Moontown

“When you would have met Edna you met somebody good,” was how a longtime friend of Clarice Edna Northley summed up the avid sports lover who once served in the British Army.

Clarice Edna Northley

Northley who passed away from natural causes on July 16 this year at her Barr Street, Kitty home was 91-years-old.

At a memorial service at Sandy’s Funeral Parlour yesterday, Northley was given a simple send off in the company of her family, friends and members of the Guyana Legion of which she was a longstanding member.

Northley had served as a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Services of the British Army during World War Two. According to the general secretary of the Guyana Legion, Kingsley Nelson, the ATS was formed in September 1938 initially as a women’s voluntary service.

Northley continued to serve in the ATS even after the war until its end in February 1949. Nelson in his tribute to Northley said, “During her active role, she served with distinction and willingness.”

Apart from her time in the Army, Northley was also an active sport fan and player. She “loved cricket,” said  one of her friends in his tribute. And while she played table tennis and lawn tennis, she excelled as a hockey player.

The gathering at the funeral yesterday.

Northley played as the goalkeeper of then British Guiana team and represented the country at every inter-colonial match from 1948 to 1956.

Later on she worked as a stenographer with Bookers McConnell Brothers Limited and then in the accounts department of Wieting and Richter as a ledger machine operator.

“Her relationship within the Guyana Legion can only be described as wonderful and happy for even though during her latter years (mobility became a problem) Edna always found the time to contract the Legion’s secretariat at least once a week,” Nelson said.

“Indeed she shall surely be missed for her humorous interjections during conversations,” Nelson said.

Northley’s final rites were performed by Pastor Lurlene James. She leaves behind her eighty-year-old sister with whom she lived along with other family and friends.

Also attending her service yesterday was current president of the Guyana Legion, Retired Colonel Carl Morgan. Northley was interred at the Le Repentir Cemetery. (Stabroek News)

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

A cross-fertilisation of state-of-the-art technology and the ability of Jamaicans to be inventive - as in ‘tun yuh han mek fashion’ - is taking root at the Christiana Potato Growers’ Cooperative in Manchester.

The cooperative is positioning itself to lead the charge in revitalising Jamaica’s farm sector and spearheading this revolution is General Manager Alvin Murray, whose passion for things agricultural is evident from the moment you meet him.

“I have rendered two AC units useless,” he says, with a sense of accomplishment. No need to worry, though. What this means is that installation of an evaporator cooler to provide the consistently low temperature so key to effective running of tissue culture has rendered them obsolete, and with good reason.

“From $140,000 a month, the electricity bill has dropped to $58,000 over a six-week period. This (evaporator cooler) is going to revolutionise greenhouse farming and you can get it in Jamaica delivered to you for US$1,200 … . Fascinating!” he told The Gleaner.

“They are excited about what is happening here,” Murray said, referring to the cooperative, whose senior members have been encouraged by the enthusiasm of its younger colleagues.

The teamwork has resulted in an effective blend of youthful exuberance and experience.

Requesting assistance

The cooperative boss has appealed for help from the Jamaica Social Investment Fund and the Inter-American Development Bank to help to develop facilities at Coleyville.

Murray revealed that his fraternity had the infrastructure to house cold storage, tissue culture, packaging and grading, but needed capital to purchase equipment. If that support comes through, he said agro-processing linkage industries would mushroom, with sweet potato products being packaged for export to the United States and European markets.

The general manager said a new vision of producing sweet potato-based products could see Jamaica cutting waste - Murray says 30 per cent of the staple grown locally is trashed - even channelling offerings such as sweet potato drink into the school-feeding programmes.

“All we want is to be given the chance to show what we can do because cooperatives in Jamaica have never been capitalised in a way to make them effective,” Murray said. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter

The United States wants the Jamaican Government to use a powerful tool in its possession called the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) to cripple gang networks in the country.

Addressing journalists yesterday at a press briefing at the US Embassy in St Andrew, Dr Arturo Valenzuela, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, urged the Golding administration to move against drug lords with POCA.

“One area in which Jamaica has tremendous opportunity to help itself is through increased use of the Proceeds of Crime Act. This act allows the Government to seize the assets of those involved in organised crime and is one of the clearest ways to demonstrate to all Jamaicans that crime does not pay,” he said.

The senior US official said the Obama administration was particularly concerned about the continued flow of illegal drugs and guns between Jamaica and the United States.

“We acknowledge that more needs to be done domestically in the United States to curb both demand and access to these sources of violence,” he said.

Valenzuela said the US government was working with Jamaica to stem the flow of small arms and other weapons being shipped to the island.

He said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a US law-enforcement agency, has been working to improve the country’s tracking abilities.

“You (Jamaica) are part of an e-trace programme which allows our guns to be traced to the manufacturer. These are all important tools we just simply need to redouble our effort in that regard.”

While the US was willing to assist Jamaica to deal with the challenges of organised crime, Valenzuela insisted that US funding should be backed by coordinated support from both the public and private sectors. (Jamaica Gleaner)

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com

ONE LOCAL transport operator who has accumulated at least two tickets per day within a two-year period has not been paying the fines.

Transport Minister Mike Henry told Parliament yesterday the driver has accumulated more than 1,500 tickets, which put him atop a list of traffic offenders to have been booked by the police.

According to Henry, outstanding to date, 11 drivers have accumulated 301-500 tickets; 55 persons slapped with 201-300 tickets; and 393 motorists have chalked up 101-200 tickets.

“This shows that the whole aspect of the point system, the whole aspect of traffic regulation, is not working,” Henry said.

The outstanding fines for traffic violation value more than $3 billion.

“The analysis of the traffic citation data clearly demonstrates the urgent need to fix the current problems that are preventing the Government from collecting outstanding revenues and to improve road safety,” Henry said.

A total of 225,843 traffic tickets were issued last year.

Superintendent Radcliffe Lewis, head of the Traffic Division, says the police will be resolute in bringing offenders to book.

“We will be going all out to apprehend these men who have many outstanding tickets,” Lewis told The Gleaner last night. (Jamaica Gleaner)

Karen Sudu, Gleaner Writer

A teenage householder escaped death after a water truck smashed into a house in Top Hill, St Catherine, yesterday,

However, the driver, 49-year-old Franklyn Hunter, also from Top Hill, sustained injuries to his head, feet and shoulder was rushed to a private doctor by a family member.

The ’sideman’, 24-year-old Oraine Henry, who was on the back of the truck, managed to jump from the vehicle before it crashed.

“Is like him pass with the front and the back wheel slide of right in the soft shoulder and it go over on the house,” a nervous Henry told The Gleaner.

At the time of the accident, only one of the seven occupants, the sideman’s sister, Shanette Henry, was at home.

“I was in the house sleeping and I heard a noise and a jerk and a call and somebody take off the back door and I jumped through the back door,” a frightened Shanette Henry, 17, said.

Rescue bid

In the meantime, Donavan Lawes, who reacted quickly to the crash and rescued Shanette, explained what transpired.

“The driver come and him up top giving out water, so the whole a we was there and a laugh until him say him a go leave. … Him drive off and a come down the hill, me hear bluff … .

“When me run come down, me come come see the road tear off and the truck rest pon the house … . Me hear somebody a bawl inna the house. Me see one o’ dem at the window and me climb up on the side o’ the house and kick off the side door and take her through it,” he said.

Lawes said it was the second time that an accident occurred at the same spot. He claimed that the St Catherine Parish Council had promised to erect a wall at the accident spot after the first crash.

Meanwhile, the driver’s sister, Debsy Hunter, was upset at what she said was the slow response of the police.

“Is a long time now we having this problem up here and is only when something gone bad them come up here.

“I call the police and them say that them don’t have any vehicle to come up here and is walk I walk from Riversdale come up here and them say that police can’t walk and they are worthless down there.” (Jamaica Gleaner)

Valenzuela: US looking forward to processing of extradition requests.

Edmond Campbell and Glenroy Sinclair, Senior Staff Reporters

A SENIOR member of the Obama administration revealed yesterday that a “series” of extradition requests have been made by the United States government for Jamaicans to be sent abroad for trial, but US officials are tight-lipped as to whether local elected officials are on the list.

Dr Arturo A. Valenzuela, US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said Washington was anticipating the processing of the requests.

“There is a series of extraditions that the United States still has requested and we look forward to those being processed,” he said yesterday morning at a press briefing at the US Embassy in St Andrew.

The Gleaner understands that the list includes law-enforcement officers, politicians and other high-profile individuals. According to sources, some of the extradition requests are related to the investigation of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, the alleged crime overlord who is in New York facing drug and gun charges.

When quizzed about the extradition requests, Valenzuela asked Isiah Parnell, the chargé d’affaires at the US Embassy, to respond.

Not a public spectacle

Parnell stonewalled reporters on whether the new requests involved elected Jamaican officials, stating that the US Embassy was “discreet and circumspect” in how it handled such diplomatic matters.

“… We have an extradition treaty that has worked well between the US government and the Government of Jamaica … . It has not been our practice to talk about individual extradition requests. We don’t expect that to change,” he told journalists.

Parnell stressed that Washington would continue to work through the normal diplomatic channels to handle any extradition requests deemed difficult.

The chargé d’affaires pointed out that there was nosignificant change in the number of extradition requests made by the US, adding that the range was between 10 and 20 per annum.

“As issues come up … we will process them through the DPP (director of public prosecutions) as we normally do, and the attorney general’s office, and we just look forward to that process running smoothly,” he said.

Dr Paul Gardner, president of the Jamaica Council of Churches - one of the major critics of the Jamaican Government’s handling of the Coke saga - has cautioned that the Golding administration should return to the established extradition procedures, “assuming that we bungled the last one”.

According to Gardner, the level of secrecy should be maintained in terms of information shared between the US and Jamaican governments.

“There is a point when it becomes public knowledge, and I would hope that this is adhered to in terms of those that are pending,” he added.

The fresh extradition requests come on the heels of the June 24 transfer of Coke, the deposed Tivoli Gardens strongman, following a nine-month stalemate between Washington and Kingston over the request.

Under intense pressure to resign in May, Golding softened his earlier stance on the request for Coke and gave the green light for his extradition.

Last week, news surfaced that US prosecutors had filed a new sealed document with the courts.

Prosecutors gave no indication of what is contained in the document filed on June 20 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York where Dudus is to be tried.

Valenzuela met with Golding yesterday as part of a three-nation tour of the Caribbean. He visited The Bahamas and is to make his final stop in Trinidad and Tobago.

During their meeting, Golding and Valenzuela discussed how the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) could be more effective.

The CBSI, announced by US President Barack Obama during the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago early last year, focuses on three main objectives. The initiative is aimed at substantially reducing illicit drug trafficking, increasing public safety and security and promoting social justice. (Jamaica Gleaner)

THE National Housing Corporation (NHC) is embarking on housing solutions in St James that will embrace upper, middle and lower income groups.

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Ministers Lashley (left) and Inniss (second left) looking over the housing plans.()

THE National Housing Corporation (NHC) is embarking on housing solutions in St James that will embrace upper, middle and lower income groups.

Yesterday, Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley and Member of Parliament for St James South Donville Inniss toured sites at West View (near the National Cultural Foundation), West Terrace/Durants, and Oxnards/Haynesville, where housing is being offered.

“I am pleased at the way the NHC has gone about trying to provide the housing solutions. I look forward to the embarking of those programmes and assisting the people of St James South,” said Lashley, who expects work to start by year-end or early 2011.

Inniss paid tribute to the efforts of both the minister and the NHC.

“The Ministry of Housing and Lands under Lashley’s stewardship has really been doing an excellent job in providing housing solutions. We haven’t yet been able to satisfy all the demands, but we can all agree that NHC has been moving in the right direction in terms of assisting a wide cross-section of Barbadians,” he said.

At West View, the NHC is providing a house and land package for 11 lots ranging from 6 000 to 9 000 square feet, and according to Lashley, there had already been 175 applications in which Barbadians would have the chance to purchase the land and build.

Over at West Terrace, there are 72 lots ranging between 4 000 and 6 000 square feet for middle income earners, while sandwiched between Haynesville and Oxnards, there are plans for 17 Government high-rise units.

Lashley said this was all part of Government’s policy to include all and sundry in its housing plan.

“In relation to the lots, Barbadians need land and so the NHC is still catering to that category because we give them the land, they can go and construct their own houses, similar to the $5 lot programme that we have which will be launched very soon.” (Nation News)

THE successful staging of Soca Royale at Bushy Park has given greater significance to the St Philip site as an entertainment facility.

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Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley.()

THE successful staging of Soca Royale at Bushy Park has given greater significance to the St Philip site as an entertainment facility.

And, according to Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley, the development of a modern cultural and entertainment facility there “can start as early as next year”.

“Based on the positive results and remarks so far from Soca Royale, it now gives a further impetus to develop Bushy Park as a modern entertainment and cultural facility. That is on the cards,” he said.

Lashley also confirmed that Bushy Park had become a state-owned property and there were already plans for 2 000 housing solutions and a modern car racing track and entertainment facility.

He said the 2000 housing solutions would be split between lower and middle-income earners.

“We can guarantee about 2 000 houses at Bushy Park and we are maintaining the racing track. We will be looking at a proposal to develop a modern racing track and entertainment facility.”

Lashley said he and Minister of  Sport Stephen Lashley had already met and looked at plans for the area.

The Housing Minister said residents of the surrounding districts would have to be included in plans for the development of Bushy Park and meetings were scheduled to update them.

Lashley, the Member of Parliament for St Philip North, said he hoped event planners the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) would include him on the organising committee for next year’s Soca Royale.

“I am confident the National Cultural Foundation will maintain Bushy Park as the venue for Soca Royale and I want to suggest to them to make sure that some of the residents, and even myself as MP, sit on the organising committee for the event.

“Obviously for the first year, there were some glitches but basically there must be a representative voice on the organising committee for the Soca Royale since it is one of the biggest shows on the entertainment and Crop-Over calendar.”

Lashley said he was delighted that Bushy Park was now state property and had been acquired under the Land Acquisition Act.

“As Minister of Housing, I went to Parliament a couple of months ago and the matter was debated in the House of Assembly and then the Senate.” (Nation News)