<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

A Venezuelan vessel with 17 people aboard has capsized and sunk off the coast of Aruba ... 15 of 17 were rescued while 1 passenger drowned and another has been declared missing. 

According to the Netherlands Antilles Coast Guard Service, the accident took place on coordinates 12-24N and 070-04W. 

Three passengers were picked up by a launch called Lucky Star, while Coast guard patrol launch P-04  and Aruba Search & Rescue (Sarfa) Foundation yachts picked up the rest. 

Helicopter Pedro-2 AS 356 took part in the rescue operation and is still searching for the missing passenger. 

All the passengers are said to be Venezuelan citizens and the authorities are said to be checking out the cause of the accident and why so many people were aboard.

Forbes.com-Reuters, 04.15.03, 2:31 PM ET KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) - Jamaica will launch another search for oil later this year with the help of Venezuela and Ecuador, a government official said Tuesday. Jamaica, which depends heavily on its tourism and bauxite industries, last explored for oil 20 years ago but came up empty. Minister of Technology Phillip Paulwell told reporters in Kingston that proposals for exploration were still being reviewed by the government. "We have received offers of assistance from Ecuador and Venezuela in the form of technical support and guidance and ... the ministry will vigorously pursue exploration efforts using private sector investments," Paulwell said. Exploration will likely be resumed off the Caribbean island's southwest coast, where it is believed there may be major deposits. In 1982-83, a search for oil 50 miles off the southwest coast of the island was unsuccessful. Oil was discovered by another exploration team in the northwestern parish of Westmoreland during the same period, but deposits were not big enough to be commercially viable. Jamaica normally imports 60 per cent of its annual supply from Venezuela and 40 per cent from Mexico. However, a strike in Venezuela this year forced that country to reduce exports and Jamaica turned to Ecuador to fill the gap. Paulwell said imports from Venezuela should be back to normal by June.

<a href=www.barbadosadvocate.com>The Barbados Advocate Web Posted - Sat Apr 05 2003

The late Mr. Gladstone Holder had a substantial disregard for the United Nations (UN). He regarded it as a creature of the Great Powers who had won the Second World War and who were determined that their supremacy won by the force of arms should be retained forever. The United States of America (US) and United Kingdom (UK) are the principal progenitors of the UN and they had invited the Soviet Union, France and China to share the dominant role.

He would have found the snub which the UN had suffered at the hands of the UK and US unsurprising. The Twins in Concert just would not be willing to play second fiddle to their creation. It had been difficult enough for the US to restrain itself during the days of the Cold War, but with the US as the only super-power there is no need for the US to be so inhibited.

Iraq was ripe for the picking, and it was plucked for the burning. The greatest difficulties would arise after the taming of Saddam Hussein. He would anticipate that within a matter of months the other members of the Great Five – Russia, China and France – would acquiesce in, if not legitimise and legitimate the invasion of Iraq. Their doubts about the legality of the action of the UK and US would be effectively shoved aside and the UN Security Council would move on to dealing with probably another neighbour of Iraq, or North Korea.

The Arabs’ responses to Iraq could, of course, be the fly in the ointment. The hope is that placating the Palestinians in their struggle against Israel should be enough to keep Arab and Muslim desires for retaliation and reprisal in check. A pragmatic approach to the breaching of customary international law and of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter which basically outlaws unilateral use of force will prevail.

Unsettling points

He would have raised a number of troubling issues. The US, for instance, appears to be pressing for unconditional surrender and unilaterally seizing the dominance after conquest. With the overthrow of the Government of Iraq, who would there be in Baghdad to relinquish control and upon whom would the power and control be conferred? It is a principle of international law, especially in respect of territory, that no one can give away what is not his. In 2003, as against in 1920, customary international law, the Charter and such treaties as the Renunciation of Force Treaty of 1928 conclusively state that territory cannot be acquired by use of force, except, perhaps by Security Council action or as a consequence of self-defence or self-determination. To provide a fig leaf of legality the US and the UK would at least have to hand over control to the United Nations immediately.

It is, of course, within the realm of possibility that a rump of the Baathist Party or a Nationalist Party of the same hue, may contest the sovereignty of Iraq, in the short run if not immediately. Given the commitment to régime change, the government of the US is unlikely to countenance such a development, whatever the commitment to democracy. Democracy, as interpreted, is unlikely to include anyone with the slightest Baathist taint. The US will probably not baulk at managing the affairs of Iraq single-handedly in the early days if to do otherwise would require Baathist assistance.

Mr. Holder would have reminded us that the US is experienced in dealing with post-violation trauma in Latin America over the last half-century: 1954: Intervention in Guatemala which ushered in 45 years of violence, repression and instability. 1961: Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba against a sovereign nation where government was recognised as legitimate by the international community. 1965: Invasion of Dominican Republic to prevent the rise of another Castro in the Caribbean. 1970-73: Intervention in Chile which overthrew the democratically-elected Communist Allende and established the Pinochet dictatorship. 1980s: Intervention in Nicaragua which was an internationally recognised government with which the US had diplomatic relations. The matter reached the International Court of Justice. The US was condemned after attempting unsuccessfully to evade the jurisdiction of the International Court. 1989: Christmas invasion of Panama ‘at the cost of hundreds of lives and millions of dollars in damage’.This last, the invasion of Panama and the seizure of President Noriega, drove a sword deeply into the heart of the Great Man.

Of course, for him, the hills never ceased to cry out over the disease and pain, suffering and death to which the children of Iraq were for years subjected, because of UN sanctions against Iraq, a policy which the UN is now hastening to remove! Thousands of children too late!

Pre-emptive strike Even if things go slightly awry for the US in Iraq, the UN will be effectively finessed. While the UN may find itself bogged down, it cannot allow the US and UK to stew in their own juice. The US and UK will not expose their act to the scrutiny of an impartial court or tribunal. The pre-emptive strike may be here to stay and may by default become a new norm of international law. Pakistan may revert to it for action against India; Colombia for action against Venezuela; Russia against any of its annoying neighbours or any belligerent African state against any of its own .... In the meantime, Iraq stands to be broken up, balkanised after further shedding of blood – never mind the several commitments to the territorial integrity by the United Kingdom.

Finally, if the region stabilises, eschewing terrorism, in half a century the Saddam Hussein Airport may be restored and Hussein made a national hero in a truncated Iraq.

<a href=www.caribbeancricket.com>caribbeancricket.comPosted: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 by George Alleyne, Newsday/TT

CARICOM economies, bruised by the slide in the United States economy which began in the fourth quarter of 2000, and aggravated by the air assault on New York's World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, are experiencing collateral damage from the US-United Kingdom invasion of Iraq.

The reluctance of many North Americans to travel by airliners or at all, as a result of the September 11 tragedy, had seen a marked drop in visitor arrivals in the Caribbean, whether in transits or stopovers, resulting in a decline of revenue from tourism as a principal contributor to real GDP growth of the island States. In turn, the further contraction of the United States market meant that manufactures from non-energy based Caricom industries, along with regional agricultural products, were now experiencing unusual difficulty in gaining access to the US. Caricom agricultural produce and products, which had for long enjoyed relatively large 'ethnic markets' in such cities as New York, Houston, Miami and Washington were adversely hit by the reality of September 11.

This arose when many Caribbean migrants lost jobs or had reduced work weeks flowing from the contraction of the United States economy. This inhibited their ability to purchase familiar products from their Caribbean countries. Yet another contributing factor was the competitive edge that products and produce imported from other countries, for example Mexico, had on Caricom exports. Thus, in a time of less spending money in North American Caribbean communities, sentiment had to take a back seat. The backlash in the Caribbean Community saw a loss of jobs, and consequently a loss of personal income, and along with this declining Government revenues from income tax, corporation tax and Value Added Tax among others.

Real GDP growth in Barbados, as documented by the Latin American Monitor, Regional Central Banks, slipped from 3.7 in 2000 to minus 2.3 in 2001, and barely edged up to 0.5 in 2002. In Trinidad and Tobago, the real GDP growth moved downward from 4.0 in 2000 to 3.5 in 2001 and 2.5 in 2002. And while, this downward movement did not altogether result from the same factors as had troubled, say Barbados, nonetheless September 11 had and continues to have a negative impact. A critical reason was that Caricom is Trinidad and Tobago's second largest market after that of the United States.

The protest by the Government of the United States to the World Trade Organisation on the issue of preferential entry of Caribbean bananas to the European Union, threw the banana industry in Eastern Caribbean States into confusion and decline. Taking a broad view, the US was seeking to protect the interests of Central America-based United States owned banana producing companies. And while I am concerned at the effect on Caricom banana exporting countries, again if I take a broad view, the US was seeking the welfare of US-owned companies at a time when its overall economy was in trouble. It is a lesson that we here must learn, and which should encourage us to "think Caribbean first", war or no war.

Whether or not we in the Caribbean are opposed to the United States-United Kingdom intervention in Iraq, specifically as it has been done without the sanction of the United Nations, we are involved, albeit regrettably, through the impact of the worsening of the slide of the US economy on our economies. Several Caribbean companies, id est cross listed companies with shareholders throughout the region, will be affected (indeed are already being affected) by the invasion of Iraq. BWIA West Indies Airways, (not unlike the US airline major, American Airlines), has been hit by the downturn in airline bookings, which first reared its proverbial head in the 2000 slide in the US economy, and was worsened by September 11, 2001, and made grimmer by the Iraq adventure.

What Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the Caribbean have to appreciate is that BWIA's Revenue-Expenditure position was hit hard not only by the drop in new bookings and/or the purchase of airline tickets, but the cancellation of tickets bought prior to September 11, and indeed prior to two weeks ago. Several industries are being hurt by BWIA's and American Airlines' drop in North America to the Caribbean seat sales as they relate to far better days. The hotel and guest house industry, the taxi transport industry, restaurant, catering industry; the specific airline catering industry, curio sales, haberdashers and what have you . Agriculture, too, is being hit.

As a result, shareholders, large and small, of several of these industries are likely to be affected in the medium and long term. For example, a regional company, with not insubstantial investments in airline catering services in Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay, as well as an airline and airport catering involvement in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada can not be faulted for an understandable interest in a return by airlines to former seat sales. Should the Government of Trinidad and Tobago have to cut back on its plans for housing construction, due to a shortfall in revenue should any prolonged war over Iraq have an adverse multiplier effect, then this would impact on the cement company here, as well as on some of the downstream steel companies.

Other Caribbean corporate majors will also be affected by any fall off in earnings through retrenchment, occasioned by a downturn in the several regional economies, provoked by the war in Iraq. An extension of the conflict by the United States of America and the United Kingdom to say North Korea, the Sudan and Iran, and the shortages in foodstuffs and items, with a lower priority than that given to those 'needed' for the 'successful prosecution' of the war, will trigger inflation. We are unwilling victims of a war whose principal objective appears to be United States control of major supplies of oil.

<a href=www.barbadosadvocate.com>Barbados Advocate Web Posted - Mon Mar 31 2003 By Janelle Husbands

WITH the uncertainty of worldwide oil prices caused mainly by the ongoing United States-led war in Iraq, an ideal scenario for Barbados would be our ability to store fuel when prices are low, suspend purchases when prices are high and wait for the price advantage.

This is coming from John Boyce, a past president of the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) as he gave the feature address at that association’s annual general meeting over the weekend.

According to Boyce, the cost of energy in Barbados is largely determined by international events, not local considerations. For this reason, he believes that “we need to be always looking at what we can do locally to ensure as predictable a cost as we can”.

“Essentially, small island states like Barbados do not have a lot of choices as far as purchases are concerned and usually settle into bi-lateral arrangements with friendly suppliers,” he explained.

He added that Barbados’ ability to buy oil from friendly nations and compete for purchases in the open world market, are high risks, especially in times of scarcity. For this reason we can find ourselves out on the proverbial limb, as nations with higher spending power get the greatest advantage.

Boyce, who is also the Democratic Labour Party’s candidate for Christ Church South, alluded to the fact that world oil prices may vary for a number of reasons, all of which can have serious implications on our economy and are totally out of our control. “The recent troubles in Venezuela, the fighting in the oil region of Nigeria and, most significantly, the fighting in Iraq,” he pointed out.

The mechanical engineer also told the association that a view of the energy sources in Barbados shows a picture of steady growth in consumption of all energy sources, a situation which points to a wealth of opportunities for entrepreneurs.

According to Boyce, although prices of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and fuel oil show room for a number of opportunities, there are still not enough photovoltaic installations in Barbados, considering the high level of this type of technology which exists today. “This is the first area of opportunity which need continuous experiments and pilot installations for effective data collection,” he asserted.

Boyce lauded the work of companies, such as Solar Dynamics, Sunpower and Aqua Sol, which he said have shown that the sense of experiment is alive and well in Barbados. However, he suggested that certain steps must be taken and creative policies put in place in order to sustain and develop the business opportunities for energy conservation companies. These include better tax incentives, lowering the payback time for the project, increasing access to investment capital, increasing the knowledge of new technologies, making new systems available locally and the adjustment of laws that may prevent full exploitation of these new opportunities.