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Barbados has withdrawn from Miss Universe 2021 “in light of the worsened state of affairs in respect of the Covid-19 pandemic in Barbados.”

“…the Directors of Crown Events Inc. have taken the difficult decision that there will be no Miss Universe Barbados this year,” said the official statement. 

Barbados now joins Malaysia and Laos, who will not be participating in the 2021 competition.

Reigning Miss Universe Andrea Meza will crown her successor at the 70th edition of Miss Universe, to be hosted in Israel in December. Miss Universe Barbados 2020 Hillary-Ann Williams did not place in the top 21. 

South Africa’s Zozibini Tunzi has become the longest-reigning titleholder in Miss Universe history after the annual pageant was postponed in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

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PUTUMAYO PROVINCE, Colombia, Sept 13 (Reuters) – An environmental activist in southern Colombia’s steamy jungle province of Putumayo was preparing to run some errands earlier this year when she received a warning from a contact, she said.

“He wrote me a message saying it’s better I don’t go outside…They’ve sent someone to kill you three times already,” she recalled, referring to crime gangs operating in her village. Reuters could not verify the content of the message.

The woman, who has protection from government bodyguards, is one of scores of activists under threat in Colombia, the world’s most dangerous country for environmentalists.

She fled her village last October after her activism and opposition to drug crops that damage the Amazon rainforest made her a target for crime gangs.

For her protection, Reuters has not named the activist nor the criminal group, though her story was corroborated by a U.N. Development Program team.

A record 65 environmental defenders were killed in Colombia in 2020, according to a report published on Monday by advocacy group Global Witness, nearly one-third of the worldwide total.

Colombia’s government is working across departments, including efforts from the environment ministry and attorney general’s office, to mitigate conflict and tackle violence, the environment ministry said in a statement.

“The environment ministry will work to provide the country with solid management mechanisms for prevention, protection and guarantees for non-repetition (of violence),” the statement said.

Colombia’s government has blamed crime gangs and leftist rebels involved in drug trafficking for the rise in activist killings. Reuters was unable to contact the armed groups.

Globally, the number of murdered environmentalists and land defenders hit 227 last year, surpassing the previous 2019 record of 212.

Global Witness says its annual tally is likely an underestimate because many killings in rural places, as well as some entire countries, go unreported.

It marks the second year in a row Colombia registered the most killings, despite government promises to increase security in rural areas and offer activists protection.

President Ivan Duque could leave office next year with environmental activist killings having more than doubled during his term, according to Global Witness’ annual tally.

The deaths of Colombian human rights and community activists of all stripes have sparked exhortations from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights for Duque’s government to step up protective measures.

Killings of environmental activists dipped briefly in the two years after a 2016 peace deal between the government and the leftist guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), according to Global Witness figures.

The peace deal led to a general decline in violence, but the FARC’s demobilization opened a power vacuum in some areas. read more

Former FARC fighters who reject the deal, members of remaining rebel group the ELN, and crime gangs are now battling for control in many areas.

Laura Furones, Global Witness’ senior adviser for its land and environmental defenders campaign, said the increase in activist killings was due to “the lack of state action in terms of implementing the peace accord,” which had led to the growth in competing armed groups. Activist murders soared to 64 in 2019, well above pre-accord figures of 37.

“There’s been many areas of the country (which) have been overtaken by guerrillas, paramilitaries and other criminal groups,” said Furones, calling on Duque’s administration to do more to protect activists. “We see really worrying trends upwards and that tells us that whatever the government’s doing is by no means enough.”

EX-COMBATANTS IN DANGER

The activist in Putumayo fled after threats from the armed group that wants locals to tear down forest to plant coca, the chief ingredient in cocaine. She was given state-funded bodyguards and an armored car after she fled, but longs to be able to return safely to her village.

The national protection unit, which provides bodyguards to officials and threatened public figures, said it does not confirm the identities of those it protects.

“Since October last year I haven’t been able to go near the area,” she said, adding that she misses her neighbors and drinking her morning coffee gazing from her window.

“For all the protection you get from the state…I wouldn’t for a moment trade that for the tranquility of my home,” she said.

Seventeen of the Colombian environmentalists murdered in 2020 were involved in coca crop substitution programs, Global Witness found. Reuters could not independently verify the figures.

Some environmental activists are also ex-FARC guerrillas, making them potential targets for their former brothers-in-arms who reject the peace deal and reap hefty profits from coca and illegal mining, activists, the government and advocacy groups say.

More than 280 ex-FARC members have been killed since the peace deal was signed, according to advocacy group Indepaz. The government tallies close to 260 killings, according to the government department charged with implementing the peace deal.

At least one environmental activist – Hernando Jose Molina – included in Global Witness’ list of those killed last year was an ex-fighter who had signed the 2016 peace deal, according to a report by local advocacy group Somos Defensores. Reuters could not independently confirm this.

Former guerrilla Jorge Santofimio leads a network of tree nurseries in Putumayo and two other provinces, growing saplings meant to restore damaged parts of the Amazon, with help from the U.N. Development Program.

He and other ex-guerrillas hope the work will reconcile them with communities who suffered during the conflict, but Santofimio said that their activism was making them a target for armed groups.

“They won’t kill you for having signed the peace deal. They’ll kill you for trying to build peace,” he said.

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By Justine Coleman

The Hill

The studies come just one day after President Biden announced a new rule that would require private companies with 100 employees or more to mandate vaccinations or frequent coronavirus testing.

The Biden administration as a whole has pushed for the use of vaccines as the best way to combat the pandemic.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Friday made the case for vaccines yet again, citing the study along with two others and stating that COVID-19 shots still work to protect recipients from the worst of the disease amid the rampant spread of the delta variant.

“As we have shown study after study, vaccination works,” Walensky said during the briefing. “CDC will continue to do all we can do to increase vaccination rates across the country by working with local communities and trusted messengers and providing vaccine confidence consults to make sure that people have the information they need to make an informed decision.”

“The bottom line is this: We have the scientific tools we need to turn the corner on this pandemic,” Walensky said. “Vaccination works and will protect us from the severe complications of COVID-19. It will protect our children and allow them to stay in school for safe in-person learning.”

The agency and Biden administration are promoting the data behind the vaccine effectiveness in their bolstered push to get the unvaccinated shots.

The U.S. has made progress with vaccinations, reaching 75 percent of adults who have had at least one dose earlier this week.

But the portion of unvaccinated people continues to affect the U.S.’s trajectory in the pandemic, with the unvaccinated making up almost all of the growing hospitalizations and deaths.

The other two studies in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) released Friday focused on the vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization.

One involving five Veterans Affairs Medical Centers found the mRNA vaccines’ overall effectiveness against hospitalization reached 86.8 percent.

Another similarly calculated that effectiveness at 86 percent among patients in emergency departments, urgent cares and hospitals across nine states.

However, the studies also provided some evidence that the effectiveness of the vaccines are starting to wane among the older population, prompting the researchers to call for further investigation.

For the patients in emergency departments, urgent cares and hospitals across nine states, the effectiveness among those aged 75 and older was 76 percent, while among those aged 18 to 74, effectiveness reached 89 percent.

But researchers urged caution, with the report saying “this moderate decline should be interpreted with caution and might be related to changes in SARS-CoV-2, waning of vaccine-induced immunity with increased time since vaccination, or a combination of factors.”

The study involving Veterans Affairs facilities determined that the mRNA vaccine effectiveness among those aged 65 and older was 79.8 percent, compared to 95.1 percent among those aged 18 to 64.

More than 82 percent of those aged 65 and older are considered fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Friday the administration is aiming to get “as close to 100 percent as possible” through expanded outreach.

“We know that every senior matters in terms of getting them vaccinated as a potential life saved,” he said, adding that booster vaccinations “will likely be helpful” for the older population.

The Biden administration had announced it planned to start administering additional shots to recipients on Sept. 20 beginning eight months after their second shot.

But the plan led to criticism from some experts who said the administration was getting ahead of the review process at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), although officials say the strategy depends on FDA approval.

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Boris Johnson to confirm Covid booster jabs for over-50s in UK

Programme follows approval of vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-olds and is aimed at heading off winter rise in infections

Aubrey Allegretti and Peter Walker

Guardian

 

Boris Johnson is to confirm the start of a booster jabs programme for the over-50s on Tuesday after government scientists finally approved vaccinations for older schoolchildren.

Setting out a widespread acceleration of the vaccine programme before what ministers concede will be a difficult second winter coping with the virus, the prime minister will also signal his opposition to any further lockdowns this year.

In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister will highlight the need to keep some measures in reserve, which could include a return to compulsory mask-wearing in some settings, telling people to work from home where possible and the reintroduction of social distancing across England.

But he will put the vaccination programme at the heart of his approach to trying to keep Covid hospitalisations and deaths at manageable levels during the colder months when people are more likely to gather indoors and in the run-up to Christmas.

However the plans to offer jabs to children aged 12 to 15, approved by the UK’s four chief medical officers on Monday, immediately provoked concern from teaching unions who warned that schools were being put in an “invidious” position.

They called on ministers to confirm the programme would be overseen by specialists so teachers would not become caught up in issues of consent, or having to deal with anger from anti-vaccination groups.

One NHS trust has told schools it expects the first injections to be completed within six weeks.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “It is essential that the government immediately confirms that the process surrounding vaccinations will be run and overseen entirely by the appropriate medical teams.”

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is now understood to have endorsed boosters to be given to all over-50s and the clinically vulnerable, given fears about waning immunity.

The rollout is expected to take the same form as the first phase of Covid vaccine distribution begun in December 2020, with the oldest prioritised first before jabs are offered to the lower age groups.

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, will make a statement to the Commons confirming the move, with Johnson fielding questions from the media in a press conference later in the afternoon.

The prime minister will say: “The pandemic is far from over but, thanks to our phenomenal vaccine programme, new treatments and testing we are able to live with the virus without significant restrictions on our freedoms.

“Today I will set out a clear plan for the autumn and winter, when the virus has a natural advantage, to protect the gains we have made.”

Although ministers are expected to relinquish some emergency Covid powers, the government will still retain the ability to enforce a lockdown and tell people to quarantine who test positive.

And despite announcing over the summer that vaccine passports will be required for entry to nightclubs and other large crowded venues, Johnson is also expected to confirm what Javid said on Sunday – that the controversial documents will not be introduced on 1 October. However, the policy will be kept in reserve, much to the frustration of dozens of Tory MPs, who were preparing to vote against such a move to kill it off.

Many privately thought the chances of legislation passing to introduce vaccine passports were slim, given the high level of opposition among Johnson’s own backbenchers, and have told the Guardian the government should rule out their introduction entirely. One said: “The very concept of vaccine passports needs to be ruled out for good, as they are fundamentally unconservative, discriminatory and would lead to a two-tier society that I am confident no one actually wants to see.”

Johnson’s “winter plan” will prepare people for what Labour have warned could be “the worst winter in living memory” for the NHS, with the dual pressures of Covid and flu expected to place even more strain on the health service.

A government insider said that to guard against another lockdown, the prime minister would announce the potential return of “the sorts of interventions we’ve seen before”. They added: “It’s just the choice of in what combination and at what level of cases, deaths and hospitalisations they could be triggered”.

 

The decision on boosters has become one of the most protracted and complex issues the JCVI has tackled during the pandemic, with significant debate over whether any extra immunity granted by mass third jabs brings a net public health benefit, given the resources involved and the potential impact on areas such as other vaccination programmes.

On Thursday last week the committee held a meeting on the issue which lasted more than four hours, with members given very strict warnings against speaking to the media.

While the JCVI was deciding, there was increasing, if implicit, pressure from ministers to agree to a widespread booster programme, with ministers ordering the NHS to prepare for an immediate rollout once agreement was reached.

Some politicians and scientists, including Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, have also stressed it would be unfair for the UK to roll out booster vaccines while millions of people in poorer countries still do not have access to even a first jab, and warned this could lead to the creation of potentially new variants of concern.

Announcements on rules for international travel are not expected to be made tomorrow but could come as early as Thursday.

The red, amber and green lists are expected to be replaced with a “go” and “no go” list of countries, acquiescing to Labour’s longstanding call for a simpler two-tier system.

Sources said there was a deliberate nudge built into the plan that would encourage people to get vaccinated by scrapping the requirement to quarantine and get a PCR test for those returning from “go” places but potentially keeping it in place for those who are not fully inoculated.

There were 30,825 new Covid cases announced on Monday and 61 deaths – lower than the recent daily figures because of the weekend reporting lag.

==================================================

WORLD SUMMARY

British health Secretary Sajid Javid will set out the details of England’s booster shot plans when he unveils the Government’s winter Covid plan in a Commons statement on Tuesday.

Meanwhile new local Covid infections have more than doubled in China’s southeastern province of Fujian, which is battling the country’s latest coronavirus outbreak.

The National Health Commission said on Tuesday that 59 new locally transmitted cases were reported for 13 September, up from 22 infections a day earlier.

Here are the other key recent developments:

• More evidence is needed that booster jabs will significantly reduce serious cases before governments go ahead with campaigns for third jabs, a new study involving US and WHO health experts said. At the moment, such campaigns are not justified, according to the scientists.
• Children aged 12 to 15 will be offered vaccines in the UK, its chief medical officers decided. The first doses should be administered immediately.
• China imposed new restrictions in the south-eastern Fujian province, with measures including mass testing, suspended transport services and closures of bars and cinemas.
• Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières called for a waiver of vaccine patents to allow more jabs to be produced and delivered to poorer countries. It said the UK, EU, Switzerland and Norway should stop blocking a proposal being negotiated at the World Trade Organization.
• Singapore’s health ministry has reported 607 new locally transmitted Covid cases – the highest since August last year.
• The UK government pulled out of a deal with the French pharmaceutical company Valneva to purchase its Covid-19 vaccination, the company has said.
• Ho Chi Minh City, at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Vietnam, is to extend restrictions until the end of September. Authorities said the measures were needed to isolate clusters, speed up vaccinations and stop hospitals from being overwhelmed.
• The fully vaccinated accounted for just 1.2% of all deaths involving Covid-19 in England in the first seven months of this year, which is being seen as an encouraging sign that the vaccine is effective in reducing deaths.
• About a million children in New York returned to school today, with compulsory masks and mandatory vaccination for teachers, as the city ends remote working.

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By  Everson W. Hull, Ph. D

On Wednesday September 8th, Caribbean development enthusiasts were treated to a very thoughtful lecture delivered by Dr. H. Gene Leon, the newly elected President of the Caribbean Development Bank.  It was the inaugural address, in a newly established lecture series in honor of the very distinguished Sir Owen S.  Arthur, with a very fitting title – “Re-designing Economic Growth Strategies”.

Dr. Leon’s lecture was outstanding in drawing attention to a number of very thoughtful growth strategies. It was refreshing to observe the wide range of alternative approaches that were offered for consideration.  The depth and breadth of his focus was most impressive, including his  recognition of the significance of the large talent pool that is widely dispersed across the region.

Notwithstanding, while teetering about the edge of a solution to the lethargic performance that has handicapped our region, his presentation fell short.  The very distinguished doctor knocked on the door; but like others who have come before him, chose not to step inside.

He did not allow himself to offer specific actions that would motivate individual members of our very talented labor force to produce at their optimal level; in implementing the policy actions that he very carefully outlined.   Using the language of his discipline, it would be fair to say, that the proposed policy actions, albeit necessary, were not sufficient.

Of special concern, is the likelihood that the region will be left in the same low productivity bucket that it has occupied over the past 40 years.  The ordinal performance ranking, as measured by per capita income, is not radically different from what it has been forty years ago.  The Bahamas which was at the head of the performance class forty years ago has consistently sustained its lead in each and every year; and the most recent World Bank data shows the gap widening.  Very few CARICOM countries have significantly improved their ordinal performance ranking relative to their peers that existed 40 years ago.  As a result, we remain badly exposed to every obstacle that is strewn in our path.

The rapid innovations in technology and associated new innovations that were detailed by the distinguished presenter are most important.  There is concern, however, that we will continue to fall short of extracting optimal performance from our labor force, unless each worker is offered an Incentive-Based-Compensation Plan that clearly links compensatory rewards to the productivity of each individual.

This is a matter of serious concern.  In the overwhelming majority of workplaces across the region, in both Latin American and the Caribbean, we have forgotten the individual.  Our speeches and policies suggest that the individual does not exist.  There are no performance scorecards that measure his or her individual performance.  We have no scorecard or method in place for carefully measuring and comparing the individual’s performance this year with his or her performance last year.

The absence of a performance scorecard and commensurate rewards will not work in cricket.  It will not work in soccer and did not work at the just completed Olympics where each individual, who did the grunt work and outperformed his or her peers, earned a prize.

The reality is that folks, in the same pay bucket, do not show up to work each day and knock themselves out in the delivery of goods and services because of love for country.  Although we are deeply ethnocentric, each has an infinite range of aspirations.  To illustrate, they aspire to making their rental payments on time, to take care of their families and to send their kids to the finest and often most expensive schools.

These very healthy aspirations, invariably come into conflict with a rigidly fixed pay band in which each employee receives the identical pay.  There are no rewards for supra-normal performance.   This is a recipe for disaster.  The brilliant and highly talented employee has no incentive to outperform his colleague, Joe Six Pack, who is in the same pay band.  The absence of these incentives and rewards is harmful to our member states.  The resultant lower rates of productivity / efficiency, as measured by output-per-manhour, increase the cost of production, reduce the volume of highly valued goods and services brought to market, increase our level of imports, and trap our member states at low growth rates, leaving each of our member states, without exception, operating far short of their full productive potential.

The distinguished guest lecturer does not have to look very far to see and observe incentive-driven compensation structures that have been working effectively in motivating work effort, and higher rates of productivity.   Both the Canadian and US Governments have in place incentive-based compensation plans.   And, the majority of those who have fled our shores are, for the most part, gainfully employed under a pay-for -performance plan.  Each of our member states has a ready pool of workers throughout the diaspora who have left our shores and are currently working in, or have worked under, a pay-for-performance plan.  Many will be pleased to share their experiences in the design and implementation of these structures, for gratis.

The distinguished professor has provided much food for thought.   The missing piece is the individual Incentive-driven Compensation Plan.  We do not have to re-invent the wheel.   Others have effectively addressed these productivity issues.   Every U.S. company of asset size greater than US $10 million is required to publish its Incentive Based Compensation Plan in its SEC Form 10-K and DEF 14A filings.  If our region is to break out of the pack and accomplish the mission objectives most carefully outlined by the distinguished presenter, it must have in place a compensation and reward structure that motivates each of our workers to be innovative and creative in producing at their optimal performance level, thrusting our member states closer to their highest productive potential.

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The OAS said the mission will begin its deployment on September 9 and is comprised of 17 experts and observers from nine different countries.

“While the majority of the mission’s members are working in-person, some are carrying out their duties remotely,” the OAS said. “In the Bahamas, they will meet with government officials, electoral authorities, political leaders, candidates, representatives of civil society and other relevant actors, which will allow for a comprehensive analysis of the process.

“The mission will focus its work on the examination of issues related to electoral organization, electoral technology, electoral boundaries, electoral registries, political-electoral financing and the political participation of women,” the OAS added.

It said this is the third time that it will deploy an EOM in the Bahamas.

After the elections, the OAS said the mission will present a preliminary report with its observations and recommendations “aimed at contributing to the continued strengthening of the electoral process in the country.

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Last week, Tufton had said that it is imperative that the Jamaican population be protected against the virus.

“Now that we know that there is the Mu variant in the Caribbean and it is one of concern, then we will pay particular attention to ensuring that we not only test for Delta and the others but we test for this particular one as well.

“We have collected samples and sent them to three sites outside of Jamaica for those samples to be tested,” he said, noting this is among the reasons the government is forging ahead with the national vaccination programme to get the majority of the population inoculated

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