Falklands : Sartma Daily Weekend Edition (24-25.09.05)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 26.09.2005 (Article Archived on 03.10.2005)
A brief run-down of South AtlanticNews
Sartma Daily (24-26.09.05)
CONTENTS
Section 1: Articles by FINN
Calling the Falklands Transcript
Section 2: Committee News
Section 3: Business News from St. Helena
Section 4: Announcements
Section 1:
FALKLAND ISLANDS EX 2005 BEGINS TODAY
By J. Brock (FINN)
The Falkland Islands Exhibition 2005 will be held in the Sun Lounge of the Fairfield Halls, Croydon from Monday, 26 September to Saturday, 01 October. Falklands Crafts at their best as seen on TV will be on display as well as demonstrations of Spinning and Engraving.
On sale will be Specially selected Falkland House Fleeces for hand spinners, F. I. S. Weathers, F. I. Designer Knitwear F. I. Fashion Patterns and F. I. 100% pure wool for hand knitters and machine knitters.
There is also a large selection of Islands products and crafts on exhibit and for sale. According to Annabelle Spencer, owner of the Falkland Islands Agency, a Falkland Islands personality and/or specialist will be on hand each day. Also to be shown are videos about Falklands wildlife and way of life, as well as displays of stamps, photographs, art and lots more.
The venue is open to the public from 1030 to 2200 each day and admission is free. You can contact Annabelle on phone/fax 0179 – 677902, or at her shop and visitor centre at 3 Tucker Street, Wells, Somerset, BA5 2DZ.
£13,000.00 RAISED AT F. I. CONSERVATION BALL
By J. Brock (FINN)
An excellent evening of food, fun and dancing was held at the Town Hall on Friday, 23 September 2005 at the Fourth Annual Falklands Conservation Charity Ball. The evening began with a glass of champagne and a carnation, as well as excellent entertainment provided by young musicians skilfully tutored by FICS Music Teacher, Shirley Adams Leach.
Once seated, the auction began with Andrew Newman takin g the artwork to tables so participants could see what they were bidding for.
The painting of a Sea-lion was sold for £500.00. A Richard Cockwell painting went for £500.00 and a Mandy Shepherd drawing of 3 Horses pulling a plough went for another £500.00. Shirley Merrill’s drawing of a Gentoo penguin scratching its head went for £150.00 and a special item – a seal coming out of the water by Gary Clement went for £400.00. Ally Liddle’s Felt went for £550.00. The purple cardigan was auctioned for £150.00 and the Una Hurst painting of two Gentoo chicks went for £525.00. The VC-10 trip to South Georgia was sold for £1200.00and the Quark Expedition to Antarctica was auctioned for £5,000.00.
Gordon Liddle said thanks to the staff of Falklands Conservation because this hall and the whole event were magnificent. And, he mentioned Sarah and Amanda of SeAled PR and particularly to Dion Robertson, who was out here earlier this evening playing an instrument. He did work experience at Falklands Conservation and a colossal amount of work for the ball. The young people from the community also contributed a lot to this by playing music when people came in. “I think it is an extraordinary thing to see so much talent, he said. Shirley Adams Leach had helped the young people learn their music and with the performance.
He also said thanks to people had taken a lot of their own time – Charlene Rowland had taken time away from work and other duties to help plan this, to Don, Wayne and Chris, who run the bar every year, to Ian Stuart Construction because they built the bar. He mentioned the three gentlemen who do a very good “Blues Brothers,” known by Mark, Shane and Dennis, who did the door are back this year for Falklands Conservation as well.
In his remarks, Mr Liddle mentioned the wonderful tapas provided by the Brasserie and Beauchene Trading for putting wine on the Table and to Mike Summers and Andrew Newman for running the auction, as well as Martin Cant and Graham Didlick, who looked after the lighting and sound. He also mentioned the fashion show and the auction of one of the garments worn by Tracey.
Falklands Conservation and the Falkland Islands in particular have become world leaders in and have succeeded in reducing seabird by-catch and reducing numbers of Albatross kills in fisheries world-wide. We actually lead this field very clearly in that since January this year not a single Albatross has been killed in the Falkland Islands by long-line fishing. And, during the entire season in South Georgia this year, again, there was not one single Albatross killed. That success was the efforts of the industry working with Falklands Conservation.
Consolidated Fisheries, who sponsored the evening, began conservation work before the Albatross measures were taken up by Falklands Conservation. Stuart Wallace spoke for Consolidated Fisheries.
“Over the years Consolidated Fisheries have lead the way in seabird mitigation. And, we have got a lot of help and support from Falklands Conservation and from the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department.
CFL are therefore very pleased to offer support for this magnificent event and I think everyone will agree with me that everyone involved has done a wonderful job. We wish everyone a very happy and enjoyable evening. Thank you.”
The exact total is still being finalised but nearly £13,000.00 was raised during the evening.
OIL COMPANY HOPEFUL FOR SOUTH FALKLAND BASIN EXPLORATION
A report for BBC World Service “Calling the Falklands” by Sibon Tyne (ST) 23.09.05
Here is the latest news from the search for oil in the South Falkland Basin. A London based oil company called Borders and Southern Petroleum, this week said they are hopeful that an area in the basin could hold substantial reserves of oil. I have been assessing this news with Jan Randall (JR), who is an oil expert with a business and economics consultancy called Global Insights. So, how significant did he think these latest findings were.
JR: This has been one in a series of recent finds or recent research in the area. And, the renewed interest has obviously been driven by the much higher oil price. When we compare that with 10 years ago, when the Falkland Islands first pursued licences, there wasn’t much take-up because the oil price was only $10.00 a barrel.
ST: So, we’re at the research stage at the moment?
JR: Yes. It’s very much early days, first stage, lets find out what we think is there and then look at the data and the second stage is actually assessing the data now that geologists have come up with it.
ST: If it is good news, and oil is to be found. When can we expect drilling to happen?
JR: We have to assess the data that the geologists have come up with, so the economists come in now and the oil analysts and the oil price forecasters and they will assess whether there is a viable investment proposition here.
ST: Getting oil from this part of the world is going to be very, very expensive, isn’t it? So presumably this requires oil prices to remain high.
JR: yes. Oil prices will have to remain high. That’s for revenue – the up side if you like. The cost side has to be considered as well for the margin to be calculated and one would expect in this part of the world basically, costs to be relatively high because of the geographic isolation and geological difficulties of actually drilling in that part of the world.
ST: Where do you think oil prices are going to go, then?
JR: The assumption here is where oil prices are going. It determines a lot of things – what will happen. Our position, or my position has been for quite a while now that oil prices are going to stay quite high. They may go higher and that’s basically because the likes of China and India are coming onboard the global economy in a very strong way leading to rising demand and stretching supply. That’s basically the worry.
ST: What about political risks to all of this?
JR: It’s a good question particularly in this part of the world. If the oil majors, who have the technology to drill in these sorts of difficult areas – offshore, deep sea – they will have to consider not just the geology but also the economics. But finally they will have to consider the question about political risk because they will be investing many millions for long periods of time. We will have to consider what the Falkland Islands will look like in 5 to 10 years time. Will it still be under British sovereignty? Will there be political difficulties in that region?
ST: Supposing all of this does go ahead, how will this affect Falkland Islanders?
JR: We could see something based on what happened in Scotland along the coastline near Aberdeen, when we found North Sea Oil. Mixed in amongst agricultural coastline communities you see deep sea divers, oil rig workers, engineers and such like mixing with the local people.
Section 2:
COMMITTEE NEWS: STANDING FINANCE COMMITTEE
By J. Brock (FINN)
A meeting of the Standing Finance Committee took place at 0800 in Friday, 23 September 2005. Attending the meeting were Cllr. Mike Summers (Chair), Cllr. Stephen Luxton, Cllr. Ian Hansen, Cllr. John Birmingham, Cllr. Jan Cheek, Cllr. Norma Edwards, The Deputy Financial Secretary, Mr. Keith Padgett, the Financial Secretary, Mr. Derek Howatt and the Chief Executive Mr. Chris Simpkins. Apologies came from Cllr. Richard Cockwell, who is attending party Conferences and from Cllr Roger Edwards.
Confirmation of the minutes of the open meeting held on 26 August 2005 was agreed. Matters arising from those minutes were brought up with the finishing date still unknown. Cllr. Summers mentioned that the work crew seemed to be stuck at the bottom of the hill, not moving and he doesn’t know why. An e-mail sent by DPW indicated that work would take longer than anticipated because more work will be needed to the base construction of the road.
An item regarding an erroneous invoice for approximately £250,000.00 was discussed and it was decided that the system had no billing mechanism for the Government of South Georgia.
Funding to replace the central heating in the Education Office was approved. A private contractor is being used to do the work.
There was mention of a glitch in the Tooth-fish Licencing that needed to be resolved. It had been discussed at the last ExCo meeting and will probably be discussed at the next SFC.
Following the Standing Finance Committee meeting on 29 July, a proposal and costing for new exercise equipment at the Leisure Centre was presented by the Recreation Manager, mr. Steve Dent. Though Option 1 was preferred, money had to be found from the Education and Health and Medical Services budget to cover the costs. It was unlikely this would be found during this financial year. It was thought unlikely that reconditioned second-hand equipment would not suffice because the life expectancy would be 2 or 3 years and not the 5 years of new machinery. Cllr. Summers was happy to fund either option 1 or 2 but stressed that money must be found before any purchase of equipment could be realised.
Cllr. Hansen brought up travel expenses when the Director of Education is recruited. The original estimate was £2,000.00.
The sale of under used farm equipment should take place and money invested but only a portion of the money would be retained by the entity selling the equipment and the rest would go back to FIG general funds. SFC approval had to be sought before the machinery was sold and a proportion of money invested.
The Principal Auditor’s report brought general discussion. Itemsbeing negotiated were not up for discussion. Grants for off street parking would go ahead and a sum identified for Port Development was identified. There was no need to recruit a new person for the Civil Aviation Department but there will be a further report from the Financial Secretary.
At the end of Section 1 the Press and Public left.
Section 3:
BUSINESS NEWS FROM ST. HELENA
SHDA resignation
(As Published in St. Helena Herald: 23/09/05)
The Managing Director for the St. Helena Development Agency (SHDA) has resigned from his key post in SHG, as St. Helena cannot provide him with adequate medical insurance. Dave Tyler has held the key post of Managing Director since July of last year. However, on Tuesday of this week, information in the public domain said that Mr. Tyler had, in an SHDA board meeting, declared that he is resigning from his post as Managing Director because of problems he was having obtaining medical insurance. The Herald met with Mr. Tyler to find out if the information was correct. The information was correct as Mr. Tyler told the Herald that SHDA and himself has mutually agreed to terminate his contract as he was unable to obtain adequate health insurance.
St.Helena was also unable to provide him with full medical coverage and he says that the reason for this was because of the key post that he holds. He adds that normally, the post is filled locally and therefore one would not have to worry about medical insurance. “Under the terms of my contract is a requirement to obtain insurance coverage for health. I’ve explored this process only to find that it is very difficult to obtain any coverage at all. All coverages have exclusions for pre-existing conditions and being a 58 year old I have certain health conditions anyway which will be automatically excluded. To my knowledge I don’t have any pre-existing heart conditions but if it turned out tomorrow that I needed a heart operation, the insurance company would probably say I’m not covered as that was a pre-existing condition.” If this was the case, Dave would have to finance all medical fees himself.
He went on to say that it was agreed by the Personnel Department and the SHDA board that it is an unreasonable risk for an employee to work under such conditions. However, SHG is looking into the matter, he adds. He also noted that when he was employed on the Falkland Islands he was fully insured, as the Falkland employment terms included this. “There isn’t any coverage on St. Helena for people from other countries who are living here under the same working conditions as myself. So this is an important issue matter for the island to look into, he said. Dave will leave the island on the 24th of November.
Section 4:
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Philatelic Bureau are pleased to announce the release of a stamp issue related to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands on Monday, 26 September 2005. First day covers will return from South Georgia at the end of October 2005.
Websites: http://www.falklandnews.com. http://www.tristantimes.com, http://www.the-islander.org.ac, http://www.sartma.com, http://www.news.co.sh
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