( L - R ) Ho lung, Gore
Father Richard Ho Lung and businessman Phillip Gore will this year receive the International Humanitarian Award from American Friends of Jamaica (AFJ), a non-profit charity organisation.
"At the core of our mission is service and philanthropy," said Sue Cobb, AFJ's current president and former United States ambassador to Jamaica. "I am pleased to honour the work of these two distinguished gentlemen in contributing to Jamaica's development."
Ho Lung, founder and director of the Catholic charity Missionaries of the Poor, and Phillip Gore, chairman of Gore Developments, will receive the award at the AFJ's fourth annual South Florida Gala and Auction on May 10 at the Ritz-Carlton in Coconut Grove, Miami.
Past AFJ honourees include former United States president Ronald Reagan; music entrepreneur Chris Blackwell; American fashion icon Ralph Lauren and his wife, Ricky; politician Charles Rangel of New York; Sandals' founder, Gordon 'Butch' Stewart; and Jamaican billionaire and philanthropist Michael Lee Chin.
Teachers urged to be disciplined
Mckenzie
Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie said all stakeholders in education should "get back to basics" in order to overcome the challenges facing the sector and promote discipline among students.
Speaking Tuesday at the commissioning of playground and sickbay facilities at the Alpha Primary School in Kingston, McKenzie said that while the standard of discipline has fallen, teachers could not expect to encourage good behaviour among students when some of them were involved in questionable activities, such as demonstrations against school administrators.
He urged teachers and school administrators to try to resolve conflicts at the board level instead of holding students to ransom.
Equipment for the play area was donated by Prime Minister Golding, while several corporate sponsors and past students made donations to the development of the sickbay.
Knowledge-based society a must - PM
Golding
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has implored Jamaicans to recognise the importance of developing a knowledge-based society to become more competitive in the global marketplace.
Golding was speaking at the recent closing ceremony for the National Skills competition staged by Worldskills Jamaica, a division of the HEART Trust/NTA at the National Arena.
Noting that the world was no longer interested in cheap labour, the prime minister said the ability to creatively apply knowledge was fundamental to citizens becoming more employable and raising their standard of living.
Golding added that the sales pitch in the past to foreign investors about local cheap labour had set up the current paradigm.
"Buried in that punchline was an acknowledgement that the labour does not have to be smart. It does not have to be bright, but we assured them that it was cheap," he said.
Youth ambassadors shine in Barbados
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) youth ambassadors for Jamaica, Kamesha Turner and Dwayne Gutzmer, recently completed a three-day orientation and induction workshop in Barbados. The workshop saw them working on new strategies to boost the effectiveness of the CARICOM Youth Ambassador Programme for the period 2008 to 2011.
The regional youth advocates, mandated to promote CARICOM issues on the national level, met from April 21 to 23 at the United Nations House in Christ Church, Barbados.
Turner was elected vice-dean in charge of administration, the only new ambassador to be on the management team, and Dwayne Gutzmer was selected to sit on the Information and Communication Technology Committee.
