Black Immigrant Daily News

Construction of a museum to honour and memorialise Jamaica’s first National Hero, the Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey, will be finished during the country’s 60th year of Independence, says Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange.

She said that the facility, which is being erected at 32 Marcus Garvey Way in St Ann’s Bay, St. Ann, where Garvey spent his formative years, is near completion.

“I am heartened that …the Garvey museum, conceptualised in 2011 for Jamaica 50, and re-engineered during Jamaica 55, is about to become a reality within the legacy of Jamaica 60,” Minister Grange said.

“I am proud to say that our efforts to establish a museum in Marcus Garvey’s honour on the site of his boyhood home is almost a reality,” she added.

Minister Grange was speaking at a civic ceremony to mark the 135th anniversary of the birth of Garvey and his 58th year as a National Hero, held at Lawrence Park, St. Ann’s Bay, on Wednesday, August 17.

Grange said that the legacy of Garvey will be protected through the establishment of the museum, noting that it will capture all aspects of his life.

“The museum will be a place where every child and adult of Jamaican heritage, local and foreign-based, will be able to enter physically and virtually to proudly do research, to know the great man Garvey was, and leave more conscious of their ancestral pedigree and heritage, ” she said.

Minister Grange noted that the space will be reminiscent of Garvey’s focus on cultural enterprise and achievements as well as “one that constantly reminds us of our capacity for greatness – every one of us”.

She informed that three houses are being constructed on the Seville Heritage Park property in St. Ann to relocate the family that occupied the house where the museum is being established, two of which have already been completed.

Minister Grange said that the two-bedroom units, which were constructed under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP), will be handed over by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, in short order.

For his part, Dr. Julius Garvey, son of the National Hero, urged Jamaicans to look to his father and other heroes who paved the way for the nation to achieve Independence, “for an understanding of the way in which we should go” to attain greatness.

“Marcus Garvey has set us an example in terms of his ideals but also in terms of his organisational ability, his confidence in self and his ability to triumph over obstacles,” Dr. Garvey said.

The civic ceremony, hosted by the St. Ann Municipal Corporation, included the laying of floral tributes at the life-sized statue of Garvey erected at the entrance of the St. Ann’s Bay Parish Library on the Lawrence Park grounds.

Flowers were placed by Minister Grange; Dr. Garvey; Mayor of St. Ann’s Bay, Councillor Sydney Stewart, and other political representatives from across the parish.

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The Antigua and Barbuda government says it intends to spend an estimated US$39 million towards the expansion of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Island Campus here.

A statement issued following the weekly Cabinet meeting, said that the matter was discussed with a delegation from the campus, including Principal and Vice Chancellor, Densil Williams and Registrar Hyram Forde.

According to the statement, the campus which started out in 2019 with 178 students will by September have an enrolment of 1,700 students with the number increasing to more than 2,000 by September 2024.

“The Principal informed that on-campus residences are required as is an administrative complex. The government of Antigua and Barbuda is about to acquire US$40 million from the Saudi’s and will leverage 39 million towards the UWI Five Islands Campus expansion,” the statement said.

It said that faculty housing will also be constructed near the campus and a clinic site will be arranged on campus.  A Nursing School that meets the high standard set by the Antigua and Barbuda law will have its beginnings September 2022.

“The UWI Five Islands will also create ‘The Centre for Excellence for Oceanography and the Blue Economy.’ The Blue Economy is expected to have a significant impact on economic diversification through training of youth, taking Antigua and Barbuda to the next level. A Director is to be appointed and is expected to be in place by October 2022,” the statement said.

It said that the UWI principal also made a presentation of the plans for a UWI Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Department which will be a major focus of the campus.

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The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal has affirmed the conviction and sentence of two men who were found guilty of murder, and who, therefore, must continue serving the sentences imposed by a High Court Judge.

Isaiah Benjamin, Edwin Gomez and Jerome Benjamin were jointly charged, tried and convicted for the murder of Lyndon Isaac on September 24, 2010. However, only Isaiah and Gomez had appealed the judge’s ruling.

At the sentencing hearing, the Judge imposed a 30-year prison sentence on Gomez, with a review after 23 years. Isaiah was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment to be reviewed after 18 years.

The men filed several grounds of appeal, but the main substance focused on whether the judge had erred in rejecting the no-case submission made by defence attorneys and in leaving the issue of joint enterprise to the jury.

Wendel Robinson, Isaiah’s counsel, also submitted that – in deciding whether there was a case to answer – the trial judge applied the wrong test as to what constitutes joint enterprise in murder.

However, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Anthony Armstrong countered, saying that the Judge had used the correct test: that is, the Galbraith Test.

The limb of the Galbraith Test put forward by the appellants during the no-case submission hearing was that there was no evidence; therefore, the Judge was duty-bound to stop the case.

But Armstrong asserted that, at the time, the Judge had to consider that the prosecution’s case was one of joint enterprise and that Isaiah had been present to effect the escape.

After hearing from the defence attorneys, who included Sherfield Bowen, representing Gomez, and Crown Counsel Shannon Jones- Gittens, who appeared along with the DPP, the Court of Appeal issued a 19-page judgment.

It ruled that Benjamin’s appeal against conviction and sentence is dismissed and the conviction and sentence affirmed.

Gomez’ appeal against conviction was withdrawn during the appeal hearing, the appeal against sentence was dismissed, and his conviction and sentence were affirmed.

Reports are that the duo, along with Benjamin and another person, went to T’s Natural Bamboo Bar to commit robbery. All the men were inside a vehicle being driven by Isaiah, and they were masked and armed.

The men reportedly entered the bar and one of them discharged a firearm close to a patron, George Lewis, whom two of the assailants then dragged outside. One of them patted him down, took some steps backward, and fired the gun.

Lewis, the owner of a licensed firearm, returned fire, hitting Jerome. At this point, Gomez and Isaiah reportedly ran back to the vehicle and sped off, leaving the wounded man.

However, they later returned in the vehicle and picked him up. It was while leaving the scene that Gomez discharged two shots from within the car, killing a pedestrian, Lyndon Isaac.

Gomez admitted to discharging the firearm that killed Isaac. However, Isaiah said he had remained in the vehicle, was not aware of the robbery, and denied any participation in the joint unlawful enterprise.

Justices Davidson Kelvin Baptiste and Mario Michel, as well as Paul Webster, an acting Justice of Appeal, heard the matter.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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by Charles Gladden

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Aug. 16. 2022

The Football Federation of Belize (FFB), in partnership with UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) conducted training on Monday, August 15, in preparation for the launch of its program, “Football for Schools”, at the primary school level—an initiative which falls under the umbrella of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association).

Prior to introducing the program in this region, FIFA, in 2019, had announced that the “Football for Schools” program would be tested in two other countries, and after a review of the success of the program, 211 other countries would also implement the program, with Belize being the 14th to do so.

The aim of the program is to educate, develop, and empower boys and girls around the country, and it is expected that when the program is rolled out through the introduction of football- based activities into 250 primary schools over the next four years, over 25,000 primary school students will have been beneficiaries, and more than 750 coaches will have participated.

“The ‘Football for Schools’ program is about making football more accessible to boys and girls across the world. By incorporating football activities in our curriculum we can promote specific life skills and competencies in our students which will help them to be better [and] more productive citizens of Belize,” said Hon. Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education, during his remarks at the FFB event.

“… Through our education system, we want [to] produce students who have developed important skills and values

such as tolerance, humility, patience, collaboration, cooperation, empathy, positivity, and charity. These are all skills and values [that] football promotes and develops in our young people,” Hon. Fonseca added.

Minister of Sports, Hon. Rodwell Ferguson, who was also present at the event, commented, “We have been trying to excel in sports for many years. I believe in the advent of FIFA coming into our country, we have seen a transformation, so I want to give them kudos, especially our local FFB for doing a wonderful and expanded job. They have expanded football to every region in our country [and] to every level in our society. I am committing myself to collaborate with the Ministry of Education, because both of us have to work together to make sure that we reach out to our young people.”

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