Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Obama expects downfall of Syrian regime in near future

During his State of the Union address which was larhely devoted to economic issues, President Obama also touched the Middle East. Regarding Syria, the US leader said he had no doubt President Bashar Assad's regime "will soon discover that the forces of change can't be reversed, and that human dignity can't be denied."

He also said that A year ago, Libyan leader Moammar Gadgafi "was one of the world's longest-serving dictators -- a murderer with American blood on his hands. Today, he is gone," Obama said.

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/news/obama-expects-downfall-syrian-regime-near-future-410228

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Anti-Zionism in the 21st Century: the struggle continues

altLondon, (Pal Telegraph) - The essence of the Palestinian struggle is the battle against Zionism. It is a battle against its racism, against its murderous war crimes, against its insatiable territorial hunger, against its disdain for non-Jewish human rights, and against its devoted attempts to destroy Palestinian national identity. As voices of normalization are on the rise, and social media is invaded by paid pro-Zionist bloggers, there is an increased need for anti-Zionists to draw attention to the crimes committed by ‘Israel’, and to speak up against the ongoing media silence and the apologist activities of those misleadingly portraying themselves as ‘peace doves’. Let us first look briefly at the history of the anti-Zionist struggle, and then see where we stand today.

Source: http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/10493-anti-zionism-in-the-21st-century-the-struggle-continues.html

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Joubert welcomed to parliament staff

page4a195PHILIPSBURG--President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell introduced first acting General Secretary of Parliament Nancy Joubert to the press on Thursday.

Joubert, a legislative lawyer, worked in the Department of Legal Affairs and was involved with several laws and amendments dealt with already, or which are pending handling by Parliament.

Joubert looks forward to her new post and the challenges it will bring.

It was "a lengthy process" to attract people to fill the two general secretary posts. Arrindell is happy to have attracted Joubert and Second Acting General Secretary van Dyke-Bell, who was unable to attend the press conference.

It was "very difficult" to find a person with Joubert's background. Rarer is to find a young person or a woman with the needed expertise," Arrindell added.

"Our staff is almost complete now," said Arrindell at her first press conference for the year held at Parliament House. She looks forward to everyone, staff and Members of Parliament (MPs) "putting their shoulder to the legislative process."

Arrindell said that 2011 has taught MPs and the country a lot by the way of challenges and bottlenecks. "It's a new year, while we still face some challenging times, I believe firmly, if we all collectively and individually put our shoulders under the issues that would make our country stronger.

"We will persevere. We will succeed in making this a better quality place to live and enjoy for our children, our visitors and our citizens," she said.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/24079-joubert-welcomed-to-parliament-staff-.html

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Chilean police arrests gang that store five tons of glacier ice

The Jorge Montt glacier is melting at a rate of one kilometre per year Police were investigating a criminal gang that allegedly stole blocks of ice from the Jorge Montt Glacier in southern Chile.

Source: http://en.mercopress.com/2012/02/01/chilean-police-arrests-gang-that-store-five-tons-of-glacier-ice?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_content=main&utm_campaign=rss

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Heyliger: Govt doing utmost to address infrastructure issues

page1b204PHILIPSBURG--Minister of Infrastructure Theo Heyliger said on Monday that Parliament and the public must understand that government is doing its utmost to improve what ails the infrastructure of St. Maarten, most of the time with a limited budget and natural challenges that affect the progress of projects.

  Heyliger faced infrastructure-related questions in a plenary session of Parliament that focused on everything from potholes to the planned causeway over or through Simpson Bay Lagoon.

  Although he did not have an opportunity to answer questions due to a lack of quorum in Parliament, Heyliger gave The Daily Herald some insight into some of the answers he will be providing to Parliament whenever the meeting is reconvened.

  Members of the opposition National Alliance (NA) queried Heyliger on the state of Back Street and Front Street, the progress of ongoing projects in various districts, running sewage water, plans for the landfill and even how he was going to deal with the midge infestation, although the latter is primarily a task for the Health Department.

  The ring road especially received added attention, with the opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) asking about its progress and, in particular, whether land had been awarded to individuals and/or companies. This issue surfaced in 2010 during the NA/Heyliger coalition with various reports about certain types of businesses being identified for the ring road.

  The issue of maintenance was also a focused discussion point, with MP William Marlin stressing that government should stop looking for new projects without having the ability to maintain what was already there. Marlin said the minister too often treated certain projects as a ?station pass�? leaving them to degrade while starting new ones.

  His comments were echoed by other MPs, including those of the governing coalition who lamented the dilapidated state of some projects and roads, and urged the minister to ensure that certain guarantees are in place. Marlin also questioned Heyliger about the Emilio Wilson Estate plans and how involved he was in those plans.

  Democratic Party (DP) MP Leroy de Weever said any filling of Simpson Bay Lagoon should be done with great care as this, in his opinion, was the last ?bit of inland waterways? that had not yet been destroyed. De Weever, like other MPs, also asked who was going to execute the causeway project.

 

Ring road

  Several questions directed to Minister Heyliger concerned land that had been given out around the ring road. Heyliger confirmed that land had been issued to institutions that serve the community, such as the Mental Health Foundation, and certain persons. He said that while he had no problem providing Parliament with the information, as minister he would not divulge people?s private business on the floor of Parliament.

  He said the ring road had created jobs to the tune of approximately US $1.7 million for the truckers who had transported sand from the dredging for the second pier at the harbour. He said government had commissioned a traffic study, an environmental study and a water capacity study for Great Salt Pond, which had been reported on in the media.

  The project, he said, ?is a massive one? that will require creative ways of financing considering ?the budget for VROMI is one of the smallest annually.?

  ?But I would challenge anyone to show me if anything was done in an illegal manner,? he said.

 

District projects

  Heyliger also said that a number of projects would continue in 2012 and some changes had been added to the plans of certain projects, like Cole Bay. He said the designs in Cole Bay had been adapted to include additional water catchments to protect the main road. He said government would be putting in these catchments to ?catch? water for which it is not responsible, referring to private sewage systems. ?But we have to protect the road. This was one of the reasons why the road [Welfare Road, ed.] is not completed as yet,? he said.

  As for other ongoing projects, such as Middle Region, Heyliger said while residents ?were cursing me? a few months ago, some were now willing to give up even more of their property to accommodate the amenities in that district.

  ?In fact, I think the norms and standards that were applied in Middle Region should be applied island-wide,? he said, adding that he would elaborate on those norms and standards to Parliament.

  An additional five million euros will be spent in Dutch Quarter around the middle of the year to upgrade the inner areas and ensure proper sewage facilities are in place.

 

Potholes, Back Street

  While all Parliamentarians lamented the state of the roads with potholes, the minister said government had spent NAf. 2.4 million in 2011 to fix potholes. He admitted that St. Maarten lacked proper drainage and sewage systems, and said he had been adamant about providing the island with what it lacked.

  Heyliger said it was one thing to sit back and identify what the island was missing, but quite another to actually do something about it, ?and we are doing something about it with these projects.?

  He said Parliamentarians could invoke the ?people pay road tax? argument, but the public was under the wrong impression if it thought that all of the road tax monies went into maintaining roads.

  ?Actually, only about 20 per cent of the road tax collected goes into roads. The rest goes into social affairs, health, education, the total overall budget of government. I agree that if we?re going to make people pay for services then they should see the improvement of what they are paying for, but this is the reality we are in,? he said.

  The poor state of Front Street and Back Street, Heyliger said, has the attention of government, with replacement of Front Street bricks ongoing, but Back Street proving to be more problematic. He said government was in discussions with contractor Windward Roads and was of the opinion that the company should absorb the cost to fix the road.

  ?They are of a different opinion and so it continues. When it comes to guaranteeing the projects none of them (contractors) live up to the standards they should be doing as a company. But we have just two main contractors that do this work.

  ?Many of these things come down to money and financing. ? This is why I?m a proponent of the transfer of GEBE shares so that GEBE can do these things on behalf of the country. We have government companies in this country that can do these things for our people.

  ?The onus should not only be on government. The pension fund, for example, is 100 per cent guaranteed by the government of St. Maarten, but yet no money is invested in St. Maarten. These institutions must understand their role in developing St. Maarten,? Heyliger said.

  The minister also said that in 2011 government had to contend with a year with record rainfall that hindered the progress of many of the projects.

 

Causeway

  MP William Marlin asked Heyliger to confirm that a ?barge of piles? to be driven for the causeway through Simpson Bay Lagoon had arrived on island. Heyliger denied this and said the only barge of steel he had seen was that for the expansion of the Statia terminal.

  ?There are no piles ordered for the causeway,? Heyliger said.

  He added that the project is part of the overall master plan for St. Maarten?s road network, which Marlin had approved when he was a member of the Island Council. ?He, as Commissioner of Public Works, started one of the first links, Link I, approved in the whole master plan. So if you pass that link you can?t tell me that all other links are not part of the master plan,? Heyliger said.

  He clarified that a public bidding had been held for the causeway project, negotiations had been conducted with the potential contractor, but no contract had been signed. An environmental impact study and a traffic study have been commissioned and conditions laid out in these studies will be adhered to and/or applied in the preparations and execution of the project.

  The minister said he had ?lots more? to share with Parliament with regard to all the projects mentioned. 

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/24405-heyliger-govt-doing-utmost-to-address-infrastructure-issues-.html

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Inter-Parliamentary meeting live on Pearl FM 98.1, internet

PHILIPSBURG--The Kingdom Relations and Inter-Parliamentary Conference, starting today, Tuesday, at Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort and Casino, will be broadcast live on Pearl 98.1 FM and streamed live on www.pearlfmradio.com.

  The conference opens at 8:00am with remarks from the parliament delegation leaders of Aruba, Cura�ao, The Netherlands and St. Maarten. This will be followed by a tour of thePrincessJulianaInternationalAirportand of Windward Islands Airways International Winair.

  The conference continues until Friday midday and includes other tours.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/24174-inter-parliamentary-meeting-live-on-pearl-fm-981-internet-.html

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Hurrah for Egypt!

By Uri Avnery

It finally happened. The Egyptian parliament, democratically elected by a free people, has convened for its first session.

For me this is a wonderful, a joyful occasion.

For many Israelis, this is a worrisome, a threatening sight.

I cannot but rejoice when a downtrodden people arises and wins its freedom and human dignity. And not by the intervention of outside forces, but by its own steadfastness and courage. And not by shooting and bloodshed, but by the sheer power of nonviolence.

Whenever and wherever it happens, it must gladden the heart of any decent person around the globe.

Compared to most other revolutions, this Egyptian uprising was bloodless. The number of victims ran in the dozens, not thousands. The current struggle in Syria claims that number of victims every day or two, and so did the successful uprising in neighboring Libya, which was greatly assisted by foreign military intervention.

A revolution reflects the character of its people. I always had a special liking for the Egyptian people, because they are - by and large - devoid of aggressiveness and violence. They are a singularly patient and humorous lot. You can see this in thousands of years of recorded history and you can see it in daily life in the street.

That is why this revolution was so surprising. Of all the peoples on this planet, the Egyptians are among the most unlikely to revolt. Yet revolt they did.

The parliament convened after 60 years of military rule, which also started with a bloodless revolution. Even the despised king, Farouk, who was overthrown on that day in July 1952, was not harmed. He was bundled into his luxurious yacht and sent off to Monte Carlo, there to spend the rest of his life gambling.

The real leader of the revolution was Gamal Abd-al-Nasser. I had met him several times during the 1948 war – though we were never properly introduced. These were all night battles, and only after the war could I reconstruct the events. He was wounded in a battle for which my company was awarded the honorary name “Samson’s Foxes”, while I was wounded five months later by soldiers under his command.

I never met him face to face, of course, but a good friend of mine did. During the battle of the “Faluja pocket”, a cease-fire was agreed in order to bring out the dead and wounded lying between the lines. The Egyptians sent Major Abd-al-Nasser, our side sent a Yemen-born officer whom we called “Gingi” (Ginger), because he was almost totally black. The two enemy officers liked each other very much, and when the Egyptian revolution broke out, Gingi told me – long before anyone else – that Abd-al-Nasser was the man to watch.

(I cannot restrain myself from voicing a pet peeve here. In Western films and books, Arabs often bear the first name Abdul. Such a name just does not exist. “Abdul” is really Abd-al-, which means “servant of”’ and is invariably followed by one of Allah’s 99 attributes. Abd-al-Nasser, for example, means “Servant of (Allah) the Victorious”. So please!)

“Nasser”, as most people called him for short, was not a born dictator. He later recounted that after the victory of the revolution, he had no idea what to do next. He started by appointing a civilian government, but was appalled by the incompetence and corruption of the politicians. So the army took things into its own hands, and soon enough it became a military dictatorship, which lasted and steadily degenerated until last year.

One does not have to take Nasser’s account literally, but the lesson is clear: now as then, “temporary” military rule tends to turn into a lasting dictatorship. Egyptians know this from bitter experience, and that’s why they are becoming very very impatient now.

I remember an arresting conversation between two leading Arab intellectuals some 45 years ago. We were in a taxi in London, on our way to a conference. One was the admirable Mohammed Sid Ahmad, an aristocratic Egyptian Marxist, the other was Alawi, a courageous leftist Moroccan opposition leader. The Egyptian said that in the contemporary Arab world, no national goal can be achieved without a strong autocratic leadership. Alawi retorted that nothing worthwhile can be achieved before internal democracy is established. I think this case has now been settled.

As Winston Churchill famously said, “democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried.” The bad thing about democracy is that free elections don't always turn out the way you want them to.”

The recent Egyptian election was won by “Islamists”. The tumultuous first session produced by this whiff of freedom was dominated by deputies with religious beards. Elected members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the more extreme Salafists (adherents of the Salafiyeh, a Sunni tendency which claims to follow the teaching of the first three Muslim generations) form the majority. The Israelis and the world’s Islamophobes, for whom all Muslims are the same, are aghast.

Frankly, I don’t like religious parties of any stripe – Jewish, Muslim, Christian or what have you. Full democracy demands full separation between State and religion, in practice as well as in theory.

I would not vote for politicians who use religious fundamentalism as a ladder for their careers – whether they are American presidential candidates, Israeli settlers or Arab demagogues. Even If they were sincere, I would still vote against them. But if such people are elected freely, I accept them. I certainly would not let the success of the Islamists spoil my joy at the historic victory of the Arab Spring.

The way it looks now, Islamists of various shades are going to be influential in all the new parliaments that will be the products of Arab democracy, from Morocco to Iraq, from Syria to Oman. Israel will not be a “villa in the jungle”, but a Jewish island in a Muslim sea.

Island and sea are not natural enemies. On the contrary, they complement each other. The islanders catch fish in the sea, the island shelters the young fish.

There is no reason for Jews and Muslims not to live peacefully together and cooperate. They have done so many times in history, and these were good times for both.

In any religion, there are many contradictions. In the Hebrew Bible there are the inspiring chapters of the prophets and the abominable calls for genocide in the Book of Joshua, for example. In the New Testament, there are the beautiful Sermon on the Mount and the disgusting (and obviously false and later inserted) description of the Jews calling for the crucifixion of Jesus, which has caused anti-Semitism and untold suffering. In the Koran are several objectionable passages about the Jews, but they are overshadowed by the admirable command to protect the “peoples of the book”, Jews and Christians.

It is up to the believers of any religion to pick from their holy texts the passages they want to act upon. Once I saw a Nazi book composed entirely of quotations from the Talmud – hundreds of them. I was certain that they were all false and was shocked to the core when a friendly rabbi assured me that they were all authentic, only taken out of context.

Jews and Muslims can and did live peacefully together, and so did Israelis and Egyptians. 

Just one chapter: in November, 1944, two members of the pre-state underground Lehi organization (aka Stern Gang) assassinated Lord Moyne, the British Minister of State for the Middle East, in Cairo. They were caught, and their trial in an Egyptian court turned into an anti-British demonstration. Young Egyptian patriots filled the chamber and made no effort to hide their admiration for the accused. One of the two (with whom I was acquainted) reciprocated with a rousing speech, in which he dismissed Zionism and defined himself as a freedom fighter out to liberate the entire region from British imperialism.

When Israel was founded soon after, some of us suggested that the new state use this and other acts in order to present ourselves as the first Semitic state that had liberated itself from foreign rule. In this spirit, we publicly welcomed Abd-al-Nasser’s 1952 revolution. But in 1956, Israel attacked Egypt in collusion with France and Great Britain, and was branded as an outpost of Western colonialism.

After Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem, I was one of the first four Israelis to arrive in Cairo. For weeks we were the heroes of the city, lionized by one and all. Enthusiasm for peace with Israel gave rise to a carnival mood. Only later, when the Egyptians realized that Israel had no intention whatsoever of allowing the Palestinians to achieve their freedom, did this mood evaporate.

Now is the time to try to restore this mood. It can be done, if we resolutely turn our face toward the Arab Spring and its winter offshoots.

That raises again one of the most basic questions for Israel: Do we want to be a part of this region, or an outpost of the West? Are the Arabs our natural allies or our natural enemies? Does the new Arab democracy arouse our sympathy and admiration, or does it frighten us?

This leads to the most profound question of all: Is Israel just another branch of world Jewry, or is it a new nation born in this region and constituting an integral part of it?

For me, the answer is clear. And therefore I salute the Egyptian people and their new parliament: Congratulations!

- Uri Avnery is an Israeli peace activist and a former Knesset member. He is the founder of Gush Shalom. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Source: http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17738

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Iraq wants to sell gasoline to Japan, South Korea

The spokesman of the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company, Hamed Ka'bi, told journalists that the country is negotiating with Japan and South Korea to sell them gasoline. He said that talks were reaching their final stages, and that the quantity to be sold would depend on Iraq's excess production and the demand of the two countries. Iraq is trying to increase its oil capacity to 2.6 million bpd this year. Production last month was 2.145 million bpd, up from 2.135 million bpd in November.

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/business/iraq-wants-sell-gasoline-japan-south-korea-410977

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Beirut: the city that rose again

The Lebanese capital is fast becoming one of the most exciting and welcoming cities on Earth, says Ian Henderson.�By Ian Henderson -Out of my Beirut hotel window the jumble of history is everywhere. A ruined Ottoman fort and an exquisite Maronite chapel are immediately outside. Concrete blocks from the infamous Green Line which used to divide the city are scattered among fallen Roman columns. On the skyline, mosques and churches ? there are around 18 official religions in Lebanon ? frame the skeleton of the old Holiday Inn, a favourite target for anyone with a rocket launcher during the civil war which ended 11 years ago.�When friends knew I was going to Beirut, the reaction was split between those who see it as the most thrilling place to be right now ? the Next Big Thing; and those who haven't got past seeing it as a war zone where well-meaning travellers end up chained to radiators. Both have a point. Style pundits are noisily buying up apartments and rightly singing the praises of Lebanese musicians and designers while Hizbollah and Israel's jets still fight it out around them. The Green Line is rapidly being built over in the shiny new Downtown district, and it's often hard to tell which is a shelled building and which is a construction site.�People I spoke to in Beirut are astonishingly matter of fact about Lebanon's recent past, telling stories of homes and lives destroyed; yet at the same time they are insistent that the world should look at Beirut not through the eyes of the American writer P J O'Rourke (it featured in his book, Holidays in Hell) but as a hopeful, optimistic and thriving place that is fast reinventing itself.�The tiny Maronite chapel is just in front of the huge new Blue Mosque, and there's a perfectly restored Orthodox church next to a Catholic cathedral. Perhaps surprisingly, given recent tensions, the synagogue is being restored too. And all these are within yards of each other, every one getting the same attention from the stonemasons and painters, and all in streets where you might find a Ferrari dealer next to a funky bar or a sharp designer next to a flat bread stall.�Some serious money is coming into Beirut. Sleek steel and glass buildings are rising around Downtown, some people have enough money to risk their Porsches among the beaten-up Mercedes taxis that veer honking across the streets (the horn being preferred to wing mirrors), hoardings around building sites along the Corniche proudly trumpet the return of Beirut's glamorous Sixties heyday with pictures of carefree film stars and Riva speedboats.�The hotelier Gordon Campbell Gray's successes with One Aldwych in London and Carlisle Bay in Antigua suggest he knows an opportunity when he sees one. His latest venture, Le Gray, is one of Beirut's newest and chicest hotels. Gray talks about the "kindness industry" and its positive effects for Beirut and Lebanon, though he's far from blind to the risks. We sat in the comfortable Cigar Bar before dinner and watched the smart young Lebanese mixing with the international visitors ? they aren't defined by the conflicts of the past.�Next day on the waterfront we met one of them, Kamal Mouzawak, who calls his brand of entrepreneurialism "gastroeconomics" (motto, make food not war). Believing that in a world of increasing global sameness people and cultures are defined most closely by their culinary heritage, he encourages real farmers' markets where the actual producers (rather than resellers) come in from the countryside with fresh vegetables, preserves, fruits and natural remedies.�He has also opened the wonderful Tawlet caf�, where each day a different cook will compose a menu from fresh local ingredients in airy surroundings of white tiles, wooden shelves, clever recycled lighting and fresh flowers. It's far beyond the familiar baba ganoush and shawarma street food ? from the daunting raw liver and lamb (eaten with a pinch of salt and paprika) through to freekeh (roasted green wheat) and delicious ricotta, coal-tasting Armenian basturma (dried meat cured with spices) and 961 beer.�A stroll past the beach clubs of the Corniche or an evening in the bars and restaurants of Gemmayze reveal more and more people creating the buzz and excitement of a new Beirut. Coffee shops and ice-cream parlours, sports bars and music venues seem to be opening daily among the elegant Parisian-style buildings. And if you're brave enough to tackle the crazy driving on the roads towards Damascus and the Bekaa Valley, you can find more evidence of people building a new economy from the ruins of the old.�Sami and Ramzi Ghosn's El Massaya winery is a good example. Deep in Hizbollah territory (you can tell by the yellow and black flags flying by the roadblocks ...

Source: http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/News/PoliticalNews/en-US/Beirut-mt-396394.htm

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Iran expects oil prices to boom

The Iranian government on Sunday warned that the EU oil embargo would lead to a significant price increase. A barrel will cost up to US$150 soon, the official IRNA news agency quoted the head of the national oil company, Ahmad Kalehban, as saying.

Currently, the price of an oil barrel on world markets hits just under US$100. One barrel equals 159 liters.

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/business/iran-expects-oil-prices-boom-410824

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Egyptians mark first anniversary of revolt

As tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered Wednesday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, some 3,000 prisoners were freed Wednesday following orders by the military junta. This came as Egypt marked the first anniversary of the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Islamists, liberals, leftists and ordinary citizens crowded the square which became the symbol of the revolution, in downtown Cairo.

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/news/egyptian-mark-first-anniversary-revolt-410334

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Three Haitians accused of smuggling young girls

PHILIPSBURG--Making a profit by transporting poor Haitian immigrants in rickety boats and assisting them in gaining illegal entry into their country of destination is a severe crime, but what to do with three Haitians involved in a case of family reunion?

Judge Monique Keppels of the Court of First Instance was confronted with this question in a case involving three men of Haitian descent who stood trial on people-smuggling charges on Wednesday.

The main suspect in this case, B.F. (46), is accused of having assisted in four minor children to gain illegal entry into St. Maarten between June 26 and October 17, 2010, by using falsified proof of accommodation documents, or attestations d'h�bergement, as they are called in French.

Two of these children, ages 10 and 12, were born to co-defendants E.P. (38) and J.P. (42) who, according to the Prosecutor's Office, had assisted in the crime by paying part of their offspring's airfare to St. Maarten and providing their passports and passport photos.

B.F. was the most outspoken of the three defendants in describing the reasons for their actions. Following the catastrophic earthquake of January 12, 2010, that devastated Haiti, killing around 300,000 people and leaving more than 1.5 million without homes, the two girls, who he claimed were related to him, had become homeless.

"The children were starving and were living on the street. I felt obligated to do something for these children," B.F. told the Judge, adding that the girls' mothers had approached him to find the children and deliver them to their mothers.

He claimed he had only assisted because efforts to obtain visas for the two girls in Haiti had been unsuccessful.

This was not the first time B.F. had taken children from Haiti to St. Maarten. He had accompanied two other children to St. Maarten earlier last year. That time he had not encountered any problems with Immigration officials at Princess Juliana International Airport.

Prosecutor Dounia Benammar held it against the three men that they had not sought the assistance of the authorities in St. Maarten in unifying their families.

However, E.P. and J.P. claimed they had had no knowledge that the documents provided by B.F. had been false.

B.F. told the Court he had bought the documents for US $50 each from a man in the streets, but maintained he had had no doubt about the papers' authenticity. "I would not have done it had I known the documents were false," he said.

The Prosecutor requested that the Court sentence B.F. to 18 months, six of which were to be suspended, with three years' probation. In case of conviction, she also requested the man's immediate incarceration and the revocation of his residence permit.

According to the Prosecutor, B.F. had not acted on humanitarian grounds, but had been working for payment and for profit.

Prosecutor Benammar did not deny that the situation in Haiti was grave, but said B.F.'s appeal of a "case of emergency" did not work because he had misused other people's misery in making a profit. "In bringing these children here he also contributed to illegal immigration," she added.

She said the other two suspects had induced and contributed to the crime. "They did not make any efforts with the St. Maarten authorities to get their children here via the proper channels," Benammar said.

The children are still in St. Maarten with their families. The Minister of Justice will decide on their fate, the Prosecutor explained.

Attorney-at-law Geert Hatzmann stated that B.F., who is seriously ill, had been punished enough already by his three-month pre-trial detention during which he witnessed the traumatic suicide of a cellmate.

His clients were not aware of the ins and outs of family reunification and had become the victims of "ignorance" within the Naturalisation and Immigration Service (IND), said attorney Remco Stomp. "They acted in despair and should either be acquitted or be discharged from prosecution," Stomp said.

The judge will give her decision on February 8.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/24477-three-haitians-accused-of-smuggling-young-girls-.html

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Monday, January 30, 2012

A world of economic contradictions

-�Fadi Abboud-�There has been a well-known story circulating for over a decade that demonstrates the capability of the human mind to find ways to do less and gain more. It concerns an American university professor who taught his students about socialism through a class experiment by averaging their grades so that no one would fail.With every exam, the efforts of the hard-working students declined in reaction to their less enthusiastic friends and the average grade declined incrementally until it reached a point where all the students failed.As a counter-argument to the students? protests, the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because without rewards no one will want to try, let alone succeed, whereas when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great.The moral of the story can be applied to any government through common sense and progressive political thinking. It is impossible to strip the wealthy of their prosperity and redistribute it to the poor. As the resour ces of the government are limited, it is only natural that sacrifices must be made by many layers of society to provide the funds necessary to ensure welfare.When one side sees they are prospering from the work of others, it is only natural that they lose any will to work themselves. And as they reap the benefits from others? work, the working side will lose any incentive to contribute in light of the injustice occurring from their point of view.For Leba non, the answer lies in multiplying wealth through the creation of opportunities by introducing research and development programs that will ultimately stimulate economic growth and encourage the youth to increase their stake in the nation?s future. Multiplying wealth has never succeeded by dividing wealth.Furthermore, by allowing the government to find new sources of funding without resorting to direct taxation of income, thus bypassing socialist principles in favor of more passive methods of taxation, Lebanon can succeed in empowering its youth and advancing its economy.Two questions inevitably arise from two opposite perspectives. The hard-working, wealthy individuals will wonder whether there is justice in tapping their earnings for the benefit of complete strangers. The opposing levels of society will resort to the same call for justice by claiming that they are even more deserving of their nation?s wealth on any number of grounds ranging from governmental inadequacy to corruption and basic human rights.It is time to rethink the socialist model applied to Lebanon without leaving the perceived model of a free economy unchecked. T he state of stagnation that swells in Lebanon?s economy contradicts the liberal economy open to the world, as was the case with prosperous countries such as Brazil and Turkey, which have forsaken socialism altogether for a mixed system of free market economics.The fact of the matter is that Lebanon?s economy is closed from the inside, just like the minds of those who have no opportunity or incentive to create or utilize their full potential.However, Lebanon has the potential to become a regional hub and this has every possibility of becoming a reality given the high level of Lebanon?s education and the existence of know-how that could attract investment from abroad and turn the nation into a solid contender on the global stage.With calm prevailing in the country since 2008, the relatively low impact of the world financial crisis, its highly skilled workforce, strategic geographic positioning and stable currency, Lebanon has had every opportunity of becoming a serious economic competitor to any nation in any sector of industry and all service sectors.The Lebanese banking sector has survived the global financial crisis in no small part due to the fact that its interest rate spread remains at 2.1 percent, which makes the country a very attractive location for financial operations.But this has done little to aid the Lebanese economy, which remains heavily dependent on the services sector and merchandise trade, while struggling with an official unemployment rate of 10 percent, which in reality stands at well above 20 percent.Furthermore, it is simply unsustainable to exist in an economy of 6 percent inflation, which keeps on rising, with growth dwindling by 2.5 percent annually, according to the International Monetary Fund. Considering that the MENA region?s growth stands at an average of 3.6 percent, it is certain that Lebanon?s economic situation can achieve and even surpass these values.It is the obligation of the government to stimulate the economy and to give the people opportunities to ex pand and invest. New ways must be found to fight corruption and reform one of the most inefficient governing syst ...

Source: http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/News/WorldNews/en-US/abboud-economics-article-zek-980.htm

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The Puzzling Matter of the Israeli Liberals

By Ramzy Baroud

Regardless of who may rule Israel, little change ever occurs in the country's foreign policy. Winning parties remain obsessed with demographics and retaining absolute military dominance. They also remain unfailingly focused on their quest to initiate racist laws against non-Jewish residents of the state, and continue to hone the art of speaking of peace, while actually maintaining a permanent state of war.

Every few years the media become captivated by Israeli democracy. Commentators speak of right, left, center, and anything in between. Despite Israeli elections still being a year and a half away, media pundits are already discussing possible outcomes of the vote against the peace process, economic reforms, social equality, and so on.

In a recent article, Israeli columnist Uri Avnery decried the fact that the main opposition to the right-wing parties — “the Likud, the Lieberman party and various ultra-nationalist, pro-settlement and religious factions” — is no other than the center-left Kadima. The party, led by the “incompetent” Tzipi Livni, is allegedly in “shambles.” Moreover, left parties, such as Labor and Meretz, are not expected to pose a real threat to the right party conglomerate, despite their temporary rise in the polls.

As genuine as he is, Avnery is once again presenting the false hope of a savior emerging to save Israel from itself. Avnery envisions Israel being rescued from its “neo fascists” and returned to the over-romanticized scenario of old, when early Zionists supposedly dreamed of an Israel governed by universal ethics, true democracy, peace and social equality . “I fervently hope that a different kind of new political force will emerge — a center-left party with a clear and inclusive message: Social reform, narrowing the gap between rich and poor, the two-state solution, peace with the Palestinians and the end of the occupation.”

But this is as far as the imagined narrative of a kinder, gentler Israel can possibly go. Many outside Israel struggle to reconcile familiar discourses of democracy and equality with the reality on the ground. True, the ailment is not exclusive to Israel itself, but few other self-proclaimed democratic countries have such a massive gap between mainstream political discourses and actual policies.

Recall, for example, what the media touted as Israel’s own “Arab Spring.” Even those who knew Israeli history hoped for a fleeting moment that the mass protests throughout Israeli cities could actually challenge the political and social status quo in Israel. But not Seraj Assi, a columnist and Ph.D student at Georgetown University. Assi wrote: “The dirty secret of the Tel Aviv protests is that the bulk of those middle-class Ashkenazi protesters are moved by a racist hysteria. They are simply afraid of being moved to the city peripheries and the far less fashionable parts of the country. For when they complain that they only feel at home in Tel Aviv, they explicitly express a racist desire to stay away from the development towns and neighborhoods populated by Arabs, poor Mizrahi and Ethiopian Jews.”

Indeed, the protests labored to stay clear of contentious discussions of military occupation, war, and even racial inequality within Israeli itself.

Not even the one-sided war on Gaza, which resulted in the killing of over 1400 Palestinians, was enough to raise the level of mass consciousness to challenge political and military apparatuses in Israel in any meaningful way. Under the title, ‘The Moral and Military Meltdown in Israel’, Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, wrote: “It is not just the worst of the Israelis who (according to a recent poll by Haaretz) condone and actively support the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, but so have their very best, their intellectuals, professors, journalists, filmmakers, novelists and poets, from Amos Oz to David Grossman to A. B. Yehoshua to Meir Shalev and scores of others” (Jan. 12, 2009).

While right-wing Israeli parties are often dismissed as anti-peace and hawkish, the “liberal” Zionists in the Israeli left have been viewed by some as an alternative, capable of writing wrongs and achieving the long-awaited peace. These are mere “delusions,” argued Roger Sheety in a recent article. “Scratch just a little below the surface and you discover that... when it approaches the Palestinian person in particular, (Liberal Zionism) suddenly stops and fully reverses itself,” he wrote (Jan. 9).

Sheety suggests a “clear and concise word for this phenomenon…hypocrisy.” But ‘hypocrisy’ might be too easy a term to explain this very involved trend in Israeli politics, which defined the Zionist movement long before the state of Israel was established in 1948. A most compelling book by Israeli author Tikva Honig-Parnass traces the roots of liberal Zionism from an insider perspective. It is a profound addition to a growing library that challenges “liberal” Zionists’ claim to liberalism or progressiveness.

After reading Honig-Parnass’ book, one is left with a clear impression that liberal Zionists are neither ‘Israel’s best’ and nor is their double-speak a simple reflection of hypocrisy. Liberal Zionists were, and remain at the heart of the problem. After all, the Israeli Right didn’t emerge as a powerful player in politics until the late 1970s. All that proceeded — the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing, the Law of Return, the 1967 war and further colonial expansion, and even the war on Gaza in 2008-09 — were orchestrated by Israel’s Zionist Left leaderships. More, the “systematic institutional discrimination against Palestinian citizens was (also) applied through the strengthened power of the Zionist Left,” Honig-Parnass argues. Even the most ‘radical’ forces in Israel are tainted, as the Zionist Labor movement rallied around racial discrimination against non-Jews before the establishment of Israel; later laws made racial discrimination against non-Jewish laborers the status quo, as is the case today.

To hold hope in the new election cycle in Israel is like waiting for false messiahs. No salvation will be heralded by some imagined center-left party that will bring “an end to the ultra-rightist frenzy,” as hoped by Avnery.

The task will not be easy, but a true shift in Israeli politics can only occur at the foundational level by confronting the country’s apartheid-like political institutions. More, by challenging the “Zionist Left political and ideological perspectives,” a way could open for “progressive forces among Jews and Palestinians to fight together against the Zionist/Jewish state,” as suggested by Honig-Parnass.

- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London).

Source: http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=17728

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Kingston Digital Ships High Performance SSD Upgrade Solution for Business and Consumer Use

Kingston Digital Europe Ltd., an affiliate of Kingston Technology Company Inc., the independent world leader in memory products,today announced the latest addition to its SSDNow range, the SSDNow V+200. The new Kingston�SSDNow V+200 solid-state drives are the ideal high-performance upgrade solution for the performance minded yet cost-conscious business or home user.

Kingston Technology
� 2012 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/kingston-digital-ships-high-performance-ssd-upgrade-solution-business-and-consumer-use-4

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Anti-Zionism in the 21st Century: the struggle continues

altLondon, (Pal Telegraph) - The essence of the Palestinian struggle is the battle against Zionism. It is a battle against its racism, against its murderous war crimes, against its insatiable territorial hunger, against its disdain for non-Jewish human rights, and against its devoted attempts to destroy Palestinian national identity. As voices of normalization are on the rise, and social media is invaded by paid pro-Zionist bloggers, there is an increased need for anti-Zionists to draw attention to the crimes committed by ‘Israel’, and to speak up against the ongoing media silence and the apologist activities of those misleadingly portraying themselves as ‘peace doves’. Let us first look briefly at the history of the anti-Zionist struggle, and then see where we stand today.

Source: http://www.paltelegraph.com/opinions/editorials/10493-anti-zionism-in-the-21st-century-the-struggle-continues.html

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Illidge wants to give GEBE boards their marching orders

PHILIPSBURG--Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Patrick Illidge wants to give the GEBE boards their marching orders.

A fiery Illidge said during the plenary session of Parliament on Wednesday that he had no intentions to ask GEBE "a bunch of questions," but rather wanted to instruct the company's boards to do what Parliament thinks is in the best interest of the people of St. Maarten. "And who don't hear would have to leave," Illidge said.

Illidge urged his fellow Parliamentarians to realise that "we need to make decisions" to finally give consumers some relief, "otherwise don't come up in here." He said he had no problem working with Minister of Energy Theo Heyliger in executing his vision, but wanted to hear from the Supervisory Board and/or GEBE's Shareholding Foundation.

Illidge advocated calling these boards to a Central Committee meeting and giving them instructions "as Parliament is supposed to do. Nobody seems to be able to reach these boards. The Minister can't even reach them," Illidge said.

Looking directly at GEBE Shareholding Foundation Chairman Ralph Richardson, who was present in the hall, Illidge also criticised the structure of the Shareholding Foundation that prohibits any decision from being taken if one member of the five-member board is not present at any given meeting.

In the context of "moving forward," MP Frans Richardson questioned when the GEBE shares transfer actually would be executed and called on his fellow MPs to come together to come up with some solutions for GEBE.

He said that while some of his colleagues could call for action, nothing could happen while St. Maarten had to deal with the other stakeholders in GEBE (Saba and Statia) and until St. Maarten owned 100 per cent of the company.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/24692-illidge-wants-to-give-gebe-boards-their-marching-orders-.html

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Dubai airports top 51m passengers but 2012 looks a tougher year

Dubai airports handled a record 51 million passengers in 2011, up eight percent on the previous year. But cargo volume fell 1.5 percent to 2.2 million tons as the global economy slowed down.

Many passengers use Dubai as a transit airport for onward destinations with the government-owned Emirates Airline offering the world?s largest longhaul flight network.

New A380 concourse

Certainly the Dubai aviation, airline and tourism sectors have some rougher turbulence to navigate through this year
Copyright 2012 Peter John Cooper All rights reserved

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/dubai-airports-top-51m-passengers-2012-looks-tougher-year-410481

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Iran: Oil to reach $150 a barrel

Oil prices could hit $150 a barrel as a result of the ongoing international standoff over Iran?s nuclear programme, the head of the country?s state oil company said yesterday.

Many Iranian lawmakers have called for an immediate ban on oil exports to the EU before its ban goes into effect in July
� 2012 Al Sidra Media LLC

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/150-barrel-iran-warning-410861

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Burglars steal jewellery from Philipsburg store

PHILIPSBURG--Front Street jewellery store Caribbean Gems was burglarised some time between late Sunday night and early Monday morning. The thieves made off with several pieces and the store's digital video recorder (DVR).

The store's alarm went off Sunday around 11:30pm, but when store management arrived everything appeared to be in place. On Monday it was found that the wires of the alarm system had been cut. The system having been disabled, hammering of the wall went unnoticed.

Once inside the thieves ransacked the office and raided the jewellery displays. Store management suspects that the DVR was taken because the thieves assumed footage of the robbery was stored on it.

Thieves also attempted to open the safe by using a blowtorch and breaking the handle. A specialist will be brought in to open the safe to confirm that nothing was taken. The exact value of the stolen goods was not reported.

Police detectives and forensics team arrived at the store to document the crime, collect fingerprints and other evidence.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/24619-burglars-steal-jewellery-from-philipsburg-store-.html

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Hyundai Elantra 2012 named car of the year

The 2012 Hyundai Elantra took top honors in the most exclusive award in North America when it was named 2012 North American Car of the Year.

A jury of 50 independent North American automotive journalists evaluated each of the new cars introduced last year and chose the 2012 Hyundai Elantra as the winner.

The award was announced at a press conference at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which marks Hyundai?s second win. The Hyundai Genesis won the same award in 2009.

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� 2012 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/business/pr/hyundai-elantra-2012-named-car-year-410897

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Cabinet increases pension age to 65

WILLEMSTAD--Cura�ao's Council of Ministers has approved the increase of the pension age from 60 to 65, based on the recommendation that looked into the long-term viability of the financially-troubled old age pension AOV fund.

Everyone who was 57 or younger on January 1 will now receive the full pension when they reach 65, while those 58 and older still get it at 60. The law does allow people to retire earlier, but their AOV will be less if they do so.

Government also agreed to increase the amount involved to a NAf. 1000 per month for recipients who are solely dependent on it. At the moment these people are getting NAf. 834 in pension plus a separate allowance of NAf. 130 from the Ministry of Social Development, Labour and Wellbeing, for a total of NAf. 964.

The same committee has been asked to come up with a proposal for mandatory pension insurance on the island by June 1.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/24655-cabinet-increases-pension-age-to-65-.html

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Syria rejects Arab plan to end the crisis

Syria on Monday rejected the new "road map" proposed late Sunday by the Foreign Ministers of the Arab League, calling for President Bashar al-Assad to delegate his powers to his Vice President. The plan also called on the Syrian regime to form a national unity government and to hold early parliamentary and presidential elections. "Syria rejects the decisions of the Ministerial Council of the Arab League (...) and considers it a violation of national sovereignty and blatant interference in its domestic policy," said the Syrian official news agency.

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� 2012 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/news/syria-rejects-arab-plan-end-crisis-409952

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2012 number plates here, available mid next week

~Have new colour, design~

PHILIPSBURG--The 2012 number plates have arrived in the country and will most likely be ready for pickup by mid-next week.

Some 27,452 pairs of plates for motor vehicles as well as 800 singles for bikes were ordered. The new plates are yellow in colour and have a picture of Fort Amsterdam in the background.

The cost of the plates remains the same as last year: NAf. 12.50 for regular vehicles and NAf. 7.50 for bikes and mopeds. The motor vehicle tax also remains the same: NAf. 275 for regular gasoline vehicles, NAf. 300 for rentals, NAf. 200 for motorbikes, NAf. 50 for mopeds and NAf. 1,250 for other categories of vehicles weighing more than 7,700 pounds.

Firgos supplied the plates this year, Acting Receiver Minerva Gumbs said on Thursday. Firgos also supplied the plates in 2010 and 2011.

On Thursday workers were busy unpacking and sorting the number plates. The Receiver's Office has not yet set any extended opening hours. If and when this is done, it will be announced via the media.

By law, the deadline for paying motor vehicle taxes is February 28; however, the Receiver's Office can set the deadline at a later date.

The Receiver's Office collected NAf. 8.5 million in motor vehicle tax payment in 2011 and sold 27,196 number plates. In 2010 over NAf. 8 million in motor vehicle tax was collected and 25,966 pairs of number plates sold, while the amount collected in 2008 was NAf. 8 million as against NAf. 7.5 million in 2007.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/24081-2012-number-plates-here-available-mid-next-week-.html

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

AL suspends observer mission as Syrian oppositions asks for UN protestion

The Arab League on Saturday decided to suspend its monitoring mission to Syria due to "increasing violence." Since Tuesday, violence in Syria killed some 200 people, mostly civilians.

The 165 observers from the Arab League have been deployed in Syria since December 26 with the approval of the Syrian regime in order to monitor the implementation of a plan to end the crisis.

Syria
� 2012 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/news/al-suspends-observer-mission-syrian-oppositions-asks-un-protestion-410560

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Over 100 dead in Syria clashes

At least 102 people were killed Friday in clashes across Syria. For the first time since the anti-regime protests started in mid-March 2011, at least 12 people were killed in riots in Aleppo, Syria's second largest city.

Among the dead were also women and children, said activists.

 

However, most of the dead were reported in the cities of Hama and Homs. 

Syria
� 2012 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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Source: http://www.albawaba.com/news/first-time-deadly-clashes-syria-second-largest-city-410501

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Burnt body found in a three -wheeler

�Police has found a burnt body of a 61 year old person inside a three-wheeler in Kiththampahuwa area in Wallampitiya today (Janurary 28), Police Spokesperson said.

Police went to the seen following a complaint made to the emergency unit -119.�
Further investigations are being conducted by the Wellampitiya police.�

Source: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15244:burnt-body-found-in-a-three-wheeler-&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=547

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Person of the Year

page1a191PHILIPSBURG--2011 on St. Maarten was perhaps most characterised by a number of large-scale infrastructural works taking place practically at the same time, which severely hampered traffic in Middle Region, Dutch Quarter, the Cul-de-Sac area, Sucker Garden and Philipsburg, but particularly in Cole Bay.

It was later explained that several projects had to be executed in 2011 because they involved European funding that would otherwise expire. The reality is also that the complaints regarding drainage and sewage in the districts concerned were long-standing and certainly justified, so that clearly something needed to be done.

The story is not over either, as the jobs in Middle Region and Dutch Quarter are yet to be completed, while Welfare Road still requires a finishing touch and there continues to be an issue with the work done on L.B. Scot Road for the Ebenezer sewage line.

One-way

When the Welfare Road driving lane in the direction of Simpson Bay was first closed from the Kruythoff roundabout to accommodate the project, it immediately led to long lines, especially in the early evening rush hour going back over both Cole Bay Hill and Cake House Road. It was quickly decided to use a tactic employed earlier while working in that area by making Union Road one-way in the direction of Marigot from the roundabout to the Tackling gas station, and Orange Grove Road one-way in the direction of Simpson Bay.

While this did alleviate the late afternoon congestion coming from the greater Philipsburg area, it turned out to be a disaster for vehicles heading the other way. There were lines backed up all the way to the fence of Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) during the entire day, also because cars coming from Marigot and the Union Road section of Cole Bay heading over the hill were now forced to go through Orange Grove and join those coming from Simpson Bay at Tropicana Casino.

Frustration

That led to a lot of frustration, because many of them were using the vacant left lane to cut ahead, knowing full-well they would still have to merge in front of Daily Extra, while the motorists already in line could only sit and watch. Efforts were made to better regulate the flow, but it remained an undesirable situation, also considering that the major resorts and airport are in that area, so that many visitors ended up spending a considerable part of their vacation stuck in traffic.

It was the St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA) which sounded the alarm bell because of the effect on tourism and the negative word-of-mouth and online publicity going into a new season. SHTA reasoned that vehicles coming from Marigot to Philipsburg should not be sent through Orange Grove and the Welfare Road construction site, because they had no reason to be there in the first place and it would be better to allow them to continue directly on Union Road to the Kruythoff roundabout and over the hill.

Relief

The latter required making the entire Union Road two-way again, which authorities agreed to do after some hesitation. The move certainly relieved traffic congestion in the Simpson Bay area as intended, but it also led to long lines again, especially during the evening rush hour coming from the greater Philipsburg area in the opposite direction over Cole Bay Hill and Cake House Road.

This "lesser of two evils" scenario was maintained until the work stopped in the second week of December and thus ahead of the busy holiday period. The top-layer of asphalt was not laid, however, because of a recurring problem with running sewage water coming from buildings in the area that authorities are now seeking to tackle, because it will continue to erode the road.

Because of this, the manholes for the drainage were sticking out of the surface and the contractor had to create some small "asphalt hills" around them to protect both the covers and people's tires. In that sense driving over the renewed road is still not the smooth experience one would have expected it to be.

Street flooding and running sewage in some cases were the biggest issues at most of the other projects, such as those in Dutch Quarter and Middle Region, in addition to the inconvenience of living in a construction zone. Residents and business in all the affected areas no doubt had to put up with a lot.

Credit

But what most people will no doubt remember best is being stuck in traffic basically on a daily basis for months on end. It led to some interesting initiatives, like walking or biking to work, suggestions on how to pass the time in the car or even get out for a quick bite or drink while waiting.

On a whole, though, it was hardly a pleasant experience for most, so the motorists who under these circumstances managed to keep their cool, continued to obey traffic rules and remained courteous to other road users at all times deserve credit. They obviously know who they are and taking in account also how hard it must have been at times to tolerate others displaying their worst behaviour, The Daily Herald's 2011 Person of the Year is the true "Friendly Island" motorist.

Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/23924-person-of-the-year.html

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