My Take on the Marital Rape Bill

The Marital Rape Bill is a Serious Attack on The Holy Institution of Marriage

By Dennis Dames

The Martial Rape Bill is what King Solomon would refer to as: madness and folly, and a
chase after the wind.

It will, if passed, create more problems than it solves – in my view. For one, it will kill the sacred institution of marriage instantly - as who is the sensible man who would want to get married under
such a wicked law?

Sweethearts and ladies of the night are delighted about this situation- no doubt. Their standard of
living will improve dramatically with the a passage of a Marital Rape Bill. 

God is not pleased!

The Official Opposition, Free National Movement (FNM) party is in political upheaval

Inside troublemakers who support the return of the former FNM party leader, Dr. Minnis are apparently trying feverishly/violently to frustrate the leadership of one Michael Pintard

Dr. Hubert Alexander Minnis is the seemingly bitter former FNM party leader who refuses to "Get Lost!"

Leadership challenges faced by Pintard historically infamous

By Fred Sturrup | GB News Editor | sturrup1504@gmail.com

Recently during a high level meeting arranged by the Official Opposition in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, the Free National Movement, reportedly there was contention.  The situation boiled over into an embarrassing, brutal physical altercation that left a noted party supporter seriously injured.  Eye witnesses informed that he was savagely put upon by a fellow strong FNM proponent, who has differing views regarding Dr. Hubert Alexander Minnis who led the party to defeat last September.

The Hon. Michael Pintard is the sitting leader of the FNM.  He attained such status in a democratic fashion, decisively.  Dr. Minnis is the seemingly bitter former leader, who did not offer himself for the role when Pintard disposed of several others through the “in order” convention voting process.

As I pointed out in an earlier opinion piece it doesn’t appear that Dr. Minnis is going away.  The view here is that he continues to grandstand, is not really respectful of Leader Pintard, and there is, accordingly,  this emotional spillover to his supporters.  Thus the FNM party is in deep crisis.  Pintard’s leadership is being assailed.

This is unfair and unprecedented in Bahamian politics.

This atrocious scenario never came about before because politicians and their followers of the past, though many of them were strong-minded, their characters did not lend themselves to violence against each other. 

The country’s first political party, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) saw the leadership pass from Henry Milton Taylor to Lynden Oscar Pindling.  Taylor and a few others were bitter about the new kids on the block taking over, but there was not much of a thought of challenging the new order.

After Pindling’s 30-plus years of leadership, Perry Gladstone Christie emerged as leader.  There was the expected resentment and disappointment felt by those who preferred Dr. Bernard Nottage, but the party moved on handsomely.  Christie delayed his time in PLP leadership, by failing to live up to his own reported time table to demit office. However, present PLP Leader and Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis bided his time, and look where he is today!

The second political party in the country which produced the first government, the United Bahamian Party, had a very smooth transition from the longtime leader Sir Roland Symonette  era to Sir Jeffery Johnstone.

The FNM itself,  went through many changes, in true democratic fashion, never burdened by anything such as inside troublemakers, apparently trying feverishly/violently to frustrate the leadership of one Michael Pintard.

This is not right.  Let the man do his job in peace. 

From Sir Cecil Wallace to Sir Kendal Isaacs and back to Sir Cecil; to the three-time prime minister Hubert Alexander Ingraham; to Dr. Minnis; with interim leaders in place such as John Henry Bostwick, Cyril Tynes, and Tommy Turnquest; the FNM never faced anything even close to the present debacle.

It is therefore incumbent upon Pintard and the others within the FNM who have rationale, to immediately put the house in order.

Source 

Bank Report: Small firms in five Caribbean economies surveyed - reported high financing costs as a more significant barrier to business than larger firms

IDB Report: Better Access to Financing for Firms Could Drive Growth and Jobs in Caribbean

A new report from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and IDB Invest recommends Caribbean countries focus on overcoming obstacles to financial access and inclusion for businesses, because having more developed and inclusive financial systems could increase growth and reduce poverty and income inequality.

The report Finance for Firms: Options for Improving Access and Inclusion emphasizes the important link between deeper and more accessible financial systems, and faster and more inclusive economic development.  The publication compares financial systems of six Caribbean countries—The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago—to others from across the world.  It also assesses results of enterprise surveys in 2014 and 2020 to identify key financing challenges faced by firms, including small enterprises, and those that are owned or operated by women.

The report finds that firms across the Caribbean face outsized challenges, particularly when compared to global peers.  It also finds that the COVID-19 crisis appears to have further constrained access to financing, that smaller firms seem to face more significant hurdles than larger ones, and that businesses owned and/or operated by women face more severe challenges than others.  These challenges companies encounter include high borrowing costs, burdensome collateral requirements, inadequate funding mechanisms, and complex application procedures.

In 2020, 76% of firms in Suriname and 72% of firms Barbados reported that issues such as significant collateral requirements posed major or very severe obstacles to their performance and ability to do business, up from 22% and 35%, respectively, in 2014.

Meanwhile, in 2020, small firms in five of the six economies surveyed reported high financing costs as a more significant barrier to business than larger firms.

Surveys also suggest that women-owned or -operated firms (WOFs) face more significant financial constraints than other firms, with an average of about two-thirds of these enterprises reporting access to financing as a major or severe obstacle.

“It is key for the public and private sector in Caribbean countries to collaborate so entrepreneurs can better finance their ambitions to grow their businesses,” said David Rosenblatt, Regional Economic Advisor for the IDB’s Caribbean Department.  “This is important for strengthening the ongoing economic recovery, in the near-term, and improving growth prospects for the future.

The authors proposed several priorities, including ensuring macroeconomic stability and policy prudence, improving the availability of credit information, and promoting credit sector competition, among others.

Finance for Firms: Options for Improving Access and Inclusion is part of the IDB’s Caribbean Economics Quarterly series. In addition, it has country-specific sections for The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.

This report is in line with the SMEs, gender and inclusion pillars of Vision 2025 – Reinvesting in the Americas the IDB’s roadmap to economic recovery and inclusive growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Source

REPORT: San Salvador Island tourism-based island economy is constantly under threat of climate change impacts such as submergence of coral reefs, flooding of coastal lowlands, loss of marine and terrestrial biodiversity, and destruction of cultural heritage sites

The Economics of Climate Change Adaptation and Ecosystem Services in The Bahamas

 

Lessons from San Salvador Island

From IDB

San Salvador island in The Bahamas is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts due to its limited land space, fragile ecosystems, population and assets exposure, limited human and technological capacity, and susceptibility to the vagaries of international trade and exogenous economic shocks.  

Higher temperatures, sea-level rise, and coastal flooding linked to extreme weather events are expected to impact crucial ecosystems such as coral reefs, and assets from the tourism sector, especially from the cultural, historical, and environmental heritage. 

This report provides a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on the economy and ecosystems to provide stakeholders with updated inputs for improved decision-making. 

First, the report presents an Economics of Climate Adaptation (ECA) assessment to identify and analyze the main impacts of climate change, estimate potential economic losses, and propose adaptation measures to improve the island's resilience. 

Second, it presents an Ecosystem-Based Service (EBS) assessment to identify the main ecosystems of the island, evaluate the services they provide, and determine their contribution to the economy of San Salvador.

<<<Download The Full Report>>>

It is possible to substantially improve the quality of education for all while focusing on the students who need it the most

All members of society benefit from improving the educational outcomes of all of our children

Does  Educational  Support  for  Struggling  Students  Also  Benefit  High Achievers?

From Research Insights - IDB

What  effect  did  improving  low-achieving  students’   literacy   skills   have   on   their   higher- achieving  classmates?  We  investigated  the  relationship  between  the  performance  of  high  and low  achievers  and  found  that  the  test  scores of higher-achieving  students  negatively  correlated with the share of low achievers in their classroom.  Figure  1  plots  the  relationship  between  end-of- the-year literacy and math scores of non-eligible students  and  the  share  of  low  achievers  before the intervention, in the control schools only. 

We compared the test scores of higher-achieving students  after  one  academic  year,  finding  substantially greater achievement across the board in treated  schools - compared  to  control  schools.  In treatment schools where there were tutoring activities,  higher-achieving  students  outperformed similar  students  in  control  schools  by  0.108  of  a standard deviation. This coefficient is sizable and represents  roughly  30  percent  of  the  treatment effect  on  the  eligible  students  (low  achievers).  For  both  literacy  and  math,  average  achievement decreases monotonically with the share of low-achieving students. 

We also estimated the effect of peers’ contemporaneous  outcomes  on  high  achievers  and  found strong evidence of peer effects on academic outcomes.  Our  results  imply  that  a  one-standard- deviation  increase  in  peers’  contemporaneous test scores increases individual reading scores by 0.679 of a standard deviation.

To  address  whether  these  changes  were  due  to direct  (non-peer)  or  indirect  (peer)  treatment effects,  we  ruled  out  alternative  mechanisms coming  from  a  reduction  in  class  size.  Additionally,  we  did  not  find  evidence  that  teachers changed their effort or teaching practices.  Rather, we  found  suggestive  evidence  that  some  of  the effect  might  be  due  to  a  reduction  in  students’ misbehavior.  Finally, the effects were stronger in classes  where  eligible  (low  achiever)  peers  improved the most, consistent with direct peer-to- peer learning interactions.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS 

Our findings suggest that policies looking to support the bottom of the achievement distribution have  the  potential  to  generate  social-multiplier effects for all students, providing a strong rationale that underscores why all members of society can benefit from improving the educational outcomes of only some.  It is possible to substantially improve the quality of education for all while focusing on the students who need it the most.    

Source/Full Report

Economist Herman Daly says, In ecological economics, we’ve tried to make a distinction between development and growth

"... When something grows, it gets bigger physically by accretion or assimilation of material. When something develops, it gets better in a qualitative sense."

FROM THE BEGINNING OF MY CAREER AS AN ECONOMIST, I REJECTED THE DIVIDE BETWEEN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AS BEING MEANINGFUL!

By Professor Gilbert Morris

As I wrote in my final Economics paper so long ago: ”All development includes growth or its prospects. But not all growth is development: and our concerns should be to foster development”.

Now here is Herman Daly - an economist who pioneered development over growth, along with our own Sir Arthur Lewis, for different reasons - now making headlines at last for these concepts, toward which intelligence, commonsense and our needs should have directed us long ago against Western/IMF orthodoxy.

QUOTING DALY:

"Mainstream economists don’t have any answer to that to the growth redundancy. The reason they don’t have any answer to that is that they don’t measure costs. They only measure benefits. That’s what G.D.P. is."

"In ecological economics, we’ve tried to make a distinction between development and growth. When something grows, it gets bigger physically by accretion or assimilation of material. When something develops, it gets better in a qualitative sense."

"What I call the empty world was full of natural resources that had not been exploited. What I call the full world is now full of people that exploit those resources, and it is empty of the resources that have been depleted and the spaces that have been polluted."

"globalism versus internationalism. Globalism says to erase national boundaries. Let’s have one global system that we manage globally. Internationalism says national boundaries are important, but they’re not the ultimate thing…”.

"Earth is not expanding. We don’t get new materials, and we don’t export stuff to space. So you have a steady-state Earth, and if you don’t recognize that, well, there’s an education problem."

Source

...the Hemispheric Declaration on Migration and Protection of Migrants imposed by Washington at the Ninth Summit of the Americas "is an example of its racist, xenophobic and plundering vision of migrants. It does not address in any way the real causes of migration"

The regional approach to the issue of migration in The Americas by the United States denounced!

The fall of the world GDP, which is around 10%, plus poverty and inequality, will increase the migratory pressure... in 2021 alone, one out of every 88 inhabitants of the planet left their native country 

 

More and more people die trying

People will not stop migrating and they will do so even if the conditions worsen, there is no legal protection and they can be at the mercy of various forms of violence and exploitation, ranging from underground human trafficking networks to various forms of fraud in the destination countries, where they will become a new layer of ultra-precarious migrants.

By  Francisco Arias Fernández | informacion@granmai.cu

An incident on Friday July 1st at Morocco’s border with Spain left 37 irregular migrants dead and hundreds injured, 13 of them seriously.  The repercussions were that of an international scandal and calls for a thorough investigation by the United Nations raised from everywhere.

The victims died as a result of military repression, crushing or suffocation, when there was a human avalanche and they were trapped in a watercourse near the border.

While authorities put the blame on the organized crime, the spokesman of the Secretary General of the United Nations Organization believes there was an excessive use of force on both sides of the border.

Referring to what many media have described as a "massacre," UN official Stéphane Dujarric pointed out that authorities observed an "excessive use of force," which is "unacceptable" and therefore must be investigated.  He recalled that States "have obligations" under the international law and human rights.

For its part, the UN Committee for the Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families urged the governments of Spain and Morocco to "immediately" open a "thorough, independent and transparent" investigation, to which both parties agreed.

Three days later, on the other side of the Atlantic, in San Antonio, Texas, United States, 51 irregular migrants were found suffocated in the trailer of a truck.  Sixteen were rescued alive, including four minors.

Translated by ESTI

The discovery was made after screams were heard from inside the container on the truck, which had no water, air conditioning or oxygen, while the temperatures outside were around 40 degrees Celsius.

In addition, someone detected a corpse in the vicinity of the truck, abandoned near a military base, 16 kilometers from San Antonio and 250 kilometers from the Mexican border.

The first investigations point to three detainees.  Moreover, the vehicle's license plate was from the United States, which made it easier for it to cross the border without being subject to mandatory inspection.

The White House has committed itself to clarify the facts and dismantle the trafficking networks, at a time when the country reports high immigration peaks and a new record of illegal entry registration, with more than 239,000 in May, most of which cross through the border with Mexico.

A few hours later, it was known that the most recent tragedy in the Central Mediterranean left more than 22 missing migrants and 71 survivors; while another 500 people rescued and on board ships of European humanitarian organizations were waiting to be taken to the mainland.

NEWS THAT IS NO LONGER

Migration news have long been prominent in mainstream media all over the world; but they grow in frequency and cruelty as the world economic crisis, war conflicts, the impact of the pandemic, poverty, famine, blockades, sanctions, political manipulation of the issue and many other factors deepen, which have led experts to affirm that we are going through one of the greatest migratory crises in history, with more than one hundred million displaced persons in the last two years, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The agency indicates that, in 2021 alone, one out of every 88 inhabitants of the planet left their native country.

It adds that 83% of global migrants move to low- and middle-income countries, which are sometimes transit points to destinations such as the United States or the European Union, but the "migration shielding" policies of these countries often cut off migrants before they reach their destination.

The Missing Migrants project of the International Office for Migration (IOM) recently revealed that more than 4,000 deaths per year have been recorded on migration routes around the world since 2014, but this is a minimum estimate, because most of these deaths go unrecorded.

The report adds that since 1996 there have been more than 75,000 deaths in the attempt to migrate, and 48,423 from January 1, 2014 to 2022.  These statistics partially reflect the disaster because they do not include the level of suffering it generates in relatives and confirm the dangers or risks of facing the adventure.

The three most lethal points, according to the IOM project, are the Mediterranean Sea, with 23,900 migrants dead or missing; Africa, with 11,400, and America with 6,200, 60% on the border of Mexico and the United States.

According to experts, there will be more migrants and more will die in the attempt, as it has become a trend in the last two years, a trend that will worsen in the long term, as the enormous recession generated by the pandemic will drastically change migration.

The fall of the world GDP, which is around 10%, plus poverty and inequality, will increase the migratory pressure.

They estimate that people will not stop migrating and they will do so even if the conditions worsen, there is no legal protection and they can be at the mercy of various forms of violence and exploitation, ranging from underground human trafficking networks to various forms of fraud in the destination countries, where they will become a new layer of ultra-precarious migrants, according to the digital media IzquierdaWeb.

The lack of seriousness by some countries in the search for concrete solutions to these serious phenomena, together with the growing tendency to polarization and conflict between powers, are considered obstacles to solving problems that require integrated or coordinated responses at the international level.

Recently, the Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, in addressing the regional approach to the issue by the United States, denounced that the Hemispheric Declaration on Migration and Protection of Migrants imposed by Washington at the Ninth Summit of the Americas "is an example of its racist, xenophobic and plundering vision of migrants.  It does not address in any way the real causes of migration".

He reaffirmed that "it will be impossible to obtain concrete results in the management of irregular migratory flows if there is no genuine dialogue and collaboration among all the governments involved to respond to a problem of a global nature."

Source