Youth Department kicks off Youth Week 2014 by promoting leadership
The Department of Youth Affairs confirms arrangements for the Turks and Caicos Island’s (TCI) annual Youth Week 2014 commencing on the 21– 27 September 2014.
This year’s theme, “Serving Youth, Inspiring Bravery,” is the essence of promoting youth leadership and development in the TCI.
Director, Department of Youth Affairs Ms. Jasmine Parker said; “Festivities will encompass much of our youth’s time with structured programs such as panel discussions, guest speakers, career guidance, group sports, and more.”
Approximately 100 students will take place in a Youth Conference on 22 September 2014 themed ‘Bringing out Youth Talent and leadership”
We’re also excited to be collaborating with Miss Teen Universe this year, as we are encouraged to further promote our youth.”
The Department of Youth Affairs is encouraging the community to support and attend Youth Day Events.
Youth Week Schedule: Sunday, 21st September – Saturday, 27th September
GRAND TURK
Date: Sunday 21st September
Event: Church Service
Description: Opening of youth day Church service
Venue & Time: New Testament Church 3:30pm
Participants: All Schools, Uniforms Groups and community invited
Date: Wednesday, 24th September
Event #1: Paint the Classroom Day
Description: Bring paints to school paint (Paint your Classroom day)
Venue & Time: H. J. Robinson High School, Grand Turk 2:00pm
Event #2: Scavenger/Treasure hunt (All Island)
Description: Youth on island hunt learning History, island Culture and past events
Venue & Time: Emancipation Square Clock Tower 4:00pm
Participants: All Schools and community invited
Date: Thursday, 25th September
Event: Speak out Speak Off primary, Community College
Description: Discussion on youth day theme Serving Youth Inspiring Bravery.
Venue & Time: Community College Auditorium, the Ridge Grand Turk @ 10: 30am
Participants: Community College Students
Date: Friday, 26th September
Event: National Youth Day Holiday and Celebrations
Description: Youth day, Pray for the Nation by youth on Radio Turks and Caicos, Youth Got talent, all community and country representation, past and present students, Horse race. Music by Band Boys V6
Venue & Time: Library Tennis Court Yard 4:00pm
Participants: All Schools and community invited
Date: Saturday, 27th September
Event: Youth Funfest@ Governors Beach Music by Band Boys V6
Venue & Time: Governors Beach 3pm
Participants: All Schools and community invited
SOUTH CAICOS
Date: Monday, 22nd September
Event: General Devotion
Venue & Time: 9am New Testament Church of God
Participants: All schools and Community
Date: Monday, 22nd September
Event: Youth Concert
Venue & Time: 6pm Community Center
Participants: All schools and Community
Date: Wednesday, 24th September
Event: Movie Night
Venue & Time: Community Center
Participants: All schools and Community
Date: Friday, 26th September
Event: Fun Day/ National Holiday
Description: Parade, may pole dancing, activities for all ages
Venue & Time: Regatta Village 10:00 a.m.
Participants: All schools and Community
Date: Saturday, 27th September
Event: Softball and Basketball Matches
Venue & Time: Regatta Village 5pm
Participants: All schools and Community
NORTH CAICOS
Date: Monday, September 22nd
Event: General Devotion
Description: Combine devotion for all schools
Venue & Time: TBA 8:45am
Participants: All Schools
Date: Tuesday
Event: Inter- Primary Speech Competition
Description: Each school will have three contestants for our Speech Competition
Topic: Youth Week theme. Trophies will be given for 1st, 2nd, 3rd & Best Speaker. 9 participants
Venue & Time: Adelaide Oemler Primary, (Bottle Creek) 12:30 pm
Participants: Primary School Students
Date: 22nd Thursday
Event: Open Forum
Description: To discuss with students the issues that our youths are faced with on a daily bases.
Venue & Time: TBD 10:30am
Participants: Raymond Gardiner High School
Date: Friday
Event: Fun day
Description: To discuss with students the issues that our youths are faced with on a daily bases.
Venue & Time: Charles Hubert James Primary grounds (10:00 am)
PROVIDENCIALES
Date: Sunday, 21st September
Event: Church Service
Venue & Time: St Monica, Leeward Highway 9:00 a.m.
Participants: All Schools and Community
Date: Monday, 22nd September
Event: Panel discussion with different Governmental Agencies and how youth can get involved
Venue & Time: Gustarvus Lightbourne Sports Complex 10am – 2pm
Participants: High School students and Community members
Date: Tuesday, 23rd September
Event: Open Forum: Topic the Generational Gap
Venue & Time: Gustarvus Lightbourne Sports Complex 3-5pm
Participants: All Schools and community Invited
Date: Friday, 26th September
Event: Fun Day
Venue & Time: Kids Park, the Bight 10am-5pm
Participants: All Schools and Community
Date: Saturday, 27th September
Event: Miss Teen Universe
Description: Pageant
Venue & Time: Williams Auditorium 7pm
Participants: Community Event
Amanyara Funded Learning Centre Unveiled At Oseta Jolly Primary
The Oseta Jolly Primary School (OJPS) officially opened the doors to its state of the art learning centre on Tuesday, 16 September 2014.
The inauguration of the OJPS ‘Peaceful Place’ learning centre is the result of a joint venture by the school and the staff of the Amanyara Resort on Providenciales to provide:
• the 530 students ranging from ages 4 to 13 years, material that will improve study skills, knowledge, and understanding of the world at large
• an opportunity for students and teachers to explore a wealth of information for projects and assignments
• an independent approach to learning, helping learners to succeed in a knowledge and information based society
• a wide range of literature to enrich students’ intellectual, aesthetic, cultural and emotional growth
Principal of Oseta Jolly Primary, Rachel Handfield, said; “We are all grateful for the contribution made by the Amanyara Resorts, they have made a considerable investment in our young people”
“It was a pleasure to work with Mrs Handfield and the Oseta Jolly community, to put this project together,” said General Manager, Amanyara Resorts, Marco Frank.
“They worked with a professional learning centre consultant from the UK, Neil Morley, and were able to customise the entire modular set up to meet their demands.”
“We at Amanyara hope that Peaceful Place allows the whole school community to benefit for many years to come whether learning for fun, to improve themselves or for a specific purpose.”
TCI Police are warning the public to be vigilant against crimes of opportunity
The Royal Turks & Caicos Islands Police Force is urging the public in Providenciales to be vigilant after three separate incidents in a three day period over the weekend. (Friday September 12th to Monday September 15th 2014). The incidents all involving crimes of opportunity.
The first reported incident over the weekend occurred in the Grace Bay area on 09/12/2014 at 10PM. A 33 year old male and a 31 year old female were approached by an unknown male who demanded all of their money. The suspect took a sum of cash from the victims and fled. The suspect was described as a black male around five feet ten inches, large built with dreadlocks and wearing all black with nothing covering his face or eyes.
The second reported incident occurred on 09/14/2014 at 2:57AM outside a home along Norway Road in the Kew Town area. The suspect, a dark male dressed in all black, placed what appeared to be a firearm to the victim’s head and demanded him inside the victim’s home. The suspect then took a cell phone and some documents before fleeing.
The third reported incident occurred at a business place located along Airport Road on 15/09/2014 at 1:58AM. Two male suspects brandishing what appeared to be firearms entered the rear door of the business place and demanded valuables. The suspects took a Samsung Galaxy phone from a 21 year old male and a white hand bag containing documents and a sum of cash from a 46 year old female. Both suspects then fled the scene. No one was injured. One of the suspects was dressed in all black clothing. The other was dressed in black and red clothing. One of the suspects was also described as being short in height and the other as tall and slim.
The Police are offering suggestions to consider, should you become a victim of such an incident:
· If someone tries to rob you, do not resist. Give up your property—not your life.
· Call 911 immediately following the incident.
· Do not talk to anyone about the incident until law enforcement arrives.
· Do not discuss the amount of money or items taken with anyone other than law enforcement.
· Try to recall as much as you can about the suspect’s appearance to include estimated age, race, height, weight, hair, complexion, scars, marks, tattoos, clothing.
· If a vehicle is involved, try to note make, model, color, plate number and any other distinguishing marks.
DEMA hosts International Coastal Clean-up Day: “Fighting for trash-free seas”
Everyone who lives in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) is invited to take part in the International Coastal Clean-up hosted by Department of Environmental and Maritime Affairs (DEMA) this Saturday, 20 September 2014.
This initiative will encourage people across TCI to remove shoreline litter to help create cleaner waters for everyone, including the wildlife and communities that depend on them.
Schools and organisations can get involved by getting a group together and spending sometime of your day cleaning up a beach, bush, path, road or sea-bed in your local area.
If you do not have a group but wish to participate, please contact Amy Avenant to find out about groups you may join and be put in contact with the District Commissioner in your island. Please forward this invitation on to anyone you think may be interested in participating.
WHAT TO DO NOW:
Register your commitment in taking part with Amy Avenant, DEMA Environmental Outreach Co-ordinator Avenant.amy@gmail.com or 649 341 4321.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED:
Co-ordinate an underwater / beach / bush clean-up in your chosen area.
WHEN:
8:00am, Saturday 20 September 2014 (to beat the heat!)
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
· Gloves
· Water (make sure everyone remains properly hydrated - BUT we would like to encourage the use of re-usable water bottles, not single-use water bottles)
· Trash Bags
· You may want to keep a first aid kit handy in the event of cuts or scrapes
WHAT TO DO ON THE DAY (and a few days before):
· Arrange for proper disposal of the collected trash
· Submit the following information to DEMA:
o Organisation name
o Number of clean-up participants
o Location of trash collection (and whether it was underwater/beach/bush)
o Number of bags collected
o Amount of time spent collecting trash
o Photographs of you / your organisation and the trash collected.
TCIG CONTINUES IMPROVEMENT BY INVESTING IN EDUCATORS
On Friday 12th September, 2014 a pilot group of five school leaders completed ‘The 21st Century Principal’ course. The four-day learning experience was a spin-off of TCIG’s management development programme entitled ‘The 21st Century Manager.’
The new course aimed to develop the management and leadership capabilities of principals in Grand Turk.
The participants represented public and private education institutions. Following the course completion, they were presented with certificates by Mr. Mark Greenway, Director-Human Resources.
Ms. Tamera Robinson, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Education Youth and Sport, gave gifts of books entitled ‘The Principal’s Companion.’
She stated; “This training is another building block in the process of improving and reforming the civil service. As well as, the Ministry of Education’s goal of retooling principals for management in the 21st Century.”
The manual was the key resource for the course design and development. Following are the topics which the class covered:
· The Many Roles of the Principal
· The Art of Human Relations
· Building Emotional and Social Intelligence Competencies
· The Ego Mind and Negative Leadership Behaviours to Control
· Understanding, Planning and Implementing Change at School
· Enhancing teacher Growth through Supervision
· Building a Collaborative School Culture
· Working Effectively with Parents and the Community
· Making a Difference for Students
· The Discipline Gap
Reducing School and Cyber Bullying
Global firms need new tax rules
Moves to tackle corporate tax avoidance on a global scale have been unveiled by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The action plan is aimed at multinational companies that shrink their tax bills by shifting their profits from one country to another.
Firms including Starbucks, Amazon and Google have been accused of pursuing such strategies.
They have all said they operate within the law.
The OECD says 44 nations making up 90% of the world economy favour its plan.
Announcing the proposals, the OECD's head of tax, Pascal Saint-Amans, told journalists in Paris that they would "change the rules of the game" by making sure companies paid taxes in the country where profits were generated.
At present, firms can exploit agreements intended to avoid double taxation of profits by using them to obtain double tax deductions instead.
They also use internal billing procedures to ensure that profits are registered in countries where corporate tax levels are lower.
Under the OECD plan, a country-by-country model would require firms to declare their revenue, profit, staffing and tax paid in each jurisdiction.
The measures will go before finance ministers at the next meeting of G20 nations in Australia this weekend.
Source-BBC
NFL hires ex-White House official
The NFL has hired Cynthia C. Hogan, a former deputy assistant in the Obama administration, as its senior vice president of public policy and government affairs.
Hogan will help run the NFL's Washington, D.C., office and will report to Paul Hicks, the league's executive vice president of communications and public affairs.
The addition of Hogan, who was part of the White House staff from 2009 to 2013, marks the NFL's latest front-office hire following widespread criticism for its handling of Ray Rice's domestic abuse case.
The NFL announced the hiring of Hogan on Tuesday, one day after appointing three domestic-violence experts -- all women -- to serve as senior advisers to the league.
"We are pleased to welcome Cynthia to our leadership team," Hicks said in a statement released by the league. "Cynthia's broad experience on a wide range of public policy issues will help advance our initiatives in Washington and around the country."
Said Hogan: "The complex and compelling issues of interest to the NFL and the opportunity to help shape policy on those issues is a unique and exciting challenge. I could not be more excited about joining the NFL team."
Hogan helped lead several of the Obama administration's reforms, including gun-violence proposals.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of the Rice incident, sent a memo to all teams Monday announcing that Lisa Friel, Jane Randel and Rita Smith will "help lead and shape the NFL's policies and programs relating to domestic violence and sexual assault."
Goodell also announced Monday that Anna Isaacson will be the league's vice president for social responsibility -- a new position -- in addition to her current role as the league's vice president of community affairs and philanthropy.
Terry O'Neill, the president for the National Organization of Women, issued a statement that the NFL's hires are "a step in the right direction -- but it's not enough."
Frenchman to challenge Blatter
Former FIFA international relations director Jerome Champagne has confirmed his plan to challenge President Sepp Blatter in next year's election.
Champagne wrote on his campaign website yesterday that he informed FIFA's 209 member federations and the election supervisor, Domenico Scala, of his decision.
The French former diplomat launched his campaign in London in January, and said then he doubted that he could beat Blatter.
"My sincerest wish from the outset has been to present my candidacy with a desire for fair and transparent debate," Champagne wrote yesterday, proposing televised campaign events on a "global and/or continental scale."
Blatter, the president since 1998, has said he intends to announce his candidacy next week in Zurich after meeting FIFA's executive committee.
Champagne has declined to criticise Blatter publicly, and has joined his former boss in questioning the role of wealthy European football clubs and their governing body UEFA, whose president Michel Platini last month decided not to run in the FIFA election.
Candidates must have support from five FIFA member federations by late January.
Source-AP
Tropical storm Odile moves up Mexico's Baja California
Tropical storm Odile is moving up Mexico's Baja California peninsula, bringing heavy rains and the threat of mudslides and flash floods.
Odile made landfall as a category three hurricane on Sunday night, damaging homes and leaving thousands of tourists stranded in the Los Cabos resort area.
Officials said 135 people had to be treated for minor injuries, mostly caused by flying glass and debris.
Some 30,000 tourists have been moved to emergency shelters.
Mexico's government said on Monday night that military and commercial aircraft would be sent to evacuate the tourists. The international airport at Los Cabos was damaged in the storm.
Forecasters expect the storm to continue weakening as it moves north-west.
Hurricane Odile flooded streets in Los Cabos on Sunday night and Monday. Fierce winds ripped facades from hotels and destroyed many poorly constructed homes.
"In the seven years I've been here, I've never seen anything hit like this,'' Alejandro Tealdi, a 32-year-old resident of Cabo San Lucas told Associated Press news agency.
On Monday dozens of people, including children, ransacked the shops for batteries and alcohol until troops arrived to stop the looting, agencies reported.
The US National Hurricane Center in Miami had predicted that Odile would be a category four hurricane, but it lost strength as it reached the coast.
However, even as it moved north-west up the desert peninsula, the NHC warned of more heavy rainfall and flooding on the northwest coast.
At least 26,000 foreign tourists and 4,000 Mexicans were in the region, local officials said, and those in areas at risk of flooding were evacuated.
The region is home to massive resort complexes, as well as fishing communities and low-lying shanty towns.
Source-BBC
French PM Manuel Valls wins confidence vote
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has narrowly won a crucial confidence vote in parliament, despite a recent cabinet revolt over austerity measures.
Deputies in the National Assembly voted 269 to 244 in favour of the government's policies
Mr Valls earlier defended reforms of his Socialist cabinet, saying they did not mean to destroy the welfare state.
Opinion polls put President Francois Hollande's ratings at 13%, with almost two-thirds wanting him to resign.
Mr Hollande has been hit by the cabinet revolt and criticised in a book by former first lady Valerie Trierweiler.
He also faces the return of former President Nicolas Sarkozy to politics.
Source-BBC