From: Anthony_Maillard@Mdd.comm.mot.com (Anthony Maillard)
Subject: Jamaica (If Yuh Int'rested)
Followup-To: soc.culture.caribbean
Organization: Motorola, Mobile Data Division - Seattle, WA
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 03:27:10 GMT

These articles may have been posted before. If they have ....sorry.
Christmas break and all that.
All copyright sources are listed but some articles have been edited.

Anthony Maillard - If Yuh Int'rested




Jamaican Boys Sexually Active Before Age Ten

One in seven Jamaican boys  has sex before age ten, a recent study in the
island has shown.
Dr. Peter Figueroa, Principal Medical Officer in Th e Ministry of Health
and director of the National Human Immune-Deficiency Virus/Sexually
transmitted Disease Control Program, said the results of the survey showed
the need for sex education in schools. If males are going to be active
before age ten we have to target them long before then, said Dr Figueroa
who conducted a Safe Sex Week earlier this year.
Figueroa said that 93 percent of adults surveyed supported teachings on
abstinence, 91 percent agreed on the emphasizing the importance of having
one faithful sexual partner and 86 % supported teaching youths about the
use of condoms in protecting themselves from sexually transmitted diseases.
Source - Class Magazine.

JAMAICA: LOOKING TOWARDS LONG-TERM BIRTH CONTROL METHODS

Kingston, Nov 30 (ips) -- In a minor operation, six capsules are deftly
placed under the skin of a woman's arm, where they slowly, evenly release
small quantities of the hormone, levonorgestreg into the blood stream. The
woman opting for this form of contraceptive known as ''norplant'', will
usually not have to worry about getting pregnant for the next five years.
The capsules, which are like match sticks, are made of silastic silicone
rubber which has been used for a long time in medicine. It is also used in
breast implants.
Available in the US at about $500 US per dose, free samples are available
through state-run family planning clinics here as the government seeks to
introduce this family planning method into the island.
'The women are receptive to it,'' reports Dr. Lloyd Goldson, who is in
charge of the norplant contraceptive programme at the island's main
maternity institution, the Victoria Jubilee hospital. Goldson was one of a
team of Jamaican doctors who visited Santo Domingo recently to observe the
norplant programme in their hospitals. Norplant is widely used by women in
that Spanish-speaking country. In an interview, Goldson described norplant
as an effective birth control method. ''Next to sterilisation, it is the
most effective means of contraceptive,'' he said.
Jamaica has a population of 2.4 million and the government is hoping to
keep it at under three million by the year 2000. This will require the
total fertility rate to be reduced from 2.9 to 2.1 by the end of the
century. 
''The way forward is to counsel and educate people to cut down on the birth
rate and to use more long term methods,'' Goldson emphasised.
To meet these targets, the contraceptive prevalence rate will have to
increase from 55 percent which it was in 1989, to 63 per cent in the year
2000, according to official projections.
Of 615,200 women of reproductive age in Jamaica, 86.8 percent have been or
are currently sexually active and 67.8 percent are currently in a
consensual union.
And of the women of reproductive age currently in union, over 88 percent
indicate that they do not want to become pregnant. However, official
estimates indicate only half of these women are currently using
contraceptives. 

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.


Jamaican Police Annoyed By US Bounty Hunter Tactics

Jamaican police officials were  reportedly miffed at two recent attempts by
American bounty hunters to pursue criminals in Jamaicamaica and return hem
to face trial for crimes in the US.
In one case, a Jamaican national, Fitzroy Riley was tracked down in Jamaica
by Randy Fenster, a private investigator. Riley was found in the custody of
police in Ocho Rios for an offense committed on the island. Fenster, police
said, informed them that he was there to return Riley to the US to face
charges of fraud. But the Jamaica police were having none of that. They
told Fenster that he would have to abide by provisions of the extradition
treaty between the US and Jamaicamaica, which  has been in effect since
June 7, 1991. Fenster has since returned to the US empty-handed.
In another case, Haniff Ishmael, a Guyanese man, sought refuge in Jamaica,
allegedly to avoid charges of conspiring to deal cocaine in Orlando,
Florida. He was also pursued to Jamaica.
Jamaican police blame the recent US Supreme Court decision allowing law
enforcement officials to pursue and return criminals, wanted in the US, for
trial. According to the FBI more than 800 Jamaicamaicans are on its
fugitive list, mostly for drug trafficking and violence.
A senior JAMAICA police official said that law enforcement agencies in the
US have since applied for extradition of Riley and Ishmael. he said a
provisional warrant was being prepared in Ismaels case but that he doubted
if Rileys circumstances were applicable since charges of fraud were not an
extraditable offense.

Source - Class Magazine



DUTCH BUSINESSMEN OFFER EXPERTISE TO COMMERCIAL SECTOR


Kingston, Nov 24 (ips) --  Are you a small businessperson struggling to
survive in these harsh economic times? Do you need some expert help? Just
call us and we'll be there.
This is the line being thrown to Jamaican business people by a group of
their counterparts in the Netherlands. Calling themselves workaholics who
refuse to languish in the luxuries of retirement, some 1,600 of these over
60 year-olds are pledging their managerial and technical assistance to the
Jamaican people free of charge.

''The only thing we ask of these Jamaican businessmen is that they give us
a decent place to live while we are here,'' says Willem Zuidhof, a director
of the Netherlands Management Consultancy Programme (NMCP)

The project, a collaborative effort between the Dutch government and the
Dutch Christian Employers' Association, has been offering assistance to
countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central America and the Caribbean
over the last 14 years, and more recently some countries in Eastern Europe.

The Dutch government makes available some five million US dollars to the
project through its development assistance programme, says Bas Van
Noordenne of the Dutch embassy in Jamaica. The retired business people
offer their expertise and their time.

But the volunteers are disappointed at the few applications they have had
from Jamaicans since the inception of the programme and now they are making
a renewed effort to generate some interest in the cooperative effort which
they see as only beneficial to the recipients.

''We are not asking for a salary. These men have adequate pensions on which
they can live comfortably. We are doing this from our hearts,'' says Harry
Millenaar, the regional coordinator.

Expert help is offered in a variety of fields, ranging from general
management to financial, commercial and technical management in some 43
sectors.

''We have an expert in every field you can think of,'' says Milllnaar. To
qualify for our assistance, all the company has to do is show that it is
not able to pay for the services of a consultant.'' The experts then remain
 with the companies for periods of six to eight weeks, offering advice and
practical training for employees.  subsequent visits are arranged as
necessary.

Under the programme Jamaican entrepreneurs can also be sponsored for
training in the Netherlands as determined necessary by the expert.

In the past year some 250 businesses in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria
took advantage of the assistance, another 300 in the Third World countries
had these experts helping them to put their businesses on the road to
success. So far this year only two companies in Jamaica have taken
advantage of the assistance, but the directors are hoping that all this
will change.
He says some 300,000 US dollars have been set aside to pay airfare and
other traveling expenses for these experts to visit Jamaica in the next
year.
''It's a very good service and it is cheaper to the businessman than that
offered by the British, the Canadians and the Americans,'' says John
Fletcher a local businessman. He feels however that many Jamaican business
people are unaware of the assistance and the directors should ensure that
this shortcoming is corrected.

Canada through its Canadian international development agency
(cida), the united states, through its united states international
development agency (usaid) and britain through its overseas
development administration (oda) have long been established in the
developing world. the Dutch assistance programme is not as
extensive and well-known. (end/ips/CB/DA/92)

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.



Title: JAMAICA: EXPERTS LOOK AGAIN AT INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION


Kingston, Dec. 3 (ips) -- Nearly 12 million gallons of domestic and
industrial effluent is pumped each day into the Kingston harbour -- the
seventh largest natural harbour in the world. Situated on the southern
coast of Jamaica, the harbour is said to be almost dead. Recent reports
show incidents of fish kills in Hunts bay, a fishing village near to the
harbour, which although not confirmed, have been attributed to
contamination.
''Persons who swim in the harbour are likely to have health problems in the
future unless we can curb the situation,'' junior minister in the health
ministry, Karl Blythe said Thursday.
''In recent years, and more so with the advent of urbanisation and growth
of industries, there is clear evidence of an unsatisfactory level of
pollution from sources such as sewage effluents, industrial wastes and
agro-chemicals which have had negative effects on the Jamaican people.
''I dare say the situation is similar in the other Caribbean islands,''
continued Blythe who is also a medical doctor. Waste water disposal and
sewage in the region is the theme of the workshop which is the third part
of a project sponsored by the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute
(CEHI) and the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP).
The workshop is expected to lay the groundwork for the set-up of guidelines
and standards in Caricom states. Environmental pollution control in the
13-member Caricom is now high the agenda of most governments. studies done
in the region indicate that pollution of the coastal and marine environment
is serious.
Delegates attending the workshop agreed that since most of Caricom states
depend on tourism to earn foreign exchange attractive beaches and good
coastal water quality are important.  But the region is not only thinking
of tourism. Blythe said that with the threat of cholera on the doorstep of
the region and the possibility of other waterborne illnesses creeping up,
the regional guidelines were urgent.
''Cholera has already entered our sister Caribbean state, Guyana, and
according to the experts it is not a matter of if but when the other
Caribbean islands will face the epidemic,'' he said. Properly
chlorine-treated, the experts say that 36.5 percent are classified as
untreated or intermittently treated. In addition, it is estimated that half
of Jamaica's 2.5 million people are getting water of poor quality.
While the bureaucrats are now sitting at the round table to come up with
the draft guideline proposal, Jamaican tourism and environment minister,
John Junor reminded them that the extent of the public education and
enforcement of the guidelines, will be the real test of the workshop.
''Guidelines and standards are of limited value without the commitment to
their enforcement and the capability to enforce them... we want less words
and more action now,'' Junor said.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.