Turks & Caicos Weekly News

Weekly News Former NIB Volume 26 | No. 14 | April 7 - 13, 2012

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New budget targets $170M revenue base THE new budget is targeting a $170M revenue base, as the economy works towards achieving a surplus, according to Governor Ric Todd.

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Chair tells all – Government actions greatest level of interference ever seen IN an exclusive interview with the Weekly News, former chair of the National Insurance Board (NIB), Ervine Quelch, tells all.

Greater selfdetermination for the TCI

RETIRED politician Daniel Malcolm stressed this week that greater self-determination will bode well for the islands.

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New NIB chair endorsed by Quelch

THE National Insurance Board (NIB) is now under new leadership, with the appointment of chair Lillian Missick.

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Tots get ready for Easter THE National Trust’s first kitemaking workshop for children aged six to 12-yearsold let the tots get creative and design their own colourful kites under the guidance of volunteers.

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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

April 7 - 13, 2012

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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

NATIONAL

New budget targets $170M revenue base

By Vanessa Narine

THE new budget is targeting a $170M revenue base, as the economy works towards achieving a surplus, according to Governor Ric Todd.

Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, he noted that the priorities for expenditures in the new financial year are schools, employment and key capital and infrastructure works.

Governor Todd stated that the Caicos Causeway project is one of the main capital and infrastructure works that will be undertaken and added that it is still too early to say what steps will be taken to improve the employment situation.

However, he noted that building the economy to create employment and enabling locals with the skills to compete for those posts will be a key feature in future endeavours.

According to him, repairs to existing educational structures, as well as possible new structures in the education sector will also be looked at.

Todd noted that the state of the economy at present has forced reprioritising and the government will be focusing on schools, more than the granting of scholarships.

The Governor acknowledged the need for not only expenditures on scholarships, but needs in other areas, and pointed to the fact that resources will be placed where most needed.

DIVERSIFICATION Governor Todd noted that the government will be looking at diversifying the local economy.

“Tourism will indeed grow the economy and create jobs, but we do not want to be a one-legged economy,” he said.

The Governor said there is scope for diversification in the areas of

financial services and agriculture, as well as expanding the TCI’s tourism products.

He pointed out that agriculture will not be a mainstay of the economy, but stressed that there is much potential, particularly in the family islands.

Todd added that the Agriculture Department will be responsible for rolling out initiatives and pointed out that the tourism sector has indicated their willingness to collaborate with local farmers to provide a market for produce.

“There is scope for cooperation,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that there will be challenges, as it relates to the demand by the tourism sector and the capacity farmers have for stability of supply.

The Governor said he remains optimistic that the economy can

important as the government moves forward with balancing the conflicting needs of the economy, where revenues are less than ideal.

“The revenues are less than what people ideally want to spend, the new budget will prioritise,” Todd said.

The Governor noted that currently the Permanent Secretaries are working on finalising their budgets.

The budget timetable is:

Governor Ric Todd

be diversified to improve the local economic situation.

He added that the input of the Advisory Council and the Consultative Forum are very

• March 13: Budget submissions from new permanent secretaries.

• March 26-30: Permanent secretaries and department heads finalise draft budget.

• April 19: Governor, CFO, PS Finance approve draft budget, submit to UK ministers.

• May 7: Draft budget submitted to Advisory Council, Consultative Forum.

• May 14: Advisory Council

approves budget.

• May 21: Consultative Forum approves budget.

• May 23: Governor approves budget.

The budget approval process was extended to accommodate both the demands of the five new Permanent Secretaries’ work to set up the new TCIG ministries, and the savings and changes made through the civil service Voluntary Severance Scheme.

Todd maintains that the economy is doing well and expressed optimism that there will be a fiscal surplus in the future.

Chief Financial Officer Hugh McGarel-Groves said, “The 2012/2013 budget presents an excellent opportunity for TCIG to continue its efforts to put TCIG’s public finances on track to achieve a fiscal surplus in the financial year ending March 2013.”

New NIB chair endorsed by Quelch – Lillian Missick is ‘delighted’ to accept role

By Vanessa Narine THE National Insurance Board (NIB) is now under new leadership, with the appointment of chair Lillian Missick.

Mrs Missick, who received the endorsement of former chair Ervine Quelch, has said that she will work in the best interests of the NIB and the TCI people.

She noted the challenges that face the organisation and maintained that work will be done to reach a sensible conclusion.

Mrs Missick said: “I am delighted to have been offered and to accept this responsible and important

Published by Turks & Caicos News Company Ltd. Cheshire House, Leeward Highway, Providenciales P.O. Box 52, Turks & Caicos Islands, BWI W. Blythe Duncanson – Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Faizool Deo – Sports Samantha Dash-Rigby – Court Cord Garrido-Lowe – Graphics/Production Editor Dilletha Lightbourne-Williams – Office Manager Email: (Advertising) tcnews@tciway.tc, (News) tcweeklynews@yahoo.com, tcweeklynews@gmail.com (Talk Back) tcweeklynews@gmail.com Tel. 649-946-4664 (office), 649-232-3508 (after hours) Website address: www.tcweeklynews.com

position.

“I am looking forward to meeting the board and staff, and to working with them.

“I know that the NIB has some challenges to resolve, some of which have become controversial in recent months.

“I want to work hard to bring these to a sensible conclusion quickly for the good of all the NIB’s contributors and beneficiaries, as well as taxpayers and the people of the TCI. “Above all, I want to help the NIB to fulfil its potential as an exemplary public body in the TCI and in the region.”

CAPABLE Former chair of the NIB Ervine Quelch told the Weekly News that he was confident in Mrs Missick’s capabilities.

“I have every confidence that her capabilities will see her doing the right and proper thing by the contributors of the plan,” he said.

He added that she joins a team that has prudently managed the affairs of the board in the interest of the contributors.

“Mrs Missick herself is a contributor to the plan and I do not doubt her abilities or commitment,” Mr Quelch said.

He said he was not concerned that this appointment may sway the board’s position on the transfer of the controversial $10m from the NIB to the Turks and Caicos Islands Government (NIB).

The former chairman pointed out that the new chair is only one vote on a board of several others.

Governor Ric Todd contends that the $10m is owed to the TCIG and the calculations made to arrive at that sum were transparent and done by experts - a position the NIB has challenged in TCI’s courts.

The last word on the matter was that the NIB and the interim administration sorted out administration issues in court as it relates to the moving forward with the case to stop the transfer of the $10m to government’s coffers.

Mr Quelch stated that in accordance with the regulations of proper corporate governance, any decision taken must be done so with the consensus of all the directors.

“The other directors that are serving on the board, I have found, are independent thinkers and are thorough and fair in the discharge of their duties,” he said.

One of the directors Floyd Seymour also spoke to the Weekly News and stressed that the speculations over what contributions the new chair would make should not be made.

Mr Seymour not only serves as director of the board, but is on the budget, finance and investment subcommittees as well.

He maintained that the speculation that the transfer of $10m will be made possible under Mrs Missick’s leadership is unfounded.

“This premature speculation is

New NIB boss Lillian Missick

unfounded. She (Missick) has a vested interest in the NIB, since she too is a contributor,” Mr Seymour said.

He stressed that Mrs Missick should be given a chance to serve, rather than be assailed with unfounded criticisms.

Speaking of the appointment, TCIG’s CEO, Patrick Boyle said: “I am very pleased to confirm that Lillian Misick will be the new Chair of the NIB. “She is a well-respected figure in the Turks and Caicos Islands and has repeatedly demonstrated her commitment to the islands, in particular through her work on the Consultative Forum, which she will continue to chair.

“I have no doubt that Ms Misick’s considerable strength, energy and enthusiasm will make her an effective chair of the NIB. “On behalf of the Governor Ric Todd I would like to thank Ms Misick for agreeing to lead the NIB over her coming five year appointment.”

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

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NATIONAL

Former NIB Chair tells all – Government actions greatest level of interference ever seen

By Vanessa Narine IN an exclusive interview with the Weekly News, former chair of the National Insurance Board (NIB), Ervine Quelch, tells all.

And he describes the actions of the Interim Administration as the greatest level of interference seen in his years in public service.

“In all my years serving with public statutory bodies, this is the greatest level of government interference that I have seen…some of it has been constructive, but, by and large, such interference has been destructive,” Quelch said.

The former chair pointed to the most recent action by the Interim Administration to force the transfer of $10M to government coffers, which the Administration insists is owed by the NIB. “This is a dishonest ploy by the Interim Administration to say that the NIB owes it money…what we are saying is that if we owe, show us how we owe that money and we will pay it…if it is that the government needs funds then we have offered alternatives that are commercially justifiable,” he said.

Quelch noted that the commercially justifiable path, which

serves the interest of its stakeholders, would have seen the NIB investing the monies needed with the government.

He stressed that the move to compulsorily acquire property of the NIB is contrary to the provisions made in Section 16 of the Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution.

“It is ironic because they say we owe them monies so they pass a law to get it and when we were owed millions by the government, the Amnesty was passed to write off their debt to us,” Quelch said.

BAD FAITH The former chair pointed out that the amnesty effectively wrote off $11.8M in government debt.

“This was an absolute show of bad faith,” Quelch said.

Governor Ric Todd granted amnesty to the TCIG and hundreds of businesses and people who owed penalties for not making their mandatory contributions to the National Insurance Board on time for their employees.

However, Quelch noted that the collection from the businesses and average citizens amounted to a sum less that $4M. He stressed that in total the NIB

TCI attracting increasing number of investors Governor Ric Todd said the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) is attracting an increasing number of investors, a result of an improving economy and transparent processes insisted on by the Administration.

“We have a number of expressions of interest by developers,” he said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

However, he stressed that TCI’s improving economy is not only attracting foreign investors, but local investors also.

Todd pointed to the $8.5M capital expenditure expected to be spent by Digicel this year, a sum that is equivalent to what the telecommunications company

spent on launching Digicel in the TCI. While unable to outline the details of this investment, the company’s CEO, E. Jay Saunders, said only that Digicel has an exciting future in the TCI. Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Hugh McGarel-Groves, on revealing the latest picture of the state of the nation’s public finances, when he released the breakdown of the nation’s finances for the third quarter of financial year 2011/12, said the measures the Interim Administration has introduced are having an effect on the economy.

lost $15M to the amnesty.

Quelch said, “The NIB lost not only $15M, but we lost an opportunity to invest that money. We lost what could have been a return on investing that money…this is revenue we could have used to grow the fund.”

According to him, the NIB has had to deal with a ‘my way or the highway’ approach by the Interim Administration, as opposed to compromise and sensible reconciliation.

“Moving forward, the NIB has challenging times to face and the directors have their work cut out for them, but the management team is a very competent group of professionals who will move forward in the best interest of the contributors,” Quelch said.

The former chair made it clear that, up to the end of March, the operations of the NIB were sound and unmatched by any other local statutory body.

“I can say this without fear of being contradicted,” he said, “The NIB’s performance is unmatched. It is on sound footing.”

He expressed confidence that the NIB will continue to grow.

“The NIB is staffed by competent TC Islanders who are sufficiently qualified for the posts they hold,” Quelch said.

FOCUS According to him, the focus now has to be on rebalancing the organization’s investment portfolio to be in line with its investment policy statement, in order to meet its objectives.

“Rebalancing the portfolio is a work in progress. Unfortunately when we took over in 2007 the world economy started to show signs of instability and we had inherited an NIB that had 80 per cent of its investments were abroad,” Quelch said.

He noted that if recoveries were not made, NIB would have lost 45 per cent of its investment on the world market.

“Thankfully at the end of the day we were able to ensure we had secured investments,” Quelch said.

The former chair noted that the challenge now is to operate in a volatile market, while trying to grow

Former NIB chair Ervine Quelch, made it clear that, up to the end of March, the operations of the NIB were sound and unmatched by any other local statutory body

the fund.

Quelch said, as at the end of March NIB’s investment portfolio was $160M, with $40M invested locally.

He stressed that the organization’s investments are now guided by the highest level of prudent management.

“The challenge we have is to balance our investments so we do not overexpose ourselves to risk and at the same time grow the fund,” Quelch said.

PROGRESS He maintains that the NIB has made significant strides and the competent staff ought to be proud of its progress.

The former chair pointed out that at the start of his term in 2007 there were several operational and strategic problems that needed to be addressed, including the need for a cohesive management structure, the significant number of delinquent contributors, government’s arrears and the management of the Board’s investment in TCI Bank.

NIB’s equity investment was lost when TCI Bank collapsed, according to him, and the organization is now finalizing the return of its secured loan facility with the bank’s liquidators.

“We have seen progress…we were able to bring our financial accounting and reports to a current position and we developed a strategic plan to guide the NIB’s advance, as well as complete our tri-annual actuarial review,” Quelch said.

The former chair added that the NIB managed to escape the global financial crisis unscathed.

He said, “It was never a one man show. We acted as a team and I worked with an exceptionally committed group of people…we had significant issues to deal with, but we moved forward, knocking them down one by one.”

Asked if he could rethink a decision made during his five-year

tenure, Quelch said it would be the TCI Bank matter.

“We were at a point where we were damned if we did and damned if we didn’t…if we had been more aggressive and pushed for liquidation that would not have gone down well and so we invested, but the Bank collapsed in the end,” Quelch said.

The former chair noted that this was the only measure of disappointment he faced in his years as chair of the NIB. However, he stressed that overall the organization has performed well, particularly given the challenges in the last few years.

EXEMPLARY The recently appointed chair of the NIB, Lillian Missick, has said she will work to ensure that the NIB fulfills its potential as an exemplary public body.

However, Quelch, stating his highest regard for the new chair, said Missick is not in a position to determine that the NIB is not already an exemplary body.

“This is an unfair assessment to place on the doorsteps of the NIB staff, whose commitment is commendable…Ms. Missick should wait until she has had hands on experience with the NIB before saying that it is not already an exemplary public body,” he said.

Quelch stressed categorically that the NIB is indeed an exemplary public body, its performance unmatched by any other public statutory institution in the TCI. “The NIB is run by humans and given that there will be challenges and some issues could have possibly been addressed differently, but I can say categorically that the NIB is an exemplary public service body,” he said.

Quelch maintained that the continued dedication of the staff and prudent management by the organization’s leaders will ensure the NIB’s future success.

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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

A Weekly News column that puts you on the spot for your opinions on the issues of the day

More info on electoral candidates Elections are forecast for the year and electoral reform is in the news.

Many voters will vote for the first time and many will try to be careful in casting their votes this year for at large candidates.

In evaluating the candidates would it be helpful if each candidate was required to publish a resume?

Education, employment history, status and reasons for changing employment career accomplishments and marital status, number of children, dependants etc.

If the candidates have to file financial declarations, why not have this requirement to assist the voters in making their selection?

Good idea

Sounds like a good idea to me, since everyone is so concerned about transparency these days.

Imperative

I think it is imperative that all voters know the candidates in terms of their accomplishments and success stories.

For too long politicians have been hiding behind other people, events and circumstances to gain the confidence of voters.

I think publishing a resume is a great idea but it can also be misleading.

I have seen some impressive resumes but when the individuals started talking and working, it was nothing like their resume suggested.

Their performances were awful.

On the other hand, I have seen some less than impressive resumes but the individuals performed really well. Therefore, resumes alone do not help.

People also misrepresent information on their resumes.

I recommend that in addition to a resume, each candidate should go through an interview process on national television and eventually a debate with their opponents.

In addition, they not only need to provide examples of what they did, they need to show the evidence of what was accomplished.

I do hope that some thought is given into this and the voters seriously vote for the best candidate and not vote solely on partisan politics.

After all, there is no difference between the parties except personalities.

New order

Why not? We need to have a new order in the way we do things.

I totally agree that any and all candidates should be expected to lay bare everything that the public may deem necessary to know about them as a public servant.

If we had such a requirement in place prior to 2003 we definitely would not be in the place we are today.

Very often these politicians refuse to be answerable to the voters once they have been elected and soon forget that they are the employee and not the employer.

They all should be treated just like they are

applying for a job with any company.

If these criteria are implemented we may find many persons changing their minds about serving in public office.

Let us bring it on - accountability and transparency should be the order of the day going forward for anyone wishing to serve as a politician.

Logical voting

We must apply logic to our voting selections this time. This is sorely needed.

If we as voters are to evaluate candidates this is the minimum information we need.

The permanent secretaries in the civil service had to submit their resumes to the British advisers.

We as voters need nothing less than as much information and more to select the country’s leaders.

Does having a restaurant or running liquor store qualify one to lead the country?

How about a civil servant with a civil service background? He may be slightly better qualified but has he ever had to make ends meet in a business situation.

Has he or she ever had to make a business plan and work at it?

Government is a monopoly and automatically collects taxes. Give me a purchasing agent who has a history of saving his firm’s money over a lawyer who breaks the law or works for a tainted developer.

Give us a leader who can expand the economy and lower our taxes. We have had enough of civil servants and corrupt ministers who believe in tax, tax and more tax.

Education is important but so is experience.

Experience in government is helpful but not enough to qualify anyone.

I assume the editor of this newspaper has high qualifications because he runs a business that has worked.

He has experience in hiring and firing, The results speak for themselves.

Another newspaper did not even pay their NIB dues. Another keeps switching editors and attracts few advertisements.

This is telling.

I would pick an experienced architect who wanted a district seat over a law clerk who wants to be premier.

We must exclude those who have a police record. Being excused from public service for sexual embarrassment or child abuse is shameful.

We must also exclude those who used their government positions for self-enrichment.

We must be suspicious of people with a vocation, religious or medical, who move towards politics.

What happened to their oaths and vocation?

The problems the next government faces must be addressed by the voters and the decisions the voters make this time must be based on selecting the people with the right qualifications.

Let us print each candidates resumes in this paper so we can ask the right questions when they speak.

Let us hope we see some debates on TV this time because that will also help us to see who has a vision for solving our problems.

Not necessary

All that information in not necessary.

When they put forth their biography they are supposed to highlight certain things, but I do not need to know how much time they married, how much children they have.

What is important is that they provide in writing the reasons why they are qualified to hold a post if elected.

Education and career history is necessary and please no one over 55 years of age.

We need some fresh young candidates in there.

Scrutiny a must

The electorate did not fully know the true character of the elected in 2003, the candidates were not subjected to this kind of scrutiny and the wrong people were elected.

Let us just hope the elections in the TCI are successful in electing true representatives of the people and not just puppets of developers who simply want to feather their nests.

It would be good if candidates could publish a resume showing education, employment history, status and reasons for changing employment career accomplishments and marital status, number of children, dependents etc.

Career accomplishments are good because accomplished people can make sound decisions and not be manipulated by others for short term gains.

A man or woman coming from a good marriage is also helpful because it shows stability and honesty on the surface.

The concerns of the electorate in whether we will be sold out again to fat cats in London are huge and genuine.

Imagine a people paying three and four times to a health care scam all because the Labour government saw fit to bless it.

They got the bad money in and we have Interheatlth Canada and NHIP. It is time for this country to look for true leaders who have no personal agenda, ones who can truly represent the people so that the country can move on.

The huge donations that the public saw coming out of the public hearings of the Commission of Inquiry were huge and startling but explain why the TCI is in the state it is in today.

The country and the people were sold out.

If the new campaign finance laws will help the public control the parties, control the government and keep bad money out, then the

TCI really has a future.

Politics with educated minds

Having aspiring leaders present their qualifications to the people is necessary if we are to have a play of politics with educated minds, to give the Turks and Caicos Islands a chance at real and sustainable development.

The candidates who have been expressing interest in running for office, overtly or otherwise, give a clear indication of why this is needed.

For a country that is looking to make substantial advances, the people of TCI need leaders who are qualified to lead, people whose qualifications would have seen them serving as professionals in their respective fields.

One would hope that their professionalism would bode well for their service in politics rather than giving us shameless politicians with aimless commitments and baseless arguments.

This week as a well-known member of the PDM was on air expounding on certain current issues, an objective person could clearly see that there was much lacking in the arguments and comments put forward.

In the TCI there has been the calamitous trend of anyone with a big enough mouth deciding to run for office.

Granted there is no standard entry route to become a politician.

A commitment to a political party, campaigning experience, knowledge of the relevant party at local and national level, and a background within the party are all important when it comes to gaining the support of local members.

But education must be a primary pillar for people who want to lead this country.

Across the Caribbean region most politicians have good CXCs and/or A Level grades, as well as a degree, and these countries have made steady advances, albeit for the one or two bad eggs that will be found regardless.

And if we look back where education has not played a vital role in politics in some countries in the world, there is clear evidence that those countries’ development have been affected.

If we want compete with other countries, first of all we need to have a power democracy to drive our country and a power democracy will be driven by qualified candidates of whatever political colour.

Scrutiny will also avoid having politicians who are highly educated but corrupted and will never serve this country well, but only think about personal gain.

The people of these islands have a right to know whom they are voting for, and the aspiring leaders should be mandated to open continued 

 Become a contributor Want to become a contributor or have a suggestion for a Talk Back topic for us? What questions do you think we should be putting to the public? And what are your thoughts on it?

Call our news team on 946 4664 or email tcweeklynews@gmail.com

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

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NATIONAL

Greater self-determination for the TCI – Daniel Malcolm talks frankly to the Weekly News

By Vanessa Narine RETIRED politician Daniel Malcolm stressed this week that greater self-determination will bode well for the islands.

In an interview with the Weekly News the former PNP leader said he is pursuing a more diplomatic approach to supporting change in the TCI. “Self-determination is where the government and the people of TCI, and other territories like us, make advances toward greater political, social and cultural determination or stay within the framework of their own situation.”

Mr Malcolm has recently been invited to join the special committee of experts with regard to the implementation of the ‘Declaration on the Granting of Independence of Colonial Countries and Peoples’.

This endeavour is supported by the Decolonization Unit of the Department of Political Affairs, which is part of the United Nations (UN) Secretariat.

It includes monitoring the implementation of the declaration, hearing statements from the nonself-governing territories, organising

continued 

themselves up for public scrutiny if they aspire for high offices.

TCI needs politicians who are qualified to take the country forward, serious professionals who take seriously their responsibility to build the nation.

Set a standard In my view there should be a minimum qualification to enter politics - the politicians are the ones who can act like a brain for the country.

Even for basic jobs the companies are checking if the candidate has knowledge and capabilities to perform his responsibilities.

But when it comes to a person who represents the country/state/constituency and in a position to plan, take reasonable and intelligent decisions it is mandatory to have educational qualifications.

The basic criteria for candidates to enter ministries and positions of finance/ chemical/IT/health etc, should be to have knowledge and qualifications in that specific domain.

an annual regional seminar and making recommendations regarding the dissemination of information on the decolonisation process.

TOO YOUNG Mr Malcolm stressed that the Turks and Caicos Islands are much too young for independence, but noted that achieving a measure of selfdetermination is a move in the right direction.

“We are at least ten years away from being ready for independence.

We must develop our country and our people so that when we move to independence we will do so from a position of strength,” he said.

Mr Malcolm added that TCI must prepare for that eventuality down the road.

He said: “TCI has had 300 years travelling the same road and the present situation is untenable. We have to move to where we should be and that is a greater measure of selfdetermination.”

In May Mr Malcolm is to attend

the 2012 Pacific Regional Seminar on Decolonisation, which is expected to be held in Quito, Ecuador.

At the three-day session he will be presenting a brief paper focused on implementing the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2011-2020) in specific non-self-governing territories.

“I will be hosting a prayer breakfast on April 14 for the members of the two political parties and a few from outside that circle.

“Going to this meeting I want to be able to take with me the views of my fellow countrymen,” Mr Malcolm said.

The sit-down with TCI’s leaders is expected to be held at the Regent Palms.

Mr Malcolm made it clear that it is important, in moving forward, to do so with consensus from all stakeholders.

OPTIONS “The ultimate goal of decolonisation is independence but there are other

Impressive progress on milestones - Governor Todd GOVERNOR Ric Todd maintains that in the last three months the interim administration has made significant progress in meeting the milestones - a positive indication that elections will be held this year.

“I feel that things are going very well in a number of respects,” Mr Todd said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

The milestones are: -Implementation of a new TCI Constitution Order, in support of recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry, which underpins good governance and sound public financial management.

-Introduction of a number of new ordinances, including those making provision for: i) the electoral process and regulation of political parties, ii) integrity and accountability in public life and iii) public financial management.

-Establishment of robust and transparent public financial management processes to provide a stable economic environment and a strengthening of the TCI Government’s capacity to manage its public finances.

-Implementation of budget measures to put the TCI Government on track to achieve a fiscal surplus in the financial year ending March 2013.

-Implementation of a transparent and fair process for acquisition of Turks and Caicos Islander status.

-Significant progress with the civil and criminal process recommended by the Commission of Inquiry, and implementation of measures to

Governor Ric Todd

enable these to continue unimpeded.

-Implementation of a new Crown land policy.

-Substantial progress in the reform of the public service.

Governor Todd noted that recently milestone three has been addressed by the passage of the new Public Financial Management (PFM) and National Audit Office (NAO) Bills.

Milestone seven, he said also, has been met with Sunday’s passage of the Crown Land Bill, and allows for transparent allocation of Crown land.

“I am pleased with the passage of the recent bills,” Mr Todd said, “I am determined to meet the milestones and we are making a lot of progress.”

The Governor maintains that once the milestones have been met the British ministers will set a date for elections and the TCI will be able to return to democratic rule.

He noted that apart from the milestones, there are several other indicators of progress in the country.

Governor Todd also pointed out that the unemployment numbers are down, the economy is improving and the tourist arrivals are up.

Mr Malcolm pointed out that the Bermuda example is one option that can be looked at in the decolonisation process.

options that can be looked at on that road,” he said.

Mr Malcolm pointed out that the Bermuda example is one option that can be looked at in the decolonisation process.

Bermuda is a self-governing British overseas territory in the western North Atlantic Ocean.

The original system of government was created under the Virginia Company, which colonised Bermuda, accidentally in 1609, and deliberately from 1612.

The country’s 1968 Constitution provided the island with formal responsibility for internal selfgovernment, while the British Government retained responsibility for external affairs, defence, and security.

The Bermudian Government is

always consulted on any international negotiations affecting the territory.

Legislative power is vested in both the government and the parliament.

Sir David Gibbons KBE is the former Premier of Bermuda and in June last year, when asked if he thought there might be an independent Bermuda at some point, he said no.

“No, because the last time they had a referendum, 73 per cent of Bermudians voted against independence.

“I have been involved with government for many years, and absolutely oppose it, because you have enormous advantages — you have completely free coverage as far as defence is concerned, as far as the British government,” he told the Caribbean Journal then.

Mr Malcolm also pointed to integration and the French system of having overseas departments, as is the case with Martinique.

“My role with the special committee will be suggesting and discussing options for the TCI,” he said.

According to him, once the islands realize a certain measure of self-determination, the territory will be better placed to make that ultimate step towards Independence.

‘The Decolonisation Committee has played a pivotal role in the move to independence for many countries,” Mr Malcolm stressed.

He maintains that the road ahead is a long one, but with the right expertise and strategic moves, the TCI will be in a position of strength when the time comes for it to take its place as a nation independent of the United Kingdom.

Crown Land Bill comes into effect ALLOCATION of Crown land will be more transparent thanks to a new bill which was passed into law on Sunday.

The Crown Land Bill, one of the main recommendations of the 2009 Auld report, was signed by Acting Governor Patrick Boyle.

It is another element of the milestones that will lead to the return of democratically elected government in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Mr Boyle said: “The passing into law of this Crown Land Bill marks the culmination of a huge amount of work over the past few years.

“I am confident that the new law provides the necessary controls and transparency to ensure that the Crown Land assets are managed in a proper manner in the future.”

The signing of the Crown Land Bill means that another of the milestones set out by UK Ministers in the Written

Ministerial Statement of December 9, 2010, has now been completed.

It moves the Turks and Caicos Islands one step closer to elections and the return of an elected administration.

It was also required to be signed into law by the European Union before March 31 this year in order for the TCI to continue to qualify for development funds under EDF9.

Work on the new Crown Land Bill has been going on for two and a half years and is the result of extensive public consultations across the islands, detailed debates with both the Advisory Council and the Consultative Forum, and input from experts in the field.

The bill follows the Crown Land Policy adopted in August 2012 and provides the legal framework for the future management of the TCI’s Crown land assets.

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April 7 - 13, 2012

NATIONAL

TCI’s dumps and the dump dwellers – The other side of the coin

By Vanessa Narine THE new solid waste management contract, inked last week, will see massive works done on the dumps in Provo and Grand Turk – a move that brings another problem under the spotlight, the number of dump dwellers, illegals, residing in shacks near the dumps.

Tackling this problem, according to Chief Executive of the Turks and Caicos Islands Government (TCIG), Mr. Patrick Boyle, will require a multi-organizational response.

“In tackling this issue there must be an inter-agency approach, which is the best way to resolve this problem,” he said.

Earlier in March, the many people living on the Providenciales landfill

property were warned to leave or be removed by force.

The Environmental Health Department, who issued the warning, said, “It is the Turks and Caicos Islands government’s intention to ensure that all persons so residing at the waste disposal sites be removed and that all unauthorized access to the site is restricted.”

The Department acknowledged the many health problems to locals, as well as the dump dwellers themselves, largely due to the regular toxic smoke plumes seen form the site, because of the illegal residents burning tires and wire to recover copper to sell for scrap.

The ugly black plumes of smoke also leave a distasteful memory in the mind of tourists who are greeted

Lobster season extended As acting governor, Mr. Patrick Boyle has made the a few amendments to the fisheries policy, extending lobster season for an extra month.

The new close season date is April 30th and the season will be reopened on the 1st August 2012.

The new law states that: 1. This Order may be cited as the Fisheries Protection (Lobster) Close Season Order 2012 and comes into operation on 30th

April 2012.

2. The close season in relation to crawfish, for the current year, shall be the period from the thirtieth day of April to the thirtyfirst day July 2012 (inclusive).

Therefore, the lobster season has now been As of 30 April 2012 the season will be closed and any person found with lobsters after this date will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

ID card registration starts soon A REGISTRATION timetable for the new Belonger card has been released with the first batch to take place next week.

The ID card will allow citizens to confirm their status as well as vote in the upcoming general elections.

According to the Ministry of Border Control and Labour and the Elections Office, registration will commence on Monday, April 16.

A number of documents have been prepared for the benefit of the general public which will also be available online at www.gov.tc They include the schedule and venues for registration throughout the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Also available are charts to assist with determining whether a person has attained Belonger

status under past and/or present legislation via birth, descent, residence, naturalisation or adoption.

Residents can also find an application form for verification and issuance of the Belonger/TCI Status Card and a list of required documents, and an application form for registration as an elector in the upcoming elections.

For more details on Belonger status verification and card call the Ministry of Border Control and Labour on 946-2801 ext 81514 or 40711 or email belongerstatus@gov.tc For more information on registration as an elector call the elections office on 946-2801 ext 11701/2 or email dllewis@gov. tc or dudds2010_louie@hotmail. com

by the sight as they make a landing approach to the airport.

Boyle noted that this is a major concern, but maintained that the signing of the contract with TCEM is the start of addressing this problem.

“There are plans afoot to address this,” the CEO said.

POOREST OF THE POOR Looking at the other side of the coin, one would see that the people living at the dumps are among the poorest of the poor.

TCEM President, Mr. Timothy Hodge, in speaking with the Weekly News, recalled that during one visit to the dump he witnessed a young boy retrieve a fish from garbage – a clear indication of the poverty the people live in.

“We see how dangerous this is because that fish was clearly dinner for whatever family he was from,” Hodge said.

It is the poorest of the poor families live on the edge of the city’s garbage dump, a fact that the TCIG’s CEO is not blind to.

He acknowledged that these are disadvantaged people, but stressed that they are illegals nonetheless.

Human Rights Commissioner Doreen-Quelch-Misick-Stubbs has taken a more sympathetic view to the plight of the dump dwellers, noting that while these people are in the TCI illegally, they came here to better their lives and their human rights must be respected.

Some have criticized her for her sympathetic stance, but in a recent interview with the media, she

A view of the Provo dumpsite

maintained that prosecution should be the final resort.

According to her, an estimated 60 families reside near the dumps.

“My biggest fear is that if this (the removal by force) continues they will be rendered homeless, where are they going to go and live,” she said.

The Human Rights Commissioner admitted that human rights do come with responsibilities and everyone must abide by the law, however she contends that this is a sensitive matter.

She pointed to the need for more social housing, another point many critics have taken affront to since they consider that to mean that local taxpayers will be paying to house illegal immigrants here.

However, the Human Rights Commissioner said, “I 100 per cent support it (social housing).”

She noted the need for more public awareness and the need to empower people.

The line here is a thin one and many have been quick to cast their judgments, but the plight of the dump dwellers cannot be ignored – their depressed situations must be taken into account, since for many their only crime is wanting better lives for themselves and their families.

A resolution may be some way off, but the approach by TCIG’s CEO, a multi-organizational approach, seems to be the best way forward so far.

Caicos Causeway repairs to start in June BIDS for the repair and maintenance of the Caicos Causeway were issued to prospective local contractors this week.

During a press briefing on Wednesday Governor Ric Todd said that repairs are a major priority and infrastructural work is being catered for in the 2012-2013 budget.

Following his second visit to North and Middle Caicos earlier this year Mr Todd had expressed his commitment to hastening the repair of the causeway.

During that visit residents raised the prospect of some improvement works being made in advance of this year’s hurricane season.

“Clearly the damage sustained by the causeway during hurricane Ike

will require additional future works, including establishing a proper repair and maintenance programme.

“But this is an important and significant beginning to helping improve the lives of local people, businesses and the visitor experience when travelling between North and Middle Caicos too,” he said.

Tenders are being invited for a four-month contract which will see several improvements being made to the Caicos Causeway that was extensively damaged during hurricanes Hanna and Ike in 2008.

These works include clearing concrete debris from causeway side slopes, reinstalling rock armouring to causeway side-slopes, repairs to the approach ramp to bridge deck,

construction of a 30ft wide concrete box culver, filling and grading of roadway to 6ft above the low water mark and installation of four solar powered street lights.

Contractors will also be expected to remove Casuarinas and plant vegetation (mangroves) to stabilise the side slopes of the causeway and carefully remove limestone fill and exposed damaged geo-textile waterproof membrane (which protects the Causeway’s foundations).

Governor Todd said: “As the financial situation of the TCI Government continues to improve, we can continue the process of better prioritising government expenditure in line with the people’s expectations.”

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

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NATIONAL

Civil service pension changes implemented A SERIES of proposed improvements and amendments to the non-contributory government pension scheme are now in place.

Changes include provisions to improve civil servants’ long-term pensions and to reduce the burden on TCI taxpayers over the next five years.

The government has also agreed to consider non-pension related gratuities as part of its wider reform of pay and grading.

Governor Ric Todd implemented the changes, effective April 1, following discussions with the Civil Service Association (CSA), Advisory Council and Consultative Forum.

According to Mr Todd the changes are not only designed to ensure a fairer pension system but also to remove incorrect payments.

The changes to retirement include the increase in retirement age from

55 to 60-years-old.

A phased elimination of gratuities for those who retire over the next five years will also be put in place.

The elimination of gratuities will ensure that those retiring have continued access to the maximum monthly pension payments available.

It will also reduce the cost to TCI taxpayers of $3m over the next five years by scaling back the need for upfront one-off payments that have an impact of the overall annual budget.

The provision of death-in-service and post-retirement benefits to those employed after April 5, 1992, will be introduced.

These benefits were not previously available to those employed after that date.

An actuarially assessed temporary pension will also be introduced for this group.

It will be 75 per cent of the

pension they would have received had they been eligible under the Pensions Ordinance for a pension at 55-years-old, and 100 per cent from age 60.

It will not include the option to commute any sums into a gratuity and they will continue to receive this until they reach the age of 60 years when they will be eligible to access their NIB pension.

INCORRECT PAYMENTS In accordance with the new changes, there will be fairer administration for all current and retired civil servants.

This will see the removal of housing allowances from the calculation of pension benefits.

Housing allowances are designed to reimburse the short-term costs incurred by some civil servants who are obliged to move home for their job.

Also pension gratuity payments for female civil servants who stop

working when they marry will end.

This is an old provision designed to provide a one-off pension payment to women when they got married in anticipation that they would stop working to raise a family.

The benefit is out of date as many women clearly continue working after they get married and is discriminatory and unfair to male employees.

TCIG will identify where benefits have been paid in error and write these off.

However, retired civil servants employed after April 1992 who have been in receipt of $1.5m of unlawfully paid gratuities and pensions under the Pensions Ordinance will not be penalised.

TCIG maintains that where payments are due to administrative error they will be stopped if ongoing.

It is not considered appropriate to

recover these sums from pensioners as the recovery costs are larger than the amount outstanding.

In addition payment of pensions to civil servants reemployed by the government after they have retired will also end.

The 2011 pension review identified cases of civil servants who had been reemployed by TCIG after they had retired at 55-years-old and who were still collecting a pension.

The payment of their TCIG pension while they continue to be employed effectively doubles their income at a cost to the TCI taxpayer.

These amendments were recommended following a review of the non-contributory TCIG pension scheme carried out in 2011 and which was subject of actuarial advice.

The review found that administrative mistakes had resulted in payment errors at a $2m cost to TCI taxpayers.

& CrimeCourt

Wife apologises to supermarket after shoplifting to attract spouse’s attention

By Samantha Dash-Rigby A FRUSTRATED wife, who appeared in Providenciales Magistrates’ Court charged with theft, claimed that she resorted to criminal activities in a desperate attempt to recapture her cavorting husband’s attention.

“Guilty your honour, yes I am guilty,” Fernande Mervielle Kommalapate eagerly told Chief Magistrate Clifton Warner on Monday.

For the prosecution, Samantha Glinton told the court that on Monday, March 26, around 4.35pm, the accused entered the Graceway IGA supermarket with a young male, a baby and a trolley.

A security officer who was monitoring the security cameras saw when she entered the store.

The woman then walked away from the male, the baby and the trolley and headed to the frozen meat section.

There, she picked up some items and placed them into a black bag that she was carrying on her shoulder.

She then proceeded to the pet section, where she again put more items into her bag.

The shoplifter then rejoined the male and walked to the cashier where she paid for the items in the cart but not those in her bag.

As she was about to leave the store, the security guard approached and began to question her.

He then invited her to the security room where he could conduct a search of her bag, but Mrs Kommalapate attempted to escape.

She was caught by the guard and

taken to the office where her bag was searched.

Shrimps, ground beef, tomatoes, green beans and Gerber baby food totalling $39.94, were all found in the black bag.

“My husband make me do that,” the Haitian national stated.

She continued: “He loving. He does everything for me. In 2007, he get a job and he take care of me.”

She claimed that everything changed in 2008 when her husband, Sudarsanam Kommalapate began to cheat on her with Dominican women.

She had a car and houses and all her bills are paid but this was not enough to satisfy the young mother.

She wanted the love of her husband.

For years, they tried desperately to conceive without any success and after spending more than $20,000 in the United States in an effort to conceive, the couple finally gave birth to a baby four months ago.

However, after the baby’s birth her husband began to shun her intimately, call her bad names and tell her that she was no good.

Add post partum depression to the mix and she became stressed because of her hormones, Mrs Kommalapate told the magistrate.

“My husband was driving me crazy but I’m not crazy,” she insisted.

“I didn’t need to steal the items.

My credit card has a $10,000 limit and I could have swiped my card.

“I want my husband to pay attention to me. You need love. Not house, not car.”

That deep yearning led the woman to reason to herself to commit the crime so that her husband would notice her again.

“That was not the first time I steal from IGA,” the defendant admitted.

She revealed that she did it twice before but was not caught. This time she approached the cameras before placing the items in her bag because she wanted to be caught.

“I wanted to embarrass him and

now I am embarrassed too.”

Nevertheless, it was not all in vain. Mrs Kommalapate claimed that her husband has been supportive of her after that is now a very loving and attentive husband once again.

“You are a crazy woman,” Magistrate Warner insisted before

fining Mrs Kommalapate $800.

She was ordered to pay it in two months’ time or spend three months in jail.

The accused then turned to representatives of IGA supermarket who were sitting in the court and said: “I’m sorry you guys. I’m so sorry, sorry, sorry.”

Inspector Nigel Couch (far right) with his team of community police

Police force gets new vehicle THE TCI police force recently unveiled an all terrain vehicle, which was donated to them by the Zero Tolerance Committee, in conjunction with CrimeStoppers to further assist in the fight against crime.

Inspector Nigel Couch said that they

are pleased with the donation and that it will be used as a pro-active measure to patrol the Grace Bay beach.

He is confident that when wouldbe criminals see a constant police presence, they will think twice before committing any crime.

Several tourists on the beach however, said that they felt completely safe and see no need for the vehicle.

The vehicle is fully equipped with a first aid kit, a stethoscope, and other medical devices that could be used in event of an emergency.

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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

Frequently Asked Questions Changes to the National Health Insurance Plan Ordinance have brought about fruitful meetings and intriguing exchanges with stakeholders of the health care plan, nationwide. The executive team has compiled a list of the most Frequently Asked Questions, (FAQs) which have been addressed during these sessions and which offer an insight and clearer understanding of the changes and how they impact individuals, households and businesses.

In many households, there are two working parents. The NHIB has found parents want to know who is responsible for registering dependents as defined in the Ordinance. While the ultimate decision on which parent will do this is a personal one, we can confirm that only one parent has to register the dependants.

Answer: Only one parent has to register children/dependants. The form can be downloaded from the NHIB website, completed and presented with requisite documents to your employer who will begin deductions for up to three children/dependents per family.

Some people were uncertain about who falls into the category of dependant; we were happy to clarify this question.

Answer: A dependant is your child or children up to 18 years old, and can also be your child or children up to 25 years old who is enrolled full time in tertiary level educational facility, i.e., college. A dependant is also considered an individual whom you have adopted or have legal guardianship to who falls within the above described age perimeters and situations.

The new ordinance says that at least three dependants have to be paid for by a parent, but does this mean your other dependants are not covered in your health plan.

Answer: Once a parent is paying for at least three children/dependants per family, the remaining children/dependents will be covered by the plan. However, all children must be listed on the application in the registration process.

There were a myriad of questions coming from employers who want to better understand their role since the amendments. One FAQ is, “As an employer, am I obligated to also make a co-pay for my employees’ children?”

Answer: No, parents should pay the full amount of $10 each for their own children/ dependants. However, as an employer, you are obligated to make the deduction for payment to the NHIB. The issue of contributors who have multiple jobs is always a headlining issue at this scheduled

meetings at places of employment, therefore it was no surprise when the question popped up.

Question: What if I have a second or third job, do I also pay for my children/dependants again?

Answer: No, as the parent taking on the responsibility to pay, you are required to pay only once at your main employer.

We recognize, at NHIB, that there is always the potential for contributors to find ways to avoid meeting that monthly payment. However, we strongly advise against it and we encourage parents to take the responsibility to ensure children are protected by this generous and affordable health care plan. Remember, unregistered dependants will be charged the full costs of medical care and will not be able to access benefits which come only for contributors to the plan.

Other FAQs are…

Question: I have heard that there is a new minimum monthly contribution to the plan, is this true?

Answer: Yes, this is true. It is now expected that every worker in the country will make a minimum contribution of $50 share; $25 by the employer and $25 by employee.

Question: I am already paying NHIB at one job; do I still have to pay at the other?

Answer: Yes, contributions are due from all jobs that one may have. The contribution rate is 6% per month, shared with 3% by the Employer and 3% by the Employee paid up to an income ceiling of $7,800. The minimum contribution for NHIB is $50 per month. .

Question: What if I am on vacation and away from the TCI, do I still have to make NHIB payments?

Answer: Yes, as long as you remain employed in the Turks and Caicos, you are required to continue payments as usual. In you absence, these would come from your vacation pay.

Question: What happens if I do not register my children/dependants in time?

Answer: Due to the amendments in the ordinance; all children/dependants are required to be registered and a payment of $10 per dependent/child up to three per family is expected. Failing to register your children/ dependants will result in them being medically terminated from the NHIB plan. Parents are encouraged to register children/dependants

immediately.

In this challenging economic climate, there are always questions about how unemployment affects payment and access to the plan. We have found these query to be leading concerns.

Question: If my wife is not working will she be covered by my personal payments to the plan?

Answer: Yes you can pay, but there is a spousal rate for your unemployed wife of $25 per month. As long as you have registered your wife as your spouse, which means you are legally married, (as this rule does not apply to common law marriage) and are paying the requisite $25 per month… your wife, and any spouse (i.e., husband) is covered.

Question: What if I am terminated from job, would I still be covered and expected to pay NHIB? Answer: If you are terminated from your job,. there is provision for coverage to continue up to 90 days. However, one must file unemployment with the Labour Department and the NHIB. The NHIB gives you one month to make it aware of job termination in order for you to qualify.

The Turks and Caicos is also home to a robust ex-patriot labour force, so the NHIB has found many questions coming from the holders of work permits including what do I need to do to ensure I am registered with the NHIB? Answer: All contributing legal work permit holders are covered under the plan. NHIB also advises this category of employees to move quickly to renew work permits long before they expire; 90 days prior to expiration is stated in the ordinance. NHIB is required to only permit legal workers into the plan.

The leading question, which has actually giving the NHIB the opportunity to explain the changes and the plan to employers and their employees is whether we would come in to address concerns? The answer is a resounding, “Yes! The NHIB has been and is prepared to be guests at meetings with companies to spell out and respond to queries on the plan and the recent amendments.

In giving the FAQs and their answers, Zaneta Burton, CEO of the National Health Insurance Board said: “The NHIB is an important partnership between contributors, the government and the public and it will be around for a very long time. The funds contributed keep this private public partnership going and ensures there is quality, accessible, affordable health care for all.”

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

We welcome letters from all members of the public on a variety of topics.

Letter of the week

Open letter to the AG Dear AG Mr Huw Shepheard, I read the article on what you intended to do to the PNP office headquarters if the TCIG is not repaid $465.083.61 damages and return of land to its former state/interest and costs, and your final suggested solution to demolish the building and return the lot to its former state - vacant land for dumping rubbish.

Having met you on several occasions I never assumed you to be in the demolishing business.

In my mind you are in the ‘Dillon Thomas/Benny Lynch league’.

How you have surprised me! I was rather shocked. That is not the way forward Huw. Certain people on these beautiful islands want to develop them not demolish them.

Let’s hope you can get back around the table with the PNP. In the event a solution cannot be reached maybe you would consider

donating it to charity for it to be used as a care centre for the elderly, child care centre or a youth centre.

Pulling it down or demolishing it is really not the answer.

Let’s move onto issues that your chambers should really be looking at: 1) The illegal floating dock marina in Leeward next to what used to be called Nikki Beach, now called the ‘Concrete Graveyard’ and now a part of a multitude of bogus Leeward companies owned by youknow-who.

2) The Provo Stevedoring scam that has been on-going for years! Noone in government appears to know what they are doing besides raping the people of the TCI with criminal freight costs.

3) Let’s look at the hospital construction contract and all the rascals that were involved in that scam.

Everyone in the Caribbean wants

to know, even certain people in the UK Government want to know the answers.

We are going to be paying for the construction of these hospitals for the next 100 years.

Let’s also not forget the following: A) Who built Michael Misick’s mansion, who financed it, and who owns it now?

B) Who built the Concrete Graveyard aka Nikki Beach, who financed it, and who owns it now?

C) Who built the Alexandria Resort, who financed it, and who owns it now?

D) Who built the four 25,000 gallon illegal above ground fuel tanks installed in a high density residential area of Leeward in order to refill the luxury ghost yachts that never come to the illegal Leeward Marina, who financed them, who owns them now?

These and dozens more like the

The indignities that we suffer Dear Editor, On Friday, March 30, hundreds of government workers finally received letters formally confirming the interim regime’s acceptance of their requests for the severance package.

Up until that point nothing was formalised and they were all in limbo, with no certainty that they were in fact leaving.

If that seems like a trite observation, not everyone who applied for the package was accepted, and almost everyone who accepted the package do not have a job to go to today (Monday, April 2).

Most people got their confirmation letters around 2.38pm on Friday, although it was dated March 27.

That is formal notification of just one hour and 28 minutes before they were terminated!

I can’t imagine any better indication of the level of respect, gratitude, and compassion that the interim regime has for government employees.

Neil Smith issued a press release quoting Patrick Boyle as saying that he has spoken to many government workers over the last few weeks who have told him

“about their new and exciting plans for the future”.

That statement is a remarkable piece of spin on what is actually happening in these people’s lives.

I have a number of family members who accepted the severance package and Mr Boyle is full of manure.

It is true that workers have embraced the severance package in droves, but that is only because the carrot was more appealing than the stick.

The prospect of being forced out of the public service with NO job prospects but with a severance package was better than the prospect of being forced out of the public service with NO job prospects, NO savings, and NO severance package.

I understand that close to 500 people left government’s employment on Friday, and almost all of them are on the street today looking for jobs in an economy where tourism is the only activity and where resort managers, with a few exceptions, prefer to see Belongers making beds than in upper management.

LETTERS SHOULD BE KEPT TO A MAXIMUM OF 450 WORDS

If these individuals wish to establish their own businesses, providing services to tourists, they face the prospect of a growing number of resort operators that are offering meal plans, their own boating excursions, and that generally discourage guests from leaving their properties (and I am not only talking about the three allinclusive resorts).

Resort operators try to control their guests and while most do refer them outside of the resort to the select establishments of friends they are, in my opinion, unlikely to be sending them to the newly established businesses of what they see as fresh nosed former government employees.

The most that Boyle should say is that these people are bravely making the best of a bad situation, but instead after urinating on us he prefers to tell us that it is raining.

It is remarkable what indignities we are willing to endure before we take arms against this sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.

Keen Observer (name withheld)

above. But the one that concerns me most as I live on Provo is I know who built the two grossly overpriced hospitals, and all the rascals involved.

My question to you and your interim government is who is going

to own it if and when the TCIG cannot or decides not to service the loan payments?

These are the questions that I would like to know.

Can you give me any honest answers or will you sweep these questions under the carpet?

PS. Best of luck with your talks with the PNP. I am sure you can resolve the issue and let’s move on to more important things.

Yours sincerely, Harry Clark

Provo now for the rich and famous Dear Editor, I am writing to express my concerns about the how costly it is now to visit your wonderful island.

For the last four years my daughters and I escape to relax under the sun on Provo, in particular the Ocean Club resort.

The first year was unbelievable as we toured on bikes, walked along the beaches and ate great island foods at restaurants like Big Bamboo.

Year two became a bit more expensive, not to mention that Big Bamboo closed and was replaced with a pizza joint.

Years three to four even though still our annual escape to paradise, it became far too expensive to even enjoy a slice of pizza without

wondering if it would break our well thought out budget.

The final resolution, 2012 would be our last visit to our beloved Provo.

I am extremely economical and able to budget well my family’s escapes.

Following each return from Provo we blog with photos and recommendations.

However with the ever rising prices, taxes and now service charges, Provo is truly an island that can only be visited by the rich and famous.

We will always treasure our home away from home. It was good while it lasted.

A bien tot for now, Sharon Bakayoko

On the Saint Death rituals Dear Editor, I am writing regarding the AP article ‘Mexican police investigate poor border family in Saint Death ritual murders of 2 boys, woman’ on April 1, 2012.

The bizarre Holy Week devotion to ‘Saint Death’ in Latin America is not only restricted to anti-Catholics, drug smugglers and criminals as widely reported.

‘St Death’ is also knowingly worshiped throughout the world by those who practice and promote contraception and homosexuality, which thwarts the natural generation of life, as well as abortion and embryonic stem cell research, which directly ends life.

Such informal devotees include individuals as well as whole governments.

‘Saint Death’, the devil, is said by followers in Mexico - where there are roughly two million worshipers - to grant miracles but afterwards requires payment.

Devotees pray for good health, fortune, love, revenge, or to escape punishment from crimes, but at a high price - their soul.

While our present society worships unrestrained at the footstool of death, God, in contrast, refers to death in Scripture as ‘an enemy that will be destroyed at the end’.

This in fact is what Easter is all about. It is therefore imperative that we start promoting a culture of life.

With respectful and cordial best wishes.

Sincerely yours, Paul Kokoski

Please note that all submissions are subject to editing in keeping with defamation laws and newspaper style. Letters should be accompanied by the author’s full name, location and phone number. Names will be withheld if requested.

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Let us make this Easter meaningful EASTER MESSAGE BY THE RT. REV’D. LAISH BOYD BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF THE BAHAMAS AND THE TCI

That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They said to them, “The Lord is risen indeed…!’” Luke 24:33 & 34 When two disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus one afternoon, they met the risen Christ.

They did not recognize Him, even though they walked and talked with Him for miles. When they reached their destination, the stranger was about to go on, but the disciples urged Him to stay the night because evening was fast approaching. It is only when they sat at the table to break bread that they recognized Jesus. He disappeared and the two men, Cleopas and another, got up immediately and returned to Jerusalem to the eleven Apostles and told them, “It is true. The Lord is risen indeed…”

There are three things that strike the reader of this account: 1. The disciples saw Jesus and did not recognize Him. How often are we guilty of this when we do not see Christ in others and do not see His hand at work in the situations around us?

2.

The disciples walked with Jesus and did not recognize Him. This was not a fleeting encounter but an extended interaction.

Sometimes we are “with” God in very special ways: His power, love, radiance and glory are all around us in people, events and circumstances.

Yet we fail to see a God who is

walking beside us and talking to us in so many different ways. Why? It is because our focus and our priorities are elsewhere. We therefore miss a divine showing. We miss an epiphany.

3.

Jesus disappeared as soon as they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread Is this not how life is? Right in the midst of our greatest moments, we have some of our lowest moments.

Just when we find the answers, life changes the questions. Just when we are feeling closest to God, something can happen so easily to make us feel far from Him. The disciples said: “The Lord is risen indeed…!” These words rang out in Jerusalem and throughout the surrounding area. It was a message about God doing something wonderful and unusual for believers and for the world. It was God conquering human sin and physical death through the resurrection from the dead of His son, Jesus Christ.

This message is even more timely today.

Let us make this Easter meaningful by seeing the Risen Christ in our lives, in our surroundings, in our pains, in our challenges and in our triumphs. Then let us share that message with others, pointing them

to see Him through our words and actions.

The resurrection message is so important now in our two countries when so many people are under pressure and are experiencing a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness.

Issues like crime, feeling unsafe in your own home or neighbourhood,

unemployment, the economy, political uncertainty in the face of upcoming general elections in the Bahamas, the constitutional and governance concerns in the Turks and Caicos Islands, illness, family crises, personal tragedy, a feeling that no one cares or that no one “is checking for me”- these issues present real challenges to so many. In the face of this, the Church needs to present the Gospel and the Risen Christ through our witness. Christians, let us believe that God is in charge of His world and is present in His world, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

He is there and is with us even when we feel that He is absent or far away.

God is present in the hope that He brings, in the strength that we have to survive and to persevere. When we are at our weakest or feel that we cannot make it any more, remember that that is when He is actually carrying us.

Even though we may be struggling, we cannot rely on how

we feel because faith is not a feeling but a knowledge: we KNOW that God is real; we KNOW that Jesus is alive and we KNOW that God will never forsake us. We are forced to live this faith and to put into practice what we claim to believe.

Let us lay hold on our hope and our faith in a living Saviour, and then let us live that hope as if it were our all in all.

There is someone out there who will not see Christ unless they see Him in you or in me. Therefore let us do our best, with the help of the Almighty, to reach out, to be an example, to show love and to support others because no one of us is an island. WE NEED EACH OTHER!!.

The Risen Christ is counting on YOU and on ME, and I know that we are counting on Him. I greet my Anglican family in this diocese and join with them in wishing a Happy Easter to all in the Turks and Caicos Islands and in the Bahamas.

What’s in the Box winner receives prize ROXANNE Lewis, winner of the Grace Bay Resorts Community Foundation annual ‘What’s in the Box’ competition, received her prize on Tuesday April 3 at the First Caribbean roundabout during their first flag raising ceremony.

Lewis, a Fortis employee,

Agendas

won a round trip ticket for two to New York via Jet Blue with all accommodations paid and an Ipad.

A mother of three boys, Lewis said that she looks forward to the “weekend getaway” with her husband since she had not visited

New York for several years now.

Her husband had never been there.

Veronica Claire, Human Resources Manager of Grace Bay Club made the presentation and joined with their partners Lime and CIBC/FCIB in congratulating the winner.

by Washington Misick.

Wetherell also failed to investigate the deposit of tens millions of dollars of the peoples pension fund, (NIB) into the doomed bank and he added 5 millions more which quickly reimbursed rich depositors but did nothing to save the ordinary citizen’s savings.

Labour appointed Wetherell signed into law the NHIP concocted

by Floyd Hall, Lillian Boyce and Doctor Ewing the cost of which is now loaded on the backs of TC Islanders in the form of draconian taxes and resultant high cost of living. Ewing has resigned leaving us with NHIP and primary health care, which is nothing short of terrible. The severance pay to the civil servants will be paid by Turks and Caicos Islanders PDM and PNP alike. They were added to government payrolls

by Ewing’s PNP Party while foreign workers arrived by thousands to take permanent private sector jobs.

The articles by the Independent and the Guardian printed by the TCI Journal attack Lord Ashcroft a conservative

businessman active in the Caribbean.

The obvious agenda of the articles is to target Ashcroft and neuter his power and funding the campaigns of the conservatives. In my view, the operations of Ashcroft appear to be one of a businessman who uses his knowledge to further his prospects.

There were no complaints about Ashcroft’s Johnston Construction Company when the Peoples Democratic Movement was in power. It is not the purpose of this article to defend Lord Ashcroft but to recognize who it is attacking him and what their agenda is.

The TCI Journal editor who publishes the GuardianIndependent articles has a jealous tilt against anyone with business success, which has eluded the editor.

The Guardian and Independent want a return to a British government that let Misick and friends run wild in the TCI. Let us all understand who the players are and what their agendas are.

COMMENTARY

Articles from the London newspapers ‘Guardian’ and ‘Independent’ are often posted online for TCI readers.

I believe the TCI public needs to understand the agenda of both of these publications is to support the leftist, (Socialist) views of the Labour government which ruled Britain for 13 years prior to May 2010 when the Conservative party, of Margaret Thatcher and John Stanley won enough seats to lead today’s British coalition government.

According to on line encyclopedia Wikipedia: “The Guardian is generally left of British public opinion” and the

By David Tapfer “The Independent is regarded as leaning left politically” The agendas of these publications are to bring back British Labour Government with its agenda.

For the Turks and Caicos this would

mean a return to the British Government who gave us Meg Munn, Chris Bryant and the appointments of governors Posten, Tauwhare and Wetherell. Munn could not find any evidence of serious corruption in the TCI and Bryant refused to fund the SIPT. The Independent newspaper posted articles criticizing the guarantees, which brought us the $260M dollar loan and saved the TCI from outright bankruptcy; bankruptcy resulting from the longest serving term of the Progressive National Party of Michael Misick, Floyd Hall, Galmo Williams and Royal Robinson.

Governor Wetherell failed to take action to save the TCI Bank directed

14

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

NATIONAL

autism awareness

Spreading the message over the airwaves

By Samantha Dash-Rigby DRIVEN by his love for God, Haitian people and a burden to educate and lead them to Christ, one pastor set his sights high and prayed for a broadcast medium to spread the good news.

Pastor Solomon Morency of Example of Christ Abundant Life Ministry, after migrating from Haiti 22 years ago, felt saddened by the lack of knowledge of the Haitians living in the TCI. After he was saved in 1996, he asked God to bless him with a radio station so that he could meet everyone and educate them.

A few years later, his prayers were answered and Radio Creole 95.1fm was launched.

Over the years, Pastor Morency has been a beacon to Christ in the Haitian community through his radio station.

One glance at him will reveal a simple and down-to-earth man but a conversation with him will plummet you into his deep, unquenchable passion for people and their walk with God. Pastor Morency firmly believes that he has been mandated by God to reach the Haitian community through his church and radio station, to work with them, teach them and when they do wrong, offer encouragement to them.

Pastor Solomon Morency

“There are three different ways to encourage people,” he said, “people can be educated from their family, school and then church.”

He explained that if the family is strong and they are Christians with good education, then they will teach their children the right things.

“So, when they go out you can see it’s somebody who is educated.”

However, some people who did not benefit from the first two or all three will grow up doing wrong things and mistakenly thinking that they are right, not knowing or fully understanding what they are doing.

“When they do wrong they think they do good. They have no one to teach them,” said Pastor Morency said adding that that is where his

radio station comes in.

He is convinced that when persons listen to the programmes on Radio Creole, they will learn right from wrong. The station also airs Spanish and English programmes.

In 1996 he fellowshipped at Paradise Baptist Church in Five Cays under Bishop Colletta Williams III and later moved with him to Abundant Life Ministries on Leeward Highway.

Eventually, he opened his first church in Duck Yard, Providenciales, one in Bottle Creek North Caicos, one close to Port-au-Prince and one in Cape Haitian.

Pastor Morency said that he is happy to help not only Haitians but also people of all nationalities.

“I do not serve any one group of people but I serve anyone who comes to me and I could solve the problem,” he assured.

“It is better to try to bring 10 souls to God and take care of them instead of bringing 100 and leaving them without any follow-up or support.”

He expressed thanks to the TCI Government and those persons instrumental in helping him to get the station so that he could reach even those not attending any church.

“People who refuse to follow Christ are being influenced by the devil,” he ended.

Fortis Inc Board of Directors Grounds Tour

Fortis directors give upgrade thumbs up INTERNATIONAL bosses from Provo’s only power company were pleased with the results of their $200m investment when they visited the island.

Fortis’s board of directors said they were impressed with FortisTCI’s plant upgrades on Leeward Highway and the new corporate and customer centre.

They flew from Canada to the TCI on March 11 for a four day series of board meetings and tours - the first in the country since 2008.

H Stanley Marshall, president and chief executive officer of Fortis, said: “The team at FortisTCI continues

to do a commendable job and the progress made since the board’s last visit is impressive.

“This visit demonstrates that Fortis sees the Turks and Caicos Islands as a long-term investment and strategic partner.

“Our investments in physical and human resources over the past five years have transformed FortisTCI into a modern electric utility company; one of which the Turks and Caicos Islands can be very proud.”

Including the initial purchase of FortisTCI in 2006, Fortis has invested almost $200m in the utility.

During their visit the group attended a tour of the expanded plant facilities and the new corporate and customer centre.

They looked at their investments up close including the company’s two new Wartsila engines installed last year, a new bulk fuel tank farm which increases on-site storage capability and fuel security, and state-of-the-art vehicle service and linemen centres.

The board was also taken to the soon-to-be inaugurated retention pond that is part of elaborate ground water management and hydrocarbon containment systems.

By Nicole Cox, a mother living with autism

Josiah, aged four

April Showers!

Part 2

Here are a few excerpts from the Autism Speaks site that are vital points to understanding this mysterious disorder and the implications of its prevalence.

“Presently, we don’t have a medical test that can diagnose autism.

Instead, specially trained physicians and psychologists administer autism-specific behavioral evaluations. Often parents are the first to notice that their child is showing unusual behaviors such as failing to make eye contact, not responding to his or her name or playing with toys in unusual, repetitive ways.” “Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by social-interaction difficulties, communication challenges and a tendency to engage in repetitive behaviors. However, symptoms and their severity vary widely across these three core areas. Taken together, they may result in relatively mild challenges for someone on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum. For others, symptoms may be more severe, as when repetitive behaviors and lack of spoken language interfere with everyday life.”

“Each child or adult with autism in unique and, so, each autism intervention plan should be tailored to address specific needs.

Intervention can involve behavioral treatments, medicines or both.

Many persons with autism have additional medical conditions such as sleep disturbance, seizures and gastrointestinal (GI) distress. Addressing these conditions can improve attention, learning and related behaviors.”

“Early intensive behavioral intervention involves a child’s entire family, working closely with a team of professionals. In some early intervention programs, therapists come into the home to deliver services. This can include parent training with the parent leading therapy sessions under the supervision of the therapist. Other programs deliver therapy in a specialized center, classroom or preschool. Typically, different interventions and supports become appropriate as a child develops and acquires social and learning skills. As children with autism enter school, for example, they may benefit from targeted social skills training and specialized approaches to teaching.” “Adolescents with autism can benefit from transition services that promote a successful maturation into independence and employment opportunities of adulthood.”

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its estimate of autism prevalence in the United States to 1 in 88 children (1 in 54 boys and 1 in 252 girls). By comparison, this is more children than are affected by diabetes, AIDS, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy or Down syndrome – combined. The new numbers - based on a 2008 snapshot of 14 monitoring sites - represent a 78 percent increase in autism over the previous five years. They represent a ten-fold (1,000 percent) increase in reported prevalence over the last four decades.”

I hope that is enough of a teaser. Almost anything, you would want to know about autism that is relevant, up to date and reliable can be found on www.autismspeaks.org . Please, spend some time on this site one section at a time and allow the information to sink in. You have a 1 in 88 chance of needing to know what you read!

For more on autism visit: http://iloveaba.blogspot.com or http:// dawnprogram.blogspot.com

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

15

NATIONAL

this week

Friday, April 6 to Thursday, April 12 Friday, April 6  Good Friday

The new lab’s establishment was funded through a donation of $10,000 from the Pine Cay Project

ECPS gets new science lab

With the support of the Pine Cay Project the Enid Capron Primary School last Tuesday opened the doors to a spanking new science laboratory, which is expected to be fully operational by the end of the third school term.

The new lab’s establishment was funded through a donation of $10,000 from the Pine Cay Project.

Dr. Carlton Mills, Deputy Chairman of the Pine Cay Project, noted that the Project meets a critical need that is present throughout the Caribbean – that is the need for facilities to focus on science education.

“One way in which the members of the Pine Cay Project give back to the community, which is the reason

the Project was formed, is through education…we have a great need for science in the TCI,” he said.

He explained that the original initiatives were focused on literacy, but the group refocused its attention to an area of greater need.

According to him, the Project has also made donations to other school, the most recent being the Ianthe Pratt Primary School.

Education Department Director Edgar Howell who made remarks at the opening lauded the work of the ECPS teachers in delivery education to TCI’s children.

He contends that the education system has a full complement of science teachers, who are able to

meet the needs of the increasing number of students attracted to the sciences.

Adding her bit, ECPS Principal, Mrs. Rachel Taylor, expressed her appreciation for the both the support of the Department and the Pine Cay Project.

She noted that the ECPS is continually improving the delivery of education to its students.

The students themselves were enthusiastic about the new lab facilities and the importance they attached to science showed in the presentations made by several students during the opening on the importance of science and the need for it.

HJ Robinson High honoured with Mark Crick Award The Helena Jones Robinson High School in Grand Turk was this year’s recipient of the first annual Mark Crick Environmental Sustainability Award, given by the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR).

The Mark Crick Environmental Sustainability Award recognizes ongoing and committed students’ awareness and understanding of the vital process of moving towards an environmentally sustainable future in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

It also recognizes a school that presents outstanding comprehension of environmental sustainability and puts that comprehension into ongoing environmental action. It includes recognition in the media and a plaque that will travel annually to recipient schools, as well as a cash award towards the recipient school’s programmes, funded by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

The students of H. J. Robinson High were recognized with the Award for their ongoing dedication to the conservation research and scientific study of the Grand Turk Salinas, highlighted by their Science Fair display of research on the increasing water levels in Hawke’s

 Danny Buoy’s is Provo’s premier live music and sports destination, serving lunch and dinner daily from 11:30am.

It is the perfect place to escape from the heat and hang with friends, all in smoke free airconditioned comfort.

Happy Hour specials from 4-7pm Monday-Saturday  Get into the weekend mood with the intense and electrifying Tae-Bo class at Graceway Sports Centre from 6pm to 7pm. Free for fitness members, $12 for non-members.

Visit www.gracewaysports.com for more information or call 4426349.  Craig Archibold gets the party started at the Regent Palms from 7pm on Friday nights with the sound of classic Caribbean and Motown tunes. Call 946-8666 for details

opposite Lime on the Leeward Highway in Providenciales, from 10am to 2pm.

Persons will be able to purchase freshly grown produce and locally sourced items.

For more information on the Weekly Community and Farmers’ Market call (649) 247-8911. With regard to the TCI Red Cross’ services or how you can volunteer or donate, contact our Provo office on (649) 941-8056 or email redcrossprovo@tciway.tc OR for Grand Turk call (649) 946-2761 or Email:tciredcross@tciway.tc  If you’re looking for a serene and relaxed way of starting your weekend, bring your yoga mat at Graceway Sports Centre every Saturday at 9am and let David Bowen lead you into the wonderful world of yoga!

Amazing fees for an amazing class!

More info at 442-6348”  Mums and Tots Dance Party classes are held every Saturday at Graceway Sports Centre for mothers and their little ones.

Mothers, bring your little ones to dance, jump, twist and shake! Children have fun learning movement basics to fun music and mums get a light exercise while spending quality time. Mums and Tots classes begin at 10am and cost just $10. Dads are welcome!

Call Shara Bowen on 244-1103 for more details.

Sunday, April 8  Easter Sunday – A BLESSED EASTER TO ALL OUR READERS  Rotary Bingo has a new home at CLUB PILLOWS in the Bight next to Smokey’s (Opposite Veranda Resort) EVERY SUNDAY! Doors open at 7:00 pm

Saturday, April 7

Students from the HJ Robinson High School receives the Mark Crick Award

Nest Salina due to the reverse osmosis plant effluent.

The students presented an ongoing dedication to the study of these areas and an appreciation of their fragility, as well as a willingness to criticize unsustainable practices and provide suggestions of how to rectify the situation. The observations presented, backed up by several running years of research and data collection, showed that the H.J. Robinson High School team fit well into the criteria for the Mark Crick Environmental Sustainability Award.

The award was announced and presented at the Science Fair in

Providenciales during Education Week in March.

DECR Education Officer, Mrs. Lormeka Williams, said, “Sadly, Mr. Crick passed away while in TCI, but through this Mark Crick Environmental Sustainability Award, his environment passion will forever live on in these Islands.”

Crick’s stay in the TCI was reportedly spent in the field with members of the DECR field team, gathering information to help develop TCI’s sustainable development capacity. He is said to have demonstrated an intrepid passion for TCI’s unique habitats, flora, and fauna.

 Last Market Day of the Season.

On Saturday, April 7, the Market Place, 1267 Leeward Hwy, invites you to stop by as you explore the island away from the resort area. You may find an unusual collectible, sample an island treat or meet a new friend as you stroll through the courtyard.  Mackey’s Cafe reopening on Saturdays.  The Weekly Community and Farmers’ Market organised

by TCI Red Cross is on at the organization’s headquarters,

Monday, April 9  Easter Monday – HAVE FUN!!!

Thursday, April 12  Weekly Foreign a Fare night every Thursday at the Bohio Dive Resort (Grand Turk) from 6:30 p.m.

Each week different dishes from a different region in the world.

Previous nights have included Italian, Spanish, English, Indian, Chinese, Moroccan, South African and Thai.

For details, call 946-2135 or go to www.bohioresort.com946-2135

Got an event you wish to advertise?

Call us on 946 4664 or email tcweeklynews@ gmail.com for a free listing.

Lifestyle...

16

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

fitness Tip 

How far are you with your 2012 fitness resolutions?

Can you believe it is the end of March? Three months of 2012 already gone, I have not even gotten used to writing 2012 and I have to flip the calendar page on April!

Before we know, it will be Christmas again.

Therefore, 25 per cent of this year is gone and is gone forever! Have you done the most of it? What you did in these 3 months will have an impact on your life later on? Are you satisfied with the results so far?

Did you do anything regarding

Kidney Bean and Chickpea Salad

FITNESS EXPERT Anca Vasile

those health and fitness resolutions you made in the beginning of January? If you had a goal to lose 40 lbs this year, did you lose 10 already?

If you wanted to run a marathon by the end of the year, are you running comfortable 10.5 km by today? If you planned to swim for 1 hour without a stop are you swimming 15 min continue right now?

You got my point?

It might not seem much these 3 months and you might say “I have time…I have another 9 months to reach my goal” but when you look at numbers you realize how significant 3 months are! 10 pounds, it might not sound like a whole lot as a number, but when you are in the process of losing weight, you feel it

takes forever to drop them.

Only when you are in the water and you see that you cannot sustain a minute of swimming you will realize how difficult it is to swim 15 min, leave aside one hour.

I am not saying that it is not possible to reach your goals in the remaining 9 months or whatever the case is. I am saying that the effort you would have to put in, it would have to be a lot bigger as you trying to achieve the same goals in a shorter amount of time.

If the remaining time does not seem enough for you to reach your goals then you need to readjust those goals

and make them realistic, so you can avoid the disappointment of failure!

Best approach to it is to plan small steps that will take you to the big goal. When it comes to fitness goals or a body transformation process, it is all about making small changes, because it is not an overnight process and that’s why planning ahead its very important.

As we tend to get busy and set other priorities in life, making time for exercising it’s a must! It is a little time you should take in a whole day that you must dedicate to yourself in order to function better!

So, if you were procrastinating to

start working on your goals, stop that and start now, not tomorrow, because now you understand how much a day counts!

Before you know it 50% of this year will be gone, then 75% and if you not doing anything you will end up saying “This year went so fast and I had no time to do anything”.

The truth is you do have the time, you just have to plan it!

For news regarding fitness in TCI, info regarding Overall Fitness Studio programs or general info check and subscribe at http://ancafitness. wordpress.com/

health Tip 

Kidney Beans nutrition This zesty salad is definitely a crowd-pleaser that is as close as your pantry. The dressing blends nicely with the combination of canned beans, tomato and onion and it tastes just as good when it is made a day ahead. You will never seen a bowl empty so quickly Ingredients • 1 (16 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained • 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed • 1 cup chopped tomatoes • 1/2 cup julienned green pepper • 1/4 cup thinly sliced onion • 1/2 cup reduced-fat ranch salad dressing Directions 1. In a large bowl, combine the beans, chickpeas, tomatoes, green pepper and onion. Cover and refrigerate. Toss with dressing just before serving.

Let us get reading again about some helpful and healthful benefits from the field or farm produce or better yet that backyard garden, but as always, I must give thanks to God, for yet another time to write, and readers I say thank you likewise for reading again.

This week we’ll look at what does research say about Kidney Beans?

Kidney Beans takes their name from its dark red skin and shape which resembles a kidney and are available throughout the year in fresh or packaged form.

Not only do kidney beans taste great, they are also packed with plenty of health beneficial nutrients.

Primarily, they are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber - a common trait shared by almost all other beans. Secondly, kidney beans are hugely beneficial to diabetics or hypoglycemic sufferers due to

By Phillip Simmons its high fiber content that can help prevent blood sugar levels from rising to rapidly after a meal.

Kidney beans are also rich in protein, molybdenum (an integral component of the enzyme sulfite oxidase - responsible for detoxifying sulfites), folate, magnesium, iron, vitamin B1 and manganese.

These properties give kidney beans the following health benefits and they include lower the risk of heart attacks, gives you energy to burn while stabilizing blood sugar levels.

April 7 - 13, 2012

Lifestyle...

GARDENING 

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

How does your garden grow

17

YOUR DIET

ASK TAMIKA

BY TAMIKA HANDFIELD

Tamika graduated from Florida International University in Miami with a Masters degree in Dietetics & Nutrition. She is a registered dietitian with the American Dietetic Association (ADA) and licensed to practice medical nutrition therapy in the state of Florida.

Email Tamika via tcweeklynews@gmail.com or tamikahandfield@yahoo.com with your healthy eating questions.

Making the most of your food dollars

Topiary A topiary can create a striking effect in your garden as well as give you a gardening focal point that you can be proud of.

There are essentially two kinds of topiary. There is vine topiary, where vines are encouraged to grow over topiary forms. Then there is shrub topiary, where a shrub is cut into a form.

Make your own topiary with vines Whether you are making a topiary tree or something more elaborate, if you decide to use vining plants to make a topiary, you will need to choose a topiary form. This will allow the vine to crawl up the form and cover the shape.

Choose a vining plant, a Ficus Repens is a common choice for a vining plant topiary, though most plant that vines can be used. Ficus repens is generally chosen due to the fact that is grows easy and is tolerant of many conditions and looks lovely.

Fill the form with sphagnum moss,while filling the topiary forms with sphagnum moss is not essential, it will help your topiary take on a fuller look much faster.

Plant the vine around the form, whether is a potted topiary or an outdoor topiary in the ground, plant the vine around the form so that it can grow up the form. If you are using a large form or if you simply want to cover the form faster, you can use

BY DENIS Belanger - NATURE SPLENDOR For all your landscaping, installation or garden maintenance needs, please call or write for a free estimate: 332-3381 or naturesplendor@yahoo.com

several plants around the form.

Train and prune appropriately – As the plants grow, train them to the form by helping them wrap around the form. Also, prune or pinch back any shoots that cannot be easily trained to the topiary forms.

The time it will take to have a fully covered topiary varies depending on how many plants you use and the size of the topiary, but I can guarantee that when it is all filled in, you will be thrilled with the results.

Make your own topiary with shrubs Making a topiary with a shrub is more difficult but still very fun.

It is easiest to start a shrub topiary with a small juvenile shrub that can be molded as it grows. But you can accomplish a topiary effect with grown plants as well.

If you are new to topiary, you will want to put topiary forms over the shrubs you choose to sculpt.

As the plant grows, the frame will help guide you on your pruning decisions. If you are a artist, you can attempt to create topiary

without topiary forms. Be aware that even experience topiary artists will use frames to make things easier. If you have a larger shrub, you may need to build the frame around the topiary.

When creating a shrub outdoor topiary, you have to take things slowly. Envision how you want your final topiary to look and trim off no more than 3 inches in working towards that shape. If you are working on growing a small shrub, prune 1 inch off in areas where you need to fill in. Pruning will encourage additional, bushier growth. If you are working on shaping a large shrub, take no more than 3 inches off in areas where you wish to cut back. Anymore than this will only kill off parts of the shrub and will ruin the process.

Remember, when creating a shrub topiary, you are creating a sculpture in slow motion.

Take your time when you make your own topiary and take it slow.

Your patience will be rewarded with a fabulous outdoor topiary.

One of the most popular barriers to people eating and buying healthy foods is the myth that healthy foods are more expensive than junk food. This is not necessarily always true; however, if you feel like you can substantiate your claim by pointing out how a meal of fried chicken and fries cost less than a rotisserie chicken, think about the amount of money you can eventually spend in doctor visits and on medications.

Ok, so I get that money is tight and sometimes it is all you can do to make sure you and your family do not go to bed hungry. However, I still believe there is a place where health and necessity can happily coexist.

Below are a few suggestions that will hopefully help you spend less at the grocery store or at least get you thinking about ways you can save on groceries: Plan ahead. It is important that you take a few minutes out of the week and plan what you would like to feed your family during the upcoming week then make a list of all the needed ingredients and go shopping for those things. This helps you to save time as well as prevent those impulsive grocery store stops that usually end in you buying much more than you originally stopped for.

Look for sales. I know you are probably laughing and saying, “is this a joke?!” Sales are few and far between but they do exist in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Many grocery stores on Providenciales (I am unsure of the other islands) offer their patrons sales to help them save money. A word of caution though, ensure that you read all sale flyers, shelf tags and check and double check your receipt to guarantee you are getting the price that is being advertised.

Buy in bulk. A normal progression of having a sale is so that you can afford to buy more things for less money. A sale is a good time to stock up on items that you do not need to buy every week; things such as toothpaste, soap and other toiletries even food items like rice and canned goods can be bought in bulk. You can also buy meats in large quantities; however, only do this if you are certain you can use it all before it goes bad.

These are just a few of the many options that you can choose to help you make healthier food choices even when the money is looking funny.

ACCU Medical Nutrition is based in Graceway IGA Plaza, Providenciales.

Call 946 8308, 242 3978 or 442 3978.

18

Regional News

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

Cholera infections rising again in Haiti as rainy season begins CHOLERA infections are rising again with rainy weather in Haiti in a predictable seasonal shift, and the international community must act quickly to contain the epidemic, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) Co-Director Mark Weisbrot said this week. Weisbrot cited a new investigative article on the cholera outbreak in the New York Times by Deborah Sontag that describes how cholera resurged during the 2011 rainy season after NGO’s pulled back their treatment and prevention efforts during the dry season months.

“We saw what happened last year,” Weisbrot said. “The international community and some NGO’s cut back on cholera treatment and prevention just before the rainy season, and there was a spike in infections and deaths. They have the resources to contain and then eliminate Haiti’s cholera epidemic.

What is needed is the will to make it happen.”

The latest figures from the Haitian Ministry of Health show 16 cholera deaths in just 8 days, from March 8 – 16, the most recent data available.

This is an increase from the previous two months, in which there were 13 for the entire month of February and eight in January.

Weisbrot pointed to a planned vaccination program – currently stalled -- as well as treatment and prevention efforts as program areas that need to be fully funded and implemented as soon as possible.

“Part of cholera prevention is ensuring access to clean water and sanitation,” Weisbrot said. “But as

Patients with cholera await treatment in Haiti following the earthquake (UN Photo/Sophia Paris)

everyone knows, Haiti’s internally displaced persons – among many others – are a long way from having access to these necessities.

In many camps there is no money going to empty latrines, going on months now. Sanitation does not exist in such situations – but disease thrives.”

The increase in cholera infections and deaths during the 2011 rainy season was predictable, and predicted, Weisbrot noted. A CEPR report released last year stated that “despite myriad warnings, many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) withdrew from cholera treatment efforts right before this summer’s rainy season and the predictable increase in the number of cholera cases that followed.”

The paper also pointed out that

“To date, treatment is still unequally focused on urban centers despite the much higher fatality rates in Haiti’s more rural areas” – an exacerbating factor also described in Sontag’s article.

Weisbrot added that in the longer term, the international community should help eradicate cholera on the entire island of Hispaniola by assisting Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic with the acquisition of an adequate water and sanitation infrastructure. Agencies including the Pan American Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF have stated that “controlling cholera in Hispaniola over the long term will be only possible through investments in water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure…”

Regional governments blamed over REDjet woes AN INTERNATIONAL aviation think tank has suggested that Caribbean governments must shoulder some of the blame for REDjet’s demise.

The Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), the first agency outside the region to comment on the airline’s grounding, said long delays in granting the low-cost carrier permission to start flying to several destinations last year also hurt REDjet’s potential for profit and might have contributed to its current financial situation.

“REDjet’s failure to execute a low-cost model in the Caribbean reflects the longstanding realities of governments in the region refusing to fully liberalise to allow any meaningful competition in the market,” said the expert body in its CAPA Leading Edge blog published on its website.

“Ultimately it seems REDjet’s optimism and ambition caved under the realities of operating in the

REDJet was hoping to revolutionise air travel in the Caribbean.

Caribbean market . . . Now it is back to business as usual in the Caribbean – protectionist governments keeping a tight grip on traffic rights in order to protect their loss-making flag carriers.”

The Australia-based agency, which has offices in Europe and

Southeast Asia, pointed a finger at Trinidad and Tobago which it said was highly protective of state-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) and that government’s subsidising of CAL’s fuel costs, created “even more hurdles for viable competition in the region”. (Barbados Nation)

April 7 - 13, 2012

Classmates allegedly assault boy, 11 in the Bahamas A BAHAMIAN school is reeling from shock after an 11-year-old boy was allegedly attacked and sexually assaulted by two adolescent boys.

According to information obtained by The Tribune, the boy was assaulted by two students around the same age in his school’s bathroom on Monday.

When contacted the principal confirmed an incident did take place involving three boys at the school, but said it was not a sexual assault.

“We are still in the preliminary stages of our investigations. It was not a sexual assault but we are dealing with the situation. It has been handed over to authorities and they will deal with the matter from here,” the principal said.

However, according to sources, the victim, who is said to have limited mobile function and a speech impairment, told his mother the boys attempted to have anal sex with him while in the bathroom. The mother reported the matter to the principal of the school, who in turn filed a police report.

The boy was taken to be examined by doctors who reported that

although there was bruising, actual rape did not occur.

The Tribune attempted to contact the Ministry of Education but calls were not returned up to Tuesday night.

Earlier this year, Minister of State for Social Services, Loretta Butler Turner revealed in the House of Assembly that there were 636 reported cases of child abuse in The Bahamas last year.

According to statistics, the figure represents a slight increase over the number of abuse cases that were reported in 2010.

In total, there were 615 reported cases that year.

Of that number, 499 cases were reported in New Providence and 116 were reported in the Family Islands.

While a children’s register and child abuse registry has not been established Mrs Butler Turner said the framework for both have been drafted.

She also said the Department of Social Services does maintain a record of all reported cases of abuse.

This month is observed as Child Protection Month. (Tribune242.com)

Caribbean to promote aquaculture THE CARIBBEAN is far behind the rest of the world in developing aquaculture, the executive director of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) told Tribune Business.

Milton Haughton, who is spearheading a three-day Caribbean Fisheries Forum in Nassau, said the establishment of a regional aquaculture working group to promote the expansion of both marine and fresh water aquaculture was among the list of issues on the forum’s agenda.

Mr Haughton told Tribune Business: “We will also be discussing the situation as it relates to aquaculture development, marine fisheries globally and in the region.

The capacity to produce more is limited, and we have to face that reality.”

“On the aquaculture side, however, and I mean mariculture as well, we are far behind the rest of the world in terms of the development of aquaculture. We have huge potential for increasing and expanding the production of aquaculture in the Caribbean region.”

“We are indeed behind if you look at what is happening in Asia and Latin America; they have moved ahead on aquaculture development.

Aquaculture in the Caribbean region contributes to one to two per cent of

the total fish production, whereas in Asia and some other countries it’s 50 per cent.”

“Now we have available new technologies and scientific advances that we need to use in order to ensure that we develop aquaculture, and ensure we develop it in a sustainable manner, because we have to pay attention to the ecological sustainability of aquaculture.”

Mr Haughton added that poaching is a problem affecting many countries in the Caribbean, citing minimal penalties imposed by many countries in the region as not enough of a deterrent. He said: “Poaching is a massive problem. It is a massive problem in the Bahamas, and in the same way it is affecting just about all of our counties.”

“Most of our countries have relatively large maritime spaces. We are very small states with very limited capacity for monitoring, control surveillance and enforcement, and because of that our region is attractive to poachers.”

“On top of that, the penalties that we impose for infringement of our laws and regulations for the most part tend to be minimal. The penalties we impose tend not to be severe enough to be a deterrent. There are some countries in the region where the poacher will not think about entering because they know that the penalties are very severe.”

April 7 - 13, 2012

Regional News

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

Royal Bank ‘blamed Bahamas branch’ on multi-million scheme US REGULATORS have alleged that Royal Bank of Canada blamed staff at its Bahamian branch for playing the lead role in devising a “massive wash trading scheme” worth hundreds of millions of dollars, which it executed through that nation and the Cayman Islands.

The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in a lawsuit filed in the US southern district court for New York on Monday, alleged that Royal Bank engaged in the non-competitive selling of exchange-traded stock futures contracts with its Bahamas and Cayman Island branches.

It was alleged to have conducted this activity as ‘block’ trades through the OneChicago futures exchange, using “wash and fictitious sales” that were not independent, arm’s length sales between two different counterparties. This, the CFTC alleged, breached US law and were designed to enable Royal Bank to access tax benefits from holding certain public companies’ securities in Canadian and offshore accounts.

“Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) executed its..... trades through two of its branches and one set of internal RBC accounts, opposite two RBC

subsidiaries,” the CFTC lawsuit alleged.

“The two branches were RBC Bahamas branch and RBC Cayman branch (together, the Caribbean), branches of RBC located in the Bahamas and Cayman Islands that were not stand-alone legal entities.

“The internal set of accounts, which also was not a stand-alone legal entity, was known as Canadian Transit and housed in Toronto. The two subsidiaries were RBC Capital Markets Arbitrage S.A (CMA), a Luxembourg-based subsidiary of RBC with offices in New York; and RBC Europe, a United Kingdombased bank subsidiary of RBC with offices in London.”

There is no suggestion that Royal Bank of Canada’s Bahamas thenbranch, which is now a subsidiary, nor any of its employees, officers or directors, did anything wrong in relation to the scheme described by the CFTC. A Royal Bank of Canada spokeswoman denounced the allegations on Tuesday as “absurd”.

The 25-page civil lawsuit is “meritless and we will rigorously defend ourselves against such baseless allegations”, the bank said in a statement.

Pope Benedict XVI with ex Cuban president Fidel Castro during a meeting on March 28.

Cuba sets Good Friday as holiday after pope’s request CUBAN President Raul Castro has granted Pope Benedict XVI’s request to make Good Friday a holiday -- at least this year -- Cuban state media reported Saturday.

During his visit to Cuba this week, the pope asked Castro to recognize the day Christians commemorate Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, a Vatican spokesman said.

The government said it would give workers the day off April 6, the first time Good Friday has been officially celebrated since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Previously, the only other religious holiday the government recognised in Cuba was Christmas, which was deemed a holiday in 1997

at the request of Pope John Paul II prior to his visit to the island.

According to Cuban state media, Castro told the pontiff on Wednesday that Good Friday would be officially celebrated this year.

Whether Good Friday would remain a permanent holiday is still under consideration, the reports said.

In a private meeting with Raul Castro, Benedict also requested that the church be allowed to open Catholic schools and air religious broadcasts, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said during a press conference in Havana. So far, the Cuban government has not responded publicly to those requests.

(CNN)

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Caribbean coral reef decline started a century ago: study THE DECLINE of Caribbean coral reefs has been linked to the recent effects of human-induced climate change. However, new research led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego suggests an even earlier cause.

The bad news – humans are still to blame. The good news – relatively simple policy changes can hinder further coral reef decline.

Employing a novel excavation technique to reconstruct the timeline of historical change in coral reefs located on the Caribbean side of Panama, a team of scientists led

by Scripps alumna Katie Cramer and current Scripps Professor of Oceanography and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) Emeritus Staff Scientist Jeremy Jackson has determined that damage to coral reefs from land clearing and overfishing pre-dates damage caused by anthropogenic climate change by at least decades.

“This study is the first to quantitatively show that the cumulative effects of deforestation and possibly overfishing were degrading Caribbean coral and molluscan communities long before climate change impacts began to really devastate reefs,” said lead author Cramer, currently based at the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Historical records and qualitative surveys provide hints that declines in corals in some parts of the Caribbean occurred as far back as the early 1900s after coastal lands began to be cleared to make way for plantations.

The current study is the first to quantify the changes that reef corals and molluscs have undergone as a result of long-term stress caused by the deposition of silt, nutrients, and pollution onto coral reefs from land clearing and the depletion of reef fish that prevent algae from overtaking reefs.

“Because researchers did not

Katie Cramer collects coral skeletons and shells in Panama. (Photo: Scripps /ucsd.edu).

really begin to study Caribbean reefs in detail until the late 1970s, we don’t have a clear understanding of why these reefs have changed so dramatically since this time,” said Cramer. “So, we set out to reconstruct an older timeline of change on reefs by looking at the remains of past reefs – coral skeletons and mollusc shells.”

To reconstruct this timeline, the team dug below modern reefs in incremental layers and, using radiocarbon dating of the coral skeletons they found, linked fluctuations in the types and numbers of coral and molluscs over time to historical records of land clearing.

Changes in the relative numbers of these various species represent clear indicators of the overall health of the coral reef.

The team also improved upon the standard technique of taking long, narrow core samples of coral fossils that cannot track fluctuations in the numbers of larger species of coral.

“We dug up over a ton of coral

rubble and tens of thousands of shells,” said Cramer, who led the fieldwork at STRI and likened the laborious experience to doing underwater construction.

The scientists noted several indicators of environmental stress, including a decrease in the overall size of bivalves such as oysters, clams, and scallops, a transition from branching to non-branching species of coral, and large declines in the staghorn coral and the tree oyster, which were once the dominant coral and bivalve on these reefs.

With the decline of the branching coral species, the reefs now have fewer nooks and crannies that are used as habitat for reef fish and other organisms. Also, the non-branching species that have taken their place grow at a much slower rate.

“Consequently, there is less of a chance that the reefs will be able to keep up with sea level rise from climate change,” said Cramer. (fis. com)

Antigua and Barbuda voted most romantic Caribbean destination

ANTIGUA and Barbuda has received yet another award in the weddings and honeymoon category. As the destination prepares to launch the sixth year of the June is Romance Month promotion, the destination has been voted Most Romantic Caribbean Destination in About.com’s Romantic Reader’s Choice Award.

The twin island destination received 62% of the popular vote, beating other Caribbean finalists -St. Lucia, Jamaica and the Bahamas.

The on-line contest ran for three weeks in March and readers were

allowed to vote once a day. About. com is part of the New York Times group of companies and is named ”Best of the Web” in Romantic Travel, by Forbes Magazine and is ranked as a Top 10 Travel Blog.

Earlier this year, the destination was voted “Sexiest Destination” by Caribbean Travel and Life Magazine and last year, BRIDES Magazine ranked Antigua and Barbuda among the top 10 Honeymoon Destinations in the Caribbean.

US Director of Tourism, Derede Samuel-Whitlock, believes that

despite budget limitations, this year’s Romance promotions will be executed at a very high level.

“By integrating the About.com winner’s seal into our marketing collateral will help solidify Antigua and Barbuda’s image as a premier destination for weddings and honeymoons and help reinforce our core message.” Whitlock hinted that this year’s promotions will highlight unique experiences for couples who may already be thinking outside the traditional wedding and honeymoon box.

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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

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NATIONAL

Top model contestants revealed TEN of the country’s most promising models have been chosen to star in this year’s flamboyant fashion extravaganza.

The young women were carefully selected from a pool of 28 willing participants after a series of meetings with organisers of the 2012 TCI Top Model Contest.

This hotly anticipated event is expected be more exciting than before, with more than $10,000 in cash and prizes to be won.

The names of those that will vie to become TCI’s top model are Trinee Bethell, Wahanda Registre, Frenica Williams, Aaliyha Bain, Taciana Bin-Amie, Lashanda Adams, Sheldlene Pubien, Breanna Johnson, Vielka Salvador and Vernessa Forbes.

The most coveted prize for the 2012 TCI Top Model Contest winner is being named Digicel TCI Brand Ambassador for a year.

The TCI Top Model will appear in all local television, print and billboard advertising campaigns, as well as making appearances at Digicel TCI events throughout her reign.

Additionally the TCI Top Model winner will also be a cover model and appear in an editorial spread of the 2012 Summer Times of the Islands magazine.

They will also have a profile page their sister publication – Destination: Turks & Caicos 2013, along with appearing in the 2013 Discover: Turks & Caicos Islands magazine, among many other national and international publications.

And that’s not all, as part of her prize package the 2012 TCI Top Model will receive a post-paid Digicel TCI cellular phone for a year, a round trip ticket to New York, $500 in a FirstCaribbean

Washanda Registre

International Bank Savings account, a weekend get-away to Parrot Cay, a gift certificate to Spa Sanay, a gift certificate from Jai’s, dinner for two to Gracie’s Cottage, one month’s membership to Rock It Hot Fitness, a gift certificate from Wish Boutique, and a photo-shoot with Brilliant by Tropical Imaging Ltd. There will also a be a bevy of cash prizes and awards for contestants that place second and third, along with consolation prizes for industry readiness, best runway walk, best body, model’s portfolio folder, fashion forward, Radio Turks & Caicos (RTC) viewers’ choice award and the Facebook ‘like’ award.

On Saturday, April 14, at 3pm the ten contestants will debut at the launch event Infiniti Catwalk being held at the Somerset infinity pool in Providenciales.

This year’s event will feature international designer Oyuna who will showcase her 2012 spring/ summer collection on the contestants.

The actual TCI Top Model Contest will be held at the Williams Auditorium in Providenciales on Saturday, May 12.

During the event there will

Vielka Salvador

Vernessa Williams

Trinee Bethell

Taciana Bin-Amie

Sheldlene Pubien

Lashanda Adams

Frenica Wiliams

Breanna Johnson

Aaliyha Bain

be a catwalk competition, guest appearances by Ashley Smith, 2010 TCI Top Model, and Davia

Chambers, 2009 TCI Supermodel, along with the Bowen Dance Academy, Leeward Heights, Mike

Dizzo and other noted entertainers.

For more information visit www. tcitopmodel.com

Tots get ready for Easter THE National Trust’s first kitemaking workshop for children aged six to 12-years-old let the tots get creative and design their own colourful kites under the guidance of volunteers.

Gathered under the shade of the trees at Cheshire Hall Plantation the group of about 12 children set down to the task of creating their masterpiece.

One determined youngster tried his hand at three different kites before he was able to have one that took flight.

Executive Director of the National Trust Ethlyn Gibbs said the workshop was intended to give

children a feel of the experiences of children in past years.

“We want to involve them in the rich heritage of the TCI and at the same time preserve our culture,” she said.

Gibbs stated that next year the activities are expected to be bigger, adding that the National Trust expects to collaborate with the Turks & Caicos Hotel & Tourism Association (TCHTA) next year to make the workshop bigger.

“We will be looking to partner with the Tourist Association and maybe a few business next year… we had a good response this year and the children are very excited about making their kites,” she said.

Hard at work tots, vying for the most creative masterpiece

Gibbs added that the children would be able to enter their kites

in the Tourism Association’s kite flying competition, scheduled to be

held on April 8th. (VANESSA NARINE)

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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

Entertainment

Turquoise Morning at Caribbean Marketplace Opening night, Junkanoo rush honoured all regional countries, January 2012

April 7 - 13, 2012

Turquoise Morning at the Florida Blue Classics in Orlando Florida, November 2011 for the Battle of the Bands

Turquoise Morning up for TV award A TURKS and Caicos produced TV show has earned a place in history by being

nominated for an acclaimed television award.

Turquoise Morning was

chosen from about 11,000 entries from 50 nations for the 2012 Telly Awards.

The show, which hit the airways in April 2008, is produced by Turks and Caicos and Bahamas-based media company Magnetic Media.

All five of the company’s shows were approved by the Telly Awards judging panel.

Host of Turquoise Morning Deandrea Hamilton said: “Even more thrilling for us at Magnetic Media is the fact that today, April 2, begins actual public voting for our Battle of the Bands show which was entered in the People’s Telly, TV Programmes/Segments

category.

“This means our Turks and Caicos and Bahamas fans can vote for the show along with others around the world. It is a humbling experience for us just to be in the running!”

The Battle of the Bands show features the Bahamas All Stars as they debuted as the first international band to compete in the Florida Blue Classics Battle of the Bands.

The hour long programme was filmed on location in Orlando, Florida last November.

Helping Hand

By Karishma

flowing streams purple flowers wind’s comforting arms. joyful stars illuminate, the dismal night smiles. golden dawns rainbowed sunsets, nature’s gifts to all. bounty of love accepted new starts we need.

man’s assurance given, man’s assurance we believe. open arms mercy plenty for anyone in need. conditions man says, simple, come on bended knees.

(The Weekly News invites budding poets to submit their pieces for publication at tcweeklynews@gmail.com )

“It is by far our most watched episode at our TV website BahamasonTV.com and it has so many hits on YouTube and Facebook we can hardly believe it.

“In fact right now, in anticipation of its success, we are running an encore presentation on Cable 12 in the Bahamas.”

The show is just one of the company’s five nominees for the Telly Awards but it is the only one where the public gets a chance to weigh in.

“It seemed they all fit the criteria for the Telly Awards which honours the very best film and video productions, groundbreaking online video content, and outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials and programmes.”

The Telly Awards organisers say the voting process involves visiting their channel on YouTube (www. youtube.com/tellyawards) and clicking the ‘thumbs up’ button.

Voting is now open, and ends on April 27, 2012.

“While we do want our home countries of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos to be proud of what we have managed to accomplish, we are more interested in our thousands of fans getting on line and voting for Battle of the Bands,” Ms Hamilton said.

“We have no fear that you will agree that the content of the show is so inspiring and riveting – it deserves one of those statuettes which we plan to share with the Bahamas All Stars group once we win!”

April 7 - 13, 2012

Entertainment

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

25

Daniel Craig: ‘I’ll keep going as James Bond’

The Royal couple would be more visible to the general population.

Kate and William waxworks unveiled THE DUKE and Duchess of Cambridge attract crowds of cameramen and hoards of press photographers everywhere they go -- even when they aren’t really there.

Wax models of William and Kate went on display at Madame Tussauds in London Wednesday, and were immediately swamped by onlookers keen to get close to the “royal couple.”

The figures, which cost more than $230,000 each to make, are shown in copies of the outfits they wore when they announced their engagement in November 2010, complete with a replica of the ring once worn by William’s mother Diana, Princess of Wales.

“Since the royal wedding, guests from all around the world have been asking where is Catherine? We want to come and have our photo taken with her,” said Madame Tussauds

spokeswoman Liz Edwards.

“So we’ve recreated the iconic moment where they announced to the world that they are in love with each other.”

A team of artists and model makers spent four months working on the couple. Kate’s hair alone took six weeks, each individual strand of real, ethically-sourced human hair inserted by hand.

“It’s really important for us that when people come and stand next to them, that they are seeing a piece of that real person,” said Edwards.

Unlike the subjects of most other Madame Tussauds waxworks, the company said William and Kate did not “sit” for their figures, but St James’s Palace provided all the key measurements, and the finished pieces have been given the royal seal of approval.

Taylor Swift wins US country music prize

TAYLOR Swift has been named entertainer of the year for the second year running at the Academy of Country Music Awards.

“I’m so happy about this,” she told the audience as she accepted the prize, which was voted for by fans.

“To my fellow nominees, I respect you so much and I love you. We work so hard and we try to give back,” she added.

Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson all won two prizes each. Lambert won female vocalist of the year and album of the year.

Lambert’s husband, Blake Shelton, was named best male vocalist.

For the third consecutive year, Lady Antebellum won vocal group of the year.

Aldean and Clarkson won their awards for the duet Don’t You Wanna Stay, which was named single record of the year and vocal event of the year.

It was the first ACM award for former American Idol winner Clarkson.

“Thank you all so much for

Swift was also honoured for her charity work at the Kids Choice Awards on Saturday.

welcoming me from the pop world,” she told the audience.

Another American Idol winner, Scotty McCreery, was named best new artist in another award voted for by fans.

JAMES Bond star Daniel Craig has said that he will continue to play the British spy for as long as he can.

The star - who is taking on the role for a third time in the latest film Skyfall - told the BBC he would “keep going until they tell me to stop”.

He admitted there were big expectations for the film to be a success with the Bond franchise celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

However, he said the team was “going to put on a good show”.

Craig added although he wanted to leave his mark on the films, he was under no illusion he would have to eventually give up the 007 role.

“I know there’ll be someone after me, and hopefully someone after them - I’m just trying to keep [the series] going.”

There has been a four-year gap between the previous film Quantum of Solace and the new film. Production was temporarily suspended in April 2010 due to uncertainty over film company MGM’s future amid financial troubles.

But the actor said work had still been going on behind the scenes.

“We haven’t been resting on our laurels, we’ve been plotting what to

Daniel Craig loves playing James Bond.

do with this film,” he said.

“The first one was a whirr - it was a new experience and flew by - the second one was the tricky second album, but this one we’ve really planned and got a great script.

“It’s going to be different from the last one, but it will still be a great Bond movie.”

Skyfall, which is directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes, also stars Javier Bardem, Albert Finney, Ralph Fiennes and sees Dame Judi Dench return as M. Filming has taken place in

Shanghai and Turkey, but the action has now moved to the 007 stage at Pinewood studios.

BBC entertainment reporter Lizo Mzimba had exclusive behindthe-scenes access to the set, and watched the “culmination of a big chase” scene on a set that recreated a London Underground station.

“Quite appropriately for the 50th anniversary Bond, a lot of the action is taking place in familiar London landmarks”.

Skyfall is due for release in the UK on 26 October. (BBC)

Rihanna says she was ‘still in love’ with Chris Brown and will do what she wants now NOT that many people would dare to tell the feisty creature that is Rihanna how to conduct herself, but in case anyone was considering it – don’t bother. She won’t listen to you.

Rihanna has finally spoken about why she’s back in touch with her ex boyfriend, Chris Brown – you know the one that held her captive in a car and smashed her pretty face in at the same time.

When she decided to collaborate with Chris recently on two tracks, her fans were outraged and she faced criticism from all quarters over the example she was setting to her fans – many of them young girls.

“I respect what other people have to say. The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently,” she told US Elle magazine’s May edition.

“It’s very hard for me to accept, but I get it. People end up wasting their time on the blogs or whatever, ranting away, and that’s all right. I don’t hate them for it.”

And the comments of other people aren’t going to make her change her mind but the sound of it either.

“Tomorrow I’m still going to be the same person. I’m still going to do what I want to do,” she said defiantly.

But she also spoke about the attack itself and the impact it had on her life and letting the public see her for who she is.

“It gave me guns. I was like,

Rihanna and Chris Brown recently sang two songs together.

well, f***. They know more about me than I want them to know. It’s embarrassing. But that was my opening. That was my liberation, my moment of bring it. I wanted people to know who I am. Whatever they take that to be, good or bad, I just want them to know the truth.”

It’s for this reason that she doesn’t mind people knowing about her private life – because she believes this actually gives her more freedom.

“It’s like, one less skeleton in the closet, one less burden, one less secret; now you know that, so you

can say what you want about it. I don’t have anything to hide.”

Rihanna poured her grief into her 2009 album Rated R and admitted: “I was going through the hardest time of my life. I was angry, sad, confused, torn. I was still in love and I needed to talk about it. That was the only way I could get peace, because it was in my head, and I couldn’t leave it there.”

Unfortunately though it seems she still can’t leave it there and Chris may become more of a permanent feature in her life, despite what anyone. (Mirror.co.uk)

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World News

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

April 7 - 13, 2012

Russian warns against arming Syrian opposition

RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Syria’s opposition will never defeat the country’s armed forces even if it is “armed to the teeth”.

Mr Lavrov warned that there would be “slaughter for many years” if Western and Arab states intervened militarily and supplied weapons to rebel groups.

Gulf states agreed on Sunday to pay the salaries of Free Syrian Army fighters.

Meanwhile, the US has warned the Syrian government not to intensify violence ahead of a ceasefire due on 10 April.

The US permanent representative to the UN, Susan Rice, said its actions since 1 April did not encourage hope that it would comply with the sixpoint peace plan proposed by UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

Ms Rice said the US was “concerned and quite sceptical that the government of Syria will suddenly adhere to its commitments” and the UN would “need to respond to that failure in a very urgent and serious way”.

The Syrian government has said it has agreed to the deadline, but activists accuse it of stalling for time so it can crush the uprising before

The UK says HMS Dauntless is being sent to the South Atlantic as part of routine operations

HMS Dauntless sets sail for the Falklands Saudi Arabia and Qatar have argued in favour of arming opposition supporters.

UN monitors arrive and say attacks are continuing.

On Tuesday, at least 58 civilians were killed, including 20 in military assaults and clashes between troops and rebels in Taftanaz, in the northern province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Eighteen soldiers died in Homs, Idlib and Deraa provinces, it added.

Explosions and gunfire were reported in several parts of the country on Wednesday, including the city of Homs and near the Turkish border.

“Tanks are still shelling or storming towns and villages before

going back to their bases,” Rami Abdul Rahman of the Syrian Observatory told the AFP news agency. “That does not mean they are withdrawing.”

During a visit to Azerbaijan on Wednesday, Russia’s foreign minister said the “Friends of Syria” group of Western and Arab nations backing political change were hindering attempts to end the bloodshed.

“Everyone has supported Kofi Annan’s plan, but decisions at the Friends of Syria group meeting aimed at arming the opposition and at new sanctions undermine peace efforts,” Mr Lavrov told Russian media.

HMS Dauntless, one of the UK’s largest and most powerful air defence destroyers, has set sail for the Falkland Islands.

The Ministry of Defence says it is a “pre-planned and routine” six-month deployment in the South Atlantic.

However, it comes days after the 30th anniversary of the start of the war.

The decision to send the ship has already prompted an official complaint by Argentina to the UN about the UK’s “militarisation” in the South Atlantic.

HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 Destroyer, sailed from Portsmouth and was seen off by crowds of flagwaving well-wishers.

It will relieve HMS Montrose and carry out operations off the coast of west Africa and the wider South Atlantic, with planned port visits in

both west and South Africa.

BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said it was unlikely that there would be any visits to Argentina’s ports.

The Royal Navy said it was the first operational deployment for HMS Dauntless since it was commissioned in 2010.

Commanding Officer Captain Will Warrender said: “HMS Dauntless’ ship’s company has been working extremely hard over the last year or so to prepare for our first operational deployment.

“We are now ready to provide a reassuring presence in the region and protect British interests.”

A total of 255 British servicemen and about 650 Argentines died after the UK sent a task force following the Argentine invasion on 2 April 1982.

Grandparents of orphan child trying to raise awareness of false child abuse accusations

FOUR years after his daughter and son-in-law, wrongly accused of abusing their only child, died in a tragic murder-suicide, Paul Cuin is fighting for justice.

He told the Daily News how he and his wife, Jackie, are hoping to raise awareness about their case and eventually work with legislators to restructure some of the laws they say led to the downfall of their family.

On June 30, 2008, Paul found his daughter, Tiffany O’Shell, and her husband, Dave, dead in their Colorado home.

The previous night, Dave reportedly shot his wife while she slept before turning the gun on himself.

The same day, Dave and Tiffany, both police officers, were supposed to meet with their respective lawyers and a criminal investigator about the allegations that they had been physically abusing their 3-month old girl, Alyssa.

Dave, the prime suspect, was under the impression he would be sent to prison and never again see his baby, who by then had been taken into foster care.

Paul says Dave “snapped” from the pressure.

“He was being accused by

social services. The police were investigating him,” he told The News.

“His own attorney, instead of giving him hope — and this part really slays me — painted such a black picture for him. He said, ‘You’re going to prison. You know what they do to policemen in prison.

You’re going to lose your wife.

You’re going to lose your baby.’ ” Also that day, a doctor finally realised that the broken bones in Alyssa’s legs — injuries her parents had been accused of inflicting — were actually caused by a rare genetic disorder, spinal muscular atrophy.

Civilians arrived in the capital Bamako from Timbuktu on Wednesday

UN Security Council urges end to fighting in Mali

Paul and Tiffany O’Shell were wrongfully accused of abusing their three-month old daughter, Alyssa. Paul buckled under pressure and killed his wife and himself.

The UN Security Council has called for an end to hostilities in northern Mali and a return to constitutional rule two weeks after the country’s coup.

It voiced alarm at the presence of a militant group with al-Qaeda links inside the west African state.

Army officers deposed President Amadou Toumani Toure last month, saying he had not done enough to fight the Tuareg separatist rebellion in the north.

Since then, the government has lost control of key northern towns.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is attempting to open a dialogue with the rebels so that it can recommence its aid

operations in remote parts of the north.

The mayor of the historic town of Timbuktu told BBC News he had seen teenage gunmen roaming the streets, looting and destroying property.

Coup leader Capt Amadou Sanogo has said President Toure may be charged with “high treason and financial wrongdoing”. The deposed leader is believed to be in hiding.

Malian political parties have rejected an invitation by the coup leaders to attend a national convention on restoring civilian government, saying they do not recognise their legitimacy.

April 7 - 13, 2012

World News

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

Wife shot dead by husband after dog poops in house: police A 76-YEAR-OLD Texas man was charged with murder for shooting his wife and two dogs after one of the animals pooped in the house.

Police arrested Michael Stephen Stolz after a five-hour standoff at the man’s home in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville late Tuesday. He was charged with murder in the shooting death of his wife, Bernice Stolz, and remained in the Denton County Jail on Wednesday on a $250,000 bond.

Stolz told officers he shot his 49-year-old wife and the couple’s two dogs after the German Shepherd mix defecated on the floor on Saturday, said Lewisville Police Capt. Kevin Deaver. He told officers that he shot the dog, then their other dog, a Rottweiler, then his wife, who was screaming because of the shootings of the dogs, Deaver said.

Police were called to investigate after Bernice Stolz’ employer reported that she failed to show up at work for several

days. Stolz rebuffed officers who asked to enter the house and check on the woman’s welfare, Deaver said.

Officers reported smelling an odor of decomposition from the home and called for SWAT officers to help encourage Stolz to surrender. SWAT officers finally sent a robot with a camera inside for a look, Deaver said. They noticed Stolz was unarmed and lying on the floor.

Stolz finally surrendered peacefully. Bernice Stolz’s body was found on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound to the head.

Stolz told officers he had also intended to kill himself but ran out of bullets after shooting his wife and dogs, Deaver said.

“Sometimes it’s just a trivial little thing that sets people off,” Deaver said.

Police had previously responded to calls for medical assistance at the home but Stolz had no history of mental illness, Deaver said. (Reuters)

Yahoo expects its cost-cutting programme to save $375m.

Yahoo to cut 2,000 more jobs in new redundancy round YAHOO is to cut 2,000 staff, 14% of the workforce, the company has confirmed.

The California-based company said the cuts were part of efforts to make it “smaller, nimbler, more profitable”.

The web portal has 700 million users, but has failed to keep up with rival Google in the search engine business, while its popular webmail service has been overtaken by social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

Yahoo expects its cost-cutting programme to save $375m (£236m) a year.

However, severance pay is expected to cost the company a one-off $125m-145m. The affected employees will be notified later on Wednesday.

It is the struggling company’s sixth round of redundancies in

the last four years, with the latest announcement bringing the total to almost 6,000 jobs losses.

This is the biggest round yet beating the 1,500 laid off in late 2008 in response to the recession.

Yahoo has also changed its chief executive twice over in the same period, but has as yet failed to turn around its fortunes.

The company made a profit of $1bn last year, down from $1.2bn in 2010. More worryingly, revenues fell to $5bn from $6.3bn, at a time when rivals have seen rapid growth.

“You can’t cut your way to revenue growth,” said analyst Colin Gillis of brokerage BGC Partners.

“What people want to see out of Yahoo is they want to see a plan and provision for revenue growth.”

(BBC)

27

Cameron defends secret courts and web monitoring plans DAVID Cameron has said “gaps” in national security must be plugged as he defended plans for more secret court hearings and more internet monitoring.

It follows concerns raised by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and others about civil liberties implications.

Mr Clegg said allowing ministers, not judges, to order court proceedings to be held in secret went too far.

The prime minister said there was still time “to deal with everybody’s concerns” before firming up the plans.

Proposals have been put forward to allow sensitive intelligence information to be heard in secret by a judge and “special advocates” in civil cases brought against the government.

It follows a case last year in which the government eventually settled out of court with 16 former Guantanamo Bay detainees, after the Supreme Court ruled it could not go to “closed material procedures” (allow secret evidence) in civil cases.

The deal ended the men’s damages claim for which they were demanding to see secret documents detailing their detention and ill-treatment by US forces in the wake of 9/11.

The proposed expansion of the use of secret hearings to civil courts and inquests is intended to ensure the government can contest such cases in the future, rather than settling them to avoid sensitive information being revealed in open court.

BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera said there was no doubt that the changes were also

David Cameron: “It is the job of the prime minister to make sure we do everything that is necessary to keep our country safe”.

being pushed by the intelligence agencies MI5 and MI6 - partly due to concerns in the US about shared intelligence being revealed.

Justice Secretary Ken Clarke told the BBC: “The Americans have got nervous that we are going to start revealing some of their information and they have started cutting back, I am assured, on what they disclose.”

But Mr Clegg has reportedly told the prime minister, ministers and security chiefs on the National Security Council that, without changes to the current proposals, his party would not back the legislation.

The Daily Mail reported that Mr Clegg believes it must be a judge, not ministers, who get the final say on when the powers to hold a secret hearing should be used, and argues that powers should not apply to coroners’ courts.

It follows a separate row over plans

to increase monitoring of phone calls, web and email use, criticised by some, including Conservative backbenchers, as “an unnecessary extension of the ability of the state to snoop on ordinary people”.

In questions after a London speech on Wednesday, Mr Cameron said it was his job as prime minister to “make sure that we do everything that is necessary to keep our country safe” from serious crime and terrorist threats.

He said he believed there were “significant gaps in our defences”, due to technological changes such as people making phone calls using the internet and because it sometimes was not possible to use intelligence material in court cases.

Difficult decisions needed to be made and it was important that the “government makes progress on these vital agendas” - but it would be done in a “moderate, calm and reasonable manner”.

He stressed there had already been “huge engagement” with the legal profession and civil liberties groups and added: “We are not at the end of that process yet... these are issues that we need to deal with. There is still time [before the Queen’s Speech] to deal with everybody’s concerns.”

But he added: “Prime ministers have a responsibility for national security.

We should take every step that is necessary, to keep the country safe, we shouldn’t put our civil liberties at risk by doing so, but where there are gaps that need to be plugged, we need to plug those gaps.”

Norway massacre: Breivik disputes psychiatric report THE RIGHT-wing Norwegian extremist who killed 77 people last July has blasted his psychiatric report as “lies”.

In a letter to Norwegian tabloid Verdans Gang, Anders Behring Breivik said 80% of the report was wrong.

Psychiatrists Torgeir Husby and Synne Soerheim concluded he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, but some experts have questioned the diagnosis.

Breivik’s trial is expected to start on 16 April and his lawyers say he wants to be tried as sane.

In the 38-page letter, Breivik described being sent to a psychiatric ward as a “fate worse than death”.

POLITICAL MESSAGE “To send a political activist to an asylum is more sadistic and more evil than killing him!” he wrote.

Breivik, who admits killing 77 people and injuring 151 others in a shooting spree and bombing

last year, says he is on a “crusade” against multi-culturalism and Islam.

He published a 1,500-page manifesto online shortly before the 22 July attack last year and does not want to “damage” its political message with an insanity charge.

The psychiatric assessment diagnosing him as a paranoid

schizophrenic was controversial in Norway and the court has ordered a second evaluation to be published on 10 April.

Breivik set off a bomb at a government building in Oslo before going on a shooting spree on Utoeya island, 40km (25 miles) away, at a Labour Party youth camp. (BBC)

Breivik was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia by two psychiatrists.

28

Job Listings Services Auto sales real estate

FAST SALE

Is looking for a

Kitchen Helper To work 5 days 6501

per week salary $5.00 per hour.

CARIBBEAN TILE Is looking for a

FOR RENT

3-bedroom apartment $1100.00 per month it will be available May 1st.

contact: 946-4664 NOEL EWING

Gardener Tile Setter To work 6 days To work 5 days per week salary $6.00 per hour.

Contact: 241-4188 6508

per week salary $5.00 per hour.

contact: 244-0707 or 346-2014 6502

Kiwi Connections Ltd.

Unskilled Labourer – $5.00/hr – Must be able to lift heavy material of 100lbs+ – Must be able to work weekdays and weekends - days/nights with varying schedules

Fax: 946-4661

Email: tcnews@tciway.tc

Website: tcweeklynews.com

$300,000 o.n.o.

CONTACT: 231-3788

Contact: 231-3788

Building for Sale

Six (6) One (1) Bedroom One (1) Bath. Located on Millinneum Highway.Contact Tel: 649 333 1723 or 649 246 6119 Email: capronis2005@ yahoo.com 6459

WILFREY & TONY BARBER SHOP & BEAUTY SALON Is looking for a

Hairdresser/ Cosmetologist to work 6 days per week salary $5.00 per hour.

Contact: 231-0882

TOP END

Finish carpenters/

furniture Must be able

between the hours of 10am-3pm

Stable hand Wanted • Must have minimum of 10 years experience working with all aspects of keeping, riding and training horses.

• Must have current drivers license • Must be a people person/ have excellent communication skills and understanding of customer service.

• Must have some computer skills • Must not weigh over 160lbs • Must speak fluent English, second language is an asset • Willing to work flexible hours and holidays, Monday through Saturday, approx. 45 hrs per week • Pay is $300 per week

Please submit resume to provoponies@ yahoo.com or call 649-241-6350

6482

STANLEY STAR CONSTRUCTION

Is looking to hire 2 high skilled

Contact: 331-4417 6515

Call (649) 941-5613

946-4664

$650.00 per month Gated Community Furnished

to read drawings salary $8.5 per hour.

Applications accepted from Belongers / Turks & Caicos Islanders Only

FOR SALE

1.3 Acres Of Land Ocean Drive, Turtle Tail Semi-Hilltop

Apartment

Is looking for a

April 7 - 13, 2012

STUDIO APARTMENT FOR RENT

6503

SUPER D RESTAURANT NORTH CAICOS

contact:231-3687

Classifieds TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

6516

Is looking for 2

Labourers To work 5 days per week salary $6.00 per hour.

Contact: 231-0308

6511

Construction scaffold and roof tiles for sale CONTACT: 431-1591 OR 231-3788

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

PHONE: (649) 946-4664

29

EMPLOYMENT / SERVICES / NOTICES

FAX: (649) 946-4661

SOMERSET STRATA MANAGEMENT CO. LTD.

Groundsman VACANCIES Responsibilities Perform all assigned landscape tasks, including, but not limited to, installation of plant material, care of flowers and bedding plants, trimming and pruning trees, and trenching.

Operate small equipment, i.e., blowers, hedge trimmers, rotary mowers, string trimmers, chain saws and pressure washing and irrigation dispersing gauges.

Operate large equipment such as mulch machine.

Basic irrigation operation and repair, i.e., drip systems, pipe repairs, head repair and filter change out.

Supplement other departmental teams on special projects or with daily activities as needed.

The Somerset Strata organization is seeking suitable qualified Belongers who possess the requirements listed are encouraged to apply. Ideal candidates should possess luxury resort experience, be professional in attitude and demeanor and must read and speak English fluently.

Responsibilities:

GARDENER

• Complete ground work as directed by the Property Manager which may include picking up trash, sweeping curb and dumpster areas and maintaining landscaping beds and other ground areas • Must have the ability to lift heavy items weighing up to 150lbs • Must have the ability to maintain irrigation systems and provide proper upkeep of sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, fountains, and other grounds features

LABOURER

Requirements • Must have at least two years experience as a Gardener • Must be able to spend long hours in the sun, rain, varied weather and temperatures • High school diploma • Must work weekends and holidays • Must speak, read, write and understand the primary language (English) used in the workplace.

• Must be able to read and write to facilitate the communication process.

• Requires good communication skills, both verbal and written.

Responsibilities: • Troubleshoot and perform minor repairs on heating, cooling and ventilation systems • Paint and repair drywall along with performing routine maintenance jobs and repairs around the property GENERAL REQUIREMENTS: • Must be a team player with a desire to deliver excellent customer service to our guest • Must have clear English communications skills (written or oral) • Previous experience in this area would be an asset Salary for this position will commensurate with qualifications and experience

Turks Island citizens only need to apply in person to Tiersa Smith, Human Resources Manager at The Sands Resort located on Grace Bay Road, Providenciales, or via e-mail: Humanresource@thesandstc.com. Applications must be in by April 20th 2012.

6506

Qualified Belonger candidates are requested to submit a CV by e-mail to:

Aleisa Musgrove Strata Operations Manager The Somerset Resort on Grace Bay amusgrove@thesomerset.com Submissions for this job position should be received no later than April 13th , 2012

6489

30

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

FAX: (649) 946-4661

EMPLOYMENT / SERVICES / NOTICES

Comfort Suites Ports of Call Resort

Bartender full time

• Looking for an outgoing individual who has had previous bartending experience.

• A creative individual who can enhance the guest experience.

• Accepting resumes at the front desk. No phone calls please.

NEW STYLE CONSTRUCTION

GRACE BAY SUITES Is looking to fill the following positions:

Is looking for a

Labourer To work 6 days per week salary $5.00 per hour.

contact: 241-7185

6480

PHONE: (649) 946-4664

April 7 - 13, 2012

FLOWER GIRL Is looking for a

• Cleaners • Maids • Life guard • Masseuse • Beach/ Pool Attendants • Bartenders • Front Desk Manager • Part-time & live-in positions available immediately Please deliver resume with salary expectations to Front Desk preference will be given to qualified Belongers

Flower CoOrdinatoR • Must know different kinds of flowers • Must know how to treat flowers • Must know how to arrange and take care of flowers

Contact: 231-3788

6373

BUTTERFIELD GOLD GROUP OF COMPANIES

Vacancy Notice INVESTMENT SERVICE EXECUTIVE

POSITIONS AVAILABLE Coral Quarry

Three (3) Mechanics

@@ The employee is responsible for the repair and maintenance of all Company equipment/machinery, and to ensure minimum downtime of same through proper coordination of the preventative maintenance program. @@ Must have least 10 years experience @@ Must have the ability to lift and move up to 100lbs @@ Must have vision abilities; close vision, color vision, peripheral vision and depth perception. @@ Applicants must have knowledge of occupational hazards and safety precautions applicable to the trade. Must have the ability to communicate effectively

SUMMARY OF DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: The incumbent in this managerial position coordinates the objective of pre-Investment and Investment services as a core function of the investment Unit; aligned strongly with the marketing role the Candidate will work closely with the Director in the creation of the investment packages, and conception of investment pushes for marketing and development of investment goals. This role “sells” the country and its investment products and opportunities. Providing professional services for the development of the investment project proposals as set out in the project proposal guidelines. This role requires strong communication skills professional mannerisms and to be an excellent ambassador for the Turks and Caicos Islands. This role also liaises directly with the marketing role and after care services to complete the feedback loop and ensure a full service offering from the unit. Duties include reviewing reports and projects; developing investment communication, information, data and other related policies and procedures; preparing annual estimates of expenditure; meeting consultants; supervising staff and overseeing the investment generation for the islands in line with governmental aims and objectives and liaising with other Government Department. The incumbent will also represent the TCIG Investment Unit at meetings, conferences and seminars, and provide impartial, accurate and timely advice to superiors.

• The employee will be exposed to fumes or airborne particles, extreme heat, toxic or caustic chemicals, risk of electrical shock and vibration, moderate to loud noise levels. To be exposed to outside weather conditions.

• Applicants will be exposed to hazardous work environments.

• Salary: from $9.50 per hour

Three (3) Labourers

@@ Offloading the cement boat and must be Physical, able-bodied individuals capable of lifting heavy loads @@ Wages from $ 6.00 per hour

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Island Pride Supermarket

The position requires an Undergraduate Degree in Finance, Investment Planning, Public Sector Management, Development, Marketing or Business related area from a recognized institution. The candidate must have at least six (6) years hands-on experience, five (5) of which should have been obtained functioning in a similar field of work.

One (1) Cashier

@@ To operate a cash register and check stand to provide the store’s customer with the most friendly, accurate and efficient checkout service possible; to perform stocking and other duties as assigned, according to company policy; to ensure that the work shift contributes to the financial best interest of the store. @@ Wages: from $6.00 per hour

The incumbent must also be knowledgeable in Public Service Development laws, Procedures and Practices as well as be current with Public Sector Developmental reforms and best practices in countries similar to the Turks & Caicos Islands. The successful candidate is required to be proficient in Microsoft Office Suite as well as online management tools and customer contact software. Intermediate knowledge of the use of Graphic Design and other Web Design Software would be preferred. He /She must be able must have excellent communication skills and be a strong ambassador for the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Application forms available from Butterfield Gold Human Resource Department.

Only applicants selected for interview will be notified.

Submit applications to by April 15, 2012 to:

SALARY: $44,820 - $ 47,790 per annum Applicant’s resume including contact number or email address, two letters of reference and a police certificate should be sent to the Permanent Secretary, Office of the Public Service Management, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands. Fax (649) 946-1582. Email: recruitment@gov.tc Extension: 10318 ONLY SUITABLE CANDIDATES WILL BE ACKNOWLEDGED 6416

Butterfield Gold Ltd., Human Resource Department Town Center Mall Providenciales Tel: 649-946-4211

6494

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

FAX: (649) 946-4661

EMPLOYMENT / SERVICES / NOTICES NATHANIEL GARDINER Is looking for a

Is seeking a

Labourer To work 5 days per week salary $5.00 per hour interested person may contact the Director at

contact: 241-4838

6478

contact: 946-7705

6518

Is looking for the following persons:

3 Waitresses

Gardener To work 6 days per week 3 hours per day salary $100 per week

contact: 432-2390

6487

2 Domestic Workers

Labourer Farmer Must be willing to work

– $5.00-$6.00 per hour

3 Laborers

– $5.00-$6.00 per hour

2 Carpenters – $6.00 per hour

5 days per week salary $5.00 per hour.

1 Mason

– $6.00 per hour

Contact: 941-8283 6491

Lew 1 Shipping

Is looking for a

Deckhand Seeks a

Domestic Worker To work 5 days per week salary $5.00 per hour.

contact: 232-3122

6522

To work 5 days per week this candidate must live on North Caicos.

MARTIN GRAY

– $5.00 per hour

Jill Swann

Seeks a

Labourer

Acting on behalf of our clients: C & J Variety Store, North Caicos Café, Danny Buoy’s Restaurant, Philip Hawkins (Paradise Entertainment), Tibor’s Machine Shop, AMJ’s Store, discount Auto Parts & Tires, Emily Delancy is looking to fill the following positions:

2 Sales Clerks (Cashiers) – $5.00 per hour

To work 5 days per week $5.00 per hour.

COLMELITA HANDFIELD

C & J EMPLOYMENT

Is looking for a

Domestic worker +6489

231-2995

AMETHYST PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT

To work onboard vessel Duties include but not limited to:

• • • •

Loading and off loading vessel Receiving and wrapping cargo Keeping deck work area clean Person must be willing to live on board vessel • Must have STCW Certificate

Contact: 941-5707

6517

MAMET LTD.

Contact: 243-3993

6498

PHONE: (649) 946-4664

31

FLORAL DESIGNER NEEDED Experienced Floral Designer and Receptionist Needed.

Must have • knowledge of, passion for, and experience in, floral design; • customer service experience • computer knowledge.

• Must be a team player

Interested persons should call 231-0009

6524

April 7 - 13, 2012

BUTTERFIELD GOLD GROUP OF COMPANIES

POSITIONS AVAILABLE One (1) Executive/Senior Procurement Officer

Primary Duties

Building Material Procurement Specialist Assistant to Chief Operating Officer and Vice President Operations Prepare and dispatch correspondence Assist with Financial Analysis, Budget & Project preparations Prepare various reports; take notes at meetings and prepare minutes Schedule management appointments

The Head Chef is responsible for directing the food operation of a local Steak House. Casual during the day – fine dining at night. The ideal candidate will apply deliver superior standards in food preparation, kitchen management and service.

Qualification, Experience & Abilities

Minimum of three (3) years work experience and knowledge in purchasing all types of building materials, including, but not limited to roofing prefab building structures for the Construction & Maintenance division for the company.

A minimum of five (5) years work experience in an administrative position with duties including Project preparation, Report Writing and assisting with financial project management and evaluation.

• Five (5) CXC subjects or equivalent Approve must provide certified courses and/or diplomas relevant to above duties.

• Proficient in Microsoft Office • Applicant must have excellent communications skills, both oral and written.

• Applicant must be able to work independently with minimum supervision.

Applicant must be open to being on call outside of regular business hours to deal with and complete assigned tasks.

Wages: Commensurate with experience starting from $2,250.00 per month

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: • 5-7 years’ experience as a Head Chef or Sr Sous Chef • Exceptional culinary knowledge with extensive experience preparing beef • Degree in Hospitality or Culinary Arts • Demonstrated ability to manage food and labour costs • Highly motivated and driven to excellence • Strong leadership skills with the ability to train, develop and motivate team members Suitably qualified candidates should apply in writing or by phone to the following:

Bridgette Thomas BNC Consulting Group, Ltd bthomas@bnccgroup.com phone: 649-332-2565 Closing Date: open until filled

Application forms available from Butterfield Gold Human Resource Department. Only applicants selected for interview will be notified.

Submit applications to by April 15, 2012 to:

Butterfield Gold Ltd., Human Resource Department, Town Center Mall Providenciales. Tel: 649-946-4211

Head Chef

6494

ONLY CANDIDATES MEETING MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS WILL BE CONTACTED

6520

•

•

• •

IMMEDIATE OPENING

32

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

PHONE: (649) 946-4664 Claymore Group Ltd. Is looking for a

April 7 - 13, 2012 FAX: (649) 946-4661

EMPLOYMENT / SERVICES / NOTICES

SAG CONSTRUCTION

ALLIED MANAGEMENT SERVICES LTD.

NURSE

Is required for several managed properties

Domestic Worker To work Monday – Friday.

Must be honest and hard working. Salary $5.00 p.h.

Contact: 946-4109

6510

Qualifications:

• Required for property management company • Must have completed a degree course in Nursing and hold an internationally recognized registration • Fluent English written and spoken

Is looking for a

Mason To work 6 days per week

Duties:

• To give additional support services to elderly guests and disable • Irregular hours including night work and weekends Salary $800.00 per month plus share of nursing fees

Send resumes to alliedmanagement@ usa.net or to Labour Department

salary $9.00 per hour

6514

Contact: 231-6889

6500

PUBLIC AUCTION

Vacancy Notice Director Central Procurement Unit

SUMMARY OF DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

An exciting opportunity awaits you in the Turks & Caicos Islands Government Service for the post of Director Central Procurement Unit within the Government’s Central Purchasing Unit. The incumbent in this managerial position will have Departmental responsibility for the effective direction and oversight of the Central Purchasing Unit by ensuring adequate and timely procurement of supplies, materials and services for the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands. He / She is expected to form links with major suppliers and secure contracts to ensure an efficient and effective Supply Chain Management System that provides the Government with value for money.

The successful candidate will be responsible for providing leadership to staff in the Unit as well as implementing proper procurement systems for TCIG. The incumbent is also expected to generate results that are deemed to be effective, on time and in quality, when satisfactory levels of materials and services are maintained, economies of scales are achieved and the Department’s Budget is contained within its limits. Key performance metrics should be developed and agreed with the Permanent Secretary of Government Support Services.

The position will be responsible for the establishment of strategic initiatives and employee performance and development of the CPU team.

This role further requires the successful candidate to use analytical skills and visual dexterity especially when he/she is coordinating and ensuring the maintenance of new Management Information Systems to deal with Purchasing and Inventory Control. Strong leadership, relationship management and interpersonal skills are required for this position.

Other duties include preparing Departmental budgets, analyzing purchasing history of all Departments as well as designing initiatives to achieve cost compression especially when conducting physical inventory checks. Experience in Strategic Sourcing, developing contracts with Suppliers, as well as tendering processes will be required. The role is responsible for ensuring that Government Policies and Procedures are followed, and where necessary, for recommending changes to these procedures to ensure compliance and best practice.

• 1997 Honda Accord • 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier • 1998 Honda Civic

(Fantastic Sound System: 2 Pioneer speakers (12”), audio pipe can and pioneer radio) To be held at Provo Water Company, Grace Bay Road, Providenciales, (first right after Prestigious Property) on Friday 20th April 2012.

Cash Sale Only. No Warranties, No Returns.

For enquires prior to date of said auction please contact The Supreme Court Office Tel: 9464215 (Sealed Bids accepted prior to Auction) This Advertisement is Authorized by Shuntal Gibson Bailiff of the Supreme Court, Providenciales

6507

Vacancy People’s Telecoms Company Ltd. has a vacancy for a

Field Technician QUALIFICATION AND SKILLS • Bs Mechanical Engineering. BS Information Technology. Advanced formal training in Telecommunications • Must be competent and knowledgeable and able to maintain the infrastructure – hardware and software - integral to a complex Wireless Communications Network • Must have a working knowledge of Communications, Electronics, Digital Radios, Satellite Systems, 802.xx Systems, Vehicle Location Equipment, Customer Premise Equipment, Marine Radio, Specialty Telecommunications Personal Devices

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

RESPONSIBILITIES: • Use measuring and diagnostic tools to test, adjust, and repair Electronic Equipment.

• Read Work Orders that describe equipment failures • Must be able to liaise with Equipment Manufacturers/Operators to resolve equipment related problems inclusive of the ability to read schematic drawings and other written specifications.

• Visit nodes and sites within a network to identify and resolve network performance issues or outages to ensure such unforeseen issues are resolved in the quickest possible time to ensure the network up-time is maintained at or near 99.999% • Perform regular maintenance work on clients Communication Devices as well as periodic work to maintain the wireless networks.

• Must be able to build and maintain secure websites and mail server systems.

• Candidate must be able to work long hours and on demand • Salary negotiable

The position requires the incumbent to possess a Bachelors Degree in Accounting and Purchasing Management or related field with at least five (5) years experience at a senior management level. in the field of procurement management.

SALARY: $44,820 to $47,790 per annum For persons recruited outside the Turks and Islands a two or three year extendable contract is offered. Other benefits offered in addition to basic salary include Transportation and Telephone Allowance, Housing Allowance, end-of-contract gratuity of 15% of salary; return passage for family of up to two children under the age of 16 years, duty free on the shipment of personal effects imported within six months of appointment.

Applicant’s resume including contact number or email address, two letters of reference and a police certificate should be sent to the Permanent Secretary, Office of the Public Service Management, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands. Fax (649) 946-1582. Email: recruitment@ gov.tc Extension: 10318

ONLY SUITABLE CANDIDATES WILL BE ACKNOWLEDGED

On the following items

6504

Turks and Caicos Islander Applicants preferred.

Stubbs Diamond Plaza #66 Sibonne Rd. Unit #3 Email: kay@acltci.tc

6505

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

PHONE: (649) 946-4664

33 FAX: (649) 946-4661

EMPLOYMENT / SERVICES / NOTICES

Job Opportunities

Parrot Cay Resort and COMO Shambhala have vacancies for the following positions: Managerial Position

Cost Controller

The successful candidate will be responsible for controlling cost throughout the Resort, and must be able to monitor and maintain control of Departmental weekly, monthly, yearly budgets. Have sound knowledge of inventory control and proper requisitions procedures within all departments of the hotel. Focus should concentrate on Food and Beverage areas and the proper allocation of requisitioned and transferred items. All items purchased, received, and requisitioned must be properly accounted for in the Sun Financial System.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES • Ensure that all products requisitioned and departmental transfers are accurately entered into the System • Ensure that all products received are coded and entered to the correctly account on a daily basis.

• Maintain a par level for inventory items and set up and maintain an Inventory Control Process • Rotate stock regularly and ensure that monthly inventories are done timely and accurately on a monthly basis.

• Prepare necessary reconciliations statements and must work closely with the accounts department on all financial matters • Produce an accurate usage chart to review proper product levels – monthly • Maintain a high level of professionalism and efficiency as well as directing and inspecting delivery from local suppliers to maintain acceptable product levels.

• Maintain appropriate Accounting records and must work closely with all department heads regarding reconciliation of items ordered, received, transferred and expensed • Prepare departmental cost reconciliations as required QUALIFICATIONS The individual must possess the following: • Must have an Associate Degree or a higher level of education • Must have at least 2 years of previous experience as food and beverage cost controller • Must be competent in the use of the following computer applications: Microsoft Excel and Word. Preference for knowledge of other accounting or inventory control related software such as Sun Systems, Sage Accpac ERP or Micros Inventory Control.

Assistant Housekeeper MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES • He/she must have the ability to Manage and direct the overall operations of the Department.

• Must be able to develop specific goals, policies and strategies for the day to day running of the department as well as implementation through correct planning, organizing and training.

• Must maintain the Resort high standards, quality with the ability to maximize profitability at all times.

• Control labour costs by ensuring that all employees are productive.

• Control Housekeeping operating stocks • To ensure all areas of the beach villas are clean: including bedrooms, public areas.

• Must inspect and look after all bedrooms and guest areas on a daily basis.

• To ensure guest laundry operate to correct standards.

• Must have the ability to provide training for new and existing employees when necessary.

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE • At least two to three years experience as an Assistant Housekeeper within the Hospitality Industry, knowledge of Five Star Resort Standards will be a plus.

• Must have excellent communication, organizational and managerial skills.

• Must have a passion for service • Proven ability as a good team player with the skills to effectively function in a multi-cultural environment.

• Must have excellent problem solving skills with exceptional Leadership capabilities.

Laundry Manager MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES • Must have the ability to train and develop the team to be consistent with their standards.

• Must be able to effectively run and operate a commercial laundry.

• The ability to monitor all laundry equipment and to make sure that proper maintenance is carried out when necessary.

• Must maintain a fully functional laundry at all times that is capable of serving all departments in the hotel as well as the Private Homes and a valet section responsible for laundering and pressing of guest clothes.

• Must be able to schedule staff accordingly to cover all shifts, as we operate a 24 hours a day.

• You will also oversee the in house seamstress, maintain high quality linen and drive linen inventories.

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE: • Must be computer literate with excellent communication skills • At three years operational experience of a commercial laundry • Must be detail oriented and must comply with all Company standards • Must have the ability to train staff when necessary.

• Must have strong leadership capabilities with the ability effectively manage and motivate all staff members.

Events and Special Service Manager MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES • Lead the brainstorming process to develop event themes (as & when required).

• Research potential event locations and vendors and make recommendations.

• Secure, direct and supervise contracted event vendors.

• Create, manage the event planning and orchestrate the event as schedule.

• Manage the design and production of special event printed materials, i.e. invitations, signage, programs, journals, etc – on a case by case basis as required by client.

• Pricing of rooms and F&B (subject to review with Hotel/ General Manager & FB Mgt & Finance).

• Maintain budget accounting and reporting for special events.

• Reconcile and submit vendor invoices for payment (if any as per requirements).

• Prepare event-related invoices.

• Analyzing sales figures and forecasting future sales volumes to maximize profits.

• Maintaining awareness of market trends in the industry.

Qualification and Experience • At least two years sales and event planning experience within hospitality • Working knowledge of opera system version 5, computers and Microsoft office suite with proficiency in excel and word.

• Must have technical/functional skills.

• Must have excellent communication and organizational skills • At least a Bachelors degree in Business, Sales and Marketing or Hospitality • Able to multi-task several projects at once and establish priorities amongst competing interests.

• Proactive problem solver.

Other Managerial Positions Information and Technology Manager Beach House Manager Recreation Manager

OTHER POSITIONS Spa Therapist Specializing in Acupuncture and Shiatsu Spa Therapist Resort Butler Yoga Teacher Laundry Supervisor Pilates Instructor Chef de Partie A/C Technician Recreation Attendant Gardeners Line Chef Spa Therapist Demi Chef F & B Server Head Baker Commis Chef Sous Chef Private Villa Chef Executive Pastry Chef Private Residence Attendant Carpenters Spa Attendant Electrician Night Spa Receptionist K9 Dog Handler Security Officer Plumber Vector Control Attendant Kitchen Steward Laundry Attendant Turndown Attendant Evening Turndown Attendant Public Area Attendant Room Attendant Pool Attendant Canteen Cook

Salaries for these positions will be paid base on qualification and experience. Please note that all application must be submitted with a valid Police Record, two reference letters from previous employers or a notary public and current educational certificates.

Only suitable candidates will be contacted for an interview.

Forward your resume to the Human Resources Department at the following address:

Human Resources Manager Parrot Cay Resort and COMO Shambhala P.O. Box 164 Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands Ph: (649) 946 7788, Fax: (649) 946 7749 Email: joel.richards@parrotcay.como.bz or keva.forbes@parrotcay.como.bz

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TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

PHONE: (649) 946-4664

April 7 - 13, 2012

EMPLOYMENT / SERVICES / NOTICES

FAX: (649) 946-4661

VACANCY Interhealth Canada (TCI) Ltd is seeking to find qualified person to fill the following position

Seamstress/Laundry Attendant The successful candidate should: • be able to work in a Healthcare laundry setting • Have a minimum of 5 years experience as a Seamstress • Have at least 2 years experience working in a laundry and operating laundry equipment such as: washers, dryers, pressers and irons.

• Be able to read, write, and speak English fluently.

• Be willing to work shifts and on public holidays.

• Be in good health and be able to stand for long hours.

These positions seek individuals with no criminal record.

Salary, dependent on experience, will be above min wage. The closing date is the 16th April.

Please leave applications at the reception desk in Cheshire Hall Medical Centre and ensure a contact number or email address is attached.

Leeward Limited Wishes to recruit

Facilities Manager

VACANCIES OCEAN CLUB RESORTS IS LOOKING FOR QUALIFIED, EXPERIENCED APPLICANTS FOR:

MAINTENANCE TECHNICIAN Experience required in all areas of general maintenance including but not limited to: AC repair, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, and painting. Must be detail oriented, able to work with limited supervision, and fluent in written and spoken English.

• Ensure the physical structures and support services of the company’s property portfolio function effectively; indentify, develop and implement improvements to the portfolio including new business opportunities; manage legal issues.

• Manage and develop relationships with commercial and residential stakeholders; analyse and review proposed and on-going development; ensure prescribed covenants are upheld.

• Develop and implement operational procedures, establishing quality targets and maintaining records of operations; provide a safe working environment; provide leadership and line management of operational staff, manage subcontractors and suppliers.

• Establish budgets and maintain cost control to meet financial targets.

• Market the company, producing graphic materials as required; manage IT and communication systems.

Requirements & Qualifications

GARDENER

• Age 30 to 55 • Bachelors Degree in an appropriate discipline plus a BIFM recognized qualification in Facilities Management

Must be physically capable of hard manual outdoor labour. Previous experience preferred.

HOUSEMAN

Experience 10 years operational and commercial experience in Facilities Management with 5 years in a management position. Must have experience in: • FM project management, commercial property and property law • Construction of MEP, HVAC and landscaping; space planning, CAD, architectural, engineering and infrastructure design; data, PABX and security network management • Business development, planning and administration; cost control, accounts payable and accounts receivable; marketing and graphic design • Must display strong customer service, verbal and written communication skills. Must have strong IT skills with advanced proficiency in AutoCAD, Microsoft Office, Visio and Server 2003.

Must be able to work without supervision. Salary range $3,750 - $4,250/month depending on experience.

Responsible for assisting the Operations Department with cleaning in all areas of the resort.

Strenuous physical labour requires one who is able and willing to perform heavy lifting, and other physically demanding functions.

JANITOR – Responsible for assisting all departments with cleaning in all areas of the resort.

Strenuous physical labour requires one who is able and willing to perform heavy lifting, and other physically demanding functions.

All applicants must be able to present a clean Police Record if offered a position. Wage commensurate with experience. Individuals must be willing to work holidays and weekends on a flexible schedule dictated by business demands.

Please drop off resumes at the Ocean Club Front Desk, to the attention of the Human Resource Manager, or via email to diane@oceanclubresorts.tc Only those receiving an interview will be contacted.

Key Responsibilities to:

All applications must be made by 21 April 2012 and should include career history, qualifications and the names and contact details of at least two references.

Belongers only need apply. Applications should be sent to: leeward@tciway.tc , PO Box 148 Providenciales, or faxed to 946-5674.

6527

6517

PHONE: (649) 946-4664

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

35 FAX: (649) 946-4661

EMPLOYMENT / SERVICES / NOTICES IBO BEAUTY SALON

MANVELLA PRATT

Is looking to fill he following positions:

Is looking for a

Hairdresser Nail Technician

Must have at least 3 years experience any information contact: Maia Clare @ 343-9494 We are located downtown behind the ballpark 6500

Labourer/ Domestic Worker to work 5 days per week salary $5.00 per hour.

Contact; 343-0241

6497

HOUSEMAN

Ward’s Consultancy Acting on behalf of our clients: Faces and Fingers, Paula Jennings Ward is looking to fill the following positions:

Cosmetologist – salary $200 per week

Domestic Worker – salary $5.00 per hour

contact: 332-5533

6525

PROVO CHRISTIAN SCHOOL Invites applicants for the following positions:

Required for inside and outside cleaning duties: some heavy lifting

Hours will vary depending on occupancy levels. Evening and weekend shifts will be part of the schedule. Applicants must be able to speak, read and write English to a level that will enable communication with guests. Police clearance required for all applicants. Salary $6.00 per hour.

Email to alliedmanagement@ usa.net or 946-5866 6506

Janitor Teacher

Christian Education Certified

Provo Christian School

Telephone: (649) 941-5775 or email: provochristianschool@ hotmail.com Deadline for applications is May 31st, 2012

VACANCY BNC Consulting Group is actively seeking suitably qualified Belongers to fill the following immediate openings outlined below. If you are a team player with a strong work ethic, and you are available to work evenings, weekends and public holidays, you are encouraged to apply.

Compensation commensurate with education and experience.

• Head Chef • Chef de Partie • Commis Chef (2) • Breakfast Chef • Pastry Chef • Mixologist • Landscaping/Insect Repellant Closing Date: April 16, 2012

Suitably qualified candidates are encouraged to apply in writing or by phone to the following:

Bridgette Thomas BNC Consulting Group, Ltd website: www.bnccgroup.com email: bthomas@bnccgroup.com phone: 649-332-2565

6521

6497

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

PHONE: (649) 946-4664

EMPLOYMENT CORE RESOURCES LTD.

April 7 - 13, 2012

/ SERVICES / NOTICES

Is seeking applicants to fill the position of a

SMALL HOTEL REQUIRES

HEAD

Client Relations Officer

PHILIPPE MAMET Is seeking a

HOUSEKEEPER

in North Caicos

Basic Requirements: • Language skills essential English & French • Minimum 15 years hotel experience • Basic computer skills required • Must have own vehicle • Must be prepared to work long hours, weekends and holidays • Pleasant personality essential • Good understanding of front desk operation in case of emergency

Essential Requirements: • Education at least a Bachelor’s Degree in communication Studies • Knowledge of the language of law, especially as it relates to contracts • Knowledge of business and public administration • Knowledge of research methods and possess excellent research and analytical skills(at least 3 years experience) • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with a customer service focus • Competent in the use of commonly used computer applications and be able to use those programs to create word documents, spreadsheets, databases and presentations • Attention to detail and flexibility to manage multiple projects • Highly detail oriented and organized in work • Ability to act and operate independently with minimal daily direction from manager to accomplish objectives Salary is negotiable

Please mail CV to P.O. Box 446, Providenciales 6523

Domestic

Worker To work 6 days per week salary $5.00 per hour interested persons may.

contact: 231-2995

GOVERNMENT VACANCY

Applications along with 2 character references, a police record and a testimonial from the most recent place of work must be emailed to:

The Director Core Resources Ltd. Suzie Turn Plaza Leeward highway, Providenciales Turks & Caicos Islands All applications must be sent by April 19th, 2012 to coreresources@gmail.com

FAX: (649) 946-4661

6526

36

DEPARTMENT: PLANNING

6531

*Please note only short listed applicants will be contacted to attend interviews

FINANCIAL CONTROLLER REQUIRED

A long standing integrated Financial Services & Commercial Group requires a very experienced financial controller to assist the Finance Director in the following areas: We are looking for a financial services accounting professional (CA/CPA/CGA/AMA) with at least 19 years experience to administer our financial and accounting function.

The individual must possess proven experience in establishing and implementing auditing and control systems and procedures in a changing and dynamic financial & commercial environment.

Also experience in automotive, retail, law firm accounts utilities and client asset portfolio management.

Proven expertise in all facets of financial statement preparation, treasury investments and ability to report to the Board of Directors level is essential. The ability to supervise, train and manage junior staff and support personnel in accounting systems and procedures is required. Accountable for practice management and development, including client billing and recovery of receivables and expanding fee base of existing clients. Management of ad hoc assignments such as cashflows, budgeting and due diligence.

Hours of works will vary with job demands and future growth of the business.

Compensation will be determined upon the chosen candidate’s relevant work experience and professional qualifications and group medical coverage will be provided.

Demonstration of sufficient knowledge, flexibility, experience and work ethic to command the position of Deputy Finance Director after one year is a pre-requisite.

DIRECTOR OF PLANNING SUMMARY OF DUTIES AND RESPONBILITIES: An exciting opportunity awaits you in the Turks & Caicos Islands Government Service for the post of Director in the Planning Department. The incumbent in this position is responsible for managing the Planning Department. He / She will provide support to the Permanent Secretary for the administration and operation of the system of planning in the Turks and Caicos Islands as stipulated in the Physical Planning Ordinance. Duties include reviewing and approving planning applications and other requests for the use or development of land; supervising staff; procuring technological equipment, software and machinery for execution of the physical planning work; collaborating with key stakeholders to sensitize them and gain buy in and support for the development and implementation of planning policies for the Islands. The successful candidate must also promote and enforce the orderly development of lands in the Turks and Caicos Islands through the National Physical Development Plan and is also expected to review the Physical Planning Ordinance, TCI Development Manual and Building Codes as well as other regulatory instruments for the operation of the Planning System.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE The position requires the incumbent to have a Masters Degree in Urban Planning and Development or a related field with eight (8) years on the job experience to acquire the necessary competencies to effectively respond to the challenges of the job, five (5) of which must be at a senior management level.

RENUMERATION PACKAGE: SALARY: $44,820- $47,790 Serving officers should apply through their Heads of Department. For persons recruited outside the Turks and Islands a two-year contract is offered. Other benefits offered include a Housing Allowance, Telephone Allowance, an end-of-contract gratuity of fifteen percent of salary; return passage for family of up to two children under the age of sixteen years as well as duty free on the shipment of personal effects imported within six months of appointment.

For more information on the Job Description, please contact the Office of the Public Service Management; Telephone 649-946-2801, Extension: 10321. All resumes with contact information and two letters of References as well as a Police Certificate should be addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Office of the Public Service Management, Church Folly, Grand Turk. Facsimile: 946-1582 or Email: recruitment@gov.tc

Interested and qualified persons should forward resumes in strictest confidence to:

McCollum & Newlands, P.O. Box 678 Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands

APPLICATION DEADLINE: April 17th 2012

ONLY SUITABLE CANDIDATES WILL BE ACKNOWLEDGED 6532

6528

April 7 - 13, 2012

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

37

Science & Technology

Cancer diagnosis raises risk of heart attack and suicide, study says CANCER can kill long before malignant tumors take their toll, new research shows. A study involving more than 6 million Swedes reveals that the risk of suicide and cardiovascular death increases immediately after a cancer diagnosis.

Within the first week of being told they had cancer, patients were 12.6 times more likely to commit suicide than people of similar backgrounds who were cancer-free. The newly diagnosed patients were also 5.6 times more likely to die from a

heart attack or other cardiovascular complication in those first seven days, according to a study published in Thursday’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

“One has to assume that it’s the psychological impact of that news,” said Dr. Ilan Wittstein, a cardiologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, who was not involved in the study.

“This is not data that suggests cancer, and the physical stress of the cancer, is what’s causing people

to die,” he said: “These are people getting the news, and within a very short period dying from heart disease — long before treatment ever begins.”

The researchers examined the records of 6,073,240 people born in Sweden and linked them to the national Cancer, Causes of Death, and Migration registers. Since each person has a unique identification number, researchers could pick out those who received cancer diagnoses and look up the cause of death.

They found that risk of suicide

or cardiovascular death increased in the first few weeks — when stress from the diagnosis would have been highest — but leveled off over several months. After a year, the suicide risk for cancer patients was 80% higher than for cancer-free controls and the risk of cardiovascular death was elevated by 20%.

More serious forms of cancer seemed to correlate with the highest risks of suicide. For example, over the first 12 weeks, suicide risk among lung cancer patients was

12.3 times higher, while for those with skin cancer it was just 1.4 times higher. The same pattern held for cardiovascular death.

The danger in those first few weeks appears higher for younger patients than for older patients. For instance, those under the age of 55 saw their risk of cardiovascular death rise by a factor of 11.9 during the first four weeks after being diagnosed, compared with a 5.2-fold increased risk for those between the ages of 65 and 74.

GOVERNMENT VACANCY Vacancy Notice

Veterinary Assistant

DEPARTMENT: HER MAJESTY PRISON

PRISON OFFICER

SUMMARY OF DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

SUMMARY OF DUTIES AND RESPONBILITIES: An exciting opportunity awaits you in the Turks & Caicos Islands Government Service for the post of Prison Officer. The incumbent in this position assists in providing a safe, secure location for offenders of society; ensuring that security measures are satisfactory by checking cells, bolts, locks, grills and reporting to the Senior Officer any weakness/es detected in the security arrangements. The Officer is also expected to count inmates to ensure that the physical count corresponds with the numbers on record; make sure prohibited articles are not bought into Her Majesty’s Prison; search all inmates prior to and after each visit as well as anytime as directed by the Senior Officer in charge. Additional duties include supervising an inmate or group of inmates on Wings and in the performance of their task/s and provide guidance accordingly. The incumbent is also expected to escort inmates to Work Parties, the Health Centre and any place as directed by the Prison’s Management Team. The Officer must also ensure that inmates’ complaints and requests are taken and addressed appropriately whether personally or by referring the inmate to a Senior Officer.

An exciting opportunity awaits you in the Turks & Caicos Islands Government Service for the post of Veterinary Assistant within the Environmental Health Department.

The incumbent in this position will enforce the animal health and animal welfare regulations for the Department of Agriculture in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

He/ she will be expected to work in the Animal Welfare Programmes involving the inspection of commercial breeders, pet shops, kennels, animal shelters and related facilities for proper licensure and compliance with animal health ordinance and regulations. The successful candidate provide clinical and regulatory services and veterinary public health services that will contribute to the production and importation of safe food of the animal origin and the control of zoonotic diseases to ensure the protection of the health and safety of the public. Other duties include conducting the investigation of alleged violations of Animal Health Ordinances and Regulations; Assisting with clinic duties and surgical operations; Assisting in animal disease surveillance, Assistance in the monitoring of the importation of animals and other associated regulatory functions. He/ she would also be expected to perform any other duties as may be required.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

The position requires the incumbent to have a high school diploma or equivalent.

The candidate must be physically fit with a good medical history. The candidate must possess excellent communication skills both written and oral. Applicants must be prepared to work hours that may include night shifts. Candidates must be hardworking, trustworthy and a team player and must be able to work under stress and operate calmly.

A Diploma in Animal Health and Veterinary Public Health, Diploma in Agriculture or an Associates Degree in Veterinary Technology or any related field. The incumbent is also expected to have at least four (4) years working experience to acquire the competencies to perform the job effectively.

SALARY: $28,512 - $32,292 per annum

RENUMERATION PACKAGE:

For person recruited outside the Turks and Islands a two (2) year contract is offered.

Other benefits offered in addition to basic salary includes a telephone allowance, housing allowance, end-of-contract gratuity of 15% of salary; return passage for family of up to two children under the age of sixteen (16) years, as well as duty free concession on the shipment of personal effects imported within six months of appointment.

SALARY: $18,900 – $20,520 PER ANNUM Serving officers should apply through their Heads of Department. Other benefits offered include a Duty Allowance and Housing Allowance. Housing Allowance will be paid to applicants recruited within the family islands excluding Grand Turk.

For more information on the Job Description, please contact the Office of the Public Service Management; Telephone 649-946-2801, Extension: 10318. All resumes with contact information and two letters of References as well as a Police Certificate should be addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Office of the Public Service Management, Church Folly, Grand Turk. Facsimile: 946-1582 or Email: recruitment@gov.tc

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 17th April 2012

Applicant’s resume including contact number or email address, two letters of reference and a police certificate should be sent to the Human Resource Director , Office of the Public Service Management, Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands. Fax (649) 946-1582. Email: recruitment@gov.tc Extension: 10318 ONLY SUITABLE CANDIDATES WILL BE ACKNOWLEDGED 6529

Application Deadline: April 19th 2012

38

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

Science & Technology

April 7 - 13, 2012

Humans used fire one million years ago ASH and charred bone, the earliest known evidence of controlled use of fire, reveal that human ancestors may have used fire a million years ago, a discovery that researchers say will shed light on this major turning point in human evolution.

Scientists analysed material from Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa, a massive cavern located near the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Previous excavations there had uncovered an extensive record of human occupation.

Microscopic analysis revealed clear evidence of burning, such as plant ash and charred bone fragments. These materials were apparently burned in the cave, as opposed to being carried in there by wind or water, and were found alongside stone tools in a layer dating back about 1 million years.

Surface fracturing of ironstone, the kind expected from fires, was also seen.

Although modern humans are the only human species alive today, originating about 200,000 years ago, other human species once roamed the Earth, such as Homo erectus, which arose about 1.9 million years ago.

“The analysis pushes the timing for the human use of fire back by 300,000 years, suggesting that human ancestors as early as Homo erectus may have begun using fire as part of their way of life,” said researcher Michael Chazan, a paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Toronto and director of the university’s archaeology centre.

The research team’s analysis suggests that materials in the cave

Memory decline speeds up in the two to three years before death of old age. (absolut, Shutterstock)

Researchers found evidence of human fire use in South Africa’s Wonderwerk Cave (shown here), a massive cavern located near the edge of the Kalahari Desert. (photo: M. Chazan)

were not heated above about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius). This is consistent with preliminary findings that grasses, brushes and leaves were burned for these fires — such fuel would not have been capable of hotter flames.

Fire would have helped early humans stay warm and keep nighttime predators at bay, and enabled cooking, which would have made food more digestible.

In addition, “socialising around a campfire might actually be an essential aspect of what makes us human,” Chazan said. “The control of fire would have been a major turning point in human evolution.”

Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham has speculated that controlled fires and cooked meat even influenced human brain evolution.

He suggests that humans were cooking their prey as far back as the first appearance of Homo erectus 1.9 million years ago, just when humans were experiencing major brain expansion, and proposes that cooking allowed our ancestors to evolve larger, more calorie-hungry brains and bodies, and smaller guts suited for more easily digested cooked food.

“It’s possible we may find evidence of fire use as early as Wrangham has suggested,” Chazan told LiveScience.

Future research will analyse both earlier and later materials from this site to see how fire use might have developed over time.

“We’re opening the question of how fire fit into the life of early humans and how that might have changed over time,” Chazan said.

Sticking with a job you hate can make you sick STAYING at a job you hate may affect more than just your happiness.

New research finds that employees who stay at jobs out of a feeling of obligation are prone to several health problems, including exhaustion, stress and burnout.

“Our study examined whether some forms of commitment to an organisation could have detrimental effects, such as emotional exhaustion and, eventually, turnover,” said study co-author Alexandra Panaccio, an assistant professor at Concordia University in Montreal.

“It may be that, in the absence of an emotional bond with the organisation, commitment based on obligation is experienced as a kind of indebtedness — a loss of autonomy that is emotionally draining over time.”

The research, published in the journal Human Relations, found that employees who stayed at organisations out of either a feeling

Unhappy workers can suffer from exhaustion, stress and burnout.

of obligation or a perceived lack of other job options were more likely than other employees to experience mental and physical health problems.

Researchers based their findings on a study of 260 workers from a variety of industries.

The research also found that people with higher self-esteem were more greatly affected by a lack of

employment options.

“When employees stay with their organisation because they feel that they have no other options, they are more likely to experience emotional exhaustion,” said Panaccio, who is in the department of management at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business. “This feeling, in turn, may lead them to leave the organisation.”

Employers, however, can fight these problems by working with their employees.

“The implication is that employers should try to minimise this ‘lack of alternatives’ type of commitment among employees by developing their competencies, thus increasing their feeling of mobility and, paradoxically, contributing to them wanting to stay with the organisation,” Panaccio said.

The research was a collaborative effort by Concordia, the University of Montreal and the business school HEC Montréal. (Livescience.com)

Memory decline speeds up in years before death MEMORY declines faster than any other time in the two-and-a-half years before death of old age, a new study finds.

In the years before death, the rate of memory decline speeds up eight to 17 times, according to the research.

The study examined the brains of 174 Catholic priests, nuns and monks who had undergone memory testing for six to 15 years before their deaths. After death, researchers led

by Rush University Medical Center scientist Robert Wilson investigated the participants’ brains.

They found that the characteristic plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s disease (which occur before the disease is diagnosable) are not to blame for the fast rate of the decline.

Alzheimer’s tangles and plaques were associated with the decline starting earlier, but not with it going faster. That points to another culprit for the memory problems.

“The findings suggest that the changes in mental abilities during the two to three years before death are not driven directly by processes

related to Alzheimer’s disease, but instead that the memory and other cognitive decline may involve some biological changes in the brain specific to the end of life,” Oregon Health and Science University professor Hiroko Dodge, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an editorial accompanying the new paper. “The study by Wilson and his co-authors deepens our understanding of terminal cognitive decline.”

With further study, Dodge wrote, researchers could develop algorithms to detect and analyze memory changes to identify people in this terminal phase of life.

The study and editorial appear online today (April 4) in the journal Neurology. A second study, also led

by Wilson, finds that mental activity can boost brainpower in old age.

Slightly more than 1,000 elderly people with an average age of 80 underwent yearly memory exams for five years, reporting how often they read, wrote letters, visited the library or played board games.

Earth’s wobble led to CO2 release that ended last Ice Age RISING levels of carbon dioxide have for the first time been definitively linked to the global warming that led to the end of the last Ice Age. A team at Oregon State University reconstructed globally averaged temperature changes during the end of the last Ice Age, in contrast to previous studies, which only compared CO2 levels with local temperatures.

They found that average temperature around the Earth correlated with – and generally lagged behind – rising levels of CO2.

“Carbon dioxide has been suspected as an important factor in ending the last Ice Age, but its exact role has always been unclear because rising temperatures reflected in Antarctic ice cores came before rising levels of CO2, says Jeremy Shakun, a former doctoral student at OSU and now a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard and Columbia.

“But if you reconstruct

temperatures on a global scale – and not just examine Antarctic temperatures – it becomes apparent that the CO2 change slightly preceded much of the global warming, and this means the global greenhouse effect had an important role in driving up global temperatures and bringing the planet out of the last Ice Age.” The theory is that the Earth’s natural wobble affected the amount of sunlight striking the northern hemisphere, melting ice sheets that covered Canada and Europe. Fresh water flowed into the Atlantic Ocean, where it formed a lid over the sinking end of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.

This put an end to the movement of warm water up from the tropics which had delivered heat to the northern latitudes.

The discovery has implications, of course, for how human-generated carbon dioxide will affect the planet in future.

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Sports International

TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS

McIlroy: ‘I wasn’t ready to win Masters’ IT ALL looked so simple for Rory McIlroy going into the final round of the 2011 Masters.

Holding a four-shot lead, the Ulsterman was on the verge of winning his first major at the tender age of 21.

A nightmare final round of 80 on that Sunday ended that dream but McIlroy has admitted he wasn’t ready to wear his first Green Jacket, before sending a warning shot to the rest of this year’s field not to expect a similar capitulation.

“One of the things I learned as a person and as a golfer is that I wasn’t ready to win the Masters. I wasn’t ready to win a major,” he told a press conference Tuesday.

“It was a huge learning experience.

I took a lot from it and took some of the things [and put them] into practice very quickly.”

McIlroy improved so quickly that a few weeks later he had won the U.S. Open and is now setting his sights on laying last year’s ghosts to rest, especially his disastrous performance at the tenth hole where he famously hit the trees before finding the ball nestled behind the cabins.

“I can’t believe how close the cabins are. They are only 50 yards off the tee!” joked McIlroy.

“It’s great to be able to laugh about it now.”

Yet returning to Augusta hasn’t all been fun and games. He admits that the memories of that final round still had to be overcome.

“The first time I played the back nine last week, [I had] these memories that come back and memories you don’t want. That’s fine. I got them out of the way,” he

Rory Mcllroy hopes to over his nightmare finish at last year’s Masters.

said.

“I had a quick glance on the way past walking down the middle of the fairway last week. Hopefully I’ll do the same thing during this week.”

McIlroy has had a fine start to 2012, having briefly usurped Luke Donald as world number one. Now he has put that final round into perspective telling journalists that: “it’s only golf. It’s not like anyone died on that Sunday.”

But he has turned to one legend for advice who has had his own Augusta demons to deal with: Greg Norman.

“He said a couple things to me that I found very useful and put into practice,” he said when asked what advice Norman, who blew four chances at winning the Masters, had given him.

“I’ve said this before, but create this little bubble around yourself and just try and get into that and don’t let any of the outside interference come into that.” (CNN)

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Bomb kills top Somali sports officials A YOUNG Somali woman set off a bomb blast that rocked Somalia’s newly reopened national theater in the capital city Wednesday, killing two top sports officials, a Somali U.N. official said.

Six people died in the explosion and several -- including Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali -- were injured, Omar Jamal told reporters in New York.

Said Mohamed Mugambe, head of the Somali Football Federation, and Somali Olympic Committee chief Adan Hagi Yabarow Wish were two of those killed in the attack.

The bomb went off during a celebration for the first anniversary of Somali national television in Mogadishu, according to witnesses.

Screaming people fled the theater, and the sound of ambulance sirens filled the air.

Jamal said the bomb, which exploded when Ali was on the stage, was intended to kill the prime minister and other high-ranking officials.

Ali suffered minor injuries but remains determined to bring security to the country, he said.

“Again the prime minister this morning confirmed his commitment, so did the president, that they will continue making sure that the country will be stabilised,” Jamal said.

He said the young woman, who was very skinny and appeared to be aged 20 to 25, had been acting suspiciously before the event but was carrying a police ID, which was “part of the reason she was able to get in.”

Head of the Somali Football Federation and the Somali Olympic Committee chief were killed.

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) earlier said the device had been detonated by a female suicide bomber who blended in with the crowd gathered for the occasion.

The attack on a high-profile event in the heart of the capital is seen as a big symbolic blow to Somalia’s attempts to reinvent itself on the international stage after years as a failed state.

Sepp Blatter, president of football’s governing body FIFA, said he was shocked by the news of the two sports officials’ deaths.

“I knew both men personally and can only say good things about their endless efforts to promote sport and football in their country. They will be sorely missed,” he said.

FIFA’s vice president, Prince Ali, also extended his condolences to the victims’ families. “We have faith that the football family is resilient and will continue promoting the values of peace and coexistence through

our beautiful game,” the Jordanian prince said.

The Islamist group Al-Shabaab, which has been waging war against Somalia’s weak transitional government, claimed responsibility for the bombing via Twitter.

A post to the group’s Twitter page said the explosives had been planted before the gathering and denied that a woman had carried out the attack.

Brig. Gen. Audace Nduwumunsi, deputy force commander of AMISOM, condemned the bombing.

“We are united with the Somali government and stand firm together.

This was a despicable crime against the Somali people, but it will not stop us achieving peace in Somalia,” he said.

“Yet again the terrorists’ methods show that they are enemies of peace and are foreign to Somali culture. By their attack, they are trying to derail the hopes and dreams of the Somali people, but they will fail.”

Kentucky beats Kansas to claim NCAA title THE KENTUCKY Wildcats beat the Kansas Jayhawks 67-59 Monday night to clinch their eighth NCAA men’s basketball championship.

Despite a late surge that brought the Jayhawks within five points, the Wildcats dominated the game, leading by double digits during much of the second half.

The championship game in New Orleans pitted Kentucky freshman phenom Anthony Davis, recently named Associate Press college basketball player of the year, against Kansas junior Thomas Robinson, this season’s lone unanimous AP AllAmerican pick.

Kentucky’s Doron Lamb led the Wildcats in scoring with 22 points, while Davis contributed 16 rebounds and five assists.

Kansas’ Tyshawn Taylor put up 19 points and three assists for the Jayhawks, and Robinson led in

rebounds with 17.

Both teams congratulated one another after the game, with Kentucky’s Darius Miller at a loss to describe the euphoria.

“I can’t really explain it or put it into words,” Miller said, wearing a ceremoniously severed basketball net around his neck. “All the hard work that we put in this year, the sacrifices that people have made on this team, it means a lot. Especially with these guys, we’ve grown as brothers, and we’ve had a lot of fun with this.”

Kentucky’s Terrence Jones clung to the championship trophy, saying he wouldn’t let it go.

“It was great. I just had to let it go because I had to get up to my mom and my family, and it would have took too long to get up there holding that big trophy,” Jones said with a smile.

The mood was quite different on the Kansas side, where a somberlooking Taylor reflected on his final game as a Jayhawk.

“As a senior, this is a bad feeling because I don’t get a chance to make it up to these guys,” he said.

“I love how we fought, and in a couple of days I might look back and say, ‘You know, this was a great year. We had a great year.’ But right now, it’s just a bad feeling -- being so close, working so hard for four years to get to this one game. And we’re finally here, and just come up short.”

The top-seeded Wildcats and the No. 2 seed Jayhawks squared off earlier in the season, with Kentucky netting a 75-65 win.

The “March Madness” leading up to Monday night’s championship game included several upsets, including Lehigh’s win over

Kentucky and Kansas in the finals of the NCAA tournament.

perennial powerhouse Duke and 15th-seeded Norfolk State’s victory over 2nd-seeded Missouri.

Following Kentucky’s win Monday night, jubilant fans lit fire to couches, bed sheets and mattresses,

authorities said.

Battalion Chief Ed Davis of the Lexington Fire Department said firefighters responded to 55 “nuisance fires” in the area of the University of Kentucky campus.

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Josh for Sports

A prophet is not without honour except in his own home town Action in the U-19 rugby clash.

TCIRFU U-19 Rugby:

Bears win after Outten’s hat-trick THE BCQS Bears defeated the Vix Warriors 4-2 in a TCIRFU Under-19 clash last Saturday at the Meridian Field after Lincoln Outten scored a hat-trick.

Defence was the overriding theme of the first half, and in fact the match. The Bears’ efforts without the ball in the opening period were probably the deciding factor in the match, as the Warriors dominated territory and possession but could only muster one try early. This lone try was a wonderful team effort though, finished off by Martin Rigby who crashed over in a double tackle after a great period of passing and offloading in the tackle by the Warriors that saw the ball travel from sideline to sideline until the Bears’ defence was stretched to breaking point. The slender 1 – 0 lead was pegged back just before halftime when Outten scored a long range try on the back of some more good work from his team mates as they fought hard to get out of their own half.

Outten was in again a few minutes into the second half, this time from

closer range as the Bears held the ball for long periods inside the Warriors’ 22 before he found the space to beat a couple of despairing efforts to score. This looked ominous for the Warriors after they had faded the week before to allow the Bears to claim a late draw, but instead they came up with the try of the match.

Edwardo Villanueva broke out beautifully from his own quarter, and when he was cut down around halfway he found great support from Edward Jean who was tackled but still provided a brilliant offload to a charging Alpha Georges who ran close to 50m to score and gain the reward for excellent support play.

As the clock counted down both teams threw everything into it to claim the win, but a couple of handling mistakes from the Warriors gave the Bears vital field position, and in the dying minutes Outten stepped around the courageous Warriors’ defence for his hat-trick try. With time pretty much up the Warriors attempted to go the length of the field to score a try to claim

a second consecutive draw, but Outten was involved again, this time securing a great turnover from the ruck which resulted in a try to the elusive Leon Rene. There were great performances all over the park; with man-of-the-match Outten ably supported by Rene and Abdis Casseus. Edward Jean was once again simply outstanding for the Warriors with his brilliant tackling, while his brother Jaebets Jean and Edwardo Villanueva were excellent with the ball in hand.

Both sides showed the benefit of a vigorous and efficient training session beforehand and will be aiming for more of the same when Under 19 rugby resumes at the Meridian Field on Saturday the 21st of April at 10.00.

The TCIRFU is running an Easter break Rugby Camp at Meridian Field on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of both weeks of the school holidays, from 9am – 12pm. Enquiries are welcome to Jamie Tait, Rugby Development Officer, at rdo@rugby. tc

100 points in an official league game in any of its Asian national federations.

Two players achieved the feat in non-league games. Lou Salvador had 116 points for the Philippines against China in the 1923 Far Eastern Games, and Jeron Teng scored 104 for Xavier School against Grace Christian College in a high school game in the Philippines.

Chamberlain scored 100 points in an NBA game, a record that still stands 50 years later.

TCI THE EPITOME OF THIS CLICHÉ In this part of the world all countries admire/honour their national heroes.

They look up to them as role models and find in them a sense of national pride. But in the TCI we despise anybody that becomes international superstars that were born here in the TCI. We cannot change because we have no love for each other, but rather retain a black crab mentality bent on putting each other down. May God help us!

Our revered international superstars are not appreciated THE MUNRO COLLEGE TCI LEGENDS Myself the first (1967-69) I was Jamaica Boys’ Champs champion in class one for two straight years and thus I’m a legend in Jamaica as well as the Bahamas and in certain parts of the USA, but here in my beloved TCI I can’t even get a job picking up garbage. I have been suffering from Multiple Sclerosis for 38 years and never received any assistance from NIB. I am 61 years old.

DELANO WILLIAMS Delano is the fastest 200M man for his age in the world. What has this country done for him? He is a living legend in Jamaica. They go crazy when they watch him run. Imagine he can’t even represent his own country in the Olympics. The past governor publicly declared a scholarship for him to attend a university of his choice.

What provisions/assistances/ finances is he receiving from the authorities here? None! It’s an international shame.

IFEANYI OTUONYE We have this youngster who is ranked third in the British Commonwealth and first in the Caribbean in the long jump class one division at the Junior Commonwealth level. This country has done absolutely nothing for him, not even a float parade or national day— neither a comprehensive help in defraying the cost of his training or education.

We have at least three other TCI athletes at Munro College.

Not one of them get assistance whatever from the athletic association, sports commission or government. That’s an international shame and disgrace.

Lebanese basketball player scores 113 in league game MOVE over Wilt Chamberlain.

Another basketball player joined the elite century club after scoring 113 points in a Lebanese league game.

Mohammad El Akkari led Moutahed to a 173-141 victory over Bejjeh in a Division A league game on Tuesday. He scored 32 3-pointers in 59 attempts and was 40-for-69 overall from the floor. He only had one free throw.

The basketball world governing body website said the 6-foot-2 guard is the first player to score more than

THOSE familiar words were spoken by God the creator in the person of Jesus.

He was speaking to the Jews who had no respect for prophets born in their country, such as himself and John the Baptist among others.

It appears to me that in this modern day and age most extraordinary persons are revered by the nationals of their country of birth.

By Joshua Gardiner Some examples are persons such as Nelson Mandela, Jesse Owens, Mohamed Ali and Lynden Pindling among many great legends in the history of the world.

My personal perception of the nations who have no appreciation for their international legends/heroes is that those nations have no national self esteem.They despise their nationals who shine in the eyes of the world. Yet they would worship national heroes of other countries. They have no self esteem.

RUNNING HOT: Mohammad El Akkari scored 113 points his team for Moutahed in the Lebanese division ‘A’ league quarter-final against Bejjeh.

(FIBA Asia picture)

WE CAN LOSE THEM ALL Hypothetically if other countries offer them citizenship and they accept, I would not blame them.

We do not deserve the honour that they bestow upon the TCI. We are ungrateful and do not honour our superstars. All we want to do is travel the world on their backs. They should boycott CARIFTA Games in Bermuda until they receive due consideration.

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Williams, Otuonye lead TCI’s CARIFTA Games charge

Shinaydine Pluviose of the Eastern Eagles receives her League MVP award from Godfrey Been (right) and Gerry Gregg of Island Fire Supplies.

Island Fire Supplies Girl’s Development League:

Western Warriors crowned champions THE ISLAND Fire Supplies Girl’s Development League finished in dramatic fashion last weekend as the Western Warriors were crowned champions. Before the final games commenced all three teams were in contention to win the league with the Provo All Stars firmly in the driving seat as they held a two point lead over the Eastern Eagles with the Warriors a further point behind. However, three closely fought encounters saw the Warriors, who started the day in third place, claiming the title.

In the opening game the Warriors got themselves back into contention with a 1-0 win against the Eagles.

Both teams knew that only a win would give them a chance of overtaking the Provo All Stars and in an evenly fought match Sarah Cenary saw her team to victory with a direct free kick from 25 yards. Amelie Speer almost equalised in the dying minutes of the game, but Guerline Hall pulled off a tremendous save to ensure the Warriors held out for the win.

The second game was a rollercoaster ride of high drama and tension. The Provo All Stars knew that victory would clinch the title and they appeared to have the game under control after surging to a 2-0 lead. Janice Fernandez opened the scoring as she got on the end of Kadine Delphin’s cross and minutes later Christina Hinds burst through the Eagles’ defence to double the lead. Both teams had chances to score, but the introduction of Jacinda Alfrena and Yarielca De La Cruz into more attacking roles made the difference. Alfrena made a strong run on the left wing and she found De La Cruz unmarked in the penalty box who turned and placed the ball into the bottom corner. A few minutes later the Eagles drew level as De La Cruz scored her second of the game from the penalty spot. Alfrena was the provider again as her skilful run into the box drew a foul which resulted in a penalty. De la Cruz’s

fiercely struck spot kick ensured that the final few minutes were a tense affair but neither team could break the deadlock.

Going into the final game both teams knew that a win would give them the championship, however, Provo All Stars had the benefit of knowing that a draw would be good enough for them, while the Warriors would have to win to claim the title. Both sides had early chances before Sarah Cenary finished off Yarileny De La Cruz’s pass to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead. Hinds, Fernandez and Delphin all came close to equalising but against the run of play Cenary added a second goal as she again finished from a De La Cruz pass. The All Stars continued to dominate possession and with three minutes remaining Hinds gave her team a lifeline as she pulled a goal back. However, despite their best efforts the All Stars could not get the second goal they needed to wrest away the trophy from the Warriors, whose never say die spirit had given them the two wins they needed on the day.

Following the final game Godfrey Been and Gerry Gregg of Island Fire Supplies were on hand to give out awards to the teams. Provo All Stars finished in second spot behind the warriors but even the third place Eagles were close behind. Technical Director Matthew Green thanked all the players, referees and sponsors for making the league happen. ”The league has been a tremendous success as it has given a lot of our young girls a chance to play 11-a-side football for the first time whilst encouraging some of our older teenage players a chance to become more responsible as they organised the teams on the day.

The games were all closely fought, were very competitive but were played in a spirit of sportsmanship and fair play, something which is often lacking at senior level”.

DEFENDING 200M champion Delano Williams and former silver medallist Ifeanyi Otuonye will highlight the Turks and Caicos’ 2012 CARIFTA team which will compete at the Games from April 7-9 in Bermuda.

Williams, who dominated Champs last week and made the qualifying Olympic Games ‘A’ time in the 200M earlier this year is likely to retain his U-20 title. He would also compete in the relays, while bronze medal winner at last year’s Commonwealth Games in the long jump event Otuonye would only compete in that event (long jump) and the relays, also at the oldest age group level. At the U-17 level Otuonye won a silver medal in high jump at these Games.

A total of seven U-17 and eight U-20 athletes will travel for the Games. The team would be coached

by Mr. Ali Smith with Neil Harrison (Williams’s coach) as his deputy.

Ms. Rosalie Ingham would travel as team manager.

The full team reads: Under-17 girls: Helcy-Ann Sauver - 100m, 200m Raymond Gardiner High; Jetavia Howell - 100m, 200m Raymond Gardiner High; Desir Phignie - 1500m, 3000m- Raymond Gardiner.

Under-17 Boys: Ken-James PABA Nightly League:

Flyers fight off Lions to meet finals THE Flyers survived a confident TC Crystal Lions team to advance to the Second Annual Provo Amateur Basketball Association (PABA) League finals which start Friday at the Gus Lightbourne Sports Complex.

After cruising 2-0 in their best-in-five series, the Flyers, who were only defeated once in the regular season (to the other finalists South Caicos), were then defeated twice by the Lions. A game five took place on Wednesday and the Flyers emerged victorious 75-67.

Chad Campbell scored 14 points and pulled down 16 boards for the Flyers to go with his three blocks while Anthony Cash scored 17 points to go with his eight rebounds, nine steals and six assists. Anthony Pratt added 15 points. Kino Williams led the Lions with 18 points, while Marcus Lightbourne scored 12 points and dished out nine assists and Alonzo Garland added 13 and five assists.

The finals will begin from 20:00h.

Ifeanyi Otuonye won a bronze medal at the last Commonwealth Games.

Mullings - High Jump, long jump, relay- Raymond Gardiner; Toto Otuonye - high jump, long jump, relay – HJ Robinson; Daryl Francious -100m, 200m, relay, - HJ Robinson; Edwin Forbes -100m, 200m, relay- HJ Robinson.

Under-20 Boys: Luke Cox Heptathlon, relay – HJ Robinson; Christian Turker-400m relays- HJ

Robinson; Shyon Parker - 100m, high jump, relay -Clement Howell; Junior FelsAmi -100m, 200m, relay- Clement Howell; Kivarno Handfield -high jump, long jump - Marjorie Basden; Delano Williams - 200m, relay – Munro College; Ifeanyi Otuonye- long jump, relay- Munro College; Angelo Garland-400m, relays Munro College.

HAB Group/Gansevoort T20 Cricket:

Kishco lose first game NEW comers to cricket in the TCI Kishco lost their first game by 16 runs in a high scoring affair against Beaches at the Downtown Ball Park last Sunday.

Beaches lost the toss and were inserted to bat. Hard-hitting all-

Dylan Brubaker won two first places

Brubaker wins twice at R/C Car Racing

EIGHT-year-old Dylan Brubaker won two races when the first Radio Controlled Car Racing event for April was held at the WIV Parking Lot. The youngster used his control and precision to win the Owner’s ‘C’ main oval race (10 laps) and the Owner’s ‘B’ main oval race (15 laps).

Liam Delancy, 11, claimed victory in the open top qualifying race while first-timer Ryan Kurz who is visiting from British Columbia, Canada won the Loaner ‘C’ main race.

The next big race day is April 15.

rounder Damian St Ange (who was later named the man-of-the-match) led the attack with 60 runs (4X4s, 3X6s) while Osmond Sicard laced the boundaries for a score of 48 (10X4s) to push the eventual winners to 209-8 from their 20 overs.

Bowling for Kishco, Sanjay Fatnani captured 3-48 from four overs.

When Kishco batted they reached 193-8 before the overs expired. Pawan Kumar once again led the attack with 62 runs (6X4s, 5X6s), his third consecutive half-century of the competition, while Cyril Fernandes added 35 runs (3X4s, 2X6s), but the stifling bowling of Ancell Williams with 3-29 from four overs and Yohan Grant 2-28 from four overs did the damage.

TCI Flamingos ready for Bambarra Rugby Test Series THE TCI national rugby team, the Flamingos, will host two teams from New York, the first from next week in the Bambarra Test Series at the Meridian Field in Gracebay Village.

The local side, which has developed a strong core of junior players, will play the Brockport Doggies on Wednesday April 11th before playing the Brooklyn Rugby Club on April 18th and 21st at the same venue.

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Williams closer to Olympics after getting UK passport – Sends signal with sprint double at “Champs” TURKS and Caicos sprint sensation Delano Williams is heading to the UK and might be representing that nation in sprinting at this year’s Olympic Games if he makes the cut at their June trials.

Given that the TCI as a British Territory is barred from being represented at the Olympics, Williams, with the blessings of the local sporting bodies, opted to acquire a British passport to compete at the Games. He received the document last week and is now set to attend the June trials.

After legitimising himself for the Games with the 200M Olympic ‘A’ qualifying time of 20.53s in Jamaica this February, the 18-year-old created a stir again with a sprint double in Jamaica last week at the ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletic Championships (the premier junior event on that island).

He clocked 10.37s (after a slow start) to win the 100M while he fought a strong headwind and another slow push out of the blocks, to win the 200M in a time of 21.18s.

Both timings were off his national records of 10.34s and 20.53s achieved at the Milo Western Athletes Championships earlier this year.

INTERNATIONAL BUZZ The news of Williams acquiring his passport created quite a buzz on the international scene and sport articles began appearing on sites such as ESPN, the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail etc, about the young TC Islander.

The Daily Mail described him as a teenage prodigy while the other websites in their own way indicated that he would make an impact at the event.

Williams, they indicated, should take one of the three sprint places up for grabs.

His main rivals will be British favourites: 35-year-old Marlon Devonish (personal best: 10.06s in the 100M achieved in 2007 and 20.19s in the 200M achieved in 2002) and 32-year-old Christian Malcolm (who has preformed better in the 200M race. He clocked 20.15s in 2005 at the European Cup, but excelled as a junior when he won the World Junior Championships 100M and 200M gold medals in 1998).

Twenty-six year old Leon Baptiste is another competitor. He has a personal best of 10.26s in the 100M achieved in 2008 and 20.45s in the 200M achieved in 2010.

Two other recognisable names that will compete for the sprint

Munro College’s Delano Williams jumps into the arms of Coach Neil Harrison as they celebrate winning the class One boys’ 100M final at the ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships. (Jamaica Gleaner/Ricardo Makyn photo)

spots are: Danny Talbot and James Ellington.

Williams, who said he was excited when he got his British passport, will only represent the UK at the Olympics since he will wear TCI colours at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona this July and at all other events.

Teray Smith tops Florida’s ranking after running 20.98s in 200M FORMER Maranatha High School student Teray Smith is now ranked as the top 200M junior sprinter in Florida and as the fifth fastest in the USA after clocking 20.98 seconds in a recent run.

Smith was representing the Plantation American Heritage School in Miramar, Florida at the Miramar Invitational.

After the 200M he then led the Patriots’ relay team to a 400M victory in a time of 41.59s.

Smith told a Miami Herald reporter that he was confident

about doing well. “I had a feeling I would go about 20.98 or lower [Saturday] in the 200M,” Smith said. “That was my goal, to get the fastest time in the state. It is a big accomplishment for me. I have the Carifta games next week. I am just trying to get my name out there.

The past few weeks have been wonderful. My times have been going down.”

The youngster, who was into several sports before he left TCI, used the event a warm up for Carifta where he will represent the Bahamas.

Teray Smith is now on top of the Florida junior rankings

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