PORTMORE WEBSITE e-News Publication Date: June 4 - 12:25 pm Editor: Kennedy Reid (876-320-7343) Reply to: webmaster@portmore.org TO RECEIVE THIS NEWSLETTER SEND A BLANK E-MAIL TO: portmore_e-news-subscribe@yahoogroups.com TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Portmore parents deceived and tricked - KENNEDY REID 2. Iyalode School - RIKI 3. Moving Back to Kingston? - KAY-ANN MILLER 4. Church needs help - HELENANN BROWN SPONSORED BY: WhatsWhatJamaica.com http://www.WhatsWhatJamaica.com 'Real Jamaicans, telling you how things really go' Dr. Errol Williamson "Working for St. Catherine Southern." http://www.thejlp.org/candidates/candidatepdfs/ewilliamson.pdf email : errol_williamson@yahoo.com Call him at 817-0592 Oasis Christian Community http://www.occvision.org 1) ############################# Dear readers, I just got confirmation that the Ministry of Education has decided that ALL the top GSAT students from Portmore will NOT be going to the schools of their choice. Instead they will be assigned to a new school under construction called Dunbeholding High (located in the cane fields west of Portmore). The idea is that the Ministry wants to use the kids to build a ‘top’ school in the area! Have you ever heard anything more outrageous? How can one use children in this way? The parents at Naggo Head Primary (one of the top primary schools in Jamaica) were beside themselves with anger when they were told just recently told! The meeting at which they were informed ended in disorder and with parents planning a public demonstration. What the Ministry of Education has done is to lie to Portmrore parents and deceived the children. They have robbed them of the chance to experience the best that Jamaica has to offer. Dear readers please forgive me if I am emotional in this matter, but I have three children and I am furious. I had to rescue one of my kids from a Portmore school because they could not handle his special needs. The teachers at the regular school were pushing him aside and the other kids were beating him up. When I sent him to the “Special” School in the area they were so badly under-funded that classes could not be held. The Ministry of Education failed him and I did not say anything! Now I have another child who is at the top of her GSAT class and was looking forward to going to the school of her choice. She worked so hard that sometimes we had to run her to sleep; and even then she would read in the dark…… only to hear that the authorities have decided to deny her a chance! I am now hopping mad! If the authorities had meant to do good for Portmore should they not have upgraded the High Schools already in Portmore? The hard working principals at Ascot, Cumberland, Bridgeport, Waterford and Greater Portmore high schools struggle to raise the level of their schools. They lack the facilities and funds to attract the type of students and staff they desire. At Cumberland the class rooms are so hot that many can not be used after mid day. Greater Portmore and Bridgeport suffer from sewage fumes and mosquitoes. If the government built up the facilities at these schools to compare with traditional schools, of course all of us would want our children to be in Portmore… why not. The fact that the Ministry sought to hide what they were doing from parents until now means that they have NO intention of building any quality facilities, but instead another fowl coop for the children. What do they think is going to happen?..... These 'top' children are going to be demotivated. And next year, all the brilliant students from Portmore will be registered in St. Andrew by their parents! Within two years half the students confined to the new school will be transferred away. The sad thing is that the GSAT school places have already been assigned and the top Portmore children have already lost their spaces in the top high schools. We need to protest this matter. If you want to join the protest, please let me know. We need to: 1) demand places for the kids, 2) proper information and facilities for high schools, 3) an audit of the Ministry's handing of GSAT awards, and 4) an apology from the responsible persons! Mek we raise holy hell! call me at 320-7343 Kennedy 2) ############################## Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 16:32:30 -0700 (PDT) From: "Iyalode School" Subject: Portmore To: "Kennedy Reid" Hello Mr. Reid, I've looked at your website at http://www.portmore.org and find it very informative. As I have only visited Jamaica once, I'm not extremely aware of the differences in municipality, community and schools. I have a preliminary project for a rural-style school for the residents on the seaside. Speaking with them on my visit in March, 2007, they were amenable to a new small building where their home-schooled children could pick up clothing and school textbooks, free of charge. I'm hoping to also provide free lunch for the parents and children. The pictures are still stuck in the digital camera and I have to take them to the University of Penn students to see if their programmers can get to the pics because the security certificates and drivers don't match the software. That's most annoying because a proper battery for my good camera couldn't be found before going to Jamaica and after the pictures were taken, I realized how important pictures were. Feel free to call me on 215-236-3062, in Philadelphia, PA, USA if you want to give me your opinion about the school project. The federal grant funds, if granted, will cover many of the costs associated with this project. The grant itself is for fostering a partnership with another country for the purposes of research and education. As I'm going into this as a second generation Jamaican-American and not just as an American, I will need the help of the people in Portmore and in Jamaica. One of the points of the grant is for engineers that know about land-building or renovation or something. Do you know of any engineers that could be consultants? I'm a graduate student, presently seeking a degree in Education at the Western Governors University in the U.S. I will be taking the e-Governance course at the University of the West Indies very shortly. While in Jamaica, I met some very nice people and we stay in contact. They are not academics, but rather know the people well in Portmore and in Kingston. They have been most helpful in community service and talking with people, translating for me. Maybe I could learn the Jamaican language. It wasn't permitted for children in the household to learn the language here at the time my Jamaican ancestors were alive. Since Portmore is your area, please contact me about your opinion of Loren constructing a small house on his property in Portmore that will be used for the Iyalode School. Loren is an excellent artist also, and I'm hoping to get some sales here in the U.S. for his professional art work. I have a book cover deal pending for Loren presently. A website that is still being constructed is at http://www.iyalodeschool.us. It's the Iyalode School Foundation that is registered with the federal and state in the U.S. The foundation has also been assigned worker's unemployment compensation numbers for any employees in the future. I will register in Jamaica as soon as I get some more funds. It's different in Jamaica, as I wasn't able to get the tax registration numbers for the foundation while there. The foundation will have to be registered, as well as articles of incorporation first. Your thoughts on this? Riki iyalodeschool@yahoo.com =============KENNEDY'S REPLY======== Dear Riki I have no comments... perhaps someone reading this newsletter does. Kennedy Reid 3) ############################## Subject: Website a Pleasant Suprise, but Disappointed at the state of affairs in Portmore Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 08:11:05 -0500 From: "Miller, Kay-ann" To: webmaster@portmore.org I am a resident of Portmore and have some burning issues which I wanted to email the Municipal. I Google searched and this site was a pleasant surprise. After reading the history I think Portmore was a good idea that has gone bad. I hope the Municipal and the Mayor will get into action before it gets worse. I am frustrated at the adhoc developments that are happening. I moved here four years ago to what thought was a decent scheme (West Cumberland) but now I just want to pack my bags and run back to Kingston . =============KENNEDY'S REPLY======== Dear Kay-ann, I am so sorry your experience has been so bad! I hope you can find reasons to fight to make your community what you want it to be. In West Cumberland there are many persons making multi-million dollar investments. The scheme has more upstairs houses extensions than most others! I am sure there are persons in the scheme willing to work on make things better. With so many frustrated Jamaicans I am now hopeful about the future. Kennedy 4) ############################## Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 17:01:35 -0700 (PDT) From: "HELENANN BROWN" Subject: land lease building To: kennedyreid@yahoo.com You had invited me to put the needs for the babies on your email. Some of those needs have already been me so I am placing the needs of a church building instead. This building used to house a church in which a woman was shot during a church service a few years back. Since then some level of vandalism has taken place. As a result of these horrible circumstances there was no church in this community. We planted a church there and it is coming through. We currently meet in the building but find in order to restore the morale of the community we need to restore the building. We need the help since our church comprises predominantly young people and low income earners. I have included some pictures as an attachment The building is in Land lease which behind the Hope Gardens. This is a violent area; the former haunt of the infamous Joel Andem gang. =============KENNEDY'S REPLY======== Dear Helenann, Good to hear from you. I see that you are still going to the hardest places in Jamaica to establish places of worship. Let me tell the readers that you and your husband are preachers and are taking care of a baby for an inner city teen. I am happy to hear that most of the needs of the child have been met. Now about the church, It is a little wooden building with a hanging roof light. It needs windows and repair. I hope God will move on the heart of my readers to hell your effort. Kennedy THE END) #################################### PORTMORE WEBSITE Editor: Kennedy Reid Phone: 876-320-7343 Subscribers: 327 Reply to: webmaster@portmore.org Web site: http://www.portmore.org To Join this e-news send an e-mail to : portmore_e-news-subscribe@yahoogroups.com