A new US report has said that 83 of the nation’s 100 largest corporations had subsidiaries in offshore tax centres in 2007.

The disclosure is likely to place the spotlight even more on such centres, which are accused by some on Capitol Hill of encouraging tax evasion at home.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, a government watchdog, said some of the companies received federal bailout funding.

One of them, Citigroup, is said to have 90 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands alone.

The report was requested by two Democratic senators who have pushed for tougher laws to fight offshore tax havens around the globe.

And the pressure may be telling.

Several major corporations have announced plans recently to leave Bermuda amid the global financial crisis and fears of tighter tax rules.

Tobago eyes more power

Voters in Tobago are electing a new local legislature but these days there is little talk about secession from big sister Trinidad.

According to the outgoing Chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Orville London, that’s because the island has been getting increased power over its own affairs.

He said he believed that there is scope for even more automony.

Orville London has predicted that the People’s National Movement will win all 12 seats in the election; the party held 11 in the outgoing house.

Minority Leader Ashworth Jack, who leads the Tobago Organisation of the People, said his party would win a majority.

Guyana party chairman quits

The chairman of the opposition Peoples National Congress in Guyana has resigned, in another sign of internal discord.

Winston Murray, who remains an MP, blamed differences with the party over a new trade agreement between the Caribbean and Europe.

During national consultations on the economic partnership agreement, Mr Murray supported President Jagdeo’s position that Guyana should not sign the agreement.

He was acting leader of the main opposition party at the time.

However the PNC later issued a statement urging the government to sign the agreement, which it eventually did.

In his letter of resignation which took effect from 15 January, Mr Murray said it had become impossible for him to continue with any credibility as chairman.

“Ethnic minorities may disappear”

One in 10 children in Britain is now part of a mixed-race family, according to a new report.

The study predicts that if current trends continue, some ethnic minorities may disappear as people from mixed race backgrounds become increasingly common.

For example, the report states: “Those who define themselves as singularly Caribbean are likely to decline over time…”

The figures show that 48 percent of Black Caribbean men and 34 percent of Black Caribbean women are in mixed-race relationships.

This is in contrast to people from Pakistani backgrounds, where 8 percent of men and 6 percent of women are in mixed relationships.

Equality head cites police race gains

The head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, said he believes that British police can no longer be accused of institutional racism.

Ten years since the report on the murder of the black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, Mr Phillips said the police have made real improvements.

But he said work was now needed to tackle wider forms of discrimination in modern society.

Sex trade down, paper says

Jamaica’s Gleaner newspaper has reported that the island’s illegal sex trade is the latest victim of the financial squeeze.

The paper quoted some practitioners as saying business is down by at least half.

“That (version) cannot be officially released because that would be a breach of copyright,” explained Claude Mills, publicist of Kartel.

In a bid to capitalise on the popularity of the song which is a Kartel and Spice duet, Adidijaheim Records switched to a local rhythm by producer Not Nice.

Mills argued that licensing the original rhythm would have been prohibitive. As such, they did not approach the Ne-Yo camp for clearance. “We never intended to put it on an album. And we would have to have clearance and pay money. And I don’t think we have that kind of money.”

Mills is correct, according to jukebox executive Shane Brown: “(The Ne-Yo song) is too new, they would not clear it. And secondly, if they did clear it, they would take 100 per cent of all proceeds. Remember, without their consent it cannot be officially released. They have the handle, they can do anything.”

The Ne-Yo track was produced by Stargate, a Norwegian duo that left Scandinavia and hit it big in the US. They did Street Life (Beenie Man), Unfaithful (Rihanna), So Sick and Miss Independent (Ne-Yo), Irreplaceable (Beyonce), Curtain Falls (Blue), One Love (Blue), Stolen (Jay Sean). The independent rhythm arguably helped drive the popularity of Ramping Shop. The Stargate rhythm is on numerous local mix tapes, and at street dances selectors segue from Ne-Yo song into Ramping Shop. This could pose problems for the Kartel team, were the song to go international, argued Brown who manages Busy Signal, an artiste of similar weight. He told Splash that even if the official version avoids the Stargate rhythm it can still be associated with it.

“When you have a remix of a song, you still have to take into account the music from where the song came from… The original composition would have to be taken into consideration,” Brown posited. “If it does get to where
it becomes international and when the cheques are being drawn and to be realised that it was derived from their rhythm, they can own a part of it – the writers’ credit. Because when you talk about the writers of a song, 50 per cent is lyrics and 50 per cent music.”

But for now, Brown said that Ramping Shop is inconsequential to mega music charts.

“The song is not international yet for the Ne-Yo camp to even be concerned about it. Maybe if it were
more successful. Right now Ramping Shop is in the ethnic market creating a buzz. I don’t think it has reached that point for them to be concerned about it yet. It’s not an issue right now.”

Source: Jamaica Observer

Each summer in the mid-1980s a dozen teenage boys from the Bailey family, an equally young Russell in tow, would head back to Spanish Town, St Catherine, where he developed a passion for dancehall culture.

Years later in 2004 outside King Jammy’s studio in Waterhouse his local business partner Lloyd Bailey (who had now made permanent the move from Spanish Town to Calgary) introduced him to a young female artiste, Terry Lynn, born Theresa Williams. The usual artiste-label interaction followed: A conversation; the artiste showing the label the music; and finally an undertaking to produce some music. Except what followed is unusual: Lynn did not appear overnight as a raw artiste crowded with many other releases on the same riddim.

“To take the time to develop a talent it’s very difficult. One of the things I had a problem with was my style, and my ideas of music were different. I always had a problem with an artiste being jumbled onto a beat with 20 artistes. A person who is upcoming is aiming at trying to get themselves heard in a unique way. If somebody should take up the CD it should be you!” says Lynn.

The intervening years have seen Lynn and Hergert travel back and forth between Jamaica and Canada to do recording sessions, with recent promotional and recording trips to Germany and Switzerland.

Now, five years after their chance meeting, Lynn’s album, Kingston Logic 2.0, finally gets its full release. Individual tracks have been made gradually available as free downloads from her website, KingstonLogic.com and 1,000 CD copies of the album distributed free in local communities to introduce her to Jamaican ears, independent of the media.

It is a distribution strategy that Hergert refers to as “for the people to the people – Phree!” His strategy is that the more people who know the music, the more revenue the artiste can generate from publishing rights and live performance.
Digital downloads and CD sales are viewed as a bonus.

Sampling Technologic by French electronica-duo Daft Punk the title track recites the get-rich mentality on the Kingston streets: “Want it find it see it get it/ Be rich now or just forget it/ Earn it, steal it, beg it, buy it/ Can’t stay broke you got to try it/ Dream it, plan it, chance it, risk it/ Bring your guns, machete, ratchet/ Load it lock it pack it strap it/ Handgun, long guns, automatic/ Hunt it search it time it find it…”

Named by The Times of London as one of ten artists to look out for in 2009, Lynn was compared by the newspaper to another female artiste, MIA, ‘but realer’. Living in the deprived West Bay Farm Road area of Waterhouse where Lynn was born and raised, her home backing onto the Sandy Gully, the subject matter is ripe.

“We chose that path and that direction due to the fact that there is a problem!” she says. “The economic situation down here is terrible and it’s a lot of factors that create that. I could talk about dancing and nutten wrong with talking about dancing, talking about sex because I’m good at talking about both but when somebody sees the body of work you want it to have a vision, a direction, a meaning.”

Her stark lyrical delivery is most graphic in the video for The System, which, filmed at a pig slaughterhouse by local filmmakers the Rickards Brothers, mimics the cycle of violence and police brutality played out daily on Kingston streets. If that does not seem like a normal dancehall video then it goes without saying, neither is its sound.

Stripped down and bare as many dancehall riddims the album’s production leans towards electronica. Introduced by Hergert, it took a while for him to convince Lynn that this ought to be the path, but as he reminds, the computerised Sleng Teng riddim is a foundation of dancehall.

And as Lynn shrugs now, “I like the way I flow on it, it feels easy.”

For Hergert, the domination of the industry by established artistes and the payola system has squeezed out new talent and stagnated creativity in dancehall.

“Waterhouse helped bring that sound in the first place. People cried the same way when there was a change when dancehall came, ‘Oh it’s not reggae!’ but now nothing musical has changed, it has just got musically really, really boring. Guys aren’t taking that time to do something different.”

Hergert has sunk four years of his life and savings (helped by Bailey) into this one artiste and with none other currently on his roster, he acknowledges its a gamble.

“In order to do it this way with no support you almost do need to focus on it full time. I really think Terry is a different type of artiste, she really has something to say and I really think we might be able to change how Dancehall sounds right now or at least open it up.”

Source: Jamaica Observer

CCJ delivers inaugural trade judgement

The Caribbean Court of Justice has delivered its first judgement as Caricom’s trade court.

	The CCJ is based in Port of Spain

The CCJ has given Trinidad Cement Limited, and its Guyana subsidiary, special permission to sue Guyana over an alleged breach of Caricom’s trading rules.

They claim that Guyana unilaterally suspended the Common External Tariff on cement imported from outside of the common market.

The CET is a tax that aims to protect intra-regional goods.

Disputes within Caricom over cement arose at a time of rising prices, shortages and concerns over quality.

All Caricom countries subscribe to the CCJ as the trade and disputes settlements court of the regional single market — but only two have embraced it as their highest civil and criminal court.

As an appellate court, the Trinidad-based CCJ has delivered judgements in more than 20 cases from Barbados and Guyana.

USVI plans Obama celebrations

The governor of the United States Virgin Islands has proclaimed Tuesday as Barack Obama Day in the US territory and given government offices the day off.

That’s to allow employees – those on the 8-5 shift – an opportunity to follow the inauguration of Mr Obama as the first African-American president in the White House.

The day off does not apply to essential employees, employees on a regular or rotating shift, and those on annual or sick leave.

Big bank loan for Jamaica

The World Bank has approved a US$100 million loan for Jamaica to help the government’s efforts to reduce its high debt levels.

The bank said Jamaica had been hard hit by the global economic crisis that had eaten away at its foreign currency reserves and weakened its financial sector.

Jamaican Finance Minister Audley Shaw said his country needed proper debt management.

Without it, he said, government targets for public investment and social needs, such as addressing crime, and improving health and education, would not be met.

Canada’s GG speaks out on Haiti

Canada’s Haitian-born Governor General Michaelle Jean has said the time has come for action in Haiti.

Speaking on a visit to her native country, she said the time for an assessment of Haiti’s problems had passed.

The United Nations World Food Programme has warned that it could run out of supplies for Haiti by March, as international donations have fallen far short of their targets.

Liat tallies flight losses

Liat says it was forced to cancel more than 130 flights around the region as a result of what Antigua’s airport authorities described as safety procedures.

Air traffic controllers introduced the so-called flow control at VC Bird Airport, a major Liat hub, to regulate take-offs and landings during the busy December period.

The action was implemented at a time controllers appeared to be at odds with the government, but union officials denied any link.

In a release, Liat said the cancellations between December 19 and January 5 cost the airline US$400,000.

Shiv’s best for Statsguru

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has been named Batsman of the Year in The Statsguru Awards by the leading international cricket website, Cricinfo.

It said Chanderpaul was immense in both forms of the game in 2008.

Against the top teams in Tests, he scored 909 runs at an average of 101.

In one-day internationals, he scored 578 runs at 64.22 and at a strike-rate of 74.96.

Legendary Trinidadian calypsonian, The Mighty Duke, passed away on Wednesday after a long battle with a rare blood cancer.

He was 75 years old.

“Born a Pope, crowned a King, named a Duke…” is the opening line of a 2007 tribute song celebrating Kelvin Pope, aka The Mighty Duke.

Duke started performing in 1960, and between 1968 and 1971 he was almost unstoppable.

He won the calypso monarch title four consecutive years with hits such as “What is Calypso”, “Black Is Beautiful” and “Brotherhood of Man”.

In 1987, his hit “Thunder” not only won the Road March title in Trinidad but was a massive hit throughout the Caribbean.

Although his output might not have been as prolific in recent years, Duke nevertheless kept up a busy schedule despite suffering from Myleofibrosis.

In one of his last interviews in December last year, Duke revealed that he penned hundreds of songs in his lifetime.

He said this put him among the top five calypso writers of all time.

For Duke, the role of calypsonian was part entertainer and part chronicler/commentator on socio-political events.

He lamented what he saw as the decline of the art form in recent years.

Listen to Raymond Edwards’ report

Mission Accomplished. Hailed as the “Fyah Mumma”, this outspoken and confident Rastafarian queen has marked a commanding start to her musical reign.

This by arming herself with a powerful string of reggae hits, including the poignant Keep It to Yourself a debut album,major global reggae appear-ances, numerous awards and nominations as well as an overwhelming presence among the downtrodden in her native Jamaica.

Born Ventrice Latora Morgan, this daughter of legendary rock steady icon, Derrick Morgan, however, made her authoritative debut with the release of the local smash hit Below the Waist in 2007. Its lighthearted and mischievous lyrics quickly aroused a massive fan base for this new artiste, catapulted her to number one on the local reggae charts, and established Queen Ifrica’s popularity in the dancehall.

But if Below the Waist offered her status among reggae’s elite, then it was the Fyah Mumma’s melodic essay on incest entitled Daddy; her counsel to women against skin bleaching in the popular single, Nah Rub and her bold admonition to women who harbour criminal lovers in the powerful words of Randy, which consolidates Queen Ifrica’s reputation as a powerful voice for the weak and oppressed.

Sung in a personalised tearful reggae lament and mimicking the voice of a young girl, Daddy chronicles in graphic form the experience of a young girl who is sexually abused by her father. The song’s tragic and heart-breaking content touched a deep chord with a Jamaican population already accustomed to violence and victimisation. Daddy became an instant hit on local radio and soared to the top of reggae charts in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and across the world.

This chart-topper not only held sway in the Jamaican dancehall but, for the first time since dancehall toaster Bounty Killer’s release of Nine and Buju Banton’s Circumstances, a song forced wide open for public discussion a subject long held as taboo in Jamaican society. In fact, so uncomfortable was Queen Ifrica’s unbolting of incest that it ignited fierce debate and controversy about the appropriateness of the lyrics among sections of the Jamaican society. Some sections of the community even called for Daddy to be banned.

Queen Ifrica’s fierce determination to ‘burn out’ negative trends and contrary influences which have held back the poor black in the Jamaican slums, has positioned her as an artiste with a keen sense of social justice and a first class lyricist/songwriter. Her deep and genuine concerns about the social issues which beset her native Jamaica punctuate her debut album Fyah Mumma.

Produced and distributed by Tony Rebel’s Flames Productions, Fyah Mumma features songs such as Zince Fence, Randy, Boxers and Stockings and Babylon Blunder.

“My music is about self development. It is food for thought. I have learned that self esteem is very important. It does not matter where you live or where you come from, respect of self and your surroundings and being grateful for what you have at the moment is a very great weapon against obstacles that may come along the way”.

Source: Jamaica Observer

On 12 January 1959 Berry Gordy Junior signed a document promising to repay the Ber-Berry Co-Op the sum of $800.

Ber-Berry was the name given to the Gordy family savings fund.

In order to receive money from it, any member of the Gordy clan had to deliver a speech justifying a loan and pass a unanimous family vote.

Gordy passed and the $800 he received led to the creation of Motown Records.

Initially named Tamla Records, Gordy renamed it Motown in honour of the nickname ‘motor town’ given to his home city of Detroit in Michigan.

From the start, Motown possessed the family air that had spawned its very creation – by Gordy’s side was William ‘Smokey’ Robinson, a burgeoning songwriter and singer who fronted a group called The Miracles.

Driving force

Members of Gordy’s family also jumped onboard his latest venture, which, for Gordy, followed a brief career in boxing, manual labour and song-writing.

Gordy’s desire to work for himself was one of the greatest driving forces behind the creation of Motown.

He had received disappointing sums of money for writing songs and despite co-writing hits for Jackie Wilson (‘Lonely Teardrops’, ‘Reet Petite’) he saw his creative and financial future in Motown.

Within five years, Motown had created hits and cultivated stars out of a modest building Gordy had purchased and dubbed ‘Hitsville USA’.

Within the building a ‘production line’ led to chart smashes and hit makers.

	Song writing and production teams like Holland-Dozier-Holland helped to create the so-called ‘Motown sound’

Motown sound

Song-writing teams like Holland-Dozier-Holland and Barratt Strong and Norman Whitfield worked with delegated artists and collectively brought the identifiable ‘Motown Sound’ to life.

That sound was relayed by some of the finest musicians in Detroit, The Funk Brothers, a sprawling group of talented instrumentalists.

Gordy ensured that his acts looked as smooth and polished as they sounded.

Unlike other record labels of the time, he employed choreographers like Cholly Atkins to teach his performers to dance either in unison, or for the soloists, to fill the stage with their presence.

Maxine Powell was recruited, and succeeded, in polishing the so-called ‘diamonds in the rough’ in her deportment school.

‘Young America’

The end result was that Gordy’s vision became the most successful black-owned record label in the world.

In Motown, Gordy created a by-word for an era of modern music, one he dubbed the ‘Sound of Young America’.

Gordy’s ability to spot talent brought us an array of stars whose work has endured over the decades – from The Contours, Marv Johnson, Mary Wells, The Marvelettes, The Vandellas, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.

The line-up continued with The Four Tops, The Temptations, Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, Edwin Starr, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.

Caribbean influences

The Caribbean music scene also found itself influenced by the Motown sound.

Richard Stoute of Barbados was known as the ‘Soul King of the Caribbean’ and built his career around the sound of Motown.

“We depended very much on the Motown sound,” Stoute told BBC Caribbean.

Hear Richard Stoute’s interview with BBC Caribbean’s Mike Jarvis

Stoute said that that Motown made a significant contribution to Caribbean music in terms of arrangements, style, diction, and clarity.

“What’s happening today in terms of singing cannot be compared with what happened yesteryear,” Stoute said.

“I’d like to see that comeback.”

To mark Motown’s 50th anniversary, BBC Caribbean Service will broadcast two special editions of Caribbean Magazine.

On 16 January BBC Caribbean Magazine will retrace the history of the label, with first hand accounts from Gordy, Mary Wilson, Maxine Powell and Stevie Wonder.

On 23 January BBC Caribbean Magazine will hear from music-makers from around the Caribbean, who will share their personal relationship with Motown and give their opinion on its impact and cultural influence on the region.

Revenues fall further

The Trinidad and Tobago government has estimated that revenues will decline by a further US$476 million this year as a result of falling energy prices.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning provided new figures to parliament indicating the government now sees oil and gas revenues totalling about $7 billion, $1 billion less than its original forecast.

The Prime Minister said the government would respond by trimming expenditure, running a deficit and borrowing on the local market.

Cruise sector remains bullish

The international cruise industry is confident it can ride out the global economic storm.

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) expects the number of people taking cruises in 2009 to rise by 2.3 percent to 13.5 million passengers.

The Caribbean, Alaska and the Mediterranean are expected to remain the dominant markets.

“The forecast for 2009 is bright,” Richard Sasso, the chairman of the marketing committee of CLIA , told a news conference.

CLIA represents 23 member lines travelling to seven continents.

Taiwan, Belize sign oil deal

Taiwan has signed a contract with Belize for offshore oil drilling in the Caribbean Sea, the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Tapei said.

The contract gives the Taiwan government-controlled refiner, CPC, access to 4,800 square kilometres offshore Belize for oil exploration and production.

Tributes paid to calypso great

Legendary Trinidadian singer, the Mighty Duke, who died on Wednesday, has been hailed as a giant of calypso.

Duke, born Kelvin Pope, was in his 70s and had been been ailing with a bone marrow disease.

He is perhaps best remembered for winning the Trinidad calypso title for four consecutive years from 1968-71.

The Mighty Chalkdust said there were very few people who had scaled the towers of composing and singing calypsos like Duke.

Parliament approves Chavez reform

The Venezuelan parliament has overwhelmingly approved a plan that’ll allow President Hugo Chavez to stand for re-election for an unlimited number of times.

The constitutional amendment must be approved by a referendum within 30 days.

It’ll be the second time that the proposals are put to a vote.

They were defeated just over a year ago: the opposition has argued that a new referendum would be unconstitutional.

But President Chavez said on Tuesday that he needed at least another 10 years to consolidate what he calls his socialist revolution.

Parrot count begins

International volunteers from several countries are in St Lucia to help conduct a parrot census.

The census, which will be completed in March, will involve treks through the whole of St Lucia’s mountainous rainforests.

Its purpose is to establish the status of the national bird – the St Lucia Amazon which was snatched from the brink of extinction three decades ago.