Her Excellency the Governor Mrs Deborah Barnes Jones is settling into her new role following her swearing in ceremony at a special sitting of the Legislative Council at the Pelican Room of the Vue Pointe Hotel on Monday 10, May 2004.
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Her Excellency the Governor Mrs Deborah Barnes Jones is settling into her new role following her swearing in ceremony at a special sitting of the Legislative Council at the Pelican Room of the Vue Pointe Hotel on Monday 10, May 2004.
Mrs Barnes Jones had arrived in Montserrat by helicopter the previous day accompanied by her husband Richard (Dick) Jones. They were met by a small welcoming committee at the heliport headed by Professor Sir Howard Fergus.
Her Excellency's last posting was as Britain's Ambassador to Tbilisi, Georgia and prior to this had worked in Montevideo, Tel Aviv, Ulaanbaatar, and Moscow as well as several stints in London. The Governor and her husband have twin daughters aged 13 who are currently in boarding school in North London but who will be visiting Montserrat during the summer holidays.
The special meeting of the Legislative Council on 10 May was a glittering affair with standing room only space in the public gallery. ZJB carried the proceedings live and there were speeches from the Hon. Speaker of the House Mr Joseph Meade, outgoing Acting Governor, Professor Sir Howard Fergus, the Acting Chief Minister; Hon Margaret Dyer-Howe and the Leader of the Opposition, Hon Reuben Meade.
Following the Oath of Office, administered by the Hon Attorney General, Mrs Esco Henry Greer, Her Excellency spoke to those assembled and to the nation through ZJB.
She said "It is an honour to serve in Montserrat and I pledge to work in good faith with the elected representatives and the administration. I hope that we will forge a partnership that will make a difference for Montserrat".
Following the ceremony, Her Excellency inspected a Guard of Honour drawn up outside the Vue Pointe Hotel. On parade were members of the Royal Montserrat Defence Force, the Royal Montserrat Police Force and members of the Montserrat Secondary School Cadet Force. Her Excellency's Aide de Camp for the ceremony and inspection was Miss Veronica Dorsette of the RMDF.
Since assuming office, H.E. has undertaken a series of familiarisation visits which have included the MVO, the Emergency Dept, Government HQ, the Agricultural Dept, DFID, the Airport Project, the Montserrat Port Authority and Her Majesty's Prison. Her programme of visits will continue over the next few weeks and will include the Statutory Bodies, Schools and NGO's amongst others.
Her Excellency the Governor will take the salute at the upcoming Queen's Birthday Parade to be held on the morning of Saturday 12, June 2004 at Salem Park and later that day will host the annual Her Majesty The Queen's Birthday Party at Government House in Palm Loop.
Photo shows Mrs Barnes Jones arriving for her swearing in ceremony
The former Day Time Entry Zone (DTEZ) re-opened for 24 hour access from 1, May 2004. Areas now available for 24 hour access include Corkhill, Delvins, Weekes, Elberton, Foxes Bay, and Richmond Hill. In addition, a small Day Time Entry Zone at the top of St Georges Hill has been created from land previously in the total exclusion zone.
At the time of the re-opening the Government of Montserrat advised residents that although volcanic activity was at a low level and permitted the 24 hour access, other dangers persisted. These included high levels of ash, lack of utilities as there is no water, electricity, telephones and cable TV in the area, plus the poor state of roads which have not been able to be maintained due to the volcanic crisis.
At the request of the Government of Montserrat, DFID put a small team together to report quickly back on the possible overall rehabilitation of the area and the problems faced. The team including local and British representatives commenced work on 23 May and met with a wide cross section of interested parties including focus groups to discuss the issues involved.
It is estimated that there are some 800 homes in the area, many of them in a poor state of repair following nine years of volcanic crisis. However, many residents have commenced clean up operations and some repairs to homes have commenced.
It has been pointed out by the Emergency Department that access to the Exclusion Zone, including the former capital Plymouth is not permitted and that everyone crossing the Belham Valley should do so with caution during periods of heavy rains.
Photo shows the DFID team looking at the rehabilitation of the former DTEZ
During the visit of HMS Monmouth in late April, crew members came ashore to assist
the Montserrat Branch of the British Red Cross in the rehabilitation of old people's houses damaged by the volcano.
After last July's eruption and ashfalls a total of 30 houses, belonging to the elderly, were identified by the Community Services Department as being damaged and in need of repairs. The Red Cross was approached to carry out repairs to the homes as the elderly people were incapable of carrying out the repairs themselves.
A committee headed by Cecil Lake, commenced work in October 2003 with grant funds of EC$52,000 from the British Red Cross. At the time of HMS Monmouth's visit the last house was under repair.
On hearing of the project, the ship's crew volunteered their time and energy to complete the house repairs at the home of Frances 'Mama Fan' Ryan in Brades who recently celebrated her 80 th birthday.
The project was successfully completed during the ship's visit. HMS Monmouth, a frigate in the British Royal Navy spent 48 hours in Montserrat allowing the crew to visit volcanic sites, take part in sporting fixtures and tour the island as well as completing the community project.
Photo shows crew members from HMS Monmouth with Ms Ryan and Cecil Lake outside the home being refurbished
The following are remarks given at the opening ceremony of the Agricultural Exhibition, April 13, 2004 by Sir Howard A. Fergus: "I embrace the opportunity to greet and congratulate especially the Ministry and Department of Agriculture along with the farmers and fishers of this country on this their special day of display. It is important for agriculture to continue to have a special meaning for us, and that as a sector, it features prominently in our action plans.
I learnt and taught that Montserrat was an agricultural island, and we had the products to prove it. And I am not only referring to the sugar that we shipped to England or to the millions of pounds of cotton that we landed on Liverpool, or to the thousands of gallons of lime juice, thousands of crates and barrels of green limes that we shipped to Australia, England and New Zealand. These facts are well known.
But I am also referring to the thousand of crates of tomatoes, which we shipped to Canada in 1929 with some going to Barbados, and to the fact that when the Canadian National Steamships called here in the late 1950s, they moved out with carrots, tomatoes and eschallots. So we have a healthy heritage in farming.
While we will not recapture the green glory of those days, we owe it to ourselves to do all that we can to feed ourselves and to go beyond the rhetoric to the reality of agro-industries, as we seem to be doing now, using technology that may not have been available then. The more we associate health with what we eat, the more it is incumbent on us to grow as much as we can for the domestic market, at least.
Let us not fail our children and grand-children in not establishing a fertile platform, more appropriately, a fertile bed for agriculture for a respectable room in the house of our economy. Our history and the imperatives of health and survival inspire to do so.
Let me salute those persons who took up farming in the challenging north and have kept the green banner of agriculture flying even against odds. As the volcano relents we can hopefully bring more lands into cultivation and thereby improve our gross domestic product.
Finally, I congratulate the prize-winners and indeed all the exhibitors, for just by participating, just by exposing your livestock, your garden products and your art-crafts to public viewing, you are making a winner of agriculture." Ends.
Financial Statements - What They Mean and How to Read Them
Financial statements are the reports, which indicate the financial health of a company. These statements usually refer to the annual report that includes an income statement (also referred to as a statement of profit and loss), a balance sheet, and a set of notes that explain any unusual items in the report.
The income statement, by comparing revenues to expenses, shows how the business or organization performed over a period of time (be this a week, month or year). In short it indicates whether the business is making a profit or loss.
The balance sheet lists all the assets, liabilities and equity of the business or organization at a particular point in time. In simple terms assets are what the business or organization owns such as equipment, property, inventory or cash. Liabilities represent the debt obligations of the business or organization, such as bills that are due as well as loans.
Equity consists of:
(a) the amount that individuals have paid directly to the firm in exchange for a share of ownership (called contributed capital); and
(b) that portion of the income earned by the firm over the years that has not been distributed to the owners in the form of dividends (called retained earnings).
There is a lot of information that one can glean from the balance sheet. For example a business that is showing a profit in its income statement may still have major cash flow problems. This can occur if the business has large debts and consequently uses most of the profit to make debt payments. In such a case the business will still not have much cash assets reflected in its balance sheet.
Public-owned companies, financial institutions, and statutory corporations issue financial statements all the time. So the next time that you have access to financial statements don't ignore nor be intimidated by the numbers.
The 2004 hurricane season commences on 1, June and this year storm activity is expected to be higher than usual. USA based scientists are predicting that seven of this year's storms will become named storms reaching hurricane strength.
The Emergency Department is putting the final touches to its disaster planning for the season and early next month will host the National Hurricane Conference which is chaired by H.E. the Governor.
In the early part of the hurricane season, residents are urged to start getting their preparations completed in a timely manner. The check list for residents includes:-
Remember, BE PREPARED the onus is on you to provide for your personal safety and that of your family members. If you live close to an elderly or handicapped person please help them to be prepared.
The names of the possible storms for 2004 are shown in the list below:
Alex, Bonnie, Charley, Danielle, Earl, Frances, Gaston, Hermine, Ivan, Jeanne, Karl, Lisa, Mathew, Nicole, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tomas, Virginie and Walter.
On 2 & 3, June 2004 the Vue Pointe Hotel will be the venue for a conference organised by consultants from University College, London. The conference is entitled 'Montserrat 2020: Building a Disaster Resilient Future' and it is expected that around three dozen participants will attend.
The purpose of the conference is to discover what disaster risk reduction measures can be taken in the future development of Montserrat. Work at the conference will be based upon the assumption that resilience to disasters doesn't just happen. The future results in part from what we do, or don't do, today to combat the threat of hazards.
The key areas to be represented at the conference include; Technical Personnel and Scientists, Planning and Environment Specialists, Emergency Department and District Committee Chairpersons, Utility Companies, the Private Sector, Education and the Media, NGO's, and representatives of International Institutions.
The conference co-ordinator, Tom Mitchell has recently hosted a similar exercise in St Kitts and is expecting the Montserrat conference to be just as successful. The conference will be a joint exercise between UCL's Department of Geography, the Benfield Hazard Research Centre and the Economic & Social Research Council of the UK (ESRC).
The Montserrat Branch of the British Red Cross has a new 12-member Executive
Committee.
At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 18 May 20040) long serving President, Mrs Lystra Osborne and Treasurer Mr John Skerritt retired from the Board.
The new board is made up of Richard Aspin, Renu Chandiramani, Edith Duberry, Lady Eudora Fergus, Adrian Galloway, Veronica Hickson, Joseph Kirwan, Veronica Lee, Joseph Lynch, Carol Milne, Gweneth Renolds-Reece and Beverly West.
Mrs Osborne and Mr Skerritt will now serve as Consultants to the Board.
The AGM was addressed by Miss Jill St John, Regional Delegate of the British Red Cross (based in Trinidad). She told her audience that Red Cross had to work hard on its image if it is to attract new and younger members in the region.
The Montserrat Red Cross will have the following committees for the current year:-
Members will be able to choose to serve on any committee.
During the AGM, members of the public who had completed the recent Red Cross First Aid Course were presented with their certicicates by Miss St John (see photo).
Further information about the Red Cross and its activities can be obtained from the local office at telephone number 491 2699.
The Montserratians and Friends Organisation of Birmingham England recently donated a quantity of school supplies to the Lookout Primary School.
Children at the school with the help of teachers unpacked the articles on Friday 21, May and they were put to immediate use by the school.
Headteacher at the school, Miss Edith Duberry said she was very pleased and thankful for the donation which was very timely.
The Birmingham Organisation is made up of Montserratians who relocated to the Central English city because of the volcanic eruption, and their friends and work colleagues.
Part II of the report by the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) following their meeting 1 - 4 March 2004 has now been completed and can be accessed here (the PDF file is 1,354KB). This is the Technical Report. Part I of their report has already been published - see the last Newsletter which can be accessed in the Archives Section. There is also a link here.
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HE The Governor receives flowers at Lookout School |
Receiving a warm welcome at St Augustine School |
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Visit to the Golden Years Home |
Visit to the Golden Years Home |
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Meeting at the Montserrat National Trust |
Visit to Brades School Computer Class |