I just saw on the news the execution of the former dictator....man that was very weird, seeing such a once powerful man going down like that. I hope the Iraqis will find relieve in this execution and that they will now recognize that they have to move on and stop the ongoing violence. I pray for Irag that they will stand up and be a proud and prosperious nation on this earth. Be blessed Iraq!!

happy new year's eve everyone. The countdown to 2007 can finally begin at full speed. 10...9....8...7....6....5...4....3...2.....1....Happy new year!!!!!!!!!!

If I would recommend anyone on their trip abroad for old year, I would advice Suriname. I bet there is no place like Suriname when it comes to celebrating old year. It's one time of year I think it tops all other tourist destinations. And it is not because I am a citizen of Suriname but because many people from Europe and even the US have stated that indeed Suriname is unique when it comes to old year. An example: Suriname imports fireworks on a large scale which makes the country the biggest firework consumer on the South American continent ( almost US$ 4,- a person), a total of US$ 2 million just on the import of fireworks for a population of just half a million people.

That was just an update on the way we celebrate old year. As i promised I will be keeping you informed on the old year's situation as it unfolds and keep in mind that I will be posting more pictures of the celebration in Suriname (as you enjoy the ones below)

ciao for now

Just scroll down my blog and enjoy the pictures. You can comment or ask questions about them

Hi guys I will be showing you some nice pictures on how we in Suriname celebrate Old Year and New year. enjoy

I just have to thank a few people on TIG for there fantastic support this past year and ofcourse their great friendship. I would like to thank Axel for involving me in the whole TIG business and accepting me as a voluteer with the translation programm....hartelijk dank Axel (Thank you in Dutch)
And ofcourse my best friends here at TIG: His excellency Ayman and His Majesty Victor, thank you guys for your friendship...and I like to thank my mom and God.....oh no...this is not the grammy's right hehehehe...
Merry X-mas everyone and a blessed 2007!!!!!!!
from sweet Suriname

I'd like to wish each and everyone the happiest holidays seasons ever. I want to express my gratitude towards all the 1000+ TIG members who visited my Blog spot. I am glad that I decided to start writing often. I will also keep you up to date on the developments in Suriname and the Caribbean region (and ofcourse my Caricom Youth Ambassador's candidature) in 2007.
I hope from the depths of my heart that you will recieve all the blessings from above in the new year and may God's grace and warmth be with you where ever, who ever you are.

Authorities in Suriname are confident about the outcome of the hearings in the long-standing border dispute with Guyana. Both parties began presentations Thursday before an Arbitration Tribunal established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The oral pleadings are being held behind closed doors in the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC, and will last until December 20.

“I am confident that the Surinamese team is well-prepared for the oral pleading, that the Surinamese interests will be looked after vigorously and I expect that the Tribunal will judge the Surinamese positions on its merits,” said Suriname Foreign Affairs minister Lygia Kraag-Keteldijk from Washington, DC.

The same sentiments go for president Ronald Venetiaan. Earlier this week he also noted Suriname’s readiness for the procedures. “The Surinamese side is thoroughly prepared and is going with a good spirit and good feeling towards this arbitration procedure,” said the head of state. About the outcome, however, he is more cautious. “At this moment there is no reason to speculate on the outcome,” he responded to questions from journalists.

In February 2004, Guyana formally submitted to the Government of Suriname a Statement of Claim invoking Article 287 and Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in relation to its maritime boundary dispute with Suriname.

Annex VII of the Convention sets out the rules and procedures for the establishment and functioning of an Arbitration Tribunal under the Convention. These procedures allow for disputes relating to maritime boundaries between adjacent States which are Parties to the Treaty to be submitted for binding resolution to an Arbitration Tribunal established under the Treaty.

Pursuant to the requirements, the Government of Guyana also gave notice of its action under the Convention to the President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. It has done so similarly to the Secretary General of the United Nations.

After a lull for three decades, the border tensions between Guyana and Suriname flared up again in June 2000 after Surinamese gunboats evicted an oil rig from Canada’s CGX Energy Inc. from the disputed maritime area on the Surinamese coast. CGX was granted an oil exploration contract by the Guyanese government in 1998 for the area in dispute.

Between June 2000 and October 2002 several efforts, including high-level talks between the presidents of both countries, failed to bring about a resolution. Both countries have claimed ownership to the Tigri Area (called by the Guyanese the New River triangle) in the south, while there is also a dispute over the maritime border. Guyana's President, Bharat Jagdeo, says he is looking forward to the matter being settled once and for all.

Standard & Poor's on Monday raised its long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating on Suriname to "B" from "B-" on government efforts to address its payments to bilateral lenders and solid growth prospects.

A team from the international rating bureau visited Suriname several weeks ago and held talks with monetary officials.

In a response Tuesday to journalists, Minister of Finance Humphrey Hildenberg said the monetary policies of the government have proved positive. Since the country is paying off its foreign and internal debts on a regular basis, the “rating was being adjusted”.

“The outlook is also positive because Stand and Poor’s is expecting the situation to improve further,” the official added.

For the moment the government doesn’t have any specific policy measures to implement in order to further improve the economic situation and in doing so facilitate further improvement of the credit rating.

“We (the government) will monitor the situation and where necessary we will adjust the policies to maintain the current situation or to assure that it doesn’t get worse,” said the Finance Minister.

Standard & Poor's also raised its long-term local currency on the CARICOM country to "B+" from "B", and affirmed its "B" short-term sovereign credit ratings. The outlook on the foreign currency rating remains positive, while the outlook on the local currency rating was revised to positive from stable.

Minister Hildenberg disclosed that in January a team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will visit Suriname to assess the economic performance of the country. The official expects a positive outcome of that assessment.

Hi everyone, I just want to give you an update on my ambitions to become the next Caricom Youth Ambassador for Suriname.
There is a very good chance I will be elceted end of this month as the new ambassador for the Caribbean region. It is all up to the elctions which will be held in the National Youth Parliament. This is really exciting and very challengng considering that this is my first real race to public office.

I promise that when I become ambassador I will most certainly use TIG as a forum, personaly, to discuss certain issues and to establish worldwide partnerships and collaborations.
I will come back at this point as soon as the results are in from the elctions.
So just pray for me that I get the opportunity to make something good out of the period of 2 years that will be granted to be ambassador.

Thank u,
And I look forward to any kind of response or suggestion even now

1. The WTO Is Fundamentally Undemocratic
The policies of the WTO impact all aspects of society and the planet, but it is not a democratic, transparent institution. The WTO rules are written by and for corporations with inside access to the negotiations. For example, the US Trade Representative gets heavy input for negotiations from 17 "Industry Sector Advisory Committees." Citizen input by consumer, environmental, human rights and labor organizations is consistently ignored. Even simple requests for information are denied, and the proceedings are held in secret. Who elected this secret global government?

2. The WTO Will Not Make Us Safer
The WTO would like you to believe that creating a world of "free trade" will promote global understanding and peace. On the contrary, the domination of international trade by rich countries for the benefit of their individual interests fuels anger and resentment that make us less safe. To build real global security, we need international agreements that respect people's rights to democracy and trade systems that promote global justice.

3. The WTO Tramples Labor and Human Rights
WTO rules put the "rights" of corporations to profit over human and labor rights. The WTO encourages a 'race to the bottom' in wages by pitting workers against each other rather than promoting internationally recognized labor standards. The WTO has ruled that it is illegal for a government to ban a product based on the way it is produced, such as with child labor. It has also ruled that governments cannot take into account "non commercial values" such as human rights, or the behavior of companies that do business with vicious dictatorships such as Burma when making purchasing decisions.

4. The WTO Would Privatize Essential Services
The WTO is seeking to privatize essential public services such as education, health care, energy and water. Privatization means the selling off of public assets - such as radio airwaves or schools - to private (usually foreign) corporations, to run for profit rather than the public good. The WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS, includes a list of about 160 threatened services including elder and child care, sewage, garbage, park maintenance, telecommunications, construction, banking, insurance, transportation, shipping, postal services, and tourism. In some countries, privatization is already occurring. Those least able to pay for vital services - working class communities and communities of color - are the ones who suffer the most.

5. The WTO Is Destroying the Environment
The WTO is being used by corporations to dismantle hard-won local and national environmental protections, which are attacked as "barriers to trade." The very first WTO panel ruled that a provision of the US Clean Air Act, requiring both domestic and foreign producers alike to produce cleaner gasoline, was illegal. The WTO declared illegal a provision of the Endangered Species Act that requires shrimp sold in the US to be caught with an inexpensive device allowing endangered sea turtles to escape. The WTO is attempting to deregulate industries including logging, fishing, water utilities, and energy distribution, which will lead to further exploitation of these natural resources.

6. The WTO is Killing People
The WTO's fierce defense of 'Trade Related Intellectual Property' rights (TRIPs)—patents, copyrights and trademarks—comes at the expense of health and human lives. The WTO has protected for pharmaceutical companies' 'right to profit' against governments seeking to protect their people's health by providing lifesaving medicines in countries in areas like sub-saharan Africa, where thousands die every day from HIV/AIDS. Developing countries won an important victory in 2001 when they affirmed the right to produce generic drugs (or import them if they lacked production capacity), so that they could provide essential lifesaving medicines to their populations less expensively. Unfortunately, in September 2003, many new conditions were agreed to that will make it more difficult for countries to produce those drugs. Once again, the WTO demonstrates that it favors corporate profit over saving human lives.

7. The WTO is Increasing Inequality
Free trade is not working for the majority of the world. During the most recent period of rapid growth in global trade and investment (1960 to 1998) inequality worsened both internationally and within countries. The UN Development Program reports that the richest 20 percent of the world's population consume 86 percent of the world's resources while the poorest 80 percent consume just 14 percent. WTO rules have hastened these trends by opening up countries to foreign investment and thereby making it easier for production to go where the labor is cheapest and most easily exploited and environmental costs are low.

8. The WTO is Increasing Hunger
Farmers produce enough food in the world to feed everyone -- yet because of corporate control of food distribution, as many as 800 million people worldwide suffer from chronic malnutrition. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, food is a human right. In developing countries, as many as four out of every five people make their living from the land. But the leading principle in the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture is that market forces should control agricultural policies-rather than a national commitment to guarantee food security and maintain decent family farmer incomes. WTO policies have allowed dumping of heavily subsidized industrially produced food into poor countries, undermining local production and increasing hunger.

9. The WTO Hurts Poor, Small Countries in Favor of Rich Powerful Nations
The WTO supposedly operates on a consensus basis, with equal decision-making power for all. In reality, many important decisions get made in a process whereby poor countries' negotiators are not even invited to closed door meetings -- and then 'agreements' are announced that poor countries didn't even know were being discussed. Many countries do not even have enough trade personnel to participate in all the negotiations or to even have a permanent representative at the WTO. This severely disadvantages poor countries from representing their interests. Likewise, many countries are too poor to defend themselves from WTO challenges from the rich countries, and change their laws rather than pay for their own defense.

10. The WTO Undermines Local Level Decision-Making and National Sovereignty
The WTO's "most favored nation" provision requires all WTO member countries to treat each other equally and to treat all corporations from these countries equally regardless of their track record. Local policies aimed at rewarding companies who hire local residents, use domestic materials, or adopt environmentally sound practices are essentially illegal under the WTO. Developing countries are prohibited from creating local laws that developed countries once pursued, such as protecting new, domestic industries until they can be internationally competitive. California Governor Gray Davis vetoed a "Buy California" bill that would have granted a small preference to local businesses because it was WTO-illegal. Conforming with the WTO required entire sections of US laws to be rewritten. Many countries are even changing their laws and constitutions in anticipation of potential future WTO rulings and negotiations.

11. There are Alternatives to the WTO
Citizen organizations have developed alternatives to the corporate-dominated system of international economic governance. Together we can build the political space that nurtures a democratic global economy that promotes jobs, ensures that every person is guaranteed their human rights to food, water, education, and health care, promotes freedom and security, and preserves our shared environment for future generations.

12. The Tide is Turning Against Free Trade and the WTO!
International opposition to the WTO is growing. Massive protests in Seattle of 1999 brought over 50,000 people together to oppose the WTO—and succeeded in shutting the meeting down. When the WTO met in 2001, the Trade negotiators were unable meet their goals of expanding the WTO's reach. The WTO met in Cancún, Mexico this past September 10--14, and met thousands of activists in protest and scoring a major victory for democracy. Developing countries refused to give in to the rich countries' agenda of WTO expansion - and caused the talks to collapse!

Whatever you want to do and achieve, go for it. Take a step forward today towards your goals in life. Only some days will you feel inspired, moved and focussed enough to achieve your goals.

Make today one of those days and pursue what you want with all your heart, body and mind. Believe in yourself and your abilities, focus on your goals. For today, let your desires and ambitions shine. Steel yourself for action and make today great.

It is never easy to face your fears, self-doubts and gain the confidence to pursue your dreams. But it is harder and sadder to look back with regrets tomorrow and in future years on what you didn't do when you had the chance. Your time is precious, so throw caution to the wind. Just for today, achieve your secret dreams and desires, and trust in yourself. To paraphrase Walt Disney, 'Don't dream it, do it'.