From: Anthony_Maillard@Mdd.comm.mot.com (Anthony Maillard)
Subject: Caricom (If Yuh Int'rested)
Followup-To: soc.culture.caribbean
Organization: Motorola, Mobile Data Division - Seattle, WA
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 03:14:57 GMT

These articles may have been posted before. If they have ....sorry.
Christmas break and all that.
All copyright sources are listed but some articles have been edited.

If Yuh Int'rested ----- Anthony Maillard

One-Way Caribbean/Venezuela Free Trade 
Starts In January

Kingston,--The one-way free trade pact between the 13-nation Caribbean
community (Caricom) and Venezuela is to begin next January.
According to Jamaica's Prime Minister Percival Patterson, the pact, first
suggested by Venezuela's President Carlos Andres Perez at last year's
Caricom head of government meeting in St. Kitts, will last for five years.
Patterson made the announcement after a 36 hour visit to Venezuela. Caricom
chairman, Trinidadian Prime Minister Patrick Manning will go to Caracas
shortly to sign the agreement, Patterson told journalists.
Under the pact Caricom nations will have duty-free access to the Venezuelan
market until 1998, after which the regional territories are expected to
allow Venezuelan exports duty-free entrance into their markets.
A wide range of products have been identified as being eligible under the
trade and investment arrangement. These include beer, rum, paints, swim and
sports wear, craft items, confectionery, carpets and gypsum medicaments.
Trade promotion and trade financing, as well as joint ventures and
collaborating in the areas of transportation are also addressed under the
agreement.
Since Caricom endorsed the proposal in July 1991 the regional commercial
sector has voiced concerns about its effect on the Caribbean market. but
Patterson has dismissed these concerns noting that Caricom cannot expect to
protect its markets from competition forever 
We have to understand that we cannot build our economies around barriers
of protection forever and we can't continue to operate on the basis that we
will in perpetuity obtain one-way trade access and that we will never be
called upon to reciprocate,'' he said.
The Prime Minister said the islands will have sufficient time to organise
to be able to sustain duty-free access from Venezuela in five years' time.
Among those groups which had earlier expressed alarm at the free trade pact
was the Jamaica Exporters' Association (JEA). The group seems to have
changed its mind as President Karl James told ips that with the
liberalisation of the local economy the island might be able to grasp the
opportunities under the agreement. ''It seems though that with
liberalisation of the economy and greater freedom given to the business
sector it could be a good opportunity for Jamaican and Venezuelan
enterprises to increase production for the Venezuelan market in the first
place,'' he said. He added that in view of the fact that Jamaica enjoyed
special access to the U.S. market through the one-way free trade Caribbean
Basin Initiative (CBI), this could prove a
''tremendous opportunity'' to expand production here with the help of
Venezuelan companies.
Based on the discussions held between the Jamaican and Venezuelan leaders,
Venezuela could also seek associated membership in Caricom as proposed by a
recent report commissioned by Caricom.
The South American country, in 1991, unsuccessfully sought membership in
Caricom.
Caricom is made up the English-speaking Caribbean nations.

Copyright I.P.S. 1992, all rights reserved.




Region Begins Own International Television Network

Kingston, Nov 12 (ips) -- After decades of being the recipientof
international television, the Caribbean itself will beginbeaming its own
programmes internationally and regionally.With the advent of Caribbean
Satellite Network (CSN) whichgoes on the air in another two weeks, viewers
in north, centraland south America, western Europe and all the islands of
theCaribbean, will get the chance to see the region's music andlifestyle,
through entertainment and news programming as well asdocumentaries.
Beaming from the U.S. city of Miami 24 hours daily, sevendays per week,
CSN will be challenging the latest in mediainnovation in the region, says
Delroy Cowan, president of thenew television station and a Jamaican
entrepreneur.
''CSN was created out of the need for the Caribbean to haveits own
international network ... for decades internationaltelevision has been
controlled largely by America and we see CSNas giving the Caribbean region
a voice in the world,'' Cowanexplained.
The new television station will be concentrating heavily onmusic, but
programming will also include documentaries based onlife in the Caribbean,
news, situation comedies and interviews.''Our programming will be very
Caribbean,'' says Cowan, ''wewill provide an outlet and the necessary
exposure for thoseentertainers who have not yet made a name for themselves
but whoneed to be encouraged.''
Funded by  a group of business people from several Caribbeanislands, it
was only a matter of convenience that Miami waschosen as the ''home'' of
CSN, says Cowan. By deciding to locate in Miami we avoided a lot of the
redtape that would have been necessary in the Caribbean islands,''he
says.  being in Miami it also meant access to the lateststate of the art
equipment.
Viewers in the Caribbean region with private satellite dishes,will be able
to access programming directly. Independenttelevision stations and cable
networks will also be able toreceive the programmes through satellite and
cable transmission.CSN is only the latest in what has become a virtual
explosionin the media industry in the region.
The northern Caribbean island of Jamaica has moved from justtwo radio
stations five years ago to some five stations nowoperating, with another
two slated to hit the airwaves beforethe end of the year or by early next
year. 
The daily Gleaner which has held sway in the print media forover 160 years
despite competition from time to time by otherdailies is again being
challenged for its number one position inthe island.
Rising from the ashes of the defunct Jamaica record, is the Jamaica Herald
Herald which began publishing last July. Its predecessor,the Jamaica
Record, closed in April after four years ofpublishing because of financial
difficulties. Its publishers, however, undaunted by the problems
experienced with the record, began again with the Herald. Come next year a
new weekly tabloid is set to be on news stands across the island.
But the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation still holds the monopoly in
television broadcasting. Although another television license has been
awarded to a group of businessmen to begin their own station.
In the southern Caribbean state of Trinidad and Tobago the expansion in the
media has also created some ripples. In the last two years, the country has
moved from one to three television stations, from three weekly newspapers
to seven and from two radio stations to seven. There are still two major
daily newspapers there. Cowan sees this rapid expansion in the media as
progress for the region.
Others in the media and the music industry agree. I can only say this is a
positive move. It will be good exposure for our musicians,' says Earl
Smith, manager of High Times record company in Jamaica. ''I think it is
something that is good for the region.  It is timely.  It will be to the
benefit of the entire Caribbean region as it will serve as a medium through
which we will be able to export our indigenous culture and music,'' says
Lester Spaulding, managing director of Radio Jamaica Limited. 



Caribbean Development Projects Funded

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved totaling $19.9 million
for development projects in St. Kitts-Nevis and Dominica and a line of
credit to a state-run development bank in Jamaica. In a statement at its
144th board of directors meeting last July, the Barbados-based CDB also
reported approval of an undisclosed amount of funds for technical
assistance to Belize for an air transport study and a water and sewer
expansion project for Belize city.
Of the $19.9 million in loan approvals, $4.4 million is slated for
construction of 88,000 square feet of factory space at two industrial
estates in Dominica. Another loan of $2.1 million to Dominica will be used
by the government to improve the water supply to rural communities.
The National Development Bank of Jamaica (NDB) is receiving a $7 million
line of credit for on-lending to approved financial agencies to provide
loans for tourism and industrial projects. A loan of $6.4 million will help
finance the improvement of 15 miles of the main road to St. Kitts.
Source - Class Magazine




Young Men Could Be Harmed If Women Become Priests 

St. John's/Kingston, Nov. 14 (ips) --  If women are ordained into the
priesthood of the Anglican church in the region, men are going to be
severely affected psychologically with the spin off being the destruction
of family lives, according to one member of the church in the Caribbean. 
Bridgette Harris, the Antiguan lay representative to the provincial synod
of the West Indies, told ips that the region should not be tempted to
follow the Church of Englands decision in Britain this week and allow
women to be ordained into the priesthood Because of the harm it would do
the male population. ''for another society, for Britain, for any other
place where you don't have the feeling that women are the dominant
creatures, I would say yes I want to go into the priesthood. ''but if we
are going to formally take on the cassock, it would crystallize in the
minds of the young people that this is not for them and we are going to
emasculate the boys and destroy family life,'' she said. 
Pointing to the matriarchal nature of Caribbean societies Harris says
ordaining women priests would perpetuate the idea that the priesthood is
not for ''he-men''. Already there are insufficient men in the church and by
opening up the priesthood, the number will decline further, she observed. 
But Harris does not have to worry about emasculating young men, at least
for the next eighteen months. At the West Indies Provincial Synod meeting
which ended Thursday, representatives from the different dioceses in the
region declined to discuss the matter, postponing voting on the issue until
June 1994. Three dioceses in the region -- the Bahamas, Guyana and the
Windward islands -- are not in favour of women being ordained priests and
with its decision, the Provincial Synod has given them time to re-examine
the issue. 
Although Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Trinidad and Tobago and the north east
Caribbean voted three years ago to push ahead with the ordination of women,
they cannot in fact do so without a resolution being passed with a
two-thirds majority in the Synod, meaning six out of the eight dioceses
must be in favour. 
Representatives from the three dissenting dioceses say it will be difficult
to get any change in position. 
Already women priests have been ordained in several of the branches of the
Anglican church worldwide such as the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Brazil.
In the meantime, other Christian denominations in the region have been both
pleased and annoyed at the British decision.  
Samuel Carter, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Jamaica, said it was
unfortunate that the British vote could split the Church of England.
Several clerics and churchgoers in that country have pledged to leave the
church because of the decision. 
It is hoped that the Church of England will not be divided and that the
women who are ordained to the priesthood will be of assistance to the
church,'' Carter said. 
Colonel David Edwards, territorial commander of the salvation army in the
region, said he was excited by the decision. 
We welcome the decision. the majority of the officers (pastors) in the
Aalvation Army are women. the head of the Salvation Army internationally is
a woman. I believe that it is time that women be given their rightful place
in the church,'' he told ips. Members of both the Baptist and Anglican
churches in Jamaica support the British vote.  
''It is something that is long overdue. I see no theological reason to
prevent women from being ordained as priests. the reasons which are
normally given are primarily sociological and speak of male dominance for a
long time within the church,'' said Anglican priest and head of the united
theological college, Howard Gregory. 
It's a step in the right direction, a creative move. we feel god called
both male and female into his service and every ''Roy Henry, head of the
Jamaica Baptist union said. 
But, according to Clyde Edwards, one of the leaders in the brethren church
here, the decision was a wrong one.
''What is at stake here is the authority of the scripture. The principle in
the scripture is that the woman is not to have a teaching role in the open
church. It has nothing to do with looking at women as any second class
citizen.'' The brethren church does not allow women to speak from the
platform in church services. 
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