Black Immigrant Daily News

WTO members on 31 January held a second knowledge building workshop to inform the second wave of negotiations on fisheries subsidies, focusing on data concerning the state of marine resources and on fisheries subsidies.

The workshop was intended to enhance members’ ability to reach an agreed outcome by the 13th Ministerial Conference, said Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard, who also called on more members to submit their formal acceptances of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.

“We all know that the availability of data has been a challenge since the beginning of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations. Members frequently have noted that a better and more detailed understanding of the state of fisheries resources around the world, as well as the amounts and types of fisheries subsidies being provided by governments, would help to inform and bring greater focus to members’ proposals and the Negotiating Group on Rules’ debates,” DDG Ellard said in her opening remarks for the workshop.

A previous workshop held in November focused on an overview of the key disciplines in the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies and best practices for and challenges in implementing the Agreement.

Audun Lem, Deputy Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, likewise emphasized the importance of data in his opening remarks: “Effective management anticipates the public sector playing a significant role in stock assessment, research, enforcement, monitoring, reporting, and institutional capacity building.” He also assured members of support and collaboration from the FAO for stock assessments and other efforts related to implementing the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.

Members heard presentations from experts from governments and intergovernmental organizations providing national, regional, and global perspectives on data concerning the state of marine fisheries and subsidies to marine fishing. Members also had the opportunity to share their own reflections and experiences.

WTO members adopted the Agreement at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) held in June 2022. For the Agreement to become operational, two-thirds of members have to deposit their “instruments of acceptance” with the WTO. Members also agreed at MC12 to continue negotiations on outstanding issues such as disciplines on subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing with a view to making recommendations by MC13 to further enhance the disciplines of the Agreement.

DDG Ellard recalled that members expressed their desire at a fisheries subsidies retreat held in October 2022 to conclude the second wave of negotiations by MC13. “As this is just over a year from now – in late February 2024 – we really have our work cut out for us,” she said. She also highlighted the importance of the WTO’s Fisheries Funding Mechanism created as part of the Agreement to help developing and least developed members in implementing the Agreement and complying with the data obligations.

DDG Ellard further urged more members to formally submit their acceptance of the Agreement, noting that Switzerland was the first to do so, in January . “I hope that this first acceptance will create real momentum for additional acceptances by members. The sooner we reach the threshold of two-thirds of members, the sooner the Agreement will enter into force and start delivering its benefits for ocean sustainability and those who depend on it.”

While interventions highlighted challenges associated with data collection, they also indicated a strong commitment by members to increasing knowledge about their fish stocks and enhancing their understanding of the impact of different fisheries management measures. Experts detailed how a strategic approach to data collection, such as through sampling, can help members make best use of limited resources.

Members also heard how different types of government support can affect fisheries sustainability, and how data can support decision making for revitalizing fisheries stocks. The presentations also underlined the gaps in available data on fisheries subsidies and demonstrated how several members have collected and reported data despite challenges. Various programmes and donor support, including through the WTO’s Fisheries Funding Mechanism, are also available for data collection, the speakers noted.

Closing the workshop, DDG Ellard said: “Data is information to decision makers. The better the data, the better those decisions.”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

A 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck south of the Dominican Republic early Wednesday morning, jolting people from their beds.

The quake occurred in waters southwest of the capital of Santo Domingo at a depth of 28 miles, according to the US Geological Survey.

No immediate damage was reported.

Dominican geologist Osiris de Le?n said the fault that triggered Wednesday’s quake is the same one that unleashed Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake and a subsequent 2021 quake, as well as the 6.4 magnitude quake that hit Puerto Rico in 2020 that damaged dozens of homes and schools and killed one person in the island’s southern region.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The University of the West Indies (The UWI) community is saddened by the passing of Professor Emeritus Gordon Rohlehr on January 29.

Professor Emeritus Rohlehr arrived at the St Augustine at a moment of change in the 1960s as the Caribbean began its course to transform the way in which it saw and positioned itself in the world.

For him, these changes were manifested in culture and shaped by culture. The calypso and the literature of the West Indies were, for him, transformative and reflected the apocalyptic nature of our history and our history making.

He became part of an international movement that reflected on the traumatic nature of New World history and who saw the literature that emerged as rich in contradictions and promise. The multifaceted nature of that history of enslavement, indentureship and European incursion shaped Caribbean scholarship and literature, and shaped him.

In that regard, He initiated and taught the first course on West Indian Literature in 1970. That scholarship and his charismatic lecturing fuelled generations of Caribbean scholars, many of whom have gone on to teach the courses he created or inspired in the Literatures in English section at The UWI.

He was one of a band of intellectuals who used words to fashion ideas and to change the course of politics and the future. He wrote in small journals, in newspapers such as Tapia and spoke on radio and television.

He connected with and interpreted the writings of the literary giants of the day, including Kamau Brathwaite with whom he had a particular relationship, Derek Walcott whose “mulatto aesthetic” evidenced the ambivalence of a memory of Africa and Europe; George Lamming, Wilson Harris, Roger Mais and Martin Carter whose work he brought into the mainstream.

But it is his pioneering academic work on the oral tradition and in particular on the calypso that many will remember. Calypso was a repository of the submerged past and the weapon used to chronicle the present. His work was and is masterly. A scholar and a critic, he was noted for his study of calypso, oral poetry, and cricket in the Caribbean region. As recently as 2015, Professor Rohlehr published a book about calypsonian the Mighty Sparrow, ‘My Whole Life is Calypso’, in which he stated that he set out to look at whatever might have been taking place in the 40-45 years beyond the early music.

In a tribute to Professor Emeritus Rohlehr, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles said, “The Calypso Chronicler has gone to rest. His resonant, distinctive Guyanese tones have fallen silent. From Bourda to Sabina through Queens’ Park Oval, the region mourns a gentle giant. He served The UWI, his alma mater with distinction. Students and colleagues across the region and beyond have benefitted tremendously from him. Sleep well colleague and friend. Innings well played.”

Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal at The UWI St Augustine Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, remarked, “His legacy is carried in the students he nurtured at the Campus, through conversation and intense enquiry. His former students and those who thronged his lecture rooms, as well as the many scholars and intellectuals who have benefitted from his pioneering and intense and thorough research, share a deep sense of loss and gratitude. We extend condolences on behalf of the Campus community to his family.”

The University of the West Indies extends heartfelt condolences to his widow Dr. Betty Ann Rohlehr, their children and entire family.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

A revamped Integrity in Public Life Bill went before Parliament on Tuesday outlining heavy fines for those found guilty of an offence under the legislation and a threat of disqualification from holding public office by guilty parties.

“Specified individuals” face the possibility of being fined as much as $50,000 or in some cases, they can be jailed for up to one year, if they are found guilty of an offence. Similarly those individuals captured under the bill could face a fine for failure to report a gift worth over $2,500.

These provisions are outlined in the revised piece of legislation which was laid in Parliament on Tuesday, and will now include incoming judges of the Supreme Court, directors of public prosecution and auditors general.

According to Section 17 of the legislation, an individual who fails to file a declaration without reasonable cause is guilty of an offence and is liable to a fine of $50,000.

An individual who fails to comply with a directive given by the Integrity Commission or the President to place all or part of their assets in a blind trust based on “reasonable grounds”, can also be fined $50,000.

Specified individuals under the legislation include members of the House of Assembly and the Senate, members of the Cabinet, Permanent Secretaries and heads of departments in the public service and holders of public office in the same grade as heads of departments.

A specified person may also refer to chief executive officers, general managers and other executive heads of state-owned enterprises, chairpersons of state-owned enterprises, magistrates and senior officers of the commission.

“A member of the House of Assembly or the Senate who, without reasonable cause, fails to file a statement of registrable interests that he is required to file, is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of $50 000,” it added.

The bill also outlines that, “A member of the House of Assembly or the Senate who knowingly files with the Commission a statement of registrable interests that is incomplete or false in any material particular is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of $50 000 or to imprisonment for one year or to both.”

The legislation further states that where a member of the House of Assembly or the Senate fails to comply with an order under specific sections of the bill within a specified period, the offence shall be deemed to be a continuing offence “and the member shall be liable to a further fine of $3 000 for each day on which the offence continues”.

A member of the House of Assembly or the Senate who is convicted of an offence under section 17 or 20 of the bill “is liable, in addition to any other penalty prescribed by law, to be disqualified from holding any public office for a period of 10 years from the date of conviction for the offence”, according to the legislation.

The law also makes provision for the yet-to-be established Integrity Commission to “make rules prescribing the circumstances in which the acquisition by a specified person in public life of an interest in a contract with the Government or a state-owned enterprise is prohibited.”

According to the proposed legislation, “No member or employee of the commission shall be liable to any action or suit for any matter or thing done by him in good faith as a member or employee of the commission or in the exercise of his functions or the course of his employment, as the case may be.”

Section 23 makes provision for individuals captured under this law who receive a gift worth more than $2,500, or whose spouse or child receives such a gift, to make a report of it to the Integrity Commission using the appropriate form.

The legislation states that individuals “shall state in the report the name and address of the donor, the description and approximate value of the gift and whether, in the opinion of the recipient, the gift is a personal gift or an official gift.”

“This section does not apply to a personal gift received by a specified person in public life from a relative or friend,” it said.

“A specified person in public life who is unsure whether a gift received from a relative or friend is a personal gift or an official gift may apply to the commission seeking an opinion as to the proper classification of the gift,” it added.

The bill further outlined that where the commission finds that a gift was given to a specified person in public life personally and it was “trivial, or it was not trivial but was not intended to be a motive or reward for doing or forbearing to do anything in the course of the discharge of his official functions or for causing any other person to do or forbear from doing anything, the commission shall allow the specified person in public life to retain the gift”.

However, where a specified person in public life who, without reasonable excuse fails to comply with Section 23 of the law, he or she “is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine, which shall not be more than three times the value of the gift involved in the commission of the offence”.

If an individual makes an incomplete or false report in relation to the receipt of gifts, they shall also be found guilty of an offence “and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine, which shall not be more than three times the value of the gift involved in the commission of the offence or to imprisonment for six months or to both.”

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