Welcoming home our Olympians
published: Sunday | October 5, 2008



Gleaner photographers Norman Grindley and Peta-Gaye Clachar captured scenes from the motorcade which paraded Jamaican Olympians who participated in the recent Beijing Games through the streets of the Corporate Area on Friday, as well as from the sports gala held in their honour at the National Stadium yesterday. At that event, several athletes and sports administrators were conferred with national honours.

The events formed part of Government's 11-day homecoming celebrations for the Olympic heroes. The Jamaican contingent won 11 medals at the Games.

Awardees:


Order of Distinction
(Commander rank):

Howard Aris

Usain Bolt

Veronica Campbell-Brown

Glen Mills

Asafa Powell

Donald Quarrie

Order of Distinction
(Officer rank):

Shelly-Ann Fraser

Nesta Carter

Bridgette Foster-Hylton

Michael Frater

Danny McFarlane

Dwight Thomas

Melaine Walker
FROM LEFT:

(1) Prime Minister Bruce Golding (left) greets the fastest man on Earth, Usain Bolt, during Friday's welcome celebrations.

(2) Olympic 100 metres gold medallist, Shelly-Ann Fraser, is being conferred with the Order of Distinction, officer rank, by Governor General Professor Sir Kenneth Hall.

(3) Prime Minister Bruce Golding (left) greets Dwight Thomas, Olympic sprint relay gold medallist, while Minister of Information, Culture and Sports Olivia Grange looks on.

(4) Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie presents the key to the city and other gifts to Olympic 200-metres champion Veronica Campbell-Brown.

(5) Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, Usain Bolt (right), chats with Olympic sprint relay gold medallist, Asafa Powell, before the start of the gala national awards at the National Stadium, yesterday.

(6) These fans went to great lengths to get a view of the Olympians.

(7) Enthusiastic fans greet the Olympians along motorcade route.

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Housing fallout - Jamaicans overseas lose homes amid US crisis, crash of local investment schemes

published: Tuesday | October 7, 2008

Shelly-Ann Thompson, Staff Reporter


A NUMBER of Jamaicans living in the United States (US) have lost their homes after mortgaging properties and investing the money in risky Jamaican alternative investment schemes, several of which have gone bust.

Some have since resorted to paying rent, while others have returned home.

Audrey Wilson, a Jamaican living in Florida, was sad yesterday as she told stories of her country folk who have lost their homes.

Compounded problems

Wilson, who is from Kingston, has been living in the US for 19 years. She owns a mortgage-brokerage business and is a licensed real-estate broker. She told The Gleaner that Jamaicans living there, who had invested in unregistered schemes which have failed, had their problems compounded because of the financial crisis now gripping the US.

"It is a shame. Many persons are embarrassed because they have lost their homes and investment. Oh God! It's just sad and unbelievable!" she said.

Great loss

A female friend of Wilson's lost her Pembroke Pines, Florida, home after mortgaging her property for US$120,000 (J$8.64 million) and investing the money in the once-popular Cash Plus, which is now bankrupt. She now lives in a rented home.

To make matters worse, the friend lost her accounting job shortly after the 10 per cent monthly returns on her Cash Plus investment dried up.

"So, she had mortgage plus payments and the US$12,000 (the monthly returns) stopped. She then realised that she could not meet her financial obligations, so she had to sell her home," said Wilson.

Another friend of Wilson's is currently facing foreclosure on his home. He met a similar fate, having taken out a mortgage on his property and investing the money in Cash Plus.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Les Green, head of the Major Investigations Task force which is spearheading the enquiry into the operation of the failed investment scheme, said foreigners with Jamaican ties ranked among the top investors of such entities.

Green could not state how many people were affected or the sum involved, but said a number of foreign-based Jamaicans had made complaints to the investigative team.

"It's a real tragedy for these people," said Green, adding "there are certainly people who have invested heavily, several who invested over US$1 million."

A study conducted by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) last November, showed that 21 per cent of 402 local investors in alternative schemes had borrowed from financial institutions to obtain their deposits.

Kim-Marie Spence, a consultant at CaPRI, said while conducting the study, anecdotal evidence showed that a number of US residents, with ties to Jamaica, had mortgaged their properties to invest in the schemes.

"The study was conducted locally, so we don't have figures pertaining to the number of foreign investments, but we did get anecdotal evidence of Jamaicans who had mortgaged homes to invest," said Spence.

The study also showed that of the hundreds of respondents, 13.6 per cent had sold assets and another 44.5 per cent had used their savings to invest in the unregulated schemes.

The financial crisis in the US is already affecting many Jamaicans, said Wilson.

For some Jamaicans working in the US, the situation has become worse as they are among the 750,000 people who have lost their jobs since the start of the year. Wilson said four of her friends who lost their jobs have since returned to Jamaica.

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'Waite' is over - Arnett coach quits after string of poor DPL results

By Howard Walker Observer staff reporter
Tuesday, October 07, 2008


Jerome Waite became the first coaching casualty of the Digicel Premier League season when he was replaced by Fabian Davis as head coach at Arnett Gardens yesterday.

Waite, who was the saviour last season when he helped Arnett avoid relegation, was parting company with the club for a second time.

Waite coached the team to its most successful stint in recent years with back-to-back titles in the 2000-01, 2001-02 seasons and also coached the team when it lost the 2002-03 final, its third championship game in a row to Portmore United in extra-time.

Patrick Roberts, president of the club, told the Observer sounded diplomatic, when he said Waite wanted to "step back".

"As you know in every football club when a team is not doing good the first thing you look at is the coach... at the end of the day, four (games) straight without a point is unacceptable. We met and amicably, he (Waite) realised that the team is not doing good and (he) asked to step back," said Roberts.

"What we want is results and we are not getting results and we looked at everything and if he feels that he has to step back, then we respect that from Jerome Waite," he added.

Arnett Gardens have lost all their four games so far this season, including 0-1 losses to Boys' Town, Portmore United and Waterhouse.

On Sunday, they went down to 1-2 to Sporting Central Academy to be rooted at the bottom of the league without a point.

Efforts to contact Waite last night proved futile as calls went straight to his cellular phone's voicemail.

"In the meantime we appointed Fabian Davis as the interim coach. He has the respect and will have full control of the team," said Roberts.

Davis, 34, who represented Jamaica 72 times and scored six goals, will be the player/coach and said he is ready for the mammoth challenge.

"As you know the team has been doing badly so we are trying our best to do what is best for the club. It is for me to instil my experience of years of playing and have these players motivated to be on the same page on game day.

"I have a better understanding of how the players think, I hope I can get into their heads and have them think at a higher level," Davis told the Observer after meeting with his senior players before training started yesterday.

Davis, who is no stranger to success, was voted MVP after leading Arnett Gardens to the premier league title and again with Tivoli Gardens in their championship year.

Davis' first game in charge will be a fiery one against archrivals Tivoli Gardens on October 12.

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723 kids missing - Over 1,000 people unaccounted-for since January

KARYL WALKER, Crime/Court co-ordinator
Monday, October 06, 2008



Jullene Edwards, 15, missing since September 9. (Photo: CCN)

More than 700 children have been reported missing since the start of the year, according to figures released by the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) last week. The figure represents 65 per cent of the 1,112 persons listed as missing between January 1 and September 23 this year.

Two of the 723 children reported missing have been found dead.

They are 11-year-old Aamir Scott, whose dissected remains were found in bushes at Sandside district in St Mary where he lived, and 15-year-old Baggio Easy, whose decomposing remains were found in water on the edge of the Riverton City landfill in early September this year.

An on-the-spot post-mortem revealed that Easy drowned, while a teenager has been charged with the gruesome murder of Aamir Scott after police said he confessed to killing the child.

Up to yesterday, police were still awaiting the results of a DNA test to determine the identity of a child's body found in Red Hills, St Andrew last week.

Relatives of 11-year-old Ananda Dean believe that it was her body that was found, arguing that a shoe and school tunic found at the scene belonged to the missing child.

Police reported that of the 1,112 persons who were listed as missing, 353 have been found or returned home.

However, the police were not able to say how many of the missing children have been found.

The police say the majority of youngsters who go missing are girls who often run away from home only to be found holed up with a male partner or who return home voluntarily.

"A lot of times the persons who reported the children missing are so overjoyed that they sometimes forget to report that the child was found," Deputy Superintendent Sonia James of the CCN told the Observer.

Since the start of the year, 58 children have been murdered.
Some of the persons reported missing are:

. Jullene Edwards, 15 - Left home in Harbour View to visit her mother in Gordon Town, St Andrew on September 23 and has not been seen or heard from since:

. Chivaughn Haughton, 14, of Olympic Gardens, St Andrew - Missing since September 19. Police say Chivaughn is of dark complexion, slim build and 157 centimetres tall. Chivaughn left home for an undisclosed location and has not been seen since. She was wearing a purple blouse, blue jeans pants and a pair of black slippers when she went missing;

. Dave Davis, 32, otherwise called 'Spangler' of Guava Road, St Andrew has been reported missing since Wednesday, August 27. He is of brown complexion, slim build and about 5 feet 8 inches tall;

. Javane Patterson of Tower Avenue, St Andrew. Police say on September 19 Javane left his home and has not been seen or heard from since;

. Nerryssa Hitulah, 15, otherwise called 'Paige' of Evans Avenue, St Johns Heights, St Catherine - Missing since Monday, August 25; and

. Seventy-two-year-old Gloria Scott of Spanish Town, St Catherine. Police say on August 24 the elderly woman walked out of her home and has not been seen since.

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DPP office bungle - Boy charged with carnal abuse is 13, not 11 years old

BY PAUL HENRY Observer staff reporter
Tuesday, October 07, 2008



A charge of carnal abuse against a schoolboy was not withdrawn in the Home Circuit Court yesterday because the youth is not 11 years old as was earlier reported by the Observer on information from a prosecutor.

Paula Llewellyn, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), told the court yesterday that her office had confirmed that the boy was in fact 13 years old and not an 11-year-old as was reported by the Daily Observer on September 26 and in an article published in this week's Sunday Observer.

As a result of the age mix-up, Llewellyn told the court that she will now be asking defence lawyers to furnish certified copies of the birth certificate of any accused whose case is being transferred from the Family Court.

In blasting the Sunday Observer story, Llewellyn suggested that the article seemed to be "calculated to undermine the
public's confidence" in the justice system.

However, Llewellyn made her accusation against the newspaper after being informed by this reporter that the incorrect information in the September 26 story was provided by her office.

The claim that the charge against the boy would have been withdrawn yesterday and which was reported in this week's Sunday Observer story, was made to the newspaper by a second prosecutor who also knocked the Office of the DPP for sloppy work on the case.

"No preparation was done by the Crown, and now everybody is left with eggs on their faces," said the prosecutor, who had requested anonymity.

The youth and three other boys, 13 years to 14 years old, were jointly charged with carnal abuse for sexually assaulting a schoolmate in January and February of this year.

Presiding judge, Justice Bertram Morrison said in court yesterday that he had verified the ages of the boys before he took their guilty pleas when the matter was first brought before him on Thursday, September 25 after being transferred from the Family Court.

The boys' mothers, who were present in court yesterday, also confirmed their ages.

The boys, who are currently on $50,000 bail, were also scheduled for sentencing yesterday but the sentence hearing was put off until October 24 because all the social inquiry reports were not ready. The boys' lawyer was also absent from court.

The Child Care and Protection Act, which replaced the Juvenile Act in 2004, prevents any child under age 12 from being charged or convicted for any offence, including murder.

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