Hello

my friends, E Lloyd K the Writingelk here. Welcome, welcome to the Caribbean man, news roundup of the week as seen through the eyes of the Caribbean man, yes man, a yard mi come from, sorry again I mean ‘t to say, I'm Jamaican born and bred. But, as we sometimes say down home way – sometimes man hafi teck bad sinting mek laugh. This is it. So, Here’s a glimpse into what made the news this past week. This is the real deal folks, so, release the Fed funds, and come let's do it.

Hear it on the podcast.

Funnies, Jokes and memes in the

face of COVID – 19.

Possible Condom Shortage Looms As COVID Lockdown Hits Malaysian Manufacturer Saturday | March 28\, 2020\, There could be a global shortage of condoms as a result of a halt in production because of a COVID-19 lockdown in Malaysia\, which has affected the world's largest producer.

Karex Bhd which has three factories in Malaysia, was out of operation for more than a week as the government seeks to contain the spread of the virus there, imposing tight restrictions on movements.

It was only given permission to restart production on Friday. However, it is only allowed to use 50 percent of its workforce, under a special exemption for critical industries. The shutdown means a shortfall of 100 million condoms, normally marketed internationally by brands such as Durex, supplied to state health care systems such as Britain’s National Health Service or distributed by aid programs such as the UN Population Fund.

Karex Bhd makes one in every five condoms globally. Up to late Friday, Malaysia had recorded 2,320 COVID-19 cases with 27 deaths. Read the story here.

Elsewhere. Corona beer producer

halts brewing over virus. Friday, April 03, 2020

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) - Two Mexican brewers, including the producers of Corona beer, have said they are reducing production because of the health emergency in the country over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grupo Modelo -- whose brands include Pacifico and Modelo as well as Corona -- said the measure was in line with the Mexican government's order to suspend all non-essential activities until April 30 to slow the spread of coronavirus.

"We are in the process of lowering production at our plants to the bare minimum," the company said in a statement on Thursday, adding it would complete the suspension in the following days.

Dutch-Mexican brewer Heineken Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma -- which makes the Tecate and Dos Equis brands -- likewise said Friday it was "executing a plan to reduce our operations… safeguarding care for the environment and with the sole objective of avoiding irreversible effects that could make it impossible to reactivate our economic activity.

"Mexico's government has said that only key sectors such as agribusiness will be able to continue to function under current restrictions. Grupo Modelo said it was ready to operate with 75 percent of its staff working remotely to guarantee the supply of beer, if the government agreed.

On Wednesday, the northern state of Nuevo Leon, where Heineken's Mexican operations are based, said it would stop the production and distribution of beer, which led to panic buying. "These times demand a collective effort to confront this situation," said Heineken.

Since the start of the virus crisis, Corona beer has been the punchline of jokes and memes, and an online rumour said sales in the US dropped by around 40 percent after the outbreak. Story here.

Back-a-yaad

Kartel's appeal

thrown out.

Friday, April 03, 2020. KINGSTON, Jamaica — Vbyz Kartel's much-anticipated appeal has been dismissed in the Court of Appeal in downtown Kingston. President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Dennis Morrison handed down the judgment a short while ago.

Justice Patrick Brooks and Justice Frank Williams were the other two judges on the panel, which upheld the convictions of the entertainer and his three co-convicts — Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones, and Andre St John. The appeals were filed in 2018.

Justice Morrison, in delivering the judgment, said: "the appeals are all dismissed and the convictions are all confirmed".He said the decision in respect of sentencing is reserved pending the delivery by counsel for the men to file the note on sentencing regarding the credit the appellants are entitled to regarding their time spent in custody. This should be done within seven days.

Justice Morrison said following this, the court will render its decision on sentencing in 14 days. Kartel, given name Adidja Palmer was sentenced to life behind bars by Justice Lenox Campbell on April 3, 2014, following his conviction for the murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams.

The judge said he would be eligible for parole after serving 35 years. His co-convicts were also given mandatory life sentences and have been ordered to each serve 25 years before becoming eligible for parole. Brian Bonitto & Alicia Dunkley Willis Read the story.

Reid, Pinnock Lose Another Appeal

The Appeal Court has refused an application by resigned Education Minister Ruel Reid and Caribbean Maritime University President Professor Fritz Pinnock who seeking leave to appeal a decision of the Full Court. The court’s decision was handed down this morning.

Last month, the Full Court comprising justices David Batts, Chester Stamp, and Stephane Jackson-Haisley rejected their application for leave to seek judicial review so as to get the charges laid against them by the Financial Investigation Division (FID) quashed.

The decision upheld the ruling handed down in the Supreme Court by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes in December 2019. Reid and Pinnock had contended that the FID was not empowered by law to bring the charges against them and therefore acted illegally.

They further argued that the FID is purely an investigative body and does not have the legal authority to bring criminals charges or obtain a fiat from the Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute them.

However, the attorney representing the FID rejected assertions that the police personnel acted unlawfully. Reid; his wife Sharen; their daughter Sharelle as well as Pinnock and Brown’s Town Division Councillor Kim Brown Lawrence were last October arrested and charged following a year-long corruption probe into the Education Ministry and CMU.

The five are scheduled to return to the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on April 8. Read the story.

COVID-19 ‘Blamed’ For Robbery Decline As

Professional Thief Killed

March 30, 2020.

THE COVID-19 pandemic came into the firing line of a self-confessed “puss” – a woman who admitted to her own sleight-of-hand exploits – as she bemoaned the murder of her stepson, a reputed robber, and housebreaker, on March 23.

She made known her grief that the unemployed man, whose menacing acts, she says, are known by many in Kingston’s commercial district, should not have died at the hands of a gunman.

The woman, who did not give her name, told The Gleaner that 26-year-old Andrew ‘Ten Pound’ Daley was a professional thief, even as she insisted he was not a violent and dangerous criminal.“A thief, a grab dem man deh grab chain and tek weh people things … . A nuh gunman,” she said.

“The whole o’ town know say him a thief. A better police did kill him.”In one of her several outbursts last week, she threw her hat to the floor in agony, lamenting that Daley died because the coronavirus outbreak had caused traffic to become so thin that the shopping district no longer had sufficient prey.

Patrols by the police were also said to have increased.“The time stiff from this corona business come in, ‘cause me a puss, too … . Nah tell no lie, from the corona thing come in, everything tightens up,” she told The Gleaner amid her fresh grief.

“As you look, you see a police, so him nah really go look nothing fi thief.”Reports are that about 1:40 p.m. last Monday, explosions were heard at East Parade outside the Coke Memorial Methodist Church.

The police were summoned, and Daley was seen lying in a pool of blood with what appeared to be gunshot wounds to his upper body. He was pronounced dead and his body transported to the House of Tranquillity morgue.

The Kingston Central police are investigating. RESULT OF WARThe woman said that Daley’s death was ultimately the result of a war in the west Kingston community of Denham Town, where they live.

Denham Town was in October 2017 declared a zone of special operations – a security initiative that gives increased powers to the police and military. Last Monday at East Parade, downtown Kingston, tensions heightened as the unidentified woman castigated the police for failing to prevent murders and shootings in Denham Town.

Daley was reportedly on his way to his father to collect money for food. The elder Daley could not hold back the tears when he visited the morgue to positively identify his son. On seeing him lifeless on the bed, he wept, muttering that he did not deserve to die like that.

Andrew Daley’s youngest daughter could not console herself, falling to the floor in sorrow. His stepmother was defiant and said, “Sir, is a thief, is a thief dem lick down … but him never did a thief, though,” she said.

“Ten Pound a nuh gunman, him a thief, him a housebrucka.”Up to Saturday, March 21, the police division had recorded 11 murders, two more than for the corresponding period in 2019. Read the story.

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April 3, 2020. The French Navy (Marine Nationale) Mistral-class LHD Dixmude set sails for the French Antilles in the Caribbean this morning. The vessel will be providing assistance to the French territories affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of Operation Résilience.

Operation Résilience which was launched last week by French President Emmanuel Macron to counter the coronavirus epidemic is described as an “unprecedented military operation dedicated to supporting public services and the French people in the fields of health, logistics, and protection”. Read more.

UK’s Only Hospital Ship Sail to Caribbean as

Virus Worsens at Home

The UK’s only hospital ship set sail from Plymouth yesterday for the Caribbean to support British Overseas Territories during the upcoming hurricane season and support the response to the COVID-19 pandemic – as the coronavirus crisis worsens at home.

However, Plymouth Sutton and Devonport Labour MP Luke Pollard says that while sending RFA Argus – the Primary Casualty Receiving Ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary – is the “absolutely the right thing to do”, it shows that the Royal Navy and the RFA do not have enough ships. Read more.

Rowley Downplays Meeting With Venezuelan VP

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley on Wednesday rubbished suggestions that the visit of Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez last Friday was in relation to the decision by the United States to indict President Nicolás Maduro and other senior Venezuelan government ministers on drug-related charges.

A brief government statement issued following the visit on March 27 had noted that “the meeting focused on the strategy being deployed in both countries to combat COVID-19” and that Rodriquez “is directly responsible for the COVID-19 response in Venezuela”. Read more.

**Why the Arctic Ocean needs to be quarantined

(commentary) **

April 2, 2020. Our world has come to an unprecedented pause in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Doctors call it a “novel” coronavirus, which means that it is new to our population and none of us has immunity to it.

The cost in human lives and the widespread havoc it wreaks is consuming our news cycle. But what many of us don’t realize is that our world has a ticking time bomb of pathogens, all of which would be “novel” to us, if released.

For the sake of our collective future, we must keep them under the ice. The Arctic Ocean does not only keep our planet cool through the albedo effect when its white ice reflects the sun’s heat away from the planet.

It keeps the local permafrost, with its payload of pathogens, frozen. Within the ice and permafrost of the Arctic region are bacteria and viruses that have been kept dormant for millennia. But the ice is melting.

Sections of the Arctic Ocean are now 4C too hot. Up to 95% of the summer ice is gone. And scientists have proven that frozen Arctic viruses as old as 30,000 years can be reactivated. Read more.

CARPHA refuses to test four samples from SVG!

The refusal by the Caribbean Public Health Agency’s (CARPHA) lab to test for COVID-19, four samples coming out of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) speaks to the need for local testing capabilities.

As of March 31, 2020, samples for 44 persons had been sent for testing, most at CARPHA’s laboratory in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). There have so far been two positive results. In the most recent batch, four samples were rejected by CARPHA because they did not satisfy the testing criteria for COVID-19.

CARPHA has advised chief medical officers, laboratory directors and national epidemiologists that samples must meet the criteria for a suspect or probable case of COVID-19. A circular from CARPHA dated March 12, 2020, advised that a Suspect case is: a) a patient with severe acute respiratory illness (fever, and at least one sign/symptom of respiratory disease (e.g. cough, shortness of breath).

AND with no other cause that would explain the symptoms AND a history of travel to or residence in a country/area or territory reporting local transmission of COVID-19 during the last 14 days prior to symptom onset ORb) a patient with any acute respiratory illness AND having been in contact with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 case in the last 14 days prior to the onset of symptoms OR. Read more.

Barbados going under 24-hour curfew

A 24-hour curfew will come into effect for Barbados today, Friday, as the Government continues to fight against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).The decision to increase restrictions on Barbadians less than 24 hours after Government had imposed new hours of business and restricted movement was delivered moments ago by acting Prime Minister, Santia Bradshaw. All restaurants will be closed until midnight April 14, but bakeries and bread depots will remain open. Read more.

East GB residents gives Govt. credit for “emergency” status.

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The handful of East End residents who returned to their, Hurricane Dorian ravaged communities, determined to rebuild, after losing everything back in September 2019, are now faced with another setback, COVID-19.

The pandemic has a stranglehold worldwide, and, Bahamians nationwide are now having to adhere to a 24-hour curfew and Emergency Orders imposed by the government. The mandatory lockdown has halted the already slow reconstruction efforts in East End, however, residents agree that it was necessary.

Freetown resident Randy Reckley, 21, said that the government made the right move with the Emergency Orders and the 24- hour curfew.“I think that they should be commended for their quick action.

I think that the isolation is necessary to keep the virus contained,” he told The Freeport News’ team visiting East Grand Bahama on Monday (March 30). Read more.

Bermudian seniors on holiday stranded in the UK

Apr 3, 2020. Bermuda flight: a group of older Bermudians has been stranded in London for eight days after they were marooned on a cruise ship in the Southern HemisphereElderly Bermudians trapped in Britain by the coronavirus crisis pleaded to come home yesterday.

Renee Wilson, 71, from Hamilton Parish, said she was with a group of older Bermudians stranded in London for eight days after they were marooned on a cruise ship in the southern hemisphere when the pandemic took hold.Ms. Wilson said it was “an ordeal” and that some in her party were running short of medication.

She was speaking after it was revealed on Monday that a British Airways charter flight had been arranged to bring Bermudians stuck in Britain home next week. Read more.

STIFF RESTRICTIONS & CURFEW TO PREVENT CONTAGION

APRIL 2, 2020 ·It has been reported that certain businesses in the community have not been adhering to measures that have been implemented as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and Premier and Minister for Finance Hon.

Andrew Fahie has announced that the House of Assembly will be sitting on Friday 27 March to – among other things – amend the legislation to give it more teeth to ensure compliance.

During a press conference on 24 March Hon. Fahie emphasized that adherence to the new operation time is critical for the Territory’s weathering of the Coronavirus storm. The Premier also announced that Government is prepared to deal with those found in contravention.

“All businesses no matter what they are, our churches no matter what they are must only operate from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm and we also are making sure that measures are put in place security-wise to have persons who ignore those measures are being dealt with,” the Premier declared. Read more.

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Coronavirus and the Information War

“I am a senior Chinese military intelligence officer and I know the truth about the coronavirus outbreak. It is far worse than the media are telling you…” It is convincing to read something from this usually credible writer.

We will publish from the information that followed that quote above. Following from other sources, see this to be on point…After speaking to numerous infectious disease experts over the past few days, I’m starting to wonder: is our reaction to COVID-19 the exact reaction an adversary in an information war would hope for? Said differently: is the COVID-19 story the Information Age Pearl Harbor we’ve been expecting? Read more.

Coast Guard Staying Vigilant

The Coast Guard has been busy ensuring that no illegal visitors are landing on the shores of the sister isles as the country seek to prevent as many COVID-19-infected persons as possible from landing on the soil of Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

On Saturday the coast guard, which is now based at Tyrell Bay was seen visiting the yachts and other vessels moored in the waters of the sister isles.

The checks are in keeping with the recent restrictions put on all crafts in the waters of Carriacou and Petite Martinique.

Currently, there is a restriction on foreign boats wishing to enter the sister isles and country in general. This means that the Coastguard has a more important task to prevent them from smuggling themselves into the country. Read more.

4 major hurricanes are predicted as part of an above-normal 2020

Atlantic hurricane season

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is predicted to be more active than usual, according to an outlook released Thursday by the Colorado State University Tropical Meteorology Project.

The group led by Dr. Phil Klotzbach calls for 16 named storms, eight hurricanes, and four major hurricanes. A major hurricane is one that is Category 3 or higher (115-plus-mph winds) on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

This forecast is above the 30-year average (1981 to 2010) of 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes. Four of the hurricanes will become major storms of Category 3 to 5, with sustained winds of at least 111 mph, the projections indicate for the season that runs from June 1 to November 30.

These are the names of tropical storms or hurricanes that may form in the Atlantic Ocean in 2020.ArthurBerthaCristobalDollyEdouardFay. Read more.

I thank you. This my friends, was your news roundup of interest from the past week, as I found it I gave it to you. I take away nothing, not even so much as a claim of ownership, I add nothing either, well, just my voice.

Which is actually the reading voice of a people, my people, come join us here again next week at this same time for more of the same, until then, I remain E K, the Writingelk, and I am out.

Inky I-talk, storytellers podcast.

Funnies, Jokes and memes in the face of COVID – 19. W I News round-up of the week.