LIME completes US$35 million undersea link
Cable and Wireless (C&W), the telecoms company that trades in the Caribbean as LIME, says it has completed the buildout of the US$35 million undersea cable connecting Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic. The cable will enhance ability to carry voice and data traffic in the Caribbean and to compete for business.
"The new system ... strengthens LIME's position as the leading wholesale capacity provider and increases its capability to serve its carrier customers in North and Latin America as well as within the Caribbean," the CEO of LIME Caribbean, David Shaw, said on Friday.
LIME operates in 13 Caribbean countries and up to a decade ago, had a near monopoly on telecoms services in most of the former British colonies in the region.
struggling
That was until market deregulation and the entry to the region of competitors such as Irishman Dennis O'Brien's mobile phone company Digicel not only dislodged C&W from market leadership, but left it struggling to regain market share, especially in voice telephony.
In Jamaica particularly, where Digicel has its headquarters, LIME has gone through several reorganisations, spent heavily to upgrade systems, and wracked up big losses.
Analysts say that fibre-optic networks such as the one now being launched put LIME in a better position to go after corporate clients - who are more likely to make decisions based on hard economics -even as it seeks to claw its way back in favour with the young 'cool' crowd of mobile phone users who have largely been captured by Digicel. Digicel is estimated to be beating LIME nearly three to one in the mobile market.
In fact, this is the third submarine cable built by LIME in the region since 2008. It joins the CBUS cable between Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, and the Gemini-Bermuda cable between Bermuda and the east coast of the United States.
These, the company said, have enabled LIME to meet the rising demand for high-speed bandwidth from consumers and business customers in the Caribbean. In some markets this might lead to a relative decline in price.
However, LIME's market share for this kind of service was not immediately clear.
"LIME's network is well positioned to benefit from growth in wholesale markets," said Managing Director of Carrier Services Martin Fijman. " The Caribbean is a major traffic corridor between South America and the major Internet, content and carrier hubs in the United States - acknowledged as one of the fastest growing inter-continental routes in the world today."
Super Bowl XLV as good as it gets, plus 10 things to watch for Sunday
Super Bowl 45, as championship games with a taste of history attached go, is as good as it gets. In fact, it's as good as it can get. Consider:
• The Packers, in their 90th year of existence, and the Steelers, in their 78th, are the two longest-running single-city franchises to appear in a Super Bowl. By far.
• In the past 50 seasons, these two teams are tied for the most NFL titles, with six. That means a quarter of all NFL championships in the last two generations have been won by the two teams playing Sunday. And one of them will win the 13th, obviously.
• Green Bay (21) and Pittsburgh (18) have a combined 39 Pro Football Hall of Famers, which accounts for 15 percent of all Hall members.
And the fans. As I have traveled to NFL games big and small while covering the NFL since 1984, there are three fans bases that travel and support their team like no other: Green Bay, Pittsburgh and Dallas. In 2001, in Tampa, with the Steelers playing against a Buc team that was a Super Bowl contender, the crowd was at least 40 percent black and gold; I heard rolling chants of "Here we go Steelers, here we go!''
Two weeks ago, at the NFC Championship Game at arch-rival Chicago, I was shocked to see so many cheesehead head-toppings. StubHub must have done a land-office business that day because the cost of those tickets were sky high, and no self-respecting Bear fan would sell his seat to such a hated enemy. And there's a reason the Packers did $17-million in business in their Lambeau Field Packer Pro Shop a few years back: Fans come from all over the country to worship at the Lambeau shrine. A few years ago, I walked through the parking lot and counted license plates from 26 states after a training-camp practice. Including Alaska.
The reason both of these franchises have such tremendous fan bases? Easy. Green Bay dominated the '60s, winning five championships (1961, '62, '65, '66, '67). Pittsburgh dominated the '70s, winning four (1974, '75, '78, '79). No teams have won more championships in a decade in NFL history. Extrapolate that. In the '60s, the Packers were the first team to be nationally televised consistently. Ray Scott came into most fans' living rooms every Sunday, and the Vince Lombardi ethos and stolid leadership of Bart Starr made many Americans fans of the burgeoning game. Not to mention that idea that small-town Green Bay could beat big-city New York for an NFL Championship. So even if you didn't live in Green Bay, and you lived in Santa Fe, you chose the Packers to be your team.
Same thing with Pittsburgh in the '70s, maybe in a slightly different way. When the steel mills starting shutting down, and Pittsburghers had to relocate south and west to find work, they didn't lose their love of the Steelers. "Sometimes our road games feel like home games,'' safety Ryan Clark said last year.
Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin and Green Bay's Mike McCarthy both speak about team history like they could teach it. They draw on it, too. Tomlin loves when the old guys come back, and he exhorted his team after beating Baltimore in the playoffs: "This is what we do! This is what the Steelers always have done!''
Said McCarthy this week: "The history of tradition with the Green Bay Packers is a tremendous asset for us as a football team and for us as an organization. It's something that's embraced on a daily basis. The continued support of Bart Starr and Willie Davis, personally, throughout my tenure in Green Bay, has been special. You definitely want to win this game for the Packer nation, and represent the tradition and history of the great players -- Jerry Kramer and all the way down through. It's the standard of the Green Bay Packers, it's about winning Super Bowl trophies.''
Add to that this fact: The game could end up as one of the best Super Bowls ever. That guarantees nothing, of course. But look at what will be on display Sunday: two of the top seven quarterbacks in football, two of the best young coaches, two of the best defensive coordinators (one who's in the Hall of Fame) of the generation, big defensive stars who may be bronzed in Canton one day. It's 60 hours before the game as I write this, and I can legitimately say I can't wait for kickoff.
"It's time for the Lombardi Trophy to go back home,'' McCarthy said this week.
Well, either home to Green Bay or to Lombardi's summer home, where it has spent so much time, at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers.
Ten Things I'll Be Watching For This Weekend
1. The quarterback battle. Ben Roethlisberger could cement his place among the immortals with a third Super Bowl win in his first seven years in the NFL, while Aaron Rodgers has been The Next Big Thing at the position since summertime. I wouldn't be surprised if either of these guys plays an MVP game and throws for 350 yards.
2. More points than most people think. The over-under on the game is 45. At my Tweetup in Dallas on Thursday night, a guy asked me my prediction of the score. "Pittsburgh, 33-27,'' I said. He gleefully said he was betting the over. Don't put that responsibility on me for losing the mortgage, but I will say I will be surprised, very surprised, if these teams don't score a combined 50 or more points.
3. Saturday's big labor meeting. In case you hadn't heard, this is the last football game for seven months ... or maybe quite longer. Judging by the harsh tone of the NFLPA's press conference Thursday, I doubt much will get done at the Saturday session, the first big meeting the two sides have had since Thanksgiving week.
4. Saturday's other big meeting. The 44 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors gather Saturday in downtown Dallas to pick the 2011 class of enshrinees. I expect Deion Sanders to moonwalk in, and from talking to some of my peers on the committee, I'd say the next most-logical guy is Marshall Faulk. After that, it's the usual maelstrom. My best guess -- and that is all it is, because I am consistently wrong on this -- is that the other three slots (assuming we elect the maximum five modern-era candidates) will go to Richard Dent, Shannon Sharpe and NFL Films founder Ed Sabol. But if Cris Carter, Charles Haley, Andre Reed, Tim Brown, Curtis Martin, Dermonti Dawson, Willie Roaf or Jerome Bettis have their name called Saturday night on NFL Network when the class is announced, I will not be surprised.
5. How this area handles the worst weather in 20 years. Good timing, eh? This place feels more like Calgary than Texas. I went to four stores in the past 48 hours, looking for a true winter coat. Sold out, everywhere. Plows ... what plows? Salt? For roads you need Zambonis to travel on? Who needs salt.
6. How Green Bay defends Rashard Mendenhall. It's no secret that the Packers will put their 1,117 pounds of noseman beef -- Howard Green, Ryan Pickett, B.J. Raji -- in the lineup on first downs and obvious run plays. And I'd guess the Steelers will counter by throwing more on first down than they normally do. It'll be an interesting chess match.
7. The distractions will mean nothing. Ben Roethlisberger and friends out until 1 a.m. at a piano bar, singing, "Piano Man,'' was reported by TMZ the other day. I care nothing about it. Absolutely nothing. But in Super Bowl week, a 28-year-old jillionaire quarterback having a few beers with his friends apparently is news (and don't give me this idiocy that Roethlisberger shouldn't have done it because the last time he was in a bar publicly it was a bad scene). I love what Mike Tomlin said about it: "Anybody who cares anything about what is reported during Super Bowl week is nuts.''
8. Doug Legursky-B.J. Raji. A vital battle on the line. How will Legursky, making his first start at center, fare against the powerfeul lineman? I'll be inside Steeler practice as the pool reporter today.
9. The Black-Eyed Peas. Last month, in a Super Bowl planning meeting, Commissioner Roger Goodell asked, "Are they going to play that, 'I Got A Feeling' song?' " I should hope so. If they do, Sunday night's going to be a good night.
10. The game. We might not see another one for a long time. Savor what should be a great Super Bowl.
Source: sportsillustrated
Egypt ruling party leaders resign but regime holds
The leadership of Egypt's ruling party stepped down Saturday as the military figures spearheading the transition tried to placate protesters without giving them the one resignation they demand, President Hosni Mubarak's. The United States gave key backing to the regime's gradual changes, warning of the dangers if Mubarak goes too quickly.
But protesters in the streets rejected the new concessions and vowed to keep up their campaign until the 82-year-old president steps down. Many are convinced that the regime wants to wear down their movement and enact only superficial democratic reforms that will leave its deeply entrenched monopoly on power in place.
Tens of thousands thronged Cairo's central Tahrir Square in a 12th day of protests, waving flags and chanting, "He will go! He will go!"
Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt with an authoritarian hand for nearly 30 years, insists he must stay in office until his term ends, after a September presidential election. The military figures he has installed to lead the government — Vice President Omar Suleiman and Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq — have offered in the meantime to hold negotiations with the protesters and the entire opposition over democratic reforms to ensure a fair vote.
A day after President Barack Obama pushed Mubarak to leave quickly, the U.S. administration changed tone Saturday with a strong endorsement of Suleiman's plans.
"It's important to support the transition process announced by the Egyptian government actually headed by now-Vice President Omar Suleiman," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said at an international security conference in Munich, Germany. She warned that without orderly change, extremists could derail the process.
A U.S. envoy who met Mubarak earlier this week, former ambassador Frank Wisner, went further still, saying it is "crucial" that Mubarak remain in place for the time being to ensure reforms go through. He pointed out that under the constitution, a Mubarak resignation would require new elections in two months, meaning they would take place under the current rules that all but guarantee a ruling party victory.
His comment was an abrupt change in message — on Friday, Obama called on Mubarak to "make the right decision." The State Department later said Wisner was speaking as a private citizen since his official mission to Egypt had ended.
America's confidence in Suleiman is not shared by the protesters, who doubt the ruling party will bring democracy unless they continue their mass demonstrations. They want the concrete victory of Mubarak's removal — though some appear willing to settle for his sidelining as a figurehead — with a broadbased transitional government to work out a new constitution.
"What happened so far does not qualify as reform," said Amr Hamzawy, a member of the Committee of Wise Men, a self-appointed group of prominent figures from Egypt's elite that is unconnected to the protesters but has met with Suleiman to explore solutions to the crisis. "There seems to be a deliberate attempt by the regime to distract the proponents of change and allow the demands to disintegrate in the hope of (regime) survival."
That could mean the crisis could move into a test of sheer endurance, as protesters try to keep drumming out tens of thousands into Tahrir day after day.
The government and military have promised not to try to clear protesters from the square, and soldiers guarding the square continued to let people enter to join the growing rally.
But there were signs of army impatience Saturday. At one point, army tanks tried to try to clear a main boulevard by bulldozing away burned out vehicles that protesters used in barricades during fighting in the past week with pro-regime attackers. The move prompted heated arguments with protesters who demanded the husks remain in place in case they are attacked again. The troops relented only after protesters sat on the ground in front of the tanks.
There were also reports for the first time of attempts by troops to prevent those entering from bringing food for protesters. "They want to suffocate the people in Tahrir and this is the most obvious attack on them without actually attacking," said Mohammed Radwan after soldiers tried to confiscate some of the bread, cheese and lunchmeat he was bringing in.
The resignation of the leadership of the ruling National Democratic Party appeared to be a new step by Suleiman to convince protesters that he was sincere about reform — or at least convince the broader public so support for the movement fades.
The six-member party Steering Committee that stepped down included some of the country's most powerful political figures — and the most unpopular among many Egyptians. Among them was the party secretary-general, Safwat el-Sharif, and the president's son Gamal Mubarak.
State TV, announcing the resignations, still identified Hosni Mubarak as president of the ruling party in a sign he would remain in authority.
Gamal has long been seen as his father's intended heir as president, a prospect that raised outrage among many Egyptians. The turmoil has crushed those ambitions, however, with Suleiman promising in the past week that Gamal will not run for president in September. Some, though far from all, of the deeply unpopular wealthy businessman-politicians who surrounded Gamal have also been removed from key posts.
Many in Tahrir dismissed the resignations with scorn. The move will only "reinforce their (protesters') resolve and increase their confidence because it shows that they are winning, and the regime is retreating inch by inch," said Wael Khalil, a 45-year-old activist among the protesters.
But authorities were projecting an air of confidence they can ride out the unprecedented wave of protests, which have posed the most dramatic challenge to their hold in nearly three decades of Mubarak's rule.
State TV announced that banks and courts, closed for most of the turmoil, will reopen Sunday, the start of Egypt's work week, a move to depict that some normalcy was returning to a capital of 18 million that has been paralyzed for nearly two weeks by the crisis.
Shafiq, speaking to journalists on state TV, depicted the protest movement as weakening. He noted that a reinvigorated protest — estimated at around 100,000 people — had failed to force Mubarak out on Friday as organizers had hoped. "All this leads to stability," he said.
He suggested protesters and other opposition forces would eventually enter negotiations with Suleiman over constitutional change. "The level of aspirations is going down day by day," he said.
So far, however, only a couple of official opposition political parties have agreed to talks. The official parties, which operate with regime consent, are not involved in the negotiations, have little popular base and are viewed with contempt by many protesters.
The protest organizers themselves are a mix of small movements that managed to draw broadbased support among a public disenchanted with Mubarak's rule. The majority are young secular leftists and liberals who launched the wave of protests though an Internet campaign, but the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood also has built a prominent role.
They want a deeper change than Suleiman has offered so far, though the vice president says he is willing to talk about all amendments. They seek a lifting of emergency laws that give the security forces near unlimited powers, an end to restrictions on the forming of political parties, guarantees of independent supervision of elections and the annulling of rules on who can run for the presidency that all but rule out any credible challenge of a ruling party candidate.
The current rules are key to the regime's lock on power, backed by rampant rigging of elections, by security services widely accused of corruption and a casual use of torture and by party control of the powerful state media.
Most of all, the protesters want Mubarak out, and they insist the talks Suleiman seeks can't happen until then.
Some protest organizers held their first meetings with Shafiq late Friday, underlining that they met him only to discuss how to arrange Mubarak's departure. One proposal being floated would have Mubarak deputize Suleiman with his powers while keeping just his title for the time being.
But "the problem is in the president ... He is not getting it that he has become a burden on everybody," said Abdel-Rahman Youssef, one of the activists who attended the meeting.
In Tahrir, Elwan Abdul Rahman, a 26-year-old who came from southern Egypt on Friday to join protesters, dismissed the prime minister's depiction of a fading protest movement.
"He's laughing at the world, he's laughing at all of us," he said, pointing at the crowds and saying, "Do you think they're gonna go away tomorrow?" he said. "People are here with their blood and their soul."
Source;AP
Nasdaq hackers target service for corporate boards
Hackers broke into a Nasdaq service that handles confidential communications for some 300 corporations, the company said Saturday -- the latest vulnerability exposed in the computer systems Wall Street depends on.
The intrusions did not affect Nasdaq's stock trading systems and no customer data was compromised, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. said. Nasdaq is the largest electronic securities trading market in the U.S., with more than 2,800 listed companies.
A federal official told The Associated Press that the hackers broke into the service repeatedly over more than a year. Investigators are trying to identify the hackers, the official said. The motive is unknown. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the inquiry by the FBI and Secret Service is continuing.
The targeted service, Directors Desk, helps companies share documents with directors between scheduled board meetings. It also allows online discussions and Web conferencing within a board. Since board directors have access to information at the highest level of a company, penetrating the service could be of great value for insider trading.
Nasdaq OMX spokesman Frank DeMaria said the Justice Department had requested that the company keep silent about the intrusion until at least Feb. 14. However, The Wall Street Journal reported the investigation on its website late Friday, prompting Nasdaq to issue a statement and notify its customers.
DeMaria said Nasdaq OMX detected "suspicious files" during a regular security scan on U.S. servers unrelated to its trading systems and determined that Directors Desk was potentially affected. It pulled in forensic firms and federal law enforcement for an investigation. They found no evidence that customer information was accessed by hackers.
Rich Mogull, an analyst and CEO with the security research firm Securosis, said Web-accessible services like Directors Desk are a prime target for hackers, and have sometimes been a back door for systems that aren't directly connected to the Web. The presence of files on the Directors Desk system and the claim that no customer information was compromised could indicate that hackers were able to get in but not complete their attack, he said.
Computer security experts have long warned that many companies aren't doing enough to protect sensitive data, and recent events have underlined the point. The secret-spilling organization WikiLeaks has published confidential documents from banks in Switzerland and Iceland and claims to have incriminating documents from a major U.S. bank, possibly Bank of America.
In 1999, hackers infiltrated the websites of Nasdaq and the American Stock Exchange leaving taunting messages, but Nasdaq officials said then that there was no evidence the break-ins affected financial data.
Nasdaq OMX CEO Bob Greifeld said in a statement that cyber attacks against corporations and government are constant and the company is vigilant in maintaining security.
"We continue to evaluate and enhance our advanced security controls to respond to the ever increasing global cyber threat and continue to devote extensive resources to further secure our systems," he said.
Some of the Wall Street's technological scares have been unrelated to hackers. In June 2009, a computer glitch knocked out trading in 242 stocks on the New York Stock Exchange for several hours.
More recently, high-speed trading software precipitated a "flash crash" on May 6. One trade worth $4.1 billion touched off a chain of events that ended with 30 stocks listed in the S&P 500 index falling at least 10 percent within five minutes. The drop briefly wiped out $1 trillion in market value as some stocks traded as low as a penny.
Source:AP
Popular DJ killed in shootout
A popular DJ was shot dead and a close friend seriously wounded during an exchange of gunfire with a group of men in Diego Martin on Friday night.
Police reports revealed that at about 6.30 pm Chester Gordon, 32, a DJ with Players International who is popularly known as “Chopper” was at Green Hill Village, Diego Martin when he and a friend had a confrontation with a group of men.
Gordon reportedly fired at the men who returned fire.
The gunmen then fled the scene leaving a bleeding Gordon and his friend on the ground suffering from gunshot wounds.
The two were rushed to the Cocorite Community Hospital where Gordon died at about 7.30 pm, while the other man who is yet to be identified, suffered severe injuries and was warded up to late yesterday. Gordon, the father of five, was well known at popular clubs throughout the country, but was also known to the police.
The gun used by Gordon in the shooting on Friday night was seized by police who determined that the weapon was an illegal firearm.
Yesterday at the Green Hill Village, Diego Martin home of the DJ, relatives refused to be interviewed claiming that they were too distraught to say anything at this time.
Officers of the Homicide Bureau are continuing investigations.
This killing pushed the murder toll to 50 for the year.
Source:Newsday
TCICSA lashes out at new Delegation of Powers by HMG
RTC News received a letter from the Turks & Caicos Islands Civil Service Association that reads:
Dear Editor,
The new Public Service (Delegation of Powers) Regulations 2011 comes into force on February 4, 2011. Under these new regulations the final decision (save for an appeals process) for the employment, discipline or termination of public officers now rests with the Chief Executive instead of the Governor.
The Civil Service Association (CSA) views this decision to transfer such powers from the Governor to the Chief Executive as retrogressive.
The recently commenced Civil Service Reform with the intention to “right size” or make redundant an unknown number of Civil Servants is a priority objective of the present Administration. During this process of Civil Service Reform the possibility exists that Civil
Servants may be treated unfairly with respect to decisions of discipline or termination. The Chief Executive straddles the boundaries from operations within the Office of Public Service Management (Executive Office of the Public Service Commission) to policy and executive decisions within the office of the Governor. This situation is conducive to conflict of interest, as the Chief Executive is directly involved with the day to day operations of the Public Service and may himself be directly involved in situations concerning misconduct or non‐performance of a public officer. It is therefore unlikely that such individuals being disciplined or terminated will receive the benefit of justice due to conflict of interest in the final decision making process which now will rest with the Chief Executive.
The CSA is extremely disappointed with this decision of delegation of powers to the Chief Executive and is calling on the Administration to reverse its position as we enter this period of Civil Service Reform.
Turks and Caicos Islands Civil Service Association
Management Council
PPC LTD. TO ASSESS THE POTENTIAL FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY
A recent partnership by PPC will provide the utility company and Turks and Caicos on a whole with a welcomed independent assessment on whether Renewable Energy is feasible in the islands.
PPC Ltd will be working closely with Dr. Jonathan Lesser, President of Continental Economics who will be conducting the assessment over the next few months. Continental Economics, based in the USA, provides expert economic services for a wide range of energy-related matters, including economic impact studies, environmental policy and cost-benefit analysis.
Speaking on the recent partnership, PPC’s CEO and President Eddinton Powell said, “We are pleased to have secured the services of Continental Economics Inc to assist PPC in assessing the potential for Renewable Energy within our service territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is important that we do proper econometric and engineering studies on the viability of Renewable Energy before embarking on this road.”
Powell added, “The experience with utility scale Renewable Energy worldwide is mixed. There are significant opportunities in Renewable Energy under the right conditions, but experience has shown that electricity consumers and tax payers will pay the price if the National Policy is wrong. PPC selected Dr. Lesser based on his vast experience on utilities and Renewal Energy. He has advised governments on electric policy issues, including restructuring and competition, renewable resource investments, and regulatory policy in Central America, the Caribbean, and Canada. He has prepared economic impact studies of generating resource development, including geothermal and nuclear power plants, and evaluated the economic impacts of electric industry policies that affect electric market prices.”
Dr. Lesser who has over 25 years of experience working for regulated utilities, governments, and as a economic consultant in the USA and abroad said, “PPC Ltd asked that I provide an independent assessment of the potential of Renewable Energy to meet their customers’ electricity needs, with special regard to the costs of Renewable Energy, the company’s distribution system and the regulatory framework within which the company operates. I am looking forward to working with PPC staff and other interested parties to determine what is will best serve the interest of the country.”
Robert Hall enjoys 5 star treatment at Point Grace Resort
Popular radio talk show host, Robert Hall is being treated to a weekend in Provo as a congratulatory reward for being named the Person of the Year for 2010.
Point Grace will give Mr and Mrs Hall a weekend stay in an Ocean View Suite, dinner for two and Thalasso Spa treatment as prizes; Air Turks and Caicos has come on board to assist with airfares.
According to the release, 'We welcome you to the Point Grace Media Day where you will have an opportunity to interview Mr Hall about his experience, but where you get to experience a little bit of Point Grace for yourself.'
The program Expressions will be live from Point Grace on Monday between the hours of 10:30am to 12:30pm on RTC & also via www.rtc107fm.com. Who knows, maybe you can get an opportunity to talk up your organization on Expressions.
Jak releases "Getting Money" single & video
Turks and Caicos Top Recording Artist JAK, has released his first solo recording. The artist from the Turks and Caicos Islands shot and released a music video on international television back in 2003 and has now released his 4th official music Video entitled “Getting Money”……..The track which was released via the artist Facebook page on Friday is clearly a work of art and said to be shot at a budget of US$45,000.
The track which was produced by Fire Beats Records was shot around several locations in South Florida and Directed by Adrian Allen, a well known director within the entertainment circles. The track was produced by Steady Image Multi-Media Group in the USA.
“JAK” told the ER that it was a lot of hard work but he has been patiently waiting on an opportunity to finalize an agreement of this sort, which would allow him to put out a quality music videos which can fit into any major network programming. He mentioned that his intentions are to head straight to the top in promoting the new single which will see his video being played around the world.
This main stream track has a hip-hop/reggae groove and will no doubt crossover well in the urban and mainstram market. According to a few insiders, it's clearly ready for Networks such as BET, MTV, Tempo and other networks to name a few.
In a brief chat with the Connoisseur, JAK told us that this is just the beginning and that he’s currently working on a number of other projects geared towards taking him him in the same land him in the same direction. He is currently in negotiations with a major record label and is hoping on finalizing a deal shortly.
The video can be seen on JAK’s facebook page or you can search for the title “Getting Money JAK” in the Youtube search.
Singer to face former first lady in presidential runoff in Haiti
With official word that a popular singer and longtime opposition leader will face off in next month's presidential runoff, attention turned Thursday to major changes in Haiti's fraud-ridden election system.
Election officials announced Thursday that Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, 49, and former first lady Mirlande Manigat, 70, will compete in a March 20 runoff. Martelly was chosen over the government-backed candidate, Jude Celestin, who was in second place after preliminary results.
The country remained relatively calm but the news was met with mixed reaction. Critics accused the international community of using its "tremendous power and influence" to determine the outcome of the flawed vote. Martelly and Manigat supporters celebrated.
Martelly held a news conference to promote his vision of a "new Haiti" and Manigat hosted a meeting of supporters.
Celestin, who resisted pressure by his political coalition to withdraw from the race under international pressure, did not comment.
"The Haitian people expressed that they want Michel Martelly," said Martelly, defending criticism that the United States and others helped secure his spot in the runoff. "The victory today, it was not a gift. . . . I don't think (the international community) has decided the political fate of Haiti. I think that the support they have brought matches the Haitian people's will toward change. The people voted Manigat, Martelly."
Election official reviewed 108 disputed results, including 105 for legislative races, also marred by fraud. As a result, some questioned whether Thursday's announcement would resolve the country's political crisis.
"It is not clear that a second round will bring stability to Haiti, let alone legitimacy to the new president," said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia.
"The controversial first round as well as the patterns of foreign interference have left many sectors disenchanted with the process," he said. "In addition, whoever is elected will have to deal with an unruly parliament and prime minister. So this is a first and small step toward the creation of a new government, but it may well be a detour to a new crisis."
To avoid a repeat of the problems from the November election, Martelly and Manigat have called for new members of the election council or improvements in the election system. They say election workers need better training, the voter list should be cleaned up, and that access should be provided to party monitors on Election Day.
For months, Haiti has been clouded by political uncertainty, diplomatic wrangling and pressure by the international community, including the United States.
Last month, the top U.S. diplomat to the United Nations warned an earthquake-battered Haiti that it could lose international aid if it did not accept the recommendations of an Organization of American States report.
An OAS team was assembled to review vote tallies and make recommendations after allegations of widespread fraud in the November election.
The OAS report suggested that the election could be salvaged with an improved second round, and recommended that Martely replace Celestin in the runoff.
The suggestion was made after the OAS team reviewed 919 of 11,000 tally sheets, and recommended that 234 tally sheets be excluded because they were irregular or fraudulent. That put a 0.3 percentage point, or 3,225 vote difference, between Martelly and Celestin.
Preval and Celestin, 48, disputed the report, and questioned its methodology.
Preval had promised when he was elected in 2006 to leave his post Monday, the day a new president should have taken office. But last year, the Senate agreed to extend his term until May 14.
On Thursday, there was speculation about whether Preval will keep his word. Some Haitians are planning protests Monday calling for his departure.
The international community has said it would like Preval to remain in office until his successor is elected.
But US Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who is among those who called for another vote, criticized the international community for how it handled the November election.
"It appears that the international community — led by the United States, Canada, and France — has used its tremendous power and influence to determine the outcome of the first round of the elections and the candidates for the runoff," Waters said. "Once again, the people of Haiti have been denied the opportunity to express their will through free, fair, credible, and transparent elections."
Shortly after the results were announced, foreign diplomats issued statements calling for continued calm, and lauding Haitian election officials.
"It's a good day in Haiti today again," U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten said during a visit to Washington. "We are pleased to note that elections officials seem to have been very diligent in following the OAS verification mission's report's recommendations. And we salute their work in this regard."
The spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he encouraged "all actors to take advantage of this opportunity to move forward with the electoral process."
On Thursday morning, adults walked to work, uniformed children went to school and businesses reopened. In December, after election officials announced the preliminary results, Martelly supporters took to the streets, claiming that their votes had been stolen. They shut down the capital and two major cities with three days of violent protests.
Now, some fear that supporters of Preval and Celestin will do the same because they view the selection of Martelly and Manigat as a "rupture" with 20 years of the leftist politics that brought Preval and his onetime mentor, former President Jean Bertrand-Aristide, to power.
The country also is wrestling with last month's surprise return of former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, and the possible return of Aristide, who is in exile in South Africa.
(c) 2011, The Miami Herald.