UK TWINS DEFY GENETIC ODDS—04/11/15
The twin baby daughters born to Curtis Martin and Rebecca Horton in the United Kingdom defied genetic odds, with one twin being white and the other black. Their mother is white, and their father, who is from Kingswinford in the West Midlands, is half Jamaican. The girls are non-identical twins, and this has been cited as the reason for the unusual skin-tone difference. The parents joke that they will be able to tell their twin girls apart easily.
JAMAICAN TEEN STOPPED, ALLEGEDLY ON WAY TO JOIN ISIS—04/12/15
Police in Suriname stopped a 16-year-old boy from Jamaica from passing through that country after immigration officials suspected him of wanting to join ISIS. Police said the boy arrived on a flight from Jamaica and intended to travel through the Netherlands and then on to Turkey. Suriname denied him entry due to information received from regional intelligence that the boy wanted to join ISIS.
34 PERCENT OF BLACKS IN MIAMI ARE IMMIGRANTS—04/13/15
According to a study from the Pew Research Center, one in three black residents of Miami, Florida, is an immigrant, and most of them represent the Caribbean Diaspora in South Florida. Miami has the greatest percentage of black immigrants, which totals about 34 percent of the black population in that city. Over 28,000 native-born Jamaicans live in Miami; the highest portion of black immigrants is from Haiti, numbering about 70,000.
JAMAICAN CHARGED IN MURDER OF MUSLIM IMAM IN UK—04/14/15
Leslie Cooper, 36, a Jamaican businessman, has been taken into custody by counter-terrorism agents in Wembley, northwest London, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. Imam Abdul Hadi Arwani of Syria died as the result of a gunshot suffered as he sat in his car. Cooper, who operates a Jamaican-themed clothing firm, appeared in court in connection with the charges. The murder of Arwani has been attributed to tensions within his mosque.
CANADIAN FARM WORK PROGRAM CONTINUING—04/15/15
The Canadian farm work program, which employs some 8,000 Jamaicans every year in the North American country, is not in danger of elimination. According to Counselor Kate O’Brien, an official at the Canadian High Commission in Kingston, the program is “alive and well” and is not in jeopardy, despite reports that problems existed with Canada’s Express Entry immigration program that might make it impossible for Jamaicans to travel to be seasonally employed.
SKATALITES TO CLOSE 2015 AUSTIN REGGAE FEST—04/16/15
The 2015 staging of the Austin Reggae Fest in Texas will feature Jamaica’s music pioneers the Skatalites in its closing performance. The group began in Kingston in the 1940s when Jamaican music was influenced by Big Band arrangements of American composers. In the 1950s, the recording industry grew in Kingston, and many of the top players in the city joined to become the Skatalites.
ISIS “NOT RECRUITING” JAMAICANS—04/17/15
Sheikh Musa Tijani of the Islamic Council of Jamaica (ICOJ), reports that IRIS is not doing any recruiting in Jamaica, nor does it have a presence on the island. ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, has been rumored to be recruiting in Jamaica. According to the Sheikh, no one from Jamaica has gone to the Middle East to join the militant group, and no one from Jamaica will go there. He cited the case of a Jamaican teen thought to be trying to join ISIS when he was stopped in Suriname. This boy was not a Muslim, said Tijani, and is not known to anyone in the Muslim community in St. Mary.
MISS GLOBAL WORLD FRANCHISE MOVING TO TRINIDAD—04/17/15
Lachu Ramchandani, the franchise holder of the Miss Global World International competition, has decided to move the beauty pageant event from Jamaica to Trinidad and Tobago. According to the Jamaican businessman, there has been a lack of financial support for the event from the government and private sector. Ramchandani has had meetings with Dr. Wkyeham McNeill, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, but these have not resulted in a promise of funding to support the pageant.
