SUBJECT: A VIEW FROM THE TRENCHES: THE TRINIDAD ECONOMY AS REFLECTED IN VISA APPLICANTS REF: PORT OF SPAIN 195 PORT OF SP 00000546 001.2 OF 002 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY ¶1.

(SBU) SUMMARY:

While not completely scientific, information provided in visa interviews opens a window on the local economy. Recognizing the limitations of such information, but also its worth, the Embassy conducted a study involving 218 randomly chosen visa applicants. The data revealed income disparities and large informal and state economic sectors.

END SUMMARY

INCOME, INEQUALITY, BENEFITS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

———————————————

¶2. (SBU) Survey data was derived from 218 randomly chosen visa applicants. Data collected included gender, monthly income, household income, savings, employer, position, sector, housing status, and education level. The labor sector breakdown of those in the survey (which perhaps not coincidently largely mirrors GOTT Central Statistical Office estimates) was: -Clerical: 11% -Services: 9% -Security: 7% -Financial: 7% -Education: 6% -Energy: 5% -Transport: 5% -Health: 4% -Construction: 4% -Real Estate: 3% -Engineering: 3% -Utilities: 2% -Law: 2% -Self Employed: 14% -Retired: 18% Including companies in which the government invests and controls, either directly or indirectly, 47% of those sampled can be considered to work for the GOTT.

¶3. (U) Median annual income across the sample was $17,988 (all figures in this cable are in USD), broadly consistent with published reports of T&T per capita GDP of around $16,000. Men (43% of survey) earned an average of $23,412, while women (57% of survey) earned only $13,398. Those with a bachelor’s degree or higher comprised 21% of applicants and earned a median wage of $28,850. Seventy-two percent of applicants owned their own home, either via a conventional mortgage or through inheritance. It is worth mentioning that 28% of the sample was denied visas; their median wage was $10,125.

ENERGY SECTOR APPLICANTS GENERALLY WELL OFF

——————————————-

¶4. (U) Not surprisingly, those in the energy sector enjoyed the highest median salaries. Although only 5% of the population is directly employed in energy, the median income for that group of survey applicants was $25,935, over $8,000 more than the overall sample median. Comments from persons in that sector, though, suggest a looming slowdown that may impact on future salary stability or growth.

EDUCATION; DECLINING US STUDENT VISA NUMBERS

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¶5. (U) The median wage for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher in our study is over $10,000 more than the overall median wage of $17,988. This makes manifest the value of higher education, a point apparently not lost on the GOTT. One recent GOTT effort that is making a quantifiable impact on the society as a whole is the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) program. Designed to provide an outlet to slow intellectual brain drain, GATE provides free tuition to qualified students at a variety of T&T based universities and training centers in exchange for a three year commitment from beneficiaries to work in the country after graduation rather than depart for opportunities abroad.

¶6. (SBU) Though other factors may be involved, including concern over visa rejections, the impact of the program seems to have been immediate — student visa numbers for U.S. study have declined between 5-10% a year over the past 3 years as more and more T&T students and parents choose the substantial financial benefits of free tuition. In addition, as a result of GATE, higher education is now available to lower income families. It should be noted, though, that some GOTT programs do exist to provide funding for education abroad (e.g., 170 students are in the U.S., and 95 in Canada, on government scholarships).

PORT OF SP 00000546 002 OF 002

SELF-MPLOYMENT, THE INFORMAL ECONOMY, TAX COMPLIANCE

——————————————— ——

¶7. (SBU) At 14%, the self-employed comprise the largest single segment of our study, with a median wage of $16,661, slightly less than the overall median. The self-employed work in a variety of areas, but the sector is dominated by building contractors, food service vendors/caterers, small shop or market owners and clothing resellers. (NOTE: Self-employed accountants, architects, engineers and doctors, for the purposes of this study, were accounted for in their respective fields of expertise.) While some register their businesses with the GOTT, many seem to not report income accurately. Those whose businesses are not registered or who do not pay taxes are included, by definition, in the informal economy.

¶8. (SBU) In a conversation with an official from the GOTT Board of Inland Revenue (BIR), CONOFF inquired about tax compliance rates for small businesses. The official indicated that tax compliance and accurate income reporting for the self-employed was largely non-existent and unenforceable from a resource perspective, mentioning that the BIR focused on large firms, multi-nationals, and larger family-owned concerns for revenue collection.

Baby Doc Duvalier’s return evokes Haiti’s dark past – BBC (Jan 19 2011)

Papa Doc first came to power in 1957, when he is said to have won free and fair elections.

A popular figure at first, he became increasingly authoritarian and eccentric, keeping control of the country thanks to the sinister Tontons Macoutes who acted with impunity to silence any opposition.

In 1964 Papa Doc had himself declared president for life.

Baby Doc Returns  - TT Guardian/Kevan Gibbs (Jan 23 2011)

Papa Doc first came to power in 1957, when he is said to have won elections.

A popular figure at first, he became increasingly authoritarian, keeping control of the country thanks to the Tontons Macoutes who acted with impunity to silence any opposition. In 1964 Papa Doc had himself declared president for life.

Plaigirism is not journalism. Nor is it new to the T&T media, whose editors, as usual, appear to be asleep.

November 4 2007 / Trinidad Guardian

I look on in silence as a rising tide of ignorance threatens to engulf the island people. The promise and potential of an Athens of the New World is being blindly devoured by petty tribal rivalries and insecurities of skin and hair, ancestry and religion.

That bright illuminating spark of true Caribbean culture, its hybrid brilliance aglow before Independence, is put out, sold out to a cult of greed and power at any cost.

A cancer of corruption corrodes the body politic, a corruption of spirit, a primitive, barbaric immorality of soul. The beautiful island TAPESTRY is being torn to shreds. A monument to enormous gaudy crassness replaces it, casting a dark, dangerous and murderous shadow.

I look aside in shame. I feed the birds. I water the plants. I engage the company of the dogs and the cat with love, respect and wonderment.

Minshall

via e-mail

Trinidad and Tobago: Challenges Ahead

The government has announced an external bond issuance for Q1 2011. We think it’s an appropriate time to review the main credit issues in Trinidad & Tobago; its creditworthiness is closely linked, in the medium term, to the fortunes of its oil and gas sector.

Politics: Growing Pains

After a sweeping victory last May, the People’s Partnership (PP), a coalition government made up of three parties (UNC, COP and TOP) succeeded the PNM in office. The PP government has a comfortable position in parliament, holding 30 out of the 42 seats (Figure 1). As such, it can easily approve bills submitted to parliament. However, as a coalition government, most initiatives have to go through internal discussions which somewhat delay policymaking. For example, after six months in office, the appointments of several boards to several statutory authorities and state enterprises, which are in charge of a significant part of the public sector’s capital expenditure, are facing delays.

The PP’s first few months in office have been complicated by several “skeletons in the closet” left by the previous PNM administration. Chief among those are arrears in VAT refunds and to contractors, the “hot potato” of finding a solution to the Clico saga and the need to adjust wages to public sector unions for the previous three years (2008-2010). We will examine these issues in more detail in the fiscal section. Dealing with these “skeletons in the closet” has distracted the incoming administration from taking on more urgent matters. However, we also suspect that the government is slow not only in making decisions, but also in following up after major policy announcements.

T&T: An Oil & Gas Play, After All

The recent performance of oil & gas production has been mixed. Oil production and exports have been falling for four years running (Figure 2), whereas natural gas production has been steadily rising. Coupled with a relative price increase of oil versus gas, this has paradoxically meant that the gas participation in the tax take is diminishing.

Despite representing almost 90% of the energy complex production, gas only provides 60% of the sector’s taxation. This means that the “marginal buck”, in terms of increased taxation, is likely to actually come from increases in oil production.

Authorities understood this logic, and have announced several changes to the fiscal regime for oil & gas. In a nutshell, the tax changes are likely to promote deep water oil exploration. Industry experts expect higher oil production in a two to three year timeframe; this development would be supportive of T&T’s creditworthiness.

However, the market is concerned with T&T’s declining natural gas reserves, particularly given strong production (Figure 3). As 2011 is set to start, the proven reserves-to-production ratio stands at 8 years, down from 19 years in 2004.

According to industry experts, a proven reserves-to-production ratio between 8 and 12 years is healthy, and can be maintained with “exploration and appraisal drilling with resource pull-through generally offsetting production” (Energy Committee, Trinidad & Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce).

We remain bullish on the outlook for the natural gas sector in T&T. While there is oversupply now, the country is a low-cost producer, as infrastructure (pipelines and downstream) is already built and paid for. The regulatory framework is appropriate and the “rules of the game” are respected. We expect industry players to begin replenishing reserves a few years before they need to renew their long-term delivery contracts; the major renewals are due in 2018-19. Starting to replenish reserves now would be uneconomical and actually won’t constitute optimal reserves management.

Despite the recent positive performance of the energy sector, non-oil output remains in the doldrums; it has now contracted for six quarters running (Figure 4). Unemployment remains high, domestic credit is just turning positive (led by strong mortgage lending) and local confidence remains low. As such, we expect GDP growth of 0.6% this year and a further recovery to 2.5% next year; the government expects GDP growth of 2.5% and 2% in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

Fiscal Accounts

Authorities typically build some cushions in the budget at the time of its formulation and are usually achieved by using conservative estimates for oil & gas prices. For example, in the 2009/2010 fiscal year (which ended last September), at the time of the budget exercise a year ago the authorities projected a deficit of 5.4% of GDP. However, as per the most recent projections included in the FY 2011 budget, they revised down last year’s deficit to 3.5% of GDP, as energy-related revenues came in stronger than budgeted. We estimate an even lower deficit of 2% of GDP, as the new authorities reined in fast expenditure by the outgoing administration (Figure 5).

Something similar is likely to happen in the current fiscal year. Not only is the oil price likely to come in higher than budgeted (WTI at $65/barrel), but we also expect authorities to keep primary expenditure under control, running a neutral fiscal stance. Authorities have publicly complained about the previous administration’s lack of fiscal discipline and, as such, are intent on building their own credibility. At the Central Government level, authorities tabled a budget with a 5.5% of GDP deficit. However, we project the shortfall at 1.9% of GDP, led by higher energy revenues and under-execution of public spending. As such, we expect another contribution to the Heritage and Stabilization Fund, which we estimate stands at $3.3 bn (16% of GDP) at the end of 2010.

We expect the Republic to have no problem filling its financing gap for the current fiscal year (Figure 6). The local market is flush with liquidity, as deposit growth stays strong and local credit is just turning the corner. But still the sovereign seems intent on returning to international capital markets, from which it has been absent since 2007, reportedly with USD 500 mn.

After significant deterioration in its debt-to-GDP ratio in 2009-2010, we envision the sovereign returning to more normal debt levels (Figure 7). Authorities are making a major effort to bring under control the capital expenditure by statutory authorities and state enterprises, the main culprits of the fiscal deterioration witnessed since 2009.

Several “skeletons in the closet” inherited from the PNM administration are likely to show up in increased government indebtedness down the road. The settlement of arrears in VAT refunds and to contractors, which amount to 5% of GDP, are likely to put pressure on fiscal accounts in the short term. But the continuing Clico saga is likely to strain accounts further in the medium term: The government is including in the current budget a cash payment of TTD1.5bn, while issuing TTD10.5bn (7.6% of GDP) in zero-interest 20-year bonds as compensation to Clico’s depositors. And the Central Bank had already extended a loan of TTD 5 bn (2.6% of GDP) to Clico when this fiasco came into the open back in January 2009. The Cabinet would send a signal of fiscal rectitude if it can stick to Finance Minister Dookeran’s proposed solution. Another “hot potato” relates to the wage negotiations with public sector unions, relating to the previous three years.

Strategy Implications

T&T is now trading comfortably inside Costar, having traded flat to it only six weeks ago. And it is currently trading just wide to Panama. Despite a higher rating, small issue sizes justify a liquidity discount versus Panama. As such, we view T&T as being fairly priced to slightly cheap.

We are of the view that investors should get involved in the upcoming issuance, particularly if, as expected, authorities launch a benchmark-size transaction and pricing is attractive. T&T is the only commodity play in Central America and the Caribbean, and is an interesting diversification play in a global/EM bond portfolio.

Hi. So I know this is several paragraphs long and you were born into the age of YouTube so you may not get to the end of this. In which case, here’s the summary: it gets better. It’s really bad now, it may even get worse, it will become unbearable, but somehow you’ll bear it anyway. And then it will get better.

When I was fifteen and sixteen, I thought about suicide quite a lot. Not vague unfocused intentions, but specific plans of where, when, how high up I would start and how hard I would hit the ground.

I was going to do it because I had realized I was gay, and I couldn’t face it. My parents were pretty conservative, especially my father, and I lived in Trinidad, a small island in the Caribbean with a whole lot of religions, most of which were pretty clear that being gay was a bad thing.

My school didn’t help. It was an all-male, Catholic school run by priests. It was an all-day machismo competition and intensely homophobic. I was already unpopular for being a geek; I was alreadygetting beat up every day, even before I realized I was gay.

So I couldn’t come out, I was sure of that. I was sure my parents would disown me, my few friends would reject me, my school would expel me. And I couldn’t leave, literally. On an island, there is nowhere to run to.

I already knew that after school I would be leaving the island to go to college. But that was three years away — three years! An unbearably long time to endure the hell of knowing I was a sick pervert, of hearing friends belittle each other constantly for the slightest hint of less-than-total masculinity. Of hating myself for being unable to change myself to be “normal”. I wanted desperately to be just be normal.

Most of all, I wanted to kill myself because I couldn’t see how things would get better. As far as I could see I had fucked up my life. My plan had been: school, college, job, wife, kids, retire. Now that whole plan was derailed. I felt like I had lost everything I was looking forward to. I didn’t know anything about gay people except that a lot of them seemed to get AIDS, and that a lot of people hated them.

And that’s why I’m writing this now. Because I was wrong, totally wrong, about all of that stuff. And because what I really needed then was someone who knows the stuff I know now to turn up and tell me that things would be okay, that it would get better. To tell me it was worth hanging on.

I found those people when I got Internet access, via the Youth Lists. The love and support of my friends on that list saved my life. But lots of gay kids don’t find those people, and they do terrible, drastic things that break my heart every time. So I am adding my voice to the chorus, hoping you can hear me: it gets better. And here’s how.

The first step is to stop judging yourself by what you thought you had. Don’t think about the things that your being gay has denied you, don’t think about what you’ve lost. Think about what you have. Your youth, your health, your mind, your body, your potential. So much potential, to do things that are brave and beautiful and smart and funny.

The reason we older gays get so upset every time one of you guys kills yourselves is because we see ourselves in you. We see the same shitty situation, and we get angry that nothing seems to have changed in those schools that made our lives so terrible. But overwhelming our anger is our grief, because we see what might have been. We cry because of all the things you never got a chance to do just because we didn’t find you in time, we didn’t try hard enough, we didn’t say it loudly enough: it gets better.

The next step is to come out. Even if it’s just to yourself. You don’t have to decide now and lock in your decision forever. You’re allowed to change your mind later. But be honest with yourself, about what it is — who it is — that you want right now, and who you want to be. There’s no right and wrong in recognizing what you want. There’s no weird and normal. There’s just you, and what makes you happy. There’s nothing more normal than just wanting to be happy.

Maybe you can come out to some friends. My friends surprised me, and they were from a crazy homophobic country, and that was fifteen years ago. Your friends grew up watching Will and Grace, and Ellen, and that awesome Justin kid on Ugly Betty, and Kurt on Glee. Even if they might not think about it, they know that it’s okay to be gay. They know that only crazy old folk really think it’s wrong to be gay, even if they sometimes say otherwise.

And, amazingly, they’ll realize that the person you were before you say the words “I’m gay” is the same person you are afterwards. They won’t abandon you. I remember when it was so hard to believe that. So tell a friend. And then another. And that’s when it will start to get better.

And after that, it keeps getting better. You can go to college, or just get a job, and leave home. That makes telling your parents easier, believe me. Once they realize that you’re not around, and them acting like jerks just because you like dick means they might never see you again, they come around. And if they don’t, then it’s their loss, and their fault, not yours. You’re not doing anything to hurt them. You’re just telling the truth, like they taught you.

And you can get the hell out of that one-horse town you’re in. So there are no gay people where you are? Head for a city. There are lots of us here, enough to make sure nobody tries to fuck with us just because we’re different. That makes it get a lot better. You can do what you want, dress how you want, hold hands in the street. You’ll discover that all the bad things about being gay are put there by bigots. Just get the bigots out of your life, and suddenly things improve.

Those are the little things. And then there’s the big thing that makes it get better: falling in love. Oh, there’s sex too, and sex is pretty great. But love — love is amazing. Love is the real deal. Love is what makes all the shit you’re putting up with now worth it.

And it’ll happen to you. I know it’s hard, so hard to believe that right now, as you’re stuck in your bedroom watching this video with the sound down so nobody will hear. To believe that somewhere out there is a boy who will actually like you, your mind, your body, just the way it is. But there is.

It’s worth it. Hang in there. Please hang in there. I know how hard it is, and I remember knowing that nobody could possibly understand how hard it was, so all I can do is tell you that I do understand, I doremember, even though I know you won’t believe me.

It’s hard, unbelievably hard, and totally unfair that you have to put up with all of this shit just to be the way you were born. But it gets better. Please believe me. All of it, all that crap I put up with was worth it, every second of the pain and misery and guilt, just to fall in love, just to feel that way for a moment. That feeling is worth it. So please be here to experience it.

And one day I’ll meet the right guy, and get married, and have kids and retire, just like I planned. All that stuff I thought I lost? I was wrong. I can still have it, and so can you — or whatever else it is you’re looking for. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe it’ll take years. But it gets better. Nowadays, my life is so great I can barely understand what it was that had me so worried when I was a teenager. I was just so wrong.

It gets better. It gets so, so much better.

---

If you’re in the US, the Trevor Project is a help line specifically for gay youth. In the UK, the London Gay & Lesbian Switchboard is a great place to start. And if you’re in Trinidad, then organized resources are a bit thin on the ground, but you can email me and I can put you in touch with the right people.

Hi. The Liming House here. Today I happened to catch the attention of the folk(s) behind @TriniGuardian.  As I’m inclined to do whenever I read one of your pieces, I was engaging in some stream of consciousness invective, as below:

“most ‘Neediest Cases’”? Srsly? RT @TriniGuardian The Fund was organised to identify the ten most “Neediest Cases” in T&T…

Dear @TriniGuardian: you need to hire some bloody editors. http://bit.ly/9IeSJ4

And what is with this ‘Karen’ and ‘Anil’ nonsense? You all used to pitch marble? http://bit.ly/cUES62

Could you also hire people who who can put a sentence together @TriniGuardian? This is appalling http://bit.ly/d1pajB

Other weighed in, via RTs and replies:

seldo @theliminghouse Do not get me (and especially not @eparillon) started on the illiteracy of T&T newspapers. The Express is even worse.

eparillon @theliminghouse @seldo that example doesn’t even seem that bad by Trini news standards, honestly.

eparillon @theliminghouse The one about the PSA guy who embezzled all that money. And I agree on the weeping.

eparillon @theliminghouse I’m not saying it was literate, but I did end the article knowing marginally more than when I started it.

eparillon @theliminghouse That’s a BIG victory by Trini press standards.

To which I responded:

@eparillon which example? There are numerous. Those were selected arbitrarily. In general, I avoiding reading the Trini press. Makes me cry.

@eparillon The piece on the PSA guy was all kinds of terrible, made worse by the fact the reporters involved thought they were oh- so-clever

@seldo Oh, I’ve written about them before. But it’s been a while. Time for a fresh dissection.

By that time, your Twitter folk(s) had clocked on:

TriniGuardian Please know that we appreciate your comments and opinion and we will look into this matter @theliminghouse

Thanks @theliminghouse for the observation, we acknowledge your comment

TriniGuardian @theliminghouse is there anything further you wish us to assist you with at this moment. We do our best to complete our duties…

Of course, there’s history here, something to which I alluded in my responses:

@TriniGuardian Still waiting to hear back from you about previous queries, so I won’t hold my breath.

Further to hiring better editors, teaching reporters how to write and basic fact-checking, see also http://bit.ly/azbfgp @TriniGuardian

As for that history? Let’s go back to September 2009, when I published  dissection of a piece of work written by Richard Lord on alcohol consumption in Trinidad. That post got picked up by Global Voices and various Twitterati, and as with today, the folks behind @TriniGuardian promised to “look into it.”

Never heard back.

But listen, don’t take my outbursts personally.

Actually, scratch that. You should bloody well take this personally. As a rule, the quality of reporting in your newspaper and on your website is abysmal. Your pages are replete with spelling mistakes, typos and grammar that would shock a half-decent primary school student; errors of fact and omission; opinion pieces masquerading as news; pieces without bylines;  stories and photographs ripped from the pages and websites of other publications without attribution.

Have you no professional pride? Do you care not at all about getting things right? Do you pay no heed to the fact that strong, hard-hitting and objective media are essential to the development of a country and its people?

Do any of you even read?

What the hell is going on with media in Trinidad and Tobago? Seriously. Get a grip, guys and gals. Because this is beyond embarrassing.

Back in March 2009, I wrote the following but never posted it:

I blame the journalists. I blame the reporters. I blame the editors, the subeditors and the production desks. I blame the anchors, the sound engineers and the camera operators. I blame the owners and the advertisers. I blame the readers, the viewers, the listeners.

Because Trinidadian media suck.

That about sums it up.

The Travel Foundation and Virgin Atlantic were concerned to read your comments on our work together in the Caribbean. We believe that the projects will bring huge benefits and stimulate entrepreneurship along with addressing pressing environmental issues. Here is further information which should allay any concerns and provide more information.
You are correct in saying that tourism is key to the region’s economy. In 2008, travel and tourism provided over 2.1m jobs and 15% of the region’s GDP but there is an opportunity to spread the benefits tourism brings further.
There are significant issues with youth unemployment in the Caribbean with as many as 30% of 20-24 year olds out of work.
The projects that we have chosen to develop may seem small, but they are very significant. They link to the globally-important environmental issues of waste management, fish and bee conservation – issues that are vital to food security.
By creating new, small-scale, local business opportunities many of the skills learned can be applied to any business which gives young people independence and choice.
These initiatives will offer choice, new opportunities and new skills for entrepreneurship with the aim that this will create new jobs and opportunities for income generation.

To which I have this to say:

I did not say that tourism is key to the region’s economy. In fact, most of the islands are attempting to diversify away from a dependency on tourism, particularly in light of the ongoing global financial crisis.

You – Virgin and the Travel Foundation – are talking your book. Tourism in the Caribbean is to your benefit.

Your projects are not merely small; they are insulting. The Caribbean’s youth are educated, technically savvy, computer-literate, driven and ambitious. But you think ‘small scale’ fish farming is more important than developing financial services, media, advertising, marketing, manufacturing…

Pardon me if I don’t buy into your argument that relying on the fickle tastes of British tourists gives my peers “independence and choice”.

Your pitch might work on someone who has not grown up in the region, who has no idea of the scale and speed of the development in the Caribbean, someone whose idea of these islands is ‘sun, sea, sand and subservience.’ I am not that person. You, however, quite obviously are.

What, exactly, is your excuse for your utter inability to update your sites to reflect this state of affairs, per the following screenshots (taken at approximately 8.55pm Trinidad time):

Screenshot of the Express front page at 8.55pm on Tuesday Jan 12

Screenshot of the Guardian Online's front page at 8.55pm on Tuesday Jan 12

Screenshot of the Newsday's website front page at 8.55pm on Tuesday Jan 12

Poor.

S&P: Republic Bank Ltd. Counterparty Credit Ratings Affirmed At ‘BBB-/A-3′ With Stable Outlook

* The bank’s financial performance has been stable through a period of tough economic conditions in the Caribbean region.
* We are affirming the ‘BBB-/A-3′ counterparty credit ratings on RBL.
* The stable outlook reflects the bank’s likely maintenance of its financial profile in 2009 and 2010.
* A downgrade could result from rising nonperforming assets or falling profits, or an upgrade could result from a curtailing of further nonperformers.

MEXICO CITY Oct. 2, 2009–Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today that it affirmed its ‘BBB-/A-3′ counterparty credit ratings on Republic Bank Ltd. (RBL). The outlook is stable.

“Our ratings on RBL are based on RBL’s leading market position in Trinidad and Tobago, stable financial performance, and geographic diversification in the Caribbean,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Alfonso Novelo. “However, we believe that strain on the quality of assets through 2010 will pressure profits, the balance sheet relies on short-term funding, and the bank faces strong competition in the region.“

Unidentified female X, in comment on facebook picture of self looking v tan:

oh gosh…i need to stay out of the sun!

Unidentified female Y, in response:

yuh lookin BLACK

Unidentified female X:

I know. This is terrible…definitely not the shade I want to be!!! I love being fair!!

Indeed.