Black Immigrant Daily News

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John Arnold –

Preparations are under way for Tobago Heritage Festival 2022, set for July 22 to August 1.

After two years of virtual staging owing to the covid19 pandemic, the annual festival will return to an in-person audience under the theme: Reflect, Rebirth, Rejoice – Reigniting the flames of our legacy.

In an interview with Newsday on Wednesday, Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd (TFCL) CEO John Arnold said, “The preparations are ongoing. We’re now sorting out all the final details in terms of financing etc.”

The theme, he said, reflects the energy to reignite the island’s heritage.

He said the festival will help Tobagonians reflect “on where we have come from with the heritage for 35 years, in terms of how it started, what it meant at that time.

“The rebirth has to do with newer energies – how do we start to look at re-engineering and reworking the heritage as how it was and the future aspect of how do we move the festival from its position now, moving forward how do we look at that.

“Rejoice – it is a time for rejoicing because we are still here to ensure that the festival maintains its preservation and retention of the cultural forms that we want to pass on from one generation to the other.”

Reigniting, he said, sums up the whole energy of having those members that are on the cast, put the fire and get the event going with pace again.”

The opening-night production will be held on July 22, before action shifts to the Plymouth J’Ouvert and Miss Heritage Personality on July 23. The festival continues with the new Northside combined talent competition on July 24, which will make way for Charlotteville Natural Day Treasures on July 25, then to Pembroke on July 27 for the Pembroke Salaka Feast.

All roads will lead to Les Coteaux for the Les Coteaux Folktales and Superstitions on July 28, followed by the Heritage Calypso Monarch on July 29. The Moriah Ole Time Wedding is on July 30, and the festival culminates on August 1 with the Emancipation Day celebration.

He said the event usually runs for two weeks, but this year, because of monetary and time constraints, it had to be revised.

“We had several villages that wanted to participate but we had to cut down to two main things based on finance. Nationally and locally, we do have a challenge with monies. So given that fact, the reality is that we had to work with a smaller budget.”

Arnold said the new Northside combined talent competition will see villages working together.

“Northside is a combination of Castara, Parlatuvier, Bloody Bay and L’Anse Formi. They have all combined to work together to produce that event, but they had to choose one venue and the villagers chose it. The villagers chose to do the event in Castara.”

He is expecting the event to bring an economic boost to the island’s economy.

“The economic benefit would always be the spin-off to the communities and in terms of the festival, it would also have spin-off benefits to those who are coming from Trinidad – the domestic tourist.

“Normally, people book rooms in Charlotteville just to be part of the Natural Treasures, so it does have economic benefits all around: communities benefit a lot, guesthouses, groceries – everybody will have a bligh.”

People, he said, should look forward to a very exciting festival this year.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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The North bound traffic towards the City:

John Compton Highway, right onto Desir Avenue , into Sans Souci left onto L’anse Road,  existing

The South bound traffic towards the City:

John Compton Highway, left into L’anse Road,  existing (1) Calvary Road to Chaussee Road (2) Calvary

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Road to Darling Road (3)  Sans Souci, Desir Avenue to John Compton Highway

NO ENTRY

John Compton Highway/Desir Avenue intersection
John Compton Highway/Seraphine Road intersection
John Compton Highway/Pointe Seraphine road intersection
John Compton Highway/Southbound from Vigie Roundabout
John Compton Highway/L’anse Road intersection (southbound)

NO PARKING

There shall be no parking in the vicinity of the event to allow free movement in case of an emergency

No parking L’Anse Road from John Compton Highway to Calvary Road
No Parking Desir Avenue from John Compton Highway to L’anse Road
No parking on John Compton highway near airport fence
No Parking on Seraphine Road near Vigie playing field fence

REROUTING

Vehicles from Point Seraphine will make a right  turn onto John Compton Highway and access the route to the north through L’Anse Road/Sans Souci

Vehicles from Seraphine Road will not be permitted to turn right to head to the city.

ROAD CLOSURE 

Event
Event Date
Gates
Event Show Time
One Way Traffic
Road Closure
Soca Finals
Fri.July 8.2022
6.00PM
8.00PM
5.00PM
Calypso Finals
Sat. July 9.2022
6.00PM
8.00PM
5.00PM
Panorma Competition
Sun. July 10.2022
6.00PM
8.00PM
12noon (One way

Exiting Castries)

2.00PM
King & Queen of the Bands
Mon. July 11.2022
6.00PM
8.00PM
12noon (One way

Exiting Castries)

4.00PM

Source: Carnival Planning & Management Committee

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Attorney General Dale Marshall is scheduled to hold a press conference to discuss the current trends in crime after two men died in separate shooting incidents five days apart, with some 11 others receiving gunshot injuries during three separate shootings.

The conference is set for tomorrow morning, Friday, July 8.

This comes of the heels of two shootings today, July 7. The first shooting was just after midnight and it left five injured and one man dead. The deceased has since been identified as Franz Walkes, 47 years of St Matthias, Christ Church. The second brazen shooting occurred in high daytime around 3:40 pm in the parking lot of a fast food establishment along Black Rock Main Road, St Michael.

On July 6, a wounded man fled a stabbing scene in Greenfield and collapsed outside Central Police station.

Meanwhile, there were two shootings on July 2.

Around 1am, July 2, there was a fatal shooting, in the area of the Blackwoods Screw Dock in Cavans Lane, Bridgetown, which left one man dead and three other persons injured. Then around 2:40pm, in Cave Hill, St Michael, there was a reported shooting on the same Saturday, July 2. Police responded and in the Montgomery Playing Field area it was discovered that three persons were injured. Two persons at the hospital were in stable condition and one received emergency surgery. Two stalls and two vehicles were damaged during the incident.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Several private investors have submitted proposals for renewable energy projects in Jamaica for Government consideration.

Among them is an integrated solar and hydro energy project, which was announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Matthew Samuda, noted that these are expected to assist in realising the government’s goal of increasing the ratio of energy generated from renewable options for the national power grid to 50 per cent by 2030.

He further said that this would contribute to a 60 per cent reduction in Jamaica’s carbon dioxide emissions, also being targetted for 2030, in keeping with the country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.

The NDCs embody countries’ efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Samuda was speaking during the inaugural digital staging of the CANCarib Climate Smart Opportunities Summit (CCOS), on Wednesday (July 6).

Indicating that there are sufficient funding proposals to enable Jamaica to achieve the power-generation target, Samuda said an announcement on the successful submissions could be made within the next 60 days.

He pointed out that he is optimistic about 32 proposals, of which he is aware.

Samuda also informed that proposals have been presented by stakeholders with investments in energy and those not invested in the sector.

He maintained that the undertaking would be administered in a manner that safeguards stakeholders’ previous investments, adding that “it has to be done in an orderly way that meets our targets and our moral obligations”.

The CANCarib Climate Smart Opportunities Summit is a high-level business initiative that targets the portfolio of cleantech and associated infrastructure projects in Jamaica and was designed to prepare Canadian companies in pursuing opportunities, steps and connections required to bring projects to market.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

News

An estimated $1.6 billion contract to upgrade the Piarco International Airport in 1995 is the project for which several people and companies are charged for corruption in Trinidad and Tobago and the US. File photo/Roger Jacob

THE Maritime Financial Group is calling on the Government to “cease its remaining misguided efforts to use the court system” to claim political victories on “unfounded charges and allegations.”

Two of the group’s subsidiaries – Fidelity Finance and Maritime General Insurance – and its executives, Steve Ferguson, John Smith, Edward Bayley, and Barbara Gomes, are among those charged in related Piarco inquiries along with former government ministers and other business people.

They are accused of conspiring to convert more than $19 million under false pretenses from the Airports Authority.

The offences are alleged to have occurred in the US, TT, The Bahamas, and elsewhere between September 1, 1996, and December 31, 2005.

Smith was murdered in July 2021.

In a full-page press advertisement, the group said, to date the government’s efforts have only “cost taxpayers more money than the initial ‘fraud’ the Government is claiming to try to correct; been consistently refuted by the evidence over more than 20 years of judicial and legal proceedings; sullied the reputations of honest and good individuals, and caused embarrassment to the reputation of Trinidad and Tobago abroad.”

The company maintained, “The longer this wears on, the more taxpayers’ money will be wasted, reducing the ability of Government to focus on the needs of our schools, our health care, our infrastructure, the true crime-fighting needs we face, and the general welfare of our nation.”

The statement said Maritime has always known the charges against the group “were without any merit,” but was saddened that “this saga” has dragged out for more than 20 years, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to taxpayers.

“It has clearly not been a benefit to the citizens and taxpayers of Trinidad and Tobago to deplete the Treasury’s scarce resources on politically-motivated claims rather than devoting resources to the needs of the country and its people.”

Maritime Financial said to date, not one of the charges related to Piarco has been sustained in the courts.

“Yet the Government continues with its ongoing efforts to prosecute a partisan political victory in the court.” The statement said in addition to the waste of public funds, there was personal tragedy for Maritime’s employees and their families.

The statement mentioned Gomes, Bayley, and Smith, the last two having died.

“There is no adequate justification or compensation for the harm to the personal reputations of these fine people and their families. All of this in the pursuit of narrow interests of a political vendetta carried out by a few people of influence in Government.”

The statement also quoted from the June 27 ruling of the Privy Council which held that a complaint by Smith and Gomes, charged in the Piarco I inquiry, of apparent bias against then chief magistrate Sherman McNicolls was sufficient to strike down their committal to stand trial before a judge and jury and the statement of DPP Roger Gaspard, SC, who made it clear that the London court did not dismiss any of the charges against those in the Piarco 1 inquiry.

Maritime Financial said the Privy Council was not asked to dismiss any charge. It also said McNicolls, on January 8, 2008, had already dismissed all of the defendants of all charges and committed them to stand trial on amended and additional charges he previously refused to entertain.

When the prosecution closed its case in September 2006, the Piarco 1 inquiry was adjourned for submissions on no-case submissions. One month later, the prosecution filed a notice of proposed amendments and additional charges. The defence objected and McNicolls ruled there could be no change to the charges after the close of the prosecution’s case. On July 9, 2007, McNicolls ruled on the no-case submissions and discharged the defendants on the original charges but committed them to stand trial on the amended and additional charges.

Maritime Financial pointed out it was this decision, to commit the defendants on new charges, that was quashed by the Privy Council.

It said Maritime and its employees never had an opportunity to defend and respond to the new and amended charges before the committal.

The DPP has since said he is now considering the future of the matter.

There are three other inquiries arising out of the Piarco airport expansion project debacle and varying stages before the courts.

Gaspard said it has been his public position that “taking Piarco I to trial would have been oppressive if not legally nettlesome while the other matters related to the airport project were in train, bearing in mind that there were common accused in both sets of matters.” Instead, he said, “A joint trial of the allegations in Piarco No I and those arising from those other matters was desirable.”

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