the obsession with black/afro latino's on this forum is quite hilarious
There is already an African thread so don't gas yourself http://www.thecoli.com/threads/the-africa-the-media-doesnt-tell-you-about.211483/
Essential Afro-Latino/ Caribbean Current Events
- Thread starter Poitier
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There is already an African thread so don't gas yourself http://www.thecoli.com/threads/the-africa-the-media-doesnt-tell-you-about.211483/
i can read thanks
I found an independent Afro Colombian film company https://www.youtube.com/user/HOLLYWOODOOFILMS/videos 
Where do your mangoes come from? Come along as a harvest of delicious Francique mangoes travels from the farm to your shopping cart, and meet the Haitian farmer who is proud to share his mangoes with you. Bon appétit! Support work like this by donating to TechnoServe: http://ow.ly/y8F47
Three Jamaicans vying for tech start-up funds reach semi-finals of global contest
KARENA BENNETT Business reporter bennettk@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, September 14, 2014 5 Comments
Sheldon Duncombe, one of the semi-finalists in the GIST Tech-I competition 2014.
Three Jamaicans who are competing for US$15,000 ($1.6 million) are semi-finalists in the Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) Tech-I competition.
They are among a field of 67 contestants.
Jermaine Henry, Dmitri Dawkins and Sheldon Duncombe hope to change Jamaica's economic landscape by creating efficiencies and reducing operation costs in various sectors.
Dawkins is pitching a technology, research and development firm which practises lean start-up methodology to create solutions for businesses and government entities in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
The 27-year-old hopes to revise and revamp each company's business strategies, using technological applications to create more efficient and competitive entities.
"I will constantly review the products and processes, while measuring how effective they really are," Dawkins said.
Through his platform, he hopes to first create a smart- farm solution for small farmers, boosting competition through reduced operating costs and consumer prices.
"Jamaica has a lot of small farms and they are using very inefficient methods to grow crops," he said.
The entrepreneur is already converting two small farms into 'smart farms' in the areas of St Elizabeth and rural St Andrew.
On completion, the young entrepreneur will be venturing into the areas of financial technology, medical sciences and technology.
Henry, a student at the University of Technology (UTech) hopes to create a digital agricultural clearing house dubbed Agrocentral. The business will use web technology to short message service (SMS) and SMS to web functions to connect small farmers and businesses across the globe.
The SMS web technology will be connected to an open database that will allow trade and commerce between buyers and suppliers, according to Henry.
"You can post your available produce to the website using text messages and also receive requests for your produce via text messages from the website," he said. Henry is toying with the idea of first launching his product in Jamaica, and eventually taking his business into the wider market.
Duncombe, on the another to hand, is looking to introduce a Type 1 diabetes correction device in the healthcare sector.
"The correction device will replace the insulin pump and will help to avoid major surgery like pancreas transplantation," Duncombe told Sunday Finance.
The glucose centre attached to the body will test the patient's blood every 15 minutes to a transmitter that is connected to the centre. This information will be sent to a watch which will store the information for doctors.
The device can store up to one week's worth of information and can also be transferred to a computer. The correction device also has a separate diet plan watch for the diabetics, he said.
"I will still be working on my project even if I don't win the competition because I believe it is something that will be successful."
All finalists will receive up to three months' mentoring following the finals.
GIST Tech-I -- an annual science and technology entrepreneurship competition in the areas of agriculture, energy, health, and ICT, this year accepted over 500 entries from 86 countries including Eurasia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle-East and Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The competition, which started in July, sees individual projects being reviewed by a panel of judges who then determines who goes forward. This follows a voting period by the public from September 1 to 30.
Finalists selected by the public, will attend the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. During this event, the up-and-coming scientists and entrepreneurs will receive intensive skills training, mentorship, and networking access to global leaders in their fields.
The funding from the event will aid the start-up of the winning project, after which the entrepreneur will seek additional funding.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/busi...-reach-semi-finals-of-global-contest_17541623
Teen Entrepreneur Tastes Business Success
Published: Monday | September 15, 20144 Comments
Gordon, junior achiever, founder, CEO, Mahgord's Seasoning. Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Economic woes have permeated every level of the Jamaican society, weakening an already fragile business sector and crippling consumers by reducing spending power.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) initiatives and meagre economic growth projections have done little to inspire confidence and the feeling on the ground is one of insecurity and disempowerment.
Yet Jamaica's seemingly fallow economic landscape still shows signs of growth in the form of small businesses powered by youthful exuberance. One such small business is the aptly named MahGord's - brainchild of Mahalia Gordon, a 19-year-old entrepreneur who combined her love of cooking with a gap in the market and pursued a path in business.
Simple concept
"MahGord's started from a simple concept at home where I decided that I needed a quick and easy marinade for my meat at the time. I was cooking chicken at the time and I didn't want to use any other seasoning," Mahalia told The Gleaner.
"So I decided to do a quick blend of the seasonings that I had at home at the time and then I decided that 'hey, this really tastes great', so I know other persons would like this."
What Mahalia had produced was a well packaged, great tasting, all-purpose seasoning. A believer in supporting local businesses not dissimilar to her own, the former student of Glenmuir High School sources all her raw ingredients from farmers in St Elizabeth. Seeking the help of the Scientific Research Council, MahGord's was tested and given a shelf life allowing Mahalia to start sourcing bottles for her garlic-based product.
Much support
Despite receiving much support from her community and potential customers she meets on a daily basis, MahGord's seasoning is yet to find a spot in any Jamaican supermarket because of a stipulation by the Bureau of Standards that MahGord's must have a registered business place for product assessment purposes. Currently, MahGord's production line operates from Mahalia's familial home where her team produces approximately 200 bottles of the seasoning monthly.
"A lot of persons support me, I must say, thank God. I have my school family, family, close friends, and people that I meet on a daily basis - it's just amazing. I walk with my product everywhere I go so I'll be there introducing it to them and they'll say: 'Oh you're the young lady I saw on the television,' and I'm like, 'Yes', so they're encouraging me and they'll just buy the product."
Yet Mahalia's journey as an entrepreneur would have been less seamless if she had not received support from a non-governmental organisation that partnered with corporate Jamaica, whose mission it is to foster and develop the business acumen of youths.
"Junior Achievement Jamaica, in partnership with Citibank - they have done extremely well in my preparations for my business in that they hosted a series of seminars where I've been going every two weeks since April, so the tutoring, the different sessions, different persons would come in and speak about different aspects of the business. They come in and advise us and teach us and we learn a lot of stuff. The job that they're doing is excellent because I'm not a business student, I really am a science student so some of the stuff that I learnt is really amazing."
In a message to other young people who want to pursue entrepreneurship, Mahalia, who hopes that in the future a range of her products could be introduced into global markets, said market research is key.
"For young persons who are starting out in business, I would say to them do their research and find out their real market. Whatever comes to your mind and you know it's positive and once it's marketable, you do your research and you just have God as your guide and just go among the others and shine and just do your best."
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Dominica Lowering Corporate Tax
September 4, 2014 | 5:05 pm |Print
Above: Dominica (CJ Photo)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
Dominica’s government is planning a reduction in the country’s corporate tax, it announced this week.
Dominica will be lowering the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 30 percent, according to a government release.
“Being fully cognizant of the goal of facilitating economic growth, Government sought ways to best to maintain strong macr-economic policies and prudence while meeting the needs of its citizens,” the government said in a statement.
The reduction will take place over two years.
In the first year, the adjustment will be 2 percentage points, with a further 3 percentage-point reduction in the second year.
Dominica said that would mean that it would forego about $3.6 million EC in tax revenue.
“What is important to us is that we listen to the population whenever and wherever they speak and respond in the best way possible,” Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said.
The measure will take effect in the 2015 income year.
http://www.caribjournal.com/2014/09/04/dominica-lowering-corporate-tax/
Ground Broken for $2.3 Billion Portmore Sewage Project
By Garfield L. Angus September 12, 2014
Photo by: JIS PhotographerMinister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Robert Pickersgill (2nd left), participates in the ground breaking for the $2.3 billion Portmore sewage project on Tuesday, September 9, at the Bridgeport treatment plant in the municipality. Others (from left) are: Head of contracting company, Surrey Paving and Aggregate, Leslie Chang; Councillor for the Independence City Division, Keith Blake; Acting Mayor of Portmore, Councillor Leon Thomas; and Member of Parliament for South East St. Catherine, Hon. Colin Fagan.
Story Highlights
Ground was officially broken on Tuesday, September 9 for the $2.3 billion Portmore Sewage Project in St. Catherine, which will provide improved sewage treatment facilities for some 200,000 residents.
- Ground was officially broken on Tuesday, September 9 for the $2.3 billion Portmore Sewage Project in St. Catherine, which will provide improved sewage treatment facilities for some 200,000 residents.
- To be undertaken by the National Water Commission (NWC) over a period of approximately 45 months, the works will involve decommissioning of the five existing wastewater treatment plants, which are in disrepair.
- Minister Pickersgill said adequate potable water and efficient waste management and sanitation strategies are “critical inputs for business and investment creation.
To be undertaken by the National Water Commission (NWC) over a period of approximately 45 months, the works will involve decommissioning of the five existing wastewater treatment plants, which are in disrepair.
The plants at Independence City, Bridgeport, Hamilton Gardens, and Caymanas Gardens, which receive a combined flow of just over 18,200 cubic metres per day, will be converted into transfer pumping stations for the delivery of sewage to the Soapberry Wastewater Treatment Plant, which has the capacity to treat some 75,000 cubic metres of sewage per day.
Minister of Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change, Hon. Robert Pickersgill, in his remarks at the groundbreaking held at the Bridgeport treatment plant, said the project is geared towards addressing the sanitation needs of a community that is growing and, as such, “is of great significance”.
“I have no doubt that inadequate waste management will cease to be a factor in Portmore and its environs, as a result of this project, which also signifies our commitment to enhance the environmental health of the community, as well as the health and safety of its residents,” Mr. Pickersgill said.
Stating that the project will aid in the “continued economic growth of Portmore”, the Minister said adequate potable water and efficient waste management and sanitation strategies are “critical inputs for business and investment creation.
He urged the project contractor, Surrey Paving and Aggregate, to ensure that the works are completed on time, and well within budgetary and quality requirements.
The project should take about 24 months to design and build, with engineering designs to take another three to four months, after which construction should take 18 to 20 months. The contractor will be required to operate the reconfigured system for a further 24 months.
http://jis.gov.jm/ground-broken-2-3-billion-portmore-sewage-project/
Haiti sees new tourism investments in 2014
Published on 08/08/2014Blake Wolfe
Following a devastating natural disaster and years of being associated with poverty and political instability, Haiti now seems poised to make a comeback, a strategy that will include tourism as one of its main components.
The island nation is currently seeing a resurgence of tourism investments, more than four years after the earthquake of January 2010 killed thousands of people and displaced many more in the chaos that followed. Prior to the disaster, Haiti has weathered a political roller coaster for many years, from the dictatorships of the Duvalier family to the 2004 ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
However, over decades, it has persevered and in 2014, a number of tourism opportunities have arisen for the country.
On July 31, Carnival Corporation & plc – the parent company of Carnival Cruise Lines – announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding for development of a $70 million port on the island of Tortuga, located off of Haiti’s northern coast. The project is the largest investment by the cruise industry in Haiti, said Carnival. The company, acknowledging the benefits of the port for both travellers and Haitians alike, estimates that more than 900 people will be employed as a result, with the potential for many more jobs when the company pursues further developments on the island in the years to come.
In addition to Carnival, Toronto-based tour operator G Adventures will launch its Highlights of Haiti tour package in February 2015, taking travellers to a number of attractions, ranging from the UNESCO-designated Citadelle Laferrière to the Bassin-Bleu pools and Marie-Jeanne cave, to shopping marketplaces for local goods.
The tour also brings visitors to the Art Creation Foundation for Children, which reaches out at-risk youth through art. The new tour package was crafted following a 2013 trip to Haiti by the company, sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to gauge the viability of Haiti as a travel destination, said Jeff Russill, VP of innovation at G Adventures. Russill explained that while G Adventures had been considering offering packages to Haiti for several years (one of many potential destinations under consideration), it wasn’t until the trip that the company saw that Haiti was ready for tourists.
G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip was also among the many who helped with relief efforts in the country following the 2010 earthquake, flying in on Air Canada with donations raised in Toronto, said Russill.
“We discovered that Haiti was an amazing place and that we needed to be going there,” he told PAX, adding that the infrastructure established following the 2010 quake is paving the way for travellers. “It’s ready for people – Haiti is not sulking anymore. People often associate Haiti with ‘poor’ and ‘earthquake.’ It’s all about crafting a new perception – Haiti has everything to give.”
Anika Regis, first secretary in charge of communications and tourism at the Haitian embassy in Ottawa, said that all of this activity can only mean good things for the country.
“The direct impact, of course, is jobs, created directly or indirectly,” said Regis. “It’s also helping to restore confidence in Haiti, so it’s a win-win situation. Tourism is a major factor for the country because it’s very much affecting all sectors of the economy, as well as changing the image of Haiti and helping its people.”
PHOTO: Haiti's Bassin Bleu, courtesy of G Adventures.
http://www.paxnews.com/article/haiti-sees-new-tourism-investments-2014
Haiti Eyes Another Island For New Development Projects
September 15, 2014 | 12:36 am |Print
Above: Haiti’s Prime Minister (above) in Gonave (Photo: OPM Haiti)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
Haiti’s development plans are expanding to another new island.
As the country has looked to develop tourism projects on the island of Ile a Vache and signed a major deal with Carnival Cruise Lines for a project on the island of Ile de la Tortue, it’s looking to develop a third island: Gonave.
lle de la Gonave has a population of around 80,000, and a geographical area of just under 290 square miles.
That makes it the largest of Haiti’s islands, larger than both Ile a Vache and Ile de la Tortue.
Last week, Haiti President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe made a high-profile visit to the island, which is located off the western coast of Arcahaie.
“We want to promote the island, highlighting its potential in areas of tourism, fisheries and agriculture,” Lamothe said during the visit.
Lamothe said Haiti’s government planned to begin a public campaign on the island to engage community-based organizations, social movements and trade and agricultural associations on its proposed programmes.
“The change in La Gonave is imminent and immediate,” Lamothe said. “We must start now.”
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/for-...an-islanders-tourism-signals-a-paradise-lost/
For Disenfranchised Haitian Islanders, Tourism Signals a Paradise Lost
By Judith ScherrReprint | |Print | Send by email
Homes like these in the village of Madam Bernard, Ile à Vache, Haiti, might be removed to make way for tourist development or islanders removed from other areas might be relocated here. Credit: Judith Scherr/IPS
ILE À VACHE, Haiti, Aug 8 2014 (IPS) - Calm waters lap the shore beneath stately coconut palms. Mango trees display their bounty alongside mangrove forests. Goats graze peacefully on hillsides.
Ile à Vache is “the Caribbean’s last treasure island,” says Haiti’s Ministry of Tourism. Just 10.5 km off Haiti’s southwest coast, the 13 by 3.2 km haven is, the ministry continues, “unpaved, unplugged, unspoiled and unlike anywhere else,” and “singular for its complete absence of roads and cars.”
“After three successive demonstrations, they sent police to terrorise the people of Ile à Vache." -- Alexis Kenold
These words were written, however, before mangroves were cleared for an international airport, coconut palms were bulldozed for a road, a bay was dredged for yachts and some 40 police officers came with weapons and three all-terrain vehicles to quell protests.
Islanders, estimated at between 14,000 and 20,000, are angry at their exclusion from the government decision-making process that has opened the island for investment in an international airport, hotels, villas, a golf course, and an underwater museum — investments that place residents’ futures in limbo.
“The project came to the island by surprise,” Alexis Kenold, a 40-year-old father of five, told IPS. “The government hadn’t talked to us about it. They want to kick us out in favour of those who would profit from tourist development.”
On May 10, 2013, President Michel Martelly decreed that the island was a “public utility,” zoned for tourism.
“The decree says that no inhabitant of the island owns his land and that the state can do whatever it wants with it,” said Kenold, a member of Konbit Peyizan Ilavach, Farmers Organization of Ile à Vache, formed to oppose the project.
Minister of Tourism Stephanie Villedrouin Balmir, who declined an interview for this story, has said that no more than five percent of the islanders will be displaced, that they will be relocated, not removed from the island, and that they will be compensated for their losses.
But involuntary relocation is unacceptable to the islanders, who have held several large demonstrations since December demanding retraction of the decree.
The government reacted to the protests by beefing up police forces and throwing KOPI Vice President Jean Matulnes Lamy into the National Penitentiary, Kenold said. Officials say Lamy is detained on charges unrelated to the protests, but activists say his imprisonment is political.
“After three successive demonstrations, they sent police to terrorise the people of Ile à Vache,”
Kenold said, charging that when he was away from home police ransacked his house and took money he’d saved for his children’s school fees.
He said they’ve harassed and beat others, and now islanders live in fear of the police. Before the demonstrations, there were just three or four police on the peaceful island, he said.
A spate of planned investment projects on Ile à Vache, Haiti has placed residents’ future in limbo. Credit: Judith Scherr/IPS
Islanders say they don’t oppose tourism – they might benefit by getting electricity, potable water and government services. But they don’t want to be moved from their five-room homes with spacious yards for trees, gardens and animals, to crowd into two rooms up against neighbours.
And they worry about the island’s fragile ecology.
“The forest is the lungs of the island,” Kenold said. “It’s like they want to sacrifice the heart and the lungs of the island to put in an international airport.”
There’s concern as well for the waters surrounding the island. They “began dredging a pristine bay known as Madam Bernard without an assessment of the environmental impact on marine ecosystems,” Jessica Hsu of the NGO Other Worlds and radio host Jean Claudy Aristil said in a joint presentation at a July Innovators in Coastal Tourism symposium in Grenada.
The project has already impacted some islanders economically. School director Dracen Jean Louienel told IPS that people had used the mangroves that were cut down for the airport to produce charcoal.
“That was how people made their living,” he said, “This destroyed their livelihood.” And building the road removed coconut trees on which other families depended, he said.
Louienel said, moreover, promises of work have not been fulfilled. “People signed up to work on the road, but few were hired,” Louienel said.
Some islanders, however, have profited from the project and support it. Standing in the clearing where the airport is to be built, Gilbert Joseph called the project “a wonderful thing.” Joseph works as a security guard there at night and sells beverages to the construction workers during the day.
Clausel Ilmo, whose son is working as a translator for the Dominican road-building company, also likes the project. He pointed out that where it once took hours to walk to distant parts of the island, one now can go quickly on the road by motorbike.
Father Guy Carter Guerrier, a Catholic priest, did not join the militant protests. Still, he has concerns. “To me, developing the island could be a beautiful project,” he said. “The problem is, the government didn’t include the people here. They even passed over the church. They left everybody out.”
Up the hill from Guerrier’s church, Sr. Flora Blanchette, a French-Canadian Franciscan nun who’s run an orphanage on the island since 1981, shared her hopes and concerns.
New roads can help people access health care, schools and food, she said, but the fruit trees that nourish the children should be protected.
“What I’m hoping is that they bring the essentials for people living on the island,” she said, “that they truly bring development for all the social classes to benefit.”
Related IPS Articles
- Living in Limbo: A Day at Haiti’s Gaston Margron Tent Camp
- Haiti’s “Public Housing” Projects Overlook Poorest
- Four Years After Haiti’s Earthquake, Still Waiting for a Roof
In Costa Rica, the whole population has benefited from tourism, Elizabeth Becker, author of “Overbooked: the Global Business of Travel and Tourism” told IPS by phone. There, locals have input into development, she said.
Implemented correctly, Haiti could greatly benefit from the booming tourism market, she added.
However, “bottom-up tourism is the best way to do ecotourism,” Becker said. “People should not be losing their property rights in order to have tourism. People should instead have … a voice in what kind of tourism they want.”
Cambodia’s tourist development provides a cautionary tale, she said. The government took away people’s property rights and parks protections and did not consult locals before installing hotels and airports.
In Cambodia, “all that great money that supposedly comes from tourism doesn’t land in local hands,” she said. “It either lands with the elite or with foreigners.”
Haiti’s Ministry of Tourism emphasises environmentalism. The Ile à Vache “project objective is to develop sustainable tourism based on the practices of ecotourism,” an online ministry slideshow says. But islanders say the government hasn’t demonstrated care for the environment.
Documents also say the government will undertake a “social improvements programme.” It has recently dug new wells, built a community centre, installed outdoor solar lights, and distributed rice and fishing equipment.
But Kenold says it was only “after the population rose up, that they came with a few grains of rice to appease the anger of the people.”
“I’m not against tourist development, but it’s the way they’re going about it,” Kenold said, adding that people are open to dialogue with government officials, but only after the decree is retracted, Lamy is released from prison and police are removed from the island.
“After lifting the decree that would disposes the inhabitants,” he said, “they can come with their projects and we will come with ours.”
Edited by: Kitty Stapp
The writer can be contacted at judithscherr@gmail.com
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/for-...an-islanders-tourism-signals-a-paradise-lost/