Year 53 NO. 27BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, W.I. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26TH, 2010 EC$2.00 At The Pumps This Weekend Maximum Price ULG per gal 16/11/10 DELTA $13.34 / SHELL $12.24 / TEXACO $11.71 Incident threatened reputation of Federation as a destination, says Minister Skerritt BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, a handful of our citizens and many locally did all they could to provide NOVEMBER 25TH 2010 (CUOPM) information to help the Police capture the perpetrators,” said Minister – St. Kitts and Nevis Minister of Skerritt in a lengthy statement in the St. Kitts and Nevis National Tourism, Sen. the Hon. Richard Assembly Thursday. “Ricky” Skerritt says the recent He told Parliamentarians and the nation yesterday that the process incident at Brimstone Hill two of healing “our wounds internationally will have to be ongoing and will weeks ago “has left a deep wound need the help of all well wishers everywhere; and there must be no on the good name of St. Kitts and doubt that the tourism related public relations and sales recovery efforts Nevis abroad, and has seriously in the marketplace will need to be closely coupled locally with the threatened the reputation of the implementation of a comprehensive security plan designed to build a Minister of Tourism and International Transport Sen. destination as a safe and proactive and pre-emptive culture in our overall National security the Hon. Richard “Ricky” Skerritt making the welcoming place for visitors.” programming and community policing.” statement in the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly “Thousands of Kittitians and “Mr. Speaker, predictably this incident has also sparked much local on Thursday. (Photo by Erasmus Williams) Nevisians everywhere have debate about security in our Federation in general, and policing in expressed shock and rejection of (cont’d on page 3) this cowardly and senseless act of IMF revises upwards PAGE 02 PM Douglas and its economic growth St. Kitts and Nevis’ projections for Tourism Industry to French Overseas flesh out safety and Territories Minister St. Kitts and Nevis security agenda BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 22ND 2010 (CUOPM) – hold talks in Paris The Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 24TH 2010 (CUOPM) – (cont’d on page 3) PAGE 12 Developing closer ties between member nations of the Organisation of Minister Skerritt (cont’d on page 3) welcomes Celebrity Eclipse, lauds line for confidence in St. Kitts and Nevis COMMENTARY BY * THE THINKING CITIZEN * VIEW POINT * EARL CLARKE * SOTTO VOCE Photo: (left ro right) Financial Secretary, Mrs. Janet Harris; Senior Economist, Caribbean 1 Division, PAGE 23 St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister and current Western Hemisphere, IMF, Koffie Nassar; Division Chairman of the OECS, Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas Chief, Caribbean 1 Division, Western Hemisphere (right) in discussions with France’s Minister of Department, IMF, Alfred Schipke and Antigua-based Overseas Territories, Her Excellency Madame Marie- Resident IMF Representative for the ECCU, Luce Penchard. Mr. Wendell Samuel . (Photo by Erasmus Williams) 2 - OPINION / LOCAL NEWS - The Labour Spokesman FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26TH 2010 Mr Schipke said that without Letter To The Editor growth everything is challenging. Our ultimate objective has to be to improve the growth potential of THE SPOKESMAN - ESTABLISHED MAY 1957 the economy and to improve the Thank God for Dr. livelihood of all citizens in this Published by: The St. Kitts-Nevis Trades & Labour Union country. This is the objective that Ag. Managing Editor: Dawud Byron the government is pursuing. He Douglas and Labour continued that the focus of the Masses House, Church Street The doomsayers have been spreading negative news on the health government is stronger economic P.O Box 239 . Basseterre . St. Kitts . West Indies of the economy for some weeks, suggesting that our economic situation growth, improving the living Tel: (1 869) 465-2229 <> Fa: (1 869) 466-9866 has worsened to the point where our people will experience tremendous conditions of all and at the same Email: [email protected] hardship for months on end. time reducing vulnerability to deal Website: www.labourspokesman.com Many of these prophets of gloom and doom blamed the introduction with exogenous shocks. of the VAT as a contributing factor to the robbery of some seventeen Of course these projections tourists at Brimstone Hill which they felt would have halted the cruise may not have pleased the handful ship’s arrival to our peaceful and tranquil destination. of doomsayers, but they (the Editorial However, the gloomy predictions of these critics were soon thrown projections) sure brought out of the window by executive members of the IMF and Cruise continued high levels of Executives. confidence in the leadership of our Since the horrible and unfortunate incident at Brimstone Hill, the Federation who have been working security forces moved speedily to apprehend the wicked perpetrators extremely hard to keep our Playing Politics and to charge them for this heinous crime. The security forces must be beautiful Federation in a fiscally commended for the excellent work done in apprehending the criminals healthy condition and to present and bring them to justice. to the world a very high-class As a result, the ships have agreed to resume their schedules and the destination. with Crime cruise management continues to express confidence in the destination Thank God for the Hon Prime as a peaceful and tranquil place. Minister Dr Denzil L Douglas who Every decent law-abiding citizen and national of St. Kitts and Nevis The IMF (International Monetary Fund) executives for the region, is leading the charge with his other bemoans the breakdown in the moral fabric of the society that have also expressed confidence in our Federation and revised the growth hardworking Cabinet Colleagues. continuously gives birth to crime. projection for 2011 from 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic P.S. Prime Minister, Avoid loud, Crime is a monster without a face and no direction. It threatens the Product). aggressive and envious economy of St. Kitts and Nevis at a time when economies throughout Expressing confidence in the prospects of St Kitts/Nevis economy individuals they are vexatious to the entire world are teetering on the brink of collapse because of one of in terms of macro-economic stability, Mr Schipke said conditions were the spirit. the worst economic recessions in living memory. being created to generate high growth. Because crime poses such a great threat to the stability of a country’s economy and a danger to the peace and unity of communities, it must be confronted with unrelenting force. Equally important is that parents, guardians, the churches and the schools and all and sundry in the country assume the noble responsibility of instilling a sense of morals and ethics St. Kitts and Nevis’ Tourism in our children, not only by instruction but by example. As sinister as crime is, there is something that can be judged just as Industry to flesh out safety and sinister, and that is the politicization of crime. Playing politics with crime does not redound to the advantage of anyone but only seeks to polarize security agenda a country more than it already is. Polarization is gang mentality. It is ironic that almost every time a criminal activity takes place in the BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 25TH 2010 (CUOPM) – St. The agenda follows a recent country, Leader of the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Lindsay Grant, Kitts and Nevis’ Minister of Tourism and International Transportation incident in St. Kitts which he said takes to the airwaves or uses his pen to lament. The evidence would has announced a Tourism Industry’s future Safety and Security Agenda must not only be an extremely loud suggest that Grant is playing politics with crime. He seems to be more that will incorporate six interrelated components. alarm bell, but also a serious wake concerned with attaining political mileage and increased voter support He disclosed in the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly on up call for all and sundry and rather than concretely addressing the crime situation. Thursday that the six components are Visitor Protection, Protection of citizens have much more to lose Nothing speaks more to this than an article posted on SKNVibes in local staff - i.e. all tourism stakeholder staff; site protection, ecological than the criminals and they cannot the wake of the unfortunate hold-up and robbery of a tour bus carrying management, economic protection and reputation protection. and must not let them destroy 17 tourist in Sandy Point. The article can at best be described as Details of these components will be fleshed out in the coming weeks, tourism or else they will destroy hypocritical and at worst sarcastic. he said. the country. Posted on November 15, 2010 and headlined “St. Kitts opposition Minister Skerritt gave the party leader saddened by recent robbery of 17 tourists. Assures visitors assurance that the unprecedented that St. Kitts a safe place to visit”, the article gave the appearance in its incident “will be used to shape the opening paragraphs that Grant was very concerned about the robbery way forward strategically.” of the tourists and that he wanted to assure visitors that St. Kitts was “We cannot and must not wait still a safe place to visit. until crime spills uncontrollably But, any intelligent person reading the article would realize that the into the tourism sector before author had a sinister agenda. The author really wanted to portray St. acting further. We must recognize, Kitts as a crime-infested country, where the government was incapable once and for all, that whether the of controlling crime. criminal is a pickpocket, a purse- Grant is quoted in the article as saying that he had every confidence snatcher, or an armed robber, even in the police to bring the perpetrators to justice and that St.