Posted by Yardie Luke on November 9, 2010 under Jamaica Politics | 
Some 942 Jamaicans top the list of foreigners in the British prison system to be sent home to complete their sentences.
An article published in the Daily Mail on Monday stated that British Prime Minister, David Cameron is planning on sending home foreigners in British jails to complete their sentences.
Cameron said the number of foreign convicts in Britain’s jails approaches one in seven.
Jamaica heads the list of countries with foreigners in the prisons followed by Nigeria and the Irish Republic.
According to the Daily Mail, Prime Minister Cameron who is spearheading the cost-cutting drive, plans to tear up agreements that mean convicts cannot be sent home without their consent.
Cameron said it costs the taxpayer £38,000 to keep someone in jail for a year, which is more than the cost to send a student to the prestigious Eton College.
He says his administration hopes to reduce the prison population to 3,000 by 2014, rather than add 8,000 extra places that the previous government said would be needed.
A Coalition source said: ‘The Prime Minister is determined to do everything in his power to get as many sent back to their countries of origin as possible.’
Cameron knows this is not going to be easy, but he will be speaking to his counterparts in various countries and believes this will have an important effect. SOURCE: Go-Jamaica.com
Posted by Yardie Luke on September 6, 2010 under Jamaica Politics |
HE is not putting his cards on the table just yet, regarding his strategy to become prime minister of Jamaica one day, but rising star Andrew Holness is willing to admit one thing: “I want to lead my country.”
“If I had said no, you would say I am lying,” the education minister admitted to the Observer last Friday.
While declining to say more in terms of his own climb up the ladder to fulfil his dream, Holness said that the issue of leading the ruling Jamaica Labour Party now was not up for discussion.
“The issue of leadership is not a question in the Jamaica Labour Party right now. Of course, people have it (leadership) in their minds. It is a political party and everybody has ambitions. But right now, I am focussed on the things that I want to achieve in education. I think that they are far more important than any personal ambitions that I may have,” he said.
“My friends have said to me, you are doing all these things, what happens if you lose the next election. How are you going to survive? But I have never really been one to think of my own personal things like business. I have always been politically motivated. I am motivated by what I am doing now,” he explained.
“I wasn’t called to do law, or banking or anything like that. I was called to do this (politics),” said Holness, who is also member of parliament for West Central St Andrew, leader of government business in the House of Representatives and the JLP’s public relations top man.
Responding to calls for Prime Minister Bruce Golding to resign over his handling of the hiring of a United States law firm in relation to the extradition of former Tivoli Gardens don Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, Holness said that there was no need for Golding to step aside.
“The person who is calling for him to resign has to make a judgement as to whether or not the population that elected him has lost total confidence in him,” Holness argued. “So I am sure the prime minister would be of the opinion that there is an element in the society that would have lost confidence in him, but I don’t think that we can say that the majority of the society has lost confidence in him.
“Indeed, the PSOJ (Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica), the churches, the civil groups that represent the broad areas of society have not called for his resignation. They have asked for atonement, and the political party that he leads has also said that he should atone — apologise and atone. We are trying to do everything for him to atone. There are items that have been placed on the agenda that must be achieved, like de-garrisonisation, campaign financing… those things would be part of the atonement package,” Holness said. SOURCE
Posted by Yardie Luke on May 25, 2010 under Jamaica Politics |
Attorney, legal scholars and smart citizens are asking why was the decision to sign Christopher Coke’s extradition request and subsequent arrest warrant made public?
According to one attorney the wise course of action involves signing documents by the relevant state, court and security systems, getting an arrest warrant and “picking up” the intended extradition target without much publicity.
Extradition arrests usually means no bail. So in making the public decision to sign the extradition documents the Bruce Golding administration gave Christopher “Dudus” Coke and his allies enough time to prepare their escape.
This is exactly what Mr Coke and his allies did. Recent reports reveal that they made their escape through sewer and tunnels leading to the nearby harbour.
Posted by Yardie Luke on May 23, 2010 under Jamaica Politics |
PM Bruce Golding declared a state of public emergency effective 6:00 pm. The order covers parts of Kingston and St Andrew.
Golding said that based on the advice of the security forces, the action has been taken so as to ensure public safety. The state of emergency will remain in force for a period of one month unless extended by the House of Representatives or earlier revoked.
Posted by Yardie Luke on February 20, 2010 under Jamaica Politics |
On Friday February 19th, ground broke at the site formerly occupied by the main Public Hospital in Montego Bay, for the development of a recreational park.
The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) will fund the project to the tune of $30 Million, with $12 .5 million going to the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), while $17 .5 million will go to Lawson’s Construction.
The NSWMA contract stipulates that the agency create and beautify an open green space, with walkways, gazebos and seating on the compound.
Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett, noted that the new park will fit neatly into the Spruce Up Jamaica programme which is in place for the wider Montego Bay.
Lenworth Tracey, deputy general manager of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), said it would be providing the land and overseeing the project.
Posted by Yardie Luke on January 15, 2010 under Jamaica Politics |
On Friday January 15, 2010 the Jamaica Observer carried an interesting article about Trinidadian acquisition of Jamaican companies. Here is the main part of the article:
Caribbean Business Report lists a number of Trinidadian companies that have planted their flag in corporate Jamaica. In many instances, they have benefitted from Jamaica’s misfortunes, snapping up assets fairly cheaply.
1. In 1999 Guardian Holdings Limited acquired the insurance trio of Dyoll Life, Crown Eagle and Jamaica Mutual who were all Finsaced. They were merged and now go under the banner Guardian Life.
2. The year 2000 saw RBTT acquiring FINSAC’s 99.9 per cent shareholding in Union Bank of Jamaica. The bank changed its name to RBTT Bank (Jamaica). Union Bank was the result of a merger of the business of four FINSAC-controlled commercial banks and their three allied merchant banks, all seven of which sought Government intervention when faced with insolvency: Citizens Bank; Eagle Commercial Bank; Island Victoria Bank; Workers Savings & Loan Bank; Citizens Merchant Bank; Corporate Merchant Bank; and Island Life Merchant Bank.
3. Trinidad-based Guardian Holdings Ltd moved in 2001 to buy the Boscobel Beach Hotel on Jamaica’s north coast in a US$14 million deal.
4. Also in 2001, executives of HD Hopwood & Co Ltd and Neal & Massy Holdings Ltd announced the completion of negotiations whereby Neal & Massy acquired 100 per cent of the shares in HD Hopwood, a 70-year-old Jamaican-based manufacturer and distributor of pharmaceuticals and consumer goods.
5. That same year, Neal & Massy’s Illuminat planted its flag in Jamaica.
6. Arthur Lok Jack’s Associated Brands Industries Limited (ABIL) made its presence felt in the Jamaican market by establishing Confectionery and Snacks. He purchased a 50,000 square foot building on a four-acre parcel of land in Portmore for that very purpose. This building serves as ABIL’s main distribution centre in Jamaica with another distribution depot established in Montego Bay.
7. Jamaica Beverages Limited is poised to take an even greater share of the Jamaican-flavoured beverage market. It distributes Chubby, Fruta, Busta and Viva beverages for its parent manufacturing company, SM Jaleel Limited, based in Trinidad.
8. In 1999, then Prime Minister PJ Patterson announced that Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) had taken a majority stake in Jamaica’s Caribbean Cement Company. The Trinidad & Tobago company paid US$29.4 million for the Government’s 43.5 per cent share in Carib Cement.
9. The year 2009 saw Angostura, a subsidiary of CL Financial, ( run by Trinidadian Lawrence Duprey) acquire the Jamaican conglomerate Lascelles de Mercado (makers of both Appleton and J Wray & Nephew rums) in a deal valued at around US$700 million.
10. This year, 2010 will see Trinidad’s Caribbean Airlines acquire Jamaica’s national carrier Air Jamaica for next to nothing, leaving the government to deal with the airline’s US$1.2 billion debt. Caribbean Airlines will no doubt insist that it cuts its staff compliment by at least 600 employees and trim its routes. SOURCE
Posted by Yardie Luke on August 29, 2009 under Jamaica Politics |
AUG 28– JOHN P. GILBRIDE, Special Agent-in-Charge of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Field Division (“DEA”), JAVIER F. PEÑA, Special Agent-in-Charge of DEA’s Caribbean Division and PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that charges were unsealed against CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL COKE, a/k/a “Michael Christopher Coke,” a/k/a “Paul Christopher Scott,” a/k/a “Presi,” a/k/a “General,” a/k/a “President,” a/k/a “Duddus,” a/k/a “Shortman.”
COKE is charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine and conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms. The United States has formally requested through diplomatic channels that Jamaican authorities arrest COKE and extradite him to the Southern District of New York on the U.S. charges. According to the Superseding Indictment unsealed on Friday, August 28, 2009 in Manhattan federal court:
COKE leads an international criminal organization known as the “Shower Posse,” with members in Jamaica, the United States, and other countries — which he has led since the early 1990s. At COKE’s direction and under his protection, members of his criminal organization sell marijuana and crack cocaine in the New York area and elsewhere, and send the narcotics proceeds back to COKE and his co-conspirators. COKE and his co-conspirators also arm their organization with illegally trafficked firearms. COKE has been named by the U.S. Department of Justice to the list of Consolidated Priority Organization Targets “CPOTs”), which includes the world’s most dangerous narcotics kingpins.
COKE, 40, is charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana and conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms. If convicted on the narcotics charge, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $4 million or twice the pecuniary gain from the offense. He also faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the firearms trafficking charge, and a fine of up to $250,00 or twice the pecuniary gain.
Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the DEA’s New York Field Division and Carribean Division, and thanked the U.S. Department of Justice Office of International Affairs for their assistance.
“The charges against Christopher Michael Coke starkly illustrate the dangerous connection between the international trade in narcotics and illicit firearms,” said United States Attorney BHARARA. “The charges are another important step in our bringing to justice the world’s most dangerous criminals, wherever they may be found.”
Assistant United States Attorneys JOCELYN STRAUBER and JOHN ZACH are in charge of the prosecution, which is being handled by the Office’s International Narcotics Trafficking Unit.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. SOURCE
