Black Immigrant Daily News

Jamaican Juanita McCurdy-Davis, who serves aboard USS Boxer, homeported in San Diego, joined the US Navy three years ago.

The native of St Catherine, a graduate of Old Harbour High School and the Jamaica Theological Seminary, said she joined the Navy to become a better version of herself.

“…and that’s exactly what has happened,” said McCurdy-Davis. “I’ve become better in so many areas of my life. I’ve gotten an education and I support my family financially,” she is quoted by the Navy Office of Community Outreach as saying.

Today, Petty Officer 3rd Class McCurdy-Davis serves as a culinary specialist.

According to the Navy Office of Community Outreach, a culinary specialist is responsible for catering to the sailors’ nutritional needs and ensuring everyone gets a balanced, freshly prepared meal.

McCurdy-Davis relies upon skills and values from lessons learned in St Catherine to succeed in the military.

“Growing up, I learned to respect everyone regardless of our differences, which is a big part of working on a ship,” said McCurdy-Davis.

USS Boxer, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, was commissioned on February 11, 1995, and is the sixth US ship to bear the name. The ship recently completed a scheduled maintenance availability and is preparing for upcoming operations.

The crew has approximately 1,200 officers and enlisted personnel and can accommodate up to 1,800 Marines. Amphibious assault ships transfer Marines, equipment and supplies and can support helicopters or other aircraft, according to Navy officials. They also are capable of accessing 75 per cent of the world’s beaches.

Serving in the Navy means the Jamaican is part of a world that is taking on new importance in America’s focus on strengthening alliances, modernising capabilities, increasing capacities, and maintaining military readiness in support of the national defence strategy.

“We protect our country and our allies against threats and secure the maritime sea lanes,” said McCurdy-Davis.

More than 90 per cent of all trade travels by sea, and fibre optic cables on the ocean floor carry 95 per cent of the world’s international phone and Internet traffic.

Navy officials continue to emphasise that the prosperity of the US and its security are directly linked to ready sailors and a strong Navy.

Sailors like McCurdy-Davis have many opportunities to achieve accomplishments during their military service, the Navy Office of Community Outreach said.

“I earned my associate’s degree in December 2020, and was promoted to petty officer third class three months later,” said McCurdy-Davis. “I’ve also earned my surface and aviation warfare pins while working on this ship.”

As McCurdy-Davis, who has hometown ties to Queens, New York, and other sailors continue to train and perform missions, they take pride in serving their country in the United States Navy.

“To me, serving in the Navy means serving my fellow Americans,” added McCurdy-Davis. “It’s a privilege and an honour to do this work.”

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President and CEO of Victoria Mutual (VM) Group, Courtney Campbell, says the transformation of Jamaica’s education system is crucial to the country achieving economic growth.

Campbell made the remark on Monday’s opening day of the Jamaica Theological Seminary’s (JTS) Leadership Conference 2022.

He noted that the diffusion of knowledge and information has been at the foundation of all successful national transformations. And, he pointed to examples of successful countries that transformed themselves, including the so-called Asian Tigers – Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines and the dragons – South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Campbell said these countries are rapidly converging toward the standard of advanced nations, while the least advanced African countries such as Central African Republic, Congo, Niger, Gambia and Caribbean nations such as Haiti and Jamaica and some Latin American countries such as Venezuela have stagnated or experienced sluggish growth. He referenced a study that looked at GDP per capita growth for 84 developing countries from 1961-1917.

Campbell said Jamaica must develop a vision for a more inclusive and equitable education system. He quoted Nelson Mandela who said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

The VM head pointed out that before COVID-19, Jamaica’s economy suffered from low rates of productivity and high income inequality.

He pointed to the Jamaica Productivity Centre which has highlighted that Jamaica has the lowest labour productivity when compared to other Caribbean countries such as Barbados, the Dominican Republic, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

“One reason for low productivity is the low availability of some of the skills required to be globally competitive in this era. We have to transform the content of our training,” said Campbell.

He posited that COVID-19 has accelerated technology adoption in all sectors, so these talent-related challenges have become even more pronounced.

“If your company or country cannot claim a ready pool of these digital skills, you will be left behind. The income inequality has been exacerbated by permanent and temporary losses of employment and income,” Campbell said.

“To address these issues, we will have to help our people identify and transition to new labour market opportunities supported by revised labour market policies. We must also invest in reskilling and upskilling programmes,” he added.

Campbell pointed out that VM is doing its part and in 2018, the group devised what he called an ambitious digital transformation programme.

“The main goal of this programme is to move from ‘doing digital’ to ‘being digital’ by infusing digital technologies into all of VM’s key business processes,” Campbell shared. He cautioned that in order to do this well, “we have had to ensure that our people develop critical digital skills that allow them to thrive, not only in a digital workspace but also in the new digital world.

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ENERGY TALKS: Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, background right, and Energy Minister Stuart Young. background left, speak with senior Shell executives at their offices in The Hague, Netherlands on Friday. PHOTO COURTESY OPM – Paco van Leeuwen

WHILE the UK mourned its queen, the day after her death, TT’s Prime Minister and his energy minister were busy holding high-level talks with senior members of Shell on Friday in The Hague, Netherlands.

Chief among the topics discussed, according to a release from the Office of the Prime Minister, was the imminent conclusion of the commercial restructuring of Atlantic.

This, the release said, would enable future upstream developments, especially the Manatee project, which has the potential to bring online one of the most significant gas developments in recent years.

Dr Rowley and Energy Minister Stuart Young also discussed Shell’s current and future development projects in this country.

The meeting was hosted by Wael Sawan, director of Integrated Gas and Renewable Energy Solutions; Cederic Cremers, executive vice president for LNG; Eugene Okpere, senior vice president and country chair for Shell TT; and Anders Ekvall, business opportunity manager for Shell.

Both parties acknowledged the success of their continued collaboration, the release said, which resulted in an increase in Shell’s production over the last five years, since the company re-entered the upstream market in 2016.

This co-operation between Trinidad and Tobago and Shell unlocked projects such as Starfish, Barracuda and Colibri and resulted in an incease of over 30 per cent in production over the period, with current production of approximately 850 million standard cubic feet of gas as of Friday – a seven-year high for Shell in TT.

Rowley and Young also received presentations on Shell’s global business on LNG, Hydrogen and on carbon-capture utilisation and storage (CCUS).

The Shell team lauded the PM and Young for their continued co-operation in developing this country’s gas production and reaffirmed their intention to sustain and grow competitive energy resources in TT.

Friday’s meeting came on the heels of similar meetings Rowley and Young held with British Petroleum (BP) execs on Thursday – the day the queen died.

The PM and Young met on that day with BP CEO Bernard Looney at BP’s headquarters in London. At this meeting, BP updated Rowley on its plans for future gas production in TT.

Rowley and his team left TT on September 2 for meetings in Switzerland, the UK and the Netherlands with executives of Proman, BP and Shell.

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Vendredi 9 Septembre 2022 – 17h59

Ce vendredi, vers 12h30 une habitation a pris feu dans le bourg de Sainte-Luce. Les cinq occupants ont été mis à l’abris avant l’arrivée des pompiers.

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