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Jamaica
Information Service
for General Distribution
Top News in the Print Media: The JIS, The Gleaner & The
Jamaica Observer
From the Public Relations Department
Wednesday June 11, 2008
GOV'T HALTS EXPORT OF SCRAP METAL
The Observer: Industry Minister Hon. Karl Samuda
yesterday signed a ministerial order prohibiting the
export of scrap metal until further notice.
According to the Minister, reports received by his
ministry over the past four months included the
dismantling and theft of equipment and pipes belonging
to the National Water Commission, such as steel water
tanks, iron pipes, fittings, meters, stainless steel
gates and metal rails, valued at $3.4 million.
'BRING BACK HOME GUARDS'
The Gleaner: On the eve of the resumption of the
bipartisan Vale Royal talks, Opposition spokesman on
national security, Dr Peter Phillips, yesterday
previewed the People's National Party's proposals on how
to tackle spiralling crime, which should dominate
today's discussions.
Early reaction from the Government was that most of Dr
Phillips' proposals were welcomed. However, there seems
to be little sympathy for his idea of resurrecting the
controversial 1970s 'Home Guards' under a new name,
Corps of Community Safety Officers, to support the
police.
PENNICOOK URGES J'CANS IN ORLANDO TO SUPPORT NATIONAL
CARRIER
The Observer: Paul Pennicook, Air Jamaica's senior vice
president - commercial, has urged Jamaicans living
overseas to be ambassadors for the national carrier and
their country.
The senior vice president, who was speaking at a
cocktail reception at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando
to commemorate the resumption of the airline's daily
flight to Orlando, also used the occasion to encourage
the association to urge their colleagues and friends at
their workplace to visit the Caribbean island.
SPOT MARKET
WEIGHTED AVERAGE RATE
CURRENCY PURCHASES
SALES
US$
71.2517
71.6234
CAN$
68.4104
70.1069
GB£
138.8221
140.0886
GLOBAL LEADERS SLOW TO MOVE ON WORLD FOOD CRISIS, SAYS
GOLDING
The Observer: Prime Minister Hon. Bruce Golding has
expressed disappointment that developed nations are not
taking the current global economic crisis seriously
enough.
Golding said that, in light of the lack of interest
being shown by the G8 community, he was reconsidering
not attending this month's meeting of CARICOM heads with
New York City political leaders, in New York, to raise
the issue again.
DIASPORA FOCUS
The Gleaner: A proposal to strengthen the role of the
Diaspora in parliamentary and national affairs has been
met with resistance from a number of Jamaicans.
Last week, the House of Representatives established a
committee to hear and debate potential constitutional
amendments and or policy considerations for allowing an
electoral voice and representation of Diaspora
constituencies in Parliament.
PNP ON TOP
The Gleaner: The People's National Party (PNP) has
emerged the party more likely to form the Government if
a general election were called now. But, with three in
every 10 Jamaicans indicating little interest in the
electoral process at this time, there is no reason why
the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) could not maintain its
hold on state power.
That is the finding of the latest Bill Johnson poll,
conducted days after Prime Minister Bruce Golding
indicated he would be prepared to call a general
election rather than allow anyone who did not win the
majority of votes to take a seat in Parliament on the
disqualification of the previous winner by a court
ruling.
JPS BATTENS DOWN WITH $1B STORM PLAN
The Gleaner: Jamaica Public Service Company Limited has
begun rolling out a near $1-billion plan to safeguard
its systems from storm damage in what is expected to be
a volatile hurricane season.
The company has been actively preparing for the season
by taking steps to ensure that all areas of our
operation are ready to respond to a hurricane.
GRENADA STUN REGGAE BOYZ
The Gleaner: Jamaica's Reggae Boyz hit a snag in their
preparation for the start of the FIFA World Cup
qualifiers which kicks off against the Bahamas in four
days time, when they went down 1-2 to 143rd ranked
Grenada at the National Stadium in St George's, Grenada
yesterday.
Generally expected to come away with at least a win from
the fixture against the tiny island, the Boyz took an
early lead through an 18th minute header by striker
Ricardo Fuller, finishing off a corner kick taken by
Evan Taylor.
ORGANISATIONS RECEIVE US$15,000 FROM JWOW
The Combined Disabilities Association, and the
University of the West Indies (UWI) Development and
Endowment Fund have received grants totaling US$15,000,
from the Jamaica Women of Washington Association (JWOW).
The Washington-based organisation has awarded a grant of
US$10,000 to the Combined Disabilities Association and
US$5,000 to the UWI Endowment Fund.
MANLEY MEMOIRS FOR FLORIDA
Jamaican journalist and radio personality, Beverly
Anderson Manley, will be present for reading and signing
of her book, ‘Manley Memoirs’ on June 26 at 6:00 p.m.,
at the South Regional Broward County Library at 7200
Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines.
The book signing is the continuation of activities to
observe June as Caribbean American Heritage Month
throughout the United States.
BRITISH COUNCIL DONATES £80,000 FOR MICROSOFT PEER
COACH TRAINING
A sum of £80,000 has been donated by the British
Council, Jamaica to fund a three-year programme, that
should result in at least one teacher in every primary
school in the six regions of the Ministry of Education
accessing Microsoft Peer Coach Training.
Education Officer and Peer Coach Programme Co-ordinator
at the Ministry, Lena Buckle-Scott, told JIS News that
the Ministry of Education has so far trained a total of
120 peer coaches. “However, there is a need to fit a
peer coach in each primary school, so we need to augment
the number of facilitators and hence we are training
facilitators.”
DR. TUFTON EMPHASISES IMPORTANCE OF FISHERY
SECTOR TO REGION
Minister of Agriculture, Christopher Tufton has said
that the fishery and aquaculture sector was playing a
pivotal role in providing a livelihood for thousands of
persons across the region.
“We are primarily, as a region, a territory of small
artisan fishers,”
Dr. Tufton pointed out.
The Minister was addressing the launch of the European
Union (EU) workshop on fishery and aquaculture
standards, at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston,
recently
COMMENTARY
Wednesday June 11, 2008
THE OBSERVER
WITH OBAMA, AMERICA COULD LEAD ONCE AGAIN
If Jamaicans could choose a second home, based on where
most of their compatriots live outside Jamaica, hardly
anyone would dispute that that choice would be the
United States of America.
There is an eternal bond between the two countries that
no friend or foe can tear apart, so much so that the
social and political affairs and the culture of the US
very easily become the concern, and often the passion,
of Jamaicans. With Jamaica's reggae music, the reverse
is true.
This, to a large extent, accounts for the deep interest
Jamaicans are taking in the US presidential elections
and, specifically, the selection of Mr Barack Obama as
the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic
Party.
The Obama nomination has already turned the political
history of the world on its head. Because nothing in the
current analysis offers a clear reason for the selection
of a black man, still relatively young, still relatively
inexperienced in the art of politics and who is
certainly not from the monied or military classes.
Yet, in our view, nothing in the modern history of the
US will be as life-changing as the election itself of Mr
Obama as America's first black president.
To begin with, America would start the long and
therapeutic journey towards healing lifelong wounds that
started in slavery and continued afterwards in
segregation and marginalisation of the black race -
one-twelfth of its population.
This would have enormous spinoff benefits for all other
races and ethnic groups, especially the growing Latino
group, which make up the human tapestry that is the
United States. It would mean something to schoolchildren
when they are told that they can be anything they want
to be in America.
Millions of these people who feel that they could only
expect the crumbs from the table of the whites in
America would now have a real stake, and what a powerful
kick that would give to the further development of that
society.
But if Mr Obama's election would change America,
imagine, too, how it would change the world. Although
undisputably the most powerful country on the globe, the
US has not enjoyed moral leadership of the world in
recent times.
The prosecution of an unjustified war with Iraq has
continued to leave the international community with a
bad taste in the mouth. Human beings cannot sit
comfortably knowing that thousands of innocent Iraqis
continue to be killed, not to mention American soldiers
who are giving their lives in a useless cause.
Mr Obama has indicated he would seek ways to disengage
from Iraq as quickly as possible, declaring that he
would be "as careful about leaving as we were careless
about going in".
The reaction of the world as evidenced by newspaper
headlines from one end of the globe to the next, hailing
his nomination, is clear proof that the planet is
drawing inspiration from this charismatic man with a
magnetic message of hope.
His election will set a tremendous example to the rest
of the world about the need to treat with people, not on
the basis of their race, but on their individual merit.
America now stands on the threshold of a new era when it
can once again assume the moral leadership of the world,
giving the human family a real shot at lasting peace and
greater prosperity.
THE GLEANER
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE CHURCH
Churches and those who oversee their affairs may,
indeed, be obliged to answer to a higher order than
those who answer to the institutions of man.
Yet, even in the absence of the injunction of rendering
to God and Caesar what is theirs, it would seem to us
that financial accountability to one's partners is, of
itself, a good Christian principle. Unfortunately,
judging by what pastors and church-minded accountants
had to say at a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum, it is a
principle that is often practised in the breach by many
Jamaican churches.
Many Jamaican church congregations, it was reported, are
hardly ever privy to the books and have little or no
knowledge about the finances of their churches. But
worse, books are hardly ever kept, and when they are, it
is mostly badly. So, even the pastors themselves remain
in the financial dark. That is bad.
The right path
It would be bad enough if preachers confined their
weekly lectures to congregations about matters spiritual
and the right path to the hereafter. But pastors are
famous for lecturing the society, mostly with good
reason, about moral failings and about how it should
order itself. The shortcomings of governments and
businesses tend to be legitimate grist.
Moral authority, from the perspective of church leaders,
it seems, can be bifurcated: one kind for those who
report to the state of man and Mammon; another for those
following an eternal order.
The problem, though, is that churches can't fully
separate themselves from the society within which they
exist and operate. For, in the end, they represent a
conglomeration of people pursuing a common interest -
eternal life as offered by God.
Organised churches don't just exist, endowed with
spiritual insight and guided by the Holy Ghost. They are
also economic entities - pastors have to be fed and
clothed, buildings maintained, conferences and crusades
financed, and so on. These ventures are capitalised by
the tithes and free-will offerings of congregations,
returns on investments, special gifts and all the other
initiatives undertaken by churches to raise money.
It would seem to us that in much the same way that
boards, CEOs and chairmen or corporations must be
accountable to shareholders, pastors and church
governors owe a fiduciary responsibility to their
congregations. They should know what is collected, how
it is spent and on what.
A spiritual and a financial side
Happily, most of those who participated in last week's
forum agree. As chartered accountant and Christian
activist, Wilfred McKenley, said: "They need to operate
as if it is a business. There is a spiritual and a
financial side."
It is true, as was said during those discussions, that
sometimes there is a shortage of bookkeeping skills in
church management, especially in small rural
congregations. That is an excuse, however, that is not
allowable to small businesses that are expected to file
tax returns and can be subject to audits by the
authorities. In any event, there are large numbers of
institutions, government and private, that offer
assistance in this area.
Churches, of course, are exempt from taxes, which,
perhaps, enables their lax attitude towards financial
accountability, occasionally contributing to
misbehaviour by parsons. Perhaps it should be mandatory
that, for religious institutions to maintain tax-exempt
status, they be required to report to members.
Then, it would be more than preachers saying, "Do as I
say ..."
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do
not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To
respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com
or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400
words. Not all responses will be published.
The Jamaica Information Service web site address is
www.jis.gov.jm.
Telephone: (876) 926-3740-8 / 926-3590-8, Fax: (876)
754-4051
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