Documentary is Not an Answer

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Monday, 27 February 2012 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St John's - The press conference organised by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda to discuss the Chinese Power Plant was, simply put, disappointing.

It was held more for the satisfaction of the government than for the people.

Several representatives, both local and Chinese, outlined the same payment process, and this was repeated more than three times.

The PM lashed out at the media, and APUA's engineers attempted to draw up some excuses for the photographs published on Caribarena.com.

And as is already known, no documents were released, two fundamental companies were not present, and the media was limited to two questions per organisation.

However, the government did take the commendable step of ensuring that any questions that were communicated to the government by media houses would be answered in full.

So, as a professional media house, Caribarena sent a formal email with questions addressed to the prime minister, Ambassador Shoul, and several Chinese companies (more details in this article).

Nonetheless, Caribarena is yet to receive an answer to even one question.

But we did not despair. Soon, we sent another question to the government.

We revealed our intention to accommodate MAN Diesel and Turbo SE Germany engineers in Antigua & Barbuda so they could assess the power plant as a whole in a professional manner.

We asked the government if access to the power plant could be arranged for these engineers when they arrive.

And quite predictably, history repeated itself, and no response, not even a confirmation that the email was received, was sent to Caribarena.com.

At this point, Caribarena would like to specifically point out the rude, arrogant, and disrespectful manner in which Director-General of Communications Maurice Merchant addresses us.


We have sent more than five emails to Mr Merchant, the first containing the questions, the second and third reminders, the fourth concerning the promised tour of the power plant, and the fifth regarding the engineers of MAN Germany.

Mr Merchant responded only once to the first email, stating that he will “work towards having them (the questions) answered.”

And since that response, Mr Merchant has been quite content to ignore any other email sent by Caribarena regarding the Chinese Power Plant.

Nonetheless, sending other press releases was not problematic for Mr Merchant.

This manner is comparable to the arrogance and the elitist notions of Minister of Information and Telecommunications Dr Edmond Mansoor, who has withheld public documents concerning the cell tower situation of Antigua & Barbuda for more than 164 days, or five-and-a-half months.

Dr Mansoor has also ignored multiple emails sent to him directly.

Speaking of the Ministry of information, Caribarena discovered on Saturday that APUA has collaborated with ABS to perform a mini-documentary on the power plant.

Caribarena would like to ask our readers a few questions. Firstly, why is it that ABS, the government-owned media outlet, can get access to the power plant, but Observer, Caribarena, and other independent media houses are denied?

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And the correct answer is that ABS will only show what APUA and the government want it to show.

Secondly, why is it that the government says, “opinions fed by inaccurate information has prevailed?”

If Caribarena had spread some misinformation, does anyone doubt that Caribarena would be sued for our “lies”?

Or rather, wouldn’t the government come out and show damning evidence that proves Caribarena’s information to be untruthful?

Yes, it is certain that the government would, and this deliberate use of language is just another attempt to brainwash the suffering people of Antigua & Barbuda.

And last, but not least, the government says that the Wadadli Power Plant is currently supplying 40 percent of the country’s power demand to the national grid.

In the same document, the country’s peak demand is labelled as 48.8 MW.

Some simple arithmetic will show that these numbers indicate that the power plant, with a capacity to generate 30 MW, is producing 19.52 MW.

Why is it that the fantastic, high-tech, brand new Chinese power plant that costs over US$47 M is only working at 65 percent of its total capacity?

And by the way, the latest updates show that 300,000,000 million yuan is now worth US$47,588,077.6003, a rise of about half-a-million dollars.

See related stories:

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Govt Promises Chinese Power Plant Answers

Another Unsettling Discovery at Power Plant

Bird To Seek Outside Advice on Power Plant

MP Joseph Accuses Government of Breaking Laws

Antigua Power Plant - No Straight Answers

Chinese Power Plant or Antigua's White Elephant‬

Power Plant Production Costs Explained

PM Says ALP Distorted Power Plant Info

No Plan Behind the Power Plant

Yearwood Presents Figures on Chinese Power Plant

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