-County honors as he heads into the State meet and then the outdoor or spring track and field season.

“It’s a great honor to add on to the legacy here at Uniondale,” said Assistant Coach Elijah Blue. “We have a lot of good kids (who) work hard for us. I’m very proud of all of them.”

And Chardonette, a versatile athlete leads the way in his senior year as he is graduating come June, thus stepping up to another level of competition.

“Chardonette looks great, and had a performance well done,” said Blue. “He’s a great kid and a great competitor. Everybody around likes him. He’s very personable, always congratulating other guys. His progress has been tremendous. And he plays soccer in the fall.”

In fact, Chardonette, a forward on the booter squad, became the first high school soccer all-American athlete in the school’s history last fall. He has been playing it for most of his life.

“He was real pleased and very happy about being an all-American,” Blue went on during the Section VIII track meet at St. Anthony’s High School in Huntington. “Also he’s a pretty humble kid. After getting that honor, he focused more on his track. His goal is to get All-American (honors) in track, as well.”

Chardonette, who is among the top hurdlers on Long Island, started running when he attended middle school in Uniondale, but did not take it seriously at the time. He has since progressed tremendously.

In addition by playing soccer made him still quicker. Some sports such as football or soccer plus indoor and outdoor track could be very helpful to the athlete, especially on the high school level.

“It (plus a little weight training) actually helps prepare the kids with a lot of exposure,” continued Blue, who ran at Uniondale and then at New York Tech college. “One (sport) helps the other.”

“Soccer helps an athlete more for running than does football, because the athlete is constantly running (in the former sport),” said Freeport’s Jonathan Greenwood, winner of the 600-meter run in the County meet in 1:22.46.

Freeport finished with 29 points good for sixth place in a field of 24 scoring high schools.

Chardonette will continue with soccer in college but is unsure that he will do both sports on the next level. He hopes to stay in the immediate area for college. If he has a choice of the two sports, he would go with soccer. He likes everything about soccer.

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By Les Slater

Sometimes we try too hard to convince folks where we’re coming from about this or that matter. A case in point being the recent appearance of Mitt Romney before a conservative gathering in Washington, he attempting, in pathetic fashion, to impress upon the assembled right-side believers that he is genuinely of their ilk. In a speech in which “conservative” was intoned more frequently than an observer might compute, Romney mentioned at one stage how “severely” conservative he was. But, enough of that. The Republican presidential nomination melodrama is hardly our focus here. In a world far removed from Romney et al, they’re counting down, in Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere, to the annual Carnival. On the seasonal calendar in Trinidad, a major precursory activity in heading toward the two-day revelry windup continues to be the steel band Panorama contest. Last Sunday, two contributions from regular columnists of the Trinidad Express centered on the Panorama.

One writer, Raffique Shah, jumped all over a bone-headed idea the Panorama organizers thought to add to the event, in which, for a pretty handsome fee, patrons were allowed admission to a “party” enclave within the event complex -- complete with deejay music and all the trimmings -- while the Panorama competition was taking place. That the masterminds of Pan Trinbago, the umbrella steel band body and Panorama organizers, evidently saw in this innovation a stroke of brilliance gives one pause. And Shah’s puzzlement was only to be expected, as he wondered whether some malady had befallen those who gave sanction to a gimmick that was so innately mindless.

Of the other columnist weighing in on the Panorama, Martin Daly, it needs be said that his bona fides as an advocate for steel band culture seem beyond reproach. He has rhapsodized often and passionately about steel band music as one of our great artistic treasures. None of which exempts him from our “trying too hard“ reference here. Inexplicably (for a diehard pan music lover), Daly’s comments about the organizers’ novelty feature in the Panorama proceedings numbered him unapologetically with the perpetrators. It’s difficult to fathom how a proclaimed rock-solid affinity with the pan culture could accommodate rationalizing stuff that so flies in the face of that culture’s better aspirations. For good measure, Daly was even defensive about another of the organizers’ perplexing programming moves, namely, scheduling 49 bands to perform on the day of the Panorama semi-finals.

Look, it became obvious not years but decades ago that the Panorama event had evolved to much more than a steel band competition. To its credit, the Panorama developed this magnetism which made it the quintessential “Be there!” activity surrounding Carnival, even as the steel bands’ role in the culminating masquerade waned to a shadow of their former prominence. Panorama came increasingly to be referred to, in colloquial Trinidadian parlance as a big “lime.” Inescapably aligned with that reality is that a hefty chunk of the throngs gathered for Panorama at Port of Spain’s Queen’s Park Savannah (no different in back of the Brooklyn Museum Labor Day Saturday) are folks for whom the least of their interests is what musical package the bands unwrap on stage. If Daly, Panorama’s organizers and anyone else aren’t by now hip to this, they’re woefully out to lunch.

But that social dynamic about the Panorama goes to the core of the wrong-headedness of Pan Trinbago’s thinking that cultivating an independent party space within its premier pan event was indicative of sound planning. Doing so was clearly feeding into the mindset of that element for whom the “pan” in Panorama is definitely not the foremost consideration. That this would not have been instantly recognized for what it was is, again, a worrisome commentary about those calling signals for Panorama and the steel band movement overall.

Word subsequently coming from the Pan Trinbago hierarchy, in the way of justification for the strange soca-party-in-Panorama promotion, was that it was in pursuit of the organization’s ambitions toward self-sufficiency. Certainly an objective there with which few could argue, especially given the dependency syndrome that has long been the organization’s Achilles heel. But in the face of the silly Panorama party idea emerging as the leadership’s collective wisdom for an assault on the fiscal challenges, we can only hope that, “What else you got?” elicits something of a pleasant surprise.

One other Trinidad Express contributor who also addressed the dicey Panorama semi-finals situation, along with other issues steel band related, seemed not to harbor expectations of greater substance. Keith Subero, on the question of Pan Trinbago possessing the management wherewithal to adequately take care of business, didn’t mince matters. And citing an earlier affiliation with the organization would conceivably have lent weight to his observations about the limits of its capabilities, once the present model of steel band people themselves running the shop remains in place.

Subero will likely be pilloried by the Pan Trinbago leadership. Raffique Shah likewise, for his well placed jabs. But this is about witnessing nonsense and forthrightly identifying it as such. This, ultimately, is constructive. By contrast, Martin Daly’s credentials as a crusader in good standing for steel band music will in no way be enhanced because he chose to pussyfoot around some action orchestrated by the lords of the pan world that was just plain dumb.

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By Celia Weintrob

Brooklyn’s hospitals are in a precarious state. Four of our borough’s 16 hospitals are failing and will close if not merged with other, more financially stable ones.

In late January, the New York State Office of Mental Health announced it was closing Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in East Flatbush, taking patients, their families and hospital employees by surprise.

A report issued by Stephen Berger for the NYS Commissioner of Health in November makes four radical suggestions for immediate change. The first is that Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick and Interfaith Medical Center in Crown Heights would lose their individual identities and integrate with Brooklyn Hospital Center in Fort Greene as the lead entity of the three.

Brooklyn Hospital Center itself emerged from bankruptcy in late 2007. Wyckoff and Interfaith are at risk of imminent financial collapse. Interfaith’s expenses are 29 percent higher than its income, according to the NYS Office of Health Systems Management, and many of Wyckoff’s former senior leadership and trustees are now being investigated for mismanagement of hospital funds and questionable business practices.

As for the benefits that Brooklyn Hospital Center might gain from this merger, a spokesperson cited the ability to offer increased quality of care while improving efficiency and gaining better revenues for the hospitals.

Second, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in East Flatbush is to absorb Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in Canarsie. Brookdale currently has expenses exceeding its income by 10 percent, and restructuring its debt is essential to the success of this merger.

Kingsbrook, with a 1% profit margin, is stronger financially. This integration will increase Kingsbrook’s strength in obstetrics, pediatrics, trauma care, and cardiac catheterization services. Brookdale, in turn, gains access to Kingsbrook’s well recognized rehabilitation care and nursing homes.

The report also calls for Kingsboro Psychiatric to close its 290 in-patient beds, an action that was announced on January 31 and will be completed by early March.

Kingsboro Psychiatric is Brooklyn’s only long term care facility for the mentally ill. The typical length of stay is 183 days compared with 79 days in mental hospitals statewide. And the institution has had trouble both with patient violence, and two deaths due to delay in receiving medication.

The Kingsboro patients will be moved to South Beach Psychiatric in Staten Island.

SUNY Downstate Medical Center in East Flatbush, which took over Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Cobble Hill last year, and Victory Memorial Hospital in Bay Ridge in 2008, was also targeted in the report.

The fourth recommendation, citing efficiency, calls for SUNY Downstate to consolidate its inpatient services at its LICH campus in Brooklyn Heights, and close its East Flatbush campus, which is across the street from Kings County Hospital and a few blocks away from Kingsbrook Jewish. The report strongly urges no additional expansion at the former Victory site in Bay Ridge.

The Brooklyn Medicare Redesign Team’s report states that 30 percent of Brooklyn’s 6,400 hospital beds are empty on any given day and should be eliminated. It also states that expanding the availability of preventive medical care is key to reducing the number of costly emergency room visits by Brooklynites with no insurance — people hospitals may not turn away, and to whom treatment must be provided at no cost.

Celia Weinthrob is publisher of The Brooklyn Paper, a CNG publication.

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By Lee H. Hamilton

What role should debates have in political campaigning? That’s the question being raised by this Republican presidential primary season.

Some prominent Republicans are worried that the nonstop series of GOP debates has done their party more harm than good by showcasing all the differences among the candidates. But others disagree precisely because the debates have given the candidates a chance to air their opinions. “I think they’ve been the most important primary debates in our history. Certainly the most important I’ve ever covered,” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said on the night of the Florida primary.

The debates’ impact on the campaign is interesting, but they raise a larger issue that shouldn’t get lost in presidential horse-race coverage. It has to do with how the average voter gets to know a candidate, whether for the presidency or for a seat in Congress — and what we ought to know about a candidate before we make up our minds. Can we devise a political campaign in this country that allows us to get beyond the debates’ one-liners, superficial answers and stage-managed images, to an in-depth, wide-open discussion with opportunity for extensive follow-up?

There’s no question that debates have some value. Structured properly, they make a candidate put forth his or her ideas, give us a glimpse of how they behave under pressure, and allow us to get a sense of what the candidates — and sometimes the party as a whole — believe the campaign is about.

But there can be too much of a good thing. Preparing for many debates cuts hugely into the time a candidate spends with actual voters (rather than the media who control the debates), listening to their concerns, taking the temperature of the electorate, deepening the campaign’s message and building its organization and outreach. It’s important for candidates to get to know the electorate in the work place, at diners, in places of worship, at service-club meetings and shopping malls and even political rallies. Debates move the candidate toward the television screen and in some important ways away from the voter.

More fundamentally, it’s worth asking to what extent debates give voters the information they need to make discriminating choices. You want a politician to be able to think on her feet and to be articulate, of course; agility with both words and ideas is a valuable political skill. But in public officials we want more than a good debater. Debates tend to harden candidates’ positions, rewarding indignation and forcefully stated convictions. They show us nothing of a candidate’s ability to work toward common ground with people who disagree — which is, of course, the essence of governing. And debates steer candidates away from in-depth exploration of complex issues — witness, for instance, the almost total lack of foreign-policy discussion in the series of GOP presidential debates.

There are ways to handle some of these shortcomings, of course. Debates could benefit from avoiding the one-minute-statement, 30-second-rebuttal format, and instead allow for true discussion in a format that would allow voters to see how the candidates address major issues in reasonable juxtaposition with one another. After all, that’s what elected officials have to be able to do — so why not let the electorate see them at it before they get elected?

There are many important qualities that debates do not test: the ability to build consensus, to work with people of differing opinions and backgrounds, to make sound judgments about what’s best for the country, to sort through complex issues and arrive at proposals that move the nation forward. These are qualities that voters can gauge only by seeing candidates in action on the stump, by hearing them explain in depth how they would approach our big challenges, and by watching them as they encounter people from all walks of life.

Lee Hamilton is director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

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By Vinette K. Pryce

When Whitney Houston made an early morning appearance in Central Park three years ago, she repeated an act her mother Cissy initiated by introducing her to a Manhattan crowd at a time she was an unknown teenager.

The summer of 2009, the acclaimed queen of pop brought her 16-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina onstage the Rumsey Playfield where Good Morning America presented a live, televised concert and after introducing her only child, together they sang to cheers from an adoring audience.

Houston’s mother Cissy, a gospel singer had made a similar gesture in 1983 at a Manhattan club/restaurant known as Sweetwater’s. Although her 19-year-old daughter was a burgeoning model and already a cover girl selling ‘17 Magazine,’ the soulful singer boosted the career of her only daughter by taking her onstage for a club debut.

Whitney was not shy to crowds, she had been singing in front of congregations at her Newark, New Jersey Baptist church. There she built a reputation as a phenomenon.

What patrons to the west side, popular night spot may not have known then was that Clive Davis, the president of Arista Records was also in the audience.

After handing the microphone to her daughter, Cissy watched as crowds erupted into applause after her daughter sang a song of choice. Soon after that occasion, the young, New Jersey native emerged a recording artist and a voice the world would reckon.

After the release of her first album, the world became aware that Whitney had family ties to the music industry.

In addition to her talented mother, Whitney’s cousins Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick, and godmother, Aretha Franklin, the acclaimed queen of soul virtually ushered and guaranteed her success in the music industry.

But Whitney’s unique and superlative range and register seemed more than enough to propel her career to meteoric rise that placed in her the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful and awarded artist of all times.

Nominated 26 times for the prestigious Grammy awards, she owns six.

She quickly amassed 512 nominations and a collection of 415 awards.

Houston’s 99 RIAA awards, 30 Billboard Awards, 22 American Music Awards, 16 NAACP awards, 7 Soul Train awards, six people’s choice awards, two Emmys, and numerous humanitarian honors related to fostering quality education and performing arts are too numerous to count.

She is the only artist to chart seven consecutive number one hits.

She starred in films – “The Bodyguard,” “The Preacher’s Wife,” “Waiting To Exhale” and “Cinderella.” Houston died in Los Angeles, California on the eve of the music industry’s biggest awards night.

She died Feb. 11 in California, on the eve of the Grammy awards.

She was 48.

Jamaica’s Bacchanal Carnival Begins

An entire season of carnival was recently launched in Kingston to celebrate Jamaica’s 50th Anniversary of Independence and the revelry of its people. Until April, an action-packed schedule of cultural festivities will move from parish to parish to incorporate an all island season of celebration. A series of high-energy events are now taking place across the island and features live entertainment from popular soca and dancehall performers from the Caribbean. A kick-off began recently in the capital city of Kingston and will culminate there in April.

Already the city is being transformed into a mecca of entertainment with costumed parades, colorful floats, and the pulsating sounds of soca, reggae, and calypso music.

“The Carnival season is a celebratory time when visitors and locals alike take part in Jamaican-style festivals,” John Lynch, Jamaica’s Director of Tourism said. “As we commemorate our 50th Anniversary of Independence this year, this carnival season takes on special significance in also honoring our heritage.”

Catch You On The Inside!

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By Bert Wilkinson

One of Suriname’s leading political scientists is contending that successive administrations have been facilitating the growth of Chinese businesses in the Dutch-speaking Caribbean trade bloc nation to deliberately help authorities break the economic clout of the Hindustani or East Indian community.

Professor Marten Schalkwijk says that the spectacular growth of investors from China was “politically and strategically motivated” in recent decades and it is no accident that they are slowly emerging as the richest group in the country, pointing to the latest infusion of hundreds of Chinese businesses in the republic in recent months.

He said that prime ministers, presidents and politicians interested in which group has the balance of power -- and by extension political clout in Suriname, have succeeded in making the economic playing field much more even than it was in the past. The Chinese group now has more economic power he says.

“Who owned all the shops the Chinese have bought or are now renting? Even the incumbent administration has an open-door policy towards Chinese, but their objectives are different. Powerful China has to be befriended, keeping access to loans and grants open now that development aid from the Netherlands has dried up. This is simply a shift from economic power,” he told the De Ware Tijd daily newspaper.

The daily’s revelation is certain to have some political significance in neighboring and English-speaking Guyana where economic situation is somewhat similar and where Chinese investors have been arriving in droves, moving away from the traditional cook shops or restaurants and now into hardware, clothing and construction stores among others. Some have also ventured into the hotel and entertainment industry.

Late last year, Guyana’s former President Bharrat Jagdeo had told the country’s growing Chinese community that government will facilitate immigration papers for them and help them to qualify for citizenship, once they have lived in the, country for seven years, a development that was seen by critics and the opposition as a governing party attempt to court votes from a growing group in the future.

Professor Schalkwijk spoke as the Chinese immigrant community across the Caribbean was last Monday preparing to celebrate the New Year with varying forms of celebrations from dinners to open-air commercial expositions.

He also touched on mainland China’s deliberate policy of encouraging out-migration of its moneyed class to Latin American and the Caribbean, so that they can buy from manufacturers back home and lessen dependence on traditional markets like the U.S. Chinese banks usually bankroll these business groups.

“Because of its financial backing (from China), this group has now also achieved some sort of political influence. They finance political parties which facilitate the acquisition of industrial licenses and support from government facilities.

“The National Party of Suriname (NPS) has had a Chinese branch for years, but now the National Democratic Party (NDP) seems to invite Chinese sponsoring,” says Schalkwijk.

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By Les Slater

Really, what’s a fellow to do? Is this how classic ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ comes to be? President Obama and his team, as they plan for his reelection bid, are now being told quite emphatically, that they will have a highly incensed Catholic population to deal with come November, if the administration holds firm on its recent decision mandating Catholic institutions to provide coverage in their health plans for contraceptive services for female employees free of charge. It seems highly unlikely that the president and his advisers would have underestimated how stout the pushback would be to such a policy move, given the well-known intensity of the Catholic establishment’s reaction to any trampling on core church dogma.

The official word is the administration was simply following the professional recommendation of the non-partisan Institute of Medicine. On a practical level, one would assume that somewhere in the run-up to the administration’s announcement was the calculation that the inevitable uproar from the church leadership would be more than offset by rank and file Catholics solidly opposed to contraceptive measures being denied women, more so the lower income demographic. Not to mention the view among non-Catholics, both in the general population and those directly affected as women employed at the institutions in question.

To what extent the monitoring of polling on the issue may have factored into the president making this call is anybody’s guess. But the stakes being what they are, a close watch on polling data absolutely figures to be in the equation now that the die has been cast. The history of measured rank and file Catholic sentiment over the years would lend encouragement to the prospect of the anti-leadership position prevailing in this instance as well. On the contraception issue, as in others like celibacy of the clergy and the ordination of women, the church’s dictates have tended to be at variance with a majority of its flock. Some early polling on the church’s reaction to the new contraception coverage rules suggests a continuation of the trend.

Coming right on the heels of another matter in which the Catholic Church was an interested party – the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation’s announcement of discontinuing funding to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer services, then subsequently reversing that decision – it bears watching whether the tidal wave of backlash being threatened by the Catholic hierarchy will induce a similar pirouette from the Obama administration. A flat-out rollback of the administration’s ruling is hardly in the cards.

In this revved up political season, the president’s opposition of course can’t get enough of this wedge-issue dividend. One wouldn’t be surprised to see Mitt Romney, whose chameleon credentials grow ever stronger, come out swinging about how wrong the Obama policy is, despite life in another universe that seems altogether alien to today’s packaging. Newt Gingrich, unabashedly portraying himself as the Republicans’ last best hope and ultimate social conservative alternative to Romney, will surprise no one with the spiel he will assuredly make to extremists for whom any “meddling” by the state in things religious represents another call to arms.

So, predictably, will the Obama administration’s move to close loopholes in its determination to prevent unwanted pregnancies be framed by the opposition. The reaction in the social conservative sector is a given. In terms of his reelection, Obama need not concern himself with the usual noises emanating from there. His campaign’s focus will clearly be in whatever ruckus is raised by more mainstream pockets of resistance. One sub-group among Catholics that could be a potential source of worry for the Obama camp is Hispanics. The fact that the Hispanic vote could be key in a number of swing states would not have escaped the attention of either the president or whoever his Republican rival turns out to be. The Republican team and their surrogates in deep-pocketed super PAC’s, will undoubtedly be making every conceivable pitch, and then some, for that sea of religious conservatism resident in the Hispanic culture. Obama and the Democrats hopefully will have the smarts to roll out marketing strategy that assigns to the Hispanic bloc the kind of concentrated effort it will demand.

It’s early yet in the mad scramble for the White House. It’s a pretty safe bet that we’ll see down the road a lot more that turns heads, makes eyes pop and all the rest. There’s every likelihood, for example, that the Supreme Court-sanctioned presence of super PAC’s in this election will be every bit as reprehensible as some of us have feared they would be. But that’s another story. The upcoming buildup of grist for the campaign mill shows promise of being formidable indeed. Staking an early claim as premium battleground reward is the line in the sand the Catholic high command has pledged on the contraception issue. Even with talk from within the administration, of granting extensions to allow time for, one gathers, some possible tweaking of the mandate process, this doesn’t look to be going away quietly. But then, waiting around a corner to do some blindsiding that would knock contraception and the church clear off the table, could be who knows what.

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For most people, February conjures up images of red hearts, candy and messages to loved ones. But, did you know February is also American Heart Month?

Now is a great time to focus beyond Valentine hearts and pay attention to your actual heart.

As the leading killer of Americans, cardiovascular disease affects one in three people in the U.S. -- approximately 81 million people. And, the American Heart Association predicts that this number will increase to 116 million people, or 40.5 percent of Americans, by 2030.

Thankfully, there are simple steps you can easily incorporate into your day-to-day life that can make a big difference, according to Susan J. Crockett, PhD, RD, FADA and leader of the General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition.

“Genetics does play a role in cholesterol and overall heart health,” says Crockett. “While being aware of one’s family history is certainly important, there are lifestyle changes you can make and foods you can eat as part of an overall healthy diet that can decrease the risk factors for heart disease and may help lower cholesterol.”

There are several ways people can begin to make a difference in their personal heart health and cholesterol levels, according to Crockett. To help make your lifestyle more heart-healthy, try to remember Crockett’s “HEART” tips.

• Have a list: Keep a running list of health to-dos, such as regular cholesterol and blood pressure screenings, as well as questions for your physician. Find out and jot down foods you can eat to lower cholesterol and other ways to take care of your heart.

• Eat more of the “good stuff”: Be conscious of what you are eating and make an effort to incorporate heart healthy foods into your diet. For example, fruits, vegetables, whole grain, and low-fat dairy are all good choices for a heart healthy diet. Eating more fish like salmon, which contains omega-3 fatty acids, may also help reduce the risk of heart disease.

•Aim for more whole grain oats: When making food choices, look for whole grain oats or whole grain oat cereal that contains beta glucan, like Cheerios. Beta glucan is a natural soluble fiber found in oats that helps reduce bad cholesterol. To reduce the risk of heart disease, you need three grams of soluble fiber daily from whole grain oat foods as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

• Run, walk, skip, jump: However you choose to exercise, just make sure it is a part of your daily routine.

• Try healthy swaps: Healthier options are out there, so make the switch. For instance, instead of full fat mayonnaise, spread smashed avocado on your sandwich, which is high in healthy fats that help your heart. Also, when eating out, don’t be afraid to ask your server for healthier preparation methods, like steamed and broiled instead of fried, or ingredient substitutes like whole grain pasta.

Taking a few moments each day to make heart healthy decisions can make a significant difference in your future.

Courtesy of State Point Media

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By Kam Williams

Albert Nobbs (R for profanity, sexuality and brief nudity) Glenn Close plays the title character in this genderbending drama about a lesbian who passed as a man for over 30 years in order to survive in 19th Century Ireland. With Janet McTeer, Brenda Fricker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Brendan Gleeson and Mia Wasikowska.

Declaration of War (Unrated) Bittersweet drama about a happy, young couple named Romeo (Jeremie Elkaim) and Juliette (Valerie Donzelli) whose sweet love story turns nightmarish when their baby (Cesar Desseix) is diagnosed with brain cancer. With Brigitte Sy, Elina Lowensohn and Michele Moretti. (In French with subtitles)

Five Time Champion (Unrated) Coming-of-age drama about a nerdy 14-year-old (Ryan Akin) who has to deal with the infidelity of members of his dysfunctional family while he’s competing for the affections of a cute classmate (Noell Coet). Cast includes Justin Arnold, Jill Blackwood and Betty Buckley.

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? (Unrated) Cinematic portrait retracing the rise of Norman Foster, an altruistic architect who dedicated his career to improving quality of life through design science.

We Need to Talk about Kevin (R for violence, disturbing behavior, sexuality and profanity) Ezra Miller plays the troubled title character in the screen adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s sobering best seller about a Columbine-style, high school massacre. With Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and Siobhan Fallon.

The Wicker Tree (R for sexuality, nudity and violence) Horror flick about a couple of Christian missionaries (Henry Garrett and Brittania Nicol) who venture from Texas to a tiny town in Scotland where they find themselves welcomed with open arms by locals under the spell of an affable aristocrat (Graham McTavish) with a hidden agenda.

Big Budget Films

The Grey (R for violence, disturbing images and pervasive profanity) Arctic tale of survival chronicling a team of oil drillers’ harrowing ordeal after crash-landing in the Alaskan wilderness. Starring Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney and Frank Grillo.

Man on a Ledge (PG-13 for violence and brief profanity) Romance thriller about a police psychologist’s (Elizabeth Banks) attempt to talk a disgraced ex-cop (Sam Worthington) out of jumping off the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper. Ensemble includes Ed Harris, Kyra Sedgwick, Anthony Mackie, Jamie Bell and Edward Burns. (In English and Spanish with subtitles)

One for the Money (PG-13 for violence, profanity, sexual references, drug use and partial nudity) Katherine Heigl stars in this crime comedy as a broke divorcee who gets hired as a bounty hunter by her cousin (Patrick Fischler) only to discover that her first assignment is to track down a fugitive murder suspect (Jason O’Mara) she dated back in high school. With Sherri Shepherd, Debbie Reynolds and John Leguizamo.

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By Patrick Horne

Second-half substitute Ricardo Clark scored a header off a Jermaine Jones corner kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time to give the U.S. a 1-0 win over Venezuela in an international friendly Saturday night. Both teams used second-string teams in an attempt to add depth to their squads as World Cup qualifying play approaches this summer.

Clark scored his third international goal in his return to the squad after being left out since his mistake seen as costing the U.S. the game versus Ghana, a 2-1 overtime defeat, and elimination from the last World Cup. “It was a great cross,’’ Clark said of the corner kick. “I found a good spot and made the most of it.’’

Jones, along with Clarke, are the only two players on this squad who play abroad, both play in Germany, Jones for Schalke and Clark, a former MLS player Houston Dynamo, plays for Eintracht Frankfurt in the German second division. The win was the third for the U.S. (3-4-1) in eight games under the new coach Jurgen Klinsmann. The Americans will next play Panama on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

Women’s Olympics Qualifiers

The CONCACAF big four in women’s soccer seem set for a semifinal battle in their quest for the two of the region’s Olympic berths. Canada, Costa Rica, the U.S. and Mexico have dominated group play at the CONCACAF Olympic Women’s Qualifying Tournament Vancouver, Canada last weekend.

In Group B, Canada already has two wins (6-0 over Haiti, 2-0 over Cuba) and so does Costa Rica (2-0 vs. Cuba, 2-0 over Haiti). Both winners will play each other for first place in the group and the chance to play the second-place finisher in Group A, most likely Mexico as the USA is in good position to win the group.

In Group A, the USA (14-0 over Dominican Republic and 13-0 vs. Guatemala) and Mexico (5-0 vs. Guatemala and 7-0 vs. Dominican Republic) racked up wins on Friday and Sunday to secure semifinal appearances; the USA and Mexico will play next for first place in the group. In the U.S second game, Abby Wambach scored twice in the first half to get her 129th international goal, third among women behind U.S. players Mia Hamm (158) and Krisstine Lily (130). Sydney Leroux, in only her second senior international game, scored five goals in the rout of Guatemala. The semifinal winners will play in the London Olympics this summer.

Red Bulls Draft Choice

The New York Red Bulls added three players in Tuesday’s 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft. The club selected University of Virginia defender Mike Volk, University of Pennsylvania midfielder Christian Barreiro and Hastings College midfielder Nate Polak.

The Red Bulls selected Volk, 22, with their second round selection (31st overall). The defender played in 64 games during his three years at Virginia, starting 62. He was a team captain in his junior and senior seasons. As a sophomore, he capped off an impressive season by being named to the 2009 College Cup All-Tournament Team. Prior to attending the University of Virginia, Volk attended Rutgers University where he played in 13 games, starting eight.

With their third round selection (50th overall), the Red Bulls selected Barreiro, a two-time All-Ivy selection at the University of Pennsylvania. The Baltimore native played in 71 total games, starting 69. He tallied a total of 20 goals and 18 assists, and as a senior in 2011 led the team in both categories with seven apiece. He also earned First Team All-Ivy honors as a junior in 2010 when he tied for the conference lead with seven assists.

The Red Bulls selected Hastings College midfielder Polak, one of the top junior college players in the nation last year, with the 69th overall selection. Polak ranks third on Hastings’ all-time goals and assists lists, as he notched 43 goals and 30 assists during his tenure. As a senior in 2011, the Lincoln, NE native scored 18 goals and added 17 assists while leading Hastings to an undefeated season in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. Polak’s excellent 2011 campaign was recognized, as he was named an NAIA First Team All-American selection. As a junior, Polak was a vital member of the school’s 2010 NAIA National Championship winning side.

The Red Bulls did not have a selection in the first round after trading their 2012 third round SuperDraft selection (now first-round supplemental draft pick) to the Houston Dynamo along with the rights to defender Hunter Freeman in exchange for allocation money in 2010.

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By Lee H. Hamilton

There’s a major political event approaching this fall, and though I have no doubt it will be overshadowed by the elections, I hope you’ll carve out some time for it anyway. On September 17, we’ll observe the 225th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution.

It’s the document that set everything in motion, of course, creating the carefully balanced, three-branch representative government that we’ve come to take for granted. But 225 years is a long time, and it’s instructive to reflect on what’s happened since that piece of parchment was signed.

I’m thinking in particular of Congress, which the Framers considered to be so important they put it first, beginning with Article I, Section 1: “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” That deceptively simple sentence conceals many months of debate and hard thought over the size, shape, and role of the new nation’s legislative branch.

The Framers wanted Congress to be the engine of law and policy in the United States. Fearful of replicating the monarchy from which they’d won their freedom, they wanted to keep the presidency from becoming too powerful, and so they created a powerful Congress. They went on to give it the authority to declare war, enact taxes, and set the budget.

They also wanted to be certain that the voices of the American people had a prominent place in the legislature’s deliberations, and that debate, consultation, and a thorough airing of views were part and parcel of what Congress did. They did not believe that a single chief executive could represent the priorities and desires of a diverse nation — even if, in that era, diversity among voters consisted more of regional and state interests than the multiple dissimilarities that mark our nation today.

For that reason, Congress was the keystone of republican government; the president — as George Washington insisted — was there to carry out legislative intention. Congress was the fount of policy leadership, a body that in the Framers’ minds should be robust, capable, adept at seeking information and opinions from around the nation, reaching a consensus on a course of action, deciding how to enact it, and then moving on.

For periods in our country’s history, especially in its early years and in the years leading up to the Civil War, Congress did, indeed, play the leading role the Framers envisioned. Congress today — the “broken branch,” as two prominent congressional scholars called it a few years ago — doesn’t even come close.

It is now a reactive body, hampered by partisanship and ideology, lacking creativity, focused less on policy leadership than on catering to constituents and to those who can help its members get re-elected. The central actor in American government today is the president, who regardless of party has become an aggressive and powerful figure. Even on those issues that the Constitution explicitly assigns it — war, taxes, the budget — Congress either defers to the president or ties itself up in knots waiting for his leadership.

Everyone understands that 2012 is not 1787. Though the Framers themselves lived in tumultuous times, the crises that demanded firm, coherent leadership — and that would abet the shift of power to the presidency — lay in the future.

Yet I fail to see how the Framers’ reasoning — that in a diverse democracy, power ought to rest with the representatives closest to the people — is out of date. And I see no reason to consider unfashionable their concern for a vigorous, capable legislative branch with the ability to gather up the nation’s many strands of ideology and interest and from them weave consensus and leadership.

Quite the contrary. By any measure, our nation is poorer because Congress is not functioning as the strong, co-equal branch of government the Constitution envisioned. As we observe this milestone anniversary, it’s worth a pause to honor the Framers’ insight and wisdom, and to regret Congress’s inability to live up to their ideals.

Lee Hamilton is director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.

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By George H. Whyte

Trinidad and Tobago captured the Caribbean Twenty20 2012 competition by defeating Jamaica by 63 runs at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

The champions played some facinating cricket from start to finish. They reached 61 runs for 3 wickets after 10 overs and boosted to 100 for 4 after 15 overs.

Trinidad & Tobago Scored 68 Runs In Their Last 5 Overs

Some aggressive and swashbuckling batting from Dwayne Bravo 49 and Kieron Pollard 39 not out propelled their team in a commanding position. Sunil Narine scored 22 runs, which kept the Jamaican bowlers very frustrated.

The hard-hitting Kieron Pollard scored 39 not out from 13 balls with four sixes and one four. Trinidad and Tobago ended their 20 overs at 168 runs for 5 wickets. Odean Brown was the most successful bowler with 3 wickets for 22 runs off 4 overs.

Jamaica Scores 105 Runs For 5 Wickets In 20 Overs

Samuel Badree, Ravi Rampaul, Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo took one wicket each. All the Trinidad and Tobago bowlers were very penetrative.

Jamaica found themselves at 29 runs for 3 wickets and then slumped to 52 for 4 and 57 for 5. Carlton Baugh Jr. scored 39 runs not out from 23 balls with five fours and two sixes with Shawn Findlay 17 not out.

After 20 overs, Jamaica scored 105 for 5. Jamaica’s captain David Bernard scored 25 runs.

Trinidad and Tobago will move on to the Champions League Twenty20 in India later this year. The world’s best will be on show in this competition. This will be Trinidad and Tobago’s third time at the Champions Trophy.

T&T Defeats Barbados In Semi-Finals

The Caribbean Twenty20 got into top gear when Trinidad and Tobago defeated Barbados by 5 wickets at Kensington Oval in Barbados. Barbados Captain Kirk Edwards won the toss and elected to bat.

Early trouble struck Barbados when their in form batsman Dwayne Smith was caught for 8 runs off the accurate Sunil Narine at 17 for 1. Narine again struck when he removed Kirk Edwards as the ball rolled back on to hit his stumps. Barbados was 31 for 3 after 10 overs and was bowled out for 90 in 19.5 overs with wicket keeper/ batsman Shane Dowrich top scored with 22.

For Trinidad and Tobago, Dwayne Bravo picked up 3 wickets for 23 runs, Kevon Cooper 2 for 18 from 30 overs, Samuel Badree 2 for 11 and Sunil Narine 2 for 10 from 4 overs.

Kieron Pollard Boosted T&T To Victory

A fluent and steady knock from the hard-hitting Kieron Pollard scoring 31 not out took his team out of some uneasy moments as they struggled at 45 for 5. Jason Mohammed joined Pollard and after some tense cricket when Barbados pumped up the pressure, Sulieman Benn dropped a return catch from Kieron Pollard when the batsman had scored only 2. That probably was a big mistake that cost Barbados the match.

Barbados Captain Kirk Edwards did a fantastic job moving his bowlers around. Pacers Tino Best and Fidel Edwards bowled with fire and some good bounce. Best removed Denesh Ramdin who was splendidly caught behind by wicket keeper Shane Dowrich who leaped to his right passed a first slip position and took the catch.

Fidel Edwards removed Lendl Simmons and Darren Bravo. Left-arm spin bowler Sulieman Benn was not accurate causing Pollard to open up and go on the offensive. Trinidad and Tobago ended at 93 for 5 in 14 overs.

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By Robert Lieber

It is a well understood law that in general a person who entered the U.S. illegally or overstayed the time granted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is not permitted to adjust Immigration status in the U.S. By staying in the U.S. such a person builds up “unlawful presence” time in the U.S.

A person who is unlawfully present in the U.S. for 180 consecutive days but less than one year, who voluntarily departs the U.S. before the beginning of removal proceedings, is prohibited from being readmitted to the U.S. for three years from the date of departure or removal from the U.S. Also, a person who has been unlawfully present in the U.S. for one year or more consecutively and seeks to be readmitted to the U.S. is barred from the U.S. for 10 years from the date of departure or removal from the U.S.

The legal solution or remedy for this three-year or 10-year prohibition problem is to ask U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for an I-601 Waiver of Unlawful Presence. The I-601 Waiver is based on showing evidence that the foreigner’s spouse, would experience “extreme hardship” as a result of the separation.

For many years, the I-601 Waiver has suffered from a serious disadvantage. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service has insisted that the I-601 could only be filed after the person had departed the U.S. Also, there was the possibility that the I-601 Waiver might not be granted, resulting in the foreigner being stranded outside the U.S. and separated from his family, possibly permanently.

However, there is some good news. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has published a plan to reduce the time that U.S. Citizens are separated from their spouses and children under certain circumstances while their family members are processed overseas for legal immigration to the U.S.

The proposed plan was described in detail by USCIS in the U.S. Federal Register dated January 6, 2012. The plan is now open to public comment and maybe modified. The plan would streamline the processing of these individuals waiver applications based on USCIS processing their waiver applications in the United States before any American family faces separation. The streamlined process would only apply to immigrants who are eligible for a visa.

Eligible spouses and children of U.S. citizens would apply for a provisional Waiver before leaving the United States to have their immigrant visa application processed at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad. The proposal limits the streamlined process to those individuals who are inadmissible based solely on having accrued a period of unlawful presence and pursuant to statutory requirements -- who can demonstrate extreme hardship to their U.S. citizen relative.

All individuals affected by this streamlined process would also need to meet all other legal requirements for admission to the United States, including the requirement that they process their visa application at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate outside the U.S.

With the change outlined in the notice, individuals who currently qualify for an I-601 Waiver of Inadmissibility under the existing eligibility standards, and who can demonstrate that separation from their U.S. citizen spouse or parent would cause extreme hardship to that relative, would be allowed to apply for a provisional determination of Waiver eligibility while still in the U.S.

USCIS believes the new plan would provide a more predictable and transparent process and improve processing times, minimizing the separation of U.S. citizens from their families. The change would also streamline the process for both USCIS and the Department of State (DOS) when handling requests for these waivers.

As a result, this change should encourage individuals who may be eligible for a Waiver of Inadmissibility to seek lawful readmission to the U.S. by reducing the amount of time they would need to spend away from their U.S. citizen spouse or parent.

The author is an attorney, and former US immigration officer specializing in immigration and citizenship matters with the Schiller Law Group.

Important Disclaimer:- The information provided in this article is not intended to create and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Readers must not act upon any information without first seeking advice from a qualified attorney.

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By The Community Service Society

Half of working New Yorkers report that their employers do not provide paid sick leave.

Low-income workers, Latinos and those employed by smaller firms are least likely to have access to paid sick time

In a follow up to a 2009 study that examined the implications to worker health and financial security of making paid sick days a minimum labor standard for workers, the Community Service Society (CSS) today released an updated report that draws on 2011 survey data and the latest research. “Still Sick in the City, What the Lack of Paid Leave Means for Working New Yorkers,” shows who is most impacted by the lack of access to paid sick time. It also explores public support for a law requiring employers to provide workers with a minimum number of paid sick days.

The new survey data confirms key findings from the 2009 “Sick in the City” report. Similar to the findings in 2009, the new report found that lower-income workers, Latinos and those employed by smaller firms are the least likely to have access to paid sick time. Overall, an estimated 41 percent -- 1.4 to 1.6 million workers – have no paid leave whatsoever, for sickness or vacation. Nearly two out of three low-income workers do not have a single paid sick day. And more than half of workers who handle food, and 43 percent of workers in close contact with children or the elderly, do not have paid sick time.

“The number of working New Yorkers without access to any kind of paid leave in the event of illness or the need to care for a sick child is growing,” said David R. Jones, President and CEO of the Community Service Society. “It’s time for New York City to act. In this fragile economic climate workers should no longer be forced to choose between the health concerns of themselves or their children and holding onto their jobs.”

Paid sick leave bills have been introduced in the City Council in 2009 and 2010. Despite widespread support from members, the bill has been stuck in the Council due in part to criticism that it would unduly burden small business with additional costs during a tough economy. Over the past year sponsors have made changes to the bill. This month a revised bill was offered which, among other concessions to the business community, exempts employers with fewer than five employees. That provision accounts for about 62 percent of all business establishments in New York City. While workers in these “Mom and Pop” shops would not receive paid sick time, they could not be fired for being sick up to five days a year.

Several large cities have already enacted paid sick day laws, including San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Seattle. Last year Connecticut became the first state to pass a paid sick days law. Research on the impact of San Francisco’s paid sick time requirement -- which was enacted in 2007 and is more wide-reaching in scope than the law proposed for New York City – found no evidence that the law had been detrimental to business.

Vast Majority of New Yorkers Support Paid Sick Leave

Based on findings from The Unheard Third 2011, an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers of all income levels and political party affiliations support a law requiring employers to provide paid sick leave. By a nearly two-to-one margin, Democrats say they are less likely to vote for a mayoral candidate who opposes paid sick time. Independents and Republicans are also less likely to support a candidate who opposes paid sick time.

The survey also found that more than half of low-income New Yorkers fear that someone in their household will lose their job in the coming year. Many low-wage workers continue to struggle in the current economy. Compared to pre-recession levels, workers have lost ground when it comes to workplace benefits such as health insurance and paid sick leave.

“It’s mind boggling that today in New York City we are fighting to protect low-wage workers from being fired or docked pay if they get sick – something that most higher paid workers take for granted,” said Nancy Rankin, founder of the Unheard Third and CSS Vice President of Policy, Research and Advocacy. “A majority of New Yorkers, including many small businesses, support this legislation because they understand the small cost can be easily absorbed and will pay off in a more stable, healthy workplace. Certainly no one benefits when feverish children are sent to school, a worker with the flu infects everyone or someone ends up the emergency room because they couldn’t get to the doctor.”

The Unheard Third 2011 was conducted by the national polling firm Lake Research Partners for CSS, from July 5 to July 31, 2011. It surveyed 1,419 New York City residents and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. It is the only annual survey of low-income opinion in the nation. The poll is partially-funded through the support of The New York Community Trust. CSS has used the survey to inform and guide its research, direct service programs and policy recommendations. It has served to narrow the focus of the agency’s agenda on the working poor and reinforce its belief that public policy aimed at this population must, in part, be guided by the life experiences and ideas of New Yorkers living in poverty.

For more than 165 years, the Community Service Society of New York has been the leading voice on behalf of low-income New Yorkers and continues to advocate for the economic security of the working poor in the nation’s largest city. We respond to urgent, contemporary challenges with applied research, advocacy, litigation and innovative program models that help the working poor achieve a better quality of life and promote a more prosperous city.

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By George H. Whyte

Trinidad and Tobago all-rounder Sunil Narine who is best known for his right arm spin bowling will be boosting West Indies efforts to regain a higher status on the international rating.

Narine is a clever, intelligent and very responsible cricketer. He gives 100 percent to his cricketing career, which was displayed when Trinidad and Tobago won the Twenty20 Caribbean Championship.

He bowled extremely well causing havoc for almost every batsman that came up against him. His effectiveness with the googly and appreciable turn always cause uncertainty among batsmen. Narine has a different style and a much more accurate line in comparison to Guyana’s Devendra Bishoo.

Selecting A

Balanced Squad

Too many times the West Indies selectors erred in choosing the best possible squad to represent the region. Any Test team competing with a specialist bowler short, will create major setbacks for such a team. The West Indies has some serious problems surrounding their cricket apart from not choosing the correct team.

Australia, England and New Zealand will play the West Indies during the year. It is important that proper planning be in place to coordinate all the knowledge to face up and defeat these teams.

The West Indies pace attack must be in place. Fidel Edwards, Ravi Rampaul and Kemar Roach must be in the Test squad. The opening positions still remain a serious problem. Adrian Barath has been down with hamstring problems. He returned for the Twenty20 but he has been out of form.

Young Kraig Brathwaite from Barbados will be expected to partner Barath in the opening spot. The balance of the team is just a guess.

ICC Latest Test

Player Rankings

Batting

1. Kemar Sangakkara

2. Jacques Kallis

3. Michael Clarke

4. Abde Villiers

5. Alastair Cook

6. Jonathan Trott

7. Thailan Samaraweera

8. Misbah-ul-Haq

9.Shivnarine

Chanderpaul

10. Younis Khan

11. Darren Bravo

Bowling

1. Dale Steyn

2. Sawed Ajmal

3. James Anderson

4. Peter Siddle

5. Stuart Broad

6. Graeme Swann

7. Ben Hilfenhaus

8. More Morkel

9. Abdur Rehman10

10. Zaheer Khan

11. Fidel Edwards

12. Darren Sammy

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