Persad-Bissessar: Sacrifice selflessly like Muslims celebrating Eid al-Adha Saturday

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

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Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. –

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar urged TT to follow the selfless sacrifices of the Muslim community for a better society, in her message for Eid al-Adha.

“As I wish Eid Mubarak to our Muslim community on this special day of Eid al-Adha, I acknowledge the inspiring meaning this auspicious day holds not only for our Muslim brothers and sisters, but for all citizens.”

She said the occasion, also called Bakra Eid, was celebrated worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail as an act of obedience to Allah.

“According to the Holy Quran, Allah was pleased with Ibrahim and replaced the boy with a ram, which was then sacrificed by Prophet Ibrahim.

“The celebration of Eid al-Adha, therefore, reminds us that in all our actions, in all our daily activities and in all our pursuits we must obey as well as trust Allah because, in the end, his love for us will always reward us with what is just and beneficial for us.”

Persad-Bissessar said Eid al-Adha is a reminder that while the sacrifices we are called to make may be great or grave, as was asked of Prophet Ibrahim, people must know that Allah’s will is supreme and, like Ibrahim, have faith and always be willing to fulfil them.

“In today’s world of economic hardship, rampant criminal activity, mental burdens, social ills and lack of opportunities, we are called to act like Prophet Ibrahim.

“God in his will is calling all of us as individuals to make sacrifices, great sacrifices which may even inconvenience us for the collective good of our nation.”

Persad-Bissessar said adults should give extra time and effort to protect and nurture youth. The society, she said, should sacrifice its wealth to help those immensely suffering.

“As a nation, we are being called upon to sacrifice our silence and our self-containment to speak out for those who are disadvantaged.

She wished a holy day to the Muslim community and hailed their continued acts of charity to the less fortunate during these celebrations and throughout the year.

“It is my hope that our nation as a whole can utilise this example and follow these selfless sacrifices for the benefit of our society.

“May Allah shower his blessings on you and accept your sacrifices on this holy occasion.”

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Saint Lucia Records 51 New COVID-19 Cases – St. Lucia Times News

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: St. Lucia Times News

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Today Friday July 8, 2022 the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs reports a total of 51 new cases of COVID-19 from samples processed on Wednesday July 6, 2022 and Thursday July 7, 2022.

This is from a total of 246 samples from the Ezra Long Laboratory. These samples were
collected from July 4, 2022 to July 7, 2022. This number of positive cases makes up 20.7% of all the samples processed on that date. These new cases bring the total number of cases diagnosed in country to date to 27, 252.

Confirmation was also received of the recovery of 43 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19. This brings the number of active cases in country to date to 143. Currently, there is one positive case of COVID-19 admitted at the Respiratory Hospital.

To date, a total of 54, 366 individuals have been fully vaccinated. Another 5, 295 are partially vaccinated and 7, 636 have received their booster shot.

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Vaccination will take place tomorrow Saturday July 9, 2022 at various Wellness Centres as per the published COVID-19 vaccination schedule. Vaccination will be available from 9am to 12noon.

The Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs will continue providing daily updates to the public as new information becomes available.

Source: Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs. Headline photo: Stock image. 

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Unique Package Plan tien jaar

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The content originally appeared on: De Ware Tijd Online

‘Ik verkoop nooit ‘nee” door Euritha Tjan A Way PARAMARIBO — Het ziet er feestelijk uit met de mini Curaçao

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135 new COVID cases, five deaths, 17.9% positivity rate recorded | Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Jamaica News | Loop News
Loop News

1 hrs ago

The Ministry of Health and Wellness is reporting that 135 new COVID-19 cases were recorded over a 24-hour period up to Thursday afternoon.

Five COVID-19 deaths that occurred from September 2021 to June 2022, were also recorded on Thursday, bringing the overall coronavirus death toll in Jamaica to 3,153.

A 77-year-old man from St James is among the latest recorded COVID fatalities nationally.

There were 78 recoveries on the day, bringing that tally to 91,516.

The newly confirmed COVID-19 cases brought the total number on record for the island to 143,745.

Notably, the island recorded a 17.9 per cent positivity rate based on the samples that were tested on Thursday.

Of the newly confirmed cases, 68 are males and 67 are females, with ages ranging from four months to 83 years.

The case count was made up of Kingston and St Andrew (45), St Ann (34), St Catherine (18), St James (12), Clarendon (seven), Trelawny (seven), St Thomas (five), St Mary (two), Manchester (two), Hanover (one), St Elizabeth (one), and Westmoreland (one).

There are 11 moderately ill patients, 11 severely ill patients and two critically ill patients among 1,007 active cases now under observation in Jamaica.

A total of 94 COVID-19 patients are now hospitalised locally.

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Gatffest names 2022 Best of Festival Award winners | Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Jamaica News | Loop News

Last weekend saw another successful conclusion of GATFFEST 2022 with over 14 filmmakers walking away winners at the Palace Cineplex Sovereign.

The re-branded Greater August Town Film Festival hosted by the newly merged Mona Social Services/UWI Community Film Project ran from June 9 to July 2 with overwhelming responses from both filmmakers and patrons turning out for eight film nights culminating in the awards ceremony.

Filmmakers garnered awards for Most Original Screenplay “Patty versus Patty”, Franklyn St. Juste Award for Best Directing, “Timoun Aw (Your Kid)”, Best Cinematography “No Entry”, Lennie Little-White Award for Best Local Film “Traytown”, Best International/Regional Film “Timoun Aw (Your Kid)”, Best Animated Film “Mother Finch”, Best MSS/UWICFP Film “A Day in the Life of a Mangrove Warden”, The Lamar Dookie Award for Best Edited MSS/UWICFP Film “A Day in the Life of a Mangrove Warden”, The Spirit of GATFFEST Award “Timoun Aw (Your Kid)”, Archibald McDonald Award for the Best of GATTFEST “Timoun Aw (Your Kid)”, International Viewers’ Choice Award, “Timoun Aw (Your Kid)” and “The Bathtub”, Jamaican Viewers’ Choice Award, “Traytown and Nice Lady”.

Professor Ian Boxill, former Gatffest Festival Director and Eka Patterson, filmmaker share a photo opportunity

The Mona Social Services/UWI Community Film Project Award for Change in the Community was presented to a graduate of the UWI Community Film Project who uses what has been taught in the programme to make a significant impact on the community. This year’s winner is Phillip Watson.

In 2021, Phillip Watson was accepted into the Mona Social Services/UWI Community Film Project (MSS/UWICFP) under the Kingston Harbour Ecosystem Adaptation Measures (KHEAM) Project. He is a part of 3 cohorts trained in film and video production with an emphasis on environmental issues facing the Kingston Harbour and the communities that immediately surround it. He graduated in August 2021.

Phillip Watson now runs a community-based organization/social enterprise; Supm Fi Talk Bout; that empowers and uplifts the youths of 16 different inner-city communities of downtown Kingston. Most of these youths are motherless or fatherless and Supm Fi Talk Bout provides a safe haven for them; a space to develop them creatively and intellectually. This is done through academics, sports, permaculture, music, arts, farming, dancing, and community tours/skateboarding.

The organisation also visits the sick and afflicted to pray for them and feed them, teaching the youths the power and importance of empathy; helping the youths to understand the importance of being upstanding, contributing members of society in a positive and impactful manner.

As GATFFEST brought the curtain down on celebrating a decade in filmmaking, Festival Director Savannah Peridot proudly chronicled their journey with 1,950 total film submissions, 323 films screened at GATFFEST, 31 UWICFP student films screened, 130 Jamaican Films submitted, 33.5 hours of film master-classes and workshops and 115 Jamaican films screened.

Savannah Peridot was full of praise for the GATTFEST Planning Committee and the festival’s partners which include the Embassies of Colombia, France, Germany, Japan, the Bob Marley Foundation, Jamaica Social Investment Fund and Rum Fire, Hampden Estates.

The festival had its genesis in 2013 when it was introduced as an avenue to showcase the films produced by the graduates of the UWI Community Film Project, a community-based initiative supporting the UWI Township Project. It offers training in film and video production for youth in a number of under-served communities.

Since its inception the festival has grown significantly, from a four-day to an eight-day festival, receiving numerous international and local submissions every year. GATFFEST serves as a platform for the exposure of filmmaking talents of directors, producers, casts and crews. It is an opportunity to showcase new and emerging filmmakers who are telling stories through a mix of short films and documentaries.

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14 yrs in US for J’can who supplied stewardess with 60lbs of cocaine | Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Jamaica News | Loop News

A Jamaican man was on Thursday, July 7 sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison in the United States for supplying a JetBlue flight attendant with nearly 60 pounds of cocaine that she attempted to smuggle on board a flight at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Gaston Brown, 42, of Clarendon, Jamaica, was sentenced to 165 months by United States District Judge Christina A Snyder.

According to a statement from the United States’ Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, a federal grand jury indicted Brown in January 2017, charging him with two counts of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine, one count of unlawful use of a means of identification, one count of use of a counterfeit access device, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

“At the conclusion of a four-day trial in February 2018, a jury found Brown guilty of all charges,” the statement said.

It outlined that on six occasions between October 2015 and March 2016, Brown paid JetBlue flight attendant Marsha Gay Reynolds, 35, of Jamaica, New York, to transport cocaine and drug money across the country.

“Brown paid her to carry the drugs and cash in suitcases through ‘known crewmember’ checkpoints at LAX and New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport. As a known crewmember, Reynolds was subjected to much lighter screening at airport security checkpoints, and would be able to transport the cash and cocaine without being stopped,” the statement added.

To evade detection by law enforcement, Brown, described as “an illegal immigrant and convicted felon”, used identities he stole from two mentally disabled men, so he could meet Reynolds in the ‘sterile’ area of the airport, past security. While in the airport’s sterile area, he retook possession of the drug-and cash-laden suitcases, and travelled across the country with them undetected.

On March 18, 2016, Brown reportedly supplied approximately 27 kilograms (59.5 pounds) of cocaine to Reynolds. She then attempted to board a JetBlue flight in Terminal 4 at LAX. After showing her official badge and identification to the Transport Security Administration (TSA) officer on duty at the known crewmember checkpoint, Reynolds was randomly selected for additional screening. Reynolds was then escorted to a secondary screening area. Upon arriving at this checkpoint, Reynolds dropped her luggage, removed her shoes, and fled the area, running down an upward-travelling escalator and away from TSA officers.

Reynolds eventually surrendered herself to the Drug Enforcement Administration at JFK Airport on March 23, 2016. She remained in custody while her case was pending, and ultimately pleaded guilty in December 2016 to one count of conspiracy to possess and to distribute cocaine. In April 2018, she was given credit for time served, and was released.

Brown was indicted for the charges in this case while in federal custody for attempting to illegally re-enter the United States in April 2016 following deportation.

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Canada: Outage leaves many without mobile, Internet service | Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Jamaica News | Loop News

A widespread network outage from Rogers Communications Inc left many Canadian customers without mobile and Internet service Friday and caused problems for police, courthouses, passport offices, and other facilities.

A notice on the Toronto-based telecommunications company’s website said the outage is affecting both wireless and home service customers as well as phone and chat support.

The outage disrupted services across retailers, courthouses, airlines, train networks, credit card processors, and police forces, pushing many to delay business transactions, serve customers through analog means or even flock to coffee shops where they could find Wi-Fi.

The company offered no explanation for what caused the outage, its expected length, how many customers were impacted or where they were located.

“Our technical teams are working to restore our services alongside our global technology partners, and are making progress,” Rogers said in a statement.

“We know how much you rely on our networks. Today we have let you down. We are working to make this right as quickly as we can. We will continue to keep you updated, including when services will be back online.”

Toronto’s Go Transit said in a tweet that some parts of its system were affected by the outage and fares could not be purchased using debit or credit cards. E-tickets may also be unavailable, it warned.

Among the most serious impacts were warnings from police in Toronto and Ottawa of connection problems when Canadians called 911.

“If your call fails, please try again, or call from a landline or cellphone with another provider,” Ottawa Police said on Twitter.

The outage forced the postponement of The Weeknd’s tour stop at Toronto’s Rogers Centre. The Toronto date was one of only two set for Canada.

Scarborough Health Network, which operates three hospitals and eight satellite sites in Toronto, requested physicians and staff to head to their workplaces for any shifts for which they are scheduled to be on-call until the disruption is resolved.

In Quebec, some court matters were hampered. Peter Nygard’s Montreal court appearance on sex-related charges was put off because the fashion mogul, who is detained in a Toronto jail, couldn’t connect by video conference. His bail hearing will now take place next week.

Service Canada tweeted it, too, was impacted by outage with call centres and offices, including ones that issue passports, affected.

The outage stands to exacerbate passport delays that have left Canadians lined up outside Service Canada offices for lengthy periods of time as the government works through a backlog.

Canada Border Services Agency warned that people may not be able to complete submissions through the ArriveCAN app — a mandatory requirement for all cross-border travellers.

Many retailers and businesses were also facing trouble when trying to accept payments because Interac, which processes electronic financial transactions, said its online and checkout debit offerings and e-transfer services were impacted.

As a result, the Confederation Bridge, which links the provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, was unable to accept debit cards Friday morning. Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, said amusement park goers could only pay with credit cards. They were told on Facebook they must be able to access e-tickets on their phone or bring printed tickets to the park, if visiting Friday.

Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, showed people started reporting problems with Rogers’ service around 4:30am EDT and by 7am, 20,000 reports had been logged.

Many Rogers customers scrambled to find Internet service, heading to coffee shops to connect and trade tales of the outage.

Kathryn Bowen, 30, an independent fashion designer, spent Friday morning on the floor of a Starbucks in Toronto’s financial district, videoconferencing with clients.

“I don’t really know where to go because if I go home, I don’t have Internet,” said Bowen. “I can’t even step outside and text anyone because Rogers doesn’t work on my phone either, so I’m just sitting here until my phone dies basically.”
Roseanna Chen, 27, relied on a coffee shop as well, after her workplace’s Internet was hit by the outage, but found the cafe’s wireless network became unstable as it filled with people.

“We’re trying to see if (the office Wi-Fi) comes back,” said Chen, an accounting associate at Imperial PFS Canada. “If it doesn’t, we’ll probably try and head back home, but my Internet at home is also out.”

The country’s telecom sector is dominated by three large carriers — Rogers, BCE Inc and Telus Corp — and their hold on the industry has long been a concern of academics, who have called for regulators to increase competition for mobile and Internet services in Canada.

“The outage is illuminating the general lack of competition in telecommunications in Canada,” said Vass Bednar, executive director of McMaster University’s master of public policy programme.

Federal Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement that the government was monitoring the situation closely and had told Rogers “how important it is that this matter be resolved as soon as possible and for the company to provide prompt and clear communication directly to those impacted”.

Meanwhile, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre called on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to launch an inquiry under the Telecommunications Act into the outage.

The commission said it was reviewing the request.

Telus wasn’t impacted by the outage, but the Rogers rival warned that some customers may experience “slower than normal” data speeds because of increased usage by customers without access to home Internet.

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Young ‘Turks’ now charged with murder | Loop Jamaica

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The content originally appeared on: Jamaica News | Loop News
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Twenty-one-year-old Kino Thomas, otherwise called ‘Turks’, of Orange Bay Housing Scheme in Hanover, has been charged with the March 10, 2022 murder of 21-year-old Denarto Watson, otherwise called ‘Festa’ or ‘Bunga’, in Orange Bay.

Reports are that about 9:30 am, Watson was standing on the Orange Bay main road with three other persons when men drove up on a motorcycle and opened gunfire, hitting him.

The police were summoned and Watson was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Thomas is the second man who has been charged in relation to Watson’s killing. Diondre Young, otherwise called ‘Frenzie’, was previously charged.

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CPL, El Dorado renew partnership until 2026

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: INews Guyana
Hero CPL’s Pete Russell and DDL’s Komal Samaroo seal the deal with a handshake, in the presence of DDL’s Marketing Director Sharda Veeren- Chand and CPL’s Commercial Director Jamie Stewart.

By Jemima Holmes

What better to accompany the biggest party in sport than one of the best spirits in the Caribbean Region? And that is the way it will be for, at least, the next 5 years, as the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and El Dorado Rum renewed their partnership on Friday evening.

Since the Hero CPL’s first season in 2013, El Dorado had walked hand in hand with the franchise tournament, as the official spirit of the event.

Now, the partnership will endure another few years, much to the delight of Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) and CPL.

“I believe the partnership between CPL and the deal is a good one, a beneficial one and I think we both learned a lot about each other,” Komal Samaria, DDL’s Board of Directors shared at the event.

“But we recognize in DDL that brand building is a long-term process, it’s a long journey and we are prepared for long journeys and in building the El Dorado brand,  we try to demonstrate to the world that rum in general, and more particularly rum made in the Demerara region of Guyana is the best rum made anywhere,” he added.

More specific to their partnership with the ‘Biggest Party in Sport’, Samaria said, “And I believe we use the platform of CPL to communicate that message globally.”

“You are having you know the best in cricket and the best in the world of sports being played in the backyard of where the best rum is produced,” Samaria reiterated with a smile.

“Fortunately El Dorado bought into the vision of the biggest party in sport,” Hero CPL’s Commercial Director Jamie Stewart said prior to the partnership renewal.

Stewart went on to divulge more about the partnership between the two entities highlighting that it dates back to the CPL‘s inception in 2013.

“Going back to 2013 when the idea of CPL was just one page and the first, actually the very first, partners that we signed up for the CPL was El Dorado rum,” Stewart disclosed.

He further stated, “The two people seated to my right were involved in that conversation, in that discussion.”

“Thank you for your support then and for your support moving forward,” Stewart remarked.

The El Dorado Rum- CPL partnership that was signed on Friday evening will continue until 2026.

Hero CPL 2022 is expected to commence on August 31, 2022 and conclude on September 30, 2022. The tournament will move from St’. Kitts and Nevis, to St. Lucia, to Trinidad and Tobago and then concludes in Guyana, which will host their first final in the tournament’s 10-year history.

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