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Tekst en beeld Valerie Fris PARAMARIBO — “Wij willen naar een defensieorganisatie die haar grondwettelijke taken met tevreden medewerkers uitvoert.
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Prime Minister Andrew Holness has implored critics of the Government’s plans for the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Project, to not disparage orderly housing development.
While stating that he is not opposed to the former sugar lands being subdivided and given to the descendants of slaves as a form of reparations, he said this must be done in an orderly and fair way.
“Who are the people who will inhabit the new Greater Bernard Development Project?
“It will still be the children, grandchildren, great, great grandchildren of the people who toiled as enslaved on this plantation, but it will be done in an orderly way, in a fair way, in a way that will guarantee a legacy for their children and grandchildren to come,” declared Holness.
He was speaking at Tuesday’s land-marking ceremony for the first Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) Academy that is being developed by the National Education Trust and the Ministry of Education and Youth in Dunbeholden, Bernard Lodge, St Catherine.
Holness has been facing backlash for his order authorising the demolition of unfinished housing structures on agricultural lands near Clifton that formed part of the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Project.
Among those criticising the prime minister’s decision is the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), which has promised to assist the affected residents in taking legal action over the destruction of the structures.
However, Holness has fired back, contending that the lands were being taken and sold by members of the Clansman gang. So far, Suelyn Ward-Brown, a school principal, has been charged in relation to the illegal sale of lands.
On Tuesday, Holness again explained the plans for order relative to housing that the Government is seeking to embark on locally in the area.
“So let us not disparage orderly development. Let us not seek to cast it as being unfair, and let us not believe that it is only one set of people in Jamaica who has the moral conscience for right and wrong,” Holness contended.
In noting the views expressed on various platforms in the public domain that the land should be divided and given to farmers, Holness said: “I am not opposed to that”.
Continuing, he said: “I believe that as a part of the reparations for sugar and enslavement, that Government ought to take a very enlightened and proactive approach in ensuring that the average Jamaican gets access to land.
“But how do we do this? Do we just leave up the land and people go and settle on it, and then afterwards we come in and try to say, ‘Alright, let me move your boundary from where you had staked back 10 feet so that I can put a road for you, sewer there for you’, or ah may have to ask you to relocate from here to go elsewhere.
“Is that how it should be done?” asked the prime minister, adding that “There are those who feel it should be done like that.
However, he said the Government took an enlightened approach and acted before “chaos was allowed to reign”, by maintaining order in the distribution of land.
He said the lands in the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Project will not only be reserved for housing, but also for agriculture, commerce and education.
Approximately 1,000 acres will go to farmers, with 22 acres being reserved for social services, including a school.
In addition, lands have also been reserved for light industrial development within area.
“You are going to have a diversity of housing options here. We have reserved 100 acres of land for the NHT (National Housing Trust) and the HAJ (Housing Agency of Jamaica), to build houses that are accessible to those who fall within the low-income earning bracket.
“So this is not just going to be a place where only middle-income and upper-income (persons) will be able to live.
“The Government has given the land, not sold it. So the cost of the units will not have the cost of the land in it, and therefore, the prices will be lower,” stated Holness.
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Nouvel avertissement à moins de deux semaines de la COP27: les engagements des pays signataires de l’accord de Paris sont encore “très loin” de ce qu’il faudrait pour espérer tenir les…
Nouvel avertissement à moins de deux semaines de la COP27: les engagements des pays signataires de l’accord de Paris sont encore “très loin” de ce qu’il faudrait pour espérer tenir les objectifs de lutte contre le réchauffement climatique.
Loin de limiter la hausse des températures à 1,5°C ou 2°C, les deux chiffres phares du traité, les plans de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre de 193 parties signataires “pourraient mettre le monde sur la voie d’un réchauffement de 2,5°C d’ici la fin du siècle”, avertit l’agence onusienne chargée du climat dans sa dernière synthèse des engagements reçus.
Et ce alors même qu’avec près de 1,2°C de réchauffement, le monde est déjà confronté aux impacts dévastateurs du changement climatique, comme l’a illustré le cortège catastrophique d’inondations, canicules, sécheresses ou méga-feux qui a marqué l’année 2022.
Lors de la dernière conférence mondiale sur le climat, la COP26 tenue il y a un an à Glasgow, les pays avaient pourtant été appelés à rehausser chaque année leurs “contributions déterminées au niveau national” (NDC), au lieu de tous les cinq ans comme le prévoyait l’accord signé en 2015.
Mais au 23 septembre, date limite pour qu’elles soient prises en compte avant la nouvelle conférence qui se tiendra du 6 au 18 novembre dans la ville égyptienne de Charm el-Cheikh, seuls 24 pays avaient soumis une NDC nouvelle ou renforcée. Un chiffre “décevant” a reconnu le patron de l’ONU Climat, Simon Stiell.
“Nous sommes très loin du niveau et de la rapidité de réduction d’émissions nécessaires pour nous mettre sur la voie d’un monde à +1,5°C”, a-t-il souligné dans un commentaire écrit sur cette synthèse. “Pour maintenir cet objectif (de 1,5°C) en vie, les gouvernements doivent renforcer leurs plans maintenant et les mettre en œuvre dans les huit prochaines années”, a-t-il insisté.
L’objectif de “1,5 degré est en réanimation” a de son côté commenté le patron de l’ONU, Antonio Guterres pour qui “nous allons vers des développements catastrophiques”. “Je dirai que nous avons deux ou trois ans pour changer de trajectoire”, a-t-il dit sur la BBC.
Car selon les experts de l’ONU, les émissions mondiales doivent baisser de 45% d’ici 2030, par rapport aux niveaux de 2010, pour tenir cet objectif, fixé par rapport aux températures moyennes de l’ère-préindustrielle, quand l’humanité a commencé à utiliser massivement des énergies fossiles, produisant des gaz à effet de serre qui causent le réchauffement.
Très loin de la nouvelle synthèse des NDC, selon laquelle les engagements actuels mèneraient au contraire à une augmentation de 10,6% des émissions sur cette même période. Lueur d’espoir, bien tardive, ils permettraient une baisse des émissions après 2030, ce qui n’était pas le cas l’an dernier.
Mais pour l’heure, l’Organisation météorologique mondiale (OMM) a de son côté annoncé mercredi que la concentration de méthane, un puissant gaz à effet de serre, a fait un bond sans précédent dans l’atmosphère en 2021 pour atteindre un niveau record. Le CO2 et le protoxyde d’azote continuant également à battre des records.
Dans une étude séparée sur les stratégies à long terme vers la “neutralité carbone” publiée mercredi, l’ONU Climat calcule que les émissions des pays ayant adopté de tels plans pourraient baisser d’environ 68%, s’ils sont effectivement mis en oeuvre. Mais prévient aussitôt que “beaucoup” de ces plans sont “incertains” et sans application concrète.
Le dernier rapport des experts climatiques de l’ONU (Giec), publié en 2021/22, a souligné le peu de temps restant pour assurer un “avenir vivable” à l’humanité. Mais les scientifiques rappellent que chaque fraction de degré de réchauffement évité compte et qu’il faut donc agir.
“Le rapport (sur les NDC) et celui du Giec sont d’utiles rappels”, a abondé mercredi dans un communiqué le ministre égyptien des Affaires étrangères, Sameh Choukri, qui présidera la COP27. “Il est indispensable de relever les ambitions et de les mettre urgemment en oeuvre (…) pour nous protéger d’impacts climatiques sévères et de pertes et dommages dévastateurs”, a-t-il souligné.
so/bl/jbo/cbn
Cartes montrant l’impact d’un réchauffement planétaire de 1,5 et 3°C en termes de nombre de jours avec une température maximale supérieure à 35°C, de jours de gel et de la concentration de la glace en mer
• Julia Han JANICKI
une femme avec son troupeau de buffles près d’un champ de riz endommagé par les violentes pluies de mousson, le 26 août 2022 à Jacobabad, dans la province du Sind, au Pakistan
• Asif HASSAN
Les engagements climat internationaux insuffisants
• Sabrina BLANCHARD
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arme à feu, pistolet, faits-divers • (PHOTO UNSPLASH)
Un jeune d’une vingtaine d’années a été blessé, suite à une bagarre par armes à feu, de deux balles dans la tête. Son pronostic vital est engagé.
C’est peu avant 13 heures cet après-midi (mercredi 26 octobre) qu’une bagarre par armes à feu a éclaté au quartier Montgérald à Fort-de-France entre des jeunes du secteur.
Durant cette altercation, l’un des jeunes âgés d’une vingtaine d’années est grièvement touché à la tempe gauche et à la joue. Acheminé vers le CHU Pierre Zobda Quittant par transport médicalisé, son pronostic vital est engagé.
Enquête en cours
La police est sur les lieux, une enquête est ouverte pour tenter de résoudre les circonstances du drame.
Selon les forces de l’ordre en intervention sur place, le tireur ainsi qu’une personne l’accompagnant seraient en fuite. Les raisons de la bagarre et les circonstances exactes du drame sont encore inconnues.
Plus d’informations à venir.
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Rishi Sunak faced the opposition in Parliament for the first time as Britain’s prime minister Wednesday, seeking to provide assurances that his new government would offer economic stability and continuity after his predecessor’s tax plans triggered market tumult.
Sunak, who took office Tuesday, has appointed a government that mixes allies with experienced ministers from the administrations of his two immediate predecessors, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, as he tries to tackle Britain’s multiple economic problems.
One of his government’s first acts was to delay a key economic statement until November 17, ensuring the most accurate possible forecasts can be considered as the government seeks to tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
He also quietly reinstituted a moratorium on fracking that was part of the Conservative Party’s 2019 election platform. Truss had scrapped the ban.
“We will have to take difficult decisions to restore economic stability and confidence,” Sunak told the House of Commons. “We will do this in a fair way … I will always protect the most vulnerable…we did that in COVID and we will do that again.”
Opposition politicians focused on the baggage his new government carried: ministers from the Cabinets of Johnson — who quit in July after a slew of ethics scandals — and Truss, whose government lasted just seven weeks.
A package of unfunded tax cuts Truss unveiled last month spooked financial markets with the prospect of ballooning debt, drove the pound to record lows and forced the Bank of England to intervene — weakening Britain’s fragile economy and obliterating Truss’ authority within the Conservative Party.
Sunak is seen by Conservatives as a safe pair of hands they hope can stabilize an economy sliding toward recession — and stem the party’s plunging popularity.
Sunak brought in people from different wings of the Conservative Party for his Cabinet. He removed about a dozen members of Truss’ government but kept several senior figures in place, including Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
He faced a backlash for reappointing Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who resigned last week after breaching ethics rules by sending a sensitive government email from a private account. She used her resignation letter to criticize Truss, hastening the then-prime minister’s departure.
A leading light of the Conservatives’ right wing who infuriates liberals, Braverman is tasked with fulfilling a controversial, stalled plan to send some asylum-seekers arriving in Britain on a one-way trip to Rwanda.
Sunak denied an allegation by Labour leader Keir Starmer that he had made a “grubby deal” with Braverman in return for her support in the leadership contest.
Opponents expressed astonishment that Braverman could be back in her job less than a week after her resignation, and before an investigation of her breach of the ethics rules.
Cleverly defended the choice.
“People make mistakes in their work,” he told the BBC. “No one goes to work with the intention of making a mistake.”
Sunak also kept in place Treasury Chief Jeremy Hunt, whom Truss appointed two weeks ago to steady the markets. His removal likely would have set off new tremors.
Hunt, who had planned to deliver a statement on October 31, will now have a few more weeks to outline the government’s plans to come up with billions of pounds (dollars) to fill a fiscal hole created by soaring inflation and a sluggish economy, and exacerbated by Truss’ destabilizing plans.
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By JILL LAWLESS AND DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press
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The Chinese city of Shanghai started administering an inhalable COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday in what appears to be a world first.
The vaccine, a mist that is sucked in through the mouth, is being offered for free as a booster dose for previously vaccinated people, according to an announcement on an official city social media account.
Scientists hope that such “needle-free” vaccines will make vaccination more accessible in countries with fragile health systems because they are easier to administer. They also may persuade people who don’t like getting a shot in the arm to get inoculated.
China wants more people to get booster shots before it relaxes strict pandemic restrictions that are holding back the economy and are increasingly out of sync with the rest of the world. As of mid-October, 90 per cent of Chinese were fully vaccinated and 57 per cent had received a booster shot.
A video posted by an online Chinese state media outlet showed people at a community health centre sticking the short nozzle of a translucent white cup into their mouths. The accompanying text said that after slowly inhaling, people hold their breath for five seconds, with the entire procedure completed in 20 seconds.
“It was like drinking a cup of milk tea,” one Shanghai resident said in the video. “When I breathed it in, it tasted a bit sweet.”
The effectiveness of non-needle vaccines has not been fully explored. Chinese regulators approved the inhalable one in September, but only as a booster shot after studies showed it triggered an immune system response in people who had previously received two shots of a different Chinese vaccine.
A vaccine taken as mist could fend off the virus before it reaches the rest of the respiratory system, though that would depend in part on the size of the droplets, one expert said.
Larger droplets would train defences in parts of the mouth and throat, while smaller ones would travel further into the body, said Dr Vineeta Bal, an immunologist in India.
The inhalable vaccine was developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics Inc. as an aerosol version of the company’s one-shot adenovirus vaccine, which uses a relatively harmless cold virus.
The traditional one-shot vaccine has been approved for use in more than 10 markets including China, Hungary, Pakistan, Malaysia, Argentina and Mexico. The inhaled version has received a go-ahead for clinical trials in Malaysia, a Malaysian media report said last month.
Regulators in India have approved a nasal vaccine, another needle-free approach, but it has yet to be rolled out. The vaccine, developed in the US and licensed to Indian vaccine maker Bharat Biotech, is squirted in the nose.
About a dozen nasal vaccines are being tested globally, according to the World Health Organization.
China has relied on domestically developed vaccines, primarily two inactivated vaccines that have proven effective in preventing death and serious disease but less so than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at stopping the spread of the disease.
Chinese authorities also have not mandated vaccination — entering an office building or other public places requires a negative COVID-19 test, not proof of vaccination. And the country’s strict “zero-COVID” approach means that only a small proportion of the population has been infected and built immunity that way, compared to other places.
As a result, it’s unclear how widely COVID-19 would spread if restrictions were lifted. The ruling Communist Party has so far shown no sign of easing the “zero-COVID” policy, moving quickly to restrict travel and impose lockdowns when even just a few cases are discovered.
Authorities on Wednesday ordered the lockdown of 900,000 people in Wuhan, the city where the virus was first detected in late 2019, for at least five days. In remote Qinghai province, the urban districts of Xining city have been locked down since last Friday.
In Beijing, Universal Studios said it would close its hotels and attractions “to comply with pandemic prevention and control.” The city of more than 21 million people reported 19 new cases in the latest 24-hour period.
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By KEN MORITSUGU, Associated Press
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Two former directors of the energy company West Indies Petroleum Limited (WIPL), Courtney Wilkinson and John Levy, are to sell their stake in the entity to WIPL, according to court documents.
The details of the imminent sale of Levy and Wilkinson’s shares are contained in an order by consent issued by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the High Court of Justice which is based in St Lucia.
Levy and Wilkinson were removed as WIPL Directors approximately a year and a half ago. However, both men control a minority 20 per cent shares each in the company.
The three founding directors of WIPL, Charles Chambers, Gordon Shirley and Tarik Felix control the remaining 60 per cent shares.
According to the court order, seen by Loop News, West Indies Petroleum Limited and/or the individual shareholders agree to purchase the shares of John Levy and Courtney Wilkinson.
The documents revealed that litigants are to engage a valuator to expedite the sale to WIPL.
Several court actions taken out by Wilkinson and Levy against WIPL have been dismissed by the courts in Jamaica and overseas.
Both Wilkinson and Levy are before the criminal court in St Andrew for several offences, including unauthorised access to computer program or data, conspiracy to gain unauthorised access, conspiracy to access with intent to commit or facilitate the commission of offence and conspiracy to unauthorised modification of computer program or data.
Wilkinson and Levy were charged in February 2022. They deny the allegations.
It’s understood that the pending sale of Wilkinson and Levy’s shares comes as the energy company moves to separate itself from the men and pursue a raft of initiatives in Jamaica and across the region.
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Minister of Education and Youth, Fayval Williams, has hailed Jamaicans in the diaspora for their continued contribution to the development of the schools they attended in the island and the wider education sector.
“Jamaica’s diaspora communities across the United States (US), Canada, the United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere play a significant role in contributing financial and other resources to development projects here, over many decades,” she said.
“They were exposed to the rich tapestry of our education system and upon migration, still want to be connected to home, and they do so by helping students now attending the schools where they had their early-childhood, primary or secondary-level education,” the minister stated.
She was speaking at a ceremony at Camperdown High School in Kingston on Monday (October 24), for the official handover of a gazebo, commercial printer, tablets and scholarships by the alumni’s Florida chapter.
The event also included the presentation of a book titled ‘The Story of Camperdown High School’, which was written by Ambassador Basil K Bryan.
Williams welcomed the support to the 92-year-old institution.
She noted that Camperdown High has emerged from humble beginnings as a private school to becoming a notable institution in the Jamaican education sector.
She said the school has built a “strong reputation” for outstanding performance in education and sports, and today “continues to provide an opportunity for nearly 1,500 students each year to “pursue their academic dreams.”
The minister encouraged individuals and organisations at home and abroad to continue to invest in education in Jamaica, noting that “this will redound to our collective benefit”.
“We often say that education is a national project requiring the input of everyone – parents, students, educators, the business community and civil society groups. We all benefit from a better-educated, better-trained society, and this is well appreciated by our compatriots who spent their formative years in Jamaica,” she pointed out.
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