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THIS WEEK”S SUMMARY
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BAUGH SAY JAMAICA MUST BE ASSURED OF CSME BENEFITS—06/28/08
According to Dr. Kenneth Baugh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the CARICOM Single Market will only be effective if there is good coordination of the macro-economic policies in the region to create a single economy. Baugh says the Single Economy process, scheduled to start in 2008, will be established on a framework established by the Single Market.

1.5 MILLION JAMAICANS USE INTERNET—06/29/08
More than half of Jamaica’s population surfs the Web. Internet usage totals 55 percent, or 1.5 million users, according to data collected by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). In 2007, Internet subscription was estimated to total 85,000. The increase was partly attributed to the greater number of computers available in schools and communities.

JOB OFFERS RESULT IN EXPLOITATION—06/29/08
While no one in Jamaica has yet been convicted for human trafficking, according to a report from the United States State Department, police are actively pursuing eight cases in local Jamaican courts. Police also warn Jamaicans to be careful when responding to job and education offers than appear “too good to be true.” Such offers could result in sexual exploitation and abuse. Although Jamaica has improved its rating in human trafficking by monitoring agencies, trafficking remains a problem for the island.

CLARKE ACCUSES HOTELIERS OF POCKETING GRATUITIES—06/30/08
According to Opposition senator Navel Clarke of the People’s National Party (PNP), some hotels take over fifty percent of the gratuities due to workers, using the money for their own purposes. Gratuities were introduced in 1965 under the International Labor Organization Convention to replace tipping in the hotel industry. It is against the law for hotels to use workers’ gratuities for their own purposes.

BOBSLED TOURIST ATTRACTION OPENS IN OCHO RIOS—07/01/08
Carnival Corporation and its partner Rain Forest Trams Ltd. have joined with a local bank and businessmen to create Rainforest Bobsled Jamaica at Mystic Mountain. This eco-friendly tourist attraction in Ocho Rios has already seen its first visitors, but the official grand opening of the facility is scheduled for late in July.

JAMAICA TO LOSE 13,000 JOBS DUE TO ETHANOL DEAL—07/02/08
Jamaica is set to lose as many as 13,000 jobs when a deal to produce ethanol goes into effect. Infinity Bio-Energy Ltd., a Brazilian ethanol-producing firm, has purchased the Jamaican Sugarcane Company. According to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the acquisition will go into effect in September 2008 and will result in the loss of 13,000 jobs. The sugar company’s six factories have been losing money since 1998, he said.

MAN TO RECEIVE $5 MILLION FOR AMPUTATED ARM—07/03/08
According to a ruling from the Supreme Court, the Jamaican Government must pay $5 million in damages to Anthony Jackson. Jackson’s left arm was amputated at Cornwall Regional Hospital in St. James when he was 11. He had to wait 13 years to have his case heard in court. He was also awarded J$3.5 million to buy a maun-electric prosthesis and J$710,000 for maintenance of the prosthesis. Jackson broke his hand in January 1994 and also had a cut on the arm. He was taken to the hospital on the day of his injury. On February 3, 1994, his arm was amputated a few inches below the shoulder because gas gangrene had developed.

US MISSIONARIES ROBBED IN JAMAICA—07/04/08
Thirty-nine missionaries were victims of a robbery in Kingston, Jamaica. The missionaries, who were robbed by two gunmen, were from Adventures in Missions, located in Atlanta, Georgia. The robbers broke into a Salvation Army school for the blind where the missionaries were doing volunteer work. The group says it will find a new location for its goodwill trips to the island due to the incident.

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JAMAICAN DIASPORA NEWS
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JAMAICAN ACTOR JAILED IN NEW YORK CITY—06/30/08
Lacell Parnell, a 38-year-old Jamaican actor, will appear in court on changes of sexual abuse. Parnell, who played the role of “Girlie” in “Girlie Get Visa,” was arrested May 29, 2008. This is not the first charge of sexual assault for Parnell. He was arrested in 2004 and charged with multiple counts of sexual misconduct involving victims aged between 13 and 17.
   
JAMAICAN SUES BARCLAYS BANK FOR SLAVERY—07/01/08
Clive Campbell, head of Da Black Defense League, a youth group in Brooklyn, New York, has filed suit in State Court against Barclays Bank for “slavery genocide.” Campbell cites the bank’s role in enslaving his ancestors in Jamaica and the “resulting destruction” of his African ethnic and national identity. Campbell claims that the money used to start the bank with which Barclays merged in the 1960s came from the slave trade.

JAMAICAN PATIENT LEFT TO DIE IN U.S. HOSPITAL—07/02/08
Shock and outrage were expressed by the Caribbean Diaspora population of Brooklyn, New York, after hearing that a Jamaican migrant woman was left to die, unattended by staff or other patients, in the psychiatric waiting room of Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn. Esmin Green, 49, can be seen on a security video as she slumped from a chair onto the floor of the waiting room and remained there, ignored by patients and a security guard for more than an hour. By the time help arrived, Green was already dead.

JAMAICAN TO RUN FOR STATE SENATE IN CONNECTICUT—07/03/08
Veronica Airey-Wilson, currently serving as an elected official on the Court of Common Council in Hartford, Connecticut, plans to run for a seat in the state senate. Airey-Wilsom wants to represent the second senatorial district. She is the first Jamaican to be deputy mayor of Hartford.     

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SPORTS
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CAMPBELL-BROWN WINS 200 METERS—06/29/08
Veronica Campbell-Brown, current Olympic champion, won the women’s 200-meter match with a time of 21.94 seconds. She defeated Kerron Stewart, the winner of the 100-meters, who achieved a personal-best time of 21.99. In third place was Sherone Simpson, Commonwealth Games champion, who clocked 22.11 seconds.

BOLT DEFEATS POWELL IN OLYMPIC TRIALS—06/30/08
Usain Bolt beat Asafa Powell in the 100-meter final in Jamaica’s Olympic trials. Bolt clocked 9.85 seconds, while Powell came in second with 9.97. Bolt broke Powell’s world record of 9.74 last month in New York with a 9.72 second finish.

JAMAICA VS. CANADA QUALIFYING MATCH VENUE ANNOUNCED—07/01/08
BMO Stadium in Toronto, Canada, will be the site of the 2010 World Cup qualifying semi-final match between Jamaica’s national senior football players and the host Canada team. The venue is welcomed by the Jamaica Football Federation, since there is a large Jamaican and Caribbean Diaspora in Toronto.

JAMAICAN OLYMPIC TEAM LED BY BOLT, POWELL, CAMPBELL—07/02/08
Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, and Veronica Campbell-Brown will lead Jamaica’s Olympic Team to the games in Beijing, China. Bolt is the world 100-meter record holder. Powell is the former 100-meter record holder, and Campbell-Brown is the current 200-meter Olympic champion. Aleen Bailey, Sherone Simpson, and Maurice Smith are also on the 51-member squad.

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DEVOTIONAL
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The Love That Never Ceases

On the evening of his sister's marriage, George Matheson was alone at home.  Years earlier, he too had been engaged until his fiancé learned that he was going blind. Unable to bear the thought of marrying a blind man, she broke off their engagement.  He went blind while studying for ministry and his sister was the one to take care of him. Under her care, he had excelled and was said to have preached regularly in a church to over 1,500 people each week.  Who would care for him now? To compound matters, his sister's marriage brought back memories of his own heartbreak; of a love lost due to the tragedy of blindness.

As he sat disconsolate, perhaps contemplating his loneliness and his future, the enormous truth of God's everlasting love filled his soul.  It was not unlike Paul's moment of truth when in response to the question, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Romans 8:35), he wrote, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (vv.37-39). This was a reaffirmation of the truth that God himself demonstrated when through Jeremiah He said to the families of Israel , "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee" (31:3).

Everlasting love has no end to it, and absolutely nothing can separate us from it.  Regardless of circumstances, it is always there.  That is the truth of God's promise, and the truth upon which every believer can rest.  Matheson discovered that, and in less than five minutes was said to have written the grand old hymn that begins with the words, and whose title came from the first sentence:

"O Love that will not let me go

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be."

What love!  Have you known and experienced it?

CEW

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CREDITS/SOURCES
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The weekly news is compilation of new articles from top Caribbean and Jamaican news sources.