BLACK RIVER, ST ELIZABETH:

Alumina Partners of Jamaica (Alpart) has launched its 2008-09 schools sports development programme for all-age and primary schools in Essex Valley, St Elizabeth.

Speaking in an interview with The Gleaner, Lance Neita, public relations manager of Alpart, said the programme starts with the football competition for under-12 and under-15 children, which kicks off on October 22. He said that the benefits to the children and their respective schools were enormous.

Matches will be played at select grounds in Cheapside, New Forest, and Myersville. The finals will be held at Alpart Sports Club on November 21.

Defending under-12 and under-14 champions are New Forest.

- Rayon Dyer

Angry taxi men, along with supporting protesters, blocked the streets in Sandside, St Mary, to vent their anger about the poor road conditions in the area recently.

The taxi men, who ply the routes Sandside to Port Maria and Hampstead to Port Maria, withdrew their services and blocked the roads, which they claimed were not fit enough for "donkeys to walk on".

Unanimously, the taxi men complained of having to deal with the huge costs for repairs to their vehicles almost daily.

According to one resident from Sandside, the Government had promised again to fix the roads but had failed to deliver.

Police personnel were on the scene quickly and cleared the road.

- Lisia Lynch

SPANISH TOWN, ST CATHERINE:

Speaking to a group of HEART Trust/NTA graduates recently, adviser to the Ministry of Education and chairman of the National Council on Education, Ruel Reid, said potential workers were now operating at a time when only the best and the most certified would be considered for the job market.

According to Reid, who was addressing members of the Heart Trust NTA Exit Readiness Programme, where over 150 men and women graduated from five vocational training areas, new markets in Canada were also viable options.

The graduates were trained in general construction, furniture making, electrical installation, data operation and early childhood care and development.

- Rasbert Turner.

Contributed
Jean Anderson, past president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, presents Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) President Byron Buckley with a certificate.

MANDEVILLE, MANCHESTER:

The business community of Mandeville, along with a number of residents, came out in support of Byron Buckley, president of the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ), in his call for a purging of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

Buckley, who was addressing members of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce (MCOC) last Thursday, told the members that he believed at least 80 per cent of the members of the JCF were "either inept or corrupt".

The PAJ president contended that despite the numerous studies done on the JCF over the years, "nothing has changed". This, he said, was due to the "depth of the anti-reform culture and strength of the corruption" within the force, which, he also said, suffered from "ineffective leadership".

Because of this situation, Buckley said, he feared that the ingrained culture would "successfully repel" the latest attempt by the powers that be to reform the force.

He called on the MCOC president, Winston Lawson, and its members, to form a watchdog committee to push for accountability in the implementation of the JCF's Strategic Review and Reform Committee's recommendations.

Three-year period

The committee, headed by Dr Herbert Thompson, president of Northern Caribbean University, said, during a press briefing in June, the reform process, which was to be implemented over a three-year period, would cost $5 billion. At the time, he, like Buckley, lamented that the recommendations of previous studies had not been implemented.