VOL. 6, NO. 7 • April 4, 2012 618 Strouds Lane, Pickering, ON L1V 4S9 • Tel: 905.831-4402 • Fax: 416.292.2943 • Email: caribbeangraphic@rogers.com

REDjet Return Up In The Air!

360 Degree Financial’s Founder Facing Fraud ChargesToronto police recently announced fraud charg-

es against former 360 Degree Financial Services Founder and President Wilton Neale. The Finan-cial Crimes Unit announced 10 counts of fraud over $5,000 and one count of fraud under $5,000 against Wilton Neale, 50, who headed two investment firms, 360 Degree Financial Services Inc. and Multiple Streams of Income Inc, and who has already been sanctioned by both the Ontario Securities Commis-sion and the Financial Services Commission of On-tario.

Police say they have been investigating allega-tions of fraud involving the two firms since June of last year. In unveiling the charges, they said that be-tween October 2007 and February 2010, Neale “con-vinced victims to invest funds in his companies that they had obtained through loans, lines of credit and re-financing of their homes”, and that he took their funds but did not invest them as agreed. It claims he took in approximately $1.3 million during the pe-riod.

The allegations have not been proven. Neale is scheduled to appear in court at College Park on May 8.

Back in October 2010, the OSC settled its own allegations against Neale and his two companies, imposing an administrative penalty of $500,000, re-quiring disgorgement of $265,179, costs of $10,000, and a 15-year trading ban and director and officer ban. In that proceeding, Neale acknowledged that he and MSI engaged in an unauthorized distribution

of securities; that he, MSI and 360˚ engaged in mis-leading conduct; and, that they had acted contrary to the public interest.

FSCO had also issued a permanent cease and de-sist order against both Neale and 360˚ in March 2009 prohibiting them from carrying on the business of insurance in Ontario. MSI was never registered with FSCO or the OSC.

Neale was licensed as a sales person of Keybase Financial Group Inc., a dealer registered in the cat-egory of mutual funds dealer, from Feb. 18, 2006 to Jan. 18, 2007 when he was terminated for cause. He

was also licensed to sell life insurance and accident and sickness insurance by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario.

Neale incorporated 360 Degree Financial Services Inc. on Feb. 2, 2005. He was the sole officer and di-rector of 360˚, which was also licensed by FSCO to sell insurance products. 360˚ was party to a distribu-tion agreement with AGF Trust which enabled 360˚ to apply on behalf of its customers to AGF Trust for loans which were required to be invested in RSP eli-gible products. FSCO issued a permanent cease and desist order against 360˚ on March 4, 2009 prohibit-ing it from carrying on the business of insurance.

According to the Securities Commission Reports during 2007 and 2008, 360˚ was experiencing finan-cial difficulty. In an effort to raise capital for 360˚, Neale through MSI solicited several investors to purchase $584,500 of debentures issued by MSI. Al-though some of the MSI debenture investors were told that their money would be applied to special projects of benefit to their community, the funds raised were in fact commingled in the bank account of 360˚ and used by 360˚ in the ordinary course of its business. None of the debentures were repaid at ma-turity or at any other time. Neale and MSI were not registered to trade or advise in securities. MSI was at no time registered to issue securities. The MSI debenture securities were not offered pursuant to a prospectus nor was there any prospectus exemption available to MSI for the described debenture financ-ing.

BRIDGETOWN, - All appears to be lost for Barbados-based carrier REDjet. This comes as Barbados suspended the airline’s Air Operators’ Certificate (AOC) with effect March 20, four days after the airline suspended all flights to its nine des-tinations, and Trinidad’s revocation of its licence to fly to that country by the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority. According to reports, this chain of events sealed the airline’s fate, making it even more unlikely for its return to the skies after a mere 10 months in the air. It also means that the airline’s 90 employees will have to seek other forms of em-ployment.

Directors of the airline, as well as Chief Execu-tive Officer, Mr. Ian Burns, have indicated that the airline needs an $8 million injection to remain in the skies. However, there are some who still hold the view that all is not lost for the airline, as the Guyana and Antiguan governments pledge their continued support of the airline.

The Barbados Government is also working on a plan to get low-cost carrier REDjet back in the skies. Minister of International Transport George

Hutson revealed as much in an April 1 interview with the DAILY NATION, even though REDjet director Ralph “Bizzy” Williams had sounded the carrier’s death knell 24 hours before.

“We are working on a solution . . . to give the air-line a provisional licence under the act if they can have the airline up and running in 60 days,” Hutson said. “The licence will also be valid for a year.”

Noting that any other “accommodation” would fall under the purview of the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Hutson pointed out that Gov-ernment had been getting “licks” in its efforts to find a solution to the problems surrounding the Four Seasons resort and said he did not know “if anyone would like to see a big injection into RED-jet without knowing what is likely to happen down the line”.

Meanwhile, the grounding of REDjet has also seen an increase in airfares by regional carrier LIAT. Hutson has also suggested that LIAT is do-ing no better than REDjet and should work some of the grounded low-cost carrier’s good points into its own model. Noting that LIAT – which is

owned by the governments of Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and St Vincent and the Grenadines – had suffered substantial losses in the last two years, Hutson called on the airline to “look at some of the things REDjet was doing that were good”.

“LIAT should probably look at the experience of REDjet . . . for instance, there is a demand for spe-cial pricing, holiday and family specials and so on.

“There’s also a lot of excess capacity on the air-craft. LIAT’s load factor is about 60 per cent, while REDjet’s is less than 50 per cent on average.

“So LIAT needs to look at some of the things REDjet was doing . . . and adapt them into its model. LIAT also has variable pricing, but doesn’t market it,” he told local reporters in an interview.

Wilton Neale

April 4, 2012CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 2

The Ticket To Building A Successful BusinessCommunity

Akua

Hinds

Tony Chankar

Starting a business is a big challenge, but the challenge of pursuing entrepreneur-ship did not intimidate Tony Chankar from blazing his own trail and launching a print and design company. The Trinidadian na-tive, who has lived in Canada since 1975, felt that he could contribute to his commu-nity through using his talents.

“I started marketing, and then I went to U of T and did design. It was just a natural progression for me to get into the printing industry,” Chankar said.

Do you remember what life and busi-ness were like before the Internet was as widely available as it is today? Finding in-formation and images back then was much more time consuming than now. Chankar founded his company, The Printing Press Inc., in the year 1991, a time when the word “Google” did not exist.

“Our computers were a lot slower than they are today. That was all a challenge. The technology then was very different than today. In those days, the technology for designing wasn’t as good as it is today. We had no Internet then. So, we pretty much didn’t have an Internet to go to get images or to get resources as we have to-day,” Chankar explained.

Starting a new business with a team can be challenging in the initial stages, and launching a company without the help of

a team can be even more challenging, but Chankar was undaunted by the challenges of leading his company by himself.

“I was never one to focus on the compe-

tition. I never actually cared if there was one. I just had to do MY job. If there was a guy down the street or next door to me, it didn’t matter. I just had to do what I had to

do to get my job done,” Chankar said. Chankar reached out to the Greater To-

ronto Area’s Caribbean community to get his business off the ground in the initial days, and he and his company continue to reach out to Canadian West Indians.

“They were pretty supportive. You have to give back just as well, and we’ve done a lot of sponsorship over the years and a lot of community involvement, so, that defi-nitely helped,” Chankar said.

Chankar is also the founder and CEO of Ticket Gateway, an online ticketing compa-ny that profiles online solutions for indoor and outdoor events. Ticket Gateway is the largest online ticketing company for the West Indian community, and it sells tick-ets to mainstream events as well. Chankar considers creating the online portal one of his company’s biggest accomplishments. His company is currently the official tick-eting company for the Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly known as Caribana.

“Last year was the first year they actual-ly blocked off the parade. So we provided all of the staffing and all of the ticketing solutions for them. And again, this year, we will be doing the same. We provide all the online ticketing for them. We also have the Wine & Spirit Festival that’s in down-town Toronto,” Chankar explained.

Chankar’s business has greatly expand-ed since the days when he was the sole employee.

“I was the only one on staff until we started to hire designers and more staffing. And, eventually we bought equipment and now today, we have pretty much a full in-house shop,” Chankar said.

Technology has helped Chankar to ex-pand his business and keep up demands to produce jobs faster and more efficiently

as well as give back to the designing com-munity through posting educational tips on the company website for up and coming designers.

“I wouldn’t want to say I’m a teacher of any kind, because, we focus on what we do. But yes, we do provide information for upcoming designers as well so that they can learn how to do their jobs better and make it easier for them to do business,” Chankar said.

Chankar’s business primarily focuses on entertainment events, but the company provides support for golf tournaments, of-fers restaurant gift certificates, and other exciting products and services.

“It is the up and coming company. We’ve been growing very rapidly. We opened in Miami and in Trinidad, also, in February of this year. We do events in Miami, we do events in Trinidad and also in Toronto,” Chankar said.

Entrepreneurship has served Chankar well for over two decades and he recom-mends entrepreneurship to whoever is con-sidering it.

“It definitely makes you a lot more in-dependent. It makes you, unfortunately, more demanding, but definitely more inde-pendent from working for someone. But at the same time, no one is behind you to tell you what to do, so, you have to be self-mo-tivated and self-directed. And you have to pretty much make a lot of decisions all on your own. Other than working for some-one, the option is working for yourself, so, you don’t have someone telling you what to do. You pretty much have to tell your-self what to do.”

Despite his successes, Chankar acknowl-edges that the road to success in entrepre-neurship is about hard work and integrity.

“It was challenging. At the beginning it is always tough, but when you stick to good customer service, delivering on time, your client base definitely follows you and it grows with you.”

April 4, 2012 CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 3

Reflections With Chinny Ca

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an J

ew

el

Devi Teluckdharry is the reigning Miss West Indian Canadian 2011. She is also a WI Canadian top model, www.wicanadian.com. She will be busy this summer attending various community events and spreading her positive vibe to young girls to follow in her footsteps. She believes dreams can come true because if you imagine it, you can achieve it and if you can dream it, you can become it.

Canadian Caribbean musician Ray-mond “Chinny” Lee-Own, whose band Triple Play is a popular live music choice from many Community events, has re-leased his first-ever CD. Titled “Reflec-tions With Chinny”, the CD will be offi-cially launched at a Buffet Luncheon this coming Sunday, April 15.

Tickets for the Luncheon, which of course includes a Buffet Lunch as well as a complimentary copy of the Reflections CD, are a very reasonable $20 per per-son. The venue will be Pickering’s West Shore Community Centre. The Centre is located at 1011 – 1015 Bayly Street, east of Whites Road and west of Liverpool. The fun starts at 1:00 pm and goes until 6:00 pm.

Regarded as an extraordinary sprinter who represented Guyana from 1962 to 1968 in cycling, Raymond Lee Own grew up in Kitty where he lived with his parents, two brothers and a sister. As a sprinter, he went head-to-head with the best in the Western Hemisphere.

In 1967 he defeated Trinidadian sprint ace, Roger Gibbon, the then Pan Ameri-can, British Empire and Western Hemi-sphere champion. Twice he out-sprinted Fred Booker, the United Kingdom’s reigning 4000-metre pursuit champion at the time, who was himself, a very aggres-sive and physical bike rider.

Guyanese will remember his victory over Jim Rossi, the American sprint cham-pion in 1967 in a grand finale 20,000-me-tre race on the old British Guyana Cricket Club ground, Thomas Lands.

Having emigrated to Canada in the early seventies, Chinny pursued his twin loves of bike-riding and music. He com-peted successfully on the Masters Cycling Circuit while functioning as guitarist and leader of several community bands. He eventually hung up his riding shoes sever-al years ago and has since concentrated on his music. “Reflections with Chinny” is a compilation CD which acknowledges a Canadian musical career that has spanned over thirty years.

Chinny

April 4, 2012CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 4

Eyes On ‘The Plan’Beverly

Browne

Tonya Lee Williams

Most people know Tonya Lee Williams from her role as Dr. Ol-ivia Winters on the day-time soap, The Young and The Restless (Y & R). People familiar with her career ascent will perhaps remember her launch as Miss Black Ontario. There was also her cute and wholesome image with a milk moustache in the commercial that encouraged Canadians to drink more milk for their health.

Her artistic side has expanded from mod-el, then actress to include writer, producer, and director, with many nominations and awards. And although she’s well known as the founder of ReelWorld Film Festival, perhaps what’s not so well known is her in-tensity as an astute entrepreneur who heads several businesses.

ReelWorld is Toronto’s annual five-day Festival. It’s the outgrowth of Ms. Wil-liams’ desire to provide opportunities for Canadian artists of color. This year the event runs April 11-15, with numerous film showings, plus such added components as the Indie Film Lounge. It offers support to emerging actors, directors, producers and writers. There’s also the festival’s Vision-ary Award, which recognizes an individual that has been a long-time supporter of the community.

The non-profit organization is a vehicle to help emerging artists get their talents in front of the public. Formed in 2001, Ms.

Williams says the Festival has just stopped losing mon-ey. The challenge now is for it to start making money so it can give some to the emerg-ing artists to help them create their projects.

Then there’s her produc-tion company, Wilbo Enter-

tainment. The company is specifically for family-friendly, faith-based productions that she will either direct or star in. On that note, she encourages emerging artists who have projects they want to pitch to a producer to do research to ensure a good fit before submitting an idea. In 2003 she produced and hosted the Tonya Lee Wil-liams Gospel Jubilee for CBC. In 2004 she directed the Vision TV pilot, Kink in My Hair. She was also executive producer for the pilot.

Yet another venture for Ms. Williams is her Internet consulting company for actors and others in the entertainment industry. Although she gets offers to fly her to dif-ferent places for work, long-distance travel isn’t something she relishes. So she capi-talizes on the electronic age by making this service available through her tonyaleewil-liams.com site.

In a three-hour appointment, she helps clients structure a plan to realistically achieve their dreams. She started out work-ing mostly with actors, but the entertain-ment industry has many people outside of acting, and her understanding of the trade enables her to give solid advice.

The first step is to clearly define your goal. Then you want to be in the right envi-ronment, where there are lots of opportuni-ties. When you get to that environment, she says, you need to start off being prepared to do whatever it takes to maintain your-self. That could mean cleaning the shoes of a director.

For Ms. Williams, success in any ven-ture comes from having a defined business model. “I believe you can access every-thing you want if you first shape it out. If you have a strong business plan, you can be a bad actor and succeed.”

A good business model should keep you within your desired parameters for your time of life. That means, as you person-ally move from one ‘season’ to another, you might want to adjust your parameters. The actress says it’s sometimes necessary to restructure your plan to avoid ending up working all day long just to “maintain sur-vival”.

To clarify further, she explains, “I create a plan all the time. If I was starting my act-ing career now, my business model would be very different from the model I followed at the start of my career in the 1970s.”

One reason is that there’s less filming being done in Hollywood now than in the ‘70s. “I’d look for the places where more filming is being done: Africa and Canada, for example. In 2012, if I was young and black, I’d look to the African market.”

Some entertainers create their business models simply to be photographed and talked about continuously, and make a lot of money in the process. They set out to

become rich and famous. While that would not be her model, Ms. Williams says she respects the fact that those entertainers knew what they wanted, created a plan, and achieved the success they wanted.

Ms. Williams says even though many people in all aspects of the entertainment industry make more money than she does, because of how she was raised, she has never felt poor, and doesn’t worry that she will ever be poor. But interestingly, she doesn’t put all her emphasis on mak-ing a lot of money in her plans. Her busi-ness model has always incorporated three things: working as an actor, living with pri-vacy and making money. She says all three are important enough that if an assignment would drastically affect any one of them, she wouldn’t take it.

Right from the start of her career she knew she wanted to live a normal life. “I knew I wanted privacy. The idea that a bodyguard has to come with you; or that you have to send people to shop for you…. I’d be miserable.”

The entrepreneur says she believes that when people end up taking drugs, it’s of-ten because they didn’t think out their plan. “When people say ‘I want to be really fa-mous’, I tell them to seriously think about that.”

Without going into great detail, it’s clear Ms. Williams understands that there are consequences to every action. Some ac-tions bring unwelcome penalties. In her 35-year career, she has consciously made choices to fit her business models so she can arrive at her goals.

April 4, 2012 CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 5

New Products, Markets Focus Urged For Tourism Industry

Caribbean Perspective

Sandra Ann

Baptiste

The Caribbean tourism industry, which has been faced with on-going challenges over the past decade and has implemented value-added programs and used creativity to sustain business, is being urged to con-sider new strategies to remain competi-tive.

The President of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank, Dr. War-ren Smith, who took over at the helm of the CDB almost a year ago, believes product diversification is imperative for the key foreign exchange earning tourism sector.

Smith told me that some of the region’s tourism destina-tions need new attractions if they are to maintain the inter-est of international visitors.

The CDB head also advocates an increase in linkages between the hospitality and agricultural sectors so that famers can benefit from secure and reliable markets and rural incomes can improve. Smith identified sustainability of agricultural supplies and quality as key issues and un-derscored that inventory managers in hotels need to “be on the ball” to meet the needs of guests.

To attract international visitors, who are being cautious about spending, the region’s hospitality industry has been enhancing product value by offering add ons such as mas-sages and free breakfasts.

The CDB President advocates broadening the source markets for tourism, with particular emphasis on South America, especially Brazil. While some inroads have been made in recent years, Smith is calling for a “systematic program” to develop the South American market. Only last month, Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar high-

lighted the importance of the South American market for CARICOM products and joint ventures.

Smith identified as a critical com-ponent of aggressively trying to lure more South American tourists, ad-equate and reliable flights into those markets. Some countries such as Bar-bados have direct flights to Brazil.

Dr. Smith says there is a need to shift focus because of the continuing challenges in the U.S. and debt plagued Eu-ropean markets. While the U.S. unemployment numbers (8.2% in February) have been encouraging in recent times, “there is still a lot of uncertainty and it is difficult to pre-dict sustained recovery”.

Canada has been one of the “bright spots” for Carib-bean tourism. The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) reports that some countries such as Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda and Curacao experienced double-digit increases in arrivals from Canada.

However, the CDB President is concerned that the cur-rent tightening of Canada’s fiscal position can have a nega-tive impact on the region. Both the provincial Ontario and Federal governments are facing massive deficits and have announced belt-tightening measures in their recent annual budgets.

Smith, who is a former CEO of the regional airline LIAT, also believes it is time regional airlift issues be resolved. To succeed in finding a regional solution, in his view, re-quires detailed collaboration “and a willingness to do so”.

The aviation expert pointed to “some very thin markets” in the Eastern Caribbean that present economic challeng-

es. However, he believes there must be a mechanism for ensuring a certain degree of travel to those markets, with service at important times when people want to travel.

“I am convinced that if you have an airline that operates on a purely commercial basis, some countries in the region will suffer badly. There needs to be a willingness to find a solution for the common benefit of the entire region,” Smith advised me.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves, told me recently that Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) has an unfair competi-tive edge over LIAT because its fuel is subsidised and also accused the airline of “cherry picking” routes to the disad-vantage of Vincentians. The recent meeting of CARICOM leaders in Suriname addressed some of the regional trans-portation issues in bilateral discussions.

The CDB president observed that there is a lot of public discussion on regional air transportation which key play-ers like Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda are no doubt aware of. A final resolution to this protracted issue, according to Smith, is possibly maintain-ing more than one airline. ”Competition is good and there could be a sharing of markets.”

The CDB President also believes more attention needs to be paid to the impact of crime on the region’s tourism industry and the root causes of escalating criminal activity in some countries. “There is evidence to suggest that there is a strong correlation between the security of citizens and economic growth,” the head of the Caribbean’s premier financial institution said.

April 4, 2012CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 6

Commentary

Where Are Businesses In Caribbean Business?

The Value Of Advice

Tony Mc

Sir Ronald

Sanders

The countries of the Caribbean Commu-nity and Common Market (CARICOM), with the exception of Guyana and Suri-name, are each experiencing severe decline in their economies. The small Leeward and Windward Islands are worst affected, and so too is Barbados.

Governments are struggling to find ways in which to spur economic activity that could produce growth. Meanwhile, unem-ployment and poverty are growing. Unemployment is highest amongst the youth, making for an alarming situation.

Presenting a lecture to students of the University of the West Indies recently, I received the greatest applause and nods of ap-proval when I lamented the fact that there were now many gradu-ates of the University who were unable to find jobs that corre-spond to their level of qualifications, if they could find any jobs at all.

Many Caribbean countries are like pressure cookers, waiting to explode. Only migration and remittances from family abroad are easing the pressure. But, even these valves are not sufficient to relieve discontent completely.

In many cases, this has led to borrowing from local statutory bodies, such as national insurance and social security schemes, to fund capital projects and even to pay wages and salaries. Gov-ernments have also borrowed from local banks, causing them to carry the greatest risk if there is a default. A few governments have also borrowed from the Government of the People’s Re-public of China and, while many of these loan agreements have not been made public but are said to be concessionary, they have added to the burden of national debt and will have to be repaid in the future.

Where is the Caribbean business community in all this? They appear not to be involved at all. Indeed, in some CARI-

COM countries, the only involvement of the business commu-nity in the present difficulties is that some of them are seeking greater concessions from governments.

The recent Landell Mills report to CARICOM Heads of Gov-

ernment on the restructuring of the CARI-COM Secretariat points out that the regional private sector is “fragmented and divided” and many “key private sector players do not even bother to get involved”.

This situation is not good for the region or for the private sector. It is not governments that trade; it is businesses. Therefore, the business community throughout the region should have a keen interest in the meetings

of CARICOM trade ministers and meetings of heads of govern-ment. The decisions they reach have a major impact on busi-ness and on the capacity of businesses to contribute to economic growth and development.

Yet, there are no regular and structured meetings between Caribbean governments and the Caribbean private sector. In other words, governments reach decisions with little or no input from the private sector which they all proclaim is “the engine of growth”.

It is telling that the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Eu-ropean Union Commission regularly consult the private sector of their countries recognizing fully that the rules to which they agree, or set, are meant to facilitate businesses on which their economies depend for growth, employment and prosperity.

The Landell Mills report states what should be obvious to all: “The private sector’s views on what works and what does not and on where priorities lie would be invaluable”. For some reason, it does not appear obvious to many CARICOM governments. They treat the private sector with suspicion. Only Barbados has a system of consultations with the private sector in joint meetings with trade unions, but even these meetings are not attended by the “key private sector players”. As the report says, the officials who attend these meetings “are often not business people them-selves”. The latter point suggests that serious business people see little point in engaging governments which fail to act on the proposals they put forward.

The report recommends “regular small and informal meetings, possibly over dinner. In our experience an informal arrangement is the best way of building up relationships and getting busy ex-ecutives to open up on a freewheeling basis”. There is merit in this idea provided it is done in an open and transparent manner. If not, it will lead to allegations of favouritism, discrimination and marginalisation from others who are not invited.

The report also dismisses the notion of structured meetings, including a Council of representatives of governments and the private sector. But such a Council is necessary and it would be well attended if it comprised Heads of Government and lead-ing business figures from across the region. Both groups would want to be sure they are dealing with persons who can make and implement decisions. Of course, businessmen will cease to at-tend meetings, whether it be small working dinners or a council, as soon as they get the first inkling that nothing is done as a result of the discussions.

How to achieve a higher level of confidence between govern-ments and the private sector is a challenge. Each group needs the other if the economies in which they operate – and indeed the Caribbean Single Market – are to be advanced so as to create jobs, reduce poverty and to grow.

In 2009, as head of the Jamaican-based company, Grace Ken-nedy, Douglas Orane told a regional private sector body: “The CARICOM region needs to go through a process of self trans-formation”. The vibrant Jamaican private sector is well placed to propose a basic plan for the regional business community’s involvement in, and contribution to, the region’s economic prog-ress. With the help of the new Jamaica government, such a plan could be a basis for wider regional discussion, refinement and adoption.

Businesses cannot be left out of business.

(The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat)

Responses and previous commentaries at: www.sirronald-sanders.com

According to a 2010 Ipsos Reid Study, Canadian House-holds that utilize the services of a Financial Advisor tend to be much better off than those that don’t, regardless of age or income. In some instances, particularly in the 55-64 age bracket and the $55,000 - $69,000 annual income range, the difference in accumulated net income is 5 and 6 times more respectively.

The Decima Research Study that was conducted many years ago had indicated that the average household size for the Canadian Caribbean Community was four individuals. Most recent estimates of the actual size of the Commu-nity suggest a membership of approximately 1.2 million individuals. Based on the four person per household Dec-ima estimate therefore, that would suggest 300,000 as the number of households in our community.

With these Study figures in mind and based on the knowledge accumulated from the exposure to and involve-ment with the community during the now twenty-five plus years I have now lived in Canada, I would hazard three guesses about our beloved Canadian Caribbean peoples.

The first of those would be that quite a large percentage of the estimated 300,000 Canadian Caribbean Community households would have at least one member whose annual earnings are within the $55,000 - $69,000 range. If not, then collectively the total household income would argu-ably be somewhere in close vicinity of that range, either slightly below, above or spot on.

The second guess would be that the majority of those 300,000 households would also have at least one family member who falls within the 55-64 age bracket.

My third and final guess is that the greater majority of those 300,000 households do not currently have a Finan-cial Advisor and, furthermore, have never found it fit to use one.

Here’s a fourth and final guess. I’d bet my last dollar that if a comparison was to be made to similar households, within the same age and income categories, amongst other

communities, notably the Chinese, Jews and South Asians, that the respective incidences of Financial Advisor use would be much, much higher.

So if there’s any degree of accuracy to my estimations, why is it that within the Caribbean community we seem to shy away from utilizing the services of financial advisors? Especially when there are such shining examples of those amongst our very own who have excelled in that field.

At the very top of that list is of course Michael Lee Chin, recently ranked as the 34th richest person in Canada and whose impressive net worth has been largely due to his outstanding accomplishments in the Financial Services industry. Before he ran into hot water with the Regula-tors, David Singh was another of our boys who has made a name for himself in that field. As many readers would know, Singh built his initial Investment Company Fortune Financial from the ground up to its eventual selling price of $88 million.

More recently, Barbadian–born Ralph Weekes has be-come one of the country’s most successful Financial Plan-ners. In the now thirty-plus years he’s been with Investors Group, Weekes has been a multiple winner of the Com-pany’s prestigious Top Producer of the Year Award.

Lee Chin, Singh and Weekes are just the tip of a very large iceberg. There are countless other very qualified financial services professionals within our community, ready and available to provide valued advice if and when called upon to do so.

As I have said to countless others since I myself joined Investors Group three years ago, some of the strategies I have learnt that are commonly used by those who have successfully developed wealth for themselves and their families, I wish I’d known twenty years ago. Unfortunate-ly for me, I like so many of us was never wise enough to utilize the services of a Financial Advisor, opting instead to go it alone. Making decisions based on the knowledge I had and options I thought were the only ones available.

The net result of which was far too often outcomes that were far less favorable than they would have been had I sought professional advice.

There were two barriers that prevented me from seeking such advice. I now also suspect that these may indeed be foremost amongst the reasons many of us still find our-selves reluctant to utilize such services, even when it has become crystal clear that we may be in dire need of good financial planning advice.

The first of these is the fear of a lack of confidentiality. We seem to think that discussing our affairs with someone from within our community will result in everyone else “knowing our business”. The reality is that such fears are completely unfounded, as all Licensed Financial Advisors operate under terms that require complete confidentiality and non-disclosure of the affairs of their clients. No pro-fessional Advisor worth their salt will ever run the risk of losing their license, and ultimately their practice, as a re-sult of having divulged your information to someone else.

The second even more asinine reason is the fear of being judged. We let our embarrassment over the current state of our financial affairs, whatever it may be, prevent us from seeking the very advice that might serve to improve it significantly. Again, no Advisor worth weight will ever judge you. Rather, the more challenging your situation, the greater should be their desire to provide the guidance and advice you need that will help you to overcome the chal-lenges you face.

With this in mind, let us all therefore take note of the message from the results of the Ipsos Reid study by hence-forth seeking the type of financial advice that will add val-ue to and ultimately improve our lives. If the Chinese and South Asians are doing it, why shouldn’t we.

Publisher/Editor: Tony McWattEditorial Consultant : Malcolm CliffeContributors: Mark Bannister, Sandra Ann Baptiste, Beverly Brown’ Duane DaSilva, Errol A. Gibbs, Akua Hinds, Sir Ronald Sanders,Legal: Oumarally and BaboolalGraphic Design: AM Creative

618 Strouds Lane, Pickering, ON L1V 4S9 • Tel: 905.831-4402 • Fax: 416.292.2943 • Email: caribbeangraphic@rogers.com • www.caribbeangraphic.ca

April 4, 2012 CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 7

Caribbean Destinations

Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi). The Com-monwealth of Dominica has an estimated population of 72,500. The capital is Ro-seau.

Dominica has been nicknamed the “Na-ture Isle of the Caribbean” for its unspoiled natural beauty. Christopher Columbus named the island after the day of the week on which he spotted it, a Sunday (dominica in Latin), November 3, 1493. Its pre-Co-lumbian name was “Wai‘tu kubuli”, which means “Tall is her body.

In the hundred years after Columbus’s landing, Dominica remained isolated, and

even more Caribs settled there after being driven from surrounding islands as Euro-pean powers entered the region. France formally ceded possession of Dominica to Great Britain in 1763. Britain then estab-lished a colony on the island in 1805.

The emancipation of African slaves oc-curred throughout the British Empire in 1834, and, in 1838, Dominica became the first British Caribbean colony to have a legislature controlled by a black majority. In 1896, the United Kingdom reassumed governmental control of Dominica, turning it into a Crown colony. Half a century lat-er, from 1958 to 1962, Dominica became a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation. In 1978, Dominica became an independent nation.

There are two small airports on the is-land. The primary airport, Melville Hall Airport, is on the northeast coast and is about a 45-minute drive from Portsmouth. The second is Canefield Airport, about 15 minutes from Roseau on the southwest coast. Melville Hall Airport is suitable for limited use of commercial jets because of runway length.

There are two primary population cen-tres: Roseau and Portsmouth. Dominica’s capital of Roseau (pronounced “roze-o”) is

a densely populated market town of 20,000 where an assortment of modern buildings and pretty stone and Victorian houses line the streets, beneath the backdrop of Domi-nica’s lush green mountains.

In addition to The Botanical Gardens, Roseau’s popular attractions include The Old Market, Dominica Museum, and His-toric Walking Tour. The cobblestoned Old Market in Roseau was once a slave auc-tion, public meeting, and punishment area. It has now been converted to a craft and souvenir plaza with vendors of tropical fruits, handicrafts, and “rasta essentials”. This historical area is a very short walk from the Cruise Ship Terminal.

Dominica possesses the most pristine wilderness in the Caribbean. It is largely covered by rain forest and is home to the

world’s second-largest hot spring Boil-ing Lake. Dominica has many waterfalls, springs, and rivers. The Calibishie area in the country’s northeast has sandy beaches. Some plants and animals thought to be extinct on surrounding islands can still be found in Dominica’s forests, the Sisserou parrot is Dominica’s national bird and is indigenous to its mountain forests.

Dominica is known for its natural beauty and the variety of activities for the ad-venture-minded traveler, both above and below the sea. Whether you are splashing under the sea scuba diving and snorkeling, powering yourself across the top of the sea in a kayak, cruising the sea on a whale watching or deep sea fishing excursion, or sailing along in a schooner, there is some-thing for everyone here.

One of the top ten dive destinations in the world, Dominica offers diverse dive

sites from the calmer tropical fish-filled waters, to spectacular drops and a sub-merged volcanic crater. The opportunities for underwater discovery and photography are unparalleled. The diving off Dominica is as rich and varied as its topside attrac-tions, from volcanic vents spewing bubbles and hot water, to submerged volcanic cra-ters with dramatic vertical walls, and gen-tly sloping shelves of coral and sponge. The waters of Dominica are protected: the southern end of the island is the Scotts Head Soufriere Marine Reserve, the north being the islands first marine reserve, the Cabrits Marine Reserve.

As with all sites here, “the slower you go, the more you will see”. The reefs are granite-based, so there are comparatively few spaces for nocturnal and hard-to-find

species to hide by day. This is what draws photographers and marine creature watch-es to the island.

Back on land, Dominica’s 300 miles of trails are a true nature lover’s dream. Breathtaking vistas, waterfalls, rushing streams, and volcanic wonders await hik-ers of every skill level. Where will your Dominica trailhead take you?

Just 30 minutes from Roseau, visitors can enjoy a truly unique rainforest experi-ence. An aerial tramway will transport you through nearly a mile of protected tropical montane, or high altitude rainforest, bor-dering the Morne Trois Pitons National Park. A narrow corridor through the trees allows close observation of the diverse plant and bird life, and the return journey reveals stunning vistas of the Caribbean and nearby volcanic peaks. Guides will point out many of the island’s 175 bird spe-

cies, as well as the exotic trees, vines and vegetation. For a real thrill, disembark and cross the dizzying Breakfast River Gorge on the pedestrian suspension bridge. The ride lasts just over an hour, but the memo-ries will last a lifetime!

Dominica’s many other attractions in-clude its culture and cuisine. Music and dance are important facets of Dominica’s culture. The annual independence celebra-tions show an outburst of traditional song and dance preceded since 1997 by weeks of Creole expressions such as “Creole in the Park” and the “World Creole Music Festival”.

Jazz ‘n Creole presented by Discover Dominica Authority (DDA) is held annu-ally on Pentecost Sunday. The event is a means of attracting visitors from the neigh-

boring French islands as well as the wider Caribbean to Dominica and serves as an avenue for showcasing local Jazz artists on the island, as well as foreign acts.

Dominican cuisine is similar to that of other Caribbean countries. Common main courses comprise meat (usually chicken, but can be goat, lamb, or beef) covered in sauce. The sauces are either spicy pep-per sauces, or concoctions made from lo-cal fruit. Dining in Dominica is as much about the ambiance as the cuisine. Many restaurants serve up captivating panoramas along with an eclectic menu of continental and West Indian dishes. Dominican chefs are adept at preparing many European and American delicacies, with a West Indian touch.

Dominica is a delight to all its visitors.

Delightful Dominica

April 4, 2012CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 8

Keen Butch

Forde Cries Foul

Future In Doubt

20 years Of Gospelfest

Scarce Fish

Scary Tax Loss

REDjet Hard Done By Governments

BRIDGETOWN, - Jamaican hotel mag-nate Gordon “Butch” Stewart has con-firmed that he had a definite interest in buying out Almond Beach Village in Hey-woods, St Peter, saying it could easily be a happy marriage, but it was not a done deal. Stewart’s disclosure comes as top brass of Almond’s Trinidadian-based parent com-pany Neal & Massy meets with anxious shareholders at 10:30 this morning at the St Peter hotel to discuss the future of its three Barbados properties.

A team from Stewart’s Sandals hotel chain, including engineers, architects and hotel officials, was also due here today to carry out an evaluation of the debt-bur-dened Heywoods property.

“We love Barbados and we would love to be in Barbados from a Sandals perspec-tive,” said Stewart, the former owner of the Paradise Hotel property, which is now the site of the stalled Four Seasons Resort.

BRIDGETOWN, - An Opposition Member of Parliament has accused a Gov-ernment minister of deliberately using his office to encourage his own constituents to sign up for a $6,000,000 Government-funded programme, but leaving hundreds of other Barbadians out of the offer. Mem-ber of Parliament for St Thomas Cynthia Forde is accusing Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Patrick Todd of discriminating against poor people in her parish whilst offering similarly impov-erished people from his constituency of Bridgetown a fast track to Government’s

Housing And Neighbourhood Upgrading Programme.

According to Forde, more than 200 households in the village of Allen View and surrounding districts could improve their lot from a grant that Government had earmarked for 600 households, but none had been contacted, yet Todd had been cir-culating across his constituency one-page pamphlets signed by him as Minister of State in the Ministry of Housing, encour-aging them to visit the National Hous-ing Corporation and sign up for the pro-gramme.

BRIDGETOWN, - Dr Donna Hunte-Coxs future as Chief Executive Officer of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) appears to be in the balance. Her three-year contract ends sometime next month, but the three key players involved are mum on what happens next. With mere months before this year’s festivals get under way, there is no indication if the contract will be renewed; if Hunte-Cox has expressed an interest in continuing; if an interim CEO will oversee the events; or if the po-sition will be advertised. Questioned ear-lier, Minister of Culture Stephen Lashley confirmed that the CEO’s contract expires in May, but he deflected other queries.

BRIDGETOWN, - Now in its plati-num year, the Barbados Gospelfest 2012 will celebrate 20 years of excellence with a theme Touching Lives – Changing Na-tions during an exciting week of powerful ministry in song, dance, drama and much more. Speaking at an April 1 media launch at Divi Southwinds, producer of the event Adrian Agard recalled that the event was established in 1993 by the then Barbados Tourism Board when the Reverend Wes Hall was Minister of Tourism.

He said that, from its inception, top in-ternational gospel artistes participated in the festival, including Yolanda Adams and Kirk Franklin. In 1995, the responsibility

for the production was passed on to the Gospelfest Organizing Committee made up of people from the Christian commu-nity who were involved in the planning for the first two years, and in 2003, Gospelfest (Barbados) Inc. was incorporated to carry on the management of the festival.

Also speaking at the launch was Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy who lauded the organizers for the positive production over the last 20 years and pledged the ministry’s continued support of the festival. The fes-tival runs from May 19 to 27 and will offer several events which include HymnSpeak, Expressions Of Gospel and much more.

BRIDGETOWN, - The sea off Consett Bay is dry; dry of flying fish. Fisherfolk at that St John location had nothing but tales of woe to relate during a recent visit by lo-cal reporters. K. B. Reynolds said he knew of people who went out and returned with fish numbering in the single digits. “No day boat has caught more than 500 fish for the season,” he said.

One such unlucky fisherman was Rawle Harewood, who said he went out around 5 a.m. on April 2 and spent eight hours at sea for next to nothing. “I caught only one fly-ing fish,” he said, showing his lone catch.

A boat came in while the Reporters were speaking to the fishermen. Three people

went out to meet it, but the tale did not im-prove as the catch consisted of only eight flying fish

BRIDGETOWN, - More than a dozen international business companies (IBCs) left Barbados over a two-year period, tak-ing away a quarter of the island’s tax base, says Opposition Leader Owen Arthur. Re-ferring to a report which he said was pre-pared by the state-owned Invest Barbados, Arthur revealed that over 12 IBCs had left in 2009 and 2010, at least 12 more were planning to move and another 12 might be contemplating moving.

Addressing an April 1 meeting at the Barbados Labour Party’s Roebuck Street

headquarters, the former Prime Minister described the situation as scary and called for someone to take charge now.

“This is the second largest economic sector in Barbados. Its activity has gener-ated 60 per cent of Government’s Corpora-tion Tax revenue [over $180 million]. Its existence has made possible the growth of a Barbados middle class [and] many ac-counting houses, many business houses, many law firms depend upon this,” he stated.

BRIDGETOWN, - An international avi-ation think tank has suggested that Carib-bean governments must shoulder some of the blame for REDjet’s demise. The Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), the first agency outside the region to comment on the airline’s grounding, said long delays in granting the low-cost carrier permission to start flying to several destinations last year also hurt REDjet’s potential for profit and might have contributed to its current finan-cial situation.

“REDjet’s failure to execute a low-cost model in the Caribbean reflects the long-standing realities of governments in the region refusing to fully liberalise to al-low any meaningful competition in the market,” said the expert body in its CAPA

Leading Edge blog published on its web-site.

“Ultimately it seems REDjet’s optimism and ambition caved under the realities of operating in the Caribbean market . . . Now it is back to business as usual in the Carib-bean – protectionist governments keeping a tight grip on traffic rights in order to pro-tect their loss-making flag carriers.”

The Australia-based agency, which has offices in Europe and Southeast Asia, pointed a finger at Trinidad and Tobago which it said was highly protective of state-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) and that government’s subsidizing of CAL’s fuel costs created “even more hurdles for viable competition in the region”.

Gordon “Butch” Stewart

Cynthia Forde

Dr. Donna Hunte-Coxs

Consett Bay Fisherman

Barbados Beat

April 4, 2012 CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 9

Stepping Down

Fairer Pricing

Jazz For Less

No Sympathy For REDjetJune Session

ST. GEORGE’S, - The chairman of Gre-nada’s ruling party is stepping down from the post as authorities investigate forgery allegations against him. National Demo-cratic Congress spokesman Arley Gill an-nounced on April 2 that Kenrick Fullerton is stepping aside as the party’s chairman as he “concentrates on defending himself against the charges”.

Fullerton was charged with forgery fol-

lowing a probe by the island’s Financial Intelligence Unit. Details are few, but in-vestigators allege he forged a senior offi-cial’s signature while working as advisor to the sports minister. He was freed on $7,400 bail after spending the weekend in jail. He had to surrender his travel docu-ments and is due back in court in June.

Governing party deputy Stanford Simon has assumed the role of acting chairman.

BASSETERRE, – The Cabinet of the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has expressed a resolve to engage suppliers of cooking gas to investigate whether a fairer pricing system, namely the Mont Belvieu System instead of the Mean Caribbean Posting, should be used as a benchmark for the standardization of the pricing of cooking gas imported into the twin-island Federation.

Minister of Information, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty, disclosed that at last week’s Cabinet Meeting it was agreed that the practice of offsetting taxes due by the sup-pliers against government transfers to the suppliers will be discontinued in order to

improve transparency and accountability in government’s tax collection policy.

Mr. Carty in the post Cabinet Briefing noted that the importation, distribution and pricing of LPG or cooking gas in St. Kitts and Nevis is governed by the Price of Goods Act, Cap. 18.09 of the laws of the Federation. The Price of Goods Act is intended to give government reasonable control over the pricing and the supply of certain basic and important commodities to protect consumers from the arbitrary and market-driven pricing schemes regu-lated by the economic principles of supply and demand.

CASTRIES, - Bay Gardens Hotel and Bay Gardens Inn are offering a Saint Lu-cia Jazz Festival package with up to 30 per cent off regular room rates. Packages start at $799 a couple for a five-night stay and are available for travel from April 31 to May 13 and include daily buffet breakfast,

dinner at Trios Caribbean Fusion Restau-rant, transfers to Pigeon Island for perfor-mances and a jazz festival souvenir. Jazz festival tickets are extra. Performing this year are Keri Hilson, Ziggy Marley, Gypsy Kings and Lionel Ritchie.

KINGSTOWN, – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves says he has no sympa-thy for the financial problems facing the Barbados-based low cost carrier, REDjet, adding that he was never informed as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) lead prime minister on air transport of its opera-tions in the Caribbean.

“Nobody in any country in CARICOM wrote me or told me about it. None of the countries where REDjet was servic-ing (informed me). None. The owners of REDjet did not come and see me and tell me what they were doing, so I interpreted that as there was no interest in having the CARICOM air transport spokesperson get involved in their business,” Gonsalves told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

On April 2, a senior Barbados govern-ment minister said that efforts were being made to have the low-cost carrier resume operations within a two month period. Trinidad and Tobago had announced over the weekend that it had revoked the licenc-es granted to the carrier that last month suspended its services to various regional destinations.

Billed as a low-cost, no-frills carrier ini-tially offering fares as low as US$9.99, the privately-owned airline did not give spe-

cific reasons for the shutdown last month, but suggested that it was expecting state as-sistance to continue operations and blamed “subsidised” competitors for its troubles.

“REDjet is hopeful that we will be given a small part of the state assistance others receive, as it will allow us to get our re-cently approved and exciting new routes established and profitable. Once this hap-pens, our shareholders and staff will do their utmost to see that there is no return to high fares and business as usual,” the com-pany said in a statement.

But Gonsalves, who has renewed a call for a regional meeting on aviation, told CMC that he had no intention of getting involved in the any action to save the air-line, adding “let me say this, REDjet is pri-vately owned, Caribbean Airlines (CAL) is owned by the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, LIAT is owned by the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Bar-bados and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“The statement by REDjet that the mar-ket is not on a level footing...they are quite correct about that in one important respect and that is to say that CAL continues to re-ceive substantial subsidies in fuel from the government of Trinidad and Tobago”.

ST. JOHN’S, - Plans to host the inau-gural session of the OECS Regional As-sembly in Antigua on June 15 are moving into high gear. That’s when OECS heads of government are expected to convene the inaugural session of the OECS Assembly on a date close to the anniversary of the signing of the Revised Treaty of Basseterre which established the OECS Economic Union.

The regional assembly is one of the new organs established under the Revised Treaty, and will provide a forum to debate issues affecting the sub-region. The OECS Assembly will comprise both Government and Opposition representatives from each member state, in numbers that reflect their proportionate representation in their re-spective Parliaments.

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves

April 4, 2012CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 12

$9 Million Generator

Sexual Harassment Allegations

Private Parts Gold Search

Green Cleared Of Charges

Organized Rampant Vandalism

Up In FlamesGEORGETOWN -, The Guyana Power

and Light Inc. (GPL) last year paid a hefty US$8.6M to rent 12 Caterpillar generating sets for a period of one year. It could have spent just US$2.2M more to buy them all.

The company said recently that renting the generators was the only feasible op-tion, as opposed to buying them.

The revelations were made when top GPL officials appeared before its regulator, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

It was during this public hearing, held at Tower Hotel, that GPL officials were pressed into disclosing the rental costs. GPL rents the sets from Machinery Cor-poration of Guyana Limited (MACORP). On average, GPL was reportedly paying MACORP around US$60,000 monthly to rent the sets.

Each of the generating sets is actually rented for a base rental of US$43,000 ev-ery month, whether they are used or not. If they are used, that base rental only ca-ters for 200 hours of work. Anything over the 200 hours automatically bumps up the rental to US$60,000 monthly. GPL sources

confirmed that GPL worked the genera-tors to the maximum; therefore what it has been paying is the full US$60,000 rental, per month.

This means that rental cost for the 12 generators amounted to some US$720,000 for each month last year.

In any given month, GPL loses a few days of work from the generators, to facili-tate “top-up maintenance.”

Further, the generators are subjected to scheduled general maintenance every two months. With the “top up maintenance” and the “scheduled maintenance” time it means that every two months GPL does not benefit from the usage of each of the generators for about one week. However, it still has to pay the full rental cost.

The makers of the sets are retailing one for US$900,000 (G$180M), according to GPL officials. This means, it would cost only US$180,000 above the rental price. GPL has said that it decided to rent against purchasing, because it did not have up-front capital at hand to go ahead and pur-chase the Caterpillar sets.

GEORGETOWN, - Several women have come forward claiming that they were al-legedly coerced or sexually harassed by a senior official of the Guyana Revenue Au-thority (GRA).

Late last week, following complaints, management of GRA asked the embattled Head of the Integrated Regional Tax Offic-es to hand in his resignation. However, the official who has reportedly served almost 35 years with that state-controlled agency has refused and is said to be seeking legal advice.

Several women, about 14, met with top GRA management, including Com-missioner General Khurshid Sattaur, on

the matter where they allegedly made the sexual harassment complaints. Included among the women was said to be a secre-tary.

Over the weekend, GRA officials said that it is not the first time that the man has been mired in such complaints. The senior official reportedly went to Berbice recently where he was asked by a staff member to approve a transfer for her. However, the of-ficer allegedly told the woman she had to “stump it up”…

The matter was taken to the highest fo-rum at GRA. It was also alleged that there were complaints from Essequibo about the official.

GEORGETOWN - A major shakeup continues to be on at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) with a Mines Officer now in hot water for alleg-edly conducting illegal cavity searches on female passengers passing through a hin-terland checkpoint.

An official of the recently launched Women Miners’ Association said that the shocking searches on the women were al-legedly done under the pretext of searching for gold and precious stones at the Itaballi Outpost, Region Seven. The area is re-nowned for its mining activities.

Officials of the GGMC confirmed that the department has almost completed in-vestigations and that disciplinary actions will soon be taken against the officer. The officer has since been placed on desk duty and half-pay.

According to the official from the asso-ciation, following numerous complaints, it wrote to the Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment seeking his interven-tion. This was after complaints were made to GGMC, but there were no immediate actions.

Local reporters were told that the GGMC officer has also been accused of asking miners for bribes and would even allegedly use force. The actions are totally against the procedures of the Commission.

It was noted that while the office of GGMC has authority to conduct random searches on persons passing the check-points, it would be totally inappropriate for men to conduct searches on women.

At least one embarrassed female has lodged complaints with the GGMC and the Women Miners Association.

GEORGETOWN, – Police Commis-sioner Henry Green is a happy man af-ter a High Court ruled in his favour on a rape charge. Green was accused of raping a 34-year-old woman at gunpoint on No-vember 22 last year in a hotel room after she sought his assistance in dealing with an unrelated police matter.

According to reports, the court ruled that Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) failed to make a realistic assessment of the credibility of the complainant. The court charged that the DPP’s decision to pros-ecute was unlawful as legally admissible statements were used to inform the deci-sion to prosecute. In a 64-page statement, the country’s Chief Justice, Ian Chang, said there were a number of inconsistencies in the woman’s statement, and stressed that these needed to be present for a case to be made.

GEORGETOWN, – The Guyana Tele-phone & Telegraph (GT&T) has reported that telephone and other telecommunica-tion services for thousands of its custom-ers, including several businesses in and around the central Georgetown area, have been repeatedly disrupted over the past weeks as a result of what seems to be “or-ganised rampant vandalism”. The com-pany, in a release, said its records indicate more than 12 attacks over the past weeks, with the latest being April 1, with two re-ports of the vandalism of 200 and 300 pairs of distribution cables at Independence and James Streets, Albouystown, and Meadow Brook/Durban Backlands.

Also, 200 pairs of cable in the Sophia area, which were vandalized on March 30 and repaired over the weekend, was again the target of vandals.

Among some areas where cables were damaged between February 22 and March

2 are Lilliendaal, Church Street, Woolford Avenue, Kara Kara Linden, Sophia, Hous-ton Public Road, and South Road.

The latter location which was vandalised four times during the period, has affected commercial activities at Demerara and Citizens Banks.

GT&T is encouraging communities across Guyana to be vigilant in looking out for these vandals in an effort to help pro-tect the equipment, so that vital telephone services can be offered uninterrupted to its customers.

Noting that “there is so much more we can and want to do, but we are prevented by wicked acts such as these,” the compa-ny said in excess of US$2M was expended to effect repairs caused by vandalism dur-ing 2011, and had pushed back installation of 350 new lines and repairs to over 300 faults.

GEORGETOWN - An early morn-ing April 1 fire at Regent and Wellington Streets, Lacytown, Georgetown, razed one of several stores housed in the Jaigobin Rajkumar Building operated by several In-dian nationals, resulting in millions of dol-lars in losses. The fire, unknown in origin, ripped through Dilip’s Variety Store and scorched Raf’s Variety Store. The other stores, operated mostly by Indian nationals and owned by a Guyanese, Smart Choice Store, were left water-soaked.

The affected stores, Dilip’s Variety Store, Akash Variety Store, Prakash Dis-count Store, Manu’s Variety Store and Monty’s Variety Store, were housed in the same building located opposite the GUY-OIL Gas Station. Smart Choice was water-soaked and employees were yesterday observed fetching items from the store as

firemen continued to douse the embers.Meanwhile, Chief Fire Officer Marlon

Gentle, who was one on the scene, said that the Guyana Fire Service received the fire call at 05:35hrs and initially two fire tenders and a tanker responded from the Central and Alberttown Fire Stations.

He added that two more fire tenders, a tanker and the hydraulic platform joined the firefighting efforts at the scene and were successful in containing the blaze to one building.

Gentle stated that the fire started in the bottom flat of Dilip’s Variety Store, some-where around the middle of the building at the corner of Regent and Wellington Streets.

He could not give the cause of the fire, however, and said nothing could be ruled out until investigations are completed.

Henry Green

April 4, 2012 CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 13

Report Child Abuse 6 Months For Cop Bribe

Grace Kennedy Growing Peppers

Pit Bones

Not Satisfied

Cement Workers On Strike

Crimes Trending Down

KINGSTON, - Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna, is appealing to mem-bers of the public to report suspected cases of child abuse to the relevant authorities. Hanna made the plea during a signing cer-emony at the Ministry’s Trafalgar Road offices in Kingston yesterday and warned that refraining from reporting child abuse, incidents of crime against a child, is not only illegal, but you can attract a penalty under the Child Care and Protection Act.

“I believe it is time we start cracking down on those persons who know of in-cidents and we penalise them for it,” she said.

Hanna said while the Child Develop-ment Agency (CDA) and the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) have been do-ing tremendous work, “people can prevent these things from actually taking place if they would step up (and) make the requi-site reports”.

She charged the CDA and the OCR to

make regular and strategic interventions in the public domain, to make people aware of what is actually taking place with re-gards to children, noting that the number of reports of child abuse annually will “boggle your mind”.

“Let us not wait for the media to do it. Let us, as a Ministry, make them aware of what actually is taking place within the so-ciety and within the responsibilities of par-enting and the abuses that are taking place with children,” she said.

KINGSTON, - A businessman has been sentenced to six months at hard labour for bribing a policeman. He is 40-year-old Dick Hart of a Kingston 19 address, who pleaded guilty to the charge of bribery when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court on April 3.

Reports from the police are that some-

time in February, the businessman offered a police sergeant $250,000 to dispose of a case against him. The police sergeant, who is attached to the Fraud Squad, reported the matter to the Anti Corruption Branch. At a later date, a portion of the money was handed over to the policeman and Hart was subsequently charged.

KINGSTON, - Grace Kennedy says it has embarked on a pepper growing project at its Bernard Lodge property, which also houses its 236,000 square foot distribution centre, in order to meet demand while in-creasing output of hot pepper sauces.

The conglomerate, which claims it is the nation’s largest producer of pepper sauces, estimates that raw material input for its pepper-based products (hot pepper sauces and jerk seasoning) sourced from local farmers amounts to some $64.4 million an-nually. The project will grow two variet-ies of peppers — Montpelier Red and West Indian Red.

Montpelier Red is a unique variety of

pepper which is expected to be hotter and have a better flavour than the West Indian Red, a variety of pepper grown commer-cially in Jamaica from seeds sourced out of Trinidad. Both varieties of peppers will be processed as pepper mash at GraceAgro Processors in Hounslow, St Elizabeth.

The company has also partnered with the Correctional Services Production Com-pany to grow five acres of peppers at its Tamarind Farm facility located across the road from the Distribution Centre. The other crops that will be produced on the Distribution Centre farm are corn, papayas and pumpkins.

KINGSTON, - Police are conducting investigations to find out if several bones found in a pit located along Corletts Road in Spanish Town, St Catherine on April 2 are human remains. “The bones were found, but more checks will have to be made to determine if they were human re-mains,” said a senior officer in the Spanish

Town Division.The find has since sparked concerns

from residents in the area that the remains could be of a person who was dumped in the area. The police have stayed away from making any claims until the investigations were completed.

KINGSTON, - Despite making gains in curbing the crime monster for the first three months of this year, the security forces are sending a signal that they do not intend to rest on their laurels.

The police have reported that, for the month of March, murders have been the lowest for any month in the past nine years and significant reductions have been made in reducing shootings, robberies, break ins, larceny, rape and carnal abuse. In addition, the cops report an increased seizure of firearms and ammunition while reporting that less persons have been cut down by their bullets between January 1 and March 31 when compared to the same period in 2011.

However Police Commissioner Owen Ellington said during a press conference at his Old Hope Road office today that de-

spite the gains, the crime situation in the country is still grave.

“We have been at pains to point out that the crime and security situation created by criminal gangs, organised crime and cor-rupt entities in Jamaica are undermining public confidence and investor confidence and are denying many Jamaicans the op-portunity for gainful employment as busi-nesses contract or those with capital are hesitant to make investments and so we have committed to reducing Jamaica’s murder rate to 12 per 100,000 in the popu-lation by 2017,” he said.

Ellington said the security forces are committed to restoring public and investor confidence with an aim to grow the econ-omy to provide citizens with the means to create wealth to take care of their everyday needs.

KINGSTON, - Workers at Caribbean Cement went on strike on April 3. The workers were reportedly staging a sit-in at the company in protest of the decision by the Board of Directors not to sanction a wage offer from the management.

Vice President of the National Workers Union, Granville Valentine, said the board

rejected the offer after almost two years of negotiations. He said while the employees are at work they have staged a sit in.

Valentine said the workers will continue their industrial action, pending the outcome of an April 3 meeting with the company’s management at the Labour Ministry.

KINGSTON, - Police Commissioner Owen Ellington had reported that most major crimes, with the exception of mur-der and simple larceny, have trended down.

Speaking at a press briefing at his office on Old Hope Road in St Andrew, Elling-ton said the crimes of shooting, robbery, sexual offences, break ins and larceny have all decreased when compared to the same period last year.

“We have seen increases in only two categories of crime — murders, which increased by 12 per cent, that’s about 30 cases — and we have a slight increase in simple larceny.”

“We started the year with a spike in murders, in the first week of January we had close to 40 murders; the weeks of March averaged under 15 murders, in fact we have completed March with the low-est murder count of any month in the last

nine years,” he said. “We have since then instituted some measures which have sig-nificantly contained that situation.”

Lisa Hanna

Police Comissioner Owen Ellington

April 4, 2012CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 14

Best Days Still Ahead

US Visa Fees Set To Increase

Extempo King Dies

Oil Find A Hoax

Scabies ScarePORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Toba-

go’s “best days” are still ahead. And, in order for the country to successfully move forward, there must be a level of compro-mise, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Biss-essar has said.

Persad-Bissessar was delivering the feature address at an April 2 ceremony to launch activities celebrating the country’s 50th independence anniversary at Queen’s Hall. The logo competition for the inde-pendence anniversary celebrations was won by Debbie Boos.

Hours after leaving a meeting of coali-tion leaders with outstanding issues still left unresolved, Persad-Bissessar gave the crowd at Queen’s Hall a lesson on the topic

of “compromise”. Persad-Bissessar had met earlier with

the leaders of the four other political par-ties forming the People’s Partnership coali-tion at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

Speaking at Queen’s Hall afterwards, Persad-Bissessar outlined the difficulties the government faced in terms of achiev-ing a consensus on the constitution fifty years ago.

The negotiation process of the constitu-tion was held in Queen’s Hall 50 years ago, Persad-Bissessar said. The then opposi-tion walked out of those negotiations, she added. Final agreement on the constitution was eventually made in London, England.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, – Trinidadians apply-ing for non-immigrant visas to the United States (US) will have to pay more for the appointment, as of April 13, as the US en-forces a worldwide increase in the fee, as the demand for visas increases. The US State Department recently posted the no-tification of the increased fees for the pro-cessing of visas, stating that although most categories of non-immigrant visa process-ing fees will increase, the fee for E-visas (treaty-traders and treaty-investors) and K visas (for fiancé(e)s of US citizens) will decrease.”

Alexander McLaren, Public Affairs Of-ficer at the US Embassy in Port of Spain,

has said that the Bureau of Consular Af-fairs is required by law to recover the cost of processing non-immigrant visas through the collection of visa application fees.

He said the increase is based on US law, and requires that the Consular Offices re-cover the cost of processing non-immi-grant visas through visa application fees.

The US Department of State said “For a number of reasons, the current fees no longer cover the actual cost of processing non-immigrant visas. The non-immigrant visa fee increase will support the addition and expansion of overseas facilities, as well as additional staffing required to meet increased visa demand” said McLaren.

PORT-Of-SPAIN-, Six-time National Extempo Monarch Sheldon John suc-cumbed to kidney failure around 5:30 p.m. on April 1 at the Mount Hope Medical Sci-ences Complex. John, who was 38 years old, had been battling kidney disease for some time, but took a turn for the worse shortly after Carnival. He even defended his title at the final of the National Ex-

tempo Monarch, which was won by Lady Africa on Carnival Thursday.

Few were aware of his ailment as John never allowed it to stop him from smiling and doing what he enjoyed the most, enter-taining. During Carnival he was the master of ceremonies at the Kaiso House calypso tent, where he served for several years.

PORT-Of-SPAIN-, Government’s trum-peted announcement of an oil find is a hoax “in the identical vein” to the assassination plot announced by the Prime Minister last November, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley has said.

Backing up his claim was Diego Martin North East MP Colm Imbert who said the “alleged discovery has all the distinguish-ing features of a hoax. No two ways about it”.

Both MPs were speaking at a news con-ference at the Opposition Leader’s Port of Spain office, when they slammed the Government for taking the population up a “gum tree” with this “propaganda” of a “massive oil discovery”.

Rowley said the discovery was not new since Petrotrin in 2007 had commissioned a study on the area of the find by Vetra Consultants. In 2011, four appraisal wells were drilled, three confirmed the presence of the reservoir and one was dry, he said. He stressed, however, that a detailed de-velopment plan now had to be done to de-termine the reserves and their commercial viability.

Rowley said the Prime Minister was driven by political considerations to make the announcement.

Imbert said it was obvious that the tech-nical people at Petrotrin were embarrassed by the statements of the politicians since they (the technical people) have made “very telling comments” such as:

a) the quantity of the oil has not been

proven, b) the commercial viability of the discovery has not yet been established, and c) they are not sure about the mix of oil.

Imbert said it could cost Petrotrin as much as $75 a barrel to produce this oil. He said if the price it got was $75 a barrel, then there would be no profit. We don’t yet know if we would get any money from this oil, he added.

Departure tax coming from Trinidad and Tobago’s Piarco International Airport has doubled. Approval for the increase of the island’s departure tax by 100 per cent came from the board of the Airport Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (AATT) on Febru-ary 2, and will be added to airline tickets. Travelers leaving the twin-island state will now pay $200 in departure tax as opposed to $100.

According to reports, the island’s Min-ister of Transport, Mr. Devant Majaraj, said the increase was justified as new se-curity demands resulted in an increase in the cost of operations. It is understood that the airport’s security fees increased from $17.9 million in 2010 to $18.3 million for the 2011 to 2012 financial year. This resulted from a number of events, includ-ing the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre in America which in-creased security requirements at airports worldwide. It is understood that the AATT is owed $154 million by tenants, including Trinidad-based air carrier, Caribbean Air-lines, which owes about $60 million.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, – Reports of an out-break of scabies at the Immigration De-tention Centre is causing health officials concern. And Minister of Health, Dr. Fuad Khan, has urged acting Chief Medical Of-ficer Dr. Colin Furlonge to investigate the situation immediately.

Dr. Furlonge confirmed that there is a problem at the detention centre, with two detainees being diagnosed with scabies, while others have skin rashes which were scabies. Noting that the situation appeared to be contained, the acting Chief Medical Officer gave the assurance that the minis-try will continue to monitor the situation, and ensure that measures recommended are implemented.

Immigration Detention Centre Manager, Winston Lopez, explained that there was a spraying and fumigation exercise conduct-ed at the centre which will be repeated in another three months. Scabies is an easily spread skin disease caused by a very small species of mite. Scabies is found world-wide among people of all groups and ages. It is spread by skin-to-skin contact with another person who has scabies and less often by sharing clothing or bedding. Sca-bies mites burrow into the skin and deposit their eggs, forming a burrow that looks like a pencil mark. Eggs mature in 21 days. The itchy rash is an allergic response to the mite.

Sheldon John

April 4, 2012 CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 15

Cariblicious:Escovitch Fish To Die For

The Chop House“Where Good Food Is Only A Chop Away!”166 Bullock Street, Markham647-208-9945

Ratings:Ambiance **** Service ****Portions ****Food Quality ****Price ***

It may take a bit of getting to, located as it is in Markham’s McCowan and Highway 7 area, but a meal at the Chop House is definitely worth the journey. Offering a cross-over Mainstream to West Indian menu that many other restaurants have promised yet failed to deliver, the Chop House is a delightful addition to the Caribbean res-taurant scene.

Owners Phillip and Rose Hendricks, she of Guyanese decent and him being Jamaican, have established a dining environment that compares very favorably with anything else the community has to offer. Although you would nev-er guess so from its industrial like exterior, Chop House’s interior ambiance is amongst the very best we have seen to date.

A well-stocked very modern bar is its first highly appeal-ing visual attraction. A few short steps away is the very cozy dining area, with its side wall adorned with vividly attractive prints. The décor is, however, but a very pleasing backdrop to what is definitely one of Chop House’s many strong points, the absolutely outstanding presentation of each and every one of its offered dishes, certainly the ones we tried.

Our first sampling was a delightful appetizer medley of spicy shrimp, Bangamary fish seasoned escovitch style and chilli chicken. There were also a few pieces of jerk chicken on a side plate, as the serving dish used for the

appetizer medley proved too small to accommodate the impressive quantities of the offerings. Served on a bed of fresh vibrantly green lettuce, with broccoli and equally bright carrots as garnishes, the medley looked as good as it tasted.

Owner Phillip, who also doubles as Chop House’s main Chef, must have intended to use the appetizers as a sam-pling of his undoubtedly outstanding culinary skills. The escovitched Bangamary was as good as anything the lady fish sellers at Jamaica’s famous Hellshire Beach have ever offered. All that was missing for the association to have been made complete was a cold red Stripe Beer. Alas hav-ing given up beer and spirits for Lent, that indulgence I could not pursue.

The Chop House’s jerk chicken is also outstanding. The seasoning on the pieces the Resident Love Goddess, on her very first of hopefully many more such outings as my newly recruited Review sidekick, and I tried was just right. The unique jerk seasoned taste was obvious yet not overpowering, which sadly far too often happens at other restaurants.

After the Appetizer medley, we were treated to two items from the Menus entrees, each representing the Ca-ribbean and Mainstream influences. The oxtail, cooked in a lima bean sauce and served with mashed potatoes and green beans, was another visual delight. As tasty as it was, it was somewhat tempered missing the kick typically as-sociated with a real Jamaican oxtail.

According to Chef Phillip, that’s a deliberate ploy on his part so as to allow Chop House’s ever growing main-stream clientele the opportunity to enjoy his oxtail without subjecting their taste buds to a heat assault. Chop House’s delightful homemade pepper sauce is readily available to increase the heat quotient of those so inclined.

The Resident Love Goddess was obviously one of those, declaring herself an instant fan of the pepper sauce and indicating that it was amongst the best she has ever tasted. My reaction, in contrast, was not quite as enamoring, I was

too busy gulping down my diet coke and requesting an in-stant refill to combat the experienced heat assault. I’d have to admit, though, that it was indeed every bit as flavorful as it was hot.

Having now been open for just over five months, Rose and Phillip’s aim is to provide Chop House’s patrons with a delightful cross over dining experience. Good food in a very comfortable environment is what they are aiming to give to their customers.

Chop House is being billed as a Caribbean-styled Steak-house, the menu offerings of which are a delightful mix of the Caribbean’s best cuisine and some of the mainstream’s most popular dishes. At the Chop House you will find Wings and Sweet Sticky Bones Ribs rubbing shoulders as very tasty appetizers with Bangamary and jerk Chicken. Likewise, the rest of the menu features mainstream items as lobster, every type of steak imaginable, from filet mi-gnon to a sixteen ounce t-bone, Greek salads, chicken, Catch of the Day fish and Philly steak sandwiches, as well as a variety of pastas.

On the Caribbean side, there’s a variety of curries: chicken, goat and shrimp, in addition to the usual staples of fried rice and chow mein, cooked by the Chop House’s Chinese Chef. There are also uniquely named items such as the Angry Jerk Wraps, Rasta Pasta, Groundation and Jerked Columbus.

Sadly, time did not allow us the opportunity to try any of those, as much as we would have liked to. But if the tastiness of what we did try was anything to go by, I am sure they would prove to be as excitingly delicious as they sound.

Good food in an attractive, comfortable, friendly atmo-sphere is certainly an objective the Chop House has admi-rably achieved in just its first five months of operations. Let not its mildly remote location prevent you from paying Rose, Phillip and their key “Workman” helper Paul a visit. The Chop House is, after all, “where good food is only a Chop away.”

April 4, 2012CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 16

Practice Makes PerfectHome Affairs

The following practices, performed habitually, will provide the means to get-ting ahead in life:

Mortgage Free

Follow these simple tips to shave years off your mortgage to help you become mortgage-free faster.

Make bi-weekly or weekly payments instead of monthly

Make one lump sum payment each year

Increase mortgage payments by small amounts

Round mortgage payments up

Stage Your Home Like The Pros!

Staging professionals offer many tips

on how to spruce up your home’s exte-rior to attract potential buyers. Even if you have no intention of selling, their suggestions can improve the appearance of your home - just for you! Spring is a great time to consider these ideas:

Add accent pillows to any room. They not only add colour, but texture and warmth as well. By adding throw pil-lows in a coordinating or contrast fab-ric to a couch chair, bench, or bed, you can transform your room and add instant warmth inexpensively!

Turn the louvers of your window blinds up to reflect much-needed ambi-ent light onto the ceiling.

Sometimes, refreshing a room can be as easy as changing a light bulb. Bulbs like GE Reveal filter out yellow rays common in ordinary light bulbs, making colours, fabric, walls, and artwork ap-pear richer, crisper, and more vivid.

Walk across the street and have a good look at your house. Where did your eyes go? They should be drawn to the front door and entry way.

Get new house numbers. Emergency

response units will appreciate large numbers, clearly seen from the road in the event of an emergency.

Spray paint your mailbox or replace it.Place an urn or large potted plant on

the front porch.Paint your doors and shutters.Replace door handles.Replace the outdoor lighting fixtures.

A chair or bench on the front porchsays “Welcome!”Apply driveway sealer.Pressure wash the home’s exterior.

Upgrades That Can Pay You Back

Spring invites thoughts of renovations and home upgrades. In addition to the long term benefits and savings, some environmentally conscious upgrades can put a little money back in your pocket too. Replacing an old 190 litre (50 gal-lon) water heater with a high efficiency condensing gas storage tank with a 94% efficiency rating can save $102 per year from combined savings in energy and water costs.

Free-flowing Drains

Simple measures to keep drains throughout your house flowing freely:

Use strainers in all your sinksAvoid pouring grease down a kitchen

drainUse a hair trap in bathroom drains to

capture soap, skin oils, and other resi-dues that can contribute to buildup in a drain

Periodically clean or replace the drain-plug mechanism in your bathtub and sinks

Once a week, pour a gallon of boiling water down the kitchen drain to break up any grease

Silver Cutlery CleanerHere’s a technique that removes the

tarnish uniformly, so don’t use it with antique or intricately patterned silver:

Put a piece of aluminum foil into a plastic or glass container and lay the tar-nished piece of silver on top. Sprinkle with 1-2 tablespoons of baking soda. Cover with about 2 quarts of boiling water. Soak until bubbles stop, rinse and polish with a soft cloth. Discard alu-minum.

If your friend, neighbour or relative is arrested for a criminal offence, you may be asked to act as a Surety. A

Surety is someone who agrees to take responsibility for the accused person. It is my experience that the average lay

person does not understand what act-ing as a surety entails. The following is geared to provid-ing a brief overview of the bail process and the obligation of a surety.

When an accused person is arrested for a criminal offence, the Criminal Code stipulates that the police officer or officer in charge may release the person from custody. In such cases, the accused person can be released on them giving a promise to appear in court or entering into recog-nisance.

If the arresting officer or officer in charge does not exercise his or her dis-cretion to release the accused person, then the law requires that the person ar-rested be taken before a justice within 24 hours where a justice is available. The person arrested is entitled to have a bail hearing before the justice. Note, if an accused person is charged with a more serious offence such as murder or treason, then a different procedure is involved and such person will not be entitled to a bail hearing before a jus-tice.

At a bail hearing, sureties can be called to give evidence. The presid-ing justice determines if the surety is acceptable. A surety is someone who agrees to take responsibility for the ac-cused person. Generally a surety is re-sponsible for the following:

ensuring that the accused person at-tends court as required;

ensuring that the accused abides by any and all conditions of his release.

It is important to note that a surety

that is accepted will be required to sign the bail order or recognisance. By sign-ing this document, the surety agrees to

pay a specific sum of money in the event that the ac-cused person does not comply with the bail conditions.

Generally the Surety is not re-

quired to give a cash deposit, however in some instances the accused person maybe required to deposit money with the court to secure their release.

This is a serious commitment and a surety’s obligation continues until the matter is completed. In the Greater Toronto Area, a simple assault can take over twelve months to get to trial. Fur-thermore, if the accused person breach-es any of the terms of the bail, he or she can be charged with a breach of rec-ognisance which is essentially another criminal charge. If the person is con-victed of breaching the recognisance, the surety may be required to pay the money he or she initially promised. If after signing as a surety you decide that you are not able to take responsibility for the accused person, you can surren-der your obligation. This will require you attending the court and having the court relieve you of your obligation.

The foregoing is intended for infor-mation purposes only and you should consult a lawyer if you need legal rep-resentation or a legal opinion.

Selwyn R. Baboolal is a partner at Oumarally Baboolal practicing in the area of litigation for the past 18 years.

Criminal Charges: Sureties and Bail Basics

Selwyn R.

Baboolal

Bianca

Aziz

April 4, 2012 CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 17

Women’s World - Fashion

Simply Shoes And Pretty PursesThe big colour trend for 2012 spring/

summer is mint green. The racks will be full of fashions that are all done up in a soft

whimsical version of mint green. Don’t worry if mint is not your colour, there are so many variations of green, you’re sure to find a complementary tone for your skin. No need to wear green from head to toe, why not just update your current wardrobe

by adding a beautiful pair of mint shoes or a fabulous purse.

Other colour trends this spring, especial-ly in handbags and shoes, is neon. Look out for the bright blues, yellows, greens, oranges, and hot pinks.

The colour that jumps out at the head of the line for this spring when it comes to neon shades is orange! Let’s face it, there is no other colour that can make a loud fash-ion statement as bright orange. So need a new handbag or a great pair of shoes? Make it orange.

Belt bags are one of the great big trends... However, I am not talking ‘fanny packs’...Stick to the new small square flat belt bags - so cute, and less weight to carry on that shoulder.

Feet need a rest this season with all the high, high heels. Don’t fret, flats and kit-ten heels are also big... The kitten heel is a good choice this spring. They are feminine, classic and comfortable.

The Wedge HeelNo surprise here, wedge heels are going

to be hot again this spring and summer, and even though there are no limits when it comes to heel heights, there will be plenty of lower-heeled wedges to choose from as well.

If you do choose to go for some of those sky-high wedges, you may want to consider looking for styles that also have platform soles. Not only will they help to counter the height of the heels, but they’re also a top footwear trend themselves.

The Chunky High HeelThe heels just keep getting higher, and

while lovers of spiky stilettos will always have a lot of options, what’s nice for spring 2012 is that there are loads of chunky high heels to choose from as well. Not only are

chunky heels generally more comfortable than thin high heels, they also add a dose of casual fun to your warm weather wardrobe.

The Right FitEveryone knows that when it comes to

shoes, the biggest comfort factor is get-

ting a good fit. Listen to your feet, not the sales person. The “it will stretch” doesn’t fly. If the shoe does not fit in the store, it won’t fit at home. Remember, our feet are three-dimensional, not two-dimensional, so the sizing chart may not always be accu-

rate. And don’t get hung up on size, every manufacturer, every style, every pair, every shoe, and every foot is different. You might be a size 6.5, a 7 or an 8 depending on the style.

April 4, 2012CARIBBEAN GRAPHICPAGE 18

4th Fastest

First Appearance First Season Win For Matthews

Record Smashed

Bellille’s Superb RunTop Trinidad and Tobago swimmer,

George Bovell III, signaled his complete recovery from a vehicular accident last year and his return to form when he reg-istered the fourth fastest time in the world this year for the 50-metre freestyle on March 30 at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, being held at the Indiana University Na-tatorium, Indiana, USA. Bovell, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist in the 200-me-tre individual medley, posted 21.89 sec-onds for the one-lap blue riband event to earn silver, just behind US Olympic gold medalist and American champion Nathan Adrian, whose 21.88-second clocking is the third fastest time in 2012, according to the latest world rankings issued by FINA, the world governing body for the sport. Australia’s James Magnusson (21.74) and France’s Florent Manaudou (21.86) pre-cede Adrian and Bovell.

And on March 31, Bovell finished sec-

ond in the consolation final of the men’s 100m backstroke in 55.65 seconds, an Olympic Selection Time standard (OST) for the event. Daniel Orzechowski won the consolation in 55.44. American Nick Thoman nabbed the gold in the A final in 53.95.

But on March 30, 28-year-old Bovell, who represented Michigan Wolverines Swim club headed by coach Mike Bot-tom, was ahead of 2000 Olympic cham-pion, Anthony Ervin, who is attempting a comeback. Ervin got third in 22.24. The previous night, Bovell had won the men’s 100m freestyle C-Final in 49.94 seconds, his best in-season time, to finish ahead of Nirmo Shapira (50.27) and Davis Tarwater (50.27). Adrian won the A-Final in 48.62 ahead of Michael Phelps (48.74) and Dar-ian Townsend (49.14), while Ryan Locht topped the B-Final in 49.46.

KINGSTON, - OLYMPIC 100m cham-pion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is set to make her first appearance at the New York Diamond League meet to be held at the Icahn Stadium June 9, the Jamaica Observer has learnt. Louis Grant of Irie Jammedia Group and Global Athletics and Marketing made the announcement at a recent Exchange at the Observer’s Beech-

wood Avenue offices.Fraser-Pryce, who is expected to defend

her Olympic 100m title later this year at the Games in London, joins IAAF World Championships 100m champion Yohan Blake as the top Jamaicans named so far. Grant was part of the Team Jamaica Bickle group who were guests of the Exchange.

You just can’t keep Darren Matthews down. Even when he falls, cycling’s boy wonder still finds a way to get to the top, having survived an early spill before outsprinting Rus-sell Elcock to win the April 1 senior category of a 12-lap Locust Hall circuit. It was Matthews’ first win in just his second start this season, prov-ing the perfect rebound from a third-place showing on the Garrison course two weeks ago. And this was after the na-tional champ had to overcome separate bouts of misfortune – on the same lap.

Having stormed to the front after the very first lap, Matthews lost CGI G4S Swift teammate Jaime Ramirez just three kilometres later after his Colombian train-ing partner’s bike stem broke. Matthews followed that up by slipping in a corner, giving Elcock a slight 15-metre advan-tage. But the 21-year-old ace hauled in his AMOND Fugen rival on the next lap, and the two basically rode the rest of the race unchallenged after leading by a clear 64 seconds.

The peloton – led by Rockets’ Jamol

Eastmond – threatened briefly on the last lap, though, cutting the gap within ten seconds before almost reconnecting with the leaders on the turn for home. How-ever, Eastmond and company never fully bridged the gap, and were forced to watch from behind as Matthews and Elcock sprinted to the line. For the fifth time in six starts, Elcock settled for second after battling a cramp on the final stretch, while Eastmond finished third ahead of Fugen’s Philip Clarke and two-time national champ Simon Clarke.

PORT-OF-SPAIN - Keshorn Walcott saved his best for last at the Hasely Craw-ford Stadium in Port of Spain, producing a huge 77.53 metres throw to smash his own Central American and Caribbean (CAC) junior (under-20) javelin record. Walcott had no challengers for the Falcon Games men’s javelin title, the Toco athlete’s re-cord-breaking throw giving him a huge cushion on silver medalist Kerron Browne (62.71m). Akim Phillips (54.20m) claimed bronze. Walcott fouled on his first two at-tempts, but then threw 69.87m in round three to take the lead. After another foul in the fourth round, the two-time Carifta Games boys’ under-20 champion produced a big 73.38m effort.

Not satisfied with that throw, Walcott, who turned 19 on April 2, gave himself an early birthday gift, improving on the 75.77m CAC junior standard he had estab-lished at the Pan American Games in Gua-dalajara, Mexico last October.

Jehue Gordon got revenge on Puerto Ri-can Eric Alejandro. Beaten by Alejandro in the March 31 men’s 400 metres hurdles, Gordon turned the tables in the 110m hurdles. He won in 13.82 seconds, forc-ing Alejandro to settle for silver in 14.15. Denny Gualbance completed the men’s 800/1500 double when he won the met-ric mile in four minutes, 03.67 seconds. Guyana’s Cleveland Thomas finished sec-ond in 4:05.48, beating Shirvan Baboolal (4:10.14) into third.

Alika Morgan whipped her rivals in the women’s 1500m. The Guyanese run-ner clocked 4:56.90, while second-placed Dawnel Collymore got home in 5:08.12. Zara Suite-Stewart (5:38.52) was third.

Barbadian Charles Greaves captured gold in the men’s long jump and triple jump events. Greaves jumped 7.15m in the long jump, and 14.63m in the triple jump.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Ja-neil Bellille produced a su-perb run to strike gold in the university/college women’s 400 metres hurdles final at the Texas Relays in Texas, USA, on March 31.

The South Plains College student stopped the clock at 55.91 seconds to move into second spot on the 2012 world performance list. The clock-ing is the second best of Bel-lille’s career, behind her 55.80 PR (personal record).

Another T&T/South Plains athlete, Sparkle McKnight, copped third spot in 57.42 seconds.

Sports Beat

Darren Matthews

Janeil Bellille

April 4, 2012 CARIBBEAN GRAPHIC PAGE 19

Credits To Gibson

Narine Opts For IPL

West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) pres-ident Julian Hunte has lauded head coach Ottis Gibson for his outstanding work with the regional side, and believes the team has made huge strides under his watch. Hunte said on April 1 that Gibson, who took over at the helm of the team two years ago, had made a crucial impact in several areas of the team’s development.

“Since the WICB entrusted Ottis with the job of taking the West Indies team forward we have seen steady progress,” Hunte said. “He has done an excellent job in lifting the fitness levels of the players, the standard of play on the field, and con-duct and deportment off the field. “These steps forward have not gone unnoticed and are some of the key building blocks as we strive to make West Indies cricket a major

force in world cricket once more.” Gibson took over the Windies side in

March 2010, replacing Australian John Dyson who had quit the previous year. In his first series, a five-match one-day affair against Zimbabwe, West Indies won four 4-1 before being clean swept by South Af-rica later that year in another five-match one-day series. Gibson also lost his first Test series, as West Indies went under 0-2 to the Proteas in a three-match rubber. Last year, West Indies won two and lost four of 10 Tests, and emerged victorious in 10 of 28 one-dayers, including reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Over the last few weeks, Gibson has led West In-dies to a 2-2 draw with Australia in a five-match ODI series, while the regional side also split the two-match Twenty20 series.

Sunil Narine, the West Indies spinner who was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for $700,000 in the January player auction, will be available for the entire duration of the 2012 IPL, a franchise official has said. The IPL overlaps with West Indies’ home Tests against Australia, and while Narine does not have a WICB contract and hasn’t played a Test yet, his excellent form in the limited-overs series against Australia could have resulted in a call-up.

Venky Mysore, the Knight Riders chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo that Narine will be landing in Kolkata on April 3 and is free to play in the tournament. Narine and the WICB had been in discussions be-

hind the scenes but the West Indies coach, Otis Gibson, had admitted it would be dif-ficult to stop Narine playing in the IPL if that was his preference. Narine, 23, has taken 34 first-class wickets at an average of 11.88.

Narine first attracted international atten-tion during the 2011 Champions League T20. Opposing batsmen found his assort-ment of offbreaks and ‘knuckle balls’ diffi-cult to pick and the most runs he conceded in any game was 26 against New South Wales. In the next match against the Su-per Kings, he took 3 for 8, accounting for Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni and M Vijay.

Tony

McWatt

Ottis GibsonOttis Gibson

Sunil Narine

Clement Nebblett, who represented both his native country Guyana and his adopted country Canada at cricket with great distinction, died recently of a heart attack. Nebbo, as he was fondly known, was in St Vincent to witness the West Indies Australia One Day Internation-als at the time of his passing. He there-fore spent his last days doing what he’d loved best since his actual playing days were over, watching cricket.

Nebbo first played for Guyana in the B&H series in 68/69 as an opening batsman. He will be remembered by most, though, for his days as the middle-order anchor for a Police Sports Club team that was a powerhouse in Guyana’s Case Cup, the country’s highest level of domestic cricket. A talented all-rounder, Nebbo also bowled slow medium cutters with unerring accuracy.

Throughout the ‘70’s, Guyana’s radio listeners to BL Crombie’s nightly Sports Roundup would have their ears filled with reports of Nebbo’s exploits on the field of play. Standing 6ft 5inches tall, he was an imposing presence, on and off the field. His was always a warm person-ality however, so much so that whenever he beat an opposing batsman with one of his legendary out swingers, his reac-tion was almost always to smile with his hands on his hips.

As a batsman he was not a big hitter of the ball, preferring to frustrate oppos-ing bowlers with niggly ones, twos and threes. Before you knew it the scorecard would be reading 50, 60 or 70 against his name. Yet you could hardly remem-ber how he got there.

The Case Cup Police team Nebbo played on was one of the strongest ever in the illustrious history of Guyana’s domestic cricket. Captained by the off-spinner William Jeffrey, it included the likes of Mylton Pydanna as the wicket-keeper, Cameron and Johashen as the opening bowlers and Leonard McRae as the middle-order batsman. All of whom were good enough to represent Guyana at some point of time. Nebblett would later move from Police to GCC, which back then was captained by Steve Camacho, the Guyanese and West Indies opening batsman.

My own first, now very fond memo-ries of Nebbo was as a young school-boy playing Northcothe Cricket for Queen’s College. As one of the lower ranked teams of the Northcothe Divi-sion, Queen’s also actually played in the 40 Over Bristol Cup, which during the seventies was the highest level of lim-ited overs in the country. Invariably we would always meet Police, who more often than not were the defending cham-pions, in the first round and hence inevi-tably would go no further.

I’ll always remember the first time I

played against Police with Nebbo and company. I was in the QC team as a me-dium-pacer and hence batted way down the order. If memory services me right, it might even have been just before the roller! Anyways, as my luck would have it, Cameron was in his second spell, hav-ing already scythed through the top of our batting order. The very first ball he bowled to me started way outside my off stump, so I moved across to pad up with bat held aloft, in the full English train-ing manual style. The next sound I heard was the deadly clatax of my leg stump, mind you, being knocked over. Nebbo was the one who rushed to comfort me in my acute embarrassment.

My next memory of him was even more harsh. Due to repairs that were be-ing done, our QC grounds were deemed unusable so the school had made ar-rangements for our Inter House matches to be played on the Police Sports Club Grounds, which were right across the street. As captain of Moulder House (G), I was batting in a House League Match. Having already scored two fours in the over, I attempted to hit the last ball for six, only to be caught on the boundary. When I’d taken off my pads in the Pa-villion, Nebbo, who had been sitting watching the game, called me aside and gave me a stern lecture about respon-sibility and recklessness. That was the type of person he was.

When I came to Canada in 1981 to at-tend U of T and eventually joined Grace Church Cricket Club, it was an absolute delight for me to discover that Nebbo was also a club member and had become one of the stars of the Club’s Premier Division Team. Many years later, in the mid nineties during my term as OCA Executive Director, he was still play-ing Premier Division Cricket for Grace Church. He was always one of my big-gest supporters in that role, never afraid to speak his mind about what needed to be done for Canadian Cricket to prog-ress.

He had a lot to say back then, so much of which was very wise based as his comments were on the outstand-ing knowledge he had acquired during his many years of involvement with the game. Sadly, after my OCA stint ended as prematurely and unjustly as it did, I lost contact with the Canadian Cricket fraternity, Nebbo included.

My last memories of him would have been during the Sahara Cup in the late nineties. I was the Media Liaison one year, Officials Liaison the next and fi-nally Liaison for the West Indies Team during the 1999 Series, which would eventually turn out to be the last of Sa-hara’s involvement. Nebbo was around at many of those matches, always greet-ing you with his customary ear to ear smile and ever willing to tell one of his infamous cricket stories.

Those are now my treasured memo-ries of Clem “Nebbo” Nebblett, as gen-tle a giant as there has ever been. One who will always be remembered most fondly by all those who were privi-leged to have known him. RIP Nebbo.

Remembering Nebbo

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