#record keeping course Dominica

[simplyanna64]

Learn step by step how to organize, store all your documents, files, invoices, etc. relating to a company's or organization's activities. Recordkeeping plays a vital role for business owners in every organisation. It is a necessary and the most effective way to evaluate the smooth running of your business. Know more about recordkeeping.

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[trade2earnsignup]

Trade2 Earn Review

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The Trade2 Earn in Review

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[asktheadeptus]

Adeptus Custodes - Creation & Battlefield Role

"Give thanks to those most courageous and loyal of guardians, the Adeptus Custodes, who stand in constant vigil over the Emperor's palace. A veritable legion of warriors ready to lay down their lives without doubt for the beloved ward of Mankind. None pass through the Imperial Palace without their knowledge; steeped are they in the arcane secrets of that labyrinthine edifice. Ten thousand blades await the call to arms; to defend against any threat, from without or within."— Atr. Unknown

Custodes Creation and Training

As has been mentioned, the Custodian Guard and the Space Marines are related in form, as perhaps might be expected of works of a same creator's hand, but they are very different in function and capacity. There are of course similarities between the two. Both are physically transformed well beyond "natural" human limits in terms of strength, endurance and fortitude, and fitted for inhuman environmental adaption and resilience, though in this the Adeptus Custodes are the markedly superior of the two in might, if not in adaptability. Both are subject to extensive psychological and cognitive conditioning, and are physically and mentally reworked to render most of their baser drives inert and their beings rechannelled towards aggression, goal acquisition and the fulfillment of duty, and as a further safeguard against distraction and as a biological control, both are of course incapable of procreation. In both cases all that is left are beings of singular purpose; in the case of each Astartes, what is created is a living engine of conquest that cares for little else, and in the Custodian Guard, each is created protector of unrelenting diligence and savage capability -- a watchman whose vigilance will never tire.

What also differs truly between the two, Custodian Guard and Space Marine, is not just their functional purpose, but the extent of their augmentation and the means by which it is accomplished. While the process through which the Adeptus Astartes are fabricated from a human being is well-enough documented in its outline, though its details are, of course, rightly held secret by those parties involved in the process on a Chapter by Chapter basis, genuine facts about the manner in which the Custodian Guard are created are very few, even within the hands of the Imperium's hierarchy. This is because -- as with all else about the Custodian Guard -- it is a matter for the Imperial Household alone, and that authority is one none may gainsay or question. What is known, however, marks them as different. Firstly, there is the matter of the age of the candidacy. For a child to become one of the Adeptus Custodes, it is known that they must begin the process in their late infancy and certainly before adolescence has taken hold on their physical structure. This stands in stark contrast to the Space Marines whose implantation is only possible after adolescence and best served before full physical maturity. This may link to a second of the few known facts about the creation of the Adeptus Custodes: that the gene-craft and alchemistry that transforms them is as absolute as it is subtle, and worked upon the smallest conceivable microscopic level of their genome and cellular structure. It is a process that effects such change on the mortal human form that, when complete, unless they suffer such massive bodily harm as to forcibly end their lives, they are effectively immortal, without perceptible ageing taking place after full maturity.

Not then for the Adeptus Custodes the pattern of surgical grafting and organ implantation that creates a Space Marine, no such crudities of augmentation at all mar the Custodian; what creates them is as invisible as it is potent, worked upon the core genetics and at a deep cellular level, and perhaps tailored to each specific inductee. There are those who insist that so invisible and yet so powerful this process is that it crosses over into a metaphysical realm of biomancy and psychic manipulation on a level unguessed at. Given that it is said that the Emperor Himself has overseen the creation of every single Custodian Guard who has ever lived, this may well be true. The peerless warriors who then result from this arcane process are a rare breed indeed, and not to be squandered recklessly on the battlefield. They were created with a single purpose in mind; to be the Emperor's own elite guard. They were a force created both to defend the Emperor from physical harm wherever the Great Crusade might take Him, to stand watch over His private domains and most guarded secrets, and to serve as the direct agents of His will -- as His personal emissaries -- be that will to protect, to venture, to claim, to keep secret, or to execute without remorse.

Role and Capabilities

The Custodes are warriors unmatched in the galaxy, genetically-engineered by the Emperor Himself. The Emperor engineered few of these warriors once the swifter method for creating superhuman warriors using Space Marine gene-seed became more viable. The martial capabilities of the Adeptus Custodes remain largely unknown at the present time. What is known is that they possess skill beyond even a "normal" member of the Adeptus Astartes. It has been said that the Adeptus Custodes are to the Emperor what the Space Marines are to the Primarchs; that the Emperor's own genetic matrix was used in their creation and through this their loyalty to Him is assured. Others argue that the Custodians are not like the Emperor in the way that a Space Marine is like his Primarch, and that some other source was used as a template for their physical and psychological form; a source that was lost during the anarchy of the Age of Strife. The truth will likely never be known. The Adeptus Custodes are similar to the Grey Knights, the elite Chamber Militant of the Ordo Malleus branch of the Inquisition, in that both are elite, secret organisations with close genetic ties to the Emperor. Custodes are unique as they have neither a known Primarch nor do they use Astartes gene-seed to produce their genetic modifications. They stand a full head taller than a Space Marine and it is said that they were almost the same size as a Primarch. In fact it was said that Constantin Valdor, Captain-General of the Legio Custodes and Chief Custodian to the Emperor during the Horus Hersey, was the same size as the Traitor Primarch Alpharius of the Alpha Legion.

Only 300 Custodes serve as the actual personal guard of the Emperor, called the Hataeron Guard, the Companions of the Emperor, who guard the Emperor's chambers at all times. These are the Custodes that are privileged enough to be in the Emperor's physical presence. The Companions fall under the command of a Tribune, one of the Custodian Tribunate; a senior cadre that formerly consisted of ten in number, forming the Adeptus Custodes' council of war and policy. In the matters of the security of the Imperial Palace's inner sanctums and the person of the Emperor, no higher authority existed. In rank below the Tribune can be found the Centurions or Shield Captains. Each unit of Companions is led by a Centurion. It was one such Centurion that led a small group of Companions to meet Alicia Dominica, head of the Brides of the Emperor (later the Sisters of Battle) during Goge Vandire's Reign of Blood in the Age of Apostasy during the 36th Millennium.

One of the Companions, Constantin Valdor, was the Captain-General and Chief Custodian of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy. He was the most honoured of all of the Emperor of Mankind's creations. No other being had served the Emperor for as long as he, save for the Imperial Regent of Terra, the potent psyker Malcador the Sigillite. Valdor was a proud and respectful warrior unmatched in his devotion and loyalty to the Emperor. Valdor was ever-present at the Emperor's side, always protecting Him from unseen enemies and he saved the Emperor's life innumerable times. Along with Malcador, Valdor was the Emperor's most trusted friend and adviser.

Constantin Valdor was one of the first High Lords of Terra chosen after the end of the Horus Heresy to guide the Imperium forward following the Emperor's internment within the Golden Throne. He also had a close relationship with the Primarchs Rogal Dorn and Leman Russ, although initially Russ and Valdor did not see eye to eye. Dorn was ever-present at the Imperial Palace during the Great Crusade and so Valdor and the Primarch spent much time together. On the other hand, Valdor only earned Russ' respect when the former defeated Horus in a sparring match. The two then served together in combat during the Fall of Prospero when the Custodes and the Space Wolves joined to punish the Thousand Sons Legion of Magnus the Red for his continued use of sorcery despite the edicts of the Council of Nikaea. There is no record of when or how Valdor was killed or if he was even killed at all. He eventually stepped down from the Senatorum Imperialis as a High Lord so that he could continue to devote all of his attention to protecting his beloved Emperor, now encased within the Golden Throne.

However, other accounts of the Custodians' exploits provide a different version of the relationship between the Astartes and Custodes. These records indicate that though the Custodians are slightly larger, on average, than Space Marines, their fighting skills are more or less equal. While Space Marines don their armour ritually and in the presence of their squad-mates in order to focus themselves entirely on their martial calling, Custodians arm themselves alone and in silence, reflecting on the varied duties they must perform in the service of their master. As bodyguards, the Custodes not only protect the Emperor's person but also maintain scrupulous surveillance on all the other factions of the Imperium to police their loyalty, infiltrate the households of suspicious individuals among the Imperial nobility, and enter deep cover to test the strictness of their own security within the Imperial Palace, exercises which are called Blood Games. Additionally, these records also confirm that each Custodian's name consists of numerous components typically awarded for feats of arms; Valdor's full name, for instance, is over nine hundred components long.

Magisterium and Misericordia

One of the singular features of the ancient Adeptus Custodes as an organisation, and the power of its individual Custodians, is their place in the scheme of the Imperium's law. While an accredited Imperial Planetary Governor is effectively tyrant of their own world within the edicts and parameters of wider Imperial law, and few would gainsay the Adeptus Astartes in any demands they were to make, the Adeptus Custodes are alone officially afforded the power of the Magisterium Lex Ultima in the high form, which is to say they are beyond all law and all command save for the direct authority of the Emperor Himself. In addition to this, each one is a lord of the Imperium in their own right. This fact is symbolically represented not only by the right to still carry the single-headed raptor and lightning bolt heraldry of the Unification Wars campaign, but also by the carrying of the Misericordia.

For long centuries of unbridled internecine carnage on Ancient Terra during the Age of Strife, the Blade of Mercyor Misericordia came to represent the complete power of life and death the warlords held over the mass of humanity which toiled beneath their yolk and suffered at their whim. From the dust wastes of Ursh to the Manakonite Temples of the No'rad ice hive, the bearing of such a blade, usually in the form of a long dagger or short sword made to perpetrate a single, killing thrust, came to symbolize the dread authority of the executioner-judge. Beyond the power it represented, the Misericordia might also be used in practice to carry out a "clean" sentence of death on a transgressor, or to offer terminal surcease to a warrior grievously wounded in battle at their master's discretion, in either case living up to its name as an agent of mercy as well as death. When the Emperor came to mastery of Terra and ended the bloody cycle of the warlords' reign, His agents and judges, and only they, came to carry the Misericordia as His mastery eclipsed all others, and it is a tradition the Adeptus Custodes still uphold.

Panoply of Arms

Since ancient times, the Adeptus Custodes' panoply of arms and armour, its wargear and even the vehicles and support systems it employed are often unique to the Adeptus Custodes and them alone. Whether ancient relic or newly-made, these items were not only customized exactly to task, but were also produced without any regard to the consumption of resources or rarity of component or lore required; to arm and outfit the Legio Custodes to the optimum, nothing was spared.

This supremacy is evident from the Auramite alloy-reinforced armour the Custodian Guard wears, each a planet's ransom in worth, to the plethora of repulsor-lift grav-vehicles under their control, most of which were derived from designs brought back by the great technoarchaeologist Arkhan Land and forbidden for use by any other. Likewise, their singular weapons, be they blade or Bolter, are masterworks, produced by entire sequestered sub-cults of the Adeptus Mechanicus and clades of hereditary artisans beholden to no other and tasked alone in the Adeptus Custodes' provision. Even greater than these resources at their disposal is the Custodian's ability to draw upon any facet of the Imperium's war machine and uncounted hosts it needed to meet its ends, extending its potential power to unguessed-at-levels.

The reason for this supremacy above all in arms is a simple one, for not only are the Adeptus Custodes fitted to match any potential threat from without, but also from within, and a clear demarcation was enforced between the potency of the Custodes' arms, and those of any other Imperial forces, not least of all the Space Marines, who they already overmatched in physical might. It is perhaps one of the great questions of lost history: what might have been in the wars of the Horus Heresy had the Legio Custodes not been so heavily waylaid by the disastrous consequences of Magnus' great sin on Terra and more able to take an active hand, had not so many of them been trapped for years in a terrible parallel war all but entirely hidden from the eyes of the cosmos? But that is a darker tale yet, and the weighty duty of a different record than this to tell.

At Present

Before the Emperor's internment within the Golden Throne, the Custodes had access to the some of the most advanced wargear within the armouries of the Imperium. However, since the Horus Heresy they have taken a far more limited role in Imperial affairs, and almost never leave Terra and only very rarely leave the Imperial Palace. It is unknown how limited the Custodes' wargear choices are due to the unknown workings of this elite and reclusive paramilitary specialist force that remains an organisation apart from the rest of the Imperium. They would also more than likely remain aloof in regards to the composition of their wargear and equipment as well as their overall tactical capabilities. Whenever they Custodians are seen outside the walls of the Imperial Palace, as rare as that was, it was in their martial aspect. Mortals would fall on their faces as if before gods. To them, these gold-clad transhuman warriors seemed as if they were wrath incarnate, created for destruction and nothing else. But this was far from the truth, for the Custodes were the Emperor's companions once, the ones in whom He confided, acting as His counselors and His artisans.

The Custodes had been created to be the guardians of a new age and were charged to be strong enough to keep it secure. But in this sacred duty they failed. Following the internment of the Emperor into the Golden Throne after the defeat of Horus upon his flagship during the Battle of Terra, the Custodes outwardly wore the mark of their failure in the black robes that covered their auramite. It was a permanent reminder, replacing the traditional cloaks of blood-red that once adorned their battleplate. It weighed heavy with every Custodian, for they knew more of the nature of the fall than most. This bleak colour change reflected that the Custodians were in permanent mourning for failing to protect the Emperor in His hour of need. But with the return of the Avenging Son, the resurrected Primarch Roboute Guilliman, the Adeptus Custodes have cast off their black cloaks and now don their crimson cloaks of old. Taking to the sea of stars, they now bring the battle to the Great Enemy, intent on absolving themselves in the baptism of fire and blood for their failure in their duties ten millennia earlier.

Notable Custodes

Great Crusade & Horus Heresy Eras

Constantin Valdor - Constantin Valdor was the Chief Custodian and Captain-General of the Legio Custodes during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. Just prior to the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, Valdor was charged by the Emperor to accompany the Primarch Leman Russ of the Space Wolves in bringing the Primarch Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons to account for breaking promises he had made during the Council of Nikaea which had strictly forbidden the use of sorcery and psychic powers within the Imperium. Valdor, with a contingent of the elite Custodian Guard, fought alongside Russ and the Space Wolves during the Fall of Prospero. He and his forces were responsible for killing at least three of the greatest psykersof the Thousand Sons Legion and routing a force much more numerous than their own. He was also responsible for saving Bjorn the Fell-Handed when his arm was corrupted by the sorcerous powers of a Thousand Sons psyker. Valdor sliced Bjorn's arm off to prevent the corruption from overrunning his body. After Horus' betrayal became known to the Imperium, Valdor was present during the meetings of the Officio Assassinorum's Clade Sires and Siresses. It was Valdor who suggested that an Assassin from each Clade operate as a team to assassinate Horus, rather than act alone as was the standard mode of operation. It is currently known that after the Horus Heresy Valdor would become a High Lord of Terra, but would eventually step down voluntarily to protect his beloved Emperor.

Mikaelor Cobernus - Cobernus was a Shield-Captain of the Legio Custodes during the 31st Millennium.

Ra Endymion - Ra Endymion was a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy and the commander of the Custodians who fought in the Imperial Webway War. He was born on Terra during the Unification Wars to Koja Zu, the Minister of the Anuatan Steppes, around the time of the Battle of Maulland Sen. Ra's father was executed by Constantin Valdor for the high crime of stealing Terra's last remaining ocean when Ra was only four years old. He was then taken by the Legio Custodes as a potential candidate. The young boy received his name 'Ra' in honour of the ancient Gyptian sun god and eventually rose to become the leader of Squad Dynastes, who were later dubbed the Lords of Terra by the Emperor Himself. This squad was composed of twenty sons and nephews who had been taken as tributes from various defeated Terran rulers and warlords. By the opening years of the galaxy-wide conflict known as the Horus Heresy, Ra had earned eight-hundred and seventy-one names in honour of valorous deeds and was raised to the rank of Tribune. Following the Crimson King's folly, when he tried to warn the Emperor through sorcerous means, the wards placed on the Imperial Webway deep within the Imperial Palace's dungeon were breached, which allowed the legions of Chaos to encroach upon the Emperor's Palace. Five years into the war, things began to go badly for the Imperial forces, as the never-ending legions of Chaos threatened to breach the sanctity of the Palace's dungeons. With the deaths of both Tribunes Kadai Vilaccan and Jasac, Ra Endymion was given sole command over the Custodian fighting the war within the Imperial Webway. When the derelict city within the webway known as Calastar (also known as the 'Impossible City') fell to the invading daemonic hordes, the Emperor finally left the Golden Throne in order to cover the retreat of the decimated Imperial forces and to confront the Daemon Drach'nyen. Taking the form of a Stone Epoch war-chief, he impaled the Emperor, claiming that it would be His death. But the Emperor tore the daemon, now in the form of a great daemonic sword, from His body and with armour-boosted strength and powerful telekinetic force, He hurled it from His grip at Ra. The sword impaled the Custodian causing the daemon to be bound within him. The sword quickly disappeared, for it was now bound within the Custodian's body, caged within Ra's flesh. The daemon within him could not be killed, not even by the Emperor Himself, only imprisoned. As the last remaining Imperial forces retreated from the webway, the Emperor ordered Ra to run deep within the myriad tunnels of the webway as far as possible. Ra's ultimate fate is unknown.

Kadai Vilaccan - Kadai Vilaccan served as a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy in the 31st Millennium. He fought and eventually died five years into the fighting during the Imperial Webway War only two weeks after the death of Tribune Jasaric.

Jasaric - Jasaric, known also as Jasac, was a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy in the 31st Millennium. He had the honour of being one of the original thirty Cudtodians created by the Emperor of Mankind, and had fought by his liege's side since the Terran Unification Wars, and was present during the Battle of Maulland Sen. He fought and eventually died during the fighting in the Imperial Webway War. He was succeeded by Tribune Kadai Vilaccan.

Helios - Helios served as a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy in the 31st Millennium. He fought and eventually died during the fighting in the Imperial Webway War. He was succeeded by Tribune Jasaric.

Ixion Hale - Ixion Hale served as a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy in the 31st Millennium. Hale's ultimate fate is unknown.

Diocletian Coros - Diocletian Coros was a Prefect of Hykanatoi and served as a part of the Legio Custodes during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy in the 30th and 31st Millennia. He fought in the Imperial Webway War under the command of Tribune Ra Endymion. He was charged with organizing a fresh wave of Imperial forces to resist the encroaching Forces of Chaos, which included the condemned prisoners of the fallen Imperial Knight House Vyridion, who would aid the beleaguered Imperial forces at Calastar just as the Chaos hordes began to overrun it. During this final epic battle, Diocletian fought at the sides of both Ra Endymion and the Emperor Himself, and eventually fought their way back to Terra and escaping the confines of the Imperial Webway just before the Emperor sealed the portal, effectively ending the war within the webway. Following the battle, the Emperor began to show Diocleitan visions of both His and Terra's past, as much as he had done with Ra. This could be an indication that Diocletian was raised to the status of Tribune following Ra's disappearance into the webway. Diocletian's ultimate fate is unknown.

Aquillion - Aquillion served as the Occuli Imperator, the "Eyes of the Emperor", the Custodian who was assigned to watch over the Primarch Lorgar and his Word Bearers Legion after they were found to have violated the Emperor's trust during the Great Crusade by spreading their belief that the Emperor was a God to newly conquered human worlds. Aquillion and a team of four other Custodians (Vendatha, Sythran, Nirllus and Kalhin) were assigned to the Word Bearers Legion after that Legion's humiliation on the world of Khur and the destruction of that planet's capital city of Monarchia by the Ultramarines Legion on the order of the Emperor. Aquillion used a two-handed Power Sword in combat rather than the standard Guardian Spear. Aquillion and his four-man-team were all eventually slain by the Word Bearers so that they could not inform the Emperor of Lorgar's betrayal. The leader of the daemon-possessed Gal Vorbak, Argel Tal, decapitated Aquillion by biting his head off.

Kalhin - Kalhin was one of the four other Custodians assigned to serve under the command of Aquillion to watch over Lorgar and the Word Bearers. While attempting to kill the traitor Cyrene Valantion, Kalhin was shot down by Incaradine, the mechanical Conqueror Primus of the 9th Maniple of the Carthage Cohort of the Legio Cybernetica.

Nirallus - Nirallus was one of the four other Custodians assigned to serve under the command of Aquillion to watch over Lorgar and the Word Bearers. Amongst his fellow Custodes and the warriors of the Word Bearers, Nirallus was considered the "swordmaster" for his skill with his Custodian Spear. He used this skill to slay Malnor, one of the strongest of the daemon-possessed Gal Vorbak, but was torn apart seconds later by two other members of this warrior elite of the Word Bearers Legion.

Sythran - Sythran was one of the four other Custodians assigned to serve under the command of Aquillion to watch over the Primarch Lorgar and the Word Bearers Legion. He was part of the elite Squad Dynastes, called the Lords of Terra by the Emperor Himself, which comprised twenty souls, each one a scion of an extinct royal Terran bloodline, taken as tribute in conquest during the Unification Wars and inducted into the Ten Thousand. Before leaving Terra to watch over the Word Bearers Legion for 50 standard years as part of the XVII Legion's punishment for violating the Imperial Truth during the Great Crusade, Sythran swore an oath that he would not speak again until he set foot on Terra once more with this duty complete. He kept this promise until the moment of his death at the hands of the Gal Vorbak, when he mocked the Word Bearers' Chaplain Xaphen just after killing him for his betrayal of the Emperor.

Vendatha - Vendatha was one of the four other Custodians assigned to serve under the command of Aquillion to watch over Lorgar and the Word Bearers. Vendatha was used as the tenth sacrifice to summon Ingethel, the daemonic Emissary of the Chaos Gods.

Zerin - Zerin was a participant in a "Blood Game" alongside Amon, Haedo and Brokur. Out of the four, Zerin did the worst, as he did not even make it into Imperial Territory before he was caught by his fellow Custodians in the city of Irkutsk.

Iacus - Iacus was one of the 15 Custodes sent to watch over the Word Bearers Legion who was not assigned to watch over the Primarch Lorgar with Aquillion. Iacus and his fellow Custodes watched over First Captain Kor Phaeron and First Chaplain Erebus instead. Before the Word Bearers' treachery came to light, Iacus and all his Custodes had fallen in battle alongside the Word Bearers, never knowing of their betrayal.

Arcatus Vindix Centurio - When on Terra the Emperor Himself imprinted the genetic knowledge of the Primarch-programme onto Corvus Corax, he also ordered a squad of his very own bodyguards to accompany the Primarch of the XIXth Legion back to Deliverance to protect the sensitive knowledge. Although the knowledge imprinted into Corax's mind would slowly fade, the Custodes would continue their Emperor-given task to protect and watch over the Primarch of the Raven Guard. As leader of this new bodyguard and the man whose task it had been to watch over the Raven Guard during their stay in the Imperial Palace, Arcatus Vindix soon became a figure of influence within Corax’s war council, as the Raven Lord enjoyed debating with the leader of the Custodians when not on the front lines or even in the heat of battle. Whereas Corax always marvelled on Horus' temerity to declare war on the Imperium, Arcatus had a quite different point of view -- Horus would never have turned traitor if he hadn't been sure from the beginning that he would win. Alongside the ever-active Raven Guard, Arcatus and his brothers saw much combat, participating in such venture as the Raid on Kapel-5642A or the Day of Vengeance on Carandiru.

Brokur - Brokur took part in a "Blood Game" alongside Amon, Haedo and Zerin. Brokur emerged as the runner-up in the contest as he made it to The Hegemon before he was caught. Valdor had not expected anyone to get closer to the Imperial Palace than Brokur, but Amon succeeded in infiltrating the Palace itself.

Saturnalia Princeps Carthagina - Saturnalia was a member of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy era. He was assigned to the Psi-Hunter Team charged with the task of capturing the Outcast Dead -- the surviving members of a small Legiones Astartes honour guard known as the Crusader Host that was stationed on Terra. The fugitive Astartes were members of the Traitor Legions that had sided with Horus in his rebellion against the Emperor during the Horus Heresy. They had been imprisoned in the maximum security prison known as The Vault since they could no longer be trusted, but they managed to stage a break-out and escape. Saturnalia became part of the hunt team led by the Seer Hunter Yasu Nagasena to track down the Outcast Dead in an attempt to regain his honour after letting the Outcast Dead take his prisoner, the Astropath Kai Zulane. During the final battle with the Outcast Dead in the Temple of Woe, Saturnalia managed to kill Subha, a World Eaters Berserker. Subbha's twin, Asubha, attacked him and drove a Custodian Guardian Spear through Saturnalia's head, just as Saturnalia managed to stab Asubha in the heart with his own Guardian Spear.

Haedo Emankon - Haedo Emankon took part in one of the many "Blood Games" alongside Amon, Zerin and Brokur. Of the four participants in the contest, Haedo was the third most successful, as he made it to Cebu City before he was caught. Haedo Emankon was later charged by Constantin Valdor to gather incriminating evidence on a member of the government of unified Terra who was suspected of treason against the Emperor alongside Amon Tauromachian.

Khorarinn - Khorarinn was a member of the Legio Custodes during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. Following the Istvaan III Atrocity, Khorarinn was assigned to work alongside the Knight-Errant, Agentia Primus Nathaniel Garro, a former Battle-Captain of the traitorous Death Guard in determining the loyalty of a ragtag refugee fleet that sought sanctuary within the Segmentum Solar. They were led by the loyalist World Eaters Captain Macer Varren. Khorarinn was highly suspicious of Varren's motives as well as Garro, as they were both formerly members of known Traitor Legions. Further tension was built up between Garro and the Custodian when the latter threatened to kill Tylos Rubio should he utilise his psychic powers in direct violation of the Emperor's Decree Absolute, as laid down during the Council of Nikaea. Ironically, he showed respect towards the White Scars Captain Hakeem, an unexpected member of the refugee fleet, who turned out to be a traitor who was loyal to the Warmaster. Ironically, Hakeem and his traitorous White Scars would eventually go on to kill Khorarinn as those whom the Custodian accused of disloyalty attempted to save his life.

Amon Tauromachian Leng - Amon Tauromachian was a member of the first circle of the Legio Custodesduring the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy in the 30th and 31st Millennia. Amon was present during the Triumph of Ullanor, where Horus Lupercal was invested by the Emperor with the title of Imperial Warmasterand command over all the Imperium's armed forces and overseeing the final stages of the Great Crusade. When he was manning a checkpoint alongside a fellow Custodian, Haedo Venator, as well as seven Null-Maidens of the Silent Sisterhood, Primarch Magnus the Red was impressed by Amon's stoicism and dedication and predicted that there were great things ahead for him. Many years before the start of the Heresy, Amon was present at the Council of Nikaea to watch over the trial of Magnus the Red for his use of sorcery. Whilst protecting Kasper Hawser, a skjald of the Space Wolves, Amon was attacked by a minion of Chaos in the disguise of a Thousand Sons Space Marine, but managed to survive the encounter thanks to the efforts of the Astartes of the Space Wolves. Amon was later charged with protecting the Emperor when Terra began the process of fortification to withstand the coming assault by the Warmaster Horus and his Traitor Legions. After news of Horus' betrayal reached Terra, Amon was tasked with taking part in the "Blood Games", a rite all Custodians endured and one which set them against the formidable defenses of the Imperial Palace in the hope of improving the Custodians' defense of the Emperor through the exposure of flaws in his protection. Following his success in the "Blood Games", Amon Tauromachian and a fellow Custodian Haedo Emankon were sent on a dangerous mission by Constantin Valdor, the Chief Custodian, to gather incriminating evidence on a member of the government of unified Terra, who was suspected of treason against the Emperor. Amon would go on to be regarded as one of the greatest members of the Legio Custodes. His ultimate fate is unknown.

Sumant Giri Phalguni Tirtha - Tirtha was a Veteran Custodian, whose name was said to bear at least seventy-six awarded titles. He was one of the gaolers at the high security Imperial prison on Terra known as The Vault. It was not known how Tirtha had come to Khangba Marwu. He bore no obvious injury and was in prime physical condition, but rumour said he had once questioned an order from the Captain-General, Constantin Valdor. Tirtha was charged with the duty of guarding an extremely dangerous group of prisoners known as the Outcast Dead, the remnants of the Astartes honour guard known as the Crusader Host that was stationed on Terra whose parent Legions had turned Traitor and sided with Horus. Tirtha was killed during the Outcast Dead's successful escape attempt from The Vault, when Atharva of the Thousand Sonstook control of an elite soldier with a Plasma Gun and made him shoot Tirtha in the stomach.

Uttam Luna Hesh Udar - During the Horus Heresy era Udar was the lead gaoler of the subterranean high security prison built to detain those individuals deemed hostile to the Emperor and isolated from the world above. Built beneath the Himalayan peak known as Rakaposhi, only the most senior Custodians bothered to use its original name, Khangba Marwu, and for those condemned to its cells, who would never again see the light of day, it had an altogether more prosaic name. They knew it simply as The Vault. Udar was removed from the fighting ranks of the Legio Custodes after being exposed to an Ork bacteriological pathogen, whose aftereffects greatly reduced his reflexive response times to a level below the minimum required for front line service amongst the Custodians. A proud man, he took his removal from the front lines hard, but eventually adapted and took to his new role as a gaoler at The Vault with the same determination and attention to detail that had seen him come the closest to the full infiltration of the Imperial Palace in the Blood Games until his peer Amon Tauromachian Leng bested him. During his tenure, Udar was charged with watching the last remnants of The Outcast Dead -- a small group of Astartes warriors drawn from the Traitor Legions that were the last of the Crusader Host, an honour guard of Space Marines comprised of representatives from each of the 18 Space Marine Legions that served on a rotational basis within the Imperial City outside the Imperial Palace on Terra. Udar met his ultimate fate when The Outcast Dead engineered a successful escape attempt. Udar was slain when he confronted one of the berserker World Eaters Astartes in close combat. The berserker in question, Sergeant Tagore, ripped out a section of Udar's spine through his chest, just as Tagore had promised he would during his confinement.

Sagittaras (Sagittarus Malacque) - Sagittarus was one of the first thirty Custodians created by the hand of the Emperor of Mankind and served alongside his liege as His personal Honour Guard during the Terran Wars of Unification. Choleric and wild, he was the first Custodian to be wounded unto death, and interred within the sarcophagus of the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought as a part of the Legio Custodes Moritoi.

Primarus - Primarus was a Custodian who had been interred within the adamantium sarcophagus of an unknown model of Dreadnought, to continue fighting on behalf of the Emperor during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. His ultimate fate is unknown.

Senitorus - Senitorus was a Custodian who had been interred within the adamantium sarcophagus of an unknown model of Dreadnought, to continue fighting on behalf of the Emperor during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. His ultimate fate is unknown.

Gathas - Gathas was a member of the elite Squad Dynastes, called the Lords of Terra by the Emperor Himself which comprised twenty souls, each one a scion of an extinct royal Terran bloodline, taken as tribute in conquest during the Unification Wars and inducted into the Ten Thousand. He fought and eventually died during the fighting in the Imperial Webway War under the command of Tribune Ra Endymion.

Mycorian - Mycorian was part of elite Squad Dynastes, called the Lords of Terra by the Emperor Himself which comprised twenty souls, each one a scion of an extinct royal Terran bloodline, taken as tribute in conquest during the Unification Wars and inducted into the Ten Thousand. He fought and eventually died during the fighting in the Imperial Webway War under the command of Tribune Ra Endymion.

Juhaza - Juhaza was part of elite Squad Dynastes, called the Lords of Terra by the Emperor Himself which comprised twenty souls, each one a scion of an extinct royal Terran bloodline, taken as tribute in conquest during the Unification Wars and inducted into the Ten Thousand. He fought and was badly injured during the fighting in the Imperial Webway War under the command of Tribune Ra Endymion. Juhaza's ultimate fate is unknown.

Solon - Solon was part of elite Squad Dynastes, called the Lords of Terra by the Emperor Himself which comprised twenty souls, each one a scion of an extinct royal Terran bloodline, taken as tribute in conquest during the Unification Wars and inducted into the Ten Thousand. He fought in the Imperial Webway War under the command of Tribune Ra Endymion. Solon's ultimate fate is unknown.

Post-Heresy Era

Trajann Valoris - Current Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes and perhaps the deadliest individual warrior in the entire Imperium. There were no records in the Imperial databanks on his martial conquests or his ascent into the order. For as long as any living mortal could remember, Valoris' name was spoken of with nothing short of reverence, for many considered the Captain-General to be the personal representative of the Emperor Himself. Even the High Lords might be mocked, when in wine or in anger, but to do so with the Captain-General was simply beyond imagination. For to mock Valoris was to mock the Emperor Himself. Such blaspheme would not go unpunished, and would inevitably result in a transgressor's untimely death. While the two tribunes of the Adeptus Custodes were generally occupied with the many ritual purposes of the order, the Captain-General had no set remit, but governed the forces under his command with complete freedom. To the extent that if the Ten Thousand had dealings with any part of the Adeptus Terra, they were carried out through him. Though the Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes traditionally served on the Council of the High Twelve under the most dire of circumstances, such as during the War of the Beast in M32, it was only through the persistence of Chancellor Lev Tieron that persuaded Valoris to assume the seat that had been left vacant for some time, following the death of Lord Brach, the Chancellor of the Estate Imperium.

Beyreuth - Beyreuth was the Chief Custodian and Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes during the War of the Beast in the mid-32nd Millennium. During this crisis, he led the Custodian Guard in battle against the Harlequins of the Troupe of Joyful Tears, when they managed to breach the sanctity of the Imperial Palace, intent on personally delivering a message to the Master of Mankind, Himself. Only Shadowseer Lhaerial Rey and Death Jester Bho reached the chamber that led to the Sanctum Imperialis, they were able to kill dozens of Custodians, all the while as the Shadowseer insisted that she had come in peace. She explained that she had been sent on behalf of Ulthwé Farseer Eldrad Ulthran to deliver an important message to the Emperor. But the Adeptus Custodes would not relent in their sworn duties, and so, pressed their attack against the xenos interlopers, killing Bho and impaling Lhaerial to the ground with a Guardian Spear. As the Shadowseer continued to insist on meeting with the Emperor, the enraged Captain-General was about to give the order to kill her, until the timely intervention of Inquisitor Lord Veritus saved the Harlequin's life. Using his position as the Inquisition's representative to the Senatorum Imperialis, Veritus force Beyreuth to release the Lhaerial to him so that he could interrogate her. After the tragic event known as The Beheading occurred, the de facto rule of the Imperium fell to the sole remaining High Lord of Terra, the Officio assassinorum's representative, Drakan Vangorish, who reminded Beyreuth of the fact that the Eldar nearly breached the threshold of the Eternity Gate. This argument convinced Beyreauth to join Imperial politics and to take his place amongst the esteemed ranks of the Senatorum Imperialis alongside Vangorich.

Heracleon - Heracleon is one of two tribunes who serves in the modern era Adeptus Custodes. He serves as the master of the Hataeron Guard, the elite cadre of Custodians who oversees the personal security of the Emperor within the Sanctum Imperialis itself.

Italeo - Italeo is one of two tribunes who served in the modern era Adeptus Custodes. He commanded the few Custodian forces that were abroad fighting the myriad foes of Mankind in holy warfare. Often, he would be impossible to reach by summons due to the inherent danger inherent in his duties. Following the destruction of Cadia, and the formation of the Great Rift, Italeo was mortally wounded during the Second Battle of Terra, while fighting against a massive incursion by the forces of the Khorne, though he managed to kill one of the Bloodthirsters who was leading them, before his death. Following his death, Italeo was seceded by Maldovar Colquan as Tribune.

Maldovar Colquan - Maldovar Colquan is one of two tribunes who serves in the modern era Adeptus Custodes. Maldovar spent many years in service, holding vigil over the Emperor as a member of the elite Hataeron Guard. Following Itaelo's death during the Second Battle of Terra while battling the forces of the Blood God, Maldovar was chosen to replace him as Tribune. Following the resurrection of the UltramarinesPrimarch Roboute Guilliman, who was later acknowledged as the acting Lord Regent of Terra, Tribune Colquan served as a liaison between the acting Lord Commander of the Imperium and Captain-General Valdoris. He later joined the assembled Terran forces and took part in Lord Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade, to take the fight to the Archenemy. Tribune Maldovar led the Custodian contingent for well over a century and took part in many notable campaigns, including the Battle of Raukos, which signaled the end of the century-long Crusade. While Colquan served Lord Guilliman faithfully, the Lord Commander could not help but take notice that the Tribune, like many Custodians, had remained superlative individual warriors. But the Adeptus Custodes had rarely served as generals since the old times, and centuries of isolationism had dulled what command abilities they had once possessed. The Tribune's contempt for baseline humanity also troubled Lord Guilliman, a sentiment that was all too often shared amongst Colquan's fellow warrior elite. The Custodians had spent their lives guarding the Emperor, yet they had forgotten who the Emperor guarded in His turn. He chastised Colquan to be more forgiving.

Adronitus - Adronitus is a Shield-Captain of the modern era Adeptus Custodes. Following the conclusion of the Terran Crusade, led by the resurrected Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman, Adronitus confronted the Emperor's son before the Eternity Gate. After making his determination, he permitted Roboute Guilliman to enter within the sanctity of the Sanctum Imperialis to commune with his father, the Emperor. Just before entering the chamber, Guilliman ordered the Custodian Guard to seize Cypher and his fellow Fallen Angels. Adronitus did so, and escorted the Astartes the prisoners to a prison cell within the Imperial Palace.

Valerian - Valerian served as a Shield-Captain in the modern era Adeptus Custodes as a part of the Palaiologian Chamber of the Hykanatoi. While taking part in one of the Custodes' Blood Games, he was asked by Heracleon, the Tribune of the elite Hataeron Guard, to join their order. Having long striven to become a member of the Companions, Valerian eagerly accepted this great honour. Led to the Last Door of the Sanctum Imperialis, he prepared himself to face the Hataeron Guard's first trial -- to cross the threshold of the Last Door and enter the presence of the God-Emperor. But after catching a glimpse of the Master of Mankind, Valerian could not compel himself to take a step, for his body refused to obey him. Valerian felt great shame and embarrassment, having failed this first of many trials, and so, he returned to his former duties on the Outer Walls of the Imperial Palace. But he would later make up for his perceived shortcomings, when he helped to valiantly defend the Palace defenses during the mayhem and madness that ensued following the aftermath of the formation of the Great Rift, and the subsequent Second Battle of Terra.

Ynnades - Ynnades was one of the Adeptus Custodes' Revered Fallen -- a mighty leviathan of the Contemptor-Galatus pattern. The entombed warrior had been roused from his centuries-long slumber when Terra was engulfed by mayhem and chaos, following the formation of the Great Rift. He would later take part in the valiant defence of the Imperial Palace during the Second Battle of Terra against a massive incursion by the forces of the Blood God.

Wargear

Standard Wargear

Custodian Armour - The panoply of the Adeptus Custodes represents the pinnacle of the armourer's art. Far more sophisticated than production-model Space Marine Power Armour, it is fashioned with rare auramite alloy such as that used for the armour the Emperor Himself wore in battle. Each suit is unique to the Custodian Guard who wears it, and it is fitted with arrays of proximity sensors and Refraction Field generators to further enhance its defenses.

Praesidium Shield - Ornate precursors to the later Storm Shield, the Praesidium Shields of the Adeptus Custodes are forged from all but indestructible layered Ceramite and resilient alloys reinforced with built-in field generators.

Aquilon Pattern Terminator Armour - This is a variant of Terminator Armour uniquely designed to operate in conjunction with the physiology of the Adeptus Custodes. Its origins lie with the Cataphractii suits of the Space Marine Legions, but with far greater power capacity and customized neuro-fibre uplinks, it is said, redesigned by the mind of the Emperor Himself for His elite forces.

Teleporation Transponders - Although more often employed in the role of bodyguards and sentinels, when the Emperor was active during the Great Crusade, the Legio Custodes often made use of the teleportarium of their Imperial warships to swiftly gain planetfall. Such mechanisms employed for this were the most advanced of their kind and little was left to chance in their operation.

Refraction Fields and Iron Halos - Although relatively rare owing to the resources and arcane lore required to construct them, a variety of personal defense energy shields are nevertheless common in the armoury of the Emperor's direct servants, serving both as a badge of office and a means of protection.

Magisterium Vexilla - The ancient icons and standards borne by the Legio Custodes represented the inviolable and nigh-omnipotent authority of the Emperor. In particular was the Magisterium, a seal of ultimate sanction and the might of Mankind. Their mere presence on the battlefield is enough to fill those loyal with resolute zeal and wrack those who face His wrath with fear and dread. Moreover, these banners and icons were also technological artifacts containing Vox relay systems and subsonic inducers, augmenting their battlefield role far beyond the merely symbolic.

Arae-Shrikes - Ancient devices of the Dark Age of Technology which twist and distort electromagnetic signals, these counterintelligence devices are considered blasphemous in principle and arcane function by the ancient Mechanicum, and persist only in the hands of the Emperor's retinue. By the use of malifica-djinn and hostile blight-code, they pervert the data-readouts of unshielded Cogitators and telemetry plotters with lying reports and malign falsehood, and what they cannot deceive, they simply blind and deafen with a shrieking multi-frequency cacophony.

Assault Weapons

Guardian Spear - The signature weapon of the Adeptus Custodes and in many ways their symbol of office is the Guardian Spear. Elegant and deadly, it is a potent and unique design incorporating a Power Bladeand a highly advanced integrated Bolter weapon, and in the hands of a Custodian Guard it can strike and parry at blinding speed despite its size. More rarely, these weapons mount not Bolters but advanced specialised sub-weapons such as compact Meltas or even Adrathic Disintegration Beamers, issued against the deadliest of expected foes. The most beautifully wrought and deadly weapons of the Custodians' arsenal are the Paragon Spears, storied weapons wielded by the most noted Shield Captains and Tribunes among the Ten Thousand.

Sentinel Warblade - This is another unique weapon of the Adeptus Custodes, brutal where the Guardian Spear is precise. The hyper-pulse disruption field generators found in the warblade are able to tear apart flesh and metal on contact, while built-in to the blade is a double-barreled Bolter able to lay down a hail of fire at short range.

Solerite Power Gauntlets and Power Talons - First fashioned in the pattern of ancient relics to arm the elite of the Thunder Warriors, the Solerite Power Gauntlets and their raptor-taloned variants are potent weapons. They differ from the standard Power Fists and claws utilized by the Adeptus Astartes in both the near-irreplaceable artifact power coils which energize their disruption field generators and the nigh-indestructible materials their casings and blades are fashioned from, forged as they are in furnaces recovered from the ancient Tempest galleries near Terra's molten core.

Ranged Weapons

Adrathic Weapons - Relics of the Dark Age of Technology believed to be all but unique to Terra, Adrathic weaponry uses a potent but dangerously unstable energy beam to sever the internal bonds of matter, causing objects caught in their path to unravel in a spectacularly destructive manner, leaving only a flaring after-image of what was. Such weapons were legend during the Age of Strife, and devastating wars were fought on anarchic Old Terra solely over the possession of some unearthed cache of Adrathic Weapons and the promise of the power they held. When the Emperor came to dominion and ended Old Night on Ancient Terra, all Adrathic Weapons were given over to Him on pain of death, not simply to the one who retained them but to their entire land and nation such was the importance He placed on controlling this technology. These weapons have remained in His care ever since, and only His own personal weaponsmiths gained and kept the knowledge of how to replicate them in small numbers, much to the jealousy of Mars.

Adrastus Bolt Caliver - Developed as a hybrid of later pattern Imperium Bolter weapon designs and Dark Age of Technology "Adrastite" disintegration beam weapons prohibited from general Great Crusade issue, the Adrastus Bolt Caliver is a potent shoulder arm serving as a portable heavy weapon for the Adeptus Custodes. This combination weapon is able to unleash a fusillade of explosive rounds at long range with the potency of the Heavy Bolters carried by the Adeptus Astartes, or at shorter ranges fire a disintegration beam able to rip a target apart at a molecular level, causing its victims to cease to exist in a howling flare of energy.

Lasrum Bolter and Bolt Cannon - This pattern of Bolter weapon is named for the weaponsmiths of the Lastrum Core Clan of the Appolyne workshops of Terra. Other than being exemplars of their kind in terms of skill of fabrication, they would not be remarkable save for their uniquely powerful ammunition. Rather than the usual "Kraken" type bolts utilised by the wider sweep of the Adeptus Custodes, the artisans of the Lastrum clans hand manufacture only customised mass-reactive heliothermic warheads for their bolt shells. Once within their target, these burst into brief, but sun-hot incendiary detonations, incinerating their victims from within. These shells are uncommonly dense, requiring a far stronger charge to launch than common bolt shells, and only the Lastrum's uniquely sturdy construction for a weapon of their size can withstand the stresses of their repeated firing. The sheer resources and artifice of these weapons were immense, and they could never hope to be mass produced to arm the Space Marine Legions, and even the output of entire generations of the Lastrum themselves could barely satisfy the Legio Custodes' demands.

Source: http://warhammer40k.wikia.com

[avaliveradio]

10.21 New Music Monday Release Radar with Jacqueline Jax

Musicians create music to express their creativity and skill. Listening to new music is an experience and an opportunity to connect with that creative spark. Explore some exciting new music from creators all over the world recently discovered by our host Jacqueline Jax as she searches the far corners of the globe for talented songwriters and music creators who are telling their truth to bring the listener a unique experience.

SUBSCRIBE to our broadcast here: www.wavve.link/avaliveradio

Listen to the Show: https://anchor.fm/ava-live-radio/episodes/10-21-New-Music-Monday-Release-Radar-Mixed-genre-playlist-with-Jacqueline-Jax-e7t8ub

Artist: Miranda Easten

New Release: Stars And Dreams

Genre: Pop

Located in:  Christchurch City, New Zealand

This song reminds me of warm Summer nights spent star-gazing with good company. The music I am creating at the moment is therapeutic and honest. I'm not afraid to write about how I am feeling or what's catching my soul on fire. My new album is a mixture of biographical lyrics as well as observations I've made about current events or people and stories I've heard of.

I create music because... creating something from nothing makes me happy. I love how I can start the day with a blank piece of paper and by mid-afternoon I have created something tangible and shareable. After the music is created I will put it out there and move onto the next creation right away. I would be quite lost without a pen, paper, and guitar!

Next... I am currently recording my debut album (and several music videos) with some amazingly talented musicians and good friends. I feel very blessed to do what I love every day.

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/artist/6tPllDnDr6rB7CS5diguqw https://www.facebook.com/mirandaeasten https://twitter.com/MirandaEasten https://www.instagram.com/mirandaeasten

Artist: CEEM

New Release: Remedy

Genre: Electro Pop

Sounds like: Black Coffee

Located in: Seattle, Washington

This release is important as it's the final single before the release of the full-length Cruel World on Oct 18th. The main theme of Cruel World is a moody and brooding blend of pop and electronica, and as an artist, the project was inspired by so many losses from 2016.

'Remedy' is a sequel to another song I wrote called 'Unbreakable' written in response to living through the 2016 terrorist attack in Nice France on Bastille day. Coming back from that trip feeling shattered and confused, the song helped put his life back together. 

As cathartic and healing as writing Unbreakable was, he still felt that need to face his ultimate fear and go back to the scene of the crime. I went back to Nice July 2019 for Bastille day, alone this time, and retraced the steps and the horror that took place. I wanted to go back and finish writing Cruel World, but for the first four days I was there, the words wouldn’t come, there was some sort of glitch in my brain. I would put pen to paper and write but nothing felt authentic or genuine until I made it through Bastille day.

LINKS:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/2QoZZRRxGzMGqvj1RYXgfP?si=wyY-B755TJCDJ25JRtYbGQ Twitter - @musicbyceem Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/musicbyceem Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/musicbyceem

Artist: A Permanent Shadow

New Release: Now

Genre: Indie, electronic, rock, synthpop, eighties

Sounds like: David Bowie, Moby, John Grant, Peter Gabriel, LCD Soundsystem

Located in: Barcelona, Spain

The music we are creating is... thoughtful, deep, dark yet optimistic, powerful, beautiful, catchy, hopeful, and uplifting. "Now" is a carpe diem song with which we've written a note to ourselves and other people to stop worrying about the future and thinking about the past. Life is happening NOW and we should take it by the horns and be happy.

Music is what I think about 83% of the time...

It's what I've always wanted to do and one of the very few things in life that give me total fulfillment. I adore the creative process. It is an absolute joy to write a song and then record it in the studio and observe how it is gaining shape. Apart from being a musician, I am also a fervent music fan. I never grow tired of discovering new bands and digging deeper into the catalogs of the real greats.

Right now we are...

We have just launched our first album "Songs of Loss" which the song "Now" can be found on. We are busy with promotion and also are preparing a one-off live show to be webcast soon.

LINKS:  https://www.reverbnation.com/apermanentshadow/song/31155111-now https://open.spotify.com/track/3ksn7QYDyqpFZ7rsounxsT https://www.twitter.com/apermanentshad1 https://www.facebook.com/apermanentshadow https://www.instagram.com/apermanentshadow

Artist: Sleuth

New Release: Empty Room

Genre: Genre: Electronica, sub-genre: techno/trance.

Sounds like: Nine Inch Nails, Tori Amos, Portishead

Located in:  Portland, Victoria, Australia

'Empty Room' has recently been described by one reviewer as an ‘experience.’ This song takes the listener inside my journey to a time when I was feeling extremely frustrated and angry. I’d tried to convince a potential colleague that I was a decent person after they had openly condemned me to others. They had stonewalled me for months because I was viewed as a competitor. Yet stupidly I’d kept trying, and kept getting shut down repeatedly in the face of their ‘solo show’. I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t see the same potentials that I could, or see that my intentions were good. The truth was of course that they just didn’t want to! 

This song came from the ultimate realization that I couldn’t do anything about their lack of belief in my character or vision, despite having given up so much of myself to prove ‘there’s somehow sunlight breaking through’. 

I am someone who resonates strongly with the story of the Phoenix rising from the ashes, never destroyed by the fire, so much so that I have a large Phoenix tattooed all over my back. 

This song is a declaration of finally understanding the game that was being played, as well as a cathartic expression of rage, war, and victory. Empty Room draws very vivid musical images for the listener.

The Album...

'Empty Room' was released as part of my debut album Umbra Anima - meaning Shadows and Light. The album is a celebration of both the lighter and darker elements of my journey - not everything that we experience is pretty or aesthetically pleasing to all, but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t teach us, or have value, or be recognized and celebrated. Those sentiments of the album are perhaps best expressed in my song Empty Room - a song about blazing defiantly in spite of others’ negativity and fear.

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/album/0VlFahuWVPQp5GlCi6niSn?si=9bx2JpchQnm2vRdWyd4yBw Twitter: @sleuthmusic1 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sleuthmusician Insta: @sleuthmusic11 Bandcamp: www.sleuthartist.bandcamp.com

Artist: Nathan Lewis Thomas

New Release: The Melody

Genre: Pop: Singer-Songwriter / Alternative Pop

Sounds like:  Hozier / John Mayer / James Bay / Tom Misch

Located in:  Warrington, Cheshire, United Kingdom

This song is an exploration of the idea of music as a form of escapism. The Melody's stomping rhythm, rich vocal harmonies, and catchy hooks are sure to draw you in.

The music I am creating is the result of years spent honing my sound to find a style that truly represents what I'm about musically. I love compositions with a strong harmonic arrangement and I like to think that I have incorporated that into my first release.

I do this because I love it! I am very lucky to be able to work as a musician as my profession, but my work involves performing covers. As musicians will know, there is nothing like expressing yourself through your music and I am no different, which is why I have decided to release some of my material as an exciting side project to my work.

Right now I am recording my second single which will be out in December. I can't wait for people to hear my second offering.

LINKS:  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2sHLtIl30kabkXt22Qvo2D?si=qqysRWCcTDWtHbu2F_KT-g Twitter: www.twitter.com/musicbynlt Instagram: www.instagram.com/musicbynlt Facebook: www.facebook.com/musicbynlt

Artist: MoPoNeck

New Release: Enough Love

Genre: reggae, dancehall, afro,

Sounds like: WIZKID, DAVIDO, KOFFEE,SIZZLA, VYBZ KARTEL, MOVADO,ALKALINE, AKON

Located in: Roseau , Common Wealth of Dominica, West Indies 767

This song was written based on the name of the beat. The beat was named 'Enough Love' so I tried to see where those two words appeared most in my life, and most of those times were in relationships, where my other half would ask me questions like, baby how much do you love me? Baby on a scale of 1-10 how much do you love me? But I would always answer her with, Baby please tell me how much love is enough? Cause there is no such thing as Enough Love or Too Much Love, when you are in a relationship with someone no amount of Love is too much or Enough. There is no such thing as Enough Love so I wrote this song based on this concept of Enough Love.

My direction is to showcase the music from my country to the world and keep on adding to my countries Arts and Culture by creating good songs and keeping the vibe positive. The music I am creating for fans right now is tailored more to things that they can relate to. Music that they can listen to and feel the lyrics and vibe to the melody and rhythm.

I do this because...

I was born into the first-ever music store on the island. My dad had a studio at home and a studio at this store, so while my mom was pregnant I was already listening to music while I developed as a baby in her stomach. I recorded my first song when I was 8, but I was recording myself on cassette way before then. I love making music for my friends, fans and to represent my country. What I love most about performing is making a connection with the crowd and watching them engage while I sing my lyrics. My inspiration comes naturally. I am inspired by all the things going on around me.

Right now we are...

 I'm currently working on a script for the Enough Love Official Music Video to be recorded sometime next month. To subscribe to my youtube channel so you can get notified as soon as it drops.

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/album/0ksuDkDwxbxqb6wUduFwVH www.twitter.com/moponeck https://www.facebook.com/MoPoNeck www.instagram.com/moponeck

Artist: Spontaneous Groovin' Combustion

New Release: Spy vs Spy

Genre: Contemporary Jazz

Sounds like:  Down To The Bone, Fourplay, Fattburger, Pieces Of A Dream

Located in:  New York, NY

"Spy vs Spy" is the second single by Spontaneous Groovin' Combustion, a Contemporary/Smooth Jazz ensemble, led by saxophonist/flutist Warren Keller, featuring original, groove-oriented music. “Spy vs Spy” pays homage to the great TV theme songs of yesteryear- think 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' "Spy vs Spy” is driven by an infectious sax and flute line that will have you boppin'! Though you might be looking over your shoulder to make sure you're not being followed!

We try to straddle the line between C-Jazz and Funk. "Spy vs Spy" compliments our debut single, "Kickin" It," also from 2019, in establishing the 'Spontaneous Groovin' Combustion Sound.' We want our tunes to be fun, yet provocative and slightly different than the rest- not just background music!

Right now, we're most excited about having locked-in the next single campaign, going for adds in February 2020. Early next year, we'll release that single #3 (TBD), hopefully, to even better results than the first two records achieved!

LINKS:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwMPuprOTvE https://open.spotify.com/album/1sFBTZq6aL0OC7OZeh1zCg https://twitter.com/Spontaneous_GC https://www.facebook.com/SpontaneousGroovinCombustion https://www.instagram.com/spontaneousgroovin

Artist: Suniil Bhatia (Artist)/ Sound Machine (Band)

New Release: Kahani Sunil (I'm stuck in here)

Genre: Indie Hip Hop with Poetry Rap and shades of Rock Music

Located in: : Mumbai

Kahani Suno means 'Hear a story' in in English. The song is about the artist and can be relatable to any individual as its about the trials, tribulations and struggles which an individual goes through in life. In a brief translation, the song says "Hear my story which is about aspirations, struggles, sadness, times of feeling lost in the journey of life, destiny and moving on with hopes of getting a new dawn"

This music is part of an ongoing album called 'Yeh Din' which means 'These Days' in English.

One can convey one's thoughts and emotions through words and music. Performing is the way to communicate ones songs and if people are able to relate to them, the work of an artist is done. Living a life of ones dreams is the only thing which pushes us to do what we do. Am still doing what I'm doing accordingly.

Right now I am working on more songs to complete the Album.

LINKS:  Reverbnation : https://www.reverbnation.com/sunilbhatia/song/31226644-kahani-suno-im-stuck-in-here Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/sunil-bhatia Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/album/2YN7ZCGcV9hame4JWJnwci  Twitter : https://twitter.com/sunilbhatia Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/YoursMusically Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/sonu.sunil.bhatia

Artist: Bucket Boys

New Release: Won't you be

Genre: Pop music, Adult contemporary, Roots, Fifties

Located in: Mönchengladbach, NW, Germany

If you’re a fan of the 50’s sound, check out the Bucket Boys. The latest songs of the BUCKET BOYS, published in autumn 2019, are the construction box to build all kinds of stories dealing with love and hate. We have songs between yesterday and tomorrow, nice and naughty, sick & sicker.

If you’re looking for an unrealistic illustration of LOVE'N'HATE, you’ll find all you need in this sound from Rock'n'Roll to Country, from Roots to Desert-Rock. The songs are inspired by a different kind of backyard-romance and desire, tequila-driven fantasies and even all imaginable varieties of love and hate.

I do this because...

I love concerts, The Bucket Boys are still on the road. To feel dust and sweat on their skin, burnin’ heat in one hell of a night. An endless landscape of desert’s sand and burnin’ darkness in their eyes. With Tequila-driven fantasies, a taste of backyard-romance and dirty desire, are they looking for their lucky chance.

This mixture of rock’n’roll and country, roots and desert-rock, it makes them happy and is the ultimate soundtrack of a never-ending road-movie.

The Bucket Boys are promoting their new album "Love'n'Hate" and play live on the "up to honey hill-tour".

LINKS:  http://www.reverbnation.com/bucketboys/song/31155604-wont-you-be http://open.spotify.com/track/63u8p69QInABgsf0TtngV3 http://twitter.com/bucketboystweet http://www.facebook.com/TheBucketBoys

Artist: Cabela and Schmitt

New Release: I Pray For You

Genre: Rock/Pop Ballad

Sounds like: The Beatles, Tom Petty, Imagine Dragons, Coldplay

Located in: Nebraska and Colorado

Cabela and Schmitt are an alternative to classic rock. Our influences come from decades of listening to great music. The song is about a couple who gave up too early. The sadness and turmoil of a love gone wrong tearing apart two hearts that give it all up before true love is achieved. And you pray that it will all work out.

This song is track eleven on our newly released album DANCING SHOES. The music comes from our souls. It's an absolute part of us.

Right now we are gearing up for the holiday season with some original Christmas songs. Also, we have been setting our goals and preparing for 2020. Lots of good marketing ideas are flowing.

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/track/2QTgOQ4WWWVIqCPvUMdLUV?si=4Ok9qCcDTTybMCyr7kjtcw Twitter: @CabelaSchmitt https://www.facebook.com/cabelaschmittmusic https://www.instagram.com/cabelaandschmitt www.cabelaandschmitt.com

[germanyvisainfo-blog]

Do I need a Visa for short stays in Germany?

The Federal Republic of Germany, one in every of world’s greatest targets for the journey trade and coaching, identified for its low joblessness price and employment lack in express fields, has arrange strict tenets and motion legal guidelines, a few of which have been embraced within the Schengen methods, primary for all Schengen half states, for these wishing to enter its area.

Whereas there are courses and nationals of countries which might be advantaged with getting into in Germany sans visa, there are likewise completely different classifications and nationals, which must expertise all the way in which towards assembly stipulations and going to interviews, in order to get a visa that stipends them with the consent to enter the Western European nation.

The first factor that a person intending to go to Germany for a brief keep should do, is ask themselves: Do I would like a short-stay Germany visa? In order to reply this inquiry, you must think about the explanation for part in Germany. Within the occasion that you’re eager to go there for a short-remain, for the journey trade/visiting or enterprise, at that time the percentages that you simply needn’t hassle with a Germany short-stay visa are greater.

Who Doesn’t Want a Quick-Keep Germany Visa?

Germany, as a component situation of the Schengen Space, permits the nationals of 62 nations piece of the visa-waiver program to enter its area with out the necessity to purchase a visa first.

As indicated by Germany short-stay part administers, the inhabitants of 62 underdeveloped nations are allowed to enter Germany sans visa and keep there for a time of 90 days inside a half 12 months. Amid this era, company aren’t allowed to work, but they’ll participate in enterprise.

The nations that fall underneath the visa-waiver program are as following:

Albania Andorra Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Australia Bahamas Barbados Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Brunei Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Dominica El Salvador

Georgia Grenada Guatemala Honduras Hong Kong Israel Japan Kiribati Macao Macedonia Malaysia Marshall Islands Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Montenegro

New Zealand Nicaragua Palau Panama Paraguay Peru Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent Samoa San Marino Serbia Seychelles Singapore Solomon Islands South Korea

Taiwan Timor Leste Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tuvalu Ukraine United Arab Emirates United States of America Uruguay Vanuatu Vatican Metropolis Venezuela

The European Fee has successfully embraced the supposed Digital Journey Info and Authorization System (ETIAS), which the nationals of the beforehand talked about nations ought to get in order to be allowed to enter the Schengen Zone starting January 2021. ETIAS will value 7 euros, and shall be official for 3 to 10 years, or till the termination of its holder’s visa. The strategies to accumulate one shall be simple, and the appliance process is assessed to final round 10 to 20 minutes.

Whereas, if the nationals of any of those visa-excluded nations want to enter Germany for lengthy stays and functions like restorative remedy, take into consideration, work, enterprise, they need to purchase a Germany long-stay visa.

Who Wants a Germany Visa?

Then once more, there are no matter stays of the world nations, the themes of which should purchase a visa, previous to their outing to Germany. The applying process for a Germany visa incorporates gathering the Germany visa required information, going to a gathering, paying the Germany Visa expense, and sitting tight for a selection on their utility.

On the off probability that you’re eager to enter Germany for a brief stay and you’ve got a spot with one of many accompanying nations then you must get a short-stay visa:

Afghanistan Algeria Angola Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Belarus Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Botswana Burkina Faso Burma/Myanmar Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad China Comoros Congo Cuba Rep. Of Congo Djibouti Dominican Republic

Ecuador Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Fiji Gabon Gambia Ghana Pakistan Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ivory Coast Jamaica Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan

Laos Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Maldives Mali Marshall Islands Mauritania Micronesia Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nauru Nepal Niger Nigeria North Korea Northern Marianas Oman Palau Papua New Guinea Philippines Qatar Russia Rwanda

Samoa Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Sierra Leone Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Syria Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe

Quick-Keep Visa Exempt Classes

No matter whether or not you might be from one of many above-recorded nations the nationals of which must get a short-stay visa to enter Germany, there are nonetheless prospects that you could be not require a visa, on the off probability that you simply moreover have a spot with one of many accompanying courses:

You might be moreover a local of the EU/EEA/EFTA nations

You’re the confederate or the offspring of an EU/EEA/EFTA nationwide together with your identification voyaging collectively

You’re the holder of a Diplomatic, Service or Particular Passport from Chad, Ghana, Philippines, Thailand and Turkey

You’re the holder of a Diplomatic Passport from Algeria, Georgia, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Pakistan, Russian Federation, South Africa and Tunisia.

Do I would like a visa to go to Germany from UK?

Since the UK is not a bit of the Schengen Space, and starting March 29, 2019, it will not be a bit of the European Union both, nationals of the underdeveloped nations residing within the UK for someplace round three months that association on visiting Germany are required to encourage a German visa in order to most likely enter Germany.

In line with UK nationals, they may in all chance fall underneath the ETIAS program, when it goes utterly operational in 2021. For extra knowledge in such method, it might be ultimate when you click on Germany Visa for the UK Residents.

Do I would like a visa to go to Germany from US?

A portion of the US inhabitants, contingent upon their standing within the US and the explanation for his or her entrance in Germany, simply as some completely different elements, could be obliged to get a visa first earlier than getting into the nation. These courses are as following:

US worldwide ID holders who want to enter Germany for functions aside from the journey trade, enterprise or air terminal journey

Outsiders in US with a habitation license with legitimacy shorter than three months previous their organized date of leaving Germany ought to purchase a visa in order to be allowed to enter Germany.

US worldwide ID holders which have lately been denied part in Germany with out a visa

Contingent upon express circumstances, there could also be people who haven’t got a spot with any of the classifications referenced over that also want a visa.

Do I need a Visa for short stays in Germany?

[party-hard-or-die]

Exclusive: As Venezuelans suffer, Maduro buys foreign oil to…

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state-run oil firm PDVSA has bought nearly $440 million worth of foreign crude and shipped it directly to Cuba on friendly credit terms – and often at a loss, according to internal company documents reviewed by Reuters.

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Amuay refinery complex which belongs to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in Punto Fijo, Venezuela November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

The shipments are the first documented instances of the OPEC nation buying crude to supply regional allies instead of selling them oil from its own vast reserves.

Venezuela made the discounted deliveries, which have not been previously reported, despite its dire need for foreign currency to bolster its collapsing economy and to import food and medicine amid widespread shortages.

The open-market oil purchases to subsidize one of Venezuela’s few remaining allies underscores its increasing global isolation and the disintegration of its energy sector under socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

The purchases came as Venezuela’s crude production hit a 33-year low in the first quarter – down 28 percent in 12 months. Its refineries are operating at a third of capacity, and its workers are resigning by the thousands.

PDVSA bought the crude for up to $12 per barrel more than it priced the same oil when it shipped to Cuba, according to prices on internal documents reviewed by Reuters. But Cuba may never pay cash for the cargoes because Venezuela has long accepted goods and services from Cuba in return for oil under a pact signed in 2000 by late presidents Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

PDVSA, the Venezuela government and the Cuba government did not respond to requests for comment.

Venezuela’s government has previously said it only imports oil to blend with its own tar-like crude to improve quality and create an exportable product, or to feed its refinery in Curacao. But hundreds of PDSVA documents examined by Reuters detailing imports and exports, dated from January 2017 to May of this year, show the company is now buying crude at market prices to deliver to allies – in shipments that never pass through Venezuela.

The subsidized deliveries are aimed at maintaining political support from Cuba, one of a dwindling group of Venezuela allies, according to diplomats, politicians and PDVSA executives.

“Maduro is giving away everything he can because these countries’ backing, especially from Cuba, is all the political support he has left,” said a former top Venezuelan government official who declined to be identified.

Caracas has come under increasing international pressure as the United States, the European Union and Canada have sanctioned Venezuela for what they see as Maduro’s attempts to cement a dictatorship.

As Venezuela spends on oil imports, it has imported less of everything else its citizens desperately need. Venezuela’s spending on non-oil imports plunged from nearly $46 billion in 2011 to $6 billion in 2017, according Venezuela Central Bank data and Ecoanalitica, a Caracas-based economic research organization.

The oil PDVSA procured for Cuba was Russian Urals crude, the documents show, a variety well-suited for Cuban refineries constructed from Soviet-era equipment.

PDVSA bought the crude from Chinese, Russian and Swiss firms – not for cash, but a pledge that PDVSA would deliver other oil shipments later, the documents show.

That adds to Venezuela’s already towering debts of oil to state-owned firms in Russia and China, which together have extended Venezuela’s government more than $60 billion in oil-for-loan deals that have propped up its budget amid declining exports and lower oil prices.

“It’s nonsense to import oil to keep subsidized exports flowing,” said Ecoanalitica President Asdrubal Oliveros.

PETRO-DIPLOMACY

Venezuela’s socialist government has long used oil for domestic and international political ends, subsidizing goods and services at home and currying favor across the region with oil deliveries on generous terms.

FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past a mural with a PDVSA logo at its gas station in Caracas, Venezuela August 29, 2014. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

Venezuela’s oil supply arrangements have helped soften international political censure of Maduro’s government.

The Organization of American States (OAS), which includes most Western Hemisphere nations, last year took up a motion seeking to pressure Venezuela to hold free elections, liberate political prisoners and declare a humanitarian crisis.

The effort was defeated when 12 countries that have received regular oil shipments from Venezuela in recent years – about a third of the OAS membership – opposed it or refused to vote. Eventually, the OAS passed a watered-down motion urging free and fair elections.

Venezuela has avoided formal OAS condemnation “thanks to the support of the bloc of Caribbean nations that have benefited from its subsidized oil and development programs for years,” said Michael Fitzpatrick, deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said on April 30 during a talk at the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank in Washington.

Most of those countries are members of Venezuela’s Petrocaribe trade pact, launched in 2005, which has granted up to 16 Caribbean and Central American states with oil supplies on favorable terms.

OAS President Luis Almagro declined to comment through press office representative Monica Reyes.

El Salvador’s Economy Minister, Luz Estrella Rodriguez, said Petrocaribe and other pacts promoted by Venezuela had played an important role in her country’s development.

“Our country is very grateful,” she said. “The government of El Salvador, of course, is a friend and an ally of the Venezuelan government.”

El Salvador refused to vote last year on the OAS motion to condemn Venezuela.

Venezuela also supplied fuel last year to Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Dominica, the documents show.

In total, members of oil trade pacts with Venezuela last year received at least 103,000 bpd of crude and refined products from PDVSA, the documents show, or about 6 percent of Venezuela’s exports.

FALLING OUTPUT, SHRINKING IMPORTS

The falling output of Venezuela’s refineries has also left the country increasingly dependent on fuel imports to meet domestic consumption.

The internal PDVSA data reviewed by Reuters shows Venezuela last year purchased some 180,000 barrels per day of foreign crude and refined products from PetroChina, Rosneft, Lukoil, Reliance Industries and other suppliers, 17 percent more than in 2016.

Those companies did not respond to requests for comment.

The purchases totaled more $4 billion, according to PDVSA records.

Last year, total oil-industry purchases, including equipment and services, consumed 45 percent of Venezuela’s total import spending, up from 13 percent in 2011, Ecoanalitica data shows. Energy imports totaled $5.4 billion out of $11.9 billion.

The resulting scarcity of food, medicine and employment has caused thousands of citizens to flee Venezuela. The pay of PDVSA workers now can’t cover the barest essentials because of the collapse of its currency, the bolivar.

“A worker’s salary is not even enough for a box of eggs,” said Hector Bertis, a PDVSA worker and union leader. “We go to the bank, and they give us 10,000 bolivars – less than what a transportation fare costs.”

Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Jeanne Liendo in Calgary; additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in Washington, Paula Rosales in San Salvador and Gary McWilliams in Houston; Editing by Gary McWilliams, Simon Webb and Brian Thevenot

The post Exclusive: As Venezuelans suffer, Maduro buys foreign oil to… appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2k1Pc4J via Breaking News

[dragnews]

Exclusive: As Venezuelans suffer, Maduro buys foreign oil to…

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Venezuela’s state-run oil firm PDVSA has bought nearly $440 million worth of foreign crude and shipped it directly to Cuba on friendly credit terms – and often at a loss, according to internal company documents reviewed by Reuters.

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Amuay refinery complex which belongs to the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in Punto Fijo, Venezuela November 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

The shipments are the first documented instances of the OPEC nation buying crude to supply regional allies instead of selling them oil from its own vast reserves.

Venezuela made the discounted deliveries, which have not been previously reported, despite its dire need for foreign currency to bolster its collapsing economy and to import food and medicine amid widespread shortages.

The open-market oil purchases to subsidize one of Venezuela’s few remaining allies underscores its increasing global isolation and the disintegration of its energy sector under socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

The purchases came as Venezuela’s crude production hit a 33-year low in the first quarter – down 28 percent in 12 months. Its refineries are operating at a third of capacity, and its workers are resigning by the thousands.

PDVSA bought the crude for up to $12 per barrel more than it priced the same oil when it shipped to Cuba, according to prices on internal documents reviewed by Reuters. But Cuba may never pay cash for the cargoes because Venezuela has long accepted goods and services from Cuba in return for oil under a pact signed in 2000 by late presidents Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

PDVSA, the Venezuela government and the Cuba government did not respond to requests for comment.

Venezuela’s government has previously said it only imports oil to blend with its own tar-like crude to improve quality and create an exportable product, or to feed its refinery in Curacao. But hundreds of PDSVA documents examined by Reuters detailing imports and exports, dated from January 2017 to May of this year, show the company is now buying crude at market prices to deliver to allies – in shipments that never pass through Venezuela.

The subsidized deliveries are aimed at maintaining political support from Cuba, one of a dwindling group of Venezuela allies, according to diplomats, politicians and PDVSA executives.

“Maduro is giving away everything he can because these countries’ backing, especially from Cuba, is all the political support he has left,” said a former top Venezuelan government official who declined to be identified.

Caracas has come under increasing international pressure as the United States, the European Union and Canada have sanctioned Venezuela for what they see as Maduro’s attempts to cement a dictatorship.

As Venezuela spends on oil imports, it has imported less of everything else its citizens desperately need. Venezuela’s spending on non-oil imports plunged from nearly $46 billion in 2011 to $6 billion in 2017, according Venezuela Central Bank data and Ecoanalitica, a Caracas-based economic research organization.

The oil PDVSA procured for Cuba was Russian Urals crude, the documents show, a variety well-suited for Cuban refineries constructed from Soviet-era equipment.

PDVSA bought the crude from Chinese, Russian and Swiss firms – not for cash, but a pledge that PDVSA would deliver other oil shipments later, the documents show.

That adds to Venezuela’s already towering debts of oil to state-owned firms in Russia and China, which together have extended Venezuela’s government more than $60 billion in oil-for-loan deals that have propped up its budget amid declining exports and lower oil prices.

“It’s nonsense to import oil to keep subsidized exports flowing,” said Ecoanalitica President Asdrubal Oliveros.

PETRO-DIPLOMACY

Venezuela’s socialist government has long used oil for domestic and international political ends, subsidizing goods and services at home and currying favor across the region with oil deliveries on generous terms.

FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past a mural with a PDVSA logo at its gas station in Caracas, Venezuela August 29, 2014. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

Venezuela’s oil supply arrangements have helped soften international political censure of Maduro’s government.

The Organization of American States (OAS), which includes most Western Hemisphere nations, last year took up a motion seeking to pressure Venezuela to hold free elections, liberate political prisoners and declare a humanitarian crisis.

The effort was defeated when 12 countries that have received regular oil shipments from Venezuela in recent years – about a third of the OAS membership – opposed it or refused to vote. Eventually, the OAS passed a watered-down motion urging free and fair elections.

Venezuela has avoided formal OAS condemnation “thanks to the support of the bloc of Caribbean nations that have benefited from its subsidized oil and development programs for years,” said Michael Fitzpatrick, deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said on April 30 during a talk at the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank in Washington.

Most of those countries are members of Venezuela’s Petrocaribe trade pact, launched in 2005, which has granted up to 16 Caribbean and Central American states with oil supplies on favorable terms.

OAS President Luis Almagro declined to comment through press office representative Monica Reyes.

El Salvador’s Economy Minister, Luz Estrella Rodriguez, said Petrocaribe and other pacts promoted by Venezuela had played an important role in her country’s development.

“Our country is very grateful,” she said. “The government of El Salvador, of course, is a friend and an ally of the Venezuelan government.”

El Salvador refused to vote last year on the OAS motion to condemn Venezuela.

Venezuela also supplied fuel last year to Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Dominica, the documents show.

In total, members of oil trade pacts with Venezuela last year received at least 103,000 bpd of crude and refined products from PDVSA, the documents show, or about 6 percent of Venezuela’s exports.

FALLING OUTPUT, SHRINKING IMPORTS

The falling output of Venezuela’s refineries has also left the country increasingly dependent on fuel imports to meet domestic consumption.

The internal PDVSA data reviewed by Reuters shows Venezuela last year purchased some 180,000 barrels per day of foreign crude and refined products from PetroChina, Rosneft, Lukoil, Reliance Industries and other suppliers, 17 percent more than in 2016.

Those companies did not respond to requests for comment.

The purchases totaled more $4 billion, according to PDVSA records.

Last year, total oil-industry purchases, including equipment and services, consumed 45 percent of Venezuela’s total import spending, up from 13 percent in 2011, Ecoanalitica data shows. Energy imports totaled $5.4 billion out of $11.9 billion.

The resulting scarcity of food, medicine and employment has caused thousands of citizens to flee Venezuela. The pay of PDVSA workers now can’t cover the barest essentials because of the collapse of its currency, the bolivar.

“A worker’s salary is not even enough for a box of eggs,” said Hector Bertis, a PDVSA worker and union leader. “We go to the bank, and they give us 10,000 bolivars – less than what a transportation fare costs.”

Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Jeanne Liendo in Calgary; additional reporting by Alexandra Ulmer in Washington, Paula Rosales in San Salvador and Gary McWilliams in Houston; Editing by Gary McWilliams, Simon Webb and Brian Thevenot

The post Exclusive: As Venezuelans suffer, Maduro buys foreign oil to… appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2k1Pc4J via Today News

[rollinbrigittenv8]

Post-Hurricane Marketing in the U.S. and Caribbean Puts Tourism Boards to the Test

Hurricane-ravaged destinations are launching marketing campaigns to try to move past the storms. Pictured are members of the U.S. Coast Guard in Houston after Hurricane Harvey in August. Coast Guard News / Flickr

Skift Take: Marketing campaigns are always a key ingredient in responding to natural disasters, and showing travelers that a destination hasn't completely bottomed out. To get the message out, it also helps to have sufficient funding and resources, which some islands are currently lacking.

— Dan Peltier

Many U.S. and Caribbean destinations this year are doing hurricane damage control in terms of post-storm marketing — something that largely wasn’t needed for a significant swath of the region for more than a decade.

Storms such as Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria caused an estimated $188 billion or more in damages this year, making 2017 the costliest season on record, according to AccuWeather. The wreckage from the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was also very substantial but didn’t reach this year’s level.

The region’s travel industry and visitor arrivals have also grown considerably over the past dozen years.

The Caribbean had 22.2 million tourist arrivals in 2005 compared with 29 million in 2016, a 30 percent increase.  Social channels — which didn’t exist or were nascent a dozen years ago – serve to spread both images of the devastation and can be used for marketing purposes, as well.

Hard-hit destinations like the Florida Keys were relatively quick to launch marketing campaigns telling travelers to come back, trying combat what it sees as misperceptions of the situation on the ground after the storms. While the archipelago suffered a direct hit from Irma, the outer islands had minimal damage.

Andy Newman, a spokesman for Monroe County’s Tourist Development Council, which handles destination marketing for the Keys, said some U.S. government agencies have done the destination more harm than good after Irma. “The Department of Defense did a press release after the storm that said the Navy would come in and evacuate 10,000 Keys residents because there was no water for them,” he said. “I spoke to the Key West city manager and I kept saying, ‘where is this coming from?’ We found out subsequently that it was too late and the information was broadcast.”

Newman added: “Then, the [Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)] administrator was quoted as saying 90 percent of residences in the Florida Keys were damaged or uninhabitable when actually the amount is around 25 percent.”

Parts of the Keys will undoubtedly still be in repair mode for its high season, which starts in December, but it will still have perfect vacation opportunities, Newman contended. “Most of the time with a storm we’re in the cone and then the storm misses us and then the media takes off and we’re stuck with this perception,” he said.

“Another challenge for us was the BP oil spill in 2010,” said Newman. “We never got one single drop of BP oil but the media was saying that the oil would reach the Keys and that made many travelers worry.”

The destination is leveraging all of its online platforms to show the Keys in real-time and convey accurate information about which parts are fine to visit. It’s has enlisted the support of Gloria Estefan, a South Florida native, to use her song “Coming Out of the Dark” in a marketing video highlighting recovery in the Keys and also showing how some areas were untouched.

Miami Is Bouncing Back

Nearby Miami, which fared much better than it was initially projected to during Irma, also isn’t a stranger to dealing with weather-related misperceptions.

The lead up to Hurricane Irma was prolonged, said Rolando Aedo, chief marketing officer of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Technology was the bane and beauty of all this,” he said. “As good as we’ve become with technology and predictions, hurricane tracks still change.”

Beyond the human tragedy, Aedo said hurricanes and extreme weather take a financial and psychological toll on the travel industry. “We had 10 of the prior 13 weeks before Irma with positive revenue per available room growth,” he said. “We were building momentum from Hurricane Matthew and Zika.”

But the area’s tourism industry is mostly back on track. “Our hotels did take a hit but meeting planners are a unique track,” said Aedo. “Outright cancellations for meetings hasn’t happened and this is where we’ve really pulled up our sleeves.”

Places like Miami want to keep building momentum. The Greater Miami CVB launched its Miami Now campaign on September 18 after Irma clipped the area.

The convention bureau normally spreads its deals and promotions over the course of a year, but consolidated many of its annual promotions post-Irma to assuage wary travelers. “We’re communicating that we’re open for business but perhaps doing that in an elegant and nuanced way,” said Aedo. “Being such an international destination, we have a global network of 52 agencies around the globe and having them amplify our message is a tremendous tool that we didn’t have during the last active season 10 years ago.”

Cayman Islands Was Unscathed but has work to do

The Cayman Islands took a beating from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 that caused major setbacks and it took years for its tourism industry to recover, said Rosa Harris, director of tourism for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism.

This British Overseas Territory has so far escaped the wrath of this hurricane season, which officially ends on November 30, but it’s still trying to market how it’s different from competing islands.

The destination just launched its first romance campaign, which wasn’t connected to recent hurricanes, said Harris.

The campaign features Cayman Islands native and actress Grace Byers and her husband Trai Byers, who both star in the TV series “Empire.”

“We wanted to refresh and make the Cayman Islands a little sexier,” said Harris. “In recent years we’ve played it really safe.”

Harris said the Cayman Islands has long been known as a destination-wedding location and its tourism board has been marketing weddings for years. But the romance and couples aspect was still somehow missing.

The average party size of travelers to the destination is 2.3 people, said Harris. “Our demographics shifted in terms of our target markets,” she said. “We’re still protecting our family market but growing couples became a priority.”

Learning From History

New Orleans has also been taking a second look at how it markets itself, something it’s done periodically but particularly since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Mark Romig, president and CEO of New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., said the smartest thing the city did after Katrina was speaking with one voice and bringing sports teams, hotels, restaurants and the convention and visitors bureau together to the same table.

New Orleans’ first post-storm ad campaign started in spring 2006. “A couple of months after Katrina we started telling travelers to come back and we had volunteers here,” he said. “We hosted Mardi Gras that February.”

After Katrina, the convention bureau created a hospitality master plan through 2018 and worked with Boston Consulting Group on a 12-point study to find ways to reduce crime, improve taxi service and revitalize popular tourists areas like the city’s French Quarter, for example.

Romig said the city’s tourism industry is about where he thought it would be in 2018 when it created its master plan nearly 12 years ago. “There are still many things we haven’t been able to do yet,” he said. “Soon after our study was adopted we had the BP oil spill. People weren’t coming to New Orleans because they thought there was oil on Bourbon Street.”

The New Orleans tourism body also thought it would have a $45 million marketing budget by this point but is only about two-thirds of the way there, said Romig.

The city also didn’t reach its 13.7 million visitors by 2018 goal – it got 10.5 million last year and isn’t projected to make the goal this year. But the city did get $7.5 billion in annual visitor spend.

Remnants of Katrina still linger but New Orleans, for the most part, is looking forward. It recently launched its “One Time, In New Orleans” campaign to help celebrate the city’s 300th birthday in 2018. The campaign includes an ad that’s airing during Monday night football in the U.S. that encourages travelers to connect historical New Orleans stories with experiences they engage in during the coming year.

“We’re appealing to everyone’s nature to share a story either before, during or after a trip,” said Romig.

In Houston, where many locals are still recovering from Hurricane Harvey, the city’s tourism board has taken cues from New Orleans.

“We learned from Katrina to have a crisis communication plan,” said Jorge Franz, vice president of tourism for Visit Houston. “Every bit of planning that we could have done that we learned from went into play.”

Houston also welcomed many Katrina evacuees and has experience with the humanitarian aspect of natural disasters. Franz said the tourism board was involved in opening the city’s convention center to Harvey evacuees.

“New Orleans reached out personally to us and it’s very real stuff,” said Franz. “To try to put a pretty face on it is not what we want to do, we want to be honest. We’re an open and diverse city and that’s what the whole country saw. We’re not deterred by this event.”

Franz said the city has once again laid out the welcome mat for travelers. “We’re going to be thanking consumers who have helped us,” he said. “We haven’t lost any significant pieces of our business. Business travel is so essential to Houston and as soon as the airport reopened business travel started to come back. Hotels are also running with high occupancy.”

Moving Forward

While some destinations impacted by the storms are returning to a semblance of normalcy, others such as Dominica, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, St. Maarten and Puerto Rico face a long road to recovery. In Puerto Rico, for example, 80 percent of residents remain without power.

Some Caribbean islands are still hoping to pool together funding and resources to launch a regional marketing campaign in time for high season, but those prospects don’t look promising.

Destinations like the Florida Keys are welcoming back cruise ships and – slowly – other overnight visitors. But from a destination marketing standpoint, some plans have been put on hold.

Newman said the Keys has changed a lot of its public relations plans for the fiscal year that began October 1. “We were going to hire a Chinese PR agency and do other things in Europe,” he said. “But we decided to pull that back and focus on our domestic and traditional UK and European markets. The bottom line is that we need to be able to fish where the fish are.”

The Turks & Caicos received some hurricane damage this season, albeit mild compared to some of its neighbors. The destination decided that even with many travelers perceiving the Caribbean as an unfavorable place to visit because of widespread misperceptions, it won’t offer any discounts on hotel room rates because of the storms, said Ramon Andrews, director of the Turks & Caicos Tourism Board.

“Our product hasn’t changed and we are delivering the same level of service and luxury refinement that was had prior to the hurricanes,” said Andrews. “The experience isn’t less, so the rates aren’t either. There is no lasting damage that will impact a visitor’s trip. The beaches aren’t any less pristine. The hotels aren’t offering a reduced level of service.”

“Visitors who come to Turks & Caicos now will not feel a difference in the experience compared to those who came prior to the hurricanes, and offering a discounted rate can imply otherwise,” said Andrews.

Andrews said maintaining rate integrity is also being done with hospitality workers in mind. “The importance of rate integrity is not something to take lightly; with a hotel background myself, I know that firsthand,” he said. “It’s also worth noting that maintaining rates guarantees staff salaries and that subsequently their needs and costs of living are met, which was also a very important point for us in supporting our people.”

There’s little doubt that the region is dealing with challenges – and more intensely unfavorable weather – that wasn’t as acute during past hurricane seasons.

The Caribbean is still in its shoulder season. Tourism boards are waiting to see if their post-storm marketing efforts will pay off in a few months.

[touristguidebuzz]

Post-Hurricane Marketing in the U.S. and Caribbean Puts Tourism Boards to the Test

Hurricane-ravaged destinations are launching marketing campaigns to try to move past the storms. Pictured are members of the U.S. Coast Guard in Houston after Hurricane Harvey in August. Coast Guard News / Flickr

Skift Take: Marketing campaigns are always a key ingredient in responding to natural disasters, and showing travelers that a destination hasn't completely bottomed out. To get the message out, it also helps to have sufficient funding and resources, which some islands are currently lacking.

— Dan Peltier

Many U.S. and Caribbean destinations this year are doing hurricane damage control in terms of post-storm marketing — something that largely wasn’t needed for a significant swath of the region for more than a decade.

Storms such as Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria caused an estimated $188 billion or more in damages this year, making 2017 the costliest season on record, according to AccuWeather. The wreckage from the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was also very substantial but didn’t reach this year’s level.

The region’s travel industry and visitor arrivals have also grown considerably over the past dozen years.

The Caribbean had 22.2 million tourist arrivals in 2005 compared with 29 million in 2016, a 30 percent increase.  Social channels — which didn’t exist or were nascent a dozen years ago – serve to spread both images of the devastation and can be used for marketing purposes, as well.

Hard-hit destinations like the Florida Keys were relatively quick to launch marketing campaigns telling travelers to come back, trying combat what it sees as misperceptions of the situation on the ground after the storms. While the archipelago suffered a direct hit from Irma, the outer islands had minimal damage.

Andy Newman, a spokesman for Monroe County’s Tourist Development Council, which handles destination marketing for the Keys, said some U.S. government agencies have done the destination more harm than good after Irma. “The Department of Defense did a press release after the storm that said the Navy would come in and evacuate 10,000 Keys residents because there was no water for them,” he said. “I spoke to the Key West city manager and I kept saying, ‘where is this coming from?’ We found out subsequently that it was too late and the information was broadcast.”

Newman added: “Then, the [Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)] administrator was quoted as saying 90 percent of residences in the Florida Keys were damaged or uninhabitable when actually the amount is around 25 percent.”

Parts of the Keys will undoubtedly still be in repair mode for its high season, which starts in December, but it will still have perfect vacation opportunities, Newman contended. “Most of the time with a storm we’re in the cone and then the storm misses us and then the media takes off and we’re stuck with this perception,” he said.

“Another challenge for us was the BP oil spill in 2010,” said Newman. “We never got one single drop of BP oil but the media was saying that the oil would reach the Keys and that made many travelers worry.”

The destination is leveraging all of its online platforms to show the Keys in real-time and convey accurate information about which parts are fine to visit. It’s has enlisted the support of Gloria Estefan, a South Florida native, to use her song “Coming Out of the Dark” in a marketing video highlighting recovery in the Keys and also showing how some areas were untouched.

Miami Is Bouncing Back

Nearby Miami, which fared much better than it was initially projected to during Irma, also isn’t a stranger to dealing with weather-related misperceptions.

The lead up to Hurricane Irma was prolonged, said Rolando Aedo, chief marketing officer of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Technology was the bane and beauty of all this,” he said. “As good as we’ve become with technology and predictions, hurricane tracks still change.”

Beyond the human tragedy, Aedo said hurricanes and extreme weather take a financial and psychological toll on the travel industry. “We had 10 of the prior 13 weeks before Irma with positive revenue per available room growth,” he said. “We were building momentum from Hurricane Matthew and Zika.”

But the area’s tourism industry is mostly back on track. “Our hotels did take a hit but meeting planners are a unique track,” said Aedo. “Outright cancellations for meetings hasn’t happened and this is where we’ve really pulled up our sleeves.”

Places like Miami want to keep building momentum. The Greater Miami CVB launched its Miami Now campaign on September 18 after Irma clipped the area.

The convention bureau normally spreads its deals and promotions over the course of a year, but consolidated many of its annual promotions post-Irma to assuage wary travelers. “We’re communicating that we’re open for business but perhaps doing that in an elegant and nuanced way,” said Aedo. “Being such an international destination, we have a global network of 52 agencies around the globe and having them amplify our message is a tremendous tool that we didn’t have during the last active season 10 years ago.”

Cayman Islands Was Unscathed but has work to do

The Cayman Islands took a beating from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 that caused major setbacks and it took years for its tourism industry to recover, said Rosa Harris, director of tourism for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism.

This British Overseas Territory has so far escaped the wrath of this hurricane season, which officially ends on November 30, but it’s still trying to market how it’s different from competing islands.

The destination just launched its first romance campaign, which wasn’t connected to recent hurricanes, said Harris.

The campaign features Cayman Islands native and actress Grace Byers and her husband Trai Byers, who both star in the TV series “Empire.”

“We wanted to refresh and make the Cayman Islands a little sexier,” said Harris. “In recent years we’ve played it really safe.”

Harris said the Cayman Islands has long been known as a destination-wedding location and its tourism board has been marketing weddings for years. But the romance and couples aspect was still somehow missing.

The average party size of travelers to the destination is 2.3 people, said Harris. “Our demographics shifted in terms of our target markets,” she said. “We’re still protecting our family market but growing couples became a priority.”

Learning From History

New Orleans has also been taking a second look at how it markets itself, something it’s done periodically but particularly since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Mark Romig, president and CEO of New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., said the smartest thing the city did after Katrina was speaking with one voice and bringing sports teams, hotels, restaurants and the convention and visitors bureau together to the same table.

New Orleans’ first post-storm ad campaign started in spring 2006. “A couple of months after Katrina we started telling travelers to come back and we had volunteers here,” he said. “We hosted Mardi Gras that February.”

After Katrina, the convention bureau created a hospitality master plan through 2018 and worked with Boston Consulting Group on a 12-point study to find ways to reduce crime, improve taxi service and revitalize popular tourists areas like the city’s French Quarter, for example.

Romig said the city’s tourism industry is about where he thought it would be in 2018 when it created its master plan nearly 12 years ago. “There are still many things we haven’t been able to do yet,” he said. “Soon after our study was adopted we had the BP oil spill. People weren’t coming to New Orleans because they thought there was oil on Bourbon Street.”

The New Orleans tourism body also thought it would have a $45 million marketing budget by this point but is only about two-thirds of the way there, said Romig.

The city also didn’t reach its 13.7 million visitors by 2018 goal – it got 10.5 million last year and isn’t projected to make the goal this year. But the city did get $7.5 billion in annual visitor spend.

Remnants of Katrina still linger but New Orleans, for the most part, is looking forward. It recently launched its “One Time, In New Orleans” campaign to help celebrate the city’s 300th birthday in 2018. The campaign includes an ad that’s airing during Monday night football in the U.S. that encourages travelers to connect historical New Orleans stories with experiences they engage in during the coming year.

“We’re appealing to everyone’s nature to share a story either before, during or after a trip,” said Romig.

In Houston, where many locals are still recovering from Hurricane Harvey, the city’s tourism board has taken cues from New Orleans.

“We learned from Katrina to have a crisis communication plan,” said Jorge Franz, vice president of tourism for Visit Houston. “Every bit of planning that we could have done that we learned from went into play.”

Houston also welcomed many Katrina evacuees and has experience with the humanitarian aspect of natural disasters. Franz said the tourism board was involved in opening the city’s convention center to Harvey evacuees.

“New Orleans reached out personally to us and it’s very real stuff,” said Franz. “To try to put a pretty face on it is not what we want to do, we want to be honest. We’re an open and diverse city and that’s what the whole country saw. We’re not deterred by this event.”

Franz said the city has once again laid out the welcome mat for travelers. “We’re going to be thanking consumers who have helped us,” he said. “We haven’t lost any significant pieces of our business. Business travel is so essential to Houston and as soon as the airport reopened business travel started to come back. Hotels are also running with high occupancy.”

Moving Forward

While some destinations impacted by the storms are returning to a semblance of normalcy, others such as Dominica, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, St. Maarten and Puerto Rico face a long road to recovery. In Puerto Rico, for example, 80 percent of residents remain without power.

Some Caribbean islands are still hoping to pool together funding and resources to launch a regional marketing campaign in time for high season, but those prospects don’t look promising.

Destinations like the Florida Keys are welcoming back cruise ships and – slowly – other overnight visitors. But from a destination marketing standpoint, some plans have been put on hold.

Newman said the Keys has changed a lot of its public relations plans for the fiscal year that began October 1. “We were going to hire a Chinese PR agency and do other things in Europe,” he said. “But we decided to pull that back and focus on our domestic and traditional UK and European markets. The bottom line is that we need to be able to fish where the fish are.”

The Turks & Caicos received some hurricane damage this season, albeit mild compared to some of its neighbors. The destination decided that even with many travelers perceiving the Caribbean as an unfavorable place to visit because of widespread misperceptions, it won’t offer any discounts on hotel room rates because of the storms, said Ramon Andrews, director of the Turks & Caicos Tourism Board.

“Our product hasn’t changed and we are delivering the same level of service and luxury refinement that was had prior to the hurricanes,” said Andrews. “The experience isn’t less, so the rates aren’t either. There is no lasting damage that will impact a visitor’s trip. The beaches aren’t any less pristine. The hotels aren’t offering a reduced level of service.”

“Visitors who come to Turks & Caicos now will not feel a difference in the experience compared to those who came prior to the hurricanes, and offering a discounted rate can imply otherwise,” said Andrews.

Andrews said maintaining rate integrity is also being done with hospitality workers in mind. “The importance of rate integrity is not something to take lightly; with a hotel background myself, I know that firsthand,” he said. “It’s also worth noting that maintaining rates guarantees staff salaries and that subsequently their needs and costs of living are met, which was also a very important point for us in supporting our people.”

There’s little doubt that the region is dealing with challenges – and more intensely unfavorable weather – that wasn’t as acute during past hurricane seasons.

The Caribbean is still in its shoulder season. Tourism boards are waiting to see if their post-storm marketing efforts will pay off in a few months.

[damajority]

DaMajority Fresh Article http://www.damajority.com/oecs-observes-international-day-disaster-reduction-2017/

OECS Observes International Day for Disaster Reduction 2017

OECS Observes International Day for Disaster Reduction 2017

OECS Media Release

Friday, October 13, 2017 — The OECS Commission joins the global community in observance of International Day for Disaster Reduction today, October 13, under the theme “Reducing the Number of Affected People.”

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season has so far been characterised by numerous named storms, many exhibiting a ferocity unseen over the last several decades. In a 2-week period, the Caribbean basin saw the passage of three Category 4 and 5 hurricanes, possibly a record.

Mention of the names Harvey, Irma and Maria in the same conversation will long stoke bitter and painful memories of death, destruction loss and despair, especially in the countries that were directly affected. Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin/Saint Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands were the Caribbean territories that bore the brunt of these hurricanes. Harvey deposited record precipitation in parts of Texas while Maria impacted Florida. It is worth noting that these two continental regions are collectively home to a sizeable segment of the Caribbean diaspora.

According to climate projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other sources, more intense storms and other weather events such as droughts are likely to occur in coming decades. Therefore, if this will be the “new normal”, we will have to expect such events in the future as a result of climate change. Climate-change-related hazards, including hurricanes, rising temperatures, changes in precipitation, sea level rise, flooding and elevated storm surges hold the potential to cause ever-greater harm.

Each year, on 13th October, the global community observes the International Day for Disaster Reduction(IDDR). Observance of this day started in 1989, following a call by the United Nations General Assembly for a day to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. IDDR is therefore intended to take account of the ways in which people and communities around the world endeavour to reduce their exposure to disasters and raise awareness about the importance of managing the related risks that confront them.

This year, 2017, the designated IDDR theme is “Reducing the number of affected people.” This theme is an abbreviation of the second global target of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which is to “Substantially reduce the number of affected people globally by 2030, aiming to lower the average global figure per 100,000 in the decade 2020–2030 compared to the period 2005–2015.”

In light of the 2017 IDDR theme and of the recent disasters that have affected the Caribbean, we need to take urgent action to reduce the number of people in the region who stand to be affected by hurricanes or any other disaster. This will prove challenging when existing and new or emerging hazards are juxtaposed against growing regional populations and increasing population density, especially in coastal areas. However, there is much that can be done:

Using weather-related events as an example, one of the key strategies that can be employed is to keep track of the latest scientific findings on climate science and to use this as the empirical basis for making decisions on reducing climate risk and building resilience in natural and human systems. This must of course be supported by ongoing research and systematic observation, as well as short-term forecasting, which predicts and tracks actual weather-related events.

Effective spatial planning can also make a significant contribution to reducing overall exposure and, ultimately, the number of people affected. Possible measures include limiting construction in flood- and landslide-prone areas; and enforcing coastal setbacks to reduce the impact of storm surge.  However, good spatial planning, although essential, is insufficient, in and of itself and must be accompanied by proper building practices, such as the use of hurricane straps to better secure roofs. Similarly, critical infrastructure must be designed and constructed to meet standards that will allow them to withstand the weather extremes that we are expected to face in the future.

Managing natural systems will be essential to reducing the impact of climate change on Caribbean populations. Protecting forested areas, for example, will reduce the occurrence of landslides, while helping to ensure the availability of water in the aftermath of a hurricane. Similarly, sustainably managing coral reefs and mangals will help to protect vulnerable coastlines from storm surge and erosion.

At the heart of reducing the number of persons affected will be educating our people and keeping them informed. Education is critical to shaping or re-shaping behaviours while the ongoing sharing of information is needed to ensure, among others, that people are aware of the latest knowledge and that they can be prepared for impending events. In particular, it is incumbent on government, civil society and other actors to focus on improving communications on disaster risk reduction to enable the most at-risk communities to anticipate, withstand, adapt to, and recover quickly from, disasters.

The lessons taught by the recent hurricanes are still fresh and the road to recovery will be long and painful. However, wherever the opportunity presents itself, we should seek to “build back better” and to take all measures possible to increase our resilience at the local, national and regional levels.

[unpopularopinionsinfandoms]

Trump to Puerto Rico: your hurricane isn’t a “real catastrophe” like Katrina

Not a “Real catastrophe”??

Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 hurricane, with sustained winds of 175mph, ranking #10 on the list of most intense Atlantic hurricanes in history, is not a real catastrophe????

Let’s talk a little meteorology for a second. According to the article, Trump compares Katrina to Maria, ranking Katrina as a “real catastrophe” because of the death count. While it is true that Katrina resulted in more confirmed fatalities, Katrina made more landfall as a major hurricane than Maria, therefore resulting in more fatalities. 

Because Trump makes his judgement only on confirmed fatalities and nothing else, there is no other reason to continue giving evidence as to why Maria is a “real catastrophe”, even compared to Katrina. However, I’ll keep going anyways.

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest Atlantic hurricane on record, costing $108 billion in USD. The damage cost for Maria is still undecided, but could be anywhere from $45 to $95 billion USD.  Both Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Maria had 175mph sustained winds, putting them both on the list of most intense North Atlantic Hurricanes on record.  Hurricane Katrina had slightly lower pressure than Maria did (902mbar vs 908mbar) and, as mentioned before, was one of the five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history. Maria, however, was the worst natural disaster in Dominica in its recorded history, and the strongest to make landfall in Puerto Rico since 1928. 

If Trump only makes his judgements on how many Americans are dead, not only is that disgusting, but ignorant, because he seems to be forgetting that Puerto Rico is an American territory, therefore making Puerto Rican citizens Americans. Trump has no right to compare the death tolls of hurricanes when he is doing nothing to help Puerto Rico while playing golf on his private course, while the entire island’s power grid is destroyed and 55% of Puerto Rico’s citizens are without clean water.  What he said about Maria not being a “real catastrophe” wasn’t even the worst of it-- he also said that Puerto Rico “should be thankful” that their death toll isn’t as high as Katrina’s-- AS IF THAT WILL FUCKING FIX THINGS! 

If Trump truly cares about American citizens, he should realize that Puerto Ricans are Americans too, and act like it. 

- Mod A

[newstfionline]

The scariest thing about 2017’s hurricanes: They got really bad, really fast.

By Chris Mooney, Washington Post, September 19, 2017

“Maria is developing the dreaded pinhole eye,” wrote National Hurricane Center forecaster Jack Beven Monday evening, as the storm reached Category 4 intensity.

That inward contraction of a hurricane’s eye can be one telltale indicator of what hurricane gurus technically call “rapid intensification,” although a more evocative word might simply be “explosion.” Whatever you call it, it’s something we keep seeing this year. Harvey, Irma, Jose, and now Maria have all rapidly strengthened--and all too often, have done it just before striking land.

It’s a dangerous and scary phenomenon that scientists and forecasters are still trying to understand.

“It’s not a common event. Typically that occurs in maybe 5 percent of our forecasts,” said Mark DeMaria, acting deputy director of the National Hurricane Center.

But DeMaria said that this season is seeing more rapid intensification events than usual and that Maria, in particular, appears to have set a key record for hurricane rapid intensification in the Atlantic.

“Looking back through the records, Maria went from a tropical depression to a Category 5 hurricane in just 2 and a half days,” he said. “I couldn’t find any other tropical cyclones in our historical record that went that quickly from a depression to a Category 5 hurricane.”

That’s a big problem, because rapid intensification sets the stage for worst case scenarios. Sadly, that’s what happened to the Caribbean island of Dominica Monday night, hit by Maria at full Category 5 strength.

There’s little chance to warn people or for them to prepare if rapid intensification occurs, so forecasters naturally want to be able to have a handle on it--but it’s a struggle.

“One of the key issues is that it remains quite difficult to predict on a day-to-day basis. And of course, it’s something we would very much like to be able to predict, especially when an intensifying storm is near land,” said Gabriel Vecchi, a hurricane expert at Princeton and NOAA.

The National Hurricane Center technically defines rapid intensification as a wind speed increase of at least 35 miles per hour in 24 hours. All four of the most intense Atlantic storms seen in 2017 beat that easily:

On the evening of Aug. 24, a day before landfall, Harvey was a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mile per hour winds. 24 hours later, at landfall in Texas, the storm was a Category 4 with 130 mile per hour winds.

At 11 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 4, Hurricane Irma was already a strong Category 3 storm with 120 mile per hour winds. But Irma then radically strengthened further, becoming a superpowered upper end Category 5 storm with 180 mile per hour winds in just 24 hours.

Following behind Irma in the middle of the day on Sept. 7, Hurricane Jose was a Category 1 storm with 90 mile per hour winds. 24 hours later, it was rated a high end Category 4 with 150 mile per hour winds.

Beven’s “pinhole eye” language came as Hurricane Maria reached Category 4 intensity, despite having been a Category 1 just 12 hours earlier. But Maria wasn’t done. The storm would leap further to Category 5 strength, ultimately increasing in intensity by 65 miles per hour in 24 hours.

Rapid strengthening tends to happen when waters are warm, when that warm water is deep, when the atmosphere is moist and when there’s little adverse wind flow that could disrupt the storm, according to research papers on the topic and interviews with experts.

And broadly speaking, what we appear to be seeing this year--similar to the catastrophic Atlantic hurricane season of 2005--is that the environment is extremely hurricane friendly. Storms simply rev their engines, and find that the fuel is of the highest grade, and there’s a deep well of it. Then they take off, and there’s nothing to disrupt them.

“You know, not that long ago, rapid intensification was sort of an esoteric term that only really in the field did people talk about it,” said Vecchi. “And now, it’s there. It’s part of the parlance. It’s part of everybody’s lingo.”

[jdotavenue-blog-blog]

This spring proved to be one of exploration as I jetted across the waters to the beautiful island of St. Maarten/Sint Martin. I have even included a video of my trip at the very end of this blog.

St. Maarten is one of the islands that fall under the Netherland Antilles bracket. The island is situated in between St. Eustatius and St. Barths.

My purpose of the trip was to experience the wonderful annual carnival festivities. St. Maarten carnival reigns as one of the longest drawn out carnival weeks ever…emphasis on weeks! It starts in the beginning of April with pageants and parties and then ends on the heels of May with nightly soirees in the Carnival Village.

I got there just in time to visit my family, eat delicious island delicacies, and do a little sight-seeing first.

Maho Beach

As soon as we touched down, we headed straight for Maho Beach and ate food while listening to a local DJ scratch records. The best part of it all was watching tourists linger on the beach while planes landed. I am sure you have seen the videos on YouTube. There are signs posted all over “CAUTION! Do not stand here” telling people not to stand by the gate. Of course, people do not heed the warning and they find themselves being thrown by the gust of wind from the landing planes. And I find myself taking videos and pictures of these crazy adrenaline-filled stubborn people.

It was a nice view watching eat plane land and I was even more surprised that happy hour consisted of two mixed drinks for only $5. In Miami, you’d be lucky if one mixed drink during happy hour cost only $5…I got to enjoy TWO for that price. It’s too bad everyone was ready to leave so I didn’t even get to get myself tipsy.

Walter Plant – Boardwalk

This journey was by mistake. We actually had a sleu of radio interviews that were scheduled all over the island. One of the radio interviews wasn’t too far from the boardwalk (driving wise), however, we ended up wandering while looking for a family friend’s establishment and was tricked into walking what was to be a short distance…3 blocks later we realized that we actually had a long way to go. It was bad enough my feet were already swollen. However, when in Rome…

We finally reach the establishment and ran into some friends and decided we might as well keep trekking towards the boardwalk. It was a lovely view, but one that would have been lovelier from the inside of a car.

The funniest part is that we continued walking all the way to the courthouse and eventually ended up at the KFC. While others ate, my primary concern was finding A/C and a chair. I think somewhere amid all of the walking we forgot that we had parked the car all the way back by the radio station.

Orient Bay We finally got a day to unwind and recharge for the busy end of the week ahead of us. A team of us gathered at Orient Bay to enjoy watching tourists parasailing and we got to enjoy the beautiful island waters. Not to mention, we were right on the same sands as the infamous nude beach and yes topless women did confidently stroll over to the other side. It’s a good thing my son isn’t gullible and knows a lot for his age.

We visited the site near Orient Bay that is known for welk-catching. Unfortunately, you can only catch welks during a certain season but the view was beautiful from afar. I say “afar” because I am far from Indiana Jones and sharp slippery rocks are not something I look forward to walk on. I am an island girl but I am also a little bit clumsy. Nor am I a skinny Minnie…and I like life so far so “ISSA NO!”

Westin Resort & St Barths Vantage Point

The best part of the trip for me was hanging out with close friends and family amongst bottles of Hennessey, great island music, food, and hilarious stories and conversations. We made sure to do that numerous times throughout the week. We partied right outside of the Westin Resort and got to get a nice distant view of the neighboring island of St. Barths (yes, the island known for celebrity visits).

French Quarter & Anguilla Vantage Point

In St. Maarten the island is split into two different sides that represent and are governed by two different countries. There’s St. Maarten (the dutch side) and Sint Martin (the french side). If you happen to take a cruise to St. Maarten you will dock on the Dutch side. The French side is where you’ll find the luxurious hotels and resorts. You will notice the difference being that the French side has all the 5-star dinning options and it is reminiscent of downtown New Orleans. You’ll also notice the difference because the French side is riddled with police presence (which they refer to as the “Jean Damme” (yes, think Jean Claude Van Damme the actor and martial artist). I’m guessing it means Justice Department (goes to Google to fact check).

I also got to see the infamous filming location for Speed 2 which I found out was built only for the movie and the island decided to keep it as a landmark. From this side of the island you can also spot the neighboring island of Anguilla. It’s too bad we didn’t get to go to Anguilla as planned due to last minute changes. I had my outfit ready and all.

Jouvert

I got 3 hours of sleep before being woken up at 3am in the morning to get dressed for Jouvert. Yes, it started at 4am and we had to be on the truck. Jouvert is a celebration that happens before the main event of Carnival (parade day). It usually consists of everyone swarming the streets to dance behind trucks that are made of speakers and you dance behind the loud truck for miles until the end. Keep in mind, there are 19+ trucks and they are all going at a speed of less than 1 mile per hour. So yes, jouvert was over 6 hours long. The dress code is extremely casual and it is preferred that you wear something that can be disposed of right after being that paint, oil, water, powder are all on the agenda to be thrown around without notice and land on your clothes.

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I even borrowed sneakers because all my shoes were too nice to get dirty. I had on a head tie although I had originally planned to wear a shower cap as I did at Sunday’s wet fete. It was a great thing that we were on the truck since my husband was set to DJ. My feet were nearly damaged from all of the walking and strain that looking back, I wouldn’t have been able to walk for 6 hours dancing straight in the blazing hot sun. I can only imagine the thousands of people who did just that.

Rum & Peas Caribbean Restaurant

We had our second event at Rum & Peas restaurant in Simpson Bay and it was a brunch filled with soca music and a great menu. We even had some surprise live performances from local artists. I got to enjoy the chicken wings (flyers), oxtail spring rolls with a curry mustard dipping sauce, and curried stewed chicken accompanied with coconut rice (it was served inside of a coconut shell). With admission, we all got a complimentary cocktail which was a Bellatini a smooth wine cocktail. Of course, I ordered a mixed drink being that all mixed drinks were made with fresh ingredients. My drink of choice was the signature Rum & Peas punch which consisted of three different liquors and fresh ingredients and topped with red peas (that were soaked in rum for a period of time).

I felt nice and tipsy and enjoyed myself. I went straight to sleep as soon as I got in the car. And continued to sleep when I got home. I missed the beginning of the Friday night extravaganza but it was worth it. The price of getting lit just to be an overly supportive wife and get the party started right.

Carnival Village Nightly I got to sample tasty ribs, chicken saté (with and without peanut sauce), johnny cakes, oyster soup, and strong mixed drinks that were budget friendly. In one week, I got to enjoy the sounds of the Grandmasters & Small Axe bands out of St. Kitts; Dominica’s own Asa banton; Zouk sensation Carimi, Oreo; Trinidadians Farmer Nappy, Patrice Roberts, and Destra; Antigua’s own Ricardo Drue; local talents like Kenyo, King Vers, King James, Mighty Dow, Singing Olivia, Shadz, Niqo, and Rumer threw down on Tuesday night at Soca Rumble.

Soca Rumble was the main night being that two artists would be crowned as the Groovy and Power Monarchs to represent the island in two different competitions. The Groovy Monarch was Kenyo who performed one of the biggest songs on the island, “Who Yuh Fuh” and King Vers winning the Power Monarch for his hit “Everything (Yap Yap)”.

Souvenirs & Travel Tips

Honestly, when I travel to the islands my souvenir list is the same: liquor, perfume, jewelry, ingredients to make a damn good tea, and a tan of course. This time, I brought back some nice herbs for tea making. I am a tea fanatic and being that I don’t have a garden, if I need moringa tea, green tea, or chai tea, it was heavenly to see the bush right in front of me. And now my mornings are amazing. And yes, as always, I got a major tan. The woes of having to wear makeup nowadays (but that’s a whole other blog post).

I did manage to bring back a bottle of Guavaberry which FYI, is better to get in the airport because you can just carry it on the plane without going through the hassle of checking it in. You can also purchase gouda cheese in the airport without the checking hassle. You just have to give them your flight number. Another FYI, when traveling try to carry a child. I say this because my son was treated like VIP and I got to skip the long TSA lines because I was the mom of the child….children had their own line which of course was empty. Not to mention, coming in to the island, I got to beat the horrific line for international travelers since my husband is from there. All hassle-free.

I took the usual Saturday to Saturday flight courtesy of Spirit Airlines. It was the most cost effective option and I have become a pro at the numerous restrictions this airline offers: the miniature-sized personal carry on to avoid outrageous fees at the check-in desk, the cutbacks on seating space while on the aircraft, the lack of complimentary snacks, the last row of seats that fall right by the back engine where you feel all turbulence 10x over. I must say that the 5,000 free miles is a nice idea and could be one of the few things that salvage the Spirit experience.

  St. Maarten Carnival 2017 This spring proved to be one of exploration as I jetted across the waters to the beautiful island of St.

[tech-tonics]

Calling and texting scams

Reprinted from INC.

By Joseph Steinberg CEO, SecureMySocial

A scam that seems to reappear periodically is back and helping criminals steal people's money. Protecting yourself is simple--if you know how the scam works.

So, here is what you need to know to protect yourself from the three variants of the scam:

What is the scam?

1. In the first version of the scam, criminals target their victims simply by calling them (usually from a robocall autodialer which supplies caller ID information that the victim will not recognize)--and hanging up before anyone answers, thereby arousing the call recipient's natural curiosity. Criminals sometimes do this several times in succession--so victims see a call coming in repetitively from some number they don't recognize, further increasing the chances that their curiosity will cause them to call back.

2. In another variant of the scam, the criminals don't hang up quickly, but rather wait for the intended victim to answer the call, at which point the robocaller plays a recording of someone crying for help or the sounds of someone in need of medical attention or under attack--and then hangs up. Obviously, many good-hearted people are likely to call back in such a situation. Some criminals may do the same, pretending to be a collection agency, a law enforcement official, or a doctor treating a close relative.

3. In the third version of the scam, a criminal sends a text message similar to the voice recording in variant 2--explaining that he or she is in danger and needs help--often making it appear as if the message was sent by accident to the wrong recipient. The criminal may ask for you to call or to text back.

In all of these cases, the criminal wants you to call or text back.

These calls are likely part of what is commonly known as the "473 Scam," "Ring and Run Scam," or "One Ring Scam," and the numbers displayed on your caller ID or sent in a text message are likely premium numbers. You will be charged--sometimes quite a bundle--for any calls that you make, or text messages that you send, to them.

What should you do?

It's quite simple to protect yourself: Do not call or text back.

How do I know if it is a scam call or text?

The name "473 scam" comes from the fact that criminals have been known to use caller IDs with the area code 473--which appears to be domestic, but is actually the area code for the island of Grenada and several other islands outside the United States that, like the U.S., use country code +1. Calls placed to 473 numbers are international calls, not typically included in calling plans, and can run up quite a bill. Also, the criminals perpetrating 473 scams often establish premium numbers--the equivalent of the 900 numbers that were popular in the United States in the pre-internet era. Calls to such numbers can sometimes cost more than $20 for the first minute! (In fact, a couple decades ago, similar scams used to be run from within the United States--criminals would send messages to people's pagers (remember those?) paging them from premium numbers with the hope that the recipients would call back and be charged for the calls.)

Of course, the 473 scam is run from area codes other than 473--at the bottom of this story is a list of area codes that appear domestic (because they use country code +1), but are, in fact, international.

Are there other numbers I need to worry about?

In addition to the list of international numbers that "look American," keep in mind that Canada and various U.S. territories are also part of country code +1--and while scammers do not typically run 473 scams from Canada or U.S. territories, some domestic telephone plans do not consider calls to these areas to be a domestic or free calls. For that reason, I have included lists of U.S. territory and Canadian area codes below as well.

Are there lessons to learn from this scam?

The history of the 473 scam reveals an important point you need to know in order to stay safe.

After most Americans became aware that 900 numbers were premium numbers, criminals started to use other areas codes--often 809 (the Caribbean islands)--which led to this scam even being known as an 809 scam. After sufficient media coverage educated enough folks not to return calls to area code 809, criminals shifted to other areas codes--assisted by the implementation of many new area codes over the last two decades--making it far more difficult for people to recognize which numbers are domestic and which are not. Of course, the fact that today's phones allow people to respond quickly to text messages and missed calls means that people are less likely than during the era of pagers to reconsider whether it's a good idea to respond before they call or text back. Also, psychologically speaking, humans are more likely to become alarmed when hearing the voice of another human crying for help than when seeing a text message--giving today's scammers another edge up over their counterparts two decades ago. Scammers adapt their techniques as technologies and awareness levels change.

As far as lessons, here is the bottom line:

If you miss a call, whomever called can send you a text message (or leave a voicemail). If they did neither, and you don't know who called, don't worry about it. Also, remember that it's unlikely that someone you do not know who is in distress at a location with which you are not familiar would dial a random number in another country and ask you to help them--they would call the police.

Here are the current international area codes within the +1 country code:

242 -- Bahamas

441 -- Bermuda

784 -- St. Vincent and Grenadines

246 -- Barbados

473 -- Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique

809, 829, and 849 -- Dominican Republic

264 -- Anguilla

649 -- Turks and Caicos

868 -- Trinidad and Tobago

268 -- Antigua

664 -- Montserrat

876 -- Jamaica

284 -- British Virgin Islands

721 -- Sint Maarten

758 -- St. Lucia

869 -- St. Kitts and Nevis

345 -- Cayman Islands

767 -- Dominica

Here are the U.S. Territories' area codes (listed by territory):

American Samoa -- 684

Guam -- 671

Northern Mariana Islands -- 670

Puerto Rico -- 787 and 939

U.S. Virgin Islands -- 340

Here are the Canadian area codes (listed by province):

Alberta -- 403, 587, and 780

British Columbia -- 236, 250, 604, and 778

Manitoba -- 204 and 431

New Brunswick -- 506

Newfoundland -- 709 (879 is being added in 2018)

Northwest Territories -- 867

Nova Scotia -- 902

Nunavut -- 867

Ontario -- 226, 249, 289, 343, 365, 416, 437, 519, 613, 647, 705, 807, and 905

Quebec -- 418, 438, 450, 514, 579, 581, 819, and 873

Saskatchewan -- 306 and 639

Yukon -- 867

Nationwide -- 600 (and possibly 622, 633, 644, 655, 677, and 688)

U.S.-Canada Numbers to Beware:

Area code -- 900

Also -- Canadian numbers that begin 976 after the area code (These can be like 900 numbers. The U.S. used to have such numbers as well. Numbers beginning 540 in New York used to also be premium numbers, but these should no longer be in service.)