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MINISTER of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna has encouraged members of the Jamaican Diaspora to lend their support to the enrichment and further development of the artistic and cultural legacy that has helped to make Jamaica a formidable global force.

Minister Hanna was addressing delegates to the 6th Biennial Jamaican Diaspora Conference, who were specially invited to a featured mounting of the Rastafari Unconquerable exhibit and Sunday dinner at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre, Sam Sharpe Square, which was hosted by the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) on June 14.

“I’m also inviting you to come back to Jamaica and join us in this year’s Emancipation and Independence Celebrations under the theme: “Proud and Free…Jamaica 53,” she encouraged the overseas delegates, who hailed from the United States of America, Canada and, the United Kingdom.

Acknowledging that Jamaica holds pride of place as one of the “cultural capitals of the world,” the culture minister emphasised that her ministry has been working to “better manage the country’s cultural agencies and boards”.

To this end, she highlighted the fact that this year will see the opening of three new museums — Simon Bolivar Centre in Kingston, National Museum West in Montego Bay, and the Natural History Museum of Jamaica, to be located at the Institute of Jamaica.

“These new museums are in addition to the four other facilities, which we implemented in 2014,” she added.

Minister Hanna also disclosed that she was looking forward to the announcement of Jamaica’s Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, as a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and, she will be travelling with a team to Bonn, Germany for the 39th session at the end of the month.

“I will be leading a team to attend this session, to make the presentation for the Blue and John Crow Mountain National Park to be accorded World Heritage status, a designation that would make it the first mixed site recommended in the region,” she said, adding, “It would join 32 other such sites around the globe.”

The special tour of the Rastafari: Unconquerable, exhibit formed part of a series of activities organised by Jamaica National during the Jamaica Diaspora Conference, which was held from June 13 to 18 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

In his presentation Earl Jarrett, general manager of Jamaica National, encouraged the Diaspora Conference delegates and guests to pledge their support to cultural entities, such as the National Gallery of Jamaica and the National Museum West, which seek to maintain the foundation of the nation’s rich cultural heritage.

“We ought to enable the second, third and fourth generation Jamaicans in the diaspora to have an appreciation of their past; and, what better way to do so than to undergird the institutions that have been charged with this responsibility,” he emphasised.

He also implored the conference delegates and guests to aim to “broaden the conversation by adding another element to the discussion — and that is preserving our history and culture through support of these institutions, beyond the Diaspora Conference”.

In addition to a viewing of the special exhibit on the history of Rastafari in Jamaica, the more than 200 guests also viewed the award-winning photographs of rural high school students, who participated in 2014-2015 cycle of the JN Foundation Resolution Project exhibition, under the theme “Rites and Rituals”.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Hanna-calls-on-diaspora-to-support-the-arts_19152929

JAMAICA’S road users can now know where fatal road crashes are occurring daily with the development of the JNGI Fatal Crash Map.

According to Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee, director of Mona GeoInformatics Institute at The University of the West Indies (UWI), anyone can now retrieve this information online.

“We want to be able present information to stakeholders as it happens,” Dr Lyew-Ayee told guests at the crash map’s launch at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge, UWI, Mona campus, last Thursday.

Sponsored by JN General Insurance Company (JNGI) and the JN Foundation, the map is updated every day using data supplied by the Police Traffic Division. It is available exclusively on the website at www.jngijamaica.com and has data from January 1, 2015.

“You are nine times more likely to be killed in a road crash in Jamaica than you are in England. As a major motor insurer in Jamaica, JNGI has a substantial vested interest in this situation improving,” said Chris Hind, general manager of JNGI.

Hind indicated that the JNGI Fatal Crash Map is a follow-up to the company’s “Crash Hot Spot” road safety campaign launched three years ago. Conceptualised from research conducted by Dr Lyew-Ayee, the most dangerous stretches of the road network were identified and branded by JNGI, using signs and billboards to warn road users to take special care.

“Last year, we lost 331 lives on the road and 90 were pedestrian,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Calvin Allen, head of the Traffic Division.

“We have zeroed in on those areas,” he continued.

Earl Jarrett, general manager of Jamaica National Building Society, lauded the joint venture.

“A relationship developed between Mona GeoInformatics and JNGI, along with other elements of the JN Group,” he said.

This collaboration led to the production of a road safety documentary ‘Decoding Dangerous Roads’; as well as research into other risks associated with the Jamaican environment.

“The management of the reduction of road fatalities must depend on bringing greater knowledge and awareness to the process,” Jarrett continued.

He also gave credit to the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) for originally reaching this conclusion, which led to the start of the research by the Mona GeoInformatics Institute.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/auto/Road-alerts-at–your-finger-tips-_19154288

DR RENEE Rattray, director of education programmes at the JN Foundation, says narrow perceptions of success have been stifling the country’s economic growth.

Charging graduates at the Brimmer Vale High School to embrace their “non-traditional” label and vocational skills set, Rattray stated that the country needs more skilled professionals to stimulate production, pointing to the country’s low levels of manufacturing and exports. The goods-producing sector in 2014 represented about 0.0076 per cent of total real value added, according to data from the Economic and Social Survey published by the Planning Institute of Jamaica.

“Your skills are not something to be frowned upon. You are great; you are smart; you are the future,” she told graduates at the St Mary-based institution recently.

“In years to come, the future of our country will not be reliant on more lawyers and doctors. Of course, we will need them; however, it’s a more diverse range of creative and innovative skills that are now needed to grow our economy,” she added.

“Many traditional professions are focused on serving an established system. You, on the other hand, are poised to become the engineers, craftsmen, manufacturers, entrepreneurs and agriculturists, film and music producers and techies who will create solutions and opportunities for yourself and others.”

She urged the graduates to strive for greatness and not to allow themselves to be boxed into other people’s perceptions of success.

“For far too long, our perceptions of success have been too narrow, too colonial. You can take your passions, whatever they are, and take them to another level. There is no need to join a long line of persons waiting to get traditional jobs,” she charged.

SUPPORTING SUCCESS
Rattray encouraged parents and teachers to hold students to high expectations and to nurture their development in order to support their success.

Principal Evorine Henry-Tracey, acknowledging the work of Rattray in the JN Foundation’s iLead programme and other organisations and individuals, disclosed that the school has improved in discipline and performance over the past three years.

She outlined that this year a higher percentage of students sat external examinations at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC); City and Guilds and NCTVET levels, with 141 students of 166 doing the exams.

Performance in the 2014 CSEC exams also improved, Henry-Tracey disclosed, with passes in home economics, food and nutrition and physical education, ranging from 81 per cent to 97 per cent; and passes in agricultural science, office administration, information technology, principles of accounts, principles of business and technical drawing, ranging from 55 per cent to 75 per cent.

“Eleven students passed both mathematics and English in their subject combinations. We had two students passing 10 subjects,” she said.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150708/embrace-your-non-traditional-label-rattray

There were shouts of excitement in the Dennis Scott Theatre at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts on Friday, July 3, as the top seven school-based drama clubs in the inaugural JN Shakespeare Schools’ Championship were announced.

Waterford High, Campion College, Ardenne High, the American International School of Kingston (AISK), the Wolmers’ Trust, Glenmuir High, and a combined Kingston College and St Hugh’s cast secured places in the semi-final round, to be held in September.

The drama groups presented a Jamaican adaptation of a Shakespearean work, maintaining elements of the original language. They were judged on their interpretation, characterisation, design and technical management of the production.

Eugene Williams of the Edna Manley College, one of the judges for the competition, said the elimination round was the culmination of an arduous and exciting process for the students and teachers involved.

“This competition required them to translate from their emotional language of creole to the language of Shakespeare and then to dramatise in an engaging manner. It was clearly a transformative experience,” he observed.

Dr Renee Rattray, director, Education Programmes, JN Foundation, who has broad

experience in the education

sector, including devising interventions to improve behaviour and performance, concurred with Williams. She noted that exposing students to theatre can be metamorphic, explaining that various studies show that students who have “art-integrated educational programmes” score higher marks in some areas than those who do not.

“Students in the arts record higher grades in reading comprehension and in verbal and non-verbal communication. They also show more self-confidence and even have better attendance records,” she remarked.

The casts delivered 30-minute extracts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Hamlet and Julius Caesar.

Jamaican Adaptations

Their Jamaican adaptations included presenting Puck, a fairy from the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as folk hero Anancy; the three witches from Macbeth as saucy dancehall queens; and Shylock as a honey-tongued Rastafarian.

Many of the presentations were infused with reggae and dancehall music, Jamaicanised pronunciations of the script, and elements of indigenous religious practices.

John Gooden, a student of Wolmer’s Boys School, played Petruchio, the wealthy bachelor bent on refining his wife, Kate, in the comedy The Taming of the Shrew. He said participating in the competition was a turning point for him.

“It was a tough learning process. I had to work hard to become Petruchio as he is very different from my own personality, but I enjoyed it. In the end, I surprised myself as I didn’t know I had the capacity to remember so many lines,” he said, laughing.

Director of the Campion College cast Damion Radcliffe, said he found preparations for the championship developed not only his students’ acting skills, but also their leadership potential as they were very involved in many elements of the production.

“I am now grooming two of the female leads to take on the role of director for the next competition,” Radcliffe said.

Three of the seven schools will advance to the finals. The winning cast will jet off to London in 2016 to participate in activities commemorating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20150711/seven-through-shakespeare-semis

Starting tomorrow, more than 90 students from four rural non-traditional high schools will be immersed in an intensive Rhodes Scholar-supported ‘boot camp’, geared to improve their competence in maths and English.

The five-week camp is part of the TEACH Caribbean programme, a not-for-profit organisation, established by a group of Jamaican Rhodes Scholars.

The programme is being supported by the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), and endorsed by the Ministry of Education. The main participants will be students from the May Day and Mile Gully high schools in Manchester and Brimmer Vale and Islington high schools, in St Mary.

“Maths and English are foundation competencies which students need to move forward; however, many children continue to face serious challenges with the subjects. And our students, particularly in our rural institutions, do not always get the same attention as those in urban schools with similar challenges,” stressed Mariame McIntosh Robinson, conceptualiser of the TEACH Caribbean programme, who is also a Rhodes Scholar.

Fewer than 40 per cent of students who sit English Language at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level pass the subject, while almost half fail maths, data from the Economic and Social Survey by the Planning Institute of Jamaica shows. And, the performance in the subject areas among non-traditional schools is much lower.

TEACH Caribbean, which ran a three-year pilot with seed funding from the Rhodes Trust, has already observed marked improvements in the performance of students at May Day and Mile Gully High Schools in Manchester, where the initiative started.

The current Manchester cohort, which started with TEACH Caribbean in summer 2013, improved their average scores from 54 per cent to 79 per cent in maths, and from 44 per cent to 69 per cent in English in 2013.

In 2014, maths scores increased from 30 per cent to 51 per cent; and from 50 per cent to 65 per cent in English.

“The ultimate metric will be the percentage of our students who achieve a pass ranging from grades one to three in maths and English when they sit the CSEC exams in 2017. Our goal is that the majority of our students must pass CSEC maths and English,” said McIntosh Robinson.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150712/rhodes-scholars-focus-rural-schools

JAMAICA: Jamaica National donates CCTV to aid in crime fight in Spanish Town / Jamaica Gleaner / Security surveillance of the Spanish Town Market and bus park were bolstered recently with the donation of six closed-circuit television cameras to the Spanish Town Parish Council by the Member Advisory Councils of the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) Spanish Town and Portmore locations.

Making the presentation at the council office, Michelle Hines, business relationship and sales manager at the JN Spanish Town branch, said when violence flares up in Spanish Town, everyone suffers.

“No community is exempt from the dangers of criminal activities, therefore, we should endeavour, as individuals or organisations, to assist the members of the security force to expand their existing framework, so they can protect the lives of others, by deterring criminal activities,” she said.

In accepting the cameras, mayor of Spanish Town, Norman Scott, highlighted that reports of violence had decreased in Spanish Town and with the acquisition and subsequent installation of the cameras, it is his hope that the trend in that direction would continue.

“This gesture will enhance our crime-fighting methods in Spanish Town, and I thank Jamaica National for coming onboard,” he said. “This approach to crime fighting is prevalent in international territories and, many times, if it weren’t for cameras, the perpetrators of crimes would not have been caught.” He said the cameras were well-needed “informers to aid the police”.

The donation was made possible by the JN Member Advisory Councils, which are implemented in all branches and MoneyShops with the mandate to identify and participate in projects at the community level across Jamaica. Governed by the JNBS Foundation, the councils include JNBS members and leaders in respective communities.
 

http://www.entornointeligente.com/articulo/6445201/JAMAICA-Jamaica-National-donates-CCTV-to-aid-in-crime-fight-in-Spanish-Town-13072015

From the comfort of their hotel rooms to the beauty of the North Coast Highway, and the sometimes hilly terrains and winding country roads, 10 specially intrepid guests, delegates at the recently held Sixth Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference, participated in an exclusive one-day tour of three social enterprises in western Jamaica.

The tour, organised and hosted by the JN Foundation’s flagship project, the Social Enterprise Boost Initiative, assisted visitors to glean information and interact with operators of small social enterprises in the parishes of Westmoreland and Hanover. It was a unique opportunity for them to see some aspects of what was articulated at the conference.

With an appointed JN tour guide, the first stop was at a small sorrel farm and the Bethel Town Sorrel Factory in Westmoreland, with its primary product: the sorrel bag drink. Under the guidance of Ian Hill, chairman of the Bethel Town Agricultural Co-operative Society, visitors were shown the methodologies involved in processing sorrel to brew and package the drink.

Hill outlined the structure of the co-operative, which includes 15 members; emphasised the need for the product to be of the highest standard; and noted that standards were imperative for the expansion of the business, which he anticipates will tap into the export market one day.

“We currently supply a local market that is mainly educational institutions; providing students with a healthy drink, which is scientifically proven to have health benefits,” he explained, as the visitors were served samples of the product. The instant rave reviews created a buzz throughout the factory, as the guests got their taste buds awakened by the sorrel drink,

Hill further indicated that there were opportunities for the co-operative society’s sorrel-based product, and it was his hope that members of the diaspora would support the entity to explore overseas markets, as the factory developed products to meet the required standards for export.

The visitors expressed optimism for the expansion of the business; information was exchanged for further dialogue; and, then it was ‘all aboard’ for the next leg of the tour.

On arrival at the Source Centre, Savanna-la-Mar, the tourists were greeted by the pulsating musical sounds of the Mighty Beeston Mento Band, which set the mood for an engaging tour of the facility.

The Source, Savanna-la-Mar is the main resource centre for the communities of Russia, Seaton Crescent, Barracks and Grotto. The largest of five Source Centres across the island, it is a safe haven and the ‘go to’ place for students and adults, who use the services to develop academically and acquire business skills.

Tremendous Support
Julian Pringle of the Source Centre explained that community support was tremendous, as residents valued the role that the centre plays in for their lives.

“One of our recent achieve-ments was the opening of the creche,” he explained, noting that, “We listen to the needs of residents, and tailor our services, accordingly. Often times, we hear mothers say that they can’t go to classes, or to get involved in activities that will aid in their development because they have nowhere to leave the children. And, therefore, by opening

the creche, we eliminated that problem. Now, they can come here and gain a skill to change their lives, knowing that their children are safe.”

The group also toured the apiary of the Hanover Bee Farmers’ Co-operative.

For Andrea Bryan, a commu-nity development worker in Toronto, her interest in lending support services to social-enterprise businesses in Jamaica has been piqued.

“I love what the Source in Savanna-la-Mar is doing, based on my community-development work in Canada. I see synergies and similarities across both platforms, and I plan to seek assistance for the sustainability of these businesses. I took notes about the kind of technical support they need and will connect some of them with relevant entities in Toronto.”

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150715/diaspora-members-get-tour-social-enterprises