Staff Writer—————————————-
THIS WEEK”S SUMMARY
—————————————-
JAMAICAN DRIVERS TO FACE MORE BREATHALYZER TESTING—03/05/11
Owen Ellington, commissioner of police in Jamaica, has decided that breathalyzer tests must be given every time there is a motor vehicle crash, a road block, or a speed check. He issued his order following a number of meetings with the National Road Safety Council.
GOLDING TO PRESENT “BOMBSHELL” IN DUDUS CASE—03/06/11
Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding is set to take center stage at the commission of enquiry investigating the Dudus/Manatt charges. Golding says he is “eager” to give witness testimony to the commission, and he warned that what he has to say will be “explosive.” His comments are expected to take aim at the Opposition People’s National Party, particularly its lead lawyer, K.D. Knight.
“WAY OUT” PROJECT TO BENEFIT WOMEN OF JAMAICA—03/07/11
Economic benefits could be on the way for thousands of women in Jamaica as a result of a new government program. The program, “The Way Out: Jamaican Women’s Political and Economic Empowerment,” is set for launch on March 8, 2011, which is International Women’s Day. It will focus on education and training that will lead to better jobs for women. Olivia Grange, Minister of Youth, Sports, and Culture, and Lade Allen, wife of the Governor General, along with Donna Parchment Brown, CEO of the Dispute Resolution Foundation, will speak at an event scheduled for the project’s launch.
GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS ITS ROLE REGARDING ENERGY WASTE—03/08/11
According to Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding, his government has is not ruling out the imposition of a tax on imported electrical equipment that is inefficient in operation and wastes energy. He made his remarks at the commissioning ceremony for nine new wind turbine generators at Wigton Windfarm. He has instructed government ministers to review the idea of using taxes to encourage the purchase of more energy-efficient equipment.
PHILLIPS FACES CENSURE MOTION—03/08/11
Dr. Peter Phillips is facing a censure motion brought against him by Gregory Mair, North East St. Catherine Member of Parliament. The motion involves the way in which Phillips signed to Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) on behalf of the government of Jamaica. Phillips signed these memoranda in 2004 with representatives from the United Kingdom and United States at the time he was the national security minister. The MOUs permit information to be shared among the countries in order to combat international crime. The issue has been an important part of the Dudus/Manatt investigation.
LIGHTBOURNE SAYS SHE IS UNAWARD OF COKE LOBBY—03/09/11
Dorothy Lightbourne, Jamaica’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, testified in the Dudus/Manatt enquiry that she was ignorant of issues relating to the hiring of a law firm to fight the extradition of Christopher “Dudus” Coke to the United States on drug and weapons charges. Lightbourne said she did not know about the authorization received by a Los Angeles law firm to fight the Coke extradition. Coke has been linked to the Jamaica Labor Party.
JAMAICAN WORKER CHARGED WITH TERRORISM—03/10/11
David Bernard, 46, has the distinction to be the first Jamaican charged with terrorism by the Organized Crime Investigation Division under the Terrorism Prevention Act. Bernard works in a restaurant at Norman Manley International Airport. The charges stem from a call to the Transnational Crime and Narcotics Division, which alleged that a worker at an airport duty-free shop planned to put explosives on an American Airlines aircraft. After investigation, police determined that the charges resulted from a personal vendetta against the employee.
HENRY WANTS TO AVOID PROTESTS IN TRELAWNY—03/11/11
Mike Henry, Jamaican Minister of Transport and Works, has called for the residents of northwest Trelawny to eliminate their plans to protest bad road conditions with road-blocking demonstrations. Henry believes the protests could have a negative impact on the cruise industry at Falmouth, imposing travel barriers to ship passengers scheduled in visit Trelawney parish.
———————————————–
JAMAICAN DIASPORA NEWS
———————————————–
JAMAICAN WRITERS SHARE IDEAS IN BLACK HISTORY MONTH—03/05/11
Three Jamaican authors now living in Canada joined together to present their views during Black History Month 2011. Olive Senior, Lorna Goodison, and Pamela Mordecai have, between them, hundreds of fiction and non-fiction titles to their credit. They participated in a special Black History Month series event at the Toronto Public Library moderated by Donna Bailey Nurse, writer and critic, to discuss their careers.
JAMAICANS PARTICIPATE IN FLORIDA CLAY SHOOTING COMPETITION—03/06/11
Members of the Jamaica Skeet Club performed well at the yearly Seminole Cup clay shooting competition in Central Florida. Overall performance leader Bruce Duquesnay placed in the top 35 of a field of 500 international competitors. According to his coach, Khaleel Azan, Duquesnay won three B-class events, showing a “major talent” because Jamaicans shoot fewer targets per year than U.S. or UK shooters. Shooters in the U.S. and UK shoot about 10,000 targets each year, compared to 1,500 for Jamaicans.
JAMAICAN-BORN DOCTOR WORKS ON INTERNATIONAL STAGE—03/07/11
Born in Kingston and now living in Florida, Dr. Linda Jane Chen credits St. Hugh’s High School for Girls and Campion College for her success. Chen studied in England and at the University of Miami, and then got a medical degree from the School of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin. She is now assistant professor of clinical surgery at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. She is also the director of the Live Donor Kidney Transplant program. She is a board-certified surgeon.
JAMAICAN RECEIVES HIGHEST CATHOLIC AWARD GIVEN TO LAYPERSON—03/08/11
Sydney McFarlane, who was born in Jamaica and not lives in the United Kingdom, has received the highest honor a layperson can get from the Catholic Church. Bishop of Nottingham Malcolm McMahon recommended McFarlane for the award of the Benemerenti Medal. Pope Benedict XVI made the award in recognition of McFarlane’s 20-plus years of service to a counseling service charity operated by members of the Church known as Marriage Care. McFarlane attended St. Aloysius Primary School in Kingston and was an altar boy at Holy Trinity Cathedral before moving to the United Kingdom in 1955.
————————————————-
CARIBBEAN NEWS SUMMARY provided by Caribbeantopnews.com
————————————————-
CHAVEZ OF VENEZUELA THANKED BY SEAN PENN—03/05/11
CARIBBEAN REGION A MAJOR TRANSIT LOCATION FOR ILLEGAL DRUGS—03/06/11
CANDIDATE FOR HAITIAN PRESIDENCY VISITS FLORIDA—03/07/11
FOUR-STAR HOTEL ON TAP FOR DOMINICA—03/08/11
CARIBBEAN TOURIST GROUP WORRIED ABOUT CRUISE BUSINESS—03/09/11
FIDEL CASTRO GETS 100,000 FOLLOWERS TO TWITTER—03/10/11
———————————————–
BUSINESS NEWS SUMMARY
———————————————–
JAMAICAN FIRMS ENCOURAGED TO ADOPT ROADWAYS—03/07/11
The Jamaican government wants businesses on the island to help with road maintenance by participating in the Adopt-A-Roadway program. As an example, a two-year contract for landscaping and maintaining part of the Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston was signed by Sampars Cash and Carry. The program is run by the Tourism Product Development Company Ltd. and the National Solid Waste Management Authority.
JAMAICA’S FRIENDLY INVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT LAUDED BY U.S. FIRM—03/08/11
Efforts by Jamaica’s government to provide a legislative and fiscal environment that is attractive to investors obtained strong support from a large U.S.-based law firm, Baker and McKenzie. Simon P. Beck, principal partner of the firm with responsibilities for global wealth management, praised the Jamaican government for positioning the nation as a prime destination for investment.
ORGANIZATION OFFERS TO MENTOR FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS—03/09/11
Women Business Owners (WBO) Jamaica Ltd., which includes some of the leading business women on the island, is launching a national project to benefit 300 women entrepreneurs. The organization’s project is funded by the Multi-Lateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank. It will run for three years and be called Strengthening and Promoting Women Entrepreneurs in Jamaica. It will offer business training and mentor each of the 300 women individually by working with them at their businesses to ensure its growth.
HIGHER PRODUCTION RATES SET FOR NORANDA BAUXITE—03/10/11
Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners estimates that it will reach record production levels in 2012. Pansy Johnson, president of the company, says that 2011 is expected to be challenging for the firm, which is based in St. Ann, but production of bauxite will increase by some 20 percent to a minimum or 5.1 million tons in 2012.
—————————————————–
TECHNOLOGY NEWS SUMMARY
—————————————————–
MICROSOFT THE LOSER AS ANDROID PASSES RIM—03/08/11
Microsoft had eight percent of the mobile operating system market as of January 2011, a decrease of 1.7 percent from October 2010. Comparatively, Android’s share of the market rose 7.7 percent, and RIM and HP/Palm also fell. RIM dropped 3.5 percent in October 2010 and 5.4 percent in January 2011. Microsoft has a poor record in the mobile market overall and is still recovering from the failure of its KIN cell phones. And the Window Phone 7 OS is not performing well. In general, Microsoft is losing the fight for mobile phone dominance to Android.
NEW FIREFOX 4 RELEASE CANDIDATE AVAILABLE—03/09/11
The new release candidate for Firefox Version 4 can now be downloaded for the Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. It is out of beta and is available in over 70 languages. Millions of users testing the new version will join to validate new features and test the stability and HTML 5 capabilities of Firefox 4.
SETI WANTS INDIVIDUALS TO HELP WITH HUNT FOR EXTRATERRESTRIALS—03/10/11
The director of the SETI Institute, Jill Tartar, wants individuals to use their smart phones to help the organization search for intelligent life in the universe. A private beta test of SetiQuest Explorer has begun, and the Institute hopes that hobbyist astronomers will help it perform tasks that cannot be done well by computer technology. The new mobile app allows users to search for signs of ETs. The app runs on Android 2.2 and will be available for iPhones in the summer of 2011. Desktop computers running Flash Player 10.2 can also use the app.
SMART GRIDS SOON TO GRACE FLORIDA AND CAROLINAS—03/11/11
Progress Energy plans to put $500 million toward upgrading two electric utilities in Florida and in North and South Carolina to a smart-grid system. The two utilities provide electric power to more than 3.1 million customers. The upgrade will be funded with $200 million from the United States Department of Energy via a grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The project will help efforts of IBM to create a greater presence in the potentially significant industry of smart-grid analytics. Progress Energy will use WebSphere software from IBM to install and implement the smart-grid systems.
———————————————————————–
CARIBBEAN TECHNOLOGY NEWS SUMMARY provided by Caribbeantopnews.com
———————————————————————–
FERNANDEZ DISCUSSES TECHNOLOGY WITH EXECUTIVES OF DELL—03/05/11
UTS CUSTOMERS GET HIGH-SPEED DATA SERVICES—03/07/11
LIME MAKES DEAL WITH TAXI DRIVERS—03/08/11
ADACEL PROVIDES CURACAO WITH AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SIMULATION—03/09/11
————————–
SPORTS
————————–
YOUNG REGGAE BOYZ ARRIVE IN BRAZIL—03/05/11
The Young Reggae Boyz, Jamaica’s Under-20 football team, has arrived in Sao Paolo, Brazil for a three-week training program. They had a nine-hour flight from Miami to Brazil, but showed few signs of fatigue, and shortly after their arrival, went to the training facility at Traffic Academy where they conducted their first workout. While the team’s doctor, Carlton Fraser, believes they should have had a day of rest, he was amazed at their energy and enthusiasm during the workout.
BOLT TO RUN IN MONACO—03/06/11
Usain Bolt, Jamaica’s Olympic and world sprint champion, has decided to run the 100 meters at Louis II Stadium in Monaco on July 22, 2011. According to Bolt, he is looking forward to running in that nation for the first time. Bolt accepted a personal invitation from Monaco’s Prince Albert II, who is president of the Monaco Athletics Federation.
JAMAICA MOVES TO HIGH FIFA RANKING—03/10/11
Jamaica has continued its position at the top of the rankings of the Caribbean Football Union with its highest FIFA ranking in the past six years. The Reggae Boyz rose 11 spots in the rankings to the 48th level. Cuba, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti round out the region’s top five.
FOUR JAMAICAN FOOTBALL CLUBS TO PARTICIPATE IN FLOW CUP—03/11/11
Four of Jamaica’s legendary football clubs will join competitors in the Flow Champions Cup at Anthon Spalding Sports Complex. They will face Reno, two-time champion, and Arnett Gardens. Tournament participants are vying for $1 million in prizes.
—————————————————————-
DEVOTIONAL
—————————————————————-
The Comfort of His Goodness & Mercy
As David came to the end of his reflections on what it meant to be a sheep in the LORD’s care, he undoubtedly recapped in his mind the loving and protective nature of his Shepherd as they journeyed together. Through the good times and the bad, in plain paths or making their way through the valley of the shadow of death, the thing he could rely on was the Shepherd’s care. Never negligent but always diligent. Looking out for the enemies, always watchful for when the sheep strayed, using rod and staff to protect, to rescue, and to draw the sheep close to Himself.
It is no wonder he had nothing to worry about. The nature of the Shepherd was of such that He would do everything in His power to protect His sheep and to make sure they got to the destination He desired for them to be. The journey was not without dangers but it was the Shepherd’s responsibility to take care of the flock, and there was no failure in this Shepherd. “Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6a, Amplified) is the only rational conclusion because the sheep are the beneficiaries of the Shepherd’s goodness and mercy.
In the context of the sheep and the shepherd, goodness speaks of rightness while mercy speaks of compassion. The shepherd will do what is right for the sheep while showing compassion at all times. In both instances, goodness and mercy are extended to the sheep. For the child of God, sheep of the Good Shepherd, we are also beneficiaries of His goodness and mercy. God’s goodness consists of righteousness, holiness, justice, kindness, grace, mercy, and love. Mercy is the aspect of God’s love that causes Him to forgive the guilty and show compassion toward them. It is not something we can earn or deserve; it is extended because of God’s goodness and favor.
There are more theological truths that could be gleaned from our text, but for now it is comforting to know that regardless of whatever comes our way, the goodness and mercies of God are available to us and they are blessings we can rely on. As long as we allow Him to lead us and as long as we commit to remaining in His care, He will never leave us nor forsake us. Everything about Him is committed to our good and even when we don’t quite understand where He is leading, how He is leading, or why He have us go along a certain path, we are assured of His goodness and mercy along the way. He knows what He is doing; there should be no doubt about that.
—————————————————————–
CREDITS/SOURCES
—————————————————————–
The weekly news is compilation of new articles from top Caribbean and Jamaican news sources.
jamarch
