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NEWS IN BRIEF
FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
Top News in the Print Media: The JIS, The Gleaner & The Observer
From the Overseas Department, Jamaica Information Service
Tuesday October 14, 2003
JA AHEAD OF PORT SECURITY TARGETS
The Observer: Jamaica is well ahead of its July 2004 target for complying with new international standards for port security, according to Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill.
The requirements include being certified under the International Ship and Port Security Code.
"We are currently implementing measures to ensure that we will, with comfort, meet the July 2004 deadline to put in place stipulated requirements for the certification," the minister said. "Components of the enhanced security system have already been ordered and, in fact, we are ahead of our projected schedule with regard to the installation of these systems."
SPECIAL POLICE TEAMS TO CURB CRIME
The Gleaner: Teams from two elite police squads will be deployed to troubled parishes as the police move to implement new strategies to contain escalating crime outside of the capital.
"We will be sending down two teams from the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF) and the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID) to Clarendon and Montego Bay," Deputy Commissioner Tilford Johnson told The Gleaner yesterday.
The measure is meant to help arrest the wave of violence now sweeping across Portmore, St. Catherine, Clarendon and St. James.
Members of the two squads will serve as reinforcement to the respective divisions, but according to DCP Johnson, the teams will be under the supervision of Senior Superintendent Donald Pusey, who will be roving between the two parishes.
SPOT MARKET WEIGHTED AVERAGE RATE
CURRENCY -- PURCHASES -- SALES
___US$_______59.7672_____59.9662
__CAN$_______44.0056_____44.7426
___GB£_______97.4812_____99.0212
BRITAIN’S DPP TO VISIT JAMAICA
The Gleaner: Britain’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith, Q.C., will visit Jamaica in early November for a series of activities and discussions about justice and the implications of the justice system in Jamaica, it was announced today by the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs (FIPA).
A guest of the Institute and the British High Commission, he will meet with domestic and British officials before delivering the keynote address for the Farquharson Institute's 86th Anniverysary Banquet, to be held in 'The Hall of Justice', Terra Nova Hotel, Friday, November 7.
'Justice for the People' is the theme of FIPA's 86th Anniversary celebrations and the retiring head of the Crown Prosecution Service is visiting Jamaica to help carry this message and to support efforts to uphold and improve justice in the country.
GOV’T GOES TO COURT OVER NTCS AWARD
The Gleaner: The Government will file papers in the Supreme Court within two weeks, contesting the recent $12 billion arbitration award to the National Transport Co-operative Society (NTCS).
Speaking at yesterday's post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Information Minister, Burchell Whiteman, said Cabinet had accepted the recommendations of a sub-committee charged with the responsibility of examining the ruling.
"Among the grounds on which the application will be based is that a precondition of a fare increase was that there should be specific improvements in the quality of service provided. These improvements did not take place," Minister Whiteman said.
JIS NEWS
Tuesday October 14, 2003
PM LAUDS OVERSEAS NATIONALS
Prime Minister P. J. Patterson has applauded Jamaicans living in South Florida for their contribution to the island as reflected in their overwhelming support for education and community development initiatives.
Speaking at an appreciation reception hosted by Jamaica’s Consul General to Miami, Richard Allicock in Fort Lauderdale on Friday (Oct. 10), Mr. Patterson said all Jamaicans and the Government appreciated the work being done by nationals in Florida and the impact this has had in helping to create a better quality of life for the entire society.
“In this connection, I would like to pay special tribute to the Jamaican overseas community not just in terms of remittances, but in terms of their commitment to supporting educational advancement in Jamaica…. we appreciate all you are doing in education and in community development, as we work to create a better quality of life for our entire society,” Mr. Patterson stated.
J’CANS WELCOME HC MARSHALL
Jamaicans in Canada have pledged to work closely with newly appointed High Commissioner, Carl Marshall in furthering the cause of nationals at home and abroad.
The promise came at a ceremony held recently at the headquarters of the Jamaican Canadian Association in Toronto, to officially welcome Mr. Marshall and his family.
High Commissioner Marshall indicated that he was looking forward to working with all Jamaicans residing in Canada. “We are going to join hands together; we are going to be a strong team; we are going to assist those Jamaicans here who need to get back on that path of wholesome living,” he stated.
RESTRUCTURING MAIL SYSTEMS
Dr. Blossom O’Meally-Nelson, Postmaster General and Head of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica (PostCorp), has said that the island’s mail sorting and delivery systems were being restructured in order to improve efficiency.
The programme has been operating as a pilot in the corporate area and Spanish Town over the last three months and Dr. O’Meally-Nelson said there have been “measurable successes” so far.
“I know that we now have a handle on it. We have had a lot of problems in the past because we did not engage in the proper measurement and setting of standards but now that we have been able to do our operations review and put in our benchmarks, in terms of the amount of mail sorted in any given period and have trained people, there has been some improvement,” she stated.
WOMEN BENEFIT FROM MTCT PROGRAMME
The Ministry of Health has reported that over 250 HIV positive women participated in the Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT) Programme between 2001 and 2002.
Under the MTCT Programme, the Ministry provides antiretroviral medication free of cost to HIV positive expectant women, to prevent transmission of the disease to the unborn infant.
Dr. Kevin Harvey, Coordinator of the Ministry’s Treatment, Care and Support project for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), said that so far, the initiative has been working “pretty well”.
LOCAL ACTS PERFORM IN NEW YORK
Reggae artistes Freddie McGregor and Hopeton Lewis as well as the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), are the Jamaica acts slated to perform in the 2003/04 season of the Caribbean Celebration Series, which opened on October 12 at the Brooklyn Centre for the Performing Arts in New York.
In an interview with JIS News, Rhea Smith, Brooklyn Centre’s Marketing Manager, said the facility was pleased to have been able to book the Jamaican acts for the annual event.
“We are extremely excited and expect that, like in previous years, this season will be an overwhelming success. Brooklyn Centre is dedicated to providing and promoting traditional Caribbean art forms,” she stated.
Contact: Celia Lindsay
For further information about any of these news items,contact the Overseas Department at
[email protected]
. The Jamaica Information Service web page address is
www.jis.gov.jm
.Telephone: (876) 926-3740-8 / 926-3590-8, Fax: (876) 926-6715
COMMENTARY
Tuesday October 14, 2003
THE OBSERVER
APPEASEMENT BY MR. ROBERTSON?
MR James Robertson is neither naive nor guileless.
He is, after all, a relatively successful politician who knows the trenches.
So Mr Robertson would no doubt have anticipated the public scepticism, if not outright cynicism, over his announcement yesterday that he would end any campaigning, via the public media, for one of the slots as deputy leader of the Jamaica Labour Party.
Mr Robertson, who won the parliamentary seat for Eastern St Thomas, in last October's general election, is challenging the well-established Ms Olivia "Babsy" Grange for the post. Victory would make him the JLP's senior official in Area Council Two, which is made up of the parishes of St Catherine, St Mary and Portland.
That Mr Robertson decided to challenge Ms Grange, who has held the position for six years, was, to many, surprising. He is a relative newcomer to elective politics, where Ms Grange has been around for a long time and critically, is close to the JLP's leader, Mr Edward Seaga.
Yet Mr Robertson appeared to have been putting up a good show in the campaign so far, having gained the endorsement of some key party constituencies, including the youth arm, Young Jamaica.
We cannot say that Mr Robertson has articulated a vision for the JLP, or for politics in general, that would be transformational or even deeply reformist.
But he appears to have captured the imagination of a wing, or that element of the party that is in a hurry for change and who are eager to see the JLP head into new directions. In that sense, a victory for Mr Robertson would be interpreted in some quarters as a leg up for Mr Bruce Golding, the front-runner in the race for the post-Seaga leadership of the party. Mr Golding, who had left the JLP in the mid-1990s to form a new party, the National Democratic Movement (NDM), and push a radical agenda of reform, is viewed as the candidate of change.
In yesterday's statement, Mr Robertson claimed that his reason for withdrawing from any media campaign was to prevent the JLP being portrayed as a party of internal strife. The suggestion is that this has cost the party dearly.
It is a fact that the JLP has, in the past, been hurt by the public's concern over its bickering, backbiting and perceived authoritarian leadership. But this was only because there was internal strife, not some figment of the media's imagination. The Gang of Five. The Arena Incident. The Western 11. All of these seriously split the JLP.
A decent, healthy and clean campaign for a deputy leader's post, or any post for that matter, is a matter of another order. Instead of attempting to be restrictive, the campaign should be full and open, utilising all avenues for the aspirants to share their ideas, ideals and policies with delegates and the wider public. For political parties ought not to see themselves only as private clubs. What they do affect more than the card-carrying members. They impact all our lives.
In that regard, even if the wider public does not vote in internal elections, they have a stake in what happens. How delegates cast their ballots can be an important cue as to how voters respond to the party.
We do not doubt that Mr Robertson understands this. But we sense there is something more to yesterday's statement.
Mr Seaga had made it known that he would have preferred that there not be a contest at this time. Mr Robertson insisted that he would run. We are certain that as party leader, Mr Seaga will make his position known before the vote.
The question is whether Mr Robertson's action is a first phase towards appeasement rather than conviction. Many would say yes.
============================================
THE GLEANER
MURDER AS BUSINESS
WHEN THE Minister of National Security himself has conceded that homicide is the leading cause of death after the most serious diseases he is confirming the worst fears of most of the population. And he gave the figures to confirm it at an international conference on violence prevention last week a murder rate of 44 per 100,000 putting us among nations with the highest such rates in the Americas.
With that as background, columnist Dr. Garth Rattray gives reminders of the mundane elements of murder as commercial industry elsewhere on this page. The statistics are not entirely new as similar disclosures have been published before by THE STAR, our afternoon tabloid.
What we presume are updated figures have been supplied to our columnist by Police Superintendent Newton Amos setting out rates for a 'hit', rental for weapons and ammunition and several other elements pointing to murder as big business.
And all the intricacies are there, from deposits and penalties, deal-making, and even conflicts over person relations. In short, organisation and management is at the heart of an activity which employs mercenaries as the impersonal guns for hire, bereft of motive or emotion. No wonder so many killings appear to lack an obvious motive.
This kind of organised crime superimposed on all the other aspects of violence and social unrest is no more susceptible to states of emergency or the brutish rampaging of special squads of policemen and soldiers.
As we have urged before, painstaking detective work and cultivation of intelligence must be allied with the boosting of manpower and more sophisticated training with outside help.
The Minister apparently recognises this even as he restates respect for human rights and better community relations. If murder is second only to diseases as the cause of death the ultimate crime plan must strive to put it out of business.
FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION
Top News in the Print Media: The JIS, The Gleaner & The Observer
From the Overseas Department, Jamaica Information Service
Tuesday October 14, 2003
JA AHEAD OF PORT SECURITY TARGETS
The Observer: Jamaica is well ahead of its July 2004 target for complying with new international standards for port security, according to Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill.
The requirements include being certified under the International Ship and Port Security Code.
"We are currently implementing measures to ensure that we will, with comfort, meet the July 2004 deadline to put in place stipulated requirements for the certification," the minister said. "Components of the enhanced security system have already been ordered and, in fact, we are ahead of our projected schedule with regard to the installation of these systems."
SPECIAL POLICE TEAMS TO CURB CRIME
The Gleaner: Teams from two elite police squads will be deployed to troubled parishes as the police move to implement new strategies to contain escalating crime outside of the capital.
"We will be sending down two teams from the Special Anti-Crime Task Force (SACTF) and the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID) to Clarendon and Montego Bay," Deputy Commissioner Tilford Johnson told The Gleaner yesterday.
The measure is meant to help arrest the wave of violence now sweeping across Portmore, St. Catherine, Clarendon and St. James.
Members of the two squads will serve as reinforcement to the respective divisions, but according to DCP Johnson, the teams will be under the supervision of Senior Superintendent Donald Pusey, who will be roving between the two parishes.
SPOT MARKET WEIGHTED AVERAGE RATE
CURRENCY -- PURCHASES -- SALES
___US$_______59.7672_____59.9662
__CAN$_______44.0056_____44.7426
___GB£_______97.4812_____99.0212
BRITAIN’S DPP TO VISIT JAMAICA
The Gleaner: Britain’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir David Calvert-Smith, Q.C., will visit Jamaica in early November for a series of activities and discussions about justice and the implications of the justice system in Jamaica, it was announced today by the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs (FIPA).
A guest of the Institute and the British High Commission, he will meet with domestic and British officials before delivering the keynote address for the Farquharson Institute's 86th Anniverysary Banquet, to be held in 'The Hall of Justice', Terra Nova Hotel, Friday, November 7.
'Justice for the People' is the theme of FIPA's 86th Anniversary celebrations and the retiring head of the Crown Prosecution Service is visiting Jamaica to help carry this message and to support efforts to uphold and improve justice in the country.
GOV’T GOES TO COURT OVER NTCS AWARD
The Gleaner: The Government will file papers in the Supreme Court within two weeks, contesting the recent $12 billion arbitration award to the National Transport Co-operative Society (NTCS).
Speaking at yesterday's post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Information Minister, Burchell Whiteman, said Cabinet had accepted the recommendations of a sub-committee charged with the responsibility of examining the ruling.
"Among the grounds on which the application will be based is that a precondition of a fare increase was that there should be specific improvements in the quality of service provided. These improvements did not take place," Minister Whiteman said.
JIS NEWS
Tuesday October 14, 2003
PM LAUDS OVERSEAS NATIONALS
Prime Minister P. J. Patterson has applauded Jamaicans living in South Florida for their contribution to the island as reflected in their overwhelming support for education and community development initiatives.
Speaking at an appreciation reception hosted by Jamaica’s Consul General to Miami, Richard Allicock in Fort Lauderdale on Friday (Oct. 10), Mr. Patterson said all Jamaicans and the Government appreciated the work being done by nationals in Florida and the impact this has had in helping to create a better quality of life for the entire society.
“In this connection, I would like to pay special tribute to the Jamaican overseas community not just in terms of remittances, but in terms of their commitment to supporting educational advancement in Jamaica…. we appreciate all you are doing in education and in community development, as we work to create a better quality of life for our entire society,” Mr. Patterson stated.
J’CANS WELCOME HC MARSHALL
Jamaicans in Canada have pledged to work closely with newly appointed High Commissioner, Carl Marshall in furthering the cause of nationals at home and abroad.
The promise came at a ceremony held recently at the headquarters of the Jamaican Canadian Association in Toronto, to officially welcome Mr. Marshall and his family.
High Commissioner Marshall indicated that he was looking forward to working with all Jamaicans residing in Canada. “We are going to join hands together; we are going to be a strong team; we are going to assist those Jamaicans here who need to get back on that path of wholesome living,” he stated.
RESTRUCTURING MAIL SYSTEMS
Dr. Blossom O’Meally-Nelson, Postmaster General and Head of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica (PostCorp), has said that the island’s mail sorting and delivery systems were being restructured in order to improve efficiency.
The programme has been operating as a pilot in the corporate area and Spanish Town over the last three months and Dr. O’Meally-Nelson said there have been “measurable successes” so far.
“I know that we now have a handle on it. We have had a lot of problems in the past because we did not engage in the proper measurement and setting of standards but now that we have been able to do our operations review and put in our benchmarks, in terms of the amount of mail sorted in any given period and have trained people, there has been some improvement,” she stated.
WOMEN BENEFIT FROM MTCT PROGRAMME
The Ministry of Health has reported that over 250 HIV positive women participated in the Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT) Programme between 2001 and 2002.
Under the MTCT Programme, the Ministry provides antiretroviral medication free of cost to HIV positive expectant women, to prevent transmission of the disease to the unborn infant.
Dr. Kevin Harvey, Coordinator of the Ministry’s Treatment, Care and Support project for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), said that so far, the initiative has been working “pretty well”.
LOCAL ACTS PERFORM IN NEW YORK
Reggae artistes Freddie McGregor and Hopeton Lewis as well as the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), are the Jamaica acts slated to perform in the 2003/04 season of the Caribbean Celebration Series, which opened on October 12 at the Brooklyn Centre for the Performing Arts in New York.
In an interview with JIS News, Rhea Smith, Brooklyn Centre’s Marketing Manager, said the facility was pleased to have been able to book the Jamaican acts for the annual event.
“We are extremely excited and expect that, like in previous years, this season will be an overwhelming success. Brooklyn Centre is dedicated to providing and promoting traditional Caribbean art forms,” she stated.
Contact: Celia Lindsay
For further information about any of these news items,contact the Overseas Department at
[email protected]
. The Jamaica Information Service web page address is
www.jis.gov.jm
.Telephone: (876) 926-3740-8 / 926-3590-8, Fax: (876) 926-6715
COMMENTARY
Tuesday October 14, 2003
THE OBSERVER
APPEASEMENT BY MR. ROBERTSON?
MR James Robertson is neither naive nor guileless.
He is, after all, a relatively successful politician who knows the trenches.
So Mr Robertson would no doubt have anticipated the public scepticism, if not outright cynicism, over his announcement yesterday that he would end any campaigning, via the public media, for one of the slots as deputy leader of the Jamaica Labour Party.
Mr Robertson, who won the parliamentary seat for Eastern St Thomas, in last October's general election, is challenging the well-established Ms Olivia "Babsy" Grange for the post. Victory would make him the JLP's senior official in Area Council Two, which is made up of the parishes of St Catherine, St Mary and Portland.
That Mr Robertson decided to challenge Ms Grange, who has held the position for six years, was, to many, surprising. He is a relative newcomer to elective politics, where Ms Grange has been around for a long time and critically, is close to the JLP's leader, Mr Edward Seaga.
Yet Mr Robertson appeared to have been putting up a good show in the campaign so far, having gained the endorsement of some key party constituencies, including the youth arm, Young Jamaica.
We cannot say that Mr Robertson has articulated a vision for the JLP, or for politics in general, that would be transformational or even deeply reformist.
But he appears to have captured the imagination of a wing, or that element of the party that is in a hurry for change and who are eager to see the JLP head into new directions. In that sense, a victory for Mr Robertson would be interpreted in some quarters as a leg up for Mr Bruce Golding, the front-runner in the race for the post-Seaga leadership of the party. Mr Golding, who had left the JLP in the mid-1990s to form a new party, the National Democratic Movement (NDM), and push a radical agenda of reform, is viewed as the candidate of change.
In yesterday's statement, Mr Robertson claimed that his reason for withdrawing from any media campaign was to prevent the JLP being portrayed as a party of internal strife. The suggestion is that this has cost the party dearly.
It is a fact that the JLP has, in the past, been hurt by the public's concern over its bickering, backbiting and perceived authoritarian leadership. But this was only because there was internal strife, not some figment of the media's imagination. The Gang of Five. The Arena Incident. The Western 11. All of these seriously split the JLP.
A decent, healthy and clean campaign for a deputy leader's post, or any post for that matter, is a matter of another order. Instead of attempting to be restrictive, the campaign should be full and open, utilising all avenues for the aspirants to share their ideas, ideals and policies with delegates and the wider public. For political parties ought not to see themselves only as private clubs. What they do affect more than the card-carrying members. They impact all our lives.
In that regard, even if the wider public does not vote in internal elections, they have a stake in what happens. How delegates cast their ballots can be an important cue as to how voters respond to the party.
We do not doubt that Mr Robertson understands this. But we sense there is something more to yesterday's statement.
Mr Seaga had made it known that he would have preferred that there not be a contest at this time. Mr Robertson insisted that he would run. We are certain that as party leader, Mr Seaga will make his position known before the vote.
The question is whether Mr Robertson's action is a first phase towards appeasement rather than conviction. Many would say yes.
============================================
THE GLEANER
MURDER AS BUSINESS
WHEN THE Minister of National Security himself has conceded that homicide is the leading cause of death after the most serious diseases he is confirming the worst fears of most of the population. And he gave the figures to confirm it at an international conference on violence prevention last week a murder rate of 44 per 100,000 putting us among nations with the highest such rates in the Americas.
With that as background, columnist Dr. Garth Rattray gives reminders of the mundane elements of murder as commercial industry elsewhere on this page. The statistics are not entirely new as similar disclosures have been published before by THE STAR, our afternoon tabloid.
What we presume are updated figures have been supplied to our columnist by Police Superintendent Newton Amos setting out rates for a 'hit', rental for weapons and ammunition and several other elements pointing to murder as big business.
And all the intricacies are there, from deposits and penalties, deal-making, and even conflicts over person relations. In short, organisation and management is at the heart of an activity which employs mercenaries as the impersonal guns for hire, bereft of motive or emotion. No wonder so many killings appear to lack an obvious motive.
This kind of organised crime superimposed on all the other aspects of violence and social unrest is no more susceptible to states of emergency or the brutish rampaging of special squads of policemen and soldiers.
As we have urged before, painstaking detective work and cultivation of intelligence must be allied with the boosting of manpower and more sophisticated training with outside help.
The Minister apparently recognises this even as he restates respect for human rights and better community relations. If murder is second only to diseases as the cause of death the ultimate crime plan must strive to put it out of business.