THE MIDDAY HIGHLIGHTS On the local news The Facey Trading Secondary Schools Drama Festival continued today with peformances from the St. Martins Secondary School and the St. Joseph’s Convent. Drama Development Officer in the Ministry of Culture, Martin Quashie says that this year there are eleven schools participating in the competition. He said since the festival kicked off last week they have seen a number of high quality performances from the participating schools and said several schools have already made presentations in the Drama Festival, which will climax this Thursday. And SCORCH which stands for I Am Standing Strong, Courageous, Optimistic, Resilient, Confident and Hopeful, was founded in January this year, and officially launched in August. Founder Dr. Jozelle Miller says SCORCH was formed after she realized that many persons in treatment lack adequate support systems. She says the group meets once a month at which time the members are engaged in sessions on various topics. Meanwhile ... Vice President of the SCORCH Foundation Margarita Tash says SCORCH makes a huge difference in the lives of persons diagnosed with cancer. She is encouraging more persons to join the Foundation so that they can access the services provided. On the regional news in ROSEAU, Dominica-The Citizens Forum for Good Governance has begun publicizing the names of people who it claims have accepted bribes and tickets from the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) to come to Dominica to vote at the December 8 general elections. Local activist Atherton Martin, on behalf of the group, has already read the names of 18 such individuals. Martin said the group’s job is to prevent the rigging of elections and violation of electoral laws. Further, Martin claimed that the DLP has been contacting people and offering them between $20,000 and $50,000 to run as independent candidates in certain constituencies. Martin explained that the plan is that the votes against the DLP would be split, thereby favoring that party. So far, the Citizens Forum for Good Governance has two such names but Martin said he understands that five such persons have been approached in a pre-poll attempt to divert votes from the opposition. He said that, once it is confirmed that these persons are not genuine independents and have agreed to accept bribes and act on behalf of the DLP, then their names would also be publicized. Additionally, Martin said there is video and photo evidence of the DLP candidate for the Kalinago Territory walking beside a flatbed truck of lumber and offering the lumber as bribes to the members of the community. Describing this as open bribery and an open violation of electoral laws of the country and the recently signed code of conduct, Martin alleged that the DLP is carrying out similar action in almost every constituency. According to Martin, the evidence from the Kalinago Territory has been sent to the Christian Council, which spearheaded the Electoral Code of Conduct. And in Haiti-The senior United Nations Coordinator for the Cholera Response in Haiti, Pedro Medrano Rojas, says support for initiatives to combat the disease in the country have been disappointing. According to Carib Journal, Rojas said they are standing at a tipping point, and the European Union – the world’s largest single donor of development aid – could be a leading actor. He noted that Haiti couldn’t wait two generations until reaching the same levels of coverage as the rest of the region. The cholera outbreak, which began in 2010 following the earthquake, has killed more than eight thousand six hundred people in Haiti. By most accounts, it was brought to the country by United Nations peacekeepers from Nepal. The United Nations has not taken responsibility, and has claimed immunity in a lawsuit seeking compensation for victims. The UN and Haiti’s government launched a national sanitation campaign earlier this year to combat the disease, along with a three-year initiative on fighting cholera.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:05:11 +0000
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