According to Dr. Beverly Wright, of the Manchester Health Department, some vendors at the Mandeville Market in Manchester are using formaldehyde (a deadly chemical that is used to preserve dead bodies before burial) to prevent their fish from spoiling. Dr. Wright made the disclosure during a Board of Health meeting at the Manchester Parish Council yesterday.
According to reports, in March of this year, a resident became ill after eating a fish that had been purchased at the market. The Ministry of Health was alerted, and they instantly took nine samples of fish from various vendors in the market. The samples were sent to the Government’s laboratory in Kingston for testing, and all nine samples tested positive for the chemical formaldehyde.
Indications are that the police will be investigating the matter in order to determine how the vendors came in possession of the chemical. Secretary Manager of the Manchester Parish Council, Alfred Graham, and Mayor of Mandeville Brenda Ramsay, have reportedly summoned fish vendors who sell in market to a meeting at the council’s chambers some time next week.
June 18, 1985 – The Jamaican dollar drops two cents against the United States dollar, clearing at J$5.60 to US$1, a new low. The transaction rate for the US dollar in the commercial banking system as from today will be J$5.56 buying and J$5.60 selling.
A resident of Old Harbour Bay in St. Catherine, reportedly spent nine days recovering in hospital recently, after he was bitten on the penis by a large pig. According to reports, the man (who is also the owner of the pig) wanted to sell the pig, so he and another man entered the pig pen and tried to catch it. The animal reportedly became violent and bit him twice, including once on the penis, resulting in his immediate hospitalization.
The family of 14 year old Norris Smith of a Flankers address in St. James is in mourning, after the boy reportedly hanged himself on an ackee tree, as a way of protesting his mother’s plan to leave Jamaica in order to work in the United States. The incident reportedly happened on Thursday (June 10), and his mother – Marcia Reid – has vowed to serve God and never to travel abroad again for economic reasons.
Reid, a single mother of five, reportedly said that she had been working as a security guard on the night shift for 11 years and had become tired of struggling to make ends meet. She reportedly told the three of her children who lived with her, that she was leaving for the US to work so life could be better for all of them and that she would be leaving them in the care of others. Norris was to be left with his father.
After hearing the plan, Norris reportedly threatened to kill himself, but Reid did not take the suicidal threats seriously.
Ivan Smith, a 75 year old farmer of Barclay Town district in Gayle, St. Mary, was killed yesterday after he was struck by lightning.
Reports are that at approximately 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon, Smith was outdoors tending to his pigs, when the lightning struck and injured him. He was found by relatives who took him to the hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
Almost two weeks after the security forces stormed the West Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens in search of area strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, the police are reportedly planning to conduct tests to check the contents of the stomachs of two crocodiles that were found in a caged area in Tivoli.
The police have theorised that the reptiles may have been used by thugs in the community to punish individuals who did not ‘hold the order’. According to the police, there is a possibility that persons who committed certain offences in the community, may have been fed to the animals.
Based on the advice of Jamaica’s security forces, and in an effort to ensure public safety, Prime Minister Bruce Golding has declared a state of public emergency in Jamaica, which is limited to sections of Kingston and St. Andrew. The decision was made at an emergency cabinet meeting earlier, and became effective at 6:00 pm today.
A release from the Office of the Prime Minister said “The Cabinet took the decision to advise the Governor General to issue a Proclamation pursuant to Section 26 of the Constitution declaring that a state of public emergency exists in the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew.” The proclamation shall remain in force for a period of one month, unless extended by the House of Representatives or revoked earlier.
As the instability of the capital continues, with criminals seeking to prevent the arrest of alleged crime lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, there is growing unrest in the downtown Kingston area. Sporadic gunfire has been reported in sections of Downtown Kingston and in West Kingston, and several police stations in the area have been attacked by gunmen, with one police station in particular – the Hannah Town police – being burnt to the ground. It is reported that the police abandoned the Hannah Town station as part of a strategic move, and that after they left, thugs ransacked and looted it, and then set it ablaze.
An elderly man (David Joseph) who allegedly attacked a female co-worker with a broken glass after she rebuked him for his constant sexual advances, appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court on Friday, where he pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault occasioning bodily harm.
The court heard that on the day in question, the complainant was on her way home from work, when the accused stopped her and made sexual advances and demands. He had reportedly done this on several occasions before and the complainant had refused him, and this time she rebuked him strongly. The accused allegedly got angry and picked up a bottle, which he then broke, and pressed against the complainant’s neck, causing a small cut.
The matter was reported to the police, and Joseph was arrested and charged. He is scheduled to return to court on April 19.
Earl Anderson, a mute (dumb & deaf) from Windsor Castle in Portland, caused a stir in Stewart Town, St. Mary a few days ago, as residents of the seaside town thought that he was a Haitian refugee who had fled earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince and arrived on their shores.
Word that Haitian refugees had arrived started spreading on Thursday afternoon (January 28), after residents claimed they saw a small yellow and white paddle boat off the coast in Stewart Town about 12 o’clock with five men and alerted the police. The rumor exploded when residents saw Anderson riding his bicycle from the beach area in Stewart Town, and assumed that he was one of the ‘men on the boat’ because he was wet.
Because he is a mute, Anderson could not communicate with the residents, and they immediately assumed he was Haitian. A resident reportedly offered Anderson a bath, food, clothing, and Anderson reportedly wrote on a piece of paper that he and his family had survived the devastating quake.
Residents called the police who took Anderson to the Port Maria Hospital where, with the help of a translator, they tried to question him. The story later unfolded however, as Anderson’s mother – Mavis Anderson – saw him on TVJ’s Prime Time News report.
According to statistics released by the police just yesterday, 2009 was a record year for murders in Jamaica. According to the stats, 1680 murders were recorded last year, 62 more than the 1618 that were recorded in 2008, and 6 more than the previous record year – 2005.
According to the stats, approximately 52 per cent (859) of the murders committed in 2009 “were due to intra-gang and internal gang feuds, in addition to reprisal killings”.
October was the deadliest month last year, with 177 murders being recorded, and there was no month when there were fewer than 100 murders recorded.
1292 (77%) of the deaths were attributed to the gun, and knives/machetes were used to kill 227 (13.5%) persons last year. Seventeen murders were committed during drive-by shootings.
There were 74 double murders, nine triple murders and three instances where more than three people were killed in a single incident in 2009.
163 women and 81 children were among those killed in 2009.
Interestingly, 240 murders were committed in the St. James Police Division, the highest number of murders recorded in any of the total 19 divisions. St. James has now topped the volatile St. Andrew South Division and Clarendon as the division with the most murders.
Interestingly also, of the 1680 murders committed last year, detectives were only able to clear up a staggeringly low 21%.
