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S0 OCTOBER 2006


lOi
OCT O m)T 1
vis..~~~~~ _vvy't J


W e c o v


e r y


o u r w o r I d


PRESORTED
STANDARD
,,, U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
MIAMI, FL
PERMIT NO. 7315
Tel: (305) 238-2868
1-800-605-7516
caribtoday@earthlink.net
ct ads@bellsouth.net
Jamaica: 654-7782


I T E M LTIAW RD-INNNG EW MA AZIE


Some of the brightest literary
minds produced by the
Caribbean, like Deborah Jack
who grew up in St. Martin,
will be working with the word
at the upcoming Miami
International Book Fair,
page 23.

New s .................. 2
Viewpoint .............. 9
Health ................ 11


LOUT


PITfI


II
II
'I
''I
III


INSIDE
Tourism/Travel ........15 Business .............19
FYI .................... 16 Sport .................. 20
Arts/Entertainment .... 17 Books ...............21


0


~ Yvette D. Clarke's
strong Caribbean
roots and a pri-
mary election
victory have
propelled her
to the verge
of a seat in the
U.S. Congress,
where she
intends to be
'the voice' for
immigrants from
the region,
page 2.


Region ................ 23
Politics ............... 24


- j









-usw^caribbeantodj..c..


CARIBBEAN TODAY

n e WS


'Tallawah' Clarke taking the Caribbean to Capitol Hill


GORDON WILLIAMS
The tingling of excitement
still lingers long after her
historic election win, but
Yvette D. Clarke is already
getting used to being a United
States Congresswoman...and
she doesn't even have the job
yet.
"I think it's still sinking in
more and more every day,"
Clarke told Caribbean Today
more than a week after she
won the Democratic primary
for New York's 11th
Congressional District last


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month, which virtually assured
the Brooklyn-born daughter of
Jamaican parents will be her
party's representative on
Capitol Hill.
Clarke, a New York City
councilwoman who will likely
take on Republican challenger
Steve Finger in next month's
general election for Congress,
declared she will "be that
voice" in Washington which
highlights issues of concern for
Caribbean immigrants at the
federal government level. That
is an opportunity her mother
Una, who preserved a strong


Caribbean influence on
Yvette's life and became "an
inspiration" for her daughter's
political career, missed after
unsuccessful bids for the same
Congressional seat. That the
family matriarch, a descendant
of the Accompong Maroons in
Jamaica known for their fiery
will against overwhelming odds
when opposed by their colonial
rulers, did not make it to
Congress did not dampen the
enthusiasm of the Clarke clan.
"(My victory) makes it
gratifying," said Yvette. "
(My mother) is extremely


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Recently, Trinidad and
Tobago's Prime Minister
Patrick Manning criticized the
U.S. for slacking off on socio-
economic assistance to the
Caribbean. Dominica's Prime
Minister Roosevelt Skerrit also
called on the U.S to do more
for the region.
"We continue to raise the
issue of the diminishing pres-
ence of the U.S. in the
(CUrihlb inl" Skerrit said.
"The American govern-
ment has the capacity to assist
us even more but they have
not been doing that over the
last 20 to 25 years especially in
regards to regional security."
Caribbean leaders met U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice late last month.
However, the focus of
Clarke, who recalled visiting
Jamaica many times while
growing up, will also be on her
own constituents in New York.
She said she was not pleased
with Owens' representation of
immigrants from the Caribbean
and elsewhere and plans to
become a stronger force on
those issues. She also noted
that other immigrant groups
have long enjoyed much
stronger representation.

SIGNIFICANCE
Her role as Congresswoman
takes on additional historic sig-
nificance. Last month's result
meant Clarke followed the foot-
steps of Shirley Chisholm, whose
parents were also from the
C(',rihbbk who won the same
seat in 1968 and became the first
black woman elected to
Congress. Una CLirl<,, the 41-
year-old's mother and a former
New York City councilwoman
herself, had failed to beat Owens
before. But Yvette avenged that
by beating Owens's son Chris,
who finished last in the four-can-
didate race.
Clarke won 14,946 votes,
Yassky 12,570, Andrews 10,983
and Owens 9,403.
After she was declared the
winner, Clarke shouted "We
did it, everyone!" in her victory
speech as supporters chanted
"Yvette, Yvette, Yvette".
"I will not stop fighting
until all immigrants of the city,
state and country are afforded
the same rights as anyone else,"
she said.
She appears to have
already secured the ideal job
to embark on that mission.

CMC and other reports
contributed to this story.

Gordon Williams is Caribbean
Today's managing editor.
Beginning Nov. 1, 2006, you
may e-mail him at
editor@caribbeantoday.com.
0


October 2006


proud... (It's) a sense of pride
(for her)."

RISE
That the daughter also
rose to political prominence
has made a highly supportive
Caribbean population in her
district proud as well. And
they showed it at last month's
primary. Clarke, one of three
black candidates in the ethni-
cally-charged primary race,
which included the son of
retired Congressman Major
Owens, secured just over 31
percent of the votes, beating
her nearest challenger
Councilman David Yassky,
the only white candidate, who
had 26.2 percent.
With the overwhelming
voting presence of Democrats
in the district, Clarke is virtual-
ly assured to win next month
against Finger who, she said,
she Jd Lsn't know well" and
"can't remember" meeting.
Therefore, Clarke has already
turned her focus on the job
ahead, and while she said her
duty is to represent all her con-
stituents equally, she also
understands that immigrant
issues, especially those affect-
ing Caribbean nationals, must
be at the forefront of her
efforts in Washington.
According to Clarke,
Caribbean immigrants have
made great strides in the U.S.,
especially on the social level.
The emphasis now will be on
further economic and political
empowerment. Yet she is bank-
ing on the strong Caribbean
influence in her background to
pull it off. When asked if there
is one word or theme which
sums up her personal and polit-
ical character, Clarke quickly
replied "tallawah", a Jamaican
term which means resilient and
determined to succeed.

WANING INTEREST
She will need to be. U.S.
interests in the Cj.rihlajiin
welfare have waned in recent
years and several leaders last
month insisted that although
America's foreign policy is
focused on anti-terrorism cam-
paigns elsewhere in the world,
the region still needs attention
from the superpower, especial-
ly assistance with development
and security.


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October 2006




CARIBBEAN TODAY


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October 2006





CARIBBEAN TODAY

n e WS


66-. arib eano .coS


w


CARICOM, Rice hold 'very cordial' meeting in New York


NELSON A. KING

NEW YORK Caribbean
community (CARICOM)
diplomats described as "very
cordial" a meeting between
regional foreign ministers and
United States Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice late
last month.
"It was a very good meet-
ing," Grenada's U.S.
Ambassador Dennis Antoine
told the Caribbean Media
Corporation (CMC) at the
end of the hour-long meeting
at the Waldorf Astoria in New
York.
"It was a very cordial
nL linie- added the dean of
CARICOM diplomatic corps
in Washington. "We empha-
sized the partnership of equal
access. That is the growing
concept of our meetings.
There is growing respect
between the United States
and CARICOM."


dimensional issues and agreed
to work collaboratively for
each other's interest," he said.
"She (Rice) was not


St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves addresses the United Nations General Assembly.


Guyana David Robinson had
urged CARICOM to with-
draw its support for Venezuela
because "the South American
country could hinder their
ability to combat terrorism
and nuclear proliferation."


Antoine said security, the
HIV/AIDS pandemic and
"the challenges facing the
region's economies," were
among other matters dis-
cussed with Rice.
"We took a look at multi-


Rice was Trank and respectful, according to
CARICOM leaders.
pressing anyone. It was an
expression of mutual con-
cerns, very frank, meaningful
and respectful."

- CMC
0


NEW RELATIONSHIP
Antoine's remarks came
on the heels of a call by St.
Vincent and the Grenadines'
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph
Gonsalves for "a concept
of a new relationship and lan-
guiagL between Washington
and the region.
"Overall, I think we have
to have a concept of a new
relationship and, broadly
speaking, a new language,
which we can use to articulate
the issues in that relation-
ship," Gonsalves had told
CMC ahead of the meeting.
Ellsworth John, St.
Vincent and the Grenadines
ambassador to the U.S.,
agreed that the CARICOM-
Washington meeting was
"very cordial," adding that it
was "a frank exchange of
ideas on a range of issues."
He identified, among those
issues, a trade and investment
conference, slated for
Washington on Oct. 13; next
year's conference on the


Caribbean to be held in
Washington and U.S. support
for Guatemala as a non-per-
manent member of the United
Nations Security Council.
"She outlined reasons
why it was good to vote for
Guatemala and stated the dif-
ferences with Venezuela with-
out getting into details," John
said.

BACKING CHAVEZ
Gonsalves had told CMC
that CARICOM was unequiv-
ocal in supporting Venezuela,
despite pressure from
Washington and the on-going
row between the United
States and Venezuela.
"The fact that President
Chavez made a speech at the
United Nations, which may
have upset the United States,
would not change our support
or, indeed, CARICOM,
or individual CARICOM-
member states, support for
Venezuela," he said.
U.S. Ambassador to


October 2006


CARIBBEAN TODAY





C aribbean culture has influenced the world
in many ways over the years, from the erotic
beauty of the islands and people, to the
pulsating rhythms of their music -
reggqae, soca, salsa and merengue.
Now, Caribbean food is beginning to -
play a new and Vibrant rote in how the
world Views this region, from jerk ". -.
pork to curry chicken, fried plan-
tains, fried yuca, cracked conch to
flying fish, from mango
chutney to quaia jelly.
Caribbean beers, rum and liquors
are seen all over the world. Come With
Caribbean Today as We take you from the tip
of the yucatan to the jungles of Guyana, as we explore the tastes of the Caribbean.
We Will tell you Where you can find those hard-to-get products and foods.

CALL NOW TO ADVERTISE!
1-800-605-7516 305-238-2868
Fax 305-252-7843
e-mail: sales@caribbeantoday.com
Articles for Editorial Consideration: October 19th, 2006
ADVERTISING DEADLINE: OCTOBER 27TH, 2006




CARIBBEAN TODAY


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October 2006





CARIBBEAN TODAY


n e WS


LWW-crbbatoa.co


'Jerk' lovers savor the flavor at annual Florida fest


DAMIAN P. GREGORY you feel like you home,"
Jamaican-born Nicole
SUNRISE, Florida Lovers of Grayton, a resident of Fort
everything "jerk" converged Lauderdale who has attended
on Markham Park in South the festival each of the past
Florida late last month to three years, told Caribbean
sample food prepared by Today. "It is a part of my cul-
cooks from Jamaica and the ture, you know."
United States. "You got a piece of
"When you come here Jamaica right here," Fort
Lauderdale resident Angela

Election dates and voter


registration information


General elections in the
United States will be
held on Nov. 7. The
polls will be open from 7 a.m.
to 7 p.m. local time.
The date marks the first
Tuesday after the first Monday
in November, in even
numbered years, and
is designated to fill it
national, state and
county offices, and for
voting on constitution-
al amendments and
local referendums.
Voters may cast their
ballots for the candi-
dates of any party,
regardless of their own -
political party registra-
tion.
At general elections, all
voters receive the same ballot
and may vote for any candi-
date or question on the ballot.
Who can register to vote

To register to vote in Florida,
you must:
Be a United States citizen,
a Florida resident, at least 18
years old (you may pre-register
if you are 17), not now be
adjudicated mentally incapaci-
tated with respect to voting in
Florida or any other state, not
have been convicted of a
felony in Florida, or any other
state, without your civil rights
having been restored, and not
claim the right to vote in
another county or state.

Who can't register to vote
Persons who have been
found by a court in any state to
be mentally incapacitated with
respect to voting and who have
not had their right restored.
Persons who have been
convicted of any felony in any
court and who have not had
their right to vote restored.
Any person who is not a citi-
zen of the U.S.

How to register to vote
Completely fill out a voter
registration application form.
Voter registration applications
are available at local Supervisor
of Elections' offices, the
Division of Elections, driver
license offices, state agencies


that provide public assistance,
libraries and many other loca-
tions.

A voter's registration applica-
tion is complete if it contains:
Your name, legal residence


s Your





...how hanlt^Sht?


address and date of birth; an
indication that you are a U.S.
citizen; the last four digits of
your Social Security number.
An indication that you
have not been convicted of a
felony or that, if convicted, you
have had your civil rights
restored.
An indication that you
have not been adjudicated
mentally incapacitated with
respect to voting or that, if so
adjudicated, you have had
your right to vote resorted.
You must sign the oath
printed on the form swearing
or affirming under the penalty
for false swearing that the
information contained in the
registration application is true.
Note: An applicant who fails
to designate a political party
affiliation will be registered
without party affiliation.
The voter registration
application is also available
online at www.socadvote.com

When to register to vote
You must be registered for
at least 29 days before you can
vote in an election. The date
your voter registration applica-
tion is postmarked or hand
delivered to your county
supervisor of elections will be
your registration date. If your
application is complete and
you are qualified as a voter, a
registration identification card
will be mailed to you.
0


Ihis young lady definitely found the jerk ribs to her liking.


Clarke, told Caribbean
Today. "It was all good, the
chicken and lobster and the
pork."
But her friend, who would
only identify himself as Ricky,
had a definite favorite.
"The pork," he told
Caribbean Today enthusiasti-
cally. "It really great. I like
how they do it, the set up is
the real thing, like they have
back home."

WIDE POPULARITY
The annual feeding fest
not only attracted those from
Jamaica, but other fans of the
spicy food that is becoming
more well known outside of


the islands.
"I am eating jerk pork,"
said first time festivalgoer
Theresa Caine, a Chicago
native who now lives in Fort
Lauderdale and is a self-
described Jamaican by injec-
tion. "I am not mad at it."
She was among an esti-
mated 7,500 people who,
organizers said, attended the
nine-hour event on Sept. 24.
Some 22 vendors who offered
variations on the popular
spiced food that included the
traditional chicken, pork,
fish and ribs and the non-tra-
ditional jerk ice cream.
Yet food was not the only
thing that kept the crowd enter-


trained. Music headliners Byron
Lee and the Dragonaires were
also on hand.

WINNER
But one man cornered the
judges' idea of what it means
to be the king of jerk. For the
third time in the popular festi-
val's five-year history, the
"Gold Dutch Pot Award"
went to Burnet Spence.
Spence, an amateur cook who
hails from St. Elizabeth,
Jamaica, left judges wanting
more of his savory jerk.
"His presentation and
taste were far superior to the
others," organizer of the jerk
cook-off contest, June Minto
told Caribbean Today.
Spence's secret?
"I have a layered taste,
when you first bite into my
chicken or my pork, you get
a sweet smoky (taste) as you
bite," he told Caribbean
Today. "As you go further in,
it gets a little spicy, not too
hot. As you go further in you
taste the pimento. As you
begin to digest it with the
saliva the combination of all
three gives you a lingering
taste that makes you want
more."

Story and photograph by
Damian P. Gregory,
Caribbean Today's deputy
managing editor.
0


Profile of candidates in Florida counties


Check the following websites to
learn about the candidates:

Miami-Dade
http://elections.miamidade.gov/

Broward
http://www.browardsoe.org/elec-
tioncandidates.aspx?eid=5

Palm Beach
http://www.pbcelections.org/Electio
nCandidates.aspx?eid=l

Newspaper Candidate Profiles and
Endorsements



Hov%
Qualified electors are permit-
ted to vote absentee under
Florida law.
How to vote absentee
An elector, or someone desig-
nated by the elector, may
request an absentee ballot
from the supervisor of elec-
tions in person, by mail or by
telephone. One request can
cover all elections within a
calendar year. The person
requesting an absentee ballot


The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miami-
herald/news/photos/15326047.htm

Sun Sentinel
http://www.sun-
sentinel.com/news/elections/

Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opi
nion/content/localnews/election/en
dorsements_2006.html

Bar Association Judicial Review
and Endorsements


Judicial Poll
http://www.dadecountybar.org/nss-
folder/2006judicialpoll/2006%20JU
DICIAL%20POLL%20RESULTS
.pdf

Wilke D. Ferguson Bar Association
Endorsements
(Miami-Dade County Black
Lawyers Association)

Go to www.fergusonbar.org and
request listing for further review
and research.


Dade County Bar Association


ito vote absentee


must disclose: the name and
address of the elector for
whom the ballot is requested;
the requester's name and
address; the requester's driver
license number, if available;
the requester's relationship to
the elector; and the
requester's signature (written
request only).
Marked ballots must be
mailed or delivered in person
reaching the supervisor of


elections' office not later than
7 p.m. on the day of the elec-
tion.
At all elections, a voter
claiming to be properly regis-
tered in the county and eligi-
ble to vote at the precinct in
the election, but whose eligi-
bility cannot be determined,
shall be entitled to vote a pro-
visional ballot.
0


October 2006






CARIBBEAN TODAY


66-, US, U iiiii3^ a


INEWS U.N. ROUND-UP


Leaders of many Caribbean nations were in NewYork last month to attend the 61st Session of the U.N. General Assembly. This month
Caribbean Today publishes a summary, compiled from CMC and other reports, of addresses delivered by some of those leaders.


Suriname wants U.N.
to deal with poverty
Suriname has called on
the interna-
tional com-
munity to
increase coop-
eration "in
areas of rele-
vance to
humanity" so
that the Venetiaan
world's peo-
ples can enjoy
a fair and decent standard of
living.
President Runaldo
Venetiaan told the U.N. that
guaranteeing the availability
of the necessary infrastruc-
ture, health services and edu-
cation for all is still a major
challenge.
"The world order contin-
ues to deny the vast majority
of the international communi-
ty the opportunity to escape
poverty and to utilize its abili-
ty and skills to achieve
progress and prosperity,"
Venetiaan said.
"There is need for
enhanced cooperation in areas
of relevance to humanity if we
are to create an international
community that will be able to
offer all of its members a fair
chance to a decent life."
He said the appeal for an
enabling international envi-
ronment for sustainable devel-
opment and poverty eradica-


tion is still "a vivid one," not-
ing that the international com-
munity needs to support the
call of the vast majority of
member states for fair terms
of trade, increased market
access for products from the
developing countries and for a
"more effective and support-
ive" international financial
architecture.
Venetiaan said Suriname
is fully supportive of the
implementation of the inter-
national global partnership for
development, explaining that
it can obtain guidance for its
decisions from commitments
adopted at major United
Nations conferences and sum-
mits. He urged this "partner-
ship" to aim at energizing the
"political will" of all states so
that those commitments could
be implemented and "gen-
uine" opportunities for sus-
tainable development and
poverty eradication realized.

St. Vincent calls for
leadership
Stating that he was speaking
on behalf of the world's "mar-
ginalized," St. Vincent and the
Grenadines' Prime Minister
Dr. Ralph Gonsalves called on
the United Nations to provide
"coherent kl ad rlup in
addressing the plight of the
world's poorest countries.
In his impassioned contri-
bution to the 61st Session of


the U.N.
General
Assembly
Debate,
Gonsalves
said all "right-
thinking per-
sons want and
demand" this Gonsalves
type of lead-
ership from a "reformed"
global body that is "true to its
central mandates to serve
humanity well."

Speed up aid to poorer
nations Barbados
Barbados has called for
speedier implementation of
decisions on increased finan-
cial aid for the world's poorest
countries.
Senior Minister and Foreign
Affairs Minister Dame Billie
Miller told the 61st Session of the
U.N. General Assembly that
these resources
were needed
urgently, partic-
ularly for coun-
tries like her
own, which
have complet-
ed preparation
of comprehen-
sive national Miller
development
strategies to attain the
Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), among other interna-
tional development goals and
objectives.


"While developing coun-
tries must retain responsibility
for their own development,
national actions will not be
sufficient to bring about their
fuller participation in the
global economy," she said,
alluding to promised aid made
to developing countries last
year by the Group of the
World's Richest Countries
(G8) during their meeting in
Gleneagles, Scotland.
"These actions must be
complemented by a support-
ive international system,
essential elements of which
include improvement in global
governance, improved coher-
ence in the operation of the
United Nations System and a
greater voice for the United
Nations in global development
policy dialogue," she added.
At the same time, Dame
Billie called for the "democra-
tization" of the governance of
the international financial and
trade systems, stating that
changes in global governance
have not kept pace with the
growth of global interdepend-
ence.
In addition, she called for
the adoption of lit rH. I
slp," to end what she regard-
ed as the "marginalization" of
developing countries and
small economies in the policy
formulation and decision-
making processes in the multi-
lateral, financial and trade


institutions.
"Globalization must be
made more inclusive and its
benefits more equitably dis-
tributed," she said.
The Barbados minister
said improvement in global
governance must be "mir-
Srn rd in the strengthening of
the management and coordi-
nation of the U.N.'s opera-
tional activities at the country
level, pointing out that this
would ensure delivery of
development assistance in "a
more coordinated way."
Dame Billie lamented
that the "development cluster
of issues," emanating from the
historic 2005 U.N. Summit has
been "painfully slow," stating
that Barbados's assessment is
"decidedly mixed."






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Vol. 17, Number 11 OCT. 2006

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ISSUES OF INTEREST


rIIuLuudpII uy UNI rIILU


Senator Anthony Hylton, left, Jamaica's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, is greeted by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan at U.N. Headquaters in New
York City. The men met for 15 minutes late last month at Annan's office to discuss matters of interest to Jamaica and the world body. Hylton, along with several Caribbean
leaders, were in New York to attend the U.N.'s General Assembly.


October 2006





CARIBBEAN TODAY


V I W P o I N T


Caribbean clout in N.Y.


m wwwcribbea* noa c m .sI *


Chastity has its place


GORDON WILLIAMS
The powerful force that is
the will of people root-
ed in Caribbean her-
itage was on display again last
month in the United States.
New York City
Councilwoman Yvette D.
Clarke, a daughter of Jamaican
parents who has always shown
her strong connection to the
region, won the Democratic
primary for the state's 11th
Congressional District.
Because of the over-
whelming presence of regis-
tered Democrats in the dis-
trict, that means Clarke is a
virtual shoo-in for a seat in
the U.S. Congress after the
general elections next month.
The Caribbean diaspora
should hail Clarke's accom-
plishment as a significant
milestone in how far the
region's people have come in
the U.S. She succeeded her
mother Una, a former city
councilwoman herself who
had come up short in the same
race years before but she
repeated the achievement of
Shirley Chisholm, another
American born to Caribbean
parents, who decades ago
became the first black woman
to serve in the U.S. Congress.

DIFFERENT CHALLENGE
Yet Yvette D. Clarke faces
a slightly different challenge
than Chisholm. While she
vows to serve all her con-
stituents in New York, she has
also promised to be "that
voice" for Caribbean people in
Washington. That promise
should be most comforting for
anyone with Caribbean con-
nections. See, there is a major
concern brewing over the
attention the U.S. has been
paying to the Caribbean.
Some of the region's leaders,
most notably Dominica's
Roosevelt Skeritt and Trinidad
and Tobago's Patrick Manning,
have openly challenged the
U.S. to become more active in
the welfare of the region. They
are demanding help, specifical-
ly in the areas of development
and security. The region feels it
is being ignored by the U.S.,
has been for years now, and it
doesn't like it at all, especially
because the leaders believe
that the U.S. can always count
on their support.

NEGLECT
Yvette D. Clarke says she
understands the concerns of
the region's leaders. She even
goes further to ,t,--L"-LI that
her predecessor, retired
Congressman Major Owens,
neglected the interests of
Caribbean immigrants, espe-
cially in New York's 11th
District. That trend has got to
stop, she argues, and she will


be at the forefront of efforts
to reform U.S. policy in that
area when she gets to Capitol
Hill.
Caribbean people, and
not just those in the New York
area, may do well to mark her
words. If the 41-year-old
Brooklyn-born Clarke suc-
ceeds in carrying out her
intentions, then all of the
Caribbean's people stand to
benefit.
However, she has already
made it clear that for far too
long, the lobby efforts of other
immigrant groups, the
Hispanics, Italians, CIIIIILM
Koreans, for example, have
outstripped those of Caribbean
immigrants. While huge strides
have been made towards social
advancement, economic and
political push still lag way
behind.
That should serve as a
wake-up call to Caribbean
people in the U.S. When one
of your own is telling you that
you are not doing enough to
help yourself as a group, then
it's time to re-evaluate what
you do.. .and how you do it.

APATHY
It was not long ago that at
least one major U.S. main-
stream newspaper reported on
the apathy amongst Caribbean
nationals in the country when
it comes to getting involved in
political issues, especially
immigration reform. The
point is, if you don't look out
for your own interests, then
you cannot expect others to
do it for you.
Right before our eyes, in
the form of Yvette D. Clarke,
Caribbean people can see that
the great promise of the
"American Dream" can actu-
ally come true. In a country
where they tell you that you
can achieve anything you
want, it's nice to know that
there could be some real truth
to it. Clarke's victory at last
month's primary offers a
glimpse of that.
When asked recently if she
would consider running for
higher office in the U.S. let's
say, ah, president in the
future, she coyly iu--e eLLd that
it's best to focus on her new
assignment first. Yet it was nice
to know she did not reject the
idea outright. Imagine that, a
Caribbean person in the White
House. Wouldn't that be the
"American Dream". It can
come true.

Gordon Williams is
Caribbean Today's managing
editor. Beginning Nov. 1,
2006 you may e-mail him at
editor@caribbeantoday.com
0


It's clear that most
of the world's Q
problems stem
from sex, so perhaps
we should adopt some
of the principles of
Eastern countries who
have strict sexual
rules.
Imagine, adulter-
ers are stoned to
death, or beheaded.
Perhaps we should
adopt that principle
and save us some of
the myriad problems
that stem from that
activity.
And believe me,
there are benefits to
be derived from not
having sex. This young
man who e-mailed me
complained bitterly
that his wife stopped making
love with him because he lost
his job and couldn't give her
money to spend on herself
anymore, even though he still
managed to pay the household
bills. Now you see what some
women reduce themselves to?
I have been addressing this for
years, how women use sex as a
weapon, a tool, as leverage,
and here it rears its ugly head
once again.
Her sexual output diminish-
es in the same proportion that
his income falls. Now when he
goes astray, you'll hear how man
bad and doggish.

NO SEX
So, take sex out of the
equation and problems will be
less, at least that's the theory.
The Catholic Church has tried
it with their priests, damning
them to a t.,liihl life, forbid-
ding them from indulging, so
that they could be more
focused on their other duties.
Like I said, that's the theory,
but the practice is another
thing. Many a father and nun
were forced to kick the habit,
as the urge was greater than
the Word and the mind was
willing but the flesh was weak,
so weak.
But it is true that sex inter-


SlljW OTtYJO...


feres with
genuine rela-
tionships and
puts a differ-
ent spin on
things. Many
times you
may have
male and
female friends


TONY


who have ROBINSON
been best
friends for
years, sharing all their secrets,
triumphs, trials and tribula-
tions. He has no interest in her,
nor she in him. Suddenly one
day, or night, they discover that
there is more than just a frater-
nal platonic bond, and the
libido increases as the chem-
istry kicks in. Wham bam,
sparks start to fly and the
clothes follow.
Well, for all intents and
purposes that friendship is
over as it has taken on a new
dimension. Now other ele-
ments come into play, with the
chief one being jealousy. Yes,
this sex thing awakens the
green-eyed monster, and
believe me, it doth mock the
meat it feeds on. Problems that
never existed before are now
swirling around and that beau-
tiful bond that was shared for
years is now shattered.


"Is what happen to .I1... ~,
and Robbie, look how many
years they were friends, but now
since dem step it up to a new
level is pure ..... '
"Guess why, nuh sex mash
it up."

PANDORA'S BOX
They were better off
chaste, as they could focus on
the real friendship, but take
those away and the Pandora's
Box flies open, letting out all
the demons. Because of this,
it's often difficult for members
of the opposite sex to be true
friends, not impossible, but dif-
ficult. It usually works the
other way around, if they were
physically involved first, broke
up, then became friends.
Yes, many people find that
exes make the best friends
after all the initial hurt after
the breakup heals. It also
works if one party is ugly as
hell. It's so easy for a man to
be platonic friends with an
ugly woman or vice versa, but
it would be extremely difficult
for me to sustain a platonic
friendship with Beyonce, or
Halle Berry or someone who
looks like them. One day
something would crack.
Be chaste, and there's no
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)


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0





CARIBBEAN TODAY


mim -i i . .i


VIE W P 0 I n T


* "This is the
importation
of foreign
tribalism" -
Christopher
Tufton, presi- :M t
dent of the
Jamaica
Labour
Party's young professional
arm "Generation 2it it I' -
expressing his disgust last
month after St. Vincent and the
Grenadines Prime Minister
Ralph Gonsalves endorsed the
ruling People's National Party,
accusing him of attempting to
import divisiveness into
Jamaica's politics.

* "It is good
that the con-
stitution has
become a
living instru-
ment and
ordinary cit-
izens aref


talking about it. I
think it is progress" -
Guyana's Health
Minister Dr. Leslie
Ramsammy last month
discussing the renewed
national interest in the
constitution.

* "It is hard
to look out
and see the
beauty out-
side the win-
dow and
think that it
can happen
here, but it
can happen here and I think
these countries know it" -
Mary Kramer, United States
ambassador to Barbados and
the Eastern Caribbean, last
month commenting on the
Caribbeani s response to terror-
ist attacks.

* "I cannot put it in more
definitive terms, we have not
agreed and we have no inten-
tion of proceeding down the
path of registering or licens-
ing prostitutes. The govern-
ment of Barbados does not
see the trading in flesh as


something
which we
want to pro-
mote" -
Reverend
Joseph
Atherley,
Barbados's
minister of
state in the
Prime Minister's Office, mak-
ing the government's intention
clear ahead of Cricket World
Cup 2007.

* "At the
moment we
are in no
man's
land...and we
are not pre-
pared to walk
blindfolded
into any situ-
ation" -
Leader of Guyana's main
Opposition People's National
Congress Reform (PNC/R)
Robert Corbin arguing last
month that no provision has
been envisaged in the constitu-
tion for convening Parliament.
Guyana held elections in late
August.


* "It's
deplorable" -
Bermuda's
Minister of
Home
Affairs and
Public Safety
Derrick
Burgess last
month bash-
ing burglars who targeted
properties while Hurricane
Florence battered the island.

* "Election
date don't
belong to me,
it don't
belong to
Portia
Simpson
Miller, it
belongs to
the people of
Jamaica and must be revisit-
ed in the constitution of the
people of Jamaica" -
Opposition Leader Bruce
Golding last month calling for
a fixed date for elections in
Jamaica.

* "It is absolute nonsense to
suggest that a printer or pub-
lisher or newspaper can print


whatever
they want
whether
libelous or
defamatory
under the
dishonest
disguise of
freedom of
expression" Dominica's
Prime Minister Roosevelt
Skerrit last month denying
newspaper reports that he was
seeking to muzzle the media.

* "Cuba gives
freely and
asks for noth-
ing in return"
- St. Lucia's
Prime
Minister
Dr. Kenny
Anthony last
month hop-
ing member-states of the Non
Aligned Movement(NAM) will
take a leaf from Cuba's books
when it comes to offering aid to
smaller Caribbean states.

Compiled from CMC and
other sources.
0


Chastity has its place


(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9)
seduction.
Just recently I read where
in one of the states in the U.S.
they passed this seduction law,
where a man can actually be
charged for seduction. There
would be no need for that law
if people lived a life of chastity


and saw people for their other
qualities. People should be able
to sleep in the same bed and
have enough discipline to be
chaste, instead of being chased.
At this point many people will
chime in and say, "But that's
easy, just get married and you'll
achieve that state."


Hey, it's s fact, mistresses
get more sex than wives, and
wives get more from their
lovers than from their husbands.
There is a theory that
women who have sex with a lot
of men really suffer from low
self-esteem and are therefore
always seeking acceptance and
love. The same goes for men
who sleep with a lot of women.
The theory is that wanton sex
is a result of low self-esteem. I
know this young lady who told
me that, "Every problem I had
in life is sex cause it."

YOUTH SUFFER
It does affect our young
people, distracting them from
their schoolwork, diverting
their energies in the wrong
direction. A teenage pregnan-
cy in a young 14-year-old
changes her life forever, and
even at age 40 or more, she


doesn't really get over it.
Many feel robbed of their
youth, many are still bitter at
the experience, and some find
it difficult to speak about it,
even after 20 years or more.
But are the kids being educat-
ed? Recently a doctor friend of
mine gave a talk at a high
school and was shocked to dis-
cover that not even one stu-
dent knew what the uterus was.
So instead of sweeping it
under the carpet or allowing
kids to learn it from their
peers, we should educate them
more. I always found it strange
how parents would expose kids
to violence, bombings, shoot-
ings, murder and mayhem on
T.V. shows or movies, even the
nightly news, but just mention
the word sex and it's hell and
powder puff.
People will say, "How can
you write about sex, this is a
family paper." Yet the same
paper is full of news of murder,
international strife, corruption,
robbery, bodies blown to bits
and such gore. It's our daily
fare, but just brush the topic of
sex and you're disgusting and
damned to hellfire. I wonder
how we all got here anyway,
must have been immaculate
conception?!
Still, it's easier said than
done, and if we all stop and
think, a lot of our problems in
life were caused through sex.
And as another young lady
told me, "The Lord really has
a great sense of humor, where
he gave us this tremendous
urge, then expects us to prac-
tice self restraint."


Because of not being
chaste, it leads many people
into the throes and complica-
tions of adultery. But, the irony
is, those so called virtues are
unnatural, and that's why they
are so difficult, nigh impossible
to achieve. The priests who
took vows and were instructed
to be, li h,,l are a prominent
group that proved that theory
to be unworkable. And if
priests, steeped in religion, clos-
er to God (they'd like to think)
than you and I, can't cope, how
can us mere mortals?
You can't live without sex,
it's unnatural. Okay, you can
live, but is it really living?
So the struggle continues,
and even as I write this I know
that it is nigh impossible to live
up to the ideals of chastity. For
some people, it's not by choice,
as nobody will sleep with
them. Still, it's just not in our
nature, as temptation is all
around us. And you know
what is true, people look on
virgins, those chaste, practicing
celibacy as almost freaks.
"Say wha, yu nah do nut-
ten, sumpting must be wrong
wid yu."
But still, we must be
responsible and talk to our
children early, as times have
changed drastically and it has
reached life and death propor-
tions. As this man said,
"Chastity, has it's place, but
not with me." Later.

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October 2006








Caribbean looks at fresh AIDS plan Eating beforehand reduces

Caribbean looks at fresh AIDS plan Eating beforehand reduces


BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,
CMC The region's leaders are
taking a different look at the
problem of HIV/AIDS and its
impact on the Caribbean,
according to Barbados's junior
foreign affairs minister.
"Traditionally, our defini-
tion of security was shaped by
history and by traditional geo-
political paradigms which
reflected military and national
security considerations," said
Kerrie Symmonds, while
addressing Caribbean-based
United States ambassadors
gathered for a two-day meeting
in Barbados to discuss the
HIV/AIDS pandemic in the
region.
"Today, however, that defi-
nition has evolved to include
non-traditional threats such as
that posed by HIV/AIDS to the
stability of our economies, our
labor forces and our economies.
"Indeed, this virus poses
the single greatest threat to the
region's security, as we seek to
develop a civilization that can
proudly enter the portals of the
21st century," he added.


in Jamaica
and production of educational
materials.
"UNESCO and the
Japanese government will
continue to support the Ministry
of Education and Youth in
strengthening the sector's
response to HIV and AIDS
under the initiative that is
referred to as 'EDUCAIDS', that
is, education in the fight against
HIV/AIDS," Dr. Boafo said.
He also said that the sup-
port from UNESCO and Japan
formed part of a larger interna-
tional assistance framework on
preventive education programs,
and that Jamaica is currently
one of several countries, and the
only island in the Caribbean
region, that is involved in the
project.
0


the effect of medications


financial assistance from the
U.S., Minister Symmonds told
the ambassadors that the reality
of the situation in the
Caribbean is that limited
resources have been strained by
the need to
deal with new
challenges
posed by an
undiscriminat-
ing global
environment.
But
responding
Symmonds to the minis-
ter's plea,
Mary Kramer,
U.S. ambassador to Barbados
and the Eastern Caribbean, said
she cannot promise additional
funding at this time. Instead
she's promising more effective
use of available funds.
"With the people who are
here from Washington we can
be assured that we who are
working here in the region,
know all of the areas that
are available to us from
Washington," Kramer said.
0


meal.
QUESTION: I've just begun
taking the antidepressant
Prozac (fluoxetine). It's been
about a week and a half. It
doesn't seem to be helping at
this point. Should I stop it?
ANSWER: As a general rule, I
don't think people should sud-
denly stop medications. There
can be negative consequences
to doing so without your doc-
tor's approval especially with
antidepressants.
For most people, Prozac
may take three to four weeks to
give you the full effect. Take the
medicine in the morning and be
aware that typical side effects
include nausea, taste changes,
painful urination, insomnia, agi-
tation and even sexual prob-


AIDS fight
KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC -
Dr. Kwame Boafo, newly
appointed director of the United
Nations Educational Scientific
and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) office in the
Caribbean, has said that the
agency would sustain its
HIV/AIDS initiative in Jamaica.
Dr. Boafo said that the
project, which primarily sought
to reduce the spread of
HIV/AIDS through education,
was primarily funded by the
Japanese government, the
United Nations C(!ii!lr, ii Fund
(UNICEF), the World Bank,
and the Global Fund. He said
the initiative would be under-
taken from 2006 to 2008 and
would focus on areas such as,
strategic planning, professional
development, and the design


SUZY COHEN

QUESTION: My husband has
a prescription that says "take
on an empty stomach", but he
refuses to, saying it's inconven-
ient and it doesn't matter. We
are arguing about this. What
will happen if he doesn't follow
directions?

ANSWER: His medicine may
not work as well. The caution
"on an empty stomach" is
there to alert patients that food
will interfere with the amount
of drug that ultimately gets into
the bloodstream or possibly
slow down the effectiveness.
This is the case with many
medications, including thyroid
hormones, tetracycline, fluoro-
quinolone antibiotics and some
antihistamines.
Say you have a serious
prostate infection and you're
on an antibiotic with a label
warning you to "take on an
empty stomach". It's 1:30 and
you decide to eat lunch and
take your medication with the
meal. In this case, you might
lose between five percent and
30 percent of the drug (maybe
more if you have eaten calci-
um-rich foods, which interfere
with fluoroquinolone antibi-
otics like Cipro and Levaquin).
As a result, less medicine gets
to your prostate to fight the
bacteria that has invaded and,
if you do this all the time, you
could suffer longer and need
more medicine.
With some drugs e.g.
osteoporosis drugs (bisphos-
phonate drugs) like Fosamax,
Actonel and Boniva even the
tiniest amount of food gets in
the way. They have to be taken
with water only; you can't even
nosh on a cracker. I know, it's
distressing. These drugs upset
the stomach and a little food
would help, but again, your
absorption goes down dramati-
cally. Therefore, they should be
taken without food.
Here's a good rule of
thumb for a prescription that
says "take on an empty stom-
ach": You can take it either one
hour before or two hours after a


JOlive Chung-James, M.D.

Board Certified Family
Physician
..children adults, gynecology
c"aoanvmes.mix. weight management
A Dr. Chung-James, practicing in Miami since 1983,
well-known in the Caribbean community.
NEW LOCATION:
9275 SW 152 Street, Suite 204. Miami, Florida 33157
(Across from Jackson South ER.)
(305) 251-3975


MEE=


6300 W. Atlantic Blvd. Margate, FL 33063

S (954) 956-9500




PAUL W. MOO YOUNG, D.D.S.
FAMILY DENTISTRY
EMERGENCY WALK-IN SERVICE


o I Cosmetic
Restorative
Preventive

Member American Dental Association
Most Insurance Accepted

6701 Sunset Drive, Suite 114
South Miami, FL 33143


Oral Surgery
Oral Cancer Screening
Root Canal Treatment
Orthodontics


(305) 666-4334


PLEA
Making a plea for further

UNESCO continues


IAN C. JONES, D.D.S.
* Preventive Dentistry
* Restorative & Cosmetic
Dentistry
* Crowns, Bridges, Dentures
* Oral Surgery & Root Canals
* Bleaching of Teeth


Leighton A. Taylor, M.D.

Board Certified
Plastic Surgeon

The look you dreamed of:
iBREAST -P,, 11-1-ru,. 1 1 -i,,, ,-.
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SPIDER VAIN TREATMENT KELOID REMOVAL EAR
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Please call for an appointment
(954) 963-1337
Fax (954) 981-7955
2261 North University Dr., Ste 200 Pembroke Pines, FL 33024
(across from Memorial Hospital Pembroke)


October 2006


CARIBBEAN TODAY


www.caribbeantoday.com
omr-


lems. If you experience uncom-
fortable side effects, ask your
doctor to lower your dose or
switch your medication.

This information is not intended
to treat, cure or diagnose your
condition. Suzy Cohen is a regis-
tered pharmacist. To contact her,
visit www.dearpharmacist.com.
2006 Dear Pharmacist, Inc.
Distributed by Tribune Media
Services, Inc
0





CARIBBEAN TODAY


Ewww -.carbbanodag cm


iiEis pAnic 916R I TNGE monT 9


~ A Caribbean Today advertising feature
Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15, the anniversary of Independence for five Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and
Nicaragua to Oct. 15. In addition, Mexico declared its Independence on Sept. 16, and Chile on Sept. 18. The term Hispanic, as defined by the United States Census
Bureau, refers to Spanish-speaking people in the U.S. of any race. On the 2000 Census form, people of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin could identify themselves as
Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino". More than 35 million people identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino on the 2000 Census.


U.S. Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings has
announced the final regula-
tions for Limited English
Proficient (LEP) students.
The new Title I regulation
is intended to help recently
arrived LEP students learn
English and other subjects
while giving states and local
school districts greater flexi-
bility on assessment while
continuing to hold them
accountable under the "No
Child Left Behind" program.
"Our schools must be
prepared to measure what
English language learners
know and to teach them effec-
tively, with proven instruction-
al methods," Spellings said.
"No Child Left Behind
has put the needs of English
language learners (ELLs)
front and center and we must


continue that momentum of
success. These regulations will
ensure states and schools are
held accountable for helping
children learn English but will
also provide them with flexi-
bility in meeting the goal of
every child reading and doing
math at grade level by 2014."
The new regulations
have been welcomed by the
Hispanic community in the
U.S.
"Getting the No Child
Left Behind law right is criti-
cal for Latino students, nearly
half of whom are ELLs," said
Janet Murgufa, president and
chief executive officer of the
National Council of La Raza,
the largest national Hispanic
civil rights and advocacy
organization in the U.S.
0


Juicy, smothered enchiladas


INGREDIENTS
* 2 pounds ground beef
* 1 (1 1/4-ounce) package mild
taco seasoning mix
* 1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped
green chiles, divided
* 2 (10 3/4-ounce) cans cream of
chicken soup


* 1 (16-ounce) container sour
cream
* 8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
* 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded
cheddar cheese
* Garnishes: homemade salsa,
sour cream, green onion curls,
chopped fresh cilantro

METHOD
Brown ground beef in a large
skillet, stirring until it crumbles
and is no longer pink; drain. Stir
in taco seasoning mix and half of
chopped green chiles; set aside.
Stir tI.. 1-h11" r remaining green
chiles, soup, and sour cream. Pour


half of soup mixture into a lightly
greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
Spoon beef mixture evenly
down centers of tortillas; roll up.
Place, seam sides down, over
soup mixture in baking dish; top
evenly with remaining soup mix-
ture and cheese.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes
or until thoroughly heated.
Garnish, if desired.

Yield: Makes eight servings.

- Edited from Southern Living
0


A tasty plan is Cuban flan


INGREDIENTS
* 1 tsp. vanilla extract
* 14 oz can condensed milk
* 4 eggs
* 12 oz can evaporated milk
* pinch salt (optional)

METHOD
Using a double boiler,
cover mold bottom and sides
with caramel. Mix all ingredi-
ents in blender and pour into
mold. Close with lid.
Partially fill bottom pan


of double boiler with
water. Cook at low
heat for an hour
or until a tooth-
pick, inserted in
the center, comes
out dry. ..
When ready,
remove mold and let
cool to room temperature,
then place in refrigerator for
about 1 1/2 hours or more.
Once cold, turn upside down
over a serving dish.


If you don't have a double
boiler, place your flan
mold in a large
Pyrex dish par-
tially filled with
water and cook in
/ oven for about an
hour at 350 degrees.

Edited and reprinted from
www. cubanfoodmarket. com
0


Regulations give new

English learners better

chance in class


AND TOGETHER WITH PUBLIC, THEY CELEBRATE THIS DAY



Publix.


I


October 2006






CARIBBEAN TODAY


iiEis pAnic 916R I TNGE monT 9


I www .caibeatoa.com I


~ A Caribbean Today advertising feature

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15, the anniversary of Independence for five Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and
Nicaragua to Oct. 15. In addition, Mexico declared its Independence on Sept. 16, and Chile on Sept. 18. The term Hispanic, as defined by the United States Census
Bureau, refers to Spanish-speaking people in the U.S. of any race. On the 2000 Census form, people of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin could identify themselves as
Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino". More than 35 million people identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino on the 2000 Census.


Broward County celebrates

with art, music and culture


Weeks of celebration
climax mid-October
as Broward County,
Florida marks Hispanic
Heritage Month.
Among the attractions is a
multi-cultural art exhibit in
the Governmental Center
lobby, 115 S. Andrews Ave. in
Fort Lauderdale, which coin-
cide with Hispanic Heritage
Month, celebrated in the
United States between Sept.15
and Oct. 15.
There will also be a
Hispanic Cultural and
Educational Center, a
15,000 square-foot space
located on the third floor of
the Broward County Main
Library. The center's collec-
tion will feature 20,000
books in Spanish, as well as
an extensive collection of
Spanish-language movies
and music.
In addition to the collec-
tion, the center will also house


a computer lab, specifically
designed for Spanish speakers,
a children's area for Spanish-
language story time and a
large exhibit space that will
frequently feature exhibits
and programs from different
Spanish-speaking countries.
"It has been a long-time
goal of mine to create a
Hispanic Cultural and
Educational Center where
the public can come to see,
learn, and experience the
many aspects of Hispanic
history and culture," said
Commissioner Diana
Wasserman-Rubin.

VARIETY
The month-long cultural
exhibit in the Governmental
Center lobby features items
from a variety of Latin
American countries, including
paintings and pieces and other
assorted media created by of a
number of female artists from


South America. The featured
artists include Denise Plazas
(Colombia); Maria Teresa de
Triana (Colombia); Malavi
Mendoza (Argentina);
Teresita Mesa (Colombia);
Ana Candioti (Argentina) and
Liliana Gerardi (Argentina).
The art exhibit is being coor-
dinated by Mujeres Latinas,
an organization dedicated to
assisting women of Latin ori-
gin and their families integrate
into American society.
"This is a wonderful way
to celebrate Hispanic heritage
and Broward County's rich
history and cultural diversity,"
said Wasserman-Rubin.
In addition, Broward
County Libraries Division is
sponsoring more than 50 pro-
grams celebrating Hispanic
culture.
For a complete listing of
library programs, visit
www. broward.org/library.
0


* 42.7 million
The estimated Hispanic population of
the U.S. as of July 1, 2005, making
people of Hispanic origin the nation's
largest ethnic or race minority.
Hispanics constituted 14 percent of
the nation's total population.

* About 1
...of every two people added to the
nation's population between July 1,
2004, and July 1, 2005, were Hispanic.

* 3.3%
Percentage increase in the Hispanic
population between July 1, 2004,
and July 1, 2005, making Hispanics
the fastest-growing minority group in in
the U.S.

* 102.6 million
The projected Hispanic population of
the U.S. as of July 1, 2050. According
to this projection, Hispanics will consti-
tute 24 percent of the nation's total
population on that date.

* 22.4 million
The nation's Hispanic population during
the 1990 census just slightly over
half the current total.

* 7.6 million
The number of Hispanic citizens who
reported voting in the 2004 presidential
election. The percentage of Hispanic citi-
zens voting about 47 percent did
not change from four years earlier.

* 64%
The percentage of Hispanic-origin peo-
ple in households who are of Mexican
background. Another approximately 10
percent are of Puerto Rican back-
ground, with about three percent each
of Cuban, Salvadoran and Dominican


1 the United States.


origins. The remainder are of some
other Central American, South
American or other Hispanic or Latino
origins.
Roughly half of the nation's
Dominicans live in New York City, with
about half of the nation's Cubans resid-
ing in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
(Source: AmericanFactFinder)

* 13
The number of U.S. states with at least
500,000 Hispanic residents. These
states are: Arizona, California, Colorado,
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New
Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North
Carolina, Texas and Washington.

* 43%
The percentage of New Mexico's popu-
lation that is Hispanic, highest of any
state.

* 4.6 million
The Hispanic population of Los Angeles
County, California the largest of any


county in the nation.

I 19
Number of U.S. states in which
Hispanics are the largest race or
ethnic minority group.
$222 billion
Revenue generated by Hispanic-
owned businesses in 2002, up 19
percent from 1997.
9.5 million
The number of Hispanic families
who reside in the U.S. Of these fam-
ilies, 63 percent include their chil-
dren under 18 years old.
22%
Percentage of U.S. population under
age five that is Hispanic, as of July 1,
2005.
* 31 million
The number of U.S. household resi-
dents age five and older who speak
Spanish at home.

* $35,967
The median income of Hispanic house-
holds in 2005, unchanged from the
previous year, in real terms.

* 21.8%
The poverty rate among Hispanics in
2005, unchanged from 2004.

* 58%
The percentage of Hispanics age 25
and older who had at least a high
school education in 2004.
Edited and reprinted from RTO
Online
0


Hispanics have enriched America Bush


National Hispanic Heritage
Month 2006
Americans are a diverse
people, yet we are bound by
common principles that teach
us what it means to be
American citizens. During
National Hispanic Heritage
Month, we recognize the many
contributions of Hispanic
Americans to our country
Through hard work, faith
in God, and a deep love of fam-
ily, Hispanic Americans have
pursued their dreams and con-
tributed to the strength and
vitality of our nation. They have
enriched the American experi-
ence and excelled in business,
law, politics, education, commu-
nity service, the arts, science,
and many other fields. Hispanic
entrepreneurs are also helping
build a better, more hopeful
future for all by creating jobs
across our country.
The number of Hispanic-
owned businesses is growing at
three times the national rate,
and increasing numbers of
Hispanic Americans own their
own homes. We continue to ben-
efit from a rich Hispanic culture
and we are a stronger country
because of the talent and cre-
ativity of the many Hispanic
Americans who have shaped our
society.
Throughout our history,
Hispanic Americans have also
shown their devotion to our
country in their military service.
Citizens of Hispanic descent
have fought in every war since
our founding and have taken
their rightful place as heroes in
our nation's history. Today,
Americans of Hispanic descent
are serving in our Armed
Forces with courage and honor,


and their efforts are helping
make America more secure and
bringing freedom to people
around the world.
As we celebrate National
Hispanic Heritage Month, we
applaud the accomplishments of
Hispanic Americans and recog-
nize the contributions they make


to our great land. To honor the
achievements of Hispanic
Americans, the Congress, by
Public Law 100-402, as amend-
ed, has authorized and request-
ed the president to issue annual-
ly a proclamation designating
Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 as
"National Hispanic Heritage
Month".
I call upon public officials,
educators, librarians, and all the
people of the U.S. to observe this
month with appropriate cere-
monies, activities, and programs.

The above is an edited version
of a proclamation issued last
month by U.S. President
George W. Bush marking
National Hispanic Heritage
Month.
0


Daily life in one of
Imperial Spain's most
important outposts
in the New World will be re-
created Oct. 7-8 at the 18th
Annual Colonial Arts and
Crafts Festival in St.
Augustine, Florida.
The festival is scheduled
to be held on the grounds of
the Colonial Spanish Quarter
Museum and will feature
skilled craftsmen in authentic
period clothing demonstrating
a wide range of crafts that
were essential for survival in a
Spanish colony of the 1700s.
Weaving, spinning, bas-
ketry, lace making, and natu-
ral dyeing are just a few of the
crafts to be demonstrated. In
addition, the festival will fea-


ture storytellers, colonial
music, and special activities
for children.
The Colonial Spanish
Quarter will provide an
authentic setting for an educa-
tional and fun look at life in
old St. Augustine. The
entrance to the Spanish
Quarter is on historic St.
George Street.
Sponsored by the St.
Augustine Textile Guild, the
festival is funded in part by a
grant from the St. Johns
County Tourist Development
Council.
It will run from 10 a.m. to
5 p.m. each day. Admission is
free. For more information,
call 904-825-5033.
0


Facts you should know


Reliving old Spain in the New World

at St. Augustne's arts and crafts fest


October 2006




CARIBBEAN TODAY


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October 2006


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T I U R 1 m / T R n V i


Love, luxury earn Caribbean top World Travel Awards
[he allure of 5 v \ some 165,000 travel agen- Most Romantic Resort -
the Caribbean cies and professionals from Sandals Grande Antigua
again received 140 countries, had to sift Resort and Spa
bal approval as I through 3,600 nominations. Leading Honeymoon


w~wcaibenodyco


many of the region's
destinations were
selected for top
prizes at the World
Travel Awards
(WTA) held last
month in the Turks
and Caicos Islands.
The travel
industry's so-called .. *
equivalent of the
"Oscars" revealed Caribbean
that the Caribbean
remains among the most
world's most sought after
vacation spots by visitors
seeking recreation, relaxation
and even romance.


destinations were voted among the most romantic.
This year some 791 cate-
gories in the tourism industry
were highlighted. Voting
began in May and ended last
month. Voters, represented by


WINNERS
The host country was
not left out from the win-
ners' group, earning the
"World's Leading Beach"
and "World's Leading
Island Destination" at the
13th annual awards.
Also topping the \\orid '
winners group were from
the Caribbean were:
Leading villas Round
Hill Hotel and Villas,
Jamaica
Leading Sports Resort -
Casa de Campo, Dominican
Republic


Destination St. Lucia
* Leading Family All-
Inclusive Beaches Resorts
* Leading Ecotourism
Destination Tobago Main
Ridge Rain Forest
* Leading Cruise Line -
Royal Caribbean
* Leading Beach -
Providenciales, Turks and
Caicos
* Leading All-Inclusive
Company Sandals Resorts
International


Guyana launches new thrust for Cricket World Cup


GEORGETOWN, Guyana,
CMC As Guyana prepares
to join the rest of the region
in hosting Cricket World
Cup 2007, the Guyana
Tourism Authority (GTA)
has announced plans to
repackage the country's
main tourism products.
Brian James, chairman of
the GTA, said the repackaging
effort will result in a greater
focus on eco-tourism, since the
country cannot seek to repli-
cate the sun and fun type
tourism packages which
Caribbean islands make the
center piece of their marketing
programs.
"There is a lot more geog-
raphy, more land and the prod-
ucts are not the typical sun,
sand and sea," James said.
"We are more into a specific
niche market where the
tourism product appeal who
are into eco tourism, adven-
ture, nature bird watching,


sports fishing.
"We have a
number of cul-
ture items in
our tourism
product, which
you will not
find in other
parts of the
Caribbean. This
is due to the
number of races
we have in
Guyana.
"There are
African and
Indian heritage
festivals. We
have
Amerindian
Heritage
Month, there
are different
types of cultural
ethnic activities Guyana is hoping
that we are pro- interest visitors d
moting. So we are not going
after the mass market to have


g eco-tourism atractions liKe Dira watching will
during Cricket World Cup 2007.
jumbo jets with 400 to 500 peo-
ple coming out together, which


our ecology will not be able to
sustain," he added.
He said while the individ-
ual tourism products have to
be developed, promoted,
directed and sustained by the
private sector, the GTA would
be working along with the pri-
vate sector to ensure that the
Guyana product was devel-
oped in a sustainable way.
James said even though
tourism is not a major revenue
generating product, it
contributes to Guyana's Gross
Domestic Product.
"It has gone from a literal-
ly an unknown commodity to
approximately 12 to 15
percent of the nation's gross
domestic product, and what
differentiates it from the typi-
cal West Indian tourism is that
it is not an island," he added.
0


Tourism important in

AIDS fight activist


Dr. Carol Jacobs, chairman of the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, says
the tourism sector is of critical
importance in the fight against
HIV/AIDS.
"In a region which boasts
of 40 million tourists passing
through the region annually, the
tourism sector must see itself as
having a critical role in sensitizing
those who work in the industry, as
well as those who travel for pleas-
ure or for work," said Dr. Jacobs,
an eminent Caribbean family
physician, who also chairs the
Barbados National HIV/AIDS
Commission.
Her comments came last
month as St. Lucia prepared
to host a large delegation of
Caribbean media, tourism and
development officials for the


Caribbean Media Exchange on
Sustainable Tourism (CMEx), a
regional forum known for dealing
with the controversial connec-
tions between tourism and
HIV/AIDS.
"The AIDS program relies
heavily on our media partners to
help us achieve these ends," said
Dr. Jacobs.
The fifth anniversary of
CMEx, to be held at Coco
Resorts and a host of other prop-
erties on the island, was sched-
uled to examine the enhancement
of sustainable tourism develop-
ment through the lens of "Chic
Communications GC ',nph dis-
cussing culinary, cultural, health,
sports, and village tourism link-
ages over four days in Castries.
0


1
glol


JAZZ JAMAICAN-STYLE IN JANUARY


Music will be the drawing card for visitors planning to travel to Jamaica early next year. Last month the organizers of the Air
Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival announced their plans for 2007, the 10th year of the event, at a launch held in New York. They
listed several well known artistes confirmed to perform at the festival, set to run from Jan. 25-27, including Arturo Tappin,
Christopher Cross, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Rogers, Michael Bolton, Monty Alexander, Pieces of a Dream, plus reggae stars Freddie
McGregor, Luciano, Shaggy and Wayne Wonder. Among those who attended the launch were, from left, David Shields, Jamaica's
deputy tourism director; and festival officials Walter Elmore, Marcia McDonnough, George deMercado and Gregg Truman.


October 2006


CARIBBEAN TODAY


TOURISM

BRIEFS
* American Eagle adds Caribbean
destinations
American Eagle has increased its
services to five Caribbean destina-
tions.
The airline will offer additional
flights from its San Juan hub to
Antigua, Dominica, Anguilla, St.
Thomas and St. Croix, using the
ATR72 turbo-prop aircraft with
capacity for 64 passengers.

* Faith tourism for The Bahamas
The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism is
partnering with former Fox News
correspondent and CNN news
anchor Andria Hall to promote faith
tourism in those Caribbean islands
Nov. 30 through Dec. 3.

* Club Med to open in December
Club Med La Caravelle is scheduled
to open in Guadeloupe on Dec. 16
following the completion of renova-
tions, which reportedly cost $29 mil-
lion.

* Travelocity exec to address CTC
A senior executive of one of the
leading online providers of travel
services will give delegates to the
29th Annual Caribbean Tourism
Conference (CTC-29) an insight into
how to use the Internet to expand
their business.
Tracey Weber, the chief operat-
ing officer in North America for
Travelocity, will set the tone for the
CTC-29 scheduled for Oct. 22-25 in
The Bahamas.

* New tourist board for Montserrat
Tourism entrepreneur John Ponteen
has been chosen to chair a new
board of directors for the Montserrat
Tourist Board (MTB).

Compiled from CMC and other
sources.
0





CARIBBEAN TODAY


Eww.carbbanodagcm


PARENT RESOURCE
GUIDE
The Miami-Dade County
Public Schools and The
Education Fund have co-pub-
lished a free Parent Resource
Guide 2006-2007 for the pub-
lic.
The 88-page guide, spon-
sored by global financial serv-


ices provider ING, gives par-
ents information they need to
know about their child's
school, curriculum and stu-
dent requirements.
The guide is printed in
three languages -English,
Spanish and Haitian creole.
Each school in the system will
receive additional copies for


DYes, send me 1 year (12 issues) of Caribbean Today
for: Il $35(US) First Class J $20(US) Bulk Rate
Q Payment Enclosed
Name: H
I Address: I
City: State Zip:
Country: Telephone:___

Please make check or Money Order payable to
Caribbean Today, and mail to:
9020 S.W. 152nd Street Miami, Florida 33157
or call: (305) 238-2868


Caribbean ; day
L -_ _-- -------------_--- --- i


use in parent-teacher meet-
ings.
The guide may also be
viewed online at www.educa-
tionfund.org (under "Our
Publications") and
www.dadeschools.net (under
"RLtlirt.L, ).
The 2006-2007 Guide pro-
vides a wealth of information
including revised curriculum
requirements, test schedules,
immunization requirements,
student services, legal rights
and parental involvement.

HURRICANE RELIEF
Elderly residents of
Broward County, Florida,
home to hundreds of
Caribbean immigrants, will
get hurricane help from the
county.
A $5,655,000 grant that
will provide assistance to resi-
dents 60 years and older that
were affected by the 2005
hurricanes.
The grant money will be
administered by the Broward
County Elderly and Veteran
Services Division, and will be
used for rental subsidies to
assist elderly residents for
housing expenses incurred as
their residences were dam-
aged, in-home services such as
minor repairs and clean up, as
well as roof replacement.
The grant funds will be
available to any Broward
County resident 60 years or
older who is not receiving
services from another source
and was impacted by a hurri-
cane in 2005.


Assistance will be provid-
ed through an application
process. For more informa-
tion, call the Elderly and
Veteran Services Division at
954-537-2936.

PASSPORTS
The National Passport
Information Center (NPIC),
the United States Department
of State's single, centralized
public contact center for U.S.
passport information, is offer-
ing a toll free service and has
expanded its service availabil-
ity/options.
Persons with questions or
need status checks on pending
passport applications can call
1-877-487-2778. Customer
service representatives are
available from 8 a.m. to 8
p.m. Monday through Friday,
excluding Federal holidays.
Automated information is
available 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
For e-mail access, visit:
npic@state.gov Website of
passport and other interna-
tional travel information is
available at travel.state.gov

'GREEN CARD' FILING
The United States
Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) has
announced that aliens must
mail applications to renew or
replace permanent resident
cards, commonly known as
"Green Cards", directly to the
Los Angeles Lockbox.
The Lockbox is a process-
ing facility used by USCIS to
accelerate the collection of
applications and petitions.
The announced change allows
the agency to improve the
processing of Form 1-90
(Application to Replace
Permanent Resident Card) by
electronically capturing data
and images and by perform-
ing fee receipting and deposit-
ing from one central location,
rather than at the local dis-
trict office, service center, or
application support center
(ASC).
Aliens filing a Form 1-90,
regardless of their state of
residence, must mail those
applications with an applica-


tion fee of $185 and a biomet-
rics fee of $70 to one of the
following addresses:
For U.S. Postal Service
(USPS) deliveries:
U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services, P.O.
Box 54870 Los Angeles, CA
90054-0870;
Or for non-USPS deliver-
ies (e.g. private couriers):
U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services,
Attention: 1-90, 16420 Valley
View Ave., La Mirada, CA
90638
Applicants should not
include initial evidence and
supporting documentation
when submitting the Form I-
90 to the Los Angeles
Lockbox.
Applicants will receive a
notice for a biometrics pro-
cessing appointment at an
ASC and will submit their ini-
tial evidence during that
appointment.
Applicants will receive
their biometrics appointment
in the mail.

CRISIS HOTLINE
Multi-lingual counselors
are available to respond per-
sons suffering from stress or
needing help with housing,
food, child care, caring for
teens or other similar prob-
lems.
Call 211 from a regular
telephone or 954-537-0211
from a cellular.
The free service is being
offered as part of Broward
County's helplines.

PARENTS NIGHT OUT
The Art and Culture
Center of Hollywood, Florida
will hold a I'arL n1, Night
Out" event on Oct. 13.
I',rLl n, Night Out" is a
chance for parents to have an
evening out on the town
alone while their children
ages four to 12 create art, par-
ticipate in creative movement
activities, play games, eat
pizza and watch movies at the
center, 1650 Harrison Street.
For more information and
reservations, call 954-921-
3274.
0


MIAMI MIRAMAR-BROWARD
Wachovia Financial Center Huntington Square
200 South Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 2680 3350 S.W. 148th Avenue, Suite 110
Miami, Fhnida il 1I Miramar, FL 33027
Tel: 786-777-0184 Fax: 786-777-0174 Tel: 954*874* 1736 Fax: 954*430*9342
info@delancyhill.com www.delancyhill.com
Thk ,innr- i;j ,a iwty n i, o n onil di. wi ri b [ fidl lv o tr bE i&'d u t Lbelid-111,r '1ill s w, >f c :, nJd pl .ta j. % u d I, andl u Ii- Iircnnrn nl l n al..n UTin t-Ai urqul',icl i n and i mni[rKn'


Consider Metropolitan Baptist Church, an exciting, growing, multi-ethnic
S mult-cultural congregation, meeting at
7200 Davie Road Extension, Hollywood, FL 33024
SUNDAYS: 10:00 a.m. with Sunday School at 9:00a.m. Joyful worship,
warm fellowship and anointed preaching await you.
Visit us next Sunday-for an experience of blessing! 10:00 a.m.
For more information call the Church Office: 954.963.0634 J
Rev. Hervin Green Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Savior & Lord! Rev Clinton Chisholm
Pastor www.metropolitanbaptistonline.com Associate Pastor


Donovan D. Taylor, M.D.

'IV^ Board Certified Family
Physician
children adults gynecology
weight management
Donovan Taylor, M.D.
Please call for an appointment
(305) 655-0702
Graduate of UWL. Previously practiced in Mandeville,
Residency at JMH.
NEW LOCATION
250 NW 183rd Street, Miami, Florida 33169
DIPLOMAT OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS


October 2006


r FY I








NOctobe / e nTCARTninm TAYnT


Shaggy, Wyclef among headliners at Wome


Dominica's World Creole Music Fest wanted


n filmmakers


3d for festival


Grammy award winners
Shaggy and Wyclef
Jean will be among the
top acts appearing at the 10th
Annual World Creole Music
Festival from Oct. 27-29 at
Pottersville Savannah in
Dominica.
The festival will open with
the Jamaican-born dancehall
artiste Shaggy, who won a
Grammy Award for "Best
Reggae Album" in 1995 and
Dominica's own WCK, creators
of Bouyon music. Other per-
formances will include T-Vice
from Haiti, Royalty Band from
the U.S. and Zouk Flam from
Guadeloupe.
The next day, Haitian-born
Wyclef Jean, formerly with The
Fugees, will perform. Joining
him will be Triple Kay from
Dominica, performers of zouk,


compas, reg-
gae, cadance,
dancehall and
local bouyon
music; and
Swinging
Stars, also
from
Dominica,
featuring
Hunter and
King Dice. Wyclef Jean
The sounds of
Sakis and Djakout will com-
plete the evening's line-up.

'THE DRAGON'
Dominica's Impromptu
Band will take the stage on Oct.
29, along with "The Dragon"
Byron Lee of Jamaica, Admiral
T of Gaudeloupe, as well as
Tabou Combo and Carimi, both
from Haiti.


Digicel is the platinum
sponsor of this year's World
Creole Music Festival. Other
sponsors include Heineken,
Kubuli,
CaribVision,
Appleton
Jamaica Rum
and
Caribbean
Star and
Caribbean
T Sun Airlines.
S" .For more
information
Shaggy on the festival,
contact the
Dominica Festivals Commission
(DFC) at 767-448-2045 or visit the
festival's website at www.world-
creolemusicfestival, dm
0


Success of 'Harder They Come' amazes filmmaker Perry Henzell


TORONTO, Canada, CMC -
Jamaican filmmaker Perry
Henzell says he is "amazed" at
the "phenomenal" success of
the movie "The Harder They
Come", since it had been a
"hard sell" when it was
released in 1972.
Henzell was speak-
ing with patrons, who
attended the screening of
a restored version of the
movie at the ongoing
Toronto International
Film Festival (TIFF) in
Canada last month. He
said it was impossible to
get a distributor, and
when no international i
company would take the
film, he personally took i
it to some 36 countries
over a six-year period.
"When the movie
opened in Brixton, nobody
came. We printed 2,000 flyers
and got runners to plaster
them everywhere and the next
night, the place was rammed,"
he recalled.

IMPACT
The movie was shown in a
section of the 10-day film festi


val called "Dialogues: Talking
with Pik IurL where film
t directors were invited to
"select and discuss films that
have inspired them, had a sig-
nificant impact on them, or
were pivotal in the progression


.__, kj ]


of their own -.,r rs .
The restored version of
"The Harder They Come"
also contains 20 new shots.
The movie, which starred
reggae icon Jimmy Cliff, also
launched the acting career of
Carl Bradshaw, who was a high
school teacher at the time.
He told the audience that


no one realized how big the
film would become, as for
many of the actors it was just
"a mackerel and banana"
movie.
"What that means is we
didn't really see it as having
any substance but it could feed
you and keep you from starv-
ing. I had no
idea I was
launching my
career," said
the award-
winning actor
and movie
producer, who
has appeared
Henzell in almost
every movie
shot in Jamaica, including
"Third World Cop", Smile
Orange", "The Ltuniiiki ,
"Klash" and "Dancehall
Queen".
Henzell's second movie,
"No Place Like Home", was
one of two Jamaican movies to
premier at this year's Toronto
Film Festival, the other being
"Made in Jamaica".


L.A. nightclub cancels Buju Banton show


LOS ANGLES, CMC -
Managers of a nightclub here
last month cancelled an October
performance by Jamaican reg-
gae artiste Mark Myrie, also
known as Buju Banton, after
customers raised concerns about
his anti-gay lyrics.
Press reports stated that e-
mail messages and telephone
calls from patrons prompted the
cancellation of the Oct. 2 show.
"We felt it was the right
thing to do after doing some


research on the matter," said
Adam Manacker, general man-
ager of the Highland nightclub
and restaurant.

STUNTED
Earlier this year Buju
Banton and Beenie Man,
another Jamaican reggae star,
had shows in London cancelled
after activists condemned them
for their homophobic tunes.
One of Buju Banton's earlier
songs "Boom Bye Bye" glori-


fies the shooting of gay men.
However, his most recent album
"Too Bad", released last month,
omits homophobic lyrics.
The husky-voiced star has
been a major figure in Jamaica
since the early 1990s with brash
dancehall music and, more
recently, a traditional reggae
sound. But his career has been
stunted in the United States
and Britain because of his atti-
tude toward gays.
0


Miami The Women's
International Film Festival
South Florida (WIFF) is seek-
ing films for its second annual
festival which will take place
Mar. 29-April 1, 2007.
Screenings will be held in
both Miami-Dade and
Broward counties.
Festival entries will be
accepted into two main cate-
gories, "U.S. Fem-Cinema",
for women from or living in
the United States and "World
iL \ I\\ for women who
come from other countries.
Filmmakers may enter
feature length (70 minutes or
longer) narrative/dramatic
films or feature length docu-
mentaries. The festival will
also accept dramatic shorts
and short documentary films
(films 49 minutes or less).
Cash and prizes will be
given for the best films.
"We're really excited to
have juried competitions with
both American and interna-
tional filmmakers being
judged separately this year,"
Yvonne McCormack-Lyons,
executive director of the festi-
val said in a press release
issued last month. "It pro-
vides our audiences the
opportunity to see from the
eyes of women here in the
U.S., as well as a window into
the thematic and JL~Ithl itk
concerns of issues stemming
from across the globe."

SHOWCASE
The WIFF is a four-day
"Women's History Month"
celebration showcasing


he cultural diversity of
artists and art organiza-
tions will be the focus
of a Cultural Diversity Artists'
Forum this month in Hollywood,
Florida.
The workshop, set for
7 p.m. Oct. 11 at the Okalee
Museum, 5710 Seminole Way,
will encourage dialogue with
artists and arts organizations in
order to identify their needs.
It will also offer artists an
opportunity to learn about the
different services offered by the
Broward County Commission's
Cultural Division, to learn new
skills for career enhancement
and network with other artists
and arts organizations, as well
as information on grants,
workshops, school and commu-
nity artist residencies, teaching
opportunities, publications and
marketing.
"The Cultural Diversity


women's films, visual art and
other art forms. The event
also includes workshops,
panel discussions, symposia,
and parties celebrating women
artists.
"The mission of WIFF is
to bring together women
artists from all over the world
to explore, share and dialogue
about issues concerning
women through the arts," said
McCormack-Lyons. "With
women representing only five
to seven percent of filmmak-
ers, it is no wonder that the
images of women and the sub-
ject matter of films presented
to the general public are often
less than ideal. With these
kinds of statistics, WIFF's role
is very important."
Filmmakers can submit
their films to: Women's
International Film Festival,
P.O. Box 120337, Fort
Lauderdale, FL 33312 or
through the website www.wif-
fonline.org where they can
view complete submission
rules and information.
Submission deadlines and
processing fees are: Early
submission deadline: Oct. 31,
2006, $25 features and $20
shorts; official submission
deadline, Nov. 30, 2006, $30
features and $25 shorts; and
late submission, Dec. 7, 2006,
$40 features and $35 short
films.
For more information
about the WIFF, call 954-937-
8299 or log onto www.wiffon-
line.org.
0


Artists' Forums are a wonder-
ful opportunity for us to learn
about the area's artists, as well
as openly discuss new ideas and
future needs, of artists and arts
organizations," said Mary A.
Becht, director of the Cultural
Division.
For more information about
the free forum, which is being
held in partnership with the
Seminole Tribe of Florida, call
Adriane C(lrl, grants special-
ist, at 954-357-7530 or e-mail:
aclarke@broward.org; or Terresa
Ford, arts education specialist,
at teford@broward org or
954-357-8007.
Online registration
can be made visiting
www.broward org/arts and
clicking on "Workshops".
0


Florida hosts forum


on artist diversity


October 2006


CARIBBEAN TODAY





CARIBBEAN TODAY


Caribbean Week


- u scrbes..


GORDON WILLIAMS

The tasty flavor of a tempting
destination will be available in
Toronto this month, and
organizers of the first ever
"Caribbean Week" are hoping
that it will be sweet enough
to draw visitors from the
Canadian city to the region.
Between Oct. 11 and 15
Toronto, which has hosted the
popular "Caribana" festival
for years, will be engulfed with
the Caribbean's special brand
of allure food and entertain-
ment in this first time event
presented by the Caribbean
Tourist Organization (CTO).
The CTO hopes the experi-
ence will be linger long
enough to transform into a
significant boost for the
region's tourism industry.
"It's taking the people
to the market," CTO's
Communications Director
Johnson JohnRose told
Caribbean Today recently.
"It's giving them a little
taste fo the region so they can
come to the region and have
the full meal."
According to the CTO,
which has also been organiz-
ing a similar event in New
York for the past four years,
Toronto has always been a
target, along with other North


[lk-".


:- 4 wr r ..........
agL., ine.
BM-emiml


Toronto will host "Caribbean Week" this
month.
American cities with large
Caribbean populations.
"We have, for quite a
while, been trying to get it
done in Toronto," JohnRose
said. "Hopefully we can do it in
other cities n the U.S. as well."


Taste of the Caribbean comes to Toronto


The schedule for the CTO's first ever
"Caribbean Week" in Toronto is as
follows:

* Thursday, Oct. 12 at The Carlu
10 a.m.-2 p.m. Ribbon cutting open-
ing ceremony and media marketplace
and luncheon for sponsors and offi-
cials.
3 p.m.-5:30 p.m.- Travel agent train-
ing sessions
6 p.m.-10 p.m.- Agent carnival and
mini-marketplace showcasing
Caribbean foods and entertainment.

* Friday, Oct. 13 at The Carlu
"DoltCaribbean" wedding promotion,
followed by a champagne reception for
the winning couple.


and consumer attention by
presenting the best of the
Caribbean; create a platform
for the sale of Caribbean vaca-
tions; and create opportunities
for our member countries to
use the event to further their
individual objectives."
"What you're doing is


EXPOSURE exposing the Caribbean to t
The intent of the celebra- people," JohnRose said.
tions is clear. According to a "Taking the Caribbean and
press release from the CTO, bringing it to life... and don
"Caribbean Week" in Toronto by Caribbean people."
wants to "create events, which The CTO is the C,,ribb 1
will attract significant media tourism development agency


the


e

nil'


* Saturday, Oct. 14 at The Ontario
Science Centre
10 a.m.-5 p.m.- The Caribbean
Marketplace, open to the public.
Representatives from Caribbean desti-
nations, airlines, tour operators and
hotels will be present to showcase the
best of the region's destinations.

* Sunday, Oct. 15 at the Cathedral
Church of St. James
4:30 p.m.-6 p.m. Special service
including the music of the Chorale of
Toronto. Reverend Douglas Stoute will
preside over the celebration.

For more information on "Caribbean
Week" in Toronto, call 416-935-0767
or visit www.caribbeanweek.ca


which represents 32 govern-
ments and some private sector
entities.

Gordon Williams is Caribbean
Today's managing editor.
Beginning Nov. 1, 2006, you
may e-mail him at
editor@caribbeantoday. com.
0


A scholarship fund in honor
of the late Louise Bennett-
Coverley (Miss Lou) Fund was
officially launched last month at
a community cultural tribute to
commemorate the birthday, life
and legacy of the late Jamaican
icon in Miami, Florida.
The scholarship, tenable
at the Edna Manley College
of Visual and Performing Arts
in Kingston, Jamaica, will be
awarded to a student pursuing
the three-year diploma course
in performing arts. This was
announced by Norma Darby,
director of the Florida-based
folklore group, the Jamaica
Folk Revue, who spearheaded
the planning of the cultural
tribute.
A proclamation declaring
Sept. 8 as "Louise Bennett
Day" in North Miami was also
presented by that city's Mayor
Shirley Gibson.

ENTERTAINMENT
More than 600 persons
attended the three-hour long
program of cultural perform-
ances which featured folk
songs, poetry, drama, dance
and video clippings reminiscent
of the work and life of Miss
Lou, including the famous
"Ring Ding" entertainment
with the children.
The audience was enter-
tained by local artistes includ-
ing the Jamaica Folk Revue,
the Tallawah Mento Band, the
Roots and Culture Dancers,


the Sierra Norwood Children's
Choir, the Queens


IVlISS LOU


Entertainment Troupe and
dub poet Malachi Smith.
Special guest was
Jamaican cultural performer
Faith D'Aguillar who enter-
tained the audience with a col-
lection of Miss Lou's well-
known pieces.
Miss Lou, who died in
Canada recently, would have
celebrated her 87th birthday
on Sept. 7.
A similar community trib-
ute is being scheduled for Oct.
14 at the African American
Library and Cultural Center
in Fort Lauderdale as part of
Jamaica's National Heroes'
celebrations in Florida.

JIS
0


Family of dead

singer sues gov't
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent,
CMC The family of singer
Patrice Bascombe, who died
last month following a motor
vehicle accident, is suing the St.
Vincent and the Grenadines
government over claims of
gross negligence on the part of
health officials at the Milton
Cato Memorial Hospital.
Bascombe was one of two
finalists selected to represent
the island at the
regional level of the Digicel
Rising Star Competition.
The 18-year-old former
junior queen contestant,
national dance champion and
singer died while being pre-
pared for surgery, hospital
authorities said. But the fami-
ly's attorney Bayliss Frederick
said that Trinidadian patholo-
gist Dr. Hubert Daisley con-
firmed that the singer died
from septicemia or blood poi-
soning. Frederick has alleged
that the young singer died as a
result of gross negligence.
0


Florida launches 'Miss Lou'


scholarship to honor late icon


I


October 2006


momm- I ............... ........ ........ "I,"",,,"",,,"M""
I n R T S / oE nTIE RTn i n m oE nT





CARIBBEAN TODAY


LESLIE A. SHARE AND
MICHAEL ROSENBERG
So-called offshore "tax
haven" jurisdictions such as
the Cayman Islands, The
Bahamas, and the British Virgin
Islands have traditionally served
as the preferred choices for for-
eign individuals to form holding
companies and trusts.
Similarly, many United
States persons use them as well
for such purposes, and keep
them fully compliant with the
related U.S. tax requirements. In
most cases, these structures are
created for completely legitimate
business or personal reasons.
On the other hand, there
are of course some individuals
and entities which attempt to use
tax haven companies to hide
assets and income from their
home country tax authorities. In
recent years, these activities
have undergone intense scrutiny
by the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) and the U.S. Congress,
and numerous "secret" offshore
schemes have been uncovered.
In this regard, on Aug. 1,
2006, the U.S. Senate Permanent
Subcommittee on Investigation
issued an extensive 370 page
report entitled "Tax Haven
Abuses: The Enablers, The Tools
and Secrecy" (the report).

STRUGGLE
Commissioner of Internal
Revenue Mark Everson testified
before this subcommittee that
the report reviews the struggles
of the U.S. government to com-
bat the alleged use of Caribbean
and other offshore financial cen-
ters to hide trillions of dollars of
assets, avoid taxes on billions of
dollars of income, and partici-
pate in money laundering.
As one example, the
report mentions that Enron
Corporation, one of the most
notorious users of offshore struc-
tures, formed 441 offshore enti-
ties in the Cayman Islands in a
single year.
The expressed purpose of
the report is to "open the black


* Help reception for small busi-
nesses
The Miami-Dade Department of
Business Development will be
holding a reception at 6 p.m. Oct.
11 at the Continental National
Bank of Miami, 1801 S.W. 1st St.,
to kick off its new program that
guarantees loans to Community
Small Business Enterprise (CSBE)
and Small Business Enterprise
(SBE) firms.
The program relieves some of
the financial burdens these compa-
nies encounter as small business
contractors/vendors when awarded
county contracts guarantees loans
for CSBE and SBE firms performing
on county contracts, through a
partnership with Continental


Enron Corporation once formed 441 off shore entities in a single year in the Cayman
Islands.


box" of how financial profes-
sionals allegedly help their
clients conceal and secretly uti-
lize foreign offshore assets while
circumventing or violating U.S.
tax, securities, and anti-money
laundering laws. It then reviews
a number of fascinating case his-
tories where various "promot-
ers" recruited clients over the
Internet, prepared an ..!,i...ii.
how-to manual", and devised
various complex trust and securi-
ties transactions schemes for
shielding their activities from
law enforcement authorities.

'SPIDER WEB'
The most detailed and inter-
esting case history discussion
involved the use of a virtual "spi-
der web" of 58 non-U.S. trusts
and corporations and a wide
range of offshore mechanisms to
exercise control over their assets
and $600 million in related
investment gains.
In essence, the report pro-
vides a roadmap of the beliefs of
the U.S. tax authorities on "how
not to" establish and maintain
offshore structures.
As a bottom-line, if any for-
eign or U.S. investor still
believes that the use of a
"secret" tax haven will forever
shelter their investments from
the prying eyes of the various
legal authorities, a casual review


BUSINESS BRIEFS


National Bank of Miami.

* 30th Miami trade confab
Dec. 4-6
The effect of recent initiatives
such as the Caribbean Single
Market will be among the issues
assessed at the 30th Miami
Conference on trade and invest-
ments scheduled for Dec. 4-6.
Will the Caribbean be able to
effectively integrate and create a
truly single market space that
allows for increased regional and
foreign direct investment? Is
CAFTA-DR delivering on its prom-
ise or is there significant work left
to be done to make Central
American economies competitive?
Those subjects will be discussed


of the report should put an end
to such foolishness.
Although the report gener-
ally targets U.S. taxpayers rather
than foreign persons with no
direct U.S. connections, it does
inevitably give rise to the practi-
cal problem of potentially "taint-
ing" the honest, legitimate uses
of low or no-tax Caribbean
and other jurisdictions like the
British Virgin Islands; the
Cayman Islands, and The
Bahamas. In our experience,
foreign investors using these
jurisdictions to hold their U.S.
assets have sometimes been
misidentified as U.S. persons
or as having engaged in illegal
activities, which has caused them
numerous related difficulties and
professional expenses to clarify
their situations.
Professional advisors will
therefore need to carefully con-
sider these types of potential
issues with respect to each per-
son's individual circumstances.

Leslie A. Share and Michael
Rosenberg are shareholders
with the Coral Gables law
firm of Packman, Neuwahl &
Rosenberg, and can be reached
at 305-665-3311.
0


by leaders from the region at the
three-day event.

* Belize banking on CABEI
Belize has signed an agreement
making it a non-founding benefici-
ary member of the Central
American Bank for Economic
Integration (CABEI).
CABEI, established by the
governments of Guatemala, El
Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and
Nicaragua, aims to contribute to the
social and economic development
of the Central American region.

Compiled from CMC and other
sources.
0


Miami-Dade offers free


public business seminars


| roughout October the
Miami-Dade Enterprise
Community Center
(ECC) will be conducting a
free public business plan lab
and seminars for aspiring
entrepreneurs in South Florida.
Those participating in the
"Emerging and Expanding
Business Seminars Series" can
receive the ECC Certificate
Program upon completing the
seminar series.
Seminars will be held at
3050 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 201
in Miami. They will be divid-
ed in two parts consisting of
the "Emerging BuIii,,' and
the "Expanding Business
Series".
Among the topics to be
discussed are assets, manage-
ment, legal contracts for small
business owners, business
plans and government con-
tracting, business licenses and
taxes, loans, and how to start
a successful business.

HELP
The ECC is a division of
the Miami-Dade Empowerment


Trust. The mission of the ECC is
to maximize the opportunities
for entrepreneurs and small
business owners to succeed in
Miami-Dade County and con-
tribute to its economic growth
by providing a wide array of
business services through a
"One Stop Entrepreneurial
Center".
The center offers a small
business resource library and
daily one on one business
counseling.
The ECC houses non-
profit organizations, public
and private lenders and gov-
ernment agencies like the
Minority Business Enterprise
Center, a component of the
United States Department of
Commerce Minority
Business Development
Agency (MBDA). The pur-
pose of this office is to foster
the establishment and growth
of minority-owned businesses
in America.
For additional informa-
tion and to register, call 305-
579-2730.
0


GEORGETOWN, Guyana -
The Guyana government has
confirmed that the country's
largest trade and investment
exposition, GUYEXPO, will
proceed as planned this
month.
Tourism, Industry and
Commerce Minister Manniram
Prashad said the event would
take place from Oct. 26-31.
Prashad, said he had
met with the GUYEXPO
Committee to discuss prepara-
tory works and site designing
and that the event would be
held under the theme
"Exhibiting Excellence".
Organizers said they
expect more than 80,000 peo-
ple to attend the exposition


that provides local companies
with an avenue to promote
their products. The state-
owned Guyana Chronicle
newspaper had reported there
were fears that the exposition
would have been postponed
this year, because of the Aug.t
28 regional and general elec-
tions that had been won by the
incumbent People's Progressive
Party Civic (PPPC).
Prashad said GUYEXPO
has contributed significantly
to the economy, as many local
enterprises, small and large,
have been able to clinch lucra-
tive deals.
0


ALTHEA M.ITAYLO


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with trade expo Oct. 26-31


October 2006






CARIBBEAN TODAY


-usw^caribbeantodj..c..


SPORT


T&T's Hislop bides his time over new U.S. soccer challenge

~ T&T World Cup hero moves to MLS's F.C. Dallas


GORDON WILLIAMS

Shaka Hislop knows all about
waiting. That's because he's so
confident it will never be in
vain.
The man who stepped
from the shadows of a substi-
tute at virtually the last minute
to shine for Trinidad and
Tobago on soccer's
bi-LsI stage the
2006 World Cup finals
in Germany lives the
perfect formula:
patience does pay.
"You never know
when opportunity will
come. You just have to
be ready," the goal-
keeper told Caribbean
Today last month as
he continued his cur-
rent role as a back-up
with his new team F.C.
Dallas of Major
League Soccer (MLS)
in the United States.
Staying ready is
the philosophy Hislop Hislop in a
has adapted through-
out his long career, including
14 years in Europe's profes-
sional leagues, many at the
club game's highest level. Yet
even though success never
totally eluded him twice fin-
ishing runner-up in the English
Premier League (EPL) he
had to wait until age 37 to rel-
ish the greatest moments of his
soccer life. And after all those
years, which included hopping
between several clubs top
flight English teams Newcastle
United and Portsmouth among
them it happened in the
space of one month.
In May, the 6' 4" Hislop
started the final of the EA.
Cup for West Ham, It took a
spectacular late shot from
England international Steven
Gerrard of Liverpool to snatch
one of the most prestigious
trophies in world club soccer
from the grasp of Hislop and
the Hammers.

BIGGER HIGHLIGHT
But Hislop was not deflat-


ed for long. The following
month just hours before
T&T was to make its historic
entrance into the World Cup -
he learned that he would
replace injured Kelvin Jack in
goal against Sweden. Nothing
in more than a dozen pro sea-
sons, and dozens more interna-
tional caps, could top the expe-


action for West Ham in England last season.


rience of lining up with his
teammates as T&T's national
anthem cascaded from the
public address system on June
10 at Dortmund.
"It was a lifelong ambition
to be in the World Cup," said
Hislop, who went on to per-
form brilliantly for the Soca
Warriors in a surprise 0-0 draw
with Sweden, and days later
in a 0-2 defeat to England,
although he was again beaten
by a Gerrard strike late in the
game.
"Throughout (my career) I
always thought something was
missing for me and that was
the World Cup.
"Things went well for me
personally and the team," he
explained, although the tiny
twin-island republic of just
over a million people the
smallest nation ever to reach
the finals failed to score a
goal in the tournament and
was eliminated in the group
stage.


"It's a high that I will
probably never come down
from."

FRESH START
Hislop's bi.-sl soccer
highlights had came within a
month of each other, making
that, according to him, "a nice
note to sign off" his European


ranked professional league,
but still scoffed at by the tradi-
tional club powers of Europe
and South America.
He misses the packed ter-
races at England's soccer
grounds and the chanting,
ultra-passionate fans who roar
on world-class players each
weekend.
"Of course," he admitted,
"the environment is different."
But he looks at the MLS,
a relatively young league with
a promising future, as a fresh
start that he is already relish-
ing.
"It is not a come down,"
said Hislop about playing in
the MLS. "It's still about foot-
ball, soccer. It was a time for a
new challenge. I wanted a new
challenge, a fresh challenge."
So he did not re-sign with
West Ham, although, he said,
the club offered him a con-
tract. He claimed he wanted to
be closer to T&T, the place he
calls "home", although he was
born in the United Kingdom


Hislop, left, and captain Dwight Yorke celebrate T&T's historic qualification for the


finals of World Cup 2006
career on. Yet, despite still
being buoyed by the World
Cup experience, Hislop insists
he does not look down at
the MLS, America's highest


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and attended Howard
University in the U.S. T&T is
also where his wife and her
family are from.
"I wanted more stability,"
Hislop explained.
He went to EC. Dallas
fully aware that the starting
goalkeeper's job belonged to
Dario Sala, a 32-year-old
Argentine who last played for
Arsenal, another top level
EPL club. With the club on an
impressive run in the MLS's
Western Conference when he
joined in early August, Hislop
already knew he would have to
compete hard for playing time.
At the time of this interview
early last month he had only
seen action in the U.S. Open
Cup on Aug. 23, and was still
waiting to make his MLS
debut.
"Even with his pedigree,


we knew when we brought him
in that we weren't just going to
give him the (starting) job,"
EC. Dallas's Media Relations
Manager Justin Pearson told
Caribbean Today.
"He would have to fight
for a job like everyone else on
the roster."

STILL INTENSE
Hislop doesn't mind. He
said his intensity has not
diminished with the crossing of
the oceans. He signed on with
EC. Dallas through the end of
next season simply because he
wants to play.
"I'm still as competitive as
I was," he said. "The rules of
the game haven't changed that
much (from England to the
U.S.). My competitiveness has-
n't changed that much."
However, he understands
that he still must prove he is
good enough. For that, he is
armed with his most telling
weapon.
"The single-minded inten-
sity remains the same," Hislop
said.
He insisted he has set no
timetable for grabbing a start-
ing spot. Sitting and watching,
the patience that has brought
him so much reward in the
past, is fine.. .for now.
"It's nothing new to me,"
he said. "It doesn't bother me
in the slightest...It's just part of
the game."
While he waits, Hislop said
he has no problem doing what-
ever he can to help EC. Dallas
win the MLS. He supports Sala
and the other young goalkeep-
ers at the club. In some ways he
is like the old veteran passing
on the knowledge. They turn to
him, and he loves it.
"I feel I have a role and
responsibility to be support-
ive," he said. "I am enjoying
it."
And even if it eventually
turns sour, which Hislop seri-
ously doubts, he can always
look back at his special sum-
mer, when in less than a month
his soccer career reached its
pinnacle.
"I was happy as a fan just to
be there," he recalled about
hearing the T&T national
anthem in Germany at the World
Cup. 1 ,r nk it was a special
moment. That was the highlight
on the field. What a big moment
for me, my country."
Just something to think
about while he exercises his
most valuable virtue.

Gordon Williams is
Caribbean Today's managing
editor. Beginning Nov. 1, 2006
you may e-mail him at
editor@caribbeantoday.com
0


October 2006





CARIBBEAN TODAY


BOOKS


r6ww -arbbentda.com


Celebrating women takes center stage in 'First Rain'


TITLE: First Rain
AUTHOR: Donna Weir-Soley
REVIEWED BY: Dawn A.
Davis
It's not often that words from
another so stir the spirit that
they conjure up memories
deeply buried with time.
A book of poetry :, Ik l inil_
the rhythmic music of language,
"First Rain" celebrates the lives of
the women in the author's life -
from her grandmother to her aunty
and her close friends, who have
played significant roles in shaping
her words.
Donna Weir-Soley recreates
the lives and tales '.f iIi, women
through her own unique storytelling
voice. And, through her stories you
will go back to a time when you felt
most nurtured, a time when quality
time meant a family g.ili, ringi with
the eldest matriarch in the family
the center of .ill nli. ,! as she
weaved her life store ..... but
strong as a bamboo basket.
...Ah was born Teresa Matilda
Touban,
but evvy baddy call me mi Miss
Mattie or Sistah Mattie
Mi madda was a Maroon, )t. i.. r
people dem
she was as a healer an a midwife;
Mi daddy people dem come from
India
im come ere wen im a bway...


... Mi nevah have a
easy life -
M i born .,,,, ,.ih,, ,
gle
Mi birth thirteen
pickney;
one born dead
one get poliomylitis
from im a baby
one get a bad injec-
tion almost cripple im
Mi bury two husband
Cousin dem, same
name,
one jetblack and cool ', de stone
in im water jar
de odder one red 'i ,. wite people,
eye dem ... !,. de pickney dem
glass marble...
STRENGTH
Pictured on the cover is Weir-
Soley's r.inidm.ilii, r She is Nanny.
She embodies the strength of all the
women mentioned in this book; the
women who nurture and send their
sons and daughters into today's
harsh non-communicative world
giving them power to navigate.
Indeed, many have written
about positive forces in their lives,
but these stories/poems are differ-
ent. They go beyond just telling the
tale; they invite you into the
author's world. But, her world
becomes yours because the stories
are so familiar, so personal to your
own experience.
These tales are the Caribbean
experience, whether we want to


acknowledge it or not. In
I act, some totally deny this
part of their existence the
country life, cooking on a
dtik i!i on a coal fire,
feeding the pigs, going to
bush with grindf.Ii111.r
Sadly, this means denying
your being living a life
outside of who you are.
The men-folk in Weir-
soley's life are also
explored, always with
love, some with a bite.


...Fadda nuh dare look pon me.
Him talk to mi wid im back turn,
name de worlds I and I see
and de faces that refuse to see me.
Me learn de rhythm of him voice,
each curve and dip, swell and whirl,
syllable by syllable me swallow him
,1,. ,,,, whole
.,,1,ilme learn to speak in parables
i,;- de river...

But it is the women who take
center stage. In fact, they are the
first line of defense against adversi-
ty The women we meet in "First
Rain" 1b.iili, enemies, physical or
psychological, overcome great
handicaps, the jump hurdles to sur-
vival and success.
DISPLACED
H Lr niir.iiin i.,ris paint a
picture many displaced Caribbean
people can relate to the loneliness
even in the middle of a vast concrete


jungle; the culture shock; the day
job, the night job; the overt discrimi-
nation. But, amidst all this the she
.lh',r.il\ s Ii!, I talK 1 w and contri-
butions made to our adopted lands.
... What if we were to tell the truth
about our voluntary exile?
That we became the butt of jokes In
I 1 i.,, Color
for the three, four jobs we worked
to make down-payment on the
modest home,
since ,, ,, ,. a home expressed the
dogged determination
that cast our spirits in iron, made us
oblivious


to racial slights and other insults
we broaden our backs to take daily...
Insults bred desire, hope,
molded by large, tough hands into
words heavy as brick that become
edifices of powerful Caribbean
immigrant experiences.
"First Rain" get it!
PUBLISHER: Peepal Tree Press
Ltd, U.K.

Dawn A. Davis is a freelance
writer for Caribbean Today.
0


BOOK BRIEFS


* Jamaican launches book
Jamaican David P. Rowe, a South
Florida-based attorney, last month
launched his book "Ira Rowe,
Caribbean Lawyer, Materials,
Tributes & Cases" at the St. Thomas
University School of Law.
* Law professor wins book prize
A book with a bittersweet Caribbean
flavor has been selected the winner
of the Frederick Douglass Book
Prize, which is awarded for the best
book on slavery or abolition.
"Degrees of Freedom;
Louisiana and Cuba After Slavery
Rebecca J. Scott", a Charles
Gibson Distinguished University
Professor of History and professor


of law at the University of
Michigan, is the author of the book.
She won a prize of $25,000.
* New book focuses on abuse
A woman struggling to survive
abuse while living in the Dominican
Republic, Puerto Rico and the
United States, highlights a new
book titled "Tres Gritos de Abuso
Carnal Angustia Y Terror".
The book, written in Spanish by
Leonidas Santana, focuses on the
hardships faced by the author.
0


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Attend a preview of Humana's 2007 Medicare Advantage health plans and learn about the exciting benefits and services, as well as important Medicare dates.
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October 2006


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CARIBBEAN TODAY


Miami



Book




Fair


2006


;PS rI


colki !Im c..


Write Out Loud Cafe
Monday-Thursday evenings: Art Center/South Florida,
800 Lincoln Road Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday
during Street Fair Northeast Second Avenue and Third Street
Miami's hottest talent-musical and literary-read and
perform. Don't miss the words of John Camacho, Elisa Albo,
Norma Watkins. Emma Trelles, Nick Gamett, Nina Romano.
Leejay Kline, C.M. Clark, Ryan G. Van Cleave, Terry Godbey,
Terry Witek, Yousi Mazpule, Jonathan Rose and other writers.
And the music of Mongo with John Camacho, Peter Betan,
Inner Court. Matthew Sabatella and the Gambling Ramblers,
Mark Zolezzi, and others.

Creative Writing Classes
Creating Fictional Art With Robert Olen Butler
Thursday, November 16,3-7 p.m., $40
Writing and Getting Published in the Young Adult Jungle with
David Henry Sterry
Friday, November 17, 12-4 p.m., $40
The Agent/Author Relationship in Today's Literary Marketplace
with Sandra Dijkstra
Friday, November 17, 5-7 p.m.. $40
For complete information, or to register.
www.flcenterlitarts.com or 305-237-3940.
Stay Current
The Fair supports public discourse and the free exchange of
ideas. Look in the Fairgoers Guide for the day and time of
these panel discussions, and make your opinions count.
* Family Secrets, Family Truths: American
Immigrant Stories
* Living the Golden Years
* Globalization Diaspora and Caribbean Popular Culture
* El Codigo Da Vinci: La Controversia Continua (In Spanish)
* Imaginando el future de Cuba (In SpanishI
* Un pais de inmigrantes (In Spanish)
* Nonviolence: A discussion with Mark Kurlansky,
Tom Hayden, and Chris Hedges


Caribbean Issues,



Caribbean Authors


Saturday, Nov. 18
10 a.m., Room 3313-14
Fiction from Jamaica's Calabash Writers:
Colin Channer, Marion James, Geoffrey Philp
11 a.m., Room 3313-14
Christopher John Farley on The Rise of Bob Marley
Noon, Room 3313-14
Panel on Globalization, Diaspora and Caribbean
Popular Culture moderated by Christine Ho with
Mike Alleyne, Jane Bryce, and Keith Nurse
1:30 p.m., Room 3313-14
Caribbean Voices: Lawrence Scott,
Pamela Mordecai and Donna Weir-Soley
2 p.m., Room 3315
Elizabeth Nunez and Rafael de Acha on interpreting
the classics for a contemporary audience
3:00 p.m., Room 3313-14
Caribbean Voices: Lorna Goodison, Deborah Jack,
Dawad Phillip and Ramabai Espinet


4:30 p.m., Room 3313-14
Caribbean Voices: Kamau Brathwaite,
Shara McCallum, and Mervyn Taylor

Sunday, Nov. 19
1 p.m., Room 3315
Phyllis Baker on African American Spirituality
2 p.m., Room 3315
Haitian Topics: Timothy Brothers and
Margaret Armand
2 p.m., Room 7106-07
Marie-Elena John on Unburnable
3:30 p.m., Room 3315
Haitian Topics: Myrian Nader and
Anthony Greorges-Pierre


m' 7


International Village
First Avenue and Third Street
Inauguration: Thursday, Nov. 16
Explore six countries without leaving the Fairl Savor
the literature, art and culinary delights of Spain,
Haiti, Israel and the Dominican Republic, as well as
Miami's sister cities Salvador de Bahia, Brazil; and
Quingdao, China.


Children's Alley
Friday-Sunday during Street Fair, Plaza behind Bldg. 1,
10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Find out what Curious George is so curious about,
celebrate Arthur's birthday, get caught in Charlotte's
Web and play Sudokul Or listen to stories and songs
by authors and performers from all over the U.S on the
Target Children's Stage.


TARGET.


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With Major Funding Support From:
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City of Miami flice of Film, Art, Cutuum and Entertainment, Miami Dade Tfamst; City of Moa. City o Muani leach, and Mami Dade County
Spif thani*s to tte Friends of Mian Book Fair itemational for their generous suppm
Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus, Downtown Miami, Florida
For more information: www.miamibookfair.com or 305.237.3258
Miami Book Fair is a premier program of the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College


Memoir

..-a- JW MARRIOTT,
..... MIAMI
BankofAmeril


October 2006


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CARIBBEAN TODAY


BOOK S


LWW-crbbatoa.co


Miami Book Fair International set for Nov. 12-19


Some of the brightest liter-
ary minds to come out of
the Caribbean will be
among those featured at this
year's Miami Book Fair
International set for Nov. 12-
19.
The book fair, which has
attracted dozens of award-
winning writers from around
the world, will be held at the
Miami-Dade College Wolfson


campus, downtown the South
Florida city.
The 2006 book fair is
expected to offer eight days of
fun-filled activities, including
the "Street Fair" on the week-
end of Nov. 17-19, featuring
readings by established and
aspiring authors, plus a wide
selection of books for collec-
tors to choose from and inter-
national pavilions showcasing


the books, arts, food and
drinks from around the world.

200 WRITERS
Isabel Allende, Thomas
Cahill, Nora Ephron, Edward
P. Jones and Robert Olen
Butler are among the cele-
brated authors who are sched-
uled be among more than 200
in attendance this year. They
will joined by many writers


from the Caribbean, including
Kamau Brathwaite, Deborah
Jack, Philip, Dawad, Shara
McCallum, Lorna Goodison,
Lawrence Scott and Mervyn
Taylor.
Miami Book Fair
International is one of the
largest presenters of Spanish-
language writers in the nation,
offering a rich Hispanic pro-
gram as a complement to


English-language events.
Miami Book Fair
International is a premier pro-
gram of the Florida Center for
the Literary Arts at Miami
Dade College and is held at
MDC's Wolfson campus at 300
N.E. Second Ave., Miami,
Florida, and surrounding
downtown streets.
0


Caribbean authors join Miami's page turning experience


Below Caribbean Today fea-
tures profiles of Caribbean
writers who are scheduled to
participate in the Miami
International Book Fair.

KAMAU BRATHWAITE
Kamau
Brathwaite
was born in
Barbados and
is a poet, per-
former, cultur-
al theorist and
researcher. His
most recent
book is "Born
to Slow Horses" (2005), but
he has authored other works,
including "Ancestors: A
Reinvention of Mother
Poem", "Sun Poem and X-
Self" ( New Directions, 2001),
"The Arrivants: A New World
Trilogy: Rights of Passage
Masks-Island" (Oxford,
1968); "Zea Mexican Diary"
(Wisconsin Press, 1993),
"Dream Stories" (Longman,
1993), "Middle Pt,,g,
(New York: New Directions,
1993) and "The Development
of Creole Society in Jamaica
1770-1820" (Oxford 1971).
Brathwaite has received
numerous awards, among
them the Neustadt
International Prize for
Literature, the Bussa Award,
the Casa de las Americas
Prize, and the Charity Randall
Prize for Performance and
Written Poetry. He has also
received GuInL n-iiim and
Fulbright fellowships.
His book "The Zea
Mexican Diary" (1992) was
The Village Voice Book of the
Year. Earlier this year
Brathwaite was awarded the
Griffin (International) Poetry
Prize in Canada for his newest
work "Born to Slow Horses".
He is a co-founder of the
Caribbean Artists Movement
and was educated at Pembroke
College, Cambridge and has a
PhD from the University of
Sussex in the United Kingdom.
He has been professor of com-
parative ILiterature at New
York University since 1993.

DEBORAH JACK
Deborah Jack was born in
Amsterdam and grew up in
St. Martin. She is a poet and


artist.
Her col-
lected poems,
"The Rainy
Sarli IIn r(St
Martin: House
of Nehesi,
1997), is her
first published
book. Her
poems have appeared in "The
Caribbean Writer" and
"Calabash".
Awards and honors
include a Caribbean Writers
Institute Fellow, University of
Miami, Prince Bernard
Culture Fund grants,
University at Buffalo College
of Arts and Sciences
Dissertation Fellowship.
Jack was listed as one of
the nation's most popular
artists at the turn of the centu-
ry in "St. Martin Massive! A
Snapshot of Popular Artists"
(1999). She is currently an
assistant professor of art at
New Jersey City University in
New Jersey.

SHARA McCALLUM
Shara
McCallum is
the author
of two books
of poems
from the
University
of Pittsburgh
Press, "Song
of Thieves"
(2003) and
"The Water Between Us"
(1999, winner of the 1998
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry
Prize).
Originally from Jamaica,
McCallum directs the Stadler
Center for Poetry and teaches
at Bucknell University. She is
also on the faculty of the
Stonecoast Low Residency
MFA program. She lives in
Pennsylvania with her family.

MERVYN TAYLOR
Mervyn
Taylor was
born in
Trinidad and is
the author of
three books of
poetry, "An
Island of His
Own" (1992),
"The Goat"


(1999), and "Gone Away"
(2006), all from Junction
Press, and a compact disc,
"Road Clear" (2004), done in
collaboration with bassist
David Williams.
About the poems in his
latest collection Debbie Jacob
wrote in her column in the
Trinidad Guardian, "Lost in
the cold and unable to return
home to the tropics, the West
Indians of Taylor's poems
reach as far as they can:
Florida". Taylor lives in
Brooklyn, New York.

LAWRENCE SCOTT
Lawrence
Scott is from
Trinidad and
Tobago. He is
the prize-win-
ning author of
the novel
"Aelred's Sin"
(London:
Allison &
Busby, 1998),
which won a
Commonwealth Writers'
Prize, Best Book in the
Caribbean & Canada 1999.
"Night C.,1 p1,, (Allison&
Busby, 2004), his most recent
novel, was short-listed for a
Commonwealth Writers'
Prize, Best Book in Canada &
the Caribbean
and nominated for The
International Impac Dublin
Literary Award 2006 and was
published in France as
Calypso de Nuit in June 2005.
His first novel, "Witchbroom"
(Allison, 1992, Heinemann,
1993) was also short-listed for
a Commonwealth Writers'
Prize for Best First Book in
Canada & the Caribbean,
1993.
His short stories have
been read on the BBC and
have been anthologized inter-
nationally, notably in The
Penguin Book of Caribbean
Short Stories and The Oxford
Book of Caribbean Short
Stories. He divides his time
between writing and teaching
literature and creative writing.

RAMABAI ESPINET
Ramabai Espinet was born in
Trinidad and Tobago. She is a
poet, essayist and critic. Her
first novel, "The Swinging


Bridge" (Toronto: Harper
Flamingo, 2003), was short-list-
ed for the 2004 Commonwealth
Writers Prize in the category of
Best First Book (Caribbean
and Canada Region), long-list-
ed for the IMPAC Dublin 2005
prize for fiction and selected for
the Robert Adams lecture
series 2005, held annually in
Toronto and Montreal, and fea-
turing Adams's pick of "mod-
em ~L. I ii '.
Other works by Espinet
include the poetry collection
"Nuclear SL,,ii,' (1991)
and the children's books "The
Princess of Spadina" (Toronto:
Sister Vision, 1992) and
N inIj Carniva" (Sister
Vision, 1993).
Her performance pieces
"Beyond the Kala Pani", and
"Indian Robber Talk" both
explore the historical record
of South Asian immigration
to the Caribbean. A docu-
mentary, "Coming Home"
(Caribbean Tales/Leda Serene
Films), and focused upon the
context of Espinet's work,
especially "The Swinging
BrIdgL was released in 2005.
Espinet is a professor of
English at Seneca College in
Toronto in the School of
English and Liberal Studies.
She also teaches at the


University of Toronto in the
Department of Caribbean
Studies and the Institute for
Women's Studies and Gender
Studies. She lives in Toronto.

DAWAD PHILIP
Dawad Philip was born in
Trinidad. He is a poet and
painter and cultural activist,
as well as (formerly) a journal-
ist in the United States. He
is the author of "Invocations"


and his work has appeared
in several anthologies, includ-
ing, most recently, "Poetry
International's English
Language Poetry from Around
the World" (2003-2004).
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October 2006





CARIBBEAN TODAY


REGION


Religious groups to help


spread CSME message


BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,
CMC St. Kitts and Nevis has
joined fellow Caribbean com-
munity (CARICOM) country
Barbados in declaring that
commercial sex workers will
not be welcomed to its shores
for next year's Cricket World
Cup (CWC).
However, Prime Minister
Dr. Denzil Douglas told the
Caribbean Media Corporation
(CMC) last month that while
prostitutes would not be wel-
comed for the CWC, it was
about time that Caribbean
people engaged in serious dis-
cussions on the decriminaliza-
tion of prostitution and homo-
sexuality.
"St. Kitts and Nevis has
not begun to discuss the mat-
ter of legalizing commercial
sex workers or homosexuality,
therefore my government
would be highly irresponsible
if we were to move to allow
commercial sex workers to
move into the country for
World Cup in that way," Dr.


Douglas said.


"This (prostitution) is still
highly illegal in St. Kitts and
Nevis and I as prime minister
would be the first to ensure
that the law
is maintained
and that the
law is pur-
sued against
those who
are being
involved in
those activi-
Douglas ties," he
added.

DISCRIMINATION
Douglas, however, said
Caribbean people could no
longer delay discussing the
legislation of prostitution and
homosexuality since the crimi-
nalization of these acts was
fuelling the discrimination,
which was pushing HIV/AIDS
underground.
"We must not bury our
heads in the sand because
these are important issues -
issues that have to come to
the fore in the discussion of


Caribbean people on the topic
HIV/AIDS," said Douglas.
The prime minister said
it would be unreasonable to
seek to legalize prostitution or
homosexuality in Caribbean
countries before there was
widespread debate on the
highly emotive issues across
all sectors of society.
"I believe the govern-
ments have to respond to
show leadership. That leader-
ship means the time is now op
open discussions on human
sexuality within the wider
ambit of HIV/AIDS and what
it is doing to Caribbean popu-
lations," Douglas added.
Last month, the Barbados
government warned that any
local prostitute or anyone
coming into the country to
trade in prostitution either
before, during or after the
international sporting event,
would be made to feel the full
weight of the law.
0


Haitians visit The Bahamas searching for jobs ~ IOM


BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,
CMC The Barbados govern-
ment is seeking to get the reli-
gious organizations in the
country to assist in spreading
the gospel of the Caribbean
Community Single Market
and Economy (CSME).
The CSME was the main
discussion point when Prime
Minister Owen Arthur, who
has lead prime ministerial
responsibility for the CSME,
met with the Religious
Advisory Committee on
National Affairs an inter-
faith body comprising
Christians, the Islamic com-
munity and Rastafarians last
month.
Arthur told the religious
leaders that the church must
always be engaged in matters
affecting the society, particu-
larly on issues driven by
lifestyles.
"This country is facing
change on a number of issues
and there are some things that
cannot just be solved by polit-
ical power or the law. We
have to engage the church on
these matters and we have to


do so on a sustained basis,"
Arthur said.
Chairman of the Religious
Advisory Committee on
National Affairs, Anglican
Bishop Dr.
John Holder,
described the
CSME, an
initiative to
integrate the
region's econ-
omy into a
single eco-
Arthur nomic space
as nIIL-w and
challenging." He urged the
religious fraternity to ,ip
out in the new CSME arrange-
ment guided by God's com-
mand to love our neighbor."
The CSME allows for the
free movement of skills, labor,
goods and services within
CARICOM and is regarded as
a suitable response by the
region to the changing global
environment in which
Caribbean states have lost
preferential treatment for their
goods and services.
0


WASHINGTON, CMC The
International Organization for
Migration (IOM) says recent
research confirms that many
Haitians migrate to The
Bahamas primarily in search
of employment.
It said that the research,
conducted in collaboration with
The Bahamas government and
the College of the Bahamas
(COB), showed that the
Haitians were leaving from var-
ious points, "in many instances
in an irregular manner, primari-
ly in search of work".
"Because of their generally
low educational levels and
poor English language skills,
they largely seek unskilled or
semi-skilled jobs and are often


able to circumvent labor per-
mit requirements with employ-
er ~JI'II|1k L the IOM report-
ed.

SEPARATE
It said the research find-
ings also lI..JLI that Haitian
migrants are not well integrat-
ed into Bahamian society.
"Owing to low income
levels, they make considerably
more use of public than private
healthcare and education
services while seeking help
amongst Il LInIhI LS for other
kinds of social support", the
report stated.
"Haitian migrants largely
remain a distinct and separate
community, generally living in


poorer accommodations than
other groups; perhaps for that
reason, significant numbers of
respondents disclaimed any
intention to settle permanently
in The Bahamas", the IOM
added.
It said that research esti-
mates extrapolated from avail-
able data l,_.,LI the popula-
tion of Haitian nationals pres-
ent in The Bahamas range from
between 30,000 and 60,000,
adding that "more information
needs to be developed about
the numbers of "flow through"
migrants, i.e., those using The
Bahamas as a transit point to
the United Sijis .
0


Land sale to foreign investors vital for development ~ B'dos


BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,
CMC The Owen Arthur
administration has again
defended its policy of allowing
Barbadian land to be sold to
foreign investors saying it
would be sensitive and sensi-
ble about what projects are
approved.
Prime Minister Arthur
told a political branch meeting
of his ruling Barbados Labour
Party (BLP) late last month
that the big projects, especially
in the tourism sector, were the
only way the country could
continue to pay its bills and
deliver social services such as
free education, subsidized
public transport and free
health services.
The prime minister said


government would not consid-
er the alternatives such as casi-
no gambling, increased bor-
rowing, currency devaluation
and private beaches and there-
fore had "very little to work
with."
Arthur said while manufac-
turing and agriculture were
important sectors which still
had to be supported and devel-
oped, they could not contribute
enough to pay the country's
bills.
"What will be in the new
economy that will give you the
assurance that wages in the
public sector will be paid
when they fall due?" he asked.
"The sugar industry is $40
million ($20 million) a year,
the public sector wage bill is


$700 million ($350 million) a
year and I can't tell them
(public servants) at the end of
the month to hold strain and
hold an IOU," the prime min-
ister told constituents in the
St. James South constituency.

NEW MARKETS
Arthur said his adminis-
tration was busy at developing
a new economy based on
tourism and services.
"All across Barbados we
have given the impetus in
building a new capacity to earn
foreign exchange for this coun-
try. Once we get them together
we can go up market," the
prime minister added.
0


* $15M loan for Haiti's poor
The Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB) last month announced
the approval of a $15 million soft
loan for a program to expand drink-
ing water and sanitation services to
rural communities in Haiti.
According to the Washington-
based bank, the project is expected
to benefit some 90,000 people in
the rural areas of Artibonite, Grand
Anse, Nippes and Ouest, including
the island of La GonAve, where
average consumption of water is
around seven liters per person a
day, nearly one-third of the basic
minimum recommended by the
World Health Organization.

* Grenada to get agro-aid from
China
China will be assisting Grenada in
agriculture and technology as part
of the second phase of a co-opera-
tion agreement signed between
both countries, according to
Agriculture Minister Gregory Bowen.
Bowen, who recently returned
from an official visit to Beijing, said
the Chinese have agreed to provide
assistance for the establishment of
four centers for agro-processing and
another four for animal husbandry.

* T&T observes Republic Day
Trinidad and Tobago last month
observed its 30th anniversary as a
republic that is likely to be its last
under the present Republican
Constitution.
The Patrick Manning-led gov-
ernment has already disseminated


for public discussion a new draft
constitution that could see various
changes, including an executive
head of state to replace the largely
ceremonial one at present, and a
change in the appointment of minis-
ters to the Cabinet.

* Cheaper electricity for St. Lucia
Prime Minister Dr. KennyAnthony
says the agreement with Venezuela
to provide oil at a concessionary
price to St. Lucia will result in cheap-
er electricity rates to consumers.
"As far as the government is
concerned, our priority will be to try
to get a cheaper fuel to LUCEEC (St.
Lucia Electricity Services Company
Limited) so that they can reduce the
cost of generation of electricity,"
Anthony said last month.

* St. Kitts and Nevis marks 23rd
Independence
St. Kitts and Nevis marked its 23rd
anniversary of Independence on
Sept. 19 with a call from Prime
Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas to citi-
zens to position themselves to adjust
to the current socio-economic tran-
sitioning taking place in the country.
The prime minister said the
main focus of his administration
would be to empower citizens to
take advantage of the emerging
opportunities in the aftermath of the
recent closure of the 300-year-old
sugar industry.

Compiled from CMC and other
sources.
0


-usw^caribbeantodj..c..


Barbados, St. Kitts reject sex


workers for Cricket World Cup


REGION BRIEFS


October 2006





CARIBBEAN TODAY


P 0 1 I T I C S


Panday returns as UNC chairman in T & T


PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,
CMC The main Opposition
United National Congress
(UNC) says its former leader
Basdeo Panday had resumed
the post of chairman, less
than a five months after
he announced his resig-
nation from active poli-
tics.
The move by the
UNC, taken at an emer-
gency executive meeting
last month,
followed the decisions by
the party's embattled
political leader, Winston
Dookeran,
to form his own
Congress of the People
party.
Panday told
reporters
that one of his immedi-
ate tasks would be to
write to Panday
the party's membership
as well as those who had
helped form the party to
return to the UNC. He said
the executive had also agreed
that the Leadership Council
would continue to direct the
party until a leader is chosen.


PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC -
Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift
resigned with "immediate effect" from
the Trinidad and Tobago government,
according to a statement issued by the
Office of the Prime Minister late last
month.
The statement gave no reason for
the sudden resignation, but said that
Prime Minister Patrick Manning
"accepted Mr. Gift's resignation and in
so doing, has expressed his gratitude
for the loyal service rendered by Mr.
Gift during his tenure as Minister of
Foreign Affairs".
"The Prime Minister also wished
Mr. Gift well in all his future endeav-
ours", the statement added.
Gift, 71, became minister of
foreign affairs in 2001 after Manning
was named prime minister by then
President Arthur NR Robinson fol-
lowing the collapse of the Basdeo
Panday administration. He held on to
the post after the People's National


He did not rule out of the pos-
sibility of his former Attorney
General Ramesh Lawrence
Maharaj, whose criticism led
to the downfall of the Panday


government in 2001, being
part of the Council.
"I have decided to resume
the chairmanship of the party.
This is in response to requests
from the people and the party
who have supported us,"


Panday told reporters.
Panday had relinquished
leadership of
the party
soon after he
was convict-
ed
in a
Magistrates'
Court on N
three
charges of
failing to
declare to
the Integrity
Commission,
a bank
account he
and his wife,
Oma, held in
London dur-
ing the peri-
od he served
as prime
minister.
Panday was
sentenced to
two years
imprison- .
ment on Z .
each of the
charges to ON NOV
run concur-
rently, but FURTHE


ADJACE


Gift
Movement (PNM) won the Oct. 2002
general elections.
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T&T's foreign minister resigns


October 2006





CARIBBEAN TODAY


-wwecaribbeantoday.com


~ A Caribbean Today advertising feature


MoBay airport expands for CWC 2007,


anticipates heavy traffic into Jamaica


GORDON WILLIAMS

It won't be complete in
time for Cricket World
Cup (CWC) 2007 begin-
ning in March, but operators
of Sangster International
Airport in Montego Bay have
issued assurances that the
entry to Jamaica, through its
second city on the western
side of the Caribbean island,
will be prepped enough to
comfortably handle the
expected large influx of visi-
tors and cargo for the massive
international event.
The airport's new arrival
hall, part of the overall expan-
sion of the airport, the hub of
the country's national airline
Air Jamaica, is scheduled for


completion by Jan. 2007,
according to MBJ Airports
Ltd., the four-company con-
sortium that runs the facility.
That means that the 12,000
visitors "anticipated specifical-
ly for cricket" (but which does
not include teams and their
entourages), according to
Althea Tharkur, marketing
analyst for commercial devel-
opment at MBJ Airports Ltd.,
should have few hitches relat-
ing to overcrowding when
they arrive.
The tournament will be
played in several Caribbean
islands. However, Jamaica will
host the opening ceremony at
the Trelawny Multi-Purpose
Stadium, located not far from
Sangster International, in


addition to several warm-up
games beginning Mar. 5.
Yet with all the adjust-
ments necessary to accommo-
date the influx of visitors and
cargo, for example equipment
for media crews and general
luggage, around the time of
CWC 2007, the consortium
insists that the major concern
- security will not be short-
changed.
"It (security) is our main
focus," MBJ Airports Ltd.'s
Security Coordinator Cecil
Weekes, told a group of jour-
nalists who toured Sangster
International recently. "...It's
zero tolerance for that."

PASSENGER
SEPARATION


Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay is undergoing major expansion.


For CWC 2007 the east
concourse of the airport will
have separation of passengers,
although most passengers will
be channeled in that direction
as construction at the west
concourse picks up intensity
around that time. Gates 8-19
on the east concourse will be
open by CWC.
By the time the expansion
of the airport is completed in
2008, the immigration and cus-
toms area will be shifted from


its present spot to the area
where the ground transporta-
tion section is currently locat-
ed and the separation of
incoming and outgoing pas-
sengers will become perma-
nent. By that time, all luggage
will be checked by the airport
before being sorted by the air-
lines and everyone will be
required to go through the
same security checkpoints.

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 27)


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October 2006


CnRGO & TRnnSPORT





CARIBBEAN TODAY


RGO & TRnnSPORT ''

~ A Caribbean Today advertising feature


FMC: Shipping's watchdog U.S. agency on the high seas


The Federal Maritime
Commission (FMC) is an
independent regulatory
agency responsible for the
regulation of ocean bound
transportation in the foreign


sibility of passenger vessel
operators.
* Maintaining a trade moni-
toring and enforcement pro-
gram designed to assist regu-
lated entities in achieving


or controlled by foreign govern-
ments ("controlled i.,rrL r, ).

* Processing and reviewing
agreements and service con-
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shipping cargo overseas. With
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FMC is making sure ships and their cargo adhere to U.S. regulations


commerce of the United
States.
The agency is responsible
for the following activities:

* Monitoring activities of
ocean common carriers,
marine terminal operators,
conferences, ports and ocean
transportation intermediaries
(OTIs) which operate in the
U.S. foreign commerce to
ensure they maintain just and
reasonable practices, and
oversees the financial respon-


compliance, and to detect and
appropriately remedy mal-
practices and violations set
forth in section 10 of the
Shipping Act.
* Monitoring the laws and
practices of foreign govern-
ments which could have a dis-
criminatory or otherwise
adverse impact on shipping
conditions in the U.S.

* Enforcing special regulatory
requirements applicable to
ocean common carriers owned


* Reviewing common carriers'
privately published tariff sys-
tems for accessibility and
accuracy.

* Issuing licenses to qualified
OTIs in the U.S. and ensuring
all maintain evidence of finan-
cial responsibility.

* Ensuring passenger vessel
operators demonstrate ade-
quate financial responsibility
for casualty and non-perform-
ance.

One of the FMC's main
objectives is to license OTIs
and ensure that they have an
insurance surety bond in place
to protect those consumers


(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26)
NEW WRINKLE
Another new wrinkle of
the expanded airport is actual-
ly CUTE (Common Use
Terminal Equipment), which
allows all airlines to have
access to check-in points at
gates once they have the prop-
er pass codes.
The airport also has big
plans to increase passenger
traffic. Three million passen-
gers currently pass through
Sangster International each
year. By 2010, MBJ Airports
Ltd projects that the figure will
move to nine million a year.
A recent trek through
the airport showed that the
expansion still has a way to
go. Large spaces are void
of color and style, although
that is expected to improve
once the work is completed.
However, the east concourse
offers a pleasant, airy feel,


complete with shops and bars.
Passengers seem to take any
sort of discomfort from the
expansion work in stride.
MBJ Airports Ltd.
sources told Caribbean Today
that not all parties were
enthused over the expansion
plans of the private consor-
tium, which includes foreign
entities. There were concerns
that the airport would lose its
"Jamaican feel".
"There was a lot of resist-
ance prior to privatization,"
Tharkur explained. "The pub-
lic felt it would be losing its
culture.
"(But) we have always
talked about maintaining the
Jamaican sense of place at the
airport," she added.

Gordon Williams is Caribbean
Today's managing editor.
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PAGE 1

PRESOR TED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID MIAMI, FL PERMIT NO. 7315 V ol.17 No.11 OCTOBER 2006 Tel: (305 1-800-605-7516caribtoday@earthlink.net ct_ads@bellsouth.net Jamaica: 654-7782 We cover your world INSIDECaribbean leaders, con cerned about continuingneglect of the region by theUnited States,air ed their grievances with Secr etary of State Condoleezza Rice recently inNew Y ork, page 5. Shaka Hislop, a star for Trinidad and Tobago in the WorldCup soccer finals, is in the U.S. hoping to shine for the LoneStar state as his professional career winds down,page 20. Some of the brightest literar y minds pr oduced by the Caribbean, like Deborah Jackwho gr ew up in St. Mar tin, will be working with the wor d at the upcoming MiamiInter national Book Fair , page 23. News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Viewpoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Tourism/Travel . . . . . . . . .15 FYI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Ar ts/Enter tainment . . . . .17 Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 ~ Yvette D. Clarke’s strong Caribbean roots and a primary election victory have propelled her to the verge of a seat in the U.S. Congress, wher e she intends to be ‘the voice’ for immigrants from the r egion, page 2 . THE MULTI AWARD-WINNING NEWS MAGAZINE CALL CARIBBEAN TODAY DIRECT FROM JAMAICA 654-7782 CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 1

PAGE 2

GORDON WILLIAMS The tingling of excitement still lingers long after herhistoric election win, but Yvette D. Clarke is alreadygetting used to being a United States Congresswomanand she doesn’t even have the jobyet. “I think it’ s still sinking in mor e and more every day Clarke told Caribbean Today more than a week after she won the Democratic primary for New York’s 11th Congressional District last month, which virtually assured the Brooklyn-born daughter of Jamaican parents will be her party’s representative onCapitol Hill. Clarke, a New Y ork City councilwoman who will likelytake on Republican challenger Steve Finger in next month’sgeneral election for Congr ess, declared she will “be that voice” in Washington which highlights issues of concern forCaribbean immigrants at thefederal gover nment level. That is an oppor tunity her mother Una, who pr eserved a strong Caribbean influence on Yvette’s life and became “an inspiration” for her daughter’s political career, missed afterunsuccessful bids for the sameCongr essional seat. That the family matriar ch, a descendant of the Accompong Mar oons in Jamaica known for their fiery will against over whelming odds when opposed by their colonial rulers, did not make it to Congress did not dampen theenthusiasm of the Clarke clan. “(My victor y) makes it gratifying,” said Y vette. “ (My mother emely proud(It’s) a sense of pride (for her RISE That the daughter also r ose to political prominence has made a highly suppor tive Caribbean population in her district proud as well. And they showed it at last month’s primary. Clarke, one of three black candidates in the ethni-cally-char ged primary race, which included the son of retired Congressman Major Owens, secured just over 31per cent of the votes, beating her near est challenger Councilman David Yassky, the only white candidate, whohad 26.2 per cent. With the overwhelming voting presence of Democrats in the district, Clarke is virtually assured to win next month against Finger who, she said,she “doesn’ t know well” and t remember” meeting. Therefore, Clarke has alreadytur ned her focus on the job ahead, and while she said her duty is to represent all her constituents equally, she alsounderstands that immigrant issues, especially those affect-ing Caribbean nationals, must be at the forefront of her efforts in Washington. Accor ding to Clarke, Caribbean immigrants have made gr eat strides in the U.S., especially on the social level.The emphasis now will be on further economic and politicalempower ment. Y et she is bank ing on the str ong Caribbean influence in her background to pull it off. When asked if thereis one wor d or theme which sums up her personal and polit ical character, Clarke quicklyr eplied “tallawah”, a Jamaican term which means resilient and deter mined to succeed. WANING INTEREST She will need to be. U.S. inter ests in the Caribbean’s welfare have waned in recent years and several leaders lastmonth insisted that although America’s foreign policy is focused on anti-ter rorism campaigns elsewhere in the world, the r egion still needs attention fr om the superpower , especially assistance with development and security. Recently, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime MinisterPatrick Manning criticized the U.S. for slacking off on socio-economic assistance to theCaribbean. Dominica’ s Prime Minister Roosevelt Sker rit also called on the U.S to do mor e for the region. e continue to raise the issue of the diminishing pres-ence of the U.S. in the Caribbean,” Skerrit said. “The American government has the capacity to assistus even mor e but they have not been doing that over thelast 20 to 25 years especially in regards to regional security Caribbean leaders met U.S. Secretary of State CondoleezzaRice late last month. However, the focus of Clarke, who r ecalled visiting Jamaica many times while growing up, will also be on her own constituents in New York.She said she was not pleased with Owens’ representation of immigrants from the Caribbean and elsewhere and plans to become a stronger force onthose issues. She also noted that other immigrant groupshave long enjoyed much stronger representation. SIGNIFIC ANCE Her r ole as Congr esswoman takes on additional historic significance. Last month’s resultmeant Clarke followed the foot steps of Shirley Chisholm, whose par ents wer e also fr om the Caribbean, who won the same seat in 1968 and became the firstblack woman elected toCongr ess. Una Clarke, the 41year -old’s mother and a former New York City councilwomanherself, had failed to beat Owens before. But Yvette avenged thatby beating Owens’ s son Chris, who finished last in the four-can-didate race. Clarke won 14,946 votes, Y assky 12,570, Andr ews 10,983 and Owens 9,403. After she was declared the winner , Clarke shouted “We did it, everyone!” in her victory speech as suppor ters chanted vette, Y vette, Y vette”. “I will not stop fighting until all immigrants of the city,state and countr y ar e af for ded the same rights as anyone else,” she said. She appears to have already secured the ideal jobto embark on that mission. CMC and other reports contrib uted to this story. Gordon Williams is Caribbean Today’s managing editor. Beginning Nov.1,2006,you may e-mail him ateditor@caribbeantoday .com. allawah’ Clarke taking the Caribbean to Capitol Hill 2 CARIBBEAN TODAYOctober 2006 Clarke NEWS NEWS www.caribbeantoday.com CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 2

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NELSON A. KING NEW YORK Caribbean community (CARICOM diplomats described as “verycor dial” a meeting between r egional foreign ministers and United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice latelast month. “It was a very good meeting,” Gr enada’s U.S. Ambassador Dennis Antoinetold the Caribbean MediaCorporation (CMCend of the hour -long meeting at the Waldorf Astoria in New Y ork. “It was a very cordial meeting,” added the dean ofCARICOM diplomatic corps in Washington. “We empha-sized the par tnership of equal access. That is the gr owing concept of our meetings. There is growing respectbetween the United Statesand CARICOM.” NEW RELATIONSHIP Antoine’ s r emarks came on the heels of a call by St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Dr. RalphGonsalves for “a concept of a new relationship and lan-guage” between W ashington and the region. “Overall, I think we have to have a concept of a new relationship and, broadlyspeaking, a new language, which we can use to articulatethe issues in that r elation ship,” Gonsalves had told CMC ahead of the meeting. Ellswor th John, St. Vincent and the Grenadines ambassador to the U.S.,agr eed that the CARICOMW ashington meeting was “very cordial,” adding that itwas “a frank exchange of ideas on a range of issues.” He identified, among thoseissues, a trade and investment confer ence, slated for W ashington on Oct. 13; next year’s conference on the Caribbean to be held in Washington and U.S. support for Guatemala as a non-per-manent member of the UnitedNations Security Council. “She outlined r easons why it was good to vote for Guatemala and stated the differences with Venezuela with-out getting into details,” Johnsaid. B A CKING CHAVEZ Gonsalves had told CMC that CARICOM was unequiv ocal in supporting Venezuela, despite pressure from Washington and the on-goingr ow between the United States and V enezuela. “The fact that Pr esident Chavez made a speech at theUnited Nations, which mayhave upset the United States, would not change our support or, indeed, CARICOM, or individual CARICOMmember states, support for Venezuela,” he said. U.S. Ambassador to Guyana David Robinson had urged CARICOM to withdraw its support for Venezuelabecause “the South American country could hinder their ability to combat terrorism and nuclear proliferation.” Antoine said security, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and“the challenges facing the region’s economies,” were among other matters dis-cussed with Rice. e took a look at multidimensional issues and agreed to work collaboratively foreach other s interest,” he said. “She (Rice pressing anyone. It was an expression of mutual concerns, very frank, meaningful and respectful.” CMC CARICOM,Rice hold ‘very cordial’ meeting in New York October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 5 NEWS NEWS www .caribbeantoday.com Rice was frank and respectful,according to CARICOM leaders. St.Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves addresses the United Nations General Assembly. CARICOM has told the U.S. it will not turn its back on Cha vez and Venezuela. CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 5

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DAMIAN P . GREGORY SUNRISE, Florida Lovers of everything “jerk” convergedon Markham Park in SouthFlorida late last month to sample food prepared by cooks from Jamaica and theUnited States. “When you come her e you feel like you home,” Jamaican-born Nicole Grayton, a resident of Fort Lauderdale who has attendedthe festival each of the pastthr ee years, told Caribbean T oday . “It is a par t of my cultur e, you know ou got a piece of Jamaica right here,” Fort Lauderdale resident Angela Clarke, told Caribbean Today . “It was all good, the chicken and lobster and thepork.” But her friend, who would only identify himself as Ricky , had a definite favorite. “The pork,” he told Caribbean Today enthusiasti cally. “It really great. I likehow they do it, the set up is the real thing, like they haveback home.” WIDE POPULARITY The annual feeding fest not only attracted those fromJamaica, but other fans of thespicy food that is becomingmor e well known outside of the islands. “I am eating jerk pork,” said first time festivalgoer Theresa Caine, a Chicago native who now lives in FortLauder dale and is a selfdescribed Jamaican by injec-tion. “I am not mad at it.” She was among an esti mated 7,500 people who, organizers said, attended thenine-hour event on Sept. 24. Some 22 vendors who offeredvariations on the popularspiced food that included thetraditional chicken, pork, fish and ribs and the non-tra-ditional jerk ice cr eam. Yet food was not the only thing that kept the cr owd enter tained. Music headliners Byron Lee and the Dragonaires werealso on hand. WINNER But one man cor nered the judges’ idea of what it meansto be the king of jerk. For the third time in the popular festival’s five-year history, the “Gold Dutch Pot Award” went to Burnet Spence.Spence, an amateur cook who hails from St. Elizabeth,Jamaica, left judges wantingmor e of his savor y jerk. “His presentation and taste were far superior to theothers,” or ganizer of the jerk cook-off contest, June Mintotold Caribbean Today . Spence’s secret?“I have a layer ed taste, when you first bite into my chicken or my pork, you get a sweet smoky (tastebite,” he told Caribbean T oday . “As you go fur ther in, it gets a little spicy, not toohot. As you go fur ther in you taste the pimento. As youbegin to digest it with the saliva the combination of all three gives you a lingeringtaste that makes you want more.” Story and photograph by Damian P.Gregory, Caribbean Today’s deputymanag ing editor . Profile of candidates in Florida counties Qualified electors ar e per mitted to vote absentee under Florida law . Ho w to vote absentee An elector , or someone desig nated by the elector, may request an absentee ballot from the supervisor of elections in person, by mail or by telephone. One request cancover all elections within a calendar year . The person r equesting an absentee ballot must disclose: the name and address of the elector forwhom the ballot is r equested; the r equester’s name and addr ess; the r equester s driver license number, if available; the requester’s relationship tothe elector; and the requester’s signature (written request only). Marked ballots must be mailed or deliver ed in person r eaching the supervisor of elections’ of fice not later than 7 p.m. on the day of the election. At all elections, a voter claiming to be pr operly r egis tered in the county and eligible to vote at the precinct in the election, but whose eligibility cannot be determined, shall be entitled to vote a pro-visional ballot. How to vote absentee ‘Jerk’ lovers savor the flavor at annual Florida fest October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 7 NEWS NEWS www .caribbeantoday.com This young lady definitely found the jerk ribs to her liking. Check the following websites to lear n about the candidates: Miami-Dade http://elections.miamidade.gov/ Bro ward http://www.browardsoe.org/electioncandidates.aspx?eid=5 P alm Beach http://www .pbcelections.or g/Electio nCandidates.aspx?eid=1 Newspaper Candidate Pr ofiles and Endorsements The Miami Herald http://www .miami.com/mld/miami herald/news/photos/15326047.htm Sun Sentinel http://www .sunsentinel.com/news/elections/ P alm Beach P ost http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opi nion/content/local_news/election/endorsements_2006.html Bar Association – Judicial Review and Endorsements Dade County Bar Association Judicial Poll http://www .dadecountybar .or g/nssfolder/2006judicialpoll/2006%20JU DICIAL%20POLL%20RESULTS.pdf W ilke D. Ferguson Bar Association Endorsements(Miami-Dade County BlackLawyers Association) Go to www .fergusonbar .org and request listing for further review and research. Election dates and voter registration information General elections in the United States will beheld on Nov.7 . The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p .m. local time. The date marks the first Tuesday after the first Mondayin November , in even numbered years, andis designated to fillnational, state and county offices, and for voting on constitution-al amendments andlocal r efer endums. Voters may cast their ballots for the candidates of any party, regardless of their ownpolitical par ty registration. At general elections, all voters receive the same ballotand may vote for any candi date or question on the ballot. Who can register to vote To register to vote in Florida, you must: Be a United States citizen, a Florida resident, at least 18 years old (you may pre-registerif you ar e 17), not now be adjudicated mentally incapacitated with respect to voting inFlorida or any other state, nothave been convicted of afelony in Florida, or any otherstate, without your civil rights having been restored, and notclaim the right to vote inanother county or state. Who can’ t r egister to v ote Persons who have been found by a cour t in any state to be mentally incapacitated with r espect to voting and who have not had their right restored. Persons who have been convicted of any felony in anycour t and who have not had their right to vote r estor ed. Any person who is not a citi zen of the U.S. How to register to vote Completely fill out a voter registration application form. Voter registration applications are available at local Supervisor of Elections’ offices, theDivision of Elections, driver license of fices, state agencies that pr ovide public assistance, libraries and many other locations. A voter’s registration application is complete if it contains: Your name, legal residence address and date of birth; an indication that you are a U.S. citizen; the last four digits of your Social Security number . An indication that you have not been convicted of afelony or that, if convicted, youhave had your civil rights restored. An indication that you have not been adjudicatedmentally incapacitated with respect to voting or that, if soadjudicated, you have hadyour right to vote r esorted. You must sign the oath printed on the for m swearing or af fir ming under the penalty for false swearing that the information contained in ther egistration application is tr ue. Note: An applicant who fails to designate a political par ty affiliation will be registered without party affiliation. The voter r egistration application is also availableonline at www.socadvote.com When to r egister to v ote You must be registered for at least 29 days befor e you can vote in an election. The date your voter registration applica-tion is postmarked or hand delivered to your county supervisor of elections will beyour r egistration date. If your application is complete and you are qualified as a voter, a registration identification cardwill be mailed to you. CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 7

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Suriname wants U.N. to deal with poverty Suriname has called on the international com-munity to increase coop-eration “in areas of rele-vance tohumanity” so that the world’s peo-ples can enjoy a fair and decent standard of living. Pr esident Runaldo V enetiaan told the U.N. that guaranteeing the availability of the necessary infrastructure, health services and education for all is still a majorchallenge. “The world order continues to deny the vast majorityof the inter national community the oppor tunity to escape poverty and to utilize its ability and skills to achieve progress and prosperity Venetiaan said. “There is need for enhanced cooperation in ar eas of relevance to humanity if we ar e to cr eate an international community that will be able to offer all of its members a fairchance to a decent life.” He said the appeal for an enabling international environment for sustainable development and poverty eradication is still “a vivid one,” noting that the inter national community needs to suppor t the call of the vast majority of member states for fair terms of trade, increased market access for products from thedeveloping countries and for a“mor e effective and supportive” inter national financial ar chitecture. Venetiaan said Suriname is fully supportive of the implementation of the international global partnership fordevelopment, explaining thatit can obtain guidance for itsdecisions fr om commitments adopted at major UnitedNations confer ences and summits. He urged this “partnership” to aim at energizing the “political will” of all states sothat those commitments could be implemented and “genuine” opportunities for sus-tainable development and poverty eradication realized. St.Vincent calls for leadership Stating that he was speaking on behalf of the world’s “mar-ginalized,” St. V incent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Dr . Ralph Gonsalves called on the United Nations to pr ovide “coherent leadership” in addressing the plight of theworld’ s poor est countries. In his impassioned contribution to the 61st Session of the U.N. GeneralAssemblyDebate,Gonsalvessaid all “rightthinking per-sons want anddemand” thistype of lead ership fr om a “reformed” global body that is “true to its central mandates to servehumanity well.” Speed up aid to poorer nations ~ Barbados Barbados has called for speedier implementation ofdecisions on incr eased financial aid for the world’s poorestcountries. Senior Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Dame Billie Miller told the 61st Session of theU.N. General Assembly that these resources were neededur gently, particularly for coun-tries like herown, which have complet-ed pr eparation of comprehensive nationaldevelopmentstrategies to attain theMillennium Development Goals(MDGs na tional development goals and objectives. “While developing countries must r etain responsibility for their own development, national actions will not be sufficient to bring about their fuller participation in the global economy,” she said, alluding to promised aid madeto developing countries lastyear by the Gr oup of the W orld’s Richest Countries (G8 Gleneagles, Scotland. “These actions must be complemented by a supportive international system,essential elements of whichinclude impr ovement in global gover nance, improved coherence in the operation of the United Nations System and a greater voice for the United Nations in global developmentpolicy dialogue,” she added. At the same time, Dame Billie called for the “democra-tization” of the gover nance of the international financial andtrade systems, stating that changes in global governance have not kept pace with the growth of global interdepend-ence. In addition, she called for the adoption of “concr ete steps” to end what she regarded as the “marginalization” ofdeveloping countries andsmall economies in the policyfor mulation and decisionmaking pr ocesses in the multi lateral, financial and trade institutions. “Globalization must be made mor e inclusive and its benefits more equitably dis-tributed,” she said. The Barbados minister said improvement in global governance must be “mir-r ored” in the strengthening of the management and coor dination of the U.N.’ s operational activities at the country level, pointing out that this would ensure delivery ofdevelopment assistance in “a more coordinated way Dame Billie lamented that the “development clusterof issues,” emanating fr om the historic 2005 U.N. Summit has been “painfully slow,” stating that Barbados’s assessment is “decidedly mixed.” Leaders of many Caribbean nations were in NewYork last month to attend the 61st Session of the U.N.General Assembly.This month Caribbean Today publishes a summary,compiled from CMC and other reports,of addresses delivered by some of those leaders. 8 CARIBBEAN TODAYOctober 2006 Venetiaan Miller Gonsalves NEWS NEWS U U . . N N . . ROUND ROUND UP UP www.caribbeantoday.com Street Address: 9020 SW 152nd Street, Miami, FL33157 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 6010 Miami, FL 331 16-6010. T elephone: (305 (305305 1-800-605-7516 Jamaica: 654-7728 E-mail: caribtoday@earthlink.net Send ads to: ct_ads@bellsouth.net V ol.17,Number 11 OCT.2006 PETER AWEBLEY Publisher GORDON WILLIAMS Managing Editor MANUELMOREL Director of Advertising DAMIAN P. GREGORY Deputy Managing Editor SABRINAFENNELL Graphic Artist DOROTHYCHIN Account Executive SUNDA Y SELLERS Account Executive AMANDAECHEVERRI Accounting ManagerCaribbean Media Source Media Representatives TOM JONAS 353 St. Nicolas Street, Suite 200 Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Y2P1 Tel: (514514 E-mail: tom@cmsworldmedia.com Jamaica Bureau MARIE GREGORY (876 P.O. Box 127, Constant Spring Kingston 8, JamaicaOpinions expressed by editors and writers are not necessarily those of the publisher . Caribbean T oday , an independent news magazine, is published every month by Caribbean Publishing Services, Inc. Subscription rates are: US$20 per year (Bulk . Caribbean Today is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photos. Toguarantee return, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Articles appearing in Caribbean Today may not be reproduced without written permission of the editor . ISSUES OF INTEREST Photograph by UN PhotoSenator Anthony Hylton,left,Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade,is greeted by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan at U.N.Headquaters in New Y ork City . The men met for 15 minutes la te last month at Annan’s office to discuss matters of interest to Jamaica and the world body.Hylton,along with several Caribbean leaders, were in New Y ork to attend the U.N.’s General Assembly. CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 8

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GORDON WILLIAMS The powerful force that is the will of people root-ed in Caribbean her itage was on display again lastmonth in the United States. New York City Councilwoman Yvette D.Clarke, a daughter of Jamaican parents who has always shownher str ong connection to the region, won the Democraticprimar y for the state’s 11th Congressional District. Because of the over whelming presence of registered Democrats in the district, that means Clarke is a virtual shoo-in for a seat inthe U.S. Congr ess after the general elections next month. The Caribbean diaspora should hail Clarke’ s accom plishment as a significant milestone in how far ther egion’s people have come in the U.S. She succeeded her mother Una, a former citycouncilwoman herself who had come up short in the same race years before but she repeated the achievement ofShirley Chisholm, anotherAmerican bor n to Caribbean parents, who decades ago became the first black woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. DIFFERENT CHALLENGE Y et Y vette D. Clarke faces a slightly different challenge than Chisholm. While shevows to ser ve all her con stituents in New York, she has also promised to be “thatvoice” for Caribbean people in Washington. That promise should be most comforting foranyone with Caribbean con nections. See, there is a major concern brewing over the attention the U.S. has beenpaying to the Caribbean.Some of the r egion’ s leaders, most notably Dominica’s Roosevelt Skeritt and T rinidad and Tobago’s Patrick Manning, have openly challenged the U.S. to become more active in the welfare of the region. They are demanding help, specifical-ly in the ar eas of development and security . The region feels it is being ignored by the U.S.,has been for years now , and it doesn’t like it at all, especially because the leaders believethat the U.S. can always count on their support. NEGLECT Yvette D. Clarke says she understands the concer ns of the r egion’ s leaders. She even goes further to suggest that her pr edecessor, retired Congressman Major Owens, neglected the inter ests of Caribbean immigrants, espe cially in New York’s 11th District. That trend has got to stop, she argues, and she will be at the forefront of efforts to reform U.S. policy in thatar ea when she gets to Capitol Hill. Caribbean people, and not just those in the New York area, may do well to mark her words. If the 41-year-old Brooklyn-born Clarke succeeds in carrying out herintentions, then all of theCaribbean’ s people stand to benefit. However, she has already made it clear that for far toolong, the lobby ef forts of other immigrant groups, theHispanics, Italians, Chinese,Kor eans, for example, have outstripped those of Caribbeanimmigrants. While huge strides have been made towards socialadvancement, economic andpolitical push still lag waybehind. That should serve as a wake-up call to Caribbeanpeople in the U.S. When oneof your own is telling you that you are not doing enough tohelp yourself as a gr oup, then it’ s time to r e-evaluate what you doand how you do it. AP A THY It was not long ago that at least one major U.S. mainstream newspaper reported onthe apathy amongst Caribbean nationals in the country whenit comes to getting involved inpolitical issues, especially immigration reform. Thepoint is, if you don’ t look out for your own interests, then you cannot expect others todo it for you. Right before our eyes, in the form of Yvette D. Clarke,Caribbean people can see that the great promise of the “American Dream” can actu-ally come tr ue. In a country where they tell you that you can achieve anything you want, it’s nice to know thatther e could be some r eal tr uth to it. Clarke’s victory at last month’ s primar y of fers a glimpse of that. When asked recently if she would consider running forhigher of fice in the U.S. – let’ s say , ah, president – in the future, she coyly suggested thatit’ s best to focus on her new assignment first. Yet it was nice to know she did not r eject the idea outright. Imagine that, aCaribbean person in the White House. Wouldn’t that be the“American Dr eam”. It can come true. Gordon Williams is Caribbean Today’s managingeditor .Beginning Nov.1, 2006 you may e-mail him at editor@caribbeantoday .com Is clear that most of the world’s problems stem from sex, so perhapswe should adopt someof the principles ofEaster n countries who have strict sexual r ules. Imagine, adulterers are stoned todeath, or beheaded. Perhaps we shouldadopt that principleand save us some of the myriad problems that stem from that activity. And believe me, there are benefits to be derived from nothaving sex. This youngman who e-mailed mecomplained bitterlythat his wife stopped makinglove with him because he lost his job and couldn’t give hermoney to spend on herselfanymor e, even though he still managed to pay the householdbills. Now you see what some women reduce themselves to? I have been addressing this foryears, how women use sex as aweapon, a tool, as leverage, and here it rears its ugly headonce again. Her sexual output diminish es in the same proportion that his income falls. Now when hegoes astray , you’ll hear how man bad and doggish. NO SEX So, take sex out of the equation and problems will beless, at least that’ s the theor y . The Catholic Church has tried it with their priests, damningthem to a celibate life, forbid ding them from indulging, so that they could be mor e focused on their other duties. Like I said, that’s the theory,but the practice is anotherthing. Many a father and nunwer e forced to kick the habit, as the urge was greater than the Word and the mind waswilling but the flesh was weak,so weak. But it is true that sex interferes with genuine rela-tionships andputs a dif ferent spin onthings. Manytimes youmay havemale andfemale friendswho havebeen bestfriends foryears, sharing all their secr ets, triumphs, trials and tribula tions. He has no interest in her, nor she in him. Suddenly oneday , or night, they discover that there is more than just a fraternal platonic bond, and thelibido incr eases as the chemistry kicks in. Wham bam, sparks star t to fly and the clothes follow . Well, for all intents and purposes that friendship isover as it has taken on a new dimension. Now other elements come into play, with the chief one being jealousy. Yes, this sex thing awakens the gr een-eyed monster, and believe me, it doth mock the meat it feeds on. Problems that never existed before are nowswirling ar ound and that beau tiful bond that was shared for years is now shatter ed. “Is what happen to Sheila and Robbie,look how many years they were friends,but nowsince dem step it up to a newlevel is pure crosses?” “Guess why ,nuh sex mash it up. PANDORA’S BOX They wer e better off chaste, as they could focus on the real friendship, but take those away and the Pandora’sBox flies open, letting out allthe demons. Because of this, it’s often difficult for members of the opposite sex to be truefriends, not impossible, but dif ficult. It usually works the other way around, if they werephysically involved first, br oke up, then became friends. Y es, many people find that exes make the best friends after all the initial hurt after the breakup heals. It alsoworks if one par ty is ugly as hell. It’s so easy for a man to be platonic friends with anugly woman or vice versa, but it would be extremely difficultfor me to sustain a platonicfriendship with Beyonce, or Halle Berry or someone wholooks like them. One daysomething would crack. Be chaste, and there’s no Caribbean clout in N.Y. Chastity has its place October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 9 VIEWPOINT VIEWPOINT www .caribbeantoday.com TONY ROBINSON (CONTINUED ON P AGE 10) CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 9

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seduction. Just r ecently I r ead wher e in one of the states in the U.S. they passed this seduction law,wher e a man can actually be charged for seduction. There would be no need for that lawif people lived a life of chastity and saw people for their other qualities. People should be ableto sleep in the same bed andhave enough discipline to bechaste, instead of being chased.At this point many people will chime in and say, “But that’s easy, just get married and you’llachieve that state.” Hey , it’ s s fact, mistresses get more sex than wives, and wives get more from their lovers than from their husbands. There is a theory that women who have sex with a lot of men really suffer from low self-esteem and are thereforealways seeking acceptance andlove. The same goes for menwho sleep with a lot of women. The theory is that wanton sexis a r esult of low self-esteem. I know this young lady who told me that, “Every problem I hadin life is sex cause it.” Y OUTH SUFFER It does af fect our young people, distracting them from their schoolwork, divertingtheir ener gies in the wr ong direction. A teenage pregnancy in a young 14-year -old changes her life forever, and even at age 40 or more, she doesn’ t r eally get over it. Many feel robbed of their youth, many are still bitter atthe experience, and some find it difficult to speak about it, even after 20 years or more. But are the kids being educat-ed? Recently a doctor friend ofmine gave a talk at a highschool and was shocked to dis cover that not even one student knew what the uterus was. So instead of sweeping it under the carpet or allowing kids to learn it from theirpeers, we should educate them more. I always found it strangehow par ents would expose kids to violence, bombings, shoot ings, murder and mayhem on T.V. shows or movies, even thenightly news, but just mention the word sex and it’s hell andpowder puf f. People will say, “How can you write about sex, this is afamily paper .” Yet the same paper is full of news of mur der , international strife, corruption, robbery, bodies blown to bitsand such gor e. It’ s our daily fare, but just brush the topic of sex and you’r e disgusting and damned to hellfire. I wonder how we all got here anyway,must have been immaculateconception?! Still, it’s easier said than done, and if we all stop andthink, a lot of our pr oblems in life were caused through sex.And as another young lady told me, “The Lord really has a great sense of humor, where he gave us this tremendous urge, then expects us to practice self r estraint.” Because of not being chaste, it leads many people into the throes and complications of adultery. But, the irony is, those so called virtues are unnatural, and that’s why they are so difficult, nigh impossibleto achieve. The priests whotook vows and wer e instr ucted to be celibate ar e a pr ominent group that proved that theory to be unworkable. And ifpriests, steeped in r eligion, clos er to God (they’d like to think than you and I, can’t cope, howcan us mer e mortals? You can’t live without sex, it’ s unnatural. Okay , you can live, but is it r eally living? So the struggle continues, and even as I write this I knowthat it is nigh impossible to live up to the ideals of chastity. Forsome people, it’ s not by choice, as nobody will sleep with them. Still, it’s just not in ournatur e, as temptation is all ar ound us. And you know what is true, people look on virgins, those chaste, practicingcelibacy as almost fr eaks. “Say wha, yu nah do nutten, sumpting must be wr ong wid yu.” But still, we must be responsible and talk to our children early, as times have changed drastically and it has r eached life and death proportions. As this man said, “Chastity, has it’s place, but not with me.” Later. seido1@hotmail.com Chastity has its place 10 CARIBBEAN TODAYOctober 2006 VIEWPOINT VIEWPOINT www.caribbeantoday.com “This is the importation of foreigntribalism” Christopher Tufton,presi-dent of the JamaicaLabourP arty’ s young professional arm – “Generation 2000” expressing his disgust lastmonth after St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime MinisterRalph Gonsalves endorsed theruling P eople’s National Party, accusing him of attempting toimport divisiveness into Jamaica’s politics. “It is good that the con stitution hasbecome aliving instru ment and ordinary citizens are talking about it.I think it is progr ess” Guyana’ s Health Minister Dr .Leslie Ramsammy last month discussing the renewednational interest in theconstitution. “It is hard to look outand see thebeauty out side the window andthink that it can happenher e,but it can ha ppen here and I think these countries know it” Mary Kramer,United Statesambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean,lastmonth commenting on the Caribbean’s response to terror-ist attac ks. “I cannot put it in mor e definitive terms,we have not agr eed and w e have no intention of proceeding down the path of registering or licensing prostitutes.The govern-ment of Barbados does notsee the trading in flesh as something which w e want to pro mote” Reverend Joseph Atherley, Barbados’sminister ofstate in thePrime Minister s Office,making the go vernment’s intention clear ahead of Cric ket World Cup 2007. At the moment wear e in no man’ s land...and we are not prepared to walkblindfolded into any situ-ation” Leader of Guyana’ s main Opposition P eople’s National Congress Reform (PNC/RRobert Corbin arguing lastmonth that no pro vision has been envisaged in the constitution for convening Parliament.Guyana held elections in late August. s deplora ble” Bermuda’ s Minister ofHomeAffairs andPublic Safety DerrickBurgess last month bash-ing burglars who targetedproperties while HurricaneFlorence battered the island. “Election date don’tbelong to me,it don’ t belong to PortiaSimpson Miller, itbelongs tothe people of Jamaica and must be revisit-ed in the constitution of thepeople of Jamaica” Opposition Leader BruceGolding last month calling fora fix ed date for elections in Jamaica. “It is absolute nonsense to suggest that a printer or publisher or newspaper can print whatever the y want whether libelous ordefamatoryunder thedishonestdisguise of freedom of expression” – Dominica’s Prime Minister RooseveltSkerrit last month denyingnewspaper reports that he wasseeking to muzzle the media. “Cuba gives freely andasks for noth ing in r eturn” St.Lucia’s PrimeMinister Dr.KennyAnthony last month hop-ing member -states of the Non Aligned Mo vement(NAM) will take a leaf from Cuba’ s books when it comes to offering aid to smaller Carib bean states . Compiled from CMC and other sources. (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9) CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 10

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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC The region’s leaders are taking a different look at thepr oblem of HIV/AIDS and its impact on the Caribbean, according to Barbados’s juniorfor eign affairs minister. raditionally, our definition of security was shaped by histor y and by traditional geopolitical paradigms which reflected military and nationalsecurity considerations,” saidKer rie Symmonds, while addressing Caribbean-based United States ambassadorsgather ed for a two-day meeting in Barbados to discuss the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the region. oday, however, that definition has evolved to include non-traditional threats such asthat posed by HIV/AIDS to thestability of our economies, our labor forces and our economies. “Indeed, this vir us poses the single greatest threat to the region’s security, as we seek todevelop a civilization that can proudly enter the portals of the 21st century,” he added. PLEA Making a plea for further financial assistance fr om the U.S., Minister Symmonds told the ambassadors that the realityof the situation in theCaribbean is that limited resources have been strained by the need todeal with newchallengesposed by anundiscriminat ing global envir onment. But responding to the minis-ter s plea, Mary Kramer, U.S. ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, saidshe cannot pr omise additional funding at this time. Instead she’s promising more effectiveuse of available funds. ith the people who are here from Washington we canbe assur ed that we who are working here in the region, know all of the areas that ar e available to us from Washington,” Kramer said. SUZYCOHEN QUESTION:My husband has a pr escription that says “take on an empty stomach”,but he refuses to,saying it’s inconvenient and it doesn’t matter.We are arguing about this.Whatwill ha ppen if he doesn’ t follow directions? ANSWER: His medicine may not work as well. The caution“on an empty stomach” isther e to alert patients that food will interfere with the amount of drug that ultimately gets intothe bloodstr eam or possibly slow down the ef fectiveness. This is the case with many medications, including thyroidhor mones, tetracycline, fluoroquinolone antibiotics and some antihistamines. Say you have a serious prostate infection and you’re on an antibiotic with a label warning you to “take on an empty stomach”. It’s 1:30 andyou decide to eat lunch andtake your medication with themeal. In this case, you might lose between five percent and 30 percent of the drug (maybe mor e if you have eaten calci um-rich foods, which interfere with fluor oquinolone antibi otics like Cipro and Levaquin). As a r esult, less medicine gets to your prostate to fight the bacteria that has invaded and,if you do this all the time, youcould suf fer longer and need mor e medicine. With some drugs e.g. osteoporosis drugs (bisphosphonate drugs) like Fosamax, Actonel and Boniva even thetiniest amount of food gets in the way. They have to be taken with water only; you can’t evennosh on a cracker . I know , it’ s distressing. These drugs upset the stomach and a little foodwould help, but again, your absorption goes down dramati cally. Therefore, they should be taken without food. Here’s a good rule of thumb for a pr escription that says “take on an empty stomach”: Y ou can take it either one hour before or two hours after a meal. QUESTION:I’ve just begun taking the antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine).It’s beena bout a week and a half.It doesn’t seem to be helping at this point.Should I stop it? ANSWER: As a general rule, I don’t think people should suddenly stop medications. There can be negative consequences to doing so without your doctor’s approval especially with antidepressants. For most people, Prozac may take thr ee to four weeks to give you the full effect. Take the medicine in the morning and be aware that typical side effectsinclude nausea, taste changes, painful urination, insomnia, agitation and even sexual problems. If you experience uncom fortable side effects, ask your doctor to lower your dose orswitch your medication. T his information is not intended to treat,cure or diagnose your condition.Suzy Cohen is a registered pharmacist.To contact her, visit www.dearpharmacist.com. 2006 Dear Pharmacist, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Media Ser vices,Inc. Caribbean looks at fresh AIDS plan KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC Dr. Kwame Boafo, newlyappointed dir ector of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO Caribbean, has said that the agency would sustain itsHIV/AIDS initiative in Jamaica. Dr. Boafo said that the project, which primarily sought to r educe the spread of HIV/AIDS thr ough education, was primarily funded by the Japanese government, theUnited Nations Childr en’ s Fund (UNICEF orld Bank, and the Global Fund. He said the initiative would be undertaken fr om 2006 to 2008 and would focus on ar eas such as, strategic planning, pr ofessional development, and the design and production of educational materials. “UNESCO and the Japanese government will continue to support the Ministry of Education and Youth in strengthening the sector’s r esponse to HIV and AIDS under the initiative that is referred to as ‘EDUCAIDS’, that is, education in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” Dr . Boafo said. He also said that the sup por t fr om UNESCO and Japan formed part of a larger international assistance framework on pr eventive education pr ograms, and that Jamaica is cur r ently one of several countries, and the only island in the Caribbeanr egion, that is involved in the pr oject. UNESCO continues AIDS fight in Jamaica October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 11 HEALTH HEALTH www .caribbeantoday.com Eating beforehand reduces the effect of medications Symmonds CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 11

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U.S. Education Secretary Mar garet Spellings has announced the final regulations for Limited English Proficient (LEP The new Title I regulation is intended to help r ecently arrived LEP students learnEnglish and other subjectswhile giving states and local school districts greater flexi-bility on assessment whilecontinuing to hold themaccountable under the “No Child Left Behind” program. “Our schools must be pr epared to measure what English language learners know and to teach them effec-tively , with pr oven instructional methods,” Spellings said. “No Child Left Behind has put the needs of Englishlanguage lear ners (ELLs front and center and we must continue that momentum of success. These r egulations will ensure states and schools are held accountable for helping children learn English but will also provide them with flexi-bility in meeting the goal of every child reading and doingmath at grade level by 2014.” The new r egulations have been welcomed by theHispanic community in theU.S. “Getting the No Child Left Behind law right is criti-cal for Latino students, nearlyhalf of whom ar e ELLs,” said Janet Murgu’a, president and chief executive officer of theNational Council of La Raza,the lar gest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. INGREDIENTS 2 pounds gr ound beef 1 (1 1/4-ounce taco seasoning mix 1 (4.5-ounce green chiles, divided 2 (10 3/4-ounce chicken soup 1 (16-ounce cream 8 (8-inch 2 cups (8 ounces cheddar cheese Garnishes: homemade salsa, sour cream, green onion curls, chopped fresh cilantro METHOD Brown ground beef in a large skillet, stirring until it crumblesand is no longer pink; drain. Stir in taco seasoning mix and half of chopped green chiles; set aside. Stir together remaining green chiles, soup, and sour cream. Pour half of soup mixture into a lightly greased 13x 9-inch baking dish. Spoon beef mixture evenly down centers of tortillas; roll up. Place, seam sides down, oversoup mixtur e in baking dish; top evenly with remaining soup mixture and cheese. Bake at 350for 25 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Garnish, if desired. Yield: Makes eight servings. Edited from Southern Living Regulations give new English learners better chance in class Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept.15,the anniversary of Independence for five Latin American countries Costa Rica,El Salvador,Guatemala,Honduras,and Nicaragua – to Oct.15.In addition,Mexico declared its Independence on Sept.16,and Chile on Sept.18.The term Hispanic,as defined by the United States Census Bureau,refers to Spanish-speaking people in the U.S.of any race.On the 2000 Census form,people of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin could identify themselves as Mexican,Puerto Rican,Cuban,or “other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino”.More than 35 million people identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino on the 2000 Census. Juicy,smothered enchiladas INGREDIENTS 1 tsp. vanilla extract 14 oz can condensed milk 4 eggs 12 oz can evaporated milk pinch salt (optional METHOD Using a double boiler, cover mold bottom and sides with caramel. Mix all ingredients in blender and pour into mold. Close with lid. Par tially fill bottom pan of double boiler with water. Cook at lowheat for an hour or until a toothpick, inserted in the center, comes out dry. When r eady , remove mold and let cool to room temperature, then place in refrigerator for about 1 1/2 hours or more. Once cold, tur n upside down over a ser ving dish. If you don’ t have a double boiler, place your flan mold in a lar ge Pyrex dish partially filled with water and cook in oven for about an hour at 350 degr ees. Edited and reprinted from www.cubanfoodmarket.com A tasty plan is Cuban flan ~ A Caribbean Today advertising feature 12 CARIBBEAN TODAYOctober 2006 HISPANIC HISPANIC HERITAGE HERITAGE MONTH MONTH www.caribbeantoday.com CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 12

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Daily life in one of Imperial Spain’s most important outposts in the New World will be recreated Oct.7-8 at the 18th Annual Colonial Arts and Crafts Festival in St.Augustine, Florida. The festival is scheduled to be held on the gr ounds of the Colonial Spanish Quarter Museum and will feature skilled craftsmen in authentic period clothing demonstrating a wide range of crafts that were essential for survival in a Spanish colony of the 1700s. Weaving, spinning, basketry, lace making, and natural dyeing are just a few of thecrafts to be demonstrated. In addition, the festival will feature storytellers, colonial music, and special activities for children. The Colonial Spanish Quarter will provide an authentic setting for an educational and fun look at life in old St. Augustine. The entrance to the Spanish Quarter is on historic St. George Street. Sponsored by the St. Augustine Textile Guild, the festival is funded in part by a grant from the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council. It will run from 10 a.m.to 5 p.m. each day. Admission is free. For more information,call 904-825-5033 . Reliving old Spain in the New W orld at St.Augustne’s arts and crafts fest 42.7 million The estimated Hispanic population of the U.S.as of July 1,2005,making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority.Hispanics constituted 14 percent of the nation’s total population. About 1 of every two people added to the nation’s population between July 1, 2004,and July 1,2005,were Hispanic. 3.3% Percentage increase in the Hispanic population between July 1,2004, and July 1,2005,making Hispanics the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S. 102.6 million The projected Hispanic population of the U.S.as of July 1,2050.According to this projection,Hispanics will constitute 24 percent of the nation’s total population on that date. 22.4 million The nation’s Hispanic population during the 1990 census just slightly overhalf the current total. 7.6 million The number of Hispanic citizens who reported voting in the 2004 presidentialelection. The percentage of Hispanic citizens voting about 47 percent did not change from four years earlier. 64% The percentage of Hispanic-origin people in households who are of Mexican background.Another approximately 10 percent are of Puerto Rican back ground,with about three percent each of Cuban, Salvadoran and Dominican origins.The remainder are of some other Central American,South American or other Hispanic or Latino origins. Roughly half of the na tion’ s Dominicans live in New Y ork City , with about half of the na tion’ s Cubans resid ing in Miami-Dade County,Florida. (Source:AmericanFactFinder) 13 The number of U.S. sta tes with a t least 500,000 Hispanic residents. These sta tes are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida,Georgia,Illinois,Nevada,New Jersey , New Mexico, New York,North Carolina, Texas and Washington. 43% The percentage of New Mexico’s population that is Hispanic,highest of any state. 4.6 million The Hispanic population of Los Angeles County , California the largest of an y county in the nation. 19 Number of U.S.states in which Hispanics are the largest race or ethnic minority group. $222 billion Revenue generated by Hispanicowned businesses in 2002,up 19percent from 1997. 9.5 million The number of Hispanic families who reside in the U.S. Of these fam ilies,63 percent include their children under 18 years old. 22% P ercenta ge of U.S. popula tion under a ge five tha t is Hispanic, as of July 1, 2005. 31 million The number of U.S.household residents age five and older who speak Spanish at home. $35,967 The median income of Hispanic house holds in 2005, unchanged from the previous year , in real terms. 21.8% The poverty rate among Hispanics in 2005,unchanged from 2004. 58% The percentage of Hispanics age 25 and older who had at least a high school educa tion in 2004. Edited and reprinted from R TO Online Facts you should know National Hispanic Heritag e Month 2006 Americans are a diverse people, yet we are bound bycommon principles that teachus what it means to beAmerican citizens. DuringNational Hispanic Heritage Month, we recognize the many contributions of Hispanic Americans to our country. Through hard work, faith in God, and a deep love of family, Hispanic Americans have pursued their dreams and con-tributed to the str ength and vitality of our nation. They have enriched the American experi ence and excelled in business, law, politics, education, community service, the arts, science, and many other fields. Hispanic entrepreneurs are also helping build a better, more hopeful future for all by creating jobs across our country. The number of Hispanicowned businesses is growing at three times the national rate, and increasing numbers ofHispanic Americans own their own homes. We continue to benefit from a rich Hispanic culture and we are a stronger country because of the talent and creativity of the many Hispanic Americans who have shaped our society. Throughout our history, Hispanic Americans have also shown their devotion to our countr y in their militar y ser vice. Citizens of Hispanic descent have fought in ever y war since our founding and have taken their rightful place as her oes in our nation’ s histor y . T oday , Americans of Hispanic descent ar e serving in our Armed Forces with courage and honor, and their ef forts are helping make America more secure and bringing freedom to people around the world. As we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, weapplaud the accomplishments of Hispanic Americans and recognize the contributions they make to our great land. To honor the achievements of Hispanic Americans, the Congress, by Public Law 100-402, as amended, has authorized and requested the president to issue annually a proclamation designating Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 as “National Hispanic Heritage Month”. I call upon public of ficials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the U.S. to observe this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs. T he above is an edited ver sion of a proclamation issued lastmonth b y U.S .President George W.Bush marking National Hispanic Heritag e Month. Weeks of celebration climax mid-October as Broward County, Florida marks HispanicHeritage Month. Among the attractions is a multi-cultural ar t exhibit in the Governmental Center lobby, 115 S. Andrews Ave. inFor t Lauderdale, which coincide with Hispanic HeritageMonth, celebrated in theUnited States between Sept.15and Oct. 15. There will also be a Hispanic Cultural and Educational Center, a 15,000 square-foot space located on the third floor of the Broward County MainLibrar y . The center’s collection will feature 20,000 books in Spanish, as well asan extensive collection ofSpanish-language movies and music. In addition to the collection, the center will also house a computer lab, specifically designed for Spanish speakers, a children’s area for Spanishlanguage story time and a large exhibit space that will frequently feature exhibitsand pr ograms from different Spanish-speaking countries. “It has been a long-time goal of mine to create aHispanic Cultural and Educational Center where the public can come to see, learn, and experience themany aspects of Hispanic histor y and culture,” said Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin. V ARIETY The month-long cultural exhibit in the Governmental Center lobby features items from a variety of Latin American countries, includingpaintings and pieces and other assorted media created by of a number of female artists from South America. The featured artists include Denise Plazas (Colombiaeresa de Triana (Colombia Mendoza (Argentina Teresita Mesa (ColombiaAna Candioti (Ar gentina) and Liliana Gerar di (Argentina The ar t exhibit is being coordinated by Mujeres Latinas, an organization dedicated to assisting women of Latin ori-gin and their families integrate into American society. “This is a wonderful way to celebrate Hispanic heritageand Br oward County’s rich history and cultural diversity said Wasserman-Rubin. In addition, Br oward County Libraries Division is sponsoring more than 50 pro-grams celebrating Hispanic culture. For a complete listing of library programs, visit www.broward.org/library . Hispanics have enriched America ~ Bush Broward County celebrates with art,music and culture Hispanic Heritag e Month runs from Sept.15,the anniversary of Independence for five Latin American countries Costa Rica,El Salvador,Guatemala,Honduras,and Nicaragua – to Oct. 15.In addition,Mexico declared its Independence on Sept.16,and Chile on Sept.18.The term Hispanic,as defined by the United States Census Bureau,refers to Spanish-speaking people in the U.S.of any race.On the 2000 Census form,people of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin could identify themselves as Mexican,Puerto Rican,Cuban,or “other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino”.More than 35 million people identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino on the 2000 Census. ~ A Caribbean Today advertising feature October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 13 Bush Hispanics have made their voices loud and clear in the United Sta tes. HISPANIC HISPANIC HERITAGE HERITAGE MONTH MONTH www .caribbeantoday.com CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 13

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GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC As Guyana prepares to join the rest of the region in hosting Cricket World Cup 2007, the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) has announced plans to repackage the country’s main tourism products. Brian James, chairman of the GTA, said the repackaging effort will result in a greaterfocus on eco-tourism, since the country cannot seek to repli-cate the sun and fun typetourism packages whichCaribbean islands make thecenter piece of their marketingpr ograms. “There is a lot more geography, more land and the prod-ucts ar e not the typical sun, sand and sea,” James said. e are more into a specific niche market where thetourism pr oduct appeal who are into eco tourism, adventur e, natur e bir d watching, sports fishing. e have a number of culture items inour tourism product, whichyou will notfind in other parts of theCaribbean. Thisis due to thenumber of raceswe have inGuyana. “There are African andIndian heritage festivals. WehaveAmerindianHeritageMonth, ther e ar e dif fer ent types of cultural ethnic activitiesthat we ar e pr o moting. So we are not going after the mass market to have jumbo jets with 400 to 500 peo ple coming out together, which our ecology will not be able to sustain,” he added. He said while the individual tourism products have to be developed, promoted, directed and sustained by the private sector, the GTA would be working along with the private sector to ensure that the Guyana product was developed in a sustainable way. James said even though tourism is not a major r evenue generating product, it contributes to Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product. “It has gone from a literally an unknown commodity toappr oximately 12 to 15 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, and whatdif ferentiates it from the typical W est Indian tourism is that it is not an island,” he added. JAZZ JAMAICAN-STYLE IN JANUARY Music will be the drawing card for visitors planning to travel to Jamaica early next year.Last month the organizers of the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues F estival announced their plans for 2007,the 10th year of the event,at a launch held in New York.They listed several well kno wn artistes confirmed to perform a t the festival, set to run from Jan.25-27,including Arturo Tappin, Christopher Cross,Cyndi Lauper,Kenny Rogers,Michael Bolton,Monty Alexander,Pieces of a Dream,plus reggae stars Freddie McGregor,Luciano,Shaggy and Wayne Wonder.Among those who attended the launch were,from left,David Shields,Jamaica’s deputy tourism director; and festival officials Walter Elmore,Marcia McDonnough,George deMercado and Gregg Truman. Guyana launches new thrust for Cricket World Cup Dr. Carol Jacobs, chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, saysthe tourism sector is of critical importance in the fight againstHIV/AIDS. “In a region which boasts of 40 million tourists passing through the region annually, thetourism sector must see itself as having a critical role in sensitizing those who work in the industry, aswell as those who travel for pleas ure or for work,” said Dr. Jacobs,an eminent Caribbean familyphysician, who also chairs theBarbados National HIV/AIDSCommission. Her comments came last month as St. Lucia prepared to host a lar ge delegation of Caribbean media, tourism and development officials for the Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable T ourism (CMEx regional forum known for dealing with the contr oversial connec tions between tourism and HIV/AIDS. “The AIDS program relies heavily on our media par tners to help us achieve these ends,” said Dr. Jacobs. The fifth anniversary of CMEx, to be held at CocoResor ts and a host of other properties on the island, was sched-uled to examine the enhancement of sustainable tourism development through the lens of “Chic Communications Concepts”, discussing culinar y , cultural, health, sports, and village tourism linkages over four days in Castries. The allure of the Caribbean again received global approval asmany of the r egion’s destinations wer e selected for top prizes at the World Travel Awards (WTA) held last month in the Turksand Caicos Islands. The travel industr s so-called equivalent of the“Oscars” r evealed that the Caribbean remains among the most world’s most sought aftervacation spots by visitorsseeking r ecreation, relaxation and even romance. This year some 791 cate gories in the tourism industry wer e highlighted. V oting began in May and ended last month. Voters, represented by some 165,000 travel agencies and professionals from140 countries, had to siftthr ough 3,600 nominations. WINNERS The host country was not left out from the winners’ group, earning the orld’s Leading Beach” and “World’s LeadingIsland Destination” at the13th annual awar ds. Also topping the “world” winners group were from the Caribbean were: Leading villas – Round Hill Hotel and Villas,Jamaica Leading Sports Resort Casa de Campo, DominicanRepublic Most Romantic Resort Sandals Grande Antigua Resort and Spa Leading Hone ymoon Destination – St. Lucia Leading Family AllInclusive Beaches Resorts Leading Ecotourism Destination – Tobago Main Ridge Rain Forest Leading Cruise Line Royal Caribbean Leading Beach Pr ovidenciales, Turks and Caicos Leading All-Inclusive Company – Sandals Resorts International Tourism important in AIDS fight ~ activist Love,luxury earn Caribbean top World Travel Awards October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 15 TOURISM TOURISM / / TRAVEL TRAVEL www .caribbeantoday.com TOURISM BRIEFS American Eagle adds Caribbean destinations American Eagle has increased its services to five Caribbean destina-tions. The airline will offer additional flights from its San Juan hub toAntigua, Dominica,Anguilla,St. Thomas and St. Croix,using the ATR72 turbo-prop aircraft with capacity for 64 passengers. Faith tourism for The Bahamas The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism is partnering with former Fox Newscorrespondent and CNN newsanchor Andria Hall to promote faith tourism in those Caribbean islands Nov.30 through Dec.3. Club Med to open in December Club Med La Caravelle is scheduled to open in Guadeloupe on Dec.16 following the completion of renovations, which reportedly cost $29 million. Travelocity exec to address CTC A senior executive of one of the leading online providers of travel services will give delegates to the29th Annual Caribbean T ourism Conference (CTC-29 how to use the Internet to expandtheir business. T racey W eber , the chief opera ting officer in North America for Travelocity,will set the tone for theCTC-29 scheduled for Oct. 22-25 in The Bahamas. New tourist board for Montserrat Tourism entrepreneur John Ponteen has been chosen to chair a newboard of directors for the Montserra t Tourist Board (MTB Compiled from CMC and other sources. Caribbean destinations were voted among the most romantic. Guy ana is hoping eco-tourism a ttractions like bird wa tching will interest visitors during Cricket World Cup 2007. CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 15

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PARENT RESOURCE GUIDE The Miami-Dade County Public Schools and TheEducation Fund have co-pub lished a free Parent Resource Guide 2006-2007 for the pub-lic. The 88-page guide, sponsored by global financial services pr ovider ING, gives parents infor mation they need to know about their child’s school, curriculum and student requirements. The guide is printed in three languages -English, Spanish and Haitian creole.Each school in the system willr eceive additional copies for use in par ent-teacher meetings. The guide may also be viewed online at www.educationfund.org (under “Our Publications”) and www.dadeschools.net (under “Resources”). The 2006-2007 Guide provides a wealth of infor mation including r evised curriculum requirements, test schedules, immunization requirements, student services, legal rights and parental involvement. HURRICANE RELIEF Elderly residents of Br oward County, Florida, home to hundreds ofCaribbean immigrants, will get hurricane help from the county. A $5,655,000 grant that will provide assistance to residents 60 years and older thatwer e affected by the 2005 hurricanes. The grant money will be administer ed by the Broward County Elderly and Veteran Ser vices Division, and will be used for rental subsidies to assist elderly residents for housing expenses incur r ed as their residences were damaged, in-home services such as minor repairs and clean up, as well as roof replacement. The grant funds will be available to any Br oward County r esident 60 years or older who is not receiving ser vices from another source and was impacted by a hur ri cane in 2005. Assistance will be pr ovided thr ough an application process. For more information, call the Elderly and Veteran Services Division at 954-537-2936 . P ASSPORTS The National Passport Infor mation Center (NPIC the United States Depar tment of State’s single, centralizedpublic contact center for U.S. passport information, is offering a toll free service and has expanded its ser vice availability/options. Persons with questions or need status checks on pending passport applications can call 1-877-487-2778. Customer service representatives are available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays. Automated information isavailable 24 hours a day , seven days a week. For e-mail access, visit: npic@state .gov W ebsite of passport and other international travel infor mation is available at travel.state.gov ‘GREEN CARD’ FILING The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCISannounced that aliens must mail applications to renew or r eplace permanent resident car ds, commonly known as “Green Cards”, directly to the Los Angeles Lockbox. The Lockbox is a pr ocess ing facility used by USCIS to accelerate the collection of applications and petitions. The announced change allows the agency to impr ove the processing of Form I-90 (Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card) by electronically capturing data and images and by performing fee receipting and depositing from one central location, rather than at the local district office, service center, or application support center (ASC Aliens filing a Form I-90, r egardless of their state of r esidence, must mail those applications with an applica tion fee of $185 and a biomet rics fee of $70 to one of the following addresses: For U.S. Postal Service (USPS U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, P.O.Box 54870 Los Angeles, CA90054-0870; Or for non-USPS deliver ies (e.g. private couriers U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Attention: I-90, 16420 Valley View Ave., La Mirada, CA 90638 Applicants should not include initial evidence and suppor ting documentation when submitting the Form I-90 to the Los AngelesLockbox. Applicants will receive a notice for a biometrics processing appointment at an ASC and will submit their ini-tial evidence during that appointment. Applicants will r eceive their biometrics appointment in the mail. CRISIS HOTLINE Multi-lingual counselors ar e available to r espond per sons suffering from stress or needing help with housing, food, child care, caring for teens or other similar prob-lems. Call 211 fr om a regular telephone or 954-537-0211 from a cellular. The fr ee service is being of fer ed as part of Broward County’s helplines. PARENTS NIGHT OUT The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Florida will hold a “Parents NightOut” event on Oct.13 . “Parents Night Out” is a chance for parents to have anevening out on the town alone while their children ages four to 12 create art, participate in creative movementactivities, play games, eatpizza and watch movies at the center, 1650 Harrison Street. For more information andr eservations, call 954-9213274 . 16 CARIBBEAN TODAYOctober 2006 FYI FYI www.caribbeantoday.com CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 16

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Miami – The W omen’s Inter national Film Festival South Florida (WIFF ing films for its second annual festival which will take place Mar. 29-April 1, 2007. Screenings will be held in both Miami-Dade andBr oward counties. Festival entries will be accepted into two main cate gories, “U.S. Fem-Cinema”, for women from or living in the United States and “WorldSheview” for women who come from other countries. Filmmakers may enter featur e length (70 minutes or longer) nar rative/dramatic films or featur e length documentaries. The festival will also accept dramatic shorts and short documentary films(films 49 minutes or less Cash and prizes will be given for the best films. e’re really excited to have juried competitions with both American and interna-tional filmmakers being judged separately this year Yvonne McCormack-Lyons,executive dir ector of the festi val said in a press release issued last month. “It pro-vides our audiences the opportunity to see from theeyes of women her e in the U.S., as well as a window intothe thematic and aesthetic concerns of issues stemmingfr om acr oss the globe.” SHOWCASE The WIFF is a four-day omen’s History Month”celebration showcasing women’ s films, visual art and other ar t forms. The event also includes workshops,panel discussions, symposia, and parties celebrating women artists. “The mission of WIFF is to bring together womenar tists from all over the world to explor e, share and dialogue about issues concer ning women through the arts,” said McCormack-Lyons. “With women representing only five to seven percent of filmmak-ers, it is no wonder that the images of women and the sub-ject matter of films pr esented to the general public ar e often less than ideal. W ith these kinds of statistics, WIFF’s role is very important.” Filmmakers can submit their films to: Women’s International Film Festival, P.O. Box 120337, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312 or through the website www.wiffonline.org where they can view complete submission rules and information. Submission deadlines and pr ocessing fees ar e: Early submission deadline: Oct. 31, 2006, $25 features and $20shor ts; official submission deadline, Nov. 30, 2006, $30 featur es and $25 shor ts; and late submission, Dec. 7, 2006, $40 features and $35 shortfilms. For mor e infor mation about the WIFF, call 954-9378299 or log onto www.wiffonline.org . The cultural diversity of artists and art organiza-tions will be the focus of a Cultural Diversity Artists’ Forum this month in Hollywood, Florida. The workshop, set for 7 p.m.Oct.11 at the Okalee Museum, 5710 Seminole Way,will encourage dialogue with artists and arts organizations inor der to identify their needs. It will also offer artists an opportunity to learn about the different services offered by theBr oward County Commission’s Cultural Division, to learn new skills for career enhancementand network with other ar tists and arts organizations, as wellas infor mation ongrants, workshops, school and community ar tist r esidencies, teaching oppor tunities, publications and marketing. “The Cultural Diversity Artists’ Forums are a wonderful oppor tunity for us to lear n about the area’s artists, as well as openly discuss new ideas andfutur e needs, of artists and arts organizations,” said Mary A. Becht, dir ector of the Cultural Division. For more information about the free forum, which is beingheld in par tnership with the Seminole T ribe of Florida, call Adriane Clarke, grants specialist, at 954-357-7530 or e-mail: aclarke@br owar d.or g; or T er r esa For d, arts education specialist, at teford@broward.org or 954-357-8007 . Online r egistration can be made visiting www.broward.org/arts and clicking on “Workshops”. LOS ANGLES, CMC Managers of a nightclub herelast month cancelled an October performance by Jamaican reggae artiste Mark Myrie, alsoknown as Buju Banton, aftercustomers raised concer ns about his anti-gay lyrics. Pr ess r epor ts stated that email messages and telephone calls from patrons prompted the cancellation of the Oct. 2 show. e felt it was the right thing to do after doing some r esear ch on the matter,” said Adam Manacker, general manager of the Highland nightclub and restaurant. STUNTED Earlier this year Buju Banton and Beenie Man, another Jamaican r eggae star , had shows in London cancelled after activists condemned them for their homophobic tunes. One of Buju Banton’s earlier songs “Boom Bye Bye” glorifies the shooting of gay men. However, his most recent album oo Bad”, r eleased last month, omits homophobic lyrics. The husky-voiced star has been a major figur e in Jamaica since the early 1990s with brash dancehall music and, more r ecently , a traditional r eggae sound. But his career has been stunted in the United States and Britain because of his attitude toward gays. Women filmmakers wanted for festival Florida hosts forum on artist diversityL.A.nightclub cancels Buju Banton show TORONTO, Canada, CMC Jamaican filmmaker Per r y Henzell says he is “amazed” at the “phenomenal” success ofthe movie “The Har der They Come”, since it had been a “har d sell” when it was released in 1972. Henzell was speaking with patrons, whoattended the scr eening of a restored version of the movie at the ongoingT oronto International Film Festival (TIFF Canada last month. Hesaid it was impossible to get a distributor, and when no internationalcompany would take thefilm, he personally tookit to some 36 countriesover a six-year period. “When the movie opened in Brixton, nobody came. We printed 2,000 flyers and got runners to plaster them everywhere and the nextnight, the place was rammed,” he recalled. IMPACT The movie was shown in a section of the 10-day film festival called “Dialogues: Talking with Pictur es”, wher e film directors were invited to “select and discuss films thathave inspir ed them, had a sig nificant impact on them, or wer e pivotal in the pr ogr ession of their own car eers”. The restored version of “The Harder They Come” also contains 20 new shots.The movie, which star r ed reggae icon Jimmy Cliff, also launched the acting career of Carl Bradshaw, who was a highschool teacher at the time. He told the audience that no one realized how big the film would become, as formany of the actors it was just “a mackerel and banana”movie. “What that means is we didn’ t r eally see it as having any substance but it could feed you and keep you from starving. I had noidea I waslaunching my career,” saidthe awar dwinning actor and movie producer, who has appearedin almostever y movie shot in Jamaica, including “Third World Cop”, SmileOrange”, “The Lunatic”,“Klash” and “DancehallQueen”. Henzell’s second movie, “No Place Like Home”, wasone of two Jamaican movies topr emier at this year s Toronto Film Festival, the other being “Made in Jamaica”. Grammy award winners Shaggy and WyclefJean will be among the top acts appearing at the 10thAnnual W orld Creole Music Festival from Oct. 27-29 at Pottersville Savannah inDominica. The festival will open with the Jamaican-born dancehall artiste Shaggy, who won aGrammy A ward for “Best Reggae Album” in 1995 and Dominica’s own WCK, creators of Bouyon music.Other performances will include T-Vice from Haiti, Royalty Band from the U.S. and Zouk Flam fromGuadeloupe. The next day , Haitian-born Wyclef Jean, formerly with The Fugees, will perform. Joining him will be Triple Kay from Dominica, performers of zouk, compas, r eggae, cadance,dancehall andlocal bouyonmusic; andSwingingStars, also fromDominica,featuringHunter andKing Dice.The sounds of Sakis and Djakout will complete the evening’s line-up. ‘THE DRAGON’ Dominica’s Impromptu Band will take the stage on Oct. 29, along with “The Dragon” Byron Lee of Jamaica, AdmiralT of Gaudeloupe, as well as Tabou Combo and Carimi, both from Haiti. Digicel is the platinum sponsor of this year s World Cr eole Music Festival. Other sponsors include Heineken, Kubuli, CaribVision,AppletonJamaica RumandCaribbeanStar andCaribbeanSun Airlines. For more information on the festival, contact the Dominica Festivals Commission(DFC 767-448-2045 or visit the festival’ s website at www .worldcreolemusicfestival.dm Success of ‘Harder They Come’ amazes filmmaker Perry Henzell Shaggy,Wyclef among headliners at Dominica’s World Creole Music Fest October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 17 ARTS ARTS / / ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT www .caribbeantoday.com Wyclef Jean Henzell Sha ggy CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 17

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A scholarship fund in honor of the late Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou officially launched last month ata community cultural tribute tocommemorate the bir thday , life and legacy of the late Jamaican icon in Miami, Florida. The scholarship, tenable at the Edna Manley Collegeof V isual and Per for ming Ar ts in Kingston, Jamaica, will be awarded to a student pursuing the three-year diploma course in performing arts. This was announced by Norma Darby, director of the Florida-basedfolklor e group, the Jamaica Folk Revue, who spear headed the planning of the cultural tribute. A proclamation declaring Sept. 8 as “Louise Bennett Day” in North Miami was also pr esented by that city’s Mayor Shirley Gibson. ENTER T AINMENT Mor e than 600 persons attended the three-hour long program of cultural performances which featured folk songs, poetry, drama, dance and video clippings reminiscentof the work and life of MissLou, including the famous “Ring Ding” entertainment with the childr en. The audience was entertained by local ar tistes including the Jamaica Folk Revue, the T allawah Mento Band, the Roots and Culture Dancers, the Sierra Norwood Children’s Choir, the Queens Entertainment Troupe and dub poet Malachi Smith. Special guest was Jamaican cultural performer Faith D’Aguillar who enter tained the audience with a col lection of Miss Lou’ s wellknown pieces. Miss Lou, who died in Canada recently, would have celebrated her 87th birthdayon Sept. 7. A similar community tribute is being scheduled for Oct.14 at the African American Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale as part of Jamaica’ s National Her oes’ celebrations in Florida. JIS KINGSTOWN, St. V incent, CMC The family of singerPatrice Bascombe, who diedlast month following a motorvehicle accident, is suing the St. Vincent and the Grenadines government over claims ofgr oss negligence on the part of health of ficials at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital. Bascombe was one of two finalists selected to representthe island at ther egional level of the Digicel Rising Star Competition. The 18-year -old former junior queen contestant,national dance champion and singer died while being pre-par ed for sur gery, hospital authorities said. But the family’s attorney Bayliss Fredericksaid that T rinidadian pathologist Dr. Hubert Daisley con-fir med that the singer died fr om septicemia or blood poisoning. Fr ederick has alleged that the young singer died as a r esult of gross negligence. GORDON WILLIAMS The tasty flavor of a tempting destination will be available in Toronto this month, and organizers of the first ever “Caribbean Week” are hopingthat it will be sweet enough to draw visitors from the Canadian city to the region. Between Oct. 11 and 15 Toronto, which has hosted the popular “Caribana” festival for years, will be engulfed with the Caribbean’s special brand of allure – food and entertainment – in this first time eventpr esented by the Caribbean Tourist Organization (CTO The CTO hopes the experi-ence will be linger long enough to transform into asignificant boost for ther egion’s tourism industry. s taking the people to the market,” CTO’sCommunications Dir ector Johnson JohnRose told Caribbean Today recently. s giving them a little taste fo the region so they can come to the region and have the full meal.” According to the CTO, which has also been or ganiz ing a similar event in New York for the past four years, Toronto has always been a target, along with other North American cities with large Caribbean populations. e have, for quite a while, been trying to get it done in Toronto,” JohnRosesaid. “Hopefully we can do it inother cities n the U.S. as well.” EXPOSURE The intent of the celebra tions is clear. According to a press release from the CTO, “Caribbean Week” in Toronto wants to “create events, whichwill attract significant media and consumer attention by pr esenting the best of the Caribbean; create a platform for the sale of Caribbean vaca-tions; and cr eate oppor tunities for our member countries to use the event to further theirindividual objectives.” “What you’re doing is exposing the Caribbean to thepeople,” JohnRose said. aking the Caribbean and bringing it to lifeand done by Caribbean people.” The CTO is the Caribbean’s tourism development agency which represents 32 governments and some private sectorentities. Gordon W illiams is Caribbean Today’s managing editor. Beginning Nov.1,2006,youmay e-mail him at editor@caribbeantoday.com. Taste of the Caribbean comes to TorontoFamily of dead singer sues gov’t 18 CARIBBEAN TODAYOctober 2006 Toronto will host “Caribbean Week”this month. Miss Lou ARTS ARTS / / ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT www.caribbeantoday.com Florida launches ‘Miss Lou’ scholarship to honor late icon The schedule for the CTO’ s first ever “Caribbean Week”in Toronto is as follows: Thursday,Oct.12 at The Carlu 10 a.m.-2 p.m.Ribbon cutting opening ceremony and media marketplace and luncheon for sponsors and offi cials. 3 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Travel agent training sessions 6 p.m.-10 p.m.Agent carnival and mini-marketplace showcasing Caribbean foods and entertainment. Friday,Oct.13 at The Carlu “DoItCaribbean” wedding promotion, followed by a champagne reception for the winning couple. Saturday ,Oct.14 at The Ontario Science Centre 10 a.m.-5 p.m.The Caribbean Marketplace,open to the public. Representatives from Caribbean destinations,airlines,tour operators and hotels will be present to showcase the best of the region’ s destinations. Sunday ,Oct.15 at the Cathedral Church of St.James 4:30 p.m.-6 p.m.– Special service including the music of the Chorale of Toronto.Reverend Douglas Stoute willpreside over the celebra tion. F or more information on “Caribbean Week”in Toronto,call 416-935-0767 or visit www .caribbeanweek.ca Caribbean Week CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 18

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GEORGETOWN, Guyana The Guyana gover nment has confirmed that the country’s largest trade and investmentexposition, GUYEXPO, will proceed as planned thismonth. Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister ManniramPrashad said the event wouldtake place fr om Oct. 26-31. Prashad, said he had met with the GUYEXPO Committee to discuss preparatory works and site designing and that the event would beheld under the theme“Exhibiting Excellence”. Organizers said they expect mor e than 80,000 peo ple to attend the exposition that provides local companies with an avenue to pr omote their products. The stateowned Guyana Chronicle newspaper had r eported there were fears that the exposition would have been postponed this year, because of the Aug.t 28 regional and general elec-tions that had been won by theincumbent People’ s Pr ogr essive Party Civic (PPPC Prashad said GUYEXPO has contributed significantly to the economy, as many localenterprises, small and lar ge, have been able to clinch lucrative deals. Help reception for small businesses The Miami-Dade Department of Business Development will beholding a reception a t 6 p .m. Oct. 11 at the Continental National Bank of Miami,1801 S.W.1st St.,to kick off its new program tha t guarantees loans to CommunitySmall Business Enterprise (CSBEand Small Business Enterprise(SBE The program relieves some of the financial burdens these companies encounter as small business contractors/vendors when awarded county contracts guarantees loans for CSBE and SBE firms performing on county contracts, through a partnership with Continental National Bank of Miami. 30th Miami trade conf ab Dec.4-6 The effect of recent initia tives such as the Caribbean SingleMarket will be among the issuesassessed a t the 30th Miami Conference on trade and invest ments scheduled for Dec.4-6. Will the Caribbean be able to effectively integra te and crea te a truly single market space tha t allows for increased regional and foreign direct investment?Is CAFTA-DR delivering on its promise or is there significant work left to be done to make Central American economies competitive? Those subjects will be discussed by leaders from the region at the three-day event. Belize banking on CABEI Belize has signed an a greement making it a non-founding beneficiary member of the CentralAmerican Bank for EconomicIntegra tion (CABEI CABEI,established by the governments of Guatemala,ElSalvador , Honduras,Costa Rica and Nicara gua,aims to contribute to the social and economic development of the Central American region. Compiled from CMC and other sources. LESLIE A. SHARE AND MICHAEL ROSENBERG So-called offshore “tax haven” jurisdictions such asthe Cayman Islands, The Bahamas, and the British Virgin Islands have traditionally ser ved as the preferred choices for foreign individuals to for m holding companies and tr usts. Similarly, many United States persons use them as wellfor such purposes, and keepthem fully compliant with the r elated U.S. tax requirements. In most cases, these structures are created for completely legitimatebusiness or personal r easons. On the other hand, there are of course some individualsand entities which attempt to usetax haven companies to hide assets and income from their home country tax authorities.In recent years, these activitieshave under gone intense scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service (IRSand numer ous “secret” offshore schemes have been uncovered. In this regard, on Aug. 1, 2006, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigationissued an extensive 370 page report entitled “Tax Haven Abuses: The Enablers, The Tools and Secrecy” (the report STRUGGLE Commissioner of Internal Revenue Mark Everson testified before this subcommittee that the report reviews the struggles of the U.S. government to combat the alleged use of Caribbean and other offshore financial cen-ters to hide trillions of dollars of assets, avoid taxes on billions of dollars of income, and par tici pate in money laundering. As one example, the r eport mentions that Enron Corporation, one of the most notorious users of of fshor e str uc tur es, for med 441 of fshore entities in the Cayman Islands in a single year . The expr essed purpose of the r epor t is to “open the black box” of how financial pr ofessionals allegedly help their clients conceal and secretly uti-lize for eign offshore assets while circumventing or violating U.S.tax, securities, and anti-money laundering laws.It then reviewsa number of fascinating case his tories where various “promoters” recruited clients over the Internet, prepared an “offshorehow-to manual”, and devised various complex trust and securities transactions schemes for shielding their activities from law enfor cement authorities. ‘SPIDER WEB’ The most detailed and inter esting case histor y discussion involved the use of a virtual “spider web” of 58 non-U.S. tr usts and corporations and a wide range of of fshore mechanisms to exercise control over their assets and $600 million in r elated investment gains. In essence, the r epor t pr ovides a r oadmap of the beliefs of the U.S. tax authorities on “how not to” establish and maintainof fshor e str uctur es. As a bottom-line, if any for eign or U.S. investor still believes that the use of a“secr et” tax haven will for ever shelter their investments fr om the prying eyes of the various legal authorities, a casual review of the r eport should put an end to such foolishness. Although the report generally tar gets U.S. taxpayers rather than foreign persons with no direct U.S. connections, it does inevitably give rise to the practi-cal pr oblem of potentially “tainting” the honest, legitimate uses of low or no-tax Caribbean and other jurisdictions like theBritish V irgin Islands; the Cayman Islands, and TheBahamas. In our experience, foreign investors using these jurisdictions to hold their U.S.assets have sometimes been misidentified as U.S. persons or as having engaged in illegal activities, which has caused them numerous related difficulties and pr ofessional expenses to clarify their situations. Pr ofessional advisors will therefore need to carefully consider these types of potential issues with r espect to each per son’ s individual cir cumstances. Leslie A.Share and Michael Rosenberg are shareholder s with the Coral Gables law firm of P ackman,Neuwahl & Rosenberg,and can be reachedat 305-665-3311. Guy ana ‘Exhibiting Excellence’ with trade expo Oct.26-31 Throughout October the Miami-Dade EnterpriseCommunity Center (ECC free public business plan laband seminars for aspiringentr epreneurs in South Florida. Those par ticipating in the “Emerging and Expanding Business Seminars Series” can receive the ECC Certificate Program upon completing theseminar series. Seminars will be held at 3050 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 201in Miami. They will be divid ed in two parts consisting of the “Emerging Business” andthe “Expanding BusinessSeries”. Among the topics to be discussed are assets, manage-ment, legal contracts for smallbusiness owners, businessplans and gover nment con tracting, business licenses and taxes, loans, and how to starta successful business. HELP The ECC is a division of the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust. The mission of the ECC is to maximize the opportunities for entrepreneurs and smallbusiness owners to succeed inMiami-Dade County and con tribute to its economic gr owth by providing a wide array of business ser vices thr ough a “One Stop Entrepreneurial Center”. The center offers a small business resource library anddaily one on one businesscounseling. The ECC houses nonprofit organizations, public and private lenders and government agencies like theMinority Business EnterpriseCenter , a component of the United States Department ofCommer ce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA pose of this office is to foster the establishment and growthof minority-owned businessesin America. For additional infor mation and to r egister, call 305579-2730 . Miami-Dade offers free public business seminarsBUSINESS BRIEFSU.S.Senate targets foreign tax haven abuses October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 19 BUSINESS BUSINESS www .caribbeantoday.com Enron Corporation once formed 441 off shore entities in a single year in the Cayman Islands. CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 19

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GORDON WILLIAMS Shaka Hislop knows all about waiting. That’s because he’s soconfident it will never be invain. The man who stepped from the shadows of a substitute at virtually the last minute to shine for Trinidad and Tobago on soccer’sbiggest stage – the 2006 World Cup finalsin Ger many lives the per fect formula: patience does pay . ou never know when opportunity will come. You just have to be ready,” the goal-keeper told Caribbean Today last month as he continued his current role as a back-up with his new team F.C.Dallas of Major League Soccer (MLS in the United States. Staying ready is the philosophy Hislop has adapted through-out his long car eer , including 14 years in Europe’s professional leagues, many at the club game’s highest level. Yeteven though success never totally eluded him – twice fin-ishing r unner -up in the English Premier League (EPL had to wait until age 37 to rel-ish the gr eatest moments of his soccer life. And after all those years, which included hoppingbetween several clubs – topflight English teams Newcastle United and Portsmouth amongthem it happened in thespace of one month. In May, the 6’ 4” Hislop star ted the final of the F.A. Cup for West Ham, It took a spectacular late shot fr om England international Steven Gerrard of Liverpool to snatch one of the most prestigioustr ophies in world club soccer fr om the grasp of Hislop and the Hammers. BIGGER HIGHLIGHT But Hislop was not deflat ed for long. The following month – just hours beforeT&T was to make its historicentrance into the W orld Cup he lear ned that he would replace injured Kelvin Jack in goal against Sweden. Nothing in more than a dozen pro seasons, and dozens more international caps, could top the experience of lining up with his teammates as T&T’s national anthem cascaded from the public address system on June 10 at Dortmund. “It was a lifelong ambition to be in the World Cup,” said Hislop, who went on to per-for m brilliantly for the Soca Warriors in a surprise 0-0 draw with Sweden, and days later in a 0-2 defeat to England,although he was again beaten by a Gerrard strike late in thegame. “Throughout (my career always thought something wasmissing for me and that was the World Cup. “Things went well for me personally and the team,” heexplained, although the tiny twin-island republic of justover a million people – the smallest nation ever to reach the finals failed to score a goal in the tournament and was eliminated in the groupstage. s a high that I will probably never come downfr om.” FRESH ST ART Hislop’s biggest soccer highlights had came within a month of each other, making that, according to him, “a nice note to sign off” his European career on. Yet, despite still being buoyed by the WorldCup experience, Hislop insistshe does not look down at the MLS, America’ s highest ranked professional league, but still scoffed at by the tradi-tional club powers of Eur ope and South America. He misses the packed ter races at England’s soccer gr ounds and the chanting, ultra-passionate fans who roaron world-class players eachweekend. “Of course,” he admitted, “the environment is different.” But he looks at the MLS, a relatively young league with a promising future, as a freshstar t that he is already relishing. “It is not a come down,” said Hislop about playing inthe MLS. “It’ s still about football, soccer. It was a time for a new challenge. I wanted a new challenge, a fresh challenge.” So he did not re-sign with W est Ham, although, he said, the club offered him a con-tract. He claimed he wanted tobe closer to T&T , the place he calls “home”, although he was born in the United Kingdom and attended Howard University in the U.S. T&T is also where his wife and her family are from. “I wanted mor e stability Hislop explained. He went to F.C. Dallas fully aware that the startinggoalkeeper s job belonged to Dario Sala, a 32-year-old Argentine who last played forArsenal, another top levelEPL club. W ith the club on an impressive run in the MLS’s Western Conference when hejoined in early August, Hislopalr eady knew he would have to compete hard for playing time. At the time of this interview early last month he had only seen action in the U.S. OpenCup on Aug. 23, and was still waiting to make his MLS debut. “Even with his pedigree, we knew when we brought him in that we weren’t just going togive him the (star ting) job,” F .C. Dallas’s Media Relations Manager Justin Pearson told Caribbean Today . “He would have to fight for a job like everyone else on the roster STILL INTENSE Hislop doesn’t mind. He said his intensity has not diminished with the crossing ofthe oceans. He signed on withF .C. Dallas through the end of next season simply because hewants to play . “I’m still as competitive as I was,” he said. “The r ules of the game haven’t changed that much (fr om England to the U.S.). My competitiveness hast changed that much.” However , he understands that he still must prove he isgood enough. For that, he isar med with his most telling weapon. “The single-minded intensity remains the same,” Hislopsaid. He insisted he has set no timetable for grabbing a start-ing spot. Sitting and watching, the patience that has brought him so much reward in thepast, is finefor now . s nothing new to me,” he said. “It doesn’t bother mein the slightestIt’ s just par t of the game.” While he waits, Hislop said he has no problem doing whatever he can to help F.C. Dallas win the MLS. He supports Salaand the other young goalkeep ers at the club. In some ways he is like the old veteran passingon the knowledge. They tur n to him, and he loves it. “I feel I have a r ole and responsibility to be support-ive,” he said. “I am enjoyingit.” And even if it eventually turns sour, which Hislop seri-ously doubts, he can always look back at his special summer, when in less than a monthhis soccer car eer reached its pinnacle. “I was happy as a fan just to be there,” he recalled abouthearing the T&T national anthem in Germany at the WorldCup. “For me it was a specialmoment. That was the highlighton the field. What a big moment for me, my country Just something to think about while he exer cises his most valuable vir tue. Gordon Williams is Caribbean Today’s managing editor.Beginning Nov.1,2006 you may e-mail him at editor@caribbeantoday.com T&T’s Hislop bides his time over new U.S.soccer challenge ~ T&T World Cup hero moves to MLS’s F.C.Dallas 20 CARIBBEAN TODAYOctober 2006 Hislop in action for West Ham in England last season. Hislop,left,and captain Dwight Yorke celebrate T&T’s historic qualification for the finals of World Cup 2006 SPORT SPORT www.caribbeantoday.com CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 20

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TITLE:First Rain AUTHOR:Donna Weir-SoleyREVIEWED BY :Dawn A. Davis Is not often that words from another so stir the spirit that they conjure up memories deeply buried with time. A book of poetry reflecting the rhythmic music of language,“First Rain” celebrates the lives ofthe women in the author s life fr om her grandmother to her aunty and her close friends, who have played significant roles in shaping her words. Donna Weir-Soley recreates the lives and tales of these women through her own unique storytellingvoice. And, thr ough her stories you will go back to a time when you felt most nurtured, a time when qualitytime meant a family gathering with the eldest matriarch in the familythe center of attention as she weaved her life story, loose, but strong as a bamboo basket. Ah was born Teresa Matilda T ouban, but evvy baddy call me mi Miss Mattie or Sistah MattieMi madda was a Maroon, fighter people dem she was as a healer an a midwife;Mi daddy people dem come fromIndia im come ere wen im a bwa Mi nevah have a easy life Mi born inna strug-gleMi birth thirteen pickney;one born deadone get poliomylitisfrom im a bab y one get a bad injec-tion almost cripple im.Mi bury two husband Cousin dem,same name,one jetblac k and cool like de stone in im water jarde odder one red like wite people , eye dem green like de pickney dem glass marble STRENGTH Pictured on the cover is WeirSoley’s grandmother. She is Nanny.She embodies the str ength of all the women mentioned in this book; thewomen who nur ture and send their sons and daughters into today’s harsh non-communicative worldgiving them power to navigate. Indeed, many have written about positive for ces in their lives, but these stories/poems ar e dif fer ent. They go beyond just telling the tale; they invite you into theauthor s world. But, her world becomes yours because the stories are so familiar, so personal to yourown experience. These tales are the Caribbean experience, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. In fact, some totally deny this part of their existence the country life, cooking on a “dutchie” on a coal fire, feeding the pigs, going to bush with grandfather. Sadly , this means denying your being living a life outside of who you are. The men-folk in Weirsoley’s life are also explored, always with love, some with a bite. adda nuh dare look pon me. Him talk to mi wid im bac k turn, name de worlds I and I see and de faces that refuse to see me . Me learn de rhythm of him voice, each curve and dip,swell and whirl, syllable by syllable me swallow himmeaning wholeuntil me learn to speak in parableslike de river But it is the women who take center stage. In fact, they ar e the first line of defense against adversity. The women we meet in “FirstRain” battle enemies, physical orpsychological, over come gr eat handicaps, the jump hurdles to survival and success. DISPLACED Her migration stories paint a picture many displaced Caribbean people can relate to the loneliness even in the middle of a vast concrete jungle; the cultur e shock; the day job, the night job; the over t discrimination. But, amidst all this the she celebrates the successes and contri-butions made to our adopted lands. What if we were to tell the truth about our voluntary exile?That we became the butt of jokes InLiving Color for the three,four jobs we worked to make down-payment on the modest home, since owning a home expressed thedogged determinationthat cast our spirits in iron, made us oblivious to racial slights and other insults we broaden our bac ks to take daily Insults bred desire, hope, molded by large, tough hands into words heavy as brick that become edifices of powerful Caribbeanimmigrant experiences. “First Rain” get it! PUBLISHER:Peepal Tree Press Ltd,U.K. Dawn A.Davis is a freelance writer for Caribbean Today. Celebrating women takes center stage in ‘First Rain’ October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 21 BOOKS BOOKS www .caribbeantoday.com BOOK BRIEFS Jamaican launches book Jamaican Da vid P.Rowe,a South Florida-based attorney,last monthlaunched his book “Ira Rowe, Caribbean La wyer,Materials, Tributes & Cases”at the St.Thomas University School of Law. Law professor wins book prize A book with a bittersweet Caribbean flavor has been selected the winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize,which is awarded for the bestbook on sla ver y or abolition. “Degrees of Freedom; Louisiana and Cuba After Slavery Rebecca J.Scott”,a Charles Gibson Distinguished University Professor of Histor y and professor of law at the University of Michigan, is the author of the book. She won a prize of $25,000. New book focuses on abuse A woman struggling to survive abuse while living in the Dominican Republic,Puerto Rico and the United States,highlights a new book titled res Gritos de Abuso Carnal Angustia Y Terror”. The book,written in Spanish by Leonidas Santana,focuses on thehardships faced by the author . CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 21

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Some of the brightest liter ary minds to come out of the Caribbean will be among those featured at this year’s Miami Book Fair International set for Nov. 12-19. The book fair , which has attracted dozens of awar dwinning writers fr om around the world, will be held at the Miami-Dade College Wolfson campus, downtown the South Florida city . The 2006 book fair is expected to of fer eight days of fun-filled activities, including the “Street Fair” on the weekend of Nov. 17-19, featuring readings by established andaspiring authors, plus a wideselection of books for collec tors to choose fr om and international pavilions showcasing the books, arts, food and drinks fr om around the world. 200 WRITERS Isabel Allende, Thomas Cahill, Nora Ephron, Edward P. Jones and Robert Olen Butler are among the celebrated authors who are sched-uled be among mor e than 200 in attendance this year . They will joined by many writers from the Caribbean, including Kamau Brathwaite, DeborahJack, Philip, Dawad, SharaMcCallum, Lor na Goodison, Lawrence Scott and Mervyn Taylor. Miami Book Fair International is one of the largest presenters of Spanish-language writers in the nation, of fering a rich Hispanic program as a complement to English-language events. Miami Book Fair Inter national is a premier program of the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at MiamiDade College and is held at MDC’s Wolfson campus at 300 N.E. Second Ave., Miami, Florida, and surroundingdowntown str eets. Miami Book Fair International set for Nov.12-19 Belo w Caribbean Today fea tures profiles of Caribbean writers who are scheduled toparticipate in the MiamiInternational Book F air. KAMA U BRA THWAITE Kamau Brathwaitewas bor n in Barbados andis a poet, per for mer, cultural theorist and researcher. His most recentbook is “Bor n to Slow Horses” (2005 he has authored other works, including “Ancestors: AReinvention of MotherPoem”, “Sun Poem and X-Self” ( New Dir ections, 2001), “The Arrivants: A New World Trilogy: Rights of PassageMasks-Island” (Oxfor d, 1968); “Zea Mexican Diary” (Wisconsin Press, 1993), “Dream Stories” (Longman,1993), “Middle Passages” (New York: New Directions,1993) and “The Development of Creole Society in Jamaica 1770-1820” (Oxford 1971 Brathwaite has r eceived numerous awards, among them the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Bussa Award,the Casa de las AmricasPrize, and the Charity Randall Prize for Performance and Written Poetry. He has also received Guggenheim andFulbright fellowships. His book “The Zea Mexican Diary” (1992The V illage V oice Book of the Year. Earlier this year Brathwaite was awar ded the Grif fin (Inter national) Poetr y Prize in Canada for his newest work “Born to Slow Horses”. He is a co-founder of the Caribbean Artists Movement and was educated at PembrokeCollege, Cambridge and has aPhD fr om the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. He has been professor of comparative lLiteratur e at New Y ork University since 1993. DEBORAH JACK Deborah Jack was born in Amsterdam and grew up in St. Martin. She is a poet and ar tist. Her collected poems,“The RainySeason” (St Martin: Houseof Nehesi,1997), is herfirst publishedbook. Her poems have appeared in “TheCaribbean W riter” and “Calabash”. A wards and honors include a Caribbean Writers Institute Fellow, University ofMiami, Prince Ber nar d Culture Fund grants, University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship. Jack was listed as one of the nation’ s most popular artists at the turn of the century in “St. Martin Massive! ASnapshot of Popular Ar tists” (1999 assistant professor of art atNew Jersey City University in New Jersey. SHARA McC ALLUM Shara McCallum isthe author of two booksof poems from theUniversity of PittsburghPr ess, “Song of Thieves”(2003 “The Water Between Us”(1999, winner of the 1998Agnes L ynch Starrett Poetry Prize). Originally fr om Jamaica, McCallum directs the Stadler Center for Poetr y and teaches at Bucknell University . She is also on the faculty of the Stonecoast Low ResidencyMF A pr ogram. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family. MER VYN TAYLOR Mer vyn T aylor was born in T rinidad and is the author of three books of poetry, “An Island of HisOwn” (1992 “The Goat” (1999 way” (2006 Press, and a compact disc, “Road Clear” (2004incollaboration with bassist David Williams. About the poems in his latestcollection Debbie Jacob wrote in her column in the T rinidad Guardian , “Lost in the cold and unable to returnhome to the tr opics, the West Indians of T aylor’s poems r each as far as they can: Florida”. Taylor lives in Brooklyn, New York. LAWRENCE SCOTT Lawrence Scott is from Trinidad and Tobago. He isthe prize-win ning author of the novel“Aelr ed’ s Sin” (London: Allison & Busby, 1998),which won a Commonwealth Writers’Prize, Best Book in theCaribbean & Canada 1999.“Night Calypso” (Allison&Busby , 2004), his most recent novel, was short-listed for a Commonwealth W riters’ Prize, Best Book in Canada &the Caribbean and nominated for TheInter national Impac Dublin Literary Award 2006 and waspublished in France asCalypso de Nuit in June 2005.His first novel, “W itchbr oom” ( Allison, 1992, Heinemann, 1993) was also short-listed fora Commonwealth W riters’ Prize for Best First Book in Canada & the Caribbean,1993. His short stories have been read on the BBC andhave been anthologized inter nationally, notably in The Penguin Book of CaribbeanShor t Stories and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Shor t Stories. He divides his timebetween writing and teaching literatur e and creative writing. RAMABAI ESPINET Ramabai Espinet was born in Trinidad and Tobago. She is apoet, essayist and critic. Her first novel, “The Swinging Bridge” (T oronto: Harper Flamingo, 2003), was short-list-ed for the 2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize in the category ofBest First Book (Caribbean and Canada Region), long-list-ed for the IMP AC Dublin 2005 prize for fiction and selected for the Robert Adams lectureseries 2005, held annually in Toronto and Montreal, and fea-turing Adams’ s pick of “moder n classics”. Other works by Espinet include the poetry collection“Nuclear Seasons” (1991and the childr en’ s books “The Princess of Spadina” (Toronto: Sister Vision, 1992) and “Ninja’s Carniva” (Sister Vision, 1993). Her performance pieces “Beyond the Kala Pani”, and “Indian Robber Talk” both explore the historical recordof South Asian immigration to the Caribbean. A documentary, “Coming Home” (Caribbean Tales/Leda SereneFilms), and focused upon the context of Espinet’s work,especially “The Swinging Bridge”, was released in 2005. Espinet is a professor ofEnglish at Seneca College in Toronto in the School ofEnglish and Liberal Studies.She also teaches at the University of T oronto in the Department of CaribbeanStudies and the Institute for Women’s Studies and GenderStudies. She lives in T oronto. D A WAD PHILIP Dawad Philip was born in Trinidad. He is a poet andpainter and cultural activist, as well as (formerlyist in the United States. He is the author of “Invocations” and his work has appeared in several anthologies, includ-ing, most r ecently , “Poetr y International’s English Language Poetry from Aroundthe W orld” (2003-2004 Caribbean authors join Miami’s page turning experience October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 23 www .caribbeantoday.com BOOKS BOOKS PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING CONSULTANT 9-5. M-F. BA/2yrs. exp. Plan public relations and marketing programs including brochures, newsupdates, speeches, and columns. Send resume to Swan Communications 757 SE 17th St. #1018, Ft. Lauderdale, FL33316 CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 23

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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC The Barbados gover nment is seeking to get the religious organizations in the country to assist in spreadingthe gospel of the CaribbeanCommunity Single Marketand Economy (CSME The CSME was the main discussion point when PrimeMinister Owen Ar thur, who has lead prime ministerial responsibility for the CSME,met with the Religious Advisory Committee onNational Af fairs an interfaith body comprisingChristians, the Islamic com munity and Rastafarians lastmonth. Arthur told the religious leaders that the church mustalways be engaged in matters affecting the society, particu-larly on issues driven bylifestyles. “This countr y is facing change on a number of issues and there are some things that cannot just be solved by political power or the law. Wehave to engage the chur ch on these matters and we have to do so on a sustained basis,” Ar thur said. Chairman of the Religious Advisory Committee on National Affairs, Anglican Bishop Dr.John Holder , described theCSME, aninitiative tointegrate the region’s econ-omy into a single eco-nomic spaceas “new and challenging.” He urged ther eligious fraternity to “step out in the new CSME ar rangement guided by God’ s command to love our neighbor The CSME allows for the free movement of skills, labor, goods and services within CARICOM and is regarded as a suitable response by ther egion to the changing global environment in whichCaribbean states have lost preferential treatment for their goods and services. BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC St. Kitts and Nevis has joined fellow Caribbean community (CARICOMBarbados in declaring thatcommer cial sex workers will not be welcomed to its shores for next year s Cricket World Cup (CWC However, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC last month that while prostitutes would not be wel-comed for the CWC, it wasabout time that Caribbean people engaged in serious discussions on the decriminaliza-tion of pr ostitution and homosexuality. “St. Kitts and Nevis has not begun to discuss the mat ter of legalizing commer cial sex workers or homosexuality, ther efor e my government would be highly irresponsible if we were to move to allowcommer cial sex workers to move into the countr y for W orld Cup in that way ,” Dr . Douglas said. “This (prostitution highly illegal in St. Kitts andNevis and I as prime minister would be the first to ensure that the law is maintainedand that the law is pur sued against those who are being involved in those activi-ties,” headded. DISCRIMINATION Douglas, however, said Caribbean people could nolonger delay discussing the legislation of prostitution andhomosexuality since the crimi nalization of these acts wasfuelling the discrimination,which was pushing HIV/AIDS underground. e must not bury our heads in the sand becausethese ar e impor tant issues issues that have to come to the fore in the discussion of Caribbean people on the topic HIV/AIDS,” said Douglas. The prime minister said it would be unreasonable toseek to legalize pr ostitution or homosexuality in Caribbean countries before there was widespr ead debate on the highly emotive issues across all sectors of society. “I believe the governments have to respond to show leadership. That leader-ship means the time is now opopen discussions on humansexuality within the widerambit of HIV/AIDS and what it is doing to Caribbean popu-lations,” Douglas added. Last month, the Barbados government warned that anylocal pr ostitute or anyone coming into the countr y to trade in prostitution either befor e, during or after the international sporting event,would be made to feel the fullweight of the law . Religious groups to help spread CSME messageBarbados,St.Kitts reject sex workers for Cricket World Cup W ASHINGTON, CMC – The International Organization for Migration (IOM research confirms that manyHaitians migrate to TheBahamas primarily in sear ch of employment. It said that the research, conducted in collaboration withThe Bahamas gover nment and the College of the Bahamas(COB Haitians were leaving from var-ious points, “in many instancesin an ir r egular manner , primari ly in search of work”. “Because of their generally low educational levels andpoor English language skills, they largely seek unskilled orsemi-skilled jobs and ar e often able to cir cumvent labor per mit requirements with employer assistance”, the IOM report-ed. SEP ARATE It said the research findings also suggest that Haitianmigrants ar e not well integrat ed into Bahamian society . “Owing to low income levels, they make considerably more use of public than privatehealthcar e and education ser vices while seeking help amongst themselves for other kinds of social support”, ther epor t stated. “Haitian migrants largely remain a distinct and separatecommunity , generally living in poor er accommodations than other groups; perhaps for that reason, significant numbers of respondents disclaimed anyintention to settle per manently in The Bahamas”, the IOM added. It said that research estimates extrapolated fr om avail able data suggest the popula tion of Haitian nationals pres-ent in The Bahamas range fr om between 30,000 and 60,000, adding that “mor e infor mation needs to be developed about the numbers of “flow through”migrants, i.e., those using TheBahamas as a transit point tothe United States”. BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC The Owen Arthuradministration has againdefended its policy of allowingBarbadian land to be sold tofor eign investors saying it would be sensitive and sensible about what projects areappr oved. Prime Minister Arthur told a political branch meetingof his r uling Barbados Labour Par ty (BLP that the big pr ojects, especially in the tourism sector, were the only way the countr y could continue to pay its bills and deliver social services such as free education, subsidised public transport and free health services. The prime minister said gover nment would not consider the alternatives such as casi-no gambling, incr eased bor rowing, currency devaluation and private beaches and ther e for e had “ver y little to work with.” Arthur said while manufacturing and agricultur e wer e important sectors which still had to be supported and devel-oped, they could not contributeenough to pay the countr s bills. “What will be in the new economy that will give you the assurance that wages in thepublic sector will be paid when they fall due?” he asked. “The sugar industry is $40 million ($20 million, the public sector wage bill is $700 million ($350 million year and I can’t tell them(public ser vants) at the end of the month to hold strain and hold an IOU,” the prime min ister told constituents in the St. James South constituency. NEW MARKETS Arthur said his administration was busy at developinga new economy based ontourism and ser vices. “All acr oss Barbados we have given the impetus in building a new capacity to ear n for eign exchange for this coun try. Once we get them together we can go up market,” the prime minister added. Haitians visit The Bahamas searching for jobs ~ IOM Land sale to foreign investors vital for development ~ Bdos 24 CARIBBEAN TODAYOctober 2006 Douglas Arthur REGION REGION www.caribbeantoday.com REGION BRIEFS $15M loan for Haiti’ s poor The Inter -American Development Bank (IDB the approval of a $15 million softloan for a program to expand drink ing water and sanitation services to rural communities in Haiti. According to the Washingtonbased bank,the project is expected to benefit some 90,000 people inthe rural areas of Artibonite, Grand Anse,Nippes and Ouest,including the island of La Gonve,wherea vera ge consumption of water is around seven liters per person a day,nearly one-third of the basicminimum recommended by the World Health Organization. Grenada to get agro-aid from China China will be assisting Grenada in a griculture and technology as part of the second phase of a co-opera tion a greement signed between both countries,according toAgriculture Minister Gregor y Bo wen. Bowen,who recently returned from an official visit to Beijing, said the Chinese ha ve a greed to provide assistance for the establishment of four centers for a gro-processing and another four for animal husbandr y. T&T observes Republic Day Trinidad and Tobago last month observed its 30th anniversary as a republic that is likely to be its lastunder the present Republican Constitution. The P a trick Manning-led gov ernment has already disseminated for public discussion a new draft constitution tha t could see various changes,including an executive head of state to replace the largelyceremonial one a t present, and a change in the appointment of ministers to the Cabinet. Cheaper electricity for St.Lucia Prime Minister Dr.Kenny Anthony says the a greement with V enezuela to provide oil at a concessionary price to St.Lucia will result in cheap-er electricity ra tes to consumers. “As far as the government is concerned,our priority will be to try to get a cheaper fuel to LUCEEC (St. Lucia Electricity Services Company Limited) so that they can reduce thecost of genera tion of electricity , Anthony said last month. St. Kitts and Nevis marks 23rd Independence St. Kitts and Nevis marked its 23rd anniversary of Independence on Sept. 19 with a call from Prime Minister Dr.Denzil Douglas to citi-zens to position themselves to adjustto the current socio-economic tran sitioning taking place in the country. The prime minister said the main focus of his administra tion would be to empo wer citizens to take advantage of the emerging opportunities in the aftermath of the recent closure of the 300-year-old sugar industry. Compiled from CMC and other sources. CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 24

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PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC The main Opposition United National Congress (UNC Basdeo Panday had resumedthe post of chair man, less than a five months afterhe announced his r esignation from active politics. The move by the UNC, taken at an emer-gency executive meetinglast month, followed the decisions bythe par ty’ s embattled political leader, Winston Dookeran, to form his own Congress of the People party. Panday told r eporters that one of his immediate tasks would be towrite to the party’s membershipas well as those who had helped form the party tor eturn to the UNC. He said the executive had also agreedthat the Leadership Council would continue to direct the party until a leader is chosen. He did not rule out of the possibility of his former Attorney General Ramesh LawrenceMaharaj, whose criticism ledto the downfall of the Panday gover nment in 2001, being part of the Council. “I have decided to r esume the chairmanship of the party. This is in response to requests from the people and the party who have supported us,” Panday told reporters. Panday had relinquished leadership of the partysoon after hewas convict edin aMagistrates’ Court on three charges offailing to declare tothe IntegrityCommission,a bankaccount heand his wife,Oma, held in London during the peri-od he ser ved as prime minister . Panday wassentenced totwo years imprison-ment oneach of the charges to run concurrently, but he has been released on TT$300,000 ($50,000 pending an appeal. T&T’s foreign minister resignsPanday returns as UNC chairman in T & T October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 25 POLITICS POLITICS www .caribbeantoday.com Panday PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC Foreign Minister Knowlson Gift resigned with “immediate effect” fromthe T rinidad and T obago gover nment, according to a statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister late lastmonth. The statement gave no reason for the sudden r esignation, but said that Prime Minister Patrick Manning “accepted Mr. Gift’s resignation and in so doing, has expressed his gratitudefor the loyal ser vice r ender ed by Mr . Gift during his tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs”. “The Prime Minister also wished Mr. Gift well in all his future endeav-ours”, the statement added. Gift, 71, became minister of foreign affairs in 2001 after Manningwas named prime minister by thenPr esident Ar thur NR Robinson fol lowing the collapse of the Basdeo Panday administration. He held on to the post after the People’s National Movement (PNM general elections. Gift CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 25

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GORDON WILLIAMS It won’t be complete in time for Cricket World Cup (CWC ning in Mar ch, but operators of Sangster Inter national Airport in Montego Bay have issued assurances that the entry to Jamaica, through its second city on the western side of the Caribbean island, will be prepped enough tocomfor tably handle the expected large influx of visi-tors and car go for the massive international event. The airpor s new arrival hall, part of the overall expansion of the airport, the hub of the country’s national airline Air Jamaica, is scheduled for completion by Jan. 2007, according to MBJ Airports Ltd., the four-company consortium that runs the facility.That means that the 12,000 visitors “anticipated specifical-ly for cricket” (but which doesnot include teams and their entourages), according to Althea Tharkur, marketing analyst for commercial development at MBJ Airports Ltd., should have few hitches relating to overcrowding whenthey ar rive. The tour nament will be played in several Caribbean islands. However, Jamaica will host the opening ceremony at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium, located not far from Sangster International, in addition to several warm-up games beginning Mar. 5. Yet with all the adjustments necessary to accommo-date the influx of visitors and cargo, for example equipmentfor media cr ews and general luggage, ar ound the time of CWC 2007, the consortium insists that the major concern – security – will not be short-changed. “It (security focus,” MBJ Airports Ltd.’sSecurity Coor dinator Cecil W eekes, told a group of journalists who tour ed Sangster International recentlys zero tolerance for that.” PASSENGER SEPARATION For CWC 2007 the east concourse of the airport willhave separation of passengers,although most passengers will be channeled in that directionas constr uction at the west concourse picks up intensity around that time. Gates 8-19on the east concourse will beopen by CWC. By the time the expansion of the airport is completed in 2008, the immigration and customs area will be shifted from its present spot to the area where the ground transporta-tion section is cur rently located and the separation of incoming and outgoing pas-sengers will become per manent. By that time, all luggage will be checked by the airport before being sorted by the air-lines and ever yone will be required to go through the same security checkpoints. MoBay airport expands for CWC 2007, anticipates heavy traffic into Jamaica 26 CARIBBEAN TODAYOctober 2006 Sangster Interna tional Airport in Montego Bay is undergoing major expansion. CARGO CARGO & & TRANSPORT TRANSPORT www.caribbeantoday.com ~ A Caribbean Today advertising feature (CONTINUED ON PAGE 27) CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 26

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NEW WRINKLE Another new wrinkle of the expanded airport is actual-ly CUTE (Common Use Terminal Equipment), whichallows all airlines to haveaccess to check-in points atgates once they have the pr op er pass codes. The airport also has big plans to incr ease passenger traf fic. Thr ee million passen gers currently pass through Sangster International eachyear . By 2010, MBJ Airpor ts Ltd projects that the figure will move to nine million a year . A r ecent tr ek through the airport showed that the expansion still has a way to go. Large spaces are void of color and style, although that is expected to improve once the work is completed. However, the east concourse offers a pleasant, airy feel, complete with shops and bars. Passengers seem to take anysor t of discomfor t fr om the expansion work in stride. MBJ Airpor ts Ltd. sour ces told Caribbean T oda y that not all parties were enthused over the expansionplans of the private consor tium, which includes for eign entities. There were concernsthat the airpor t would lose its “Jamaican feel”. “Ther e was a lot of r esist ance prior to privatization,” Tharkur explained. “The pub-lic felt it would be losing itscultur e. “(But talked about maintaining theJamaican sense of place at the airport,” she added. Gordon Williams is Caribbean T oday’ s manag ing editor . The Federal Maritime Commission (FMCindependent r egulatory agency r esponsible for the r egulation of ocean bound transportation in the foreign commerce of the United States. The agency is r esponsible for the following activities: Monitoring activities of ocean common carriers, marine terminal operators,confer ences, por ts and ocean transportation intermediaries (OTIsU.S. for eign commer ce to ensure they maintain just and r easonable practices, and oversees the financial responsibility of passenger vessel operators. Maintaining a trade moni toring and enfor cement program designed to assist r egulated entities in achieving compliance, and to detect and appropriately remedy mal-practices and violations set forth in section 10 of theShipping Act. Monitoring the laws and practices of foreign governments which could have a dis-criminator y or other wise adverse impact on shipping conditions in the U.S. Enforcing special regulatory r equir ements applicable to ocean common carriers owned or controlled by foreign governments (“controlled carriers” Pr ocessing and reviewing agr eements and service contracts. Reviewing common carriers’ privately published tariff sys-tems for accessibility and accuracy. Issuing licenses to qualified OTIs in the U.S. and ensuring all maintain evidence of finan-cial r esponsibility . Ensuring passenger vessel operators demonstrate ade quate financial responsibility for casualty and non-per for m ance. One of the FMC’s main objectives is to license OTIs and ensure that they have an insurance surety bond in placeto pr otect those consumers shipping cargo overseas. With unlicensed cargo companies,consumers ar e not protected and have no r ecourse should pr oblems arise with their personal shipments. Submitted b y FMC MoBay airport e xpands for CWC 2007, anticipates heavy traffic into JamaicaFMC: Shipping’s watchdog U.S.agency on the high seas October 2006CARIBBEAN TODAY 27 CARGO CARGO & & TRANSPORT TRANSPORT www .caribbeantoday.com ~ A Caribbean Today advertising feature (CONTINUED FROM P AGE 26) FMC is making sure ships and their cargo adhere to U.S. regulations CTOct2006.qxd 10/6/06 10:52 AM Page 27

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