Fidel praises Obama
Pre-Obama, Fidel Castro praising a US president was almost unheard of. But these days the former Cuban leader is doing just that.
He has praised President Obama for the American leader’s call for action on climate change, and his admission that rich nations have a particular responsibility to lead.
Castro yesterday called the American president’s speech at the United Nations “brave”.
And he suggested that no other American head of state would have had the courage to make similar remarks.
Budget shortfall raises increased tax fears
Jamaica’s opposition People’s National Party has warned about the possibility of the Bruce Golding administration increasing taxes to meet the government’s shortfall in revenue.
The governing Jamaica Labour Party has been under pressure to slash its budget.
But it will end up spending more than it said it would, because the tabling of the Supplementary Estimates on Tuesday revealed a Jamaican $6.4 billion increase in the budget.
Finance Minister Audley Shaw is expected to tell the country next week how the government plans to finance the increase in the planned expenditure.
That increase and the source of funds to plug the growing hole in the budget are among the chief concerns in the island’s financial sector.
Caymans tax debate
A debate is continuing in the Cayman Islands as to whether the government should rethink its opposition to introducing direct taxes to plug a worsening deficit. At the moment, the British territory’s government is struggling to pay its bills.
Britain has refused to sanction a Cayman request to borrow $372 million, and has recommended the territory raise money though taxes instead.
The Cayman Net News reports that its unscientific online polling has discovered a growing and surprising support for direct taxation.
Batting for the CCJ
Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has responded to comments by Britain’s top judge that placed in doubt, the future of the London-based Privy Council as the final court of appeal for most Caricom member states.
Lord Nicholas Phillips who will become the first president of the about to be inaugurated UK Supreme Court, told the Financial Times that the Council’s law lords were spending too much time on cases from former colonies, mostly in the Caribbean.
Prime Minister Gonsalves says regional states have their own Caribbean Court of Justice to fall back on.
