Financial Times: Cuban tourism boom to harm rest of Caribbean

What a surprise!

The sight of the Stars and Stripes being hoisted over the newly opened US embassy in Cuba last week, was one of the most visible signs yet of the diplomatic rapprochement between the long-term foes.

If President Barack Obama gets his way, the US Congress will soon go further still and lift its 55-year-old trade embargo on the island.

Such a move would be a major boon to the Cuban economy, not least by unleashing a torrent of big-spending American tourists on the island, which has largely been starved of such arrivals for more than half a century.

This, however, could prove disastrous for some of the small islands elsewhere in the Caribbean which are heavily dependent on tourism. They could see much of the US tourism trade they have come to reply on decamping to the large, and quite possibly cheaper, new competitor in their midst.

… continue reading the Financial Times Cuban thaw poses tourism threat to Caribbean neighbours

Will Barbados hang Police Constable Everton Gittens?

Unarmed and shot in the back. Just another day with the Barbados Police.

For the first time that anyone can remember, we have a police constable charged with murder. Everton Gittens was arrested and charged and appeared in court yesterday for the murder of Selwyn Knight at Dash Gap, Bank Hall.

Rumours are that Selwyn Knight and his father were shot in the back as they pursued Gittens’ homosexual lover Jamal Skeete who had broken into their home. Folks who read this blog know that I Robert don’t care who anybody sleeps with, or how many people they sleep with, or how many people they sleep with all at once. You want to be friends with Cliverton, you have to accept that the man will sleep with anything that breathes and I’m not even sure to draw the line that close.

But, the moment you bring emotions into the equation when somebody has their finger on a trigger, well mister, as they say that is serious business. And if the man holding the gun is a cop, that’s another layer, or perhaps another lawyer.

Rumours are that there is a video of the shooting made by a security camera, but that Gittens himself destroyed the recording. (So says Sheri Veronica an she’s plugged in everywhere)

As Sheri Veronica made note, Gittens is the same police constable involved in the Shanique Myrie case, and the court rejected his evidence as not the truth.

For too long ’bout this place police have done what they want to do and gotten away with it. That’s one of the problems when you have a little rock like this with 275,000 people on it and call it a country. Cabals take over everything including justice and policing.

We’ve had other police officers shoot people in the back before with no charges. It’s even dangerous in Barbados to run away from police if you’re unarmed on your bicycle.

But here’s the big deal… this is the Caribbean and some folks want to hang Gittens because he supposedly had a man for a lover.

If Barbados is going to hang Gittens, it should be for murder and nothing else.

But this is the Caribbean and there’s nothing you can do ’bout that.

Venezuela Declares Right to fly Warplanes over sovereign Caribbean Islands

by Peter Binose

In a speech on national television, Venezuela’s president Maduro reports that the air defense areas of the country have been expanded beyond the Windward Islands all the way up to St Maarten. President Nicolas Maduro, said that his country has the right to defend itself in the skies above the Dutch Antilles.

Venezuela is already a bully of the seas claiming areas that it does not own, now it appears they are trying to bully the airspace.

We have to remember how PM Ralph Gonsalves supported Venezuela’s sea grab of Bird Island. Just what kind of betrayal was that?

The yellow area shows the Venezuelan Economic space, with the effect of Aves Island/Rock.

Under the International Law Of The Sea Aves Island is classified as a rock which does not get the 200mile economic zone, however Venezuela hasn’t signed the UNLOS treaty. This rock effectively removes a significantly removes most of the OECS’ economic zone.

… from Notes from the Margin article How Venezuela Controls the Caribbean Sea

“St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said the OECS had accepted Venezuela’s sovereignty over Bird Island and that he would not allow anyone to dictate whether or not he should put pressure on the Government of Venezuela in relation to the issue”. Speaking at a press conference at the Caricom secretariat, Gonsalves said, “Nobody is going to tell me which questions are important.”

When public support for this type of Venezuelan communist regime wanes at home they try and turn public attention from local matters to the international theatre.