This is a continuation from the review article that started in yesterday's Gleaner.
SEPTEMBER
Don Anderson and his team from Market Research Services Ltd. predicted on September 1 that 77 per cent of the 1.3 million people registered to vote would cast their ballots on election day.
Sir Shridath Ramphal, Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, and Dr. Ralph Gonzalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, launched a fierce attack on the foreign policies of the United States Government at an academic conference at the UWI, Mona.
Oliver Clarke, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica and chairman and managing director of The Gleaner Co. Ltd., caused a storm at the UWI, Mona when he urged the institution to put its best minds to the improvement and betterment of the future rather than focusing on slavery and colonialism.
Danielle O'Hayon, 18, who plans to become a marine biologist, is crowned "Miss Jamaica World 2002".
The nation mourned the passing of His Grace Samuel Carter, S.J., Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Kingston, which occurred at the University Hospital on September 4, after a battle with cancer. He was the first Jamaican to be appointed Roman Catholic Bishop, and later, Archbishop of Kingston, and was founder and first headmaster of Campion College, St. Andrew. He was the founding president of the Caribbean Conference of Churches.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, 67, told The Gleaner's Editors' Forum on September 4, that the 2002 election race would be his last.
Remaining fraud charges against John MacKay, former principal of Campion College, St. Andrew, were withdrawn on September 3 in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court at Half-Way Tree. He was appearing in court for the 50th time since his arrest on May 21, 1999. When MacKay was arrested, the school board appointed a finance committee to investigate the charges and the committee found that MacKay had been authorised by the board to undertake all the transactions from which the charges stemmed, and was therefore not guilty of committing any offence.
Both Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and Edward Seaga, the JLP leader, have brushed aside suggestions for a fixed election date. They argued that a fixed election date would unwisely rob the Jamaican people of the power to eject a government from office before its terms runs its course.
The price tag on the 75-kilometre Northern Coastal Highway, Phase 1, which took five years to build, is put at $3.6 billion (US$72.7 million.) This is more than double the US dollar estimate of US$24.99 million and triple the Jamaican dollar estimate of $1.2 billion. The disclosure was made by Prime Minister Patterson who said, "We regard every penny as well spent".
Laurie Williams, 33, Jamaica and West Indies all-round cricketer, and his brother, Kevin Jenninson, 23, teacher, were killed in a car crash on the Hunt's Bay Causeway on September 8.
The Government took to Parliament on September 10, a Bill providing for a new Oath of Allegiance to replace the traditional one that public officials pledged to The Queen. The Bill requires public officials, including parliamentarians and judges to, on taking up office, swear loyalty to the Jamaican Constitution and the Jamaican people, rather than to The Queen.
On September 10 most commercial activities in Downtown Kingston came to a halt as merchants supported a call by the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce to shut down their businesses to protest the general state of lawlessness in the capital city.
Edward Seaga, the JLP leader, told a Gleaner Editors' Forum that he would have no hesitation in appointing as Independent Senator, Bruce Golding, the former chairman of the JLP who left and founded the National Democratic Movement.
The Gleaner celebrated its 168th birthday on September 13.
The Government announced that NetServ, its controversial information technology company, which was placed in receivership in 2001, had been sold to Touchpoint Centre International Corporation of Miami, for US$4.2 million.
The PNP launched its 2002 general election manifesto on September 16, promising growth of two to six per cent, more job opportunities, assault on the illegal drug trade, and increased funding for education.
Carla Seaga, wife of Edward Seaga, the JLP leader, gave birth at the Nuttall Memorial Hospital, Cross Roads, St. Andrew, on September 16 to a seven-pound 14-and one half ounce baby girl, Gabrielle Vendryes.
Dwight Whylie, journalist and chairman of the Broadcasting Commission, died suddenly of a heart attack in Barbados on September 15 while attending a conference there. He was 66.
The Government, on September 17, used its majority in the House of Representatives to push through legislation providing for a new Oath of Allegiance to replace the one public officials had traditionally pledged to The Queen. The new oath pledges allegiance to the people and Constitution of Jamaica.
Prime Minister Patterson reiterated his government's commitment on September 17 to amend the Constitution to allow for the resumption of hanging in Jamaica.
Election Day 2002 is to be on October 16, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announced on September 22 at a public meeting at Half-Way Tree Square, St. Andrew. Nomination Day will be Monday, September 30.
Kingston businessman, Donald Panton, and his wife Janet, former directors of the failed Blaise financial entities, are insisting that the six-year-old criminal case against them for allegdedly defrauding depositors of $600 million should be tried before the $1 billion law suit which the government has filed against them. The Court of Appeal on July 23 gave them leave to have the issue decided by the United Kingdom Privy Council.
Bruce Golding walked back into the folds of the Jamaica Labour Party on September 25, seven years after he resigned, citing the party's reluctance to embrace fundamental political and constitutional reforms.
Grassroots party supporters of the JLP flocked its Belmont Road headquarters on September 26 to welcome Golding, its former chairman, who formed the National Democratic Movement on his resignation.
Monday, September 30, Nomination Day, saw 175 candidates 60 from the PNP, 60 from the JLP, 31 from the NDM-New Jamaica Alliance, nine from the United People's Party, seven from the Imperial Ethiopian World Federation Party, and eight Independents being nominated to contest the general election on October 16, 2002.
Hurricane Lili continued to batter the island on September 30, savaging in particular, the Bull Bay community in eastern St. Andrew. Flooding and landslides wreaked havoc, damaging and destroying house and washing away cars. Lili causes heavy damage in sections of Westmoreland.
OCTOBER
Prime Minister Patterson said government may have to seek international help to pool with local resources to repair damage cause by flood rains from tropical storms Isidore and Lili.
Two Colombians, Pedora Cordona and Leornardo Gonzales Forbes, were on October 2 each sent to prison for 10 years in connection with the seizure by the police of 3,395 lbs of cocaine at Port Royal in August. They pleaded guilty. The three Jamaicans held with them are yet to be tried.
Jurors at the nine-month-long Coroner's inquest into the fatal shooting by the police of seven young men in Braeton, south St. Catherine, in March 2001, handed down a verdict on October 3, divided six to four, that no one was criminally responsible for their deaths. The jury having returned its verdict, the Director of Public Prosecutions has the authority to review the depositions to see if anyone should be charged arising from the seven deaths.
The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management on October 4 ordered the evacuation of persons from several districts in St. Elizabeth, where flood waters rose to dangerous levels. The districts included New River, New Market and New Holland.
Five persons from a family of seven who were returning from church on October 6 were killed in a traffic accident on the
Washington Boulevard at the intersection with Duhaney Drive and Bob Marley Boulevard.
Members of the Jamaica Labour Party headed by Edward Seaga, appealed to supporters at a mass rally at Half-Way Tree square not to be drawn into violence, following what they claimed were attacks by members of the People's National Party.
The Council of the Jamaican Bar Association called on whichever party forms the government after the upcoming elections to have a referendum on the setting up of the Caribbean Court of Justice, it being a fundamental issue affecting the rights of the Jamaica people, protected by the Jamaican Constitution.
The October 16 general election, the 14th in the nation's history, is to be monitored by a team, of high-profile international observers headed by former US President Jimmy Carter, and former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriquez. They will lead a 55-member team from 16 countries.
The pressure for peaceful election mounted on October 9 with several organisations appealing for calm and endorsing recommendations to ban rallies as politically-linked violence continued unabated in some communities.
Some 20,000 members of the security forces and election day workers who are eligible to vote, cast their ballots on October 10 to free them for duty on election day, October 16.
Prime Minister Patterson has put his assets at $33 million, plus US $37,000, for a total of $34.83 million. In 1992 he declared his assets as $3.5 million.
Richard Ashenheim, Director Emeritus of the Gleaner Co. Ltd., is honoured on October 10 on his retirement. Mr. Ashenheim who had been counsel to The Gleaner since 1950 when he did his very first case, served the company for 40 years as director. He was alternate director from 1962-67, director from 1967 to 1973 and vice chairman from 1973 to August 2002 when he retired. Also, he was a sports writer who had covered all Olympic Games for The Gleaner since 1968.
Jimmy Carter, the former US President, on October 14 blasted Jamaica's "garrison politics" as a disgrace, and said local political leaders had not done enough to bring it to heel.
The People's National Party set public opinion poll forecasts awry on October 16 by clawing a close victory in the general election, getting an unprecedented fourth term as government. It crept to victory by taking an estimated 35 of the 60 seats in the House of Representatives. The JLP lost one of the 12 seats it had but grabbed another 14. Neither Independents nor the small parties won a seat.
Professor Errol Miller, chairman of the Electoral Advisory Committee, said he was satisfied with the administration of the general election. The Atlanta-based Carter Centre which sent a team of international observers for the election also praised the EAC and the Electoral Office of Jamaica for a job well done.
Fay Pickersgill announced October 17 that after nine years as Director of Tourism she would be quitting when her contract expired in January 2003.
The Gleaner Company swept the print category of the Pan American Health Organisation Caribbean Media Awards for excellence on October 17 in Barbados, with the Sunday Gleaner's Patricia Watson, writing about health issues, collecting five of the six awards including that to the "Most Outstanding Journalist".
The national honour of The Order of the Nation is conferred on all Jamaican Prime Ministers from October 21, 2002. Previously it was awarded to Governors-General only.
The Jamaica Labour Party on October 21 increased its tally of seats in the House of Representa-tives to 26 with its candidate Verna Parchment, a nurse, taking the St. Ann North Western seat from Arnold Bertram, the former Minister of Local Government.
P.J. Patterson was sworn in on October 23 as Prime Minister in a ceremony at Emancipation Park, New Kingston, for a record third consecutive term. He committed himself to leading a government "without a taint of corruption". The Prime Minister names his new 17-member Cabinet in which the only newcomer is Aloun N'Dombet Assamba, attorney-at-law; she is appointed Minister of Tourism and Industry.
K.D. Knight, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, in a meeting with American Ambassador Sue Cobb, noted with "a deep sense of anguish and sorrow" the Jamaican connection of one of the two persons (John Lee Malvo) arrested in relation with the sniper shootings in the United States.
Former Chief Justice Sir Herbert Duffus died on October 25 at the age of 94 years.
The JLP appoints Bruce Golding, a former chairman of the party, as Senator.
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson announces that he will not be appointing any Independent Senators this time around.
The Government said it would abandon its approach of awarding incentives to companies on a discretionary basis and would instead craft a policy that sets clear guidelines for businesses to attract such benefits.
NOVEMBER
Arising from their summit at Vale Royal on November 1, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and JLP leader Edward Seaga agreed that any change to the composition of the Police Service Commission must be part of the agenda for constitutional reform.
Violence flare in the August Town area of east St. Andrew on November 3 with the killing of four men by a gang of gunmen, despite a curfew imposed by the security forces to curb violence.
Prime Minister Patterson on November 4 again signalled his intention to step down as president of the PNP but warned against splitting the party over who should succeed him.
Dennis E. Morrison, chairman of the Airports Authority of Jamaica and senior economist at the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, was on November 4 named chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board, succeeding William Clarke, CEO of the Bank of Nova Scotia, Jamaica Ltd.
A gunman's bullet struck seven-month-old Daniel Antonio Shirley in the head killing him on November 5 as his grandmother held him in her arms at the intersection of Hannah and Oxford streets, west Kingston.
Anthony "Tony" Clarke, 62, of Paradise, near Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, chartered accountant and a director of the Jamaica National Building Society, died in hospital in Mandeville on November 5 after collapsing at a meeting of the society.
American Ambassador Sue Cobb says her embassy has asked the US State Department for funding for a joint study by the American and Jamaican governments on the controversial deportation of Jamaicans from the US. Also, she told the Gleaner's Editors' forum that the US government planned to build its own embassy on lands it owns at Bamboo Pen, Liguanea, St. Andrew.
Dennis E. Morrison, recently-appointed chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board, is named Director-General in the newly-created Ministry of Development.
Govermment pensioners who had served for 20 years and more will now receive a minimum annual pension of $120,000, up from $72,000, Burchell Whiteman, Minister of Information, announced on November 11.
Eight policemen were interdicted pending the investigation of claims that two of seven guns found by the police in central Kingston on November 8 had gone missing.
Destroying "the monster of heinous crime" is high on the list of the government's priorities, Prime Minister Patterson told Parliament on November 14. To this end, the police force and the military would soon begin reporting to Parliament regularly on measures they are taking to reduce the island's ballooning crime problem.
A task force to look at the possibility of state funding of political parties is to be set up in the coming months, Burchell Whiteman, Minister of Information says.
More than $100 million has been spent on HIV/AIDS intervention programmes locally since January but new data show that the rate of HIV/AIDS is increasing in high-risk age groups.
The Gleaner reported on November 20 that salaries for parliamentarians were increased in October, the second time in 2002. The latest hike, which became effective October 1, represented a 16 per cent increase.
Fr. Jim Webb, chairman of Campion College, Hope Road, St. Andrew, on November 21 made a public statement praising the recent exoneration of John MacKay, former principal of the school, from all charges associated with fraud and larceny and reiterated the school's concern that charges were pursued against him at all.
Mr. Justice Basil Reid on November 20 threw out as being misconceived, a slander and assault suit which lawyer Humphrey McPherson had filed against Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe.
The Gleaner reported on November 22 that Priya Levers, the prominent Kingston attorney-at-law, has been appointed a Puisne Judge in the Cayman Islands and she is to take up the job on April 1, 2003.
Hugh Dawes, educator and politician, died on November 22 at the age of 61, after ailing for some time.
Michael Lee-Chin, head of National Commercial Bank and of AIC, the Canadian mutual fund company, on November 26 called on business owners to resist the temptation to send their profits abroad, but instead to re-invest in Jamaica.
Dr. Ronald Robinson has replaced Dr. David Panton as president of Generation 2000, (G2K), the young professionals associated with the Jamaica Labour Party.
The Public Service Commission on November 28 announced that it has ordered a probe of the operations of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as a result of the "undesireable level of negative media coverage in recent months, as well as the atmosphere which presently exists among the staff at the office".
Chantal Ononaiwu, 23, a part-time lecturer in criminal law at the Norman Manley Law School, UWI, Mona, was on November 28 awarded the 2003 Jamaica Rhode Scholarship.
DECEMBER
The Gleaner reported that HIV-positive persons deported to Jamaica are unable to continue their treatment and may be a contributing factor in the emergence of drug-resistant strains of HIV here.
Prime Minister Patterson announced on December 1, a new National Crime Plan which would see a joint police-military offensive, with soldiers being based in the inner cities "for as long as it takes" to curb the upsurge in crime. It began with hundreds of soldiers and police taking up positions in Hannah Town and Denham Town in west Kingston and Payne Avenue in south west St. Andrew.
The Jamaican dollar plunged on December 3 to US $1 to J$50.03. It was the first time that the weighted average exchange rate of the Bank of Jamaica, the central bank, had breached the US $1 to J$50 barrier.
Dr. Peter Phillips in giving details of the National Crime Plan on December 3 in Parliament, announced the setting up of a 22-member Consultative Committee on the National Security Crime Plan.
House Speaker Michael Peart on December 4 gave his colleagues in the House a sharp tongue-lashing for what he said was their association with "hooligan elements" in the society.
Darryl Stewart, 24, a Jamaican with a first class honours degree in Mathematics-Actuarial Science, is selected a Commonwealth Carib-bean Rhodes Scholar.
Senior Supt. Keith "Trinity" Gardner, in earlier days a detective feared by criminals, is appointed to head a special 100-member team to support the Jamaica Constabulary's crime-fighting thrust.
The Gleaner reported on December 10 that more than 20 illegal guns and scores of cartridges have been seized in the two weeks since the government has implemented its new crime-fighting plan.
The JLP refused in Parliament on December 10 to support an amendment to the Defence Act that would give Jamaica Defence Force soldiers powers similar to those of members of the Jamaica Constabulary.
A three-member panel headed by David Muirhead, Q.C., began on December 10, probing the administrative functions of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Government announced on December 10 that it would close the Hampden Sugar Factory in Trelawny, resulting in the loss of 200 jobs. The All Island Jamaica Cane Farmers' Association expressed total disagreement with the decision and described it as a "betrayal of trust."
Jamaica House denied that there had been any discussions on a new attempt at political integration involving Prime Minister Patterson at the recent summit of CARICOM leaders in Havana, Cuba.
A Continental Airlines 155-seater Boeing 737-800 jetliner flew into Montego Bay, then on to Kingston on December 12, resuming a service that was stopped eight years ago.
Una James, 38, the mother of teenage sniper suspect, John Lee Malvo, is deported to Jamaica on December 14.
The Gleaner reported on December 14 that 1,002 people have been murdered here since the start of the year.
The Court of Appeal ruled on December 16 that the death sentence imposed on persons convicted of capital murder "is not unconstitutional" and emphasised that it was the extremely violent murder cases over the last 12 years which had caused Parliament to retain the death sentence.
Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning, admitted in Parliament on December 17 in discussing reduction of the country's debt burden, that the government was "going about it the wrong way". Also, he announced a new round of taxes aimed at raising $205 million in revenue to help finance the $13.5 million increase in the Supplementary Budget. They take effect from January 1, 2003.
A three-vehicle accident on the Toll Gate main road, Clarendon, on December 18, left four people dead and 11 injured.
The Constitutional Court declared on December 20 that sections of the controversial Telecommunications Act of 2000 were unconstitutional in terms of the exclusive licence granted to Cable & Wireless Jamaica Ltd. by the Government in March 2001.
The Senate on December 20 approved amendments to the Airports (Economic Regulation) Act, which will facilitate the privatisation of the management and operations of Sangster International Airport, Montego Bay.
Standard & Poor's, the international credit rating agency, has warned investors about the quality of Jamaica's debt. It revised the outlook for the debt although the actual ratings remain the same. The agency said it had revised the outlook assigned to Jamaica's "BB-long term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings to "negative" from "stable".
Mike Surridge, Director of the Revenue Protection Division, estimates that Jamaica loses $2 billion in revenue each year in taxes uncollected from formal business entities.
The police on Christmas Day killed two gunmen in a shoot-out in Allman Town, central Kingston. They identified one as Conrad "Phantom" Levy, 40, who escaped from the St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centre, Spanish Town, six weeks ago while serving a life sentence for murder.
Michelle Freeman, the national sprint hurdler, escaped serious injury in a traffic accident near Jacksonville, Florida on December 26, but her mother, Muriel Wallace, 64, and Ilery Oliver, a former Jamaican sprinter and quarter-miler, were killed.
Twenty-six people, children among them, were left homeless on December 28 when fire destroyed their houses at the corner of Luke Lane and Charles Street, west Kingston.
Two district constables, Hugh McFarquharson, 26, and Tamica Johnson, 23, of the Spanish Town police station, St. Catherine, were killed in a traffic accident on December 29 on Hagley Park Road, Kingston 11. Two regular policemen and two civilians were injured in the two-car crash.
Students from four Corporate Area High Schools St. Andrew, Ardenne, Immaculate Conception and Campion College - notched up impressive distinctions in English Language in the 2002 CXC examinations, according to the National Council on Education.
The Hon. Hector Lincoln Wynter, O.J., 76, a former Senator, educator and Editor-in-Chief of The Gleaner from 1976 to 1985, died on December 31 in the University Hospital of the West Indies, Mona, where he was admitted on December 27 after being injured in a traffic accident in the Liguanea area of St. Andrew. He is survived by his wife Diana, and children Astrid, Brian, Colin, Nikki, Lincoln and Mark, sister Sylvia, and brothers Basil and Lloyd.
Compiled by Lloyd Williams
