WEST PALM BEACH TO HOST 2015 TROPICAL RUM FESTIVAL—01/24/15
The third annual Tropical Rum Festival is scheduled for February 7, 2015, at the West Palm Beach, Florida, waterfront park. The festival will provide its guests with rum tasting events from both local and global rum producers, and feature authentic island foods. The event will also include performance by several reggae bands, including Jamaica’s Reggae Ambassadors.
JAMAICAN DIES IN BOATING ACCIDENT IN BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS—01/25/15
A Jamaican engineer and a woman died off the coast of the British Virgin Islands due to a boating mishap. The names of the victims have not been released. The accident involve a group traveling to Oil Nut Bay in an inflatable boat, which crashed into a rock. Four other people on the boat were injured and treated at a hospital.
TRADE MISSION TO TURKS AND CAICOS ATTENDED BY JAMAICAN PRODUCERS—01/26/15
Business links developed during a three-day trade mission could mean more Jamaican products in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) in the near future. The Jamaica Exporters’ Association (JEA) and the Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA) headed a team of vendors that traveled to the TCI. The group met with local business leaders and discussed their products and the services potentially available to TCI.
2015 BLOOD DRIVE IN JAMAICA ENHANCED BY UK DIASPORA—01/27/15
A mobile blood collection unit has been donated by Jamaicans in the United Kingdom. The equipment will facilitate the collection of 30,000 units of blood on the island in 2015. The unit was donated to Jamaica’s National Blood Transfusion service and is the only such unit in Jamaica. It is designed to provide access for donors who cannot travel to one of the ten fix blood collection facilities. Dr. Fenton Ferguson, Minister of Health, thanked Rudi Page of RAFFA International and Angelia Christian of the Angel Foundation for the work done in partnership with the High commissioner of London, Aloun Ndombet Assamba,
JAMAICAN-BORN MAN COMMITS MURDER, THEN SUICIDE IN HOME DEPOT STORE—01/28/15
According to police in New York, Calvin Esdaile, Jr., 31, who was born in Jamaica, killed a supervisor at Home Depot and then shot himself. Esdaile had been employed at Home Depot since 2011. He shot the supervisor of the lighting department three times with a .38-calibre revolver before turning the gun on himself. He had arrived in the United States from Jamaica in 2006. He lived in Brooklyn and had a six-year-old son.
JAMAICAN GOVERNMENT CONGRATULATES KACI FENNELL—01/29/15
Sandrea Falconer, Jamaica’s Minister of Information, took action to congratulate Miss Universe Jamaica Kaci Fennell on her performance at the pageant in Miami, Florida. A statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister praised Fennell’s grace and poise and how she made Jamaicans at home and in the Diaspora proud of their homeland.
FIFTH PLACE FINISH FOR FENNELL AT MISS UNIVERSE CRITICIZED—01/30/15
Miss Jamaica Kaci Fennell received a fifth-place final position at the Miss Universe pageant in Miami, Florida, but many audience members were very upset at the judges’ decision. Many felt that Fennell should have been given the title of Miss Universe instead of Miss Colombia. Paulina Vega. When Fennell was announced as fourth runner-up, a large part of the audience booed the decision, feeling that she was “robbed” of the title and that race was a factor in the decision..
JAMAICAN IN UK SENTENCED FOR SENDING DRUGS, MONEY BACK HOME—01/30/15
Everton Clarke, a Jamaican living in the United Kingdom, received a sentence of four years for sending over £18,500 he got from selling drugs back to his homeland. Clarke, 38, was dealing in cocaine and heroin in Gloucester while claiming he was unemployed and receive housing benefits. His illicit activity was discovered in the summer of 2014 when police found 45 grams of cocaine hidden in a diaper he had hidden in a dust bin.
