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The region’s institutions and governments must work together to offer an innovative tourism product, that can support diverse economic activity and fuel economic growth in the longer term while also generating demand and enabling expansion says President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr Hyginus “Gene” Leon.

Speaking at the 4th Caribbean Aviation Day on September 14, Dr Leon advanced some recommendations to combat the ongoing challenges of regional connectivity focused on the aviation industry.

Noting the commitment of states to address some issues related to regional travel, he indicated that greater investment in the sector is needed.

This investment, which should be comprehensive and sustained, will support broader efforts by the Bank and governments to increase economic resilience, strengthen trade and positively impact the lives of Caribbean people.

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 “There is only one problem that we need to solve and that one problem we can loosely define as sustainable livelihoods of the people of the region,” he stated.

Further adding that there was a need for investment in operational and other aspects of the travel industry.

This required appropriate financing mechanisms which would accommodate the cycles of the aviation industry, the establishment of an enabling environment with the requisite multilateral agreements in force alongside the strategic development of the sector and the institutionalisation of sufficient safeguards to ensure its sustainability.

During the session entitled “Transforming Regional Connectivity: The Role of the Private Sector in Financing Intra-Regional Travel” the President emphasised the symbiotic relationship and importance of physical, digital, and cultural connectivity to the region’s resilience ecosystem. “The solution of the whole is through connectivity… we have an immediate problem that needs to be addressed.” he stated.

According to Dr Leon, Caribbean institutions must urgently treat with the issue of connectivity beyond throwing money at the problem which he described as a short-term fix.

In advocating for a broader approach to enable industrywide resilience in aviation and the region’s people, CDB’s President pressed for broader initiatives beyond investment in aviation in the longer term including the pursuit of innovative tourism, the provision of a more diversified product supported by an education system which would promote all areas of the sector and genuinely make tourism a pillar of development.

While reliable, cost-effective air transportation is vital for the Caribbean’s tourism and hospitality industries and economies; a new paradigm is necessary for viable, sustainable intra-regional air services.

CDB continues to promote innovative options and beneficial partnerships for financing and managing regional air transportation in circumstances where air travel has become inconvenient, costly with limited overall connectivity.

IATA’s Caribbean Aviation Day addressed various issues around aviation sustainability and multi-destination tourism, with the aim of identifying opportunities to jointly rebuild a more competitive air transport sector.

SOURCE: Caribbean Development Bank

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Amid Jamaica recording 56 new COVID-19 cases over 24 hours up to Saturday afternoon, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has reported a positivity rate of 11.5 per cent for the one-day period.

Four COVID-19 deaths that occurred from February 2021 to September 2022, were also recorded on Saturday, bringing the overall coronavirus death toll in Jamaica to 3,310.

An 82-year-old man from Portland is among the latest recorded COVID fatalities nationally.

The separate deaths of three COVID-19 patients are under investigation by health officials.

There were 88 recoveries on the day, bringing that tally to 98,825.

The newly confirmed COVID-19 cases brought the total number on record for the island to 151,650.

Notably, the 11.5 per cent positivity rate was based on the samples that were tested on Saturday.

Of the newly confirmed cases, 34 are females and 22 are males, with ages ranging from eight months to 88 years.

The case count was made up of Manchester (nine), Kingston and St Andrew (eight), Westmoreland (eight), Hanover (six), St Catherine (six), Clarendon (four), Portland (three), St Mary (three), Trelawny (three), St Ann (two), St James (two), St Elizabeth (one), and St Thomas (one).

There are six moderately ill patients and a severely ill patient among 660 active cases now under observation in Jamaica.

There are 57 COVID-19 patients now hospitalised locally.

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I NEED YOUR HELP: Policewoman Zelia Castello who is battling cancer. –

POINT Fortin policewoman Zelia Christiana Castello, 27, who has cancer, is scheduled to leave for India on October 2, for what could be potentially life-saving surgery.

Even though arrangements have been made with the Apollo Hospital in India to start her procedure, Castello told Newsday on the weekend that she is still woefully short of funds.

The officer is very short of the $1.4 million needed to offset the cost of her treatment, but despite this, Castello said she has to leave, because the chemotherapy treatment, which lasts for a month, is no longer effective.

It has been seven weeks since this municipal police officer, who worked at the Siparia Regional Corporation, had her last chemo treatment, and the symptoms of Hodgkin’s lymphoma have returned with full force.

“I am three weeks off chemo. All the symptoms have returned: body pains, muscle spasms. I can’t even hold my spoon to eat. My hands shake like a leaf.

“My lymph nodes are swollen, my neck, everywhere is starting to swell up. I can’t hold on much longer, I really need to leave for treatment,” she said. She revealed having to cancel arrangements to leave in early September, owing to the lack of funds. Without the treatment, “there is every indication that I will I could die.”

Castello’s plight was first published in Newsday on September 4, and the mother of a seven-year-old son said the response to her appeal was positive.

While she is grateful for the funds received so far – $70,000 through a First Citizens bank account: 2283611, plus US$3,000 through a GoFundMe account – this is only enough to start the process. Her airline ticket to India has also been sponsored.

The disease has meant she is unable to work. “I have been under some financial strain, because cancer medication is expensive.” Her insurance policy does not cover cancer.

She explained, in a previous interview, that in January 2021, she was diagnosed with cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s germ-fighting immune system. She was first treated at San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH).

“Chemo puts the cancer to sleep. It stays in the body for one month. As soon as the chemo wears off, the cancer wakes back up. My last treatment was seven weeks ago and doctors said there is nothing else they can do for me here.”

Castello said the cancer has progressed to stage 4, meaning urgent bone marrow transplant is what is required.

The first procedure she will need once she gets to India, she said, is high-dose salvage chemotherapy, which is not done at the Indian hospital, but privately.

A US$15,000 down payment had to be made for this aggressive form of chemo before the transplant can be done. This involves removing the patient’s bone marrow, clearing out the cancer cells and reimplanting it.

“Once this happens, I will be on my way to recovery and can live to see my son grow up,” she said.

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Chief Justice Ivor Archie. –

CHIEF Justice Ivor Archie and former president Anthony Carmona praised the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for successfully hosting the first hemispheric meeting of regional courts in the Americas.

The two-day conference began on Thursday morning and ended on Friday afternoon.

The CCJ said the conference featured heads of judiciaries, senior judicial officers, jurists, academics, and policy-makers from across the region.

The theme was Rule of Law and International Justice.

Archie said he was thankful for being invited to the conference, adding that the discussions were “enlightening and stimulating.

“It gave me much food for thought and I want to congratulate the organisers and the presenters. The standard of the presentation was extremely high.”

Carmona hailed the conference as “visionary” adding that “We must ensure that we meet the needs of our society in a manner that’s fair and just.”

Former president Anthony Carmona. –

In the official communique, it said the regional courts are “re-affirming their commitment to the principles and objectives contained in their founding documents, the charter of the UN, and the American Convention on Human Rights, and other relevant international human rights instruments, as accepted by the States ascribing to their jurisdiction.

It said the rule of law is essential to the growth and flourishing of human society.

“Regional courts and tribunals are essential to guarantee the rule of law, justice, and democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean, within their respective competencies, and require appropriate institutional frameworks to fulfil these high juridical functions and to guarantee their judicial independence.

The second meeting will be hosted by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica next year,

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INGEZONDEN Feiten Na alle commotie in de media en de gemeenschap omtrent de SLM-affaire is het, met uitzondering van van

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