Black Immigrant Daily News

Mount Gay has announced that its Mount Gay Silver blend is the first rum to be Bonsucro certified in Barbados.

Earlier this year Mount Gay Distilleries became Bonsucro Chain of Custody Standard (ChoC) certified, demonstrating the company’s commitment, as the world’s oldest running rum distillery established in 1703, to promoting the sustainable production of sugarcane. The distillery is looking to extend the certification to their plantation from next year.

Bonsucro is the global sustainability platform for sugarcane, one of the world’s most important crops and key for creating Mount Gay rum. Its purpose is to collectively accelerate the sustainable production and uses of sugarcane – for farmers, millers, buyers, and end users. It convenes its members to address critical challenges in the sugarcane sector and drive performance and impact through its system of sustainability standards for sugarcane.

Over the past four years, 100 per cent of Mount Gay’s imported molasses has been certified by Bonsucro, so the distilleries’ certification was a logical next step. Today’s announcement that Mount Gay Silver is the first rum to be sold in Barbados to be produced with the Bonsucro Chain of Custody Standard (ChoC) certification is the first step in Mount Gay’s plan to progressively certify its full range of rums, including Black Barrel and XO blends.

Rapha?l Grisoni, Mount Gay Managing Director, commented: “At Mount Gay, we are committed to sustainable production of molasses so critical to producing our rums. Our team has worked hard to ensure we only use molasses sourced from sustainable sugarcane and where the welfare of workers is protected. Today, Mount Gay Silver is created using 100 per cent Bonsucro certified molasses, so you can enjoy the blend knowing the ingredients have come from a sustainable source.”

Bonsucro’s CEO, Danielle Morley, who has visited the Mount Gay distillery several times said, “I’m so pleased that Mount Gay has certified one of its products and plans to extend certification to the sugarcane production area. It’s been a pleasure to see a Barbados business so committed to becoming a leader for sustainability in sugarcane and rum.”

Mount Gay Silver was specially designed by Master Blender Trudiann Branker to keep Barbados’ love for white rum paramount. The exclusive blend was relaunched in 2021 and features aged double distillate, resulting in a smoother finish than the previous blend.

Celebrating Barbadian rum culture and the genuine rum tradition, the Silver blend was crafted using over 300 years of expertise in rum making and Mount Gay’s keen insight into how rum is best enjoyed across Barbados and the Caribbean: after a long day’s work sitting with friends at a rum shop or in the comfort of your own home. Sip by sip, this new blend is a smooth drink that can be enjoyed with water, mixers and in cocktails.

Mount Gay Silver is bottled at 43% ABV and is exclusive to Barbados and the Caribbean in 70cl, 1l and 1.75l sizes.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The Cayman Islands Parliament building, which officially opened on July 31, 1972 as the Legislative Assembly, will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next week.

To mark the event, an exciting programme of entertainment is planned from 6 to 8 pm on Thursday, July 21, 2022.

Open to the public on Parliament’s steps and in Fort Street, the July 21 celebration features an abundance of music, song and dance.

Speaker, Hon. McKeeva Bush outlined that the full two-hour programme will have performances and a dozen acts as well as a “live” painting of the event, created by a local artist and fireworks to round off the event.

Additionally, there will also be food and beverages available for participants of the festivities, with local caterers providing fare including conch stew as well as fruit juices and sodas. A cash bar accepting card payment only will also be available to guests wanting to buy alcoholic beverages.

The Speaker also recalled the colourful history associated with the iconic building, which is now a fixture at the heart of Central George Town.

“This is a celebration of a precious segment of the evolving history of our beloved islands, which evokes many fond memories for a large number of people,” Mr. Bush commented.

Prior to the outdoor celebration, Members of Parliament and invited guests will attend a special lecture in the Chamber of the House. The presentation by eminent constitutional attorney, Dr. the Hon. Lloyd Barnett will focus on the “Separation of Powers” of the legislature, executive and judiciary.

Both the celebrations and the lecture will be broadcast live on the Cayman Islands Government YouTube and Facebook channels and on CIGTV channels.

Sidebar: Brief History of the Building

The Cayman Islands Parliament building was officially opened on 31st July 1972 by then-Governor Kenneth Roy Crook.

Dame Hilda Bynoe of Grenada was the distinguished guest at the event and gifted the new Parliament building with a painting on behalf of her island.

An international competition was held in 1970 to choose the architects to design both the Legislative Assembly building and the Court House. The winner was architectural firm Rutkowski Bradford and Partners of Jamaica, who designed both buildings. The firm became Rutkowski Baxter and Houghton on their relocation to Cayman.

The buildings were constructed by McAlpine (Cayman) Ltd., and Arch Construction. The Legislative Assembly was the first “poured-concrete” building in Cayman and it was also McAlpine’s first project in Cayman.

The chosen site of the building was what was once Princess Royal Park, so named for the first British royal to visit Cayman (Mary, Princess Royal), who planted a tree in the park. Two years later His Royal Highness Prince Philip also visited the park.

The building underwent renovations in 2003, adding a Members’ Dining room, as well as refitting the carpeting and furniture in the Chamber.

On 4 December 2020 the Legislative Assembly became an autonomous Parliament and the building was named the House of Parliament.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Men’s long jump

Reigning champion Tejay Gayle, who picked up an injury during the long jump final at the Jamaica trials on June 25, has been struggling to retain full fitness for the July 15-24 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

The Jamaican has yet to venture beyond eight metres this season, standing joint 64th on the world list with 7.97m and it will take a brave person to bet on him to defend his title.

Gayle, 25, stunned the world on September 28, 2019 to win the gold medal in Doha, Qatar.

Many in Doha anticipated the coronation of rising long jump star Juan Miguel Echevarria. However, it was instead Gayle who beat him to the punch courtesy of a stunning Jamaican record of 8.69m – the longest wind-legal leap in the world for 10 years.

Playing the perfect game of catch me if you can, Gayle established control of the competition in round one with a splendid PB 8.46m and would remain unsurpassed throughout the competition.

Mondo Duplantis is not the only European field eventer who will be looking for the final piece of a major championship gold medal jigsaw in Oregon.

Miltiadis Tentoglou might not have ventured into world record territory just yet but, like the Swedish prince of the pole vault, the 24-year-old Greek long jumper has claimed Olympic, world indoor and European outdoor and indoor titles in his event.

The one prize he has yet to secure is world outdoor gold. A lowly 19th in qualifying as a 19-year-old in London in 2017 and 10th in the final in Doha in 2019, his gold-plated competitive instinct – and record over the past two years – suggests his luck could well be in at the third time of asking on the World Championships stage.

In the Olympic final in Tokyo a year ago, Tentoglou’s dramatic last-gasp 8.41m snatched the gold medal from the stunned Juan Miguel Echevarria, courtesy of a superior second-best mark.

The Cuban, who jumped a monster 8.68m in 2018, has not been seen in a competitive arena since. His absence in Eugene is another factor in favour of Tentoglou, who took the world indoor title in Belgrade in March with 8.55m, moving him to sixth on the world indoor all-time list.

He has yet to be beaten in the outdoor season, having nailed eight wins out of eight, including Wanda Diamond League successes in Rabat, Oslo and Stockholm. His victory in the Swedish capital on June 30, in his final major test before heading for Eugene, underlined his formidable mettle.

After four rounds Tentoglou found himself down in third place with a best of 7.81m – behind the 7.98m posted by Thobias Montler, the Swede who took world indoor silver behind him in Belgrade, and Croatian Filip Pravica’s windy 7.82m.

Just as the home crowd were scenting an upset to celebrate, the Olympic champion uncorked a mighty 8.31m to secure victory in the penultimate round, just five centimetres shy of the season’s best he set on home ground in Argostoli on May 14.

Not that Tentoglou heads to Oregon with the 2022 world lead. That stands at 8.45m to Simon Ehammer, the multi-talented Swiss athlete better known as a decathlete.

Indeed, it was during the decathlon in the Hypo Meeting at Gotzis in Austria on May 28 that the world indoor heptathlon silver medallist smashed the long-standing Swiss record – improving the world decathlon long jump best he had set in Ratingen just three weeks previously by 15 centimetres.

The 22-year-old has decided to concentrate on the long jump at the World Championships and return to the decathlon at the European Championships, which begin in Munich on August 15.

Since his quantum leap in Gotzis, Ehammer has contested two Wanda Diamond League meetings, placing second to Tentoglou in Rabat and third behind the Greek and Montler in Oslo.

Not that the European U23 long jump champion is likely to be the only major threat to Tentoglou in Eugene.

Montler stands joint fifth on the 2022 world list with 8.27m, one place and one centimetre behind Uruguay’s Emiliano Lasa, together with Japan’s Yuki Hashioka. Jeswin Johnson of India is close behind with 8.26m.

Equal second in the 2022 global order alongside Tentoglou with 8.36m, however, in an Indian hoping to ride the wave of inspiration that took Neeraj Chopra to Olympic javelin gold 12 months ago.

Murali Sreeshankar jumped his 8.36m, a national record, on home soil at the National Federation Cup meeting at Thenhipalam on April 30. He backed it up with an 8.31m victory in Athens on 25 May.

The 23-year-old was seventh at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 in March, jumping 7.92m. He finished 12th in qualifying at the 2019 World Championships in Doha and 13th in qualifying at the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year.

“The experiences in Doha and Tokyo have been invaluable,” Sreeshankar maintains. “The setbacks have made me mentally tough.

“I had a decent result in Belgrade in March. Step by step, I am getting better.

“Neeraj’s Olympic gold has made a huge impact on Indian athletes. It made us believe that we too are capable of good performances in the big events.

“Neeraj and I shared a room during the Tokyo Olympics. He motivated and supported me after my poor result. He told me that I still have time. ‘I believe in you,’ he told me. It felt great coming from someone like him.”

Other potential podium contenders include world indoor bronze medallist Marquis Dendy of the US and the third and fourth placed jumpers from last year’s Olympic final, Cuban Maykel Masso and Spain’s Eusebio Caceres.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Guyana is on the cusp of seeing an influx of non-depository financial institutions entering the local market, with Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo saying that the Government is currently reviewing applications from several merchant banks.

During the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) dinner on Tuesday evening, Jagdeo, who was the feature speaker, said more and more merchant banks are stepping up to seek approval for their applications, considering the aggressive need for financing.

“How do we get a greater flow of financing to people who already have contracts to the oil and gas companies or the first-tier contracts? We’re looking at (meeting) with the bankers. We may need to even change the bank supervision rules. But if the current commercial banks are not fit for purpose or are not aggressive enough.”

“We’ve already licensed one new commercial bank. And we have applications for several merchant banks now, that will specialise in discounted invoices and even providing some limited financing based on contracts signed with the multilateral companies here,” he said.

Jagdeo made no bones about the Government’s intentions to be very liberal with financing non-depository institutions. As such, he noted that Guyana would be seeing several new institutions of that nature in the next few years.

It had been reported earlier this year that Finance Professor Floyd Haynes, who was a contributor to the Local Content Panel that came up with the Local Content Policy, would be launching a merchant bank of his own… subject to regulatory approvals.

With the growth of the economy, there has been an increase in the demand for financing.In fact, this very thing was alluded to by GMSA President Rafeek Khan during the GMSA dinner. According to Khan, he has been informed that there has been an eight per cent increase in lending from commercial banks.

The World Bank had estimated earlier this year that Guyana’s 2023 economic growth rate would be over 34 per cent. According to their semi-annual report for the LAC called “Consolidating the Recovery; Seizing Green Growth Opportunities”, which was released in April, the World Bank projects that Guyana will register a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 34.3 per cent in 2023.

This rate of growth is actually the most in the LAC region and the only one in double figures. The second highest growth rate projected for next year is St Vincent and the Grenadines, at 7.3 per cent.

When it comes to the forecast for 2022, the World Bank in its report had projected an economic growth rate of 47.9 per cent for Guyana. In this case, only Barbados, with a projected growth rate of 11.2 per cent for 2022, crosses over into double figures.

In the World Bank’s “Global Economic Prospects” report from January 2022, it was projected that Guyana will register growth of some 25 per cent for 2023. This was an improvement on the previously predicted 23 per cent.

The World Bank’s economic growth projection for Guyana marks it as the only country within the LAC with growth figures to cross into double figures, once again highlighting the importance of oil exploration to the economy.

Since these projections, however, the Government through the Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance in the Office of the President, Dr Ashni Singh, has actually upped the growth projections.

While addressing the Guyana-Saudi Arabia Investment Engagement that was held in the dome of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) on Saturday, Singh had revealed that the projected growth for Guyana is now at 57.8 per cent. According to him, Guyana’s economic growth will outperform both regional and global averages.

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