DR. ABLOW: Do our digital devices own us? - VIDEO: Why we should unplug

Last Tuesday, a ninth-grader at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, N.J., was caught on video throwing his 62-year-old teacher to the ground and wrestling with him in order to retrieve his cellphone, which the teacher had confiscated. Teachers at the school allow cellphones to be used for educational purposes in the classroom, but they may take them and hold them until the end of class if a student appears to be using his phone for any other purpose.

Granted, the boy may have demonstrated problems controlling his impulses in other settings, too, but the video of his attack has resulted in national attention. And that’s because it isn’t the first dramatic example of how attached to our phones we have become. 

Last year, a Houston woman was shot by a mugger when she refused to hand over her cellphone. She survived, and she later asserted that she had done the right thing. 

We have already crossed the Rubicon, almost irrevocably incorporating technology into our psyches in a way that makes us part flesh and blood, part hardware.

In 2013, a 22-year-old man was killed by a train when he tried to retrieve the cellphone he had dropped on the tracks.

Without giving a great deal of thought to the psychological implications, our species has deployed mobile technology very quickly, in a very widespread manner. One reason is that the marketplace embraced smartphones in an astounding way — as if our phones and their apps are a lock-and-key fit with our psyches.  According to one source, there are 7 billion mobile devices on earth, one for almost each person.

What is “in” our cellphones that would lead people to attack others or risk death to keep them? I would argue that the phones absorb and record our thoughts and intentions so dramatically that we become unconsciously convinced they are “parts of us.” Why else would so many people hesitate even to leave a room without taking their cellphones with them? Why would they interrupt meetings and family time to check them? Why would young people be opting to spend their money on newer, faster ones, instead of on clothing?

Why would there be so much interest in personalizing the sounds they make, the apps they hold and the cases that hold them?

I contend we have already crossed the Rubicon, almost irrevocably incorporating technology into our psyches in a way that makes us part flesh and blood, part hardware. The fact that the hardware is outside our bodies (for now) does not mean the integration has not occurred. We are psychologically magnetized to our devices. That’s why some people will fight for them, and even die for them.

The selfie has become so ubiquitous that it no longer seems bizarre to see someone smiling into a cellphone or sticking out her tongue or making a sad face — acting — and then snapping a photo. And these images are then sent not only to her supposed “friends,” who may number in the hundreds, but also to her unconscious mind — reinforcing the idea that she is what her cellphone records her to be. Take away the cellphone and, in some measure, she believes she disappears. She feels she dies a little bit, or more than a little bit, psychologically. 

The business of selling “selfie sticks” — telescoping rods that hold a cellphone far enough away to facilitate a really good shot — is robust enough to make many retailers place large kiosks of them near the checkout register. Cellphones, you might say, are growing arms. Ours apparently aren’t long enough.

This is just the beginning. Cellphones will soon be able to determine whether you are looking at the content on their screens, rather than looking away. They will demand attention. The extent to which we own them versus them owning us will be increasingly in doubt.

Make no mistake: While technology can be good when harnessed for the good (raising money for charity occurs to me), there will be hell to pay for giving so little thought to the downside. That downside likely includes an epidemic of narcissism in young people, increased rates of anxiety and dramatically decreased feelings of autonomy. Because to the extent that one’s self-image is outsourced to a mobile device, it is no more deeply rooted than that. 

Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum bring you the news that matters to you!

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DR. ABLOW: Do our digital devices own us? - VIDEO: Why we should unplug

Should spy-planes fight US crime?

13 October 2014 Last updated at 00:41 By Ed Ram BBC News WATCH: How US surveillance planes are able to spot murders on the streets

A US company has developed a way to monitor entire neighbourhoods, using a technology originally developed for the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But while police forces are excited by the prospect of getting access to the tech, privacy campaigners see it as a threat to citizens’ constitutional rights.

Bang. A shot is fired and someone has been murdered. A victim is found, the police alerted, but the perpetrator has vanished – without being seen.

Such killings happen almost every day in the US – and when no witnesses come forward, it can be hard and very costly to convict the perpetrators.

Now, one company says it has an answer.

By flying a special manned plane over a city, Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS) says it is able to view and record everything that is happening on the ground across a 25-mile (40km) area.

Rigged with 12 high-resolution cameras, a spliced together picture of a sort of “live Google Earth” map is beamed down from the aircraft to analysts.

The PSS named the high-resolution camera system mounted on the plane Hawkeye II A 600Mbps down link transmits images from the plane to the PSS command centre

“The resolution is not high enough to show who someone is, people appear as merely one grey pixel on a screen,” Ross McNutt, a retired United States Air Force veteran and PSS president, told BBC Click.

But that one pixel is enough for the person’s movements to be accurately tracked for the time the plane is in the air – up to six hours.

When PSS flew its planes over Compton, California, in early 2012 over nine days, it recorded murders, robberies and many other crimes.

By matching the time frames of the PSS recordings with on-the-ground testimony, analysts and police were able to see the moment when the crime was committed.

They were then able to track where the suspect was before and after the moment of crime, says Mr McNutt.

“It’s like opening up a murder mystery in the middle.

“We have actually followed people to multiple murders before,” he says.

During testing in areas including Dayton, Ohio, Compton, and Mexico, PSS has witnessed 34 killings.

“Threat to democracy”

But PSS doesn’t just see the murders and the criminals – its cameras look down onto the streets and backyards where everyday activities happen as well.

Planes fly thousands of feet above towns, capturing things that escape lenses on the ground

The firm’s insistence that the close-ups it obtains are low resolution are not enough to placate opponents who see its tech as a threat to Americans’ liberties.

“Not only does the system encroach on people’s privacy, tracking the movements of whole communities poses a threat to democracy,” says Jennifer Lynch, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

When the police tested the system in Compton in 2012, the public was not informed.

“It is things like this, and the secret monitoring of innocent Muslim students by NYPD in early 2012, that builds mistrust in the police,” adds Ms Lynch.

But PSS insists it adheres to a “very strong privacy policy” that imposes tight controls on its analysts.

“We put in place policies and technology that allows us to track where all our analysts have looked,” Mr McNutt said.

“We only track people that are involved in crimes, and I can see where my analysts have looked by recording where they have asked [to review] images.”

Analysts painstakingly examine the images they receive and log suspects’ movements

Racial profiling and targeting minorities is already a worry in places such as Compton where there is a large African-American population – and surveillance increases tensions.

Continue reading the main story

Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the CIA, left the US in late May after leaking to the media details of alleged extensive internet and phone surveillance by American intelligence. Mr Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia, faces espionage charges over his actions.

“How do we know what the police would actually be using the surveillance equipment for?” asks Mrs Lynch.

And if people feel like they are being constantly watched, they are less likely to do things that they might not want others to see or hear, she argues.

And that doesn’t mean breaking the law.

Going to a gay bar, talking about politics, visiting religious buildings, having more than one relationship – all of these things are legal, but, more often than not, very private.

“Police surveillance concerns could compromise free speech,” Ms Lynch says.

“In this way then, people’s democratic and constitutional right to act freely within US law is at threat.”

Big-brother state New York City police secretly collected information on Muslim communities in nearby Newark, New Jersey, in 2012

But Mr McNutt says PSS endeavours to address these concerns.

“We have actually gone to the American Civil Liberties Union and said, ‘Look, we want your input here,"” he says.

“They don’t like what we are doing, [but] they appreciate the fact that we are reaching out and asking for their input.”

PSS might be a powerful weapon in fighting crime, but no US police force is currently using its technology on a regular basis.

While tests have been carried out in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Ohio, in addition to Compton and the Mexican city of Juarez, civil liberties concerns have discouraged officials from signing contracts.

It seems, for now at least, that the rollout of PSS and safer streets it promises are being held in check by the importance Americans place on freedom and privacy.

Watch more clips on the Click website. If you are in the UK, you can watch the whole programme on BBC iPlayer.

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Should spy-planes fight US crime?

Who should replace Roger Clarke as member of Parliament for Central Westmoreland?

A date for a by-election to fill the Central Westmoreland seat left vacant with the passing of the People’s National Party’s Member of Parliament Roger Clarke is yet to be announced, but already a number of persons are eyeing the seat. The Jamaica Observer West’s Alan Lewin sought reaction on Tuesday when he visited the constituency and asked: Who do you think is most suitable to represent the constituency of Central Westmoreland?

Yolando Cazely, store manager:

We want Michael Erskine because he can sit on my court case, so we have a lawyer to represent us as our MP. We don’t want the other one them that we hear about.

Lennox Mackie, unemployed:

We don’t want Karl Blythe or Michael Erskine. Only a person from the JLP can replace Roger Clarke.

Talisha Bedward-Scarlett, sales representative:

I think Karl Blythe should get the edge. He is a kind person and he always look out for the poor people.

Shantel Wright, unemployed:

I think it should be Dr Karl Blythe. From what I heard, he is a good man and look out for the poor people as Michael Manley did. That is what I have heard from my parents.

Tasha Walker, unemployed:

Well, anyone the PNP choose is fine with me. But of the two names that are rumoured, I think Karl Blythe should get the nod.

Bernard Vanriel, PNP councillor:

I believe that the party should look outside for a replacement because the constituency calls for a lot of money. It takes a lot of money to run a by-election in a parish council division much less to run a by-election in a constituency. The persons from the parish who I hear want to run now, are bruk pocket.

But whoever the party selects to run, I will support them

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Who should replace Roger Clarke as member of Parliament for Central Westmoreland?

Appeal Court to determine if former TAJ boss should head to Privy Council

The Appeal Court is to rule on Thursday whether it will grant former Commissioner-General of  Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) Viralee Latibeaudiere, the green light to take her legal battle with the Finance Ministry to the UK Privy Council.

Lawyers for Latibeaudiere on Tuesday applied to the court for leave to take her matter before the Law Lords.

The Government also applied for leave to take its grouse to the Privy Council.

It wants to challenge a ruling handed down in favour of  the former Commissioner –General by the Supreme Court.

In May, the Appeal Court threw out   Latibeaudiere’s case after she failed to file her fixed date claim form, within the prescribed 14-days.  

Latibeaudiere filed a lawsuit two years ago after the Finance Ministry sought to terminate her contract.  

She accused the Ministry of  breaching her constitutional rights by forcing her out of  the position.

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Appeal Court to determine if former TAJ boss should head to Privy Council

High Command- Police should be properly identified

The Police High Command has responded to recent incidents in the St. Elizabeth Division, in which unscrupulous persons have purported to be members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).   

In a statement yesterday, the High Command urged the public to ensure that proper identification is sought from members of  the Force to ensure that they are operating within the precincts of  the law.                 

It said members of the JCF also have a responsibility to identify themselves when carrying out duties, and be properly identified by their ID cards and badge numbers, which appear on uniforms.

It’s reported that, in one incident last week, a farmer in Santa Cruz was held at gun point and robbed at her home by men posing as policemen. The woman was not injured.

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High Command- Police should be properly identified

Chile should be cheered by neutrals

“With these players,” said Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli on Friday after his side’s fourth consecutive World Cup qualification win, “we can get enthusiastic at the prospect that big things could happen.”

Even more so, one might add, with this coach.

Sampaoli is a curious little figure. He seems to run on batteries as he marches up and down his technical area. And his teams are just as dynamic.

The top four countries at the end of the qualifying tournament advance to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The team finishing in fifth place plays a two-legged play-off against a team from Asia with the winners also qualifying for the World Cup. Table up to and including 8 September Full of pace, movement and attacking intent, Chile are a delight to watch.

Their aggressive approach made them the neutrals’ favourites in the last World Cup and, providing they can get themselves safely over the line, they will surely enchant global audiences in Brazil next year.

The 2010 team were the work of highly influential Argentine coach Marcelo Bielsa, who took a group of promising young players (semi-finalists in the 2007 World Youth Cup) and stamped his own personality all over them.

His Chile pressed high, maintained a furious tempo and sought ceaselessly to create two-against-one situations down the flanks.

He would always be a hard act to follow. Indeed, Bielsa’s legacy seemed to be a problem for his successor, Claudio Borghi. There had been football in Chile before Bielsa, complained Borghi – who at times seemed to be picking a side to prove a point as to win the game.

Going to Argentina with two centre forwards plus a pair of attacking midfielders is an obvious example. It made no sense, other than perhaps to show that Borghi could be even bolder than Bielsa, and the complete lack of balance led to a predictably heavy defeat.

Borghi’s Chile had their moments, but a run of poor results plus lots of disciplinary problems forced him out towards the end of last year.

His replacement, Sampaoli, had not the slightest problem with the Bielsa legacy. A self-confessed Bielsa disciple, he positively relished it. His big breakthrough came with a succession of attractive and successful sides at Universidad de Chile.

One of the key players, Argentine attacking right-back Mathias Rodriguez, described the team’s approach in wonderfully lucid terms.

“We are not allowed to be afraid of playing,” said Rodriguez. “We always attack with six players and defend with four. The six rotate, keep the ball moving, occupy and create space, and the four wait and close down space to win the ball back. The order of these four is fundamental, as is the disorder of the six.” It is straight out of the Bielsa handbook.

Cardiff City defensive midfielder Gary Medel is one of the key players in Jorge Sampaoli’s Chile line-up

The advantage that Sampaoli has with the national team is that the generation Bielsa worked with have subsequently matured. Arturo Vidal has become a powerhouse at Juventus.

Gary Medel is already showing his combative qualities in the Premier League with Cardiff City and Alexis Sanchez looks closer to achieving his massive potential.

These and others were promising under Bielsa. But Sampaoli has them at their best. This has rallied others to the cause. After years of self-imposed international exile, David Pizarro has been lured back and is now an interesting option on the bench.

The eternally frustrating playmaker Jorge Valdivia was anything but on Friday, passing holes in the Venezuelan defence on his recall to the national team.

When these players and others – rampaging right-back Mauricio Isla, Marcelo Diaz organising the build up from deep, talented striker Eduardo Vargas – hit form together, Chile can put on an irresistible spectacle. Their 3-0 win over Venezuela was punctuated with memorable moments.

But they do give the opposition a chance. They can be caught on the counter-attack with both full-backs upfield. Their defending in the air is seldom convincing – indeed, they got away with one on Friday when Venezuela’s Salomon Rondon had a headed goal mysteriously disallowed. Chile were two up at the time, and were good value for their lead – but a Venezuela goal would have changed the course of the game.

10 September – Bolivia v Ecuador, Uruguay v Colombia, Venezuela v Peru and Paraguay v Argentina

11 October – Ecuador v Uruguay, Colombia v Chile, Venezuela v Paraguay and Argentina v Peru

15 October – Peru v Bolivia, Paraguay v Colombia, Uruguay v Argentina and Chile v Ecuador

These defensive deficiencies will surely be tested on Tuesday, when Chile travel to Geneva to take on world champions Spain. A side which moves the ball as well as the Spaniards will hope to find plenty of holes in the Chile back line.

This friendly is taking place because the Chileans sit out the 16th round of World Cup qualification. If results go their way on Tuesday (if Ecuador and Uruguay are beaten) then their total of 24 points will already be very close to an automatic place in Brazil next year.

But if Ecuador and Uruguay both pick up three points, then Chile will still need something from their tricky final two games – away to Colombia and at home to Ecuador.

But whatever happens on Tuesday, both in South America and in Switzerland, Jorge Sampaoli’s Chile will adopt the same approach next month when they are back in action in the qualification campaign. They will seek to play the game in the opponents’ half, with pace, movement and plenty of attacking intent.

It is the only way they know. And even if it all goes wrong, those four consecutive wins mean that the worst that could happen is a fifth place finish and a play-off against Jordan or Uzbekistan.

The 2013 Chile side are within reach of becoming the first from their country to qualify for (as opposed to appear in) two consecutive World Cups. This is not one of those teams which will merely clog up the competition. Neutrals should be cheering them over the line.

Comments on the piece in the space provided. Questions on South American football to vickerycolumn@hotmail.com, and I’ll pick out a couple for next week.

From last week’s postbag:

In my 20+ years as a River Plate fan I can’t remember a player who won the fans so completely in such few games as Colombian centre-back Eder Alvarez Balanta. How far do you think the kid can go?

I’d obviously prefer to see him at River for a long time, but given the financial state of the club I’m sure he’ll be gone in December or next June at the latest. Also, do you think Jose Pekerman is going to call him up to the Colombia squad any time soon? – John Tilghman

I think he’s a phenomenon. When coach Ramon Diaz compares a River Plate centre-back to Daniel Passarella after just two games, you know you’re dealing with something special.

River Plate’s Colombian centre-back Eder Alvarez Balanta has a bright future in the game

He’s quick and strong, has a nice left foot, can play or can mix it – everything you want from a centre-back. He’ll obviously make his mistakes – that’s part of the way that young defenders learn – but he’s an immense promise.

I think he’ll be on his way in the next window – River have apparently already sold a large percentage of him to an agent who will be hawking him around. I hope any move will be good for his career, and not just for an agent’s bank balance.

With Colombia, Pekerman says that he’s following him. Despite apparent defensive weaknesses, and a lack of pace in the back line, Pekerman can point to the fact that his side have conceded just seven goals in 13 games.

Atletico Paranaense are doing well in the Brazilian Championship. Do you think that part of their success is down to the fact that they did not take part in their state championship at the start of the year? – Lucas Gomes

I do. Many would have seen them as relegation candidates at the start of the season – newly promoted and without a home (their stadium is being done up for the 2014 World Cup). Instead, we’ve seen the benefit of their decision to break ranks with the structure of the Brazilian game.

Many within the game have reached the obvious conclusion that the state championships are an obsolete joke. Atletico went one step further and declined to take part with their first team squad, thus allowing them to have a proper pre-season. How many will follow their example in the future?

Tim Vickery is a regular guest on BBC Radio 5 live’s World Football Phone-in, which is available to download as a podcast.

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Chile should be cheered by neutrals

Spanish judge rules Messi should not post bail

Sport

Thursday, September 05, 2013

MADRID, Spain (AP) — A Spanish court has declined a request by the State Agency for Tax Administration to set bail for Lionel Messi and his father in a case of alleged tax fraud after ruling that a payment made satisfied the case’s legal requirements.In a ruling published yesterday, a Catalan court says that a payment of more than 5 million euros (US$6.6 million) made by Jorge Horacio Messi, the Barcelona star’s father, made it unlikely that either Messi or his father would withhold funds “during the legal process of a pending tax fraud trial”.The complaint, originally lodged by Raquel Amado, a state prosecutor for the northeastern region of Catalonia, alleged Messi tried to conceal the extent of his earnings and he owes 4 million euros (US$5.3 million) in back taxes.

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Spanish judge rules Messi should not post bail

How should the US deliver food aid?

5 August 2013 Last updated at 19:19 ET By David Loyn International development correspondent, BBC News Food shipped from America has saved the lives of millions of people since the Food for Peace programme was set up in 1954, but the strict rules demanding almost all of the food has to be sourced in the US and sent on American ships are coming under increasing attack.

The Director of USAID, Rajiv Shah, says four million more people could be fed every year if he had more flexibility about where he bought food.

President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget proposed to change the law so that 45% of food for aid could be bought outside the US, or the hungry could be given cash instead.

But opposition is proving hard to overcome. Instead Congress appears set on voting for a decrease in the aid budget, as foreign aid programmes are increasingly unpopular at a time of budget austerity at home.

If the reform fails, then the US would be the only major donor still delivering aid in this way.

Other countries prefer to give cash or vouchers. Innovative schemes are bringing the most advanced technology to cope with the needs of hungry people.

The Care relief agency, for example, has a database of people in potential need in remote places such as the semi-arid lands of northern Kenya.

Vulnerable people have plastic cards like credit cards, which they can use at a time of need.

USAID boss Rajiv Shah (L) with Barack Obama in Senegal

Ezekiel Lentorer, from Care, said this means they can remain where they are for longer at times of drought, not losing their animals or livelihoods.

He said: “I prefer cash every time, much better than food aid…With food aid, you give me maize only, at the end of the day I have no salt, no oil. And [with cash] all of the aid gets to the recipient, rather than being lost on the way.”

Elsewhere in Kenya the World Food Programme (WFP) is pioneering a scheme to improve crops and the marketing skills of farmers, encouraging them to form co-operatives to give them more bargaining power.

The WFP guarantees to buy some of the produce to give to hungry people elsewhere, so the programme has a double benefit.

Kenyan farmer Mary Kisioro says the WFP scheme has enabled her to obtain credit

One of the farmers in the scheme, Mary Kisioro, said the major difference for her was that the co-operative could secure credit, which she could not do before.

She said her agricultural productivity had improved and her income had increased.

But the US remains limited by law as to how much it can put into these sorts of schemes. A leading expert on food security, Chris Barrett of Cornell University, says it has lost the economic argument.

“In terms of the policy merits, this is a settled issue. The resistance turns on the political economy. In particular a coalition of large agribusinesses that benefit from present arrangements,” he said.

This is not a partisan issue.

President George Bush’s aid officials succeeded in a very modest reform, increasing flexibility.

After of the fall of the Taliban USAID flew in large quantities of US wheat, which drove down the price of Afghan wheat

The Director of USAID during the Bush years, Andrew Natsios, now believes if the US had been able to buy Afghan wheat to give to the hungry after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, that might have prevented the collapse in the price, a major factor contributing to an increase in the production of opium poppies.

Afghan farmers could not compete with imported wheat after the best harvest for many years and the price fell by 80%.

Some farmers were forced to leave their land, others ploughed the wheat into the ground and planted poppies instead.

One farmer, Haji Mohammed Akbar, said when the prices collapsed “we grew only as much as we needed to eat, but grew poppies on the rest of the land”.

He has now persuaded most of his neighbours to grow saffron flowers instead, one of the few crops as profitable as opium poppies. But across much of Afghanistan the large rise in poppy growing seen after the fall of the Taliban has proved stubbornly hard to reverse – an unintended consequence of the US-led intervention.

Those who oppose reform of USAID, such as Dale Moore, policy director of the American Farm Bureau Federation, argue that the current system works well to feed the hungry.

“Why not leave the programme the way it is? It’s set up, it’s working, the proof is in the how the programme has delivered,” he says.

“I’m not going to argue that it can’t be improved. I would think that could be a matter we could all sit down and talk about that.

“But there are those that would much rather be in charge of the cash transfers to some of these entities out there as opposed to having to work with US farmers and ranchers to help feed those folks who are truly hungry and needy around the world.”

This year USAID has already exhausted its limited ability to send cash or source food locally because of the demands of Syria.

It means that if there is any further emergency in this financial year their response could only be through food sent from the US – a supply chain that can take five months to deliver.

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How should the US deliver food aid?

Should you invest in bonds rather than repos?

AS most investors may know, bonds are loan instruments issued by corporate entities and governments to raise funds for a variety reasons, including: expansion, working capital requirements, and to pay down debt which may carry higher interest rates.

A “Repo” is an abbreviated term for a repurchase agreement. It is essentially a loan instrument, and operates such that a dealer sells government securities to an investor (who is the lender), and at the same time agrees to repurchase the securities from the investor at a specified price on a future date. That future date is usually short, and in the Jamaican context that could be up to 365 days. Because of the short-term nature of repos as well as the fact that these instruments sometimes have the backing of a sovereign body, the liquidity risk of repos is usually considered very low. And as a corollary, so is the return.Savvy investors, who are seeking better returns, will prefer to invest in bonds instead of repos. This is because bonds generally provide the investor with regular interest income, mainly semi-annually or quarterly, as well as provide prospects of capital appreciation.Here is an example which will help. An investor earning five per cent per annum on a US$100,000 repo will earn US$5,000 in interest at the end of one year (before withholding tax) for a total of US$105,000. Another investor with the same US$100,000 earning five per cent per annum on a bond will also earn US$5,000 in coupon (coupon is the term given to the interest paid on bonds). However, the investor in the bond has the prospect of benefiting from capital appreciation. Let us use the example the Royal Bank of Scotland 9.5 per cent 2022 bond. On May 24, 2012 an investor bought 100,000 face value of the bond at a price of 103.50, amounting to US$103,500. On May 22, 2013 he could sell them at a price of 120.375, receiving US$120,375 for them. This amounts to a capital appreciation of US$16,875. His total return of US$21,875, representing his capital appreciation plus his coupon represents a 21 per cent return as opposed to just five per cent with the repo. One can now very easily see how an investor in bonds is considerably better off than an investor in a repo.The beauty about that bond too, is that the issuer is investment grade rated hence carrying lower levels of credit risk. Speaking of risk, one such risk is that the price of the bond could fall below that which the investor paid for it, and this would result in a capital loss if the investor sells at the lower price. This brings into focus the question of timing, as well as objective, both of which are important considerations in trading securities. A savvy investor seeking high returns will try as much as possible to purchase bonds which have prospects for price appreciation. The bonds mentioned above may not offer the investor the same magnitude of returns if he were to purchase those same securities now at the current prices. However, if the objective were to get a particular level of interest on a regular basis, the investor may be perfectly justified in buying at current prices.Finally, choosing suitable bonds may be too much for investors to do on their own, especially if they are not themselves in the market on a daily basis, and may require the help and advice of a trusted financial advisor, especially someone who is in tune with the daily rigours of the market. A good financial advisor can also show an investor that risk is not something to be feared but rather something to be faced, armed with all the necessary information and strategies. Then the investor will be equipped to invest comfortably in bonds instead of making do with the low returns of repos.Pamela Lewis is VP, Investments and Client Services at Sterling Asset Management Ltd. Sterling provides financial and advisory services to the corporate, individual and institutional investor. Feedback: If you wish to have Sterling address your investment questions in upcoming articles, e-mail us at: info@sterlingasset.net.jm or visit our website at www.sterling.com.jm If an investor bought US$103,000 Royal Bank of Scotland 9.5 per cent 2022 bond on May 24, 2012 he could have sold them on May 22, 2013 at a price of US$120,375. His total return of 21 per cent would far exceed the five per cent he would have earned if he invested in a repo. (PHOTO: AP)

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Should you invest in bonds rather than repos?

"Infrastructure projects should seek value for money"

NASSAU, Bahamas – PUBLIC-private partnerships (PPPs) mean governments will have one less infrastructure project on their balance sheets.

But the main deciding factor for such projects should be the possibility of value for money rather than just fiscal prudence, according to Perry Christie.“I must stress that such a consideration (private sector’s financial responsibility) should not be the main driver for the initiation of any PPP project which, I believe, must first and foremost be driven by an efficiency objective,” said the Bahamian prime minister at CIBC First Caribbean’s infrastructure conference, which was held at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas last week.“The main reason that government would contemplate such arrangements is that they offer the possibility of an improvement in value-for-money for the government,” he said. “This is achieved through the transfer of risks to the private sector where it is best placed to assess and handle those risks.”Furthermore, private sector involvement in building roads, bridges, airports and other structures should lead to both better quality services and lower cost services.One of the Bahamas ports is owned in part by the Government, a private company, Arawak Cay Port Development Holdings, and citizens. Private interests also manage the Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau.According to Christie, the government is looking at leasing public building infrastructure and office complexes.Bahamas is also open to possible partnerships in health, schools, water and electricity production and distribution, he said.Indeed, PPPs warrant regulatory framework, which sets out policies to guide the delivery of services.Christie noted that Bahamas is presently in the process of expounding the policies and procedures in respect of the development and implementation of future PPPs.The leader of the archipelagic state also said that a sound regulatory framework, possibly enshrined in the legislation, ensures accountability of the government and private sector partners by strengthening bid processes and limiting contract re-negotiations.It’s still early days yet for countries to decide if and how to etch the guidelines in their constitutions.Jamaica’s PPP activity up to now has been executed outside of a comprehensive policy framework and procedural guidelines.One government official of Barbados, Minister Darcy Boyce, figures that a legislative approach may not be flexible for the southern island. He holds a preference for a strong policy framework.“I don’t know that we have to do any special legislation,” said the minister in the Office of the Prime Minister in Barbados. “PPPs are driven by contractual arrangements between various parties and our contract law is sufficiently robust to deal with the issue. There are some people who think that it is good to have legislation.”

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"Infrastructure projects should seek value for money"