分类： society

In western Jamaica, two high-profile fatal shootings on church grounds have ignited urgent public and religious dialogue about whether traditional sacred spaces can still function as the sanctuaries communities have relied on for generations. The most recent tragedy unfolded last Wednesday, when 38-year-old church member Cora Thompson was killed outside Montego Bay’s New Testament Church of God mid-way through a scheduled fasting service. This killing echoes a 2021 attack that claimed the life of 51-year-old Andrea Lowe-Garwood, who was shot and killed during an active worship service at Agape Christian Fellowship Church in Falmouth, Trelawny.

For centuries, churches across Jamaica and much of the world have held a unique social status: more than just gathering places for worship, they were understood as neutral zones of peace, where people facing conflict, persecution or hardship could find safe refuge. Today, regional religious leaders agree that while the core mission of the church to serve its community remains unchanged, the unwritten social respect that once shielded these spaces from violence has sharply deteriorated.

Pastor Michael McAnuff-Jones, co-chairman of the Watchman Christian Leadership Alliance, frames this shift as a “thinning out of a kind of a moral shield” that once protected church grounds. “It may be that in a real sense, this historical kind of societal contract that is in people’s minds about the need for the church to be treated as holy ground, as sacred ground, has broken down,” he explained. “When people begin to see a church building as just another building with walls and a roof, then we have a shift in the way people respond.”

Bishop Conrad Pitkin, senior pastor of Faith Temple Assembly of God in Montego Bay and custos of St James, traces this cultural shift to a broader collapse of foundational societal values. “They have lost respect for the church as a sanctuary. They have lost respect for the sanctity of life. There’s a disregard in our society for people,” Pitkin said. “It is not just a simple loss of respect alone, but the whole question of value has been eroded.”

Bishop Roy Notice, chairman of the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches and administrative bishop of the New Testament Church of God in Jamaica, goes further, describing attacks on church property as an act of desecration that signals a deeper national crisis. “The society is kind of losing its soul” due to rampant violent crime and a widespread “lack of respect and regard for human life,” he argued.

When asked whether the church, through spiritual practice and discernment, could have anticipated and prevented these tragedies through prayer, leaders offered a nuanced, grounded perspective that balances faith with the realities of living in an imperfect world. Notice noted that while divine revelation sometimes forewarns of coming harm, the church operates in a world where “evil is rampant.” “We don’t live in heaven,” he pointed out. “There are times when the Lord reveals it to us before it happens, and there are other times the Lord gives grace to take us through it. And there are other times when the impact is so great, the evil creates victims, and the Lord also guides us through that. So whatever happens, whether we sensed it and discerned it or whether we didn’t, God gives grace for all the occasions.”

McAnuff-Jones echoed this sentiment, adding there is no guarantee of prophetic warning for every potential tragedy. “The reality of life is that we worship a God who intervenes in matters for His own purpose. God is sovereign, and there are times when bad things happen to good people. There are things that happen to Christians that happen to other people. There are things that happen to people who are not in the church; the same things happen to Christians,” he said, citing the historical persecution of the apostles and the crucifixion of Jesus as examples of violence against faithful people.

Even amid rising violence and eroding social norms, religious leaders remain committed to upholding the church’s historic role as a place of refuge. Notice reaffirmed that despite the negative influence of broader societal instability, “the church continues to be a place of refuge, sanctuary, and a place of joy.”

That said, reclaiming the historic safety and sacred status of church grounds will require collective action from across Jamaican society, leaders agree. Pitkin emphasized that broad systemic change is needed to reverse the current trend: “There has to be some level of reinforcement of values and attitudes in our society, and behavioural adjustment. A lot of things need to be done and we are going to have to do it.”

McAnuff-Jones joined this call, pushing for a “new cultural consensus” that re-establishes church spaces as consecrated ground that demands respect. “People should not for one minute believe that this is a place where anything can happen and anything goes,” he said. “As to what God does when people do these things, that’s for God to decide. But I think it is fair to say that, you know, God is not to be toyed with and people should respect that.”

In New Forest, Manchester, Jamaica, Agriculture Minister Floyd Green has confirmed that targeted support will continue reaching local scallion producers grappling with a major supply glut, delivered through a coordinated public-private partnership designed to absorb the region’s unexpectedly large harvest.

Speaking to reporters during an on-site visit Sunday, Green outlined that the relief effort is already underway, with produce moving out of the New Forest agro-park steadily. Just one week prior, private sector partner GraceKennedy Group moved roughly 50,000 pounds of excess scallion out of the area. On the same day of Green’s announcement, the ministry launched its next phase of intervention, covering transportation costs for the produce in a new collaboration with food processor Walkerswood.

Over the course of this week alone, the partnership will purchase 125,000 pounds of scallion from local growers to take excess supply off the market. Beyond Walkerswood’s commitment, Green confirmed that additional private firms have stepped in to buy a further 200,000 pounds of the crop. Altogether, the two-week relief intervention will move approximately 600,000 pounds of scallion, a volume that Green says will substantially ease the financial pressure on farmers who have been stuck with unsellable product.

The crisis first drew public attention just over a week earlier, when Opposition Member of Parliament Peter Bunting, who represents Manchester Southern, raised alarms about plummeting demand and widespread spoilage impacting dozens of farmers in New Forest’s key agricultural belt during a community tour.

Green pushed back against any suggestion that the ministry was slow to act, noting that officials began coordinating a response weeks before the issue gained public attention. After recognizing that strong growing conditions had led to a bumper harvest that outstripped existing demand, the ministry called together major Jamaican agro-processors to map out a solution.

Officials learned that GraceKennedy had already stockpiled nearly three years of scallion inventory due to a recent industry-wide drop in demand, leading the firm to cut back on new purchases. With that context, the ministry partnered with Walkerswood to design the targeted buy-in initiative that is now being rolled out.

Green also highlighted that the current overproduction is actually a sign of a remarkable recovery for the region’s agricultural sector. Just six months prior, New Forest’s farmlands were entirely flooded and severely damaged by Category 5 Hurricane Melissa. In the wake of the storm, the ministry implemented aggressive support measures to help growers restart production, including providing free irrigation water to all farmers in the New Forest agro-park through the end of February.

That support paid off with a far larger harvest than initially projected, creating the current supply-demand imbalance. “One of the good things we have seen since Hurricane Melissa is a tremendous recovery, especially in our agro-parks,” Green said. “The reason we are seeing that recovery is because we have taken definitive steps to help the farmers get back on their feet.” He credited local growers for their extraordinary resilience in rebuilding their operations after the devastating storm, adding that the current intervention will help them stabilize their incomes and continue investing in future production.

On a Monday morning in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, frustrated taxi drivers serving the Santa Cruz-Mountainside route took collective action to highlight long-running infrastructure woes, felling trees to obstruct the busy Lacovia main road. The demonstration stemmed from growing outrage over persistently poor road conditions that have made daily travel unsafe for both drivers and passengers who rely on the corridor.

Local councillor Christopher Williams, representing the Santa Cruz division for the Jamaica Labour Party, confirmed that law enforcement officers responded quickly to remove the blockage and have maintained a visible patrol presence in the area to prevent further disruption. Williams acknowledged that while unauthorized road blockades are disruptive, he shares the frustration of motorists and commuters who have dealt with crumbling infrastructure for far too long.

The protest targets multiple critical hazard points along the Lacovia to Burnt Savannah corridor. Two major sections of road shoulder have collapsed away—one near the Lacovia police station, and another within the Burnt Savannah community. Williams explained that ongoing, heavy daily rainfall has rapidly worsened these breakaways, turning a gradual infrastructure decline into an immediate public safety threat that grows more dangerous with each passing day.

Just one day before the protest, Williams held a meeting with Jamaica’s Minister of Works Robert Morgan to escalate community concerns about the roadway. Following that discussion, Williams received a formal commitment from the minister that the long-neglected repairs will move forward quickly through emergency government procurement protocols. These expedited processes are designed to cut through standard bureaucratic red tape to allow construction crews to begin addressing the most dangerous sections of the road as soon as possible.

Williams emphasized that local and national authorities are fully aware of the severity of the situation, and that all available resources are being mobilized to resolve the unsafe conditions in the shortest timeframe possible. For residents and regular travelers along the route, the promise of immediate action brings an end to months of unaddressed safety risks that have disrupted daily commutes and put lives at risk.

Thousands of educators across Jamaica are set to wear black clothing today and Tuesday as a visible act of protest against what the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) describes as systemic disregard for the teaching profession. The mass demonstration was announced by the JTA in an official press statement released over the weekend, at a time when months of drawn-out contract negotiations have left teachers increasingly disillusioned with the government’s lack of progress on core demands.

In its statement, the JTA acknowledged that the extended negotiation process has placed an unmanageable burden on its rank-and-file members. Many teachers have reported deep-seated frustration, chronic professional exhaustion, and rapidly dwindling patience after months of unfulfilled promises and stalled talks. The association noted that the ongoing delay has not only tested educators’ willingness to compromise, but also eroded their sense of professional worth and dignity as public servants.

JTA President Mark Malabver reaffirmed the organization’s unwavering solidarity with teachers across the island, emphasizing that the body understands the daily sacrifices educators make even amid ongoing uncertainty about their compensation and working conditions. Malabver stressed that the dispute extends far beyond base pay: the fight, he said, is fundamentally a battle for social justice, aimed at correcting long-standing inequities and ensuring that teachers receive the respect and compensation that matches their irreplaceable role in driving Jamaica’s national development.

According to the JTA, Jamaica’s Ministry of Finance has recently extended a formal invitation for a new round of negotiation talks scheduled for Tuesday. The upcoming meeting is framed as a critical make-or-break opportunity to make tangible progress on the JTA’s outstanding list of claims. Two central issues top the association’s agenda: the long-unresolved graduate allowance dispute, and a suite of other outstanding matters related to members’ overall compensation and workplace welfare.

Even with the new meeting scheduled, the JTA was candid about the lack of movement on these priorities to date. Despite the association’s repeated good-faith efforts to move the negotiation process forward over recent months, no significant breakthrough has been achieved on any of the core demands.

Against this backdrop, the JTA has appealed to its members to extend a short window of patience to allow Tuesday’s talks to proceed without premature escalation. The association made clear that this appeal comes with a full understanding of the widespread anger and frustration that permeates the teaching profession right now. At the same time, members have been urged to remain vigilant and on high alert for further updates coming out of the negotiations.

The JTA issued a clear ultimatum to the government: if no meaningful progress is made during Tuesday’s meeting, particularly on the graduate allowance issue and other core demands, the association will put the question of next steps directly to the full membership to decide what action to take. Teachers have been instructed to stand by for official updates immediately following the conclusion of the negotiation session.

Commuters and local residents traveling through the Dunrobin Avenue/Lindsay Crescent intersection in St. Andrew are being urged to prioritize safety this week, after a weekend vehicle collision left the junction’s primary traffic signal system completely out of service. The National Works Agency (NWA), Jamaica’s public infrastructure oversight body, confirmed that the outage stems directly from Sunday’s crash, which inflicted irreversible damage on the traffic signal control unit and the underground connecting cables that power the system.

In the hours following the incident, NWA mobilized its specialized maintenance crews to the site to begin remediation work. As of Monday, crews have already finished the initial phase of cable repairs and are preparing to begin comprehensive functional testing of the newly installed control unit. The agency has shared a clear timeline for the project, noting that full restoration of the traffic signal system is on track to be finished by Tuesday afternoon, when the lights will officially be brought back online for regular operation.

While crews work to complete repairs, NWA is issuing a critical safety reminder to all motorists navigating the non-operational intersection. Under local road rules, when traffic signals are completely inoperative, no single direction of travel has automatic right of way over others. All drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians crossing the junction are required to approach slowly, yield to crossing traffic, and only proceed through the intersection once they have confirmed the path is completely clear of oncoming vehicles and other road users.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Grief-stricken relatives of a 34-year-old man with a documented history of mental illness are pressing authorities to launch an expedited, transparent investigation into his death earlier this week. Ricardo Gayle, a resident of the August Town neighborhood in St Andrew, was killed by a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldier during an alleged confrontation at a Zone of Special Operations (ZOSO) checkpoint early Monday.

Initial official accounts place the altercation shortly after 3 a.m. at the security checkpoint. Immediately after the shooting, first responders rushed Gayle to the University Hospital of the West Indies, where medical staff pronounced him dead.

A visibly distraught female cousin of the deceased, speaking to local outlet Observer Online at the incident site, pushed back against framing Gayle as an armed threat. “They shouldn’t kill my cousin suh, he wasn’t a gunman,” she said. “He’s not a gunman and a three gunshot dem give him… we need justice, he was a sick man!”

Melissa Bennett, Gayle’s mother, was overcome with sorrow at the scene, collapsing in tears at multiple points and requiring comfort from other family members. When asked to speak about her son, she could barely muster a statement: “My son [was] mentally-ill. I am just lost for words right now.”

According to Bennett, her son suffered three gunshot wounds: one to the chest and two to his back. Beyond his mental health condition, Bennett and other relatives emphasized that Gayle was no stranger to local law enforcement and security personnel, who regularly turned to him for help repairing their mobile phones. They called the killing entirely unnecessary, given Gayle’s long-documented reputation in the community and non-violent nature.

“My son was a very brilliant individual… he does not like violence… he was a genius in the technology world, him fix phone for all the police dem,” Bennett said.

MANCHESTER, JAMAICA – Stakeholders at New Forest High School have expanded the scope of impact from the institution’s annual 5K run/walk, with proceeds now set to support three key priorities: campus infrastructure expansion, athletic program development, and a new staff wellness initiative amid rising rates of illness among faculty. Board Chair Trisha Williams-Singh announced the updated fundraising goals during Sunday’s second staging of the popular community event, marking a decade since the school first opened its doors.

As the 10-year-old institution continues to grow to meet student demand, the bulk of this year’s race proceeds will go toward constructing a long-awaited on-campus auditorium and upgrading the school’s existing sports programs. In a new addition to the event’s mission, a portion of funds will also be allocated to launch the New Forest High Staff Welfare Fund, a response to a sharp recent increase in reported illness among teaching and administrative staff.

Williams-Singh emphasized that the dual focus of the event aligns with the school’s core values of community care. “We are not just raising money – we are modeling healthy lifestyles for our students and our community, while also stepping up to support our own team when they need help,” she explained. “When members of our school family face health challenges, we want to be able to respond to their needs immediately, rather than leaving them waiting for support.”

The event has seen explosive growth in participation in just its second year, with registration numbers tripling from the 2023 staging to hit roughly 500 registered attendees this year. Williams-Singh noted that the outpouring of support extended beyond students and parents, with official delegations from local government agencies including the National Irrigation Commission and Agro-Invest joining the race. The high participation comes as no surprise, she added, given the school’s location within a regional agro-park that ties the institution closely to local agricultural industry stakeholders.

Beyond the 5K fundraiser, the school is pushing to expand its academic offerings in agricultural science, a core focus of the 10-year-old institution. Williams-Singh said school leadership is advocating for approval to launch an Associate’s degree program in modern farming, to equip students with cutting-edge skills for the evolving agricultural sector. “Agriculture is not the same industry it was a generation ago,” she said. “We need to teach our students the new techniques and technologies that are shaping farming today, so they can build successful careers in this critical sector.”

Garfield Green, Custos of Manchester, praised the school and its leadership for their proactive approach to community engagement and student development, calling New Forest High a standout institution in the parish. “This is one of the schools in Manchester I am most proud of,” Green said. “I have worked closely with them for years, and what stands out most is not just their commitment to academic excellence – it is the discipline and character they instill in every student. We have to commend the leadership, students, and parent body for building such a strong institution.”

Omar Robinson, an educator and People’s National Party Councillor for the Alligator Pond division, echoed Green’s positive assessment, noting that community-focused fitness events like the 5K fill a critical need across Jamaica. The event, held just days after the national Jamaica Moves Day celebration of physical wellness, reinforces the growing push to address alarming rates of lifestyle-related disease across the country. “Events like this don’t just raise money for a good cause – they send ripples of positive change through the whole community,” Robinson said. “Physical fitness is a core part of long-term health, and we need to see these kinds of initiatives in every corner of Jamaica. We are facing growing lifestyle health challenges across the country, so every step we take to encourage healthy habits matters.”