Attorneys handling the bankruptcy fallout from Scott Rothstein's $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme want records from a California technology firm because Rothstein used the company's secure computer servers to hold confidential conversations that may reveal his co-conspirators.
BY GFBC Staff:
While Air Jamaica tries to get it right, West Jet is going in hard on Caribbean flight destination. Market share is apparently up for grabs as Air Jamaica tries to figure what move to make next. Story Below:
Ottawa — Feb. 9, 2010 — Canada’s Transport Minister, John Baird, and the Honourable Peter Van Loan, Minister of International Trade, today (Feb.8) announced that effective immediately airlines can provide more flight options between Canada and the Caribbean.
Canada has successfully concluded an expanded air services agreement with Cuba, allowing more airlines from both countries to immediately operate scheduled air services between any Canadian and Cuban cities. In fact, effective today two additional Canadian airlines will be able to apply to the Canadian Transportation Agency to offer new flights between Canada and Cuba. Minister Baird also announced the designation of an additional Canadian airline, effective immediately to offer new flights between Canada and Trinidad and Tobago.
“In the past few years, the Government of Canada has moved at an incredible pace to negotiate new or expanded international air service agreements, and today’s announcement provides even greater options for Canadians traveling south,†said Baird. “Over the past four years, we have worked to provide airlines with more flexibility to increase the number of convenient flights and cheaper fares to help travellers, businesses, shippers and the tourism industry.â€
“Canada is leading the way in creating better trade and travel links throughout the Americas and the world,†said Minister Van Loan. “Today’s announcement builds on the agreements we have signed or updated since 2006, which now totals nearly 50 countries including with Barbados, Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Mexico.â€
Minister Baird announced the designation of WestJet and Sunwing to operate scheduled international air services between Canada and Cuba. He also took the opportunity to announce the designation of WestJet to operate scheduled international air services between Canada and Trinidad and Tobago. The carrier plans to introduce seasonal daily service from Toronto to the Port of Spain as of May 2010.
Since January 2006, the Government of Canada has negotiated open, new or expanded air service agreements with nearly 50 countries:
Open skies-type agreements with eight countries: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and South Korea;
Expanded agreements with eight countries: Portugal, Mexico, Japan, Jordan, Singapore, the Philippines, Morocco and Cuba;
New “first-time†agreements with eight countries: Algeria, Kuwait, Serbia, Croatia, Panama, Turkey, South Africa and Ethiopia; and
A comprehensive air transport agreement between Canada and the European Union’s 27 member states. This includes Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia, with which Canada did not previously have air agreements.
Contacts:
Monika Bujalska
Office of Canada’s International Trade Minister,
the Honourable Peter Van Loan Ottawa
(613) 992-9304
Trade Media Relations Office
Foreign Affairs and International
Trade Canada
613-996-2000
BY GFBC Staff: As I have posted a few days ago, the Caribbean Region is ripe for Investment. The Caribbean is boasting opportunities in Bonds, as well as Real Estate. The annual yield on these debt instruments yield double digit returns. So not take my advice, please do your research. Story Below:
After riding the global credit boom for the past decade, fate finally caught up with Jamaica. A prolonged process of deindustrialization and the shift to a services-based economic model led to a persistent series of current account and fiscal deficits that were financed by the debt markets. In two years, the country’s external debt to GDP ratio jumped to 105%, from 76% in 2008. At the same time, Jamaica’s central government debt, which includes all domestic obligations, reached 120% of GDP this year. Debt service was consuming 55% of the country’s fiscal revenues. The current account deficit is more than 10% of GDP, despite a sharp slowdown in economic activity. The Jamaican economy contracted 3.5% y/y in 2009. It was clear that the country’s economy was wrong footed and its debt load was unsustainable. This was the reason why Jamaican bond prices plunged during the end of last year. Still, there is a great deal of international support for the country. Jamaica is the third largest economy in the Caribbean, and closely aligned with the U.S. and Europe. Although the country was under a great deal of stress, the multilateral community was not going to allow it to collapse in disarray. Therefore, something was going to be done to get the country through a tough patch.
At the heart of the problem was the country’s domestic debt load. With $7.8 billion in domestic debentures, it represented the bulk of the government’s obligations. The coupons were as high as 24%, and the average was 18%. Most of the domestic debt was short-term. Global bonds totalled only $2.8 billion, or less than half the total stock of the domestic obligations. The coupons on the global bonds were also lower and the maturities were longer. Hence, the domestic debt was the main driver behind the country’s 5.5% of GDP fiscal deficit. The remaining balance of the central government’s debt consisted of multilateral obligations. Therefore, it was obvious that most of the adjustment was going to focus on the domestic instruments. Fortunately, the process was relatively mild. Last month, Kingston launched a debt exchange that reduced the coupons on the domestic debentures by 35% and extended maturities by two years. Most of the instruments were held by Jamaican banks, and they comprised a large chunk of the domestic financial system’s assets. Therefore, the adjustment could not be too radical—otherwise it would destroy the banking system. The debt exchange reduced the domestic bond’s NPV by 20%, but the fact that there was no reduction in principal meant that the impact on balance sheets was limited. The successful completion of the debt exchange allowed the IMF to agree to a 27-month $1.27 billion Standby Facility. The result was a major rally in Jamaican bond prices—despite the fact that the country was downgraded to selective default by the major credit rating agencies. The biggest move was on the long end of the Jamaican curve, where bond prices jumped as much as 10 points. Nevertheless, Jamaican bonds are still cheap. The Jamaican ‘38s and ‘39s are yielding almost 10%, but the best opportunities are in the short end of the curve. The Jamaican ‘12s yield more than 11%–in euros. The bond rally was primarily driven by local institutions, but they were sceptical about taking on euro-denominated paper. Nevertheless, these instruments provide interesting returns for international investors.
In addition to the restructuring of its domestic debt, Kingston also agreed to implement several other structural reforms in order to secure the IMF deal. It promised to implement an extensive fiscal reform which would reduce expenditures and raise taxes. It also agreed to divest itself of some state-owned assets, such as Air Jamaica. Therefore, the IMF deal will be painful, and the level of Jamaica’s economic activity will contract another 3.5% y/y in 2010. Nevertheless, it buys the country an important respite. However, the IMF program does not address the underlying flaws of Jamaica’s economic model. We believe that Jamaica will need to rethink its heavy emphasis on services, such as tourism. Successful service economies require a highly skilled workforce, which is still a challenge for Jamaica. At the same time, service economies often run large trade and current account deficits. Jamaica was able to do so during the past decade, when capital flows and liquidity was abundant. However, it will be much more difficult to continue with such an approach during the next decade, as the availability of capital becomes scarce. In the meantime, strong external sponsorship and support will make Jamaica’s short-term obligations a very attractive proposition.
FEBRUARY 9, 2010 (MIAMI, FLORIDA / KINGSTON, JAMAICA): Twiggi holds down the #1 spot with her singe “My Everything†for a second week on the Rich Davis Music Countdown on WAVS 1170 AM (www.wavs1170.com). See the Caribbean National Weekly Newspaper for the published chart and listen to WLRN 91.3 FM (Sounds of the Caribbean with Rich Davis) for a repeat of the chart on air. Twiggi’s all-new studio CD, The Sun Shines Through, climbs to the #9 position on the South Florida Top 15 Reggae Albums Chart. See the Xnews Weekly Newspaper for the published chart and log on to www.foundationradionetwork.com for more info.
Twiggi’s long anticipated new album The Sun Shines Through is now available on iTunes and all leading retail and online services. The CD is also available for physical distribution through Independent Distribution Collective as well as VP Records and Ernie Bs Reggae in the US with the Caribbean, Europe, and Japan to begin this month. The Sun Shines Through is the sophomore solo album collection of uplifting songs by the singer / songwriter. The overall sound of the album is a smooth reggae vibe with a touch of contemporary style while staying true to the singer’s roots. Twiggi has spent the last few years working with such notable producers as Benji Myaz, ‘Computer Paul’ Henton from Boot Camp Records, Straight Cash crew out of Jamaica, Lion of Judah Sounds and Eugene Grey on this album. Twiggi is also the co-producer of all 12 tracks on the album.
Twiggi rose to stardom in the 90s when she was signed to the famed Penthouse Records label (original home to Buju Banton, Wayne Wonder and more), where she recorded and released such chart hits as “It’s Too Late†on the Champion Riddim, “Where Did The Love Go†on the Far East Riddim, and “I Want Your Love†on the Tempo Riddim. It has been 13 years since the release of the singers last album self entitled Twiggi on the Penthouse label.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
RICHMAR MUSIK
E-Mail: elli9mar@aol.com / Web: http://twiggimusic.free.fr/
BY GFBC Staff:
Congrats, to Greensleeves Publishing for their Score on the Soundtrack to the Number #1 Movie in America.
This Super Bowl weekend had two big winners, the New Orleans Saints and the motion picture Dear John. VP Records and Greensleeves Publishing are proud to have “Things & Time” by legendary group The Wailing Souls featured on the soundtrack for the #1 movie in America. The romantic drama Dear John unseated the movie Avatar which has been on top of the box office charts for seven weeks; making Dear John the highest grossing film ever to open on the weekend of the Super Bowl. The film is based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks. He has penned numerous books that have been made into great films; Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember and The Notebook.
VP Records and Greensleeves Publishing are pioneering forces in the reggae music industry. From roots & culture to soca and dancehall, they represent the full spectrum of Caribbean music. For the past 30 plus years they have stayed true to the grassroots from whence they came, always serving its audience and moving swiftly to keep up with the sounds of the time.
BY GFBC Staff:
I have always wondered why there was no integration between Caribbean Exchanges, however now it seems the exchanges have seen the light and are moving towards integration.
TRAYPORT Exchange Systems has announced two new contracts with the Barbados Stock Exchange and the Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange NV. Trayport’s Exchange Trading System will provide both exchanges with a fully integrated trading platform allowing them to develop their markets in debt and equity securities.
Trayport Exchange Systems will replace an existing exchange system at the Barbados Stock Exchange (BSE). It will supply an advanced equities and bonds trading system which will also support clearing, settlement, depository, and registry through integration with the Depend product from Percival Systems.
BSE is headquartered in the capital city of Bridgetown and was established in June 1986. It is among four major regional Caribbean stock exchanges. The others are the exchanges of Jamaica, the Eastern Caribbean, and Trinidad and Tobago. It is working with the Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago exchanges in a cooperation programme known as the Caribbean Exchange Network (CXN), which will facilitate the establishment of a regional capital market in the Caribbean.
“The Barbados Stock Exchange had been diligently seeking an adaptable and modern electronic trading platform offering us the ability to expand our trading of equities, bonds and other investment instruments. The Trayport Exchange Trading system met our criteria, and with some minor enhancements for our specific market requirements, will provide tangible benefits to us. In addition, the integration with Percival’s Depend product will allow us to expand our capability with state of the art clearing systems as we seek to establish an International Securities Market,” said Marlon Yarde, CEO & General Manager Barbados Stock Exchange.
The Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange (DCSX) is a newly formed exchange in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles and plans to become an International Exchange for listing and trading domestic and international securities.
DCSX will provide a time and cost efficient listing and trading service for international and regional corporations and investment funds. This will enhance Curaçao’s position as a leading financial services jurisdiction.
Trayport Exchange Systems won the contract with DCSX after a formal tender process. Contracts were agreed following a design study and agreement of project and system scope. Trayport will be deploying its Exchange Trading System with some minor enhancements for local market requirements and expect a go-live in the first quarter of 2010.
Luis Santine, CEO for the Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange, said, “We were impressed by Trayport Exchange System’s ability to support both our current and future requirements. Complementing the services offered by the financial institutions and service providers in the Dutch Antilles, Trayport’s Exchange Trading System will enable DCSX to offer services to issuers of government-owned bonds wishing to tap the local and regional capital markets. This supports the development of our equity, ETF and bond markets. The flexibility and scope of the system were major factors in our procurement decision. We spoke to a number of exchange suppliers, but believe Trayport is the only one which will enable and foster our growth as a leading exchange in the region.”
Adrienne Muir, head of Trayport Exchange Systems, said, “The contract with Barbados Stock Exchange and the Dutch Caribbean Securities Exchange is part of our growing partnership with exchanges in the Caribbean, as they develop their business in the region. Trayport’s Exchange Trading System now gives exchanges a fully integrated front to back solution with support for clearing, settlement, depository, and registry. This reflects the importance markets worldwide place on our systems allowing exchanges to grow as their markets develop.
By GFBC Staff:
In the midst of all of the confusion over the planned sale of Air Jamaica. One thing is clear, the workers do not want Air Jamaica sold to Trinidad. In a last ditch effort to fight for the only thing that validates travel to Jamaica. That would be Air Jamaica, this will be an on going issue and hopefully the Air Jamaica brand will be salvaged when it is all said and done.
WORKERS, ICIS PROTEST PLANNED AIR J SALE TO TRINIDAD
DOZENS of Air Jamaica staff and informal commercial importers (ICIs) yesterday staged a protest outside the Air Jamaica building in downtown Kingston over the Government’s plan to sell the airline to Trinidad-owned Caribbean Airlines.
The workers, some bearing placards with messages describing the authorities as “sell-outs”, said the protest was the first in a series to voice their dissatisfaction with the decision.
They said they want the airline to be sold to them.
“They (Government) ought to take a step back and consider the plight of the Jamaican people, consider how the sale will affect the economy, and how much we depend on tourism and the airline,” said Khurt Fletcher, chief delegate and reservation officer at Air Jamaica.
“I have been involved with Air Jamaica for over 10 years and it is my firm belief that based on the fact that over the last year we have been making an operating profit, we can sustain it,” Fletcher continued.
“If we give it to Caribbean Airlines, then right off the bat you have some 900 to a thousand jobs lost, and as a spin-off everyone — the farm workers, the students, higglers, will be affected,” he said.
One concerned flight attendant said the Government was reducing Jamaica to a “faceless little island with nothing to call their own”.
“It is just disrespectful that he (Prime Minister Bruce Golding) never came and even speak with the people of the country first,” she said. “And the fact that he ignored the pilots’ offer just shows that should any other issue come up, that’s the same way they are going to deal with it.”
But although infuriated, the workers’ composure was in stark contrast to that of Joyce Pinnock, who said she makes a living by exporting goods to Curaçao. The woman was almost brought to tears as she publicly voiced her disgust with the Government’s plan.
“I buy Jamaican produce to bring to Jamaicans in Curaçao and take back that foreign exchange to my country. What am I going to do now without the services of Air Jamaica?” she asked, her face a canvas of fury.
“The same Bruce Golding that we put inside there to lead is throwing us on our faces. It is not fair. What am I going to do? Can I go to his house and say ‘prime minister I am hungry?” she asked.
According to a cop at the scene, for the most part yesterday’s protest, which was carried out during the workers’ lunch break, was peaceful.
This was the aim, according to vice-president of the National Workers Union Granville Valentine, who was among the protesters.
“We are hoping that the Government starts to listen to the voice of the people and realise the interest and the inclusion of all the stakeholders seriously before any final decision is made,” he said, adding that the protests will continue.
GOOGLE is developing software for the first phone capable of translating foreign languages almost instantly — like the Babel Fish in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
By building on existing technologies in voice recognition and automatic translation, Google hopes to have a basic system ready within a couple of years. If it works, it could eventually transform communication among speakers of the world’s 6,000-plus languages.
The company has already created an automatic system for translating text on computers, which is being honed by scanning millions of multi-lingual websites and documents. So far it covers 52 languages, adding Haitian Creole last week.
Google also has a voice recognition system that enables phone users to conduct web searches by speaking commands into their phones rather than typing them in.
Now it is working on combining the two technologies to produce software capable of understanding a caller’s voice and translating it into a synthetic equivalent in a foreign language. Like a professional human interpreter, the phone would analyse “packages†of speech, listening to the speaker until it understands the full meaning of words and phrases, before attempting translation.
“We think speech-to-speech translation should be possible and work reasonably well in a few years’ time,†said Franz Och, Google’s head of translation services.
“Clearly, for it to work smoothly, you need a combination of high-accuracy machine translation and high-accuracy voice recognition, and that’s what we’re working on.
“If you look at the progress in machine translation and corresponding advances in voice recognition, there has been huge progress recently.â€
Although automatic text translators are now reasonably effective, voice recognition has proved more challenging.
“Everyone has a different voice, accent and pitch,†said Och. “But recognition should be effective with mobile phones because by nature they are personal to you. The phone should get a feel for your voice from past voice search queries, for example.â€
The translation software is likely to become more accurate the more it is used. And while some translation systems use crude rules based on the grammar of languages, Google is exploiting its vast database of websites and translated documents to improve the accuracy of its system.
“The more data we input, the better the quality,†said Och. There is no shortage of help. “There are a lot of language enthusiasts out there,†he said.
However, some experts believe the hurdles to live translation remain high. David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at Bangor University, said: “The problem with speech recognition is the variability in accents. No system at the moment can handle that properly.
“Maybe Google will be able to get there faster than everyone else, but I think it’s unlikely we’ll have a speech device in the next few years that could handle high-speed Glaswegian slang.
“The future, though, looks very interesting. If you have a Babel Fish, the need to learn foreign languages is removed.â€
In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the small, yellow Babel Fish was capable of translating any language when placed in the ear. It sparked a bloody war because everyone became able to understand what other people were saying.
Laura Chinchilla has been called tough, intelligent, funny and honest.<p/> Late Sunday, Costa Ricans added another description: first female president.
As a volatile election season gets underway, the Republican Party of Florida is facing its biggest crisis of confidence in decades. <p/> Donors and party activists are livid over newly revealed records that suggest outgoing chairman Jim Greer used the party as a personal slush fund for lavish travel and entertainment.
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SHABBA, SHAGGY TO PERFORM AT POST ADIDAS GRAND PRIX CONCERT IN NY
Foundation dancehall artiste Rexton Rawlston Gordon, popularly know to fans as Shabba Ranks is set to perform at the “adidas Jamboree” concert, Randall’s Island, New York on Saturday, June 9. The concert – which will serve as a 50th anniversary celebration for both Jamaica and Trinidad – will take place at the conclusion of the [...]
One Caribbean International Presents: CELEBRITY SOCCER CULTURAL FEST – THE BIGGEST FAMILY FUN DAY!
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PM PORTIA SIMPSON-MILLER DA ZYNC BUZZ HEDA ROSE (NY LINKZ/ZYNC TV): May 4 – 11
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Lloyd Brevett, founding member of The Skatalites, passes away aged 80
Lloyd Brevett, the Skatalites’ inimitable double bass player, has died following complications from a recent stroke. As The Washington Post report, Brevett fell ill in March following the murder of his son in Kingston. Anyone lucky enough to have seen The Skatalites live will be able to testify to Brevett’s remarkable charisma. His on-stage presence [...]
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