Black Immigrant Daily News
door Steven Seedo PARAMARIBO — “De auditie video’s van de verschillende kandidaten hebben ze laten zien aan verschillende, willekeurige mensen.
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Firefighter slapped with shooting and other gun-related charges
Live blog: Day 6… Semi-final action takes centre stage!
World Champs: Navasky Anderson finishes 7th in heat, out of 800m semis
Transport operators fuming over amendment to TA Act
Jamaica’s PM and wife celebrate 25 years of marriage
Transgender prisoner gets two inmates pregnant in women’s prison
St Lucia enforces law requiring prescription for birth control
JFF apologises to Reggae Girlz stranded in the US over lack of funds
Cows block Florida’s Turnpike after truck fire
Vehicle inspector booked for murder after ‘three months on the run’
Eyes on Oregon22
July 15, 2022 08:40 PM ET – Updated
Janieve Russell in action in one of the heats of the women’s 400m hurdles on Tuesday at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. She won the race in a time of 54.52 to book her spot in the semi-finals.
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With around 2,000 athletes from 200 countries competing at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, at the 2022 World Athletics Championships which got underway on Friday, the stage is set for an exciting display of track and field prowess over 10 days.
Athletes from the Caribbean are among them, with many from the region expected to perform well, including Jamaicans. Stay with us as we bring you updates from World Champs. Please give this blog a few seconds to load.
Ministry of Education issues bulletin for administrators
EUGENE, Oregon: After finishing third in the women’s 100m final at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday night, Elaine Thompson-Herah revealed that she has been facing a plethora of struggles le
Jamaica will be represented in the World Championships 200m final by all three women who swept the podium places in the 100m final.
Shericka Jackson, the pre-race favourite based on her outstanding
Popular deejay Leonard ‘Merciless’ Bartley is dead.
Reports are that the body of the veteran dancehall artiste was found in a motel on Beechwood Avenue in St Andrew.
Reports reaching Loop N
A miscalculation in the heats in Tokyo was costly: Jackson eased up at the finish line, consequently missing the semifinal by 0.004
EUGENE, Oregon: Quarter-miler Christopher Taylor says he is in good condition to secure a spot in the men’s 400m final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
There have been questi
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Israel Khan,SC. –
OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has come under heavy fire from the most senior attorney at the Inner bar currently in practice, Israel Khan, SC.
In a letter in which he minced no words, Khan said Persad-Bissessar’s “baseless attack” on the integrity of the members of the Inner bar (those who have attained senior counsel status) was “obscene.”
At a UNC virtual report forum on Monday, the Opposition leader accused some lawyers of “grovelling” to support Attorney General Reginald Armour at last Friday’s vote of a motion of no confidence in him as AG by the Law Association because of the bungling of the State’s civil-forfeiture case involving the Piarco Airport corruption case in Miami.
At Friday’s vote, 317 lawyers were against the motion of no confidence while 301 voted against the motion to call on Armour to resign as AG.
The two motions failed.
At the special general meeting of the Law Association, Armour apologised to the legal fraternity and several senior attorneys spoke out in his defence during a debate on the motions brought by a requisition from 40 attorneys, led by Kiel Taklalsingh.
The Opposition Leader said those who voted against the motion and spoke out in defence of Armour did so to protect their state briefs and board appointments.
In his letter, Khan said Persad-Bissessar, who is also a senior counsel, had no shame and was not a leader of the Inner bar.
He said he was not a member of the UNC, but supported the party and recognised Persad-Bissessar as its leader.
“ I accept and know that you are an extremely strong woman, an astute and cunning politician who deserves a second chance to be the Prime Minister of this country.”
But, he said he did not recognise her as a leader of the Inner bar, neither civil nor criminal and as a leader of the criminal bar, he does not accept or recognise her as an attorney deserving the status of senior counsel.
He questioned her receiving the honour of “silk,” asking for particulars of her practice as an attorney.
Khan further told her, “You are an experienced politician, and politics has a morality of its own. And in your quest to undermine and thus destroy the credibility of your opponent, Dr Keith Rowley, you are attacking the merit, ability and integrity of his chosen Attorney General
Reginald Armour, SC, – a man of impeccable integrity.
“But you did not stop there! You have gone beyond the attacks on the politicians and you have now descended into the arena of the legal profession to attack the members of the Inner bar who supported the Attorney General in the recent no-confidence motion.”
Khan said it was incumbent on him to put her in her place.
He took issue with her describing senior attorneys as Cepep and URP lawyers who sang for their supper, naming those who the Opposition Leader singled out in her speech on Monday. One of them was former attorney general Russell Martineau, SC.
“He possesses the merit, ability and integrity of an honourable member of the Inner bar. Yet you made a wicked, vicious, vulgar and immoral attack on his impeccable integrity and without blinking an eye you stated you had the utmost respect for him. What an oxymoron.”
Khan said Persad-Bissessar was in no position to criticise any senior counsel even if they supported Armour on Friday and called on her to return the instrument of senior counsel to the President.
Khan accused the Opposition Leader of putting her foot in her mouth and crossing the line by her condemnation of those attorneys who spoke in defence of the AG.
He also condemned those senior counsel who failed to contribute to Friday’s debate, accusing them of “showing their true colours” as nothing “but a legal parasitic oligarchy.”
However, despite his strong condemnation of Persad-Bissessar, Khan said he will still support her as the UNC leader and will still vote to make her the next PM by voting for the UNC’s candidate for the Tunapuna electoral district at the next general election.
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Germaine Noel. –
LAUREL V WILLIAMS AND NARISSA FRASER
Germaine Noel, the Guapo woman who went missing last month, has been reunited with relatives.
Police said a villager was in a taxi and saw her walking along High Street, San Fernando, on Wednesday morning. The villager, a soldier, identified as Fitz, got out of the car and greeted her.
Noel, who is hearing impaired and cannot speak, appeared disoriented.
She was taken to the San Fernando police station, and relatives were contacted. Relatives arrived and took her to the Point Fortin hospital for a checkup. She was later discharged.
Her sister Charmaine Noel spoke briefly to Newsday by phone. She said she was excited and happy when she learned her sister had been found.
“I was so glad she was safe and not harmed. They medically examined her and she has no scars or marks of violence.”
She is now resting at home and is said to be behaving “like her usual self.”
Noel was last seen in video footage on June 14, around midday, at Harris Promenade, San Fernando.
Since her disappearance, relatives as well as members of the NGO Hunters Search and Rescue Team, led by Vallence Rambharat, had been searching for her.
Point Fortin mayor Saleema Thomas, like the family, had been calling on the public for information about Noel’s whereabouts.
Thomas took to social media on Wednesday saying it is “with great happiness” that Noel was found alive.
“Germaine has been missing for over a month. This is the power of God, the power of prayer, the power of a family’s sheer determination to find their loved one, never giving up for one minute.
“Thank you to everyone in our community and nation who would have lifted Germaine in prayer. Thank you to the authorities for their help in the search for Germaine. We are so happy about this positive news this morning. To God be the glory!”
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For fifty years – since 1969 – the Pegasus was the only ‘name brand” hotel in our dear mudland. Imagine that!! Yet we’d been persuaded by the Brits that we were a “Caribbean” country – all of which were chock-full with five-star hotels that they could – and did! – flaunt in our faces!! The hotels, of course, represented the acme of “First World” fantasy living!! But juxtaposed with our shacks, maybe – as Marx suggested – if we had them, our revolution might’ve actually happened??
As it was, we had our solitary “Peg”, which gradually sank into genteel disrepair like the rest of our once-proud Georgetown Creole upper crust!! But thankfully, not into “disrepute”, like the nearby Tiger Bay quick-time spots!! It was joined by the Princess – now the Ramada Princess – next to the Providence Stadium, just in time for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. But it was a visionary President Jagdeo who set the Marriott brand in train in 2011, and completed same in 2015 – just in time for our oil boom!! The fella must’ve been psychic – since in 2011, the worry was how’d we ever fill the US$51M top-of-the-line 5-Star hotel!!
Now, even with the venerable Pegasus rising like a Phoenix (to mix two metaphors!) with its brand-new, futuristic, 12-floor, megalith-like extension, everyone’s sweating how soon the dozen or so other hotel projects are gonna be completed. To accommodate the deluge of business, overseas Guyanese and tourists who’ll be flocking to the shores of the FASTEST GROWING ECONOMY IN THE WORLD!! That’s right – that’s us!! And the erstwhile Caribbean destinations that used to snicker at us must be getting greener than sea moss!!One report in this paper described hotels for which the sod HAD BEEN TURNED, where the sod IS TURNING, and where the SOD WILL BE TURNED!! That’s a whole lotta sod in play!!But seriously, folks, while the average man and woman in the street are surely impressed that we’re finally getting to look a little less that your typical Third World picture-postcard dump, they gotta be asking when is all this development’s gonna be reaching them?? After all, the PNC Coalition left them in the trenches, being battered by COVID-19 as hundreds of businesses had to close or cut back. Then the PPP had to deal with the second whammy of the fall-out from the Ukraine war!! Supply-chain disruptions piled on supply-chain disruptions – all pushing prices to the sky and draining pocketbooks that were depleted, to begin with.
Well, all your Eyewitness can say is: the Government’s doing a dammed good job in this transition between the trail-wreck left by the PNC and pulling it out back onto the tracks of full employment!!The folks staying in those hotels will be opening up businesses!
…and Suriname protests
What we can’t afford to do is to imitate what’s happening next door in Suriname. There, the good citizens had voted in a man names Bouterse, who’d staged a coup in 1980, and in 1982 had lined up 15 Opposition leaders who criticised him and shot them dead. He appointed “civilian governments”, but he really ruled behind the scenes, and indulged in drug smuggling and gun running on the side!!
By 1987, he formed a party, NDP, but lost ignominiously in the elections – only to depose the Government with a telephone call in 1990!! Eventually, he won in 2010, and again in 2015. Go figure!! The young’uns had forgotten about his origins?? By then he’d not only drained the treasury, but put the country in debt to the tune of one-and-a-half-times their entire GDP!! Their foreign reserves had been wiped out.Now his supporters are picketing Santokie because he hasn’t solved Bouterse’s mess in two years!!Well, here, the CoI will soon confirm the PNC’s perfidies!!
…and growth
No matter where you look, economies have to first be allowed to grow – during which time some areas would grow more than others. But eventually governmental policies would smooth that out to deliver equitable development.Be woke!!
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I have always been interested in and fascinated by the lyrics of Jimmy Cliff’s song, a very old and popular one, entitled “Under the Sun, Moon and Stars.” I have wondered what the message or moral really is. After pondering this for some time, I believe I have reached the Aha Moment. It is tempting, at first blush, to misconstrue his intention. It may seem that he is promoting a selfish, acquisitive and hedonistic culture. For instance, witness the following lines from one of the verses:
I want it right here on Earth.
Got to have some fun,
‘for [before] my life is done.
Let happiness run under
the Sun, Moon and Stars.
Isolated in that way it can be misleading. It appears to run contrary to deferred gratification and it certainly does violence to what religious leaders are at great pains to teach and preach, that is, make sacrifices now, turn the other cheek, and so on, in the hope of salvation at some distant or indistinct time, based purely on Christian Faith. This is actually the essence of Christianity and the very reason, curiously, Karl Marx refers to religion as the “opium of the people” in the famous statement, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
Karl Marx really meant that religion acts as an illusory or deceptive buffer or bulwark against oppression, apparently assuaging the pain so that essentially those who oppress and who mete out injustice are cushioned and shielded from the anger of the sufferers (the masses). This is so because religion says to them that it is okay to suffer now as their present suffering on earth is transient and they will receive permanent relief in heaven. Tragically, the foregoing was also a convenient rationalisation for the atrocities of dictators like Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Kaddafi, and others who are moving inexorably and relentlessly in that direction (and who simply do not learn from the mistakes of others).
In contemporary Dominica, and I suspect other Caribbean islands, it is therefore not surprising when religious leaders condemn people who complain or criticize those in authority. Turn the other cheek, they say; don’t be negative; be patient; revenge is mine, says the Lord, and so forth. Evidently, scolding those in authority has never been a comfortable or easy endeavour for the institutional Church. The latter, save a few nonconformists (as it were), appears more at ease and secure when it is on the side of
the oppressor, or so it seems. Hence Jimmy Cliff is saying:
My fore-parents worked, from
sun-up, ’til sun-down.
Peace could not be found now
they’re under the ground.
I’ve heard dem complain and
cried out in pain.
Seeking peaceful gain under the
Sun, Moon and Stars.
But he quickly rejects the complacency and satisfaction with their condition/status,
which he views in his forebears:
Won’t happen to me.
I’m not blind, you see.
I’ve got to be free.
I want it right here on Earth.
This is the moral of the song. It is an activist or revolutionary chant (hymn, if you will) and that is why I find profound peace and comfort in such songs. It is a declaration that “We are not ignorant and what we know is not what you taught us”. It is a song for the emancipated and conscious mind. It is not about hedonism; rather it is about justice and equity. It implies that some people ought not to be enjoying the fruits of the labour of others. It speaks to a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. It eschews exploitation (“I like work, you know. But
when I work I must get paid”). He wants justice and liberty right here on earth. The following lines are merely imagery or metaphors which emphasize the importance of being rewarded presently for hard and honest work, as opposed to exploitation of others, theft, embezzlement, corruption,
dependency, and so on:
Don’t want it on Venus, Saturn
nor Uranus.
Don’t want it on Pluto, I want it
Right here on Earth.
Don’t want it on Jupiter,
Neptune nor on Mercury.
Don’t want it on Mars,
but under the Sun, Moon and stars.
Under the Sun,
under the Moon,
under the Stars, wherever you are!
Got to have some fun under the Sun, Moon and Stars.
Let happiness run under the Sun, Moon and Stars.
In the month of August when we celebrate Emancipation, I believe this song, and others in that genre, can help to raise our self-esteem as self-respecting people who believe in our own dignity. We must have high expectations of ourselves. We must be so confident in ourselves that we must expect to be treated with respect and not
disdain.
After one hundred and seventy-eight years of freedom from slavery, why do beautiful young ladies, apparently intelligent, accept abuse (verbal and physical) from dunce attention-seeking men who wear their pants under their buttocks, exposing their under-wears (and walking like lizards jumping on their tails)? Why do people not feel that earning their own incomes, even if small, is the route to true independence and emancipation and is superior to being on the welfare line or queue, especially when they are able-bodied and able-minded? Why do apparently educated people, who know better and are literate (we assume), accept rubbish from others who are sometimes younger than they are and do not have the mental capacity that they do? Why do Christian leaders who should know better, selectively and opportunistically accept and condone immoral deeds from those who can provide them with financial benefits and other gifts? And why, after one hundred and seventy-eight years of freedom from slavery, some people would like to send others to the gas chamber for simply posing what I consider to be legitimate questions like these? I cannot speak for others but I will certainly say on my own behalf that I will not shy away from my civic duties. Jimmy Cliff’s song provides the clue:
I’m not blind, you see.
I’ve got to be free.
I want it right here on Earth
(C) Dr. Francis O. Severin is Acting Director of the University of the West Indies Open Campus Country Sites
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Loud rumblings can be heard within the belly of the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP), the Sun can report.
Members say they are upset over the unusual long delay in holding delegates conferences which according to the DLP’s constitution should be an annual affair.
The last one was held four years ago, in Pointe Michel in September 2013. At that conference, a resolution, read by Edward Registe, general secretary, ensured that the entire executive was returned unopposed for one year.
“The executive of the party doing what they want,” a top member of the DLP, who requested anonymity to be able to discuss the issue, told the SUN. “The year has come and gone, we are now well passed that and they (the executive) are playing football with the delegate’s conference.”
But in response, another top party official revealed that the DLP expects to hold a delegate’s conference towards the end of 2017.
“They (the executive) have put it in the hands of a management team. I can confirm to you that the executive gave them the power to set the date for the delegate’s conference and so we are waiting on them,” the source said. “It (the issue of a delegate’s conference) has come up several times but the executive gave that power to the management team. This matter comes on regularly at meetings but it remains the same.”
He added: “It went to a vote at Goodwill School to put the matter in care of a management team. All the 21 constituencies have to put in their nominations. But for now nothing has happened,” the source said.
The executive of the DLP consists of political leader, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit; deputy leader, Ambrose George; president, Petter Saint Jean; general secretary, Edward Registe and public relations officer, Dr. Philbert Aaron.
Asked if he expects changes in the executive whenever a conference is convened, the source said the position of deputy political leader, held by Ambrose George for more than a decade, will be up for grabs.
“He is not expected to put his hat in the ring since he won’t be a candidate for the next elections, but with the way things are going expect anything, it will be difficult to keep those who want to be on the executive out, I promise you it will be fireworks,” the source said. “We are waiting on the management committee to set the date for the delegate’s conference and the place, to be ratified by the executive who it seem like they don’t want to leave office.”
Meanwhile, the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) is expected to hold its delegates conference in January 2018 when observers expect several challenges to the position of party leader now held by Leader of the Opposition Lennox Linton. The UWP last held a “special delegates’ conference” in 2016.
Additionally, nominations for the post of Deputy Leader previously held by Joshua Francis will be highly interesting since Francis was stripped of that post on 24 April 2016 following allegations of inappropriate behaviour with a minor. Reportedly estranged from the party for months since then, Francis has apparently been welcomed back into the fold.
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Des joueurs professionnels de football ont rencontré les responsables de clubs et entraîné du 11 au 15 juillet, durant cinq jours des jeunes dans le cadre de La Corsair Foot Academy. Samedi, à la résidence départementale, ils ont fait le point en présence de Guy Losbar, président du Département.
Pendant cinq jours, des professionnels de la planète football, des célébrités ont entraîné des jeunes de Guadeloupe dans le cadre de la 6e édition de La Corsair Foot Academy. Ils ont échangé et conseillé avec les responsables de clubs, transmis les valeurs sportives aux jeunes mais ” il n’y a pas eu de repérage talents à proprement parler “, comme l’a souligné Sydney Govou, footballeur professionnel. Pour Luc Sonor, ancien joueur international, consultant de Foot Academy, cette édition est…
France-Antilles Guadeloupe
1025 mots – 20.07.2022
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Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness and his wife, Juliet, the Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Rural, are celebrating 25 years of marriage today.
The couple shared sweet messages to each other on social media on Wednesday to mark the milestone.
“Happy anniversary J (@julietholness), today we celebrate 25 years of marriage. We look forward to many more years of love, happiness, family, commitment, and friendship,” Prime Minister Holness’s Instagram account captioned a photo of the two.
The same photo was posted on the Instagram account of Juliet Holness and extolled the partnership and friendship they’ve built over the years.
“Twenty-five years ago I married my best friend. Two and a half decades, two sons, countless amazing memories, many lessons and triumphs later, we remain committed to this friendship, this partnership, this journey of life together. Cheers to many more years of growing together my rock, my support, my confidant. Happy anniversary my darling.”
Their posts were immediately flooded with followers congratulating the two with some dubbing them a “power couple”.
“My favs hottest power couple out deh,” one follower wrote.
“Happy Anniversary to 25th anniversary to u both more and more blessings and love, cover them, Lord,” another commented.
The high school sweethearts and St Catherine High alumni got married in 1997. The couple’s two children are Adam and Matthew.
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The Transport Operators Development Sustainable Services (TODSS) will be looking at the recently amended Transport Authority Act that could see transport operators fined up to $500,000 or serve six months in prison for using ‘bad words’ to members of the Transport Authority, who are on duty.
The various transport associations were not consulted — as is customary with other sectors that would be affected by any change in law — before the amendment was pushed through.
Recently when the Education Bill was being discussed, the Jamaica Teachers Association was represented in the committee stage of the Bill.
President of TODSS Edgerton Newman said that whilst he has always implored transport operators to be respectful of law officers and passengers, that piece of legislation is unfortunate.
“We are saying to lawmakers rethink that because you are going to have a hard time in court with us. What one must understand is that the government must spend serious time looking at crime in the country,” Newman said.
Newman pointed out that the new Transportation Act and the Road Traffic Act were implemented to reduce fatal crashes on our roads.
“How is bad word going to reduce fatal crashes on our road? We are concerned. We are putting this piece of legislation before our legal team before we make any strong comment,” he said.
He said the government has been using the Transportation Act and the Road Traffic Act to earn monies off transport operators.
“You as a private man who work at a media house can tell members of the Transport Authority any amount of bad words and nothing comes of it but if I say ‘damn’ to a Transport Authority inspector I am charged $500,000. We are guinea pigs,” he exclaimed.
Newman added: “Who is killing people on our roads? Who killed 482 people on our road last year, not taxi man. [It] is the high-end man who do anything on the road and can get away [with it].”
Meanwhile some transport operators in Spanish Town and Portmore, St Catherine are fuming at the recent amendment of the Act.
“They should go look for police who are hitmen and criminals who they give red plate to that are kidnapping and robbing people because real taxi men are not into that. The transport inspectors don’t have any manners, they treat us like dogs — and now they have power to send us to prison if we answer them,” said Conroy who operates in Spanish Town.
Speedy who plies the Waterford Route pointed out that this is just a new way of exploiting taxi operators for money. “They don’t respect us, and treat our sector like it is a hustle. We pay taxes even more than many Jamaicans but we get treated the worst,” she said.
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