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THIS WEEK’S SUMMARY
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SPORTS OFFICIAL DOWNPLAYS JAMAICAN DOPING—07/25/09
According to Dr. Herb Elliott, member of the IAAF Medical and Anti-Doping Commission and the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission, there is nothing “major” associated with the five positive banned substance tests confirmed by the agencies among Jamaican athletes. Elliott said that the athletes would have to be informed before their names could be made public.
TOURIST GROUP URGES JAMAICANS TO “VOTE JAMAICA”—07/26/09
The Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) is encouraging all Jamaicans, including both those living on the island and in the Diaspora, to vote for Jamaica in the Roaming Gnome “Summer of Possibilities Competition” sponsored by Travelocity. Jamaica is vying with Cancun and Hawaii to be the fifth stop for the Roaming Gnome.
GOVERNMENT DISCUSSES FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR LADY B—07/27/09
The Jamaican Cabinet will consider arrangements for a funeral of Lady Gladys Maud Bustamante, the widow of Sir Alexander Bustamante, who died recently at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Lady Bustamante was 97 and had been a heroine in the labor movement.
FARMER CONSIDERS POSSIBILITIES FOR COCOA CROP—07/28/09
Sekou Phipps, 27, has decided to take on full-time farming and join with over 80 other farmers from across Jamaica to work with the Protected Areas and Rural Enterprise Project of the United States Agency for International Development in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Cocoa Industry Board. The groups sponsored workshops and technical forums to encourage the farming of cocoa in Jamaica.
CARICOM LEADERS TO MEET IN JAMAICA—07/29/09
The regional leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are scheduled to meet in Jamaican to discuss the group’s response to the worsening global economic crisis. The special regional task force is chaired by President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana and includes the Prime Ministers of Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
JAMAICAN WIDOW IN NEW JERSEY SEEKS HIGH COURT HEARING—07/29/09
A Jamaican woman in New Jersey, Osserritta Robinson, whose husband died in 2003 in a ferry crash is asking the United States Supreme Court to halt her deportation. Her lawyer has requested that the Court consider whether the government erred in terminating Robinson’s application for permanent residency. The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Robinson couldn’t stay in the country because her husband died before they had been married two years, as required in written statute.
GOVERNMENT WARNS OF BUDGET CUTS—07/30/09
The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) could call victim to budget cuts when Jamaica’s government begins its consideration of expenditures. The CDF was key to the election campaign of the Jamaica Labor Party in 2007 and has been touted by the government as a major achievement. About $2.4 billion was allocated for the agency in the 2009-2010 budget.
CUBA HELPS CREATE LOCAL EYE CLINIC—07/31/09
An ophthalmology clinic at St. Joseph’s Hospital will be established with the aid of the Cuban government as part of Jamaica’s continued cooperation with that nation. According to Rudyard Spencer, Jamaica’s health minister, the eye center will allow citizens to have better access to care in a local setting. Services at the clinic will be free to Jamaicans and CARICOM nationals.
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JAMAICAN DIASPORA NEWS
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OXFORD PUBLISHER APOLOGIZES FOR OMISSION IN DICTIONARY—07/25/09
The Oxford University Press in the United Kingdom has apologized for not mentioning an 18th century groups of Jamaican freedom fighters it a dictionary definition for the word “maroon.” According to a Jamaican official, the omission constitutes a “national insult.”
TURKS AND CAICOS MEDIA TO DEBUT SPECIAL ON JAMAICAN ATHLETES—07/26/09
A media team from Turks and Caicos has created a half-hour special program on their trip to Jamaica during the celebrations commemorating the homecoming of Jamaica’s Olympic champions from the 2008 Beijing summer games. The show will air on two TV stations in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos and also on the Turks and Caicos television website online.
JAMAICANS IN U.S. PREPARE FOR INDEPENDENCE—07/28/09
Jamaicans who live in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. are celebrating Jamaica’s 47th year of independence with a variety of official events. The Embassy of Jamaica, headed by Ambassador Anthony Johnson, will participate in a number of activities in conjunction with other leading Jamaican organizations in the area.
JAMAICANS CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE IN SOUTH FLORIDA—07/31/09
Jamaican nationals in the South Florida Diaspora celebrated the island’s independence day at the Premier Independence Ball, which was hosted by the Jamaica United Relief Association at the Grand Ballroom in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Sabrina Williams and Dwight Pinkney entertained the attendees.
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SPORTS
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BOLT AND TEAMMATES RUN VERY FAST 400-METER RELAY—07/25/09
Usain Bolt and his teammates ran the fourth-fastest 400-meter relay in history, clocking a time of 37.46 seconds at the London Grand Prix meet. In addition to Bolt, the team comprised Yohan Blake and Mario Forsythe of Jamaica and Daniel Bailey of Antigua.
JAMAICAN ATHLETES TEST POSITIVE FOR BANNED SUBSTANCE—07/27/09
Five Jamaican athletes have tested positive for using a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The drug methylxanthine is a substance within a category of stimulants banned by the organization. Allodin Fothergill and Lansford Spence, 400-meter runners who participate in the 4×400 relay in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, are two of those who tested positive, as did Sheri-Ann Brooks, Commonwealth Games 100-meter champion.
JAMAICAN BREAKS RECORD AT FINA SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS—07/28/09
Brad Hamilton has become the first Jamaican to participate in the 13th FINA Swimming World Championships in Rome, Italy. Hamilton broke Jamaica’s national record of 25.90 seconds in the 50-meter butterfly sprint with a time of 25.68.
JAMAICAN VICTORIOUS IN 100 METERS IN FINLAND—07/29/09
Sherri-Ann Brooks won the women’s 100-meter race with a time of 11.17 seconds at the Lapinlahti Athletics competition in Finland.
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DEVOTIONAL
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When Life Happens
The first twelve words of Isaiah 6:1 are words with which some of us are familiar: “In the year that king Uzziah died I [Isaiah] saw also the LORD.” Present in Isaiah’s words is a profound contrast – Israel’s king was dead, but Israel’s God still lives.
How many times have we allowed some event, some loss, to cause us to lose sight of the ever living God? In his commentary on this text (July 13, My Utmost for His Highest), Oswald Chambers writes, “Over and over again God has to remove our friends to put Himself in their place, and that is when we falter, fail, and become discouraged. . . . When the person died who represented for me all that God was, did I give up on everything in life? Did I become ill or disheartened? Or did I do as Isaiah did and see the Lord?” In other words, when something or someone we hold dear was removed from our lives, what was our response?
How we respond during the times when we are walking in our respective valleys is very much dependent on how much of God we know before those times come. For some of us, our most memorable times with God were during some of the most difficult and challenging times of our lives. While we see from our limited perspectives and consider those times to be ones of disappointments and tragedies, it is possible that God, seeing things from His perspective, permits them in our paths so we would see Him. We have to be careful that we do not become so caught up in our circumstances that we fail to see God who stands supreme over our lives.
Chambers continues, “Your priorities must be God first, God second, and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God and no one [or nothing] else is taken into account whatsoever. Your prayer will then be, “In all the world there is no one but You, dear God; there is no one but You.”
“In the year king Uzziah died I saw the Lord.” Who do you see when life happens?
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CREDITS/SOURCES
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The weekly news is compilation of new articles from top Caribbean and Jamaican news sources.
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