REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR COLIN GRANDERSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL FOREIGN AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS, CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM) SECRETARIAT CLOSING CEREMONY CARIFESTA XI 25 AUGUST 2013, PARAMARIBO, SURINAME

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be here with all of you at the Closing Ceremony of the Eleventh Caribbean Festival of Arts and to deliver these brief remarks on behalf of the Secretary General of the Caribbean Community, H.E ...
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IMF shifts strategy on Caribbean economies

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - In an apparent shift of emphasis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is advocating that economic growth be placed at the centre of the recovery of Caribbean islands, many of which have been battered by the impact of the global financial crisis. In presenting the luncheo...
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PM urges UN to ratify arms treaty

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - The death of T&T scholarship winner Ravindra Ramrattan during the recent terrorist attack at a mall in Kenya was another example of the consequences of the illicit arms flow across borders, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told the United Nations General Assembly y...
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Antiguan Assembly head increases Caribbean prominence at U.N.

UNITED NATIONS -- John William Ashe’s father lived to see him graduate with advanced degrees, but he left the career diplomat with sobering words. “He said to me, now that he has seen me graduate with a Ph.D., he can die,” Ashe remembers. Three months later, Arnold Ashe, a retired ...
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Government outlines priorities for CARICOM

ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – The Dominica government Tuesday provided a shopping list that Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries should examine as efforts continue to deepen the regional integration movement. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, speaking to reporters after his Cabinet met with a de...
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Decriminalise it?

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - he regional conversation on the decriminalisation of cannabis would appear to be firmly re-fixed again in the public domain. We use the term “re-fixed” advisedly since, while the latest initiative in this context might be reasonably attributed to the Honourable Pri...
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Capitalising On The Potential Benefits Of Marijuana

KINGSTON, Jamaica - For centuries we have been socialised that marijuana is destructive and harmful to our health. Astounding as that assertion is, it is true. During the 1970s the subject of the benefits of marijuana was first explored, since then not much has been done to advance this subject. The...
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IMF gives thumbs up to Jamaica’s economic progress

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday praised the Jamaica government over its economic policies and said the island’s economic reform programme remains strong. IMF Resident Representative, Bert van Selm, in a brief statement recalled that an IMF mission ...
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