Going

We are going up north Saturday to see doctors. I will be following SVG from a distance, but not as closely. We'll come back in the fall.

Eruption?

The official NEMO email is as follows:

Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, May 8, 2012 (NEMO) - During the course of the morning, the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) received several calls from concerned persons and Media houses enquiring if the la Soufriere volcano was erupting. Some callers indicated they have seen smoke coming from the la Soufriere while others indicated that they were smelling sulphur. 

According to Mr. Howie Prince, Director of NEMO, NEMO has been in contact with Dr. Richard Robertson – Geologist at the  Seismic Research Centre in St. Augustine Trinidad who informed that there was no unusual activity nor any increase in seismic activities based on their seismograph recordings. The Soufriere Monitoring Unit also reported from Belmont, North leeward that there was no visible activity or eruption of the volcano.

NEMO therefore wishes to inform everyone that the rumors that the La Soufriere volcano has become more active are not true. 

NEMO also wishes to remind the country that we continue to be affected by a trough system which is producing dense clouds and fogs, thunder showers and lighting storms. It is possible that lightening flashes combined with low clouds and fog can give an illusion of smoke in the area of the volcano.

According to the MET Office, a trough system which has been affecting the Lesser Antilles for the last few days continues to affect St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The system which remains stationary across the Lesser Antilles continues to pull moisture from within the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) northwards.

As a result, generally cloudy to overcast skies, scattered showers and possible isolated thunderstorms will continue to spread across St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Analysis of forecast data suggest that these conditions will continue to affect the island for the next few days however, conditions will improve with the drying out of the atmosphere by late Thursday.

SOILS ARE ALREADY SATURATED THEREFORE RESIDENTS IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS AND AREAS PRONE TO LAND SLIPPAGE SHOULD BE ON THE ALERT. 

NEMO wishes to remind everyone that there have been reports of landslides, flooding and flash flooding in many areas of the country. Therefore, given the current weather forecast, everyone is asked to take the necessary precautions to save life and protect property.

May Day, May Day

Actually, there isn't any problem. I was just shouting "May Day" for the fun of it. However, we will be going up to the states for a while to see Old Fart's Doctors. We'll be back soon. Luckily Sampson, our new watchdog, is big enough to tear an intruder to pieces. He replaced Zeus, who died earlier this year.

My complaint seems to have entered OK. Maybe Blogger stopped putting a copy into an editable form. Maybe Google expects that everything being entered is original and not copied. Later I'll see if I can find the original letter and convert it so it looks like something I've written. That may be a lot more  trouble than it is worth.

New Format in Blogger is TERRIBLE

The new format as shown in my last blog about Cheryl's proposed name for the walkway at the beach, is a mess. If I can't fugure out how to fix it I'll have to give up using blogger after many years. Google really screwed it up.

Dr. Vivian Usborne Child Walkway/Villa Beach‏

Dr.

Letter to the Editor of Searchlight, written and forwarded by Cheryl King

Fri, Apr 27. 2012

Editor: Thanks to Tipi Punnett for the invitation to the honouring of Dr Vivian Usborne Child on April 11, 2012, by the St Vincent National Trust.

It was a lovely occasion and it was a pleasure to see Dr Child so vibrant and effusive. Congratulations to the SVG National Trust, to the Punnett family and the others for putting it all together so successfully. It is wonderful to demonstrate public appreciation in this manner.

Dr Vivian Usborne Child’s contributions to St Vincent and the Grenadines in different spheres were highlighted. She served as a medical doctor, artist, journalist, and author. It must also be mentioned that she also took the time to visit and play with the children at the Calliaqua Day Care Centre, then called the “Creche,” many years ago. Those children are now all grown.

For many years, consistently, in the newspaper, Dr Child advocated the need for a safe way to get across the rocks at Villa Beach, walking in the direction from the beach to the Aquatic Club.

Now that the walkway has been built and it is such an added benefit to those who use it, and to the area, it may be fitting to name the walkway the “Dr Vivian Usborne Child Walkway” in her honour.

Cheryl Phills King

Medical Update on The PM

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, April, 19, CMC – Doctors attending to Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves will determine over the weekend whether or not he is well enough to travel back home, the state-owned National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) said Friday.

 Gonsalves, 65, had been complaining of feeling unwell during his stopover in Barbados on Wednesday on his trip to Qatar  and is receiving medical attention in that Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country. NBC said that doctors met with the Prime Minister on Friday and that a decision was taken that he could not travel to the Middle East. It said Gonsalves will be joined by his wife, Eloise.

“A decision as to when he will return to Kingstown will be made over the weekend,” the state-owned media house said.

Opposition leader Arnhim Eustace in a brief statement said he wished the Prime Minister a speedy recovery.

Gonsalves was due to lead a three-member delegation to Qatar for the World Investment Forum that began on Friday to be followed by a UN conference of trade and development (UNCTAD) ministers on Saturday. Ambassador to the United Nations Camillo Gonsalves, the prime minister’s son, who is also part of the delegation, is already in Kuwait for the meeting. The World Investment Forum (WIF) is a high-level, biennial, multi-stakeholder gathering to foster dialogue and action on the world’s key emerging investment-related challenges. 

http://cananewsonline.com/news/78594-medical-update-on-st-vincent-pm.html

USA, SVG sign new agreement:Drugs traffickers beware

Author: Kenville Horne Published: 04/12/2012

The Barack Obama led United States of America administration and the Dr. Ralph Gonsalves led government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines have signed another agreement, under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative(CBSI).

The CBSI is a commitment made by President Obama at the fifth Summit of the Americas Conference in April 2009, to deepen regional security cooperation and complement the other citizen security initiatives in the Hemisphere.
The recent agreement, signed on Wednesday 4th April, at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Kingstown, extends assistance to this country’s fight against illicit drug trafficking and effort to increase public safety.

It provides a sum of US$768,000 to be used as follows: US$200,000 towards law enforcement professionalization; US$343,000 for rule of law and anti-corruption measures; and US$ 134,000 to strengthen counter-narcotics control capabilities.

Money laundering and financial crimes will be tackled with an additional US$91,000.

The agreement will also see the US providing assistance in sharing real time information in locating, indentifying, tracking and intercepting civil aircraft in SVG’s airspace.

Traffickers will be caught

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Charge d’ Affaires/ US embassy in Barbados, Christopher Sandrolini, stated, “The United States has contributed by developing the Cooperative Sensor Integrated Initiative(CSII) to integrate partner nations with the United States into a regional Web Base, declassifying the information sharing system covering air and sea.”

Sandrolini espoused that, with the sharing of real time information, drug traffickers will be caught and prosecuted.

Adding that the US has a role beyond counter narcotics, he detailed the benefits of the agreement. “It will increase air and maritime domain awareness by improving our shared ability to assemble and analyze real time data, which we can act upon, and there will be improved capacities in humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and search and rescue.”

He commended the local authorities on the recent conviction of Antonio Gellizeau , referring to it as a “ground- breaking conviction which established an important precedent in the Eastern Caribbean,” and added that “if they (drug traffickers) are not stopped, they will also use their (ill-gotten) gains to ferment corruption and other kinds of crimes, which essentially are corrosive to the fabric of a free society.”

US and SVG continuing cooperation

According to Prime Minister Dr. Gonsalves, the United States has two C26 aircrafts doing over flights and providing information relating to the detection and apprehension of people at sea.

“They wouldn’t know what is happening, the persons who are at sea. When the plane is in the sky, they wouldn’t see it, but the infra-red facility is picking them up and they connect with the coast guard bases, for us to move,” Dr. Gonsalves warned.

Dr. Gonsalves praised President Obama for initiating the CBSI, saying that it was bearing fruit.
The US government is also expected to provide, by July this year, two fast interceptors.
The construction of a Coast Guard base in Canouan will also receive assistance under the CBSI.

From The Vincentian

SUSAN RICE, U S AMBASSADOR, VISITS SVG MISSION

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. April 13, 2012: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, has expressed regret over the arrest of Ambassador Camillo Gonsalves by an officer of the New York Police Department.
Ambassador Gonsalves was reportedly handcuffed by an overzealous New York City cop on Wednesday, March 28th after he stepped out of his official car, through a barricade in front of the Vincentian mission building in midtown, Manhattan.

Ambassador Rice, who is a member of cabinet of the U.S. government, visited Ambassador Gonsalves at his office in the Permanent Mission of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations on Tuesday, April 10th. It marked the first time that a cabinet-level official of the U.S. Government visited the Vincentian Mission.

Recognizing that Ambassador Rice is currently serving as President of the United Nations Security Council at a particularly busy period in the Council’s agenda, Ambassador Gonsalves stressed his appreciation that Ambassador Rice had taken a personal interest in the matter, and had taken the time to visit him at his office.

Ambassador Rice informed Ambassador Gonsalves during the 30-minutes meeting that the New York Police Department would undertake a thorough internal examination of what took place on March 28, 2012. The Vincentian envoy has previously detailed his assault, arrest and detention by the NYPD in the lobby of his workplace.
Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the relevant resolutions and agreements governing the interactions between the United Nations and the United States of America, diplomatic agents have immunity from arrest or detention in the exercise of their functions.

Ambassador Rice reiterated the seriousness with which the U.S. government views its obligations to ensure that the dignity and safety of United Nations’ diplomats is respected. Ambassador Rice also indicated that she intended to discuss the incident with both CARICOM and the 33-member Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries (GRULAC), which sent formal letters of protest to the United States Mission in solidarity with Ambassador Gonsalves.
Both Ambassadors agreed to keep in touch to follow up on the matter.

Gonsalves told the AP immediately after the incident that the police officer ran into the building behind him on March 28th and “grabbed me by my neck and shoulders, spun me around and said, `Didn’t you see me talking to you.’”

Gonsalves said then, he replied: “You couldn’t have been talking to me.”

But the cop persisted, and demanded identification. “I said, `Why? Am I under arrest?’ He said, `Well you are now.’”
“At that point he handcuffed me, with assistance from other officers he called as a backup,” Gonsalves was quoted as saying, even as other ambassadors began to tell the officer he was in the wrong as Gonsalves has diplomatic immunity. The ambassador was handcuffed for 20 minutes.
“The officer, for the first time, (then) inquired who I was,” Gonsalves told the AP. “I told him. He called for his superiors. The U.S. State Department, as host country, was also called and they sent representatives.”

“The initial position of the NYPD was that I was disorderly, and something should be done because of my disorderly conduct,” added the ambassador.
But Gonsalves said after discussions with him, the State Department representatives, and the other diplomats, “the NYPD were persuaded to release the handcuffs, and I’m back in my office now.”

“Separate and apart from any diplomatic immunities, I personally think the officer was wrong and committed an assault against me,” Ambassador Gonsalves was quoted as saying. “We will be following up. We will seek other forms of redress, but what form it will take, I can’t say.”
The NYPD has said Gonsalves was detained in handcuffs after ignoring the officer’s repeated requests to stop and identify himself. He was released as soon as he produced identification, a spokesperson said.

The CARICOM Consular Corps in New York has slammed the New York Police Department following the arrest of the ambassador and said it is “a pattern of conflict developing between the NYPD and the Caribbean community.”

The Corps, in a statement obtained by News Americas, said it is of the view that the latest act of March 28th sets a dangerous precedent by the NYPD and does not augur well for good relations between the NYPD, the Caribbean Diplomatic community, and all Caribbean nationals.
As a result, the Corps said it has decided to “put on hold all joint activities with the Corps and the NYPD until an amicable solution can be reached in this matter.”

The incident is reminiscent of the arrest of Grenadian-American, New York City councilmember, Jumaane Williams at the annual West Indian Labor Day Carnival last September. Williams, was arrested when he walked through an NYPD barrier. Both men are black.


Published on Apr 12 2012 // Breaking News, Caribbean, Featured, News, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Top Stories, United States