Author Archives: Mike

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Abernathy

Abernathy
Abernathy

Born on March 11, 1926, in Linden, Alabama, Ralph D. Abernathy was a Baptist min­is­ter who, with Martin Luther King Jr., orga­nized the his­tor­i­cal Montgomery bus boy­cotts. He co-found­ed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was a major civ­il rights fig­ure, serv­ing as close advis­er to King and lat­er assum­ing SCLC pres­i­den­cy. Later return­ing to the min­istry, Abernathy died on April 17, 1990, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Early Years

Ralph David Abernathy Sr. was born on March 11, 1926, in Linden, Alabama, the 10th of 12 off­spring born to Louivery Abernathy and William Abernathy, a farmer and dea­con. Upon grad­u­at­ing from high school, Abernathy was draft­ed into the U.S. Army dur­ing World War II, sub­se­quent­ly leav­ing his fam­i­ly’s 500-acre farm.Following his mil­i­tary ser­vice, in 1948, Abernathy became an ordained min­is­ter while pur­su­ing his edu­ca­tion. He earned a math­e­mat­ics degree from Alabama State College in 1950, and received a mas­ter’s degree in soci­ol­o­gy from Atlanta University the fol­low­ing year. He then became pas­tor of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery and dean of stu­dents at Alabama State. He also mar­ried Juanita Odessa Jones; the two would have four chil­dren togeth­er. http://​www​.biog​ra​phy​.com/​p​e​o​p​l​e​/​r​a​l​p​h​-​d​-​a​b​e​r​n​a​t​h​y​-​9​1​7​4​397

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Lowery

Joseph Lowery
Joseph Lowery

Joseph Lowery was born on October 6, 1921, in Huntsville, Alabama. In 1952, he became pas­tor for the Warren Street United Methodist Church in Mobile. There, he helped launch a dri­ve to end dis­crim­i­na­tion in Mobile. In 1957, Lowery helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and in 1968, he became the SCLC’s chair­man. After retir­ing, he con­tin­ued to fight against social injustice.“Work for that day … when jus­tice will roll down like waters and right­eous­ness as a mighty stream.”

Early Life

Born Joseph Echols Lowery on October 6, 1921, (some sources say 1924) in Huntsville, Alabama. For more than 50 years, Reverend Joseph Lowery has fought against prej­u­dice and dis­crim­i­na­tion on behalf of the African-American com­mu­ni­ty. He earned him­self the nick­name the “dean of the civ­il rights move­ment.” Lowery, the son of a teacher and a busi­ness­man, grew up in the seg­re­gat­ed South. He knew first­hand the hard­ships and cru­el­ty that many African-Americans expe­ri­enced. At the age of 12, Lowery was beat­en by a white police offi­cer after he acci­den­tal­ly bumped into the law enforce­ment offi­cial. He grad­u­at­ed from high school in 1939 and then stud­ied at sev­er­al col­leges, includ­ing Wayne State University and Knoxville College. After com­plet­ing a bach­e­lor’s degree at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia, Lowery fol­lowed a spir­i­tu­al call­ing. He grad­u­at­ed from the Chicago Ecumenical Institute in 1950 with a doc­tor­ate in divinity.

Civil Rights Career

An ordained Methodist min­is­ter, Lowery returned to Alabama in 1952 to serve as pas­tor for the Warren Street United Methodist Church in Mobile. There, he became active in the emerg­ing civ­il rights move­ment. Inspired by the resis­tance shown regard­ing the seg­re­gat­ed bus­ing sys­tem in Montgomery, Lowery helped launch a dri­ve to end the same dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tices in Mobile.

In 1957, Lowery worked with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and oth­ers to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He became the orga­ni­za­tion’s vice pres­i­dent and helped the group with its efforts to fight for equal­i­ty through non­vi­o­lent actions. Lowery stayed true to his con­vic­tions at a great per­son­al cost at times.

He and sev­er­al mem­bers of the SCLC were sued for libel by a Montgomery com­mis­sion­er because of a 1960 news­pa­per ad that made cri­tiques of the city’s police depart­ment. Lowery’s assets were seized when the court ruled against the SCLC mem­bers. They appealed the case, which was final­ly over­turned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1964. http://​www​.biog​ra​phy​.com/​p​e​o​p​l​e​/​j​o​s​e​p​h​-​l​o​w​e​r​y​-​1​1​388

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THURGOOD

Justice Thurgood Marshall
Justice Thurgood Marshall

Born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908, Thurgood Marshall was the grand­son of a slave. His father, William Marshall, instilled in him from youth an appre­ci­a­tion for the United States Constitution and the rule of law. After com­plet­ing high school in 1925, Thurgood fol­lowed his broth­er, William Aubrey Marshall, at the his­tor­i­cal­ly black Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His class­mates at Lincoln includ­ed a dis­tin­guished group of future Black lead­ers such as the poet and author Langston Hughes, the future President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and musi­cian Cab Calloway. Just before grad­u­a­tion, he mar­ried his first wife, Vivian “Buster” Burey. Their twen­ty-five year mar­riage end­ed with her death from can­cer in 1955.
In 1930, he applied to the University of Maryland Law School, but was denied admis­sion because he was Black. This was an event that was to haunt him and direct his future pro­fes­sion­al life. Thurgood sought admis­sion and was accept­ed at the Howard University Law School that same year and came under the imme­di­ate influ­ence of the dynam­ic new dean, Charles Hamilton Houston, who instilled in all of his stu­dents the desire to apply the tenets of the Constitution to all Americans. Paramount in Houston’s out­look was the need to over­turn the 1898 Supreme Court rul­ing, Plessy v. Ferguson which estab­lished the legal doc­trine called, “sep­a­rate but equal.” Marshall’s first major court case came in 1933 when he suc­cess­ful­ly sued the University of Maryland to admit a young African American Amherst University grad­u­ate named Donald Gaines Murray. Applauding Marshall’s vic­to­ry, author H.L. Mencken wrote that the deci­sion of denial by the University of Maryland Law School was “bru­tal and absurd,” and they should not object to the “pres­ence among them of a self-respect­ing and ambi­tious young Afro-American well pre­pared for his stud­ies by four years of hard work in a class A col­lege.“http://​chnm​.gmu​.edu/​c​o​u​r​s​e​s​/​1​2​2​/​h​i​l​l​/​m​a​r​s​h​a​l​l​.​htm
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JUST ASKING ?

President Barack Hussein Obama
President Barack Hussein Obama

“We are the ones we have been wait­ing for ” a ral­ly­ing cry Barack Obama used in his quest to becom­ing America’s 44th President. All of us have a respon­si­bil­i­ty to leave the world a bet­ter place than we found it when we arrived. The ques­tion we must ask our­selves is,” are we doing any­thing, much less enough to change the things which we see are wrong”? Someone once asked ’ how can a sin­gle per­son make a dif­fer­ence”? The answer, ask a per­son being bugged by a mos­qui­to ! Everyone of us can make a dif­fer­ence, we make a dif­fer­ence in the way we cast our votes, respon­si­bly and not emo­tion­al­ly. We make a dif­fer­ence in the way we raise our chil­dren. We make a dif­fer­ence in the way we treat oth­ers. We make a dif­fer­ence in the way we present our­selves to the world. We fail as a specie to take respon­si­bil­i­ty for our actions. We fail in rec­og­niz­ing that we the peo­ple deter­mines our own des­tiny. Yes it begins in the homes, it con­tin­ues in how we dis­pense adult func­tions such as vot­ing. If we con­tin­ue to act emo­tion­al­ly when we vote , how will we ever have respon­si­ble, capa­ble and moral lead­ers? If we allow the par­ty we favor to be safe in the belief, that irre­spec­tive of the cor­rup­tion, graft, and incom­pe­tence it deliv­ers we will sim­ply put them back in office,why would they change?

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” YES WE CAN!!

attainable
attain­able

If when we vote we choose peo­ple with ques­tion­able morals how can we com­plain when they deliv­er immorality?When we elect lead­ers who have demon­strat­ed that they are inca­pable of deliv­er­ing on the most basic of require­ments, how can we be sur­prised when our stan­dard of liv­ing con­tin­ue to dete­ri­o­rate? How do we expect the Police to react to us when we offer them bribes to let us off when we break the laws, Aren’t we the ones cor­rupt­ing them?

How do we expect to end cor­rup­tion if we remain silent when pub­lic offi­cials demand pay-offs? How do we expect respect, when we hurl abuse and insults at those appoint­ed to enforce laws which are in place for our own pro­tec­tion? How do so many peo­ple move to live in coun­tries where the fun­da­men­tals of a civ­i­lized soci­ety are prac­ticed, yet cheer-lead and sup­port anar­chy in the coun­try of their births? Isn’t it self­ish and hyp­o­crit­i­cal when we reap the fruits of order, yet we sow the seeds of anar­chy? Just asking ?

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EVERS

Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers

Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was born on July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi. In 1954, he became the first state field sec­re­tary of the NAACP in Mississippi. As such, he orga­nized vot­er-reg­is­tra­tion efforts, demon­stra­tions, and eco­nom­ic boy­cotts of com­pa­nies that prac­ticed dis­crim­i­na­tion. He also worked to inves­ti­gate crimes per­pe­trat­ed against blacks.

Myrlie Evers mourns the death of her husband
Myrlie Evers mourns the death of her husband

On JunRenowned civ­il rights activist Medgar Evers was born on July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi. Growing up in a Mississippi farm­ing fam­i­ly, Evers was draft­ed into the U.S. Army in 1943. He fought in both France and Germany dur­ing World War II, and received an hon­or­able dis­charge in 1946. In 1948, he entered Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University) in Lorman, Mississippi. During his senior year, Evers mar­ried a fel­low stu­dent, Myrlie Beasley. They lat­er had three chil­dren: Darrell, Reena and James.e 12, 1963, Evers was assas­si­nat­ed out­side of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.

http://​www​.biog​ra​phy​.com/​p​e​o​p​l​e​/​m​e​d​g​a​r​-​e​v​e​r​s​-​9​5​4​2​324

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EVERS

Myrlie Evers
Myrlie Evers


Born in 1933, Myrlie Evers-Williams was the wife of mur­dered civ­il rights activist Medgar Evers. While fight­ing to bring his killer to jus­tice, Evers-Williams also con­tin­ued her hus­band’s work with her book, For Us, The Living. She also wrote Watch Me Fly: What I Learned on the Way to Becoming the Woman I Was Meant to Be. Evers-Williams served as chair of the NAACP from 1995 to 1998.Born Myrlie Louise Beasley on March 17, 1933, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Raised by her grand­moth­er, a school­teacher, Evers-Williams loved learn­ing and music. Growing up in the seg­re­gat­ed South, she went to Alcorn A&M College, one of the only col­leges in the state that accept­ed African American stu­dents. While at Alcorn, she met Medgar Evers, a World War II vet­er­an sev­er­al years her senior. The cou­ple fell in love and mar­ried in December of 1951.

Myrlie with President Barack Obama
Myrlie with President Barack Obama

When her hus­band became the Mississippi field sec­re­tary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Evers-Williams worked along­side him. She assist­ed him as he strove to end the unjust prac­tice of racial seg­re­ga­tion in schools and oth­er pub­lic facil­i­ties and cam­paigned for vot­ing rights as many African Americans were denied this right in the South. Medgar made ene­mies of those who did­n’t want race rela­tions in the South to change. On June 12, 1963, Medger Evers was shot to death in front of his home by a white suprema­cist named Byron De La Beckwith.

http://​www​.biog​ra​phy​.com/​p​e​o​p​l​e​/​m​y​r​l​i​e​-​e​v​e​r​s​-​w​i​l​l​i​a​m​s​-​2​0​5​624

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STOKELY

Stokely Carmichael
Stokely Carmichael

Stokely Carmichael was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on June 29, 1941. Carmichael rose to promi­nence as a mem­ber and lat­er the chair­man of SNCC, work­ing with Martin Luther King Jr. and oth­er Southern lead­ers to stage protests. Carmichael lat­er lost faith in the tac­tic of non-vio­lence, pro­mot­ing “Black Power” and ally­ing him­self with the mil­i­tant Black Panther Party.Famed civ­il rights leader StokelyCarmichael was born on June 29, 1941, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Carmichael’s par­ents immi­grat­ed to New York when he was a tod­dler, leav­ing him in the care of his grand­moth­er until the age of 11, when he fol­lowed his par­ents to the United States. His moth­er, Mabel, was a stew­ardess for a steamship line, and his father, Adolphus, worked as a car­pen­ter by day and a taxi dri­ver by night. An indus­tri­ous and opti­mistic immi­grant, Adolphus Carmichael chased a ver­sion of the American Dream that his son would lat­er crit­i­cize as an instru­ment of racist eco­nom­ic oppres­sion. As Stokely Carmichael lat­er said, “My old man believed in this work-and-over­come stuff. He was reli­gious, nev­er lied, nev­er cheat­ed or stole. He did car­pen­try all day and drove taxis all night& The next thing that came to that poor black man was death — from work­ing too hard. And he was only in his 40s.“http://​www​.biog​ra​phy​.com/​p​e​o​p​l​e​/​s​t​o​k​e​l​y​-​c​a​r​m​i​c​h​a​e​l​-​9​2​3​8​629.

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MALAYSIA:122 NEWLY SPOTTED OBJECTS MIGHT BE FROM MISSING PLANE

Malaysian offi­cials announced Wednesday that a satel­lite has cap­tured images of 122 objects in the Indian Ocean that might be from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, miss­ing since March 8. According to act­ing Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, the objects were seen close to where three oth­er satel­lites had pre­vi­ous­ly detect­ed pos­si­ble air­craft debris. He added that the sight­ings are “the most cred­i­ble lead that we have.“Hussein said the satel­lite images, which were tak­en Sunday and relayed by France-based Airbus Defense and Space, showed objects rang­ing in size from one to 25 yards in length. “It must be empha­sized that we can­not tell whether the poten­tial objects are from MH370. Nevertheless, this is anoth­er new lead that will help direct the search oper­a­tion,” Hussein said. The hunt for Flight MH370 has turned up var­i­ous float­ing objects spot­ted by planes and satel­lites, but thus far none have been retrieved or identified.

image.adapt.280.high.1394728505012The des­per­ate, multi­na­tion­al search for the jet­lin­er, which dis­ap­peared en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 peo­ple on board, resumed on Wednesday after inclement weath­er over the Indian Ocean tem­po­rary halt­ed efforts the pre­vi­ous day.A total of 12 planes and two ships from the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand were par­tic­i­pat­ing in the search, hop­ing to find even a sin­gle piece of the jet that could offer tan­gi­ble evi­dence of a crash.

.http://​amer​i​ca​.aljazeera​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​2​0​1​4​/​3​/​2​6​/​m​h​3​7​0​-​m​a​l​a​y​s​i​a​-​p​l​a​n​e​o​b​j​e​c​t​s​s​p​o​t​t​e​d​.​h​tml

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WHERE ARE WE HEADING?

Members of the Jamaica Police Force have a very tough road to hoe. They are asked to put their lives on the line in defense of some of the most crim­i­nal-lov­ing peo­ple to be found any­where. How did Jamaica get there you ask? Jamaica got there because of polit­i­cal inter­fer­ence in law-enforce­ment. This cre­at­ed an atti­tude which says, if you are con­nect­ed, strong , pow­er­ful, or a bad-man you can sim­ply bad man your way through the sys­tem and no one will dare touch you. This atti­tude start­ed around the time Michael Manley became Prime Minister in 1972. His rhetoric was one which was con­strued to mean, one could sim­ply take what­ev­er one want­ed, whether you own it or not.

Michael Manley
Michael Manley

The peri­od between 1972 when Michael Manley’s was elect­ed to office and 1980 when he was boot­ed from it, was the most tumul­tuous peri­od in Jamaica’s mod­ern his­to­ry. High prices, run-away crime, food short­ages and a gen­er­al ide­o­log­i­cal and moral shift in the direc­tion of our coun­try. Today Jamaica is reap­ing the bit­ter fruits of that shift. The Jamaica of today is one where the men­tion of the word  “God” to many, is a dirty word. It is a Jamaica which indulges in las­civ­i­ous and Hedonistic plea­sures. A Jamaica opposed to author­i­ty, yet hell-bent on death and destruc­tion. At the Genesis of this shift, crime esca­lat­ed under Manley, it got so bad, his admin­is­tra­tion was forced to build the Gun Court and insti­tute a state of Emergency. At the heart of those actions , is the cer­ti­tude of my argu­ments. When you cre­ate a feel­ing in peo­ple that they can do as they please, They do as they please. At the same time Manley was build­ing the Gun-Court his goons were active­ly engaged in march up to police sta­tions and forcibly remov­ing crim­i­nals from police cus­tody. This was unprece­dent­ed in Jamaica. This kind of thug­gery was unknown to the coun­try under the lead­er­ship of its for­mer Prime Minister Hugh Lawson Shearer of the Labor Party. Shearer would tol­er­ate none of that behav­ior, he gave police a free hand to go after the crim­i­nals wher­ev­er they were.

Bruce Golding
Bruce Golding

Unfortunately for Jamaica ‚the labor par­ty, seek­ing to strike a counter bal­ance, built and main­tained two pre­mier gar­risons dur­ing that time . Tivoli Gardens and Wilton Gardens(Rema). After Seaga won in 1980 he did not stand in the way of the Police doing their duties. There was one caveat of course, Tivoli Gardens was out of bounds. I entered Law Enforcement as a fresh-faced ide­al­ist who believed I could change the world, want­i­ng to do good. I want­ed to give peo­ple the oppor­tu­ni­ty to live their lives hav­ing the free­dom to go wher­ev­er they chose to in their own coun­try with­out the per­il of immi­nent death. As a High school kid I saw what Political vio­lence did to our coun­try. I want­ed to be a part of chang­ing it. It did­n’t take long for me to rec­og­nize that noth­ing I could do as a police offi­cer would ever change Jamaica for the bet­ter. I rec­og­nized pret­ty ear­ly that the cor­rup­tion was at the top , and the stream was already way too con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed. I made plans to exit and was out ful­ly in 10 years.

Despite the rel­a­tive calm of the Seaga years of the 80’s the writ­ing was on the wall. The peo­ple had tast­ed the fruits of the Manley ide­ol­o­gy, free­ness, do what you want. law enforce­ment will not be allowed to touch you. Take peo­ple’s prop­er­ty through force of arms. Receive mon­ey for no work. The gen­er­al law­less­ness of the 70’s was too strong a lure to resist. The labor par­ty was boot­ed from office in 1989 and Michael Manley was returned to office, despite the unmit­i­gat­ed dis­as­ter which were his pre­vi­ous two terms.

Bunting Miller and Patterson
Bunting Miller and Patterson

What result­ed after was an unprece­dent­ed 18 1⁄2 years of PNP rule which drove the nail in the eco­nom­ic and social cof­fin of Jamaica. Punctured only by a brief 4 ‑year inter­lude when Bruce Golding and the JLP was elect­ed to office by a razor-thin mar­gin of vic­to­ry in 2007. By 2011 the PNP was back in office under the lead­er­ship of Portia Simpson Miller, who Golding had beat­en just 4 years pri­or. Today only about 13% of the nations peo­ple are in the mid­dle-class. A shock­ing 83% of the peo­ple are liv­ing below the pover­ty line. All of this, after 28 years of People’s National Rule of the last four decades.Corruption is the hall-mark of the Administration.
Rating Agency Transparency International rat­ed Jamaica 84% cor­rupt. Crime will not be head­ing south any­time soon. The courts can­not be trust­ed to dis­pense equi­table and fair jus­tice. Despite our best hopes, there are large chunks of the Jamaican pop­u­la­tion who are sim­ply above the laws. A huge chunk of the pop­u­lace, both at home and in the dias­po­ra are sup­port­ive of crim­i­nal­i­ty and chaos. Some liv­ing abroad active­ly fund crime there. Jamaica is expe­ri­enc­ing the bit­ter fruits of the Manley doctrine.

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Magistrate: Not Guilty, But Is Kern Innocent ?

From the off­set the odds of jus­tice being served in the Kern Spencer crim­i­nal tri­al was next to zero. Yet despite the odds many Jamaicans includ­ing myself, hoped that maybe this time , just this once, a Jamaican politi­cian would be held account­able for just the sec­ond time in our his­to­ry. Kern Spencer walked out of Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey’s Court-room, a free man ‚our hopes dashed , it was not to be.

Kern Spencer Coleen Wright
Kern SpencerColeen Wright

In ret­ro­spect I ask myself “what was your hope based on”? There was hard­ly any prece­dent in sup­port of that hope. In fact, only one Politician, JAG Smith, for­mer Labor Minister in a 1980’s JLP Administration was ever sent to prison for steal­ing Farm Workers hard-earned sav­ings. Had he coop­er­at­ed and paid back the mon­ey it would have been swept under the rug and he would not have gone to prison. Ironically it was Portia Simpson Miller the cur­rent Prime Minister, then Minister of Labor ‚who pushed for the inves­ti­ga­tions. This 1990 SUN SENTINEL REPORT pro­vides details on the scheme. http://​arti​cles​.sun​-sen​tinel​.com/​1​990 – 04-01/busi­ness/9002010438_1_­farm-work­er-pro­gram-for­eign-guest-work­ers-bank-accounts.

Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey’s deci­sion to dis­pose of the case by way of Defense’s No case sub­mis­sion motion, smack of arro­gance and brava­do. I believe her actions have been the most egre­gious I have ever seen com­ing from the bench in Jamaica. It smells like a smack-down of chief Prosecutor Paula Llewellyn, I get the last laugh. I know Jamaica is cor­rupt to the core, but this is the most galling I have ever seen. It is a sad day for our coun­try, par­tic­u­lar­ly when the ver­dict of dance-hall Disc Jockey Adijia Palmer o/​c Vybez Kartel was Guilty. It fur­ther cements the pop­u­lar­ly-held belief that the laws do not apply to those with polit­i­cal power.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS.

1] The Cuban Government donat­ed a quan­ti­ty of ener­gy-sav­ing light bulbs to the Jamaican peo­ple. Four mil­lion light bulbs were to be dis­trib­uted to res­i­dents and the project was hand­ed to Spencer who was Junior Energy Minister. Spencer along with his for­mer per­son­al assis­tant, Coleen Wright was freed on Monday by Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey in the Corporate Area Criminal Court, of the charges of cor­rup­tion and mon­ey laundering.

2] The project was imple­ment­ed in July 2006. Allegations of irreg­u­lar­i­ties in the project were lev­eled against Spencer in Parliament in November 2007 by then Energy Minister Clive Mullings, who asked the audi­tor-gen­er­al and the con­trac­tor-gen­er­al to probe the mat­ter Clive Mullings, told Parliament that $114 mil­lion was improp­er­ly spent on the dis­tri­b­u­tion of four mil­lion ener­gy-sav­ing light bulbs donat­ed by the Cuban Government to the peo­ple of Jamaica.

3] In January 2008, the audi­tor-gen­er­al report­ed that about 176,380 of the four mil­lion bulbs, cost­ing approx­i­mate­ly $92 mil­lion, could not be account­ed for. There was also an absence of an effec­tive sys­tem of bud­getary con­trol result­ing in the mak­ing of pay­ments and the incur­ring of unpaid oblig­a­tions of $185.3 mil­lion over the approved finan­cial sup­port. On 26 February 2008 Kern Spencer was arrest­ed and slapped with sev­en charges. He is fac­ing three charges of con­spir­a­cy to defraud, one charge for breach­ing the Prevention of Corruption Act, and three charges for breach­ing the Money Laundering Act. Spencer spent the night in jail and remained behind bars until he was able to post bail on 29 February 2008.

4] Contractor General Greg Christie released the find­ings of a probe by his office, which point­ed to sev­er­al breach­es of gov­ern­ment pro­cure­ment guide­lines and leg­isla­tive provisions.

5]Spencer, Colleen Wright, his for­mer per­son­al assis­tant, and busi­ness­man Rodney Chin arrest­ed on charges of mon­ey laun­der­ing, con­spir­a­cy to defraud and breach­es of the Corruption Prevention Act .The Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, the state-owned com­pa­ny that financed the light bulb project, announced that Rodney Salmon, its direc­tor of admin­is­tra­tion and cor­po­rate sec­re­tary, had been relieved of his duties as a result of the light bulb saga. http://​jamaica​-glean​er​.com/​l​a​t​e​s​t​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​.​p​h​p​?​i​d​=​5​1​860.

6] April 12, 2010 Prosecutors decid­ed to use Rodney Chin as a wit­ness for the Crown. Chin revealed, under cross-exam­i­na­tion by Spencer’s then attor­ney Patrick Atkinson, that he met with Llewellyn and police inves­ti­ga­tors at the offices of his attor­ney in 2009 and was inter­viewed and notes taken.

7] April 12, 2010 Defence attor­neys serve Llewellyn with sub­poe­na to obtain infor­ma­tion about what tran­spired at the meet­ing. The Magistrate also orders Llewellyn to remain out of court dur­ing Chin’s testimony.

8] April 13, 2010 – September 3, 2013 Trial is placed on hold as Llewellyn applies to the Judicial Review Court to quash Pusey’s order . The Judicial Review Court ruled against Pusey. Not sat­is­fied Pusey in an unprece­dent­ed move, appealed the deci­sion. The The Appeal Court ruled in favor of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP.

Critical evi­dence recov­ered from an apart­ment occu­pied by Coleen Wright was ruled inad­mis­si­ble by Judith Pusey, even though Wright lied to inves­ti­ga­tors that she did not have keys to the apart­ment on her arrival when the police attempt­ed to gain entry to the premis­es. She hand­ed over the keys only after she was told a lock­smith would be called to secure entry for the police. This was giv­en in evi­dence by Police Investigator Errington Malcolm. During those tes­ti­monies Defense attor­ney KD Knight accused the Prosecution of inef­fi­cien­cy. Retired Deputy Superintendent Errington Malcolm had just com­plet­ed his tes­ti­mo­ny about the search of the apart­ment and was about to be cross-exam­ined by defense attor­neys when lead pros­e­cu­tor Paula Llewellyn informed the court that she intend­ed to recall him to iden­ti­fy the war­rant and have it admit­ted into evidence.

Spencer and Wright with Attorney KD Knight
Spencer and Wright with Attorney KD Knight

“I hate inef­fi­cien­cy, espe­cial­ly in the shape and form I am see­ing it, Knight exclaimed.“In ref­er­ence to the DPP’S com­ments ‚Judith Pusey chimed in, quote: “I feel your pain”. Just one of the many instances when the mag­is­trate exer­cised con­tempt for the pros­e­cu­tion and the process. Tragically Jamaica’s Laws are archa­ic and out­dat­ed. The peo­ple select­ed to leg­is­late are them­selves crim­i­nals, so noth­ing gets done. On the few days they show up for the horse and pony show in the Parliament, they mere­ly bang on desks and hurl insults at each oth­er. There is no pro­vi­sion in Jamaican Law which gives the pros­e­cu­tor the pow­er to appeal a deci­sion. In a coun­try as cor­rupt as Jamaica this cre­ates a breed­ing ground for more corruption.

No good was done to the Justice sys­tem in Jamaica yes­ter­day. The jus­tice sys­tem con­tin­ue to be on tri­al. It’s no secret I have com­ment­ed on this case from its incep­tion. There is no secret I pre­dict­ed that this would be the out­come. Readers of these Blogs may go back and look at the many Articles I have writ­ten detail­ing why Kern Spencer would be set free. As I said in one of my lat­est com­ment, what is most egre­gious about this case, is that a sin­gle mem­ber of the once esteemed Judiciary, has uni­lat­er­al­ly hijacked the process , mak­ing a mock­ery of it. Throughout the process Judith Pusey made it clear that any­one want­i­ng to send Kern Spencer to Prison would have to go through her. Judith Pusey made a mock­ery of our jus­tice system.

A jubilant Spencer and Wright after being freed by Judith Pusey
A jubi­lant Spencer and Wright after being freed by Judith Pusey

We haven’s seen the entire­ty of the evi­dence, what we have seen is the pos­ture of this Magistrate. We have heard her utter­ances, we believe her actions telegraphed the deci­sions she announced yes­ter­day. Whether there was any­thing unto­ward on the part of Judith Pusey in this case that would rise to cor­rup­tion or seri­ous inap­pro­pri­ate behav­ior we may nev­er know. What we do know is that Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey gave the Judiciary a hor­ri­ble black eye .

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Malaysia Flight MH370: New Data ‘shows Possible Debris’

New data from a French satel­lite shows poten­tial debris from Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in the south­ern Indian Ocean, France’s for­eign min­istry says. Radar echoes had picked up sev­er­al objects about 2,300km (1,430 miles) from Perth, a state­ment added.

It is the third pos­si­ble sight­ing in the area off west­ern Australia that has become the focus of the search effort. Flight MH370 dis­ap­peared on 8 March while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 peo­ple on board.

_73759442_circle_mapMalaysian offi­cials believe the plane was delib­er­ate­ly tak­en off course. Based on infor­ma­tion received from a satel­lite, the search has been in two dis­tinct cor­ri­dors — one stretch­ing to the north-west of the last known loca­tion in the Malacca Straits and one to the south-west. http://​www​.bbc​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​w​o​r​l​d​-​a​s​i​a​-​2​6​7​0​5​073

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Nato Warns Over Russia Border Force

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Nato’s top mil­i­tary com­man­der warns of the size and readi­ness of Russia’s forces on Ukraine’s bor­der, but Russia says it has no “expan­sion­ist views. http://​www​.bbc​.com/​n​e​ws/

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Turkey Downs Syrian Military Jet

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Turkey shoots down a Syrian mil­i­tary jet it says vio­lat­ed its air­space, but Damascus calls this “bla­tant aggres­sion” and says the jet was over Syrian ter­ri­to­ry. http://​www​.bbc​.com/​n​e​ws/

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“LIFE”

Rohan ‘Stone’ Reid and Damion ‘Bruno’ Walker were slapped with the sen­tence by Justice Bertram Morrison in the Home Circuit Court. Walker is to serve 35 years of his sen­tence before becom­ing eli­gi­ble for parole, while Reid was ordered to be paroled after serv­ing 30 years. The men, who are of Kingston address­es, were con­vict­ed by a pan­el of 12 jurors for the home inva­sion mur­der of Clive Baker and his com­mon-law wife Camille Daley on the morn­ing of July 11, 2011. images (41)The cou­ple was home at 4 Park Lane, off Red Hills Road, with their sev­en-month-old baby when the men invad­ed the premis­es. Baker ran but was chased and shot. Daley was shot sev­er­al times under her bed with the baby where she attempt­ed to escape the killers. The baby was shot in the hand. http://​www​.jamaicaob​serv​er​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​T​w​o​-​k​i​l​l​e​r​s​-​s​e​n​t​-​t​o​-​p​r​i​s​o​n​_​1​6​3​2​5​521

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Giglio

How Great is Our God with Louie Giglio full video

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Giglio gives an awe inspir­ing talk about the awe­some nature of the God we serve. We some­times take lib­er­ties based on our under­stand­ing and per­cep­tions of who God is . God is the great ‘I AM” we are not qual­i­fied to define him. Giglio shines a light to give us a sneak peek on just how lit­tle we know about the cre­ator of the Universe. Let’s lis­ten to Louie.

YouTube player

http://​www​.youtube​.com/​w​a​t​c​h​?​v​=​a​t​U​G​B​u​a​2​AzE

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Delivered In Honor Of Beulah Baptist Women

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DECEMBER 1ST 1955 A YOUNG WOMAN REFUSED TO GIVE UP HER SEAT ON A BUS IN MONTGOMERY ALABAMA. SHE KNEW SHE WOULD BE ARRESTED OR WORSE, YET SHE DID WHAT SHE KNEW SHE HAD TO DO, AND SHE DID IT. 

SHE WAS ARRESTED FINGERPRINTED AND PHOTOGRAPHED LIKE A COMMON CRIMINAL. LATER WHEN SHE WAS ASKED WHY SHE DECIDED NOT TO GIVE UP HER SEAT? SHE SAID SIMPLY “I WAS TIRED. 

IF YOU NEVER HEARD OF ROSA PARKS YOUR NATURAL INSTINCTS WILL PROBABLY TELL YOU SHE MUST HAVE HAD A LONG DAY.……AND YOU PROBABLY WOULD BE RIGHT.…. HOWEVER, ROSA PARKS WAS NOT SAYING SHE WAS TIRED FROM THE WORK OF THAT FATEFUL, DAY SHE WAS TIRED OF BEING TREATED LESS THAN A HUMAN BEING.

ROSA PARKS WAS NO STRANGER TO THE FIGHT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, DIGNITY AND EQUALITY. MS PARKS WAS THE SECRETARY OF THE MONTGOMERY CHAPTER OF THE NAACP. MS PARKS DIGNIFIED RESISTANT TO BIGOTRY SPARKED A MOVEMENT, INSPIRED A NATION WHICH INTRODUCED THE WORLD TO A KING. 

A KING MANY NOW REFER TO AS THE GREATEST MORAL LEADER OF THE 20TH CENTURY. EVEN AS WE RECOGNIZE AND REVERE ROSA PARKS FOR HER BRAVERY FOR STANDING ON THE STRENGTH OF HER CONVICTION, WE WOULD BE REMISS IN NOT ACKNOWLEDGING THOSE BEFORE HER BEFORE HER 1) IRENE MORGAN IN 1946. 2)SARAH LOUISE KEYES IN 1955,3) AND THE MEMBERS OF THE BROWDER VS GAYLE LAWSUIT, CLAUDETTE COLVIN , AURIELA BROWDER SUSIE MCDONALD AND, MARY LOUISE SMITH .HAD ALL TAKEN SIMILAR ACTIONS AND WERE ALL ARRESTED.

TODAY WE SALUTE ALL WOMEN AND IN PARTICULAR THE FINE, TALENTED WOMEN OF GOD OF THIS CONGREGATION. WE RECOGNIZE YOU FOR THE TASKS YOU TIRELESSLY PERFORM IN THE MANY MINISTRIES OF THIS GROWING CHURCH.

ENRICHING THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS, HEALING OUR COMMUNITIES AND FULFILLING YOUR PURPOSE. I APPLAUD ALL OF YOU, NONE MORE-SO THAN OUR OWN SISTER BOTTOMS WHO GIVE OF HERSELF SELFLESSLY AND UNCEASINGLY.

I WAS BLOWN AWAY WHEN SHE TURNED UP AT THE HOSPITAL EARLY THAT MORNING OUR SON KODI SUDDENLY FELL ILL. I WILL ALWAYS CARRY IN MY HEART HER CARING WORDS, AS SHE SOUGHT TO DETERMINE IF WE WERE GOING TO BE OK.

AND TO THE QUEEN OF MY HEART AND OF OUR HOUSEHOLD, MY WIFE CHERYL WHO WORKS A DEMANDING FULL-TIME JOB , YET SOMEHOW DRIVES OUR SONS TO FOOTBALL PRACTICE, BASKET-BALL PRACTICE, MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS. 

DO PARENT TEACHER APPOINTMENTS, KEEPS THE HOUSE CLEAN, TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING ELSE AND STILL HAS A MEAL ON THE TABLE BY THE TIME I GET HOME FROM WORK. I HONESTLY HAVE NO IDEA HOW SHE DOES IT, I COULDN’T DO IT MYSELF. 

WE DEPEND SO MUCH ON YOU WOMEN, YOU ARE THE GLUE IN MOST CASES WHICH HOLD THE FAMILIES TOGETHER. YOU ARE OUR MOTHERS AND FATHERS, YOU GO OUT TO WORK, RAISE THE KIDS, PREPARE THE MEALS, YOU COMFORT US WHEN WE ARE IN NEED OF A LISTENING EAR AND A TENDER TOUCH.

I KNOW THIS ALL TOO WELL, I WAS RAISED BY A SINGLE WOMAN WHO HAD NO CHILDREN OF HER OWN, YET SHE RAISED EIGHT OF US AS IF WE WERE HER ALL HER OWN. THE LESSONS SHE TAUGHT ME THEN, GUIDE MY LIFE TODAY. 

I APPLAUD THE DIGNITY AND DECIDED AUTHORITY OF MY OWN WIFE, IN THE WAY SHE ADMINISTERS GUIDANCE TO OUR CHILDREN EVEN AS I KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS WHAT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU DO, DAY IN DAY OUT. 

THE DEDICATION AND DISPATCH WITH WHICH YOU ATTEND TO THE TASKS OF THE VARIOUS MINISTRIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THIS CHURCH IS INSPIRING. I HAVEN’T BEEN HERE VERY LONG , YET I AM IMPRESSED WITH THE LEADERSHIP AND FOCUS OF ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE GIVEN OF YOUR TIME IN DIFFERING WAY TO BRING GOD’S WORD TO MYSELF AND OTHERS AS WE SEEK THE PATH TO SALVATION.

YOU ARE MOTHERS , WIVES , SISTERS, AUNTS, TEACHERS , COMFORTERS , AND SOMETIMES FATHERS TOO. EVEN AS YOU GIVE SO MUCH OF YOURSELVES, WE ASK AND DEMAND EVEN MORE OF YOU . WE ASK THAT YOU CONTINUE TO IMPRESS ON OUR YOUNG WOMEN THAT THERE IS MORE TO LIFE FOR THEM THAN A BABY-STROLLER. 

WE ASK THAT YOU IMPRESS UPON THEM THAT IF THEY PLACE TRUE VALUE ON THEMSELVES, MEN WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO VALUE THEM. I CHALLENGE YOU TO CONTINUE TO HELP US IN THIS FIGHT TO RECLAIM THESE OUR CHILDREN FROM THE RAVAGES OF TEEN PREGNANCY, DRUG ADDICTION, GANG VIOLENCE AND ILLITERACY. 

I BEG OF YOU , ALL OF YOU,THAT YOU RETURN TO BEING TEACHERS. SCHOOLS ALONE CANNOT AND WILL NOT EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN. I ASK THAT YOU HELP US TO RECLAIM OUR SONS FROM THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. LET US CONTINUE TO RAISE OUR CHILDREN IN THE WAY THEY SHOULD GO SO THAT WHEN THEY ARE OLD IT SHALL NOT DEPART FROM THEM . images (37)LET US NOT SEEK TO CONFORM TO THE WORLD, BUT RATHER LET US LIVE OUR LIVES IN A WAY WHICH CONFORM TO THE WAYS OF CHRIST SO THAT WE MAY BE DIFFERENT. LET US NOT CHANGE OUR SALVATION IN ORDER TO BE RELEVANT.

LET OUR RELEVANCE BE SEEN BY THE GOD IS US. THE BATTLES OF THE 50’S AND 60’S ARE THE BATTLES BEING FOUGHT TODAY, WAGES, JOBS, VOTING RIGHTS, AS WE COME FULL CIRCLE FROM THE MOVEMENT OF THE 60’S LET US BE MINDFUL THAT 71% OF ALL BABIES BORN THE THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY ARE BORN OUT OF WEDLOCK TO A TEEN MOTHER. LET US REMEMBER THAT THOUGH WE ARE JUST 12% THE NATION’S POPULATION WE MAKE UP MORE THAN HALF OF THE INMATE POPULATION.

THAT IS A STUNNING ONE MILLION PLUS MEN LOCKED AWAY . AS WOMEN CONTINUE TO BEAR THE BRUNT OF GOING OUT TO WORK AND RAISING THE KIDS, IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT IF WE DO NOT ARREST THIS FRIGHTENING INCARCERATION RATE OF OUR MEN , THEN THE CHALLENGES FOR YOU,OUR WOMEN GOING FORWARD WILL BE EXPONENTIALLY GREATER. 

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE AND UNSUSTAINABLE, LET US COME TOGETHER TO FIX THIS, OUR WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS LED, LET US MEN NOW SHOW THE WOMEN WE LOVE, THAT WE ARE READY , WILLING AND ABLE TO RISE TO THE CHALLENGE BEFORE US.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL.….…THANK YOU.

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ICONIC CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS-SEALE

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Robert George Seale was born October 22, 1936 in Dallas, Texas. Seale was one of three kids. His moth­er was a stay at home mom and his father was a car­pen­ter in Dallas. After mov­ing around Texas a few times, the fam­i­ly moved to Oakland, CA dur­ing WWII. Seale attend­ed Berkeley High School and joined the U.S Air Force and was there three years before he was dis­charged for fight­ing with an offi­cer. When he went back to Oakland, he began attend­ing night school to earn his high school diplo​ma​.In 1962, at the age of 25, Seale began attend­ing Merritt College, a com­mu­ni­ty col­lege locat­ed near the Berkeley city-lim­its. There, he joined the Afro-American Association and met Huey Newton, with whom he lat­er co-found­ed the Black Panther Party. Seale and Newton were heav­i­ly inspired by Malcolm X and his teach­ings. The two joined togeth­er to cre­ate the Black Panther Party in 1966 and adopt­ed the slo­gan,” free­dom by any means necessary”.

Bobby Seale was one of the orig­i­nal “Chicago Eight” defen­dants charged with con­spir­a­cy dur­ing the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but the evi­dence against Seale was slim. The judge though sen­tenced him for four years for his out­bursts dur­ing tri­al .While serv­ing his four-year sen­tence, Seale was put on tri­al again in 1970 in the New Haven Black Panther tri­als. Several offi­cers of the Panther orga­ni­za­tion had mur­dered a fel­low Panther. The leader of the mur­der plan, George Sams, Jr., tes­ti­fied that he had been ordered to kill the Panther by Seale him­self. The jury was unable to reach a ver­dict in Seale’s tri­al, and the charges were even­tu­al­ly dropped. Seale was released from prison in 1972. http://​www​.gus​d120​.k12​.il​.us/​h​i​g​h​/​a​c​a​d​e​m​i​c​s​/​B​u​s​i​n​e​s​s​/​m​o​v​e​m​e​n​t​s​/​s​e​a​l​e​.​h​tml

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ICONIC CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS — HUEY

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Huey Newton was born in a small town in Louisiana and lat­er mov­ing with his fam­i­ly to Oakland, California as an infant, Huey P. Newton became the co-founder and leader of the Black Panther Party for over 2 decades. Dr. Newton, who found­ed the Black Panther Party with Bobby Seale, became one of the most charis­mat­ic sym­bols of black anger in the late 1960’s. After his con­vic­tion in 1967 in the death of an Oakland police offi­cer, rad­i­cals and many col­lege stu­dents took up the ral­ly­ing cry ”Free Huey.” At the same time, Dr. Newton and the Black Panthers were accused of being con­trolled by the Communist Party and were inves­ti­gat­ed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In recent years Dr. Newton con­tin­ued to face numer­ous legal charges, served time in jail and fought to reha­bil­i­tate him­self from alco­hol and drug abuse. Newton Co-found­ing The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (lat­er short­ened to The Black Panther Party) with Bobby Seale in 1966, Newton and his com­pa­tri­ots were known for their strong left­ist pol­i­tics, all-black garb and sound intel­lec­tu­al debate. Beyond the activism and fight for equal­i­ty for African-Americans, the Panthers also start­ed “sur­vival pro­grams” designed to assist the less for­tu­nate such as meal pro­grams, self-defense class­es, med­ical clin­ics and first aid. The orig­i­nal Black Panthers would large­ly dis­solve the orga­ni­za­tion in 1982.http://www.biography.com/people/huey-p-newton-37369