Moontown

Asafa Powell wins the men’s 100m event in a time of 9.72 seconds at the Bislett Games in Oslo yesterday. - AP

OSLO, Norway (CMC):

Jamaican sprint icon, Asafa Powell, clocked a wind-assisted 9.72 seconds yesterday to sweep the 100 metres at the Bislett Games, the third meet of the lucrative International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Diamond League.

The former world record holder, helped by a +2.1m/s wind, easily reached the tape ahead of Trinidadian Richard Thompson, who finished second in an impressive 9.90 seconds.

Churandy Martina of the Netherland Antilles raced home in a time of 9.92 seconds to be third.

The time, not recognised because the wind was marginally over the allowable limit, equalled Powell’s personal best recorded in New York City two years ago and is the fifth-fastest time ever.

Powell, who was without a major challenge in the race with fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt and American Tyson Gay sitting out, said the wind had not been a major factor.

“I’m not frustrated but I wish it was not so much. But still, I’m pretty happy about my time,” Powell said afterward.

“I got a great start, but the last part of the race I was pushing too hard because my legs felt bad.

“The wind’s not that much over, so I’m pretty sure that, if it was 2 m/s flat, it would have been the same time.”

Thompson, who claimed silver at the Beijing Olympics, stayed with Powell throughout in an impressive outing with Martina hanging tough for third and Jamaican Michael Frater claiming fourth in 9.97, as the four top finishers dipped below the 10-second barrier on a warm night in the Norwegian capital.

Comfortable win

Powell had earlier won his heat comfortably in 10.05 seconds, with American Trell Kimmons finishing second.

Thompson had sprinted to a season-best 10.08 seconds to capture heat one, ahead of Frater who also posted a season-best 10.08 seconds.

With the time, Powell announced himself as a serious contender for both Bolt and Gay, especially following his ominous 9.75 in Doha last month.

In the women’s 400 metres, Jamaican Novlene Williams-Mills was forced into second as Botswana’s Amantle Montsho won the event in a season-best 50.34 seconds.

Williams-Mills, a bronze medallist in the 4×400 metres relay in Beijing, produced a late burst to finish in 50.43 seconds with compatriot Shericka Williams, the World and Olympic silver medallist, finishing down the field in sixth.

The Caribbean women were also disappointing in the 200 metres as the exciting American Lashauntea Moore clocked a personal best 22.38 seconds to win the event.

Lowering her previous PB 22.46 seconds set recently, Moore upset fellow American Carmelita Jeter (22.54) who finished second, with Bahamian Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie third in 22.89 seconds.

The Cayman Islands’ Cydonie Mothersill clocked 22.99 seconds, while Jamaican Sheri-Ann Brooks was sixth in 23.18 seconds.

Meanwhile, St Lucian Lavern Spencer leapt 1.94 metres to finish third in the high jump as Croatian Blanka Vlasic claimed the event in a season-best 2.01 metres. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Starting July 1, Air Jamaica will resume daily flights to Grand Cayman, as well as the return of its summer service from New York (JFK) to the islands of Barbados and Grenada.

This comes on the heels of the recently announced suspension of flights to Baltimore in the United States and the resumption of service to Nassau in the Bahamas, also in July.

According a press release on Thursday, the airline said that when approved the non-stop service from New York, will operate three times weekly on to Barbados, and four times to Grenada.”

“We are excited about the return to these Caribbean markets. Jamaica and Grand Cayman have shared strong ties for many years, and our service to Barbados and Grenada gives the Diaspora the most convenient way to go home for festivals, fun and family,” said Bruce Nobles, Air Jamaica’s president and chief executive officer.

The airline is now owned by Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean Airlines. The airline earlier announced, that there would be additional flights to New York and Toronto, as part of its new schedule for the summer. Adding that it will be offering nine daily flights to New York, four daily flights to Fort Lauderdale as well as two daily flights to Toronto. Additionally, there will also be daily flights to Philadelphia and Nassau.

Air Jamaica’s service to New York offers two daily flights from Montego Bay and three daily flights from Kingston including, the Nitebird which departs Kingston at 11:55 p.m.

According to Air Jamaica, the additional daily flight between Kingston and Toronto will depart Kingston at 1:25 a.m., allowing passengers to sleep on board, and then enjoy a full day of activities in Toronto. Passengers destined for Kingston will also have the option of an early arrival. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Miller

Director of the National Transformation Programme, (NTP) the Reverend Al Miller, is urging the State not to squander the opportunity to effect meaningful changes to communities plagued by criminality.

Miller has argued that the State cannot afford to ignore the social reforms needed to complement legislative initiatives being pursued.

“There is no question that the linkage (between politics and criminal gangs) must be removed,” declared Miller at a Gleaner Editors’ Forum this week.

“We must face gang warfare for what it is and make the commitment to allow law enforcement to deal with it.”

Miller added: “Let’s attack it by the proper processes of the legislative arm and then face the political will to break the linkages.”

Parliament has commenced debate on a package of anti-crime bills which, the Govern-ment has said, would help law-enforcement personnel to tame the raging crime monster.

At the same time, National Security Minister Dwight Nelson signalled at the Gleaner Editors’ Forum that the provisions within the proposed anti-gang legislation, to be enacted during the current parliamentary year, would be expanded to capture other criminal offences.

Social reform agenda

Meanwhile, Miller has warned that meaningful changes in the troubled communities would only be realised with the implementation of a social reform agenda.

“Doing it in small pockets will not change a system,” Miller argued.

“If we are talking about breaking the linkages in the short term between criminality and politics in communities, I think it can be done,” Miller said.

He added that in order to usher Jamaica in a new direction “we cannot ignore the social aspect of any such programme”.

Miller said while the civic will clearly existed, there were still question marks about the political will to break the links between politics and crime.

“If we are going to go forward, we are going to have to address the past and move it to the present,” Miller stressed.

“In as much as we cannot do too much about the past, we must admit the ills and admit that those linkages are there to enable us to move on.

Miller said the much-needed change is going to require a strong commitment from all facets of society.

“If we are going to do this, we will have to create a moment. Changes in society come through some crisis or significant event whether it is planned or unplanned, act of God or plans of men, but it needs an event to which we can really commit to really create that change,” Miller said.

gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com

Gayle

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work, University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Dr Herbert Gayle, is suggesting that a four-wedge framework which supports a solid structure of criminality in Jamaica will have to be clinically pulled apart, block by block, in order to topple a growing crime problem.

“The time is not to build; the time is to destroy. And anyone who thinks they can build a house on termites is simply making an error,” Gayle told a Gleaner Editors’ Forum this week.

“There are some small things that we can start doing,” he said.

“First of all, we must remove all monies that members of parliament (MPs) receive from the State, which I assure you are used in mobilisation and negotiations.”

Gayle argued that the practice weakens central government, which is the core of authority.

“It creates a relationship between the don and the people, and the politician and the people, instead of central government and the people. The kind of country in which persons do not relate to Government but to people on the ground provides you with a political economy of violence,” Gayle argued.

He is suggesting that a national social security office be established to meet the needs of people seeking assistance from the State.

At present, MPs receive $20 million yearly from the Budget to spend in their constituencies.

The social scientist has suggested that the crisis in Jamaica is caused by four blocks of problems. He said “the poor and desperately isolated can become vulnerable as a pool for recruitment (to gangs)”.

Gayle lamented that for the past decade, development has been female focused rather than human focused.

“We will have to revisit the gender issue in a real sense,” he stressed.

Central political authority

Gayle said the second block was made up of a crumbling four-column central political authority in which the police are the least powerful.

“So those who think that we can police our way out of it have actually made an error,” he warned.

Gayle said central government constitutes the largest part of the central political authority, but lamented that Parliament in Jamaica was one of the weakest he had seen, thereby contributing to the problem.

The other two prongs comprise civil society and the judiciary.

Gayle said the country needs to revisit the partisan way in which it has organised itself.

“In Jamaica, this is a factional system called the JLP and the PNP, which are engaged in a system of shared dirty politics,” declared Gayle.

He indicated that the fourth block related to how people are mobilised for an election and gang formation.

Gayle contends that the system is fuelled by a symbiotic relationship between MPs, caretakers, councillors and everyone under the name of politics and gangs.

“All the gangs I have studied in this country differ from all other gangs in the world that I have had the privilege of studying.”

He said unlike other countries across the globe, small petty gangs or corner crews are linked to large gangs in Jamaica.

This, Gayle argued, drives up the number of gangs, most of which are politically aligned.

“They have (legitimate business ) contracts, so we are looking at one set of young men who are gang members connected to political parties and they answer to a don.”

Gayle said his research on the hierarchical structure of gangs revealed that nine out 10 times, the don would put himself second to the MP or the caretaker.

He said in this relationship, the MP either cast a blind eye to what was happening or worse, was an executive member of the crew.

“We, therefore, need to move away from the constant denial and accept that this symbiotic relationship creates the problem that we are having,” Gayle said.

gary.spaulding@gleanerjm.com

Vendors outside the Three Miles Market in St Andrew yesterday. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter

The scent of burnt items still lingers in the ‘Curry’ air, but the radiating beauty of the fruits and vegetables in the market overpowers the unfortunate smog that has stiffled activities in Jamaica’s most popular market for more than a week.

Beginning today, Coronation Market, situated in downtown Kingston, is open for business once more, and sellers are promising bargains on some of the best products in their stalls.

Sections of the market were extensively damaged by fire during the gun battle in west Kingston last week and activities at the facility have come to a lull since.

But the authorities have now decided that the market should reopen, and most of the vendors appear to be supporting that move.

“The market has four sections and only the area which was burnt will not be available for sellers and buyers,” Town Clerk Errol Green told The Gleaner yesterday.

“The odour you are getting is nothing more than you would expect in a normal market. Right now we are in the area that is burnt out, and you are going to get the fumes and the ash, but we are not allowing persons here,” Green added.

He was on a tour of the market affectionately referred to as ‘Curry’ with officials of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation, the National Solid Waste Management Authority and the Local Government Department of the Office of the Prime Minister.

“We have cleaned up other areas of the Coronation Market where people can come,” said Green.

“Curry is open for business and we are encouraging people to come,” the town clerk said.

Green was supported by Lloyd Reid, who is in charge of the daily cleaning of the market.

“The market ready. In fact, it ready from week. All we need to do is to clean this section, but the market ready,” Reid said.

Several vendors in the market also pleaded with buyers to return to the island’s largest market.

“We are from Clarendon and we have been here since 1:30 Thursday night and nothing has happened. It is just that the buyers are not coming, but we are open for business,” a vendor who gave her name as Junie said, while pointing to two of her fellow vendors who were offering produce at drastically reduced prices.

“Ten dollars a bungle fi pak choi! Taste and buy peppa! Twenty dollars fi a plantain!” shouted vendors as they tried to attract the few buyers in the market.

The vendors expect the number of buyers to increase today and are promising that quality produce will be available at bargain prices.

In the meantime, vendors who have spent the past week selling in Three Miles, St Andrew, close to the Portia Simpson Miller Square, have also indicated that they could be heading back to Curry today.

“Me willing to go back because that is my original market where I make my bread for years,” said Rose.

“Dem just need to clean up the market, and as long as it clean up, I will be back,” added Rose.

She was one of several vendors in Three Miles who indicated a willingness to return to Curry if all is well.

The authorities have vowed to remove vendors who set up stalls in Three Miles today, so it should be all systems go in Curry. (Jamaica Gleaner)

In the days of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, this Presidential Click office in Tivoli Gardens was hallowed territory. Today, it will be transformed into a police post, a signal that Coke’s empire has crumbled and that the State is in full control of the community. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

THE PROMISE of a new day dawns in Tivoli Gardens, west Kingston, with today’s scheduled opening of a police post in the community that has been devoid of consistent police presence for most of its existence.

In an ironic twist of fate, the police post is being set up in the Presidential Click office - the headquarters of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, the community kingpin-turned-fugitive.

Coke fled the community over which he ruled with an iron fist after the police attempted to arrest him last week. The police incursion led to a gunfight between gunmen loyal to Coke and members of the security forces. Seventy-three civilians and one soldier were killed during the fighting.

As the community crawls back to normality, there are indications that the opening of the police post will be a turning point in the west Kingston operation.

National Security Minister Dwight Nelson signalled late yesterday that the police would be directed to turn their attention to other crime-riddled areas.

“Now that the police post is established in Tivoli Gardens, it is time to move on to other areas in Kingston and St Andrew where criminals continue to torment decent law-abiding citizens,” Nelson said.

Nelson said communities in east Kingston, east central St Andrew, south central St Andrew, south St Andrew and north St Andrew were areas of prime concern.

“There is also need to address criminality in areas of St James, St Catherine and Clarendon. We must begin to address them now,” the minister asserted.

The National Security Minister told a Gleaner Editors’ Forum on Monday that a police post would be established in all troubled areas that are targeted.

Final touches

As commanders kept a close watch over Coke’s old office yesterday, the police and soldiers were seen busily putting the final touches to the post late yesterday.

A senior police officer told The Gleaner that the police post would open its door during the first shift of the police and soldiers monitoring the community, which has been under curfew since earlier in the week.

Even as they worked to prepare the post, the police urged residents who had mobile phones confiscated during last week’s operation, to retrieve them from the Denham Town Police Station.

The Gleaner was told that more than 200 cellular phones belonging to residents were in the possession of the police.

They were reportedly seized because of security concerns. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Joan Gordon-Webley, executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority, tours a section of the Coronation Market. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) says it has already spent $7 million cleaning up communities in west Kingston in the wake of last week’s major gun battle in that section of the capital city.

Millions more will have to be spent to complete the clean-up of the communities and the section of the Coronation Market damaged during the confrontation.

However, up to yesterday, no estimate had been prepared on how much the full clean-up would cost.

“We have been cleaning areas like Denham Town, Tivoli Gardens, Rema, and we have done 90 per cent of that,” NSWMA boss Joan Gordon-Webley told The Gleaner yesterday.

Several roads in the west Kingston communities were blocked with debris last week as thugs fortified the area to prevent the security forces from executing an arrest warrant on alleged drug kingpin-turned-fugitive, Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

After an almost weeklong gun battle, the members of the security forces took control of the debris-filled communities, which had to be cleaned.

Now, after more than 120 trips to the city dump, much of the debris is off the streets and Gordon-Webley is confident that the clean-up will be completed shortly.

However, the clean-up of the section of the Coronation Market which was damaged by fire will stretch into next week.

“We are going to start on the market on Sunday. We were asked to leave the burnt-out section of the market because the insurance company needed to see it, but now the town clerk has given me his blessing. We are starting on Sunday and will end in a maximum three days,” Gordon-Webley said.

She said residents of the communities close to the market would be offered work during the clean-up process. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Joel Julien joel.julien@trinidadexpress.com

MORE than two years after being relegated to the back-bench of the People’s National Movement (PNM) Government in the House of Representatives, Dr Keith Rowley has now been given the mantle to lead the Opposition in the next sitting of this country’s Parliament.

Rowley was given his official instrument of appointment as Opposition Leader from President George Maxwell Richards in a ceremony at Knowsley , Port of Spain, yesterday.

Rowley was given full support for the position by all 11 of the PNM Members of Parliament, Richards said. He said he received a letter with the signatures of all 11 opposition MPs which attested to this.

However, at the time of Richards’ statement, only six of Rowley’s opposition colleagues were present in support of their leader.

MPs had previously been ushered around to fill the void left at the front row of the audience.

While Richards was addressing the crowd, Diego Martin North/ East MP, Colm Imbert, entered through a side entrance. While Rowley was addressing the audience in his new portfolio, Diego Martin Central MP, Dr Amery Browne, entered through the same door Imbert had previously used. Laventille East/Morvant MP Donna Cox arrived after the ceremony had ended.

’I hope this period that we are about to embark upon is one where we elevate the business of the Parliament beyond what it has been and I look forward to civil debates. I look forward to being an effective Leader of the Opposition, leader of an effective team in defence of the public interest,’ Rowley said afterwards.

Rowley said he was ’confident, excited and humbled’ by his new position.

Former prime minister Patrick Manning, the San Fernando East MP, was not present for Rowley’s appointment, nor was Alicia Hospedales, the MP for Arouca/Maloney.

Rowley was fired as Trade and Industry Minister by Manning on April 23, 2008. Rowley moved to the backbench in Parliament following his removal from the Cabinet.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in yesterday’s first Post Cabinet news briefing, said she looked forward to meeting with Rowley in his new portfolio. (Trinidad Express)