BAYERN REACH FINAL, P. 56
Cameras
Still
In The
Frame
Page 44
VOL 21 NO. 288
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Police at Ho Supermarket after last night’s robbery.
ST. PETERS--Police arrested last
night three of four men they believe had robbed two supermarkets in St. Peters earlier in the
evening. They also confiscated a
gun from the men.
Eyewitness reports reaching The
Daily Herald last night said four
young men dressed in black and
wearing masks had entered and
IN BRIEF
Philipsburg
WON’T
BUCKLE
Government and people of St.
Maarten “shall not buckle under any
type of intimidation,” says Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams. Page 3.
Philipsburg
AVAILABLE
DOCTORS
Create a General Practitioner’s (GP)
post in St. Maarten Medical Center
(SMMC) that will be managed and
operated by GPs, and cancel the arrangement between GPs and SMMC
to see patients in the emergency department at night and on weekends.
Page 4.
Philipsburg
DEBUT
ALBUM
Local youth string band group Tiny
and the Boys officially will launch its
debut album “Passing the Torch,” at
Pink Pearl restaurant on Front Street
today, Thursday, starting at 6:00pm.
Page 8.
robbed Man Chung supermar- robbed the nearby Ho Supermarket on L.B. Scott Road around ket on St. Peters Road. They en8:00pm. The men reportedly fled tered from the back of the superthe scene and within minutes
Continued on page 7
PELICAN--A robber jumped
over the counter at Hollywood
Casino Wednesday afternoon
and stole a rather large sum
of money, police spokesman
Inspector Ricardo Henson reported Wednesday.
It is believed that tens of
thousands of US dollars were
taken.
The robber fled the scene in
a white Kia Picanto with no licence plates. The vehicle was
Continued on page 8
U.S. 50 CENTS / NAf. 1.-- / EC$ 1.25
PHILIPSBURG--Minister
of
Justice Roland Duncan has responded to a newspaper article
headlined “Worries about St.
Maarten as drug smuggler haven.”
The article in question stated
that of the total world production
of cocaine a third is smuggled via
the Caribbean. These statements
were made in the Dutch Parliament during a debate held in the
Second Chamber on Thursday,
April 19.
Referring to the article which
quoted the Dutch MPs, the minister noted that there was no mention of “the exact figures of how
much drugs which appear in Europe or America actually come
from or have passed through St.
Maarten’s borders.”
Duncan said the use of container
Continued on page 9
THE HAGUE--The Inter-parliamentary Consultation of the
Kingdom, which had been scheduled for early June in The Hague,
will most likely not go ahead due
to the political situation in the
Netherlands.
Chairwoman Second Chamber’s
Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations Brigitte van der
Burg discussed the fate the fiveday meeting with the chairpersons of the Parliamentary Kingdom Relations Committees in
Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten
earlier this week.
Van der Burg informed the Committee for Kingdom Relations
during a meeting on Wednesday, “Considering the fall of the
Dutch cabinet, the pending elections and the changed political
relations, we wondered whether
there was any sense in continuing
with this consultation,” said Van
der Burg.
According to Van der Burg, the
chairpersons decided that they
would all go back to their committee to discuss a calling-off of
the consultation. “It is after all
a costly affair for the islands to
travel to The Netherlands for
these meetings,” she said.
Chairman of the Committee
for Kingdom Affairs and InterParliamentary Relations Roy
Marlin stated due to the collapse
of the Dutch Government and
the planned elections that would
bring possible changes in the
composition of the Permanent
Committee for Kingdom Relations in the Dutch Second Chamber, it was decided to propose to
the respective inter-parliamentary committees to postpone
the IPKO meeting until January
2013.
The chairpersons agreed to hold
a video conference in late June to
discuss the progress that has been
made by the work groups in the
Continued on page 10
Editorial
2
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Think again
Member of the
Inter American Press Association
Published by
The Caribbean Herald NV
Bush Road 22
St. Maarten N.A.
P.O.Box 828
Bankers:
RBTT Bank St. Maarten
USD acc. 212938
NAf acc. 40407527
President
R.F.Snow
Managing Director
Mary Jane Hellmund
Publisher/ Managing Director
Paul De Windt
Editorial
Courtney Gibson
(Editor in Chief)
Gordon H. Snow
(Managing Editor)
Rajesh Chintaman
(Night Editor)
Judy Fitzpatrick
Alita Singh
John van Kerkhof
Michael Granger
Thomas A. Burnett Jr. (Sports)
John Halley (photos)
Editorial Assistant
Marie Brown
Correction
Saresa Gray
Sharon van Arneman
Lesley Vieira
Clive Hodge
Margaret Brooks
Dorothee Illis
Phyllis Meit
Marga Hart
Correspondents
Suzanne Koelega (Neth.)
Brenda Carty (Anguilla)
Althea Merkman (Statia)
Teodor Stan (Saba)
Bob Morgan(Saba-photo)
Robert Luckock (St. Martin)
Lay-Out
Richard James
Rodolphe O. Boirard
Stephen Morris
Operations Manager/
Managing Director
Steven De Windt
Office Manager
Mijke Stenz
Rosalie Davis (assis.)
Accounting
Ada van Luling
Mercedes De Windt
Advertising
Moira Marcelle
Stephanie Culbert
Muriel Berthé
Harmen Rijsdijk
Cecilia Vazquez
Saskia Van Leeuwen
Latoya Philips (assis.)
Graphics
Mark Martelly
Evadney Henriques
Chanaz Calor
Cleon Frederick
Mark Persaud
Special Editions
Lisa Burnett
Sanny Ensing
Claudienne Peterson
Lucinda Frye
Reception
Ethlyn Joubert
CALLING
THE DAILY HERALD
ST. MAARTEN
Telephone
5425253/5425597/
5420931/5437236
FAX 5425913
E-Mail:
dherald@sintmaarten.net
advertising@thedailyherald.com
editorial@thedailyherald.com
classifieds@thedailyherald.com
ANGUILLA/264-497-3138
SABA
4162381/4162881(sales)
4161191(edit)
teodor_stan@yahoo.com
STATIA
3182401/3182936/fax 3182136
NEVIS
469-0607/fax 0606
ST KITTS
466-8609
WEATHER
Today: Generally partly cloudy, with locally a brief light shower possible.
Winds: Easterly, 8-19mph, occasionally 20-25mph in gusts.
Sea conditions: Tranquil to moderate. A few Northwesterly swells may
cause more breakers on our North-facing shores
Seas: 3-4 feet.
Forecast high: 30°C 86°F
Forecast low: 24°C 75°F
SYNOPSIS: A generally dry and stable air mass is expected to prevail
across the islands during this forecast period. However, an isolated shower
could occur over the islands at times.
SPECIAL FEATURES: None.
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK: None.
Outlook until Friday evening: Variably cloudy, with a brief light shower
possible.
Sunrise: 5:48am
Sunset: 6:32pm
Curaçao Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte’s letter to his St. Maarten counterpart Sarah Wescot-Williams confirms that the MFK/PS/MAN government in Willemstad is dead-set against the US $150 million bond
loan for the Harbour Group of Companies with repurchase facility provided through the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS).
Schotte’s biggest coalition partner PS leader Helmin Wiels in any event
had made that abundantly clear already.
Schotte went as far as to say he would “tolerate no resistance” to his
plans to annul the arrangement, as though he and his cabinet are in a
position to dictate matters to Philipsburg. The young prime minister
had better think again.
The two new autonomous countries within the Dutch Kingdom that
came out of the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles have exactly
the same status. While it’s true that Curaçao formally owns 75 per cent
of the shares of the Central Bank and St. Maarten only 25 per cent
based on the difference in size of their respective economies and populations, each has a completely equal say in the joint monetary authority.
Moreover, a similar bond loan of 300 million guilders was provided
to Curaçao’s utility company Aqualectra in the recent past. Of course,
that was done under the former PAR-led Antillean Government and
the Schotte-cabinet spoke out against it soon after taking office on 1010-10.
The fact is, however, that the Aqualectra deal was made and obviously
cannot be reversed, so that a precedent has been created. In addition,
governing is supposed to be a continuity and firm agreements made
by states cannot be changed without consequences every time a new
political wind blows.
That is also the case for what was stipulated as part of the constitutional reforms with accompanying debt relief, including the consensus
laws that Wiels now wants to cancel unilaterally, but also the monetary
union, with shared Central Bank and common currency. Adjustments
such as a possible choice for dollarisation instead of the envisioned
Caribbean guilder always can be discussed, but have to be approved by
all parties concerned, including the Netherlands.
Considering that the Dutch Cabinet in effect has fallen and early elections are due in September, it’s highly improbable that The Hague will
entertain any major changes until then, while even the new government
to take office after that is more likely to wait until the five-year evaluation period for the new relations ends in 2015.
Rather than trying to intimidate St. Maarten, Schotte should deal with
his coalition partner who seems to be pushing Curaçao towards independence, for which the people did not vote. If the MFK/PS/MAN
government wants so badly to decide everything on its own, perhaps it
should hold a referendum on getting out of the Kingdom and ask the
voters if they want to give up their Dutch passports in the process.
5429
89381
2790
4790
58299
0982
3117
73217
5487
RESULTS DISPLAYED ARE PROVIDED AS A SERVICE TO THE READERS OF THE DAILY HERALD, AND ARE
NOT OFFICIAL. ALL WINNING NUMBERS ARE TO BE VERIFIED AT ROBBIE’S LOTTERY MAIN OFFICE.
Date
Vessel
April 26 Freedom of the Seas
ST. MAARTEN
POLICE STATION
Philipsburg tel. 542-2222
Simpson Bay tel. 545-5500
HOT LINE 108
EMERGENCY 911
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Tel. 542-6001 or 919
HOSPITAL
Medical Center, Cay Hill
24-hour Emergency Service
tel. 543-1111 or 910
AMBULANCE
Philipsburg tel. 542-2111 or 912
MEDICAL EMERGENCIES
For medical emergencies after clinic hours,
from 6:00 pm - 8:00 am and during weekends
and holidays, all patients of hereunder mentioned family doctors can go to the emergency
room of the St. Maarten Medical Center, tel.:
543-1111 (ext. 1): Dr. A. Arrindell, Dr. F. Bouman, Dr. F. Bus, Dr. H. Deketh, Dr. A. Herles,
Dr. G. van Osch, Dr. G. Spencer, Dr. P. Arrindell, Dr. G. Bryson, Dr. J. Datema, Dr. G.
Foeken, Dr. L. Knol, Dr. A. Raghosing and Dr.
U. Tjaden.
SXM Animal Welfare Foundation Ambulance Team 520-8887
CRIME STOPPERS ANYMOUS TIP LINE:
543-TIPS(8477)
Place Arrival Departure Agent
Pier 7:15
17:00
Maduro
TELEPHONE INFO
Tel-em: 542-2211
Weather Info: 123
ST. MAARTEN TOURIST OFFICE
W.G. Buncamper road, Vineyard
Building, tel. 542-2337, fax. 542-2734
ST MAARTEN ZOO
Madame Estate: tel. 543-2030
Open daily 10 am - 6 pm.
October-March 9 am - 5 pm.
Admission: Adults: $10, kids $5.
COLE BAY COMMUNITY COUNCIL: meeting 1st. Thursday of month at Sun Flower
Kinder Garten School, Union Rd. Cole Bay
at 7:30pm
SERVICE CLUBS
ROTARY meeting at Great Bay Beach Hotel,
every Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. Rotary Mid
Isle meets every Tuesday 7-9pm, Le Charolais
Restaurant, Royal Islander Club, Maho Plaza.
Rotary Sunrise meets every Tuesday at 6:45
am. at Air Lekkerbek. Rotary club St. Martin
Nord meet at the Grand Case Beach Club
Sunday at 8 p.m.
LIONS meeting at the Upper Princess Quarter
Community Centre Lions Den in Sucker Garden every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month
at 7 p.m.
ST.MAARTEN LEO CLUB meeting at the
Lions Den every 1st, 3rd Saturday every
month at 11:00 am
KIWANIS meets at Wifol Building on Thursday
each month at 7.30pm. Kiwanis Key Club of
Agenda St. Maarten / St. Martin
the St. Maarten Academy meeting at the St.
Maarten Academy every Friday at 1.30 p.m.
KIWANIS SOUALIGA 1st & 3rd Monday
7:00pm Holland House
JCI St. Maarten (JAYCEES) meeting at
the Philipsburg Jubilee Library every last
Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. Business attire required.
PHILIPSBURG TOASTMASTERS CLUB bimonthly sessions every first and third Thursday of every month at the Library conference
room at 8:00 p.m.
ST MARTIN MUSEUM
Frontstreet 7, Philipsburg, tel 542-4917
Opening hours from March 1st:
Monday - Friday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday & Sundays: closed.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
Mon-Sat, 6-7pm, Red Cross Building, Airport
Road. Saturday and Sunday at Mullet Bay
beach next to restaurant 8.30-9:30am. Tel.
552-2120 / 544-3203
AIDS COORDINATOR Suzette Moses
tel 5422078 Health Department, e-mail:
hivpmtsxm@yahoo.com.
NATURE FOUNDATION ST. MAARTEN
Tel. 544-4267, Fax. 544-4268.Email: info@
naturefoundationsxm.org
ANIMALS R. FRIENDS
! "! Email: arf_sxm@yahoo.com, www.arfsxm.org
PHILIPSBURG JUBILEE LIBRARY
Ch.E.W.Vogestr. 12, Tel. 542-2970.
Open: Mo: closed, Tu/We: 9-12.30 / 2-8,
Th: 2-8, Fr: 9-12.30 / 2-5, Sa: 10-1.
WOMEN’S DESK, Frontstreet 141 (opposite
Tel-Cell). Monday - Friday 9am-5pm. Tel: 5427940, Fax: 542-7941.
E-mail: womensdesk@sintmaarten.net
SAFE HAVEN, providing shelter and support
to victims of family violence. POB 636; Hotline: 9333; Office 9277; Fax: 9368
CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT, E.C. Richardson
street 11-b; Tel. 542-1000/542-1008; Fax:
542-1001
FRENCH HONORARY CONSUL, POBox
803, Philipsburg. Tel: (00590) 879989. Fax:
(00590) 879625. E-mail: Stanislas.GRAIRE@
wanadoo.fr
COAST GUARD NA&A, (24 HRS): 113
LEGAL AID CENTER, Law Clinic, open every
Saturday 9:00am - 12.00 noon. Free advise
on personal legal issues. Administration Building, tel. 5422337
THE RED CROSS, ST. MAARTEN, Airport
Road, #34 Simpson Bay, Tel. 545-2333/2304,
Fax. 545-5263. Cell. 586-5330 (24/7) Email:
info@redcross-sxm.org
SALVATION ARMY Union Rd 59 Cole Bay
POBox5184 Tel/fax:5445424 cell:5477353
Sun 9:00am, Tue 7:00pm, Wed 6:30pm, Thu
7:00pm, Sat 4:00pm
ST.MAARTEN CHAPTER OF BUSINESS
AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN holds their
general monthly meetings every third Monday
at the Delta Hotel at 7:00 pm.
DIABETES
FOUNDATION
OF
ST.
MAARTEN, Free blood-glucose testing every
Thursday from 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. at the Philipsburg Pharmacy Voges street, Philipsburg (opposite library). Tel.: 542-3001
USO St. Maarten/St. Martin (USA military),
contact Janet Lambert 5577616 or 00590 590
294406.
SKALCLUB ST. MAARTEN/ST. MARTIN
meets 1st Tuesday of the month. For location
call: 5424432 (Jennifer).
ST. MARTIN
POLICE MUNICIPALE
tel. (00590) 590 87.61.55
GENDARMERIE
tel. (00590) 590 52.30.00/02
FIRE DEPARTMENT
tel. (00590) 590 52.30.40
AMBULANCE
Tel. (00590) 590 52-00-52
Cell. (00590) 690 57-13-28
Fax. (00590) 590 29-08-11
HOSPITAL tel. (00590) 590 52 25 25
DISPENSAIRE Marigot
8 a.m. - 3p.m. tel. (00590) 590 87.50.93
DISPENSAIRE Orléans
8 a.m. - 3 p.m. tel. (00590) 590 87.37.21
C.R.O.S.S. (Center, Research, Organization,
Rescue, Security) is on stand by 24 hours at
0596 709292.
SERVICE CLUBS
ROTARY Club Sunset restaurant, Grand
Case Beach Club every Thursday at
7:45p.m.
LIONS First and third Tuesday at Nadaillac,
Marigot at 7.30 p.m.
KIWANIS: See St. Maarten.
MUSEUM ST. MARTIN
located Fichot Street nr 7 (behind the Catholic
Church) Open from 9am to 1pm, and from 3pm
to 5pm tel. (00590)590 56.78.92.
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
3
~ Schotte wants harbour bond annulled ~
PHILIPSBURG--Government and people of St.
Maarten “shall not buckle
under any type of intimidation,” said Prime Minister
Sarah Wescot-Williams in
reaction to a letter from
Curaçao Prime Minister
Gerrit Schotte indicating his government’s wish
to annul the bond issued
for the Harbour Group of
Companies.
Schotte stated his government’s intention to annul
or seek annulment of the
harbour bond in a letter to
Wescot-Williams on April
19. He also added that he
will “tolerate no resistance”
to his government’s plans.
The letter also contained
“a hardly veiled threat of
criminal prosecution in
the matter,” according to
a statement from Wescot-
PHILIPSBURG--The
St.
Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF)
management team and staff
have committed to the challenge of “change for the better” through the executing of
its new housing plans.
Their commitment was
given in the course of an
evaluation performed by two
independent appraisers with
Human Resources and Organisation.
The foundation said it recognises that there is room
for improvement to develop
a stronger organisation, and
the future will be dedicated
to this cause.
A plan for development of
housing within 60 days of
the commencement of the
term was presented by the
SMHDF management team
headed by Managing Director Henry Lynch in January
2011. Presentations of the
new vision for execution of
housing were made to the
Supervisory Board, Council of Ministers, Minister of
Housing and by financial
institutions during the first
quarter of 2011.
The plan for the development of 15 homes in Belvedere was launched during
SMHDF’s 15th anniversary
celebration in June 2011.
This project was the first
to be executed by SMHDF
since the completion of the
current Belvedere project 15
years ago.
The project, which included
completion of apartments
in Hope Estate, Phases I
and II, was executed by the
government of St. Maarten.
During the handing over of
Hope Estate I in November
2010, then-assistant to the
managing director Henry
Lynch publicly committed to
the realisation of the mandate issued by the Minister
of Housing and Supervisory
Board for more housing for
the people of St. Maarten.
In addition to the 15-house
development in Belvedere,
scheduled to commence
in the next 30 days, the
SMHDF management team
has formulated plans for the
construction of homes in
Blue Mountain and Foga to
begin this year.
These plans were endorsed
by the SMHDF Supervisory
Board and commended by
Minister of Housing Theodore Heyliger, who assigned
several parcels of land to
SMHDF to assist in meeting
the goals set by management.
“We also recognise the potential benefits that could
arise from this opportunity.
SMHDF stands to further
strengthen its relationship
with key stakeholders and
continue to grow in the housing market, whilst pursuing
its automation and growth
strategy.
“Notwithstanding this
change, our management,
together with the staff and
Supervisory Board, remains
committed to continuing
to deliver on the promise
of more housing for the
St. Maarten community,”
SMHDF stated in a press
release.
Williams’ office Tuesday.
Government has already
sought legal counsel on
Schotte’s letter.
This is not the way two
governments should deal
with each other, the prime
minister said. She was also
very adamant that the Government of St. Maarten
could no longer sit back
and accept the damage that
the debacle surrounding
the Central Bank is causing
the image of St. Maarten.
Wescot-Williams stated
on Sunday that she has already made it very clear
that neither of the two
countries could “unilaterally interfere” in matters
related to the joint Central
Bank matters without taking into consideration the
bank’s charter.
She added that the Curaçao Government has never
countered the arguments of
the Central Bank concerning its role in the bond issuance, and that principle in
the bank’s considerations
for guaranteeing the bond
is St. Maarten’s economy
and the need for economic activities benefiting St.
Maarten to continue to develop.
Wescot-Williams added that the intimidation
was levied at St. Maarten
nominees on the supervisory board of the Central
Bank. “It should be noted
that both the Governments
of Curaçao and that of St.
Maarten have appointed
these members.”
“Acts of protest are part of
any democracy; however,
when representatives of the
people not only take part
but use intimidation tactics to drive their message
home, and incite citizens
against one another, it is a
sad day for the same democratic principles,” said the
prime minister about the
protest on Curaçao in front
of the Central Bank of
Curaçao and St. Maarten
headquarters on April 21.
In photo: Adesh Baharani of Joe’s Jewellery, Project Leader Nikima Groeneveldt-Hickenson and Raj Lala of Ballerina Jewellers, (Standing) VSA Secretary-General Jorien Wuite,
VSA Minister Cornelius de Weever and Head of Labor Affairs, Peggy-Ann Dros-Richardson.
PHILIPSBURG--Joe’s Jewellery and Ballerina Jewellers stores have signed partnership agreements to prior
on-the-job training for participants of the “Employability through Training” project,
a part of the governmentsupported Social Economic
Initiative (SEI).
PHILIPSBURG--Hulda
B. Richardson Road at
the intersection of Middle
Region will be temporarily closed to vehicle traffic today, Thursday, from
9:00pm to 5:00am Friday,
according to the Department of Communications.
Motorists are advised
to observe directional
signs for a smooth transit
through the area via detour
roads.
The road closure is connected with the infrastructure upgrading works as
part of the Middle Region
rehabilitation project.
The contractor apologizes
for any inconvenience this
temporary road closure
may cause.
The two Front Street jewellery stores will accept participants from the ongoing
project once they have completed the other theoretical
and practical parts. They will
reserve spaces in their companies to be filled by participants in need of on-the-job
training. Some six companies
have committed to the project as training partners.
The partnership agreements
were signed on Wednesday
morning in A.C. Wathey
Legislative Hall by Project
Leader from the Ministry of
Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA Nikima Groeneveldt-Hickenson with Adesh Baharani of
Joe’s Jewellery and Raj Lala
of Ballerina Jewellers.
VSA Minister Cornelius
de Weever, VSA SecretaryGeneral Jorien Wuite and
Head of Labour Affairs
Peggy-Ann Dros-Richardson
were present at the signing.
De Weever commended
the companies for signing
to work in the interest of St.
Maarten. He called the project “a great initiative to get
the unemployed employed.”
A total of 31 participants,
five men and 26 women,
are in the first batch being
trained for positions in the
labour market. They will also
be assessed by a job coach
and placement officers for
readiness to enter the work
field, and for their ability to
interact socially in addition
to acquisition of relevant
skills.
The majority of the present
batch has indicated a preference in the hospitality field.
The “Employability through
Training” project will cater to
some 250 people with Dutch
nationality between the ages
of 15-55.
4
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
~ Gives recommendations to improve services ~
Members of No Limits Band were presented with a cheque for US $1,000, T-shirts, caps,
water bottles and cup coolers from Gulf Insurance Ltd. on Wednesday April 25, at the
company’s office on Bush Road. In the spirit of Carnival and wanting to give back to the
community, Administrative Assistant Remijda Euson and Accounting Assistant Charissa
Flanders presented No Limits Band founder Leroy Illis and band member Milouska Illis with the items. In photo (from left): Remijda Euson, Leroy Illis, Charissa Flanders,
Milouska Illis.
EINDHOVEN--Dutch advice and engineering bureau
DHV will be guiding several
construction and renovation
projects to improve health
and medical care in Bonaire.
DHV is already active in St.
Eustatius and Saba where it
assists local health care organisations to define and design future housing projects
of the islands’ nursing homes
and medical centres.
In Bonaire, DHV will guide
NETTLE BAY--Sailing couple Claudia Couture and Tassio
Jacques has planned a clean-up of Nettle Bay for Saturday
from 9:00am at Layla’s Beach Restaurant and Bar.
The French Canadian/ Brazilian couple encourages residents and environmental groups to join them in their continued environmental sustainability work.
Couture and Jacques are on a stopover in St. Martin as
part of their long-term and independent film project titled:
“Terra d’Agua” and have decided to do the beach clean-up.
“We would like the community to get involved with the clean
up,” said Couture.
The couple’s work is chronicled on their blog: www.terradagua.com
Anyone interested in joining the clean-up can visit the website.
the extensive renovation and
expansion of the San Francisco Hospital and the adjacent
nursing home Kas di Kuido.
Both facilities are operated
by the Mariadal Foundation.
Total cost of the construction, which lasts three years,
is US $30 million.
The project in Bonaire will
be built according to sustainable, environmentally friendly standards. The project fits
in the vision of the Dutch
Ministry of Public Health,
Wellbeing and Sports VWS
to bring health care facilities
on the Dutch ‘public entities’
up to the Dutch level of quality.
The first steps to make the
Mariadal Foundation an organisation that focused on
patient care instead only
providing the necessary tasks
started in February 2000. San
Francisco is Bonaire’s only
hospital and has 36 beds.
The hospital provides internal health care, emergency
care, general surgery, orthopaedics, ENT specialism and
eye care.
PHILIPSBURG--Create
a General Practitioner’s
(GP) post in St. Maarten
Medical Center (SMMC)
that will be managed and
operated by GPs, and cancel the arrangement between GPs and SMMC to
see patients in the emergency department at night
and on weekends, was one
of several recommendations presented to Public
Health VSA Minister Cornelius de Weever by Health
Inspector Earl Best.
The Health Inspectorate
is “very surprised” by the
agreement between GPs
and SMMC concerning GP
care during the night and
weekends in the emergency
room, Dr. Best said.
This means that almost
none of the general practitioners are available at
night or on weekends, and
that the emergency room
does “figurative work” and
most of the time has a long
waiting line. “This affects
the quality of care provided
negatively.”
Most GPs can be consulted
by telephone during office
hours; however, home visits
to less ambulant patients
and emergency visits are
not provided by many GPs,
said Best, adding this is an
explanation for the fact that
many GPs do not possess “a
doctor’s bag anymore.”
The recommendation,
which has to be addressed
by the VSA Minister, physician organisations, SMMC
and health insurers, stems
from a quality and service
survey carried out by the
ministry.
The 20 doctors who operate as GPs had to fill out a
questionnaire dealing with
the subject of the survey.
All of the clinics, except one
GP who refused to cooper-
ate, were visited by the inspectorate, explained Best
in his presentation in A.C.
Wathey Legislative Hall on
Wednesday morning.
The inspectorate also
recommended the development of a registration
system for general practitioners and establishment of requirements for
necessary training and GP
skills; as well, a sound professional communication
between GPs, pharmacists
and medical specialists and
improvement in the quality
of the patient files.
Improved quality of care
by developing evidencebased diagnostic and treatment protocols/guidelines
for common medical conditions and the urgent introduction of an electronic
health record (EHR) were
outlined as very necessary.
GPs will have to ensure
the practice (clinic) is easily
accessible for the disabled
and proper technical maintenance of equipment, Bess
pointed out from the findings.
The most important part
of the survey, according to
the inspector, was to examine whether the GPs complied with the conditions
for qualitatively responsible care, given the fact that
no substantive guidelines
on the medical content exist on St. Maarten.
GPs have two organisa-
tions, Windward Islands
Medical
Association
(WIMA) and St. Maarten
Medical
Association
(SMA) that provide peerto-peer contacts and to
organise common and continuous training.
“Yet it is striking that in
St. Maarten professional
communication about the
individual patient and the
organisation of care is a
major problem; and not
just between the GPs and
the medical specialists but
also between GPs and pharmacists,” Best said. “Of
course both parties have
responsibilities in improving this issue. Except for
inter-professional contacts
within WIMA and SMA,
the peer-to-peer contacts
within the GP group needs
improvement.”
The quality of patients’
files is “often very poor.”
This differs considerably
from the GPs using an electronic patient record (EPR)
and those who do not.
“St. Maarten has no accreditation for GPs. Vocational training is not mandatory. During the interviews it was often unclear
how GPs maintained their
skills,” Best said.
Minister De Weever said
the report establishes a
baseline for the ministry to
work with and build on to
improve the health services
to the community.
HAPPY BAY--Team Daniel Gibbs will host a beach
party at Happy Bay on Sunday for family, friends and
supporters from 12:00pm.
“Let’s get together to
share a moment of recognition, appreciation, friendliness, around family, friends
and in the presence of our
friendly supporters and
members,” the team said in
a statement.
For more information call
0590 590 510027 or 00 590
690 1498 45 or e-mail:
unionpourlademocratie@
gmail.com
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Christmas in April? No, it is just a reminder from St.
Maarten Animal Rescue Team (SMART) and Animal
Welfare Foundation that last Christmas’ gifts of puppies
or kittens are now old enough to spay or neuter. The two
groups are offering US $20 pet sterilisation certificates at
Dutch side vet clinic for Dutch side residents with their
own transportation. The certificates do not need to be used
during International Spay Month, but must be claimed by
April 30.
WILLEMSTAD--The dismissal of Cesar Prince as
director of Curaçao’s lottery foundation Fundashon
Wega di Number Kòrsou
(FWNK) was apparently
unreasonable. In summary
proceedings the judge also
decided to allow him an advance on his compensation.
“It concerns a net
amount,” said Prince’s
lawyer Molly Stewart.
Although she refused to
mention the amount she
said the costs involved are
for FWNK. The ruling is a
temporary provision. The
definite amount will be de-
termined in a basic court
procedure.
However, Stewart stated
that Prince still prefers
to settle the case outside
court. “This is quicker, easier and involves fewer costs
for all parties. Prince wants
to get this situation over
and done with as quickly as
possible.”
Prince took FWNK to
court after the board had
dismissed him. In a letter
dated November 29, 2011
he was informed that his
employment would terminate on December 31.
Prince’s former employer
accused him of unauthorised conduct and dissent
concerning the set-up of a
Lotto game; also that he
had already reached the retirement age. He disagreed
with the plans and filed an
injunction.
During the court session,
FWNK’s
lawyer
Lisanne Asjes requested
that Prince’s demands be
declared inadmissible or
at least dismiss his claims,
because there was no question of a pressing interest
to justify the summary case.
In any case, the foundation
does not want Prince to re-
5
turn as a forensic investigation is still in progress and
they no longer trust him,
she added.
Although the board was
authorised
to
dismiss
Prince, the question remained whether such was
unreasonable. Prince had
based his defence on a continuing contract up to and
including December 31,
2013. The judge stated that
this proposition was correct
and that the dismissal was
apparently unjust.
Meanwhile, Sithree van
Heydoorn has been appointed interim director.
6
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
WILLEMSTAD --Curacao’s Minister of Economic
Development Abdul Nasser el Hakim (MFK) wants
to strengthen the ties with
the United Arab Emirates
(UAE).
He discussed this during
his working visit to Abu
Dabi with Minister of International Trade sheikh
Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi. She is a member of
the royal family and said to
be one of the most influential persons in the United
Arab Emirates.
Given that Curaçao is
considered to be a hub for
Western Europe, North,
Central and South America is very interesting for
the UAE, according to the
minister. Within this framework, he offered to organise a trade mission with
participation of Curaçao
and The Netherlands.
During his visit, El Hakim also spoke with sheikh
Ahmed Bin Saeed al Maktuom, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Emirates
Airlines. The minister tried
to persuade the sheikh into
sponsoring Curaçao Space
Expedition and Curaçao
Airport City.
According to El Hakim,
the sheik was impressed
with the projects and indicated he and the CEO of
the commercial centre of
Dubai would visit Curaçao.
The minister is in Dubai to
attend the “Global Aerospace Summit.”
“Curaçao will be the first
airbase for space flights.
The first flights will be executed in 2013,” El Hakim
stated.
He also met with representatives of the Federal
Aviation
Administration
(FAA). During this conversation, he spoke about the
possibility of FAA assisting
Curaçao with drawing up
the necessary legislation to
make the space flights possible.
The minister also gave information on the Curaçao
Airport City master plan.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Primary School grade six pupils paid a visit to the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard facilities in Simpson Bay on Tuesday, April 24. Coast Guard officers
explained the training process and gave a tour of the building and vessels. Pupils boarded
the Coast Guard’s cutter Poema, where they learned about radar technology, at-sea safety
procedures and the different weapons used by officers.
WILLEMSTAD--Curaçao’s
Minister of Finance George
“Jorge” Jamaloodin (MFK)
intends to travel to The
Netherlands soon. His visit
to The Hague has to do with
the collapse of the Dutch
cabinet headed by now caretaker Prime Minister Mark
Rutte (VVD) and pending
matters in the interest of Curaçao.
Rutte resigned after negotiations between coalition parties VVD and CDA
together with “tolerating
partner” PVV on taking financial measures within the
framework of the increasing
budgetary deficit had floundered. Rutte informed the
Second Chamber of Parliament, which debated which
Police officers were last night investigating an armed robbery by masked men at Man
subjects should be marked as
Chung Supermarket.
controversial and therefore
will no longer be handled by
the outgoing cabinet.
Sources in “Fòrti,” the seat
of the government of Curaçao, report that Jamaloodin
Continued from page 1.
intends to travel to The
market, robbed it and fled
the same criminal outfit Netherlands soon to discuss
into the darkness.
involved in last night’s two among other things matters
No information was availrobberies.
concerning the Kingdom Tax
Two supermarkets robbed
able up to press time about
how much money had been
stolen during the two robberies. However, as police
continued their investigations into the two robberies, they arrested three of
the four suspects in the
yard of a well-known house
at Tangerine and Apricot
Roads in St. Peters around
9:20pm.
Six similar robberies were
executed in less than 30
minutes at six Chinese supermarkets and restaurants
in the St. Peters area recently and reports suggest
that those robberies were
committed by members of
Police inside Ho Supermarket shortly after it was
robbed by four masked
men Wednesday night.
7
Regulation BRK. Curaçao
wants the outgoing Ruttecabinet to finalise the new
agreements on the fiscal
treaty.
Considering that a few
drafts are already on the
table, Jamaloodin wants to
have a meeting with outgoing Dutch State Secretary of
Finance Frans Weekers. The
new agreements are to become effective on January 1,
2013 and could mean a zero
rate for tax on dividends or
at least a rate lower than the
current one.
Minister Plenipotentiary in
The Hague Sheldry Osepa
could not offer any details,
but said, “There are several
matters that we certainly
consider controversial, top-
ics on which we had strong
discussions. These are on
the table due to one of the
coalition partners. There are
also issues we’d like to see
settled.”
Leader of coalition party
Pueblo Soberano (PS) Helmin Wiels stated during a
press conference that the
collapse of the Dutch cabinet will not have any consequences for Curaçao. According to him, in the past,
consecutive cabinets had
not brought any policy on
how the Dutch Government
treats Curaçao.
“The Dutch politicians don’t
determine this policy, but
Dutch civil servants. They
decide what happens, therefore, nothing will change.”
Islands
8
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
The white Kia Picanto used in the robbery.
Daylight robbery
Continued from page 1.
later found abandoned
in the vicinity of Cappuccino bar-restaurant.
Residents in the area
complained of a heavy
gasoline smell coming
from the car and on arrival, police found a jer-
ry-can in the vehicle. Police were trying to locate
the robber, Henson said.
WILLEMSTAD--Yet
unaware of the bad news awaiting him, Curaçao’s biggest
current Major League Baseball (MLB) star Jair Jurrjens
said “I’m not the type that
gives up easily.”
“I’ll continue to work hard.
I’m simply doing my best, I
can’t do more than that. I’m
still the same Jair Jurrjens,
it’ll come back. I’ll keep on
fighting,” the pitcher stated.
Minutes later, he was called
into the office of Atlanta
Braves’ General Manager
Frank Wren, who calmly told
him he would be moved from
the major leagues down to
the “minors” with Triple-A
affiliate Gwinnet.
“We’re giving Jair the
chance to fight his way back
and regain his condition.
Hopefully he’ll return to us a
stronger person. He doesn’t
have any injury or health
problems, he’s simply not
in form, that can happen,”
Wren said in explaining what
he called a tough decision.
ARUBA--With the arrival
of two experts from “Eurcarinet” the Aruban Government wishes to stimulate research institutions
and the local business community to compete for European tenders regarding
research and innovation.
As it concerns a complex
matter, lectures and workshops are being given. For
that matter, a consortium
consisting of utility companies WEB and Elmar, the
University of Aruba, the
Dutch Technical Reseach
Institute TNO, a poly-technical university in Milan
and a university in Greece,
is already competing for a
tender regarding energy.
With the information
meetings and training, the
Eman-cabinet hopes to create more interest to participate in research- and
innovation initiative programmes of the European
Union (EU) such as KP7,
which stands for a research
and technological development programme for which
the EU reserved over 50
billion euros.
The programme ends next
year and its successor “Horizon” that will run until
2020, is about to begin. This
programme has an even
higher budget of 80 billion
euros, Humphrey Vrolijk
explained.
He’s not only the contact
person for Aruba on this
programme, but also for
the rest of the Dutch Caribbean. The reason why
so many billions are being
spent is that Europe wishes
to keep up with the US and
Japan, which lead in investments in research and innovation.
Europe wishes to overtake
that knowledge backlog,
but not by itself; thus the
endeavour to work together internationally as much
as possible.
There’s another motive:
with the economic crisis in
mind, through these investments the EU can boost
economies of less-developed areas again.
For that reason Eurcarinet
was formed in April 2010, a
platform consisting of research institutes and other
expertise groups from Europe and the Caribbean
to chart which research
themes could be done together and by what parties.
No Aruban entities have a
seat on this platform, but
the University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA) on
Curaçao does.
Today, Wednesday, Eurcarinet is there for its annual meeting, to view the
participation status, in particular, for the new tender
round for KP7 that is to begin again in July. For those
wishing to participate,
there’s still 11 billion euros
in the training programme
that will end next year.
It’s up to Vrolijk to attract
more candidates from the
Dutch-speaking
islands.
Since his appointment last
year, he’s been very busy
giving more publicity to
the EU-programmes. Peo-
ple are also being trained
on Aruba to draw up the
complex quotations for the
EU-tenders so that Aruba
doesn’t miss out on funding, knowledge and opportunities, he said.
In any case, the island now
has a consortium of Aruban
institutions to compete for
a research project on energy. It mainly involves socalled “smart grids.”
Vrolijk explained that
there’s an EU-budget of 66
million euros for this, but
that doesn’t mean the entire amount will go to one
winner of the tender. A
maximum of 5 million euros is usually available for
each candidate, which for
that matter depends on the
number of participants per
bidding call.
In any case, participation
of the Aruban institutions
fulfils the current government’s wish to create a centre for energy innovation
and with that build up a
knowledge economy. Tapping EU-funds is certainly
one way to realise this research infrastructure, said
Vrolijk.
PHILIPSBURG--Local
youth string band group Tiny
and the Boys officially will
launch its debut album entitled “Passing the Torch,”
at Pink Pearl restaurant in
Front Street today, Thursday, starting at 6:00pm.
“After several long years of
work, and with the generous
support of government and
several sponsors, we believe
we have a product that is
truly a historical record and
of important cultural significance,” group leader Tyrone
Phelipa stated Wednesday.
The group will pay homage
to Tanny and the Boys, with
the CD launch being a special tribute to their legacy,
“and an affirmation of our
commitment to carry the
torch that they have left for
us,” Phelipa said.
Passing the Torch is described as the first full album
recorded by a youth string
band in St. Maarten. It features rearranged traditional
music played on traditional
instruments, including one
passed down from the original Tanny and the Boys.
Copies of the CD will be
available for purchase after
the official baptizing.
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
9
Smuggling paradise
Continued from page 1.
scans and electronic equipment in Europe and America by far outweighed what
was done in St. Maarten,
as the island made use of
all the available manpower
and equipment.
Before 10-10-10, the Customs Department had a
staff of eight persons and
was assisted by five technical assistance colleagues
from The Netherlands.
However, due to the 1½year contracts and after
many failed requests for extensions, only an additional
eight months was granted,
resulting in the cessation of
Dutch assistance in August
2011. The cost for the period from 10-10-10 to August 2011 exceeded NAf.
500,000, which was paid by
St. Maarten to The Netherlands.
Duncan explained that
Customs Department staff
had been augmented with
11 new “Bavpolers” since
then, completing the department with 21 officers
and hoping to add 16 more
to its growing staff.
Other comments made
by members of the Dutch
Parliament in the Second
Chamber did not sit well
with Duncan either. These
included comments such as
those by MP Lucassen who
stated, “Even for Caribbean standards, Customs
is a joke.” The MP failed
to identify the “Caribbean
standards” to which he was
referring, which again reeks
of unsubstantiated noises
PHILIPSBURG--The Permanent Committee of Parliament on Public Housing,
Spatial Development, Environment and Infrastructure
will meet today, Thursday
in a public session about
Geographical Information
System (GIS) called the
“Currency of Modern Government.”
GIS specialist Donald
Webster requested the
meeting with the Members
of Parliament (MPs). He
and his team will provide
information on how GIS is
designed to capture, store,
manipulate, analyse and
manage spatial referenced
data, and how government
institutions have relied on
using this technology to the
benefit their development.
The meeting, to be chaired
by MP Romain Laville,
starts at 10:00am in the
General Assembly Chamber of Parliament House.
Also members of the committee are MPs Roy Marlin, Patrick Illidge and William Marlin.
The meeting will be live
on St. Maarten Cable TV
Channel 20 and Pearl Radio FM 98.1. The audio
will be via internet on www.
pearlfmradio.com.
with bad faith intentions,
Duncan said.
Also, in response to the
claim made by MP Lucassen that after a recent
crime view analysis the
United States (US) is “very
worried” that a part of
the smuggling goes via St.
Maarten’s harbours, Duncan said this most recent
crime view analysis had
been conducted in 20092010 and therefore was not
as recent as the MP had
suggested.
Furthermore, Minister of
Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Liesbeth
Spies stated in her address
to the Second Chamber,
“The Dutch Caribbean
Coast Guard was doing a
good job in combating drug
trafficking.”
The Coast Guard functions under local authority, not independently, so
the assumption that “the
Customs Department is
not functioning properly
or unable to fulfil its tasks
is nothing short of a bogus,
outrageous claim and another attempt to cast a negative light on St. Maarten
and its development as a
new country,” Duncan also
said in his press release.
“St. Maarten is most certainly not a ‘true smuggling paradise’ and that the
Dutch MP and a minister
would spout such nonsense
is regrettable, as they failed
to provide any facts whatsoever to substantiate their
wild allegations,” Duncan
concluded.
Rotary Club of St. Maarten Mid Isle received three awards at the District 7020 Conference
held in Haiti recently. The club received the platinum Distinguished Governor’s Award for
its outstanding and dedicated service and promotion of Rotary Ideals and Services during
the Rotary Year 2011-2012. The club also received Club of the Month Bronze Award from
District 7020 for its participation in the programme, which includes monthly reports to
the District about its activities. From Rotary International, Rotary Mid Isle also received
a District Literacy Award for its efforts to promote literacy during 2011-2012, specifically
through the Spelling Bee competition in October 2011. President Ramesh Manek thanked
all members and their families and friends who supported Rotary Mid Isle during the past
Rotary Year.
St. Joseph Primary School concluded its final session of “Active Parenting Now 3” workshops last Monday, certifying 22 parents of the new four-year-olds who will make up its
new Group One in the upcoming academic year 2012-2013. The three APN3 sessions were
led by teacher Mary Bary who was assisted by fellow teachers Darleen Richards, Dorothee
Illis-Laurence and Shanirah Illidge.
10
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
SCDF representatives Michael Granger and Lisette Carty accept the baskets of Neutrogena
and Clean & Clear beauty products from Manrique Capriles team Kenty Lichtenberg and
Stanley Baptist.
PHILIPSBURG--Manrique Capriles and Sons,
in collaboration with St.
Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF),
has sponsored the Teen and
Senior Carnival contestants
with self-pampering baskets.
SCDF was pleasantly sur-
prised and appreciative of
the business community’s
effort in supporting and
promoting St. Maarten
Carnival in any possible
way. The baskets contain
beauty products like body
oils, facial cleansers and
body creams of brands such
as Neutrogena and Clean
& Clear.
It takes a lot of hard work,
discipline and courage to
represent an age group in
any pageant. These contestants have made sacrifices
and commitments to school
and work to be a part of the
annual Carnival festivities
and represent St. Maarten’s
culture. After such a busy
period of preparation,
stress and expectations,
contestants are entitled to
pamper themselves with
these products, the donors
said.
ST. EUSTATIUS--Insurance company Nagico celebrated its 30th anniversary
at the ARC complex in St.
Eustatius on Friday afternoon.
Arlene Cuvalay, who is not
only ARC Agency’s managing director, but also Nagico
agent in Statia, welcomed
everyone present. Island
Council members, Nagico’s
Chief Executive Officer
Imran McSood Amjad, and
agents and staff members
of the insurer were among
the audience.
Cuvalay said on December 1, 1988, she had walked
into the Nagico office in
St. Maarten and asked to
speak to the manager. “At
that time Nagico was still
in its infancy, as it was only
six years old. I introduced
myself to Mr. McSood and
told him I lived in Statia
and would like to work as
an insurance agent. I also
informed him that I didn’t
know anything about insurance, but was willing
to learn. After I had answered several questions,
he looked at me and said:
“I do not know you, but you
seem to look like a serious
person.” So he promised
to give me the opportunity
to work as an agent, with
all the necessary training
and material. There and
then he signed me on as an
agent, and the rest is history,” Cuvalay said,
“Today, that same unwavering confidence, that
same strength of character, that same vigilance and
customer-oriented attitude,
that written in stone motto
“We’ve got you covered” is
Nagico staff and agents in St. Eustatius with ARC managing director Arlene Cuvalay (third left), and Nagico CEO
Imran Mc Sood Amjan (fourth left).
the platform on which Nagico serves its many valued
customers and friends over
the years, subsequently
propelling Nagico as one of
the leading insurance companies in the north-eastern
Caribbean with over 35
trained and accomplished
agents on 18 different islands,” she said.
Cuvalay thanked St. Eustatius for the “tremendous
support over the years,” in
which she also included the
local agents and staff.
Mc Sood Amjad gave an
overview of the company’s
history, including its ups
and downs. He then presented a US $1,500 cheque
to NuStar Statia Way, which
contributes to non-profit
organisations on the islands. Cheques of the same
amount were also awarded
to Bethel Methodist School
and EDU Partners in education.
W I L L E M S TA D - -T h e
Schotte-cabinet will soon
introduce measures to improve the safety at Curaçao
schools, said coalition partner and parliamentarian
Helmin Wiels (PS), starting
with public education.
According to Wiels, initially the safety measures
will be introduced at public
schools. Teachers must be-
come extraordinary police
officers so that all pupils
can be body-searched.
The purpose of the measures is to increase the
safety at schools. The main
point is that teachers will
have more authority. Wiels
emphasised that the teachers will not become criminal investigators.
Nevertheless, they will
have special authority to
frisk pupils and search
schoolbags for weapons
and drugs. According to the
parliamentarian teachers
currently are not to do so.
Pueblo Soberano (PS) assumes that this measure will
be introduced in any case
for the new school year.
This was already agreed
with the Minister of Justice
Elmer “Kade” Wilsoe and
Education Minister Carlos
Monk, according to Wiels.
The teachers are to be
trained as extraordinary police officers in the coming
months. Metal detectors
and cameras will also be
installed at these schools,
according to the PSleader.
“These measures are necessary. We’re not dealing
with naughty boys but with
organised crime, which we
have to tackle.”
Consultation on hold
Continued from page 1.
different areas such as education, youth and youngsters, transport of goods
and persons, and energy.
St. Maarten has indicated
to Chairman André Bosman (VVD) of the work
group Energy that it wants
to be involved in the alternative energy projects that
the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture
and Innovation is arranging
with St. Eustatius and Saba.
It concerns geothermal and
wind energy. St. Maarten
has yet to respond to the
work groups of Education
and Youth and Youngsters.
In September, the Parliaments will decide when to
hold the Inter-parliamen-
tary Consultation. But the
consultation will, in any
case, not take place in the
second half year of 2012,
because of the hectic times
in The Hague surrounding
the elections in September
and the formation period
after.
Most probably the next Inter-parliamentary Consultation of the Kingdom will
take place in January 2013,
and because the meetings
in the early part of the year
are always held on the islands, it means that this
year The Hague will not be
hosting the event.
The State of the Kingdom
has also been postponed.
Initiative taker Member of
Parliament Wassila Hachchi of the democratic D66
party said that holding the
State of the Kingdom after the Inter-parliamentary Consultation in June
proved impossible for technical organisational reasons.
Hachchi told The Daily
Herald that the Chairpersons of the four Parliaments had discussed the
State of the Kingdom. All
Parliaments in principle
were positive about her
proposal. The Parliaments
will continue the preparations to have the State of
the Kingdom sometime
next year.
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
11
12
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
AGENDA
ST. EUSTATIUS
Police Station 182333
Emergency 111
Hot Line 108
Fire Department 120
Hospital 182211/182371
Landsradio 182210
Post Office 182207
St. Eustatius Historical
Foundation Museum 182288
Winair Office 182362
Lions Club meets every 1st and
3rd Wednesday at the “Den”
next to the Airport
Drug Prevention Foundation
meets every Tuesday 5:30pm at
the Golden Era Hotel.
Coastguard NA&A 113
St. Eustatius National parks:
Gallows Bay: 318 2884
SABA
Police Station
The Bottom, tel. 4163237
Emergency 111/112
Hospital
The Bottom, tel. 4163288/4163289
Fire Department Airport
Flat Point tel. 4162210
SATEL
The Bottom, tel. 4163211
WINAIR, Airport
Flat Point, tel. 4162255/2713
Taxi Service Airport
Flat Point, tel. 160
Administration Building
The Bottom, tel.
4163311/4163312/4163313
Tourist Office
Windwardside, tel. 4162231
Harbour Office
Fort Bay, tel. 4163294
Saba Marine Park
Fort Bay, tel. 4163295
Nature & Hike Guide
James Johnson
The Bottom, tel. 4163307
Service Club
Saba Lions Club general
meeting every 1st and 3rd
Tuesday 8:00 p.m. at Eugenius
A. Johnson Center.
Coastguard NA&A 113
Red Cross
General meeting every last
Monday, 6 p.m, Eugenius A.
Johnson Center.
ANGUILLA
EMERGENCY
Police 911
Fire 911
Ambulance 911
Police Station 497 2333
Hospital 497 2551
Dental clinic 497 2343
Radio Anguilla 497 2218
Tourism Department 497 2759
Crimestoppers 0800 7777777
AIRLINES
American Eagle 497 3501
Winair 497 2748
Liat 497 5000
Tyden Air 497 2719
Air Anguilla 497 2643
Trans Anguilla 497 8690
COURIER SERVICE
DHL 497 3400
Federal Express 497 2719
UPS 497 2239
SERVICE CLUBS
Rotary Club of Anguilla
Roy’s Restaurant 6:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. Every Thursday.
Soroptimist International
Day Care Centre
4.30 p.m. 2nd Tuesday
in each month Tel: 497 3509
Lions Club
The Valley Primary School
1st and 3rd Tuesday at 5.30 p.m.
Tel: 264 235 1280
National Council of Women
Arts and Craft Centre
4.30 p.m. 1st Monday in month.
Interact Club of Anguilla
Meets every Friday at 3.15 p.m.
at theAlbena Lake Hodge
Comprehensive School
Alcoholic Anonymous meetings
every Sunday at 8:30 am and
Monday at 5:00 pm on Shoal
Bay picnic area.
Subscribe to
PHONE 5425253
ST. EUSTATIUS--Quota
International Club of St.
Eustatius will be hosting the
organisation’s 12th district
conference April 27-29.
Quota St. Eustatius started
as a branch of the Curaçao
club in 2005. On August 9,
2008, the branch extended
its wings, and became a club
by acquiring a minimum of
15 members.
Statia’s Quotarians will be
welcoming their first guest
today, Thursday. The members of district 42 are of the
Dutch Caribbean, including
Suriname. Representatives
of The Netherlands and the
United States will also be
participating.
“This is a great opportunity for Quota Club Statia
to promote this “Historical
Gem” in the Dutch Caribbean,” stated Chief of the St.
Eustatius Government Information Service Malvern
Dijkshoorn-Lopes in a press
release on Wednesday.
The Quota Club will hold
a meet-and-greet at the
newly established harbour
platform on Friday, where
members will be welcomed
with Caribbean music and
performances by the youth
group of “maestro” Dennis
Amajan.
Saturday and Sunday will
be dedicated to the conference which will entail
lectures by St. Maarten
ombudsman Nilda Arduin,
Aisheline Maduro and Paula Aymer.
Statians will have the opportunity to mingle with the
guests from abroad during a
banquet on Saturday. The
conference will end Sunday
with a barbeque and music
at Statia Oil Terminal playground.
After the conference, many
of the visiting Quotarians
will spend additional days
on the island for vacation.
Quota Club Statia has organized a boat trip to Saba.
Others will be leaving at the
end of the conference to get
a taste of the St. Maarten
Carnival.
ST. EUSTATIUS--Talks are underway to come to the establishment of a cadastre foundation (land registry) in St.
Eustatius, Commissioner Glenville Schmidt said during
Wednesday’s weekly press conference.
Schmidt said the Executive Council had met with Marinus Sliedrecht and Martin Wubbe of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment regarding land registry services. Since October 10, 2010, these services are the responsibility of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment.
Discussions were held about the establishment of a foundation for Saba and St. Eustatius. However, legal frameworks need to be put in place on the islands before they
can take over the cadastral records, which are now kept at
the Kadaster Office of St. Maarten.
Commissioner Schmidt also talked about a proper location, which needs to have the right temperature or cooling
system to secure old documentations.
The Kadaster Office of St. Maarten still provides services
to Statia. In the constellation of the Netherlands Antilles,
St. Maarten put its cadastre into a foundation, which also
renders services to Saba and Statia.
13
14
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
ST. MAARTEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
15
16
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
ARUBA--A consortium of
the Dutch Technical Research
Centre TNO and the University of Milan, Italy have jointly
submitted an application with
the European Union (EU)
committee for a 4.7 million
euro subsidy (over 11 million florins) to carry out the
research project “The Green
Aruba.”
Prime Minister Mike Eman
(AVP) announced this at the
Caribbean TNO office in the
Dr. Edward Cheung Innovation Centre.
The project has a planned
duration of three and a half
years. During this period, if
the plans are approved, studies will be done on sustainable
development on Aruba and
islands in the region, higher
education, and employment
and business opportunities for
small entrepreneurs.
“With this project, one actually asks for means to build-up
a certain capacity and knowledge,” TNO Caribbean Director Jan Ebbing told the Amigoe newspaper. With the funds
Islands
from Europe it is possible to
acquire and exchange knowledge on Aruba and in the region involving green energy.
According to Ebbing, besides
the existing faculties, students
could then learn about renewable energy at the University
of Aruba (UA).
“With the EU funds, we
can spread this knowledge
by means of congresses and
conferences in the Caribbean
region. Generally speaking,
this is very expensive for participants, but that isn’t necessarily the case with funds from
14a
the EU.”
The consortium expects to Prime Minister Mike Eman (centre) made the announcement at the Dr. Edward Cheung
receive a reply on the applica- Innovation Centre.
tion during the second half of
Eman said that the exper- “because it shows one of the project is approved and that
this year. “It is difficult to say tise of TNO is being used to advantages of our coopera- we’ll receive the necessary
when exactly,” added Ebbing. substantiate the application, tion with TNO. Let’s hope the funds.”
“We expect a reply in August
at the earliest and in December at the latest.”
For that matter, Ebbing denies that the Green Aruba
Project also regards research
on smart grids. He says in due
course TNO also wants to
study those.
NIJMEGEN--A security official at Radboud University
in Nijmegen has thrown away a 12-metre long drawing,
which had been on display on the wall of a lecture theatre
complex because he did not recognise it as art, reported
news website Nu.nl on Wednesday.
The official threw the drawing, part of a project by artist
Peter Otto from the city of Arnhem, into a paper shredder, the website said.
The university has not commented on the claim, other
than to admit a work of art “has gone.”
According to Nu.nl, Otto is known in The Netherlands
and abroad for his drawings, which invite others to add to
them. This project, named Fonzie, was due to hang in the
university for six weeks prior to a guest lecture.
17
Ebbing confirmed that the
chance of approval is higher
due to the expertise of TNO.
“We have considerable experience in these applications.
The more experience, the
higher the chance of approval.”
Two experts from Eucarinet
are on the island this week to
give research institutions and
the business community information on how to benefit
from European possibilities
for research and innovation.
Eucarinet is a European
platform that focuses on promoting European-Caribbean
research and innovation
networks. The platform can
assist companies and institutions with submitting applications for European funds.
18
NEVIS--Students of the
Joycelyn Liburd Primary
School (JLPS) and the Gingerland Secondary School
(GSS) in Nevis got the opportunity to be part of an
Islands
historic encounter with
Commissioner in the Royal
St. Christopher and Nevis
Police Force Celvin Walwyn
on Tuesday. He urged them
not to waste their educa-
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
tion and to stay away from
bad company and crime.
The highest ranking police
officer in the federation
was accompanied by officer in charge of the Nevis
Division assistant Commissioner Robert Liburd and
the new Head of the Gingerland Police Station Sergeant Paulette Bartlette.
“Children, I would like to
speak to you this morning
about your future. You are
at an age when now you can
determine whether you go
up or whether you go down.
“We have a lot of bad influences in this society. We
have a lot of guns, we have
a lot of drugs [and] we have
a lot of violence. You don’t
have to become a part of
this. You can become somebody special, somebody who
can contribute to your society,” Walwyn said.
The commissioner told the
students that what he was
asking of them would not be
easy to achieve, but they had
to do what was right.
“One black blemish can
stop you from achieving your
goals. So the next time somebody comes to you and tells
you to do something that you
know is wrong, tell them: ‘I
won’t do it.’ Even if they say,
‘you are not my friend anymore,’ it’s okay, find some
other friends,” he said.
Walwyn used the opportunity to explain a growing trend
that had the potential to affect their future and pointed
to situations in which youths
of yesterday, now adults of
today, were going through.
“Let me tell you all something that is happening in
the federation right now. A
lot of people your age were
committing crimes and they
are now your parents’ age
and they are trying to go to
the United States to get a
better life for their children,
but they can’t go because
they have criminal records.
“You see, your parents
told you a long time ago;
watch what you do and
watch the company that
you keep. When you do bad
things now, they follow you
when you get older when
you change your mind and
want to do what is right and
your parents or relatives in
America, Canada or England are trying to get you
over there and get your papers, so you can go and do
better for yourself,” he said.
The top cop explained
that at the age of 13, he was
brought to the US Virgin
Islands by his mother but
when he got to his early
twenties he opted to move
to the mainland and did
something positive with his
life and has a Doctorate to
show for it.
“Why am I telling you this?
You are at an age when you
can determine your future.
If you do bad things now and
you keep doing bad things,
when it’s time for you to get
a chance to do something
positive and to leave here so
you can come back to contribute, you won’t be able to
go.
“In the last two weeks I
have had over 30 men who
have had a chance to get
a Green Card or to go to
Canada to work and they
couldn’t, because they have
weed smoking, girlfriend
beating, robbery, guns all
that stuff on their record
and those countries will not
take them. So my point to
you now is at this age I want
you to think seriously about
everything that you are doing because any hanging
with the wrong crowd at this
age, can affect you in the future,” he stated.
The commissioner told the
students they can be anything they want to be in the
world, but it is up to them
and they have to believe
that. He added that there
were many Kittitians and
Nevisians who had left the
federation and had made
meaningful differences in
other countries they went
to because their parents
had given them the right
training the same as they
were receiving.
“Do not waste your education here in this school.
Learn as much as you can,
go out and become whatever you want to be and
continue reaching for the
stars,” he said.
JLPS principal Marion
Lescott and GSS deputy
principal Shefton Liburd
registered gratitude for
the commissioner and his
team’s visit to their school,
deeming it a privilege.
“I want to thank you for the
words of encouragement
that you have given to us
as an institution, as a family here at Gingerland Secondary School reminding us
especially our children that
they are at the stage where
the power is in their hands
to direct their future.
“I trust that our students
were attentive, I trust that
they have taken in the few
words that you have shared
with us. You have been very
brief I would say in your
discourse but it has been
a very powerful discourse.
Once again I want to say
thanks to you for coming to
be among us and for speaking with us,” Liburd said.
At the end of the visit,
both Commissioner Walwyn and assistant Commissioner Liburd were invited
to sign the visitor’s book at
the school
ST. KITTS--Magistrates from across the Eastern Caribbean met in St. Kitts on Wednesday for their 2012 conference.
St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas was
invited to deliver the welcome remarks by Chief Justice
of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Hugh Rawlins.
The three-day conference is hosted by the Judicial
Education Institute of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme
Court, in collaboration with the United Nations Entity
for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
(UN Women) and the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF).
The April 25th to 27th conference is being held at the St.
Kitts Marriott Resort and Royal Beach Casino and magistrates are expected from Anguilla, the British Virgin
Islands, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent & the
Grenadines.
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Angie and King
ST. KITTS--The Ministry of
Culture and the Department
of Culture are mourning the
loss of two of the federation’s
cultural icons.
Culture Minister Marcella
Liburd joined calypso fans in
St. Kitts and Nevis mourning
the loss of two popular calypsonians and expressed condolences to the families of
the late Andrea “Singing Angie” Walters and Fred “King
of the 29 Fellows” Doyling.
“Singing Angie, one of the
long standing female calypsonians had the distinction of
being the first female to win
the ‘Best of the Rest Calypso
Competition’ and the Green
Valley Calypso King Competition. A regular participant
in the Legends Tent, she
provided back-up vocal accompaniment to many other
calypsonians,” the ministry
said in a news release.
A latecomer to the calypso
arena, King of the Twenty
Nine Fellows, while already
in his 70’s, was able to win
over the hearts of calypso
fans through his unique style
of presentation on-stage performance and musical lyrics,
which always told a story
about his life and love of
women.
“King of the Twenty Nine
Fellows was well respected
by his younger calypso compatriots and at the height of
his career earned the reputation of always being the star
of the calypso tent,” the ministry said.
ANGUILLA--During the past week there were three burglaries reported, two in South Hill and one at the Albena
Lake Hodge Comprehensive School Campus A. The items
stolen included a passport, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages
and cash.
The six thefts occurred in South Hill, East End, The Valley,
Island Harbour, Road Bay Customs and West End. BlackBerry phones, jewellery, awning shutters and cash were all
stolen.
During the week the police made six arrests. Two males
were arrested for wounding, one on suspicion of theft, and
others for immigration purposes, to prevent a breach of the
peace, and on a warrant. Six minor traffic accidents occurred.
19
20
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
ST. KITTS--St. Kitts and
Nevis
Prime
Minister
Denzil Douglas has underscored the seriousness of a
three-day Magistrates Conference which opened in
Basseterre on Wednesday.
In delivering welcoming
remarks, he singled out
the sessions on “A Family
Court Approach: Working
with Social Services” and
“The Magistrate as Family
Psychologist.”
“These sessions underscore the seriousness with
which this conference takes
social and psychological
implications of the onerous responsibilities that the
region’s magistrates have
assumed, in an attempt to
help build a more stable,
more just, and more productive society,” the prime
minister told the legal fraternity.
He noted that the impact
of the Caribbean church,
family, school and way of
life has become ever more
diluted.
“This, among other reasons, helps to explain many
of the vexing issues with
which you have been grappling in recent years, and
which, in an especially concentrated form, you will
be grappling throughout
this entire conference. For
example, the social causes
ST. KITTS--The federation
of St. Kitts and Nevis remains off the French “black
list” of countries deemed to
be “uncooperative” in tax
matters.
The only Caribbean country named among the eight
jurisdictions on the list recently updated by French
Finance Minister François
Baroin and Budget Minister Valérie Pécresse is
Montserrat. The other seven are Brunei, Guatemala,
Marshall Islands, Nauru,
Niue, the Philippines and
Botswana.
The revised list is retroactive to January 1, 2012, and
is confirmed in a government decree dated April 4,
published in the country’s
official journal dated April
12.
This year, the French government’s black list was
reduced considerably. In
accordance with the 2012
decree, 11 jurisdictions
were removed from the
Seated from left to right at the table are Justice Louise Blenman, Governor General Cuthbert Sebastian, Justice of Appeal Janice Pereira and Prime Minister Denzil Douglas.
of sexual offences, the cultural causes of sexual offences and importantly, the
gender dimensions of these
offences,” said Douglas.
He referred to the socially
destabilising issue of family violence and its social,
psychological and gender dimensions, which he
said are all pressing issues
where the administration
of justice is concerned.
“And all are, I was pleased
to note, to be addressed
over the next three days as
you strive to improve the
region’s judicial response to
black list as of January 1,
2012, namely Anguilla, Belize, Costa Rica, Dominica,
Grenada, Cook Islands, the
Turk and Caicos Islands,
Liberia, Oman, Panama
and St. Vincent and the
Grenadines. Botswana was
added to the list.
St. Kitts and Nevis and St.
Lucia were removed from
the French government’s
list in May last year.
France adopted its own
‘black list’ of countries
deemed to be uncooperative in tax matters back in
February 2010. At the time,
the original list was signed
by former Finance Minister
Christine Lagarde and former Budget Minister Eric
Woerth.
Established in accordance
with specific criteria, the
list contains the names of
those States failing to provide both fiscal transparency and administrative cooperation with France. As
a result, operators located
these pressing issues. Until
a flaw is acknowledged, it
cannot be corrected.
“So this conference’s open
acknowledgement -as reflected in your agenda- that
gender stereotypes do, indeed, influence the administration of justice, access
to justice, and the rule of
law and it reflects a laudable commitment to selfassessment and self-correction. And this is indeed
commendable,” Douglas
said.
He pointed out that in addition to serving as prime
in, or realizing transactions
with ETNC States, will see
more restrictive measures
applied than under regular
law.
If the subsidiaries of a
parent company are based
in a country appearing on
the French government’s
black list, they will, for example, no longer benefit
from the parent-subsidiary
regime, providing that dividends, paid by a subsidiary
to its parent company, are
granted up to 95 per cent
exemption from corporate
taxation.
Dividends, interest, and
royalties paid to entities
located in non-cooperative
jurisdictions are also taxed
unfavourably at 55 per cent.
In accordance with the
provisions laid down under article 238-0 A of the
general tax code, France’s
black list is revised and updated annually.
minister; he is also the
federation’s minister with
responsibility for national
security.
“In St. Kitts and Nevis,
as is the case elsewhere in
the Caribbean and, indeed,
throughout the world,
pockets of youth alienation
and youth violence have
been manifesting themselves in the form of gangs.
And, quite troublingly,
these gangs seem to have a
single approach to resolving conflicts and settling
scores.
“Even as we, in the federation, continue to meet
our own traditional responsibilities in the area of law
enforcement, then, we are
also keenly aware of the
importance of intervening
in the lives of misdirected
youths before they become hardened criminals,
indeed, even before they
even commit their first serious offence,” said Douglas.
He noted that 50 years
ago, when he was a boy, or
forty years ago when he was
a teenager, a juvenile delinquent was, perhaps, someone who often ran away
from school.
“Or maybe that juvenile
delinquent was someone
who was often caught stealing mangoes from somebody’s tree. Not only is the
term ‘juvenile delinquent’
hardly ever used any more,
but even if it were, it would
quite often refer to young
people who, for one reason or another, manifest,
in far more serious ways,
their own alienation from
society, and who, therefore, now present a far
more complex challenge
where the administration
of justice is concerned,” he
stated.
The prime minister further noted that because
of the changed reality that
now faces magistrates everywhere, the solutions,
the approaches, and even
the custodial arrangements
that may have been appropriate and effective forty
years ago, may no longer be
either appropriate or effective today.
“What then, as this conference’s final session on
Day Two asks, are the options open to magistrates
when dealing with youth
in conflict with society
and with the law? This is
a question which, increasingly, has to be asked by
those concerned about the
administration of justice
- all around the world and
not just here in the Eastern Caribbean,” he told the
judges.
Douglas said it is important that, as each country
or region crafts its answer,
they do so in the context of
what for their own country
or region would be effective - based on the cultural
realities of that country.
“What would be viable based on the human and
material resources available to that particular
country. And what would
21
be appropriate based on
the dictates of domestic
and international law and
the standards that the society in question has set for
itself,” said the prime minister.
He expressed hope that
the deliberations on these
very
important
issues
will yield insights and approaches that will help to
advance the administration
of justice in this region, for
many, many years to come.
“The role of the magistrate
is a key to ongoing efforts to
preserve and enhance humane, just, and democratic
societies everywhere,” said
Douglas.
The three-day conference is hosted by the Judicial Education Institute
of the Eastern Caribbean
Supreme Court in collaboration with the United
Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN
Women) and the United
Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) and magistrates
are attending from Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda,
Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis,
St. Lucia and St. Vincent
and the Grenadines.
ANGUILLA--Forty-four civil society organizations representing seventeen countries across the English, Spanish, Dutch and French-speaking Caribbean participated
in a meeting held at the Jamaica Grande Hotel in Ocho
Rios, Jamaica, last week. The two-day meeting on population and development, with emphasis on reproductive rights and sexual reproductive health, aimed to get
governments to ratify, implement and enforce the Programme of Action of the International Conference on
Population and Development.
Anguilla was represented by Indah Leiba, a graduate teacher at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive
School and an active member and volunteer in several
non-government organizations, among them the National
Council of Women and the Optimist Club.
The meeting also addressed the need to strengthen sexual and reproductive health services including family planning, programmes for the prevention of teen pregnancy
and to ensure that teenage mothers continue their formal
education. Participants also discussed the protection and
rights of indigenous and marginalized people, the importance of full participation of women in decision-making
at all levels, and the need to eliminate gender based violence, and all forms of trafficking in the Caribbean region.
The meeting noted that gains have been made in key
areas, including an increase in women’s participation in
education, the enactment of some legislation and policies
in areas of sexual and reproductive health, a reduction in
maternal mortality and HIV, and an increase in life expectancy.
The two-day conference was organized by the Latin
American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network with
support of the United Nations Population Fund. The latter supplied funding for Leiba’s participation, with support also of the government of Anguilla.
22
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
THE
HAGUE--Twenty
months after Jan Peter
Balkenende stood down as
CDA leader following the
party’s disastrous showing
in the June 2010 general
election, the party is still
without a front man or
woman.
The CDA will be holding an internal ballot to
choose its campaign head
for the September general
election, announced party
chair Ruth Peetoom after a
meeting of the CDA board
on Wednesday.
Candidates have until May
4, to step forward. Several
days later they will be pre-
sented to party members.
The new party leader will
be elected in two rounds
of votes. In the first round
the number of candidates
will be reduced to two, after which a second and final
runoff will follow.
This is one reason why
this party wants to delay
the general election until
September to give it time to
find the right candidate to
lead its election campaign.
Favourite among voters is
Finance Minister Jan Kees
de Jager, who is considered
by 36 per cent as the most
capable person to do the
job. However, De Jager
THE HAGUE--Around six in a hundred couples living in
The Netherlands are made up of one Dutch national with
a foreign partner, according to new figures from the Central
Bureau for Statistics CBS.
In total, The Netherlands has 3.1 million married couples
and a further 800,000 couples who officially live together. Of
them, 265,000 are of mixed nationality. Dutch-Indonesian,
Dutch-German and Dutch-Surinamese are the most popular
mixes, the CBS stated.
In six out of 10 mixed couples, the man is Dutch. The CBS
also highlighted a sharp increase in the number of Dutch
men marrying women from Thailand or Eastern Europe.
L I M A / A M S T E R DA M -Joran van der Sloot is to
serve out his 28-year sentence in Peru, the country’s
Justice Minister César San
Martín told local press on
Wednesday. He was re-
sponding to reports that
Van der Sloot might be
extradited to the United
States.
Dutch citizen Van de
Sloot was found guilty earlier this year of the murder
THE HAGUE--The Netherlands will not vote in favour
of a proposal to increase the European Union’s budget
by almost seven per cent next year, Finance Minister Jan
Kees de Jager was quoted as saying Wednesday.
“That is far too high. It is unthinkable,” De Jager told
news agency ANP.
Members of Parliament (MPs) also criticised the proposal announced by the European Commission on Wednesday morning. Brussels said the 6.8 per cent increase is
“desperately needed” to revive growth, the BBC reported.
“All layers of government [in The Netherlands ed.] have
less to spend. It is notable that the EU wants more money, even though it also is a layer of government,” Labour
PvdA’s financial spokesman Ronald Plasterk said.
Christian Democrat CDA MP Elly Blanksma said Europe also needed a little budgetary discipline.
The Dutch government collapsed Saturday after failing
to agree to measures necessary to cut the budget deficit in
line with euro zone rules to below three per cent.
Last year, the European Commission proposed increasing the EU budget by 4.9 per cent, but this was eventually
slashed to 1.9 per cent following protests from member
states including The Netherlands.
Islands/Dutch Kingdom
has already made it clear
he does not want the position, saying it should be up
to politicians to decide.
Second in the EenVandaag poll is Sybrand Haersma Buma, who leads the
party’s fraction in the Second Chamber, with 19 per
cent. State Secretary of
Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation Henk
Bleker, who hinted in January he would be interested
in the role has a seven per
cent backing. Bleker, who
struggled in his role as state
secretary, is a former party
chairman.
According to Wednesday’s
NRC, Minister of Education, Culture and Science
Marja van Bijsterveldt has
thrown her hat into the
ring.
Since Labour PvdA membership voted for new
leader Diederik Samsom in
a similar campaign as the
CDA is going to hold, support for this party has risen
sharply in the polls.
The CDA lost nearly half
its seats in the June 2010
election and is currently
losing even more support
in opinion polls.
23
Hero Brinkman surrounded by Dutch media in the Second Chamber building in The
Hague. (Reuters photo)
THE HAGUE--Party for
Freedom PVV renegade
Hero Brinkman has announced he will be forming
his own party to take part in
the next election.
Appearing on Pauw and
Witteman television news
show he announced it
would be called the Independent Citizens’ Party
OBP.
He said this name should
make clear what the party
will stand for. He said he
had “enough good people”
to present a list of candidates for the parliamentary
election, which will probably be held in September.
Brinkman, generally conof 21-year-old Stephany sidered as the PVV’s secFlores Ramírez on May 30, ond after Geert Wilders,
2010 in a hotel room in the left the party a few weeks
Peruvian capital Lima.
ago over disagreements on
The United States has requested his extradition to
face charges of fraud and
extortion committed on
the mother of Natalee Holloway, a US teenager who
disappeared while on holi- THE HAGUE--Three poday in Aruba in 2005. She litical parties have engaged
was last seen with Van der in joint talks with Dutch FiSloot. Her body was never nance Minister Jan Kees de
Jager on cutting government
found.
In the US case, Van der spending by up to 14 billion
Sloot is accused of asking euros, various newspapers
Natalee Holloway’s mother reported Wednesday afterfor 190,000 euros for in- noon.
formation about what hap- The D66 Liberal democrats,
pened to her daughter’s left-wing greens GroenLinks
and small Christian party
body. He is said to have reChristian Union have formed
ceived the money from her.
a united front to support rePeruvian Minister San forms and cuts in an effort to
Martín explained that Van reduce the budget deficit to
der Sloot might be able to below three per cent, in line
attend his trial in the US, with euro zone rules, it was
but that he would have to said.
return to Peru after the verThe VVD-CDA coalition
dict to serve the rest of his alliance collapsed Saturday
28-year sentence. If he were after anti-immigration party
to receive a prison sentence PVV pulled out of the negoin the US, this would have tiations, but De Jager must
to be served after his prison submit an economic plan to
Brussels by the end of the
term in Peru.
a number of policies.
Brinkman said he wants
a smaller government apparatus. He is also tough
on matters such as immigration and Islam, he also
wants less European Union
influence and wants to
stand up for the elderly.
Although these are all also
PVV themes the difference is great, according to
Brinkman. “Wilders’ party
takes no responsibility
when this is necessary and
often shouts out things just
to get attention,” he added.
Brinkman wants politics
to be “fair, realistic and
achievable.”
The PVV has had its
chance in the government,
according to Brinkman.
“Everyone now knows that
a vote for the PVV is a lost
vote. They smashed everything they had in their
hands into the ground.”
Brinkman felt blocked in
his efforts to bring more
democracy within the PVV.
He also found the PVV
lacking nuance on Muslims
and Eastern European immigrants.
According to Brinkman,
taxes must be lowered to
stimulate consumer spending. “Economic growth is
the only way out of the crisis,” he said.
Brinkman is also known
for his fierce criticism of the
Dutch Caribbean islands.
He claimed the group of
islands would be “a largely
corrupt nest of robbers,”
which should be put up for
sale on the Dutch equivalent of eBay.
month.
According to the Volkskrant
newspaper, the three parties
want a number of current
pieces of legislation dropped
including cuts in spending on
the arts and culture, special
needs education and personal care budgets.
In return, they are prepared
to back changes to the tax
break on mortgages, an earlier rise in the state pension
age and redundancy law reform.
“I met these three parties
for logical and practical reasons. I have not been negotiating,” De Jager told reporters after the meeting.
De Jager met Labour PvdA
leader Diederik Samsom
later on Wednesday to sound
out his views on the economy. Parliament is due to debate the government’s finan-
cial plans today, Thursday.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte
made an urgent appeal to
Parliament on Tuesday to
work together to help The
Netherlands through the
economic crisis. Yet although
a large number of the 10 parties in parliament said they
were willing to try to put together a 2013 budget, there
are a multitude of divisions
between them.
“I have heard a lot of good
intentions but nothing concrete,” parliamentary leader
of conservative VVD party
Stef Blok said.
In addition, Groenlinks,
Socialist SP, PvdA and Geert
Wilders’ PVV said they do
not believe in the need to
meet Brussels’ budget deficit
targets next year. Together,
they form a majority in parliament.
24
Regional
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Olint’s David Smith (left) operated the largest Ponzi scheme an, according to Delano
Franklyn (right) Jamaica in danger of dehumanising itself. (Jamaica Observer photo)
KINGSTON, Jamaica--Many reputable persons and
institutions “who propagate
the highest form of ethics
and moral values” are among
those on the run from Jamaicans who are demanding
repayment for money lost in
the Ponzi schemes they operated.
Former junior minister of
state for foreign affairs, Delano Franklyn said the Ponzi
schemes, widely known as
unregistered financial organisations, mushroomed in
Jamaica because of the reputation of many of the people
involved in collecting money.
Franklyn was speaking recently at a public seminar on
corporate governance hosted
by the Financial Services
Commission (FSC), the state
agency tasked with pursuing the Ponzi schemes, the
biggest being David Smith’s
Olint which operated out of
the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Smith is now in prison in the
United States.
To a large extent, the former
senator suggested, it was the
FSC which saved Jamaica
from being “completely overrun by the myriad of Ponzi
schemes which recently engulfed the country” and he
gave three primary reasons
for the fact that the schemes
were able to mushroom.
“First, known and reputable
persons and institutions were
involved. A list of the names
of the institutions and persons published by the FSC
indicates that even persons
who propagate the highest
form of ethics and moral
values in the society were
involved in the collection
of funds, some of whom are
now on the run from people
who are demanding repayment.
“Second, the high level of
informality which exists in
the Jamaica economy. Stud-
ies have shown that the size
of the informal economy
in Jamaica is almost 50 per
cent. This informal economy
is characterised by a ‘hussle’
mentality. It operates above,
around and under the regulated economy. Its culture
is one of anti-regulation. It
settles its own scores where
there are differences. It is
not class or social specific.
All types are involved, the
rich, the poor, the social, the
anti-social and big and small
businesses.
“Third, the existence of
selective morality and ethical values in the country.
The owner of a business in
Jamaica has no difficulty
conspiring with another to
extract electricity from the
Jamaica Public Service, but
rightly, calls in the police if
an employee is caught stealing; a provider of professional services has no difficulty operating two books in
order to avoid the payment
of taxes, but complains bitterly about the irregularity
with which his garbage is being collected; and there are
persons among us who have
no respect for planning or
building laws. They build
anything, anywhere.”
Franklyn said those three
features which allowed for
the flourish of the Ponzi
schemes, “are regrettable
features of the Jamaican society which impact very negatively on corporate and public governance in Jamaica.”
He prescribed two ways of
combating those features:
Implementation of a strong
regulatory framework and
provisions related to standards of conduct, which
allows for strict and rigid
penalties when breaches occur and the perpetuators are
caught; and a consistent, persistent, and relentless national assault against the erosion
of social and ethical values
in the society. (Jamaica Observer)
ST GEORGE’S, Grenada-An increasing number of
members of Grenada’s ruling
National Democratic Congress (NDC) is reported to
be less optimistic about the
chances of a reconciliation
within the party.
Party “elders” and officials
of the National Secretariat
have been making repeated
calls for discussions, especially after the NDC leader’s
recent statement on television, declaring that that
there is division in the party
between “the forces of good
and evil.”
However, sources say the
efforts at reconciliation are
being rebuffed in the pronouncements at what are
known as “Solidarity Sunday
Meetings.”
The latest meeting, held
last Sunday in St Patrick
West, where just over a week
ago the NDC constituency
branch endorsed MP Joseph
Gilbert as the party’s candidate for the area in the upcoming general elections.
However, for Sunday’s
meeting that was addressed
by NDC leader and prime
minister of Grenada, Tillman Thomas, deputy political leader Nazim Burke, and
former party chairman Glen
Noel, neither the constituency branch chairman nor
MP Gilbert, was invited to
attend.
According to reports, Sunday’s gathering followed the
tone of previous meetings
at which so-called “leftists”
were attacked, and the issue
of the selection of NDC candidates for the next general
elections was again brought
up.
More than once in the past,
Thomas has said that he has
the “right” to decide who
runs for the NDC at the next
national poll, which is due by
2013.
His statement, as well as the
organizing of the “Solidarity Sunday Meetings,” has
raised the eyebrows of many
NDC members and supporters, who are concerned about
the apparent sidelining of
the National Executive and
even party branches in the
constituencies.
Under the party’s constitution, candidates are usually
chosen by their constituency
branches and the nominee’s
name is sent for ratification
to a committee of the NDC
executive that includes the
leader and the general secretary.
Thomas has said the aim of
the “Solidarity Sunday Meetings” is to reinforce the “values” of the party such as “integrity in public life”, respect
for institutions, honesty, accountability and the “good
governance agenda.”
“Those who deviate from
this, we have to take action
against them,” he told a local
TV station recently.
However, British-based
Grenadian
businessman,
Winston Strachan, has taken
issue with what he describes
as the prime minister’s “leftist chants.”
“His leftist chants are pure
scaremongering of the electorate by a bitter man who
has now become desperate and perhaps dangerous
because deep down he has
come to realise he is isolated
(barring a few cronies) and
divorced from his political
party. No longer respected,
he no longer speaks or acts
in their best interest or shows
any capability for dealing
with the chronic economic
situation that the country is
in or the desperate plight of
our people, especially those
without work,” Strachan said
in a letter published by Caribbean News Now.
Strachan, who recently visited Grenada, added that
“while the former PM Dr
Keith Mitchell was unpopular and always seemed to be
at loggerheads with the local
press, Tillman Thomas seems
to be glorified by them; he
is like a king that can do no
wrong.”
PARAMARIBO--Suriname’s Government has a reshuffled cabinet. Shirley Sitaldien and Micheal Blokland were
added as the two new ministers of Education and Health
respectively.
Health Minister Celsius Waterberg and Zoning Minister
Simon Martosatiman were replaced; Sports Minister Paul
Abena was also sacked, but no replacement has been announced for him yet.
Raymond Sapoen, who now serves as Education Minister,
will move to the Ministry of Trade and Industry; current
Trade Minister Michael Miskin moves to Labour, Technological Development and Environment ATM. Minister
Ginmadro Kromosoeto, who is now in charge of ATM, will
take over at Zonal Planning, Land and Forest Management (RGB).
Ministers Celcius Waterberg – Health, and Simon Martosatiman - Zonal Planning have thus been replaced.
Coalition partners had earlier complained that Martosatiman had no grasp on land issuance, which resorts under
Zonal Planning. Waterberg stumbled in the press several
times with unpopular moves like bringing Cuban doctors
to Suriname, and insisting that there was no dengue epidemic last January while the disease was claiming victims.
The Bouterse Cabinet was appointed in June 2010, following a convincing win by President Desi Bouterse’s Mega
Combination party. The last time ministers were replaced
in this cabinet was last year June, when Finance Minister
Adeline Wijnerman took over from Wonnie Boedhoe.
It is the second time the minister of Zonal Planning is being replaced. The president fired his initial minister Martinus Sastroredjo in December 2010, over irregularities with
land issuance.
The new cabinet will be presented on May 5.
KINGSTON, Jamaica--Opposition Leader Andrew Holness has questioned the size of a Government delegation,
led by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, to the United
States saying that it goes against the economic hardships
the country is currently facing.
Simpson Miller - who arrived in New York City Tuesday
for a series of events, including last night’s prestigious
Time 100 Most Influential Persons Award reception - is
accompanied on the trip by three ministers in Sandrea Falconer (information), Wykeham McNeill (tourism and entertainment), and Phillip Paulwell (energy), in addition to
special advisors Delano Franklyn, Carlton Davies, and Dr
Vin Lawrence, chairman of Clarendon Alumina Partners.
According to Holness, “travelling with such a large delegation, especially before what will be the tabling of a difficult budget, is a bad signal.”
“The prime minister missed a grand opportunity to send
a message to the Jamaican people that she, too, is willing
to tighten her belt like most Jamaicans have been forced to
do,” he said in a statement. (Jamaica Observer)
Regional
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
25
~ As proposed cuts loom ~
GEORGETOWN, Guyana-Despite two separate meetings, the government and the
opposition Tuesday struggled
to reach consensus on proposed budget measures,
including lower taxes, and
APNU and the AFC warned
that they would proceed with
planned cuts in the administration’s spending if there is
no resolution.
Together APNU and AFC
have a one-seat majority in
Parliament.
A late night meeting at
the Office of the President
between President Donald
Ramotar and members of
APNU and the AFC yielded
little on budget demands,
save and except for a commitment on the part of the
Government to set up the
Public Procurement Commission (PPC).
A source close to the meeting told Stabroek News that
it is hoped that there are
further commitments by the
Government to address the
many concerns of the Opposition prior to the commencement of the pivotal
Parliament sitting at 2:00pm
which will see the last round
of estimates of expenditure
for budget 2012 considered.
The AFC and APNU have
been calling for the setting
up of the PPC, a constitutional body, to properly police the awarding of contracts
and the execution of works.
As a result of negotiations
between the government
and both APNU and the
AFC – the first tripartite session since a flap last week
over the exclusion of the latter - the National Assembly
Tuesday shifted to yesterday
the consideration of the estimates for the Office of the
President (OP), the Office of
the Prime Minister, as well as
the Ministry of Legal Affairs
and the Ministry of Finance,
which had been targeted for
whole cuts or reductions by
the opposition.
APNU and the AFC held a
joint press conference Tuesday afternoon in the Committee Room of the Public
Buildings, following a meeting at the OP, where their
representatives argued that
their actions were only intended to bring down cost of
living and improve the lives
of citizens. They also made
arguments for the reform
of the state-owned National
Communications Network
(NCN) and Government Information Agency (GINA).
On the first meeting with
the government, Leader
of the Opposition David
Granger said that the discussions were inconclusive and
that government was not se-
KINGSTON,
Jamaica--A
leading businessman from
Haiti has downplayed the
recent closure of the Haitian embassy in Jamaica and
any adverse impact that may
have on trade relations between the two countries.
Haiti withdrew its diplomatic agents three weeks ago,
leading to suspicion that a
diplomatic row between the
two countries, 161 kilometres away from each other in
the Caribbean Sea, could be
brewing.
But Philippe Saint-Cyr,
executive director of The
American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) of Haiti,
does not believe the Haitian
Government made the move
with any serious malice towards Jamaica.
It was just a routine change
over of diplomats, he said,
which came with the change
in Haitian prime ministers Laurent Lamothe replaced
Garry Conille earlier this
month - despite the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs in Haiti
citing “non-reciprocity” as
one of the reasons for its
March 30 pull-out.
“With the change in prime
ministers, they changed all
the consuls general in the
US and changed a lot of the
ambassadors recently,” said
Saint-Cyr.
“That is probably one of
the changes they wanted to
do in Jamaica as well, so I
think it’s business as usual,”
Saint-Cyr told the Jamaica
Observer after an AMCHAM
Jamaica luncheon at the Pegasus hotel for a Haitian trade
delegation which visited the
island on Monday.
Despite the countries being
so close to each other, trade
between them is relatively
weak. Saint-Cyr said business
relations could be improved
through the provision of
more bilateral incentives, arguing that regional countries
tend to concentrate more on
trade arrangements outside
the area than inside.
“Everyone is focusing on
having agreements with the
US, Europe or Asia,” he
said. “We have Caricom,
but it hasn’t really pushed
for positive increase in trade
with the region.”
Caricom trade ministers
agreed in 2010 to allow
Haiti to export goods within
the single market on a nonreciprocal preferential basis
for three years.
Haiti asked for the concession at the thirtieth meeting of the Council for Trade
and Economic Development
after the catastrophic earth-
quake in Janauary 2010.
The private sector has also
taken steps to form stronger
links with Haiti.
Jamaica Broilers launched
a joint venture with a Haitian
partner in 2010 to provide
feed, chicks, pullets, equipment and technical advice to
poultry farmers, with the initial investment reported to
be between US$2 and US$3
million.
Haitian-based Gilbert Bigio/
Reuven Bigio (GB) Group
- the conglomerate that introduced Digicel to Haiti inked a deal last year to buy
the fuels marketing and aviation businesses of Chevron in
Jamaica, which trades under
its Texaco brand here.
Still, according to Saint-Cyr,
there should be much more
business between the nations, suggesting in particular that Haiti’s financial sector could do with Jamaican
expertise.
“The main benefit that
Jamaica can give Haiti is a
strong financial market,” he
said. “The biggest thing we
need right now is financing ...
and an expertise in what you
have done in building your
infrastructure - highways and
roads,” he said. (Jamaica
Observer)
From left, AFC’s Khemraj Ramjattanand Leader of the
Opposition David Granger at a joint press conference on
the 2012 budget Tuesday. (Stabroek News photo).
riously considering changes.
“APNU had advanced some
points and the AFC had advanced some points. But it is
quite clear to [both parties]
that the government has not
been examining, carefully,
the points that we advanced
and is not serious in making
changes which we had asked
for. And we are not going
to be diverted by being put
on route to discussions for
things to be brought up without a deadline or timeline,”
he said.
“There are specific things
which we feel could be
achieved in the present budget and we are pressing to
make sure those things could
be achieved. The discussion
goes on and we expect that
some agreement could be
reached once the government understands we are serious about development in
this country,” he added.
According to Granger, the
two opposition parties had
roughly the same objectives
and in some cases some overlaps in what they wanted cut
from the budget. “We were
concerned with proper financial management, particularly with bringing certain financial assets under the purview
of the National Assembly.
We were concerned with the
quality of life of the ordinary people and that is why
we made advances in terms
of old age pensions and
public assistance. We were
concerned about education
and that’s why the University of Guyana is put on the
agenda. We were concerned
with jobs…there is a wide
range of concerns. Strikingly
both APNU and the AFC
had similar objectives,” he
explained.
APNU’s proposed cuts include an G$18.394 billion
provision for initiatives under the LCDS, a reduction by
G$674.5 million of a G$918.7
million allocation for subsidies and contributions to
local organisations, and the
slashing of allocations meant
for presidential advisors in
the OP.
Further, APNU seeks to reduce an allocation of G$6.7
billion for ICT to G$6.5 billion, cut totally an allocation
of G$15 million to GINA and
an allocation of G$65 million to state-un broadcasting
entity NCN. APNU is also
proposing a total removal of
the G$6 billion subsidy to the
GPL, under the Office of the
Prime Minister.
The AFC has proposed to
cut G$500 million out of an
allocation of G$902.8 million
for the Guyana Elections
Commission (Gecom); G$1
billion out of the G$6 billion
proposed for the Guyana
Power and Light; and G$75
million out of another allocation of G$130.4 million under the OP for GINA. It also
seeks to eliminate G$81.2
million set aside for the NCN
and reduce by G$10 million the allocated amount of
G$37.9 million for contract
employees at the OP.
Granger said that the parties were deliberate in their
decision to earmark allocations to be cut. “This is not
slash and burn. We have
made
recommendations.
When we speak about GPL
or GuySuCo, we have asked
for information and we have
made recommendations for
reform and restructuring. We
want to see a better Guyana.
We are not out to destroy.
We are out to create the basis for development to take
place,” he said.
“We have decided to take
certain measures which will
bring down the cost of living
so people could play a more
meaningful role in the economy, create employment and
[it will] ensure a better quality of life for vulnerable people. Every step that we have
taken so far has been on the
principle so that those objectives could be realised. At
the present time, we feel that
those objectives could be
jeopardised,” Granger said.
“As the saying goes, serious diseases require serious
remedies and we are now
proposing serious remedies
to ensure that the Guyanese public is not left with a
budget which does not bring
about significant change in
their lives,” he added. (Stabroek News)
NEW YORK, USA--The cruise sector in Martinique was bolstered recently with news that Royal Caribbean International has included Fort-de-France port calls in winter 2012-2013
itineraries aboard the MS Vision of the Seas, which carries a
maximum passenger capacity in excess of 2,400 people.
This marks a return to the Isle of Flowers for Royal Caribbean, which last sailed to Martinique in 2009. The Martinique Tourism Authority is hailing the development as a
major step forward in its efforts to grow the island’s tourism
receipts from the US market.
“Royal Caribbean’s return to Fort-de-France is the latest
testament to the fact that Martinique is well positioned for
tourism growth and 100% open for cruise business,” said
Karine Roy-Camille, commissioner of the Martinique Tourism Authority. “This is certainly good news for Martinique
and a strong building block for further expansion in the
cruise sector over the coming years.”
Cruise lines call on Martinique in the heart of downtown
Fort-de-France, the island’s capital city and the capital of the
Caribbean when it comes to shopping. The best of Parisian
fashion, jewelry, porcelain, perfumes and other fine goods
are here, and for US travelers most of it is available at a 20%
discount. Many stores offer the discount to visitors who make
purchases using major US credit cards or travelers cheques.
RCCL’s Vision of the Seas features two acres of glass walls,
offering guests sweeping views of the Caribbean. On-board
amenities include the 6,276 square-foot Casino Royale, complimentary Broadway-style entertainment, eight bars and
restaurants, full-service Vitality Spa, Adventure Ocean youth
program and rock-climbing wall where adventurous guests
enjoy jaw-dropping views from the highest point of the ship.
26
US/World
CHICAGO--More than a
hundred University of Notre
Dame professors have demanded that Illinois Bishop
Daniel Jenky renounce comments he made criticizing
President Barack Obama’s
stance on religious liberty
that compared him to dictators Adolf Hitler and Joseph
Stalin.
“Jenky’s comments demonstrate ignorance of history, insensitivity to victims
of genocide and absence of
judgment,” said the letter
addressed this week to the
leadership of the renowned
Catholic university in Indiana and signed by 131 professors from various fields.
The letter urged the school
to distance itself from Jenky’s
“incendiary statement,” and
called for Jenky, 65, a Notre
Dame graduate who has led
a Catholic diocese in Peoria,
Illinois, since 2002, to “renounce loudly and publicly
this destructive analogy”--or
resign from the university’s
Board of Fellows and board
of trustees.
Jenky, along with other U.S.
Catholic bishops and social
conservatives, condemned
the Obama administration’s
requirement that churchaffiliated institutions provide
insurance that covers contraception. But his April 14
homily singled out Obama
and the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, saying “The Church will survive
... the calculated disdain of
the President of the United
States ... and of the current
(Democratic) majority of the
federal Senate.”
Even after the White House
sought to calm the furor by
announcing last month it
would not require churchrun hospitals, universities
and charities to pay for birth
control coverage but instead
shift the burden to insurers,
the bishops continued to battle against the mandate. The
bishops said the mandate
was part of a broader attack
on religion by state and federal authorities, a position
echoed by Republican presidential candidates on the
campaign trail who accused
the Obama administration
of waging war on religious
freedom.
In his homily, Jenky compared the administration’s
stance to anti-religious figures in history such as Hitler
and Stalin who “have tried
to force Christians to huddle
and hide within the confines
of their churches.”
“Hitler and Stalin, at their
better moments, would just
barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but
would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services and
health care,” Jenky said. “In
clear violation of our First
Amendment rights, Barack
Obama--with his radical,
pro-abortion and extreme
secularist agenda, now seems
intent on following a similar
path,” he said.
Jenky’s comments were
quoted in newspapers, and
his homily was reproduced
on the website of the Catholic Post, the Peoria diocese’s
newspaper.
WASHINGTON--The top
U.S. military officer ordered a review of training material after a course
for officers was found to
espouse the view that the
United States is at war with
Islam, the Pentagon said on
Wednesday.
General Martin Dempsey,
chairman of the U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff, sent a letter
on Tuesday to leaders of the
Army and other services,
along with regional commanders and officials heading the National Guard, ordering a review of relevant
training and education material across the military.
“This review will ensure
our professional education programs exhibit the
cultural sensitivity, respect
for religion and intellectual
balance that we should expect in our academic insti-
tutions,” Dempsey said in
the letter, an excerpt from
which were read to Reuters.
The review, which was
first reported by Wired.
com, was prompted by a
complaint by a soldier who
had recently completed
an elective course entitled
“Perspectives on Islam and
Islamite Radicalism” at the
Joint Forces Staff College
in Norfolk, Virginia.
One example of objectionable material, presented
in a power point slide for
students, was an assertion
“that the United States is
at war with Islam and we
ought to ought to just recognize that we are war with
Islam,” Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman,
told reporters. “That’s not
at all what we believe to
be the case. We’re at war
against terrorism, specifi-
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
for the annual term, drew
more than 100 reporters to
the courtroom press seats
and scores of people on
the sidewalk outside the
building. The immigration
dispute is the second most
important case of the term,
following the healthcare
dispute heard in March.
Only eight of the nine Supreme Court justices heard
the arguments. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan, the former top Obama administration lawyer at the court,
recused herself because she
had worked on the matter
previously.
Her fellow liberal justices
appeared to accept that the
conservative majority would
vote to uphold at least part
of the Arizona law and focused their questions on
how those provisions, which
have been on hold during
the litigation, would be applied on the ground.
WAS H I N GT O N - - N e w t
Gingrich is quitting the U.S.
Republican
presidential
contest after a tumultuous
campaign marked by flashes of brilliance in debates,
staff desertions and offbeat
ideas.
Gingrich, a powerful figure in the 1990s as House
of Representatives speaker,
briefly reached the heights
of Republican presidential
front-runner this year, but
stumbled badly under attack
from rivals. The collapse of
his campaign threatened to
turn the proud intellectual
into a punch line.
The final blow for his campaign came on Tuesday
night when rival Mitt Romney easily won primary victories in five Northeastern
states that crowned him as
the presumptive Republican nominee. Gingrich had
campaigned heavily in Delaware as the conservative
alternative to Romney, but
lost by nearly 30 percentage
points there.
Gingrich’s idiosyncratic
run turned ideas like establishing a U.S. moon colony
and having schoolchildren
work as janitors into frontpage fodder. His campaign
descended into near farce
last week when he was bitten in the hand by a penguin during a visit to a zoo
in St. Louis.
He will formally pull out of
the race next week, a Gingrich campaign official said
on Wednesday. His withdrawal further clears the
way for Romney, who has
now claimed the unofficial
mantle of the Republican
nominee in November’s
election against Democratic President Barack Obama.
INDIANAPOLIS--Police in
a small Indiana town hauled
a six-year-old from his elementary school and charged
him with battery and intimidation after he kicked and
threatened a principal, police said on Wednesday.
The incident followed one
earlier in April where police
handcuffed a 6-year-old girl
who was screaming and crying and had injured a principal and damaged property
at an elementary school in
Milledgeville, Georgia. She
was not charged.
The Indiana student, who
had been suspended from
school recently for biting and
hitting a staff member, was
arrested April 18 at Hendricks Elementary School in
Shelbyville, which is about
30 miles southeast of Indianapolis. “This was not an isolated incident,” Shelbyville
Police Lieutenant Michael
Turner said.
School officials called police, reporting that the student, who was not identified,
had kicked Principal Patrick
Lumbley and told him and
Assistant Principal Jessica
Poe that he was going to kill
them, a Shelbyville police
report said. The student was
yelling and screaming and lying on the floor of Poe’s office when police arrived, the
report said.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer speaks to the press outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, on Wednesday, following arguments in the Arizona vs United States immigration enforcement law case.
WASHINGTON--Conservative justices who hold a
majority on the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to
endorse Arizona’s immigration crackdown on Wednesday, rejecting the Obama
administration stance that
the federal government has
sole power over those who
illegally enter the United
States.
During 80 minutes of oral
arguments, the justices suggested by their questions
and comments that states
have significant latitude to
adopt laws that discourage illegal immigrants from
moving to and staying in the
country. Justice Anthony
Kennedy, who often casts
cally al Qaeda, who has a
warped view of the Islamic
faith.” Kirby said Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta
also felt “deep concern”
over the discovery, which
follows a string of incidents
that, more than 10 years after the Afghan war began,
have exposed a persisting
gap between people in the
conservative Muslim nation
and the Western soldiers
fighting Islamist militants
there. The incidents, embarrassing for the government of President Barack
Obama as he seeks to mend
U.S. ties with the Muslim
world and shore up his
campaign in Afghanistan,
include bloody riots caused
by U.S. soldiers’ burning
of copies of the Koran and
photos showing U.S. soldiers posing with corpses of
Afghans.
the deciding vote, referred
to the “social and economic
disruption” that states endure as a result of a flood
of illegal immigrants and
suggested that states such
as Arizona have authority
to act.
Arizona two years ago
became the first of half a
dozen U.S. states to pass
laws aimed at driving illegal
immigrants out, including
requiring police to check
the immigration status of
anyone detained and suspected of being in the country illegally. The battle over
the law goes to the heart
of a fierce national debate
between Democrats and
Republicans over what to
do with the estimated 11.5
million illegal immigrants in
the country, a number that
has held steady in recent
years. Critics have said the
Arizona law could lead to
ethnic and racial profiling
of the fast-growing Hispanic population, now equal to
16 percent of all Americans.
The four conservatives-Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Kennedy,
Antonin Scalia, and Samuel
Alito--all asked tough questions of the administration’s
lawyer. Fellow conservative
Justice Clarence Thomas
did not ask any questions
but is expected to support
the Arizona law, based on
his past votes.
The Supreme Court’s immigration ruling is likely to
come by the end of June, as
the political campaign season heats up. It is expected
around the same time justices are likely to rule on
President Barack Obama’s
2010 healthcare overhaul
law.
The case, heard on the
last day of oral arguments
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
27
28
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday April 26, 2012
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday April 26, 2012
29
30
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
International
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
BRUSSELS--European governments reacted angrily on
Wednesday to EU proposals
for a 6.8 percent budget rise in
2013 despite calls for fiscal discipline across the bloc.
The European Commission
said the increase in spending
next year to 138 billion euros
($182 billion) was needed to
meet legal funding commitments approved by member
states in previous years. But
some of the biggest contributors to the EU’s budget accused the Commission of failing to heed its own advice to
national governments on the
need for fiscal restraint.
“It is impossible, unjustifiable and unacceptable that the
European Union asks each of
its members to make efforts
to reduce their deficits and
spending, and at the same time
it proposes a 7 percent increase
in its own budget,” French government spokeswoman Valerie
Pecresse told reporters.
The Dutch government collapsed this week after it failed
to agree budget cuts to bring
its deficit within EU limits, and
the country’s finance minister
said he could not accept the
proposed 9-billion-euro EU increase. “That is too high a rate,
which is inconceivable,” Jan
Kees de Jager said.
Germany’s Finance Ministry
said in a statement the proposed rise was inappropriate
“given the extraordinary challenges of the sovereign debt
crisis.”
At the end of 2010, France,
Britain, Germany and the
Netherlands called for a realterms freeze in all future EU
spending and last year led efforts to cut the Commission’s
proposed 5 percent budget in-
LONDON--European
Union nations are sending
ambassadors back to Belarus, Britain said on Wednesday, as relations between
Minsk and the 27-nation
bloc improve following a
diplomatic spat over the
former Soviet republic’s
treatment of political dissidents.
EU states withdrew their
envoys from Minsk in February in a solidarity gesture
after Belarus told representatives from Brussels and
Warsaw to pack their bags
and get out. Earlier, the
bloc had tightened trade
sanctions against companies and business owners with links to President
Alexander
Lukashenko,
in power since 1994, in
response to deteriorating
conditions being endured
by opposition politicians.
“All EU ambassadors are
returning to Minsk, including our own ambassador,”
a spokesman for Britain’s
Foreign and Commonwealth Office told Reuters,
without giving exact details
of when all the diplomats
would return.
The bloc ordered their
envoys home on Feb. 28 as
Lukashenko’s government
intensified its crackdown
on the opposition following
his re-election for a fourth
term in December 2010.
Last month, Belarus told
EU ambassadors not to
bother returning--marking
its increasing isolation from
Europe’s mainstream and
a new low in ties with the
West. The United States
have not had an ambassador in Minsk since 2008.
Lukashenko has tolerated
little dissent since coming
to power, cracking down on
public protests and throwing political opponents
behind bars. Mass street
protests after the 2010 election, which Western observers said was fraudulent,
resulted in the arrest of several opposition candidates.
The EU has condemned
Belarus, a landlocked nation of about 10 million
people, as the last European country to use the
death penalty and has also
imposed a visa ban on Lukashenko. But earlier this
month, Lukashenko pardoned a key political prisoner and his former rival
in the race for presidency,
Andrei Sannikov, a move
long urged by the EU.
Poland, Lithuania and
Sweden also sent their representatives back to Minsk
on Wednesday. “Other ambassadors will return over
the next hours and days,”
Poland’s Foreign Ministry
spokesman Marcin Bosacki
said.
The cooling of relations
has pushed Minsk closer to
Russia despite their longrunning row over natural
gas supplies, and many in
Moscow view Belarus as a
buffer from NATO members.
crease for 2012 to 2 percent, in
line with inflation. Britain and
Germany said they would work
with other net contributors to
the EU budget to cut the proposed 2013 figure.
“It’s important to get an alliance of member states together to make sure that the
Commission and the (European) Parliament see sense,”
British junior finance minister
Mark Hoban told reporters in
Brussels. “There will be a lot of
frustration across Europe that
we’re seeing those tough decisions being made in domestic
economies, but the Commission has proposed a 6.8 percent
increase.”
Commission President Jose
Manuel Barroso said the proposal was responsible and
sought to balance the need for
fiscal consolidation with targeted investments to spur job
creation and economic growth.
“More often, when we discuss the budget we hear some
governments louder than others,” Barroso told reporters.
“I therefore call on member
states to show responsibility
in the discussion. This is not
money for Brussels. It is money (which will go) back to the
member states and it makes
sense in many areas to spend
it at European level, not for
ideological reasons, but for efficiency reasons.”
EU budget chief Janusz Lewandowski said it was legitimate for people to question
why the Commission had proposed such an increase, but
that the money was needed to
finance projects already approved by the EU and its member states. “Bridges, railways,
motorways have been built for
the greater good of all. Now we
must pay the bills,” he said.
The Commission’s proposal
must now be approved by EU
governments and the European Parliament, whose president Martin Schulz told the
EU’s 27 Commissioners their
budget proposal appeared reasonable.
PARIS--France’s
Socialist presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande said
on Wednesday that leaders
across Europe were awaiting his election to back away
from German-inspired austerity, and he welcomed a
call by ECB President Mario
Draghi for a growth pact.
Hollande says a budget discipline treaty signed by 25
EU leaders in March would
plunge Europe into a deep
recession.
At a presidential-style news
conference, the self-confident favourite said that if he
wins a May 6 runoff against
President Nicolas Sarkozy he
would set out his ideas for
reforming the pact in a letter
to European leaders the very
next day. The conservative
Sarkozy has been German
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
main partner in managing
the euro zone debt crisis that
erupted in late 2009, jointly
crafting the fiscal compact
that Hollande has vowed to
renegotiate.
“On this front things are
already moving forward. Before Sunday’s election, heads
of state were already starting
to say what I was proposing-the ambition for growth, the
willingness to include more
in the treaty than just fiscal
discipline and sanctions,”
Hollande said.
“Today many heads of state
and government are waiting
for the French election to
open these discussions,” he
said, citing Spain and Italy
among countries resisting excessive austerity.
The Socialist leads the incumbent by around 10 points
in opinion polls, but a record
showing by the far-right National Front anti-immigration crusader Marine Le Pen
in Sunday’s first round has
forced both finalists to make
a pitch for her voters. Sarkozy, who has veered sharply
to the right with tougher talk
on immigration and security,
ruled out any election pact
with the National Front on
Wednesday. He sought to
cast his challenger as a mortal danger to France’s economy.
Insisting that he was not
questioning the principle of
balanced budgets, Hollande
said he would have a “firm
and friendly” discussion
with Merkel on the pace of
fiscal consolidation. In the
first clear indication that he
would not necessarily seek to
BERLIN--German courts
have the legal right to forbid “Hells Angels” members from wearing their
motorcycle jackets with
“death’s head” insignia
during trials as these could
intimidate those involved,
Germany’s top court ruled
on Wednesday.
The Constitutional Court
said wearing them was an
“unacceptable showing of
force that might intimidate
and threaten the parties to
the proceeding” and a ban
was a “preventive condition
for a safe and unimpaired
trial.”
The court overruled a
complaint lodged by Hell
Angels’ member Rayk F.,
convicted by a civil court in
Potsdam to one year prison
for complicity in extortion
in 2010. He had forced the
owner of a tattoo parlor to
“cooperate” with Hells An-
gels, threatening to snap
off his head and intimidating him by placing a dead
sheep on his doorstep.
Rayk F. complained his
trial was unfair since the
presiding judge, in consultation with the police, prohibited him and his Hells
Angels backers from wearing their motorcycle club’s
jackets at the trial.
31
Francois Hollande, Socialist party candidate for the 2012 French presidential election, attends
a news conference as he campaigns ahead of the second round vote in Paris on Wednesday.
change the existing text, he
said that whether a growth
pact was added to the treaty
or agreed in a separate document was a matter for negotiation, he said.
Hollande said his letter to
EU leaders would suggest
four changes, including the
creation of joint European
bonds to finance infrastructure projects and greater
investment by the European
Investment Bank (EIB).
He also backed a financial
transaction tax levied by likeminded countries to help
fund youth and education
projects and a more efficient
deployment of EU regional
development resources.
Hollande welcomed
Draghi’s call for a “growth
compact” in the European
Parliament on Wednesday,
although he recognised that
the central bank chief did
not necessarily envisage the
same kinds of measures he
was advocating. Draghi did
not question the thrust of the
fiscal compact--of which he
was a leading advocate. He
has long argued in favour of
structural reforms to labour,
goods and services markets, which would increase
the flexibility of European
economies and their growth
potential.
“This goes in the direction
which I was talking about,”
Hollande said. “He is not
necessarily talking about
the same measures as me to
stimulate growth.”
The fiscal pact, which would
oblige countries to write a
commitment to run a balanced budget into national
laws, was a key condition of
Germany’s support for bailouts of struggling euro zone
economies such as Greece
and Portugal. Three countries have already ratified
the budget discipline treaty,
which is due to take effect
from the start of next year.
32
International
LONDON--Rupert
Murdoch rejected accusations on
Wednesday that he used his
media empire to play puppet master to a succession
of British prime ministers,
electrifying a media inquiry
that has shaken the government and unnerved much of
the establishment.
The appearance before a
judge by the world’s most
powerful media mogul was a
defining moment in a scan-
dal that has laid bare collusion between ministers,
police and Murdoch’s News
Corp, reigniting long-held
concerns over the close ties
between big money, the media and power in Britain.
Unlike an appearance before parliament last year
when Murdoch appeared at
times painfully slow to answer questions, the 81-yearold remained calm and considered throughout, saying
he wished to use the hearing
to put some myths straight.
“I have never asked a prime
minister for anything,” he
said.
He was also asked about
his relationship with politics
and British “toffs”, a reference to his regular attacks
on Britain’s gilded establishment, which the Australianborn tycoon has lampooned
as snobbish and inefficient.
Cameron reluctantly or-
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
A combination picture of still images from broadcast footage shows News Corporation Chief
Executive and Chairman, Rupert Murdoch, speaking at the Leveson Inquiry into the culture,
practices and ethics of the media, at the High Court in London on Wednesday.
dered the inquiry last July
as a phone-hacking scandal
at Murdoch’s News of the
World tabloid spiralled out
of control, forcing him to
side against the media empire that helped propel him
into power a year earlier. He
is now suffering his worst
period since he took power,
with Murdoch’s Sun and
Times papers particularly
critical, and facing calls to
sack a minister accused of
colluding with News Corp.
He told a raucous session of
parliament on Wednesday
that politicians from all parties had become too close to
the magnate.
“I think on all sides of the
House there’s a bit of a need
for a hand on heart,” he told
a chamber of jeering opposition lawmakers. “We all did
too much cosying up to Rupert Murdoch.”
Cameron and at least two
former Prime Ministers
are expected to appear for
questioning in the coming
months.
Under questioning, Murdoch appeared in control, at
times drawing chuckles from
some of the 70 lawyers, family members and journalists
packed into the Victorian
gothic courtroom when he
cracked jokes about the
destruction of unions. The
man who has for years portrayed himself as an underdog, said he had simply
tried to shine a light on the
country on the behalf of the
working classes.
One member of the public
who queued in the rain to
see the man who had dominated British political life
for forty years said he had
entered the courtroom hostile and left quite impressed.
“He’s an old man,” Ron, a
76-year-old retired banker,
said. “I think he’s stood up
to it quite well.”
While Murdoch denied
influencing the editorial
stance of his Times papers,
he did admit that anyone
seeking to understand his
opinion should “look at the
Sun”. “I’m not good at holding my tongue,” he added.
He also shed some light on
recent British political history, saying that he had been
a great admirer of Margaret
Thatcher but less impressed
by her successor John Major, whom he could not
remember meeting. He reserved some of his strongest
comments for former Prime
Minister Gordon Brown
and some of his funniest for
Tony Blair.
“If our flirtation is ever
consummated Tony, I suspect we will end up making
love like porcupines. Very,
very carefully,” he admitted
telling Blair who ruled from
1997 to 2007.
International
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
PIRAEUS, Greece--In the
port of Piraeus, dozens of
young men with shaven
heads and black t-shirts
packed a small room one
evening to hear Golden
Dawn’s dream of a Greece
purged of foreigners, its
borders sealed with landmines.
“We want all illegal immigrants out, we want to
take their stench out of
this place,” said Frangiscos
Porihis, an election candidate for the ultra-nationalist and highly secretive
party. “They shouldn’t be
here and they will leave one
way or the other--the good
or the bad way,” he told the
Piraeus meeting.
With Greece deep in economic and social crisis, the
party is promising voters
in next month’s elections
to start by expelling illegal
immigrants--before moving
on to the legal ones. Nevertheless, Golden Dawn denies it is neo-Nazi, although
its leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos did give a Nazi salute
at an Athens city council
meeting last year.
With its anti-foreigner
message plus some welfare
parcels for a few of Greece’s
many needy, Golden Dawn
has emerged from obscurity in the last few months
and now seems certain to
enter parliament comfortably when the nation votes
on May 6. Flanked by bookshelves lined with books on
Aryan supremacy and nationalism, the Piraeus audience listened in rapt attention. Leaflets declaring
“Not a single unemployed
Greek, not a single illegal
immigrant in Greece” lay
on tables, alongside manifestos proclaiming “Greece
belongs to Greeks”.
Outside, the group’s flag-with an ancient Greek
symbol that resembles the
swastika set against a red
background--fluttered in
Piraeus, 10 km (six miles)
south of central Athens.
Opinion polls suggest that
Golden Dawn could win
around 5 percent of the
vote, comfortably above
the 3 percent threshold for
entering parliament. This
would be a staggering feat
for a party considered until now by many Greeks as
little more than a rabblerousing fringe group which
took 0.23 percent in the last
general election three years
ago.
Linked to racist, antiimmigrant attacks, Golden
Dawn is set to become the
most extreme right-wing
party to sit in parliament
since Greece returned to
democracy after the fall of
a military dictatorship in
1974.
33
bags at her doorstep. “It’s
the first time someone has
brought us clothes and
food. Only the church has
helped us so far,” said Tassiou, an epilepsy sufferer
whose family lives on her
welfare benefits. “I’ll vote
for Golden Dawn, maybe
it’s time for something
new.”
Elsewhere, Golden Dawn
escorts the elderly who are
wary of immigrants to bank
ATMs, said spokesman
Elias Panagiotaros.
Message To
The System
Golden Dawn’s rhetoric
resonates with Greeks who
blame rising crime on the
hundreds of thousands of
illegal immigrants flocking to the country’s porous
borders.
Nine out of 10 illegal
immigrants entering the
European Union in 2010
arrived in Greece, largely
from Turkey by land or sea.
Last year Italy took the top
spot due to a jump in arrivals of people fleeing the
Arab Spring upheaval.
Nevertheless, Greece has
more than one million immigrants, legal and illegal,
in a country of 11 million people. West African
hawkers are a common
sight on the streets of Athens, playing a game of catand-mouse with the police.
However, many are also
from Afghanistan, Pakistan
and North Africa, hoping
to make their way to more
prosperous EU countries
to the north where work is
available.
The party’s communitybased efforts and anti-politician talk have also won
fans among Greeks bristling
with anger at an entire political class which they see
as corrupt and self-serving,
analysts say. With repeated
waves of wage and pension
cuts to save the country
from bankruptcy, Greece
has sunk into its deepest re-
cession since World War II.
“It’s not that Greeks became right-wing overnight,”
said Thomas Gerakis, head
of the Marc pollster group.
“They just want to send a
message to the political system as a whole.”
Golden Dawn’s candidates
are not career politicians;
they include farmers, shepherds, workers and retired
army officers. The party
has no recognisable names
apart from its leader Mihaloliakos, who served in the
Greek special forces and
was elected to the Athens
city council in 2010--giving
the Nazi salute on his first
appearance there last year.
“Golden Dawn has the advantage of being invisible,”
said a political analyst,
who declined to be named.
“Apart from Mihaloliakos,
even I don’t know any of
the other faces in the party
and I’m in the business.
That works as a protective
shield for them.”
Polls show the party taking
between 4.1 and 5.7 percent
next month. Much of that
has come at the expense of
the nationalist LAOS party,
whose ratings plummeted
after it joined the outgoing
coalition government last
year. It later quit after refusing to accept the austerity conditions of Greece’s
latest bailout.
Pasta At Doorstep
In working class neighbourhoods of Athens,
Golden Dawn has been
quietly building itself up
as a friendly, reliable face
among hard-hit Greeks
that the state has failed to
help. For over a year, party
members have given needy
families bags of rice and
pasta, olive oil and clothes
in cartons labelled: “I vote
for Golden Dawn to clean
up the place” and “For
Athens to become Greek
again”.
Former Socialist voter
Katerina Karousi, a 76-year
old cancer patient, broke
down in sobs when party
members showed up at her
doorstep with large bags of
food on Friday morning.
“I hear they are doing nice
things for people. Why not
vote for them?” said her
husband, 79-year old Andreas Karoussis.
On their way out, a Golden Dawn member bade the
couple farewell with: “Call
us if you need anything--I
mean anything.”
At another stop, 41-yearold Constantina Tassiou
looked bewildered and
overwhelmed as Golden
Dawn
members
piled
clothes and supermarket
ATHENS--Greece
has
halted welfare or pension
payments to 200,000 people
either because they are unentitled to the money--or
because they are dead, a
Labour Ministry official
said on Wednesday.
The number of people involved in the abuse, dead
or alive, is roughly equal to
two percent of the Greek
population. Benefit fraud
is common in many welfare
states but Greece has come
under heavy pressure from
the European Union and
IMF to crack down in return for its latest 130 billion
euro bailout.
Scams often involve people lying to officials who are
too disorganised, chaotic
or even corrupt to prevent
the abuse. Mismanagement
has allowed some families
to keep drawing pensions
of relatives who have died.
However, an unusually high
number of 9,000 Greek
centenarians drawing oldage benefits prompted the
authorities to take a closer
look last year.
Simple data cross checks
since September had revealed the abuse. “They
were caught during the
inquiry and the state is reclaiming the money they
have illegally taken,” the
senior Labour Ministry official said on condition of
anonymity, adding that
thousands of cases had
been sent to court.
Halting the payments will
save the state up to 800
million euros ($1 billion) a
year, the official said.
A former senior official at
the ministry, Athina Dretta,
said a lack of communication between government
bodies was a problem.
“Registry offices didn’t even
have an automatic system
to notify deaths to social
security funds,” said Dretta.
Officials also became suspicious when they noticed
unusual concentrations of
blind or disabled people in
certain cities and islands,
where corrupt social security employees were at work.
Some welfare recipients
were found to be working
as taxi or truck drivers.
With nearly one-quarter
of the 11 million Greeks
retired, the once generous welfare state has been
partly blamed for a debt crisis that has shaken the euro
since it began in 2009. The
pensions drew fire in countries which have funded
Greece’s bailouts, notably
Germany. Last year the
head of a business lobby
in Germany’s ruling CDU
party, Kurt Lauk, said pension fraud was “proof of the
need to examine every last
inch of Greece’s finances,
before even one cent (in
aid) is provided.”
Members of the Greek extreme right Golden Dawn party hold red flares outside the town hall
of Perama town, near Athens, during an election campaign rally April 23, 2012.
Racism Against Greeks
Golden Dawn’s manifesto
is less benevolent than the
good-neighbour
image
its food drive has helped
to cultivate. Illegal immigrants must be immediately
arrested and deported, and
legal immigrants eventually
expelled as well, the group
says.
It wants crimes committed
by immigrants to fall under a special category, with
their sentences carried out
in special detention centres where the immigrants
are put to work. “There
are people who have been
living in a building for 4050 years and they suddenly
realise that it’s only them
and maybe another family
and that the rest are thirdworld foreigners who live
in groups of 30-40 in one
apartment,” aid Panagiotaros.
The group has little sympathy for the political class.
Politicians behind Greece’s
crisis must be hauled before a special court, jailed
and their property seized,
the group says, while any
Greek refusing to join
the conscript army will be
stripped of their citizenship
and exiled.
Despite the comparisons
with neo-Nazism, Golden
Dawn has paradoxically
tapped into anti-German
sentiment by attacking
the bailout package from
the EU and International
Monetary Fund and what
it calls German domination
of Europe. Set up in 1992
and relaunched in 2007, the
party admires Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas, who
refused to surrender to the
Axis powers in 1940. It calls
itself nationalist and insists
its logo is the ancient Greek
Meander symbolising bravery and endless struggle.
The group remains enigmatic. Its leader Mihaloliakos declined to be interviewed and ruled out
Continued on page 38
34
International
LONDON--British police
investigating the disappearance of Madeleine
McCann, the three-yearold who went missing in
Portugal five years ago
sparking a global hunt, still
hope to find her alive, the
officer leading the inquiry
said on Wednesday.
Detective Chief Inspector
Andy Redwood told reporters police have identified 195 “investigative opportunities” from existing
evidence that have been
handed to Portuguese police. Some, he said, included new information.
“We genuinely believe
there is a possibility that
she is alive,” he said. “We
would like the case to be
reopened.”
Madeleine disappeared
from her family’s holiday
apartment in the resort
of Praia da Luz on May 3,
2007, prompting a massive
police probe and a search
that gripped media across
the world. She went missing while her parents Kate
and Gerry were dining at
a nearby restaurant with
seven friends.
Despite numerous re-
ported sightings from Belgium and Spain to Morocco, France and Malta and
investigations stretching as
far as Australia, her whereabouts remain a mystery. The McCanns were
named as official suspects
by Portuguese police four
months after their daughter’s disappearance but
in 2008 they were cleared
and Portugal’s public prosecutor later dropped the
case citing a lack of any
evidence.
The McCanns had won
550,000 pounds ($888,000)
in damages from two British newspapers who suggested they had killed
Madeleine, while their
friends--known as the
“Tapas 7”--also won large
payouts over claims they
had lied about the abduction.
Last year, the McCanns
wrote to British Prime
Minister David Cameron
saying neither the British
nor Portuguese officials
were doing enough to find
their daughter and that
only private investigators
they had hired were still
following their case. Cam-
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Madeleine McCann is seen how she may look as her ninth
birthday approaches in this computer-generated handout
photograph released in London on Wednesday.
eron subsequently ordered
a new probe by London
police who are working
through 40,000 pieces of
material and documents,
and have issued a computer-generated photograph
showing how Madeleine
might look now as her
ninth birthday approaches.
Redwood, who has been
to Portugal seven times on
the case, declined to give
details about any possible
suspects, or sightings, although he said these form
part of the new findings.
He said he would not be
drawn on any hypothesis
of where Madeleine might
be if alive and that police
were giving equal weight
in their review to the notion she was dead.
Any formal decision to
reopen the case would
have to be taken by Portugal.
CAIRO--The last prime minister to serve under deposed
Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak has been allowed
to re-enter the race for the
presidency, one day after
electoral authorities disqualified him, the state news
agency reported on Wednesday.
Analysts said Ahmed
Shafiq’s re-entry into the
race will make him the favourite of the military and
a very strong contender to
win Egypt’s presidential elections set for May 23-24, with
a run-off scheduled in June.
“The presidential electoral
committee headed by Farouk
Soltan accepts the appeal
of former Prime Minister
Ahmed Shafiq, allowing him
to contest the presidential
race,” MENA reported.
Shafiq had been disqualified
on Tuesday after the ruling
military council approved a
new law drawn up by the Islamist-dominated parliament
denying political rights to
anyone who served as president, vice president or prime
minister in the decade prior
to Mubarak’s fall in February of last year. The electoral
committee gave no reasons
for accepting Shafiq’s appeal,
although some analysts said
it had acted to avoid further
appeals that might have de-
layed the elections.
An ex-air force commander,
Shafiq’s success in the elections would extend military
rule in a country that has
been led by army officers
since the overthrow of King
Farouk in 1952. He is likely
to take votes that otherwise
would go to Amr Moussa,
the former chief of the Arab
League who is seen as an alternative for voters who do
not want an Islamist head of
state.
“His entry back into the
race will certainly appease
remnants of Mubarak’s old
order. It will also allow the
army to breathe a sigh of relief because, of all the presidential candidates, Shafiq is
the one who understands the
military best,” political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah said.
In an interview with Reuters in February, Shafiq said
he was running because he
had the experience to maintain good ties with the generals and ensure a smooth
handover to civilian rule.
The 71-year-old, who was
civil aviation minister for a
decade, said he can bridge
the divisions in Egypt. The
other front-runners are the
Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi and Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, a former
member of the group.
The Sint Maarten Yacht Club Regatta Foundation
has the following
Vacancy
Full Time Regatta Assistant
The Sint Maarten Yacht Club Regatta Foundation is the organizer of the St.
Maarten Heineken Regatta, the biggest sailing event in the Caribbean.
The position provides an opportunity to a person to be involved in the
dynamic organization in an exciting area of sports events.
Key words are:
Requirements are:
!"
#
$%
&
'
(
!
)
$*
Application letters with resume can be handed in at the
Sint Maarten Yacht Club.
"'
'
at 90 Welfare Road, Simpson Bay Bridge. Fax to: +1 721 544 2091
)
-/
International
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
TIZI-OUZOU, Algeria-It was a homecoming.
After boycotting all national elections for more
than a decade, Algeria’s
oldest opposition party
was back on the campaign trail in its heartland.
But the rally at a soccer
stadium in this Berber
town was a muted affair. About 1,500 people
showed up, assembling
around the half-way line.
When a party leader led
chants of “the authorities
are assassins”, the sound
echoed off empty seats.
Algeria’s authorities
say they have heeded
calls for change after last
year’s Arab uprisings in
nearby countries and will
ensure a May 10 parliamentary election is truly
democratic. To back their
argument that the vote
will be different, they cite
the decision of the opposition Front des Forces
Socialistes (FFS) to end
its boycott of polls it said
were rigged.
The party is headed
by Hocine Ait Ahmed,
85, who helped lead the
fight half a century ago
for Algeria’s independence from colonial ruler
France. He once organised a post office robbery
to fund the insurrection.
Soon after independence, he turned against
Algeria’s new rulers, saying they were not democratic. He paid for his dissent with years of jail and
exile, becoming a symbol
Ali Laskri (C), Secretary General of the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) party, gives a speech
during a parliamentary election campaign rally in Tizi Ouzou some 100 km ( 62 miles) east of
the capital Algiers in this April 21, 2012 file photo.
of uncompromising, principled opposition.
Ait Ahmed and his
lieutenants see the Arab
revolts elsewhere as creating an opportunity for
genuine change in Algeria, which shares the
problems of youth unemployment and unaccountable rule that sparked
revolutions in Tunisia,
Libya and Egypt. “We believe the internal, regional and international situation is very favourable
for a peaceful change,”
Mustafa Bouchachi, an
FFS leader, told Reuters
as he arrived for the party
rally at Tizi-Ouzou’s soccer stadium on Saturday.
“We are not taking part
in these elections to support the authorities but
to move towards a peace-
ful change in Algeria, for
a real democracy, not just
a facade of democracy,”
he said. “It (the election)
is the first step.”
Yet even some FFS loyalists seem unconvinced
that Algeria’s militarybacked ruling elite will
loosen its grip on power.
Tizi-Ouzou, about 100
km (60 miles) east of
the capital Algiers, is the
bedrock of FFS support
and the unofficial capital
of Algeria’s significant
Berber ethnic minority. Ait Ahmed was born
near here, and after Algeria won independence
in 1962 he briefly led an
armed revolt against the
new rulers from this region. Road signs in TiziOuzou are written in the
Berber, or Amazigh, al-
phabet, and the FFS uses
the language to address
its supporters.
Yet people milling on
a street corner near FFS
headquarters in TiziOuzou had low expectations for the party as it
contests an election for
a parliament that anyway holds little power.
“People don’t trust the
politicians,” said one
man, who gave his name
as Hakim. “Nothing has
changed.”
Another man, 49-yearold Boubker, noted that
Ait Ahmed lives in Switzerland and has not been
back to Algeria for years.
“What does that tell you?
He should be in Algeria,”
he said.
The party’s own officials
talk of the election as an
opportunity to “re-mobilise” opposition supporters in Algeria and
start a real debate about
how the country should
be run. But they also acknowledge the risk that
the authorities will prove
insincere about allowing
more democracy, and
will instead use FFS participation as a fig leaf for
their real agenda.
If the election was rigged
like previous votes, “we
will react,” Ali Laskri,
the highest-ranked FFS
official in Algeria, told
Reuters, without spelling
out how the party would
respond. As in many other countries, Algerians
are cynical about their
politicians. Some speculate that the FFS has
dropped its election boycott in a secret deal with
the ruling establishment,
although there is no firm
evidence of this. “I think
35
it is something that we
don’t know about,” said
one FFS supporter in
Tizi-Ouzou when asked
why the party leadership
had decided to run in the
election.
The party may view the
vote as a dress rehearsal
for a future contest for
real power, perhaps two
years down the road.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is 75
and is unlikely to seek
re-election when his term
ends in 2014. The elite,
say analysts, will seek a
managed handover of
power, but if that fails
there could be an opportunity for the opposition.
“It is the presidential
elections that will change
the status quo,” said Youcef Sahli, a member of
the FFS national secretariat. “We understand
that it is the president
who embodies the state.”
36
International
GULIBAGH, Pakistan--Hazrat Gul spent two years in
detention for allegedly aiding
the Pakistani Taliban when
they publicly flogged and beheaded people during a reign
of terror in the scenic Swat
Valley. Now he wiles away his
time in pristine classrooms, a
Pakistani flag pin on his crisp
uniform, learning about word
processing, carpentry and car
repairs at the Mashal de-radicalisation centre run by the
army.
Part of a carrot and stick approach to battling militancy
in the strategic U.S. ally, the
aim is to cleanse minds of
extremist thoughts through
vocational training, and turn
men like Gul into productive citizens who support the
state. The success of the programme will ultimately hinge,
however, on the the ability of
the government, widely seen
as incompetent and corrupt,
to help the de-radicalisation
graduates find jobs.
“If a sincere leadership
comes to this country, that
will solve the problems,” said
Gul, 42, one of the Mashal
students. “Today the leadership is not sincere. The same
problems will be there.”
Pakistan’s military drove
militants out of Swat in 2009.
Mashal is in the building
which used to be the headquarters of the militants
from where they imposed
there austere version of Islam. Eventually, the army
realised it couldn’t secure
long-term peace with bullets
alone. So military officers,
trainers, moderate clerics and
psychologists were chosen
to run three-month courses
designed to erase “radical
thoughts” of those accused of
aiding the Taliban. Students
like Mohammad Inam, 28,
a former assistant engineer,
give the school a good report
card.
“The environment is very
good. Our teachers work very
hard with us. They talk to us
about peace, about terrorism
and how that is not right,”
said Inam, in the presence of
a military officer. “God willing, we will go out and serve
our country and our nation.”
School officials say about
1,000 people have graduated
since the initiative began two
years ago, and that only 10
percent were not cleared for
release. Officials concede that
verge of collapse and is often described as a failed state
unable to cope with power
cuts, widespread poverty and
violence. “The problem is
the deprivation being faced
by these individuals. There
is no electricity. There are
price hikes. There is no law
and order or justice which
prevails in the country,” said
Major Khurram Bajwa, one
of Mashal’s directors.
He pointed out how easy it is
for the Taliban to recruit peo-
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
United States put a $10 million bounty on an Islamist
leader who Pakistani officials
say has in fact been helping them turn militants away
from a life as radicals. Hafiz
Saeed, suspected of masterminding an attack by Pakistan-based gunmen on India’s
financial capital, Mumbai, in
2008 that killed 166 people,
met government officials and
pledged his support for the
de-radicalisation drive, the
officials said. Saeed’s organ-
Men learn how to fix a vehicle engine in a classroom at the Mashal de-radicalisation centre
run by the Pakistani army in Gulibagh, Pakistan’s Swat Valley April 13, 2012.
their “students” are not hardened militants who killed.
Mostly, they provided the
Taliban with water, food or
shelter, or beat people.
That was enough for a twoyear detention, and some say
abuse, in a country where the
Taliban stage suicide bombings at will and have launched
brazen attacks, including one
on the army headquarters
near the capital. Even if the
Mashal institute instills a new
mindset and discipline in the
students, graduates face an
uncertain future.
The South Asian nation
always seems to be on the
ple. “It takes about two years isation denied this.
to train an army officer, and
one month to train a suicide Public Beheadings
bomber.”
Pakistan’s military presents
the Swat offensive and the
Islamist Leader
campaign to root out extremPakistan joined the U.S. ism as a showcase of its sucglobal war on militancy after cess against militancy. On
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the surface, the valley looks
the United States, but crit- far more stable than it did
ics accuse Islamabad of ac- in the Taliban days when Fatually fostering the security zlullah, known as FM Mullah
nightmare in the Pakistan- for his fiery radio sermons,
Afghanistan border region by was ordering his men to take
supporting militant groups it to the streets and punish the
values as strategic assets. Pak- “immoral”, or anyone who
istan denies the allegations.
disagreed with his violent phiThe confusion was high- losophy.
lighted this month, when the
Residents of Swat, 160 km
(100 miles) from Islamabad,
crowd street markets. Girls
schools that were blown up by
the Taliban have reopened. A
ski resort burned down by the
Taliban has re-opened.
That is due in large part to
a sense of security created by
the thousands of Pakistani
soldiers still stationed there.
But the army’s successes have
been tarnished by allegations
of human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch says it has
received credible reports of
extrajudicial killings allegedly
committed by soldiers or police in Swat. The army counters that it takes human rights
seriously and has launched an
investigation into the matter.
Sitting beside an officer in
a classroom at the Mashal
school, Gul said he was subjected to torture at prisons
run by the military or its
intelligence agency merely
because, out of fear, he had
chanted pro-Taliban slogans.
“Every time they were talking to us, (they were) beating us,” said Gul, who has a
masters in political science.
Asked to elaborate, he said:
“From A to Z, all kinds of
problems.”
Minutes later, the officer,
who sleeps in a room with a
commanding view he said was
once occupied by Fazlullah,
leaned over to this reporter
and said: “What do you expect in prison, massage girls?”
The accounts of ill treatment were echoed by others. Rehman Shah, a former
school teacher, says he was
only detained because his son
was accused of joining the
Taliban. Nine weeks into the
course, he praises the de-radicalisation concept but says
the army made a big mistake
by detaining innocent people.
“When Pashtuns are treated unfairly, it never leaves
their hearts and they take
revenge,” Shah said of the
dominant ethnic group in
Swat and other parts of northwest Pakistan, where most of
the military offensives against
militants are mounted. “I
urge the government and security not to do this and not
increase resentment and anger in the people.”
A senior Pakistani intelligence official denied abuses
take place. “That’s not our
strategy at all. They are our
own people and we do not believe in these things,” he said.
Life Outside
The School
Outside Mashal’s classroom,
there are signs that not everyone is embracing the new approach. Soldiers led a hooded
man into a truck while three
others looked on through
the barred windows of what
appeared to be a cell at the
compound.
Conditions still seem ripe for
Fazlulah and his lieutenants,
who have vowed to make a
comeback, to recruit people.
Pakistani officials estimated
after the army operation expelled the Taliban that over
$1 billion would be needed to
revive the local economy and
rebuild infrastructure.
Residents like Ajab Noor,
61, who sent two of his sons
abroad to work, doubt the
population of about 1.3 million will ever benefit from
those funds. “People have
no options. They either go
outside the country to work,
or they join militants who
promise them many things,”
he said at a street market in
Swat’s capital, Mingora.
A member of a state-backed
anti-Taliban militia believes
two boys in his village had
graduated from a de-radicalisation centre and ran away to
rejoin the Taliban. “I told the
military, ‘you are nurturing
the offspring of snakes’. But
they did not listen,” he said.
International
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
CAPE
TOWN--Luring
great white sharks with a
smelly mixture of fish and
oil in South Africa’s False
Bay has triggered a wave
of anger, with surfers and
swimmers calling for a ban
on the practice following
a fatal shark attack a week
ago.
A growing attraction over
the past several years in one
of Africa’s biggest tourist
destinations, Cape Town,
has been underwater dives
with sharks, with operators clouding waters with
a bloody mixture called
“chum” to attract the predators. Many marine experts
doubt if chumming changes
the behaviour of sharks in
the region, which include
great white sharks as long
as mini-buses that weigh
upwards of four tonnes.
But the practice has rattled surfers, swimmers and
kayakers, especially after a
suspected great white shark
ripped the leg off of David
Lilienfeld, 20, last week,
killing the champion bodyboarder. Data shows since
2000 there have been 10
shark attacks around Cape
Town’s coast, five of them
fatal, including Lilienfeld.
“This is an animal that kills
people when it comes into
confrontation with people.
So let’s not make them aggressive. Let’s not dangle
bait in front of them and
stuff like that,” Cas Collier,
a former big wave world
champion, said at Surfer’s
Corner, Muizenberg beach
in the bay.
Sharks are drawn to the
area to feed on the large
number of seals at Seal Island, a rocky outcrop in the
middle of False Bay. Once
hunted for sport trophies,
great whites have been a
protected species in South
African waters since 1991.
“It goes without saying
that chumming in False Bay
must be banned until we
have a better understanding of shark behaviour and
the potential for habituation,” said surfer John Gasson in a published letter.
But for many of those who
work with or study these
graceful creatures, the
emotion evoked in attacks
clouds judgement. “There
is no link between chumming and shark attacks.
Every time this happens
you get paranoia,” Leonard
Compagno, a shark expert
who helped design the mechanical shark in the blockbuster movie “Jaws”, told
Reuters.
Research in Australia,
however, suggests prolonged chumming can
affect shark behaviour
around people to associate humans with food. Every time an attack occurs,
fingers are pointed at the
small shark cage diving
industry, centred in False
JERUSALEM--Israel’s
military chief said he does
not believe Iran will decide
to build an atomic bomb
and called its leaders “very
rational”--comments that
clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s
assessment.
Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz’s remarks, in an
interview published on
Wednesday in the left-wing
Haaretz newspaper, drew
little attention in Israel on
its annual remembrance
day for fallen soldiers,
when political discourse is
suspended. But they will
add fuel to an internal debate on the prospects of
Iran weaponising its uranium enrichment programme
and the wisdom and risks of
any Israeli military strike to
try to prevent Tehran from
becoming a nuclear power.
“Iran is moving step-bystep towards a point where
it will be able to decide if
it wants to make a nuclear
bomb. It has not decided
yet whether to go the extra
mile,” Gantz said.
But, he said, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei could opt
to produce nuclear weapons should be believe that
Iran would not face reprisal. “In my opinion, he will
be making a huge mistake
if he does that and I don’t
think he will want to go the
extra mile,” Gantz said. “I
think the Iranian leadership is comprised of very
rational people. But I agree
that such a capability in
the hands of Islamic fundamentalists, who at some
moments may make different calculations, is a dangerous thing.”
Israel, believed to have the
Middle East’s only nuclear
arsenal, has not ruled out
military action against Iran
should economic sanctions
fail to curb its nuclear programme, saying all options
were on the table. Last
week, in a speech during
Israel’s Holocaust remembrance day, Netanyahu
said: “Today, the regime in
Iran openly calls and determinedly works for our
destruction. And it is feverishly working to develop
atomic weapons to achieve
that goal.”
Tehran denies seeking the
bomb, saying it is enriching
uranium only for peaceful
energy purposes and that
its nuclear programme is a
threat to no one. Speaking
on CNN on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he would not
want to bet “the security of
the world on Iran’s rational behaviour.” A “militant
Islamic regime,” he said,
“can put their ideology before their survival.”
The portrayal of Iran as
irrational--willing to attack Israel with a nuclear
weapon even if it means
the destruction of the Islamic Republic in retaliatory strikes--could bolster a
case for pre-emptive bombing to take out its atomic
facilities. Netanyahu had
already been stung at home
by his former spymaster,
Meir Dagan, who said that
such an Israeli strike on
Iran would be a “ridiculous” idea.
Shannon Kile, a nuclear
proliferation expert at the
Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute,
said Gantz’s description of
37
Luring great white sharks with a smelly mixture of fish and oil in South Africa’s False Bay has
triggered a wave of anger, with surfers and swimmers calling for a ban on the practice following a fatal shark attack a week ago.
Bay and Gansbaai, where
the famous “shark alley” is
found.
“Shark attacks are a very
emotional thing and people
are looking to blame somebody, and as shark operators we are easy targets,”
Iranian leaders as rational
was “quite an interesting
turnabout.”
“Hopefully, it is going to
reduce the incentives for
any sort of pre-emptive or
preventive military action,
at least for the time being,”
Kile said.
The United States has
also not ruled out military
action as a last resort. But
many allies of Washington,
and even some senior U.S.
officials, fear such an attack
could ignite a broader war
and only temporarily halt
Iran’s nuclear advances.
said Rob Lawrence, owner
of African Shark Eco-Charters.
He says there is already a
natural chum line in False
Bay because of sewer outlets and gutted fish tossed
overboard by boats.
Contributing about 30
million rand (4 million) to
Cape Town’s coffers each
year, the shark cage industry is highly regulated--only
three permit holders are allowed to chum in a restricted area around Seal Island.
“I think overfishing of small
fish and rays has caused
great whites to search wider
for food and with increased
people in the water, there
are more chances of encounters,” said fellow permit holder, Chris Fallows, a
wildlife photographer and
conservationist.
Fish Hoek beach, a popular family beach has become a reflection of the
anxiety. The beach’s championship life-saving team
does not swim in the water
to practice and makes use
of kayaks when venturing
into the ocean, such is the
fear of the great white menace.
“At the moment because
of the sharks people don’t
come here and don’t swim
and that’s a real shame,”
said Mike Schilperaart,
spokesman for Fish Hoek
Surf Lifesaving Club.
The club, which spent
more than 100,000 rand
on shark shields that are
placed in the water and
emit an electronic pulse
to deter sharks, is hoping
the city would soon erect
a shark exclusion net as an
additional barrier. “People
can see the net and they will
feel much safer in the net,”
Schilperaart added.
38
International
BEIRUT--Syrian
forces
shot dead four civilians on a
bus on Wednesday and fighting raged near Damascus,
dissidents said, as international pressure mounted on
President Bashar al-Assad
to honour U.N.-backed
ceasefire pledges to order
his troops back to barracks.
In the city of Hama, an
anti-Assad hotbed, an explosion ripped through a
building, killing at least 12
people and wounding dozens more, according to the
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Another activist group, the
grassroots Local Coordination Committee, said the
blast was caused by a rocket
launched into the building
and put the death toll much
higher at 54, including several children.
A third activist source said
the explosion may have
FAR RIGHT
Continued from page 33.
in a campaign speech on
Monday any cooperation
to forge a coalition government. “We will never, ever
make a deal with the powers of the bailout. A war to
the end! We will win our
homeland back!” he told
cheering supporters.
Members say discipline
and years of unwavering
dedication are required to
win acceptance. One said it
can take up to three years to
become a member--starting
first as a supporter, then as
trial-members before joining the “family”.
“For the Communists we
are Nazis, for the Socialists we are fascists and for
the conservatives we are
extreme right,” said Nas,
a Golden Dawn member
who declined to give his last
name. “Let them call me
what they want. I do what I
do with honour.”
come from inside the building. It was not immediately
possible to reconcile the
varying accounts.
There was no comment
from Syria’s government,
which says it is committed
to U.N.-Arab League peace
envoy Kofi Annan’s April
12 ceasefire accord, but reserves the right to respond
to what it says are continued attacks by “terrorist
groups”.
Hama has been hosting a
small team of United Nations observers, who are
preparing the way for a
larger U.N. mission which
will arrive to monitor the
ceasefire pact. In defiance
of the truce accord, shelling
was relentless in Douma,
east of the capital, residents
said, giving further ammunition to Western states such
as France that want broad
United Nations sanctions to
try to end more than a year
of fighting in which 9,000
people have been killed.
As well as urging faster
deployment of U.N. monitors, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Paris
would push for a so-called
“Chapter 7” resolution,
which would mean punitive sanctions, next month
if Assad’s forces did not pull
back. “This cannot continue
indefinitely. We want to see
observers in sufficient numbers, at least 300 deployed
as quickly as possible,”
Juppe said. “If that does not
work, we cannot allow the
regime to defy us. We would
have to move to a new stage
with a Chapter 7 resolution
at the United Nations to
take a new step to stop this
tragedy.”
The Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights said four
people were killed when security forces opened fire on
a bus at a checkpoint on the
main road from Aleppo to
Damascus.
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Philippine and U.S. marine soldiers wade in shallow water in a bay during a amphibious raid
as part of a Philippine-U.S. joint military exercise in Ulugan bay, western coast of Philippines
on Wednesday.
ULUGAN BAY, Philippines--U.S. and Philippine
commandos waded ashore
on Wednesday in a mock
assault to retake a small island in energy-rich waters
disputed with China, part
of a drill involving thousands of troops Beijing had
said would raise the risk of
armed conflict.
The exercises, part of annual U.S.-Philippine war
games on the southwestern
island of Palawan, coincide
with another standoff between Chinese and Philippine vessels near Scarborough Shoal in a different
part of the South China
Sea.
China has territorial disputes with the Philippines,
Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan across the
South China Sea, each
searching for gas and oil
while building up their navies and military alliances.
China said last week the
drill would raise the risk of
confrontation. On Wednesday, Chinese Vice Foreign
Minister Cui Tiankai said
China was committed to
dialogue and diplomacy to
resolve the dispute.
“We are certainly worried about the South China
Sea issue,” Cui told a news
briefing in Beijing, saying
“some people tried to mix
two unrelated things, territorial sovereignty and freedom of navigation.”
The comments come before high-level talks with
the Obama administration. China, which claims
the South China Sea based
on historical records, has
sought to resolve disputes
bilaterally but its neighbours worry over what
some see as growing Chinese assertiveness in its
claims in the region.
“Location (of the drill) is
irrelevant,” Ensign Bryan
Mitchell, spokesman for
the U.S. Marines, told reporters. “These exercises
take place on a regular
basis. This year it happens
to be in Palawan. The planning for this took place
months ago prior to any
events that are currently in
the headlines.”
U.S. President Barack
Obama has sought to reassure regional allies that
Washington would serve as
a counterbalance to China
in the South China Sea,
part of his campaign to
“pivot” U.S. foreign policy
towards Asia after wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Philippine military officials sought to play down
the exercise. Lieutenant
General Juancho Sabban,
military commander for the
western Philippines, said
the drill “simply means we
want to work together, improve our skills.”
Sabban’s area of command
includes Reed Bank and
the Spratlys, a group of 250
mostly uninhabitable islets
spread over 427,350 sq km
(165,000 sq miles) west of
Palawan. The Spratlys are
claimed entirely by China,
Taiwan and Vietnam and
in part by Malaysia, Brunei
and the Philippines.
JEDDAH--A girls’ school
in Saudi Arabia has defied
a religious ban on female
sports by erecting basketball
hoops and letting pupils play
at break-time, the daily alWatan reported on Wednesday.
Powerful clerics in the conservative Islamic kingdom
have long spoken against allowing girls to play sports,
with one senior figure saying
in 2009 it might lead them to
lose their virginity by tearing
their hymens.
Saudi Arabia’s austere interpretation of Islamic law
prevents women from working, opening bank accounts
or having some elective surgery without the permission
of a male relative. They are
not allowed to drive. King
Abdullah has pushed for
women to have better opportunities in education and
employment and last year
said they could vote and run
for office in future municipal
elections, the only official
polls in the monarchy.
The school in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province has
now become the first staterun girls school openly to
encourage sports, Watan
reported, quoting a supervisor as saying it would expend
pupils’ energy “in a positive
way”. Private girls schools already offer sports classes.
In recent months Saudi
Arabia has faced criticism for
having never fielded a woman athlete at the Olympics,
with Human Rights Watch
calling for it be barred from
this year’s London games.
Amid mounting international scrutiny of the issue, local
media reported this month
that the deputy education
minister for female student
affairs, the kingdom’s first
woman minister, was looking
into setting up “a comprehensive physical education
programme” for both sexes.
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
39
40
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
41
42
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Regular: one insertion $5 /full week (6x) $25.
Highlighted (border around ad): one insertion $7 /full week (6x) $35.
Commercial rate (grey block): $65 for one full week.
For sale:Panasonic TV $60, TV
stand $25, dining table $65, corner
cabinet $35, empty gas bottle $70,
various mirrors and garage sale
items. Tel:542-1851 or 553-3061.
(2)2008 Hyundai Getz, $7,500
and Sonata 2007, $8,000. The HP Designjet 500, 24” plotter, like
vehicles are well maintained and new, $1,500 o.b.o. Call:586-2605
is in excellent condition. Prices are or 523-0835.
negotiable. Only serious inquiries
$150,
please. Call:553-2349.
hard 1 person, $300, (2)per2004 Kia Rio, automatic, $2,800. sons paddle boat $400. Hot
And a 2006 Atos Prime, automatic, water tank(20 gallons)$280,
$3,000, both are in good condition. 30 gallons $390, 2-piece oak
Call:553-2614, 581-2362 or 0690- vanity $225. 52” ceiling fan/
light $75, chest freezer,
32-82-66.
$315. Call:559-1880.
2008 white Suzuki Swift, 4 door, Terra-cotta roof tiles +/-1000 sq.ft
automatic, inspected until February $750. Phone:526-0159 or email
2013. Excellent condition, alarm, Camelot@caribserve.net
$12,000, price negotiable. Serious
inquiries only. Call:522-5630.
Brand new Dirt Bike, Scooter 2
wheel & 4 wheel. Price $1,000 or
best offer. Call:550-7914.
Interested in purchasing a car,
SUV or truck in the USA? Get
them at affordable prices. Call me
today:581-8026.
Ford Windstar Van 2003 XL, silver, low mileage, 7 seater, $5,000.
2003 Chrysler Sebring Convertible, low mileage, in good condition,
$4,800. Call:522-5140 or byronsxm@yahoo.com
Mitsubishi Nativa, red color, year
2000, brand new leather seats, inspected until December 2012, mint
condition, need body work, leaving
island, USD$4,900 o.b.o. Contact
Mike 587-5073.
Piaggio X9 Scooter 250cc, 2006,
blue, well serviced, $2,500 o.b.o.
Call:520-1846 or 0690-77-32-51.
1 container trailer 40’ insulate for
sale. Price $2,000. Call:526-7223.
All must go! Cheap prices, washing machine deluxe, porcelain
stove, table tennis, complete new
industrial fan(big), cherry wood
desk, therapeutic single mattress,
beautiful curtains & bath towels,
bed sheets. Call:520-3488.
prices
on
the
island!
European louvers window
with handle operator system,
sizes available 2’x2’ $130,
2’x3’ $190, 2’x4 $260, and.
Supplies
are
limited!
Call:581-8026.
Ray 225
Weekender (2003), 24 feet,
cuddy cabin, toilet, engine,
5.0L MPI, Mercruiser, V8,
(260HP). Boat in excellent
condition. Price $26,000.
Phone:(00590)-690-37-4959.
warehouse, houses, apartments
1-5
bedrooms.
Commercial/Residential.
Business with N.V. licenses
(Corporation).
Call:Euro
Caribbean
Linkup
N.V.
(E.C.L.) Leopold J. Gumbs
O w n e r / D i r e c t o r
Tel:1(721)522-6513/5501952/543-0536.
Email:
eclnv@car ibser ve.net,
www.eclsxm.com
Pricing Classifieds with photo: personal: $40 per week
(max. 30 words with one picture)
Commercial: $85 per week (max. 30 words with one picture)
one bedroom, one
bathroom fully furnished, private pool, 2 parking, No brokers
please!
$178,000.
Appointments after 5:00pm,
call:(1-721)587-2598 or 5544406.
Now available at Blue Mountain
resident lot #8 for sale. Comes with
building permit and house plans,
located at Upper Princess Quarter.
Price $89,500. For more information contact:520-6894 or 550-4180.
Pelican Key:Luxury 2 bedroom/2
bath condo, bright top floor unit with
skylights, unobstructed ocean view,
direct access to the beach, private
outdoor parking, fully furnished,
$595,000, negotiable. Call:5880441. Email:eleganzia4sale@yahoo.com
Sale by owner, 1700 sq.m. land
at Belair, on the top of the hill with
great views of the ocean etc. Asking price $325,000 o.b.o. Please
email:mjsgard-est@yahoo.com
with offers inquiries.
(1)2.5 bedroom and (1) 3 bedroom
apartment, located in Virgin Gorda,
Lower Princess Quarter. For information and details call:527-2436 or
A condo/villa@Guana Bay, 2 00590690-87-32-14.
bedroom, 2 bath with breathtaking water views, for sale/rent. Price 1 bedroom apartment fully fur$279,000 negotiable.
Email nished, parking, security, in Cole
carolrnct@aol.com or cell:001-203- Bay. $750 per month, utilities not
included. Call:553-2611 or 586209-8195.
3727.
Almond Grove, new villa 4 sale.
Spectacular views, ocean, lagoon, 1 bedroom fully furnished Cole
airport, 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath, large Bay next to Almond Grove Mounterrace, pool, large studio apartment. tain side, totally remolded, $690 per
Land 1517m2, US$985,000. Tel:520- month. Bob 559-1880.
3054/520-6514 or 0690-77-61-71.
1 bedroom/1 bath apartment, very
Belair:Perfect starter townhouse spacious, opposite Prime in Cole
or solid investment:2 bedroom/ Bay. $500 per month, 1 month’s de1bath, with ocean views, in great posit. Tel:526-1292 or 581-3292.
neighborhood, common pool, renovated, was $235,000 reduced to 2 bedroom apartment, large
porch, ceiling fans, on the way to
$210,000. Call:586-6896.
Union Farm Estate. Available May
Breathtaking Penthouse fully 1st, $650 per month. Call:523furnished condo including fin- 9384.
ished penthouse rooftop Terrace
U.S.$560,000. Financing available Almond Grove, Cole Bay, great 1
50% of purchase price, 10 years, bedroom, 1 bath furnished, big ter5.9% Rainbow Beach Club Hotel race, private electric gate garage,
nice lagoon and sea views, 24/7
Resort. Contact:520-6979.
security, $1,450 monthly. Call:581For sale:3 bedroom, 1 bath house 6418.
on 975 sq. meters in Bottom Saba.
bedroom,
For serious inquiries only. Call:1- 2 bath fully furnished, A/C,
721-580-4088 or 1-721-554-9363.
patio, garden, parking 24
hours security, safe very
For sale:Beautiful property in Grand large, long term. Call:522or
Case, family 3 bedroom house plus 2 5 1 4 0
small unit on the beach. Land for sale byronsxm@yahoo.com
Cul-de-Sac (French side). For more Almond Grove:3 bedroom, 3
information call:520-1641.
bath, Japanese pool, Balinese type
Cupecoy house, very quiet and peaceful,
area, very high level restau- USD$2,600. Call:587-2205.
rant,
price
negotiable.
Almond Grove:Great property
Call:520-1414.
with three independent houses,
House for sale, 3 bedroom/2 bath- 3 bedroom/3 bath house, pool,
room, Middle Region, close to Defi- unfurnished, garden, $2,600, furance, $285,000. Tel:581-0265.
nished $2,850. (1)Loft 1 bedroom/1
bath, 24/7 security, garden, unfurLand for sale in various areas. nished $1,300 or furnished $1,450.
Call:581-2687.
Call:581-6418.
Land for sale with building permit
For sale:A nice Regular Sharp TV,
4 bedrooms or 2 bedrooms with
with remote control, very nice pictwo apartments, start to build today.
ture, $30. Call:587-3801.
Royce 587-0151.
For sale:BBQ charcoal, large Land for sale, corner lot along the
bags. Call:580-7126.
main road in St. John’s Estates. 800
square meters. Call:586-4377.
For sale:Italian marble/concrete
statues. Several to choose from Land for sale, great opportunity!
including fountains, supplies are 758 sq.m on Diamond Hill. Spectaclimited. Call:559-1182.
ulair view (lagoon, Almond Grove
& sea). Only cash deal $135,000.
Call owner:586-7647.
Apartments for rent. Quiet area,
close to Philipsburg. Ready to
move in, fully furnished. 2 bedroom
$1,650/month. 1 bedroom $1,000/
month. Free satellite TV, internet,
private parking, gated, nice view!
Tel:554-8979.
one bedroom condo for rent,
furnished, sunset views,
romantic. Living big, generator, wifi, satellite, flat screen
TV, washer, peaceful. “like
living on a yacht but no
sway”. Guard nightly. Call
The
Yacht:520-1150.
Stmaarten2rent@yahoo.com
Beacon Hill:1 & 2 bedroom condo
fully furnished, quiet and conveniently located, private parking,
nicely done. Available immediately,
$1,200 per month. Please call:5544633 or 588-4777.
Cole Bay:1 bedroom, 1 bath
beautifully, furnished apartmeny
in Fisherman’s Wharf. Recently
renovated;modern furniture, flat
screen TV and washer. Gated
community, 24 hours security and
parking, $850 monthly. Please
call:586-6896.
1st month rent, monthly rent $775
negotiable. Available May 15, 2012.
Call:526-2338/581-3835,
from
Monday-Friday 4pm-6pm.
Dawn Beach Ocean View Terrace:2 bedroom, 2 bath and 1
bedroom, 1 bath apartments, furnished, A/C, generator, internet,
common pool, gated community.
$1,350-$950 p/m, excluding utilities. Available now. Call:527-0994.
Diamond Hill, very nice and big
4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, private pool,
big terrace, garden, great sea and
lagoon view, parking and semi furnished, $3,400 monthly. Call:5816418.
Egret Building Cole Bay, furnished one bedroom apartment
with partial lagoon view, A/C, TV,
$900 excluding utilities, deposit
required. Call:581-2740,
www.
egretbuilding.com
Street Prime
Retail Store Space (1000
sq.ft) available immediately.
Wide entrance, large windows. Rent $3,300 per
month. Call:580-0673 for
more details.
front:2
semi-furnished apartments,
2 bedroom/1 bath, airco’s,
private parking. Security,
dockage available. For rent
from 1st and 15th May, long
term $1,050 and $1,100 furnished
possible.
Information:544-2611.
Oyster Pond, pool & marina
views, furnished 2 bedroom/2 bath,
$1,200. 1 bedroom/1 bath with
porch & sleeping loft,
$1,250$1,450. 1 bedroom, 1 bath $750,
1 month deposit required. Call:5566230.
Pelican Key:Beautiful 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, fully furnished and
equipped, terraces, parking, air
condition, sea View, common pool
and tropical garden, electric shutters, USD$2800 monthly. Please
call:587-2205.
Pelican Key, 1 bedroom apartment, fully furnished with ocean
view and common pool. Good
price! Call:526-5347 or 554-0423.
Pelican Key:Large 2 bedroom/2
bath home in Rancho Cielo. Great
ocean views and nice sun deck.
Fully furnished, common pool,
$2,000 p/m. Please call Simone for
viewing:526-5080. For more information email:hellenedmondson@
maine.rr.com
Pelican:One bedroom apartment,
gated, yard, partially furnished, very
private, no dogs. Includes cable TV,
$1,250/monthly and two months
security deposit. Call:522-6865
daytime.
For rent:Koolbaai villas, Cole Bay,
gated, secured with pool, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 storey. Furnished,
cable, Wifi included, big parking
area, $1,400 p/m excluding utilities. Point Pirouette, 2 bedroom/2
bath furnished, gated, security, on
Available May 1st. Call:523-2379.
the water, dock rights, great view,
Warehouses jacuzzi, $1,400/monthly, 2 months
2400 sq.ft-2600 sq.ft. Big security. Call:522-6865.
yard for parking and loading.
Cole Bay, furnished, 2 bed house Located in Cole Bay, behind
Pointe Blanche, great house with
with pool and garden $2,000. Ace Megacenter, $2,600- 3 bedroom/3 bath, big pool, priCall:587-2205.
$3,200 per month. Call:522- vate and safe, parking for 3 cars,
5555 for more information.
semi furnished, $3,250 monthly.
Cole Bay, nice 1 bedroom/1 bath
Call:581-6418.
fully furnished, parking, security by For rent:Simpson Bay, one bedcamera, $1,000 monthly include room apartment, short term, steps Pointe Blanche:4 bedroom house
Gebe, free internet and cable. away from the beach. Tel:581-0726 partly furnished, amazing views, top
or info@simpsonbeach.com
Call:581-6418.
of the mountain, $2,500 per month,
utilities excluded. Phone:526-0159
Cole Bay, on the lagoon, 2 bed- For rent:Unfurnished 2 bedroom, or email Camelot@caribserve.net
room/2 bath, parking with electric 1 bath apartment, $800 per month.
gate, security with magnetic card, Well Road, Cole Bay. Call Tony Pointe Blanche:For young spirited
unfurnished $1,300 or furnished 587-4880.
people, very safe, colorful, friendly,
$1,450. Call:581-6418.
fully furnished, 1 bedroom/1 bath
Fully furnished (wireless intergarden apartment, balcony, great
Cole Bay, small secure community, net & cable included), 1 bedroom view, generator, nice neighbors,
house, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, patio, apartment for rent in Madame nice dogs, $980 excluding utilities,
Estate, US$750 per month. Call
furnished $2,200. Call:587-2205.
security deposit. Call:522-5131.
Tony:587-4880.
villa
Cole Bay:Million dollar view! 2
bedroom, 1.5 penthouse, fully Gorgeous 145 sq.m Porto Cupe- for rent 3 bedroom, 3½ bath,
furnished, air condition, washer & coy, huge terrace on the marina spacious parking, private,
on the lagoon. New, designer fur- pool, ocean view with gardryer, USD$2,000. Call:520-1641.
nished, all equipped, 2 bedroom/2.5 den, 1 bedroom apartment
for
$3,500.
bath, 24 hours security, common included
spaces in prime location pool, parking, USD$3,000 monthly. Call:542-5103
or
Harbor View, opposite round- Call:587-2205.
email:krebbers-sxm@carabout in Philipsburg, next to
ibserve.net
Xerox. Unit sizes 2000-4000 House for rent, leaving island!
sq.feet, 120 car park, secu- Simpson Bay across from the Pointe Blanche:One bedroom
rity, 3 elevators, standby beach, 2 large bedroom, 2.5 furnished apartment, panoramic
generator.
Call:554-6597/ bath, large kitchen & living room, views, $950 per month. Phone:526522-5555.
$1,700/month, deposit negotiable. 0159 or email Camelot@caribserve.net
Call:581-4828 or 527-8254.
Rent or buy, villa style
2 bedroom/2 bath. Do Yoga
by the dip pool overlooking
the lagoon. Have serene
quiet mystical feeling. Dock
available, fully furnished,
wifi, cable, washer/dryer,
very private. Call:520-1150.
stmaarten2rent@yahoo.com
gorgeous view, 2 bedroom
apartment, furnished, parking, 24/7 security with swimming pool, rent $3,500.
Call:520-1414.
Almond Grove:Very nice studio
furnished with terrace, 24/7 security, 1 parking space $900 includes
Gebe, no pets and no children.
Call:581-6418.
Cupecoy, Rainbow Beach Club,
very nice 2 bedroom, 2 bath on the
Apartment for rent/La Terrasse sea, fully furnished, 24/7 security,
Maho Reef 2 bedroom/2 bath (3rd private and safe parking, common
floor). 24/7 security, fully furnished pool, $2,350 monthly. Call:581with patio and ocean view, parking, 6418.
use of all facilities. Utilites included.
Available immediately, $2,500 per Dawn Beach Estate:1 small bedmonth. Call:581-0109 from 10:am- room apartment, semi furnished,
5:pm.
24 hours security, 1 month deposit,
Mount William Hill:Magnificent
(2)1 bedroom apartments, (1)2
bedroom and 3 bedroom penthouse. Middle Region: Unbelievable deal, 4 bedrooms duplex,
Jacuzzi, private parking, close to
school, 2 minutes to supermarkets.
Call:553-2909/524-4096.
apartment for rent in, 20
minute walk to Philipsburg.
Great view, $75 a day, $225
a week or $850 a month. All
utilities included. Call:5508173.
and furnished apartments 2 bedroom/2 bath,
AC, elevator, gated. Location
Waterfront Road, next to
Budget Marine, Cole Bay.
$1,250-$1,450 p/m, utilities
not included. Sale price
USD$275,000.
Call:5546597.
bedroom/2 bath, $1,500
monthly. 50 steps to beachfront,
furnished,
airco’s
clean, hot/cold water, generator, cable TV, wifi,
washer/dryer, all included. 1
bedroom $750 and up.
C a l l : 5 2 0 - 1 1 5 0 .
Email:Stmaarten2rent@yaho
o.com
One last apartment studio fully
furnished for rent, long term. Available last week of April, pool, parking, garden, bar/BBQ area, rooftop
look out 1 block from Sunset Beach
Bar. Call:545-2456.
Simpson Bay, furnished studio,
utilities, wifi, cable, hot/cold shower,
washer/dryer, all included $750 per
month. Also available short term
units $350 per week. Call:5532706.
Business
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
rent
1round floor apartment
partly furnished, 24 hours
security, common pools and
tennis courts, available for
$2,250. For more information
cal:542-5103
or
email:krebbers-sxm@caribserve.net
Simpson Bay:Studio, furnished,
utilities include & free wifi $695 p/m.
Also furnished 3 bedroom, 2 bath
house & yard $1,050 and furnished
room include utilities $495 p/m.
Call:559-0619.
South Reward, 2 bedroom apartment located Reward Road. Nice
view, private and parking, $725 per
month. Call:554-2683.
South Reward, furnished studio
in quiet neighborhood $600 include
electricity, water, A/C, cable and internet. Call:580-5087.
athletic,
attractive female bartender.
Must have experience, have
good customer friendly skills,
Must be able to work with
others, comprehend and
speak the English language
fluently, Dutch passport or
valid working papers. Able to
work flexible hours and have
own transportation. Please
call:545-3337
to
make
appointment for interview or
email:resume@palapamarina.
com with photo ID
is looking for an
Adverting
Sales
Representative with valid
documents. Send resume to
advertisingandmanagement@
gmail.com
South Reward:Large studio
with private yard & parking, unfurnished, $500, utilities not included. French resident retired engineer
is seeking a woman, honest, senCall:526-0139.
sual, decent income, open minded
Spacious beautiful villa style for a better life. Email sxmretraites@
1 bedroom apartment located in gmail.com
Cole Bay with beautiful view. Conveniently situated near shopping Honest hard working lady is seek& restaurants, $850-$1,100 with ing a job as a household helper,
satellite and free internet. Serious babysitter, kitchen helper, part time
or full time, Please call:586-9235.
inquiries only. Call:586-3011
Studio apartment available from
May 1st, 2012 at Pumpkin Road,
South Reward. $450 per month,
water and electricity included with
parking space in yard. For information call:523-1869.
has a
vacancy for a Heavy
Equipment Operator/Driver,
minimum 5 years experience
with license B, C, D, E. Send
resume to Labour Office and
contact:522-4129.
& casual outside dining restaurant
is looking for servers, bussers, bartenders and kitchen
staff. Must have minimum 3
years experience, Dutch
passport or valid working
papers. Call:554-6203.
Center,
St. Eustatius:1 position open
for Dive Master, two years or
more experience in dive
base operations, boat handling, compressor maintenance. Email resume with
photo, grdivers@gmail.com
Gondola in Atlantis Casino,
is looking for:1st Cook with
diploma, experience in good
restaurants and notions of
Mediterranean cuisine, pasta
and risotto, fast Kitchen
Helper and Dining Staff, age
20-30 years old, with experience in good restaurant,
not fast food. Submit resume
with photo and references
from 9:30am-13:00pm or
16:00pm-18:00pm.
Merky’s
Enterprises N.V. is looking
for 3 masons and 1 plumber
minimum 5 years experience. Please contact Mr.
Merkman at 581-0995.
small 2 door
Jeep (Jimmy), automatic, in
good
condition.
Please
call:554-7506.
commercial grade coolers & flat
screen TV’s. Call:559-1182.
for:Foutloos
Nederlands
Schrijven. Start May 2, 2012.
Call for information and registration form. PCMI 5423088.
BRUSSELS/CHICAGO-Major export markets for
U.S. beef from Canada
to Japan stayed open on
Wednesday after the United States reported its case
of mad cow disease in six
years amid assurances that
rigorous surveillance had
safeguarded the food system.
U.S. live cattle futures
were higher on Wednesday,
but only recovered about
half of what they lost on
Tuesday when the market
posted its biggest drop in
seven months.
U.S. authorities quickly
told consumers and importers around the world
there was no danger that
meat from the infected
California dairy cow would
enter the food chain. The
cow tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly
called mad cow disease.
Mexico, Korea, Japan,
Canada and the European
Union said they would continue to import U.S. beef,
although two major South
Korean retailers halted
sales. In 2011, Canada,
Japan, Mexico and South
Korea combined took 65
percent, or 1.82 billion lbs,
of U.S. beef exports.
“This finding will not affect trade between the U.S.
and Canada,” the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency
said in a statement on
Wednesday. “Both countries have implemented
science-based measures to
protect animal and human
health.”
Japan’s Chief Cabinet
Secretary Osamu Fujimura
said the new case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) reported on
Tuesday should have no
bearing on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks.
Japan already only allows
imports of U.S. and Canadian beef from cattle aged
20 months or less.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said
the positive response from
trade partners was a sign
of confidence in the preventative measures taken
by the United States and
that he was not concerned
about potential a cut off in
WASHINGTON--Federal
Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke on Wednesday
said U.S. monetary policy
was “more or less in the
right place” even though
the central bank would not
hesitate to launch another
round of bond purchases if
the economy were to weaken.
In a statement after a
two-day meeting, the Fed’s
policy-setting panel reiterated its expectation that interest rates would not rise
until late 2014 at the earliest, and it took no action on
monetary policy.
The Fed also adjusted its
economic forecasts to acknowledge an improving
labour market and slightly
higher inflation over the
next few years. The revised forecast, along with a
change of heart by the most
dovish Fed officials on the
timing of the first rate rise,
suggested the central bank
has grown somewhat less
inclined to take more action to help the economic
recovery.
“We remain entirely prepared to take additional
balance sheet actions as
necessary to achieve our
objectives,” Bernanke told
reporters. “Those tools remained very much on the
table and we would not
hesitate to use them should
the economy require that
additional support.”
But he added: “For the
time being, it appears that
we are more or less in the
right place.”
In response to the deepest
recession in generations,
the Fed cut overnight rates
to near zero in December 2008 and more than
imports. “I’m sending out a
letter to 20 major trading
partners today to reassure
that the products they’re
buying are safe,” Vilsack
told Reuters Insider.
Benchmark June live cattle futures on the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange were
recovered about half of
what they lost on Tuesday
when the market fell the
3-cent daily trading limit.
Shares were little changed
on Wednesday in leading
U.S. beef producers Tyson
Foods Inc and JBS-USA.
Samples from the infected cow have been sent to
laboratories in Canada and
Britain for final confirmation, Paris-based World
Organization for Animal
Health (OIE) said in a
43
statement, adding that the
case was unlikely to affect
the current USDA “controlled risk” categorisation
for mad cow disease. “According to USDA statements, the steps taken so
far are consistent with OIE
standards,” it added.
Russia’s health watchdog
said it could consider restrictions on U.S. imports
but that it was waiting for
more information on the
outbreak and the planned
U.S. response before taking a decision. Korean retailer Lotte Mart, a unit of
Lotte Shopping Co., said it
had suspended sales due to
what it said was “customer
concerns”, as did Home
Plus, a unit of Britain’s Tesco PLC.
A dairy cow works peers out from behind a fence in Chino, California on Wednesday.
here! Let your nails Jam n
Style for Carnival. Refill $15
with design, 2 for $70 full set
with design. Also pedicure
available. Call me today for
your appointment 522-9836.
Container leaving St. Maarten to
Kingston Clarendon & Manchester,
packing starts from on April 23-May
2nd. Call:581-9179 or 581-5327,
after 5pm.
Chihuahuas,
Pomeranian,
Samoyed,
Yorkshire
terrier(tea cup), Maltese. We
custom order all kinds of
breeds. Grooming services,
accessories/clothes. Airport
Road
#36A,
Simpson
Bay(next to Paradise Car
Rental).
Call:(1-721)5235145.
tripled its balance sheet by
purchasing $2.3 trillion in
government and mortgage
bonds in two rounds of socalled quantitative easing.
Bernanke said the central
bank could be spurred into
doing more if the U.S. unemployment rate, which
stood at 8.2 percent last
month, failed to keep moving lower.
Fresh projections released
by the central bank showed
the most dovish officials no
longer want to put off a rate
increase until 2016. The
Fed said seven officials believe it would be appropriate to raise borrowing costs
in 2014, up from five officials in January, while only
four wanted to wait longer,
down from six.
Interest-rate futures
showed traders now betting
the first rate hike would
come in March 2014, a
month sooner than earlier
thought. “It looks like the
more positive data over
the past few months has
affected the people at the
more dovish end of the
spectrum,” said Sean Incremona, an economist at
4Cast in New York.
Colin Lundgren, head of
fixed income at Columbia
Management in Minneapolis, said: “I wouldn’t call it
hawkish. It’s more that they
are less dovish.”
A poll of 12 big Wall Street
bond dealers put chances
of a further easing of monetary policy at just 28 percent. Separately, economists at Nomura, which
had previously expected
the Fed to buy more bonds,
said they now anticipated
no action.
44
S I N GA P O R E - -W h i l e
most attention in the gadget world is on the breakneck pace of innovation
in mobile phones, tablets
and computers, another
device has resolutely refused to die: the camera.
Despite the onslaught
of camera phones--the
iPhone 4 has this year become the most popular
device for posting snaps
to the photo-sharing website Flickr--cameras are
still being sold. Japan,
the world’s largest manufacturer, shipped nearly
three times as many cameras in January as it did in
the same month of 2003,
when the camera phone
was still in its infancy.
“For several years, it has
been predicted that smartphone adoption would cut
into digital camera sales,”
said Prashant Malaviya,
Associate Professor of
Marketing at Georgetown
University’s McDonough
School of Business. “In
fact, the exact opposite
has happened.”
Driving this is a number
of factors, analysts and enthusiasts say. And, while
most point to a continuing
role for cameras for both
professional and personal
users, the device’s future
is far from assured.
Firstly, photography
is personal. We may be
happy taking snaps with
our cellphone or simple
point-and-shoot camera,
but it turns out that most
of us won’t entrust key
memories to such basic
devices. Surveys by NPD
Group last November
show that while more than
a quarter of all American
photos were taken by a
smartphone, more people
were buying cameras with
detachable lenses or cameras with optical zooms of
10x or more.
This, says NPD Group
senior digital imaging
analyst Liz Cutting, is because those people taking
important family photos
don’t want to trust them
to a device that isn’t up
to the task. “Camera
photography is certainly
not dead,” said Cutting.
“We’re just seeing a skewing towards what the
smartphone can’t deliver.
People are recognising
that and are going for a
higher end camera.”
This in turn benefits the
established players, because users are reluctant
to entrust their photos to
Business
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
A man looks at Canon Inc’s cameras at a Canon showroom in Tokyo on Wednesday. Canon Inc on Wednesday posted flat
quarterly earnings but upped its full-year profit forecast, as burgeoning demand for higher-end digital cameras helped offset
fewer sales of printers and office equipment.
an untested brand. We
may be ready to try out a
new brand of cellphone,
laptop or TV, but when
it comes to family snaps
we’re more conservative.
“It’s part of who you are,
showing the kind of brand
of camera you have,” Cutting said. “But it’s also
trusting the quality of that
memory because that’s
how you remember your
life.”
This has helped entrench
several key players, some
of whom have dominated
the scene for a generation or more--Canon Inc,
Nikon Corp, Sony Corp,
Olympus Corp , Pentax,
Fuji and Panasonic Corp.
Canon Fodder
Canon has been one of
the main beneficiaries of
this, maintaining a strong
brand from the professional high end to the
point-and-shoot bottom,
says Christopher Chute,
global imaging chief at
International Data Corp.
Canon has seen its camera
business grow as the proportion of its overall sales
to more than 25 percent in
2008 from below 11 percent in 1999. In a survey
of more than a quarter of
a million users of Ontario-based gadget website
Sortable.com, Canon was
the most popular brand,
with a third of the vote.
Not that its rivals are
standing idle. Panasonic,
Olympus, Pentax and
Nikon have in the past few
years launched a new kind
of camera that matches
the quality of lenses of a
professional model with
the sleek, light body of a
pocket, point-and-shoot
device. Although these
mirrorless cameras aren’t
a lot cheaper than the
professional digital single
lens reflex (DSLR) model, they are lighter and
more compact.
This has won them fans
among both those trading up and those looking
to replace or supplement
their professional gear.
Ong Hock Chuan, a hobbyist who runs a Jakarta
public relations company,
recently sold his heavier
Canon EOS 50D for a mirrorless Sony NEX-7. Price
wasn’t a factor. “I was
tired of lugging around an
SLR and getting a hernia
for it,” he said. Canon has
yet to announce a mirrorless model.
Not only are camera
manufacturers
seeking
an edge over each other:
They’re battling the encroachment of camera
phones on to their territory.
At the bottom, Nokia
and other mobile manufacturers have long partnered with lens makers
like Carl Zeiss to improve
the quality of photographs
and phones, a trend which
has meant many mobile
phones now do a better
job of a point-and-shoot
camera. The appeal of the
camera phone has also
grown as social media services like Facebook make
it possible to share a photo with friends and family
as soon as it’s taken.
This leaves the compact
point-and-shoot camera
segment of the market
vulnerable. In markets
such as the United States
and Japan, says Japanbased IHS analyst Kun
Soo Lee, there’s not many
more people who want to
buy one. On the one hand,
this is eating into sales
that Canon and others
traditionally dominated.
On the other, the ease
with which photos can be
taken on a phone is feeding an interest in taking
better photos, expanding
the middle of the market
into a “pro-sumer” segment of devices which
cost a bit more but offer
the user options so far
unavailable on the mobile
phone: An optical, rather
than digital, zoom, for example, better flash, and
image stabilization.
Cannibalisation
This is driving manufacturers to push more and
better technology from
their upper end models into cheaper devices.
Prices have fallen dramatically in the past decade, says Mark Walters
of U.S.-based website
TechBargains.com. Ten
years ago a 3-megapixel
DSLR camera would cost
$3,000; now a better quality 18-megapixel DSLR
can be found for less than
$500.
“The technology that
has trickled down into the
more consumer-targeted
DSLRs is incredible,” he
said.
Lowering prices and
raiding the technologies
of formerly professional
models is not without
danger. “This pricing
strategy has certainly
caused some cannibalization of sales at the higher
end for the likes of Canon
and Nikon,” said Walters,
“but they make up for it
with volume at the low
end by selling more critical accessories like lenses
and flashes.”
Manufacturers are also
competing through innovation. Apart from mirrorless cameras, there
have been improvements
in sensors and a technology called high dynamic
range (HDR) imaging,
which layers images at different exposures.
“There’s an amazing
amount of innovation
in digital photography
equipment at the moment,” said Melbourne-
based Sydney Low, a
former Internet entrepreneur who now takes
sports photos for a living.
“More so in many ways
than Apple, HP and other
computer
manufacturers.”
While enthusiasts like
Low believe that still cameras will eventually be replaced by video cameras-from which scenes can be
grabbed--others believe
that eventually mobile
phone and camera will
start to look and feel more
like each other. A range
of cameras launched in
the past few months, said
NPD In-Stat’s Cutting,
have for the first time included WiFi chips, making it possible for users to
share their photos much
as a smartphone user
might. “It has to be easy,
and we haven’t hit that
yet,” she said.
Just as the camera gets
smaller and more sociable, so will the mobile
phone evolve to incorporate features presently
only available on a camera. IHS’s Kun said the
introduction of 12 megapixel cameras into smartphones, for example, is
a “kicker to change the
market.”
Then, said J. Gerry
Purdy of cellphone analysts MobileTrax, there’s
Polaroid’s SC1630, announced in January and
due to be launched this
year: an Android device
with an optical zoom.
These and other innovations, Purdy said, may
usher in a future where a
smartphone camera “will
perform as well as today’s
digital cameras with large
optical zoom and larger
lenses.” California-based
Pelican Imaging Corp,
for example, promises a
camera that will improve
image and video quality
while allowing for thinner
smartphones.
How traditional players
react to these challenges
is unclear. Canon, for
example, has no obvious
strategy to combat the
rise of the smartphone,
said IHS’s Kun, and so
will have to keep on peddling digital cameras. In
the meantime other technologies may arise either
inside or outside the industry.
Says IDC’s Chute: “Everything is up in the air.”
Business
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
MEXICO CITY--An “indignant” Mexico said on
Wednesday it has launched
an investigation into allegations that the Mexican unit of
Wal-Mart Stores Inc bribed
officials to expand its business there, opening a new
front to a widening probe of
the world’s largest retailer.
The Mexican federal comptroller’s office said it had
begun checking the federal
paperwork and permits that
Wal-Mart de Mexico, known
as Walmex, obtained to open
and operate its stores in
Mexico.
Mexican President Felipe
Calderon rounded on WalMart during a speech in
Houston, Texas, on Wednesday. “This makes me very indignant,” he told a gathering
of members of the Mexican
community. “The company
has certainly generated many
jobs in Mexico and done
good things, but what’s not
right is doing business on the
basis of bribes.”
The comptroller’s office
said it would ask U.S. authorities for information on
the case in order to carry out
its investigation and that the
federal government would
take action if wrongdoing by
public officials was detected.
A spokesman for Walmex
said the company had not
been informed of any investigation in Mexico.
Wal-Mart already faces a
criminal probe by the U.S.
Department of Justice over
potential violations of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices
Act (FCPA), a U.S. law that
forbids bribing foreign officials. Mexican politicians
had been calling for a probe
into Wal-Mart, even though
the economy ministry had
initially said the allegations
were not a federal matter.
Guillermo Tamborrel, a
senator from Calderon’s
conservative National Action
Party, said the scandal had
tarnished Mexico’s reputation. “We cannot let an international company come
and corrupt our authorities,”
Tamborrel told Reuters.
While some legal experts
expected little bite from the
comptroller probe, which will
look at civil servants’ possible misdeeds rather than
the company, others said the
government will face pressure for results since Mexico
now chairs the Group of 20
economic powers and cochairs its anti-corruption
panel. “I think they will take
this very seriously. They have
a duty, in terms of global
leadership, to show that they
can get to the bottom of
charges like these,” said Eduardo Bohorquez, director
of anti-corruption watchdog
Transparencia Mexicana, the
Mexican arm of Transparency International.
On Saturday, the New York
Times reported that a senior
Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner aircraft stands on the tarmac at Manchester Airport in Manchester, northern England in this April 24, 2012 file photo. Boeing Co posted higher quarterly
profit, helped by increased commercial aircraft sales, and raised its earnings forecast for the
year on Wednesday. Boeing’s stock shot up 5.3 percent to $77.11, giving the Dow its biggest
lift.
Wal-Mart lawyer received an
email from a former executive at Walmex in September 2005 describing how the
Mexican affiliate had paid
bribes to obtain permits to
build stores in Mexico. The
newspaper said that senior
Wal-Mart officials stymied
an internal investigation into
the alleged bribery, which
involved suspect payments
worth $24 million.
Wal-Mart said on Wednesday that Tom Gean, a lawyer who has worked for the
retailer for eight years, was
placed in charge earlier this
year of overseeing its compliance with FCPA. Gean is a
former U.S. attorney for the
Western District of Arkansas. Wal-Mart also outlined
the high-profile lawyers and
accountants aiding its internal investigation into the
matter, as well as its worldwide review of compliance,
and pushed back against
suggestions that its lobbyists
tried to scale back the FCPA.
Bentonville, Arkansasbased Wal-Mart has long
acknowledged the ramifications of the FCPA law. Back
in 2007, then-Chief Executive Officer Lee Scott made
the connection between
FCPA and the risk that can
come with expanding into
other countries. At an ana-
45
lyst meeting, Scott was asked
whether Wal-Mart would
look at entering Russia.
“We, as a company, are
committed to ethical and
responsible methods of running our business,” Scott
said, according to a transcript of the meeting. “We
will not position ourselves in
a market in which we would
jeopardize that. The Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act is the
only act that requires the incarceration of the CEO. And
we are not going to do that.”
Scott is one of the top executives whom the Times said
stymied an investigation into
alleged bribery in Mexico
earlier in the decade.
Also on Wednesday, a
shareholder sued Wal-Mart’s
board and several officers,
seeking to recover damage to
the company’s reputation as
well as costs of investigating
the claims.
Wal-Mart shares ended down 0.7 percent on
Wednesday at $57.36, their
lowest close in five months
and down more than 8 percent since the New York
Times report. Walmex shares
gained 3.7 percent to close
at 37.55 pesos ($2.85) on
Wednesday, but have fallen
nearly 13 percent since the
report.
46
Dear Editor,
Please permit me some
space in your newspaper to
make some clarifications.
My name
is Marlon Brooks. I am the
driver who was involved in
the accident with the container on Monday. I am 28
years old and have been
driving heavy trucks for
about ten years. My father
owns tourist busses and I
Opinion
learned to drive them. In
my opinion, I am a well- experienced driver of various
types of heavy equipment
and vehicles.
Many people are speculating based on what is said by
the Police in the newspaper.
Before the accident, I had
already done some container deliveries around
the island. In this case, this
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
would have been my second
to last delivery for the day.
When I was coming down
the hill, I started braking
(changed into low gear)
from the area of Harold
Jack to Dr. Winter’s home
(middle of descent of the
hill). This is customary. All
was well with the brakes up
to that point and onward.
When I was nearing the last
corner coming down the
hill before the roundabout,
I realized that the truck was
accelerating, which means
that the brake air pressure
was not being functional. In
lay mans’ terms this means
that the regular brakes
gave out. I then began to
apply the container brakes
and they too failed. I then
started to think of what
possible situations may occur. I then knew that there
could be two possible scenarios. One scenario is that
I can try to steer the truck
around the roundabout and
into the open area where
the gentleman fixes radiators so that the wall will
jam the wheel. The other
scenario would be that the
truck would topple over because of the speed as well
as the weight of the container. The container contained approximately 25 to
35 tons of supermarket supplies, juices, food stuff, rice,
floor, etc.
I took the corner a little
wide, so that if scenario one
was possible, I would have
enough space to steer the
truck into the open area.
When I realized that because of the weight, the
container may overturn before I could steer it to the
open area, I switched off
the engine while it was being overturned. Because I
was already coming down
slowly before the brakes
gave out, there were no cars
in front me and also no oncoming traffic.
I had already prepared
myself mentally for this
scenario. As the truck was
overturning, I began to
climb out to get to the passenger side. Because the
seat is an air seat, while I
was climbing out to get to
the passenger side, I lost
my grip with the impact as
the truck overturned, and
I slid back into the driver’s
seat and that is the reason
my left hip and foot were
pinned between the door
and the steering wheel. I
did not panic after this because I was already mentally prepared and had myself
in a position to incur the
least possible injuries and I
was comforted to know that
no one else was involved in
the accident.
The first person on the
scene was a fellow truck
Dear Editor,
My Cable TV service has
been out for three days
(and spotty, at best, since
the conversion). This afternoon I managed to reach
someone at St. Maarten
Cable TV who seemed
knowledgeable. He told me
that I should not expect my
service to be restored until
May 14th. When asked, he
said that I would receive
a refund for the period of
outage.
I got the impression that
there are serious problems
associated with the changeover.
It sounded to me that there
is likely a story there.
Marilyn Brown
driver known as Hammer,
who was driving at the back
and saw what happened.
He came and asked me if
I was okay and if anywhere
was hurting and began to
clear out some of the debris, which was the back
and front windshield which
had blown out. Then a
medical person, Mr. Raymond Antoine, who happened to be in the area,
came and identified himself
and proceeded to check my
vitals and inquired if I was
feeling pain anywhere.
I explained to him what
had happened. After that, I
called my boss, Alex, to tell
him what had happened and
that I was okay. I told him
he needs to bring the side
loader (which is the equipment that lifts containers.)
Then I heard the siren of
the police, fire trucks, and
ambulance. When the police arrived, an officer came
and asked my name, date of
birth, place of birth, and for
the contact number of the
owner of the truck.
Two friends of mine,
Shervin and Carlos, who
are also fire fighters, realized that it was me in the
truck. They began to ask
me if everything was alright, where I had pain
and told me that it looks
like that they will have to
cut me out and that they
are setting up the “Jaws of
Life” to cut me out. Then
another friend, Ryan, who
works at the EMS Service
and some of his co-workers
came and took my vitals as
well as blood and then put
an IV in my hand and asked
me how was my breathing.
I told them I am okay, but
they suggested that I still
put on the oxygen mask. I
had no problem with them
doing whatever they were
doing, because I do not
drink any alcohol or any
beverage containing any
amount of alcohol whatsoever. And neither do I
smoke.
Then Mr. Tony Gibbs of
the Fire Department approached the truck and
asked me if I was sure that
everything was okay and
proceeded to explain to
me what was about to take
place. Thereafter the fire
fighters set up their equipment to cut the truck. After
the truck was cut, they were
able to angle the “Jaws of
Life” to cut the steering
wheel and I was able to be
pulled out. I was then transported to the hospital for
further treatment.
Another thing I want to
clarify is that up to that
moment, other than asking
me if I was okay, the Police
had not asked me to see my
drivers licence, nor even
come to the hospital to interview me or even asked
me how the accident happened, but had sort of speculated that I was driving
at high speed. Driving at
high speed would be a normal occurrence, if anyone
is going downhill without
brakes, but that is clearly
different than speeding. I
have left my numbers available with the Police for any
questions necessary while
investigating.
Suggestions are being
made about heavy equipment working from sunset
to sunrise, but we have to
take into consideration that
St. Maarten has a very busy
“night life”. People consume a lot of alcohol and
especially at night. Being
a night driver myself, I often witness people driving
crazy or barely missing being in an accident. Imagine
how it would be if heavy
equipment is on the road
with drunk drivers.
Even during the day, drivers should be more cautious. As truck drivers, we
have to be more focused
than ever. Many drivers
(especially busses) suddenly stop without taking into
consideration what is driving behind of them or they
suddenly pull out on the
road taking a chance because they think they have
correctly timed the oncoming truck. Drivers are to understand that heavy equipment is protected by a grill,
and they will be the ones
to get hurt. And then who
will get blamed? Always the
truck driver, whilst it was
actually the other driver
who was not cautious. As a
requirement, we truck drivers have to check our trucks
every day before we go out
on the road.
Still after all is said and
done, I want to give thanks
to God for having spared
me and the situation from
being worse and for giving me the vision to prepare myself mentally for
the situation I found myself in. Then, I also want
to thank the Police, Fire
Department, Ambulance,
EMS Personnel, my boss
and family, my fellow truck
drivers and the Port Staff.
Special thanks also to
Hammer and off-duty medical person Antoine. Lastly
my family, friends, near and
far, clients of the company
and all well-wishers. Thank
you, thank you, and thank
you again.
Marlon M. Brooks
Opinion
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Dear Editor,
What does the recently
passed American Jobs
Act, Crowdfunding and St.
Maarten have to do with
each other? And how can
they improve the investment climate and generate
jobs on St. Maarten? Before I answer those questions, let me first explain
what the American Jobs
Act and Crowdfunding are
all about.
The American Jobs Act is
a recently passed bill pro-
posed and signed into law
on April 5th, by US President Barack Obama, and is
designed to get Americans
back to work. An important
element of this bill is the
loosening of regulations on
small businesses that wish
to raise capital, including
through
Crowdfunding,
while retaining investor
protections. Why is the
key provision of this bill so
important? Up until now,
small businesses and entrepreneurs are only allowed
to offer shares in their
companies to investors, if
they are raising less than
one million dollars and
the investors are people
they know, like family and
friends, who are considered
‘unaccredited’
investors,
meaning they have a net
worth less than one million
dollars.
The Jobs Act now offers
the US Securities Exchange
Commission, the SEC, a
legal basis to adopt new
regulations making it pos-
Dear Editor,
News headline Monday
23 April, 2012, “Gas Prices
Rise Yet again in Anguilla”.
As consumers we find
ourselves at the mercy
of the business sector in
this country with no place
to turn to for a reprieve.
There seems to be no way
out. The price of goods
and services in this country
continues to rise steadily
with no relief in sight,
while government continues to adopt a hands-off
approach to the issue of
prices, even though the
situation warrants its intervention.
Take the price of gasoline
and diesel for instance; it
tends only to increase. It
is remarkable - when the
price of oil increases globally, how quickly it is increased locally, but when
the opposite happens and
the price falls, it never
seems to be reflected at
the pump. Ironically, this
last increase in the price
of gasoline by almost EC
$1.00 came at a time when
the price of oil globally has
started to decrease. It is
also noteworthy that the
price of gasoline rose even
though the island had not
at the time received a new
shipment of gasoline, but
of diesel oil instead.
I would really appreciate
it if someone who knows
how the pricing mechanism works were to come
to the public via the media
and explain how the price
of gasoline and diesel is
arrived at; just explain the
process line by line so anyone who wishes to understand can indeed understand.
It would be welcome also
if this were done for the
price of foodstuff as well
which continues to escalate
even in the face of an almost
steady overall price index.
It seems the price of food
in the supermarkets rises,
whether or not a new stock
has been received. I invite
supermarket owners, I challenge them rather to publicly detail how prices are
arrived at, pointing to every
detail, and then I would appreciate a comparative analysis of prices to demonstrate
why the prices of similar
items differ sometimes very
significantly from one outlet
to another.
And could someone explain and/or justify why the
Chinese retail outlets are
able to undersell our locally-owned outlets so significantly? I ask this question
because it seems to me
that there are some ‘profitmaking’ tricks espoused by
business persons locally
but which are unknown to
the consumer. Meanwhile,
the average consumer
in Anguilla continues to
struggle to keep pace with
the escalating cost of living
fuelled (pardon the pun) in
part by the constantly rising cost of food and other
basic items.
I am more than convinced
that despite our belief in
the free market system
that in the face of obvious
price gouging tactics by an
apparently colluding business sector, there is an urgent need for a watchdog
consumer agency designed
and mandated to protect
the consumer from local
unscrupulous providers of
goods and services.
We must become militant
and seek legitimate but effective ways to protect ourselves from this capitalistic
madness.
Concerned Citizen
sible for small businesses to
raise capital from a wider
pool without the aforementioned limitations, thereby
giving Crowdfunding a legal basis as a community
funding model, allowing
entrepreneurs to reach out
to their own communities
for funding in an efficient
and legally compliant way.
So what exactly is Crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding
or crowd funding (alternately crowd financing,
equity crowdfunding, or
hyper funding) according
to Wikipedia describes the
collective cooperation, attention and trust by people
who network and pool their
money and other resources
together, usually via the
internet, to support efforts
initiated by other people or
organizations. Crowdfunding occurs for any variety
of purposes, from disaster
relief to citizen journalism,
to artists seeking support
from fans, to political campaigns, to funding a start up
company, movie or small
business or creating free
software.
What does all of this have
to do with St. Maarten?
Well, as a relatively small
community, St. Maarten is
the perfect size for Crowdfunding. Most people are
friends or related to each
other. So it should be relatively easy for an entrepreneur or small business
to raise funding using the
Crowdfunding model. The
news gets even better when
we realize a legal framework already exists that
allows entrepreneurs and
small businesses the ability
to raise up to a maximum
of 500,000 guilders for
their ventures. This can be
done using the investment
club model. Participants in
an investment club, up to
a maximum of 25 natural
persons, can each invest a
maximum of 20,000 guilders, thus a total of 500,000
guilders, in an investment
opportunity without a license or supervision by the
Central Bank of Curacao
and St. Maarten (CBCS).
In anticipation of legitimate and legally compliant
crowdfunding platforms, I
suggest St. Maarteners pool
their resources and form
investment clubs.
Theoretically speaking,
20 investment clubs can
effectively raise 10 million
guilders to offer entrepreneurs and small businesses capital in exchange
for equity. I am thinking
big of course, but small
investment clubs are also
possible. Each participant
can choose to put in 100 to
1,000 guilders and pool any
47
amount up to 25,000 guilders to invest in start-ups or
provide micro-financing to
small businesses. If banks
are only offering one to two
per cent interest on savings,
pouring some of your savings into an investment club
can do more than just raise
capital for investments, but
potentially offer you a significantly higher return on
your investment than a savings account ever will.
But most importantly, you
will create jobs in the process as well. Research in
the USA proves that more
net job creation is generated by small businesses
than any other sector of
the economy. If President
Obama believes in this,
then you should too. Think
about it!
Terrance Rey
Internet Entrepreneur
48
Comics
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
By Nancy Black
Today’s Birthday (April 26) – Begin the year auspiciously by reviewing wellness practices like diet, exercise and meditation. Add a daily dose of outdoor
walking to replenish your soul and feed your heart.
Include friends. Stay young by keeping your mind
busy with curiosity. Don’t be afraid to ask why. And
have fun!
To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is
the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.
Aries (March 21-April 19) – Today is an 8 – The forseeable future is good for making changes at home.
Set juicy goals for yourself. Pull together as a team.
Whistle while you work, and feast after.
Taurus (April 20-May 20) – Today is an 8 – All of a
sudden, everything starts making sense. Old puzzles
get solved. Consider your friends’ suggestions, but
it’s okay to turn down an outrageous request.
Gemini (May 21-June 21) – Today is an 8 – A new assignment brings in new revenue, and the temptation to
spend it all could arise. Rake in the dough, but count it
first. Save some for repairs. Check for changes.
Cancer (June 22-July 22) – Today is an 8 – You’re
stronger and more confident. Meditate on the value
of compassion. Come up with a new future vision.
Others encourage you to a challenge. Travel later.
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) – Today is a 7 – Follow through
on details for the next few days. Be sensitive to a
loved one’s wishes. Invent a new story. It’s important
to show you care. Call home if you’ll be late.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) – Today is a 9 – Things are
getting fun. Friends want you to play almost all the
time these days. The invitation says “dressy.” Invent
your own style. New options surface.
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) – Today is an 8 – Stay attentive, as new opportunities are worth listening to.
Choose wisely. Tune out the static. You and a partner
can win. Learn as you teach.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) – Today is a 9 – The day
promises to bring you many surprises, for the good
and for the bad. Accept a challenge and learn from
your failures. A loved one teaches you.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) – Today is a 9 – Work
on the chores that you’ve been avoiding but that you
know you really ought to complete. You have a keen
sense for finances now. Research the pros and cons
before deciding.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) – Today is a 9 – Work
out strategy with someone who’s opinion you value.
Logic is only one side. Clarify things by listing the
facts. Look at emotional factors, too. New ideas arise.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) – Today is a 9 – When it
rains, it pours. Make the most out of publicity. Add
efficiency to your work to withstand any storm. Don’t
gamble or get distracted. Take advantage.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) – Today is a 9 – You’re entering a romantic phase. Find a quiet place to complete your projects where you’re less likely to be disturbed. Avoid risky propositions. Keep your promises.
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Community
and the Dominican Republic who meet the criteria are eligible
for the scholarships. This criteria is accessible at www.trinidadandtobago.embassy.gov.au/ptsp/study.html An outline of courses at varying universities are accessible at http://studyinaustralia.gov.au and http://cricos.deewr.gov.au The online application
process ends on April 30, 2012.
Visit caribbeanscholarships@ausaid.gov.au or telephone 1-868822-5482 for additional information.
49
Ladies Cricket
A ladies’ cricket team is looking for new members. Please
contact tel. 581-6610 or 523-1756.
Badminton Club new members
Orion Badminton Club is accepting new members at the
Academy Gym Hall behind the former Sheik Supermarket,
Mondays and Wednesdays, 7:00-9:00pm.
Swim Classes
Caribbean Swim and Sports Academy has started swimming
classes for children (age 3 and up), teenagers and adults. Beginners, intermediate, advanced or competitor level swimmers. Activities: Aqua-gym, Baby swimmers, Swim Team
Competition Groups, Masters Training, etc. Information,
Children’s Club
Good News Baptist Kids Club invites children ages 3-12 to its Tests and Registration at Belair Health and Fitness Club evclub meetings at the Good News Recreation Hall, St. Peters ery Saturday morning, 11:00am to 12:00pm. Contact Coach
Romain for more information 581-2625 or e-mail romain.
Road #30, every Saturday, 4:00-6:00pm.
cssa@gmail.com .
Programme for Alcoholics
Al-Anon is a non-profit 12-Step programme in partnership with Music School
Alcoholics Anonymous available for persons, family and friends Andante Music School is now registering students for muof persons, who may have a problem with alcoholism. The sup- sic lessons at the school in Sucker Garden, Kings of the Sea
port group meets every Monday and Friday at Red Cross on Road #17. Registration is possible Mondays to Fridays,
3:30-6:30pm. Classes begin in September. For more informaAirport Road 6:00-7:00pm. For information call 527-1343.
tion contact B. van Veen (vanveen@sintmaarten.net or 5201030/542-0727).
Plates Donation
St. Maarten National Heritage Foundation is requesting person
to donate 2011 licence plates to the Museum at Speetjens Alley Foster Parents Needed
(Front Street 7). Opening hours are on weekdays, 10:00am to Foundation Judiciary Institutes Windward Islands (FJIWI)/
Stichting Justitiele Inrichtingen Bovenwinden (SJIB), is
4:00pm.
looking for foster parents: permanent foster parents, weekend/vacation foster parents and emergency/crisis foster parPlates Donation
St. Maarten Animal Welfare Foundation is requesting person ents.
to donate 2011 licence plates to help raise funds to help ani- Volunteers (mentors and case-workers): to give assistance
mals. Drop off at all the veterinary hospitals, Domino’s pizza, and guidance in the field of education and welfare to chilGood Cards in Simpson Bay. Island Pet Shop and our logo shop dren in foster care, their biological parents, guardians and
located at Dock Maarten, close to Chesterfield’s restaurant. For foster parents. Interested persons can call the F.J.I.W.I. Foster Families Centre at 542-3449 for an appointment and ininformation call Inez at 553-3020.
formation about the upcoming workshops for foster parents
and foster carers. Email inquiries can be sent to sjib@sintJiu Jitsu Classes
SXM BJJ will be closed for Carnival and the remainder of April maarten.net.
and is accepting new students for children ages 4-13. Classes
resume Wednesday May 2. Tuesday and Thursday 4:00-4:45pm HOPE Meetings
ages 4-6; 4:45-5:30pm ages 7-9; 5:30-6:30pm ages 10-13; Adults The HIV/AIDS support group H.O.P.E is inviting all HIV
and Teens Monday 6-7:30pm and Saturday 10-11:30am. (power positive persons to attend their monthly meetings. For
yoga) Wednesday 6-6:45pm, Women’s only class 6:45-7:30pm. more information, please contact Dr. Gerard van Osch, tel.
544-5374, during office hours.
For more info call 580 3894 or email info@sxmbjj.com
School Registration
Hillside Christian Schools (English/Dutch) are now registering student for 2012-2013 school year, until the end
of April. For more information call 548-3747 or 587-3663.
Dear Queenie,
My cousin in the States recently sent out an e-mail to everyone she knows saying that she is very ill and requesting
financial help to go to some medical retreat that has what is
supposed to be a miracle cure for her disease.
I checked out the place on the Internet, including some reliable medical Websites and the Better Business Bureau and
the Chamber of Commerce in the area where it is located
and it is clear that it is just another scam.
I would be pleased to help her pay for legitimate medical
treatment, but not some quack. On the other hand, it is not
my place to tell her she is being taken for a fool.
Queenie, how can I refuse to make a donation without
seeming unsympathetic and stingy?—Sceptical
Dear Sceptical,
Send your cousin all the information you have found on
this place and tell her you think going there will only prevent
her from getting proper medical care. Tell her you would be
happy to help her pay for proper medical care, but not some
quack.
She may be angry, but what you say may save her life. Don’t
you think it is worth the risk?
In fact, your cousin’s e-mail may be the scam. Some stranger
may have sent it out using her name and, if so, your response
should alert her to what is going on in her name.
Only notices of fund-raising events for non-profit or educational organisations will be placed in the Events/Notices
column. Notices/Events should be sent to
notices@thedailyherald.com in the format used on this
page. Do not send fliers or press releases to this address.
NOTICES
Carnival Holidays
Philipsburg Jubilee Library will be closed on Saturday April
28, Monday May 30 for the Carnival holidays and Tuesday
May1 for Labour Day and will resume on Wednesday May 2
with the normal schedule.
Learn to Clown
IMBALI is registering adults for their Introduction to the
Art of Clown, Master classes by International clown teacher
Albina Matuzko at the Imbali School of Dance, John Larmony Center, Philipsburg. The workshop is planned for May,
5-6, 10:00am to 6:00pm. Registration and details: Albina Matuzko, mail: albinka_k@hotmail.com, facebook/Albina Matuzko, Tel.588-4439. www.klusha.blogspot.com.
Dutch Classes
Educon is registering person interested in Dutch private lessons for persons, who want to learn how to speak Dutch properly or persons who are preparing for the naturalization exams. Contact Educon for more information: 5870266.
Junior Golf
Junior Golf new season begins. Tuesdays - Time: 3:30 to
4:45pm. For beginning and experienced golfers age 8 to 16.
There is no charge for children; Emilio Wilson Park. For information call Jim Rosen at 587-7682 or email jim-rosen@
hotmail.com
Tennis Lessons
Tennis Club Ile de Saint Martin (TCISM) offers group lessons
with one qualified instructor for a maximum of five adults, acAbuse Help
tive players or beginners, designed to improve your game. For
Safe Haven Foundation announces that their caretakers
more information contact the club at tcism@hotmail.com or
will be stationed at the different community helpdesk to
visit the Facebook page of Tennis Club de St. Martin.
inform the general public. Wednesday: Cole Bay Community helpdesk1:00-5:00pm; Thursday: Dutch Quarter comCommunity Service Wanted
munity helpdesk1:00-5:00pm; Friday: St Peters Community
Caribbean International Academy students are looking for
helpdesk1:00-5:00pm.
community service hours with any non-profit organisations.
Or visit website or facebook: safehavensxm to learn more
Those interested call the office at 545-3870 and ask for the guidabout the foundation.
ance counsellors.
The 24/7 hotline is 9333 for emergency assistance.
Opening Hours
Scholarship
St. Maarten National Heritage Foundation informs the genApplications are invited from interested individuals wishing to
eral public that the museum opening hours are Monday-Fripursue Master’s and Doctorate Degrees in Australia commencday, 10:00am to 4:00pm.
ing January 2013. Nationals of Caricom member states, Cuba
Volunteers Needed
St. Maarten Animal Welfare Foundation is seeking volunteers during the morning hours for special activities. For
more information call 520-8887.
Volunteers Needed
Les Quatre Pattes/PAWS animal association has several opportunities available for those seeking to help the animals on
the island. Volunteers willing to help call 0690-34-04-07 or
552-0407.
People
50
LONDON--British singer Conor Maynard is in
his teens, has just broken
into the UK charts with
the catchy debut “Can’t
Say No”, is a YouTube
success story and has his
own brand of screaming,
die-hard fans. Just don’t
call him the next Justin
Bieber.
Comparisons in the
media are inevitable.
While Canadian teen
sensation Bieber has his
millions of “Beliebers”
the world over, Maynard is building up his
own army of equally passionate “Mayniacs”. His
boyish good looks, voice
and dress sense are also
reminiscent of the North
American chart top-
per, who happened to
be in London this week
to promote his latest album.
“It’s very flattering to
be compared to someone who is so massive
in the music industry
and I’m so early in my
career--I’ve just released
my first song,” Maynard
told Reuters in an interview to discuss Can’t Say
No. “At the same time,
in terms of our music, it
cuts through that comparison, it’s kind of a
different sound, we’re
both going for different
things.”
“Obviously I’m British
as well so it’s kind of got
a British influence in it, a
British sound in some of
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
the tracks that I’ve done.
I think the comparison only goes as far as
the fact that we’re both
young and came through
YouTube. In terms of the
music it’s two different
things,” he added.
Maynard is seen as
a rising star in British
pop, although he has a
long way to go before
matching Bieber’s global
success and fame. On
micro-blogging site Twitter, for example, he has
nearly 200,000 followers
to Bieber’s 20 million or
so.
Born in Brighton,
southern England, Maynard first thought about
a career in music when,
aged 15, a girl heard him
singing in the street and
pestered him to perform
British singer Conor Maynard is in his teens, has just broken into the UK charts with the
catchy debut “Can’t Say No”, is a YouTube success story and has his own brand of screaming, die-hard fans. Just don’t call him the next Justin Bieber.
in front of their classmates at school. “So
they came up to me and
I sang and they were like
‘Oh, OK, we get it’. And
after that I started recording covers because I
got a bit tired of singing
TeleCuraçao
Channel 30 St. Maarten Cable TV
Channel 8 WTN-TV
Thursday, April 26
6:30am
Moru Bondia
9:30am
Telsell
10:00am
Tosti
11:00am
Dun’e un Chens
12:00pm
Boletin di Merdia
1:00pm
Bo Tra’i Merdia
3:30pm
Na Kaminda pa...
4:00pm
Youth Experience
5:00pm
Cartoons
6:00pm
Bonochi Korsou
7:00pm
Di Isolashon pa...
7:30pm
Cash
8:00pm
TeleNotisia
9:00pm
Wega di Number Korsou
9:10pm
Partisipashon di Morto
9:15pm
Pagina Sosial
9:30pm
Glamur
11:00pm
TeleNotisia (r)
PARIS--Scottish
actor Ewan McGregor and
French designer Jean Paul
Gaultier will be on the
nine-member jury at this
year’s Cannes film festival,
organisers said on Wednesday.
The panel, led by Italian director/actor Nanni
Moretti, will decide the
awards handed out at a
closing ceremony that
brings the annual cinema
showcase to a close.
Among the prizes is the
coveted Palme d’Or for best
movie in the main competition, which this year comprises 22 entries. Moretti
won the award in 2001 for
“The Son’s Room”, and last
year it went to veteran U.S.
film maker Terrence Malick
for “The Tree of Life”.
Also on the jury will be
Palestinian actress Hiam
Abbass, British director
and screenwriter Andrea
Arnold, French actress Emmanuelle Devos, German
actress Diane Kruger, U.S.
director Alexander Payne
and Haitian director Raoul
Peck.
The world’s biggest film
festival runs from May 1627 this year and opens with
Wes Anderson’s 1960s drama “Moonrise Kingdom”
starring Bruce Willis and
Bill Murray.
BVN (Dutch/Flemish) TV
Channel 46 St. Maarten Cable TV
Thursday, April 26
12:00pm
12:35pm
1:20pm
1:40pm
2:15pm
3:00pm
3:05pm
3:30pm
3:45pm
3:50pm
4:10pm
4:40pm
5:10pm
5:25pm
5:50pm
6:00pm
6:45pm
7:35pm
7:55pm
8:00pm
8:50pm
9:20pm
10:10pm
10:15pm
11:00pm
11:40pm
VRT Journaal
De klas van Frieda
Oorlogsgeheimen
Tatata Taal!
Tijd voor MAX: Hartstichting
NOS Journaal
Sesamstraat
Het Klokhuis
NOS Jeugdjournaal
SpangaS
Blokken
Thuis
Dagelijkse kost
EenVandaag
NOS Sportjournaal
VRT Journaal
De Wereld Draait Door
NOS Journaal
Weerbericht
De Pelgrimscode
Koppen
Nieuwsuur
Weerbericht Amerika & Cariben
Pauw & Witteman
Terzake
Man bijt hond
TV 15 (local)
St. Maarten Cable TV
Thursday, April 26
8:00am Replay AVS News
8:30am Replay DCOMM Bulletin
9:00am Caribbean Newsline
9:30am Caribbean Workout
10:00am Aruba Week in Review
11:00am Ram & Jam
5:00pm Music Videos
5:30pm Caribbean Newsline
6:00pm DCOMM Productions
6:30pm Ram & Jam
7:00pm Music Videos
7:30pm AVS News
8:00pm Oral Gibbes Live
9:00pm Caribbean Passport
9:30pm Robbie’s Lottery/Law in Focus
10:00pm Caribbean Lottery/All Access
10:30pm Music Videos
11:00pm AVS News
11:30pm Caribbean Newsline
to every single person
in my year, every day
because they wanted to
hear it.”
In 2008 he began posting videos of himself
performing cover versions on YouTube, and
his profile quickly grew.
In January, he was
named MTV’s Brand
New For 2012 act, garnering 45 percent of
votes in a public poll and
beating the likes of Lana
Del Rey.
Can’t Say No entered
the British singles chart
at the weekend at No.
2, behind Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe”, and he has been
approached by artists
including U.S. singerproducer Ne-Yo for pos-
sible collaborations.
Maynard and his record label Parlophone,
part of the EMI Group
being acquired by Universal Music Group, will
be hoping he can follow
in the footsteps of other
British acts who have
recently made a splash
in the key U.S. market.
Last month boy band
One Direction became
the first UK group to see
their debut album enter
at No. 1 on the Billboard
chart, and Maynard has
confirmed in a newspaper interview that
“America is definitely
part of the plan.”
He is currently working
on his first album “Contrast”, set for release in
July.
Programmes Radio Netherlands
Sint-Maarten:
* Pearl FM (98.1 FM),
Monday-Friday:
6.30am-7.25am Linea Recta (live), nieuws & actualiteiten ‘special’ voor
de Nederlandse Antillen & Aruba in DUTCH (7.15 in Papiamentu)
1.00pm-1.30pm Newsline, news & current affairs in English
* Radio Soualiga (99.9 FM)
Dutch and English items from RNW (no fixed time)
Sint-Eustatius:
*Sint-Eustatius Broadcasting Corporation (91.5 FM)
Monday-Friday:
7.45am-8.40am Linea Recta, nieuws & actualiteiten ‘special’ voor de
Nederlandse Antillen & Aruba in DUTCH (from 8.30am in Papiamentu)
6.00pm-7.00pm Newsline, news & current affairs in English + Daily
special
7.00pm-8.00pm Linea Recta (repeat)
* Statia-Cable (Channel 2)
Monday-Sunday (24 hours):
- Dutch programme, including 6.30am-7.25am Linea Recta (MondaySaturday)
Saba:
* Voice of Saba/QFM 93.9
Monday-Friday:
6.30am-10.15am Dutch programme, including 6.30am-07.25am Linea
Recta (live), nieuws & actualiteiten ‘special’ voor de Nederlandse Antillen & Aruba in DUTCH (7.15am in Papiamentu)
Monday-Friday:
2.00pm-2.30pm Newsline, news & current affairs in English
* Saba-Cable (Channel 2)
Monday-Friday:
6.30am-10.15am Dutch programme, including Linea Recta (see Voice
of Saba)
Monday-Friday:
2.00pm-2:30pm Newsline (see Voice of Saba)
See also: www.caribiana.nl
People
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
LOS
ANGELES-When dark, gothic
thriller “The Raven”
debuts in U.S. theaters
on Friday, it will mark
the return of actor John
Cusack to more serious
roles from recent forays
into comedy with “Hot
Tub Time Machine”
and the sci-fi adventure
in “2012”.
Cusack portrays
famed American writer
Edgar Allan Poe (18091849), who is known
for macabre tales such
as “The Murders in
the Rue Morgue” and
poems like “The Raven”. The fictional film
tells the story of a serial killer who commits
grisly murders based on
Poe’s stories and then kidnaps Poe’s love, Emily (Alice Eve). With the murders
piling up, Poe teams with a
detective (Luke Evans) to
capture the killer and get
Emily back before she becomes a victim, too.
Cusack said the movie is
just one of several he has
coming up that show the
dark side of humanity. He
spoke to Reuters about
playing Poe, living in the
underworld and, among
lighter subjects, his fondness for Twitter.
Q: How do prepare for
playing someone as mysterious as Poe?
A: “Mentally it was immersing yourself into his
stuff--reading his poetry,
his letters, biographies. I
was reading his stories at
night during the shoot so I
had all that stuff working in
my brain.”
Q: What did you do to
physically prepare for the
role?
A: “Since he was destitute
and an alcoholic, I tried to
get as gaunt as I could. I
got down to a weight I was
before high school, which
Actor John Cusack signs autographs after his star was unveiled on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California on Tuesday.
is real thin. I felt kind of
skeletal. I tried to do it the
smart way but it still was a
little bit of a bender. I just
fasted and drank coffee.”
Q: The story takes place in
Baltimore, where Poe lived
for a time, but you shot in
Belgrade and Budapest.
Why those cities?
A: “It was perfect for Poe.
It was winter. It was black.
It was cold and intense. I
didn’t sleep and felt like a
vampire.”
Q: You must have wanted
to move to something light
and funny after wrapping
‘Raven’.
A: “Strangely, I stayed in
the underworld all year. I
shot ‘The Paperboy’ with
Nicole Kidman. (Filmmaker) Lee Daniels made a sick
movie (about the investigation of a death row inmate.) Then I shot ‘Frozen
Ground’ about an Alaskan
killer.”
Q: Are you trying to exorcise some personal demons
here, or are you just a glutton for punishment?
DALLAS--Former
football star Deion Sanders has
been charged with simple
assault in his altercation
with his estranged wife that
got her arrested and jailed
earler in the week on a similar charge.
Sanders, 44, had claimed
Pilar Sanders, 38, and her
friend Dianna Boswell attacked him on Monday afternoon in his bedroom at
the suburban Dallas mansion the divorcing couple
still share. After he tweeted
about the incident, police
in Prosper, Texas, arrested
her and she spent the night
in jail on a charge of misdemeanor family assault.
Further investigation led
to Deion Sanders and Boswell being charged with
simple assault as well, a
statement from Prosper police said. The crime is a misdemeanor that can result
from “offensive touching”
which carries a maximum
$500 fine, Collin County,
Texas, authorities said.
Pilar Sanders emerged on
Tuesday from a night in jail
declaring her innocence.
Her attorney said she was
the only one injured in the
altercation, having suffered
a broken thumb, a split lip
and a torn fingernail.
Deion Sanders is a TV analyst for the NFL Network.
He was a Hall of Fame
cornerback for the Dallas
Cowboys and other football
teams and a former Major
League outfielder for several teams, including the
A: “It’s weird, but I
didn’t choose any of
them. They chose me.
I wasn’t going to turn
down a chance to play
Poe. Otherwise you
should just retire as an
actor because c’mon,
that’s a great character. He’s so crazy
and eccentric and out
there. Usually roles
like that go to the guy
with the biggest box
office.”
Q: You’re not exactly
new to the movie business. You don’t think
you have box office
clout?
A: “It’s all about who
is writing the checks
and putting the movies
together. It’s a weird
thing. If people like this
movie, I’m going to become
a good idea again. It’s literally that simple. You come
in and out of vogue. If
you stay around the game,
sometimes it comes your
way. I got a good one (with
‘The Raven’). You have
to ride the business, have
thick skin and be grateful that you’re still around.
The Irish, we’re pretty stubborn. We’re hard to kill. We
New York Yankees.
He was granted an order
of protection against his estranged wife that bars her
from their home and from
harassing him, according to
the Collin County Sheriff’s
office. The couple married
in 1999 and starred in a reality show, “Deion & Pilar:
Prime Time Love,” that
aired on the Oxygen network. Deion Sanders filed
for divorce in December.
51
don’t die easy. We keep going and we don’t quit.”
Q: Along those lines,
you’ve worked with just
about everyone in Hollywood. What have you yet to
accomplish?
A: “Doing different kinds
of art forms. I’m not a
good painter, but I throw
paint around. Maybe writing in different forms, but
I’d have to be disciplined.
When you write films, you
never have to stop because
you get it good enough for
the day of shooting but
you can still tweak it. And
you’re still tweaking when
you’re editing. So I’m always getting it just pregnant enough to happen, but
it would be good discipline
to try and finish a book and
say: ‘Okay, this is it.’ I’m
not there yet.”
Q: You recently joined
Twitter. Do you like social
media?
A: “I like having direct
access to people who are
interested in what I’m interested in without having
to go through the filters of
all these other people. If
you like what I say about
art and culture and politics,
then you can follow me and
I can introduce you to writers that I’ve read throughout my life that have impacted me. People want to
know what I like in music
because I did ‘High Fidelity’ so I can turn people
on to Bob Dylan’s ‘Theme
Time Radio Hour,’ which
a lot of people don’t know
about. I like sharing with
people.”
Q: You starred in the disaster flick “2012.” Now
that we’re in the year 2012,
should be preparing for the
end of the world? Are we
all going to die?
A: “No, I think we’re going to be stuck with each
other a little while longer.”
52
Sports
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
The St. Eustatius Male Volleyball Team is ready to compete in the 2012 World Championship
Qualifications.
ST.
EUSTATIUS--The
men’s volleyball team from
St. Eustatius is headed to
St. Lucia to participate in
the 2012 World Championship Qualifications. The
team is scheduled to leave
this morning and play their
first match Friday.
Statia will open against
host St. Lucia at 10:30am
and later that evening
face Grenada starting at
6:30pm. Saturday the team
NAIROBI-- World marathon record holder Patrick
Makau was left out of the
Kenyan men’s team named
on Wednesday for the
London Olympics after he
failed to finish last Sunday’s
London marathon.
Wilson Kiplagat, who
won Sunday’s race, and
twice world champion Abel
Kirui, who finished sixth,
will represent Kenya in
WINDIES
seventh test but it is clear
he had been feeling a little
pressure having not passed
50 since he scored 74 in
Perth in January.
“I try not to read too
much of it but if you’re in
the Australian cricket team
and you’re not consistently
getting big scores, of course
you are going to be under
pressure. You don’t need
to be a genius to work that
out,” he said.
“The only disappointing
aspect is I think guys here
on the ground would appreciate how hard batting
has been through the series
will face St. Vincent starting at 9:00am.
The competition is a
round-robin consisting of
four teams. All teams will
advance to the semi-finals
where number one seed
will face four, and two will
play three.
Winners of the semi-finals
will play to determine the
champion and sub-champion. The losers will play one
match for third place.
London along with Moses
Mosop who finished third
in the Rotterdam marathon
this month.
Kipsang set the second
fastest time ever when he
clocked two hours three
minutes 42 seconds in
Frankfurt last October.
Makau set his world record
of 2:03:38 in Berlin in the
previous month.
The first three woman
Continued from page 56.
but people, because of the
time zone, probably haven’t
watched a lot of cricket but
they click on a link to see
the score in the morning
and they go ‘28, oh, Ponting
30, these guys are struggling’.
“Well, it’s bloody hard
work and you need to see
the ball spitting and turning
the way it is to appreciate
that.
“And if you’re just judging
people’s form by looking at
the scorecard, then you’re
not doing the game full justice.”
The St. Eustatius delegation is comprised of 10 players, two team staff acting as
delegation head and coach,
and one International referee. The delegation will
return home on April 30.
The St. Eustatius Women’s team will also compete
in the World Championship
Qualifications. The team
will compete in Grenada
from June 21 to 25.
home in Sunday’s race;
defending champion Mary
Keitany, world champion
Edna Kiplagat and world
silver medallist Priscah Jeptoo were each selected for
the Games.
Geoffrey Mutai, winner
of the New York and Boston marathons last year and
Emmamuel Mutai, who
won London last year but
finished seventh on Sunday, were excluded from
the men’s team although
they had been included on
a provisional list released
this year.
Samuel Wanjiru, who
plunged to his death from
the first floor balcony of
his home last year after his
wife found him in bed with
another woman, won Kenya’s first men’s marathon
gold in Beijing four years
ago.
Athletics Kenya will name
the men’s 10,000 team for
the Games on June 2 at
the Prefontaine Diamond
League Meeting in Oregon
while the remainder of the
team will be named on June
23 after the final trials.
LONDON-- Crime and disorder similar to Britain’s
2011 summer riots are the
most likely serious threats
to the London Olympics
although Islamist militants
and al Qaeda offshoot
groups pose a growing challenge, a British official said
on Wednesday.
Charles Farr, DirectorGeneral of the Office for
Security and Counter-Terrorism at the Home Office
(interior ministry), told a security conference that while
al Qaeda’s south Asia-based
core leadership had weakened following the death of
Osama bin Laden in 2011,
the clout of its offshoot
groups was rising.
In a speech surveying
trends in global counterterrorism, Farr added that
al Qaeda remained active
in Britain, and the operating model of the group’s
leadership was increasingly
to encourage “self starter”
terrorists in recognition of
its own inability to exercise
operational control.
But in a passage on security
for the Olympics, Farr added: “The most likely serious
threat is crime and public
disorder.”
He said the variety of disorder he envisaged as a potential threat was the rioting
that swept England’s cities
last year. He did not elaborate.
Up to 15,000 people took
part in England’s worst
disturbances for decades,
which began in inner London when a protest against
the fatal police shooting of a
suspect turned violent. Unrest spread to other major
cities such as Manchester,
Birmingham and Bristol,
leaving a trail of torched
buildings and looted shops
in their wake. Five people
died in the unrest.
An independent investigative panel identified a series
of problems facing inner
cities, ranging from poor
parenting and education
to high joblessness that left
many people with no stake
in society and nothing to
lose if they joined the riots.
The security situation in
London will be under international scrutiny in July and
August this year when tourists and sports fans flood to
the British capital for the
Olympics.
Home Secretary Theresa
May said on Jan. 25 that
along with terrorism and
organised crime, disruption
from protests was one of the
biggest threats to the Olympics which begin on July 27.
Britain’s National Olympic
Security Coordinator Chris
Allison told the Guardian
newspaper in February that
it would be “very challenging” if, during the Olympics,
there were a repeat of the
disorder that gripped London last summer.
Allison was quoted as saying that while there did not
appear to be anyone who
wanted to protest against
the Games, there might be
those who want to use the
Games as a way of getting
their cause into the public
domain.
Police have insisted they
had no intention of preventing any legal demonstrations outside Olympic
venues.
Farr said the Olympics
would stretch the integration of the web of institutions and services involved
in ensuring security and one
“pinch point” was transport, particularly London’s,
which he said was overloaded at the best of times.
British officials say they
have not as yet uncovered
any information suggesting
any groups are planning to
target the Games. But Britain has been a target for
Islamist militants for the
last decade as an ally for
U.S.-led military action in
Afghanistan and Iraq and
London suffered its worst
peacetime attack in 2005
when four suicide bombers
killed 52 commuters.
PHILIPSBURG—Registration for American style
Youth Football and Cheerleading camp age seven to
17 is set for Friday and Saturday.
Coach Walter Dunston of
the Toni James Group will
be conducting two days of
recruitment for coaches,
athletes, and cheerleaders
and measurement of training equipment for boys and
girls at Raoul Illidge Sports
Complex Friday from 5:00
to 7:00pm and Saturday
from 8:00 to noon.
“We are looking for about
250 athletes,” said Les
Brown who is coordinating the registration. The
elementary school children
will learn game fundamentals playing flag football.
High Schools students will
fitted for helmets and pads
and play full contact.
The camp is scheduled for
July.
For more information, contact Les Brown at 587-9089.
Elle-si –Belle Tours, fielding, blasted past The Daily Herald in age 12 and under Little League
Baseball at the Stadium on Pond Island yesterday. Elle-si-Belle won 21-3. Youth baseball
continues this afternoon as Windward Islands Bank takes on Fatum and Friday Scotiabank
meets Sagicor. Both games are scheduled to start at 4:30pm.
Sports
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Los Angeles Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe shoots past New
York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) in the first quarter
of their NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden in
New York, April 25.
NEW YORK --JR Smith
scored 21 points, including a rally-stopping jumper
with 31 seconds left, and
the New York Knicksheld
on to beat the Los Angeles
Clippers 99-93 on Wednesday night and close in on
the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Carmelo Anthony scored
17 points for the Knicks,
but he was on the bench
in the final minutes as the
Knicks blew nearly all of
an 18-point lead against
a Clippers team that was
fighting desperately for
home-court advantage in
the first round.
The Knicks will draw No.
2 seed Miami in the first
round with one more win or
a loss by Philadelphia. New
York closes its regular season Thursday at Charlotte,
which has one of the worst
records in NBA history,
while the 76ers visit Detroit.
If New York loses and Philadelphia wins, the Knicks
would fall to the No. 8 seed
and open against Chicago.
Blake Griffin had 29
points and 10 rebounds,
and Randy Foye scored
28 points for the Clippers,
who played without Chris
Pauland fell a half-game
behind Memphis for fourth
place in the West.The Clippers need the Grizzlies to
lose at home to Orlando
on Thursday to have the
home-court advantage for
their first-round series.
Paul sat out after mildly
straining his left groin in
Tuesday’s 109-102 loss
at Atlanta. The Clippers
dropped three of their final
four games, costing themselves any chance to beat
out the Lakers for the Pacific Division title and perhaps a chance to open the
playoffs at home.
But they wrapped up their
first season with Paul at
40-26 and will make their
first postseason appearance
since 2006 and just their
fifth since 1985.
Bobcats
Wizards
Bulls
Nuggets
76ers
95
96
92
106
90
Magic
Cavs
Pacers
Thunder
Bucks
102
85
87
101
85
LONDON-- Alex Ferguson
has described it as the most
important derby in his 26
years at Manchester United while Manchester City
manager Roberto Mancini
thinks his side are too far behind in the Premier League
title race for it to be decisive.
Differing views, but the
reality is that whoever wins
the game at the Etihad Stadium on Monday is likely to
be crowned champions with
United three points clear at
the top and three matches of
the season left.
The battle for Champions League places involving Arsenal, Newcastle
United, Tottenham Hotspur
and Chelsea also becomes
more intense after Chelsea reached next month’s
Champions League final.
Should Chelsea go on to
win the Champions League,
whoever finishes fourth will
not qualify for the elite competition and go into the Europa League.
Meanwhile, at the bottom,
the fight to avoid joining
Wolverhampton Wanderers
in next season’s Championship (second tier), is just
as frantic with Blackburn
Rovers, Bolton Wanderers,
Wigan Athletic, Queens
Park Rangers and faltering
Aston Villa battling for their
Premier League lives.
Monday’s match at the Etihad (1900 GMT) begins with
United top on 83 points and
City second with 80. If City
win they would move ahead
of United on goal difference
while a United victory would
leave them six points clear
with two matches to play.
FORCED DRAW
“It is probably the most
important derby game in my
time. We have to go there,
make sure we perform in the
right way and not give away
silly goals,” Ferguson said.
“There’s no reason why
we can’t get a good result.
There has been an expectancy from City that this could
be their decider, but it’s our
decider too. Either way, it’s
the decider.”
Mancini believes United
are still favourites to win
the Premier League title
because they had a less difficult run-in.
After playing on Monday,
United face Swansea City at
home and Sunderland away.
City visit Newcastle before a
home game against Queens
Park Rangers.
“They’re top, three points
ahead,” Mancini said. “After
the derby they have two easy
games. We can talk about
the title next Monday night
but it’s impossible.”
Mancini suggested United’s experience - the club
have won 19 titles - would be
a telling factor.
“I don’t think they have
pressure because they are
used to it every year,” he
added. “For us, it’s different
because it’s the first time.
We don’t have any pressure
because we are not expected
to win. But we want to finish
well. It’s important for our
season.”
Monday’s match is the
fourth time the two have
met this season. In the Community Shield curtain-raiser
United won 3-2 after City
led 2-0 at halftime.
City then became the first
opponents to score six at Old
Trafford since 1930 when
they crushed United 6-1 on
Oct. 23 before United ended
City’s reign as FA Cup holders with a 3-2 win at the Etihad in a third-round match
in January.
Arsenal lie third on 65
points and are favourites
to take the final automatic
Champions League place, a
position they will strengthen
if they can win at mid-table
Stoke City on Saturday.
Newcastle, in a great run of
form of six successive league
wins, are fourth on 62 points
with a match in hand on but
might find matters tougher
at rejuvenated Wigan.
Spurs, whose form has
nose-dived since manager
Harry Redknapp was linked
with the England job in
February, are fourth on 59
53
points going into a home
match against 19th-placed
Blackburn.
Chelsea, fresh from knocking Barcelona out of the
Champions League, start
the weekend in sixth place
going into a home game
against QPR.
BERLIN-- World number
two Maria Sharapova eased
into the quarter-finals of the
Stuttgart indoor tournament
after France’s Alize Cornet
retired with an injury at the
start of the second set.
Sharapova, hoping to complete her set of Grand Slams
with victory at the French
Open, had added the Stuttgart clay court event to her
calendar to prepare for next
month’s tournament at Roland Garros.
Cornet, however, gave her a
short start on the indoor clay
courts retiring with a shoulder injury while trailing 6-3
1-0.
“It was (qualifier) Alize’s
fifth match in five days.
Tennis is very tough on the
body,” said Sharapova, who
wants to get clay court practice ahead of Paris.
“Practising helps but matches are always a bit different.
You have to get used to the
different match situations
and opponents with different
styles,” she told reporters.
Former world number one
Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the second round
by the same score after fellow Serbian Jelena Jankovic
also retired injured.
Germany’s Mona Barthel
sent Ana Ivanovic packing
7-5 7-6 to confirm her fine
form this year and set up a
second round clash with seventh seed Marion Bartoli.
“This was something special because Ana used to be
a bit of a role model for me,”
Barthel told reporters. “I
was still in school when she
won the French Open and I
watched it on TV. That was at
the time a long way for me.”
Wild card entrant Barthel,
who won her maiden WTA
tournament in Hobart earlier this year, saved two set
points against the former
world number one in the first
set and fired a total of 11 aces
as she breezed past Serbian
Ivanovic.
Hungary’s Greta Arn initially troubled Agnieszka
Radwanska with her powerful backhand with each player grabbing an early break
before the Polish world number four broke her again with
a fine crosscourt smash to
move 4-2 up and hold serve
to clinch the first set 6-3.
Arn rescued a break point
to hold serve with yet another sublime backhand and
lead 3-2 but Radwanska got
the necessary break a little
later to win 6-3 6-4 and became the first quarter-finalist
when the Hungarian sank a
forehand return into the net.
BMC team rider Martin Kohler of Switzerland cycles ahead of the pack during the first stage
of the Tour de Romandie cycling race near La Chaux-de-Fonds April 25. Bradley Wiggins
from Britain riding with Team Sky won the 184.5-km first stage in four hours 50 minutes 23
seconds. Lieuwe Westra of Netherlands from Vacansoleil was second and Paolo Tiralongo of
Italy from Team Astana was third.
54
LONDON - English Premier League title contenders Manchester City
will play a friendly match
against a Malaysia XI in
Kuala Lumpur in July, promoters of the event said on
Wednesday.
It will be City’s first fixture
in Malaysia when they play
at the 90,000 capacity Bukit
Jalil Stadium on July 30.
“We are very honoured
to be hosting Manchester
City, as we are the only
Southeast Asian country
given this opportunity,”
Football Association of
Malaysia deputy president
Tengku Abdullah Sultan
Ahmad Shah said in a state-
Sports
ment.
The big-spending side are
the second English team
to commit to a fixture in
Malaysia after Arsenal announced plans earlier this
month.
A third Premier League
team is widely expected to
also play in Kuala Lumpur,
where Arsenal, Chelsea
and Liverpool drew 80,000
attendances for fixtures
against a Malaysia XI last
year.
FA Cup holders Manchester City and Arsenal will
also play against each other
at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium on July 27, the same
day as the Olympic Games
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
opening ceremony in London.
The tour is the first in Asia
by City, who played preseason fixtures in the United States last year, since
Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed
Al Nahyan bought the club
and ploughed in millions to
transform their fortunes.
While this season they have
showed they are capable
of challenging neighbours
Manchester United on the
field they will struggle to
match the support their rivals command in Malaysia
and Southeast Asia, where
the Premier League champions and Liverpool dominate.
Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Kyle Drabek throws during the first inning against the Baltimore Orioles during their MLB American League baseball game in Baltimore, Maryland, April
25. Orioles won 3-0.
BALTIMORE -- Jason
Hammel pitched seven
innings of four-hit ball,
Wilson Betemit and Chris
Davis homered, and the
Baltimore Orioles blanked
the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0
Wednesday night.
After limiting Toronto to
one run on Tuesday, Baltimore became the first team
this season to shut out the
Blue Jays. The Orioles are
4-1 against Toronto after
going 6-12 last year.
Hammel (3-0) struck
out seven and walked one
in lowering his ERA to
1.73 over four starts. The
right-hander came to Baltimore in February with
reliever Matt Lindstrom in
the trade that sent Jeremy
Guthrie to Colorado.
Lindstrom worked a perfect eighth and Pedro Strop
got three outs for his second save in two nights as
the replacement for closer
Jim Johnson, who has been
hospitalized since Monday
with flulike symptoms.
Strop yielded two hits
but effectively sealed Baltimore’s first shutout since
Sept. 9, 2011, against Toronto.
Hammel has given up only
one run in two starts at
Camden Yards and Lindstrom is unscored upon in
his seven appearances this
season.
Blue Jays starter Kyle Drabek (2-1) allowed two runs,
five hits and three walks in
six innings. He was aided by
three double plays.
But Drabek got little
support from the Toronto
offense. Yunel Escobar
struck out three times, Kelly Johnson went 0 for 4 with
two strikeouts and the Blue
Jays placed only three runners in scoring position.
Betemit committed an error at third base in each of
the first innings, but made
amends in the second by
driving a 3-1 pitch over the
center-field wall to put Baltimore up 1-0.
MLB results
Marlins
1 Mets
Rockies 2 Pirates
Rockies 1 Pirates
Astros
7 Brewers
Cards
5 Cubs
White Sox 4 A’s
Phillies
7 D’backs
Nationals 7 Padres
Royals
8 Indians
5
1
5
5
1
5
2
2
2
Juventus’ Mirko Vucinic (L) challenges Cesena’s Evangelos Moras during their Italian Serie A
soccer match at the Manuzzi stadium in Cesena April 25. Juventus won 1-0.
ROME-- Marco Borriello
bagged his first goal for Juventus as they maintained
their three-point lead at the
top of Serie A on Wednesday with a 1-0 win over already-relegated Cesena.
Borriello’s goal on 80 minutes saved Andrea Pirlo’s
blushes, after he missed his
second penalty in a week
with nine minutes gone.
Second-placed AC Milan
also won 1-0 against lowly
Genoa thanks to an 86thminute goal from KevinPrince Boateng.
Borriello, who has been
disappointing since joining
on loan from Roma, came
off the bench and five minutes later smashed home a
Mirko Vucinic knock-down
on the half-volley.
It was a seventh win in a
row for Juve, who are unbeaten after 34 games, and
they moved closer to their
first Serie A title since being relegated for their role
in the Calciopoli matchfixing scandal.
“He deserved that goal,
because he came here really motivated but not in
great physical condition,”
said Juve boss Antonio
Conte.
“He had to work to get
himself back into shape...
and now he’s up with everyone else.”
Conte added: “This season
we have created a base for
the future: we’re returned
to being competitive, we’ve
done extraordinary work
and we hope that it become
extra-extraordinary.
“We’re sat at a table where
we’ve not been used to sitting: now we want to eat as
well.”
Milan kept in touch
with their rivals thanks to
Boateng, who scored from
close range to sink Genoa.
Under-pressure Genoa
will feel hard done by however, as they comfortably
kept Milan at bay for much
of the game, even creating
chances for themselves.
But the sending off of
Bosko Jankovic for two
bookable offences with 18
minutes to go left Genoa
pegged back in their own
area, and it was no surprise that Boateng smashed
home the winner.
The defeat leaves them
fourth from bottom on 36
points, just a point off the
relegation places.
Inter Milan and Napoli
piled the pressure on thirdplaced Lazio, who lost 2-1
at Novara, in the race for
a Champions League spot
by winning at Udinese and
NFL
and RG3 is Ryan Tannehill
(Texas A&M), who played
wide receiver his first two
years in college.
Tannehill, who had only 19
starts at quarterback, has
shown a strong arm and a
natural aptitude for the position.
“I learned a lot about the
game and a lot about playing quarterback by playing
receiver,” Tannehill told reporters. “In my 19 games I
felt I proved myself and got
a lot better each game. And
I feel like I’m going to continue to get better.”
NFL Commissioner Roger
Goodell, who along with
the prospective draftees
was attending a charity
event promoting physical
education for school children, said he met with the
26 players who had come to
New York for the draft.
“I met with them in three
separate groups,” Goodell
said. “It was an open dis-
Lecce respectively.
Napoli are fourth, one
point behind Lazio, who
have 55, while Udinese and
Inter are on 52.
Lazio were beaten by a
35th-minute Mobido Diakite own goal and a stunning 79th-minute free kick
from Giuseppe Mascara.
A resurgent Inter, who
have been much improved
under Andrea Stramaccioni, beat Udinese 3-1 after two goals from Wesley
Sneijder and a smart finish
from Ricardo Alvarez cancelled out Danilo’s sixthminute opener.
Goals early in each half
from Marek Hamsik and
Edinson Cavani earned Napoli a 2-0 win at Lecce.
Continued from page 56.
cussion. It was more about
how to enjoy the next couple of days. You know, this
is a dream of theirs.”
Asked if there was any
mention of the controversy over the New Orleans Saints’ bounty program that paid players for
knocking opponents out
of games, Goodell said he
spoke to them in more general terms.
“In my office I have an
NFL shield up (on the
wall). I pointed to that and
I said, ‘Everything we do
has to reflect well on the
integrity of the league and
that shield.
“And everything that you
do, everything that I do and
everything our clubs and
coaches do has to reflect
well on that. It’s our responsibility to improve the
integrity of the league and
make it better than when
we came into the league.’”
Sports
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
APRIL 26 – SEMI-FINAL, SECOND LEG
Form: W
D
L
VALENCIA ESP 2-4 ATLETICO MADRID ESP
Mestalla Stadium
HEAD-TO-HEAD: Won 0 Drawn 2 Won 1
All-time record*
W78 D43 L37
Best finish
Winner 2004
Home
in Europe
this season:
W5 D1 L0
COMPETITION STATISTICS
Form
14 / 9
Goals for / against 29 / 10
11
Euro Club Index rank
15
FIRST LEG STATISTICS
10
4
Shots on target
3
5
Shots wide
8
4
Corners
13
18
Fouls
All-time record
W65 D18 L34
Best finish
Winner 2010
Away
in Europe
this season:
W4 D1 L1
EYE FOR GOAL: Shots on target per game
Athletic Bibao Scored per game: 1.92
5.38
Atletico Madrid 2.23
5.31
Sporting
1.46
4.46
Valencia
2.00
4.43
Diego Capel
Sporting
TARGETED MEN
Fouls suffered
Capel
Sporting
Muniain
Athletic
Schaars
Sporting
Martinez
Athletic
Diego
Atletico
37
32
27
26
25
ATHLETIC BILBAO ESP 1-2 SPORTING CLUB POR
San Mamés Stadium
HEAD-TO-HEAD: Won 1 Drawn 0 Won 2
All-time record
W55 D19 L38
Best finish
Runner-up 1977
Home
in Europe
this season:
W4 D2 L0
COMPETITION STATISTICS
Form
25 / 19
Goals for / against 19 / 12
24
Euro Club Index rank
36
FIRST LEG STATISTICS
3
3
Shots on target
10
5
Shots wide
4
4
Corners
11
16
Fouls
All-time record
W80 D37 L46
Best finish
Runner-up 2005
Away
in Europe
this season:
W1 D2 L3
Sources: UEFA, Infostrada Sports *Includes UEFA Cup Picture: Associated Press © GRAPHIC NEWS
MADRID-- Jose Mourinho
blamed fatigue from their
‘Clasico’ win and sheer bad
luck for Real Madrid’s failure to reach the Champions
League final on Wednesday.
The nine-times European
champions had been convinced they were going to
reach the final, buoyed by
their 2-1 La Liga win at Barcelona on Saturday, and by
their arch-rivals’ shock defeat to Chelsea on Tuesday.
With the league title all
but in the bag, seven points
clear with four left to play,
Mourinho in only his second
season at the helm looked
like he had it within his grasp
to also steal Barca’s European crown too.
“There was no luck,”
Mourinho said with a resigned smile. “It’s difficult to
reach two semis in two years
and not make the final. We
deserved to win.
“I remember a (Champions
League) semi-final against
Liverpool which was exactly
the same where we had to
play a game to compete in
another championship before, and they didn’t have
that pressure, and we lost.
“It was the same here. We
played with everyone on the
weekend and our opponents
didn’t.
“Apart from freshness, the
team played great though.
These players aren’t supermen, that is just a film. The
players went to their very
limits,” he added after having knelt on the touchline
as if he was praying while he
watched his players take penalties.
“Barca played a derby and
two days later they were
knocked out. It isn’t easy.
That’s why you have to really
value teams who win doubles
or trebles.”
Mourinho seemed to end
the speculation that he might
leave Madrid at the end of
the campaign, when asked
about his future, even though
he still has two years left on
his four-year deal at the Bernabeu.
“If we continue with this
empathy, this club and this
team has margin to improve
and grow,” the Portuguese
said.
“If the club and the players think I and they can keep
bringing something to this. I
will continue.”
Deprived of a meeting with
his former club Chelsea in
Munich, he was clear about
who he hoped would win.
“John Terry is missing but
Chelsea are there. I hope it is
a good final. I want the Blues
to win but I respect Reds,”
Mourinho said, as he praised
their battling display with ten
men at the Nou Camp.
And he ended with a dig at
Pep Guardiola’s side.
“Chelsea were heroes yesterday,” he added. “Some
people think they are masters of the game, and look
down on teams like them or
Inter but they know nothing
about things such as effort
and character.
“Chelsea deserve to be
there in the final and so do
Bayern.”
BAYERN
ond leg on Tuesday.
“We lost, we are sad and
they are happy but that’s
football,” Mourinho told
Spanish television. “Football is like that and whoever
does not understand that
can’t be part of it.”
After a disastrous start,
Bayern showed considerable nerve to get back into
the match following Ronaldo’s double inside the first
14 minutes and Arjen Robben levelled to make the
score 2-1 on the night and
3-3 on aggregate.
Ironically, Ronaldo’s
opener in the sixth minute
was a confidently taken
penalty, his 25th successive
success from the spot.
A pulsating first half with
chances for both sides fell
away after the break as with
extra time and possibly
penalties looming the two
European
heavyweights
curbed their attacking instincts for fear of committing a fatal error.
A well-drilled Bayern
were more than a match
for Real, both sides striking nine shots on target,
and played some patient
and controlled football that
frustrated the home fans.
“It was a magnificent game
and great penalty shootout,” a beaming Heynckes
told reporters.
“We didn’t want the first
15 minutes, to concede
one and then two goals
especially here because
everyone knows what it is
like, but after that I think
we dominated. Over the
120 minutes I think we deserved it.”
With the clock ticking towards midnight local time
and the Real faithful urging
on their team, the two sides
lined up for the shootout
before Neuer stunned the
stadium and the hundreds
of millions watching around
the world by leaping low to
his right to deny former
World Players of the Year
Ronaldo and Kaka.
Iker Casillas kept Real’s
hopes alive by saving efforts from Toni Kroos and
Philipp Lahm but Sergio
Ramos skied his penalty
over the bar and Schweinsteiger rifled the Bavarians
through before tearing off
his shirt and racing to the
corner, where he was swallowed up in a throng of his
ecstatic team mates.
“I have not witnessed
something like that in 40
years of professional football,” said Bayern CEO
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
“This tops everything we
experienced in the 70s and
55
Continued from page 56.
Bayern Munich’s Mario Gomez (L) heads the ball with Real
Madrid’s Alvaro Arbeloa during their Champions League
semi-final second leg soccer match at Santiago Bernabeu
stadium in Madrid, April 25. Bayern won 3-1 on penalties.
80s. I am very happy and
very proud. That was top
quality football.”
The home side had quickly cancelled out Bayern’s
2-1 first-leg victory when
Ronaldo netted his penalty
after a handball in the area
and the Portuguese produced a smart finish from
the edge of the box to put
Real in the driving seat.
However, Bayern pulled
a goal back when Robben
also netted from the spot
after Mario Gomez had
been bundled over by Pepe,
although Casillas came desperately close to tipping the
Dutchman’s effort away.
Extra time was draining
on Real, who had all but
wrapped up La Liga with a
hard-fought 2-1 win at Barca on Saturday, and that
tiredness proved costly at
the end.
“I will lift my players appealing to their pride, I
have nothing to reproach
them for, they have given
their all,” Mourinho said.
Asked if he planned to
stay on next season, the former Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan manager added:
“If the club and the players
think I and they can keep
bringing something to this.
I will continue.”
JOHANNESBURG-South Africa have turned
down a request from Bangladesh to play a limited
over series in May primarily
because of a hectic schedule, the country’s cricket
board said on Wednesday.
The Bangladesh Cricket
Board, after their brief
Pakistan tour this month
was postponed following a court order, had approached Cricket South
Africa (CSA) with a proposal to play one-day and
Twenty20 internationals in
May.
“Unfortunately there are
too many practical obstacles that prevent us from
accepting this commitment,” CSA acting chief
executive Jacques Faul said
in a statement.
“At the moment most
of our senior Proteas are
spread around the world
in England and India and
those who are at home are
undergoing rehabilitation
from injuries picked up
during the past season.
“We also have to bear in
mind that the Proteas have
a hectic schedule ahead of
it with very important tours
to England and Australia
with the World Twenty20
in Sri Lanka sandwiched in
between,” he added.
56
THE DAILY HERALD, Thursday, April 26, 2012
Real Madrid’s Kaka (R) takes a penalty kick and fails to score against Bayern Munich’s goalkeeper Manuel Neuer during their Champions League semi-final second leg soccer match at
Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, April 25. Bayern fought back from 2-0 down and beat
Real Madrid 3-1 on penalties.
MADRID-- Bayern Munich summoned up all
their famous resilience
to oust Real Madrid in a
nerve-jangling Champions
League penalty shootout
on Wednesday, denying
Jose Mourinho’s expensively-assembled side a tilt
at a 10th European crown
ROSEAU,
Dominica-When the post-mortem on
the Australia tour of the
Caribbean is concluded after the third test, one of the
positives is sure to be the
ability of the team’s topline batsmen to all make a
key contribution at some
stage.
Left hander Ed Cowan
joined the club, a little belatedly, in Wednesday’s
second innings as he helped
the team towards an imposing 310-run lead.
While West Indies, whose
opening pair have just
one-half century performance between them, have
struggled to find the batting
displays to back up their
improved bowling, Australia have shown they have
a solid collective unit with
the bat.
There may not have been
a single dominating figure
in the top order, but each
of the top seven have come
up with at least one halfcentury during the tour.
Left-hander Ed Cowan’s’
55, was a timely one given
the questions in some quarters about his inability on
this tour to get beyond the
twenties and thirties.
“I’m satisfied to overcome
that hurdle of mid 20s, a
nothing score, to get a 50
on what is a bloody challenging wicket,” he told reporters.
“Fifty for me feels like a
really good contribution
and I’m really happy that I
feel like I’ve been improving certain aspects of my
game and haven’t got the
rewards and today I got
some reward for a lot of
hard work.”
Cowan batted with an injured wrist, picked up when
he was struck by the ball in
a close catching position on
Tuesday and faced a surface
that was turning sharply
and bouncing, particularly
from the off-spin of Shane
Shillingford.
“50 on a wicket like that
can be as good as 100. Sure
the runs don’t show in the
scorebook but over 300 to
chase is a hell of a lot of
runs and I think the contributions from guys haven’t
been huge,” he said.
Cowan, who made his
debut against India last
December, is only in his
Continued on page 52
and setting up a final showdown against Chelsea next
month.
Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer stopped spot-kicks
from Cristiano Ronaldo,
who had given Real an early 2-0 lead in the semi-final
second leg, and Kaka in the
shootout before Bastian
Schweinsteiger struck the
decisive penalty to send the
Germans through to the
title match to be played at
their own Allianz Arena on
May 19.
Bayern coach Jupp
Heynckes, who won the
Champions League with
Real in 1998, revelled in the
German club’s unexpected
but deserved triumph at his
former stomping ground in
the Spanish capital, while
Mourinho was left to ponder his side’s second consecutive elimination at the
last-four stage.
Real’s latest setback in
Europe’s elite club competition is a huge blow for
the combative Portuguese
and club president Florentino Perez, who has spent
hundreds of millions of
euros chasing the elusive
‘decima’, or 10th continental title.
It also left Spain in a state
of shock after Chelsea survived the dismissal of captain John Terry and fought
back from two goals down
to send holders Barcelona
crashing out 3-2 on aggregate in their semi-final secContinued on page 55
NEW YORK-- The 2012
NFL draft will likely be
remembered for its leading men, with quarterbacks
Andrew Luck and Robert
Griffin III the certain top
two picks as players who
will always be measured
against one another.
But after the Indianapolis Colts name Stanford’s
Luck with the first pick and
the Washington Redskins
follow by claiming Baylor’s Griffin (nicknamed
RG3) as the second overall choice, the next 30
first-round selections are a
guessing game.
“One and two is a foregone
conclusion but I think from
there on there’s gonna be a
lot of ‘Boy, that’s a shock,’”
former longtime Dallas
Cowboys player personnel
chief and current NFL.com
analyst Gil Brandt told Reuters on Wednesday. “This
is a draft where there’s a
lot of players that look a lot
alike.”
The annual draft of elite
U.S. college football players is the lifeblood of the
National Football League
(NFL), where teams replenish their rosters and
address weaknesses in a
rite of spring that gives all
clubs reason to hope for
improvement.
The first round of the draft
takes place Thursday at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, with rounds two and
three to be held Friday and
the last four rounds coming
on Saturday.
Third choice in the opening round is held by the
Minnesota Vikings, who
are entertaining offers from
other clubs keen to move
up in order to ensure getting their preferred player.
Following Minnesota are
the Cleveland Browns,
Tampa Bay Buccaneers and
St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cleveland Browns
(No. 4 and 22), Cincinnati
Bengals (17, 21) and New
England Patriots (27, 31),
all possess two picks in the
first round.
Other highly regarded
prospects pegged to go early include offensive tackle
Matt Kalil (University of
Southern California), run-
ning back Trent Richard- mon (Oklahoma State Unison (Alabama), cornerback versity).
Morris Claiborne (Louisi- The next quarterback likeana State University) and ly to be taken after Luck
Continued on page 54
wide receiver Justin Black-
Spain’s Rafael Nadal returns a ball to compatriot Guillermo
Garcia-Lopez during the Barcelona Open, April 25. Nadal
swept into the third round with a 6-1 6-2 win.
BARCELONA -- World
number two Rafa Nadal
swept into the third round
of the Barcelona Open
when he thrashed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1 6-2
as he began his quest for
a seventh Conde de Godo
trophy in eight years on
Wednesday.
Fresh from a record eighth
straight win at last week’s
Monte Carlo Masters,
Nadal dispatched his 78thranked Spanish compatriot
in a little over one hour and
20 minutes and will play
another Spaniard, Pablo
Andujar, or Colombian
Robert Farah for a place in
Friday’s quarter-finals.
Top seed Nadal, whose victory was his 30th in a row at
the clay event in the Catalan capital, told reporters
he had felt a slight twinge
of pain in his left knee, an
injury that forced his withdrawal from last month’s
Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, but said it was nothing
to worry about.
“It went better than I
thought, I played a good
match,” the Mallorca native added.
“I made few errors, I felt
good on my backhand for
virtually the whole time
and I was solid across the
board.”
Third seed David Ferrer of Spain eased into
the third round when he
thumped Filip Krajinovic
of Serbia 6-0 6-3 to set up
a clash with compatriot Albert Montanes, a 6-0 5-7
7-5 victor over Australia’s
Bernard Tomic.
Britain’s Andy Murray,
the second seed who went
through on Tuesday, takes
on Santiago Giraldo for a
place in the last eight on
Thursday after the Colombian beat Robin Haase of
Netherlands 6-4 6-3.