Search Results for: Caribbean

BY ALISON MOODIE

THE SOUTHERN African knitwear industry has taken a serious knock over the past decade. Tough Chinese competition, a global recession and as regards the regional powerhouse South Africa – an overvalued currency – these are just some of its problems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it is unlikely to intervene to prevent the proposed takeover of Ukraine’s gas pipeline network by Russia’s Gazprom. Displaying his relatively relaxed attitude to closer energy links with Moscow, new German EU energy Commissioner Günter Oettinger told a press conference: "The decision has to come between Kiev and Moscow and not in Brussels."…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

WHEN an earthquake of a magnitude of seven on the Richter scale struck Haiti in January, it destroyed most of this 9 million population Caribbean country’s infrastructure, including ports and airports. Many businesses have suffered, including the tobacco sector, with many retail outlets ruined, especially in the capital Port-au-Prince whose central business district was shattered by the quake.…

BY MARK ROWE

BOTH the oils and fats industry and environmentalists have long been aware of concerns over the oil palm, the prolific shrub that can be converted into palm oil, one of the most versatile fats known to man.

For almost as long, there have been campaigns to improve its cultivation in south-east Asia, which accounts for around 75% of global supply; but concern is now focussing on South America, where cultivation is growing rapidly, placing pressure on the Amazon rainforest and other wildlife-rich habitats in a belt stretching across central Brazil and Ecuador to Colombia’s Caribbean coast.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

INTRODUCTION

There are signs around the world that the textile market is beginning to recover from the global economic crisis, and developing markets will be leading that recovery. Asia is, of course, at the forefront, but many countries in Latin America have also weathered the crisis and have come out in a surprisingly decent position, with their dynamic textile and apparel industries well positioned for future expansion.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

WHEN last month’s earthquake flattened the tax office in Haiti, killing the director, many thought that it would take years to restore the country’s tax and accounting system. The headquarters of the Direction Générale de Impôts (DGI) was destroyed and its director general Jean Frantz Richard died.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

A CONTINUING flow of seriously injured people continue to provide deep challenges to nurses at the Port-au-Prince’s barely functioning hospitals, nearly two weeks after a massive earthquake overwhelmed medical staff.

We try to do the best we can," said Enid Paret, a nurse at the University Hospital, the Haitian capital’s largest, which was damaged by the quake but still operates.…

BY MITCH

As the international community converges on Haiti, many are fearful that the small Caribbean country will become another victim of promised international aid that falters amongst bickering and petty squabbles between donor countries and agencies.

But, in truth, this disaster could serve as a model for international aid done right, with large scale cooperation and organisation that not only relieves the immediate suffering of the Haitian people, but reestablishes the shattered remains of their infrastructure and society.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

Astride Auguste was late for an exam at Port-au-Prince’s Quiskeya University on that fateful Tuesday January 12, when the earthquake, or ‘the event’, as Haitians have come to call it happened.

Auguste, an undergraduate student in international affairs and management was nearby the campus when she felt the earth shook beneath her.…

BY GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE

HAITI’S troubled fishing industry has been dealt a severe blow by the earthquake that devastated its capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. The destruction of the city’s port facilities, warehouses, and distribution systems means that fish, once plentiful in markets, have for the time become a rare commodity, said Michel Chancy, the undersecretary for food at Haiti’s ministry of agriculture, which is responsible for fishing and aquaculture.…