分类： society

Last Wednesday, Jamaica’s Terra Nova All Suite Hotel became a hub for culinary innovation and cultural celebration, as emerging young food enthusiasts and seasoned industry leaders gathered for the 2026 Foodie Seminar. Held under the evocative theme “Unbreakable Spirit”, the full-day event featured expert-led panel discussions spanning critical topics from food safety and national food security to small business resilience, artisanal confectionery craft, and the future of Jamaica’s booming culinary sector. The seminar serves as a lead-up to the 27th Jamaica Observer Table Talk Food Awards, the island’s most prestigious annual celebration of culinary excellence, bringing together a diverse roster of 9 expert panellists from across the industry and non-profit space.

Opening the seminar, veteran food regulatory inspector Allison Richards centered the conversation on one of Jamaica’s most pressing industry challenges: long-term food security. During her presentation, she challenged attendees and the broader public to question whether the island can truly achieve the capacity to feed its own population. Breaking down the four core pillars of food sustainability—availability, access, utilisation, and stability—Richards urged Jamaicans to align their local actions with the 2026 World Food Safety Day theme, “From burden to solution – safe food everywhere”. In a call to action that resonated across the room, she asked: “If every household grew just one thing, what do you think Jamaica would look like? Start with you.”

Food security and the unbreakable spirit highlighted by the seminar’s theme took center stage in the conversation from Romario Creary and Adrian Wilson, co-founders of the fast-growing Soup King food brand. Just one week before the brand’s planned grand opening in 2025, Category 5 Hurricane Melissa devastated the island, triggering widespread fresh produce shortages and skyrocketing ingredient costs that threatened to sink their new venture. Rather than abandoning their dream, the pair persevered through the crisis, and this year celebrated the launch of their first permanent retail location. Wilson shared the brand’s unlikely origin story: back in 2015, he was operating a local car wash, and began serving homemade soup to waiting customers as a small weekend perk. Today, the car wash is gone, but the soup business has grown into a recognizable local brand. “Opportunity does not always come from creating something new; it can come from something that was always right in front of you,” Wilson told attendees. “Sometimes it comes from improving something very familiar.” Creary emphasized that passion for both product and community, paired with unwavering consistency, are the foundation of long-term success: “In order to innovate, you have to be consistent first…and then you will recognise avenues to innovate; those will come.”

The conversation shifted to the intersection of food, community empowerment and mental wellbeing when Dr. Altreisha Foster, a former vaccine scientist who now owns boutique bakery Sugar Spoon Desserts, introduced her non-profit initiative “Cake Therapy”. The program provides a safe, supportive space for underprivileged young girls to build confidence and life direction through the art of baking. Foster explained that the initiative goes far beyond teaching baking skills: the kitchen acts as a metaphor for life, teaching participants to turn chaos into something meaningful, while offering a judgment-free space to create. “It is about human connection,” she said. “Food carries memories, it carries identity, it carries my culture.”

Attendees left with overwhelmingly positive impressions of the day’s discussions. Shelly-Ann Brown and Garfield Allen, both employees of the National Certification Body of Jamaica, which certifies local food businesses, called the event exceeding expectations. “It definitely exceeded my expectations, the presentations were superb. The organisers should be lauded, and I think the presenters should be lauded,” Allen said. Brown echoed the praise, noting: “Having that interconnection, looking at building your own business and also social responsibility being included, it was just a beautiful connection…coming together just talking about food and how it is evolving, it was excellent.”

Looking to the future of Jamaican culinary tourism and industry growth, Joseph Johnson, owner and CEO of popular Peckish restaurant, laid out his vision for downtown Kingston as the island’s next top culinary destination. Johnson argued that the area already has the foundational cultural and community infrastructure to grow into a world-class culinary hub, with an organic street food culture that mirrors the beloved open-air energy of Manhattan’s iconic street food scene. “What we are witnessing downtown is more than just restaurants. We don’t need to invent food culture downtown, we simply need to recognise it…downtown’s best days are ahead,” he predicted, outlining a vision of walkable streets lined with sidewalk cafes and open-air dining spots.

Additional presentations covered the craft of Jamaica’s award-winning artisanal chocolate from panellist Nadine Burie, while industry leaders Suedi Ann Hamilton, Kishauna Armstrong, and Robyn Fox shared their own stories of resilience amid industry challenges. Throughout the day, attendees actively engaged with every panel, asking questions about accessing capital, building successful business partnerships, effective networking, and navigating day-to-day industry operations. Creary urged young emerging entrepreneurs not to rely solely on industry connections, stressing that self-belief and unwillingness to compromise on core values are far more critical: “It is very important, especially for younger persons, links are nice…but let me tell you, we can do it without that, we can do it [by] believing we can do it and don’t ever compromise yourself to [do] it. Hard work and exposure are key to the future of the culinary industry, through youth.” He also praised the Jamaica Observer for creating collaborative forums that lift up the next generation of culinary professionals.

Jamaica Observer Managing Director Dominic Beaubrun, who attended the event with his son to expose the younger generation to industry opportunities, explained that the seminar was designed to highlight the full, complex ecosystem that supports the food Jamaicans enjoy every day. “We can’t really begin to pay homage to the level of service and effort and thought and ingenuity that goes into it, but here we are laying face to people and their experiences and stories, histories, successes, failures and learning, and all of that goes to inform and educate even more,” he said.

JACKSON, Miss. – Communities across Mississippi are grappling with outrage and grief this week after a fatal police shooting left a 12-month-old child dead and sparked widespread public demonstrations over police use of force. On Tuesday, hundreds of local residents gathered to protest the June 14 death of Kohen Wiley, who was killed in the parking lot of a Walmart in northern Mississippi.

According to details released by U.S. law enforcement and regional media, the shooting unfolded when a police officer from the nearby town of Senatobia responded to a 911 call reporting a suspected shoplifting incident at the retail location. The target of the response was a vehicle occupied by Wiley and his aunt, who was behind the wheel. Investigations confirm the officer opened fire on the moving vehicle, striking both the child and the driver. Wiley was pronounced dead at the scene, while his aunt was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Initial radio dispatches from the responding officer claim the vehicle was intentionally moving toward him when he pulled the trigger, a narrative that has been directly challenged by multiple civilian witnesses who were present at the time of the incident. Adding another layer of public frustration, authorities have confirmed the officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation, but have so far declined to release the officer’s name to the public, a decision that has drawn criticism from protesters and the victim’s family.

The child’s family has publicly rejected the initial claim that anyone in the vehicle was attempting to steal merchandise, specifically the alleged box of diapers that was cited in the original 911 call. Sean Tindell, Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, has stated that an independent internal investigation is underway to untangle conflicting accounts of the incident, and that the question of whether any shoplifting actually occurred will be resolved as part of the probe. The shooting is the latest high-profile incident of police violence involving a child victim to reignite national conversations over police accountability and use of deadly force in the United States.

After a years-long investigation that gripped the American public and confounded law enforcement, the man known as the Gilgo Beach serial killer has been formally handed a permanent life sentence behind bars, closing a dark chapter of unsolved violence that haunted a New York coastal community for decades.

Rex Heuermann, a 62-year-old former architect, received three consecutive life terms with no eligibility for parole during a Wednesday sentencing hearing in Long Island, more than a year after his 2023 arrest. The conviction caps a string of brutal killings that stretched from 1993 to 2010, when Heuermann targeted and killed eight women, then dismembered their bodies and scattered their remains across Gilgo Beach and surrounding areas of Long Island, just outside New York City. In a surprising April 2024 court proceeding, Heuermann pleaded guilty to all seven murder charges brought against him, plus an eighth killing that had not yet been formally filed.

The Gilgo Beach murders stood as one of the most high-profile cold cases in U.S. history for more than a decade. Victims’ remains were first discovered between 2010 and 2011 along the protected barrier beach on Long Island’s South Shore, with one victim’s remains located as far as 70 miles away as early as 1993. For years, investigators had no viable leads, and the unsolved mystery drew widespread public attention, becoming the subject of multiple popular true crime documentaries.

Critics have long argued that delays in cracking the case stemmed from implicit bias: most of Heuermann’s victims were sex workers, and many observers claim law enforcement would have prioritized the investigation far earlier if the victims had come from more privileged backgrounds.

The break in the case finally came in 2022, when detectives connected a vehicle spotted with one of the victims to Heuermann, who was listed as the registered owner. From there, investigators built a robust case against the married father of two using cutting-edge forensic evidence: DNA recovered from a discarded pizza crust matched DNA found at the crime scene linked to the victims, and cell phone data directly tied Heuermann to locations connected to the killings. Additional evidence, including records of hundreds of internet searches about the ongoing Gilgo Beach investigation, was recovered from Heuermann’s suburban Massapequa Park family home. Searches recovered included chilling queries such as “Why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been caught?”

Wednesday’s hearing brought raw, emotional testimony from the family members of Heuermann’s victims, who shared the devastating, lifelong impact of his crimes with the court. In a rare moment of accountability from the defendant, Heuermann also addressed the court, acknowledging full responsibility for all the acts outlined during the proceedings. He was arrested one year prior outside his Manhattan architecture office, ending decades of speculation about the killer’s identity.

ST JAMES, Jamaica — The ongoing construction of the Montego Bay Perimeter Road has brought significant updates from Jamaica’s parliamentary floor, with officials announcing a nearly $80 million upward adjustment to the project’s total contract value. What was initially priced at US$274.5 million now stands at a finalized total of US$354.25 million, a shift that government leaders say aligns with improved project goals. Jamaican Minister with oversight of public works Robert Morgan broke down the details of the cost adjustment during his address Wednesday to the Sectoral Debate held in the country’s House of Representatives. Morgan explained that the extra funding is required to accommodate an expanded project scope and updated, more rigorous engineering standards that were added after the original contract was finalized. Beyond the cost update, Morgan shared key progress milestones for the transformative infrastructure initiative. As of the latest government update, the project is roughly 80% complete, and currently supports 525 on-site jobs. Critically, 87% of the entire workforce hired for the build are local Jamaican workers, delivering immediate economic benefits to the region alongside long-term transportation gains. Morgan emphasized that the initiative is far more than a standard roadway construction project: it is a comprehensive integrated transportation network that will reshape mobility across western Jamaica. The core of the project is a 15-kilometer Montego Bay Bypass, which will reroute through-traffic away from the city’s crowded urban core. This shift is expected to cut down on crippling local congestion, make travel times more predictable, boost overall road safety for both drivers and pedestrians, and unlock underutilized land for new commercial and residential development across the entire western region. In addition to the main bypass, the perimeter road project includes a complementary upgrade to the 10.5-kilometer Long Hill Bypass. The original design called for a two-lane corridor, but planners revised the plan to deliver a four-lane route equipped with protective median barriers. Morgan noted that this forward-looking change is intentional: it reflects the government’s commitment to building infrastructure that meets future demand, rather than only addressing current traffic needs. Within Montego Bay’s city limits, multiple critical upgrade projects are also moving forward. On West Green Avenue, crews are installing modernized intersections, paved pedestrian sidewalks, improved drainage systems, and updated traffic management technology to streamline local movement. At Barnett Street, a key bottleneck in the city’s busy commercial district is being addressed through road expansion and the construction of a new two-lane bridge spanning the Montego River. Once complete, the project is expected to deliver decades of improved mobility and economic growth to Jamaica’s tourist and commercial hub of Montego Bay.