CAVE Hill Campus is in for a “complete” overhaul, which could include closure of some systems and departments.Principal Sir Hilary Beckles announced the plan yesterday, saying it was to make the institution more relevant to 21st century educational needs.The changes would see the University of the West Indies (UWI) developing programmes in medical technology and creating institutes for digital application.“We are now planning, as we speak, to restructure the university completely in the next two years,” the UWI Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal told business leaders in the UWI’s CARICOM Research Building.“We’ve gone through all of our departments and faculties one by one. We’ve stripped them down, looked at them . . . .” The departments of computer science, physics and electronics, which fall under the Faculty of Science, will be affected by the changes.“This is the digital age, and therefore computer science and physics and electronics must get together and form an institute for digital design and digital application and transform those disciplines, spin out industries out of the application of those disciplines,” Sir Hilary said.“So we are going to put them together, close down some of the old systems, departments, and create institutes for digital application, so that that knowledge we have in computer science and physics can now serve the private sector in terms of the application of that knowledge to industrial development.”Sir Hilary said the campus was looking for a professor of digital application.“We are combining medicine with electronics,” he added. “We are going to develop programmes in medical technology. We’re not just going to use medical knowledge to create doctors. “They’re going to spin that knowledge through physics, through electronics to create medical technology and medical technology applications.” (TY)
Get real!
MODERN information technology has led to poor communication between couples, says a Bridgetown magistrate.It was because, explained Magistrate Christopher Birch, couples now Tweet, Facebook and BBM instead of holding actual conversations with each other.“We are now tweeting. We are now ‘facebooking’. We know how to send emails but we don’t know how to reach out physically,” Birch said.“We can send messages via Blackberry but not one message contains those three words that set us apart from the animals.”The magistrate was speaking as he dealt with a couple, one half of which brought an application for a protection order against the other, in the Bridgetown Traffic Court last Friday.One of the accusations was that the woman caught her husband investigating her Facebook friends. Another was that he sent her messages on her Blackberry demanding to know where she was and with whom.The husband conceded he spent much of his time on his computer but said it was because his wife ignored him and spent most of her time with her girlfriends.After letting the couple get their grievances off their chests, Birch noted: “In all the protection orders, I was wondering how long it would be before Facebook would become an issue. “Facebook at its best,” said Birch, “is a way to stay in contact with friends.“At its best, it’s a way to meet people. At its worst, it has become a weapon for married couples and other couples to check up on each other.”The magistrate mused that in moving into a digital world, where information could be sent and received at the touch of a button or click of a mouse, it would appear that people have forgotten how to be human.“We are all technology and no heart. That is the problem ultimately,” he said, adding that the modern ways of communicating had led to “modern isolation”.“Real isn’t Blackberry; real isn’t Facebook; real isn’t Twitter; real isn’t Myspace. Real does not come with dotcom attached.“Real is looking across the three or four inches of pillow and remembering why you are wearing each other’s wedding bands,” Birch told the couple. (HLE)
Learn how to love yourself
ON Monday, May 17, 2010, a letter writer to Christine described to Christine how she felt.
“I feel like a pack of bread on a shelf that everyone squeezes, but never wants,” she said. She explained that she had been dating a man for a few years and he was nice in the beginning. However, she said he began to smoke “mind altering” stuff, while drinking a mixture of alcohol and wanted to do ungodly things to her.
“I thought my love for him could make him see he was hurting me,” she wrote. In essence, after nine years he left her for someone else, and she still hasn’t gotten over him. Sometimes she says, she feels like taking her life.
Here are some online responses:
• You found him so you can still find someone else. Just try and stay away from this guy because he has nothing good to offer to you in this life.– Wills
• Get that Singing Francine song and give it a good listen. After you listen a few times then you will get the message. Woman! Dog does runaway, sheep does runaway, cow does runaway. SO YOU CAN RUNAWAY TOO.– Watchman
• Lady what you wrote has nothing to do with love, you thought it was love, but no one doing all the things you said he did, knows nothing about loving someone else. If what you wrote is gospel, then he used you like a tool, when the tool got old and beaten up, he discarded it.– MALE
• I hope that you are far away from this man, and I hope that you take the time to ‘look inside yourself’ and validate yourself as woman first. While it can be hard to stay away you will only be able to accomplish this one day at a time, in order to make big steps we must first start with small ones. Take care of yourself mentally and physically and I know you will get through this. It won’t be easy or quick, but if you have had the strength to deal with this you will be able to deal with the healing process. Stay strong.– Love you first
• I have one word for you woman!! RUN !!, your self esteem must be so low it’s minus zero, to stay with a man who treats you like that. My advice RUN and seek help to boost your self-esteem before looking for another man.– Bajan in Florida
• You need to start adding value and respect to yourself. To you, you are the most important person in this world, and anyone who smokes that stuff and mixes it with drinks has no values whatsoever. Find a new cadre of interesting people and activities to immerse yourself in and thank God for small mercies, you could have been dead. There are good men out there, but you need to show respect (demand it too) and integrity, there are also good women as well, who will help you through this after shock. I will also assume you have a job, otherwise get one and become independent; when the time is right and you find a tested and caring man, then and only then seek to share, DO NOT support anyone fully, make them pull their weight. If they are serious they will do so.Good luck and God bless.– Irocmuffin
Yesterday, a letter writer wrote Christine saying that she was ‘Living a very lonely life’.She has been divorced for many years and has no children. All she does is go to work and go home.
Here are some online responses:
• Ms. Lonely, you have to change your ways of doing things. If you just to work and come home as you say, your life would always be that way. First start with going out for walks, shopping, these things lead to conversations with people. These conversations can lead to activities that you can go to. Do stuff with your family members and before you know it, you would have dates at your door.
• As a returning resident who lived in America some 44 years, I’m returning to Barbados in March 2011, I’m a 58 year-old male and will be looking for a female when I come home, so pen pals are ok, if there’s an understanding that more is needed.– bajan in florida
• Ms. Lonely, you are not the only person in such a situation, I’m there and I know your plight. I would suggest that you speak to your minister and see if he/you can start a singles club (divorced, never married, widowed) you might be surprised how many people in your church would welcome it. Good luck in your search for a companion.– In your shoes
Living dreams and making choices
As we continue debate about the direction in which our young people are headed, it is just as well that we contrast current newspaper reports of two young persons from overseas. We draw attention to these accounts as reported, not because they come from abroad, but more so because there are two instances of the choices made by two youngsters at different ends of the spectrum. Last Sunday morning, newspapers in Australia carried a front page story of a ruddy-faced young lady who had been welcomed home the previous day after sailing around the world alone for some 210 days. This level-headed young lady was not yet 17, but had faced the sternest tests of courage and character as she pitted her skill, learning, discipline and desire to achieve against the awesome power of nature. On arrival, when asked about her stupendous achievement, this young lady spoke a mouthful, which many other young people might wish to adopt as their mantra.She said: “You just got to have a dream, believe in it and work hard!” How heart warming.Then on Monday, the United States Supreme Court split 5/4 when delivering a judgment in the case of a young Floridian, one Terrance Jamar Graham. This young man was convicted of robbery when he was 16. He received a short jail term and probation, but was arrested again at 17 for taking part in a home invasion, and was sent to jail for life. The Court ruled that the sentence was “cruel and unusual punishment”, while pointing out that there were some 129 juveniles in 11 states serving sentences of life imprisonment without parole. 77 of these juveniles are in Florida prisons.The contrasts could hardly be sharper, for while the young Australian lady was preparing herself for her trip by passing the relevant examinations of proficiency as a seafarer, and sharpening her other marine skills, Graham and his like-minded youngsters must have been expending energy and, dare we say it, courage of the wrong kind while engaging in vicious criminal enterprise. The options, paths and choices are clear. Little more than a generation ago, there was a deep and pervasive poverty of a kind which had the capacity to tear this society apart, and we did not allow it to happen! The prevailing ethos then was similar to those inculcated by the young Australian sailor, but nowadays all kinds of excuses, including “poverty” are used to justify the deliberate choice to engage in criminal activity. Sometimes a society has to take the bull by the horns. Pernicious influences penetrate our culture in every form of communication, and it now seems that advocates of wholesome and virtuous moral exhortation cannot do otherwise.
US govt welcomes decision to extradite
KINGSTON – The United States Department of Justice has welcomed the government’s decision to sign the extradition request for West Kingston strongman Christopher “Dudus” Coke.“We are pleased with the decision to instruct the attorney general to proceed with the extradition process,” Laura E. Sweeney of the Office of Public Affairs of the US Department of Justice told The Gleaner on Tuesday.But Sweeny refused to offer any further information.“I can’t comment beyond the statement I provided, as the department doesn’t discuss specific matters of mutual legal assistance,” she said.Kingston and Washington have been at odds since last September when an indictment was unsealed in the US. (Jamaica Gleaner)
Kamla would take pay cut
PORT-OF-SPAIN – United National Congress (UNC) leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced on Tuesday night that she would take a ten per cent cut in her salary if she became this country’s next prime minister.She said every member of a UNC coalition Cabinet would also take a five per cent cut in their salaries.All the money saved for the first year in office will go towards the Life Fund for Sick Children which she promised a UNC government would establish with a start of TT$100 million.Persad-Bissessar was speaking at the People’s Partnership public meeting in St Joseph.“As a further profound symbol of the highest level of dedication and sacrifice, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar [would] take a ten per cent cut in salary and in the first 12 months of office, the calculated five per cent of all ministers and ten per cent of the prime minister’s salary will go directly into the Life Fund, so that Cabinet will take money from their own pocket and fund this savings account to save the lives of our children,” she promised.“If we would have saved one life, our lives would have been worth living.“As I said, when we win, I pledge to work every day with all of you for all of us. We will lead by example, we will not only talk the talk, we will walk the walk, we will return hope to this nation.” “Over the next six days I want you to think hard about the election, look into your hearts and vote for hope and do not vote for fear,” she urged. (Express)
Butts talks on WI team choices
by HAYDN GILL in AntiguaWEST INDIES’ cricket selectors have duplicated the unsuccessful World Twenty20 squad for the series against South Africa because possible replacements are in Bangladesh and others in the Caribbean have failed to make use of previous chances.While pointing to immaturity among the players for the recent global tournament, chairman of selectors Clyde Butts said his panel had little alternative but to stick with the World Twenty20 unit.“We did not do as well as we were capable of. When you look at the team we had and the way we played, we could not have done much better,” Butts told NATIONSPORT prior to the start of the first Digicel Twenty20 International against South Africa at the Vivian Richards Stadium yesterday.“Sometimes, you don’t mind losing, but the way we lost was bad for our cricket. The players need to show a bit more determination and more maturity in the way we approach our cricket.”West Indies played impressively in the Group Stages to beat Ireland and England, but were up and down in the Super Eights where a victory against India was cancelled out by defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia.Against the background that the team included several seasoned players, Butts was disappointed by the level of maturity.“It was a little bit of a surprise. At that level of cricket , you expect much more out of our players,” he said.“It’s the cricket knowledge. Look at the way we batted against Australia and to a lesser extent against Sri Lanka. One would have expected us to show that we are capable players and that we could have put up a better fight.”With that admission, many pundits might have expected a few changes for the South Africa series from the World Twenty20 15-man squad in which the lone casualty was Wavell Hinds.Even with the West Indies ‘A’ team in Bangladesh, some observers reckoned that those like Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith and Carlton Baugh could have been given consideration.“Haven’t those players been given a chance as well? Butts asked. Should we go back to the old guard or should we give these players a little bit more of a run and then try and look to our ‘A’ team for the future. That is how we the selectors looked at it. “We selected these players for the World Cup. They had five games. They have two T20 games here and five ODIs. There are going to be times in the near future when the team is going to change. The Test matches are coming up. I am sure you are not going to see some of the same players for the Test series.”In looking to the future, the chairman of selectors said the reintroduction of regular matches for the West Indies ‘A’ was a step in the right direction.The team had a recent series in the Caribbean against Zimbabwe and is rounding off a trip to Bangladesh where a few players have enhanced their claims for promotion.“There are a lot of things that need to be put in place. One of the things that has been put in place is the ‘A’ team. The young players in Bangladesh are performing,” Butts said.“That is one of the good things that is happening now and these players will understand that those players are right up their backside. There are replacement players that can replace them.”
Lara not in for Surrey deal
LONDON – Brian Lara will not play for English county Surrey the Daily Telegraph has reported.The south London club had been trying to lure the 41-year-old former West Indies captain to play but the Telegraph reported yesterday that talks with Lara had fallen through and the county would no longer be pursuing his services. (CMC)
More prize money for visual artistes
AFTER YEARS of agitating, visual artistes are finally getting increased prize money.It is the only area which has seen an increase this year. The top prize has gone to $7 500, up from $5 000; the smaller prizes have also been raised to $1 200 from $750.A shift in focus has resulted in greater prominence being given to visual arts this Crop-Over and there have been several innovations.What used to be a Visual Arts Exhibition is now being promoted as a Visual Arts Festival with several mini-exhibitions being set up at venues in and around The City in the lead-up to the final exhibition, which opens on July 4 at the Grande Salle.Cultural officer for visual arts at the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Rodney Ifill, told a media conference yesterday that the exhibitions would be on a ten-day rotation. Members of the public would have an opportunity to choose a winner from each of the exhibitions.“In each of these exhibitions, there will also [be] special evenings of interpretation through art and dance that people can come out and be part of the process and engage in a discourse,” Ifill said.As part of the overall prize, the winner will exhibit his/her works at the Queen’s Park Museum and will also be featured in a magazine.Ifill said the NCF would start some business development initiatives working with the artistes to brand their products as collectibles. (YB)
Pushing region’s film-makers
BARBADOS IS SET to become the home of the first film distribution company in the English-speaking Caribbean. Last Wednesday, CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution Inc. was launched to present Caribbean film-makers to the international community.CaribbeanTales was established to ensure that film-makers in the Caribbean could effectively have their work marketed and distributed. Independent film producers have no centralised channel through which to market content, and content buyers have no centralised entity from which to acquire content. Frances-Anne Solomon, chief executive officer of CaribbeanTales, said: “There is an explosion of products coming out of the region and there is a need for a focused distribution strategy to ensure that this content gets the best deals on the international market.”Solomon emphasised the danger in not having avenues available for products indigenous to the Caribbean, where film review personnel might decide the work has no audience without taking time to invest in the product or understand the target market.CaribbeanTales’ chairman Dr Keith Nurse, who is also director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, said the biggest challenge was that throughout the Caribbean there was the generation of content but no outlets for getting this content into the markets.Nurse said the creation of a company that could distribute Caribbean films was important, since film-makers currently relied on people outside of the region to distribute their work. This, he said, caused the money to stay outside of the region as the most money could be made through distribution and marketing. (LK)